Hail Cesar Salad

I’m going to tempt fate a bit and say that Spring has arrived. The crocus is blooming, the tulips are poking their heads up and my eyes are starting to itch which means something is growing. Nothing on the garlic front yet but that is to be expected.

If you are in the Midwest and thinking about cleaning up your garden - don’t do that yet! The bees and other pollinators are still in their nests and aren’t ready to be moved so please please wait, you’ll need them later in the year to pollinate your flowers, fruit trees, and some of your veggie crops. 

I am close to finishing my Master Gardener program - I have 2 modules left to review and 4 more Q & A sessions - then we get to the fun part - volunteering - I can’t wait.

A while ago my friend Ann Wasescha gifted Ellen Holtwick and me a vegetarian cookbook called First Mess by Laura Wright. It lived with Ellen for a while and has recently come to live with me. There are so many wonderful recipes that I want to try, I hardly know where to start. 

Dan is not a huge fan of tempeh, he says it has a bitter taste - I don’t taste it but I usually steam the tempeh first, which removes the bitterness and he’s good to go. This was a delicious salad and pretty easy to make. Enjoy!

Ingredients:

Dressing (makes more than you need):

2 T raw cashew butter

2 T water

1.5 T fresh lemon juice

3 cloves garlic - grated 

1 t dijon mustard

1 t minced capers (I left this out)

1 T nutritional yeast

3 T olive oil 

Salt and pepper to taste

Salad:

1 1/2 crowns of broccoli - chopped into florets

1 t sweet paprika

1 t smoked paprika

1 t maple syrup

1 t apple cider vinegar

1/2 t soy sauce

2 t olive oil

1/2 block tempeh

Instructions:

In a jar with a tight-fitting lid, add the cashew butter, water, lemon juice, salt, and pepper. Shake until combined. Add garlic, dijon, capers (if using), nutritional yeast, and oil. Shake again and set aside

Steam (or roast) the broccoli. In a small bowl combine the paprikas, maple syrup, apple cider vinegar, and soy sauce set aside. 

Heat olive oil in a skillet until shimmering add crumbled tempeh and spread out into a single layer. Cook approx. 2 minutes (until brown), then stir it up and let brown on the other side. Add paprika mixture and toss until tempeh is coated. Remove from heat.

Place broccoli on a platter and drizzle cashew butter dressing over it. Add tempeh and garnish with nutritional yeast and fresh ground pepper. 

Thanks for stopping by!

Roasted Eggplant with Soba Noodles

I work up this morning to a beautiful sunrise. The days are getting longer and warmer, which means I can get a short walk in before work during the week - yeah!

I’m still working my way through the Master Gardener program - should be finished with the course work by mid-April and then the fun part actually doing stuff. Our garden planning is underway and I started some of my seeds for leeks, fennel, and some flowers yesterday - looking forward to another growing season. 

In my effort to make different things I bought an eggplant at the store this week. Usually, I make garlic eggplant but I wanted to do something different so I hopped on over to Kenko Kitchens and used their Japanese Salad as a base for dinner. 

I didn’t have broccolini (but I did have broccoli), while it’s not the same thing it’s close enough. I also didn’t have rice bran oil - and honestly, I have no idea where I might get it. I did check my local Asian grocery store but they didn’t have any so I used olive oil. I added more mushrooms and edamame because I love them both and it made the “salad” a “meal.” This is definitely on the rotation. 

Ingredients:

1.5 crowns of broccoli - cut into florets

100 grams of buckwheat noodles 

1 cup edamame

1 cup enoki mushrooms

2 tbsp organic tamari

2 tbsp sesame oil

3 tbsp miso paste

1 large eggplant

1 tbsp olive oil

Method:

Cut the eggplant into 5-6 wedges length-wise. Rub the eggplants with 2 tbsp of the miso paste and the olive oil then place on an oven tray lined with parchment paper. Cook the eggplant for 20-30 minutes until golden and soft - flipping the eggplant wedges over halfway in between.

In a pot of boiling water, cook the soba noodles for 5-10 minutes until just al dente, strain, rinse and set aside in a bowl of cold water to prevent the noodles from cooking further and sticking together.

Cut off the ends of the enoki mushrooms and wash thoroughly. Place in a frying pan with the sesame oil and cook for 2 minutes. Add in 1T miso paste, tamari and broccoli. Add in the edamame and then add in the soba noodles, coating in the tamari/miso sauce, and turn off from the heat (broccoli and edamame should still have a slight crunch and be vibrant in color).

Place noodles and greens in a bowl then top with the roasted miso eggplant. Serve with pickled ginger and wasabi on the side.

