Being Vegan Is the Best

What We Had For Dinner Last Night

Adzuki Bean Stew

1 C uncooked adzuki beans, approximately 2.5 C cooked
1 C TVP rehydrated in 2 C boiling water
1 onion, chopped
1 shallot, sliced thin
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 red peppers, chopped
2 carrots, sliced
2 potatoes, quartered and sliced thinly
2 T hot paprika sauce
1 T dill
3 T olive oil
1 t salt
pepper to taste

Boil your water (I nuked my 2 C in a 2 C Pyrex measuring cup for 5m in the microwave) and dump in the TVP. Let this sit while you prepare the rest of your ingredients.
Chop your veggies. Drain and squeeze out your TVP (I used a mesh strainer).
Saute the onions, then garlic. Add the TVP, peppers, carrots and paprika paste. Mix well and saute a few minutes. Add your adzuki beans, potatoes, pepper, salt and dill and cover with 4 C water.
Simmer for 30m or until potatoes are done.

This was really good, but I think I used too much dill, or else to our American taste buds dill=pickles. Next time I'll just use a little.
The adzuki beans were quick to cook and the stew turned out great, I was really pleased with how tasty it was without using vegetable broth!

This month is Veganmofo which is Vegan Month of Food. I suppose there are themes and such that I should be doing each day, but I thought I'd just take a moment here to talk about why I think being a vegan is so great!

I know some people might consider veganism limiting, and I can definately understand that, but for me, being vegan works as a nice way to create some parameters within which I can roam freely. Really, when you think about how much food there is out there and the myriad ways to prepare it, it's overwhelming. Being vegan creates boundaries (ethical ones, to boot) within which I can experiement and combine to my hearts content. I think cooks naturally do this (limit themselves) and I can rest more easily as a cook knowing that nothing I eat comes from animals and most of what I eat is truly healthy and good for me!

Of course, part of the creativity of being a cook is to try new things (note the combination of paprika and dill above which I would have never tried before, let alone adzuki beans) and, again, veganism wins, because there are always new things to try even within this so called limiting diet. In fact, I would argue that I try more radical things than I would have otherwise because I am vegan.

Frankly, without being vegan, I would never have tried all the different kinds of lentils, beans, spices and so forth (yes, I'm looking at you, nutritional yeast) that I have. Oh, and vegetables, let's not forget all the veggies! And I would have never tried baking my own bread or cakes, either. I would still be eating Hamburger Helper with Boca crumbles, that's what.

So in conclusion, veganism, I love you!

No Loafing!

Here are a couple of dinners for you...

The first is Loaf, made using The Magical Loaf Studio! I named mine "In All It's Awesome Glory". It was good! No, really, it was actually good! No, for serious, it was good!
I had all this wheat germ, see, from making the granola bars for our camping trip, and so I went to vegblogsearch.com and typed in wheat germ, and one of the results that came up was loaf!
Here is mine...

1/2 C walnuts
2 T canola oil
1 onion, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
1 carrot, grated
1 C TVP reconstituted in 1 C boiling water
1 C wheat germ
1/4 C tapioca pearls
1 t dried basil, crumbled between your fingers
1 t dried parsley, crumbled between your fingers
1/4 t oregano, crumbled between your fingers
2 T HP sauce/ketchup
1 t salt
pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a loaf pan.
Boil your cup of water and add TVP, set aside.
In the small bowl of your food processor, process walnuts into meal. Pour into bowl and set aside.
In the small bowl of your food processor, process the onion, garlic and carrot.
In a large pot, saute veg in oil.
Add everything else and mix well.
Pour into loaf pan, press into pan and bake 1 hour.
Let cool 10-15m and turn out and slice into 8.
Approximately 3 points per slice.

Here is a recipe that I got from our CSA, was it ever good! I think this is how I will prepare chard from now on...

African Pineapple Peanut Stew

1 C chopped onion
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 T canola oil
1 bunch Swiss chard/kale, chopped (about 4 C)
1 20 oz can crushed pineapple
1/2 C peanut butter
1 T Tabasco sauce (or to taste)(or whatever you use for 'heat')
1/4 C chopped fresh cilantro
salt to taste

Saute onions, then garlic.
Add pineapple, simmer and add chard. Simmer until chard is wilted.
Mix in peanut butter, Tabasco sauce and cilantro.
Simmer for 5 more minutes and serve over rice.
4 points per half cup.

