A very good cake

Now that local strawberries and rhubarb are both in stores, pick up some buttermilk and make this strawberry rhubarb pudding cake. It’s easy, and divine.

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Roasted asparagus and stewed rhubarb

Just a simple meal tonight. Would have had roasted potatoes too but I forgot to put them in soon enough (and we filled up late this afternoon on cheese and crackers from Nancy’s Cheese.)

I picked up local asparagus, fiddleheads and rhubarb from Karma this afternoon. I tend to want to prepare fresh seasonal produce simply, especially ingredients like these that I really do only eat in season. The asparagus I tossed in olive oil with a bit of salt and pepper and roasted – you can add garlic but I wasn’t in the mood this evening. I’m thinking poached eggs on the side, maybe with some toast.

I prefer rhubarb roasted as well, but I had a request for stewed so I did it that way, with some maple syrup and a bit of water to get it going. We’ll serve it with plain yogurt.

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Red lentils with cabbage and roasted rhubarb

Tonight for dinner I went back to one of my wintertime staples, Red Lentils with Cabbage from Smitten Kitchen. You see, such is life in Canada that even though it’s now May and we like to think it’s almost summer, we still have to survive off storage vegetables alongside our green leafy ones, and I got another cabbage in my box last week.

This is a great recipe and freezes well – I like to make a batch and freeze it in portion-sized containers with rice so I can pull one out for a lunch when I need it. This time I bought almost-local lentils, red lentils grown in Saskatchewan, and since they were whole lentils and not split the recipe turned out a bit different, although just as good. I had some leftover millet so had it with that for dinner although I’ll be pulling out the brown rice later this week. I always stir in some spinach if I have it and serve with a dollop of plain yogurt, usually Pinehenge Farms.

And for dessert… rhubarb! I made it to Karma this morning and found it as well as fiddleheads (probably for dinner tomorrow) and ramps/wild leeks, which I didn’t buy as I didn’t think I’d get to them in time. I roasted the rhubarb, it’s the easiest way I know of to prepare it: chop into pieces, sprinkle with some sugar and roast at 450F for 20-25 minutes. (Adapted from the cookbook Simply in Season.) Just be careful – I didn’t have a lot and it was thin and I got distracted and overcooked it a bit. Burnt sugar = not good! And I served the rhubarb with yogurt as well.

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