Spring Vegetables Come Forth

“It's so beautifully arranged on the plate - you know someone's fingers have been all over it”.  ~Julia Child

   I knew that quote would bring a smile out, but when you think of it truer words were never spoken. There’s too much fussiness in food when you go out to eat and those that try to replicate that fussiness at home only set themselves up for disaster and disappointment. There is absolutely nothing better than Fresh, Local, Healthy, Well-Prepared food that is shared with family or friends without someone’s fingers all over it and the only judgment from it all is whether to have a second helping or “well, maybe just a little bit more”. Spring begins with the emergence of the vegetable kingdom coming to life in preparation for the Summer onslaught. The beginnings of a bounty filled with all of the freshness and flavors peeking through the soil begging for something new and different to exhibit their tastiness. Or, the familiar and comforting simple pat of sweet-cream butter sliding down into a warm pool mingling with the crunch of a fine flaked salt. Peas will be eaten raw, in salads, or cooked with herbs and greens. Asparagus asserting their place on the plate in a multitude of dishes, whether lightly bathed in a new sauce, steamed with a twist of a blood orange or covered with a delicately poached egg accented with crushed pink peppercorns. Lettuce and Spinach are waiting to be dressed in the latest and greatest from those fashionable New England cooks so handy with their imaginations fresh from the farm. And so they shall.