Arduous Plethoras

We were in a hurry to get out the door Sunday morning, but I was starving, so I whipped up these babies... it's 1 C Bisquick Heart Healthy mix, 1 scant C soymilk and 1 T flax seeds. They turned out great! Whee! So easy! So fast!
And here we have a riff off of Veganomicon's black bean burgers and the cilantro sauce that's in there. I sort of had the lime to use and had some cilantro left and lo! the sauce was borned!
And right there in the book it tells you that the sauce is good over the bean burgers but I didn't have any buns and so I decided to 'deconstruct' the burgers, and lo, it was good.

Boca and Black Beans with Cilantro Lime Sauce

1 can black beans (4)
1 pkt Boca ground product (2)
1 T oil (4)
1 t cumin
1/2 onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
pinch cayenne

On med high heat, saute the onion, then garlic, in the oil. Add Boca, beans, and spices, mixing well with each addition.

Makes approx 2 C @ 3 points per 1/2 C.

Meanwhile, the sauce;

1/2 pkg silken tofu (2)
1/4 C cilantro
1 T lime juice (approx 1/2 lime's worth)
1 t sugar
1/2 t salt
1 clove garlic
2 T canola oil (8)

Blend it all up. It will turn green.
Makes approx 1 C @ 3 points per 1/4th C.
Tada!

Started reading "The Sparrow" and wow! it's good! I'm so excited! A good book! Hooray!

No knitting, feeling distinctly unmotivated. All I want to do is buy some fancy Habu yarn to reknit my scarf in, must see if I have any birthday money left...
Also toying with a baby sweater idea, but getting out yarn and starting seems arduous. I should, because I know a plethora of babies are due like, right now.

The Ayes Have It

Well, what a wonderful weekend we've had! My friends B. and S. left yesterday morning, and we had such a good time! B. was here to play on his tour with his band, The Del Ripleys! While he was gone S. and I hit the town! We saw a busker playing down by the river, had the antique shop owner whose store we visited follow us all around the store as we looked at cast iron pans, old Pyrex and jewelry, and we stopped at a cafe where the owner's tires had been slashed! Good times! Oh, and the day before we hit a going out of business sale 90 percent off and I scored a pair of pants and a shirt (thanks, S.!). Can't beat shopping with a girlfriend, we had lots of fun.

Oh, can't forget the blueberry picking!! We went to the Blueberry Fields of Stillwater, we were nearly the first people there on this, their first day of their first year!! We will definitely return, they were so great with the kids- had special baskets of books for the kids to look at, which really came in handy! We were there early and so it was nice and cool and we had the pick of the patch. A very fun morning and we will be back.

Anyway, on to the food!

I made Easy Macaroni and Cheeze and boy was it! Thanks, Susan! I was a little nervous when I tasted it at first, but when we sat down and served it up, everyone ate up! But I am just a nervous nellie. It was so easy, did I mention that? Plus, low fat! This will be a regular player in our stable of household recipes.

Easy Macaroni and Cheeze

1 lb pasta
1 1/4 C water
1 C soymilk (2)
3/4 C nutritional yeast
3 T cornstarch
1 T lemon juice
1 t salt
1 t onion powder
1/2 t garlic powder
1/2 t dry mustard
1/2 t paprika
1/2 t turmeric
pinch cayenne
2 T tahini (5)
1 t miso
pepper to taste

Boil up your pasta.
Blend up everything else.
Drain pasta, reserving 1/2 C. (I didn't do this)
Return pasta to pot, pour sauce over and stir until boiling and thick.
Thin with pasta water if needed. (I didn't need to do this)

Notes;
use less turmeric
used 1 T miso

Next is just a picture of what we used some of our perfect blueberries for- a crisp made by S. She doesn't use a recipe, but I guess it's pretty simple. Didn't use a lot of sugar 'cause the berries were so sweet and just some oats and brown sugar and Earth Balance to top.

Finally was a cake I made for our csa's garlic harvest party!! Woo! It was a success! I don't know what I did differently (than other vegan cakes I've made), or if it was just the recipe, but it turned out so well (I thought).

Our day at the farm was so fun, as usual, and E. got to hold a chick- Lyle (so named for her rockin' hairstyle). Lyle was the smallest and therefore, easiest, chick to catch. Plus, fresh garlic! that I am so excited to use.

Super Moist Chocolate Cake w/ strawberry frosting

1 1/2 C flour (12)
3 T cocoa
1 t baking soda
1 C white or brown sugar (16)
1/2 t salt
1/4 C + 1 T canola oil (20)
1 T apple cider vinegar
1 t vanilla
1 C cold water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Grease and flour a 9 x 9" pan.
Mix flour, cocoa, baking soda, sugar and salt well with fork or whisk. Do not allow there to be any lumps! If you have a child eager to help, let them help with this part. If you have some inherent drive to mix, mix, mix, do it here, not after you add the wet ingredients. Alternately, use a mesh strainer to sift the dry ingredients- so much more fun!
Add wet ingredients and mix until moistened, DO NOT OVERMIX!, there can be some lumps.
Pour cake batter into pan* and bake 30m or until it tests done.

*if you're not going to frost this, check the top of the cake for any bubbles and if there are any, lightly tap the pan on the counter once to break them before you put it in the oven.

strawberry frosting- modeled after Best Frosting Ever

2 T Earth Balance (6)
1 T soymilk
1 T strawberry jelly (1)
1 C powdered sugar (8)

Nuke the butter (just 11 seconds or so!) in your mixing bowl. Mix in the soymilk and jelly (removing any big pieces of strawberry). Sift in the sugar and mix well. Pour over cake!

All told, if you cut this cake into 16 pieces it's 4 points a piece which is a lot better than most cakes, actually. And it's so, so good!

notes;
I used a scant cup of sugar and 2 T brown sugar
you can double this for a 13 x 9" pan but don't double the vinegar
if making cupcakes, bake time is 15m
next time I'll whip the frosting, ooooh, fancy.

