Well the day has come.  The day that I write my first-ever blog post.  This majorly freaks me out for a variety of reasons. Namely, I’m a tad OCD and don’t want to “mess it up” and I’m usually really private and don’t know what to feel about sharing my thoughts with the WORLD. So bear with me, here goes nothin’:

It’s March here in the South. Things are turning green (halleluja!). I’m not ashamed to say that I HATE WINTER with all my heart.  So, with all the new greenery popping out, we decided it was time to start a spring garden.

Since we have two dogs, who eat and trample nearly everything I plant, we decided to make raised beds. It was a fairly simple process to buy the wood, and drill them together. The fun part was selecting stuff to plant.

Here are a few things we planted and what I plan to do with the fruits of our labor:

Brussels Sprouts- saute with turkey bacon, deglaze with chicken stock and cider vinegar

Raddicchio- roast or serve fresh with salad

Romaine Lettuce- salad

Broccoli- roast with lemon and slivered almonds

Cauliflower- make gluten-free pizza crust

Spinach- scramble with eggs, add to smoothies, wilt with fish, use in salad

Lacinato Kale- kale chips, juice, chop small and add to salads

Red Cabbage- fish. tacos. (another whole subject- but, we went to Cabo San Lucas MX for our honeymoon and I swear I subconsciously chose that locale based on my obsession with Baja fish tacos- mmmm.)

Check back for my next post as I share more garden-inspired recipes.

Sauteed Brussels Sprouts with Bacon

• 4-5 strips of thick cut bacon, or 7-8 strips thin bacon
• Butter
• 1 pound brussels sprouts
• 1/2 large onion, chopped
• chicken stock, 1/2c.
• salt and pepper

Cook bacon in large skillet over low heat until crispy. Remove from the pan and break up into small pieces.  In same pan, add butter if needed, and add onions and sprouts and cook until the sprouts are golden brown, about 8 minutes.  Season to taste with salt and pepper and add bacon back into pan with chicken stock and allow to reduce. Serve immediately.