The Musical Fruit

I have been on a bean kick lately. Although it may seem odd to be eating hot soup in hot weather, to me beans are a very light and digestible protein when compared to eating animal flesh. As a kid I always hated a big grilled steak in summer, which felt like it sat for hours and hours in my stomach.

I have been cooking out of a new book, "The Indian Slow Cooker," by Anupy Singla. First up is Dad's Rajmah, a red kidney bean dish with a relish of raw onion, cilantro, hot pepper flakes, salt and lime juice.  Very delicious.

Next is yellow spit pea (split moong) dal. Here is what is looks like going in....

.....and the finished product! I didn't like this one as much as the Rajmah.  Interestingly, I read an article about slow cooking that says the long cooking can make the spices fade and give a bitter taste. That is exactly what I experienced! Perhaps that is why in traditional Indian cooking the spices are sauteed separately and added at the end of cooking. Need to do some more experimenting on this one. One thing I really like about this book is that they show pictures of all the different kinds of beans. I find that in some Indian cookbooks, the names they use often mean different things (eg. lentils don't always mean the brown ones we are used to).

This is the hummus from "Peas and Thank You." The recipe instructs you to peel the chickpeas for an ultra smooth and creamy hummus. I probably would not do that every time, but the hummus was delicious. I haven't had homemade in a while - it is so much more lemony and tahini-ish that store bought!

Here are some veggies from my neighbor's garden. I wish the perspective was better - that zucchini was as big as a small baseball bat! I used it to make a raw zucchini salad marinated in lemon dressing. I'm not much for raw zucchini, but this salad was good. I made ribbons of zucchini with a vegetable peeler. They were very thin and kind of "cooked" in the dressing - kind of like an escabeche. Pretty too - but I forgot to snap a pic.

Is there anything better than a tomato sandwich? These tomatoes were the real deal. When I ran out, I bought some at the farmer's market and they were terrible! All white and mealy inside. Next year I must grow my own!

A New Book!

I was so excited to receive the new book, "Peas and Thank You," by Sarah Matheny. I follow her blog every day, and it is my favorite not only because of the great food, but the hilarious stories and great pictures of her family. My own girls are not much older than Sarah's (aka Momma Pea), so I can relate to all the things she is going through as a mom to two young girls.

The day the book came was a gorgeous sunny day. I was sitting on the deck reading it when my husband came home. "Why are your eyes all black?" he wanted to know. It seems that I had been laughing so hard at the stories in the book that my mascara was running down my face. "But it's a cookbook," he said incredulously. And then some!

I tried the salsa recipe and the black bean burgers recently. Both were delicious and easy to make.

The salsa is made from canned fire roasted tomatoes, with fresh onion, cilantro and lime juice. A great short cut for a fantastic tasting salsa.

Here are the black bean burgers cooking in the skillet......

.....and plated up with all the fixin's. They were juicy and delicious.

What I like about this book is that the recipes are very accessible. They don't have long ingredient lists, and don't require a trip to the specialty foods store for exotic ingredients. I have tons of cookbooks that I don't use, but I think this one will be a staple in my kitchen. Go get it!

Two Old Friends

My best friend from North Carolina and her daughter (who is the same age as my oldest) came to visit us last week. We had lots of fun staying up late, crafting and drinking lots of wine, shopping, and visiting tourist attractions. We went downtown and took the Chicago architecture boat tour, which I have never gone on. It was so fun - I love tours! We went to a Thai restaurant that I used to go to 20 years ago when I worked downtown. I can't believe it's still there. I almost cried when the spring rolls came out - they were exactly the same as way back then. I have never had better spring rolls anywhere. I had to order two entrees, because I'm not sure I'll ever get back there! I ordered the Pad Thai, and the green tofu curry. As you can see, I ate all the tofu in the curry before I snapped the picture (these are the leftovers)!

We drove up to Milwaukee one day - my favorite city in the whole world. I drove past my old house and the people were hanging out on the front porch. I went up to them and it turns out that they are the same people that bought the house from us 18 years ago. They actually took me inside and gave me a tour! Pretty nice of them to invite a total stranger into their home. 

I finally got to the Comet Cafe in Milwaukee. Although not a vegetarian restaurant, they have many vegetarian and vegan items on the menu (and they are on purpose, not accidental). It's kind of a hippie biker veggie cafe. Totally awesome. I had the vegan meatloaf (which was Field Roast) with beer gravy (it is Milwaukee, after all) and mashed potatoes with seared Brussels sprouts. Also the creamy broccoli soup. It's very refreshing to ask a waitress a question and have her response be about nutritional yeast. I took pictures, but don't seem to have a cord to connect my phone to the computer.

My poor little dogs got a summer hair cut. Despite our brushing them frequently, they had a lot of mats in their long hair and had to be shaved. They don't even look like my dogs! They shaved them too close and we actually had to take one to the vet. Poor babies - I hope it grows back soon. The only consolation is that they will be much cooler for summer - they do really hate the heat!

What We've Been Doing Lately

Nothing terribly exciting, just life. Which I am thrilled and grateful for every day, even though sometimes I don't show it.

I was so excited when I read about this in a magazine - algae-based DHA at a reasonable price ($14 for 30 300 mg. capsules)! I opened the package, and then noticed the fine print on the bottle itself - porcine gelatin and carmine (beetle juice). Ugh. Should have known better, but I assumed if someone went through the trouble to make it fish free, it would be animal free. Silly me.

Our little robins hatched - 4 babies. They grew and flew away so fast!

Double decker doggies.

Dog party - our two nuts and two sharpeis. They slept good that night!

I chaperoned the first grade zoo trip. Here's a little monkey love.

And some cats that behave just like the ones at home.