Bread in a Day

Have you ever had one of those weeks where you tell yourself every day that you will prep bread before you go to bed to bake in the morning and then you forget EVERY SINGLE DAY - yep that was me last week. 

I’d been promising Dan a loaf of cranberry walnut for a couple weeks but could not get my s@#$ together enough to deliver. We don’t eat a lot of bread but occasionally fresh bread is the order of the day. So after promising and not delivering I found a recipe for No Knead Bread that I decided to give a try.

I normally have coffee with some friends on Saturday morning so I decided to prep the bread before the call, let it rise and then bake it later in the day. Have you ever noticed they say you should wait until it’s fully cooled before slicing - are they serious? There is nothing better than a warm slice of fresh bread - IMHO. 

Ingredients:

1 ¼ cups lukewarm water not too hot or it will kill the yeast @ 110 - 115 degrees

1 ½ teaspoon active dry yeast

1 teaspoon maple syrup

3 cups all-purpose flour plus 3 T 

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

1 cup dried cranberries

Instructions:

Whisk water, yeast, and maple syrup together in a measuring cup. Set aside until bubbles appear on the surface. In the meantime, stir flour and salt together in a large mixing bowl. Add water mix to flour mix and stir until combined (it will look scraggly and that’s perfectly fine).

Cover the bowl with a clean dishtowel and leave to rise at room temperature for about 2 hours, or until big and puffy (time will vary depending on altitude, humidity, and temperature).

Preheat the oven to 450°F. Place an 8-9 inch round Dutch oven with an oven-safe lid in the oven as it preheats. Once the oven and Dutch oven are blazing hot, carefully remove the Dutch oven to a heat-proof surface. Remove the lid and carefully line with a piece of baking parchment (the Dutch oven is HOT! There will be parchment overhang, that’s fine.)

Scrape the dough into the lined Dutch oven in one piece. Cover with the lid (just place the lid over the parchment overhang). Bake for 30 minutes, then carefully remove the lid and finish baking for around 15 minutes or until golden brown, crusty, and baked through. Remove from the Dutch oven and place on a rack to cool.

Tonight we used our delicious bread to make Vegan BLAT - Vegan bacon, lettuce, avocado, and tomato sandwiches with a spicy sriracha mayo dressing - they were delicious!

Thanks for stopping by!

Veggie Pizza

I’ve never been a huge pizza fan, mainly because most pies have ALL THAT CHEESE, which totally doesn’t work for me. Since I’ve found alternative cheeses that don’t make me sick I’ve been working my way back to slice or two every now and then. 

My favorite local place is Pizza Luce - they have great pizzas and vegan cheese and meat options. They have a soy cheese that I’m not crazy about but they also have a cashew cheese (they call it rinota) that is to die for and their vegan crumbles are noteworthy. 

Somedays I'm not excited about cooking - since the pandemic, I sometimes feel like it is endless and I need a break. However, I decided to make my own pie tonight. I started with a quick yeast dough and then raided the refrigerator and freezer for ingredients. I used a pesto base and then added artichokes, olives, onions, peppers, mushrooms and topped it off with vegan cheese. I have to say it was damn delicious and the absence of leftovers says Dan felt the same way. 

Pizza dough - ingredients:

2 tsp active dry yeast

1 tsp. sugar

1 cup hot water (about 110–120 degrees)

3 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil

1 tsp. kosher salt

2.5 cups all-purpose flour, plus extra for dusting

Toppings:

Pesto - your favorite kind - I used 2 T vegan pesto that I made from our garden basil last fall

1 small onion - thinly sliced and sautéed in a small amount of oil to soften

1/2 yellow pepper

4 - thinly sliced baby bella mushrooms

8 - 10 cherry tomatoes - sliced

Marinated artichokes - sliced

10 - 12 Kalamata olives - cut in half 

vegan mozzarella 

Instructions:

Preheat oven and pizza stone in a 450-degree oven. 

Mix yeast, sugar, and hot water in a large bowl. Let stand 2-3 minutes until yeast begins to foam. Add olive oil and salt to the yeast mixture. Stir in 2 cups of the flour (you can use your hands for this OR you can use a sturdy spoon or spatula to bring the dough together).

Take a look at your dough. If it is still too wet, add the remaining flour 1/8 cup at a time and knead between each addition. The dough should pull itself into a ball as you stir but should still be slightly sticky to the touch. If the dough is too dry, add a splash of water or olive oil and stir or knead to work the liquid into the dough.

Cover the dough with a tea towel and let it rest for at least 10 minutes. (If you have more time, let it rest for up to an hour to develop more flavor).

While the dough is resting slice all vegetables and lightly saute onions, mushrooms, and peppers to soften. 

