Veggies galore via LollyKnit.

The veggies are beginning to appear with abundance in our little 8×4 kitchen garden. 

I’m especially pleased with the herbs.  They are growing up healthy and bushy, since I’ve been pinching them back frequently for cooking lately.

The Peanut is thrilled because we have two little tomatoes on one of our cherry tomato plants and a teeny tiny pepper starting as well.

Between that and the blossoms on the pea plants which have been attracting bees, she’s been in heaven.

We made a couple of quiches the other day with some broccoli that was about to head to seed, some swiss chard, spring onions and assorted fresh herbs. It was deeeee-lish.

But I thought folks might have some favorite garden, farmstand, CSA or other veggies recipes to share. Let’s talk produce!

Beignets and cafe au lait via and_w.

For NOLA readers, am planning to be at Cafe du Monde, 1039 Decatur Street at 10:30 am for cafe au lait and beignets.

Come down and grab a cuppa with me and pull up a chair!

The rest of you, have a great day. Thought you could use a discussion thread.

Muffaletta in NOLA via Carnaval King.

Mr. ReddHedd and I are headed to NOLA for an anniversary trip/vacation starting tomorrow. (And boy do we both need one.)

As I’ve been planning for the trip, I’ve been researching food in New Orleans. This will be my first visit to the Big Easy and I’m really looking forward to it.

Because I’m a foodie, a lot of the fun in planning goes toward learning about various dining options, food specialties and great local joints along with the usual touristy bits and pieces. If my research on NOLA is any indication, it is a foodie paradise and I should be in heaven the whole time. (Let alone, sleeping in a bit. Woo hoo!)

That got me thinking about food and travel, and made me wonder what your favorite places — and dishes — might be. Do tell!

We need to eat more veggies. For health, but also for the environment. One of the reasons I started our family garden this year was to get The Peanut to eat more of them, too. I can sneak them into the mix for her, but I have trouble getting her to eat many of them outright — she’s going through a “veggies are yucky” phase at the moment.

When I wrote my PUAC piece for this morning, it got me thinking about all the great Greek and Mediterranean recipes that I love. Especially for summer, when the tomatoes and greens are fresh from my garden. I’m sure that’s true for a lot of you as well.

Michelle Obama helped with spring planting in the White House garden yesterday, along with some of the WH kitchen and grounds staff and students from Bancroft Elementary School in DC. This is a great teaching moment on nutrition and activity in a nation where childhood obesity has become rampant.  More and more children are taking diabetes and blood pressure medications, and that costs us all.

This message brought to you by the “fergawdsakes, what food is scaring the bejeebers out of people this week” list. Sadly, pistachios appear to have some risk for salmonella. Maybe. So, to be on the safe side, avoid them for now.

And it isn’t just the nuts in the shells.

There goes that new “eat beef until you almost barf” ad campaign for the beef lobby: Eating red meat increases the chances of dying prematurely, according to the first large study to examine whether regularly eating beef or pork increases mortality.

The study of more than 500,000 middle-aged and elderly Americans found that those who consumed about four ounces of red meat a day (the equivalent of about a