Cheese Glorious Cheese!

Yikes I noticed that it's been a while since my last post – what have I been up to? I've got a lot going on in my life these days, a career I enjoy, working out with a personal trainer, I'm taking a pottery class, reading and now that Spring is kinda here just doing more outside.

All that aside it doesn't mean I haven't been cooking and trying new recipes – we have. I've been wanting to make my own vegan cheese for a while now and last weekend I finally gathered together all of the ingredients to do it. Besides, it was cold and rainy and doing something in the kitchen seemed like a nice distraction from the crummy weather.

I decided on 3 small ramekins of almond cheese; garlic, onion and chive, roasted red pepper and basil and my favorite red pepper and rosemary. You can find the recipes for these cheeses here (well except in these recipes it called for sundried tomatoes – yet somehow I came home with roasted red peppers – don't ask).

While the small batch theory is good, especially if it's your first attempt at cheese making, the process is a bit putzy for the end result. But as I said it was a cold day and being outside wasn't an option.

The results were mixed. The onion, garlic and chive were a bit bland and the flavors didn't really come through. The chives were fresh from the garden but I would opt for fresh garlic instead of the garlic powder next time to enhance the flavor. 

The flavor of the roasted red pepper with basil was good, next time I might actually roast my own peppers first to add a smoky flavor to it or use sundried tomatoes. Either way it was a nice flavor combination.

The final cheese; pepper with rosemary was my favorite; although I made a slight error when making it. The recipe called for a ½ teaspoon of agar powder and I inadvertently put in 1 teaspoon so it was a bit firmer than the others but the combination of the red pepper flakes and the rosemary was delicious. 

All in all it was successful and dinner became appetizer night, which is one of my favorite dinners – all those flavors rolled into one meal. My next cheese-making attempt will be with cashews and after that vegan sausage – looking forward to more experiments in the kitchen.

Gardening season will be starting soon – I've already started my acorn squash, it was our best crop last year – over 25 squash; yes we were those people who were leaving squash on the neighbors doorstep. No one seemed to mind tho.

Saturday Morning with Elaine in the Kitchen and the Herbivorous Butcher

I know the concept of a "vegan butcher" is not intuitive but as someone who is mostly vegan the concept of "fake meat" also makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up – until I took a trip to the Herbivorous Butcher, a sweet brother and sister "vegan butcher shop" in Minneapolis, MN.

On Saturday morning I headed off to meet my friend Elaine, from Elaine in the Kitchen and her daughter Lisa to check out this new venue and to see if the marketing hype matched the product and from my perspective – this venue is a must shop.

A bit off the beaten path, the cleaver door handle is your first indication that this is not your ordinary butcher shop. They have a great selection of ribs, sausages, deli meats, and bacon and vegan cheeses to delight your palette.

I arrived just after they opened and had the opportunity to browse the shop and chat with one of the staff about their products, ingredient and processes. Within 30 minutes the place was busy, numbers were taken, orders were placed and happy customers headed home to sample their wares.

I had carte blanch from my sweetie on purchases so I did a bit of splurging. I tried Korean BBQ ribs, spicy Italian sausage, maple flavored bacon, deli turkey meat, spicy pepperoni and some dill Havarti cheese.

We've sampled the ribs (which were sweet, sticky, the perfect texture and taste), maple flavored bacon (perfectly flavored), turkey deli meat (the texture and flavor almost like the real thing) and spicy Italian sausage (my personal favorite) all had excellent texture and flavor – would definitely purchase them again.

I have to say my personal favorite was the spicy Italian sausage – we invited my friend Carolyn over to help us taste test it tonight and it got a 3 thumbs up. The sausage was spicy with hits of fennel and spicy red pepper. We paired it up with onions, red and yellow peppers, carrots, broccoli, asparagus and mushrooms in a simple garlic and ginger stir-fry served over brown rice and a fresh fruit salad. 

If you're in the neighbor, or looking to try something new go to the Herbivorous Butcher you won't be disappointed.

Ciao

Zoodles Glorious Zoodles

I spent last weekend with my sister; we drove to Fargo to visit my dad. We chatted, laughed, shopped and had dinner with family and friends; it was a great adventure and a very nice weekend. Back at the ranch, Dan continued to take his meds and recover – seems like he is on the mend. I haven't heard a lot of coughing and sneezing since I've returned which is good because I threatened to make a doctor's appointment for him if he was not better by the time I returned.

I've been saving this recipe for asparagus season – the thought of lightly roasted asparagus, fresh spring peas, spiralized zucchini with an avocado sauce shout SPRING! This recipe can be raw or you can cook it – the choice is yours; we opted for cooking this go around but I have to say I ate the leftovers for lunch today cold and it was just as delicious :-)

I used this vegan spiralizerrecipe but to be honest a little bacon and some caramelized onions would add a savory dimension to the recipe – not that I'm eating bacon these days however, every once in a while it sounds good even though I don't partake.

Did I mention that I will be teaching a spiralizer cooking class this summer at the local community ed program? I am and I'm very excited – we'll be doing 3 - 4 dishes; some raw and some cooked – and this will be one of the recipes so if you are in the neighborhood and so inclined – register and come learn about the wonders of spiralizing and tasty food.

I started this recipe by chopping some asparagus (the recipe calls for 10 stalks of asparagus but since the stalks were slender I added more – a lot more.) After cleaning and trimming, I spritzed them with olive oil and roasted them at 400 degrees for about 15 minutes. While the asparagus was roasting I spiralized 3 zucchini and mixed up the avocado sauce; 2 avocados, the zest from 1 lemon, the juice from ½ lemon, fresh oregano and some sea salt and black pepper. Put it all in a high speed blender and mix until think and creamy.

When the asparagus was done I transferred it to a bowl and put the zoodles (zucchini noodles) on the stone, spritzed with a little oil and roasted until crisp tender (approx. 15 minutes – checking every 5 minutes). While the zoodles were cooking I microwaved the peas with a little water until done.

In a large bowl, combine peas, roasted asparagus, zoodles and avocado sauce – season with salt and freshly ground pepper, toss and enjoy. We served it with garlic and ginger fried tofu and a fruit salad of strawberries, grapes and kiwi - the result was - well I'll let you decide. 

Enjoy the fresh and wonderul tastes of spring. If you have favorite raw or cooked recipes send them my way, I'm always in the mood to try something new.

Enjoy!