One of the hardest things about living Idaho, a state with a relatively short growing season, is that my friends in Kansas and Florida start posting pictures of their amazing lush gardens when I’m still working with seedlings. We live about 700 feet in the hills above the city we live in, so we even have to wait longer than some of my friends who live in town! It makes me impatient, and sometimes I can do stupid things as a result of that impatience, like planting stuff too early.

One way that I combat my impatience is by supplementing our meagre summer harvests with stuff from the local farmer’s market. These are growers who have large greenhouses to extend the growing season and their produce is always terrific.

This past weekend I was looking in our garden and noticed that I would be able to salvage one meal’s worth of lettuce from the disaster of our leaking water system. I decided we had to do a special meal since this was only 1 of 2 that we got out of the greens I planted so lovingly and with so much hope this spring.

On the menu: Elise’s signature salad, green bean salad, and peppercorn steak.

My signature salad is so delicious that you don’t need dressing. For real. And it is so easy, all you have to do is know how to assemble stuff.

Elise’s Cherry Goat Cheese Salad

Ingredients:

3 cups spring mix lettuce

1 cup cherries, washed, pitted, and halved

2 ounces goat cheese, crumbled

Cracked black pepper, if desired

That’s it. The creamy tang of the goat cheese mixed with the sweet succulence of the fresh cherries from the farmer’s market makes it possible to eat this without dressing. It was an appropriately delicious meal to celebrate my lovely surviving greens from the disaster of my failed drip system.

Next up: Green Bean Salad. Our green beans are flowering, but haven’t produced a ton of beans yet. When I saw these beauties from a local vendor, I couldn’t help myself. Nothing says summer like fresh green beans.

I severely adapted this from a recipe on the box of Good Seasons Italian Dressing dry mix. You can get the original recipe here.

Ingredients:

2 lb fresh green beans, trimmed

.7 oz pouch italian dressing mix

handful chives

1 oz goat cheese

1.5 tbsp olive oil

2 tbsp water

Instructions

Cook beans in boiling water 7 min. Drain, rinse in cold water. Mix dressing, chives, oil, and water in a serving bow. Transfer beans to bowl and toss. Chill in refrigerator before adding cheese.

A note on the goat cheese: perhaps you’ve noticed that I used goat cheese twice for this meal. You might think that it is repeated so that these dishes would pair nicely, and you would only be partially correct in that assumption. We do most of our non-local shopping at Costco, because it is a big business that supports ethical practices and social responsibility, like fair wages for employees. Of course, most things come in bulk in Costco, so when we buy goat cheese, we end up with 20 ounces to get through! I never have much trouble.

Last but not least, peppercorn tri-tip steak. I don’t eat meat very often, so we like to go all out when we do.

The key part to this steak is simply the use of special peppercorns we got while we were visiting my brother-in-law in Prescott, AZ. They are smoked peppercorns, and have this beautiful, dark flavor, like nothing I’ve ever had before. We got them from a little spice shop called Spice Traveler.

Chris is in charge of the grilling, so I can’t say much more beyond that.

I love a plate that is mostly green. It makes me feel like I’m really connected with the earth, especially when we eat it outside. Plus it means I can have dessert or wine without feeling guilty.

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