Two potlucks this weekend!! One at the Harvest Festival at the farm and one for our church.
I brought Pineapple Upside Down Cake to the farm and it was good! I used 1/4 C Earth Balance instead of 1/3 C oil and it was fine. I beat the sugar and the margarine together, then added the pineapple juice and vinegar and then the dry ingredients. Oh, and I used rings instead of crushed pineapple.
It was the first time I've used my springform pan and I was so pleased that it worked. A little was leaking into the oven, so I just stuck a baking sheet under it to catch the drips and it was fine. Also, the inside did not get cooked, so when I flipped it out onto the plate, it was all raw, so I stuck it back into the oven and crossed my fingers that the glass plate wouldn't crack and it didn't- phew!
Didn't get a picture of the loveliness, so I guess I'll have to make it again. Definately a keeper.

For our church party, I brought a dish based off of Urban Vegan's Curry Cashew Casserole and it turned out great! I kind of diverged from the recipe a lot, but not really. Well, yes I did. But not in spirit. You decide.

3/4 C cashews
3 small eggplants, chopped
3 red or green peppers, chopped
1 can garbanzo beans, rinsed and drained
1 can coconut milk
2 T brown sugar
1 T curry powder
1 t salt
1 t onion granules
1 t dried basil, crumbled between your fingers
1/2 t garlic granules



Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Oil a 9 x 13" casserole dish.
In a food processor, process your cashews into meal.
Pour into a large bowl and add garbanzo beans, coconut milk, brown sugar, curry powder, salt, onion granules, basil and garlic granules. Mix well. Add eggplant and peppers, mix well.
Pour into casserole and bake 40m covered , 20m uncovered.
Serve over rice, yum!

Enjoying "The Sunrise Lands"- Stirling is a good storyteller- not afraid to pull out all the stops when it comes to plot development.

And this lamp.

What We Had For Dinner Last Night

This was a mix of the CSA broccoli we got, some pasta shells, some garlic and Dragonfly's Bulk Dry Uncheese, oh yeah, and some TVP. Ta da!

I was going to make it with some tomato sauce from all the heirloom tomatoes we got from the CSA, and I blanched the tomatoes and then deseeded them and depulped them and then I had so much liquid I decided to save it. Anyhow, we got some bee-yuu-ti-ful oregano so perhaps I'll make some actual sauce with it ?and freeze it? for the winter...

Reading "The Sunrise Lands" by Stirling, you know, that series that I've started and stopped and started and stopped? I gave up on "The Protector's War" but this one is great so far- he catches you up with what happened with that one, and so I get all the bonuses of having read it, but without having to slog through all the war stuff. So, there's that. I'm enjoying it so far. We're getting closer to figuring out what happened to cause the end of the world. I'm sure it will be some kind of huge Wicca fest at the end.

Sick, bleh.

I want one of these.

Apples Yah Der Hey

What We Had For Dinner Last Night

Crockpot Cabbage and Kielbasa

2 savoy cabbage, shredded
2 apples, chopped
6 small Viking purple potatoes
1 t caraway seeds
2 T vegetable broth
1 package Tofurky kielbasa sausage, cut into 1" rounds
1 onion, chopped
2 T brown sugar
1 t apple cider vinegar
salt and pepper to taste
1 1/2 C water

Chop your cabbage, apples, potatoes, onion and Tofurky. Put it all into your large crockpot, sprinkle with caraway seeds, brown sugar, apple cider vinegar and veggie broth powder, pour in water and cover.
Cook on low for 4 hours, high for the last 2, stirring occasionally.

This was very good! It had a nice spicy sweet tart thing going on...
And, it was not mushy- when I started making this it was to the tippy top of the cooker and I was all like, no way will 1 1/2 C water do it. But I was patient and as the cabbage cooked down and released it's juices it was fine. Even though the potatoes themselves were not covered with water, I think they cooked by being steamed.

I found the idea for apples in a recipe called Milwaukee Kielbasa Supper- how could I resist?!? (I used to live in Milwaukee). The one thing that would have made this better would have been the addition of wine. Mmmm, wine.

I served this up with some of that Easy Vegan Wheat Bread- I halved the recipe due to lack of ww flour existence in my home and it was good! Whee!

Finished "Maps and Legends", first essays were the best. Reading "The Pilot's Wife", another Oprah book club book, oh no! what can I say, I grabbed a title that sounded like I'd heard it before. Anyway, I'm almost done, it's pretty fluffy, like, her description of what it feels like after someone you love has died was pretty ?heavy handed? heavy with the brush? how do I say it? She was obviously REALLY trying to make sure you knew the person was grief stricken. But it's gripping, and it's what I have to read right now. The end.

