Lemony potato and pea salad with mint

I threw this potato and pea salad together one night to enjoy with some lamb burgers (topped with grilled eggplant, feta, and yogurt). 

 

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I wanted something that would compliment the Greek flavors of the burgers and I always love potato salad with burgers, too. I had baby red potatoes on hand and fresh mint growing in my herb garden and after a few minutes of thought, this salad was born. It came together very quickly and easily. 

 

The dressing is pretty light compared to many potato salads and it is very flavorful and tasted of spring. It paired very well with the lamb burgers and was good for a snack the next day as well. I made a relatively small batch of this salad, probably enough to serve about four people as a side dish. You can easily double the recipe to make more. 

Rhubarb bars

Everyone is familiar with lemon bars and maybe even lime bars, but I wanted to use rhubarb to achieve the same dessert. The rhubarb is tart and tangy and I thought it would be a great replacement in this dessert. The only problem was that rhubarb is thicker than lemon or lime juice, so I needed to make sure that the ratio of ingredients would allow the filling to set. I looked all over the net to see if someone had done this already, and I found only one recipe the Quinces and the Pea. 

When I made my bars, they did not turn out a lovely light pink color, as you can see. I think this is a combination of two things: 1) my rhubarb was not super pink in color; and 2) the pastured eggs I had had very orange yolks. Regardless of the color though, the rhubarb flavor shines through and they were really good. I brought these to a picnic and everyone enjoyed them. I slightly modified the original recipe to the one below. I cut down the amount of sugar, and still thought they were a touch on the sweet side. Everyone else seemed to think they were the right amount of sweetness. Give these bars a try before rhubarb season is over.

Carrot cake pancakes

Do you remember at the end of 2011 when I promised myself I'd make more pancakes in 2012? 

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I've been toying around with the idea of creating a carrot pancake that has the flavors of carrot cake. Then I decided to search the net and I realized that I'm far from the first person to ever think of doing this. There are a lot of carrot cake pancake recipes floating around out there. 

This recipe turned out pretty great. I really liked that they were packed full of carrots, too. There are more carrots than flour in this recipe, which makes me feel better about eating a stack of them for breakfast.

The topping for these pancakes are what make them extra special and really reminded me of carrot cake. So don't skimp on making the cream cheese topping - it's easy and it's delicious! This recipe will serve three to four people. 

Pasta with leeks and oyster mushrooms

Pasta is one of my go-to favorites for a quick weeknight meal. I started making this dish, or a version of it, a few years back and somehow it never made it to my blog until now. 

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While my husband and I were eating it this time around, I was reminded of a time when we spent the weekend away in a cabin in a pretty secluded area (but it had a nice little kitchen). I made this pasta for our dinner one night. It was a wonderful weekend where we just hiked, read, played cards, and ate. I like dishes like these that are simple to make and still very satisfying.

Sometimes I change up the mushroom type, so feel feel free to try different ones. Oysters are quickly becoming one of my favorite mushrooms though. 

 

This pasta dish isn't full of a heavy sauce and it really makes the mushrooms and leeks the star of the dish. I also like to incorporate some chives and garlic (because almost everything is better with garlic). This dish will serve about four people. Serve with a green salad and some crusty bread if you like.  

Maple-pecan scones

Most people tend to associate maple with fall. I know that I do, even though I know better. Maybe it's because maple goes so well with the rest of fall's food like squash, sweet potatoes, and apples? Maybe it's because of the maple leaves associated with fall? I'm not sure. But, I do know that maple season is really in March. Around here, it's a pretty big deal. There's an official Maple Weekend, pancake breakfasts all over the place, and lots of freshly boiled maple syrup for sale. We always buy up gallon containers of maple syrup because I use maple in a lot of my cooking and baking. Recently, I was able to get some Grade B maple syrup (which has a deeper flavor and tends to be better for baking) from Beyers Maple Farm. Once I had the delicious Grade B syrup in my hand, I was inspired to bake something that would highlight the maple flavor. I decided on scones, because I had everything on hand for this recipe and thought it would be a lovely treat for a cool Sunday morning. 

These scones were delicious. They weren't too sweet, had a perfect amount of maple flavor, and an earthiness from the whole wheat flour and pecans. This recipe will make 8 scones.