…yum.
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Life Without a Toaster
I love being an unemployed terrorist. No longer am I chained to a desk from 9-5; I now have the freedom to go to Tuesday Market in Northampton whenever I please. While it is a somewhat fancy-pants kind of shindig, the awesome folks at Grow Food Northampton have facilitated the FoodStampsX2 program to make amazing local and organic foods more accessible. Thanks to this program, I can afford a weekly loaf of El Jardin 8-Grain Bread…
I am so glad that we gave up our toaster when we moved. Direct heat delivered via a well seasoned cast-iron skillet is superior to radiant electric thingamajiggies.
I will spare you a photo of the yummy potato-turnip-leek soup I made to go along with the bread. Like many good soups it looked somewhat like a bodily humor – not very appetizing.
Posted in Food Security, Hot Farmers, MoFo
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Child Labor
I love to cook and I love to write, but here it is only day 3 of MoFo and I am stressed. I have a paper due tomorrow and a bunch of reading to complete, so cooking and blogging are pretty low on my priority list.
Good thing H noticed the newly full jar of flax seeds:
“Oh em gee Mom, you bought FLAX SEEDS!!! that means we can finally make MOCHA MAMAS!!!”
So I put her to work and snapped a few shots with my phone in fauxstalgia mode to make the scene all homey-like.
Posted in Uncategorized
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fast food
Ok, the roasting of the squash for this soup was not exactly “fast”, but it was almost zero labor. If I turn the oven on to bake something in the cooler months, I usually keep it on a little longer to take advantage of the heat and roast some root veggies. Like last night – I had the oven on for some garlic bread so I decided to roast up this adorable Red Kobocha squash I had picked up at the farm share the day before.
(not my squash, not my photo)
I removed the stem, cut it in half, scooped out the seeds and placed it cut-side-down on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. It roasted for about 45 minutes that way, and then I flipped it cut-side-up and roasted it about a half an hour more to sort of caramelize the exposed flesh and concentrate the flavor. This technique is very forgiving. I could have been done with it after the first 45 minutes, or kept it in the oven for two hours – either way it would have been fine.
Here is where the fast part comes in to play: I took the roasted squash out of the fridge tonight and 20 minutes later I had a delicious soup.
the soup
The roasted flesh came away from the skin very easily. My smallish squash yielded a tiny bit more than 2 cups of squash which I chopped roughly and set aside.
In a medium sized pot I toasted 1 tsp of cumin seeds and 1/2 tsp of ground coriander until it became very fragrant. I then added a glug of oil and one large onion -chopped; 2 cloves of garlic; about an inch and a half of fresh ginger grated on the microplane; one hot pepper – minced. Cooked it for a bit until the onion softened, then added the squash and a cup or so of water and let that simmer while I looked for the #@&*%ing can opener (!) so that I could open and add one can of coconut milk. I am not a fan of the texture of chunky squash, so I used the immersion blender to puree the soup nice and smooth….adjusted the spices, added some garam masala to help balance the unexpectedly hot jalapeno…salt…then…
eat it up, eat it up, eat it up, yum yum!
bad phone photo
What is up Mofos?
mofo mofo mofo mofo mofo mofo mofo mofo mofo mofo mofo mofo mofo mofo
Sooooo I blew it and I did not sign up for the 2011 Vegan MoFo Blog Roll in time. I have been too busy and distracted to notice the date and so I allowed it to tiptoe past me while my nose was buried in a book.
It is now October first and feeling quite autumnal outside; perfect weather for roasting a squash. My hope is that I can make a soup that the squash hater will enjoy. This is important as I have a winter share at Enterprise Farm in Whately, MA and I see much squash in my future.
Posted in Uncategorized
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tonight I found out that I am a terrorist!!!
Seriously.
I went to a presentation by the ACLU titled: Secrecy & Surveillance: The Department of Homeland Security in Massachusetts and heard from Chris Calabrese a lobbyist for the ACLU in DC….he mentioned the word “vegan” on at least 3 different occasions when giving examples of absurd “terrorist profiles”. Apparently the government likes to hang out at vegan events to gather data in the interest of protecting homeland security. Here is just one ridiculous example.
