This week’s meal plan is lacking Monday and Tuesday because we will be out of town for Madame’s work conference in Niagara!  The boys and I plan to hit up a local nut farm and go searching for strawberries too since rumor has it they are ripe there…. Oh yeah, and then we’re going to Madame’s parent’s house for Father’s Day weekend, so there’s a gap on both ends of this meal plan, lucky me—a vacation (and I love helping cook when we go home to our parent’s house, but I don’t have to make the plan!!).

Since this week is lacking on menu ideas, if you feel like you need more ideas just check out last week’s menu which was so good, every day’s meal was wonderful and almost all were new to us.   Shaved Asparagus Pasta was pretty much the easiest meal I’ve ever cooked, I recommend it as an easy seasonal meal!  The meal originally comes from Martha Stewart, but The Red Spoon has a much more detailed version of it that is quite helpful.

June 10-16

These days the menu features lots of green items.  It’s wonderful.  It also would seem that there is some debate on the internet (and maybe beyond) as to whether it’s healthier to eat leafy greens raw or cooked.  Since my 3-minute internet research session was inconclusive I’ll stick to just not worrying about it, and will cook them sometimes and sometimes not.  Basically I will let the recipe and my stomach decide what sounds best (which reminds me of this interview I started to read last night).  For further reading on cooking leafy greens try reading this article about Kale and its recent popularity.

Looking back at least week, one great meal was Cream of Asparagus Soup with Fresh Cheesy Garlic Bagels!  We ate it last night and like I just said, it was a great meal, especially the fresh bagels, which were topped with cranberry goat cheese (since we rarely buy cream cheese).  Let me just say, once you start putting goat cheese on bagels it’s unlikely you’ll ever go back to cream cheese…

My contribution was a meal consisting of Parmesan Asparagus with Poached Eggs and Couscous Salad and fresh bread (or toast).

Spring is beginning to arrive at the market and that is good.  It also is beginning to arrive in my backyard where I’ve been able to harvest small amounts of leaves from various young plants—dandelions, mustard, spinach, kale, and lettuce.  So this is good.  However, asparagus hasn’t come yet (Friday we will get some from Bailey’s!) so it still kind of feels like Spring isn’t fully here yet.  At the Kitchener Market we were able to pick up some local greenhouse arugula and chard, but neither of those really makes me feel like spring the way the asparagus will.

Sunday afternoon we went for a hike at Rattlesnake Point which is on the Escarpment that looks out over Lake Ontario.  It was beautiful!  We joined two of Madame’s brothers and their spouses, had a lovely picnic, played some Frisbee and kicked around a soccerball, hiked, enjoyed the warmth of sun, and had a great time!  When we got home instead of doing our Cinco de Mayo feast we had guacamole (a mini, non-local celebration!) and a frozen Beet, Potato, & Mushroom Casserole.  Thus we will celebrate Siete de Mayo.  I checked that phrase on google and the only interesting thing I found was a blog from a US surgeon in Afghanistan from two years ago.  His reason cited was the same as mine, well not the same really in any way other than the fact that when you can’t celebrate Cinco de Mayo you celebrate when you are able!  So, come on over for some great Mexican food on Tuesday night if you’re nearby!

The Eggplant Parmesan will be made with local greenhouse eggplants.  Kind of hilarious, and strange… but I was excited to eat something different and pretend that it’s summer.  Tonight’s Penne with Cabbage is something I’ve made before, but a long time ago.  It’s simple and tasty.   Also, I’m branching out this week, or returning to my roots–the Moosewood Cookbook is featured this week in two recipes, Eggplant Parmesan and Spanokapita.  Should be great!

Spring?  Maybe it has arrived.  We feel it a little bit more each day.  In terms of planning our menu for the week  Cinco de Mayo should be an obvious meal choice (if it’s not obvious, it’s going to Mexican!).  However, I will still do my best to utilize local ingredients, which actually should be pretty easy, other than avocados, lime, and tequila….    Other than that this week is a little bit difficult to plan for.  One problem is that some of our favorite winter storage vegetables (namely the leeks) have been disappearing from the market the last few weeks.  That would be okay if it were accompanied by the arrival of Spring vegetables… but it hasn’t been!  We’ve been waiting for an abundance of Spring greens but since they haven’t really arrived we have been somewhat unsure what to plan!  So, this week’s plans for now are going to include things that we can plan on—cabbage and root vegetables like potatoes and beets!  Oh, one more thing, the Beet and Red Cabbage Salad from last week’s menu turned out great!

Desserts – I don’t plan desserts, they are just whatever sweet treat we have made recently, but these Chocolate Diablo Cookies from Chatelaine Magazine are amazing!

Taking a break from meal planning…

Also, an apology:  last week we didn’t get to two of our meals… so we are eating them this week (which means that two days in this menu are identical to last week’s)!  On Wednesday we didn’t make the planned meal because I didn’t feel like cooking… that was the day I ended up baking with My Assistant all day (yes, I realize this was ironic).  Thursday I had a disaster (which I will write about in a day or two)….    And I’d love to hear from you if you’re trying any of these dishes, or what local foods you’ve been enjoying lately!   Share a link to a recipe that’s local for you below!  Try to think of what you could do for 100 Mile Monday this week….

Ok, the plan for the week: