No Foolin'

Today's weather resembles a generous April Fool's joke. It should not reach 80 degrees this early in the season, but after last week's bad joke of a slushy snow, I'll take today's weather hands' down.

G and I celebrated this beautiful weather yesterday by digging around in the dirt while R was at school.

While digging, I noticed our backyard wild chives had proliferated like mad:


I'm already mulling over some new chive recipes with this over-abundance of fresh chives. It is officially the first thing to sprout in our garden (other than some perennial herbs), so it is a welcome sign of things to come.

These chives were used in two applications for last night's dinner, as a fresh finish to some scrumptious caramelized onion and goat cheese toasts and in my Spring version of a "Garden Salad:"


Last autumn's pansies are awakening from the long winter, and since I was scavenging some fresh chives from our yard for the salad, I picked up some fresh pansies too.

Didn't know that pansies are edible? They are. If you have access to some pansies (preferably organic--you don't want any hint of any chemicals from your yard), use them in a salad or better yet, a dessert and watch people "oooh" and "ahhh." Learn more about edible flowers at this website.

Happy April Fool's-
SPC