Turn dough onto a piece of floured parchment paper, dust the top with a sprinkle of flour, and roll or shape normally. Add toppings.

Carefully remove the pizza stone from the oven and slide parchment paper (with pizza) onto the stone. Return to oven and bake for approximately 15 minutes or until crust is golden brown. Remove from oven and let cool for 5 minutes, cut, and eat.

Thanks for stopping by!

Happy Valentines Day!

Happy Valentine’s Day! This weekend marks about a year since we have traveled on a plane and 2 years since we have vacationed in Mexico. Last year we struggled to get a decent airfare - accommodations were no problem but airfare - was totally out of line. So we decided to take a trip to Arizona, a state neither of us had ever traveled to, and visit my cousin and some good friends.

But this year is totally different - no vacations or vaccinations for that matter. I’m not yet 65 so I’m still waiting to get in line. If there was ever a time to be 65 now would be it. Like most everyone else I’m hanging out at home, reading, doing puzzles, ordering food from my favorite restaurant, and zooming with friends and family. 

I’m not a TikTok fan, although I understand there are many fun and interesting things on it - but not my thing. However, there has been this crazy pasta dish that has minimal ingredients and is super easy - so I had to try it right?

This was by far one of the easiest meals I’ve made in a while. You simply combine the sauce ingredients, bake it and then add cooked pasta. I used a chickpea pasta I found at Aldi - it added an earthy flavor to the dish which was very nice. 

Ingredients:

16 ounces cherry tomatoes

7-ounce block of feta cheese

1/4 cup olive oil

2 - 3 cloves garlic (minced)

Greek seasonings 

handful fresh basil

2 handfuls spinach 

large pinch red pepper flakes 

10 12 ounces pasta - any shape - I used @ 10 ounces of chickpea pasta 

Instructions:

Preheat oven to  450 degrees. Place cherry tomatoes in a baking dish so that they are touching each other, add olive oil, and stir. Make space in the middle of the tomatoes and add the block of feta sprinkle with pepper and greek seasoning. Bake for 35  minutes. Turn on the broiler and broil for 2 - 3 minutes - just until the tomatoes are browning. 

While the tomato/feta is baking, cook pasta until al dente and drain. Remove the tomato mixture from the oven, add the garlic, 1/2 of the basil, red pepper flakes, and spinach stir into a sauce. Add pasta, stir to combine, and top with remaining basil. Enjoy!

Honestly, if you are tired of spending time chopping, sautéing, and cooking this is your next meal. It was great as a leftover and it’s in the rotation - at least until the next best thing comes along. 

Thanks for stopping by!

Superbowl Nachos and Super Simple Pear Hand Pies

It’s Super Bowl Sunday, the day we gather with friends and family to cheer on our favorite team - oh wait we’re in the time of COVID - no large gatherings but we can still connect with our pods and enjoy the show. And by show, I mean - commercials, half-time show, and if you are inclined, cheering for your favorite team.

I am not a football fan but every year I choose a team and cheer them on - this year the I’m rooting for Kansas City Chiefs. As I write this, the 2nd half is in progress, and they are behind by 12 points - not a good spot to be in - but hey I am a fan of the underdog. 

My favorite part of the Super Bowl is the commercials - and there have been some good ones. In past years, gathering with friends and family - for food, fun, and camaraderie - is the best. This year, we’re on our own but not without good food (of course). I treated us to a giant plate of vegan nachos, and the fact that there were no leftovers - well I guess they were good. 

On another food note, we feasted on pear hand pies -  a delicious winter treat! Similar in taste to apple pie and oh so easy to make! Perfect for anyone who wants a quick single-serving treat without the guilt of eating an entire pie!

The best part of pear pie is that unlike apple pie, you don’t have to cook the fruit to soften it before filling the pie you just assemble, bake and then eat. My only regret was that we did not have any whipped cream or ice cream (vegan of course) to accompany it. It was, however, delicious. 

Ingredients:

1 double pie crust store-bought or homemade

1/2 cup white sugar

3 Tablespoons all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon lemon zest

5 cups peeled and diced ripe pears

1 Tablespoon vegan butter

1 egg

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350*F

In a medium-sized bowl, combine sugar, flour, salt, cinnamon, and lemon zest. Mix well

Add diced pears to sugar mixture and mix gently until well coated. Roll pie crust out.

Using a bowl as a pattern that is approximately 4 - 5 inches in diameter, cut out round circles for your hand pies. Reroll excess dough to create more crusts. Place crusts onto a lined baking sheet. Place pears in the center of one cut pie crust - leaving approximately 1/2 inch space around sides. Dot pear mixture with a small amount of butter and sprinkle with few drops of lemon juice.

