The Cabbage Pot

Fall, my favorite time of year. The leaves are beginning to show a beautiful red, yellow and orange canopy, the morning air is crisp and cool and the mosquitos have finally left. It’s also a great time to dig out my favorite sweaters, and make soup and home made bread. 

The garden is winding down although we still have few tomatoes on the vine, about 8 squash, kale, collard greens and a couple heads of cabbage to pick. Friday was movie night with our friends Gerd and Maria and I’m always trying to find a new recipe to try on them since they are such gracious guinea pigs. To tag along to our weekend it was also the Flamingo Cup, which is an annual potluck and croquet tournament so I was looking for something that I could use for both events.

I’ll start by saying I like cabbage but it is not a go to vegetable and mainly because aside from a few things like cole slaw, marinated and curried I don’t know what to do with it. I’ve had it roasted and boiled and neither really hit the spot. Now I can see you shaking your head and saying so, why would you plant cabbage if you didn’t love it? In one word - husband.

Remember when I said we expanded the garden, well I was out of town one weekend with some girlfriends and I came home to cabbage - 4 purple heads, 4 green heads. When I inquired about the number of heads of cabbage the response was “I wanted both green and purple and they only came in 4 packs” - go figure. 

The purple got very large but the green were smaller most likely due to the amount of sun; the green got a bit overshadowed by the squash plants, which have taken over. But we did get 4 smaller cabbage; one of which I used in a soup for movie night. 

I started with a recipe on Pinterest but then noticed it had white potatoes in it and I’m not really a white potato fan - in any form. So I decided to use the recipe for proportions and cooking methods but use what I had in the fridge for ingredients. 

To a stock pot I added:

2 stalks of celery diced

4 carrots chopped 

1 large onion diced

2/3 head of green cabbage

1/2 cup brown rice

Fresh rosemary, oregano and thyme (sorry I did’t measure just tossed)

Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

6 cups of veggie broth

Cover, bring the soup to a boil and then simmer for about 45 - 50 minutes. When the rice is cooked and the veggies soft, add 2 cans of beans (I used navy beans), 14 ounces diced tomatoes and adjust seasonings. 

We served the soup with some fresh whole wheat bread and baked acorn squash (from the garden). The dinner got rave reviews. 

Fast forward to Saturday and the Flamingo Cup - what to make for the potluck - you guessed it more soup! We simply added more of everything to our left over soup pot, tossed in the crockpot and heated it until it was time to head to the park. 

Saturday was a beautiful Minnesota fall day; clear blue sky and warm with a tinge of crisp, it was a great day for croquet. Neither Dan nor I won one of the coveted Flamingo’s (gold, silver or bronze) but we had a great time with family and friends. And the food, as always, was awesome; calico beans, samosas, cauliflower salad soup, and dessert. The winning dessert for me this year was caramel popcorn balls - they were the best. 

We ended the day on the back deck enjoying a glass of wine and relaxing, it was a wonderful day.

An Adventure in Leftovers

The forecast is rain – again. Seems like this is the rainiest fall ever. Generally the warm and dry August days give way to brown patches in the front and back yard but not this year; it's as green as it was in spring.

Good news – we've had an amazing bounty in the garden. Bad news – the ground is saturated and people are bailing out their basements – not fun. You might recall we had water in our basement earlier in the season but this last flood go around we were dry as a bone – thanks to the landscaper who figured out how to regrade our yard and now all the water goes away from the house instead of toward it.

Last weekend Dan hosted a lovely 60^th birthday party for me – we had great food, family and a lot of fun. The weather cooperated so that we could be outside and I got to spend time with the people who really matter to me.

I did have a hand in helping Dan with the food and true to form we had too much. As a matter of fact we are finally getting to the end of the leftovers. One of the things we had too much of was grilled veggies; eggplant, zucchini, summer squash and asparagus. Don't get me wrong, I love eggplant but I get tired of eating leftovers even if they are wonderful leftovers.

On Saturday I decided that we needed to find a way to finish up the last of the roasted veggies so I decided to make soup, which just so happened to go well with the wet and cool day we were having.

I started with 2 chopped onions, and some garlic. To that I added the leftover roasted eggplant, zucchini and summer squash and 4 cups of vegetable broth and simmered until the veggies were hot, which didn't take very long since they were already cooked.

