Making Spirits Bright

 The holiday is in full swing - how do I know? Either Amazon or UPS shows up at my door almost every day, sometimes the packages are for me and sometimes they are for my neighbor. Our neighbor’s house faces one street but their address is another street. If I’m lucky I catch the delivery person but most of the time I use it as an opportunity to go over and chat with my favorite neighbors - it’s a bonus. 

Last weekend was cookie weekend - we have peanut blossoms, date and cranberry pinwheels, coconut thumbprints with plum jam, and my grandma's molasses with lemon buttercream frosting and sprinkles (because everyone needs sprinkles in their life right?). 

Sunday we had my father-in-law and his lady friend over for dinner; homemade spaghettini over zucchini noodles, cornbread, and a salad. I also tried a new appetizer, which I saw on TikTok - blue cheese and walnut pull apart; it has 5 ingredients and takes 10 minutes to put together, which is less time than the video - go figure. 

I love this time of year, the lights, carols, glitter, and gold. I have so many wonderful memories of Christmas celebrations with both my and Dan’s families - we are lucky to have such wonderful people in our lives. This year Dan’s daughter Mary and her husband Matthew are hosting The Thundering Herd (aka Dan’s family) and we will spend Christmas Eve with my sister, brother-in-law, and their families. The little ones are growing and there is a brand new baby - there will be lots of fun, food, and laughter (yes that is code for noisy!).

Dan and I are planning to spend some time in warmer weather after the holidays with friends and family and I’ll get my first social security check in February - Thanks Uncle Sam (yes I know it is actually my money). 

I am settling into retirement and enjoying it more than I thought I would. I am not freaked out by no longer getting a weekly paycheck and I’m busier now than when I was working - life is good. I’ve taken up a new hobby - making earrings and I am still knitting - actually I have a Xmas present that I am trying to finish - it will be close but I think I can do it!

There was a little drama with dinner and I forgot to take a picture before we ate it. So I'm sending you over to Eat, Live Escape's post where you can see their pictures and watch their video.

Blue Cheese and Walnut Pull-Apart

Ingredients:

1 package vegan puff pastry (if you are ok with dairy then use the regular puff pastry) - thawed

100 grams blue cheese

walnuts

2 T honey

Fresh Rosemary

Plant-based milk 

Salt & pepper

Instructions: 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 

1.  Place 1 sheet of puff pastry on a baking sheet and lightly roll out the seams. Break blue cheese into chunks and scatter on the puff pastry. Break up walnuts (into different sizes) and scatter them around the cheese. Chop rosemary and sprinkle over the cheese/walnuts. Drizzle 1 T honey over the pastry/mixture. 

2.  Roll the puff pastry up (like a cake roll), tucking the ingredients as you go. Slice the rolled puff pastry length-wise. Twist the 2 halves, tucking and pinching the dough to keep the ingredients in the pastry.

3.  On a parchment-lined (or Silpat lined) baking sheet, coil the puff pastry twists, connecting the two pieces. Repeat the full process (from step 1) for the second sheet of puff pastry. 

4.  When you have coiled all 4 pieces (2 pieces of puff pastry, cut in half), brush the top with plant-based milk and top with rosemary, salt, and pepper. 

5.  Bake for @ 30 minutes, until golden brown, and enjoy!

I hope everyone is enjoying the season and spending time with family doing the things you love. 

Thanks for stopping by!

Miso Glazed Eggplant

The craziness of the holidays is about to descend upon us. Next week is Thanksgiving and then we move directly into Christmas. Truth be told stores have been touting Christmas since Halloween. I mean I still have Halloween candy in the pantry and why is it I couldn’t find any pumpkin spice coffee creamer - it’s like we went from lemonade to eggnog in one week!

I have many fond memories of family traditions. At Christmas, my grandmother would bake her molasses cookies with lemon buttercream frosting and sprinkles. Each family (there were 9) would get a coffee can filled with cookies - there were and are still my favorite. 

Thanksgiving and Christmas were often spent with my mom’s sister Pat and her family. After the turkey was devoured and the dishes are done, the adults would play bridge and the kids would go bowling at the local alley. And later there was pie and The Wizard of Oz on television. 

This year Dan and I will spend Thanksgiving with his family. There might be a round of bridge but I doubt bowling and The Wizard of Oz hasn’t been broadcast on Turkey day for a long time but we’ll eat well and have fun; rumor has it there will be football in the park before dinner and then turkey and all the trimmings later in the day - and pie lots and lots of pie. 

The last of the green tomatoes have ripened and we have put the garden to bed -we even pulled out the nasty wasp's nest from under one of the beds so that they don’t harass us again next year. I’ve still got poblano peppers in the fridge and we’ve been working our way through the tomato sauce and zucchini in the freezer. Sometimes tho you need a break, you need something different to whet your appetite this week it was eggplant. This recipe is easy and depending on the size of your eggplant (larger means longer cooking times) it can take as little as 30 minutes to make. 

