Back into the swing of things

We're getting there! Everyone is still waking up sometime in the late 4s, early 5s which is no fun but ah well, jet lag is a pain. J is happy to be back at school, Ol and I are staying busy. I posted the recipe from last night -Halibut with Herb-Citrus Salsa and Israeli Couscous Risotto- and this evening will be making my whole wheat spaghetti with chicken, fennel, currants and mascarpone. It is fab!

Do you know what I found beyond weird? I just had to go to FOUR stores to find matches. Matches, people. Isn't this a basic sort of product?? Do you know what was nice? Being disengaged from American politics for nearly two weeks.

Tomorrow's One Day Deal at Whole Foods is large fruit tarts, $9.99 each (usually $20.99 or something like that).

"You got home and your garden had gone wild" dinner

Oh, and despite jet lag, you had the presence of mind to buy some fish at the market, dinner... Amen for that. This turned out wonderfully and took full advantage of the green bonanza in my yard. MSC-certified halibut was on sale today and looked quite nice, so, Ol and I picked up an unnecessarily enormous filet. Several hours later, in musing about what to do with it, I thought I'd welcome spring by topping it with an herbal-citrus salsa and putting the whole shebang on some sort of carb or grain. Further noodling coalesced into this delightful dish: Broiled Halibut with Preserved Lemon, Cucumber and Herb Salsa over Coriander-Garlic-Orange Israeli Couscous "Risotto." That is quite a freaking mouthful. How to condense!? Anyway, yum!

In the salsa, I wanted a bit of kick plus a cooling element so went with preserved lemon for zing, jalapeño for spice and cucumber for cool. The minced herb component included mint, spring onion tops, basil and cilantro. I also grated some orange zest in for a hint of sweetness.

Into the couscous, which I first cooked like a risotto (adding broth a bit at a time), I stirred a sauté of garlic, coriander and orange juice and zest. The halibut steaks I simply sprinkled with freshly ground black pepper and coriander and broiled.

Lastly, for our side, and to manage the garden, I made a fresh salad of spinach, two kinds of lettuce (Breen and red leaf), kale and a watercress varietal. Half an heirloom tomato, some balsamic vinaigrette, and voila! I'll post the couscous and fish recipe later, but it was definitely a keeper, and I'll make it again!

Il mio giardino

I am so excited! Though the tulips are on their way out, I did not miss all of them, nor did I miss the peonies or anything else really. After giving my main peony bush some major TLC at the end of last season, I've got several large buds that will be absolute stunners when the open. Look at the size! And bleeding hearts are just such a cool plant. Their pink is more vibrant than this photo suggests, but nonetheless, you get a sense. Have I mentioned how much I love perennials?! I was amazed by how verdant and healthy the yard looked this morning when I finally ventured out to assess the state of it all after two weeks away. It was made abundantly clear to me how strong and self-sustaining the natural world is when you just leave it alone, or, at the least, give it proper respect. Everything was just so much darn bigger than when we'd left. Especially hearty weeds -insidious hairy bittercress (aka jumpin' jesus)- were half a foot tall, border plants and grasses had intertwined like tightly-clasped hands (my arbitrary delineations between them be damned), my trailing honeysuckle looked like it'd mutated into a hulk vine, the veggies were huge, there were so many worms in the compost that I almost wondered if the pile might soon fold in on itself, a tumbling, wriggling mass of energy.

Humans work so mightily to tame the environments around them, but I like and often feel humbled by the powerful force that is nature. Looking at the amazing maturation of everything in my little plot, I found a sliver of hope that despite our best and exceedingly selfish, short-sighted efforts to the contrary, perhaps people won't ultimately be able to conquer the Earth and all the life it sustains.