Grateful Gardeners

Yes, this is embarrassing. It has been too long since I have recorded my daily adventures in veganism. The funny thing about my long absence is that it has nothing to do with the cooking block I was dealing with last year but more to do with how busy I have been creating new meals. I should just start from the beginning though...

This Spring my new family-in-law lost their patriarch, Joseph Manha. Sadly I was not given enough time to get to know him very well. Since his passing though I have learned that he was a very caring, creative, and loving father, husband and grandfather. I have since learned this from his widow, my grandmother-in-law, from the stories she has shared with me when I come over to her house to work on our garden. You see, she was generous enough to allow Justice and I to make a garden in one of the raised garden beds that Joe built for his own gardening. Joe was an amazing gardener. The plot we were given was 40ft by 6ft! I am so grateful to my grandmother-in-law for this amazing gift. I only wish Joe could know how much joy it has brought us all summer. We are already talking about what we will plant next year!

My GMIL has been so helpful- giving Justice and I advice about what to plant and how to plant it. She barely even teased us when we made the rows 2 feet across and about a mile high. (We learned quickly why this was a huge mistake...) After some trial and error, our garden is doing remarkably well. We have several varieties of tomatoes, enough crookneck squash and zucchini to feed a small village, green beans, peas, Swiss chard, carrots, jalapenos, green bell peppers, green onions, and pumpkins. Not only do we have our own vegetables to enjoy but we are surrounded by other gardeners who have shared their veggie wealth. We have enjoyed Yukon gold potatoes and mustard greens, arugula and fresh basil. I have never eaten so many locally grown vegetables!

There has been no chance for cooking block to set in as I have had no time to waste so as not to waste my bounty. Below is a tomato soup recipe I came up with tonight to pair with some Tuna-less sandwiches from Vegnews. A note to Brett: If you want these to taste like Mama's tuna-fish use sweet pickles instead of dill and green onions instead of red onions.

Reno Represent Tomato Soup

4 cups Mirepoix

6-7 homegrown tomatoes quartered

4 tbsp. olive oil

4 ounce can tomato paste

handful fresh chopped parsley

8 cups water

salt and pepper to taste

Heat olive oil in a stock pot. Add Mirepoix and a pinch of salt. Cover and cook on medium for about 10 minutes. Add tomatoes and another pinch of salt. Cover once more and cook an additional 5 minutes. Add tomato paste to water and dissolve. Add this to the pot. Add parsley and a tsp. pepper and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and allow to cook uncovered for about 30 minutes. Blend the soup and strain it to remove any seeds. Give it one last season with salt and pepper and serve with the Tuna-less sandwiches.

Hot Diggity Dawg!

Long ago my favorite after school "snack" was a big fat juicy Nathan's all beef hot dog. The crunchy pop that would occur between my teeth with that first head on bight would send flavor dancing in my mouth. Man, I loved a good hot dog. It follows then that the first vegetarian faux meat I would enjoy would be a hot dog. My go to hot dog is the "Smart Dog" brand. Although I must say that by far the best veggie dog comes in a can from Loma Linda California. These are bit spendy on my part time budget though.
In my continuing effort to make quick nutritionally sound meals I have revisited the hot dog as major staple food. Now, although I love the dog itself I really only see it as an opportunity to pile on as many amazing toppings as I can imagine and because I never keep hot dog buns in the house I am not limited to the tiny surface area they afford. I serve my dogs on whole wheat pita breads. They end up looking more like hot dog tacos. Recently I have broken with another seemingly self-imposed hot dog rule and I put two dogs in my pita. One hot dog is never enough for me but making a whole other one is always way too much. Problem solved! Tonight I made a wonderful apple citrus chutney and piled it high atop my double dog with a dollop of zucchini relish. Enjoy!

Barbecue Apple Orange Chutney:

1 cup finely dice yellow onion
1 tbsp. Olive Oil
2 tsp. Apple Cider Vinegar
1/2 cup finely chopped peeled apple (I used a pink lady)
1/2 cup supremed orange slices chopped
pinch of salt
1/4 cup barbecue sauce (your choice)

In a sauce pan heat the oil over medium heat. Add the onion and the pinch of salt. Saute until fragrant and then turn heat down to medium low. Stir occasionally until the onion turns a dark brown color. Deglaze your sauce pan with vinegar. Add the apple and cook 2 minutes. Add the orange and stir a moment and then remove from heat. Add your barbecue sauce. Serve over your double dog!

Frozen in Time

The semester is flying by and I am proud to report that I can now name every bone in human body! Thank you for allowing me to forcibly accept recognition for my achievement.
Obviously this means I have been very busy. Naturally my cooking has changed dramatically in the last two months. But in an effort not to get bored I have assigned myself a new task in the kitchen. I am now trying out satisfying and still delicious short cuts to dinner. The following is what I have learned about frozen foods.