Finished "Jewel"- felt like I was hacking through a forest. Must. have. closure. Question: will there be a final reckoning? No. Just namby pamby soft focus stuff. Sometimes I like a good smackdown, but, I guess, like life, things are grey. We do do our best with what life gives us. I guess that is the moral of the story.

Corn and Bean Salad and csa veg

Chinese cabbage- don't know what to do with this yet, our csa gave us a recipe for refrigerator kim chee!! That would be fun!
And we got beautiful flowers!!
Here is some dill I'm pretty excited about! Tofu dill sandwiches, anyone? Maybe those pickles you can make in the sun?
Sweet onions- very cool... I was recently reading through some old recipes from my grandmother and there was this recipe for poached onions where you boil them? and I was thinking that might be fun to try? but probably not with yummy csa onions...
Snow peas! We got snap peas, too! Soooo great for snacking on, just straight. Nom.
These are thumbelina carrots. We'll see what happens with these, if we don't just eat them raw.
We also got scapes (the last of the season) and lettuce. I was hoping for zucchini, but I guess that will come... bug problems.
Our friends B. and S. are here from Milwaukee and so we had a grill out last night- nothing too fancy I am afraid, but the salad was good! There are a million iterations of this on the internet, but I thought this version was quite yummy!

Corn and Black Bean Salad

2 cans black beans, rinsed and drained
1 can corn, drained
1/2 red onion, minced
1/4 jicama, diced small
1 avacado, diced
1 bunch cilantro, chopped fine approx. 1/2 C
2 T oil
1/2 lime's worth of juice
1 T cumin
1 t salt
1/4 t chili powder

Prep all ingredients and mix together. Tada!
If you're going to refrigerate it for a while, add the onions just before serving (onions get slimy if you leave them in). Oh, and the salt, too.

I thought the lime really made this salad- I've tried it before with balsamic (1 T), but the lime juice was just so much better! Really. And the jicama added a fun crunch. And the chili powder you could up or whatever, but we are mild midwesterners.

No reading yesterday.

Trying to find the perfect yarn for my new design! Having fun looking on Ravelry...

Fry 'em up!

Here's what we had for lunch yesterday. I started with the bamboo rice and kind of went from there... so, to be fancy it is bamboo rice on a bed of arugula served with sweet miso salad dressing and craisins. Hmm... adding 'craisins' at the end sort of kills it, don't you think? No matter, it was good! I'll try again, 'Bamboo rice served over a bed of rocket with sweet miso dressing and dried cranberries'. That's better!

Sweet Miso Salad Dressing -thanks lolo!

1 T miso, heaping (I used the miso in the yellow container? it's yellow?)
1 T sugar
1 1/2 t Dijon mustard
1 t balsamic vinegar
2 pinches salt
pepper to taste

1/4 C vegetable oil
2 T hot water

Whisk together first 6 ingredients, then slowly whisk in oil. Add water to thin if desired.
Makes about 1/2 C dressing, 2 points per T.

notes;
next time I would just blend this all in the blender, although it is such a small amount, really, but then I'd probably add more water, maybe 1/2 C water total.
I could eat this with a spoon! I really like it!


And here's what finally transpired with the seitan. I fried it as postulated. Supporting the theory, you can fry anything and it will taste better.
I breaded it, woo!, haven't done that much...
Slice up your seitan.
I got roughly 21 pieces.
Make your breading. Here's what I used;
1/2 C breadcrumbs
1 T corn meal (for crunch!)
1 t garlic granules
1/2 t salt
and I added about 2 T of fresh herbs to it and whizzed it all up in the blender.
Mix up 1 T ener-g egg replacer to 2 T water in a bowl. This will be your 'wet' that you dip first. ?You could also use a flour water mix? I just had ener-g and I never use it for baking so I thought I'd use some up for this.
Then dip your seitan in wet, then dry.
Oh yeah, have a big 'ol skillet going with oil in it (I used 1 T oil for 3 slices at a time).
Fry 'em up!

I read here that you should refrigerate cookie dough for up to 36 hours for better flavor (actually, what I read there was that they vacuum sealed the dough in a plastic bag, I read about the long 'rest' for the dough in their link to the NYTimes). Wonder what difference it would make with vegan cookies (no eggs, so no liquid from there to soak up). In the name of science, I shall try!! Anything for science.

Still enjoying "Jewel".

Finished my scarf finally!!! Oh joy, oh rapturous raptures!
I washed it, and conditioned it (to help with the scratchies) and called it george, no, wait, I washed it and conditioned it and threw it in the drier! I should go check on it, left it to dry the rest of the way airdry.
Wheeee!

Garlic Scape Pesto

So here it is, the correct Garlic Scape Pesto! I know you've all been holding your breath to see whether I'd get it right...
Well I did!
Notes;
when you're cutting your 1" sections and you're starting from the bottom and the knife makes a sound that's like cutting through wood? that means the stems are woody and you shouldn't use those parts...
also, set your dishwasher on 'tough scrub' setting...

Really this just makes me long for basil, basil, BASIL!!!!!! Must. make. pesto. now...

It's pretty tedious pinching off the herb leaves of whatever herb you're using, did you know that?!?

Next time I'll try and just use the tender parts of the scape (this second batch was less tender).
Oh, and I'll try the blender, and if I'm really daring, I'll up the oil to 1/2 C.

Now I'm sucked into that Jewel book, what can I say? SPOILER She has a Down's baby and the book is an exploration of what happens to the family in reaction to this. Pretty gripping. We'll see what happens- no moral smackdown yet.

