Food Snobbery is my Hobbery

Walking the Line

2008-08-07T13:38:00.001-05:00

I'm wondering if I've crossed some sort of line between cooking from scratch and... crazy.
I was standing over my new 18 quart pressure canner, carefully adjusting the heat between 11 and 12 pounds of pressure when my mother in law asked, "Why are you canning your own beans?"

I have to admit I was a little stumped. Of course I was canning my own beans. Why not? These Whole Grain Milling Co. black beans are good and I can now safely precook and preserve them for years at room temperature! Do I need more of a reason than that to spend 5 hours in the steaming hot kitchen on my day off?

Then my partner pointed out that organic beans are cheap and are often on sale for less than the cost of the canning jars, not to mention the cost of the fuel used to cook them.

Darn! If I don't can to save money, then what's my excuse? Because I'm preparing for holing up in my basement for a month and being perfectly well-fed on wholesome locally grown foods during the apocalypse? Because I'm bored? Because I've been reading too much about urban homesteading? Because I'm paranoid about BPA lining aluminum cans?

You know, a few decades ago I wouldn't need an excuse. Everyone would be too busy canning to ask.

Summertime Soup

2008-08-02T12:18:00.002-05:00

I've been craving soup lately- probably because it's my favorite thing to cook. I can only be deprived for so long before I break down and enjoy a steaming bowl in spite of the hot weather. Today's soup was designed around the local veggies in my fridge that needed to be used.

Summer Squash Soup
The creamy, tender squash, bright herbs, and simple broth make this soup light enough for summer. The kidney beans make this dish a complete meal.
serves 2

2 Tbsp. olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 large yellow summer squash (a.k.a. yellow crookneck squash), halved lengthwise and thinly sliced
2-3 carrots, chopped (about 1 cup)
1 cup cooked kidney beans, rinsed
2 cups water
1 no-salt vegan bouillon cube
1 1/2 tsp. sea salt
1 Tbsp. nutritional yeast (optional)
1/2 tsp fresh thyme
1 Tbsp minced fresh sage (about 3 large leaves)

In a medium saucepan, heat olive oil over medium-high heat. Add the garlic, squash and carrots and stir frequently until the squash begins to break down a bit, about 3-4 minutes. Add beans, water, bouillon cube, salt, and nutritional yeast (if using). Bring to a simmer and cook about 20 minutes or until carrots are tender and squash is soft and falling apart. Add the sage and thyme to the soup and taste. Adjust salt as needed.

Uh Oh

2008-07-30T22:26:00.002-05:00

I think my Mulberry Root Beer is a little closer to Mulberry Beer. I just slammed one after a workout and now I'm feeling a bit tipsy. Our sodas always taste yeasty like beer, but never make you feel like you drank a beer- they just don't ferment long enough. Perhaps my kitchen is just too hot for making non-alcoholic beverages?

Good thing I chowed down on a big bowl of millet and eggplant/yellow squash/onion/tomato/kale with my "soda".

Green Tamales

2008-07-28T20:28:00.004-05:00

Tonight's meal was brought to you by the sweltering summer heat and an oven turned up to 400F.

I'm currently trying to avoid buying anything at the store, as I've already surpassed our grocery budget for the month. So everything in this meal was already in our garden, pantry, or fridge. Feel free to substitute things that are in YOUR house when you make this.

I was going to just make some collards, some beans, and some polenta...but decided to put it all together inside the collard leaves for a tamale-like dish. I love how it turned out!

Green Tamales (serves 6)

12 collard leaves

Filling
4 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1 mild chile, finely chopped
2 cups polenta
4 cups water
1 tsp. salt

1 cup cooked kidney beans (I pressure cooked some)

Sauce
1 red pepper, seeds removed
2 medium tomatoes
1/2 sweet onion
1 tsp. smoked paprika
1/2 tsp. salt

Start by preheating the oven to 400F. To prepare the filling, heat 2 Tbsp. olive oil in a saucepan over medium heat. Add the garlic and mild chile, stirring as it cooks to prevent any burning. When the garlic is fragrant but not browned, add the polenta, water, and salt. Stir to completely combine. Continue stirring until you have a thick, pudding-like polenta- about 10 minutes should do it. Stir in the cooked kidney beans and remove from heat. Taste the mixture (careful- it's really hot!) and adjust salt to your liking.

Fill a wide, shallow skillet about 1/2 way up with water and heat until simmering. Then wash 12 collard leaves and remove the largest part of the stem- about 1/3-1/2 of the way up the leaf.

Then drop the leaves in the shallow pan of simmering water for, oh, maybe a minute. The leaves should still be bright green. Now it's time to assemble your rolls.

