I also have a little bit of a confession to make today, "I, Sandra Kehoe, have never tasted nor cooked with rhubarb before".  I know, try not to judge me too harshly.  While working with my health coach, Irina Kachalenko I vowed to keep an open mind and try new things.  So this spring I got yet another chance to try a food that I always shied away from because it just seemed weird.  In my mind I have always thought, poisonous leaves on top of super long crazy hot pink stalks of vegetable matter. I'm not so sure I want to go near it let alone put it in my mouth.  So this year I put on my big girl pants and grabbed all the rhubarb at the farm stand counter....

How do I even start to explain the strange relationship I have with these flat crispy sweet cookies.  Let me first tell you that I am not Italian (not even close), but I can find one if the occasion calls for it.  I'm not entirely sure that I even know how to pronounce the word "Pizzelle," but that doesn't stop me from trying.  I actually came across my very first pizzelle press at a garage sale when I was a teenager.  When I saw that shiny black press with a small recipe on the handle I knew that I had to have it.  It's just what every teenager wants, right?  Well one pizzelle press and....blah blah....years later, I still have an undying love for these wonderfully flat waffle-like cookies. 

Alright I apologize, just one more ramp recipe I promise....I was thinking along the lines of how I like to put garlic salt on EVERYTHING, and ramp salt would be just as good if not better.  Sprinkled on eggs, mashed potatoes, homemade pita chips or that "everything" that I was talking about.  This would also make a super cool gift if you could manage to make enough to give away (well..maybe next year).

...so I decided to check in my freezer.  I saw that I had a bunch of frozen berries taking up valuable real estate that will be badly needed in a few weeks for my super stash of strawberries and sweet and tart cherries.  With berry season right around the corner I didn't need last years stragglers getting lost in the frozen recesses, only to be tossed away when new tenants moved in.  I didn't want to think about what combination of fruit I wanted to use so they all got thrown in together and here I present to you: Mixed Berry Jam. 

Today we had perfect spring weather, 60's with a chilly breeze and a lingering dampness. The perfect time to open all the windows and fire up my oven, or to grab a nice book and a warm cozy blanket (well..maybe once my kids are in school I'll be able to do that).  I have been meaning to increase the recipes in my dessert section, which has been lacking anything new for a while now.  Did I feel guilted into making these chocolate cookies?...a little bit perhaps.  But now that I have these beautiful little gems tucked away, I am actually quite happy.  I will be snacking on these for the next few days, if I can manage to hide them from my oldest son, who is as much of a cookie monster as I am. 

It doesn't get any better then this!  Baked eggs with fresh asparagus, foraged ramps, homemade goat cheese and topped off with a pea shoot almond pesto (from homegrown pea shoots of course).  Label me a localvore if you must, call me an über foodie even though the term foodie is über uncool lately.  So I might just be a little complicated, a bit demanding, and perhaps a tiny bit pretentious at times, but this is what I love to do. 

In the spring, foodies and localvores become frantic over one little word:  RAMPS.  What is a ramp you might ask?  Ramps are an edible onion-like bulb that can only be found in the wild from Canada to Georgia.  They look like an exotic scallion with a pinkish purple stalk and beautiful flat green leaves.  What is really cool about ramps is that the whole plant is edible and it tastes like a cross between onion and garlic.  They have a very distinctive odor that is really hard to explain, even for a former fragrance industry professional like me.  After tasting and smelling these awesome veggies, I can tell you that I totally understand all the hype.  If you can get your hands on some of these you will understand exactly what I mean.

Risotto in my mind is the perfect dinner, or lunch, or heck even breakfast (poach an egg and slap it on top of reheated risotto...YUMMERS!)  Seriously, what is not to like about creamy sticky rice with wine and cheese...nothing I tell you, nothing.  And if you are thinking, "there is no way I am standing around stirring rice for 25 minutes" you need to have a heart to heart with your stove top and get stirring.  Don't consider those 25 minutes as ones you have lost, look at them as 25 minutes you get to stand...still...in one spot (for a mother of two boys standing in one spot for any amount of time is a little mini vacation).

The food at Easter is always great no matter whose house we are at, and for some reason there is always more leftovers at this holiday then any other (at least in our family).  My refrigerator is stocked with enough meals for dinner this week, and enough brightly colored hard boiled eggs to handle breakfast and lunch.  There are many great dishes to make with boiled eggs, but my favorite by far is egg salad.  Most of the time my egg salad is quite dull and boring; a little bit of mayo with salt and pepper and call it done.  It is a typical lunch dish that normally doesn't get enough attention, but it can be so easily dressed up.  With the addition of some toasted slices of bread you could even use this as an appetizer or brunch dish.  Who says egg salad has to be boring, right?   

My skin is milky white, my cheeks are rosy red, my freckles increase in number daily and my hair curls just thinking about moisture.  I may only be a quarter Irish, but this fraction of my heritage is one I relate to more than others thanks to my appearance (And now thanks to a new last name from my half Irish husband).  Needless to say, in our family we avoid the sun like the plague, eat lots of potatoes, and can say in all honesty "Kiss me I'm Irish" on St. Patrick's Day. 

I am highly influenced by the things I see, as I'm sure most people are.  One of my favorite blogs around is The Forest Feast, by Erin Gleeson.  Looking through all her photographs makes me swoon, and I find myself daydreaming about packing up all my belongings and moving to the woods like she did.  If anyone would like to transfer my husband's job to the woods of California, I will be more than happy to start packing right now!  I have read her blog from top to bottom and I absolutely love how she writes over the top of her pictures.  I wanted to see if I could do something similar just for the fun of it.  It just so happens that this shaved carrot salad was the perfect candidate for tinkering.

I think this recipe pretty much speaks for itself.  Winter vegetable stew is just that, a stew made from vegetables and eaten in the winter.  It is simple, warm and delicious to say the least.  I was actually looking for a great reason to use the last of my canned heirloom tomatoes and a root box full of sweet potatoes. I found a new mixture of beans and grains by Bob's Red Mill and I knew I had dinner plans in the making.  The signs of spring are quickly sprouting (pun wholeheartedly intended), so this was my opportunity to make the last of my warming soups and stews before we jump outside and start shedding some layers.   

Normally when you say sunflower, most people will think of either the big beautiful yellow flowers or the perfect little black seeds that taste great roasted with salt.  But there is another aspect to the sunflower plant that most people have not heard of before: Sunflower Greens!  Bright, crunchy and green, they almost remind me of a cross between iceberg lettuce and cucumbers. Except these little greens are packed full of nutrients.

I am probably a vegetarian about 80% of the time, but during the other 20% I love to enjoy foods like this freshly caught Black Sea Bass. I have lived near the Atlantic ocean my whole life, and fish was always part of our diet because my father's favorite hobby is fishing.  Fresh seafood wasn't always part of our family meals, as I still cringe thinking about the frozen fish sticks my mother would serve us as children.  We have come a long way since my father has gotten a boat, and we are now enjoying fresh fish from the deep sea off the coast or out of the bay waters of New Jersey.

This is part 2 of "what to make when you have too many ripe avocados."  There are many mornings when I am just not interested in eating something healthy for breakfast.  I'll start rummaging through my pantry looking for the first thing that is either made with chocolate or going to be fast and easy. Normal muffins are probably not the best healthy choice for breakfast, but this recipe is not for a normal muffin.  You can grab one of these on your way out the door, and not have to feel like you are making a bad choice for breakfast.