Mysterious Seitan

Good morning!
Well, I finally took the plunge and tried the crockpot seitan. It was not a success.
I used this recipe and was unsure how much water to add to the crockpot, so I just took a tip from some other recipes and put in enough to cover.
I think the taste was fine, actually. But I didn't knead the seitan or anything and I think I should have squashed it flatter into the crockpot instead of in a round loaf.
Doesn't that soup look seitanic, though? I put chard stalks in it so it turned red.
I didn't get the gravy I was hoping for, so I just used the broth for a soup and whatever bits and bobs of the seitan were floating were- tada! in the soup.
Now I've got a big blog of seitan in my fridge, just waiting for whatever I'm going to do to it... mwah-ha-ha -haaaa! Oh, and, I'm storing it not in the broth!! You're always supposed to keep the seitan in the broth, I wonder what will happen, will it develop consciousness and rise up and lead the condiments to justice?
So, maybe it was the conversions into cups from oz or something...

Crockpot Seitan ala Mystery

dry ingredients;
1 1/4 C vital wheat gluten
1/2 C + 2 T chickpea flour
3 T nutritional yeast
1 T brown sugar
1 T garlic granules
1 t salt
1 t oregano, crushed between fingers (I did remember this!)
1 t thyme, cbf
1/2 t tarragon, cbf
pinch celery powder

wet ingredients;
1 C water
1/2 C olive oil
3 T soy sauce
1 T liquid smoke (not three like in the original post)

For in the crockpot;
oil to grease crockpot
a few carrots, chopped
1 onion, chopped
bay leaf
6 C water or water to cover seitan


Mix dry together in mixer, then add wet. Freak out because dough is waaay wet. Go to chop onion and carrots. Come back and feel relieved that seitan is something I can actually put into a ball shape form now.
Grease crockpot.
Put seitan blob in, dump carrots and onions in, add bay leaf.
Cover with water.
Cook on high for 4 hours.

Well, I'm agonna take that seitan and slice it up reeeel thin like, and then I'm agonna bread it and fry it. Uh huh.

Still reading Jewel, got sucked in by interesting birthing stuff. If it turns out to be one of those dirty laundry/one woman's triumph over adversity books, I'm outtie.

It niggles at me...

Well, I am on a chickpea flour roll. Here's a tidbit- if you add rice flour 1/4 C to 3/4 C chickpea flour, your chickpea pancakes/cakes/crepes whatever will come out crispier!! It really works!
Anyway, I am so enthralled with chickpea flour, I just made up a recipe for lunch yesterday. And I used up some of our kale, too!

Savoury Cakes

1 C flour (8)
1/2 C chickpea/besan/gram flour (4)
1/2 C corn meal (4)
1 C soymilk
1 C water
1/4 C oil
2 t salt
1 t cumin
1 t garlic powder
1 t baking powder
1 C chopped kale

Blend everything except the kale. Allow the batter to rest/develop while you saute the kale in a little oil. When it's pretty well cooked and nothing else seems to be happening to it except that it is starting to brown/burn, add a splash of water and stir, stir, stir, until the kale is a little wilted. Fold the kale into your batter.
Heat your skillet on med-high, add 1 t oil and pour in batter to make 4-5" rounds.
Cook up to 5m on the first side, 3m on the second.
Makes 12 cakes @ 37 points total = 3 points per pancake.

I made split pea soup yesterday for supper, because it was something that could sit on the stove while we ran around and rearranged the livingroom. You will be excited to learn that I am facing a DIFFERENT wall now when I type these posts (actually, it's pretty cool). I based this off of Alison's Famous Easy Pea Soup from vegweb.com but of course I changed the spices. The joy of cooking!

Split Pea Soup

2 C split peas, rinsed (8)
6 - 8 C water
1 onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 t celery seed powder
1 T vegetable broth powder
1 t liquid smoke
2 T oil (8)
1 T dijon mustard
1/2 t pepper

Saute onion, then garlic in oil. Add peas and spices. Add water (start with 6 C and add more later) and bring to a boil, simmer 1 - 1 1/2 hours. Use an immersion blender or blend in batches until smooth.
Makes 8 C @ 16 points total = 2 points/C

Started the Oprah book club book, it was the next one in the pile, "Jewel" by Bret Lott. So far SPOILER she has found out she is a Native American. It's one of those from a woman's point of view, set in the olden days, looking back upon her life type of dealies. We shall see.

No knitting, got to show off my scarf to a friend who oohed and ahhed over it, so that was nice. I stopped halfway through a row when she showed up at the coffeeshop and now it's bugging me. The incomplete row niggles at the back of my mind... I can feel the stitches stretching out as they sit all askew in their Ziploc bag all scrunched up and forlorn... what?

Blow by Blow

Look who came to our house last night!!! We've seen lots of frogs in our yard which I think is pretty cool. I think this one was a gray treefrog or a Cope's gray treefrog. Frogs are pretty amazing creatures! Just think, this frog may have overwintered using antifreeze it makes itself!! Top that!
We were at REI yesterday for most of the afternoon buying stuff, so we didn't get home until 5. What did I whip up? Well, we had some frozen red lentil soup which I heated up and then I decided to make Besan Puda. I thought it was really good! And it used up some more of the cilantro! Very filling and tasty.

Besan Puda

1 C gram flour (8)
1/4 C brown rice flour (2)
1/4 t salt
3/4 C water
1 t cumin seeds
1/4 onion, chopped fine
1 clove garlic, minced
1 T chopped fresh cilantro
1 t oil for each puda

Makes 3 big pudas, roughly 4 points each.

Mix the flours, salt and cumin seeds.
Saute the onions, then garlic in a teaspoon of oil.
Slowly add the water, mixing well each time, until you have a smooth batter with no lumps.
Heat a nonstick skillet on med high, add 1 t oil and 1/2 C of the mixture. Cook 5m, then flip, then 3m or until browned.

Notes;
could saute the cumin seeds with the onion and garlic
can use grated zucchini/finely chopped spinach/shredded potatoes/finely shredded cabbage
can use more oil
can use up to 1 t salt
next time use 1/4 C measure to measure out batter and use a spoon to spread it more thinly over skillet, also lower heat.

