Food Snobbery is my Hobbery

Z Pizza!

2012-01-28T19:31:00.000-06:00

Forgot how good this is.

This Year's Resolutions

2012-01-04T19:25:00.000-06:00

My partner tells me that it's bad luck to tell other people your New Year's resolutions. I think that's only the case with the wishes you make on birthday candles, though. If it is bad luck, I'm doomed.

1. Wear more skirts in the winter.
Ridiculous, you say? Petty? Sorry. Skirts make me happy, are way more flattering than pants for my body shape and allow me to stretch during the day without the constraint of something enveloping my legs. I hate clothes touching my body. Usually I just sacrifice comfort in the winter because it's cold, but this year I'm going to keep wearing skirts (with thick tights and boots) into the winter months. Plus, it's been really warm so far (40 degrees in January?!?!) so this sounds completely reasonable. Check back with me when it's -15.

2. Integrate more music into my life.
Perfect example: Right now I'm sitting in my living room, home alone, and it's silent except for the sounds of the keyboard and the dog licking herself. I would love to listen to some music, but I just don't think about it. When I DO listen to music, I feel really happy. So I'm going to find ways to listen to music more often this year. So far I've joined Spotify and a "music club" with friends where we make a mix CD every month and trade.

3. Continue being active for my mental health, rather than physical health.

4. Stick to my budget so that I can pay off my car and meet my "emergency fund" savings goals in 2012. [Look out, students loans. I'm coming for you in 2013]

That's it for now! I'm sure I'll think of some more along the way this year.

Resolutions Review

2011-12-31T13:54:00.000-06:00

New Year's Day is right up there with April Fool's Day for me as far as holidays are concerned. It's one of the best days ever. Any holiday that celebrates a fresh start, resolutions to do better, and black eyed peas is definitely my kind of day. New Year's Eve is almost as good- I spend it preparing for my fresh start (If there's anything I love more than doing something, it's planning to do something).

Today I started the day with waffles (I'm still on a breakfast honeymoon with my new waffle maker) and some serious budget evaluating. I've been pretty lax with my budget lately, with Christmas presents, a new stove, a trip to Chicago (Jay-Z and Kanye!) and a Groupon-induced eyeglasses purchase. So it's time to get back on track. Instead of using Quicken to plot my budget based on what I'd like to spend on each category, I started plotting this year's budget based on what I've actually spent on each category- and then making a few adjustments. I think this will be much more reasonable and set me up for success, rather than failure. And overall for the year, I didn't do so bad.

Now for a review of last year's resolutions:
1. Do not put off a task that takes <5 minutes to complete.
While I didn't stick with this 100% of the time, it really is nice to not have little tasks nagging in the back of my mind. This means I bring in all the stuff from the car when I get home (instead of saying, "I'll grab that bag of cat litter later") and I bring all the dirty dishes to the sink each night. I water the plants when I think about it, instead of waiting to do it later (because I won't and I have the dead plants to prove it).

2. Choose when to watch TV. Don't make it the default.
This one is more about being conscious of when I really WANT to watch a program and not just flipping on the TV instead of doing something better. I've done pretty good with choosing which shows I really want to watch and only watching those. Granted, with awesome programs like Modern Family, House, CSI, Glee, New Girl and Parks and Rec...I'm still watching TV every night. But I'm okay with that. They make me happy!

3. Go to the library more
I rocked this resolution until fall. What happened?!?! I must return to the library soon, if only to return the book on food in colonial America that is waaaaayyyy overdue. Reading usually comes in binge form for me- Either I'm living my life, or I'm reading. If I'm reading, only going to work or finishing the book can get me to stop.

4. Don't let thriftiness become deprivation
In 2008-2009 I might have been so into budgeting and DIY mentality that I started to get a little obsessive. Sure- It was fun to not allow myself to buy bread for a year, just to see if I could keep up with baking it weekly. But...like all fun obsessions, it needed to be tempered with moderation. So I spent money on conveniences this year. Guess what? I was still just as busy.

5. Have $_______ saved by next year.
Well, I'm just a bit short of my goal. Not much, though! For this resolution/goal, I largely have my awesome job and Quicken to thank. Oh, and automatic transfers.

6. Make the door to our home a forcefield of happiness.
I have a little problem with transitioning from work to home. "Business Liz" sometimes gets through the front door, ready to get things done and check things off the list. Anything/anyone who gets in the way is a frustration. But this year I've been consciously working on using my drive home to breathe deeply and become "family time Liz". She likes to dance with the cats and wear sweatpants- This is much more conducive to happy family times.

7. Mid-Year addition: Exercise for mental health, not for physical health.
I hate New Year's resolutions related to weight/body stuff. I hate the idea of them and all that goes along with them. But I have realized that unless I move my body every day, my mental health suffers greatly. I become much more anxious, moody and all-around not who I want to be when I don't exercise frequently. The trouble is, I've always used body-related motivations to get myself to the gym/yoga/walking the dog. Those are so easy to dismiss, though, because I can easily rationalize that skipping the gym a few days won't give me wobbly triceps. Instead, I focus on making my attitude better every day by exercising. Now I actually WANT to!

So what's in store for this year??? I still have to finalize my 2012 list. Read up tomorrow if you're into this sort of thing.

Waffles!

2011-12-25T09:36:00.000-06:00

I'm giddy with excitement right now because Mike got me a waffle maker for Christmas. And because my first waffle turned out perfectly!

I'm already plotting all the variations I'll make- savory waffles are up next, then I need to get some gluten free waffles for the gift-giver.

Only trouble? We're almost out of syrup. I'm hoping for a Hannukah-esque Christmas miracle where the syrup lasts for days (until the co-op is open again).

Chocolate Almond Butter Cookies

2011-12-24T13:18:00.001-06:00

These cookies are nothing new- I think everyone has had the classic "no bake chocolate peanut butter oatmeal cookies", right?

But today I got wild and crazy in the kitchen and busted out some almond butter instead of pb. Results? Just as delicious as the original. Surprisingly, not better.

Here's my advice for anyone else who tries this: most of the recipes out there for these cookies assume you're using salted nut butters, so add a pinch to the mix if you're using pure nut butter! It's absolutely necessary.

Meemaw's Potato Soup

2011-12-14T19:20:00.003-06:00

It's a rainy night tonight. My Meemaw is in hospice care and is likely to pass away very soon. I can't really think of anything more appropriate to make for dinner tonight than Meemaw's potato soup.

It's the simplest recipe ever, but also the most comforting. I remember eating this soup when I was sick, and when I had my wisdom teeth removed. You'd think those wouldn't be fond memories... But the soup made everything better!

Potato Soup
Peel and cube 4-6 medium potatoes. Place in heavy pan with lid and cover (just barely) with water. Add one stick of margarine (non-hydrogenated, my addition) and 1 tsp salt and cook until tender and mushy. Mash lightly until broth is thick. Add about 3/4 cup milk (I use almond milk) and heat just to boiling point. Black pepper may be added.

I know, I know. Peel the potatoes? What about the missing fiber? A stick of margarine? What about all that fat? Just do it, people. This is comfort food from my Meemaw.

Dinner

2011-12-11T19:27:00.001-06:00

Pan fried black pepper tofu, rice noodles, raw cabbage, carrots, green onions and cilantro. Can't write more because I need to eat this.

This is Why I'm Cold

2011-12-10T10:33:00.000-06:00

Even though it's cold outside, I still like to eat summery foods in the winter sometimes. For some reason I've craved both cold pasta salad and cold tempeh salad during the coldest days so far this season!

Perhaps it's because my tempeh salad is the best thing ever? (and I'm so modest, too)

I just take a package of tempeh (I prefer the Lightlife garden veggie variety for the colorful flecks of veggies and the celery seeds incorporated), roughly chop it, and steam it for a few minutes. Maybe five? Then set aside to cool and chop it more finely once it's cool enough to handle.

Finely mince a few tablespoons of sweet onion and a couple stalks of celery. Drop those into a bowl with about 1/4 cup of Veganaise or Earth Balance mayo. Add a hefty pinch of fresh or dried dill and a little splash of white wine vinegar. Then toast up some sliced almonds. Combine the mayo/veggie mixture, almonds and cooled tempeh in a bowl. If you happen to have any pickled onions in the canning pantry, this is the time to bust them out. Just a couple of minced, pickled pearl onions will really make this special. I almost always round out the flavors with a splash of tamari- it helps this salad mimic the flavors of a chicken salad, but waaaay better.

I like to serve this with some organic Triscuit-style or Wheat Thin-style crackers from the co-op. And if you have any leftovers, it gets even better the second day!

This is Why I'm Hot

2011-12-09T22:33:00.000-06:00

Now that some snow has fallen and the garden is done for the year (except for a bit of kale I'm still pulling out), it's nice to look back at things that make me warm. Like chiles.

I went for variety over bulk quantity in the 2011 garden- I had purple jalapenos, regular jalapenos, cayenne chiles, tabasco chiles, Wisconsin lakes sweet peppers, mini chocolate bells, and a few more that I forgot to write down. On the day I pulled the last of them out, I tucked them in the fridge to use up in various dishes... But a couple of weeks later I was still left with about a pound of various types and colors of chiles.

The perfect recipe for this situation? Tigress in a Pickle's "Hot Damn Chile Pickle". You can use any chiles and don't have to de-seed them or anything. Just remove the stems and roughly chop (or food process) them. You should, however, wear gloves!

I tasted this the night I made it (easily two months ago) and it was so fire-y I couldn't even tolerate a drop of the oil on my tongue. Now, after some time to mellow, the flavors are spectacular and not nearly as abrasive. Keep in mind, though, that "mellow" is a relative term here. It's still crazy, crazy hot. But edible now.

Last night I busted this stuff out with some brown rice, mustard greens and tempeh. I didn't season anything at all, except for a dash of Bragg's aminos and a DAB of this chile relish. And it was spectacular. I have a feeling this is going to be a popular condiment for me this winter!

***Note: you might be alarmed to see garlic and chiles preserved in oil. Normally this is a no-no for canning and preserving since garden produce, and garlic in particular, can easily have clostridium botulinum spores on them and sealing them underneath oil can form an air-free (anaerobic) environment where the botulism toxin could grow. That's why it is SO important that this recipe contains vinegar. I know the recipe isn't canned and you might not even think to worry about botulism and vinegar ratios since it isn't canned. But the clostridium botulinum bacteria can grow anywhere that is a pH over 4.6 and has low or no oxygen. So don't can this recipe and don't skimp on the vinegar. And keep it refrigerated!

Thanksgiving Preparations

2011-11-23T20:46:00.000-06:00

Honestly, I haven't done much in the way of Thanksgiving preparation yet. But I have plans to!

The two things I have done so far are plan my menu for Friday (that's when we celebrate) and make cranberry syrup for fun sparkling drinks. The syrup is really easy- I just combine a couple of cups of Wisconsin cranberries with one cup of sugar and 1/2 cup of water. I simmer it until the cranberries burst and then strain it.

I admit to adding another batch of sugar and water to stretch the cranberries further. The second batch was still plenty flavorful! All that's needed for a fun drink is some fizzy water and a couple spoonfuls of this syrup.

Just look at that color!

Now for the food...

Here's what I have planned:
Homemade Tofurky (Bryanna Clark Grogan's recipe)
Cornbread stuffing (Meemaw's recipe)
Spinach casserole
Roasted portabello mushrooms
Mashed potatoes
Lots of gravy
Cranberry ginger preserves
Rolls
Chocolate Pumpkin Pie (Martha's recipe, veganized)

I plan on cooking all day tomorrow! I can't wait!

Leftover candy canes

2011-11-22T20:23:00.001-06:00

In anticipation of an organic candy cane shortage last year, I stocked up on a few boxes too many. Now the candy canes are about to be on the shelves again at my co-op and I figure I'd better get rid of the old ones. Hence, the chocolate candy cane cookies (gluten free chocolate chip cookie recipe with cocoa and crushed candy canes added). Perfect with nog!

Chocolate, chocolate

2011-11-16T20:57:00.000-06:00

I love pretty much anything that is named chocolate, chocolate _________. These chocolate, chocolate almond cookies are a variation on Dreena Burton's gluten free homestyle chocolate chip cookies.

I just subbed cocoa powder for 1 Tbsp. of the flour (I use millet flour), added a handful of slivered almonds, and a dab of almond extract.

A lovely, lovely, chocolate, chocolate coookie.

I Love Only One Cake

2011-11-10T09:37:00.000-06:00

It's been nearly three weeks since I made (and ate) this cake, but I'm still thinking about it. It might be the best cake I've ever made- But I have a tendency to love the cake that I'm with (like that Elvis song, "I love only one girl, the one I've got my arms around").

So here it is, the cake that has captured my heart. For now.

Step 1: Bake 3 cakes.

I used the basic chocolate cupcake recipe from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. Maybe I mismeasured the cocoa in the past or maybe I just don't remember the cupcakes being so darn chocolatey, but this cake is black as night. I used the same cocoa as always, Equal Exchange fair trade cocoa, and didn't even change anything in the recipe.

I recommend adding a layer of waxed paper around the bottom cake layer to protect your cake plate from messy caramel and such. Just remove before serving (duh).

Step 2: Make Peanut Butter Caramel.

This wasn't my idea, it was the kids' idea. I didn't follow a recipe for this, but it turned out fantastic! Here's an approximation of what I did:

In a small saucepan, combine 1/2 cup brown sugar, about 2 Tbsp. agave nectar, 2 Tbsp. Earth Balance margarine and a splash of water (no more than 1/4 cup). There should be just enough water that you can stir everything together. Heat over low-medium heat until the sugar melts and it's boiling vigorously. As it boils, stir nearly continuously and check the texture of the caramel. You could use a candy thermometer to check for the "soft ball" stage, but mine broke, so I relied on looking for "sheeting", the phenomemon when a sugar syrup doesn't drip in individual drops off of a spoon held up high- the drops combine into a flat sheet as they drip. It's just like making jam!

When sheeting happens, it means your sugar syrup/caramel will be thick and gelled when it cools. That's what you want here. If you take it too far (to the hard ball stage), then your caramel will be hard and crackly. Fun on ice cream, but not in the middle of a cake.

Once your caramel is at the sheeting stage, turn off the heat and stir in a good 1/2 cup of natural peanut butter. It'll look something like this.

I want to eat this right now.

Step 3: Assemble the cake.

Your caramel will thicken as it cools, so get your cooled cake layers ready for assembling. And chop some salted peanuts, too.

Pour 1/2 of the pb caramel over one layer. Spread it all over, up to the edges of the cake. Then sprinkled chopped salted peanuts over the whole thing.

Then top with another layer of cake and add more caramel and peanuts. Finish with the last layer on top.

Step 4: Encase it in chocolate.

Ridiculous, right? I can barely stop from getting up right now and baking more of this cake. Let the layers cool completely so that the cake is glued together with caramel and won't budge when you pour tons of ganache over the top.

I just melted a few Tbsp. of Earth Balance margarine and almond milk in a pan, then stirred in a whole bag of chocolate chips. Any firm-setting ganache recipe will do. Actually, you could skip the frosting and this would still be awesome. But I opted to drown the cake in chocolate. Then I topped it with Pokeman guys and piped their images on the top of the cake (removing the paper afterwards). The kids were happy with it, but I'm willing to be it would taste just as good without Pokeman characters on top.

Step 5: Eat it.

Crazy, crazy good.

New favorite thing

2011-11-08T19:52:00.002-06:00

I might be in love with my new stove. (This is not to the exclusion of my previously declared love of my mattress heater).
My old stove didn't light on its own anymore and I got tired of feeling a back draft of flames every time I wanted to heat some water for tea.
We have appliance insurance from our electrical utility, so they replaced it when they couldn't repair it. I went to Warners' Stellian (of course) and picked out this one. It's hard to choose a stove- it's a pretty important appliance in my life. But this Bosch was on a super sale and sports an 18,000 BTU power burner (higher than all the others in my price range). I can't wait to see how quickly my canner comes to a boil on this baby!
Plus, it's beautiful.
The first thing I cooked on it was a feast of basmati rice, coconut & cumin kale, and lentil & split pea dal.

Souped Up Ramen

2011-10-30T20:31:00.001-05:00

When I'm feeling super lazy, I love a big bowl of ramen. Koyo organic ramen is the best!!!

If I'm slightly less lazy, I upgrade my ramen with some veggies. Today's lemongrass ginger ramen was made better with roasted squash, ribbons of lacinato kale and even more ginger.

It's slightly more classy than when made with just the packet ingredients. And much more delicious.

Goodnight, Garden

2011-10-22T18:28:00.001-05:00

I've started the process of putting the garden to bed for the winter, but I'm still getting some great veggies.

The green bean and cuke beds are covered in garden scraps and composting away. The tomatoes, surprisingly enough, kept ripening despite freezing temps and practically dead plants. I even found an eggplant hidden away that I didn't even know I had!

I'm still pulling out peppers, beets, and kale - and I just started pulling carrots today.

I like to wait as long as possible before harvesting carrots, so I just pulled enough for this week. Gotta be careful not to wait too long, though! A couple years ago the ground froze solid before I harvested them- with an ice pick.

Raisin Crackers!

2011-10-17T20:40:00.000-05:00

A few days ago I got a Trader Joe's Fearless Flyer in the mail. I always read these cover to cover out of personal interest and for work (gotta check out the competition!). The rosemary raisin crackers caught my eye because at first they sounded disgusting, but the more I thought about them, the more I wanted to try them.

But, lest I be a traitor to my beloved co-op, I figured I'd better give it a try making these at home first.

(Note: I'm kind of kidding- I feel a bit like a traitor when I go there, but I think Trader Joe's is good at what they do and my co-op is good at what we do. Our products overlap somewhat, but we're VERY different businesses with different strengths. End note).

Now back to the crackers.

I mixed up my usual flour blend for cracker dough (from Food in Jars) and added in the fun stuff. For this first try, I ground up salted, roasted almonds and raisins (1/4 cup each) in a little food processor and added them to the flour before mixing in the oil and water. For the seasonings, I used whole cumin seed, fennel seed and pink Himalayan salt.

Then I rolled these out like usual and baked. Here's where the problems started. I didn't grind up the almonds and raisins fine enough, so the dough wouldn't roll out thin enough. So with thicker dough, I couldn't get the crackers crispy without cooking so long that the sugars in the raisins started to burn!

So I have some crispy, fairly browned crackers and some.... slightly soft flatbread things. The flavor is out of this world, though. I can't stop eating them despite their wonky texture!

Next time I'll grind the almonds VERY finely. And I should probably taste the TJ's version, just to see what I'm up against!

Spinach and Cashew Cheese Bisque

2011-10-16T21:27:00.000-05:00

I rarely follow a recipe exactly, but I actually got out my measuring spoons for this soup. It just looked and sounded so perfect that I didn't want to change anything!

The recipe comes from the Sept/Oct 2011 issue of Eating Well magazine- Spinach and Goat Cheese Bisque. Now, obviously, I didn't follow the recipe exactly since I used cashew cheese instead off goat cheese. But I'm pretty sure it's just as good. If pureeing cashews with a little salt and lemon juice makes cashew cheese good enough to smear on crackers, it must be good enough for this soup!

It seems like every recipe I read in Eating Well looks phenomenal. I love the focus on fresh vegetables and avoidance of processed convenience foods. And the articles are intelligently written and based on real research! There's no celebrity chef crap or fluffy little articles.

The recipe says it makes about 8 cups, but I got closer to twelve. Not sure how that happened... But I'm happy to have lots of this soup for my lunches this week!

The base of the soup is caramelized onions, potato, broth and over a pound of spinach. In case you didn't know, a pound of spinach looks like a ton.

Just look at all this spinach!

This looks a little bit weird, but when I poured the pureed cashews & soaking liquid into the soup, I knew this soup was going to be amazing. Once pureed, it's velvety creamy & smooth, with a bright spinach-y flavor. The only down-side to this soup is that it's not very filling. I'm going to pack some crackers and fruit along with it...and maybe something else I've been baking up.

Chef Salad

2011-10-14T17:37:00.001-05:00

I feel really lucky to have gotten one of the last salad mixes offered by Dehn's Garden Herbs at the Minneapolis Farmer's Market this season. This is no ordinary salad mix. It has herbs, flowers and the most beautiful baby greens I've ever seen. And the best part? It says fresh for well over a week! I can eat a salad out of this container every day for a week and still not have any slimy lettuce bits to pick through. Bonnie Dehn says this is because the lettuce is so fresh- usually picked within hours of me buying it. This impresses me.

It does make me sad, though, that the lettuce comes in a big, plastic clamshell container [Update: I got word that these are bio-plastic containers that will compost away. Hooray! Now to get my compost bin hot enough to handle it...]. Maybe that's part of the magic of how it says fresh? Here's how I make myself feel less guilty:

I've started using the containers for 1-2 days to pack a giant salad for my lunch. This one is packed with grilled seitan, Honeycrisp apple chunks, roasted sunflower seeds and a lemony-olive oil vinaigrette. I looked forward to this salad ALL DAY! It reminds me of those gross cafeteria chef salads that have tons of toppings and are whole meals in themselves. Except way healthier. And way tastier.

Snack Jars!

2011-10-13T17:25:00.001-05:00

It's been a while since I openly proclaimed my love for canning jars, hasn't it? In addition to being canning jars, bulk food storage, leftover containers, flower vases, hardware storage, paint jars, laundry soap holders, candle holders and drinking glasses...

I started using canning jars as little snack containers. I know this isn't that revolutionary. And this snack isn't even exactly contained inside the jar. But for some reason snacks in jars make me really happy. I can portion out the stepsons' snacks in a portable container for the car (one that isn't plastic and isn't part of my prized Fiestaware set). This snack includes 1/2 a Honeycrisp apple, a banana and a gluten free brownie.

I wish I had this snack right now.

Curry in a Hurry

2011-10-12T17:08:00.000-05:00

A few weeks ago my friend Morgen came over for some dinner and I saved a little time by using leftover roasted potatoes to make a curry- Success! This dinner was super fast!

I used the pressure cooker to cook the red lentil rasam, so that took all of about 5 minutes to make.

The curry also included okra from the garden and plenty of coriander, cumin, turmeric and ginger. I topped it with a mixture of shredded coconut, peanuts and jalapenos that I whizzed around in the mini-food processor for a minute. I have lots of this leftover and need to think of more uses for this concoction. Any ideas?

Fancy Pants Spaghetti

2011-10-11T20:08:00.000-05:00

Sometimes I forget about the easiest dishes when it comes to deciding what's for dinner. Like spaghetti with marinara sauce. I seriously almost ordered spaghetti with "veggie balls" from Pizza Luce last week when I already had all the ingredients to make my own at home. Whoa. Time to slow down and plan some meals, Liz.

So tonight we sat down to some gluten free (Tinkyada brand) spaghetti with homemade marinara sauce. The sauce included my usual recipe for canning, plus a giant handful of roasted & pickled red peppers, oil cured olives and spinach.

I wasn't planning on having tofu with the pasta, but I happened to find some tomato-y vinaigrette in the back of the fridge that told me it wanted to become tofu marinade. [Want to know a secret? That tomato vinaigrette happened because I accidentally poured twice as much vinegar into my salsa recipe when I was canning a couple weeks ago. So I bailed out 1/2 the amount of tomato-y, onion-y vinegar and mixed it with olive oil to use as salad dressing. A happy accident.]

I only had time to marinate the tofu for about 15 minutes, but I sprinkled it with nutritional yeast and salt while it was browning on my grill pan and that crusted up really nicely and helped seal in the bright, vinegary, tomato flavor.

We ate this by candlelight outside on the deck. Faawwnnncy!

Saving Seeds

2011-10-09T18:32:00.001-05:00

I don't usually save seeds from my garden, except for coriander, dillseed and other herbs/seed spices that I like to eat. But this year, my laziness in not harvesting the last round of green beans paid off: I have plenty of seeds for next year's garden. See, folks. Procrastination does pay off.

So I'll tuck these away until April or May, when I'll hopefully remember that I don't need to buy any!

Magic Spices

2011-09-28T20:30:00.000-05:00

These potatoes are crazy awesome. They're just basic roasted potatoes with way too many spices rubbed all over them, but spices are magic like that. They can transform roasted potatoes into something really unique.

Today's roasted potatoes feature a generous amount of olive oil (with a little harissa-infused olive oil from The Olive Grove), chili powder, salt and what seemed like wayyyyy too much smoked paprika. If your potatoes aren't stained red, you haven't used enough spices. That's my new motto.

Then I roasted them at about 450F, for 30-40 minutes. But you could have probably guessed that part.

***

If you're in the market for a good canning class this season, check out my pickling class scheduled for October 8th at Kitchen in the Market. I think this will be my last one of the season and in this class you get to get your handy dirty, pick up the ol' jar lifters and go home with three types of pickles! Hope to see you there!

Weeknight Apple Pie

2011-09-20T20:48:00.001-05:00

It's nearly 9pm and I'm still waiting for this pie to cool enough so we can eat it! Tonight Mike and the kids decided to harvest the apple tree. So while they picked 3 grocery bags full of apples, I started making a crust.

My Meemaw taught me how to make a pie crust and I broke all the rules tonight, with my room temperature ingredients and lack of shortening in the house. Despite the less than perfect pie procedures, it was fun to teach my stepkids a bit about baking (they did some rolling and nearly all the crust pinching). We might just have to eat pie for breakfast if it doesn't cool down quickly.

Next goal is to make a really good gluten free pie. Anyone have a favorite GF pie crust recipe?

It's Tomato Day!

2011-09-17T19:43:00.000-05:00

I don't do all my tomato canning in one day, but I do reserve one day a year for buying a 1/2 bushel of tomatoes and making sauce. Given that every single other Saturday this month is filled with canning classes and demos*, this was the chosen day. Here's a couple logistical tips for canning a lot of tomatoes by yourself:

1. Bring a little cart on wheels for hefting those tomatoes through the farmer's market. I use a luggage dolly thingie with a cardboard box strapped to it. It looks ridiculous when it's empty, but it's no fun carrying 24 lbs. of tomatoes through the whole market. You'll be lifting plenty of jars and heavy pots later.

2. Use your sink. I don't know about you, but I don't have bowl big enough to hold this amount of tomatoes. So make use of your (sparkling clean) sink! Another option: turn your cake-holder tupperware thing upside down and use it as a bowl.

3. Make sure you weigh or measure your tomatoes carefully. Don't count on that 1/2 bushel to be exactly 24 lbs.- Following safe, tested recipes and the proportions they call for is really important in avoiding killing anyone with your canned goods. On that same note: Please don't skip the lemon juice (or citric acid) in your canned tomatoes.

4. Make sure you have a pot that's big enough. This one barely cuts it and it holds 8 quarts. I often end up splitting my tomato sauce into two pans the same size and putting a half recipe in each. Once the sauce has reduced, I can combine them so that all the jars taste consistent.

5. If you must blanch tomatoes for your recipe, for goodness sake, don't use up all the ice in your freezer cooling the tomatoes down. You're going to need that ice for your drinks while you can! Use the sink again- Fill it with cold water and add a couple ice packs (the kind you use in coolers) to keep the water chilled even when you're adding boiling hot blanched tomatoes to the sink.

6. If you can avoid it, skip blanching and peeling tomatoes. I'm ~~a little bit~~ in love with my food mill for making sauce and juice. You just have to heat up your tomatoes quickly and completely, letting them all soften. Then crank the food mill around a few million times and you have a lovely, smooth tomato sauce (or thick juice, depending on the size insert in your food mill). Don't think you can skip a step and just smash raw tomatoes through this baby. You'll end up with what's called a "cold break" in your tomato juice. That's where the juice and the solids separate and there's no way you're going to win at the state fair with a jar like that.

*I have some fun canning events coming up!
Saturday, Sept. 24, 2011 I'll be at Warners' Stellian in St. Paul teaching folks to can pickled green beans. Just click the link to get registration info. I'm really excited about teaching canning at a home appliance store, especially since this store is like a second home to me after my year of broken appliances. Warners' Stellian saved me every time (and they're not paying me to say this).

I'll also be at the Minneapolis Farmers Market on October 1, demonstrating how to make pickled Indian-spiced carrots. These carrots are sweet, spicy, tangy and crazy addictive.

Too Many Cukes

2011-09-13T21:34:00.000-05:00

I hate to say it, but I'm tired of cucumbers and green beans. I'm not quite sick of tomatoes, but it's getting close.

The garden is overflowing and I can't keep up. Even with salads and pickle-making, the amount of cucumbers coming in is ridiculous.

I'm getting a lot of tomatoes right now, but my plants aren't doing so hot- I'm guessing they'll be done by the end of the week, especially with frost headed our way. So I'm still enjoying having lots of tomatoes. I need to make tomato sauce this weekend, and I'm excited to use my food mill this year and bypass all that tomato peeling!

I was happy to skip over the cucumbers, green beans and tomatoes tonight in favor of beets! I'm so excited to have plenty of beets from the garden. I'm the only beet fan in the house, but everyone ate them for dinner tonight and (I think) liked them pretty well. I used a recipe from The Vegan Gourmet (by Susann Geiskopf-Hadler and Mindy Toomay) that is totally magical. For some reason it sticks in my mind, and I often think of how crazy good this recipe was when my bud Morgen and I first made it. It sounds almost too simple, but it's so satisfying.

It's simply brown rice, steamed beets, sauteed beet greens and a dressing of tahini, lemon juice, miso, garlic and cayenne. I also threw some marinated tempeh on the grill that I had tucked in the freezer.

Tomato Madness!

2011-09-10T14:04:00.001-05:00

Just canned bloody mary mix, tomato jelly and crushed tomatoes with some awesome folks at Kitchen in the Market!

Overgrown Green Beans?

2011-08-31T18:38:00.004-05:00

My favorite way to eat green beans is to grill or saute them very briefly- so they're bright green and still snappy. But when I've neglected to harvest the beans for over a week, I end up with overgrown pods that I'm tempted to toss in the compost. These beans are way too tough to eat nearly raw- you'd get a serious jaw workout trying to get these down.

This is where Southern cuisine saves me. While I typically shy away from long-simmered vegetables in favor of fresh flavors now, I have to admit there's a place in my kitchen for green beans boiled up until they nearly fall apart. I just leave out the bacon grease.

I used to sit and eat cold green beans straight out of the can when I was a little girl. I loved the tenderness of the pods, the way you could split them in half and eat the little beans from inside and, of course, the extreme saltiness of the canned beans. Even better were canned green beans with little skinned new potatoes (also canned).

So now, when I have overgrown green beans, I just toss them into a pot with some little potatoes (skin on for me, now), a chopped onion, and water to cover and boil away until everything is tender as can be. A vegetable bouillon cube, sea salt and pepper is all that is needed to flavor this dish.

This past week I served these up with an heirloom tomato salad dressed with olive oil, honey and red wine vinegar. The bowl of purple hull peas on the side was a last minute addition to the menu- I just dropped the frozen peas into the crockpot with an onion and some water before I went to work. When I came home, they were perfectly cooked and ready for dinner.

Second Only to Salsa

2011-08-30T18:37:00.000-05:00

This time of year, I love salsa like it's a member of my family. As soon as we start harvesting tomatoes, I start a routine of keeping a quart jar of salsa in the fridge at all times. I just finished my daily bowl of chips and salsa a few minutes ago, in fact.

But my second favorite use for an abundance of fresh tomatoes is tomato soup. I don't really care much for the stuff in the red and white can- never have. It was okay to dip a grilled cheese in when I was a kid, I'm not interested in any canned tomato soup now. I'm too snobby for that.

I much prefer a hot bowl of tomato soup made from my own garden tomatoes of all shapes, sizes and colors, pureed into the most flavorful tomato soup imaginable. It's not flavorful because of exotic spices or anything- just pure tomato flavor! I'm fairly certain that all I put in this soup is olive oil, a little onion, a little garlic, lots of skinned tomatoes, a pinch of allspice, sea salt and fresh basil on top. It only needs to simmer until the tomatoes have given up their juices and the onions are tender. Then you just buzz it in the blender until it's smooth. If you have super fancy blender, like a Vitamix (hint, hint, family. Christmas isn't that far away), you wouldn't even have to peel the tomatoes.

I still served it with some grilled cheese sandwiches, but we all agreed that the soup stole the show.

Pickling Jalapenos Today

2011-08-28T13:55:00.001-05:00

The air is spicy in my house.

Can It!

2011-08-16T20:48:00.000-05:00

I'm teaching a really awesome interactive class on Sunday where you get to bring your own (homegrown or market) fresh produce and I teach you to can it! It's at Kitchen in the Market, the gorgeous kitchen at Midtown Global Market in Minneapolis. There are still some spots available, but sign up quickly because I'm keeping the class size small so that I'll have time to work one-on-one with everyone [click the link above to register]. The best part about this class is that with a variety of foods being canned, I'm thinking a little swapping and bartering might happen...

If you miss this one, there will be more in the coming months. I'd love to see familiar faces in this series of canning classes!

Foiled Again

2011-08-15T21:58:00.000-05:00

I've been stockpiling all of my best canned goods for a year in preparation for the MN State Fair. For the past two years I've not been able to enter anything because of being out of town during the required delivery dates or accidentally breaking the competition rules. [What? No quilted jelly jars? And who cans salsa in half pint jars? I could eat that on 3 chips!]

This year was going to be my year. I registered online with my Thai-inspired pickled beans (with lemongrass, ginger, mint and Thai chiles), Thai-inspired pickles (eligible for Gedney's special Asian pickle category!), roasted pepper salsa, Indian-inspired pickled cauliflower (with coriander and cumin) and the most beautiful golden-colored vanilla apricot butter. I checked my registration about 3 times out of paranoia before the due date. I marked my calendar with the deadlines and scheduled in my drop off times. I felt really prepared. I even reminded others to get their registrations in on time.

BUT...I might have saved my registration, but I didn't hit the final checkbox acknowledging that I had read the rules (probably about six times) and submitting my saved entries. They have no record of me registering and can't bend the rules to let me in, even if I sniffle and cry on the phone and beg in emails.

I'm seriously bummed. I'm kicking myself for not making sure I got the confirmation email. The only silver lining to this cloud is that now I get to eat these jars I've been saving- the best and most beautiful of my efforts this year.

So this will be another year of scoping out the competition at the fair and preparing for next year. Now is the time to start canning for next year's fair. I'm on it. Look out next year, grandmas.

Welcome to the Jungle

2011-08-06T10:57:00.000-05:00

My garden is out of control. I need a machete to get through to pick tomatoes.

It's That Time!

2011-08-03T21:31:00.000-05:00

It's that time of year again, folks. It's the time of year that I forgo bananas and avocados. The time I think twice about each piece of chocolate and don't down a glass of almond milk each night. It's the Eat Local Challenge!

I'm not mourning the bananas and almond milk yet, though. It's just day 3 of the challenge and I've been eating really well. I've enjoyed yogurt and homemade granola for breakfast, cucumber and tomato salads from the garden, grilled corn & zucchini salads and tonight's kidney bean chili for lunch and dinner. Oh, and lots of black bean tacos and Whole Grain Milling Company chips. All local. It's crazy how good we can eat here in Minnesota.

I'm sure I'll be whining about missing mangos in a few weeks, but for now I'm satisfied. Here's the basic recipe for the chili I made tonight:

Local Kidney Bean Chili
Not a "meaty" chili- but darn good. It would also be good with zucchini in it, now that I think about it. That's a little non-traditional for chili, but it sounds good to me.

About 1.5 cups of dried kidney beans (local bulk beans from the co-op)
Water
2 cups tomato sauce (I used homemade canned stuff, but Buon Giorno Minnesota tomato sauce would work)
1 jalapeno, seeded and minced (from the garden)
2 fat cloves fiery garlic (from the Madison farmers market last weekend)
Kernels from 1 ear of sweet corn (from Wheatfield Hill Organics in Wisconsin)
1-2 Tablespoons chili powder (from Frontier Co-op in Iowa)
Salt to taste

Soak the kidney beans overnight or bring to a boil, then turn off heat and let soak for 1 hour. Drain and add fresh water to cover. Cook for ages and ages in a regular pan or use a pressure cooker and cook for 3 minutes. Make sure there's not too much water/bean broth in the pot after the beans are cooked. It should just be barely covering the beans. Then add tomato sauce, jalapeno, garlic, corn and chili powder. Bring to a simmer and cook for about 5-10 minutes. Season with salt to taste. Serve with corn chips or cornbread or other delightful local accompaniment.

Salt and Pepper Pancakes

2011-07-31T11:25:00.001-05:00

Despite what you might think, given my fondness for sweets, I'm not a big fan of super sweet things for breakfast. I'd rather have miso soup than sugary cereal.

So today I made pancakes just for myself- savory style. I just used my usual pancake recipe (from Vegan with a Vengeance) and left out all the sweet things (cinnamon, vanilla, maple). Actually, now that I think about it, I accidentally left out the oil, too.

After I poured the batter on the griddle, I sprinkled each cake with sea salt and coarsely ground black pepper.

A little Earth Balance on top is all these cakes need!

Quick Salad

2011-07-30T15:59:00.001-05:00

Baby arugula, cukes from the garden, grilled tofu and a garlic-dill-mustard vinaigrette.

Canning All Around Town

2011-07-29T20:13:00.001-05:00

Hey folks. For ya'll who live in the Twin Cities, here's a list of the canning demos and classes I've got coming up. I just love teaching these classes and I'm always happy to answer your canning questions at events like these. (You can just show up for the demos, but the classes all require registration.)

7/30- Canning demo: "Bruschetta in a Jar" at the Mill City Farmers Market at 9:30 and 11:00 am

8/17- Canning Pickles class at Mississippi Market Co-op from 6-8pm

8/21- Canning class at Kitchen in the Market 11am-1:30- Participatory class!

8/27- Judging a state fair-style canning contest at the Mill City Farmers Market

10/1- Canning demo at Minneapolis Farmers Market (details TBD)

10/13- Canning class for St. Paul Community Ed from 6:30-8:30 pm

Tofu breakfast burrito

2011-07-23T10:04:00.000-05:00

From Sunroom on State Street in Madison.

Freezing Peaz

2011-07-19T23:00:00.000-05:00

The best souvenir I brought back from my trip to Texas is 40 lbs. of fresh peas. Well, okay. Maybe the best souvenir was my mom's Fiesta ware pitcher in the discontinued pale yellow color. But the peas are right up there.

We had to keep them packed on ice during the road trip, then get them blanched and frozen as soon as possible. Blanching is an amazing thing. It preserves color, flavor and texture in frozen foods- don't skip this step for veggies!

Dump a couple pounds of fresh peas (these are purple hull peas) into a strainer and submerge them in boiling water for 2 minutes.

Then, take the strainer out of the boiling water and submerge it in icy cold water (I use a combo of actual ice, water and freezer packs intended for coolers) for at least 2 minutes. Then drain the peas.

Here's close-ups on all the varieties I froze:

Just like the black eyed peas you cook from dry beans, except not dried and 5,000 times better.

Similar to black eyed peas, except 10,000 times better.

Speckled butter beans. I ~~could~~ eat these for breakfast.

Not pictured: cream peas

Vacation from Cooking

2011-07-13T20:58:00.000-05:00

Usually, when I haven't blogged for a while, I'll start writing by promising that I've still been busy cooking and gardening even though I haven't written about it. But this time that isn't true- I think yesterday was the first time I cooked anything or made it into my garden in weeks!

The past two and a half weeks have been odd and things are just now starting to get back to normal. First, I went to Texas to visit my family. My grandfather had been very sick, and I really wanted to get to see him again before he passed. I'm so thankful that I was able to get a trip planned and time off of work on such short notice [My grandpa passed away last night, so the memories from this trip are even more important to me now]. Also, I hadn't seen my little niece in nearly a year and she's been busy growing up. I had a great time with my family and ate some really fantastic food!

Fried avocado lettuce wraps from Matt's Tex-Mex. Yep, fried avocado!

Spinach and mushroom enchiladas with salsa verde (they made them special with no cheese! Yay Matt's!) and the best drunken beans ever.

My mom's home cooking! Fried okra, yellow squash with cornmeal, fresh tomatoes, corn on the cob, fresh lima beans and chow-chow (pickled veggies)

But after all this amazing food, visits with family and a road trip back to Minnesota with my mom, I was left with the most horrible stomach pain! I didn't eat anything THAT unusual while on my trip (okay, maybe fried avocado...) and I've never had too much of an issue with heartburn before...But for 8 days after my trip I couldn't eat anything without unbearable burning pain in my abdomen. Plus, I had a fever, lethargy and no appetite. Needless to say, I wasn't cooking much last week! It was basically just veg. broth, bananas and crackers for a while there.

My garden, meanwhile, was growing out of control with the heat we've been having here. I made it outside to water a couple of times, but, honestly, I barely recognized my garden! Everything grew up while I was away and I didn't have any energy to weed or harvest!

But, now, today, I've had 3 square meals, no stomach pain and no fever. I'm feeling very normal again and I'm happy to be munching on some oven-baked kale chips as I type. I'm hopeful that this bout with severe heartburn (?) is over.

And now I can think about food again and get back to sharing it with you!

A Garden Tour

2011-07-05T23:36:00.000-05:00

As promised: a tour of my garden. Better late than never, right?

Mike added his own touch to the video (I'm pretty sure you'll know which parts are his)

Honest Cooking

2011-06-24T17:41:00.000-05:00

I've got to be honest that sometimes I get a seemingly good idea for a dish and then it totally flops when I actually make it. That would be the case with this strawberry millet salad.

It looks pretty, right? And it tasted good right after I made it. But after the flavors melded overnight, this stuff got very...fragrant. And just weird.

But maybe there's hope for it! I think if I added the strawberries fresh, right when I serve this salad and it might be good. And if I nixed the garlic oil. Basically, the strawberry vinegar is a winner and I know it'll be great in some kind of grain salad someday.

But maybe you'll like it? Or you'll just read this to know what not to do?

Strawberry Millet Salad

2 cups cooked and cooled millet

Handful Italian parsley, chopped

2 green onions, chopped

1/4 cup roasted almonds, chopped

1 cup freshly picked strawberries, sliced

2 Tbsp. garlic olive oil (think about this for a while before using)

2 Tbsp. strawberry balsamic vinegar

Sea salt

Lots of freshly ground black pepper

Gently toss together the millet, parsley, onions, almonds and strawberries. In a little bowl, whisk together the oil, vinegar, salt and pepper. Pour over salad and gently toss again. Eat right away!

The Best Part

2011-06-22T20:21:00.000-05:00

I know I promised to post up a video tour of my garden next...But, it's been raining and I've been lazy. Instead, let's talk about croutons.

Yes, croutons. Croutons are basically the reason I like salad. At the very least, they're the best part. The vegetables are sometimes merely a vehicle by which I can transfer croutons into my mouth. They're crunchy, salty, toasty and coated in olive oil- What's not to like? So if you're trying to eat more vegetables, my advice is to have some croutons around!

When I think about croutons, I associate them with the totally nasty salad bars at chain restaurants. The type that would dump their hydrogenated-oil coated croutons from a giant shelf-stable bag. They feel kind of trashy and I'm a bit embarrassed to like them so much. But they don't have to be gross! And they cost practically nothing to make.

Croutons can be made from the end pieces of whole wheat bread, people! The same pieces of bread that go moldy every week because no one wants to eat them! (Or gluten free bread or really any kind). I like whole wheat bread croutons because they make salads significantly more filling than usual. Plus, like I said, they're coated in olive oil, herbs and salt.

Actually, I've got to admit that I really like other crunchy things in my salads, too. Apple pieces, sunflower seeds, almonds, radishes, etc. Anyways, here's my salad from tonight. Locally grown lettuce, garden radishes, marinated artichoke hearts, black olives and whole wheat croutons.

Here's how you make the croutons:

A couple end pieces of bread, cubed
Garlic olive oil
Dried parsley
Dried lemon thyme
Dried dillweed
Black pepper
Nutritional yeast
Sea salt

I'm not going to lie and tell you I have any idea how much of each of these ingredients used. I just poured a hefty couple glugs of garlic olive oil in a mixing bowl, tossed in the bread cubes and sprinkled on pinches of all these spices/seasonings. Then I baked them for about 10 minutes at 350F, turned them and baked 5 more. You'll know they're done when they smell toasty and awesome.

Four Tips for Lazy/Cheap Gardening

2011-06-16T23:11:00.000-05:00

I'm a big fan of finding little ways to save time and/or money in the garden. With a little creativity (and lots of trial and error) I can usually get the job done with less. Here are a few tips I've found:

#1: You don't need a wheelbarrow if you have a sled.

Whether you're loading up logs or weeds or woodchips, a big ol' snow sled works great for hauling garden materials.

I saved about 6 trips across the yard by hauling firewood on the sled instead of carrying it!

#2: You don't need to hire someone for money if your friends will work for cookies.

We needed to cut up some firewood, but we don't have an axe. Luckily, our friend Erik had a chainsaw and all I had to do was bake a batch of gluten free Mexican chocolate snickerdoodles (Ok, maybe I had to make 2 batches. But only one was for Erik). Now we're set for fires all summer!

#3: Just because you love your car doesn't mean you can't haul mulch.

I'm not about to dump bulk wood chips in the back of my sweet ride. But I don't really want to pay for delivery either. And it's SO much cheaper to buy mulch in bulk. Solution? Line the back of the car with the rain shield for an old tent that we got rid of last year. Put one of our kiddie pools in the back of the car. Load up the wood chips. In case you use this method, you'll probably want to know that 40 five-gallon buckets of wood chips equals one cubic yard. And you can fit about 10 five gallon buckets' worth in a small kiddie pool. The other method I used was to buy 10 bags of mulch, then save the bags and refill them at the landscaping center. I could fit 2 five-gallon buckets worth in each bag, so it just took 2 trips to get one cubic yard.

#4: Take advantage of your cats

I'm not going to kill any little bunnies or birds eating out of my garden, but if my cats want to, I'll gladly reap the benefits. In addition to Trouble Cat's cold-blooded murders, I have another anti-bunny tactic. I like to brush the cats, collect their fur and spread it around the garden beds. I have absolutely no scientific evidence of this, but I hypothesize that the cat scent will deter rabbits and other little critters.

What are your favorite gardening tricks that save money or prevent you from working too hard?

It's almost time!

2011-06-15T21:25:00.000-05:00

It's almost time for my garden tour! Since I have plenty of family and friends that can't make it to the garden tour this weekend, I decided that I'll do a garden tour on this blog so that you can virtually be here. But you'll have to wait until this weekend, just like everyone else.

I think I'm nearly ready. After spending almost every weekend and most weekdays working on the yard, I've added new garden areas and made everything easier to care for (my favorite part of permaculture design!). I'm excited to show it off, but it needs a good weeding first.

Here's a few of my favorite things in the yard right now, though.

The berry patch! I clipped the brambles down to the ground in late winter, and they're growing back nicely (and a much more manageable size). And the strawberries are ripening quickly- already tasting better than anything I can buy (even at my beloved co-op).

I've joined the world of flower gardening. We'll see how it goes. I usually have a knack for killing any plants that aren't food plants...Mostly because I forget about them. But I'm really digging this white echinacea that's just starting to bloom, so I'm going to try to not kill it.

I just think this is the coolest plant ever! It's a black elderberry and the white/pink flowers against the purpley-black foliage makes this the most striking plant in the yard. I will definitely be propagating this plant and spreading them all over the garden!

Berries are here!

2011-06-13T19:43:00.001-05:00

Quick!

2011-06-12T17:53:00.001-05:00

Someone bring me some almond milk! These gluten free Mexican Chocolate Snickerdoodles are the best cookies ever!

Ridiculously Easy

2011-06-07T17:14:00.001-05:00

Last week I ate a whole eggplant for dinner. No side dish, no accompaniment, no sharing. That's how good this was. I'm not even sure what made it so amazing!

It's really too easy and too good to be true. I just sliced up the eggplant, preheated my griddle, brushed all the slices in a mixture of olive oil, sesame oil and tamari and then grilled them up.

I'm sure these eggplant slices would be fantastic on a sandwich, in a stir-fry or with pasta. But I was feeling lazy and can attest to them being delicious straight up.

Sunday Morning Indulgence

2011-06-05T10:14:00.000-05:00

I like to make myself a little treat on Sunday mornings, when everything is quiet in the house. I promise I don't usually eat ice cream for breakfast (really!).

I don't have measurements or a real recipe for this treat, because you shouldn't have to think on Sunday mornings. So here's a pictorial:

Pull out your French press and add a spoonful or so of cocoa powder and lots more spoonsful of coarse ground coffee. I use decaf and still get a buzz, but use whatever you want.

Add boiling water and let sit for a while. Not sure how long. You shouldn't have to use timers on Sunday morning.

This is the best part. Now scoop a little scoop of vanilla ice cream into a glass or mug and pour the cocoa coffee over it. Enjoy and then try to talk yourself out of a second cup.

Permaculture Planning

2011-05-28T21:48:00.000-05:00

I'm already pretty in love with my yard & garden, but I've been taking a permaculture garden design class through the Permaculture Research Institute that is filling me with plant envy. This class is fantastic- I get to use giant graph paper and measure every single thing in the yard (seriously. everything.) and then dream about how I could use the space more productively. Is there anything I like better than graph paper and productivity? I think not.

With the West End Garden Tour less than a month away, I have to be careful. I'm tempted to go all extreme makeover on my yard, but I know that that's too much to handle when I'll have hundreds of people touring the garden so soon. Plus, I don't have a crew of people working for me. Slow and steady, Liz.

But even if I won't be doing a total overhaul, I've got to plan what I'll eventually to do make the yard more low maintenance, productive and beautiful.

So every single nice day, I've been outside working on the yard. Every single rainy day, I've been working on my homework (a.k.a. the yard plan).

Here's my "base map". This has every permanent structure on the property: house, garage, raised garden beds, sidewalks, trees, treehouse, etc.

The next step was to create a "bubble map" of areas by purpose or function. Then, after finalizing the general areas of plantings, we mapped out each plant's size and shape. On Monday we'll start choosing plants.

Except I cheated. I didn't wait until Monday's lesson to choose plants. I did the research early and I went to Leitner's and Linder's and bought all the fruit bearing shrubs and vines that I know I'll need for the landscape. I just couldn't help myself. I figure there will be several phases to this project and getting in the bigger items can be the first step. Now...where should I get 8 cubic yards of wood chips?

Berry Patch Clean-up

2011-05-26T21:30:00.001-05:00

After a couple days of weeding and hauling mulch, the berry patch is finally looking good! If only it would stay this tidy... Can't wait for these berries!

Best Day Ever + Bok Choy Salad

2011-05-20T21:43:00.001-05:00

Today was basically a perfect day. I just started a 4-day weekend. I woke up early with the itch to start gardening before breakfast. Why not? I can always take a nap later! (And I did).

I spent about 6 hours in the yard: digging up weeds, planting new plants, spreading straw mulch and transplanting some stubborn columbine and ferns that keep sprouting up in our stone walkway. I called and got estimates (all in one day!) from 2 tree services to remove the scrubby mugo pine that is dying in our front yard and a maple being destroyed by chestnut borer. I took breaks to watch Jeopardy, take a nap and lounge on the deck.

Lunch was a crunchy, fresh bok choy-peanut salad and dinner was scrambled tofu on toast. Even though it's technically work, I enjoyed reading a couple chapters of Diet for a Hot Planet by Anna Lappe while I ate. What a fantastic day! Sure, I did a lot of hard work. But it was all relaxing and fun. I even got my new issue of Bon Appetit in the mail! The best part? I have 3 more days like this coming right up.

Here's the recipe for this really easy bok choy salad. We made this on Tuesday night and the kids loved it! I made it again today with a bit of leftover bok choy.

Bok Choy Peanut Salad
You could do a lot to fancy this dish up or give it more color. But I love how easy it can be! This makes enough for 4-6 people.

1 package thin rice noodles (I like the maifun brown rice variety by Annie Chun)
1/2 cup peanut butter
3-4 Tbsp. tamari or Bragg's aminos
1 cup hot water (reserved from cooking noodles)
1 head bok choy, thinly sliced
(if this is a giant head, use about 1/2)
1 bunch green onions, thinly sliced
1 carrot, grated
1/2 bunch cilantro, chopped

Cook rice noodles according to package instructions. Usually this involves simply soaking the noodles in boiling hot water for about 2 minutes. Reserve 1 cup of the hot water. Rinse noodles in cold water.

In a pint jar, combine peanut butter, tamari and 1/2 cup of the hot water. I like to use an itty bitty wire whisk for this task. At first it'll look like it won't dissolve, but the hot water will melt the peanut butter and this will become a thin, salty, creamy sauce. Add more hot water if needed. Don't worry if it seems too salty, you're mixing this with a lot of noodles and bok choy.

Combine cooled noodles, sauce, bok choy, onions, carrot and cilantro in a large salad bowl. Use tongs to toss until everything is coated in the peanut sauce. If you want to serve this later in the week, just refrigerate the salad and dressing separately and mix it up just before serving.

Pear Tree is blooming!

2011-05-05T18:12:00.000-05:00

Despite much abuse in the form of my experimental bonsai-espalier hybrid pruning and shaping, the pear tree is alive and flowering. It really is Spring!

A Spring Roast

2011-05-01T11:47:00.004-05:00

It might be spring somewhere, but it's still pretty chilly in Minnesota. I think still being able to turn on the oven is the only advantage of the cool weather. I indulged my gluten-loving self this past week by heating up the house with a seitan roast. I try not to tempt Mike with too many glutinous foods in the house, but I was craving this!

A "before" photo

I didn't use a recipe for this one, but there was lots of poultry seasoning, Bragg's aminos and nutritional yeast in here- I remember that much. And, of course, the obligatory roasting veggies along with the seitan. The onion melted into the most divine texture!

Aside from eating the seitan and veggies straight-up, cold out of the fridge, I've used it in some stir fries. All it takes is a crazy hot cast iron skillet, a little oil and tons of vegetables to make a successful stir fry!

I was going to serve this one over quinoa or rice, but opted to just enjoy the veggies and seitan on their own. This dish included broccoli, carrots, mushrooms, green onions, tons of ginger and seitan. I finished the stir fry with a little sauce of lime juice and Bragg's aminos mixed with a bit of cornstarch so it thickened up to coat the veggies as soon as I added it. I think I ate about 3 cups of vegetables in one sitting!

Serious Vegetables

2011-04-30T17:33:00.000-05:00

It's time for some serious vegetables. For the past 2 weeks I've tried to only purchase fresh foods from the co-op. I'm king of doing a pantry challenge, but instead of NO grocery shopping, I'm buying plenty of fruits and vegetables to pair with my various pantry items that need to get cleared out.

One of my current vegetable loves are the new microgreens from Finally Farms in Minnesota. I really enjoyed this micro arugula with a little lemon and olive oil, but it really doesn't even need any dressing! In the background there is a broccoli, mushroom and tofu scramble.

Here's the easiest make-ahead salad ever. I cooked up a huge pot of quinoa and used about half in a salad and reserved half for other meals during the week. For the salad I added chopped up cucumber, carrot, parsley, basil and onion to the quinoa and dressed it with a lemon and olive oil vinaigrette. So simple and so good. We had this for dinner one night and brought it in our lunch boxes, too.

A Great Party

2011-04-29T17:56:00.003-05:00

The sign of a great party?

Three kinds of fermented cabbage for your (vegan) hotdog. How many parties have this? I'm pretty lucky to have friends like Heather and Jesse.

Heather's birthday party was a juicing party and I think that everyone needs to hear about this idea and copy it! I take no credit for it at all. They had a juicer whirring all night! There were "house juices" already made (grapefruit, apple-celery, and orange) and everyone got to combine any fruit or vegetable to make their own signature drink, with or without alcohol.

How many parties do you go to that are centered around fruits and vegetables? Not many, I'm guessing. What a great way to promote fruits and veggies!

Sure, not every party needs to have a public health message...But I think this is the coolest idea ever!

Mango Ginger Pound Cake (GF)

2011-04-27T20:32:00.001-05:00

This cake is seriously good. I needed to make a cake for a friend last week and wanted to do something a little different- hence the mango ginger flavor. Plus, pound cake is the best.

I used the vanilla-yogurt pound cake recipe from Veganomicon and just subbed some flours to make the cake gluten free and mango-y and ginger-y.

Mango Ginger Pound Cake
adapted from Veganomicon

1 cup vanilla soy yogurt
3/4 cup almond milk
1 1/4 cups sugar
1/2 cup canola oil
2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 Tbsp. finely grated fresh ginger
1 cup millet flour
1/2 cup white rice flour
3/4 cup tapioca starch
1.5 tsp. xanthan gum
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. ground dried ginger
1/2 ripe mango, peeled and diced

Preheat oven to 325F. Grease and flour (with white rice flour) a loaf pan. In a quart jar, combine yogurt, milk, sugar, oil, vanilla and fresh ginger. In a large bowl, whisk together flours, starch, xanthan, baking powder, baking soda, salt and dried ginger. Add the liquid mixture from the jar to the bowl and stir until fully combined. Fold in the mango pieces. Pour batter into the loaf pan and smooth the top with wet (clean) hands. Bake for 1 hour or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.

As soon as pan is cool enough to handle, invert pan and remove loaf to a cooling rack. Cool completely.
Serve as is or with a drizzle of frosting on top. I like to whisk together some of the orange glaze from the orange scones recipe in Vegan with a Vengeance, except with ginger instead of orange zest. Yum!

Easy Weeknight Meal

2011-04-26T18:16:00.001-05:00

Easy weeknight meal: steamed broccoli, made-ahead quinoa tabbouli, crockpot beans with sundried tomatoes

Whoa

2011-04-23T16:09:00.000-05:00

Crazy good 2012 melt at Modern Times Cafe. Piles of seitan. Garlic fries. Oh, yes.

Shiitake Logs!!!

2011-04-16T19:40:00.001-05:00

This past week I talked the whole family into helping me with a project. The stars must have been aligned or something, because no one even complained. This is especially remarkable because the project was setting up logs for growing shiitake mushrooms and I'm the only one in the family who likes them. The kids won't even touch mushrooms.

First, I marked the logs where I wanted the holes drilled- basically they just needed to be spaced apart in a diamond pattern.

Then Mike drilled the holes for me because he's the best partner ever. They had to be 7/16 of an inch diameter and 1 inch deep to fit the little shiitake plugs.

One of my sweet boys helped by pushing the plugs into the holes...until it was time to practice his instrument and play Wii!

And now I just wait. Once these are fully inoculated and start fruiting, they'll produce for at least 3 years. Then the magical healing powers of the shiitakes will take over my body and I'll live forever! Muahhhaaahhhaaa!

Note: I got the shiitake plugs from Field & Forest Products. They were at The Organic Farming Conference teaching a workshop- How could I resist?

Chile Puree

2011-04-14T16:23:00.000-05:00

I promised you a recipe to use up any leftover chile puree/pulp from your enchiladas and I'm delivering. This mild chile puree is packed with roasty toasty deep chile flavor and there's no way I could just strain it for use in enchiladas and discard the leftover pulp. That would be just plain wrong.

Here's how I used my chile puree- I imagine it would be a great addition to about 800 other recipes, too.

Chipotle White Bean & Sausage Soup
I love chipotle chilies, but can only use a bit without setting my mouth on fire. This soup uses the chipotle flavor and heat from some Field Roast sausages, but backs it up with mild chile flavor so it feels like chiles are a primary ingredient, without the searing heat!

2 Tbsp. olive oil
1/2 onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 carrot, sliced into thick rounds
1.5 cups cannellini beans, soaked overnight
1 chipotle style Field Roast meatless sausage, sliced into rounds
1 quart vegetable broth
1 tsp. ground cumin
1/2 cup mild roasted chile pulp
Salt to taste

In a pressure cooker, heat olive oil and then add onions. Saute until lightly browned, then add garlic and carrot. Cook just a minute or so- don't burn the garlic! Add the soaked and drained beans, sausage, broth, cumin and chiles. Seal up the pressure cooker, bring up to pressure and cook 5 minutes. Use cold running water on the exterior of the cooker to bring down pressure completely. Then unlock, stir and salt to taste. Soup should be rich and chile-brothy, with a bit of a kick. This is fantastic with corn bread!

Enchilada Love

2011-04-13T18:22:00.000-05:00

For as much as I love enchiladas, I don't make them nearly enough. And there aren't a ton of restaurants that will make enchiladas that are vegan or with local, organic cheese. So I think it's been over a year since I've had any. That's just wrong.

In my opinion, the key to good enchiladas is a good enchilada sauce. I usually just wing it- blending up some chiles, tomatoes (or tomatillos), onions and garlic. But today I wanted to go a bit more traditional and used this recipe. I used dried New Mexican chiles, though, because that's what I had. And I doubled the recipe. And I added 1/2 an onion and 3 cloves of garlic. And a smidge of maple. Oh, hell. I'll just type it out.

Enchilada Sauce
8 dried New Mexican chiles, seeds removed
Hot water
2 Tbsp. olive oil
1/2 onion, minced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/8 tsp. ground clove
1/2 tsp. ground cumin
Freshly ground black pepper
1 Tbsp. maple syrup (if needed)
Salt to taste

In a dry skillet, toast de-seeded chiles for just a bit - don't let them burn! Then remove the chiles to a bowl or pan and cover in hot water. Leave to soak for about 10 minutes. Heat up the same skillet and add the olive oil. Add the onions and saute until lightly browned. Add the garlic and saute a minute more.

Drain the chiles, reserving the soaking liquid.

Combine onion/garlic mixture with the chiles, all the spices and 2 cups of the reserved chile soaking liquid in a blender. Blend until smooth. Taste the sauce. If it's a bit bitter, add in the maple syrup. Salt to taste.

Strain the sauce through a sieve, reserving the chile pulp. [Note: I don't have a fancy blender, so I had a fair amount of pulp. I'll write about how I used this in another recipe next!]

Heat the strained sauce and simmer about 10 minutes. Then use your sauce to make enchiladas!

*************

I don't have a real recipe for the enchiladas. Basically I just dipped my organic corn tortillas in the sauce and filled them with kidney beans, spinach, corn and local/organic cheese.

Then I covered the whole pan in the leftover sauce. I could drink this enchilada sauce, it's so good. But I restrained myself.

And I don't even have a photo of these all baked up and bubbly, because by the time I got home from work, three quarters of the pan was devoured!

But you can imagine it, right?

Getting Dirty

2011-04-09T18:16:00.001-05:00

Just look at this soil!
I spent the day pruning raspberry and blackberry canes, the apple tree and the lilacs. I crunched up last year's dried cucumber vines and bean stems into the compost and spread the last of the composted manure in the beds. I did a little digging and said hello to about a half dozen wiggly pink worms in every shovelful. I could sit and stare at this soil for hours.

Mango Habanero Salsa

2011-04-06T16:49:00.000-05:00

A few weeks ago my friend Joe brought over a really fantastic pineapple-habanero dish that we devoured with tortilla chips. His mom is from Trinidad and he told us stories of eating this made with super fresh pineapples on the beach. It tastes like pure sunshine. Sweet, tart, hot and bright! I decided to try to replicate this sweet-hot salsa/salad myself, but ended up changing it a bit out of necessity. I planned on making this just as Joe did, but my pineapple wasn't ripe! Luckily, I had a ripe mango and just threw that in instead. Joe tells me that my adaptation stays true to the Trinidadian original.

PS- If you don't know how to cut a mango, you can see my buddies Joe and Nick teach you how! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uj_JzLCYY2Y

Mango-Habanero Salsa/Salad

It's a salsa/salad because it's good with chips, but you can eat it straight up, too. (Like many of my favorite things)

2 ripe mangoes, cut in small cubes

1/2 onion, minced

1 habanero chile, seeds removed, minced

1-2 cloves garlic, minced

1 big handful cilantro, chopped
Juice of 1 lime
Salt

Mix everything together. Eat.

Gluten-Free, Vegan, Root Beer Banjo Cake

2011-04-04T13:04:00.001-05:00

I'm not sure how many banjo-playing, mostly vegan, gluten free folks who love root beer there are out there. But if you know someone who fits this description, then please make them this cake- Mike loved his!

Gluten-Free, Vegan Root Beer Cake
This recipe will make enough for 2 banjo cakes, which I recommend doing in case you mess one up (I did). Choose your favorite vanilla frosting for this.

1 bottle Virgil's root beer (or other all-natural variety)
1 cup millet flour
1/2 cup white rice flour
1/4 cup tapioca starch
1 tsp. xanthan gum
1 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
Pinch of each ground spice: Nutmeg, cloves, cinnamon
1/3 cup canola oil
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/8 tsp. mint extract
1/2 cup nondairy milk
Homemade vanilla frosting
1 handful of chocolate chips

Pour root beer into a small saucepan and simmer until reduced to about 1 cup (about 10 minutes). Set aside to cool. Preheat oven to 350F. Line the bottom of 2 little 4" springform pans with parchment and grease the sides with a little oil. Do the same to a loaf pan.

Whisk together the millet flour, rice flour, starch, xanthan, baking powder, baking soda, salt and spices. In a separate bowl, whisk together the canola oil, sugar, vanilla, mint extract, milk and cooled root beer until the sugar is dissolved. Add liquid to the flour mixture and stir until thoroughly combined. Spoon batter into the two round pans and loaf pan. Smooth the top with wet fingers to prevent the batter from sticking to you. Bake for about 20 -25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Set aside to cool for about 10 minutes, then run a knife around the edges of the pans and carefully invert (for the loaf pan) or release the sides (springform). Allow to cool completely.

To form into a banjo cake, cut the loaf cake in half lengthwise to form two "necks". If you want to get detailed and carve a shapely peghead, go right ahead. I did and then found that my fluffy frosting covered it all up!

I made the Fluffy Vegan Buttercream from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World, but used 1 cup of Earth Balance margarine instead of 1/2 c. margarine and 1/2 c. shortening. You do what you think is right. You'll need to reserve about 1/2 cup of the frosting for the chocolate details.

After frosting both the round cakes and the "necks" with buttercream, place the neck firmly against the round cake on a serving platter. Then just melt a handful of chocolate chips with a smidge of nondairy milk (like 1 Tbsp.) and whisk into about 1/2 cup of the leftover frosting. Spoon this into a plastic baggie and snip off a teensy tinesy bit off the tip so you can pipe on the strings, bridge, frets, and hardware.

Serve with rootbeer and old-time music!

Midnight Minestrone

2011-03-30T12:55:00.004-05:00

At about 10pm my friend Sarah and I were watching finance and budgeting shows like we do every Saturday night (Shout out to Suze O!). During the show they briefly showed a big pot of minestrone soup when talking about a soup kitchen at a shelter. The point was to illustrate how terrible it would be to not have savings and end up in a shelter in an emergency. But Sarah and I looked at each other, thinking the same thing: Let's go to there. That soup looks crazy good.

Having already eaten dinner, I tried to brush off the craving. But at 11pm I was in my pajamas and still thinking about that tomato-ey broth and creamy beans. I had to make it.

I was out of both home-canned and store bought tomatoes, so I pulled out some of my home-canned tomato sauce for the soup. This stuff is precious, but I love the idea of a really rich, garlicky, wine-drenched tomato sauce made forming the base of a soup. Be sure you use a tomato sauce that is so good you want to drink it.

Also, I used some pickled green beans and pickled roasted red peppers in this soup for extra vegetables. I just rinsed them first to cut down on the vinegar-y taste. You could definitely use frozen, fresh or canned green beans here.

Midnight Minestrone

1 Tbsp. olive oil
1/2 yellow onion, diced
2 stalks celery, diced
1 carrot, halved and sliced
1 can cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
1/2 cup pickled green beans, rinsed
1/2 cup roasted red peppers, sliced
3-4 cups of really good tomato sauce
Water
1-2 handfuls of pasta (I used bowties)
1 bouillon cube

Heat olive oil in a large saucepan. Add onions, celery and carrot and saute until onions are beginning to lightly brown. Add the beans, red peppers and tomato sauce, then add water until you have a soup slightly thinner than you'd like (the pasta will thicken it up). Throw in the pasta and the bouillon cube and simmer about 8 minutes, until pasta and carrots are tender and the bouillon is dissolved.

Enjoy late at night, snuggled on the couch. Then eat more for breakfast!

A Little Unconventional

2011-03-28T10:54:00.001-05:00

Not everyone is going to like this snack. And even fewer are going to eat it for breakfast like I prefer to do. But I figure I'd better share this because it's crazy simple and really good for you, too.

Kimchi and Tahini on Crackers

Take 1 very sturdy (that's code for break-your-teeth-hard) whole grain cracker, such as Dr. Kracker or Wasa. Spread generously with tahini (that's sesame butter) and top with spicy kimchi (that's Korean-style fermented cabbage). Enjoy. Then make another because it's so damn good.

I love this snack/breakfast because:
1. It's crunchy, savory and creamy all in one.
2. Dr. Kracker flatbreads are from Texas, like me.
3. It's an excuse to eat kimchi for breakfast.
4. Slathering tahini on anything makes me think of the Seward Cafe.
5. The "Seedlander" variety of Dr. Kracker reminds me of Zoolander.
5. It's more exciting than toast. And I LOVE toast.

Birthday Drinks

2011-03-27T12:29:00.000-05:00

Last weekend was my birthday and, as a result, I'm now the proud owner of a Soda Stream water carbonater.

It's taken me a little while to write about this because it's a little overwhelming. With the ability to carbonate anything, how can I possibly choose?! Here are the drinks I've made so far:

My first carbonating endeavor was simple, just plain carbonated filtered water. I'm still marveling at the money (and bottles/cans) we'd save this summer by not buying La Croix.

Next I added fresh lemon juice and a little maple syrup (my usual lemonade). Of course, it's even better carbonated.

My first fail was a honey and rose water soda. The idea is good, but the execution was flawed. And the result...chunky {shudder}. I'll need to work on this one.

My favorite drink: TX grapefruit syrup (that's a jam that failed to set) with fresh mint and carbonated water. Amazing!

Also good: Strongly brewed mango ceylon tea (decaf for me), fresh lemon, mint, sugar syrup and carbonated water. It's sweet tea soda.

My latest experiments are with rosemary syrup and lavender syrup. Rosemary and grapefruit with fresh mint are perfect together: citrus-y tart with floral notes from the rosemary and bright mint!

I can't wait to until my herb garden isn't covered in snow and I can play with fresh lemon verbena, basil and stevia! And you don't really need a Soda Stream to make these drinks- any carbonated water will do.

Making these syrups is really easy- First, make a big batch of sugar syrup (Heat 1 part water and 1 part evaporated cane juice to boiling. Cook a minute or two and make sure sugar is all dissolved. Cool.). Then flavor small batches of the syrup with each herb/spice. If you're trying something new, I recommend simmering 1/2 cup sugar syrup with 1 Tbsp. of the dried herb for just a minute or two. Then cool and strain into an air-tight container. Store in the refrigerator.

Southern Style

2011-03-26T12:30:00.000-05:00

Because I feel the need to give things themes, my birthday was a "Dirty South" themed event. I ushered in the big 3-0 with biscuits & jam, pickles, black-eyed peas and greens, sweet tea, gangsta rap and red velvet cake. We planned on playing dominoes, but there was too much food on the table.

This is how it's done, people.

My BFF Sarah made red velvet cake and even boiled down beets to make a natural red food coloring because she knows I won't touch the artificial stuff. Just look at all that cream cheese frosting! (And, yes, I know I look like I'm about to gleefully slaughter the cake with that knife).

My other BFF Brandon drove in from Madison and whipped up the black eyed peas and greens from Appetite for Reduction. We cashed out the bottle of liquid smoke on this one.

My birthday was basically an excuse to eat biscuits all day. I made a double batch and used a little cookie cutter to make them much smaller than usual. Here they are with my favorite jams from this year: Raspberry Chipotle, Cranberry Ginger and Apricot Vanila.

If I was in the South still, these would have been picked from my own pecan tree, but the bulk bins at the co-op made do. I coated these in a mixture of melted Earth Balance and maple syrup and tossed them with chile powder, cayenne and cinnamon before roasting them. Positively addictive.

Does anyone else's family do this? We always had crackers with cream cheese and jalapeno jam when I was growing up, but most of my friends were baffled by this (they ate it anyways). These are Back to Nature brand "Ritz" style crackers with Tofutti cream cheese and my own jalapeno jam from way back in '08.

Not pictured: Pickled okra, sweet tea, gin 'n juice and a fantastic Trinidadian habanero-pineapple dish. I'll be making that soon and telling you all about it.

A Proper Pantry

2011-03-15T22:19:00.004-05:00

I know people are really busy these days, but I think it's really important to make time in life for baking cookies. Or bread. Or bars. Or really just cooking in general. So many people think they're too busy to bake cookies, but I think that with a properly organized pantry, it doesn't take more than 5-10 minutes of actual work to pull a couple dozen cookies out of the oven.

Remember the old study that showed that using a boxed mix isn't any faster than baking from scratch? Sometimes just the perception of something being time-consuming can keep you from doing it. Sure, baking cookies takes longer than opening a package of Oreos. But it's only a few minutes and the taste is SO much better. Not to mention, home-baked whole grain, naturally sweetened cookies with actual dark chocolate, fruit and nuts are a heck of a lot healthier.

As long as you have all of the ingredients you need and are able to read a recipe, you can bake a little something. But finding all the ingredients you need is pretty critical. If it's hard to find the baking soda and the chocolate chips are hidden, baking becomes a chore. This is where having an organized pantry comes in.

Labeling
I'm a big fan of organizing things in jars (what? you hadn't noticed?). And I'm an even bigger fan of using a label-maker in conjunction with said jars. This, paired with logical placement of the baking ingredients on the pantry shelf makes whipping up some cookies no big deal.

Grouping
I recommend grouping your ingredients as they are found in recipes rather than alphabetically. So my dry baking ingredients are together (baking powder, sugar, cocoa, xanthan gum), my liquid sweeteners are together (agave, stevia, brown rice syrup, etc.) and my flours are together (millet, tapioca, wheat, pastry, etc.). Spices are grouped similarly, but then alphabetized within each group.

Stocking Up

It's also important not to run out of your baking staples. I like to know that on any given day I have the ingredients make nearly any basic baked good: gluten free chocolate chip cookies, a loaf of whole wheat bread, biscuits, cornbread, etc. Sure, this required extra attention when making my grocery list- But it's pretty easy if you use a grocery list template!

My list template is an Excel spreadsheet of all the staple grocery store items I never want to run out of. There's a column for us to check off when we use the last of something. This means that everyone in the family is responsible for adding to the list as they use the last of foods. Then when it's time to shop, I just grab the list, do a quick check and then head to the co-op! Everyone's list is different, but just send me an email if you'd like my copy to use as a starting point for creating your own.

My guess is that if you're still reading this, you're either already doing most of these things yourself and this is making perfect sense or you're concerned about my sanity for caring so much about the organization of my pantry. But I promise that it helps make cooking and baking so much faster and easier if you organize things and always keep the staples in stock. And anything that enables me to bake two dozen Chocolate Trail Mix Cookies (when it was parent-teacher conference night, I had to work until after 7pm and still hadn't made my dinner at 8pm) is worth it.

Crazy Antioxidant Salad

2011-03-13T12:23:00.001-05:00

I feel healthier just being in the presence of this salad! Lettuce, alfalfa & onion sprouts, carrots, avocado, blueberries and sunny seeds- heck yeah!
The dressing is a sweet & tart blend of pomegranate molasses, balsamic vinegar, flax oil and Himalayan pink salt.

New Favorite Things

2011-03-12T19:25:00.001-06:00

I'm totally in love with these products this week. No, no one is paying me to tell you about some super-sexy, trendy products. These foods are about as un-sexy as you can get. That's right, I'm excited about crackers and prunes.

Despite what you might think from this selection, I am not constipated.

But I DO love whole grains and delicious fruit!

I'm a longtime fan of Wasa brand crackers, but sometimes they're just a bit too...crunchy. And healthy. These thin & crispy Wasa crackers are light and crispy, with big salt flakes on top and excellent rosemary flavor. While they're not 100% whole grain, they are mostly whole grain and really fantastic spread with hummus or chevre of the cashew or goat variety. I've stocked up just in case my co-op runs out.

I got a craving for prunes earlier this week and figured that wasn't the sort of craving I should ignore (unlike my cravings for chocolate, peanut butter and salty snacks). The organic d'noir prunes are made by Sunsweet- I didn't even know they made organic fruits or that we carried any of their products at my co-op, so I was really surprised to #1: see that these were organic and #2: taste how freaking amazing they are. But after checking them out, I found out that they're a cooperative- Hooray! Love those grower co-ops. I seriously had to ration these out for myself because I could have eaten the whole bag in one sitting. Dangerous!!! They weren't fully dried like so many other, not-awesome, prunes. These are plump, moist and packed with plum-y flavor.

I think I'll dedicate this post to the fact that I'll be turning 30 next Sunday. This is the start of old age, people. Prunes and crackers.

Plans for Spring

2011-03-10T19:00:00.000-06:00

It's time to start my garden planning! While I know that it'll be at least a month and probably two before I can plant anything, I have to start planning my garden now for my sanity. The snow was melty today and my sundresses were calling my name. Even the cats are starting to consider going outside again (they change their minds when they see the snow, but they keep checking).

Part of my restlessness comes from recently attending the MOSES Organic Farming Conference a couple of weeks ago. Being surrounded by farmers just makes me want to plant something! While at the conference I picked up a couple of elderberry sticks. These little twigs will sprout new elderberry bushes this year. For now they're forming roots and shoots in a little mason jar in my kitchen. Soon they'll be growing among the day lilies in the backyard! Then I can make juice, jam and tinctures with them!

I picked up something else exciting at the conference: Shiitake mushroom plugs! These thimble-shaped plugs will fit into holes drilled into fresh logs in the yard and produce shiitakes for about 3 years. I might have gone a bit overboard by getting so many... especially considering that I'm the only person in my family who likes shiitakes. Luckily, I have some friends who will soon have freshly cut logs for me and I'll supply them with some plugs.

Also new for the garden plan this year: hazelnuts, okra and asparagus (assuming it successfully comes back). Oh, I can't wait for spring!

Salad Bar Night!

2011-03-04T17:47:00.000-06:00

Inspired by an extra-awesome salad bar salad at my co-op, I decided to repeat the experience at home.

This is a fantastic way to use up all the veggies in the fridge! I had locally grown hydroponic lettuce, a CA grown spring mix, thinly sliced carrots, and chopped cauliflower in the biggest mixing bowl I could find. Then the optional toppings were: artichoke hearts, yellow bell pepper, baked tofu, kalamata olives, home-pickled roasted red peppers and sunflower seeds. Dressing options were vegan ranch or olive oil and fig vinaigrette.

This might be a new Friday night tradition!

Bean and Sausage Stew

2011-03-02T20:33:00.000-06:00

It's March and I'm not really excited that it was -2 this morning and that we're getting snow tomorrow. Basically the only exciting part about cold weather right now is soup. Yes, soup is exciting. Don't laugh.

I'm especially excited about this soup because it's pretty different from my staples: Indian-style rasams and brothy Asian noodle soups. This soup deserves to be called a stew and it's a "meat and potatoes" type meal!

I used the Tofurky kielbasa in this recipe, but if I had to do it over, I'd use the Field Roast sausages because I generally just like those better. And they just went on sale at the co-op today!!!

Bean and Sausage Stew

1 Tbsp. olive oil
1 yellow onion, diced
2 celery stalks, diced
1 large carrot, diced
2 medium gold potatoes, peeled and diced
2 vegan sausages (I used Tofurky Kielbasa), sliced
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 tsp. paprika
1/2 tsp. chili powder
1/2 tsp. fennel seed, ground
1/2 tsp. ground cumin
1/4 tsp. celery seed, ground
1 16 oz. can cannellini beans, drained
1 Tbsp. mustard
Salt and pepper to taste

In a heavy soup pot, heat olive oil. Add the onion, celery and carrot and saute until onions begin to become transparent. Add the potato and sausages. Stir and cook just a couple minutes, lightly browning the sausages. Add the garlic and all the spices and beans. (I ground the fennel and celery seeds in a mortar). Stir and immediately add enough water just to cover. Bring to a boil and then lower heat to maintain a steady simmer. Simmer for about 15-20 minutes or until carrots and potatoes are tender and broth has thickened. Add mustard and salt and pepper to taste. Serve with a big hunk of bread and a bright, fresh green salad!

Hackberry's in La Crosse

2011-02-24T22:13:00.001-06:00

Pretty fantastic portabello burger with arugula and sweet onion marmalade. They even had vegan mayo!

I've meant to try this restaurant each time I've been to the Organic Farming Conference in La Crosse, WI. Finally I'm here. It's located above the People's Food Co-op.

Spiced Eggplant: A VT Recipe

2011-02-24T17:52:00.001-06:00

I think I've been reading Vegetarian Times magazine since I was 11 or 12 years old. It was pretty lonely as a vegetarian tween in Texas, at least in regards to food camaraderie. This magazine was an older, wiser vegetarian, teaching me not to rely only on veggie corn dogs and fake nuggets, but to actually eat mostly vegetables.

But I have something to confess. In all these years of reading the magazine, I have rarely used any of the recipes. I love to flip through the magazine, noting interesting flavor combinations, cooking techniques or new products I'd like to try. I read the articles and look at the pictures. But I think it's been a year since I've used a recipe from this (or any) magazine.

When I saw the feature on pressure cooker recipes in the February issue, though, I knew I had to give them a try! I love my pressure cooker, but mostly just use it for beans and broth. The Spiced Eggplant with Feta (optional) and Pomegranate Seeds caught by eye right away. I love that the dish calls for pomegranate molasses, pomegranate seeds and fresh mint- fantastic ingredients to compliment tomato-ey eggplant!

I did make a few substitutions to the recipe since I am physically incapable of following a recipe (including my own) exactly. I used canned fava beans instead of canned chickpeas and I didn't have Aleppo pepper, so I used a combo of paprika and cayenne. Maybe it's because of my substitutions, but I didn't think this dish was especially flavorful. I ended up needing to pressure cook it for 10 minutes, rather than 6, but I think that's because I used regular eggplant instead of Japanese eggplant (to my credit, I did cut it smaller to compensate for the larger diameter and heartier texture).

I loved the combo of pomegranate seeds and pomegranate molasses with the eggplant and will definitely be stealing that flavor combo for other dishes. And the color combination is killer. Maybe a marinade for eggplant kebabs with the molasses? Or doing a cold salad with these ingredients and roasted eggplant? Or maybe just more spices with this same dish would bring it more into my favor? Don't get me wrong- it's pretty good. But it's just not quite as stellar as I imagined.

Next up is the pressure cooked curried cauliflower. This one sounds promising!

Belated Fat Bombs

2011-02-22T21:32:00.000-06:00

This post is so late, I'm tempted to lie and tell you that I made this crazy indulgent appetizer for President's Day. Because who doesn't celebrate President's Day with spicy, cream cheese stuffed fat bombs?

But the truth is that this was one of my Superbowl snacks. I'm just belated in sharing it with you by about 2 weeks. Just think of it this way, I'm 50 weeks early for Superbowl 2012!

I wanted to do this recipe after drooling over our co-op's cheese buyer's recipe for cream cheese stuffed jalapeños wrapped in bacon. Sounds crazy good, right?! As you can guess, they weren't vegan.

This version is, though. Even those these are vegan, they aren't in any way healthy. I can't in good conscience recommend consuming them more than once a year. Here's how to make them.

Most of this recipe is just vegan versions of the ingredients from the original recipe-- nothing too creative. I thought that the Tofutti might be lacking in a bit of flavor (or rather that it has a bit of its own weird flavor), so I added some Veganaise to make it a little more spreadable and flavorful. I don't recommend doing this. It made the final product taste TOO fatty and rich. I did add in a dash of tamari and 3-4 minced green onions. I think this was fantastic.

One change I'd like to try is to brush the bacon with coconut oil before baking. I think it'll help it crisp up some since it's baked instead of fried up in a skillet.

Vegan Cream Cheese Stuffed Jalapeños Wrapped in Bacon

6-8 jalapeños, halved lengthwise and seeded
1/2 tub Tofutti cream cheeze, room temperature
3-4 green onions, minced
Dash of tamari or soy sauce
1 package LightLife Smart Bacon
16 toothpicks

Preheat oven to 350F. Make sure all seeds and most of the inner membranes are removed from the jalapeños, unless you like things pretty spicy. Stir together cream cheeze, onions and tamari. Using a spoon or knife, stuff jalapeño halves with cream cheeze mixture, just until level with the top, not overflowing too much. Carefully separate the pieces of bacon from each other. Wrap bacon around each jalapeño half and secure with a toothpick. Place jalapeños on a parchment-lined or greased baking sheet and bake for about 10 minutes or until bacon is crisped slightly and cheeze is bubbly and hot.

Serve immediately... or enjoy cold the next day, straight out of the tupperware, while standing in front of the fridge. I think they're best cold.

Delicious medicine

2011-02-13T14:46:00.001-06:00

Despite tons of sugar, I'm pretty sure this sorbet float is medicinal.

Ciao Bella blood orange sorbet with Reed's extra ginger brew. I'm alternating hot broth with sorbet floats depending on whether I have chills or sweats at that moment.

Boomerang Errands

2011-02-06T09:27:00.001-06:00

My vacation is coming to an end this weekend. It's been a fabulous 11 days off of work with plenty of relaxation and family time. I've never read so many forensic pathology mystery novels within such a short period of time (six?!). With Mike injured and the kids sick, it's been like a hospital ward in our living room, but it was kind of nice to have everyone home and lounging around all week!

But you know me. I had to have a big to do list for the vacation, too. I go crazy if I don't accomplish something each day, so this was really for my own sanity that I set goals for my vacation. The universe was working against me, though. All of my errands were of the boomerang variety.

In The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin, she writes about errands that result in more errands- She calls them boomerang errands. These are rarely satisfying and end up lengthening your to do list rather than shortening it. She advises that the important thing is to just get started on them. This was my week.

Task: Add a stabilizing back to my nose snail so it stops moving around. (The snail is a combo stud and ring designed by Verno at The Holy Mackerel)
  Resulting Task: Two days later, ring has loosened and I have to go back for another appt. Maybe because I had the sniffles and kept blowing my nose? Luckily, it's a free appt.

Task: Get the scratch on my car fixed (It was keyed in December)
  Resulting Task: After 2 appointments at the dealership during the vacation, they tell me that it won't buff out and will cost $1,200 to fix. Then had to file a police report to file an insurance claim. Now have to contact insurance agent and make another appt. at dealership and leave my car for 3-4 days.

Task: Get teeth cleaned
  Resulting Task: Teeth are clean, but have cavities (Noooooo!!!!!!!). Two more appointments scheduled now. Dentist says to buy an electric toothbrush so I stop over-brushing.

Task: Get my annual physical
  Resulting Task: Doc says to get massage or chiropractic care for my crazy tense shoulders/neck and headaches. (Darn! I have to get lots of massages? :) ) More appointments scheduled. Also must locate evening primrose oil in vegetarian capsules (my favorite brand discontinued it) because it is my wonder drug.

Task: Take Hannah to the vet for shots and check up
  Resulting Task: Increased her Benedryl to try to make her stop scratching her face off. Didn't work. Now need a follow-up appointment for steroids or prescription food. Awesome.

Task: Meet with home insurance rep. to update coverage
  Resulting Task: Not done. First need to get grandma's ring appraised. 7-10 days later I can pick it up and then schedule an appointment.

So while I know that I got plenty done during my vacation, I'm left with a longer list than I started with. Oh, well. At least I still found plenty of time to work out every day, read every day, eat good food, sleep late, and generally just lounge around. Here's a great example of some of my favorite activities:

Eating almond milk ice cream, reading a mystery novel, snuggling with the animals and surrounded by the space heater and heating pad. I love multi-tasking.

Nothing Better

2011-02-05T11:27:00.000-06:00

Is anything better than apricot-vanilla jam on a homemade biscuit?

The correct answer is no.

Fire in a Jar

2011-02-04T20:44:00.000-06:00

Tigress in a Pickle wasn't kidding when she said that anyone in snowy winter weather needs to make this mustard. It's insane. Firey. Gingery. Garlicky. Mustardy.

So far I've eaten it on a Tofurky sandwich, dipped pretzels in it, and eaten it straight up off a spoon. Oh, and on a pumpernickel bagel with Tofutti cream cheese. I'm basically just grabbing anything I can and slathering it in mustard. I'm deciding what to eat based on how well it will serve as a mustard delivery system.

This is definitely a new staple in our house. It takes all of about 2 minutes to mix the ingredients up. Then it sits for 24 hours and you add a few more spices and then blend. SIMPLE!!!

I went a little easy on the cayenne, though. Instead of 3 tsp., I used only 2. Maybe I wouldn't eat it quite as fast with more cayenne, but I'm not sure I could take that much more heat- This stuff is crazy hot and flavorful. Be sure to check out Tigress' blog for the recipe.

Brown Rice to the Rescue

2011-01-31T10:43:00.000-06:00

Ah, it's good to be back. Not that I really went anywhere.

These past couple weeks were overwhelming. I was super busy at work (tons of outreach work, plus hiring someone new!), Mike was injured while sledding and couldn't walk for a week, the St. Paul Winter Medallion Hunt started and then we all got colds. That meant we ordered pizza 3 times in one week. And picked up burritos at Mississippi Market. And ordered Chinese. I wasn't doing too much scratch cooking.

But I did manage to cook a big pot of brown rice and beans each week. I think that's the only thing that saved us from ordering pizza FIVE times in one week. Thank goodness for brown rice. It goes with everything and is so filling it's practically a meal in itself.

One night I paired the leftover (planned-over) brown rice with cannellini beans, home-canned tomatoes and home-canned pickled red peppers for a unexpectedly popular dinner. I sauteed some onions and garlic in lots of olive oil and then added dried thyme, ground fennel seed and dried basil from last year's garden. Then I added the beans, rice, peppers and tomatoes and simmered until all the tomato juice was absorbed and it looked almost like a risotto. Then I stirred in fresh basil (a real treat this time of year). I'll definitely be repeating this dish- Maybe next time I'll even write down the recipe!

Another night I had some leftover red beans, but no grains. So I heated the beans up in a little bit of barbecue sauce, whipped up some ranch dressing and used both to top a fresh green salad with lots of red pepper strips (red peppers have been on sale at the co-op, so we're eating LOTS of them). This reminded me of when I used to order baked potatoes at barbecue joints in Texas and eat them swimming in butter, barbecue sauce and ranch. I like to think this is just a touch healthier.

Another favorite leftover rice dish here, but this one I usually make for breakfast. I like to heat up my griddle and throw on some mushrooms and Field Roast sausage slices (usually the apple sage ones). Then I top them with leftover rice so that the rice basically steams over the browning mushrooms and sausage. Just before serving, I mix it all together and sprinkle with lots of black pepper and a little sea salt. Oh, yes. Delightful. I love savory breakfasts!

So there you have it. Those are some of my favorite uses for leftover beans and rice.

This week is bound to be more relaxing and allow for some real cooking. The Medallion Hunt is over (sad, but that means I'll sleep at night instead of tromping through snowy parks). Mike is on the mend (he's able to walk and sit, trying to build his strength back up for work). And me? I'm still on vacation!!!

Bloggy Vaycay

2011-01-20T22:27:00.000-06:00

I'm taking a short vacation from blog world this week while things are a bit stressful in my world. I'll be back real soon. Maybe even this weekend. But maybe not for a week or so. Luckily, I have a work vacay coming up next week...so I should get some more free time then.

In the meantime, be entertained by photos of my cats with captions, LOLcats style. These are from a book I made for my stepsons for Christmas.

Dining with My Self

2011-01-13T19:14:00.000-06:00

Tonight I'm treating myself to Orange "Chicken" with brown rice at Bravo on Grand Ave.

I love a restaurant that offers brown rice!

My Favorite Water

2011-01-11T19:50:00.001-06:00

I'm super excited that today my new reverse osmosis water filter is installed and ready to use!

I'm a big fan of tasteless water and water without pharmaceuticals in it. I like to choose which drugs I take, thank you very much. And I'm so sick of hauling 3 gallon plastic jugs from the co-op. So, hooray!!! I hope this leads to drinking more water!

Quick and Simple

2011-01-10T22:24:00.000-06:00

Meals have been pretty simple the past couple weeks. And we have plans for more of that. Mike has a great NY resolution to learn to make super yummy sauces to pair with staples like beans and rice. I'm in favor of that!!!

Tonight's dinner was bright green with this past summer's basil pesto. I think I used an entire cup of this emerald sauce, plus 3 heads of broccoli. I think I'll embrace a new philosophy that the quantity of vegetables should equal the quantity of pasta in a dish like this. So simple, yet so delicious. Pasta. Pesto. Broccoli.

This next meal we enjoyed right after New Years Day (leftover black eyed peas) and then again the next night! The black eyed peas, rice and spinach were super good, of course. I doused mine in plenty of tabasco vinegar that's still going from the bumper crop of tabasco chiles in 2009. The waffle fries were the big star, though. I got some of the frozen Alexia brand waffle fries that are seasoned up somethin' crazy. I usually don't get these since they're not organic, but what the heck? Live a little. The kids used them to scoop up black eyed peas and greens and, I must say, that was a fabulous idea. They then suggested that we have these for dinner every night. Or every hour. Or every minute.

Seitan Noodle Soup

2011-01-05T21:39:00.000-06:00

There's really only one thing I want to eat when I have a cold. Seitan Noodle Soup.

Well, okay, I also wanted popcorn and Purely Decadent ice cream. And a gazillion glasses of lemon ginger Prometheus Springs drink and lemon ginger Yogi Tea. But I really love noodle soup the best when I'm sick.

And it's pretty awesome that this soup is easy to make, since I usually want it when I have zero energy. But my cold that was steadily getting worse yesterday is steadily getting better today. So here's the recipe.

Seitan Noodle Soup

2 Tbsp. olive oil
1 onion, chopped
2 carrots, coarsely chopped
2 stalks celery, coarsely chopped
1 package seitan (Upton's original is good)
6 cloves garlic, pressed or minced
2-3 inch hunk of ginger, finely grated
2 quarts water
2 Rapunzel bouillon cubes- herbed variety
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
Handful fresh parsley, minced
Couple handfuls of pasta (I like fusilli)
Salt and pepper to taste
2 Tbsp. lemon juice

Heat olive oil in a large soup pot. Add onion, carrot and celery and saute a couple minutes, until onions are beginning to get translucent. Add seitan and continue cooking until it begins to brown. Add garlic, ginger, water, bouillon, yeast and parsley. Bring to a simmer and cook until carrots are tender.

Add pasta and continue to cook until it's tender (don't overcook- the pasta will cook more when you go back for leftovers all day). Add salt, pepper and lemon juice.

Enjoy while watching a gazillion episodes of 30 Rock on Netflix.

Persian Stuffed Grape Leaves

2011-01-02T20:33:00.000-06:00

When a coworker loaned me his old copy of Food of Life: A book of ancient Persian and modern Iranian cooking and ceremonies by Najmieh Batmanglij, I made a few copies of the recipes before I returned the book- And I'm so glad I did! Turns out the book has been out of print for a while, but now is being republished in Feb 2011. Judging from this recipe, I think it'll be a winner.

Of course, there aren't too many vegan recipes in the book (except the pickles!). But most are easily vegan-izable, like these stuffed grape leaves. I LOVE Greek dolmas, the simple rice and dill stuffed grape leaves usually served cold with lots of lemon. These are similar in that they use dill and lemon, but are much more filling because they have split peas or lentils in them, too. I think these would be lovely with a tomato sauce on top, but I also enjoyed the unusual lemon and sugar coating.

A recipe isn't totally necessary here, since nearly anything would taste good in grape leaves, in my opinion. But here it is, with all of my modifications.

Stuffed Grape Leaves

1 cup white rice

1 1/2 cups water

1/2 cup red wine

1 "Not Beef" bouillon cube

1/2 cup dried tomatoes (chopped if large)(dried apricots would also be good)

1/2 cup split peas or lentils

1 tsp. salt

1 cup chopped green onions

1/2 cup chopped fresh dill

1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley

Juice of 3 lemons

1/4 tsp. black pepper

3/4 tsp ground cinnamon

50 (approx.) jarred grape leaves, rinsed

2 Tbsp. Earth Balance or olive oil

2 Tbsp. sugar

Start by cooking up some white rice and some split peas or lentils. For the rice, combine rice, water, red wine, bouillon and dried tomatoes in a saucepan, cover and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to a simmer and cook until rice is tender- very slightly underdone is okay. Meanwhile, cover the split peas or lentils with water and simmer until tender. I used chora dal (split white lentils) and they were done about when the rice was. But depending on the legume you choose, it could take longer. Drain the lentils if needed.

In a large bowl, combine the cooked rice and lentils, salt, onions, fresh herbs, the juice of 2 of the lemons reserve one), pepper and cinnamon. Taste and adjust seasoning as needed before stuffing leaves.

Preheat oven to 350F. Prepare a 9 x11 inch glass baking dish by oiling lightly and placing 2 layers of flat grape leaves in the bottom.

Then take 2 grape leaves, overlapping, and place about 1-2 Tbsp. of filling on one end. Tuck in the sides of the leaves and roll towards you until the filling is sealed inside. Place stuffed leaves in the baking dish, seam down.

