WIAW 154

Official Meteorological Spring is starting today in New York City with 70° weather (and nasty thunderstorms) after the warmest February on record. Can Spring vegetables be far behind?

Well, we’ll see… Last year, March was warm, but then we had a late killing frost. I hope, though, that I’ll be able to get some young greens soon! Spring Training has started, flowers are starting to come up, Lent has begun (comparatively late) and I am surrounded by reminders that Spring, if not reliably here yet, is well on the way.

And in the name of new beginnings, I am planning to start a few new things here… A blog also must grow!

But anyhow… what I ate.

I have some millet I’d bought quite a while ago and somehow had slid away from using… And it’s dried out a bit, and doesn’t cook quite soft in the usual time. Which in turn has kept me from using it, so it gets older and drier, and… So I mixed it with the corn grits for my breakfast. You may remember that I’d mixed them with teff (to add flavor) for my porridge last year, but this year I’ve been cooking the cheese and eggs right in the grain (which is even easier, as well as tasty.) Cooked this way, I give the millet more water – and more time – and the slight chewiness it still has is fine.

Lunch was leftovers. The last winter squash from the CSA (yes, really!) was finally cooked, and mixed with shredded pork and chickpeas to make a delicious, well, mess… Not pretty at all, but it tasted good! And I’d cooked kasha. (If all these grains suggest to your mind that I rearranged the shelves in the cabinet and found the jars that had migrated to the back… well…) Kasha goes wonderfully with winter squash, the flavors complement each other beautifully. So everything was heated up and served – and good.

Dinner was inspired by Twitter! I had not quite enough chicken, and not much of an idea… and someone tweeted a link to a tomato caper sauce. Which reminded me of the puttanesca, and I had the anchovies and capers (though no olives) so I crushed anchovies into olive oil, browned my chicken, and added tomatoes and capers. Served it all over rice (because I had rice) with freshly grated parmigiano cheese (which served nicely to stretch the chicken!)