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.

Delicious Pizza on the Grill

It's just about the 4^th of July, which for me always seems like Summer is half over but it can't be because it feels like we just got started. On the flip side my garden says it's in full swing.

I've been harvesting lettuce, spinach, radishes, cilantro, basil, rosemary and other herbs for a week or so now. Oh and lets not forget we've had a few cherry tomatoes (7 to be exact). With the exception of carrots (grrrr) the rest of the garden is growing like crazy.

I've been thinking about pizza, which for me is unusual because it's not something I crave very often; you know cheese, and bread, two things I try to avoid. Maybe it is the new grill stone that I got from Pampered Chef. It's made out of the same material as the Rock Crok but it can be put directly on the grill, on high heat – it's awesome.

I started by making a 5-minute dough, 1 ½ cups flour (plus more as needed), 1 ½ tsp baking powder, ½ tsp salt and ¼ tsp baking soda, 1 cup low fat greek yogurt and 2 T rosemary (from the garden).  Put all dry ingredients in a bowl and mix. Add the yogurt and rosemary and mix – the mixture will look crumbly.

Kneed mixture for 5 minutes. In the mean time heat the grill to medium high heat and oil the stone. Roll the dough out on the stone using a small roller (PC has a nice little bakers roller that works perfectly for this job) and place the dough on the stone. Poke holes in entire bottom of dough with a fork, close the grill and cook for 9 – 13 minutes or until the crust is golden brown rotating the stone once at about the 5 – 6 minute mark.

Remove the stone from the grill and flip over the crust, add tomato sauce (I used tomato paste, fresh garlic, oregano, basil and some oil) and toppings; we added grilled asparagus, zucchini, red peppers, and onions and then topped it with feta. Pop it back on the grill until the top of the crust is brown and the cheese is melted. Looks delicious doesn't it?

Because no meal is complete without a salad (which is something my mom used to say) we used the greens from our garden (lettuce, spinach, cilantro, kale and collard greens) and tossed in some cukes, tomatoes, blueberries and whatever else looked good. 

It was such a beautiful evening we decided to put up the flowers that my Dad made. With flowers and old hose in hand, we created a nice little garden near our garden. I put in the flower (real flower) garden after my mom died about 19+ years ago as a way to honor her.  For those of you who knew her, you might recall she loved to garden both flowers an veggies so this seemed like a nice way to remember her. 

I like how it turned out – and it looks like a nice photo back drop – we'll have to give it try over the weekend.

Have a Happy and Safe 4^th of July – Thanks for stopping by

A Myriad of Flavors and Cusines

I've been cooking up a storm and trying some new things lately thanks to Pinterest! Now that summer has finally arrived I've been craving salads. Not your ordinary salads, although I love them, but new salads., with ingredients you've not tried before – at least not together.

My first salad recipe came from POPSUGAR a fun blog site; if you've not visited it you should definitely check it out there are lots of good recipes. I tried the Hydrating Salad – a delicious combination of beans, cucumbers, tomatoes, red pepper, avocado, some scallions, lime juice, cilantro and salt and pepper. The original recipe calls for corn but I'm not a huge fan and I didn't have any on hand so I left it out and it was still delicious.

 

My second recipe was appleand carrot coleslaw with dried cranberries , feta and a mayo and Greek yoghurt dressing you can find the recipe on FiveHeartHome's site. I've not spent a lot of time on the site but it looks promising and I'll surely check back when I have some time, although I'm not sure when that will occur. 

My final recipe (ok not final in the sense of FINAL, just the last one on this blog post) is a rift on taco night.  We've been experimenting off and on with "non-meat" products that have the look and texture of "meat". I like tacos and since becoming a vegetarian have enjoyed black bean, cauliflower with lime, and veggie tacos – all delicious. However, we decided to try Beyond Meat beef tvp (textured vegetable proteim).

It was Dan's night to cook and he made a spicy taco seasoning, which he sautéed in a pan with the TVP and a bit of oil and broth until it was hot. Then we added, tomatoes, lettuce, cheese, onions, guacamole and salsa it was simple and hit the taco spot! 

Dan and I hosted a Father's Day celebration at our house for his family last weekend. It had been a while (since Christmas) since we'd had the clan over. We grilled brats and veggie sausages and everyone brought a dish to share – it was a great feast.  I also added my famous banana cupcakes decorated with a BBQ theme; they got rave reviews from the nieces and nephews, in-laws and my sweetie. It was a warm day with a nice breeze and we spent our time out on the deck – it was a nice celebration. 

 

Thanks for stopping by!

Eggplant Parmesan with out the Parmesan

This year the Midwest got a late start in the planting department yet the recent rainy and warm weather has been amazing for my garden. For those of you who have been following this blog, you know that we have (had) 4 – 4 x 8 foot raised beds which provide us with an amazing bounty.  Last year we were forced to cut down our "wedding" elm tree, which resulted increased sun over the garden area.

Of course Dan immediately wanted to add 2 additional garden beds this year; one for tomato world and the other to sport a variety of peppers, cabbage and cauliflower plants – while I was a bit skeptical, I'm looking forward to the fall harvest – me thinks the freezer, pantry and the neighbors doorsteps will be full.

While I know it's not eggplant season here in Minnesota, I've been hungry for good Eggplant Parmesan – without the Parmesan or very little Parmesan. I was at my favorite grocery store last week and noticed some frozen lightly breaded eggplant, which seemed to call to me so that I could speed up the dinner process – so I decided to give it a try.

I pulled out my last pint of frozen tomato sauce from last years harvest to thaw and then sautéed onions, garlic and baby portabella mushrooms until soft. I added the tomato sauce and cooked for an additional 10 minutes until it was thick.

While the tomato sauce is reducing, preheat the oven to 375 degrees. To a baking dish, add a thin layer of the tomato, onion and mushroom sauce and top with the eggplant slices. Add the rest of the tomato sauce and top with some kind of cheese; Parmesan, non-dairy, soy or in my case sheep, goat or nut based and bake for 30 – 40 minutes. Remove from the oven and let the eggplant rest for 10 minutes.  Serve with a green or fruit (or both) salad. 

This weekend is Father's Day – if your dad is still around give him a hug and tell him how much you love him. I've learned that life is short - make the most of the time you have on the planet.

"This is the only dance we dance"  - Antonia's Line