Amongst many other camping related things, including duffel bags for !more organizational power!, we bought these utensils for camping (needed a spatula). I really like guyot designs, we gave out fireflys for Christmas a few years ago and have heard nothing but rave reviews. Hah, now I'm doing product reviews. I'll stop while I'm ahead.

Finished "The Visitor" by Sheri S. Tepper. Parts of it were great and really engaging. I really got into the book in the middle, but at the beginning and end she is a little heavy handed about laying out her philosophy. When authors spell it out blow by blow I feel like I'm being preached at (which is ironic, really, as she is obviously not into organized religion). Not sure I'd wade through another due to this fact.

On to more reading!!

Saslaw!

Do you know what I do in the morning when I use my french press* and it's going soooo sloooow when I press it down? I pretend I'm a fancy European who is part of the slow food movement and I try and repress my impatient American "I want my coffee nooooww!" response. Okay, so I know my bought-at-Target Yuban Organic ground coffee is not anywhere near their goals, but it's one step closer from my former instant coffee drinking!
We had friends over last night and so I made some fixins! It was pretty hot yesterday so I picked out some cool things to make and then my husband just grilled some Tofurkys on the grill. Oh! And our friends brought marinated Portabellas that we grilled too! And they were so good! I'll have to get that marinade from her...

We got cilantro from our CSA, like a big bunch, so I have a lot for more salads or whatever...
I just chopped up a few strawberries, half a jicama, one orange and yellow pepper and half a red onion and then tossed them with 1/2 C chopped cilantro, 1 T balsamic vinegar and 2 T olive oil. It was pretty good, but next time I'd double the balsamic and olive oil and add lettuce. Without lettuce it was kind of like a slaw, kind of like a salsa but neither, really. It was saslaw! Anyway, it was very light and summery and good, whatever you choose to call it.
Next up was this deliciously rich Tofu Chocolate Pie! I ran out of vanilla extract so I subbed in almond and thus the almonds on top! It was quite serendipitous that I had sliced almonds to decorate! I feel so fancy! I was actually debating the almond extract, but then I caved and thought, 'no, better go with what I know' and then I started pouring the vanilla into the teaspoon measure and drip, drip, drip and suddenly I was like 'well, I guess we're going with the almond, then!'. I'm not sure you could really taste the almond except that maybe it made it taste richer somehow.

Chocolate Tofu Pie

1 box soft silken tofu (5)
1 C vegan chocolate chips (16)
1 C powdered sugar (16)
1 t vanilla extract
1 t almond extract
graham cracker crust (24)
a few sliced almonds (you didn't actually expect me to count them, did you?)

8! points per 8th

Blend tofu and extracts in food processor until smooth.
Pour chips into a 2 cup Pyrex measuring cup or other microwave safe vessel and nuke 1m. Remove and stir until chips are melted. Pour into tofu mixture and process well, scraping down sides. Add powdered sugar (sort of fold this in before you process it, thus avoiding a powdered sugar mushroom cloud) and process well, scraping down sides periodically.
Pour into graham cracker crust. Refrigerate 1 hour until firm.

Okay, I take it back on the Shari T. book, "The Visitor". I stayed up last night reading. So it's good. I have been drawn in. Now my only worry is that I'll be dragged into some long series of books and be thwarted by the library's missing one of them. I don't think she can wrap up what she's started with how many pages she has left. Curses!

Nothing if not thorough.

Kale!
Chard!
Cilantro!
Close up of cilantro!
And arugula, snap peas, lettuce and garlic scapes (time to try that pesto recipe out again!).
Vegan Dad's Perfect Tempeh Burger with Browned Chickpea Flour Gravy! These were good! I even went to 'the big store' (Cub) to get the HP sauce and the browning sauce it called for! Wow, browning sauce iz teh cool! I feel like I'm learning so many things lately with food! Like, also at Cub, I got gram flour and then when I was reading that Chickpea Flour Pizza recipe, it said to crush the dried herbs between your fingers and I did that and I think it helped (of course I promptly forgot and didn't do it on this recipe)! And I've never done that before! And I got Paprika paste, so that will be fun to try out... and some moong dal... well, anyway, on to the recipe!

Perfect Tempeh Burgers

1 pkg tempeh (9)*
1/2 C bread crumbs (2)
1/2 C vital wheat gluten (2)
2 t ground fennel seed**
1 t sage
1 t thyme
1 t oregano
1/2 t parsley
1 t garlic powder
1 t onion powder
2 T soy sauce
2 T HP sauce
1/4 t browning sauce
1/4 C water
1 T oil

13 points total, divided by 6 = 2 points per pattie plus ?2? for the oil = 4 points per pattie

Crumble the tempeh into a small skillet and add water with 2 T soy sauce to cover. Simmer 10m. Remove from heat and drain and cool.
Mix tempeh with bread crumbs, vital wheat gluten and spices. Add soy sauce, HP sauce and browning sauce, mixing well. Slowly add water until it makes a dough. Knead a few times and roll into a thick cylinder and divide into 6ths. Using your palms, press each into a pattie and fry in oil in a large skillet 5m each side.

*Vegan Dad said that after simmering the tempeh, you might have to use less or no water or more vital wheat gluten, but I didn't find this to be the case. It could have been my bread crumbs, I used storebought, and those things are as dry as the dickens.
**I got to be all knarly and used my rolling pin to crush the fennel seeds!