Place about 1/2 cup of filling closer to the stem end of the collard leaf.

Fold in the two lateral sides of the leaf.
The fold up the stem end and continue rolling up and over the filling. Roll them tightly for a nice looking finished dish.
Pack the rolls into a lightly greased 8x11 baking dish. Then prepare your sauce.
Puree red pepper, tomatoes, onion, smoked paprika, and salt in a food processor or blender until smooth. Spoon over the collard tamales and bake, uncovered, for about 20-25 minutes.
We had ours with some tasty sweet corn smothered in Miso-"Butter".
Here's an inside shot:
As you can see- the polenta firms up nicely to mimic a tamale. Except with these tamales you can eat the wrapper!

Drinking Local

2008-07-28T08:59:00.005-05:00

Just about everytime an Eat Local Challenge comes up in public conversation, someone mentions upping their percentage of local beer or vodka to meet the challenge guidelines. It's true- we have a decent number of small breweries and even some hard liquor made nearby, I'm told. But I'd be hard pressed to name a single local alcoholic beverage.

The only alcohol in our house is a 2 oz. mini-bottle of tequila I use for making margarita cupcakes and some vanilla extract- neither of which are local. My partner is straight edge, so no alcohol for him. And me- I come from a long line of alcoholics (recovering, thank God) and keep my drinks to about one per year. So I won't be kicking back with a cold local brew anytime soon.

I will, however, be kicking back with a cold Mulberry Root Beer, though!

We started making our own root beer a few years ago. It's not hard to do and the supplies are pretty cheap. Northern Brewing on Grand Ave. has everything you'll need as far as equipment goes and the roots/herbs can be procured at your local co-op. There's a gazillion combinations you can use, but we thought it'd be fun to use up some mulberries in this one.

Mulberry Root Beer
1 quart mulberries, washed (sub any berry)
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
1 1/2 cups cane sugar
1/4 cup date syrup (sub 1/4 cup raisins if you don't have this)
2 cinnamon sticks
2 Tbsp. sarsparilla
1 vanilla bean, scraped and the remaining pod
2 Tbsp. licorice root
2 star anise
1 Tbsp. juniper berries
2 gallons filtered water
1/4 tsp granulated ale yeast or champagne yeast

Stir together all fruits/herbs and 1 gallon of the filtered water in a large stockpot. Bring to a simmer and boil for 30 minutes. Then remove from heat and allow to cool to room temperature. Prepare a strainer over another larger pot, carboy, or empty bulk peanut butter bucket. Strain the mulberry-spice liquid, gently pressing the mulberries to get the juice out. Discard strained solids. Add the remaining gallon of water to the jug and stir. Make sure the temperature is lukewarm- no hotter. Then stir the yeast with 1/4 cup of water in a little cup. Add to the jug and stir vigorously. Your brew is now ready to bottle.

It takes some strong bottles to package this up as the carbonation can get pretty fierce. I really recommend only using bail-top bottles designed for this purpose. These should be sterilized with hot water and soap before bottling. We use a spigot rigged up on an old 5 gallon bucket and put a plastic hose over the nozzle that attaches to a bottling wand. But you can get creative about how to get the soda into the bottle- just keep it sterile.

The soda needs to stay in a warmish place (no problem in summer) for a few days. Usually they take about 48 hours for the carbonation to build, but we check after 24 just in case. You might want to open them outside as they can be lots of fun to open- like champagne that's been shaken up.

Once you know they're at the right fizzy consistency, bring them into the basement or a refrigerator to stop the yeast and get those brews ready for drinking!

PS- I can't really guarantee how this brew will taste when finished because it's still sitting on the kitchen floor growing bubbles. But my temperature-test taste was rockin good- kindof like a spiced cherry vanilla soda.

FYI- yes, I cross posted this on the Eat Local Blog. Lazy, but necessary.

There's nothing for dinner...

2008-07-27T18:30:00.003-05:00

Do you ever have those days when you've spent so much time working on a project in the kitchen (homemade bread, a cake, jam, etc.) that you're too tired to cook dinner? I've had a few of those lately. I've had some serious fun making jam, baking for other folks, and gardening, but sometime after all that I just want to order pizza. And since I'm still taking the Eat Local America challenge, I should really focus on making practical meals.

Yesterday I realized that we had a TON of cucumbers. I pick 2-3 per day and we only eat 1 every few days. So it was time to make pickles. This time I used this recipe and added some chili peppers and grape leaves (to keep the pickles crisp). I'm always on a hunt for the perfect pickle recipe. Today after weeding the garden, I found another quart's worth of cucumbers. Of course- AFTER- I make pickles I find the hiding cukes.
Amazingly enough, I still cooked some actual meals after making the pickles.

