Rest in peace Michael Jackson

Weekend Cooking Inspiration

We made several new dishes Sunday. Chris had been wanting to try the vegan corned beef recipe he found a long time ago, so it finally happened. It turned out decently, although I think we're used to heavier spicing, so probably would double or use 1.5 times if we make it again. Not bad for a first attempt at "fake meat". We also hadn't had indian in many weeks, so I was thrilled that Chris was inspired to make Seitan Vindaloo. We used very little seitan (the vegan corned beef worked well) and lots of potato, and tweaked the amount of sugar and replaced the white wine vinegar with apple cider vinegar. Serendipitously, the sauce was really reminiscent of the vindaloo from our favorite indian restaurant in college. It never ceases to amaze me how often the use of animal products is often not the determining factor in recreating (or creating!) a dish. Needless to say, we had no leftovers.

He also made cajun chickpea cakes and I made asparagus sauteed in olive oil with sliced red onion and borsari seasoned salt for dinner. Delicious. Speaking of asparagus, we got our measly 'tasting' of 5 spears in our garden share this week. I was really excited to have asparagus, but incredibly disappointed with the amount. And that's all we'll get in the CSA this year. So I bought some at the store, too and cooked it all together. I do think the few pieces from the farm were the bites that stood out and tasted amazing though. We've always wanted to grow asparagus but it doesn't bear until the 2nd year. Hopefully next year we'll plant some.

We also had rhubarb from the farm for the 2nd week in a row so I decided I needed to find a recipe to try it out. The only thing I'd ever heard of making with rhubarb is strawberry rhubarb pie. I didn't have strawberries, nor was I interested in a pie or anything else with cups of sugar. Thank you internet for recipe ideas. So I made an apple rhubarb compote which had some sugar, but seemed better than a lot of what I found. I pureed it and it reminded me of a strawberry applesauce. Again, no leftovers, ha. So I'll either make that again with the 2nd bundle of rhubarb- or I also found recipes for muffins, a lentil-rhubarb soup, and rhubarb salsa.

Next I need to use the bunches of bok choy we've gotten two weeks in a row. The radishes, baby beet greens, chives, and lettuce have been nice for salads. Finally had a baked potato with the fresh chives last week, too. What will this week bring?

Home grown

I'm eating turnip greens I sauteed in olive oil with a garlic and lemon pepper seasoning and crushed red pepper. Pretty good. Topped with chives from the garden share, too. We also got red romaine, spinach, dandelion greens, mizuna (which I'd never heard of but now love), mint, and dill. I'll probably be eating more of these greens than Chris, but hopefully asparagus and some other things he loves will be in soon.

Chris has been making an amazing tomatillo salsa recipe from Rick Bayless. It's nice and spicy with arbol chilies and garlic. I think he made the 5th batch today since he first tried it 2 weeks ago.

I'm taking a break from painting the half bath downstairs. It's a deep purple-pink. Looks nicer than it sounds, haha.

Going to plant the few vegetable plants I got this week in containers since we weren't able to prepare a garden this year. But we have a huge patio tomato plant, an heirloom beaver dam pepper, cherry pepper, tabasco pepper, and italian cubanelle peppers. Can you tell we like peppers? These are all varieties that are hard to find in the store so it'll be nice to have them home grown.

I'm also soaking raw cashews and flax seeds I'll be using in my first attempt at raw bread made in my food dehydrator. Phew, busy day.

Good Intentions

I had wanted to create a food blog or blog for so long but didn't know what exactly to do. Like many things in my life, my lack of direction and specific goals led to inaction. I decided right now, as I'm trying to do in many areas of my life slowly but surely, that it would be better to do something, no matter how little, than nothing. So, I'm blogging again. Will I keep it up? We shall see.

We started this with a food angle, so I felt I could only post when I had pictures and stories about new and exciting things we had made in the kitchen. But I'm going to post more now. Often about food, since it's something I have passion for. Woah, I have passion? It's the thing I admire most about other people, because I often feel so boring, so unadventerous, blase, dull. But yes, I would say food is a passion of mine. How cool.

Anyway, my point is I often intend to post here and have perfectly edited pictures in a perfectly phrased post. But blogs are supposed to be off-the-cuff and whatever comes to mind, right? So, dear readers (all 2 or 3 of you?), you'll hear more of my thoughts- often about food- and far fewer pretty pictures. Maybe the more often I write the more I'll be inspired.

I'm very excited that tomorrow is the first pickup for our CSA garden subscription! Should be lots of green leafy things which will be great to add to my nearly empty refrigerator.

Thinking about it now, I have lots of food related ramblings I could go on about, but I'll save the material for another day.