Ingredients:

2 medium eggplant

2 T olive oil

Salt and pepper to taste

3 T yellow miso paste

3 T honey

1 T sesame oil

1 T rice vinegar

2 scallions  

white sesame seeds 

Preparation:

Preheat your oven to 390 and line a baking tray with parchment paper.

Cut the eggplant in half lengthways and cut or score the flesh, 2 cuts lengthways, 4 cuts across and place them on the baking tray, cut side up. 

Brush or rub the olive oil evenly over the cut side of the eggplants and season well with salt and pepper.

Roast in the preheated oven until the eggplant is golden and soft. 

While the eggplants are cooking, mix together the miso, honey, sesame oil, and rice vinegar and set aside. Finely slice the scallions, white and green parts, into thin rounds and set aside.

Spoon the miso glaze, generously, over the eggplants and into the flesh. Turn the oven grill setting on or the oven up to 425 and return the eggplants to the oven, cooking until the glaze has caramelized about 3-5 minutes.

Serve the eggplants scattered with the sliced scallions and sesame seeds.

Happy Thanksgiving and thanks for stopping by! 

A Fall Harvest Dish

 One month into retirement and I have to say I’m loving it! My days are my own, I can do something useful or fun or nothing at all. I’ve been working on some home organizing projects and getting rid of some furniture/items that we no longer need - Facebook Marketplace is my new friend.

I’ve also applied for social security - believe me the government doesn’t make it easy. Something that should take no more than 15 minutes is a process. They already have all of the information but as my friend Irene says they make it difficult so that people won’t do it - she could be right. But that is done and you only have to do it once. 

I’ve been less ambitious in the cooking arena lately. I spent a lot of time at the end of the harvest bottling, freezing, and preserving the bounty from our garden so I was a bit tired of cooking. The good news is, grocery shopping is for essentials only these days.

Yesterday I decided to use up some of that bounty - I paired maple roasted butternut squash and brussels sprouts with a balsamic and maple marinated roasted tempeh into a delicious bowl - there were no leftovers. 

Ingredients:

1 package tempeh - cut into cubes

1 small butternut squash - peeled and cut into cutes 

1/2 lb brussels sprouts trimmed, washed, and halved 

1 onion - 1-inch dice

Marinade - veggies 

2 tablespoons olive oil

3 tablespoons maple syrup

1 Tbsp balsamic vinegar

½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

Marinade - tempeh

1 package of Lightlife tempeh

1/8 cup maple syrup

1/8 cup balsamic vinegar

1 teaspoon avocado or olive oil

3.5 Tablespoons soy sauce

3 cloves garlic, minced

1.5 tsp olive oil

Instructions:

Combine tempeh ingredients. Chop tempeh into cubes and add to marinade in a shallow container. Marinade for 1 - 2 hours. 

Chop all vegetables and add to a large bowl. Combine marinade ingredients and pour over veggies. Stir to combine.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Place veggies and tempeh on either a stoneware or metal baking sheet and cook until tempeh is browned and veggies are crisp-tender. 

While veggie and tempeh are roasting make either brown rice or quinoa. 

Serve in bowls adding fresh spinach, veggies, and tempeh. Sprinkle with pumpkin seeds and cranberries. Add more maple syrup if desired.

Enjoy!

Fried Green Tomatoes

Fall is here with winter nipping at its heels. First, I retired - and so far I am loving it. I work out in the morning, try to do 1 useful thing every day (like clean the bathroom or change the sheets), and I’ve been connecting with friends. 

I’ve also been winding down the garden - it’s time. I participated in a garden research project through the Master Gardener program this year; the goal is to determine how much produce one can grow in approximately 200 sq. ft. The big winners in our garden are: Tomatoes (90 lbs), zucchini & summer squash (> 70 lbs), cucumbers (> 30 lbs), and winter squash - the numbers are not in yet but soon. 

Last night's frost threat sent me to the garden to pick all of the tender plants and the remaining tomatoes - so now I have a nice supply of green tomatoes. A couple days ago I used some of them to make fried green tomatoes and today I’m cooking up a green tomato and jalapeno cornbread to accompany the lentil, potato, and swiss chard soup I started in the crockpot this morning. It smells delicious in here!

Initially, I tried to take a pan-fried green tomato recipe and convert it to an oven-roasted - don’t do that - it didn’t work well. What I will say is oven roasting them made for less frying time but that is about all I will say. Sometimes following a recipe is a good idea. 