So here are some of the foods I've enjoyed in the last 2 days. Yesterday the kids and I went to the Farmer's Market and found some really awesome stuff. Perhaps our favorite thing to get is garlic bread from some folks that use local, organic flour. We sliced it up with some Veganaise, fresh local tomatoes, and basil from the garden to make some super good tomato sandwiches. I love that lettuce-leaf basil.

Last night I wanted soup for some reason (maybe because it was nearly 90 in our house and, like, 100% humidity). So here are the local veggies I rounded up for the soup:

Carrots from the farmer's market (hooray for local carrots!)
The first sweet corn of the season
local purple scallions from the co-op
Garlic from the backyard
local shell peas from the co-op
pasilla chilies from the garden

I just simmered this up in a soup pot with a vegan bouillon cube. It sure was tasty.
This morning I got to spend some quality time with the boys. We had tofu scramble with the aforementioned veggies, sesame semolina bread from the farmer's market, and "apple dippers" as mcdonald's would call it: Early crop tart apples dipped in wildwood plain yogurt with maple syrup and cinnamon. Plus some local raspberries.

So I didn't feel tempted to order pizza today- Mission accomplished.

Strawberry Jam Forever

2008-07-25T08:02:00.005-05:00

At work we have a little something we like to call "buddies". Sure, we have friends at work, too, but buddies might rank higher than friends...Buddies are free food. Now, buddies are bittersweet. We all love free food, but if it's free at the co-op, that means that our co-op is losing money from the dented, slightly smashed, past its expiration date products. So while I shouldn't have been excited (actually, thrilled) over the 16 quarts of local strawberries sitting in the buddy bin on Wednesday, I was.

I snagged all those strawberries in a heartbeat and promised I'd bring people jam the next day. I decided to use a "Basic Strawberry Jam" recipe from a book called something like "The busy person's guide to canning" (I'm just busy because I'm canning, so I don't know if this book is for me).

I thought it was odd that the recipe didn't call for pectin, but it called for astronomical quantities of sugar, so I figured that would help it set up once it reached the jelly point (220F). So I purchased 36 cups of fair trade, organic cane sugar, 3 more cases of canning jars (I had one) and high-tailed it home. At this point it was 6pm. Probably a little late to start a quadruple batch of jam, but nevermind that.

The jam went according to plan until I had it all sealed up and processed. It had passed the "does it run off a cold spoon in single drops or sheets" test decently. It was a little thinner than usual, but I figured it would just be a softer set kind of jam. Wrong. More like a not-set-at-all type of jam.

So my 42 jars of strawberry jam were delayed until last night. I opened each jar, resterilized the jars, reboiled the jam, and added plenty of pectin this time. Bingo! Forget any risky low acid fruit jams without pectin for this girl. I'm sticking with the sure thing.

As I was eating the jam straight-up out of a spoon last night, I realized that I'd never had homemade strawberry jam. Usually I'll try something before I make 42 jars of it. But, really, who wouldn't like homemade strawberry jam?

A proper Southern meal

2008-07-23T07:41:00.002-05:00

This is how I want to eat every day. This is simple food that is rich, satisfying and highly nutritious.

I pressure cooked some black-eyed peas and then seasoned them with Bragg's and a little liquid smoke. For the greens, I fried up some little pieces of marinated tofu, onions, and garlic and then added an assortment of collards, mustard greens, and overgrown lettuce from the garden.

The cornbread is the Southern Style cornbread I always make from Gluten-free cooking school. I eat my cornbread with my meal because I like savory cornbread. Mike and the boys like theirs for desserts, smothered in maple syrup. They were a little bit mad at me for serving the peas on top of the cornbread, but I really wanted them to try it. Instead, the kids scraped the peas off and saved the cornbread for last.

Cucumber "Pickle" Salad

4-5 pickling cucumbers, roughly chopped
2 small cippolini onions, thinly sliced
2 Tbsp. minced fresh dill
1 pasillo chile (or other chili you like- these are mild), minced
1/2-1 tsp sea salt (salt to taste)
1-2 Tbsp. rice vinegar

Stir everything together and let it marinate at least 30 minutes before serving.

Take my word for it

2008-07-20T23:18:00.003-05:00

I've cooked up a storm this week, but have nothing much to show for it. You'll just have to take my word for it. I made a Peanut Butter Cheesecake for some friends, but forgot to take a picture. Then I made a tofu quiche for an event and again forgot to take a picture. I was even going to take pictures of some yummy road trip food yesterday again forgot.

Now, I know I could tell you all about these foods without pictures, like how the peanut butter cheesecake batter was so rich that I felt sick after licking a fair amount of batter from the inside of my food processor (Don't worry, guys, this was after your cheesecake was safely in the oven).

