Adopt a Crop update:- A recipe, already.

It all happened so fast.

I kinda knew that the winter edition of Adopt a Crop would be hard-pressed to produce something which would be packable and shippable, but in my haste and excitement to get it on the road, I just figured I'd deal with that later.

Hi, Later!

So, instead of trying to find a wilty gross way to prize someone with Arugula/Rocket/Roquette somethinrother, I'm just going to share a recipe here for everyone. It's the best I can do, so if you have a better idea on how we can all go about celebrating the fact that we went from seed to salad in a few week's time (Farmgirl - I realize I'm ripping you off here with this but sometimes I'm very unoriginal and so I hope you forgive me.), you just tell me all about it. And then I'll think about it briefly before deciding to go back to my original plan of just posting recipes for everyone to use.

Because it's not always about winning a prize, OK. Gah!

Anyway, for the update part:

I seeded two new rows of the arugula before Bubba and I left for our ski trip (Yay! We're home! I never want to drive again!) because the first two rows were looking all mature and delicious. I knew they'd be ready for a giant salad when we got home from skiing all day and eating all night, so putting in two more rows would mean we'd have an extended harvest if the weather would start acting like winter instead of late spring and I wouldn't have to contend with the anxiety of taking down my whole crop at once for two enormous Broom Salads. You know what I mean.

And don't you know it, I came home to find that the first two rows were downright bushy. And don't you also know that I didn't take a picture of the bushiness because WOO I was already picking our salad. Sometimes, I find it hard to control myself around salad greens and now you know something else stupid about me that I bet you could have lived without.

Whatever! Stupidity abounds!

And while I didn't do anything remotely amazing with the arugula itself, I did pull together a dressing that is, dare I say it, The Best Salad Dressing Ever. Yep.

At least, for the moment it is. Until I run out of Meyer lemons or begin hating pesto or make something else that makes my taste buds sing when paired with my beloved arugula or something catastrophic like that.

Until then though, this is my The Best Salad Dressing Ever. Yep. It is also part of one of My Favorite Dinners Ever. Yep. because nearly everything in this dinner was either grown in my backyard or sprung forth from my very hands.

Like, the pasta is homemade, The Best Tomato Sauce Ever. Yep. in which it is tossed was homemade by me from my own garden's produce, the arugula and tomatoes in the salad are from that very same garden, the Meyer lemons are from my wee tree and the pesto is from the last basil harvest of the season and has been sitting idly by waiting to be a part of this dressing for some time now.

SO - if that's not a reason to be at least one of My Favorite Dinners Ever. Yep., then I really don't know what is.

Moving on...

Finny's The Best Salad Dressing Ever. Yep.

Ingredients
Juice from 1 Meyer lemon
1 T homemade pesto (or otherwise)
3 T olive oil
1 T kosher salt
1 T fresh ground pepper
2 big handfuls arugula
3 chopped tomatoes (small)

Sometimes Meyer lemons are best when they're old and hard on the outside. I think, anyway.

To make
In a large bowl, whisk lemon juice, pesto, salt and pepper. When thoroughly blended, add olive oil 1 T at a time until completely blended.

I didn't even try to make this pretty.

Then toss in TO THE VERY SAME BOWL a couple big handfuls of freshly picked arugula right from your garden WOO and a few of the last tomatoes (chopped) from your garden WOO and toss to coat.

Yeah. Those are tomatoes from the garden. Still. They taunt me from their bowl. Jerks.

Then just go ahead and serve it up with your second pass at homemade pasta which came out way better than the first time because you remembered to flour the dough as it was being cut and did NOT let it wad up into a big sticky pile from which individual noodles could not be retrieved. Don't forget to mix yourself a nice cocktail, too.

Enjoy, my pretties.