Coriander Mushrooms and Cherry Tomatoes from AFR.

Baked BBQ Tofu from Veganomican. I always wanted to make the Apricot BBQ Sauce but never got around to it. I added 1/4 cup vinegar because to me it's not BBQ sauce without vinegar. Also added 2 more tablespoons molasses and 1 t more liquid smoke. And salt. Then it was perfect! BTW, those are Trader Joe's garlic fries. So easy and so delicious.

Today was the last day of school. They only went for an hour. Seems silly but they need a certain number of days for state funding. How does one hour count for a day?

"What are we going to do all summer?"

This is the dinner menu that my kids made up. You can see both the Carnivore's and my influence here. Where are the veggies?

This hangs in my kitchen. Now if only I enforced it!

A Fun Visitor

It has been an exciting week. We had a visitor from New York - Flat Stanley! He has done all sorts of activities with us.

Miniature golf.

Going to the park.

Going on a picnic (with crabby patty sandwiches - don't ask.)

He got his own Bears jersey and Cubs cap.

Then he went back to New York.

But the fun doesn't end - we have dogs that do tricks! At least someone uses that swing set.

And good food - Mediterranean Rice Salad. Brown rice, spinach, artichokes, basil, sun dried tomatoes, and lemon mint vinaigrette.

Some recipes from Appetite for Reduction: Caribbean Black Eyed Peas with Steamed Plantains (I used black beans). Was this ever delicious. Isa is right - steaming the plantains makes them far more delicious than frying them. I recommend not adding the salt.

Buffalo Tempeh - so wanted to like this, but it was so salty it was inedible. Maybe the fat that's normally in the recipe offsets the saltiness of the hot sauce? I didn't use a low sodium broth, but still.

Cool Slaw: yum. It has a blended cashew dressing. I find that really convenient, rather than having 3/4 of a box of tofu hanging around from a tofu based dressing, or having to buy expensive vegan sour cream or mayo.

I used this veggie mix to make the slaw. Much better than packaged shredded cabbage. It has green and red cabbage, carrots, jicama, celery, and a few other things. Also really good with goddess dressing.

It is cold and rainy in Chicago today, but the holiday weekend promises to bring sun and warmth!

Mango Mush

I have read that you can peel and cube a mango the same way as an avocado: cut around the center, lengthwise, run the knife around between the skin and the fruit, cut cubes within the shell, and turn them out of the shell. This doesn't work at all. My mangoes always stick the the giant pit, requiring me to saw at them and get mush. Does anyone know the trick?

 

This is the Greek scramble from Vegan Diner. Good but not fabulous. Maybe because I am not a fan of oregano.

This is the Tofu with Hoisin Mustard sauce from Appetite for Reduction. Delicious. As good as takeout but without all the grease and MSG. Next time I will add toasted cashews, although I guess then it would not be low calorie. Also the Potato Scallion Pancakes from the same book. These were okay. As you can see, there are no scallions in them. I had none and so used onion. Definitely would have been better with scallions.

Favorite Saturday morning pancakes. It was Thursday, but the kids had off for "Institute Day." These are light and fluffy and delicious despite containing no fat or eggs.

Banana Chocolate Chip Pancakes

1 large ripe banana
1 1/4 cups vanilla soy milk
1 T vinegar
1 cup unbleached white flour
1 T sugar
2 t baking powder
1/4 t salt
1/2 c chocolate chips

Mash banana well and stir in milk and vinegar. Add flour, sugar, baking powder and salt and stir briefly, just until combined. Fold in chocolate chips. Lightly oil a non-stick pan and preheat for 5 minute. Use a 1/4 cup measure (not quite full) to scoop the batter. Makes about 12 pancakes.

Soup and Sammy

I was excited to see fresh peas in Trader Joe's, and was trying to think of what to do with them. I remembered I had this awesome soup in a restaurant once. It was so simple - basically just vegetables in broth, but the veggies were so fresh and the broth so delicate that it was outstanding. I think I was pretty successful in recreating it!


Essence of Spring Soup

olive oil
2 leeks, white and light green parts, cleaned well and thinly sliced
5 cups water
1 T "Better than Bouillon" No Chicken broth concentrate*
15 asparagus stalks, in 1 inch pieces
2 oz. tiny pasta (I used stelline - little stars)
2 cups fresh shelled peas
15 fresh basil leaves, torn

Sautee leeks in olive oil until soft but not brown. Add water an broth concentrate and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and add asparagus. Cook 5 minutes. Add pasta and peas and cook for the amount of time on the pasta box (for this pasta it was 7 minutes, just the right amount of time for the peas. You want the peas to be just slightly crunchy). Add basil leaves and simmer a few more minutes.

*this small amount of broth concentrate makes for a very delicate broth. This is on purpose, so as not to overwhelm the veggies. You may want more, or you may want to add some salt.

I wanted to have a sandwich similar to a lobster roll, only made with tofu, of course. I turned to the Horizons cookbook for ideas. The author has recreated many seafood dishes that he enjoyed in his youth at the Jersey Shore. Not that they taste like fish, which is a good  thing! They just taste good.





Tofu Roll


1/2 lb. tofu, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 t. Old Bay
1/4 t. curry powder
juice of 1/2 lemon
1 T olive oil
1 t mustard
1 T sherry

Mix all ingredients. Spread on a baking sheet and bake at 425 for 20 minutes. Let tofu cool.
Chop 2 stalks of celery finely. Add tofu to celery and add some mayo to your desired consistency. Serve on whole wheat hot dog buns. Makes enough for 3 buns. (To be really authentic, you would get those weird hot dog rolls with the flat sides, butter the outsides, and toast them on a griddle).