And I could tell you about how I got home at 11pm last night after a long day at a Wisconsin Bluegrass festival and still needed to make a quiche for an event at 9am this morning. I almost didn't make it, but then decided I just couldn't pass up an opportunity to make quiche. The crust of a quiche is really my favorite part, so I had to make it from scratch. I filled the crust with sundried tomatoes, (local) broccoli, onions, garlic, and (local) mushrooms. The quiche itself was the tofu, soy cheese, turmeric base from The Garden of Vegan.

But describing food is not nearly as much fun as looking at it (or eating it, for that matter).

So finally tonight I took a picture my dinner!
I love polenta because it cooks up relatively quickly and can be seasoned with anything your heart desires. This polenta has sage and thyme from the garden along with salt and pepper. That's it. The green bean, tofu, mushroom mixture was the best part.

Lately everything I've been making has been seasoned with maple syrup, balsamic vinegar, tamari, and a touch of sesame oil. So guess what the sauce on this is...?

The tofu was marinated in this new favorite sauce and chopped up kinda little. I heated some olive oil in a cast iron skillet and fried up the little tofu pieces, then added the green beans from the backyard. Next I threw in 2 thinly sliced cippolini onions (local), sliced creminis (local), and a pasillo chili from the garden. As soon as the mushroom started to wilt, I poured in the sauce and took it off the heat, scraping up the bits from the bottom of the pan into the sauce.

This meal came together really quickly and I'm hoping it will taste even better in my lunch tomorrow. I was really surprised how much the sage from the polenta really stood out, even with the assertive balsamic vinegar & maple flavors. Yum!

Hey Ladies...

2008-07-15T23:12:00.004-05:00

I've been battling aphids on my tomato plants since June. I've never noticed any aphids in my gardens before, but they started out on one tomato plant this year and spread to the others. It was my excitement to try this one particular tomato variety that kept me from plucking the infested plant before things got out of hand.

Every year I plant different varieties of heirloom tomatoes. I've tried the brandywines, green zebras, garden peach, yellow pear, Juan Flame, Black Krim, and countless others. I've enjoyed every one of them, but I rarely repeat them because there's something special about planting a new (old) variety. Sometimes I'll hear about a variety I want to try and seek it out. Other times (okay, most times) I just like the name of the tomato plant so I'll buy it. I mean, how can you resist a tomato called the "Hillbilly"? Such was also the case with the Italian Cream Sausage tomatoes.

I know, I know. Those tomatoes don't sound vegan, kosher, or even healthy. Maybe that's why they appealed to me so much... And when aphids appeared on my Italian Cream Sausage plant, I just couldn't bring myself to destroy the plant.

I've tried a few of the recommended treatments- I've inspected each leaf, squishing the aphids and their larvae. I've sprayed them with a high pressure hose to knock them off . I've misted them with soapy water to drown the suckers. Yet they still spread to my other tomatoes.

So now, with 6 tomato plants afflicted, I'm bringing in the big guns.

Ladybugs LOVE aphids. Me: not so much. So I'll let the ladies do the work on this one.
{By the way, I got them at Mother Earth Gardens in Minneapolis. They're awesome}

The boys helped me water the garden to encourage the thirsty ladybugs to stay a while, have a drink, and have a bite (of aphids) to eat. Then we spritzed them with some sugar water to make them a little sticky so they won't want to fly too soon. {Don't worry- it doesn't hurt them}
The boys helped me spread the ladies on the tomato plants. We only used about 1/2 the bag. The ladybugs went back in the fridge for a nap until our second spreading. I hope they're hungry!

Some good news from the garden is that the black hollyhocks I got for Mike a few years back are finally blooming. Mike's favorite color is black and when I asked him what flowers he'd like to plant he replied, "Black ones", probably trying to be difficult. So when I found black hollyhocks, I knew we had to plant them.
When I'm out in the garden, using a pitchfork and spreading straw, mucking around in compost, I like to pretend I'm a real farmer. This is how hardcore I feel.

Meet my blog-on-the-side

2008-07-13T22:47:00.002-05:00

Dear blog-reading friends,

I know it seems like I've been neglecting you lately. What was that- One post last week?! It's time for you to meet my blog-on-the-side, Eat Local Mississippi Market. What once was just for co-op folks is now open to all. I'm trying not to "cross-post" so that you can get something unique from me at each site. Be forewarned that the MM blog is not all vegan, but the lessons learned and great recipe ideas will be useful no matter what your eating habits.

Love,
Liz

St. Croix Adventures

2008-07-12T16:52:00.003-05:00

Yesterday our family embarked on a journey into the wilderness. Okay, we just went to a state park, but it felt eons away from the city. We went to William O'Brien state park on the St. Croix river to spend the day canoing, picnicking, and swimming.

