From the Garden

Did some harvesting! I washed all of this by filling the kitchen sink with cold water and letting the vegetables soak in the basin, which bothered Tommy a lot! He tattled on me: "Dad, look what mom is doing! There could be bugs in our sink!"

A few days ago my mom gave me a HUGE bag of swiss chard from her garden. Thanks mom! It's beautiful, and tasty! I've blanched it and used some of it, but I found a few recipes I'd like to try this week. (Thank you, Internets!) So far I've just used it in a few things I normally make with spinach.

Here's a really simple one, that I just can't get enough of: cook some rice (your choice, I use long grain basmati or brown), set it aside. Put a bit of extra virgin olive oil in a pan, heat over medium heat with a crush garlic and some sliced onions. Throw in the swiss chard (or spinach leaves) and saute it up. It'll reduce down to almost nothing, volume wise, so it's good to use lots of veggie material in this one! Once it's warmed up, put the rice in with it so it's all mixed and heated together. Right before I "serve it" (or, "chow down on it") I toss in walnuts and some feta cheese. I can't tell you how much walnuts and feta cheese you will need, but a "metric ton" seems right when I'm doing it. Use your own judgment.