tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-515249042808187953.post5055062069300901500..comments2023-06-22T07:36:17.872-04:00Comments on Caroline's Lunchbox: Brown Rice and GreensBettyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01177154563347088305noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-515249042808187953.post-7213179455636912172008-04-21T13:41:00.000-04:002008-04-21T13:41:00.000-04:00One more thing, Betty. I was watching a cooking s...One more thing, Betty. I was watching a cooking show this weekend and a woman in Italy was making a dish with greens. But to my surprise she was using zucchini greens!! What?! As long as I've grown zucchini I've never used the leaves! She stripped the stringy part of the stalk off and cut it up along with the big leaves. They boiled for 10 minutes, drained and set aside. Then she softened garlic in olive oil, added chopped up tomatoes and basil, reduced that down a little and then at the last minute folded in all the boiled greens. It looked fantastic! <BR/><BR/>I love Italian cooking, not so much the spaghetti, lasagna, stuff but the regional stuff that seems so different that what you think of when you think Italian food. They use lots and lots of greens. There are so many perfectly wonderful ingredients right under our noses that we aren't even aware of.<BR/><BR/>One more dish she made was a freshly made pasta (gotta learn how to do that!) and instead of dressing it with parmesan cheese, she used bread crumbs crisped up in olive oil and tossed with paprika! Yum! <BR/><BR/>I'll have to try the zucchini leaves this summer. You and Geoff will have to come over and be my guinea pigs (Caroline can be a guinea piglet). :)<BR/><BR/>ChrisAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-515249042808187953.post-35224071373430498882008-04-21T13:30:00.000-04:002008-04-21T13:30:00.000-04:00That recipe sounds heavenly, Betty!Wheeeeeeeee.......That recipe sounds heavenly, Betty!<BR/><BR/>Wheeeeeeeee....spring has sprung. I love the green that is bursting out on all the trees giving them that hazy look. My star magnolia put on its show this weekend, pure white, sweet blossoms that look like they are floating in mid-air. Asparagus is still hiding. I planted three beds of snow peas this weekend and tidied up the rest of the beds out back in preparation for next month's plantings. Lettuce, swiss chard and a new Japanese cultivar of spinach is going in this week. I opened the door on my compost barrel and black, crumbly earth tumbled out onto the ground. Ahhhhhhhh...be still my heart. I am like my mom, she once said she'd take a wheelbarrow of manure over a diamond ring! I agree (although if you sold the ring you could buy lots more manure..hmmm). Tonight I'm putting flats of flowers and veggies in the greenhouse.<BR/>Here we go.......!<BR/><BR/>Hope everything is going well with you guys.<BR/><BR/>ChristineAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com