No Title Is Forthcoming

What We Had For Dinner Last Night

Dry Fried Tofu with Caramel Sauce and Sweet Peppers
based off of this recipe but also using Vegan YumYum's dry fried tofu technique

1/2 block extra firm tofu, sliced long ways into thirds and then diagonally across these three rectangles to make 6 triangles total
2 shallots, sliced thinly 'across the grain'
1 sweet red pepper, deseeded and sliced thinly into long strips
1/4 C sugar
1 clove garlic, minced
1 t Trader Joe's ginger paste
1 T soy sauce
1 t apple cider vinegar
1/2 C water
1 T cornstarch dissolved in 1 T water

Slice up your tofu, then place it between two tea towels and press it with your cast iron pan.
Start your rice.
Chop up your shallots, mince your garlic, slice your sweet peppers.
Get out your soy sauce, apple cider vinegar, corn starch, sugar amd ginger.
Mix the cornstarch with water, set aside.
Now, on med high heat, in a medium saucepan, dump in the sugar and let it sit. When it starts to melt, start stirring, and don't stop until it's all melted and golden.
Remove from heat, add shallots and return to heat. Cook for one minute. Then add garlic and ginger and sweet peppers and cook for another few minutes.
Add water, soy sauce and vinegar and mix well, scraping down sides as needed.
Simmer for a few minutes, then add the corn starch, mix well, cover and turn to low.
Get your cast iron pan off of the tofu, get it on the stove and get it hot (med high).
Place your tofu on the skillet and lower the heat a little. Cook until golden, about 5m, pressing down with your spatula to get out all the water you can.
Flip and cook the other side for approximately 5m.
Serve your tofu over rice with the peppers and sauce over the top.

This was very good! I halved the recipe and used less vinegar and more sugar. The dry fried tofu was pretty dry- I would marinate this some after frying it, or just go ahead and use a tablespoon or two of oil and actually fry it.

Well, we had a great time up at Lake Superior, always makes me want to live up there!

Read "The Wee Free Men" and "Hat Full of Sky" by Terry Pratchett - very good!! I tried reading the Discworld series at one point, and just could. not. get. into. it... so I was surprised that I liked these so much!!! Whee! I'm a sucker for a good fairy tale.

Also reading "Maps and Legends" by Michael Chabon which is really fun non-fiction, a book about books and writing. I'll have to get ahold of his "Adventures of Kavalier and Clay", I think.

A Study of an Agate

Hey there! These are some pictures of an agate I found when we went to Lake Superior!! Oh joy, oh rapture, oh Nature divine!! I was so excited to find this stone! It is tiny, folks, about the size of the tip of my pinky, but it's really an agate and it's really beautiful. And it's all mine...

The agate is the state gem of Minnesota, did you know that?

Lake Superior Water

Hey peeps! Here is what we had for a dinner over the past few days, somewhere in there...

Pineapple Vegan Chili*

2 cans kidney beans, undrained (7)
1 20 oz can crushed pineapple, undrained (5)
1 tomato/1/2 can diced tomatoes
1/4 C TVP (1)
1-2 ancho chiles/1 t ancho chile powder
2 T oil (8)
1 onion
1 clove garlic
1 small sweet pepper
1 T chocolate chips
1 t cinnamon
1 t cumin

In small bowl of food processor, process onion, sweet pepper and garlic until coarsely chopped.
Remove to a large soup pot and saute in oil.
Add spices, tomato, TVP, ancho chiles and mix well.
Add pineapple, tomatoes and TVP.
Bring to a boil, stir, then lower heat and simmer, covered, until TVP is tender. Simmer uncovered until thick. Stir in chocolate chips and salt/add soy sauce to taste.
Makes approximately 5 C @ 22 points = 4 points per cup

This was a very, very good chili. I've been wanting to make it for a long time and finally got to it. D. likes pineapple, so I thought it might be a hit (it was). I also added cinnamon, ancho chile and chocolate because I've seen other recipes using sweet combined with ancho chiles and thought it sounded good. Mmmm. And it was.

