So — now that it’s spring, and I’ve got teeny tiny little spinach (and arugula) seedlings poking up in the garden, I find myself most nights rooting around in the bottom bin of my basement freezer pulling out packets of spinach and chard I put up last summer. When I put them up, I envisioned myself eating them in deepest January, when the snow was piled up around my wee Montana house. Of course, we had no snow this winter, but nonetheless, what did I eat this winter? It wasn’t frozen greens from downstairs — I don’t know now what veggies I lived on this winter, but now that spring is coming, and I’m suddenly craving greens — I have to admit that even spinach or chard that’s been frozen since last summer is still better than greens from the grocery store that have spent the last two weeks on a truck. These are greens I picked, and then blanched and froze the same day — and they’re organic, and clean, and lovely. So tonight for dinner it was leftover pasta with some lovely grilled chicken-basil sausage from Matt’s Meats, my local butcher (who makes the most amazing bacon …. don’t get me started on Matt’s bacon), a packet of frozen spinach from downstairs, and a nice dollop of cream to bind it all together. Oh, and a green onion from the garden — I have a strain of “walking” onion in my yard that I inherited from old Mrs. Warnick — they pop up in the most unlikely corners of my garden — among the roses, over where the sunflowers grow, in the veggie beds. So, spring is here — things I can eat are growing in my yard, the birds are singing, and yesterday the dogs and I went for a nice hike up in Suce Creek (good for all of our winter-soft waistlines).