I pureed the mixture in batches in my Vitamix and for good measure I added two thai chili peppers from the garden to give it a kick; and a delicious kick it was. We served it with fresh bread and a spinach salad.

We're still pulling tomatoes out of the garden and the kale, collard greens and squash are not showing signs of giving in. I've been keeping notes on what worked and didn’t and have decided that I won't be planting carrots or eggplant again – our soil and/or conditions aren't conducive for growing them. I will however, add more broccoli and cauliflower – they were awesome. And I'll try to get the hubby to not plant so many cabbage plants – a girl can only eat so much cabbage.

If you have recipes for kale and collard greens – other than smoothies because if you know me you know I'm not drinking that stuff  - EVER, please send them my way.

Thanks for stopping by!

Bottling the Summer Harvest

It's harvest season and our garden is in full swing and then some. I was calculating our expenses for August this evening and I noticed a distinct absence/shortage of purchases at our local grocery store, which is not a bad thing, in fact, it's awesome.

We've been more than knee deep – actually closer to hip deep in cauliflower, broccoli, red, yellow, orange and green peppers. We've finally finished the swiss chard but the kale and collard greens are still going strong, actually I'm not sure what to do with ALL THOSE GREENS!

Our neighbors have stopped taking our calls and barely make eye contact with us these days; I guess they are afraid I'll wander over with another load of tomatoes/cucumbers or whatever I need to get rid of - let's just say we're having an amazing garden year.

Camille is still insisting on spending her free time in the garden sleeping under the pepper and tomato plants. When she can convince us, she wanders into the far reaches of the back yard, sometimes sauntering, sometimes leaping (when the grass is wet) to the highest spot in the yard so she can survey her/lands. To be honest it's hard to deny her anything. She is old, frail and still a sweet, sweet girl – most of the time.

I started my morning around 5:45 am with Camille sitting on my head, meowing in her own special way because, well she was hungry and it is my job to crawl out of bed at whatever time she chooses to feed her (note – Dan was up and not more than 20 feet from her food bowl – obviously he has other duties).

Since I was up, awake and ready for the day I decided to make another batch of tomato sauce – so I chopped, pureed, sautéed tomatoes, onions, herbs, 2 thai chili peppers and an entire head of garlic and let it boil down into a rich, red, tomato sauce – I can't wait for chili, zoodles with tomato sauce and soups this winter –it will be awesome.

Tonight I also found myself with 10 nectarines all ripening at the same time, so I decided to make freezer jam. I first learned about freezer jam from my friend Shane. I like jam but the whole water bath thing seemed complicated. Enter freezer jam no boiling, no canning apparatus just dice the fruit and add the sugar and lemon juice and cook.

You're probably thinking wait she forgot the pectin – no, no I did not. No pectin in this recipe. The thing about pectin is that it adds a sour flavor, which then requires you to add more sugar and to be honest when you are done the jam tastes like sugar, not the fruit.

Most fruits naturally have pectin but it's added to jams and jellies to speed up the process. Truth is if  you boil the fruit longer, the natural pectin is released and you have the same result with less sugar and more fruit!

I started with about 2.5 pounds of nectarines, which I seeded and chopped. To that I added the zest and juice from ½ of a lemon and ¾ cup of sugar. The original recipe called for 2 ½ cups of sugar, which seemed like way to much and the fruit was sweet and juicy so I started with ¾ and tasted it first and it was to my taste so I left the rest out. 

As it was cooking I decided to add some spices to give it an extra kick so I included 2 tsp of nutmeg and ¾ tsp. of cinnamon. I cooked it (stirring often to prevent scorching) for about 40 minutes and then poured it into 3 jars, screwed on the lids and popped them into the freezer. 

I love the color and chunkiness of the jam and the addition of the spices will make it a perfect spread on whole grain toast on a cold winter morning. If you have any jam recipes to share, send them my way - it's like bottling summer. 

Rain; the Good, the Bad and the Ugly

As a gardener I'm a huge fan of rain, as a homeowner with a wet basement – not so much.

I've been remiss in not posting for the past couple of weeks, that doesn't mean we've not been cooking awesome veggie meals, it means we've been bailing water and dealing with the aftermath of a VERY WET BASEMENT. But this too shall pass – we've called landscapers to give us estimates to grade the yard and move the water away from the house, we've pulled up wet carpet and spent 5 days drying out the wood paneling in the basement – NOT FUN!