*man, I just love the internet, because I swear I've had this floating around in my 'to make' pile of recipes forever and yet, there it is.
Here is a skillet of cornbread, our favorite cornbread, Grandma's Cornbread Made Vegan. Interestingly enough, I used chickpea flour for 3/4ths of the cup of flour and it was fine. It is so fun to make cornbread in a cast iron skillet, I don't know why, but it is. I really need to get some of those little cast iron molds that look like corn. Ha, like I need any more one use items in my kitchen. Okay, the cast iron skillet works fine.
Whee! I made granola! It was fun. I got it from Scholastic Parent & Child magazine.
Annabel's Homemade Granola

2 C quick oats
1/2 C sliced almonds
1/4 C sweetened coconut flakes
1/4 t salt
1/4 C brown sugar, packed
2 T canola oil
1/4 C maple syrup (actually I used 1/8 C maple syrup and 1/8 C sorghum 'cause that's what we had)
1/2 C craisins

Preheat oven to 300 degrees.
Oil a baking sheet.
In a large bowl, mix the oats, almonds, coconut, salt and brown sugar.
In a small bowl, whisk together the maple syrup/sorghum and oil.
Pour syrup over oats mixture and mix well.
Spread out onto baking sheet and bake in the center of the over for 40-45m, stirring every 10m.
Transfer to a bowl, stir in the craisins and let cool.

V. good. Pretty cheap, no? Easy, yes? Also fun, all that stirring, hyper-ly opening and shutting the oven, watching it get browner and browner. It got really brown, I think that was from the sorghum. You should get some sorghum syrup, it's cool.
And here is another rockin' soup made in the crockpot.
Three turnips, a carrot or two, a cup of cranberry beans, some vegetable broth powder, water water water and boom! you've got soup. Oh, also, oil, salt and yes, a little sugar. Served with defrosted Easy Vegan Wheat Bread which is my new favorite wheat bread. Why did it taste better to me after it was frozen?!?

So, the granola was made it preparation for our last camping trip. Yes! One. more. trip...
We are going up to The Porcupine Mountains only one of my faaavorite places to go AND we'll be right on Lake Superior!!! EEEeeee! I can't wait. Now, if only all this packing and food prep would just take care of itself... oh, and also the long drive... but it will be so worth it. I'm super excited.

This time, we have to pack light, because we're actually hiking in and so no cooler for us!! I went to the coop and bought lots of Fantastic foods felafel and whatnot. I'll let you know how it all goes...

Today I have to prep chickpea pizza, moong dal, red lentil curry and then we'll be mostly done. Gack, dried reconstituted hummus? How will I survive?

Food For Camping

Suppers;
Fantastic burger mix mixed with Minute rice on buns
Angel hair pasta with Dragonfly's Bulk Dry Uncheese
Dried felafel with Moong Dal and rice
Red Lentil Curry with Roti

Lunches;
hummus
chickpea pizzas
pea, lentil and corn chowder soups
oat bars

Breakfasts;
oat bars
granola
oatmeal

Hope that's enough... oh, and plus a bijillion snacks for the kids. And water. That will have to be filtered out of Lake Superior. Mmmm, Lake Superior water.

Serve 'em up!

Heyo!
Here is a yummy spaghetti with beanballs type of thing with HOMEMADE SAUCE!!
You take a bunch of tomatoes, blanch them, skin them, dump out the seeds into a fine mesh strainer propped over a bowl, mash the seeds and pulp against the mesh until it's mostly pressed through, toss a few chunks of tomato flesh in there, then boil it in a pot with fresh basil and oregano and some oil and salt and onions and garlic and BOOM! sauce.
The beanballs were kidney beans, tvp, 1/4 c vital wheat gluten, some HP sauce, some soy sauce, some onion soup mix, maybe some cumin? all mixed up and then fried in the aebleskiver and then dumped in the sauce. Sorry no real recipes folks, but geez, it was the weekend. A girl's gotta live a little, you know? It was real good.
Here are the wunnerful jelly doughnut cupcakes from Veganomicon. Do make these. I made the rest of the sumac juice/extract into jam- hooray! and used that in the 'cakes. Deelightful!
Here is a Fail Proof Dahl which I believe I found in a thread on the ppk forums (couldn't find that exact thread, though I did note the author of said recipe!)- thank you chickpea fleet! It was good! I served it with veganyumyum's roti which was recommended and again, v. good.

1 1/2 C moong dal
3 C water
1 t Trader Joe's ginger paste
1 t turmeric
1 clove garlic, minced
2 T olive oil
tidge chili garlic sauce
2 T mustard seeds
1 T cumin seeds
1 T coriander seeds
1 t salt

Rinse dal, add to water with ginger and turmeric, bring to a boil. Skim off foam, lower heat and simmer 'til tender.
In a large soup pot, saute garlic and seeds until seeds start to pop. Add salt and chili garlic sauce.
Lower heat and add lentils.
Blend some in blender, add water if needed.
Serve with fresh coriander leaves and roti.
Makes a lot (maybe 6 C), roughly 6 points a cup.
Roti.
And finally, a soup I made which was very nice- I'll call it potato groundnut soup!

