New Places, New Ingredients

We recently relocated from northwestern Nebraska to western Wyoming...back to the Wyoming mountains we love and the State we were both born in. This is the view from our back deck:

© 2013 ~DKBB~

There is a Farmer's Market each Thursday afternoon/evening in the town nearest us. The first 2 times I went, every stall had an overabundance of garlic scapes. (Garlic scapes are the shoots that curl up out of the garlic bulb as it grows; you cut them off once they have curled up.) These were something new to me...we asked folks what they were used for, and most folks said they could be used like garlic. I bought a few and used them in my Butter Garlic Green Beans and they really made the dish pop! I was so impressed, that I next used them in my homemade goulash (should have sauted them first, though).

The next time I went to the Farmer's Market, I bought a boatload of garlic scapes. I sliced them small, blanched them, and froze small packages to be used in veggies dishes, soups, and casseroles over the coming winter months.

I love trying new things, and I am so lovin' livin' in this (new) mountain paradise!