Now it probably wasn't the smartest idea for two folks who have never so much as touched a canoe to decide to go on a 2 hour canoe trip on the windiest day of the year with two restless 8-year-olds...But we were feeling adventurous! So we rented a canoe, two paddles, and 4 life jackets and set sail. Except the sailing wasn't exceptionally smooth. It was more like frantically paddling upstream both ways, zig-zagging across the river so much that our short loop probably quadrupled in mileage.

Is there some secret to canoing? It looks so simple in movies and from my usual landlocked view. Perhaps Mike and I didn't have our rhythm right. Or maybe it was the kids deciding to STAND UP and both lean over one side of the canoe, sending us tilting perilously close to the water. Or maybe we had the boat backwards or something (is there a front?). Or maybe the wind really did make our trip be upstream both ways. Whoever we decide to blame, it was pretty stressful trying to keep going one direction and avoiding getting stuck in the shallow parts. But there were moments when we looked up into the trees and the sky and remembered, "Oh, yeah. This is really beautiful!"

It didn't look like a sunny day- in fact, it was downright cloudy with storms coming in that night. Both Mike and I got sunburned kinda bad, but the kids were fine with their farmer tans already established for the summer.

After we got safely back to shore we went to the beach and swam for a little bit and the kids worked on a sand castle. I layed on the beach and tried not to fall asleep. Then we found a shady spot to cook dinner and enjoyed some potatoes and refried beans alongside rice-veggie burgers. Oh, yeah- and chips and soda of course. No eating local today. {wait, that's not true. the corn chips were local and so were the frozen potatoes} In true camping style, we ate these out of paper cups.

We finished eating just as the clouds started rolling in and made it home before the biggest part of the storm hit St. Paul. And just a few minutes later? A tornado warning for our beloved park. We made it out just in time. Good thing we decided not to make it a camping trip!

My second wedding...

2008-07-06T20:33:00.004-05:00

I'm super excited to be doing the desserts for another vegan wedding!
This one is in September, so Fall flavors will be featured.

Flavors will be: S'Mores, Maple Walnut, Lime Margarita, and Pumpkin Cream Cheese.

The bride and groom will have a two tiered mini citrus cake covered in cream cheese frosting and lime zest. Aren't these flowers beautiful? Who can guess what kind they are? (No cheating, Erin & Holly!)

After a long hard day of sleeping out on the deck chairs, it was all I could do to whip up a quick salad for dinner. This one is with nappa cabbage, cucumbers, cilantro, jalapeños, and green onions. I dressed it with sesame oil, tamari, and rice vinegar. A bit monochromatic, but delicious nonetheless.

Why I'm not very cool

2008-07-05T21:40:00.001-05:00

Where do I like to spend a hot Saturday night? In the kitchen, of course.
How ironic that canning or preserving needs to take place during the hottest summer months, when the garden is overflowing with food. This task, while enjoyable, heats my kitchen far beyond lasagna-baking or soup simmering temperatures. It is nearly unbearable.

So today, while making mulberry jam and jalapeño jam (that's two kinds, not mulberry-jalapeño...although that might be good), I took breaks in the kiddie pool in the backyard and sipped ice water.

And then, after heating up the kitchen to unbearable levels, I figured, "Hey, why not make some pasta?" My fellow Eat Local Challenge participants and I have lamented over the lack of very local pasta here in MN. I rely on the Dakota Grower's pasta from North Dakota when I need a quick pasta fix, but there's nothing like homemade pasta.

Tonight I decided to make a tortelloni pasta with 1/2 my dough and some fettuccine with the other half.

The pasta itself is pretty darn local, with flour and water being 99% of the ingredients in this recipe. The filling is as follows:

Herbed Sunflower Seed Pasta Filling

1/2 cup raw sunflower seeds, toasted in a dry skillet (MN)
1/4 cup water (MN)
2 Tbsp. nutritional yeast
10 stems from cremini mushrooms (WI)
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. fresh thyme (backyard)

After toasting the sunflower seeds until beginning to brown, add 1/4 cup of water and let them soak for about an hour. Go do some yoga in the meantime. Then whizz around the sunflower seeds, soaking water, and remaining ingredients in a food processor until finely minced, but not quite smooth. Use about 1/2 tsp. per 2" round of pasta dough. This would also be super good as a spread on crackers, inside a tortilla, or just off a spoon.

The sauce for this pasta is a white sauce made with Earth Balance, flour, Org. Valley soymilk (WI), salt, green onions (MN), cremini mushroom caps (WI), parsley (backyard) and blanched snap peas (backyard). I didn't measure anything for this recipe, sorry.