3 large potatoes (I used Viking purple potatoes- woo!)
2 T peanut oil
2 large shallots
1 sweet pepper
1 t cumin
1 t coriander
pinch nutmeg
tidge chili garlic sauce
1 t salt
pepper to taste
1/4 C creamy peanut butter

Scrub 'em, chop 'em and boil up your potatoes.
Process shallots and sweet pepper until coarsely chopped.
Saute in oil in a large soup pot.
Mix in spices, salt, pepper and chili garlic sauce.
Mix in peanut butter.
Dump potatoes, water and all, into pot and mix well.
Blend in blender.
Serve it up, yum!

Reading "Absurdistan", v. weird.

Yummeh.

CSA veg!!! Turnips! Aren't they pretty? And you can eat the greens, too. I feel like this may become a slow cooker soup with the cranberry beans...
Beautiful carrots...
Some heirloom tomatoes and zebra stripe tomatoes. We also got dill, cilantro, peppers, eggplant, garlic, shallots (whoops, forgot to take pics of those, they were huge!), lettuce, white potatoes, and radishes.

Yesterday was our work day at the farm! It was so nice to be out there and the weather couldn't have been more perfect. Boy, fall is just beginning, the fields were golden, a few trees are turning, the growing season is slowing down... oh, summer, how I miss you!! But it's all good. This weekend should be perfect.
We got to see the horses in action at the farm, how cool is that?!? Zephyr and Queen were all harnessed up when we got there, and they turned the potato rows so that we could find the potatoes. It was very cool to see them working and they were very intelligent, well-trained creatures. So sorry I did not get a picture. Really, though, it's the first time I've seen horses in action like that, and I was so impressed (city kid!).
Probably the last of the squash I cooked up for supper last night.
Gallo Pinto, round two! Using up more of the cilantro!
The bulghur and cabbage casserole I made for our CSA workday potluck.

Bulgur and Cabbage Casserole

1 small head of cabbage, finely chopped
2 C water
1/2 C bulgur, reconstitued in 1 C boiling water
1/4 C olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
1 T paprika
1 t caraway seeds
1 t salt
1/2 t pepper

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Finely chop cabbage in food processor using the disk with the holes in it.
Saute onion, add spices and seasonings, bulgur and cabbage. Mix well. Add water. Pour into oven safe casserole and bake 30m, covered, 10m uncovered.

A nice side.

And finally, Garbanzo Bean Paprikash with Dumplings. This was yummeh! I sort of mixed two recipes together, Paprikash with Dumplings, Tofu Paprikash and a dumpling recipe from another recipe.

Garbanzo Paprikash with Dumplings

2 T oil
1 onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
2 T paprika
2 T sugar
1/4 C nutritional yeast
1/4 C ketchup
1 t salt
1 can garbanzos, undrained

dumplings;

2 C flour
2 t baking powder
1 t salt
4 T Earth Balance (1/2 stick)
1/4 - 1/2 C soymilk/water
1 1/2 t celery seed powder

For the garbanzos and sauce,
saute onions and garlic, add all ingredients up to garbanzos, mix well, add garbanzos, mix well, bring to a boil and lower heat and simmer.

For the dumplings

Bring a large pot of water to boil.
Sift the dry ingredients, mix well. Cut in the Earth Balance until mixture resembles meal, slowly add soymilk, should make a fairly dry dough. Roll out into a snake and cut into smaller pieces (I like big dumplings, so I get about 16). Pour into boiling water and cover, lower heat and cook at a low boil for 10m. Remove with slotted spoon, add to garbanzos and sauce and gently mix. Serve right away.

notes;
I may try experimenting with adding more baking powder.
The celery seed powder was a good addition (even if it did turn the dumplings green!).
The sauce is richer with the ketchup and nutritional yeast.

All of a sudden my book ("The Doomsday Book") got super exciting. Everything happened at once. I could barely put it down last night. Woo! Death! Disease! Near Escapes! Can't wait to see how it turns out...

Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps.

