Green Pie

Everything about this pie is heavenly, from the creamy chevre cheese to the silky combo of eggs and fresh cream to the buttery pie crust! This recipe makes one pie, enough for four hearty servings. Serve with roasted potatoes and a side of baby greens salad for a healthy brunch.

Preheat the oven to 375.

Crust: Make your own trusted recipe or try this: mix 1/2 cup white flour and 3/4 cup wheat flour with a tsp. of salt in a food processor with the steel blade. Add one stick of butter, cut into chunks. Pulse until all the butter is incorporated into the flour. Leave the machine running and feed about 1/4 cup cold water through the feed tube. Add some more flour if too sticky, which it most likely will be. Turn out onto a floured surface and roll flat. Place into a pie dish. Make a few holes in the bottom of the crust with a fork. Layer the dish with crumbled chevre. Be generous!

Filling: Fill a six quart pan with loosely packed baby greens (I used beet and mustard, but spinach would be great, I am sure) and a little water. Bring to a boil and let the greens just barely wilt. Remove from heat, strain fully and chop up the greens with a sharp knife. Layer over the cheese in the pie dish. In a small bowl, beat four eggs and then add 1 cup good heavy cream. Salt generously and pepper. Pour the egg/cream mixture over the greens. Sprinkle the top with nutmeg and bake for about an hour.

Garlicky creamed baby beet greens

The beet greens just keep a comin', which suits me just fine since I love them! This little side dish is so easy you could make it with your eyes closed, and so good that you'll be eating them with your eyes closed, too, as you savor the garlicky creaminess.

Melt a few tablespoons of good butter on very low heat in a stickproof pan. In the meantime, mince 3 large garlic cloves. When the butter is nice and hot, add the garlic. Toss the garlic around by lifting and shaking the pan and let it cook until just translucent. Add enough baby beet greens to the pan so that it almost overflows as you stir them. Stir to coat with the butter and the garlic, and salt generously. When barely wilted, add some good, fresh heavy cream to the pan and heat through. I use Smiling Hill Farms cream; the processed kinds don't have the same taste.

Serve in separate bowls as a side dish with a piece of toasted bread or baguette to sop up the cream. Believe me, you will want to sop up the cream!

Cheesy mustard greens salad

You could make this with any baby greens or lettuce; I used mustard greens because it's what growing like crazy in the garden for the moment. You may think you have never had mustard greens, but I would be willing to bet that you have since I see them often in fresh garden salads that I eat in restaurants. They're very mild, which makes this dressing a good combo since all the flavor is in the dressing.

In a bowl, mix 1 minced garlic clove with a generous amount of salt. Add a tablespoon of vinegar and stir again. Finally, add 2 to 3 tablespoons of olive oil and stir. Add 1/4 to 1/2 cup freshly grated parmesan and mix again. Toss in the greens (washed, snipped if necessary, cut in half if long) and stir to cover with the dressing. Top with pine nuts and black olives.

Three bean salad with mustard greens

The mustard greens are here in full force in the garden, so the race to eat them all is on. In this lovely and delicious side dish, the greens are sauteed with a bit of crême fraîche and topped with a three bean salad.

• One big bunch of mustard greens, stems clipped, washed & cut in half (long way)
• 2 heaping tbsp crême fraîche
• About 2 cups total of 3 different kinds of canned beans, drained and rinsed
• 2 tsp minced onion
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 1.5 tsp dijon mustard
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• Salt to taste

Mix the beans with the olive oil, onion, garlic, mustard and salt.

Heat some more olive oil in a non stick pan and sautee the greens with some salt for a few minutes, until just wilted. Add the crême fraîche and heat through.

Pile the bean salad on top of the greens, pouring the crême fraîche over all.

Serves two.

Blackberry vinagrette

Made with some of my sister Corrine's hand-picked wild blackberries from Weld, Maine, this was a lovely alternative to your standard vinagrette. A beautiful color, a great taste!

• 3 tbsp vinegar
• 8 tbsp olive oil
• Good pinch of salt
• 3 1/2 tbsp blackberry puree*
• 3 tsp maple syrup (or to taste)

This makes about 3/4 cup of dressing.

*To make the puree, process some frozen blackberries with a little water in a food processor until smooth. Strain, discarding the seeds.

Garlicky croutons

There's nothing more simple than making your own croutons, and they are a lot less expensive and healthier for your than anything you can buy at the store. All you need is a little bread (the older, the better), some garlic, salt and a little time. It's worth the little work it takes to make!

Slice up a thick slab of old bread and then cut the slice into cubes, and then finely mince a clove or two of garlic. In a non-stick pan, melt a few tablespoons of butter. Sautee the garlic over low to medium heat for a few minutes and then add the cubes of bread and salt generously. Shake the pan occasionally to turn the pieces until all (or almost all) of the sides are nicely browned. Serve on a salad or straight out of the pan as a poor man's appetizer. They are delicious!

Warm fiddlehead salad

Served with a generous portion of roasted potatoes and some thick slices of wheat bread, this salad makes a lovely centerpiece for a tasty vegetarian meal.

Wash, clean and snip the ends of about two cups of fiddleheads. In a non-stick pan, sautee a clove or two of minced garlic in a couple tablespoons of olive oil.

Meanwhile, make the dressing. First, grind 1 tsp dried rosemary, 1/2 tsp marjoram, 1 1/2 tsp sea salt, about ten pepper corns and 1 good pinch of red pepper flakes in a mortar. Add this dried mix of herbs to a mix of 1 tbsp vinegar and 3 tbsp olive oil.

When the fiddleheads are ready (about ten minutes; more if you prefer them softer), allow them to cool for about 5 minutes. Mix with the dressing and serve warm.