Even though it was 9pm before I got to eat dinner, it was damn good. And the best part is, I have fettuccine in the freezer for another day!

Yippee!

2008-07-03T21:48:00.005-05:00

If there's one thing this Eat Local Challenge has done, it's made me really excited about food. {I know what you're thinking..."How could Liz be any more excited about food?"}

A few months ago I never would have squealed with delight after seeing that the nappa cabbage and yellow squash from Wisconsin were delivered today. But today, in the produce aisle, I squealed and even jumped up and down a little after seeing these beauties. Plus, there were local cippolini onions! I'm just so excited to have my menu broaden!

So as soon as I got home I cooked up some buckwheat with the onions, then sauteed yellow squash, zucchini, onion tops, cherry tomatoes and cremini mushrooms with handfuls of fresh parsley, lime basil, and thyme. Wow- this was just what I needed. I just seasoned it with the herbs and salt, so I could really taste the freshness of the veggies.
Afterwards I enjoyed a shake made with OatsCreme (MN made- I emailed them to find out where their oats come from), Organic Valley soymilk (WI), and backyard strawberries.

Now I've just got to plan a fun dinner for tomorrow. I'm just working a 1/2 day, so I could make something really special...

Local Party Food

2008-07-02T17:30:00.003-05:00

We hosted a game night at our house last night and I challenged myself to make the snacks as close to 100% local as possible- Here's how I did:

Our burritos were made with homemade flour tortillas (flour from MN and soymilk from IA), homemade refried black beans (beans from MN, peppers from the garden, green garlic from MN/WI), lettuce from the garden, and homemade pico de gallo (tomatoes from MN, green onions from WI, japaleno from garden, cilantro from MN/WI).

The chips were from Whole Grain Milling Co. in MN. The cookies are my Sunny Oat Maple
Cookies (local except for the oil, salt, and vanilla). Our beverage of choice for the night was Rhubarb-Ade. I think I posted before about the Rhubarb Lemonade recipe that my friend Sarah gave to me. I tweaked it just a bit-

Rhubarb-Ade

6-7 cups chopped rhubarb
7 cups water
1 cup maple sytup
a small handful of fresh lemon verbena leaves
additional 1-2 cups cold water

Boil the rhubarb, maple syrup, and water until the rhubarb is very mushy (maybe 10 minutes). Then strain the liquid in to a pitcher with a fine mesh strainer. In a smaller cup, smash the lemon verbena leaves with a cup water to release the flavor, then add to the rhubarb liquid. Taste the rhubarb ade and add more cold water if it need to be diluted or more maple syrup if it is too sour. {If it's too sweet, you can add some lemon juice, but my rhubarb was tart enough} Refrigerate pitcher for at least 4 hours, until thoroughly chilled.

Here's a great bagel sandwich I had a few nights ago- made with a St. Paul Bagelry "everything" bagel, MN tomatoes, MN made pickles, my homemade pickled radishes, and Wisconsin dill mustard. Yum!

The Farm

2008-06-29T14:31:00.006-05:00

What a beautiful day today! The sun is shining and it's 78 degrees, but was much cooler this morning. I spent the morning weeding the garden- I can't believe how fast the creeping charlie and succulents spread!

I've been fighting off some aphids on a tomato plant and squash bugs on my cucumbers this last week. I think I've squashed the squash bugs, but I've got to keep up the soapy water spray for the aphids. I'd hate to have to pull the affected plant, but I don't want them to spread to the other tomato plants! I'll give it another week of treatment and see how it goes.

I'm so excited that our tomatillo plant has its first tomatillos!

Last week our strawberry harvest went from about a quart every other day to just a couple of pints in the week. It seemed like strawberry time was just about over. Yesterday the kids found about a pint, so I was thrilled to find another pint of berries today. Maybe they're not quite done yet! I promptly made the strawberries into a small batch of strawberry pancakes for myself and some strawberry Popsicles for the whole family.
The mulberries are starting to ripen now, too. Most are still white, but we got about a pint yesterday and it looks like more ripened today. We really have to harvest and process these every day when they start ripening. It's a lot of work, but we love mulberry jam, mulberry soda, and mulberry pie!Here's the harvest from today:
Tons of radishes that really needed to be picked, a head of lettuce, a bag full of green beans and snap peas, and a pint of strawberries.

What the heck am I going to do with all those radishes? These are radish and jalapeño quick pickles. I think they'll be a great condiment for salads, tacos, or just about anything.

Lemons

2008-06-27T23:06:00.001-05:00

My blog is getting a little facelift. Do you like the lemons?

They're not local, but I promise they're organic.

