Spring Treasure: Farm Fresh Asparagus

The lingering chilly spring has extended the asparagus season this year. Something good has come from all that dreary rain.
The farmers market bunches are funny! Thin as a grass stem, thick as your thumb! But just harvested and oh so sweet.

My family loves asparagus. It's great with grilled steaks or BBQed chicken breasts, so while it is in season we have it often.

Easy and delicious:

roasted in the oven, I sometimes peel the very ends. Toss with a bit of olive and smidge of butter, some lemon pepper.

Roast in oven[or on grill] at 400* for about 20 minutes. Sprinkle on some freshly grated parm and Yum!

enjoy....

 

 

I also experimented with white asparagus. Exotic [to me] veggie finds are part of the fun of the farmers market.

Who knew they have to be meticulously peeled! Or that they take longer to steam than the green kind.
I made a brown butter lemon vinaigrette, with fresh lemon juice and tarragon sprigs.

Favorite new summer seasoning. Very fragrant and summery, very versatile. It was a trial package, I plan to order more.

 

 

 

 Served room temp..

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My kids loved it with grilled tuna and avocado. [I forgot to take a photo, I have to ask the kids if they have a shot on their phones....]

Hope you're inspired for the weekend! Simple fresh produce, big rewards for your tastebuds. Have fun!

love

lizzy
 
..........gone to the beach...

Strawberry SuperMoon

Hi! I want to show you the huge full moon ....

This was on Sunday....

Sunset...

Very high tide, and flooding....

The full moon always rises as the sun sets, and this creates a very high tide.
Not just this week but always. For example during  H. Sandy the height of the storm hit us at sunset, as the October Harvest full moon rose on one of the highest tides of the year [plus winds form the south], creating the enormous, lethal storm surge.

This June moon is traditionally the Strawberry Moon...because of the harvest, not because of its color. But look, it is so pink and golden.

 

I loved the pink reflection on the surf.

My camera does not take good nighttime photos. And it was very windy,. I wish the photos were better.

                                  

....but I wanted to share it with you all anyway.

It was a wonderful evening, a glorious show in the heavens...

love

lizzy

gone to the beach....

 

 

 

Summer Hearts

Summer mornings...lavender fields...the lighthouse...Cape Cod---memories of fun times long ago.

In summers past, for many years, I packed up the kids and we'd head up to Cape Cod for a week or two. Those times are gone, the house my dad built in the pine woods on the old Dillingham farmlands belongs to another family now.

My mother grew lavender in the dry sunny herb bed by the road, in a plot edged with a weathered grey fence covered with pink Cape Cod roses. A wren always nested on the fence hole and would chitter angrily at us as we cut the fragrant armloads of lavender each June.

 My dad grew potatoes there, along with my mom's herbs...and once he found an ancient flint arrowhead in the potato plot! The last remnants of summer visitors eons ago.

My mother didn't sew but she always had Ideas.

She was the originator of my lavender hearts that I sell on eBay and etsy....

 

 

 

 

 

 

I made a new batch of hearts this week...and remembered the special summers with my family.

Good times, good memories...

love

     lizzy

gone to the beach...

 

 

 

 

 

 

Honeysuckle and Roses

Hi! Summer arrives tomorrow, isn't that grand! Just in time for Fourth of July...

The afternoon storm has passed, moved off out to sea. Let's go for a walk.

See the funny dots and texture of the sand? That is from the hard drops of rain.

I stop at the top of the dune and take deep breaths of the scented air. I wish you could smell it too.

The air here in the dunes is laden with the aroma of honeysuckle and beach roses. No fancy French perfume can compare with the delicacy of the early summer air. Evocative: summer day, summer day, it whispers.

And look! This is new, masses of beautiful blue violet beach sweetpeas. They never grew here before.

The seeds must have washed up during the hurricane, a little gift from H. Sandy.

The sea grass is finally green and growing fast...

The mallards have rediscovered the summer pond, the dune swale.

Let's walk on down to the shore..

The air here is different. Strongly smells of salt, like a box of Morton's When it rains, it pours table salt. Crisp, clean, so fresh....

The water is exceptionally clear, due to the cold winter and chilly spring...

High solstice tide, washing my winter white toes. No treasures to beachcomb, just the pleasure of a perfect day.

Tomorrow I will pack a small picnic and head down early. Pitas, hummus, tiny tomatoes. Some icy cold lemonade. I plan to enjoy every moment of this precious season, to value all its faces, to stop and yes...smell the roses.

love
 
lizzy
 
gone to the beach....