Hurry up Spring!

The weather here in Seattle has been completely bizarre the last few days. We have had snow,hail,rain,thunder and lightning and blinding sun just today! It was freezing cold too, well by Seattle standards anyway and I spent the day ignoring the part of myself that wanted to burrow into the bed and never come out. I am impatient for spring to arrive, especially for all the food goodies that come with it(fava beans!)
This year, we've been trying to eat seasonally and locally. For the winter, that means a lot of kale, brussel sprouts, apples and pears. I'm ready for some new flavors, but it's not quite time yet for peas and asparagus.
All of this was on my mind tonight when I was trying to decide what to make for dinner while we were out walking the dog. I had Plan A which was decidedly more cozy and winter weather fare, but didn't sound appealing to my husband, so I came up with Plan B. Searching through everything in my "pantry"(the bookshelf in our kitchen), I came across a tin of trout fillets that I had picked up at Trader Joe's. And then I think it went something like this in my mind:
Trout. Trout and almonds are good together, almonds and green beans are good together~ooh, I have a few green beans in the fridge! Oh, and this big lemon. Lemon goes well with both trout and green beans! Hmm, there maybe not enough green beans. But look at this half head of broccoli right next to the green beans. Ok, now to tie this all together...hi half box of spaghetti...lemony and green is close enough to spring...

photo by Kristin

Here's how it played out:
1/2 an onion, chopped broccoli and green beans, lemon zest, salt and pepper and olive oil all went in a pan to saute for a few minutes. I prefer my veggies pretty crispy, but you could blanch them for a few seconds first. Just before the pasta finished cooking, I added a pat of butter to the veggies and the juice of the lemon and about 1/2 cup of the pasta cooking water. I tossed the cooked pasta in the veggie pan to let it soak up all the lemony goodness and finished it with the trout, sliced almonds and parsley.
The crisp green vegetables, the crunchy almonds, and the sunny brightness of the lemon worked pretty well with the delicate flakiness of the trout and made it feel as if it were almost spring. Almost.