A Celebration of Light.

Today is Beltane, the Celtic festival of fire and light, signaling the end of cold and beginning of warm. Among other traditions, it is a celebration of nature. The flowering of our backyard Dogwood is one of our favorite signals of warm weather to come.

And the annual arrival of all our gardening starts is another. These came from yesterday's garden sale at Lake Washington Technical College where the horticulture students sell terrific plants to home gardeners for terrific prices!

And here are bucketfuls of future cherry tomatoes waiting to be repotted and planted out near the end of May (this is the Pacific NW!). These are from the Seattle Tilth Edible Plant sale today. This venue take place at the Good Shepard Center (a former convent) in a beautiful park like setting. Every type of future veggie and herb imaginable are available to tempt home farmers. We found an herb that smell just like 7-up! We also found eggplant, squash (not zucchini!), and chocolate mint starts.

A bevy of flowering plants to go in the center bed of our garden to attract bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds.

After the plant sale, we went to the opening day of the Redmond Farmer's market. Hmm, what's Anni turning to look at?

Alpacas in brown...

and white. Check out the teeth on that fellow in the back.

Our market finds today included oatmeal bread, St Jude's local sustainable tuna, Docco's tangy BBQ dipping sauce (awesome on grilled veggies and bbqed oysters), apple chipotle mustard and cranberry apple butter from Aldrich Farms, and a bag of beautifully fresh shallots. It was really fun to see all the farmers and craft folks again. We've been marketing with some of them for over 5 years!

Today for dinner we made that veggie lasagna with the tofu. It was divine! Here's the recipe:

Veggie Lasagna

One package of no boil lasagna noodles (we like the whole wheat ones)

One jar of organic mushroom pasta sauce (or your fav. sauce)

One medium sized zucchini, peeled and sliced very thin

One small onion, diced

1/4 cup red bell pepper, diced (this is optional, but trust us, put it in)

1 cup of sliced mushrooms

4 oz of firm tofu, drained and crumbled (we like the garlic herb flavored variety)

1-2 cups of grated mozzarella cheese (depending on how cheesy you like it.)

Parmesan cheese

Italian herbs (dried or fresh)

Black Pepper (we like coarse ground).

How to:

1) Preheat oven to 375

2) Pour 1/2 cup of pasta sauce in bottom of rectangular baking dish (nonmetal). Spread across with spatula.

3) Add one layer of lasagna noodles.

4) Add another 1/2 cup of pasta sauce and spread.

5) Add a layer of zucchini.

6) Add a layer of crumbled tofu

7) Add a light layer of mixed mushroom, onion, and red pepper.

8) Sprinkle lightly with mozzarella.

9) Repeat steps 3) through 8) once more.

10) Top with a layer of noodles. Pour remaining sauce over these noodles. Add remaining mozzarella cheese. Sprinkle generously with Parmesan cheese. Sprinkle with Italien herbs and black pepper.

11) Bake at 375 for 50-55 minutes

12) Serve with lightly garlicked toast (for sopping up the delicious sauce), a green salad, and Italian wine. Enjoy!