Asparagus!

Who can resist the snap of asparagus spears?!
Thank you Smitten Kitchen for the delicious Spring Vegetable dumplings featuring none other than minced asparagus.
After picking asparagus Wednesday morning at The Farm at St. Peter's we cooked them that night:

Toaster oven at 400
Toss trimmed asparagus in a roasting pan with olive oil, pepper and salt.
Squeeze 1/2 a lemon over the spears then place thinly sliced lemons over the top.
Heat in the oven 5-8 minutes. Watch that they just turn bright green, enjoy!

We made Pizza!!!

For Mother's Day, momma requested homemade pizza.
We went over  to Olive Oil's in Point lookout and bought 4 dough rounds for an amazing $8!
Next we gathered the various toppings,

spinach
goat cheese
mozzerella cheese
artichoke hears
onions
black olives
mushrooms
zucchini
olive oil
sesame seeds
basil leaves
pecorino romano cheese
marinara sauce
brussel sprouts

Cranked up the oven, I think it went to 525 but not sure exactly.

Within 8-10 minutes / pie we had a gastronomic heaven,

 

Chef Jim makes garlic knots, kudos to Michael for learning how to throw a pie whil a Pro Shop entrepenuer.

 

Marinara and Mozzerella

 

Artichoke hearts, spinach, red pepper flakes, basil, goat cheese, and yes, those are brussel sprouts!

Sizzle!

Here's another one of those, I hope I can do this again!

After soaking chick peas overnight, bring them to a boil then simmer for about an hour in vegetable stock. ( I use one cube of vegetable boullion).

Cook 1 1/2-2 cups rice of choice. This go round included a long grain brown.

When the beans are almost finished, heat a pan with the bottom just covered in peanut oil or butter.
drop into hot oil a tbs of mustard seed, they should sizzle. About 30 seconds.,
Drop in a tbs of cumin seeds, sizzle, add a generous helping of minced ginger, sizzle.

Lower the heat and toss in as many craisins as you want (or any other dried fruit)

Strain the chick peas from the broth (save some of the broth)!!

Combine the rice with the seasoned beans, add a little broth back in. This gave it a bit of a creamy risotto texture.

Enjoy!