In a small bowl beat egg with 1 tablespoon of water. Brush egg around the edge of the circle. This will act as a glue and top with another round of pie crust.  Crimp edges with a fork to ensure a good seal. Brush egg mixture on top of each hand pie. Slice slits on top and dust with coarse sugar if desired.

Place on a lined cookie sheet. Bake for 20 minutes or until golden.

Vegan Nachos

Ingredients:

Tortilla chips - your choice 

Vegan refried black beans - stirred 

black olives - 1/4 can

frozen corn - 1/4 bag

3 - 4 green onions - finely chopped

1/2 red pepper - finely chopped 

10 -12 cherry tomatoes - quartered

1 jalapeno - thinly sliced 

vegan mozzarella and cheddar cheese - shredded 

1 avocado - finely chopped

Red and green salsa

Instructions:

Place tortilla chips on a large stone. Add beans, peppers, olives, onions, corn, tomatoes, and jalapenos. Sprinkle with cheese. Bake in a 375-degree oven for approximately 12 - 15 minutes - until cheese is melted and beans are hot. Remove from oven and add avocado and cilantro. 

Serve with red and/or green salsa. 

Thanks for stopping by - Enjoy!

Broccoli, Eggplant, Bok Choy oh My!

Ahhhhhhhh - we’ve collectively released that breath we’ve been holding and the changing of the guard occurred peacefully. As they slowly roll the vaccine out I’m grateful that we are healthy but still anxious to get back to the life we had before the pandemic arrived. There are people to spend time with, vacations to take, events and milestones to celebrate, and restaurants to patronize - it’s been a long haul.

I’m still cooking but the addition of Master Gardener classes, meetings, and volunteering (online of course) takes up some of that extra time I had for reading and writing and fancy dinners. We’re still shopping for longer periods of time, staying out of stores during prime times, and eating all that bottled up goodness from last years harvest.

We’ve in the planning process for our 2021 vegetable garden; deciding what has to go and what new things we should try. There will definitely be tomatoes, zucchini, squash, cucumbers, green beans, and the rest of the regular crew. Bell peppers still made the cut but we’re moving them to pots in the front where there is more sun - and hopefully, that will increase the harvest. Dan did some seed saving from the honeynut butternut squash we had last year - he’s going to try to get his own vines growing. I have to say they were the sweetest and best-tasting squash I’ve ever had. 

This week's stir fry was a combination of some of my favorite veggies - broccoli eggplant, mushrooms and bok choy in a garlic sauce. The crunch of the broccoli and bok choy paired with the softened eggplant and mushrooms was the perfect compliment.

Ingredients:

Garlic Sauce 

4 tablespoons rice vinegar

2 tablespoons sugar

4 tablespoons soy sauce

4 teaspoons mirin

2 tablespoons + ½ teaspoon sesame oil, divided

1 T corn starch

2 tablespoon water

8 medium garlic cloves, minced or finely chopped

Stir Fry

One bunch of green onions, chopped whites, and some greens for garnish.

Sesame oil, 2-3 tbsp

1 head Broccoli, cut into bite-size or slightly larger pieces

1 large Eggplant, cut into bite-size or larger pieces

8 ounces baby bella mushrooms, quartered 

3 baby bok choy, cut lengthwise into pieces 

Instructions:

Combine rice vinegar, sugar, tamari, mirin, and ½ teaspoon sesame oil in a liquid measuring cup or small bowl, stirring to combine. (this is the sauce base)

In a separate small bowl, dissolve the cornstarch in water.

Heat 2 tablespoons of sesame oil over medium heat in a saucepan. Add the garlic and cook, stirring until fragrant (around 30 seconds). Re-stir the sauce, add it to the saucepan and bring to a boil, stirring. (This will take about a minute).

Re-stir the cornstarch- water mixture and add it to the sauce a little at a time (stirring as to combine) until it is a desired thickness-- it will thicken quickly as it heats up. For a thinner sauce, use less of the cornstarch-water mix.Transfer to a bowl or liquid measuring cup and set aside until ready to use.

Stir Fry

In a large skillet, over medium-high heat, add 2-3 tbsp oil and heat until shimmering but not burning. Add onions and saute a minute or two until just tender. Add eggplant and saute 3-4 minutes until starting to get tender. Add broccoli and mushrooms, cook an additional 2-3 minutes. Then add in bok choy and saute until wilted and tender. Cook longer for softer vegetables.

Add the garlic sauce to the sautéed vegetables and stir to combine. Heat 2-3 minutes until warm. Serve over rice. Garnish with green parts of green onion.

Thanks for stopping by!