Colorful Stir-Fry and First Harvest and Seeds

Last night, my daughter and I made stir-fry for dinner. When I'm cooking, I love the ingredients, and how they look, and working with them, almost more than the cooking itself or the ultimate meal. Last night's stir fry was especially colorful, and therefore delightful. I separately blanched some collard greens, to add at the end - I always like to include something "cabbagey". Then the broccoli, including pieces of peeled stem, and carrots went into the pan:

Next came the softer vegetables: red and yellow sweet peppers, and a zucchini I found in the back of the refrigerator:

Finally some onions and garlic; then everything went back into the pan with a little toasted sesame oil and some soy sauce. Instead of serving it over rice, we used soba noodles - I'm getting very fond of their nutty buckwheat taste:

We ended up with a pretty delicious meal, with some fresh strawberries for desert:

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Today I had my first small harvest from my garden - some chives to use in stuffed baked potatoes that will be for dinner. I also planted my first seeds - although there was frost on the ground this morning we're supposed to have much warmer temperatures by the end of the week. So far I've planted some radishes - Plum Purple; a row of Arugula; some leeks next to a row that has overwintered and is now greening up - Blue Solaize - I've never direct seeded leeks before and we'll see how they do; chard - Five Color Silverbeet; and 6 varieties of lettuce - Green Oakleaf, Sanguine Ameliore, Bronze Arrowhead, Forellenschuss, Grandpa Admire's and Merveille des Quatres Saisons. All of these seeds (Seed Savers Exchange, one of my favorite sources of open-pollinated and heirloom seeds) are from last year, so we'll have to see how they do germinating. I'll keep reseeding a number of these through April for a staggered harvest. Although it was chilly, it felt great to be out working in the garden!