Browned Chickpea Flour Gravy (adapted from Killer Brown Gravy from Vegan Lunchcast)

1/4 C chickpea flour (2)
1/2 C plain soymilk (1)
1 T Earth Balance (3)
1/4 t salt
1/4 t garlic powder
1/4 t onion powder
pinch black pepper or to taste
1/2 C water

5 points makes approximately 1 C gravy

In a small skillet over med high heat, brown the chickpea flour, stirring constantly. Don't worry if it gets lumpy.
Add flour to blender with soymilk and blend until smooth.*
Meanwhile, melt Earth Balance in heavy bottomed pot and remove from heat. Pour flour mixture in and add salt and spices. Mix well and return to low heat, stirring constantly. Slowly add water until it is the consistency you want. Serve quickly (the chickpea flour really soaks up the water, so it gets thick quick!).
*to avoid use of blender, you could try and sieve your flour first, then brown it, then mix it with the butter (no liquid yet) and then add the milk and water SLOWLY (as you would a roux).

Still reading the Sheri T. book, it's at least interesting.
No knitting, temps forecast to be in the 90's today! Will have to finally break down and turn on the air conditioner.

P. S. Do not tell me what that gravy looks like. I told you it thickens up quickly!

Yes and No.

Yes! I made this for lunch yesterday and it was nummy! I stole the idea from have cake will travel- thanks! Anyway, I like that it's super easy, uses the gram flour I found (whee!) and replaces the crackers we always eat for lunch! I made a 'tapenade' type thingy, with half a can of black olives, a big spoonfull of capers, some caper brine and a clove of garlic, all processed in the food processor. I should call it "White Trash Tapenade" or something because I used a can of black olives instead of the proper kalamata olives. That's some baby bok choy you see there that's green. Am I healthy or what?
This would be the 'no'. I had this brainwave that I would make garlic scape pesto, but roast the walnuts and scapes first. Then they'd be all mild and roasty! Sounds good, no? What I failed to understand was that by roasting the garlic scapes I totally changed their nature and they ended up all mushy and stringy sort of and didn't chop up the way they do when they're raw. So I dumped everything out of the food processor into the blender and added about 1/2 C water and made a sauce. A spring green sauce. It was really rich and good, if you can get over the color.

Garlic Scape Pesto- I got this from my CSA, thanks, Kris!

1 C garlic scapes (8 or 9 scapes), cut into approx. 1" lengths- remember to cut off the flower part!
1/3 C walnuts (7)
1/4 C olive oil (16)
1/2 t salt
1 t lemon juice

Place ingredients in food processor and process until smooth.
Makes enough to cover 1/2 lb of pasta.

Garlic Scape Sauce

As above, except toss the scapes and walnuts in the oil, remove from bowl with slotted spoon and place on baking sheet. Bake at 350 degrees 15m or until the skins begin to pull away from the walnuts.
Dump into blender with the rest of the ingredients and add 1/2 C water. Blend until smooth. Serve over pasta.

Got some books at the library! Woo!
Did not find that one by R.R. Martin, boo!
Am reading some sci fi by Sheri S. Tepper- "The Visitor". It's gotten to the point to where I don't really care if it's good, it just has to be actively not bad. And, I always used to scoff at those "Staff Picks" endcaps or the "Summer Reading" shelves, but man, with 2 kids in tow, I'm like, scooooop! I actually grabbed an "Oprah's Book Club" book! Heaven forfend!
Anyway, this book has the usual suspects; girl with hidden power, society recovering from epic fail, many threads weaving together blah blah blaaaaaah. Oh, evil stepsister, check!
I'll let you know when I'm done. I know you can't wait.

No knitting. Dreaming up new thumb for my Knitty rejected mitts. Perhaps I will knit them with Panda cotton print or maizy or Fixation.

Pandowdy, pandwody, pandowdy.

After seeing this post over at have cake will travel, I did decide to try the black bean burgers! We have been searching for a nice burger for quick suppers/lunch/grilling and this fits the bill for the first two. It was good- the color was good, the texture was nice and the taste was tasty, what else can I say? My husband liked them more than the chickpea cutlets, so that's nice, too! From Veganomicon.

Black Bean Burgers

1 can black beans, rinsed and drained (3)*
1/2 C vital wheat gluten (4)
1/2 C bread crumbs (4)
1 t cumin
1/4 C water
1 T HP sauce
1 t onion powder
1/2 t garlic powder

I mixed it all in the mixer (sorry, Isa!). First, mashing the beans, then adding everything else.
Knead by hand a little, divide into 6 and make patties and cook in a little oil in a skillet.
Each pattie is 2 points, plus ?maybe 2? for the oil soaked up during frying = 4 point per patty

Notes;
next time ?add 1/4 t salt?
can use minced garlic and actual onion
loved the HP sauce in there, but now I feel guilty (see wiki article above) for HP sauce is now made outside of England by Heinz! Geez, I got it as a replacement for Worcestershire sauce! White rice conundrum!
also, can replace HP sauce with ketchup. At least the HP sauce isn't chock full of corn syrup.
*these little numbers in parenthesis represent POINTS values ala Weight Watchers.

I also made Strawberry Rhubarb Pandowdy (from Veganomicon again, but not mango-whatever that was in the book- that pie crust is awesome!).

I oopsed and made the crust with 1/2 C shortening not 1/3 C and it still turned out great!- probably actually much easier to roll out, huh? I guess that's why I had to add a little flour in at the end 'cause it was sticking... but it didn't really matter because it all got smushed into the pie filling! Beauty!

crust;
1 1/2 C all-purpose flour (12)
1 T sugar (1)
1/2 t salt
1/4 t baking powder
1/2 C cold shortening (24)
1/4 C cold water + 2 T if needed
2 t apple cider vinegar

filling;
1 C rhubarb
2 C strawberries
1/2 C sugar (8)
1 t lemon juice
1 t cinnamon
2 T cornstarch

Cut shortening a little at a time into dry ingredients with pastry cutter. Combine vinegar with 1/4 C water and add a little at a time while mixing with pastry cutter. Add up to 2 T water if needed to get dough to hold together when pinched. Gather into a ball and knead a little, flatten into disk and wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate 1 hr.

