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Monday, May 7, 2012

What can I do with some Rhubarb and Herbs??

Good Morning, everyone... 
Here I am in the early hours of the day for a change... 
I thought I would do this before my day gets going too much.. 
We are leaving to go to a conference later so I decided to drop you a little line, now... 

It is another beautiful Spring day here in Eastern Canada... 

I was out rooting amongst the garden trying to find something edible... grin... 

My Mom was saying her Rhubarb was really big so I went out and checked ours... Terry says it has been there for twenty years and is root bound.. We want to transplant it over to where the horse corral used to be..

 We had a pony once... Dustin named her Gracie Black... smile.. She is gone now and unlike my relatives I do not need a horse...grin.. If you read this and you are related to me on my father's side you understand what I am saying.. 
They LOVE horses and HAVE horses... 
I like them but don't need one... 

Anyway...
 On with the story... 
Here are my pickings from the garden....


The Rhubarb is coming along... Root bound or not... 


The chives are glorious.


The lovage I picked.... It will grow 6 feet high //


My harvest... 
Isn't it pretty?.. 
God sure knew his color palette, didn't He?  
He CREATED the color palette..  smile...
My two favorite colors when I am being heartful and not trendy.. 
Greens and Reds....

Now what can I do with this wee early harvest??? 
Hmmmm... 
How about a Salad Dressing.. 
Yes, Janet B... another salad... grin...

Want the recipe... 


Just slice up 3 stalks of rhubarb into thin slices and place in a 1/3 cup of water in a small pot and simmer for 7 minutes.. 
Cool for a couple of minutes...
Place in your blender along with zest from 1 lemon, 3 T. red wine vinegar, salt and pepper to taste, 1 tsp. grainy mustard, 3 T. olive or canola oil... I put a small minced clove of garlic in too but that is optional... 
Whisk together until smooth...


Isn't that pretty... Tasty, too... Honest...

Now what to make... 
OK.... 
How about an Herb Salad...


One of my all time faves.. 
I shouldn't tell you but I had 2 helpings.. 

Herbs and Rhubarb Dressing is AWESOME... 

To make HERB SALAD..
I took a handful of Lovage leaves and tore them up, then a big handful of chives and cut them up, 2 handfuls of chopped lettuce and  1 handful of spinach... 
You can use whatever herbs you have growing.. 
Later I will add basil and thyme..
Toss up along with your dressing... 

Delicious, if I must say.. 
And may I add... Very good for you... 

Now, you know me... 
I have wanted to try this since I heard about it from our Prince Edward Island chef... Michael Smith... 

Lovage Pickles..



I only picked enough to do one bottle as it needs to grow more..  
Michael emailed me and told me to just use one of my pickling brines to make them..... 
So... I did... 
I will let you know how they turn out... 
They need to brine for a few days.. grin..

Then last but not least... 
I made my Acadian Salted Chives...


A sweet little Acadian lady from the North of the province came into my shop and told me how to do this... 

ACADIAN  SALTED CHIVES..
Just chop up your Chives with your scissors and layer it with kosher salt... 
Let it sit for several weeks and after a while the salt takes on the chives flavor and you use it for soups, salads, fish.... Whatever... 

All right my dears I hear the laundry calling my name... 
Or perhaps it is the clothesline... grin.. 
I also hear the lawn mower going... 
Isn't God good to give us these lovely seasons?  

I am looking forward to hearing the Word of the Lord tonight...

Take care sweeties... 

Oh... I did want to welcome the new followers and to thank 
you girls who joined the networked blog through your facebook.. 
I don't do facebook but I must say I was happy to see your faces on the sidebar thing... I didn't think it would ever happen.. smile..

And of course I love hearing from all of your faithful ones.. 
It truly makes my day.. 
You guys have an awesome one... 
Hugs....

10 comments:

  1. A truly lovely post!
    Hope yopu have a wonderful week!

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  2. That rhubarb dressing looks very interesting... We must be related, I don't need a horse either!

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  3. Rhubarb dressing sounds delish ! Papa and I love rhubarb and strawberry pie with ice cream thats what we would do with the rhubarb if we had some . I have had rhubarb jam thats good to . I love horses had my own and was raised around them on our hobby farm . I do miss having one . Hope your day is filled with sweetness !

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  4. I must say, I'm surprised to see a post this early on in the day... a pleasant surpirse though :)
    Enjoy the conference... you'll have to fill me in b\c I won't be able to make it...

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  5. My...that rhubarb dressing sounds so good! My rhubarb plant is gone. We should plant another. I grew up on our horse farm (western saddle horses) and could ride all the horses I wanted to but no, no more horses for us now.

    Happiness to you,
    Susannah

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  6. What a beautiful little harvest you've already had :)

    We got a start of some rhubarb from our old house, and that was a start from the house 5 years previous. That rhubarb plant is at least 100 years old.
    I'm hoping it will take off and thrive; as I think we are here to stay, and we would really enjoy having that old plant here.

    Never heard of lovage pickles. I'll have to give them a try.
    A friend gave me a few herb starts, and the one is too little to tell if it is lovage, or mugwort. Waiting for it to mature a bit.

    My chives are on, and I'm going to have to give that salt a try. It sounds like a real treat.

    Have a lovely week.
    Warm wishes..
    Kerin

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  7. All I can say is...yum! Thanks for sharing all the recipes. I love rhubarb and your dressing sounds so good. Oh, and you got an email from chef Michael Smith! I enjoy watching is show. I'll be interested in how the Lovage Pickles turn out.

    Have you heard about the new berry available here in Canada? It's called honeyberry and is hardy to zone 2 and -40C. It was developed at the Univ. of Saskatoon and is a cross between a blueberry, raspberry and saskatoon berry. We bought two bushes and planted them this morning. The berry is early, before strawberries, around the middle of June here in Ontario. I can't wait to try them and hope to get even a few berries this June.

    Hugs,
    Sandra

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  8. Thanks for sharing the recipes. I think I would like to try the rhubarb salad dressing. It sounds so good. Enjoy your day and God bless.

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  9. Hi Faye,
    You are always so full of recipes...and wonderful healthy ones at that.
    My Rhubarb looks a lot like yours...it is skinny right now and very root bound but also needs more sun than it's getting so it will be moved this week. My plants came from my grandfather. He grew them since he was a young married and then gave my brother some shoots many years ago and then my brother gave me shoots from those...so they have been producing a very, very long time. I'm thinking back and the plants are at least 80 years old...isn't that awesome?

    Your dressing recipe looks and sounds wonderful.

    I'm waiting for mine to get a bit bigger because the first thing I make with the first picking is a Rhubarb Cake...love it!!!

    Karen

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  10. Faye, you have been busy! I am going to have to plant more rhubarb-ours got tilled last year.

    Kendra

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