What We Had For Dinner Last Night

Chickpea Patties

2 T olive oil
1 small onion, diced fine
1 clove garlic, minced
1 carrot, shredded
1 can chickpeas, rinsed and drained
2 T tahini
1 T parsley
1/3 C chickpea flour
1/2 t baking soda
1 t salt

Shred carrot, set aside.
Saute onions until onions are translucent. Add garlic, cumin, salt and carrot and saute 2m.
Scrape onion mixture into large bowl of food processor, add chickpeas, tahini and parsley and process until it sticks together. Remove to bowl and mix in flour and baking soda well.
Heat up your aebleskiver with a few drops of oil in each divot, and fry them up. Makes approximately four 7 aebleskiver batches- 26. 1 point each.
Conversely, flour your hands and make 4 patties, fry in 1 T oil 2m one side, then two minutes the other side.

These were yummy! And I got to use my aebleskiver pan! It's really fun! Small food is fun!
No, really, I was pleased. Usually any 'patties' I make are kind of weird. Hopefully this marks a new page for me in patty making! Also, I made these up earlier and then fried them right before dinner, so they had a long rest in the refrigerator. Perhaps that made a difference.

Still reading "The Doomsday Book", still good.

It builds the tension.

What We Had For Dinner Last Night

Curried Butternut Squash and Wild Rice Soup based off of this recipe

1 2 1/2 lb butternut squash, seeded, peeled and cubed
1 C wild rice
3 C water
2 T onion soup mix
1/2 C orange juice
2 T maple syrup
2 T Earth Balance margarine
1 med onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1 T curry powder
1/2 t salt

In a medium sized saucepan, bring the three cups water and 1 C wild rice to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer 45 minutes.
While rice is simmering, peel, seed and chop up your butternut squash. If you're feeling really ambitious/thrifty, bake up those seeds for a snack.
In a large, heavy bottomed pot, place the squash and just cover with water. Bring to a boil and then lower heat, simmering for up to 15m, until squash is tender. Place squash into blender using a slotted spoon, then pour in water from pot (carefully!) and blend.
In the now empty large pot, saute your onions and garlic in the margarine. Add onion soup mix, salt and curry powder and mix well. Pour in orange juice and maple syrup. Pour in the squash mixture and mix well.
Mix in the wild rice and allow the flavors to meld a little (haha, 'meld'. or just serve it right up, I say!).

Yumm! This was a great, hearty soup, so healthy I felt eating it! The maple syrup adds just the right amount of sweetness. It went really well with the Easy Vegan Wheat Bread I made Sunday (that bread has molasses and is a little sweet).

Still reading "The Doomsday Book". Apparently there really was a Domesday Book- in the book, the main character calls her journal a 'domesday book'. So good so far. Pacing is a little slow, but it builds the tension.

So many things to do today... must get going.

Tomato Jam!

Well, I was quite the busy beaver this weekend! It was just so nice to be home, you know, and not, say, traveling...
I read up on Cranberry Beans and found out more about them!! Aren't they beautiful? It was fun to eat fresh beans cooked up so nicely. I guess they are often used in Italian cooking and the US is a primary exporter of them to Italy!

Friday I knew D. was going to be getting home late and I didn't want to be in the kitchen at the end of the day, so I made Summer Squash and Bean Soup loosely based off of this recipe...

Crockpot Cranberry Bean and Yellow Squash Soup

1 C cranberry beans, fresh
4 C water
3 8" yellow squash, chopped
1 small carrot, sliced into rounds
2 T olive oil
1 T Earth Balance margarine
1 T soy sauce
1/2 Walla walla onion, diced fine
1 clove garlic, minced
1 t Italian seasoning, crushed between fingers
1/2 t yellow prepared mustard
1/2 t onion powder
1/2 t sugar
1/4 t garlic powder
1/4 t thyme, crushed between fingers
1/4 t parsley, crushed between fingers
1/4 t celery powder
1/8 t rosemary, crushed between fingers
2 bay leaves
salt and pepper to taste

Place everything in the crockpot in the morning, set it on high and let it go. Add water throughout if neccessary.

Look how the beans turned pink!! This was the best way to make the beans, I think, because they turned out so soft and lovely. I was particularly pleased with this soup because I didn't use prepackaged vegetable broth!

Oooooh, and Saturday morning I made aebleskiver! Vegan aebleskiver, people!! Aghlaghlaghl... (that's the sound of me, drooling). Yo, this was so good. Get your hands on an aebleskiver pan and make these puppies up!! Ah gah-roun-tee you will have a new family tradition on your hands!!

