One of the realities of growing food, or even just eating seasonally from farmers markets or whatever, is that you'll wait what seems like forever for a certain food to come ripe, and then when it does, you're totally overwhelmed with it. But this is not an altogether bad thing, as it forces you to try new things in the kitchen with the ingredient that is taking over your life for a short span of time. Well, forces ME, anyway.
I'm one of those people who can make a big batch of, say, spaghetti sauce, and then eat it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner until it's gone. I'm not all that adventurous in the kitchen. I like to have recipes to at least consult, even if I don't follow them exactly. When you can buy the same food all year round at the supermarket (not to say it's always good food), you can make the same things over and over. But when you have a garden, you eat what's in the garden before it bolts or freezes or whatever. And so when I find myself confronted with an overabundance of something like dill, an herb that I have only ever used in chicken salad, I have to try new things.
Take the dill. This is not a random example. We have a lot of dill in the garden right now. And what, exactly, does one do with dill? Well, I know what I do. I consult the omniscient Internet for recipes. Thus we have had scrambled eggs with dill, chives, and feta cheese (yes, for dinner--you gotta problem with that?), and a bizarre yet delicious Finnish beef stew featuring half a cup of dill, plus heavy cream. And sugar, of all things. I would never have come up with these recipes on my own, but the dill glut forced me to find them. And damn, were they good (if I may say so myself). Of course, I have yet to go wrong with anything involving feta cheese or heavy cream, but that's not the point.
What was my point? Oh, right, the wonderful broadening effect of gardening. Was that my point? Jesus, I can't even figure out what my point was. Except to say that we've been eating well, and dill has featured heavily here recently.
A whole post about dill. How far I have fallen. Check back tomorrow, when I will not be as random and boring. We hope.
6 comments:
Those eggs sound good. I always think dill smells good, but I never buy it. I only remember my mom using it in chicken soup, so I wouldn't know what to do with it (except for maybe something with cucumbers...mmm...).
I love dill. I got burned out a few years ago when we took a trip to Israel, and dill was in EVERYTHING. Salads, spaghetti sauce, toothpaste - DILL! DILL! DILL! It actually came back in my garden this year even though I haven't planted it in 3 years. I let it live. I think I'm ready to go back to dill.
dill is great with all kinds of fish, even tunafish.
currently, I'm having a similar problem with cilantro -- which I love love love -- but there is only so much mexican i can do. can cilantro go on pizza? like pizza from the take out place?
Eeeewwww, cilantro. I hate hate hate cilantro as much as you love love love it, Ms. Picket. But for what it's worth, cilantro is used a lot in Thai food, if you're feeling adventurous.
I have a recipe somewhere on my blog for baby red potatoes with dill and knockwurst.
you either love it or you hate it, kristin. which is true of so many things.
i pretty much just don't want to cook at all right now. totally uninspired and ugh, cooking.
recipes please. yo.
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