Read recipe headlines or captions and you might think cooking has turned into a version of Name That Tune. Take any dish, let’s say a salad in this case. Can’t you just see it, opponents stand across from each other on a cardboard cut out game show set, sizing each other up, looking for tells. The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly practically plays in the background.
“Jim, I can make that salad in 7 ingredients,” says Contestant #1.
“I can make it in 5,” replies Contestant #2.
#1 rocks from left foot to right to left again. “Uhhh, Jim, I can make it in 3.”
Sensing uncertainty, #2 points, “Make that salad.”
Alright, let’s do it. Easy peasy Sesame Sugar Snap Peas.
Rhubarb is perpetually stuck in the Friend Zone, like that friend you’ve known your whole life, but you just didn’t see him that way. Every spring, rhubarb kicks off farmers market season in the Pacific Northwest, but all you have eyes for are the asparagus and peas. Last week at the market, I snapped a few photos of rhubarb but otherwise passed it by. Then, with a nudge from Hannah’s rhubarb cranachan (think oaty rhubarb jam parfait) over at Blue Kale Road, I put this crazy red celery-looking fruit on the shopping list.
This week has been crazy. It's not anything you'd think -- not work, not family commitments, not getting ready for a vacation. It's been Wild Kingdom over here. Literally. It started with the Heron.
Our relationship with the Heron has been tenuous at best. We have a small man-made pond and he showed up about a year after we moved in, looking for dinner. It was mainly a goldfish pond, but there was one big koi in there, old enough and wise enough to survive. We called him The Leviathan. The Heron is a gorgeous bird with a 5 foot wingspan, but his goals and ours are completely at cross purposes. Our koi pond is not a sushi bar. So Wolf MacGyvered a cover out of PVC and netting.
But the Heron is persistent.
Like a 3-year old running through a group of pigeons, I’ve taken off across our grass, waving my arms and yelling to scare him off. We've driven up only to catch him soaring off after a sashimi appetizer from our pond. Eventually, while we were on vacation, he even got the Leviathan.
This week, I saved the damn Heron.
