from garden to table

We've been enjoying the first tastes of the harvest from our tiny backyard plot--specifically greens.

The mesclun mix and red leaf lettuces have been wonderful, so sweet and buttery.  If you have only a pot and a sunny spot, consider planting some lettuce seeds. They're so easy to grow (and cheap) and the payoff is incredible.

Our Mizuno Japanese mustard greens are quite tasty too. Not as bitter as traditional mustard greens, these were excellent in a simple pasta dish I made last night for dinner.

While the photo above doesn't give them justice (these are the leftovers which I reheated for lunch, hence the darker colored greens), they were gorgeously bright green in the dish and didn't take long to cook.

My favorite part of the garden is the learning experience for Soren. We picked the lettuce together for today's lunch, and he was excited and engaged by the activity.  He even ate some lettuce without cajoling!

Mind you, this boy will fish out any secretly-placed green ingredient in any of my cooking and spit it out immediately and with much fanfare.

Next up, peas. This is the first time I've grown them so we'll see what happens. So far so good. Climb little ones, climb!

If you're curious how I made the pasta dish, I simply cooked some penne, then sauteed an onion and 2 minced garlic cloves in olive oil with some white wine, then added the greens at the end.  I tossed in the drained pasta, added some fresh oregano and Parmesan, and finished with salt and pepper. So simple and so delicious.