Spring floral vodka

Everything is crazy in the garden. Chive flowers, scallion flowers, thyme flowers, oregano I didn't know I had. An herbal paradise right now. There was leftover booze from a job, so I took home a bottle of vodka. After draining a cup, I spent some time carefully feeding chive flowers through the neck to soak.

The vodka removed to make space was put in a mason jar with thyme blossoms, mostly just as an experiment. I also planted pineapple sage, so for Dance Parade recovery next weekend, there will be fancy cocktails.

Ratatouille

I did a farm stand story for a client with piles of zucchini, baby eggplant, heirloom tomatoes, yellow squash, and spring onions. Somehow, they magically chose all the ingredients for ratatouille!

Chickpeas in the pod?

At Whole Foods, I saw Chcckpeas in the pod. After passing them for several days I finally gave in and bought some.

They only had one or two peas to a pod, but shelled easily. After a quick blanche and ice bath they took on the green of a canned chickpea, but had a noticeably nuttier flavor and a firmer texture. Also, the the skins didn't easily slip off like they do from the can. With the help of some english peas left over from work, I made this.

Sauteed minced shallots in butter, tossed in the chickpeas and peas, sprinkled with a little salt and vanilla sugar, and finished with some minced parsley. The vanilla sugar was just to replace some of the lost natural sugars in the peas, and I'm interested in using vanilla as a savory spice. It was delicious.