Vegan Aebleskiver

1 1/4 C flour
1 T baking powder
2 T sugar
1/2 t salt

1 C soymilk + 1 t apple cider vinegar
2 T canola oil
1 t vanilla

1 T Earth Balance margarine, softened
4 T jam, divided
1t water
2 T powdered sugar

Pour out your soymilk and add 1 t apple cider vinegar to 'sour' it (vegan equivalent of buttermilk).

Sift your dry ingredients into a large bowl. Add the soymilk mixture, canola oil and vanilla and mix until just moistened. DO NOT OVERMIX. Let sit for 10m or so. Stir it again and let sit.

Heat up your aebleskiver pan real hot. Add tiny bits of butter to each 'hole' and then fill halfway with the dough. Add a bit of jam and push it into the dough. Top with a little dough to cover jam. Check for doneness by sticking a toothpick along the edge between the pan and the dough. If brown, use 2 toothpicks to flip the aebleskiver over. Maybe some dough will ooze out, or even some jam. It's okay. That powdered sugar at the end? Covers a multitude of errors.

Allow the other side to cook and carefully remove to a plate to await it's happy brothers and sisters. Repeat this last step 6 more times and then make a couple more batches.

Sift some powdered sugar over the top and drizzle with some jam mixed with a little water to make a syrup.

Makes roughly 21 aebleskiver.



For Saturday lunch, I made Gallo Pinto. I'd made the black beans from dried last week and then the rice that day. It was arguably the best black beans and rice dish I've had. Usually I find black beans and rice to be bland, but this was not. Perhaps it was all the spices... haha. Oh, and I'm sure I destroyed some food rule by using HP sauce, but, c'mon! it was good! (I promise to use Salsa Lizano next time if you send me some!!).

Gallo Pinto

2 T canola oil
1 med onion, chopped fine
1 clove garlic, minced
3 C cooked rice (1 C uncooked)
2 C black beans/1 can black beans, undrained
1 t cumin
1 t coriander
1/2 ginger
2-3 T HP sauce
1 t salt
pepper to taste
1 bunch fresh cilantro, stemmed and chopped

Saute onion, garlic. Add HP sauce, spices, mix well. Add cilantro and beans, mix well. Add rice, mix well and serve.

Notes;
To cook the rice, you can saute it with the onion, garlic, a sweet pepper and some cilantro and the spices, then add 2 C broth and bring to a boil, then lower heat and simmer 20-35m until the rice is done.


Here we have Saturday's supper. Above, Crash Hot Potatoes made with purple potatoes (they turned out dry! wah! maybe I didn't use enough olive oil). And below, cranberry beans with kale. Soooo good!!
Finally, Sunday I got a bee in my bonnet to make Tomato Jam. I doubled the recipe and !still! got 1 pint. Used one of the hot red peppers from our salsa pack from the CSA and got some juice under my fingernails, everytime I gripped something last night, the skin under my nails burned!! So I was kind of worried- would it be Hot Jam instead of Tomato Jam? Oh, no- it was good.


Above you see it on the stove and below you see the final product. So. seriously. good.
Tomato Jam

3 pounds tomatoes
2 C sugar
4 T sumac juice
1 T Trader Joe's ginger paste
2 t ground cumin
1/4 t cardamom
1/4 t nutmeg
1/4 t cloves
2 t salt
1 small red pepper stemmed, seeded and minced

Put it all in a heavy bottomed big pot, bring to a boil, stir for a while and then reduce heat and simmer, stirring occasionally until it's jam* (you should be able to see the bottom of the pot when you scrape the spoon along it). Cool and refrigerate.

*this took a long time, folks, like, hours.
Easy Vegan Wheat Bread for the jam, both tomato and sumac-elderberry. This makes huge loaves, btw. Below you see the wonder that is sumac-elderberry jam. Behold. And, lo, it was good.
Read "World Made By Hand"- really fun, great characters, post-apocolyptic... what could be better! It was like Garrison Keillor meets the end of the world!

Started "The Doomsday Book" by Connie Willis, another apocolyptic book. Pretty good, engaging.

No knitting.

Jam, man!

What We Had For Dinner Last Night;

Roasted Eggplant and Lentil Soup based off of this recipe...

1 large eggplant, quartered lengthwise
3 T olive oil
1/2 C French lentils
1/2 C moong dal
14 large sage leaves
2 C water
1/2 t onion powder
1/4 t garlic powder

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Place eggplant on a rimmed baking sheet and drizzle with 1 T olive oil. Season with salt. Bake 30m or until very tender.

Meanwhile, in a med saucepan, cover the lentils with 2" water, salt with 1/2 t salt and add 2 sage leaves. Bring to boil, lower heat and simmer 20m. Blend in blender with 1 C water and pour into soup pot.

