WIAW 169 – Starting Summer

Well, I guess summer is really here!

We have a pile of greens from the CSA, it’s almost July, today is the last day of school, everyone is talking about summer plans. So of course this morning it is cool, even chilly! That kind of year, what can I say?

Back to that pile of greens! I made spinach hummus – so good… I’ll make scape hummus next (and take new pictures for the post.) Herbs grow quickly, so I have mint and basil, tarragon and oregano…  I use them fresh, of course, but have also made my first batch of frozen cubes.  We eat different greens for dinner each night – dandelion, escarole, chard, bok choy – and remember how deliciously different they all taste.

I have not, however, jumped on to the vegetables at breakfast bandwagon – though in summer I do eat some fruit. I understand the logic, I know people who eat them and love them, I do put some greens in egg muffins when I make them, but I haven’t quite wrapped my mind around it myself. (Hey – I used to just eat toast, so…)  I’m back in bean taco season, it seems. Easy to make, easy to eat, tasty… I have started to play with different kinds of beans, not just pintos – these were Roman beans (aka cranberry, borlotti, several other names.) They make a soft, creamy, mashed bean. I cooked the beans that morning, so just added cheese – later I cooked an omelet and cut it in strips to use.

Red and green leaf lettuce made my salad lunch, along with radishes and a little more cheese. And I enjoyed the spinach hummus – it’s been one of my most popular recipes, and with good reason! So easy, too… And I don’t have many salad vegetables, yet, so it’s nice to get more vegetable in the hummus.

We’ve gotten dandelion greens twice now. Last week I cooked them plain, which is certainly good enough, but this week I added bacon. Now, I’m not fanatical about bacon as some are, but there are places it just adds the perfect accent, and it’s really terrific with all kinds of greens, especially the slightly bitter ones.  I served the greens with a pork chop simmered with broth and sage, and brown rice with the seasoned broth from the chop. Pretty simple, and so good!

Do you have plans set for the summer, yet? We’ve had some family stuff come up so we’re scrambling a bit… may end up busy with that. We’ll see how things go!

I am again joining Laura at Sprint 2 the Table for the WIAW party Jenn started (which Laura now maintains.) Come on over!