Looking forward or backward with respect to cooking experiences, we've been cooking up a storm with our garden harvest. We've harvested tomatoes by the pound, carrots, Swiss chard, kale, collard greens, broccoli, cauliflower, red, green, yellow and orange peppers, cabbage, Thai chili pepper and jalapenos. I have to say it has been our best year yet. This was last night's harvest.

For those of you wondering what we've been doing with all those veggies, well cooking of course here are a few of our favorite dinner pictures.

Here is one of my favorite dinners; roasted beets, roasted green beans from the garden, watermelon with feta and basil (from the garden) and my favorite lentil dal. 

And then there cooked up some Swiss chard with onions, mushrooms, garlic, ginger, red pepper flakes and black beans. Served with a side of tomatoes with a drizzle of balsamic vinegar and a few feta crumbles. 

We've also been eating a fair number of tomato, avocado and mayo sandwiches for lunch and yes dinner too. I don't have a recent photo but trust me they are happening.

Tonight I decided that the red and green peppers were on the dinner menu and decided to stuff them with lentils, quinoa, kale and tomatoes (of course). Picture on its way - hubby is having some technical difficulties.

On deck for the weekend; cauliflower, broccoli, Swiss chard, kale, collard greens and tomatoes, tomatoes, tomatoes – did I mention we have a lot of tomatoes? I think there will need to be some tomato sauce and tomato jam making.

If you have any recipes that need tomatoes please, send them my way.

As always thanks for stopping by!

We're in the Swiss Chard, We're in the Swiss Chard

Guess what we're drowning in these days– yep you got it swiss chard. I've been so busy counting my acorn squash, tomatoes and harvesting lettuce, spinach, beans, kale and collard greens that I totally ignored the chard – until today. I think it grew to great proportions over night. SERIOUSLY, I AM NOT KIDDING!

We'll be heading out on vacation in the coming weeks so I'm in a no grocery shopping and we need to eat this mode. Sometimes it's a good thing and sometimes not so much. After bringing in a small fraction of the chard harvest and picking yet another 5 very large tomatoes I knew what we were having for dinner.

I first discovered Swiss chard when Dan and I were at a B&B in Sparta,

Wisconsin. Our host made a delicious omelet, which contained onions, mushrooms and Swiss chard – I was hooked.  I continue to search for recipes that contain chard but not cheese – let me tell you it's not easy. For some reason the world thinks chard should be in a gratin with 5 kinds of cheese (I know my comment is an exaggeration) but we live in a cheese centric world, or so it seems to me.

My favorite chard recipe is one of my own making with all of my favorite ingredients.

I start by sautéing one large finely diced onion until just about translucent. To that add the finely chopped stems of a large bunch of Swiss chard and continue to sauté until crisp tender. Add the mushrooms, 3 cloves of garlic, some shredded ginger and a shake or two of crushed red pepper flakes and cook until the stems are soft. Add washed and shredded chard leaves, 1 can of drained beans (either black or chickpeas) and cover and steam until leaves are wilted. 

And now you are wondering about those 5 large tomatoes. We've been picking tomatoes for a couple weeks my favorite way to eat them is in a toasted tomato and mayo sandwich. Start with a nice crusty, grainy bread lightly toasted, add mayo and top with thick slices of tomato, a little salt and some pepper – pure heaven.

I wasn't thinking about sandwiches tho, I wanted something fresh. I decided on a very simple; thinly sliced tomatoes topped with a little crumbled feta and some balsamic vinegar. 

It was a simple and my favorite kind of delicious supper. Thanks for stopping by.

Avocado - Creamy Deliciousness!

A friend of mine once said, "I'll order something from a menu with ingredients that I'm not crazy about if the dish has avocado." I kind of feel like that too – avocado is one of my favorite foods. I especially love when Dan makes egg wraps with sliced fresh avocado and salsa – it's the best.

A couple weekends ago I took a trip up to Fargo to visit my dad. We had a nice afternoon; we sat on his patio and talked, went out to lunch and then just hung out. My favorite part of the conversation was when we talked about our first car.

My first car was a red convertible – it was totally smashed on one side but the top worked and the motor was sound – that's all I cared about. My parents purchased the car for me but I was responsible for keeping it running – lots of good life learning lessons.

