Tuesday, March 11, 2008

I Ate This

It's completely marvelous to lounge outside on the patio, admiring the vegetation, and then to eat it (the vegetation, not the patio) for lunch.
At some point it looks like Nature, pure and unsullied, and then you apply heat and liquid. And you get food.
It was actually an emergency meal, because the purple flowering broccoli is, ahem, flowering. The cauliflower was bursting apart into separate shoots, and now I know what they mean by cauliflower shoots: emergency.
The rest of the dish was backyard celery (I don't know how it has lasted so long, but we're almost on month 10 for it) and not-yet-mature onions, both sauteed in olive oil. We braised this natural, naive dish in a good splash of champagne with a squeeze of backyard Meyer lemon and several backyard seasonings (parsley, chive, sage, serrano pepper). Salt, of course.
The food part of my meal was a lot homelier than the precooked part.
Just right.

14 comments:

Anita (Married... with dinner) said...

Broccoli, Shoots, and Leaves

(it was so funny the first time, I had to use it again)

peter said...

My celery is still alive, and growing again now that the snow is melting. I have new respect for it.

Barbara said...

I wish I could eat straight from my garden. But I don't think silk flowers would taste so good.

michael, claudia and sierra said...

great shot

Greg said...

I love the photo and the recipe. Do you use a macro lens?

cookiecrumb said...

Anita: You know I love good wordplay. xoxo

Peter: Me too. Respect for the hoary celery; who'da thunk?

Barbara: I find it even prettier to look at food out there than flowers. Of course, now the broccoli is flowering. :D

ceF: I took it with "your" lens. G'wan. Go buy one.

Greg: Thanks! Utter simplicity. And yes, it's a macro. I'm sort of stuck in macro photography, for lack of other skills.

Stacie said...

dreamin of fresh food, and that looks amazing!! what does celery plants look like? I keep picturing my rhubarb, only not red... am I even close?

Heather said...

Gorgeous photo. I love crucifers.

cookiecrumb said...

Stacie: Totally! Growing in the ground, it looks exactly like a bunch of celery you'd buy at the market, plugged upright into the dirt. Easy and cute, and more celery than I'll ever need.

Heather: Once in a while I get lucky.... Thank you.
Crucifers = healthy, stinky, good.

Mary Coleman said...

If you look out in your backyard one day, and see someone wallowing in your garden, it's just me. Come to stay!

cookiecrumb said...

Mary: We'd be happy to see you out there; plenty to share.

Deborah Dowd said...

How great to have something in your backyard to eat-my choices now- bay and rosemary, and I have noticed some "volunteer" chives coming up. Can't wait for spring!

cookiecrumb said...

Deborah: Hang in there!
(We got volunteer chives, too. Cute.)

Catherine said...

sweet! what can I pick n'eat?