The brother drops in

I had a draft of this on another computer, but apparently I didn't save it properly. Too bad.

Anyways. Here is a gratuitous picture of my brother:

He likes making faces. Also? I haven't seen him in 3 months because he's been hiking the Appalachian Trail (he's such a copy cat). I made dinner on Saturday night because there were some recipes I wanted to try. He ate lots and liked it (he's a meat eater, but he definitely believes the western diet is problematic and that meat eating should be minimized-not abolished). 

Since I got Color Me Vegan last thursday, I've been cooking out of it a lot. Saturday night, I made the Sweet Potato Burritos from the Rainbow Section and the Apricot Lentil Stew from the red section (red lentils, but we used half green because we were almost out of red). 

It came out really delicious. And we got some great pictures of it too. 

Gratuitous blurry picture of me and the lentil stew with apricots:

 The whole thing put together. Completely delicious. (I went without the tortilla, since I'm attempting to limit refined carbs as much as possible)

No Pictures

I have no pictures for you today. You cannot see the pie that came of Tuesday's Farmer's Market. The crisp crust with the strawberries and rhubarb spilling out, spring written in the top of the crust, because finally, finally, there are fresh, local strawberries. I had been waiting for this day for three months. I kid you not.

And the taste. Well, let's just say that a pie that is filled with local fresh produce is by far and away, better tasting than any pie made from fruit from another far away part of the country.

The crust, though, which I made from Vegan on the Cheap, leaves something to be desired. Of course, I come from a family of pie crust-makers. (On my mom's side) Unfortunately, the inherited recipe uses an egg. And I definitely didn't feel like replacing, so I just used VotC. It was acceptable. I ate a LOT of pie in the last two days.

Another thing you cannot see: Caldo Verde with Tempeh Crumbles. From Appetite for Reduction. It was creamy (from using my immersion blender on 3/4 of the cooked yukon golds) and flavorful. The tempeh was rather magnificent and I was proud. I've never used Tempeh successfully before-the Sweet Potato with the tempeh in AFR (sorry, lacking specific name) didn't work so well. It was bitter and I couldn't make myself eat it.

This, though, was absolutely fantastic.

More Fun in the Kitchen

I'm going to call this soup "Clearing out the Refrigerator of 3 week old kale and scallions soup"

Yes, that's right, that's leftovers soup. And doesn't it look delicious? 

Funny story: It tastes good too. 

Today was Farmer's Market day! First one I've been too since I forgot last week. I'm going to share what I got (for $19.23)

Three pints of strawberries, three tomatoes, a bundle of Rhubarb, those are turnips that are apparently good raw/roasted/grilled and a bunch of red chard. 

I loooove summer fruits and veggies. 

Wow

I can't believe I haven't already told you the wonders of Summer Lovin' Curried Corn & Veggie Chowder.

Oh. Man.

I wish I hadn't managed to get the edge of the table there-but I'm not a pro with photography -yet- so I'll forgive myself. Will you?

In case you were wondering, that's the Broiled Blackened Tofu from Appetite for Reduction, which I decided to make for the third (I'm almost consistently always doing new recipes every time I cook-very few repeats as of yet in this vegan journey) time. Unfortunately, those three pieces were all I got to eat. My lovely dog thought they were really delicious too and decided to eat them (despite having shoved them as close to the wall as I could. I still don't quite understand how she does it).

Anyways. Back to the chowder. Oh holy whatevers, it was SO good. Even better was that I shucked my own corn and cut the kernels off. Made me feel that more connected to it. Yum yum yum. The curry was a wee bit strong, but in a kind of surprisingly delicious way. The tofu went quite well, creating just enough heat in my mouth to push my boundaries (heat wimp/former heat wimp resides here) a little.

Also? Immersion blending is a lot a lot of fun. Yes, I meant to say that twice. Emphasis and all. It usually takes me a week to finish left overs-since I seem to like a lot of variety/want to cook ALL THE TIME. This one? 4 days. At the most. I wasn't tracking, but it might've been less....

So, basically, go buy Appetite For Reduction and make this recipe as soon as corn comes into season. (I cheated and used corn brought in from far far away).