Every time I read something that tells me frozen vegetables are as nutritious as fresh, I believe it. It makes me feel good about the frozen peas I add to most things. All the while I keep in mind that whether or not frozen veggies are as healthful as fresh doesn't mean a thing if they don't taste as good. So I have devised some guidelines for myself after experimenting with many frozen flora.
"Rules For Frozen Vegetables"
1. Frozen peas are the greatest food in the entire world. You can microwave them with a little Earth Balance and you have a delicious side dish. Add them to mashed potatoes. That is an order! Eat them still frozen for a sweet pea Popsicle experience.
2. Frozen spinach is great if you hide it in other things. Never ever serve frozen spinach braised as a side dish. Just thinking about the night I thought this would work puts a fowl taste in my mouth.
3. Frozen corn kernels are fantastic. Pair them up with those frozen peas in the microwave and you have a "hash".
4. Vegetable medleys are a cruel tease. In an effort to streamline my stir-fries I decided to try a vegetable medley pack from Trader Joes. I was immediately seduced by a package calling itself "Hodgepodge". There were carrots, baby corn, sugar snap peas, broccoli, mushrooms, bell pepper and onion. It looked so delicious. Unfortunately I overlooked a vital detail- entropy. All of those vegetables were tossed into this bag and they cook at different rates. Once in the skillet the carrots took forever to cook. Meanwhile the broccoli disintegrated and the bell pepper became little streaks of red slime. With the rice already waiting and the tofu fried I had no choice but to continue with my now doomed "hodgepodge". I hoped the sauce would cover my tracks but no amount of soy sauce was going to save me. Escape this trap vicariously. No short cut should be a waste of time.

Happy Birthday Cora!

On February 28th 2008 my beloved sister-in-law gave our family the bestest of gifts ever! On this leap-year eve she gave birth to my niece Cora Lee. As awesome as she was on the first day I have to say that I am pretty partial to the laughing, talking, solid food eating, interactive version she is one year later. We are so lucky to know her! In honor of her unparalleled achievement of having turned one year old I would like to share her birthday cake recipe with you all. I have been holding this one back all year so we could all celebrate Cora's birthday together. I invented this recipe on the very day Cora was born and so named it:

Cora Lee's Banana Creme Pie Cake

Crust:
1/2 cup raw cashews
1/2 cup raw almonds
1/4 cup chocolate chips (must be very cold)

Place all of these in a food processor. Process until almost a powder. Press this into the bottom of a well oiled spring form pan.

4 very ripe bananas peeled
1/2 cup maple syrup (agave syrup would work just fine)
2 tsp. vanilla
1/4 tsp salt
2 tbsp. oil (not olive)
1 tbsp. agar agar flakes
1 cup water
1 tbsp. Arrowroot powder
1/4 cup soymilk

Blend together banana, syrup, oil, salt, and vanilla in a blender until smooth. Leave this in the blender.
Add agar agar to water in a sauce pan. Whisk to dissolve as much agar as possible. Bring to a boil. Simmer about 10 min. Meanwhile add arrowroot to soymilk stir it well. Add this soymilk solution to the agar solution off the stove whisk well. Strain this to get out any chunks of undissolved agar. Add all of this immediatly to the blender full of banana and such. Blend well. Pour in prepared springform pan on top of the crust. Allow to set up in the frigde for 2 hours before serving. Wish Cora many happy returns and enjoy!

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Aren't Real And That Means They Don't Live In Our Toilet

I promise, I have not made anything worth bragging about in the kitchen lately. Like the layer of cooked on water and oil on my ceramic stove top, I am blocked and try as I might, no amount of fussing elbow grease will get my brain unclouded. Here briefly is a recap of some of the kitchen tragedies I have passed off as "meals" for my new husband:

Cornmeal encrusted tofu- Turns out dry cornmeal stays that way even after being sprinkled on tofu and baked for 15 mins.

Lentils on Salad- It satisfies the basic human nutritional needs.

Fried Potatoes- "Yep, that's it sweetums."

Taco Bell- I told you it was bad.

I believe I am finally coming out from this culinary rut and to prove it I put together a fairly decent stir fry tonight and served it along side, you guessed it, fried potatoes. The reason for this dry spell? Who can claim they understand the underpinnings of the creative genius that dwells within anyone of us. But if you must know, I blame ER. Yes, NBC's very own ER is in its 1000th and apparently last season and for some reason this has compelled me to watch each week. I do not understand the characters and every time a "familiar face" from seasons past shows up I am not surprised or delighted as the previews imply that I will be. But I watch anyway and like most children left to watch too much television without an adult there to describe what is real and what is fantasy I believe everything that I see. So you will not be surprised by my next statement: I want to be a nurse. Unlike a child though, this goal is surprisingly close to my grasp and in one week I will begin full time schooling again to achieve it. The root of my constipated creative flow- Anxiety. Wish me luck, my beloved readers! I believe I will conquer this goal and once I'm settled down again, I believe the recipes will flow like some slippery bodily fluid that I will no doubt have to deal with once I am in the real ER.

