Rosie Makes Couscous.

Here's Rosie's Saturday: I awoke to the wafting aroma of bacon. Upon stumbling into the kitchen, I found a piece of whole wheat toast, recently toasted, in the toaster oven. I found Roma tomatoes on my cutting board. And there was more bacon in the fridge. A BLT is in my future. All I needed was some lettuce. My lettuces are in my garden on the south side. I go outside the slider on the west side of my deck and walk to the south side. I notice two huge piles of old Miracle Gro potting soil which I'd dumped out 2 days ago when I was replanting all my houseplants. The wind was picking up. We are under a tornado watch. The weather was threatening. So I swept up all the old soil and dumped it into pots. Now, the most imminent rain, which never came, could not make a hot mess outside with the dirt on the deck. After cleaning off the old dirt on my deck, I watered the 5 egg cartons (2 1/2 dozen size) in which I'd just planted 5 different types of seeds. Because of the heavy winds, I brought those inside, along with the 12 yogurt cups of castor bean seeds. I look forward to germination. Then, I glanced over to the pool, and just had to go down there and clean up all the crap the wind had blown in. Then I wondered just why I was downstairs in the first place, so I ended up in the front yard. I found a brown turkey fig and a gardenia which I'd just bought yesterday at Nature's Harmony which I secured underneath the deck, safe from today's winds. I found 2 verbenas and 1 columbine I'd bought which needed to go in ground immediately. I planted everything. Filled up my watering can and watered all my new plants and seedlings. Then I called it quits and went back inside. To my Bacon and Tomato Sans LETTUCE Sandwich. That's what I went out to get in the first place - the damn lettuce. So, I went back out. Got several types of lettuce leaves. And came back in proudly. I had the best BLT ever. Fortified after this most excellent breakfast,

I spent the next five hours of my morning cleaning up my kitchen - the cabinets, the counters, the stained stainless steel, the grease all over the stove and grill and hood, and all the crap on the ledge that houses all the items I use in my cookery. Rosie was indeed a busy girl. And she worked up an appetite. What to eat? I checked out the fridge. Mr. Hawthorne had some cod in there but we wanted that for supper, so I didn't touch it. What I did find was some spinach, a small zucchini, and, of course, asparagus.

Couscous. With spinach, zucchini, asparagus, and Parmesan cheese. Simple, quick, and extremely satisfying.

This was the perfect balance. I had 3 helpings. There was maybe one serving left when Mr. Hawthorne got home. He tasted it: "This is really, really good! Why didn't you make more?" Rosie: "I did."

I used a couple handfuls of spinach, 1 small zucchini, 4 asparagus spears, the rest of the couscous in the box, maybe 1/4 cup, and some vegetable broth I had leftover, about 1/2 cup. I finished with Parmesan and parsley. Just ignore that sad little shot glass of dill I was trying to revive. I subbed fresh parsley.

I chopped the asparagus, zucchini, and spinach.

I melted a couple tablespoons of butter in my pan, over medium high heat, and added in the zucchini and asparagus ...

... and the spinach.

Stir for about one minute.

Add in the couscous.

Push around for about a minute.

Then add in about 1/2 cup vegetable broth.

Bring to a boil, cover, and turn off heat. Let sit for 5 minutes.

While the couscous was resting, I grated the Parmesan and chopped the parsley.

Uncover and fluff.

Add in parsley and cheese.

Plate. And give it a nice dusting of lemon zest.

Such bright flavors!

This tastes like Spring.