Mix together filling ingredients and set aside.

When dough has chilled, remove from frig and roll out onto parchment paper.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Dump filling into pie plate, place crust on top and bake at 350 degrees for 30m, take out of oven, cut crust into 1" squares and smush into filling, then bake 20m more or until crust is golden.

45 points total, divide into 8ths, 1/8th = 6 points (gasp). This was, of course, very, very good. Used up the last of the CSA rhubarb! Wah!

Notes; next time ?try 1/4 C flour? instead of cornstarch.

Going to the library to get new books!! Woo! Going to try and find some book that has "something something Fire and Ice" in it's title, by the guy who wrote "Dreamsongs". Hah. Wish me luck.

Could not get through "The Custom of the Country" by Edith Wharton. Brain too tired to hack through it. Need light sci fi/fantasy.

No knitting. Soooo close to being done with scarf, centrepullball is all squishy and gutted, awaiting it's doom, but it sits on the shelf in stasis. Must push on through.

Until it tests done.

Pizza!

I made pizza last night. I used some of our turnips and the rest was a mish mash of things. I used giardiniera to spice it up (just a spoonful!) and then black olives, roasted garlic, carrots and onions. I was pretty pleased with how it turned out, although the giardiniera was pretty spicy for my family. The sauce was nice and creamy and let the toppings shine through. The crust was a little on the dense side and really crackery. The last few times I haven't been real pleased with the crust. I think I'm on the lookout for a new pizza crust- I've got my eye on a few recipes. The veggies I just put on greased baking sheets and roasted at 350 degrees for 30m.

White Pizza Sauce
1 T Earth Balance
3 T flour
1 C plain soymilk
1/2 t salt
1/4 t garlic powder

Blend soymilk, flour, salt and garlic powder in blender (no lumps!). Meanwhile, melt Earth Balance in pot, lower heat, add blender mixture and whisk constantly while bringing up the heat until thick.

Also I made applesauce cake. I guess I missed Applesauce Cake Day, June 6th- d'oh! Or June 4th- there seem to be some discrepancies... anyway, I made this for my husband's work, they had some sort of potluck going on... I think it will be good, never having made it, but all the ingredients were good and it sure smelled good. Will have to update later...

There seems to be a lot of love for the applesauce cake! I used this recipe, with a few changes...

Applesauce Cake
2 C flour
1 C sugar
1 t salt
1 t cinnamon
1/2 t nutmeg
1/4 t cloves
2 t baking soda
1/2 C chopped walnuts
1/2 C rolled oats
1 1/2 C applesauce (I used sweetened 'cause that's what I had)
1/2 C shortening (or Earth Balance or oil)

Toast your walnuts and oats. Watch that they do not burn.
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
Grease a 9 x 9" pan. Mix dry, then wet- do not overmix! Fold in walnuts and oats. Pour into pan and bake 30-45m or until it tests done.

Notes;
could add 1/2 C molasses and down the amount of applesauce to 1 C.
could try just 1t baking powder
could add 2t ginger
could lower salt to 1/2 t or 1/4 t.

Vanilla Glaze (from here, but different)
2 T soymilk
1 t canola or vegetable oil
1/4 t vanilla
1/2 C - 3/4 C powdered sugar (whizz reg vegan sugar in blender)

Warm soymilk and oil. Remove from heat and add vanilla and powdered sugar, return to heat and bring up heat until boiling, whisking constantly. Remove from heat and pour over cake.

Notes; next time try almond extract- fancy! Perhaps with almonds in the cake itself?
Also, try brown sugar frosting, but with organic cane sugar, Mmmm!

Minimal knitting, no reading- gotta get to the library, and quick!

CSA veggies

Snap peas!
Garlic scapes!
Turnips.
Lettuce.
Sweet William.

Plus more bok choy.

The flowers were great, but alas, we could only enjoy them fleetingly because we were headed out of town and running around like chickens with our heads cut off...
I think I broke a filling eating the lettuce because there was some sand I'd failed to rinse thoroughly and CRUNCH ow ow ow. I've been chewing on my left side. Time to call the dentist (hold me- I'm scared!).
The snap peas were marvelous, so sweet and good and they were very well enjoyed on our camping trip.
I made the turnips into pizza !voila! tonight, so sneaky am I. Plus, I put some away for perhaps a turnip soup or something. More on that tomorrow.
The scapes await their doom as pesto. Mmmm-mmm good. We had it last year and while I'm tempted by pics of grilled scapes/roasted scapes, I will probably default to the pesto 'cause I'm just that crazy.

I got the 'rejected by Knitty' email tonight- feel my pain. Maybe I'll put the pattern up in the fall when the disappointment is not too fresh.

In other news, I hacked my Method foam soap dispenser.
Here's how;
1. Fill your method foaming soap dispenser with about 1/4 of liquid soap. I used method's regular liquid soap.
2. Pour in about 1 oz of liquid glycerin.
3. Fill the rest of the way with water.
4. Mix it up and it makes a real thick foam.
5. Realize that one ounce of glycerin is about one dollar. Google how to hack foam dispensers and discover that lots of people have used regular liquid soap and then diluted it a lot. Dump it all into a sealed container and refill the bottle to about one inch with the mixture you just made and then add water to fill. Realize it works even better. Convince yourself the glycerin makes it even better than it would have been with just water diluting it. Congratulate self on having more solution close at hand, at the ready for when you need to refill again. The end.

Sassy Raven

Do you know what the best thing about vacation (especially camping vacations) is? Well, I think it's the fresh perspective it gives, right? The whole shift in what's really important. Getting down to the basics. I leave home thinking "I need to have exactly 2 cups of coffee with this much milk and sugar to be happy." and I come home pooh-pooing such anal retentive thinking. Really, sometimes I just get so stuck in a rut and my thinking gets small, but then you get out in the wild and it really makes everything seem so much bigger.