Now I want to go to law school.
On a lighter note, delicious vegan fair-trade chocolate bars are now on sale at River Valley Market.
I bought 3.
Check it out….terrorist chocolate bars.
http://www.aclu.org/national-security/statement-caitlin-childs-target-illegal-spying
Posted in News
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Tengo hambre.
As much as I thought I would dread it, I have grown to love Spanish class. At times the rules and exceptions are frustrating, but the simplicity is very beautiful and elegant. The title of this post, for example, Tengo hambre, simply translated means “I have hunger”.
I sure do have hunger after a 3 hour Spanish class.
It is true, studying makes you have hunger. There is real science stuff to prove it.
I wish there were leftovers from Saturday night! I had experimented with veganizing Polish golumpki and they turned out pretty good for my first attempt. Like the mac & cheese, I hesitate to try to veganize something that relies so heavily on animal products for its main flavor.
In case you are not familiar with Polish food, golumpki is a stuffed cabbage dish. Traditionally, big leaves of cabbage are filled with a mixture of rice and ground meat then the little bundles are baked, usually in a tomato based sauce. There is very little seasoning, it really is all about the cabbage, starch and fat.
I did not use a recipe, but here is basically what I did:
I steamed a big head of cabbage to soften the leaves, then let it cool while I made the filling.
The filling was cooked white rice and the basic seitan crumbles from 500 Vegan Recipes (so easy, I do recommend this recipe when you need crumbly seitan). I flavored it with some finely chopped white onion sauteed in Earth Balance, a bit of Not Beef stock, nooch, salt and pepper.
These crumbles mix up so quickly there is no need to buy pre-made crumbly stuff anymore.
I rolled up the filling spring-roll-style in the big soft cabbage leaves then tucked the little cuties into a baking dish.
yes, I used an ice cream scoop
awww...
I love the ombre effect created by going from the outer to inner leaves...very Goldsworthy, don't you think?
The sauce was simply tinned tomato sauce with onion and a little brown sugar and balsamic vinegar to make it sort of sweet and sour-ish. I topped them with the sauce and baked for about an hour.
This photo is misleading, one is NOT enough.
These did meet the approval of my brother and sister-in-law. Long time vegetarians and lovers of seitan (and members of big Polish families) their only suggestion for improvement was a longer baking time..like three times as long.
I look forward to making these again.
Posted in Cheap Eats, MoFo, Recipes, cookbooks
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Granny L’s baked macaroni and cheese
I sure do miss my Granny L. She was awesome. Hearty old yankee stock, stoic, humble, thrifty, kind, generous…and adorable…she looked like she stepped right out of a Norman Rockwell painting. The daughter of a milk man, granny would have cringed at the knowledge that tonight I just about duplicated her famous baked macaroni and cheese sans cow juice. Her fridge was never without a half gallon of whole milk and a pint of half & half. Despite a diet high in animal fats and starch (plenty of veggies too) she was always slim and active and lived into her 90′s without any health problems.
I will gladly forget many of the things that granny and I dined upon over the years (tinned deviled ham on white toast with Oleo please exit my mind at once), but her mac & cheese will not be forgotten. It was a simple casserole with no recipe, just made by memory and to taste…elbow macaroni, sharp cheddar and lots of milk…topped with crushed Ritz crackers and globs of butter.
I have been meaning to try the Veg News Macaroni & Cheese recipe for a while, but I feared disappointment. I gave it a go tonight and I really wish I had not waited so long. This stuff is GOOD and I can’t wait to mess around with it and make it my own. (I’m thinking a little tahini or miso.)
Try it soon!
Served with stewed tomatoes. Not sure why, but that is how we eat it in my family.
tea and toast
I am in bed with tea and toast. No, I am not sick, but the internet is…so I am posting from my phone. It is uncomfortable and akward.
Posted in MoFo
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Nothing says “I love you” like a couple of Tbsp of red dye #40.
For her 9th birthday my daughter requested Red Velveteen cupcakes from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World. Besides their deliciousness, the best thing about these cupcakes is MAKING them…when you mix the soy milk, oil, extracts and food coloring it’s like a mini alien landscape.
H
Posted in MoFo, cookbooks
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