In the mean time make this slippery and easy dish!

The Future Sure Looks Bright Orange Stir Fry
Juice of 2 oranges and the zest of one
1 tbsp Vegetarian Oyster Sauce
1 tsp. Chili Sauce
1 tbsp Rice Wine Vinegar
1 tsp. Agave Nectar (sugar will do nicely)
2 clove garlic minced
2 tsp. corn starch
Mix all of this together and set aside

Freeze and defrost one block of Extra firm tofu and cut into triangles
Thinly slice 2 large carrots
Cut 3 green onions into 3/4 inch segments

Brown the tofu in oil in a non-stick pan. Add the carrots and onions -cook 1 minute. Pour the liquid sauce mixture into the pan. Stir everything up so that all is good and coated and cook 2 minutes until the sauce has turned thick. Some people might serve this along side rice-radicals! It works just fine next to some comforting fried potatoes.

Victory!!!

Dear United States of America,
Thank you for proving to me, the world, and that retired stock broker next door that this nation was built on the backs of the middle class and we do in fact still vote. It is like a cloud has finally moved out of the way of the sun on a slightly cold day making it bearable outside with just a long sleeve t-shirt. I am happy.
Goodnight,
Nicole

Bean Poisoning!

Twice! Twice now I have gone to the grocery store to find that they were completely out of canned white beans. Is there an international shortage I should be aware of? Did all the white bean growers/canners have their businesses foreclosed on? What is going on? I wouldn't have been so upset if white beans weren't such a staple food at my table. I use them in so many dishes. My new favorite thing to do with them is make White Bean Sage Ravioli. Instead of reaching for the far inferior lima beans the grocery store would have me buy as a disgusting substitute, I decided to take on one of my greatest fears. I was going to make my beans the old fashioned way- starting from dried. My heart was racing. I looked side to side in the canned vegetable isle flicking my head as I finally and dramatically fixed my sights on an over head security camera. I narrowed my eyes and thought, "If you can hear me S&W bean company, that's right. I've decided to step outside your tin box." I marched over two isles to the bulk foods section and dispensed bin #614's organic navy bean contents at only $1.29/lb. With beans in bag I went home to do some research. Years ago my brother gave me The Joy of Vegetarian Cooking for my birthday. To be honest, I rarely use this book as it is completely cheese-centric, but I remembered that it had a whole section devoted to cooking beans. In my youth I would scoff at these pages thinking, "Yeah right. Like there will ever be a time I won't be able to find white beans flooding from the store shelves." How naive I was... What the book told me is that beans are not in a hurry to be cooked. First I would have to soak the beans in water overnight. This method seemed outlandishly over cautious. What food worth eating takes this long to prepare? Certainly nothing I wanted to make would require this level of comittment. I decided to consult the internet. What I found will horrify you! If ever there was a true Halloween tale of kitchen terror it was this. According to the FDA there is a serious illness known as Bean Poisoning. Stop laughing; this is true! This is the secret that keeps us all addicted to the canned varieties. Without proper education we could poison ourselves! What!? Okay, enough fear mongering. There is a sure fire way to avoid Bean Poisoning. Believe it or not it starts with soaking your beans over night to leach out some of the toxic phytohemagglutinin. I would have to be patient. Secondly you must cook your beans until they have reached an internal temperature greater than 176 degrees F. If you fail to heat them past this point, and this no joke, the toxin becomes more potent! So, armed with this knowledge I soaked my beans last night and boiled them this morning-vigorously for 15 mins and then allowed them to simmer until they were soft. I might have over cooked them a little bit but they tasted great. I ate 5 beans and am currently waiting to see if I show any signs of Bean Poisoning before I test them out on Justice. We'll know in 3-5 hours as there is a 100% rate of illness. That's just the kind of mad scientist I am. If you succeed in making your own beans without spending a day on the toilet, you can make my ravioli. Isn't that a risk you are willing to take?

White Bean Sage Ravioli

1 cup cooked white beans
2 tbsp. dried sage
1 tsp. garlic salt
2 tbsp. lemon juice
1/2 cup sauted white onion
1 cup cooked spinach
olive oil as needed

Sheets of uncooked ravioli pasta.

Place all ingredients in a food processor except the oil. Turn the machine on and add the olive oil until a paste forms. Place teaspoon sized drops onto the ravioli sheets and fold them over to form little pouches. Seal them and cut them out. Boil in a large pot of salted water for 3-5 mins. Drain and serve with marinara sauce.

Happy Halloween!!!