The Bitten Word

The View From the Garden

It's hot. It's cold. It's hot. It's cold.

Such has been spring so far. But for the most part, the garden doesn't seem to mind. 

The lettuce is abundant. The carrots are tall. The peas are huddled together, latched onto each other like a little codependent family. 

The majority of the work in the garden over the last month has been in thinning carrots. We haphazardly distributed carrot seeds when we planted them, and it appears we overplanted, because we have carrot sprouts galore. Each day we thin a few more, trying to give them space to grow. Now that the carrot tops are more than four inches tall, pulling up the plants seems like a shame, but we know it's needed. 

Asparagus and Cheese Tart

Food Network Magazine (April 2012)

Sometimes when you're cooking dinner for guests, you just need to roll with the punches. Usually, that works out A-OK. Happy guests. Clean plates. Satisfied hosts.

Sometimes, not so much. 

Zach's parents recently stayed with us for a few days. Since they've visited our nation's capitol many times at this point, we no longer plan their visits around museums or memorials. Now, it's all about where we can go that's a bit offbeat. (Roosevelt Island and Lincoln Cottage made this visit's list.)

Most important, it's about where we eat. This time around, we had Thai, Vietnamese, Scandinavian and pie. (Cue music: "One of these things is not like the others....")

And, as always when we're with Zach's mom, we cook. Such were our plans for a recent Saturday night when, after a marathon of eating meals out at restaurants, we all needed a night in. So we planned to cook a spring meal, with this Asparagus and Cheese Tart featured as the entree.