Ingredients:

3 firm green tomatoes

½ cup all-purpose flour

1 cup cornmeal - medium grind

½ cup cornstarch

½ cup buttermilk dairy-free make your own buttermilk with almond, cashew, or coconut milk by adding ½ tablespoon of white vinegar to the dairy-free milk

1 ½ cups vegetable oil, I like peanut oil for frying

salt & pepper to taste

Dipping sauce:

mayo

siracha

garlic salt

cayenne pepper

paprika

garlic salt 

Instructions:

Slice the green tomatoes ¼ inch thick and place them on a paper towel-lined plate.

Salt the tomatoes on both sides and let sit for 10 minutes. Do not skip this step, it helps draw the extra water out of the tomatoes. Pour the buttermilk into a pie pan or shallow dish. Add tomatoes to the buttermilk. 

Combine the flour, cornmeal, cornstarch, and seasonings in a pie pan or shallow dish. Mix until fully combined. Dip buttermilk-covered tomatoes into the cornmeal-flour mixture. Cover both sides of the tomatoes with the mixture.

Heat oil in a large skillet. Carefully place the tomatoes into the hot oil. Turn to cook on both sides. Fry until golden.

Remove from pan and place on a paper towel-lined plate. Serve with sauce Enjoy!

Sweet potato, leek and kale tart

For those of you who are wondering - it’s 4 workdays for me until retirement. I’m excited, and a little nervous and at times keep asking myself if this is the right thing to do. I’m ready I’ve got plans for volunteering, organizing to do, lunches with friends to have, hiking and walking, and when better, places to travel. 

I also have some cooking I want to do and learn. I’ve never made macrons or chou pastry and I want to experiment with making my own vegan sausages - so potentially lots of cooking experiment blogging. And then there is getting back into knitting - it’s been a while. 

A couple nights ago I brought in some swiss chard, collards, and kale. I will eat them in a salad, sautéed with onions and a little garlic … the possibilities are endless: Dan not so much - as long as they are cooked or well-disguised he doesn’t complain. 

I also had sweet potatoes, leeks, and fennel from the Farmers Market that needed to be used up so I tossed a little of this and some of that and put it in a shortcrust and poof dinner. We served it with an apple, fennel, and celery salad with a white balsamic dressing - everything was delicious. 

Ingredients:

2 large leeks

2 medium sweet potatoes

1 bunch swiss chard

3 cloves garlic

1 sheet shortcrust pastry

1 tsp cumin

1tsp sage

½ tsp ground coriander

½ tsp fennels seeds

Large pinch salt & pepper

Crumbled feta

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 350

Chop the sweet potato into roughly 1.5-inch cubes, drizzle with olive oil then roast at 350 for @ 20 minutes.

While the sweet potato is baking, finely chop the leek (as you would an onion) and gently fry in a drizzle of olive oil. Once the leeks have softened add 3 minced cloves of garlic and fry for a further 1 minute. Add the sage, cumin, coriander, fennel, salt, and pepper to the pan. Chop the swiss chard (just the greens) add to the pan and gently heat for a further 5 minutes.

If using ready rolled pastry, add to a large tart dish with a removable base and prod the base with a fork 3-4 times. Place a sheet of baking parchment with baking beads (or dry rice will do) on top of the tart then put the tart in the oven for a blind bake for 15 minutes.

Remove from the oven, take out the baking beads and parchment. Combine the leek mixture and roasted sweet potatoes in a bowl, then pour into the baked tart. Top with feta and bake for 5 - 10 minutes to soften the cheese.

Take out of the oven and enjoy!

Last Vestiges of Summer

As the days get shorter so does my time at work - eleven days until retirement. It seems surreal, I’ve spent decades preparing for this moment and at times I never thought it would come but I’m ready - for the next chapter. 

Many of you know I’ve been working toward my Master Gardener certification and I’m just about there. Course work is done, 50 volunteer hours are done, continuing education is done - the last step is to turn in my 15 question responses. 

So what’s next? I’ve been trying out several volunteer options and I’ve found a couple that I am going to pursue and then there are my own gardens. Our new neighbors have put in a 6-foot fence that now blocks the sun on 2 of my raised beds so there will be work to relocate them and reconfigure the fence. One of my perennial gardens will also need to change and what to do to cover up that large white fence - at this point I’m not sure. 

I’ve been talking to my gardening friends and the drought has definitely had an impact on harvest and yields. The same applies to our gardens - spinach, radishes, and lettuce were a bust but garlic, zucchini, summer squash, tomatoes, and cucumbers - were plentiful. Potatoes were average, peppers, collard greens, swiss chard, kale, and eggplant on par with other years - our refrigerator and freezer are full and the neighbors are still happy to see us especially when we are bearing tomato and cucumber gifts. 

Some nights there are no plans or recipes you slice a little of this, toss it with a little olive oil and spices, and roast - it’s fresh and delicious. We had movie night (we are cautiously moving back to that) and it was a success. The veggies were tossed with a little olive oil, some fajita seasoning from Penzys, salt, and pepper. The fingerling potatoes (I love the color of the Russian purple - a beautiful deep purple) just oil salt and pepper and the tomato/peach/mozzarella salad had a splash of balsamic vinegar and fresh basil.  