We had a great time up in Ely, made out ok against the bugs and heat and sun... E. went in the water twice with our friends (I forgot my suit)! We also went up to the Bear Center and that was interesting. I'm not sure I'm completely down with using captive animals to educate... but we gave them our money and there was lots of information. That (guy? girl?) raven up there was strutting around all sassy-like and bold. A random shot seems to have captured it.

On to the food. Whee! It was so decadent bringing a !can! of peaches and tupperwares of pre-prepared food. I think we really have entered a new epoch of camping on the land for our family with the purchase of a boat. And while I still grieve the hard core canoeing in and pitching our tent and making it work, I also really appreciate having the (motor)boat and the large screen tent to make it so much easier. Cabin, ho!

Here's what we ate;

Friday night when we got in (after a frantic race to beat the mosquitos as dusk drew down meanwhile corralling 3 past-their-bedtime-kids)-

speedvegan's felafel with lettuce, tomato, tahini sauce and pitas

Felafel

3/4 C water
1/2 C bulghur wheat
1 can chickpeas, drained
1/3 C breadcrumbs
1 T olive oil
1/2 onion, minced fine
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 T lemon juice
1 t salt
1 t cumin
1 t coriander
1 t cilantro
1 t parsley
1/4 t turmeric

Nuke water until it boils (3-4m). Mix in bulghur, let stand in microwave while you prep the other ingredients.

In food processor, lightly process chickpeas, lemon juice, breadcrumbs and salt, scraping down sides to ensure even processing.

Nuke bulghur 2m or until water is absorbed.

In a medium bowl, combine ingredients from food processor with bulghur. Set aside.

Saute onion, then garlic. Add cumin, coriander, turmeric, cilantro and parsley. Mix in bulghur mixture, adding water a scant 1/4 C at a time until it is mixed together and sticks in a spoon shape when you remove the spoon. Refrigerate while you make sauce (see below).

Preheat oven to 400 degrees and bake small balls of felafel (16 - 20) on greased baking sheet. Bake 30m.

tahini sauce;
1/4 C tahini
1/2 C water or more as needed
1 T lemon juice
1/2 t salt
1 clove garlic

Blend. This kept well in the cooler and made everything taste better.

This meal was so great because I made everything at home and so we didn't have to break out the pans and it was all ready to go. We kind of ate in stages as people were freed up from setting up camp/getting kids down for the night. Really good.

Saturday morning this Peach Blueberry Campout Crumble

3/4 C rolled oats
1/4 C sliced almonds
1 can sliced peaches in juice
1 heaping T cornstarch
1/2 t nutmeg
1 oz dried blueberries

Before going;
Put blueberries and nutmeg in a container.
Put oats and almonds in another container.
Put nutmeg and cornstarch in container.

At camp;
Toast almonds and oats. Set aside.
Dump juice into pan and warm. In it's container mix a little water into the cornstarch so that it's pourable. Pour into juice while whisking constantly. Add blueberries and bring up heat until thickened and blueberries are plump. Stir in peaches and mix until warm. Divide mixture into bowls and top with oats and almonds.

This made a nice change from our usual oatmeal. It was hearty, too. The cornstarch was a little lumpy but when you're camping things like that don't phase you.

Saturday lunch pitas (I froze half of the pitas in foil in a Ziploc and they thawed in the cooler by then), hummus, flax meal crackers, carrots and snap peas from our csa. The crackers were a hit! We'll hope that baking them didn't kill all the good juju from the flax meal.

Saturday night
bean bulghur burgers from D. our friend. They were a little crumbly, but that always seems to be an issue.
These were really good! She froze them and they had thawed by that night. We had them with tomato and avacado on bread and they tasted great and were really filling! Then we had Fruit Cobbler, which was less exciting than I had hoped. But it was still good and a fun dessert for camping. Perhaps with a little less bread topping, a different dough (there's got to be a vegan bisquick recipe, right? I used the low fat Bisquick which is vegan.). The top stayed doughy and so we cooked it a long time, but then the fruit burned to the bottom. Oh noes.

2 C dried fruit (I used organic dried cherries and blueberries)
1 T sugar
1 t cinnamon
1/4 t nutmeg
1/4 C walnuts, chopped

2 C low fat Bisquick
1/3 C soymilk powder
1/3 C brown sugar
1 1/2 t cinnamon
1/4 t allspice
1/4 C Earth Balance

Bag each group seperately.
At camp;
cover fruit with water, bring to a boil and cook until just tender (4-6m)
Add a little water to dough and mix in bag.
Squeeze dough over fruit and cover. Cook 8m.

Then Sunday morning we had D.'s bars, which were great. Again, I will have to get the recipe- they were made with local honey, oats, cranberries, peanut butter and chocolate chips. Great tasting and great fuel. Also great for kids.

Then we ate lunch leftover crackers and hummus at a rest area on the way home.

That's it for now, csa pics later.

Scooters Are Emasculating

Just a quick post here...
Getting ready for our big trip up to the land near Ely, MN!! So excited! Must pack!
I made crackers!! Woot! And healthy, too!

Flax Meal Crackers inspired by Olive Oil Crackers Recipe

1 C flax meal
2 1/4 - 2 1/2 C AP flour
1 t salt
1 C warm water
1/3 C olive oil

to top;
2 t salt
3 t garlic granules

Mix in mixer. Switch to dough hook and mix on med-high for 5m. Dough should be neither too dry or too sticky to work with (how's THAT for vague!). Add more flour if needed. I added flour until the dough started coming away from the bowl.

Shape into a ball and cut into 12. Shape these into small balls and set aside under a wet towel for 30 - 60m.

Preheat oven to 450 degrees with pizza stone in it.

