Tonight's dinner from the yarden...

Even though I don't share many recipes; I cook a lot. Almost every night in fact. And I am not a fancy cook at all. I like the basics. Most of the time, If I find a recipe that has more than 8 ingredients forget it.  Even though I do enjoy it; It gets tiring to cook every night, (and the dishes after) but it helps that my hubby also chips in a few nights a week. One thing that I find really keeps me from getting bored  is when we get into growing season and I can get outside and take things for our dinner right from our own yard. It adds something extra to the experience and saves us a good chunk of money over the summer and fall.

June can still be a bit on the thin side in the midwest, but we are managing to find  a few things.  

Tonight was farm-raised scrambled eggs, salad and sauteed garlic-scapes and asparagus.

 I adore garlic scapes! These are the top shoots of hard-neck garlic. They are totally edible until they straighten out, then they are too tough. You cut the little bulby part off at the top(and discard) and chop  up, cook and eat the green part. By removing them you not only give more energy back to the bulb, but have a tasty treat, like garlicky green beans ( you can cook them with green beans too.). I sautéed these in butter (then again, everything is good in butter) with the few spears of asparagus I had in my patch tonight.

 Red Simpson lettuce. It's been so cool this year that the lettuce is still hanging on.

The only " ick" factor in homegrown lettuce is it has to be soaked and rinsed a few times, between the dirt and... other things. But it tastes so much better than store bought, and  did you know all supermarket greens are soaked in a mild bleach solution?

 Our scrambled eggs are easily made with a bit of milk, salt and pepper and occasionally some chives. Our eggs from our local farmer's market (or my neighbor.). He's a local farmer who's chickens are all pastured and what grain they get are fed his own grown, organic, non-GMO mix. They have the loveliest golden-colored yolks... The same goes for  bleach with eggs in the supermarket too BTW.

I also made some homemade buttermilk dressing, recipe courtesy of The Pioneer Woman.  It was way easier than I thought. I hadn't planned on it, but I had to in a pinch because my 4 year old emptied the other bottle all over the kitchen table and her plate last night.

Jen