Vinegar-and-Salt Potatoes

 The lower end of our asparagus bed is sporting a beautiful stand of volunteer dill which just cries out to be used for something good.  Mom suggested using some to make dill vinegar, so I picked a bunch, stuffed it in bottles and added distilled white vinegar.  Within one day the dill flavor had diffused into the vinegar giving it a very nice flavor. 

What to do with it? 

The other day I picked up an old issue of Bon Appetite in a waiting room and read a description for potatoes parboiled in vinegar and salt, then cut into quarters and browned in butter which sounded interesting.  I didn't really want to do the butter thing.  We have found that slicing potatoes about 1/4" to 3/8" thick and cooking and browning them in the toaster oven is a great way to cook them without adding a lot of oil or fat, so I tried a vinegar and salt variation on that.

I peeled and sliced the potatoes and placed them in a dish with 1 cup of dill vinegar with 1 teaspoon of kosher salt dissolved in it and let them marinate for the afternoon, then spread out on a tray and baked in the toaster oven (375ish) for 20ish minutes (I really wasn't paying attention, cook until done, you know?) finished with a quick run under the broiler to brown them.  They have a really nice salt-and-vinegar flavor (like salt-and-vinegar potato chips without all the grease) with dill overtones.  Really good, highly recommended.  Could also try this with other types of vinegar with or without the dill  for different flavors (think malt vinegar for that fish-and-chips flavor, for example),

Cooked Spring Greens

The asparagus plants are finally starting to frond up in the garden after nearly a month of fresh asparagus every day.  The over-wintered fall spinach that has been providing fresh greens every day since late March is nearing the end of its run as the weather warms and it thinks about bolting.  Meanwhile the beets are up and need thinning, so we are now getting fresh baby beet greens.  The other day we added beet greens to the spinach and mushroom salad and last night I made cooked greens:

Put a little bit of olive oil in the large SS skillet and use it to saute one glove of finally minced garlic, add baby beet greens (some, as much as I picked tonight) and enough spinach greens to fill the skillet to way over-full.  Add some salt and cook over a highish heat with occasional stirring until the greens are all wilted.  Don't over do it; you don't want to make mush!  Remove from heat; top dress with tarragon vinegar.

OK, it's not really much of a recipe, but it was really delicious, a great way to eat a bunch of greens as an alternative to just having salad (also a great idea).

Birthday dinner mixed greens from Comment 2, below: