Eat Local Day #2

Day 2 of the Eat Local challenge-
Here's what I've eaten so far:

Breakfast
Garden tomato sandwich on 3rd Street Bakery bread (Duluth, MN) with homemade mustard and non-local Veganaise
Garden green beans simmered with non-local garlic and onion

Lunch
Shredded vegetable salad (about 60% local)
Shanghai dumplings (not local at all)

Blackberry biscuit....
Let me tell you about this one.  Last night I wanted something a little sweet and a lot local.  So I mixed up my usual biscuit dough using locally grown flour.  Then I patted it out into a rectangle and smashed garden blackberries into the top and sprinkled it with sugar.  I baked it just a little longer than usual biscuits and then sliced it into squares with a pizza cutter.  I highly recommend this covered with ice cream, but it was also good cold as a snack!

Dinner
I just picked up some lettuce and ears of corn from the co-op, so I might use those for dinner.  Still not sure.  I didn't get very far with planning my meals this week.  Need to practice what I taught at the local challenge class tonight and plan my meals!

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On a different note, but related to eating locally...

It's time to update you snobbery readers a bit.  A few months ago I started eating a bit of local, organic cheese.  I'd say my diet is still about 95% vegan, but I want to be totally transparent with you folks.  You see, I'm not ethically opposed to dairy on principle, but know I need to avoid it because I have fibrocystic boobs (too much information?!?!) and allergies.  My diet has shifted away from lots of really processed foods and I found myself preferring the thought of simple locally made dairy cheeses to various industrially-made non-local soy cheeses.  So I'm giving a little dairy a try.  I understand if you don't agree and that's okay.

One thing I'd like to try soon is to make my own cheese.  I figure that I need to fully understand and participate in the making of my food- whether it's growing my veggies or baking my bread or making cheese.  So I'll let you know if I do that.  But otherwise, I don't think the content of this blog will change much.  Just wanted you to know since this blog is all about the food I eat!

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Yesterday's post was my 500th one!  Woo hoo!

Baked After Work

When I was leaving work today it was raining and cold and I was hungry and tired. If there was ever a "mac 'n cheese night", this was it.

Baked Cheezy Pasta with Mushrooms

I like this baked mac 'n cheeze because you don't have to pre-cook the pasta. You can just throw everything in the oven!

(Gluten free)

Olive oil for greasing pan

16 oz. dry gluten free pasta (small shapes like shells are preferable)

3/4 lb. cremini mushrooms (about 16), sliced

2 Tbsp. Earth Balance margarine

3 cloves garlic, minced

2 Tbsp. cornstarch

1 1/2 c nondairy milk

1/2 c plain nondairy yogurt

2 cups water

1/2 cup nutritional yeast flakes

1 tsp. dry mustard

2 tsp. salt

Plenty of freshly ground black pepper

Pinch turmeric

Faux parmesan (I like Parma! brand), optional

Preheat the oven to 400F. Lightly grease a 9x11 inch glass baking dish with olive oil. Pour uncooked pasta in the baking dish and top with the sliced mushrooms.

Heat a large saucepan over medium high heat. Add the Earth Balance and garlic and saute until margarine is melted and garlic is fragrant. In a separate bowl, combine remaining ingredients (except faux parmesan) by whisking until no lumps remain. Then add to the saucepan with the garlic and margarine and whisk to combine.

Remove the sauce from heat and pour over the pasta and mushrooms. Cover the baking dish with foil and bake for 20 minutes. Then stir pasta and mushrooms together, making sure

everything is coated in sauce. Replace foil and bake another 10 minutes. Sprinkle with faux parmesan before serving.

I served this super easy dish with baked sweet potatoes and tofu coated in the "buttermilk" and cornmeal breading leftover from last night's fried pickles. I baked this tofu, though, instead of frying it and it was seriously just as crispy. I tossed the tofu and sweet potatoes on a greased cookie sheet and baked for about 40 minutes while the pasta baked.

Mississippi Market Has Teese!!!

Come, St. Paul vegans, to reap the cheezy goodness.

Both locations have Teese now. Mozzarella, Cheddar, and Nacho! (Too tempting that Vegan Gourmet is on sale this month, too).

I ate mine with Whole Grain Milling chips, a big handful of fresh cilantro and the awesome Karen's Kitchen Thai "Chicken" from the Randolph deli. It's awesome!

I'd like to say that I shared this plate of nacho makings...But I didn't.

Pass the cheese, please

Sometimes a gal just needs a cheese plate.  A vegan cheese plate, that is.

I'm pretty smitten with Dr Cow tree nut cheese.  It's tangy and creamy and delightful.  And it's hand-crafted from REAL food and isn't colored bright orange.  It's everything I love about cheese [without all the cows constantly kept pregnant and infected udders and such].  Hooray!

This is the aged cashew cheese with organic grapes and Back to Nature harvest whole wheat crackers (like Triscuits).  

There's something about a cheese platter that makes me feel like I'm at a party or a spa.  Not that I've really ever even been to a spa...  But I assume there would be cheese platters there.  I even got out my little party knives that have little poinsettias on them and settled in with my tea and a sudoku puzzle for my party of one.  I felt pretty pampered this morning.

Now I've got my bread rising and I'm wondering what I should make with all this rhubarb I've got out in the garden.  Rhubarb lemonade?  Rhubarb jelly?  Rhubarb cake?  

It's the Cheeziest

While visiting my mom I always have to scope out her magazines- This time I was hooked on a "Soups, Stews, and Chilies" issue from Cuisine at Home. The very first recipe in the magazine is for Mac 'n Cheese Soup. Yeah. I know. In my head it alternates between sounding disgusting and like the best thing ever. I had to make it.

Now, I love pulling down the big mixing bowl and slurping up massive amounts of vegetable soup, but this isn't the type of soup you guzzle, oh, no. One cup of this soup is plenty- It's really rich. Of course, it's not nearly as rich as the original version that calls for 4 cups of shredded cheddar...

Vegan Mac 'n Cheese Soup

1 1/2 cups dry elbow macaroni

2 Tbsp. Earth Balance margarine

1/2 cup onion, minced

1/2 cup celery, minced

1 Tbsp. arrowroot powder

2 Tbsp cornstarch

1 heaping tsp. dry mustard

1/8 tsp. ground nutmeg

1/8 tsp. cayenne pepper

1/8 tsp. turmeric

1 1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp. garlic powder

1 1/2 cups vegetable broth

2 cups unsweetened almond milk

1 Tbsp. lemon juice

1/2 cup nutritional yeast flakes

2 Tbsp. vegan cream cheese, Veganaise, or other fat-laden vegan substance*

Cook macaroni according to package directions (I used a gluten-free one so that my sweetie can enjoy this). Sweat onion and garlic in the Earth Balance in a large saucepan over medium heat until soft, about 5 minutes. Mix together the cornstarch, arrowroot, mustard, nutmeg, cayenne, turmeric, salt, and garlic powder until no lumps remain. Then whisk the spice/thickner mixture into the onions and celery. Stir to coat. Then deglaze the pan with the vegetable broth and whisk until no lumps remain. Simmer about 5 minutes or until broth is thickened. Then whisk in the almond milk, lemon juice, nutritional yeast, and cream cheese or veganaise keep stirring until the soup is smooth and creamy. Add the cooked macaroni and serve immediately. I like this with lots of freshly ground black pepper.

*I know it seems weird to add these to the soup, but it gives it that extra richness that the soup needs. I tried it with cream cheeze, with veganaise, and with both. They were all good! Using a little of both the cream cheeze and the veganaise made for a super-awesome Paula Deen type of indulgence that you don't want to go overboard on or you'll get a tummyache. That one was my favorite- Duh.

Here are my kitties sitting on the bushel of green tomatoes. I will certainly be making fried green tomatoes with some of them and maybe I'll make some more pickles, too.

A Queso Haiku

{Disclaimer: the kids are working on Haiku this week. I have 5-7-5 rhythm stuck in my brain}

Chile con Queso
Five years I have yearned
What's a vegan girl to do?
Teese to the rescue!

I stumbled across Homesick Texan's blog today and felt like I found a kindred spirit. Sure, she eats meat and lives in New York, but she's a Texan far from home constantly searching for those taste memories from the South.

Her post on Chile con Queso really hit home. Maybe I shouldn't be ashamed of my fond memories of Velveeta and Rotelle tomatoes. In fact, if it wasn't for the cheese and trans-fats, I'd microwave myself a bowl of Chile con Queso right now.

But like Homesick Texan, I'm not up for eating Velveeta. I can, however, adapt a recipe to suit my snobby tastes.

The following is adapted Homesick Texan's recipe in order to be vegan and allow for me not having any cilantro. Besides, my mom hates cilantro so any Tex-Mex I remember doesn't have any cilantro in it!

Chile Con Vegan Queso Blanco
Ingredients:
1/4 onion diced (about 1/4 cup)
2 cloves of garlic minced
2 Tbsp minced jalapeño (I like pickled jalapeños)
2 tablespoons of Earth Balance
2 tablespoons of flour
1/2 cup of non-dairy milk
1 cup of shredded Teese or other meltable vegan cheese (Yeah, I know, it's expensive and you don't want to part with a whole cup. JUST DO IT!)
2 plum tomatoes, peeled and diced (about 1/2 cup, can use canned if tomatoes aren’t in season)
Salt to taste (I used about 1/2 tsp)

Method:
1. Melt the Earth Balance in a saucepan on medium-low heat, and then cook the onions and peppers for about five minutes or until onions are translucent.
2. Add the garlic and cook for another minute.
3. Whisk the flour into the Earth Balance & vegetable mix and cook for about 30 seconds.
4. Add the non-dairy milk to the pot, and cook on medium, whisking constantly until sauce is thick, about five minutes. Stir in the tomatoes.
5. Add the Teese and stir well until completely melted
6. Add salt to taste.
Notes: You can vary which chiles you use to control how hot you want the queso to be. Also, if the sauce is too thick, feel free to add a bit more milk a tablespoon at a time.
Be sure to serve this warm. The Teese tends to solidify when cool.


This "queso" is everything I could ever ask for. Creamy, gooey, spicy, and it sticks to a homemade flour tortilla like you wouldn't believe.

Now I really didn't plan on eating a cup of Teese AND an ice cream sundae today... But I had a long hard day at work and still needed to test out a sundae recipe for a Tex-Mex class I'm doing at the Co-op this weekend. So here we go into ultimate indulgence:

This is a Spicy Mexican Chocolate Sundae. It has So Decadent vanilla ice cream, chopped mangos, Mexican chocolate sauce, and a little Soyatoo whipped topping. Oh, and some extra cayenne pepper on top for good measure.

Here's the Mexican Chocolate Sauce recipe:

1/2 cup chocolate chips
1/4 cup non dairy milk (coconut would be awesome)
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

Warm the chocolate chips and milk in a small saucepan over low heat, whisking frequently. When chocolate chips are melted and sauce is smooth, stir in the spices. Serve hot over ice cream. And feel free to add extra cayenne or experiment with other chile powders!

To Do

Usually I spend my weekends cooking up a storm, but last week was so busy that by the time this weekend rolled around, I had a to do list a mile long. It was warm enough to take the plastic off the windows and take down the awful curtains that broke and wouldn't let any light into the house. It was also warm enough to take the kitten outside on a leash. The cutest thing ever was when the dog, Hannah, took the leash out of my hand and started pulling the kitten along! (but she pulled so hard that the safety release broke her collar open and she tried to escape.) The kitten also tried to climb in the drier every time I went into the basement to do laundry.

***I should take the time here to note that although I complain about to-do lists, they are probably my favorite thing in the world to make and update. And I go insane without one. I think Mike hides my lists sometimes, just because he knows I enjoy rewriting them.***

Among sewing curtains, patching holes in the wall, cleaning out the fridge, and vacuuming (until the vacuum cleaner stopped working...great.), I didn't end up cooking much of anything. By Sunday night I was famished and ready to order in Thai food- Except the restaurant I really wanted to try was closed!

I really shouldn't be eating out anyways because I'm trying to reign in my food spending again. My food budgeting goes in waves, really. I have elaborate plans for budgeting and stick with it diligently...until it works and I have extra money. Then I allow myself to spend more. Then I'm back where I started. Right now I'm spending about 15% of my disposable income on food (yes, I track it). While this is more than most Americans spend, it's about average for folks from other (over)developed nations. So considering I eat nearly all organic food, I'm not doing that bad. There. I rationalized my grocery spending.

So anyways, here is what I ended up making on Sunday:
It's Tinkyada gluten-free pasta with my favorite "Parmesan tofu", zucchini, broccoli, and a lemon-red pepper sauce. The tofu I just tossed with lemon juice, olive oil, salt, nutritional yeast, and red pepper and then baked at 450 for about 20 minutes. It puffs up and gets really crispy and reminds me of when I used to eat Parmesan cheese and it would get brown and crispy on garlic toast. I didn't write down measurements for how I made the sauce, but I know that I deglazed the pan with lemon juice, olive oil, garlic, crushed red pepper, salt and hot water mixed with arrowroot. The sauce thickened up nicely and coated the pasta. Mike thought it needed some tamari, but I liked it with just a bit more red pepper.

I also made the chocolate-chocolate chip-walnut cookies from Veganomicon- but with oat and barley flour instead of wheat. WOW! These are really good cookies! I just love the flavor of oat and barley flour. Sadly, I cannot share them with my gluten-free buddy... but I can share them with Mike and my newly wheat-free pal. And I'm sure they won't last long.

Soup and Pasta

Just when I thought Spring had come, we got a cold front. And now we are expecting a foot of snow tonight. So my diet will continue with wintery warming foods a bit longer. This soup is perfect for a cold rainy/snowy day.


Black Eyed Pea-Nut Stew

1 cup dry black eyed peas
4 cups water
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. oil
1 Tbsp. grated ginger
Juice of 1 lime
2 Tbsp. tamari
1/2 cup peanut butter
1 cup hot water
1 medium yam, cubed
1 carrot, roughly chopped
1/2 cup chopped cilantro
1 jalapeño, seeded and minced (optional)
salt to taste

Combine peas, water, salt, and oil in a pressure cooker. Bring up to pressure and cook for 5 minutes. Allow to cool slowly until pressure is released. (You could also cook these in a regular pot). In a bowl, whisk together the ginger, lime juice, peanut butter, tamari, and hot water until smooth.

Add the peanut butter mixture, yam, and carrot (and jalapeño, if using) to the cooked black eyed peas and bring to a boil. Simmer for about 10 minutes or until yams and carrots are tender. Add salt to taste. Garnish with cilantro and serve with corn chips for dipping.

This week I received my Teese! True to their promise, this cheeze tastes like real mozzarella and melts well. I mixed up a casserole full of Cashew Ricotta, gluten free penne, broccoli and marinara sauce. Then I topped it with the Teese and baked it until it melted.
As you can see, we dug in right away!

Tonight I really wanted pasta and cheese, but I also needed to use up a free eggplant that was about to go bad. So I simmered the eggplant with olive oil, cumin seeds, salt, red pepper, coriander, and canned tomatoes. For the pasta, I used Eden Organic's kamut pasta. How can you resist pasta that gives 10 grams of protein, 15% of your iron, and 6 grams of fiber in 1/2 cup of pasta?!

And since it is distantly related to wheat, I get to eat it all myself! Sorry Mike!

Homegrown Lasagna

It's days like these that I'm thankful we put up so much of our garden's harvest. Just when the stores have the fewest local veggies, I can pull out our homegrown ones. This lasagna features garden grown squash, collard greens, and pesto- along with olives cured by my co-worker/friend Nick. The Three Olive tomato sauce really is something special. The olive oil, olives, and then sun-dried tomato infused olive oil work together to make rich layers of flavor. Plus, it's a great use for the olive oil left over after I used up my sun-dried tomatoes from last year! I know this recipe has a lot of steps. The good news is that any of these mini recipes are good enough to stand on their own.

Homegrown Lasagna

1 box lasagna noodles

1 batch of Cashew Ricotta from Veganomicon

Roasted Squash

1 butternut squash, peeled and cubed (about 6 cups)

4 Tbsp olive oil

6 cloves garlic

1/2 onion, sliced

1 tsp. salt (I like a blend of Hawaiian red clay and French sel gris salts)

Freshly ground black pepper to taste

Directions: Preheat oven to 400 F. Toss squash, onions, garlic, salt and pepper in the olive oil. Roast for 30 minutes, until squash is tender and onions are beginning to brown. (I removed the garlic for another recipe). Lightly mash with a fork, leaving plenty of chunks.

Triple Olive Tomato Sauce

1 Tbsp. olive oil

1/2 onion, minced

3 cloves garlic, minced

6-8 big green olives (I used home-cured garlic olives)

32 oz can tomatoes (I used diced)

1 tsp. salt

dash of cinnamon (just a little!)

2 Tbsp. dried Italian herb blend

2 Tbsp. olive oil from oil packed sun-dried tomatoes

Directions: Heat olive oil in a saucepan. Saute the onions until beginning to get translucent. Add garlic, olives, tomatoes, salt, and herbs. Simmer for about 20-30 minutes with a lid on. If needed, you can add a bit of water to thin out the sauce. Partly puree to form a thick sauce. Stir in the sundried tomato infused olive oil to finish.

Pesto Collards

4 -6 Tbsp. pesto (I used 4 ice cubes worth of frozen pesto)

2 bunches of collard greens (either frozen or still wet from washing)

Salt to taste

Directions: Cram the greens into a large skillet with the pesto. Put a lid on them and steam/cook until bright green and tender, about 5-8 minutes. Salt to taste- depending on the saltiness of your pesto.

Assembly:

Preheat oven to 350 F. Cook lasagna noodles as directed

In a 9X11 inch baking dish, layer noodles, ricotta, squash, greens, and tomato sauce. End with tomato sauce on top. Cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes.

I dropped my lasagna noodles and ended up with little pieces. So I made the lasagna in a 9X9 pan and used the little pieces in a mini lasagna in a lunch sized glass bowl. When I'm at work I can just pop it into the toaster oven or microwave. Yum!

Kitties, Doggie, and Pizza

There's nothing better than snuggling with a couple of kitties and a dog when you're tired, have a cold, and have cramps. Here are all of my animals snuggled up together. As you can see, Hannah Dog likes to protect the kitties from the camera. My favorite pic is the one in the top left where Trouble Kitten has climbed on top of Billie Cat.
A few nights ago I miraculously pulled together dinner in about 30 minutes (I never do that). It was a really creamy polenta topped with an olive-broccoli-tomato sauce and baked cheesy tofu.
Mike made a great pizza last night. The peppers were spicy! He even made homemade cheese. Go Mike!

Soup and Salad, Tex-Mex style

You never know when inspiration will strike.
We had to feed our dog a "mild" diet for a few days because of a digestive issue, so we bought some cottage cheese for her. It's been years since I've had cottage cheese and I hadn't really missed it at all until then. After smelling it, I immediately craved a thick, creamy cheese-type thing. So I started straining soy yogurt to make some yogurt cheese.

The next day I was driving and vaguely thinking what I would do with this yogurt cheese. Then, out of the blue I had it- I needed to make a soup combo. Two Tex-Mex soups in the same bowl with the yogurt cheese mimicking a creme frache/sour cream type dollop.

I was ready to make the soups today- the yogurt had strained for 2 days and was thick enough to hold its shape. Then when I woke up this morning I remembered a salad that I ate about 13 years ago with my friend Rubann and her mom. We were at Eastern Hills Country Club after work (Rubann and I worked at a Ford dealership with her mom). I had the most fabulous salad ever. (Obviously- I still remember it). It was a huge bowl of spinach with shredded cheddar cheese, green onions, and fried jalapenos, topped with honey mustard dressing.

So tonight it all came together. I made a corn chowder and black bean soup and served them in the same bowl, topped with a dollop of yogurt cheese. The salad was spinach, avocado, green onions, cilantro, and fried pickled jalapenos, topped with agave mustard dressing.
First the yogurt cheese:
This was not a 100% success, but I have more to work with.
I strained 32 oz of Wildwood plain soy yogurt through a coffee/tea filter and a strainer for two days. Then I mixed 1/4 cup of the thickened yogurt with a pinch of salt and about 1 Tbsp. of flax oil. It tastes pretty darn good like this, I think, but Mike thought it was too yogurty still. I added some nutritional yeast to up the cheesy factor, but that didn't do much for him. I thought it tasted like when you're eating nachos and the nacho cheese sauce mixes with the sour cream. Yum! I thought it tasted like a good sour cream before the nutritional yeast, too, though. This needs more work.

Now the soups:

The black bean soup I made in advance, thanks to my handy pressure cooker.

4 cups soaked black beans
16 oz diced, canned tomatoes
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 yellow onion, diced
the juice of 3 small key limes
2 tsp cumin
1 tsp coriander
Enough water to cover
I cooked them for 10 minutes under pressure, cooled slowly, and then seasoned with salt to taste. This makes a ton of beans, so we used about 1/2 on past meals (like the taco salad I posted previously). Tonight I just added a bit of water to the beans, pureed them, and heated them up. Then they were "soup".

The corn chowder was really easy, too.
2 Tbsp. olive oil
1/2 yellow onion, finely chopped
1 ancho chili, finely chopped
1 jalapeno, seeded and finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
3 small russet potatoes, peeled and diced (about 1 1/2 cups)
2 cups frozen corn (or fresh if it happens to be warm where you live)
3 cups almond milk (or other milk that you like)
1 tsp. salt

Saute the onion, chilies, and garlic in the olive oil until beginning to brown. Then add everything else and simmer until potatoes are tender, about 20 minutes. Then puree half with an immersion blender. You can keep simmering it if you want it thicker.

To assemble:
Fold a piece of aluminum foil to make a little dam that fits across the diameter of your soup bowls. Hold it in the center as you ladle one soup on one side. Keep the bowl slightly tilted to the filled side, then ladle the other soup in the other side. Place the bowl on a level surface and carefully and slowly remove the foil dam. Then play in the soups with the tip of your knife to make designs. Top with some yogurt cheese, sour cream, or just cilantro and green onions.



The salad:

To make the fried jalapenos, I recommend using homemade escabeche (pickled jalapenos with onions and carrots). If you don't have any handy, you can buy cans of pickled jalapenos at most supermarkets. Find some nice thick slices to use - I fried about 15 slices for 2 salads.

Mix together:
1/4 cup cornmeal
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp garlic powder

Toss the jalapeno slices around in the cornmeal mixture until coated.
Heat 1/4 cups (or so) of canola oil in a heavy skillet over high heat. When you drop a bit of cornmeal in the oil and it bubbles up around it, it's time to throw in the jalapenos. But don't throw them in, really. Carefully place them in the oil and don't burn yourself. Flip the slices when they are browned on one side. When the other side looks golden brown, rescue them from the oil onto a landing pad of paper towels, newspaper, or an ugly kitchen towel you don't like that much. Let cool.