Enjoy the rest of summer, get outside, be with friends and eat good food.  Thanks for stopping by. 

A Tasty Thai Broccoli Salad

At long last, it is raining here and for the first time in I don’t know how long I am not watering the garden - ahhhh. Hose, hand, or natural watering aside things are going well despite the drought; the tomatoes are still going strong, I’m harvesting collards, swiss chard, and kale regularly, zucchini and yellow squash are prolific, and the fall bean and spinach crops are doing well.

Somewhere along the way, I ended up with 4 free broccoli plants. I’ve planted broccoli in the past but have stopped because it takes up a lot of space for a little return. Since they were free and I had a few pots in the garden I planted them and ended up with 2 nice multi-crown heads and 2 that totally flopped. One was completely bitten off at the base - I guess someone was very hungry.

When it’s too hot to turn on the stove I’m always looking for a summer salad that has protein, is easy to throw together, and tastes good - this salad meets the criteria.

Salad Ingredients:

• 1 medium head broccoli, very finely chopped into bite-sized pieces @ 3 - 4 cups
• 2-3 cups packed shredded red cabbage
• 1 cup shredded carrot
• 1 red bell pepper, diced
• 1/3 rd. cup diced onion - you can use either scallions or red onion
• ½ cup chopped fresh cilantro

For the dressing:

• ¼ cup natural creamy peanut butter

• 2 1/2 tablespoons low sodium gluten-free soy sauce or coconut aminos

• 1 tablespoon honey (or pure maple syrup to keep vegan)

• 1 tablespoon rice vinegar

• 1 tablespoon sesame oil (or sub olive oil)

• 1-2 teaspoons fresh grated ginger

• 1 clove garlic, finely minced

• Optional: ¼ teaspoon red cayenne pepper, plus more if you like it extra spicy!

• 2 tablespoons warm water, to thin dressing

Instructions:

Chop all salad ingredients and put them in a bowl and set aside.

Make the dressing by whisking together the following ingredients in a small bowl: peanut butter, soy sauce, honey, rice vinegar, sesame oil, ginger, garlic, cayenne pepper, and water. Drizzle over the salad and toss well to combine.

Enjoy!

A Twist on Traditional Ratatouille

This is my favorite gardening time of year - all of my favorite veggies are producing and I’m constantly presented with new opportunities for finding recipes that I can make without going to the grocery store. 

These days our freezer is full of pesto, we’re using up the last few bags of frozen tomato sauce from last year and we are getting ready to start the 2021 batch. We tried a few new things this year - garlic, which was a great success (54 bulbs), Russian purple fingerling potatoes (so so successful), and 2 new heirloom tomatoes, which are both doing well. 

Did you know that zucchini literally grow overnight? It’s true and I have a counter full of zucchini to prove it. Our eggplant is finally producing and I have a pepperoncini plant that is loaded with peppers but still waiting for them to ripen. One disappointment this year is my poblano pepper plants. One has 2 peppers on it and the other one is loaded with flowers but alas no peppers. Not sure what’s up with that. My green peppers are plentiful and I planted a mini sweet red pepper plant that is producing cute bright red peppers - haven’t tried them yet but soon. 

I love dishes that can come together in a single pot and use as many veggies I have on hand as possible. I found this rift in traditional ratatouille from probably 10 years ago when we belonged to a CSA. I had totally forgotten about it but it fits all the criteria for “using up the harvest”. 

Summer Vegetable Gratin

Ingredients:

1 / 2 lb. new potatoes, peeled and cut into 1 / 4 -in. slices

1 small zucchini, sliced in 1 / 4 -in.-thick rounds

1 summer squash, sliced in 1 / 4 -in.-thick rounds

2 large tomatoes, sliced 1 / 4 -in. thick

2 large sweet onions, sliced 1 / 4 -in. thick

1 small eggplant, cut into 1 / 2 -in. slices

3 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed

1 / 4 c. extra-virgin olive oil

10 to 15 kalamata olives, pitted

1 / 4 c. good quality shredded Parmesan cheese (or more to taste)

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

 Arrange the potatoes in a single layer on the bottom of an ovenproof glass baking pan.

Sprinkle lightly with salt and pepper and drizzle with a little oil.

Toss the remaining vegetables and garlic with oil to generously coat.

Spread them over the potato layer.

Scatter the olives and cheese (if using) over the vegetables, cover tightly with aluminum foil, and bake until the vegetables begin to soften about 30 minutes.

Remove the foil and continue baking another 45 minutes to 1 hour, or until the vegetables are cooked through, brushing with additional oil as needed.