Once all the leaves are stuffed, dot the top with bits of Earth Balance or sprinkle with olive oil. Pour 1 1/2 cups of water over the leaves and cover with foil (or an oven safe lid, if you have one). Bake for 45 minutes at 350F.

Meanwhile, mix together the remaining lemon's juice with the sugar until dissolved. I know it sounds weird, but it's super good! The final dish doesn't taste sweet, the sugar just cuts the acid of the lemon slightly. Pull the grape leaves out of the oven after 45 min. and pour the sugar-lemon mixture over the top. Cover and return to the oven for another 20 minutes. Then the leaves should be tender and the liquid mostly absorbed.

I recommend serving with something. I didn't really plan out what to have as a side dish until I put these on the plate and realized how naked and boring it looked. I threw together a mildly Middle Eastern salad with olives and herbs. This would have been great with a really fun salad with pomegranate seeds and walnuts or something. Or some bread.

But for a quick snack, the leftovers are fantastic! I've eaten them cold out of the fridge for a very satisfying mini-meal. They've got grains, protein and greens all in one little package- pretty perfect. Also, I'm confident that you could prepare everything in advance and just do the baking later in the week for an easy meal.

On an altogether different note:

The pantry challenge of 2010 is over. I refilled my bulk jars (or at least many of them) today. I'm proud to say that I was able to empty nearly all of them and get them washed- so this end-of-year pantry eating is pretty practical for a fresh start in the new year. Now I'm pretty excited to have enough flours and nuts to do all the baking I want!!!

Lucky Ducky

2010-12-27T21:40:00.000-06:00

I'm feeling pretty lucky right now. We had a fantastic Christmas with family we love, delicious food and way too many gifts. Christmas Eve included a candlelight dinner with homemade tamales and eggnog.

If you're like us and not drinking dairy eggnog, but not wild about tons of soy either, you'll LOVE this recipe.

Soy-free, Dairy-free Eggnog

1 1/2 cups almond milk

1/2 cup unsweetened Mimicreme (cashew & almond creme)

2 Tbsp. brown sugar

1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

Pinch of ground cinnamon

Bigger pinch of ground nutmeg

Blend all this together in a blender or shake it up really good in a sealed jar. Serve in a frosty cold mug with a pinch of nutmeg on top- Yum!

I knew I wanted to serve cinnamon rolls on Christmas morning, so the night before I whipped up some of my favorite gluten free cinnamon rolls and refrigerated them in the pan, ready to go in the oven the next day. Here's a tip to add to the recipe, though: when rolling up the dough, just put the whole log in the freezer for an hour or so to firm it up nicely. It makes slicing the rolls a breeze!

I hate to brag, but these were crazy good. I used the orange glaze from the orange scone recipe in Vegan with a Vengeance for a little something special. But really, these don't need frosting. But I guess I don't need cinnamon rolls.

We all got some great presents this year. My favorites? A reverse osmosis water filter for the kitchen, CSI game for the Wii, tickets to see Snoop Dogg and tons of my favorite pens!

Billie Cat's favorite (only) present is a new bed.

Unfortunately for Billie Cat, Hannah Dog also loves this present.

Bag 'o Veggies

2010-12-22T18:56:00.000-06:00

I can't believe I've never done this before. This weekend I washed and chopped a variety of vegetables and threw them into a bag to use in a stir fry on Monday night. I also had leftover rice to incorporate. But Monday's plans went awry because of more snow and I ended up cooking something else.

Yesterday I arrived home late and decided to cook the stir fry for myself. About 3 minutes later I was eating- crazy fast dinner!!!

The best news is that I still had more prepped veggies leftover, so I recreated the same thing tonight. I think I'm going to start prepping a bag full of mixed vegetables to use every week- for a quick stir fry or even to snack on. This week's bag contained yellow onions, carrots, celery, broccoli and cabbage.

This is especially nice for the nights I eat by myself and think, "hmmm... I could have hot chocolate, baguette and avocado for dinner, right?" I tend to skimp on the veggies sometimes when I'm by myself.

Here's all that I added to my stir fry tonight besides the bag of veggies and cooked rice: ginger powder, red pepper flakes, the juice of 1 orange and tamari. And somehow it was totally amazing.

Now I'm sitting back to finish my library book. I'm a serious binge reader, and I'll do nearly anything to read a mystery book cover to cover. I'm going to try to finish it tonight so I don't have to call in sick tomorrow (just kidding, coworkers!) (kind of!).

Beans with Wine!

2010-12-19T21:43:00.000-06:00

My pantry challenge is morphing. I'm not on a total shopping hiatus anymore. I'm buying fresh foods- veggies, fruit, almond milk, etc. But I'm trying to cook primarily from the pantry still. I still have so many dried beans and grains! Purple barley? I forgot I even bought that! More millet? Really? And those red beans. I don't even like red beans. Why did I ever buy them?

I'll be eating them, though.

Here's my new favorite way to cook just about any mix of beans (especially beans with a little barley). I just toss the soaked beans in the pressure cooker with a chopped onion, a little dried thyme, a couple of cups of red wine and a bouillon cube. The beans come out amazing!!! They need a little salt and that's it. We had beans with biscuits on Saturday and the kids loved this simple meal. Then I had them again today with toast for a really hearty lunch.

I really enjoyed picking up some veggies this weekend and ate a giant Greek salad with breakfast. I used up leftover olives, artichoke hearts and the last of the red wine vinegar in the process, so it still sort of helped clean out the pantry. Mostly it just made me happy, though.

Also on the menu today was hot chocolate. I found marshmallows in the pantry buried underneath the seaweed! I'm super loving my new chocolate Fiesta dishes (a little early Christmas present to myself...).

My big accomplishment for this weekend was finishing this puzzle that was pretty difficult only because the pieces all fit to multiple other pieces. I kept rearranging the end pieces right up until I put the last dozen pieces in. I wish I could get paid to work jigsaw puzzles and could just do that all day every day.

Trouble cat likes working puzzles, too.

This Week's Dinners

2010-12-16T20:55:00.001-06:00

I'm feeling pretty good about the fact that I haven't done much grocery shopping to speak of since December 9. Heck yeah! Using up those pantry foods! Of course, all that saved money is just going towards Christmas presents and the car insurance that's due this month (seriously? December must be the worst month to have to pay car insurance).

I did buy some rice milk for the kids and some bread for lunchbox meals. But it's been pretty strictly pantry food for the last week. Here's what we've enjoyed:

On Sunday I made the "Everyday Chipotle Tamales" from Veganomicon with only a few minor changes to the recipe to account for missing ingredients. Wow! These were awesome! I ended up with a ton since I had only used 1/2 of the filling when all the masa was used up. So I prepped another round of masa and just froze a ton of tamales for another day. The kids really enjoyed unwrapping the little tamale presents.

Yum!

On Monday night we enjoyed basmati rice with a crockpot dal. I threw together a can of coconut milk with all of the rest of our red lentils, carrots, parsnips and lots of frozen kale. I used a few tablespoons of red curry paste and some extra ginger and just let it cook all day long. I've been loving this with some mango pickle in my lunch box this week. And it's super fun to dip papadums into.

Last night I had a hankering for tortilla soup, but didn't have tortillas, cilantro, avocado, corn, zucchini or really any of the fun ingredients I usually add to this dish. But I went ahead and made the broth with pureed dried New Mexican chiles, onions, garlic, epazote and tomatoes. Then I added some soaked black beans and pressure cooked it up for a quick dinner. This has got to be the most flavorful soup base ever! It definitely felt like it was missing something, but luckily my sweetie showed up with some Whole Grain Milling Co. chips for me to crush in the soup. That made all the difference!

It basically looks and tastes like a really rich and flavorful black bean soup. This is a shot from my desk at work today. My lunch? "tortilla" soup, satsuma mandarin, almonds & craisins, oatmeal chocolate chip cookies.

I'm going to have to purchase some veggies soon here before things get too boring. We've got a bit of cabbage, a sad little delicata squash, lots of carrots from the garden and frozen kale. But I'm out of grapefruits and my veggie intake needs to expand beyond pickled okra and green beans, so things are going to get desperate pretty quick here.

Snowed in!

2010-12-12T14:45:00.000-06:00

Usually I choose to do a pantry challenge based on overspending on my grocery budget or being bored. But this weekend's pantry challenge was brought to me by 17 inches of snow.

I thought about pulling the sled and walking to the store yesterday (before the co-op had to close early). But I got about a block away from the house and turned back. In case you've never tried it before, walking in snow up to your knees is hard. Really hard.

The whole family's been snowed in for nearly 2 days and I'm realizing just how much I value my alone time on the weekends. But I'm taking this opportunity to clean and cook and work puzzles and do lots of laundry. Mike's doing a fantasmical job of entertaining the kids with games of Risk, football and poker.

So far we've enjoyed: popcorn, 32-bean soup over rice, biscuits with jam, hot tea, hot cocoa, left over mac 'n cheese, peanut butter toast and probably more that I've forgotten. Shoveling can seriously stimulate my appetite. I promise some food photos next. And who knows? Maybe they'll plow our street and I can leave the house!

2 Quick Meals

2010-12-10T14:39:00.001-06:00

On Wednesday and Thursday nights I cook for just myself, so sometimes I go extravagant and other times I go for convenience. This week was all about convenience!

I picked up some of the Field Roast apple sage sausages and used them 2 ways for very different meals.

Wednesday I had a sausage on the side of an arugula, grapefruit, cilantro, mint and peanut salad. Fresh and light- just perfect for after a long day.

On Thursday I used the Rising Moon butternut squash ravioli with spinach, sausage and balsamic vinegar/Earth Balance sauce. I'm pretty sure those packages are meant to serve more than one person...but they just served me :)

Spicy!

2010-12-09T21:38:00.000-06:00

I was so surprised when I arrived home last night to find brand new homemade risers on my spice shelves. I knew Mike was planning on making these some day, but I squealed with delight when I saw how great they looked!

Mike's woodworking is almost exclusively with ~~dumpstered~~ reclaimed wood. I love that the materials are put to good use now, instead of sitting in a landfill or getting burned. He mostly makes banjos, but now he can say he's made a spice risers, too. And I had a fantastic time organizing them, #1: by frequency of use and #2: alphabetically.

On another note, I'm a big fan of Microplane graters. But I was really disappointed when the plastic housing of my box grater broke. So I wrote them a little note explaining this and they're sending me a brand new one! I love it when companies stand by their products and know how to make a bad customer experience into a great one. So good job, Microplane!

Cranberry Cupcakes!

2010-12-06T22:07:00.000-06:00

As soon as I was asked to make cupcakes for this year's Yoga Day celebration with the Iyengar Yoga Association of MN, I knew I wanted to do something with cranberries. But I don't think I've ever had cranberry cupcakes before.

At first I tried out a cranberry/orange recipe variation... That didn't turn out so hot. I think I disliked them because of the orange extract that I used. They tasted kind of like fake orange lollipops with some craisins thrown in. Not terrible, but not what I was going for. Unfortunately, I baked off 2 dozen before I decided this (we're still eating plenty of them).

Next I tried a basic vanilla cupcake recipe with a little orange zest and lots of chopped craisins. Jackpot. They were light, fluffy and flecked with red cranberries. The frosting was the best part, though! I used the cream cheese frosting from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World and added some of my homemade cranberry ginger jam (strained) for color and some pomegranate molasses for tartness. I'll definitely be doing this again. It was just enough tartness to get a little pucker in the back of your throat along with the hefty sweetness of the frosting.

Look how adorable they look in their bakery box! I'm so glad I picked up a bunch of these at Michael's a while back. They come in handy for transporting all sorts of food.

Mmm Mmm Good

2010-12-01T18:58:00.000-06:00

I've eaten seitan noodle soup for 2 out of 3 meals today. Luckily Mike hates soup because this is full of gluten-y goodness!

Wrap Up

2010-11-30T08:03:00.001-06:00

Well, it's my last post of Vegan MoFo and I accomplished my goal of writing 5 days a week for the month. Hooray! I was surprised at how much easier it is to write 5 days a week vs. 7 (my goal in past years). It wasn't too hard to manage.

I thought I'd wrap up Vegan MoFo with a wrap up of my garden for the year. Really, I still have a bit of collards and kale out there that I'm harvesting as needed. But the garden's basically done for the year and I have my final tallies for the harvest!

The big winner for 2010? Cucumbers! I harvested 73 pounds of them! Next up is tomatoes at 67 pounds and green beans at 28 pounds. Total yield is 202.7 pounds! That's a lot of food...

I'm pretty disappointed in my tomato harvest- it was about half of last year's yield because of the weird weather this year. I had my hopes high with that early spring, but then the cold came early, too. Luckily I was able to get a few cases from the farmers' market for my canning purposes.

The overall harvest was only 9 pounds more than last year's, despite more intense planting.

My canning totals are down from last year, mostly because I was more planful about what I really needed and would use during the year. I ended up with 134 pints of salsa, pickles, jam, peppers, green beans, tomatoes, soup, onions, okra, etc. (not all in pint jars- some is actually in quarts and 1/2 pints, of course).

Why keep all these records? If you have to ask, then you don't know me very well. I like records for the sake of records. But, seriously, I like to think that if I wanted to I could compare the price of my seeds and manure to the value of the veggies and fruit that I harvest and find out how much money I saved. And I love trying to increase my garden yields and remember exactly how many jars of salsa it takes to last us through a year (the answer? I don't know! I've never made enough!). For example, I found out last year that I don't really need 13 quarts of cucumber pickles. So I made slightly less this year (it was tough to make less, though, because of the bumper crop of cukes!).

Another reason I love these records? Years ago my friend Morgen shared an old canning cookbook with me that her mom used [Shout out to Sandy!]. In it her mother had recorded the quantities of canned goods she produced- I was in awe! She had canned so much and kept such careful notes. And it was so cool for Morgen (also an avid canner) to get to see her mother's notes and carry on her tradition. I'm keeping notes now in hopes that some day my stepsons might have gardens of their own and crave the pickles that their mean ol' stepmother made. We'll see...