WIAW 108 – You Sure It’s Spring?

Saturday – officially the Last Day of Winter – I went to Greenmarket.

There were buckets holding armfuls of pussy willows and forsythia. Farmers had tables and trays of bedding plants – flowers, and herbs, and the very first vegetables… It’s too early to set most vegetables out in a garden, but in a cold frame on your roof? Maybe…

This is mid Manhattan, but it’s a neighborhood of hundred year old or older brownstones in one direction, tenements in another – all with yards in the back (some held the necessaries, when the buildings were built…) many with accessible roofs. There are even a handful of front gardens! And many buildings have a few planters next to the stoop. So yes, people here buy pansies and other flowers to dress up their homes.

Others of us, with only a windowsill, stick to the pots of bulbs – daffodils, tulips… And maybe a pot of basil. I didn’t get any this time, but maybe next week…  And I bought leeks, and saw the first greens, and radishes, and it was Spring in New York.

So the nest day – the First Day of Spring, it snowed.

It’s been that kind of year… I don’t think it actually snowed in my neighborhood, the temperature hovered right around freezing, but nearby friends posted pictures – it really did snow in New York on the first day of Spring after one of the warmest winters on record. It’s been that kind of year.

All this wreaks havoc for most of us with migraine (and for me, after the best week I’ve had in a long time!) and it brings back the desire for hearty meals and soup… Luckily, that’s a good combination for me.

I hadn’t had my bean tacos for a while, so made another batch of beans for in on Monday, and cooked a big omelet to cut in strips on Tuesday. Then it’s all easy – just assemble and heat, and I have a good hearty breakfast, that I can eat easily and quickly.

Then, I mixed kefir with a little orange juice – like my protein shake, but without the protein powder – and drank that while I started writing.

Kind of a Clear the Freezer Lentil Soup – I cooked a pot of lentils, used the last of the escarole, some of the leeks I had bought on Saturday and cooked for the freezer,  a few other odds and ends…  I wasn’t in the mood for soup last week, but I sure am this week! No picture of the rice cakes – a little cheese on one of them, just to round out the meal – but you’ve seen that before…

And I was kind of crashy when it was time to cook dinner. I’d planned something that would take more energy, but that just wasn’t going to happen. But the freezer held a bag of Chipotle Pork, and there was onion and cabbage…  so I sauteed the vegetable, added pork and some water, heated it, and served it all over – wait, there wasn’t any rice… over packaged polenta (which is the reason I always have that on hand.) It wasn’t the combination I would have chosen, but it tasted fine, and it was dinner. And really easy.

We’re all rather hoping that this was winter’s Last Hurrah, and that we will now move seamlessly into nice warm weather. It may hit 70 this week! (I’d actually prefer it to move smoothly, not jump up and down like this…)

I am starting to work on a few projects here, hopefully I’ll have some results for you to see soon… I’ve spent much of the last while just learning first to blog, and then the basics of gluten free cooking (right when I’d been about to branch out – but my first priority had to be learning to cook so I could eat!) Now that I’m feeling more comfortable with both of those, I’m starting to look again at a few ideas that have been on the back burner.

I will always continue to feature simple meals, and ways to prepare for them… I still need to eat on days like yesterday, and I assume you do, too.

And I still want good food.

Jenn’s WIAW party is over at Laura’s. Laura isn’t exactly dancing – sending healing thoughts! But she still pulled it together to hold the party, so go encourage her! And have a great week.