Welcome Spring!

Oh, it's so good to be back! I have missed my blog, missed cooking, and missed chatting with all of you. I was just in Australia for 3 weeks, on the western coast, and had an absolutely amazing time. I spent a week at home near Chicago after my trip to hang with my brother and mom and only arrived back in Minneapolis a few days ago.

I have lived in the Midwest my whole life and so am fully aware that March can be a really dodgy month often springing some glorious sun-filled warmth on everyone and then viciously dumping snow the next moment. Frankly, I wasn't sad at all to have essentially "missed" March. This past winter was particularly snowy and for the last bit of February, I would trudge through the snow on my daily dog walk and pretend I was already in Australia, although the waist-high snow piled high on either side of the walkway made that daydream a bit of a stretch.

But I'm back now - and was beyond pleased to see green, growing plants scattered all over the yard. It was an unexpected surprise and unusual to say the least. It has been warm here, the snow is long gone, and things seem to have gotten a bit of a head start.

Winter after winter, when I watch the snow pile up and the ice freeze over everything, I become filled with pessimism at the thought of my garden's survival and am almost always convinced that come spring, I am going to have plant corpses to deal with. Not this year! In the photo montage above that I took this afternoon, I encountered tiny baby lilac blossoms, grape hyacinth, old reliable chives, enough thyme to feed all of you for life, a sprig of green on my red currant bush, some sage that overwintered in a pot(!), various perennials, and vigorous looking raspberry bushes that I planted only last year.

This week I am going to tackle some recipes I have been plotting in my head and eat my way through all my favorite spring ingredients like strawberries, asparagus, rhubarb, baby lettuces, etc.