Frugalista Friday: Grow Your Own

  Fru-ga-LEE-sta. noun.  “A person who lives a frugal lifestyle but stays fashionable and healthy by swapping clothes, buying secondhand, growing own produce, etc.”

Y'all up north will have to wait until St. Patrick's Day, but it's pea planting time down here.  Inspired partly by Carla's perfect peas on this week's Top Chef, I'm sowing sugar snaps this weekend in my whiskey barrels, along with swiss chard and spinach.

Here's what Jacques Pepin said about Carla's peas:

"The fresh peas, for me, is really a celebration of spring and is very appealing to me. Carla did that very, very well. I remember the peas more than the squab actually. They were really fantastic."

Carla's English Peas
1 pound English peas, shelled

1 teaspoon tarragon, chopped


4 tablespoons cold butter


2 teaspoons lemon thyme compound butter
kosher salt
black pepper

From the Top Chef website: Blanch the peas in salted water until just tender. (You want the peas to take on a bright green hue while remaining partially crisp.) Strain the peas.

Make the lemon thyme compound butter by combining 8 tablespoons of butter, 1 ½ teaspoons lemon zest, 1 ½ teaspoons chopped thyme, and ¼ teaspoon salt. (I imagine the best technique for making this would be to work with room temperature butter and cream the other ingredients in using a mixer on low speed.)

Toss the peas with the cold butter, tarragon, and lemon thyme butter. Add salt and pepper to taste.