Eating from the garden

I've barely had time to slap a hotdog or two on the grill this week let alone plan and cook anything more elaborate. Luckily though, it's June and the beginning of the season of abundance in the garden. For us that means we can eat a wonderful meal without a lot of cooking. After becoming a student of permaculture a few years back, the kids and I have spent a lot of time transforming our small city plot into a dynamic, growing system, and although it is far from perfect, I'm still routinely stunned by how much food our small plot yields each year. Besides the simply wonderful feeling you get from harvesting what you have watched grow just a few steps from your door, gardening can be a fun way to incorporate the small people in your life into the mealtime process. I've also  been amused to see the kids take a break from playing to run over and grab a handful of something from the garden and chomp on it with a gusto that you'd never see if I were to carefully prepare and serve it for dinner.

Tonight, when I would have been cooking dinner, I was instead watching my boys harvest the garden peas. After the fun work of shelling them, the peas were quickly steamed and tossed with some bow-tie pasta, leftover roasted chicken from a neighbor's farm, the last of the pesto frozen from last year's garden, a few leaves of fresh basil harvested from the herb garden, and some crumbled locally made feta cheese. I also served fresh applemint tea from the garden, a tossed green salad made from heirloom Amish Deer Tongue lettuce, and a crusty loaf of bread. Altogether it was both simple and delicious. I forgot to take pictures of the meal itself but here are a few from the preparation:

Single-pan chicken, peas, and bacon with pasta

Another one that's not for the dieters out there, as the glistening lipids in the above picture can attest.

I lifted the idea for this one from Jamie Oliver, but then I just did what I wanted to do with it. He's got a recipe in his Food Revolution cookbook that is pasta shells with peas and bacon, if you're interested. The one I describe here has chicken, too.

-Put the pasta of your choice on to boil. I think we used bowtie with this one.

-Melt a couple of tablespoons of butter in a skillet.

-Add in a "lug" (as Jamie would say) of olive oil.

-Meanwhile, cut up about four slices of bacon into small pieces.

-Fry the bacon in those two fats--yes, now we have three fats in there--until it starts turning a nice golden brown color.

-Meanwhile, cut up two raw chicken breasts into small chunks or half-inch slices.

-Add these to the fats and bacon and sizzle to doneness. You can add a little salt at this point, too.

Break out some heavy whipping cream and add about a cup of that, enough to cover the pan, leave the chicken bits poking out a little. If needed, you can add more liquid in the form of chicken broth, but don't make it too thin. This sauce should nice and creamy, like an alfredo, and the cream will thin a little as it heats.

Stir, let it get to a nice simmer with an occasional stir. Then, add in at least a cup of frozen peas--more if you're a big fan of peas. If needed, add in more cream and/or chicken broth to get the sauce to the consistency you like. Do not overdo the chicken broth, or you'll thin the sauce too much. Don't forget, the peas will release some water as they thaw if they're frozen, so wait a bit before adding anything else to see what the sauce is like after the thaw.

Get it again to a simmer with an occasional stir. Salt and pepper to your taste--very little should be needed with all the flavors in this. If you like (and I always like), you can sprinkle Parmesan over the top. Ladle over bowls of warm pasta and serve. In many families, this dish would be kid friendly. It was friendly to two of our three offspring and to us. Just try not to think about the saturated fat content too much.