Remove eggplant from oven, scrape flesh into blender and blend with 1 C water. Add to lentils in pot. Season with garlic and onion powder, salt and pepper. Stir in 1 T olive oil.

Fry the sage leaves in 1 T olive oil on high, 30s per side. Garnish soup with fried sage.

This was pretty good, if you haven't fried sage before, you really should, it's quite good!


The above is what I hovered over seemingly all day as I tried to make Sumac Elderberry Jam. I did persevere and We Have Jam!! More pics later. I think it's very good, I suppose I would. The idea is that the tartness of the sumac is supposed to heighten the flavor of the elderberries and I think they are a good combination.

Sumac Elderberry Jam

2 C sumac extract*
2 C elderberry juice**
4 C sugar
1 package Pomona's Universal Pectin

Boil up your sugar, sumac and elderberry. Add your pectin as per instructions on the package. Boil until it thickens and pour into jam jars. Boom! You've got jam!

*place 4-5 heads sumac in tea towel, tied up, cover with water and soak overnight
**pick 2 C worth of elderberries, cover with water and boil. Mash through strainer and reserve juice. Add water if needed to make 2 C juice.

I think if I do this next year, I'll use regular pectin and I'll not soak as many sumac heads as I did (I soaked an entire pot full and so now I've got sumac extract in the fridge). I also will perhaps leave the elderberry skins and seeds in to see if there's enough pectin in them to set without adding pectin. Must google this.

Purple Viking potatoes


melon! so refreshing!
shell beans- I'm using these in soup today, excited to see what it will be like...
fresh sage! used in soup above
tatsoi- bigger this time!

Think Of The Blanket

What We Had For Dinner-
Spicy Peanut Spaghetti w/ Thai Basil

1/2 lb spaghetti (12)
1/4 C thai basil, packed
1/4 C oil (16)
2 T creamy peanut butter (5)
1 T peanut oil (4)
1 T soysauce
1 large clove garlic, roughly chopped
2 t sugar
1/2 t salt
1/2 t cumin
1/8 t chili garlic sauce

Boil pasta.
Blend all ingredients (except pasta) in food processor.
Drain pasta (you don't have to drain it super thoroughly).
Mix and eat. Yum!

This recipe came about because I didn't want to make pesto yet again and I was too lazy/didn't have the ingredients for the recipe our CSA sent this week for Thai basil. Said recipe did use peanuts etc and it kind of reminded me of a spicy peanut spaghetti recipe I'd made before, so I just subbed in peanut butter and blended it all up and added cumin for some reason and voila! It was really tasty. You should try it!

Next up is the first steps toward making Elderberry Sumac Jam. Eldermac Jam? Suberry Jam? Let's just call it good. Above you see the humble Elderberry. We had a bush of these in our yard growing up and I loved eating them. So, it was kind of tedious removing all the berries into the measuring cups to make 2 C, but it was also sort of zen. Don't eat any unripe berries, they're toxic.
Here you see my giant pot. Inside is all of the sumac, wrapped up in two tea towels, soaking away for the night. Some recipes call for mashing up the sumac (or even blending it!) and boiling it and then straining it etc. but that seemed messy and unsanitary or something (never mind me) so I just soaked them in the cloths. Maybe I only soaked out the tannins or something and not the malic acid, who knows. I think it will serve the purpose. As you can see below, it turned the cloths red-brown. I mixed a teaspoon of the sumac juice, a teaspoon of the elderberry juice and a teaspoon of sugar together this morning and it tasted really good. I'm excited. Today I will procure the canning supplies (I'm a cannin' virgin!) and then "Canning, ho!".

I typed out my lace pattern and saved it, so I can go back to it if I ever want to knit an entire blanket out of it or whatever. Now I'm kind of at a loss for the cabin blanket, I should grab some of my stash yarn and start working on it. Oh, and figure out if I have enough. Oh, and here's the real deal on that, my husband will kill me (this is a personal joke between us- I always rip out my work and reuse the yarn for whatever next catches my fancy), because I want to use the blue and green yarn that I bought for Samus and I just checked on Ravelry and I DO have enough to knit the blanket I think and this is so typically me- I start a project in the Fall, specifically a sweater project, vowing that this is the year that I will knit a sweater and then I stall and then I eventually rip it out. Yep- 8 months later and I'm bailing. But it's for a good cause, really! Think of the blanket, dear!

No reading; planning the next Great American Novel- will get back to you on this...