Use a 13" long piece of parchment paper, folded in half, to roll out dough (place dough between the two layers of parchment you have created by folding). Start by shaping the dough by hand into an oval, then place between layers of parchment and press by hand flatter. Finally, begin rolling out with a rolling pin, flipping over and lifting the parchment paper and straightening it as needed. Roll out to roughly 6 x 10".

Remove to a cornmeal dusted baking sheet, prick holes into it all over with a fork and dust with garlic and salt mixture (or whatever floats your boat).

Slide onto pizza stone and bake 5m or until edges are turning brown.

Makes 12 biiiiig crackers. Yum!

Gotta go pack! Have a great 4th!

Potluck, ho!

This past weekend I had two potlucks to attend and one 'bring a treat'.
The potluck is a curious creature, much dependent upon the canniness of the attendee.
Her outward appearance is ever changing, but her soul remains the same...
Huh? (wipes drool from mouth) Oh, what was I saying?
Yes, so I brought casseroles! My favorite!!
One was based on Lachesis' Alfredo Stroganoff sauce, I've blogged it before, (no pic), I used CSA broccoli (I kinda felt bad smothering them in this casserole, but it was for the greater good). Everyone said they liked it (for goodness sake- a whole stick of Earth Balance!).

Then I made the baked lentils doubled everything, with maple syrup this time for the sweetener and 1 T onion soup mix, no other spices. Served over rice. That was pretty good too, just a tidge sweet, though, so I thought it was kinda strange. Next attempt, molasses.

And I made this go anywhere rhubarb bars recipe which was ok, but nothing too fantastic. Dropped out the eggs (in the filling- gack!) of course, but when I was pressing the crust into the pan I was thinking, "Shouldn't there be some, say, soymilk, in here? This is pretty strange.". I 'prebaked' the bottom crust, but didn't really need to because in an attempt to get the top to brown, the bottom got a leeetle burned. I thought about blanching the rhubarb, but I just sliced them really thin (like wooden yardstick thin) and woo! it worked.

Going camping, prepping food.

No reading, no knitting.

Kiefer Sutherland?!?

This...















becomes this:















I was pretty skeptical about these at first. Actually, I was really geekily excited about these at first because I felt so wholesome buying the whole wheat berries at the coop, but then when I actually got the berries in the blender and then added the milk and started actually blending them I was totally freaked out. And then after that when I started pouring them into the pan, I was skeptical. I was like, "I have ruined supper and all it was was pancakes! I am such a dork!". We have run the gamut of emotions on these pancakes. What a fun way to spend a beautiful Sunday early evening, huh? But I really liked them, on one condition- SERVE WITH SOME KIND OF FANCY SAUCE AND CHOCOLATE CHIPS! Then they are perfect.
Recipe from here, I changed the amount of oil and of course soymilk.

Whole Wheat Blender Pancakes with Rhubarb Strawberry Sauce

1 C whole wheat berries
2 T sugar
1 1/2 t baking powder
1/2 t salt
1 T oil
1 1/2 C soymilk

Blend berries and milk (start with 1 1/4 C milk and add more if needed to make pourable batter). Blend slowly and then more and more. Blend a lot. Blend more than you might expect. Blend until you fear for your blender. Then say, "Oh, what the heck!" and blend some more.
Add the rest of the ingredients and mix. Set batter aside for 5 - 10m to 'develop' (sounds menacing, don't it?).

Meanwhile, start your sauce. Boil some water to blanch the rhubarb in. Once it's boiling, dump the rhubarb in and cover and wait for it to boil again. Then take it off the heat and dump it into a colander/strainer and run cold water over it to stop it's cooking. Continue with sauce preparation...

Sauce;
2 C rhubarb
1 C strawberries
1/4 C maple syrup

Combine all ingredients in a microwave safe bowl, mix and nuke for 2m, let rest and nuke again for 2m (should be bubbling). Tada! Sauce!

Get out your trusty old cast iron skillet. Or non-stick pan* -shudder- (just kidding there, haha). Grease it up with oil (I just pour some in and then use a paper towel to drag it around and cover the whole surface- is that bad?). Heat it up. Pour out two small pancakes, wait until edges bubble and center does not shine and flip! and cook for a little less time than you did the first side. If they start smoking, you should flip them (ask me how I know). Repeat 3 more times for a grand total of 8 pancakes.

Serve with yummy rhubarb strawberry sauce and chocolate chips.

*actually, a nonstick pan might work better because these things are pretty sticky- to be completely frank, I practically fried these- I mean, it wasn't an inch of oil in the pan or anything, but it was sure a lot more oil than I'm used to using. Maybe I am oil phobic.

Hey, I read "Ethan Frome" by Edith Wharton. I thought it was boring at first, but then I got all dragged into it and couldn't put it down. It's just a simple story, but boy do you want to know what REALLY happened. So then the book it was in is this compilation of 3 of her earlier novels so I'm reading another one something something country it's called. Huh.

I worked another wedge on my scarf you guys are probably all like, gads! woman, just show us a picture already or something. It's not done. Maybe I'll rework it in the OmegaCrys I got. Maybe I'll design a baby sweater next from the OmegaCrys, actually. I've got a few ideas knocking around I'd like to try out.

In other news I must relate a conversation I had recently with a girlfriend;

Her; "Have you heard of Keffir?"
Me; "The Keeper? (facial expression- bur?) Yes, I've read about it on a few forums."
Her; "The Keeper, what's that?"
Me; "Ah, (insert awkward explanation here)."
Her; "...not something you'd really want to try for the first time at your high school gym class, huh?"
Me; "Ah ha ha, no. Talk about a tragedy you'd never live down."
Her; "No, I said 'Keffir'."
Me; (still reeling from that last part of the conversation) (jokingly) "Kiefer Sutherland, yah, he's hot!"
Her; "NO, Keffir- you know, it's like this yogurt drink!"
Me; (finally getting it) "Oooh, ah ya I've seen it at the coop."

Now that's comedy gold right there, folks.