Snap

2008-06-25T21:38:00.003-05:00

I just finished teaching my "Vegetarian Trinity: Tofu, Tempeh, and Seitan" class tonight. I think it went over really well. We had barbecue seitan, tempeh sausage, and lemon-herb tofu crisps. So I've tasted and cooked enough protein to last me for weeks! Hopefully these folks will be inspired to give tofu a try again or finally try to make their own seitan.

Tonight I couldn't imagine cooking anything else, so I just picked some lettuce and snap peas from the garden for a big salad.
{Does anyone want any lettuce? I can't seem to use up all the lettuce in the garden and it's going to be bitter soon. How many mixing bowls of lettuce do I have to eat in a day?}

Anyways, the snap peas are just out of this world right now! I picked some up at the farmer's market this past weekend and cooked them up last night with some zucchini and tons of herbs and served them alongside some boiled potatoes.

Then we got in our local snap peas at the co-op...Yippee! They are better than candy. First a crisp, loud snap and then the crunch. Last comes the rich sweetness that you just can't get from sugar. I'm really enjoying them raw or quickly cooked in some Earth Balance and herbs. How do you cook your snap peas?

A Strawberry-Rhubarb Cornmeal Tart

2008-06-22T16:04:00.003-05:00

With all the strawberries ripening at once and the rhubarb going out of control, it was imperative that I make a strawberry-rhubarb something-or-other this weekend. But my standby pie crust recipe uses wheat flour and I want the whole family to be able to enjoy the fruits of our garden.

So when I was perusing the June issue of Martha Stewart Living, the Cornmeal Dough pie crust caught my eye. All it took was some flour substitutions to make this one a gluten-free crust and a butter substitution to make it vegan. Plus, our cornmeal and rice flour is locally milled.

The Cornmeal Crust (adapted from Martha Stewart's recipe)
1 1/2 cup brown rice flour
1 tsp. xanthan gum
3/4 cup cornmeal
3/4 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
3/4 cup frozen Earth Balance, cut into chunks
1/4 cup ice water

Combine rice flour, xanthan gum, cornmeal, salt, and sugar in a food processor and pulse until thoroughly mixed. Add Earth Balance and process until the mixture forms pea-sized bits. With machine running, add ice water slowly just the dough begins to hold together. Press dough into a disk, wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate about an hour. Then preheat the oven to 375 and lightly grease a tart pan. Press the cornmeal dough into the pan, making sure to keep the sides thick enough to be sturdy. Prick holes in the bottom with a fork and cover with plastic wrap. Refrigerate another 20 minutes. Then cover the crust in foil or parchment paper and fill with dry beans. Bake for 15 minutes or until crust is firmed up and no longer shiny. Remove beans and foil and bake uncovered for another 15 minutes or until golden brown. Cool completely.

Meanwhile...

The Rhubarb Jam

2 cups chopped fresh rhubarb
1/4 cup maple syrup (I like grade B)
1/4 tsp. agar powder

Combine rhubarb and maple syrup in a small saucepan bring to a simmer. Reduce heat to low and cook for about 13-15 minutes or until the rhubarb is the consistency of applesauce. Stir in the agar powder and refrigerate until chilled.

The Sweet Cream

1/4 cup vegan cream cheese frosting
1/4 cup vegan sour cream

I apologize for using leftovers in a recipe, but I had some leftover frosting in the fridge and hope you do, too. (I believe I used the recipe in Vegan Cupcakes Take over the World). Whisk together the two until combined.

To assemble: Spread the rhubarb jam over the crust, all the way to the edges. Then pour the sweet cream over the jam, leaving a border of jam visible. Top with sliced or whole strawberries, depending on their size. Serve immediately, or refrigerate until serving.

Two Sandwiches

2008-06-19T22:57:00.002-05:00

I got home at 8:30 pm tonight and was famished. I had picked up some pea shoots at the co-op, but wasn't sure what to make with them. I had to harvest the day's strawberries before dark, so it was around 9pm when I started thinking about what I was going to make for a very late dinner.

Like any tired, hungry foodie, I googled "pea shoots" to figure out what I should make. And imagine my delight when I found a recipe that not only used my pea shoots and freshly picked strawberries, but also called only for ingredients that were locally produced and already in my fridge!

So my first sandwich was the Strawberry and Pea Shoot Sandwich.I did add a little Tofutti cream cheeze with the jalapeño jelly, because that's just such a rockin' good combination.

Second sandwich (because I needed some protein) was a tempeh salad sandwich. While I didn't have any locally made tempeh, all of the herbs, onion, lettuce, and bread is from MN or my backyard.

I'd like to say that I saved one of those sandwiches for my lunch tomorrow or shared that plate with a friend, but I didn't. I ate the whole darn thing and it was amazing.