These days our garden is over flowing with lettuce, spinach, kale, collard greens, herbs and radishes. I hate that my carrots did not come up but at last count I had 5 acorn squash which are about 6 inches and growing. We've harvested 2 heads of broccoli, and a gallon bag of green beans (which we will be eating this week). 

Our tomato plants are loaded and we've been eating cherry tomatoes in our salads for a few weeks now. The red, yellow and green peppers are coming along nicely and I noticed just today that the thai chili peppers are going crazy. I'm excited about this year's harvest (ok I'm excited about every harvest what can I say).

But I digress, on Sunday night Dan and I did a joint cooking. He had a Greek bruschetta recipe from the Blue Zone, which he wanted to try and I was hungry for portabella mushrooms on the grill.

The bruschetta was delicious; the bread was perfectly grilled and topped with fresh tomatoes, kalamata olives, garlic, and olive oil – yum definitely high marks on that one.

The mushrooms turned out as well. I started by marinating 3 large caps in balsamic vinegar, olive oil, cumin, garlic, paprika and black pepper for about 20 minutes, turning them occasionally to evenly coat them.

While the mushrooms were marinating I made an avocado chimichurri sauce with fresh parsley from the garden, olive oil, garlic, red pepper flakes, lemon juice and avocado. This was a definite do again recipe. I loved the combination of zesty balsamic flavor with the creamy avocado – so delicious.

If you are not familiar with the Blue Zone you can check out their website here:

https://www.bluezones.com/

And the recipe is here:

https://www.bluezones.com/recipe/easy-bruschetta/

To get the full recipe for the mushrooms hop over to The Minimalist Bakers site here:

http://minimalistbaker.com/portobello-steaks-avocado-chimichurri/

I'd love to hear from my gardening friends - if you have some favorite foods that you've been cooking up and would like to guest blog on A Vegetarian for One Year drop me a note!

Thanks for stopping by!

A Bevy of Veggies

If you are on this side of the pond I hope you enjoyed a lovely 4^th of July holiday. My co-workers in the UK let me know that they celebrated Thanksgiving on that same day – I think they were messing with me – but that's ok I still like them.

Dan and I had a wonderful long weekend – a little work, a little play and some delicious food. We tried to sprinkle a little of each into every day.

We started on Friday by attending the Guthrie production of South Pacific it was awesome. For those of you who remember the Stillwater High School choir production – you're probably tapping your toes and washing that man right out of your hair as I speak. I sang along with every song and Dan nudged me a few times but I ignored him and kept on singing.

We started our Saturday with a trip to the Minneapolis Farmers Market – so many beautiful vegetables! We loaded up the car and then headed home to work in the garden. We weeded, dug, put down grass seed, mulched and planted - we accomplished a lot.

We ended the day with a delicious roasted veggie dish from our market trip; green beans, sugar snap peas, asparagus, carrots, sweet potatoes, bok choy and onions seasoned with basil, sage and oregano from our garden – I love that I can walk out on the deck, grab some herbs and toss them in. The preparation was a simple, wash, peel and slice/dice. They toss with olive oil and sea salt and roast at 400 until done. 

By the time Sunday rolled around we were a bit sore but Dan had a vision – he wanted to transform the space where the peony plants are (in the front of the yard) into something with a bit more curb appeal – so we set our course for project "curb."

He dug out grass, tilled the dirt, added healthy soil, laid brick, and planted – the result was perfect. What did I do you ask? I shopped for plants, sifted dirt, helped spread mulch and provided the moral and beverage support– it was a team effort.

We still had alot of leftovers and we were tired so on Sunday we heated up the leftovers and added some mexican cups with refried beans seasoned with chili powder. To that I added chopped onion, red and orange pepper, black olives and some seasonings and then topped with vegan cheese and baked in a 350 degree oven until the tortilla were crisp. 

On the 4^th, we needed a work break – we spent the afternoon seeing Finding Dory – if you loved Finding Nemo, get yourself to the theatre – if not all I can say is "What's wrong with you ?" Then we had a nice dinner at a local tex mex restaurant – I  know, I know not very American but I no longer do hotdogs.

We ended the weekend watching fireworks from the neighbors deck and catching up with them. Overall I'd say it was a successful  weekend retreat.

Thanks for stopping by.