Dinner Tonight

We got a new grill, and it's a whole new world.  I looked at the seafood market and the butcher's with new eyes after years of not grilling.  The possibilities!  Grilling recipes to follow later this summer.

For our inaugural grill feast we prepared asparagus, corn, cheeseburgers and chicken.  Tonight, we will make a simple meal of previously prepared foods: garlic scape pesto, grilled chicken and pasta.  We'll add broccoli and toss together.

If you haven't made garlic scape pesto, it's flavorful way to use (and preserve) your scapes.  For those who don't grow garlic, or frequent a farmers market, the scapes are a part of the garlic plant pruned in summer to allow the energy of the plant to go into making sumptuous garlic bulbs, rather than a flower.  If harvested promptly, the scapes are tasty and succulent.  After time, they become tough.  I use tough scapes in avant garde flower arrangements.

For those of you grilling tonight for the holiday, enjoy!  And Happy Fourth of July!

Beans 'n Greens

The first winter storm of the season sent me hurrying out to the garden at 6:30 on a Sunday morning to cover fall crops.  The rain began to turn into sleet, and I picked a basket of greens before heading inside.  Stormy weekend days call for something cooking slowly in the oven.  Today, I quick soaked some navy beans hen folded the beans with herbs, tomatoes, onions, stock, kale, mustard greens and beet greens.  I brought the mixture to a boil before tucking it into a 225 degree oven for a few hours.  The recipe is based on Martha Shulman’s Slow-Baked Beans with Kale.  I don’t bother blanching the greens as Shulman specifies in her recipe.  This basic method is flexible and works with a variety of ingredients, so don’t be deterred if you don’t have the exact components.  Slow-Baked Beans with Kale is one of my favorites for nestling inside on chilly winter days, with the oven on low.

White Bean Dip with Roasted Garlic

95 cloves of garlic in the ground: an investment in the future.  This sign of fall comes amid our “peak foliage weekend” here in midcoast Maine, a fitting Sunday afternoon activity.  I pulled out the last odds and ends from the bed, added a layer of compost, worked it into the ground, raked it smooth and poked holes with my rake handle.   “Does garlic grow over the winter?” asks K.  Good question, I think.  Why do I always plant the garlic around Columbus Day?  (Because that’s when my garlic guru friend tells me to!)  But K. got me thinking, and I consulted Growing Great Garlic, by Ron L. Engeland, my second favorite garlic resource.