The Dressing:

2 Tbsp. stoneground mustard
2 Tbsp. agave nectar
2 Tbsp. flax oil
1 Tbsp. white wine vinegar (I used some infused with thyme and it was great)
1/4 tsp salt
a few grinds of black pepper

Other salad stuff:
a big bunch of spinach, washed and torn
1 avocado, peeled and diced
1 couple of green onions, sliced
a small handful of cilantro, chopped

Put it all in a bowl, drizzle with dressing, and pretend you're in country club in Garland, Texas.

Stuffed Crust Pizza!!!

There are just too many commercials on TV about stuffed crust pizza. I don't think I've ever had stuffed crust pizza with real cheese, but I imagine it being one of the most indulgently amazing things ever. I mean, there's already cheese on top! Why do you need it in the crust? You don't. But it's so damn good and over the top that you can't resist it.

So here's my version, which is probably less indulgent but still amazing.
First, I made a basic pizza dough with some garlic and Italian herb mix thrown in. Then I made up a batch of Cashew Ricotta (Veganomicon) that the family loved so much. I piped the ricotta all around the edge of the dough and folded the crust over, sealing with a dab of water. Then I pressed the edges together really well, reshaping the crust to be a bit bigger and working the dough so that the seal wouldn't break.

I topped it with tomato sauce, onions, black olives, artichoke hearts, veggie pepperoni, and a cheeze sauce similar to the New Farm Cookbook's recipe for cheeze sauce (only less Earth Balance and oil!) Here's what it looked like before baking:

And after baking, in bad lighting:
Here's an inside shot:
And another:
I think this was a really tasty pizza, but since the ricotta is a dry "cheeze", it didn't have that gooeyness that I associate with a stuffed crust pizza. I might consider mixing the ricotta with tomato sauce just to make it more gooey before stuffing. Or maybe grating in some Follow Your Heart Mozzarella?
Anyhow, the kids thought it was awesome and it's something I'll definitely keep working on.

My newfound love for "Ricotta" and longtime love for Ranch

I never cared much for ricotta in my dairy-eating days, but after trying the Cashew Ricotta from Veganomicon: I'm in love. I never thought that adding a little 1/2 cup of cashews to my usual ricotta recipe of food processed tofu, lemon juice, garlic, and basil would transform it into something this amazing. I did vary from the recipe slightly, because I ran out of cashews and had to sub almonds and since the fresh basil has all been made into pesto I used a few frozen cubes of that. I stuffed this "ricotta" into shells and covered it with premade tomato sauce (I admit this shamefully because I have garden tomatoes that need to be used).



On the side we had a raw kale salad with Ranch dressing. I was so excited to see all the baby kale still growing outside. It's been frosty every morning and we've already harvested the bulk of our kale. But at the top of each plant is a few beautiful curly leaves...I gathered them up and added another great find: green garlic!

I know- green garlic is usually just for spring, right?
Somehow we have little garlic babies sprouting up in the garden in November in Minnesota. It's true that I transplanted some green garlic from the community garden to the backyard garden in April. But no matter how careful I am, I can't get it to survive the trauma of being moved and produce a bulb. I guess it survived underground and decided to sprout up again right now. And I am happy to eat it!

I am so impressed that the boys will eat a raw kale salad. It's true that it needs to have a fair amount of ranch dressing on it, but still- I think it's pretty impressive. Most adults wouldn't even try a salad so hearty and deeply green.

I'd eat pretty much anything if it's doused in ranch dressing, though. I don't think I've ever really written the recipe down, but here's an approximation:

1/4 cup veganaise
3/4 cup unsweetened plain soy yogurt (My intestinal flora love Wildwood the best)
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion powder
1Tbsp dried or fresh parsley
1 tsp dillweed
1.5 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 Tbsp apple cider vinegar

Then just put it in a jar and shake it like a polaroid picture. You can add a little soymilk if it is too thick, but I like it thick for dipping things in.