Many different things

It took me a little while to figure out what this was. I know. Horrible of me, but I'm awful at keeping notes (I really should get that vegan recipe book thing I've seen recently). And it's been a while. This is the Mango BBQ Beans from Appetite for Reduction. With the BBQ Tofu from Veganomicon (backyard bbq sauce, not apricot). It was good. I know that much. Snarfed the whole bowl up.

I really like this picture. Actually, all of them came out really well, but this one kind of hides the fact that I was lazy about chopping my onions, so they definitely added to the texture rather than mostly being background/flavor. These are the Rosemary Bean Burgers from What the Hell does a vegan eat anyway? I made them twice. Accidentally left them out when I disappeared for 24 hours so my dad threw them away. Despite, in my opinion, them being fairly basic vegan fare and totally doable at leaving out for a day. But whatever. I made them again on Memorial day and added sweet potato fries (oven baked). Yum. Very nice, summery dinner right there. 

This is one half of a muffin. The other half is in the upper right hand corner, if you look closely. And i kinda liked taking these pictures on this tile. Makes for a very interesting in focus/out of focus. PPKers in Boston had a potluck on June 1st. I was originally going to make bread utilizing a half bottle of hard cider that's been sitting in my fridge for approximately 3 months now (I've mostly stopped drinking), but I got held up uselessly at some job recruitment event where the recruiter was an hour late, which pissed me off enough that I basically didn't even try to convince her to give me a job. Just sat through it by sheer stubbornness to not give up something that I started. ANYWAYS, back to food. 

I got home, and was wondering what to make, checked the fridge. I had ~8-10 strawberries left in a container and they had those funny spots where you know they're going to go bad if you don't use them RIGHT NOW. And I kinda wanted to do muffins. I checked vegweb and they had a strawberry muffin recipe, but it didn't really strike my fancy. So, I made my own. Strawberry Chocolate-Chip Muffins. They came out really well. I liked the contrast between the flours (buckwheat/whole wheat/white) and the strawberries and chocolate chips. Everyone else seemed to like them. 

But, more importantly, at the potluck, there was vegan goat cheese (cashew cheese) from C'est La Vegan. I don't have the link since I'm not on my computer, but guys, it was the most amazing thing. I thought I'd never have spreadable cheese again. You could barely peel me away from the cheese. I don't have any pictures though. 

Yesterday, I was putzing through Appetite for Reduction, looking for something to make and actually kind of sorted by percentages of vitamins. Turns out, Pasta De Los Angeles is pretty high in, oh, just about all four. So I made that. 

It was ok. HUGE portions. Like, ridiculous. And it looks good, right? Well, unfortunately, it definitely wasn't my favorite out of this cookbook, but I've never been a huge pasta fan, so that doesn't really surprise me. The jalapeno I got was very jalapeno-y. Unlike a jalapeno used for salsa at a fellow vegan's thing on Sunday (through no fault of her own... I just managed to set myself up for serious pain). I took a tiny sliver and bit into it on Sunday. Tasted like bell pepper, no kick. Did the same thing yesterday and my mouth was burning. On fire for at least a half hour. Nose running, eyes watering, the whole thing. I feel like I would have appreciated more flavor besides 'heat' in this, so if I make it again, I"ll be adding... something, though I'm not sure what.

Anyways, I'll leave you with the muffin recipe.

Strawberry Chocolate Chip Muffins
Makes: 12 muffins (if using regular size tins, large ones will probably only make 6)

Wet Ingredients:
1/2 Cup Oil
1/4-1/3 Cup Agave Nectar
1/4 cup Blackstrap Molasses
1 TBSP Ground Flax Seed in 1/4 cup water
1 tsp vanilla

Dry Ingredients:
1/2 Cup Buckwheat Flour
3/4 Cup Whole Wheat Flour
1 Cup White flour
1 tsp Baking Soda
1/4 tsp salt

Other:
1/2 cup chocolate chips
1/2 cup diced strawberries
1/2-3/4 cup unsweetened non-dairy milk (I used almond)

Preheat oven to 350F. Mix wet ingredients together.

Add dry ingredients in half cup increments until just mixed.

Add almond milk until desired 'muffin-y' gloppiness. (I usually go until I can see a rim of non-dairy milk around the edge of the bowl, just a thin line)

Mix in Chocolate chips. Fold in Strawberries.

Spoon into greased muffin tins. Bake 20-25 minutes. Eat. Yum.