behind and more farm goodies!

I've fallen a little behind in documenting our dinners.

Last Wednesday, I had a meeting after work and Mr. P took it upon himself to make a light dinner. He made a huge salad which included some whole wheat pita that he tore up and cooked with herbs in a dry pan, a little like Middle Eastern dishes we've enjoyed.

Last weekend was the first farmer's market of the season in our town. We can actually walk to it, which we did, hoping that a coffee vendor would be there. Not yet. But we did buy shelled peas and yellow beets from a nearby organic farm.

Sunday night, we used the very last of last week's farm goodies and made an over-the-top delicious salad, including the tail-end of last week's rice and cooked beets, which were sweet, almost candy-like. I cooked up the last of our mizaluna (sp?), a spikey green, with our peas, some olive oil, and butter, then added fresh mint at the last minute. Totally delicious.

Yesterday -- incoming! We now have fresh peas from the farm we belong to, cauliflower, escarole, arugula, lettuce, strawberries, a beet, teen greens, garlic scapes, parsley, cilantro, and more.

Last night, we had dinner guests, including one young child. The mom reassured me her daughter is an omnivore, but I was skeptical. Our younger guest is so enerringly polite that I felt it important to tell her that she didn't have to eat everything if she didn't want to. I was shocked and pleased that she cleared several platefuls of food.

At the grocery store, I had bought some produce that isn't in season (or doesn't grow around here) -- mushrooms, cucumber, scallions (which we got for a few weeks at the farm and will see again), a whole wheat pizza crust, and some things for dessert.

For dinner, we had pizza with tomato sauce (Muir Glen, of course), mushrooms tossed in olive oil, and cheese. We had a salad with lettuce, arugula, cooked beets, cuke, scallions, cheese. And for dessert, we had pound cake with mangoes, blueberries, and fresh-picked strawberries, and lemon sorbetto on top. Dinner was very satisfying and tasty without leaving us feeling stuffed. Both our guests seemed happy, which made me happy -- I'm not at all used to cooking for kids. Fortunately, this one's palate is much more adjusted to adult tastes than kid tastes.