Ah, Salads

2008-06-18T23:08:00.002-05:00

I hate to burst anyone's expectations/stereotypes, but this vegan doesn't usually eat a ton of salad. Sure, I crave salads during the summer, but usually it's the dressing that motivates me to eat lettuce (other raw veggies are more enticing). But since starting this local challenge, I've been eating salads every day.
My garden is bursting with lettuce (butter leaf, romaine, and mesclun mix) and we've got local spinach at the co-op, so I've got to take advantage of it. Plus, the radishes and strawberries are plentiful and both are great on a big salad. This salad has a mix of my garden's lettuces, barbecue seitan (recipe to be used in my "Vegetarian Trinity: Tofu, Tempeh, and Seitan" class next week), cucumber, radish, and chive flowers. The dressing is ranch made with homemade soy yogurt.

While this salad (and all the others) have been amazingly delicious and fresh, I really want more than lettuce, radishes, cucumber, and beets on my vegetable plate. So I was thrilled to find these babies ready in the garden today:

While these are the lone snap peas large enough to pick, there are more on the vine that are a promise of vegetable diversity to come. I'll enjoy these in my lunch tomorrow!

*Sorry for the lack of posting lately- my blogging is divided amongst three sites right now. As soon as we "go live" with the co-op's Eat Local blog, I'll post a link for you to enjoy my and my co-workers' fun with local eating. The Eat Local America blog is here.

Local Sweets

2008-06-13T21:43:00.002-05:00

I've wanted these cookies for 2 weeks now. They've been in my head- a recipe just waiting to be baked. And now that I've tasted them (and the dog has stolen about 6), I'll have to admit that they were worth the wait.

I wanted these so bad because I've been eating relatively few sweets since my local challenge began 2 weeks ago. I haven't baked much for sweets and I haven't bought many either because I know darn well that cane sugar isn't locally grown. But really, who needs cane sugar when we live amongst the maple trees. If I weren't allergic to them, I'd go hug a maple right now.

Everything in these cookies except for the oil, salt, baking powder and vanilla can be produced in the MN region.

Sunny Maple Oat Cookies
(vegan, wheat free, soy free, no refined sugar)

3/4 cup cornmeal
3/4 cup oat flour
3/4 cup rolled oats
1/4 cup sunflower seeds
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking powder
1/4 cup sunflower seed butter
1/2 cup maple syrup
1/4 cup sunflower oil
1 tsp. vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or lightly oil. In a mixing bowl, whisk together the cornmeal, oat flour, oats, seeds, baking powder, and salt until combined. In a separate bowl, whisk together the sunbutter, syrup, oil, and vanilla. Add the liquids to the dry ingredients and stir until combined- it will be thick. Drop batter by the heaping spoonful onto the baking sheet, leaving room for the cookies to spread. Bake 10-12 minutes.

Note: if you want to make these with wheat flour, I'm sure they'd work just fine. Just replace the oat flour and/or cornmeal with wheat flour. The texture of the oat and cornmeal is pretty nice, though.

What's Growing

2008-06-09T20:19:00.003-05:00

Usually my weekends are filled with cooking, but I did more relaxing than cooking this past weekend. I relied on easy salads and Galactic Pizza made with locally grown ingredients to get me through the weekend without too much effort. So instead of Liz-made goodies, I'll show you some garden-made goodies.
For the last 2 years I've let some of this lettuce go to seed so that it pops up first thing in the spring. I think it's the buttercrunch variety- it is so tender! This looks like a million heads of lettuce are trying to fit as close to the path as possible. In the corner there are the carrots which are looking quite hardy already.

Here are the snap peas- just starting to flower. We also planted lima beans and green beans this year.
Last week we got our first ripe strawberry and now we're getting about 2-3 per day. Just look at all the little green babies in this picture! The mulberry tree has plenty of green "berries" (not technically berries, but collective fruits) on its branches now. It won't be long before we'll be harvesting about 2 quarts a week!
And here's the garden (except for the potato bed, the separate herb garden, and the berry patch) (oh, and the community garden plot that houses the squash). We've had so much rain in the last 2 weeks that I haven't had to water at all! All I've needed to do is a few hours of weeding and planting some more carrots. I love lazy gardening.

We have a visitor

2008-06-05T21:48:00.002-05:00

I came home from work yesterday to find the kids spying on this little guy up in our apple tree. It was daylight then and he was chillin' in the tree, eating a cupcake.
Yes, I said eating a cupcake.
You see, when I burned those cupcakes last weekend, I threw a good number of them into the compost bin- wrappers and all. Apparently raccoons and squirrels like cupcakes, because we've found the wrappers in the yard and now in the apple tree. I think it's time to get a lid for the compost bin!