Salad season has started.
It’s not often the salad season and asparagus season overlap, but this year it happened.
I planted lettuce sets at the end of March. Last year I planted 24 sets and the nematodes destroyed all but 5. The remaining 5 were still a bit pathetic. This year I bought 36 sets. The nursery folks weren’t overly fussy when they separated them and I ended up with 42.
Naturally, they almost all survived….. I think I lost 6 to the nematodes. Needless to say we’ve been eating salads. I still have about 10 heads left and now the first of the lettuce seeds I planted are ready as well.
I’m not even begrudging the slugs their share. They might as well enjoy a feast before they get washed down the drain. There are anywhere from a few to a dozen tiny slugs snuggled into every head of lettuce I clean.
Shrimp, Asparagus and Avocado Salad
Total time: 30 minutes
Ingredients:
- 1/2 cup (3.3oz, 95gr) Basmati rice
- 1 cup (8oz, 240ml) chicken stock
- 10oz (300gr) shrimp, cleaned
- 10oz (300gr) asparagus, trimmed and cut into 1 1/2″ (4cm) lengths
- 1 avocado, sliced
- 6oz (180gr) salad greens. prepared
- 2 tbs fresh oregano leaves
- 1 tbs fresh, snipped garlic chives
- 1 tbs fresh snipped tarragon
- 1 tbs olive oil
- 1 tsp paprika
- Vinaigrette
- 2 tbs Balsamic vinegar
- 2 tsp Dijon-style mustard
- 4 tbs salad olive oil
Instructions:
- Cook rice in chicken stock, usually about 16 minutes
- Remove from heat and fluff with a fork when done.
- Blanche asparagus in boiling water for 4 minutes.
- Refresh in cold water. Drain well.
- Heat 1 tbs olive oil in a skillet. Add paprika, shrimp and quickly sauté until cooked through. They will curl and turn opaque when done.
- Remove and set aside.
- Vinaigrette:
- Whisk mustard and vinegar together in a small bowl.
- Gradually whisk in olive oil until thick and creamy.
- To finish:
- Toss greens, herbs with 2/3 of the vinaigrette and arrange in large salad bowl or on two plates.
- Divide rice and spread on lettuce.
- Arrange shrimp, asparagus, avocado on top of rice
- Drizzle with remaining vinaigrette and serve.
We’re also eating cherries. The same house that supplied mon mari with the flowers last week has supplied us with our first basket of cherries.
Our dogs love stone fruits.
Guapa (the brown & white one) is already trying to pick the green plums off the tree on our morning walk.
Here she is with Bonnie, licking out peanut butter jars. When they are finished with the jars they look like this:
Bonnie’s is the perfectly cleaned jar. Guapa’s is the one that is mangled beyond all recognition.
Today mon mari gave them cherries.
Bonnie swallowed hers. Guapa chewed for a bit then spit out the seed…
Stem still attached to a perfectly cleaned cherry stone.
That’s why we have dogs – they never cease to amaze.
Two houses ago, I had a raised garden bed. I planted a lot of things, (square foot gardening is a wonder!) and had a couple of tomato plants along with some Alpine Strawberries that I planted around the edge. If you haven’t had them, they’re tiny little bits of sweet heaven! Anyway, I couldn’t understand why my tomatoes were never getting ripe and I didn’t have any more growing and for awhile, none of the strawberries were ripening either. Then one morning, I let my giant doberman out and watched him. When he thought I wasn’t looking, he perused the garden bed, spotted the ripest tomatoes and strawberries and gently plucked them off the plant, chewing them with a look of bliss on his face, then moving on to the next.
The next day, a chicken fence went around the perimeter of the garden…
nightsmusic, I did square foot gardening in the US – very efficient. I still do a version of it but now I do more inter-planting. Dogs can be so sneaky. One of mine loves plums and grabs them whenever and wherever she can. Fortunately, they haven’t figured out that there is food in the garden. They both love green beans…. Yes, I know Alpine strawberries…. Bliss!