Wahsega Valley Farm

Sunday fun in the kitchen

I had so much fun last Sunday - spending most of my time in the kitchen with pots and pans a-flying. I started out making our Sunday morning waffles and was disappointed to find no more frozen strawberries and blueberries in the freezer. Alas, summer is indeed gone. But with autumn comes apples - lots of apples. So I grated one and added it to the batter, along with a mashed banana. And, instead of an agave and strawberry blend for a "syrup" for the waffles, we just added a bit of apple butter mixed with the agave and it was a mouth full of autumn.

I decided to I needed to use more of the apples we got on our day trip to the orchard a couple of weeks ago and made a Apple Upside Down Cake for the first time, substituting this and that to get what I wanted. It turned out great, but I want to add some more personal touches to it before I post the recipe. It's super easy.

After the cake, I made the Lentil and Farro Veggie Soup from the previous post and was very happy with the way it turned out. I particularly like making vegetable soups. I normally don't use a recipe and just throw together what I have in the pantry and fridge and it's always good. Sometimes the seasonings aren't what Mike likes (he curses cumin), but I love them all.

And, after the soup, I decided to finally try Heidi Swanson's Big Sur Power Bars from her 101Cookbooks site. They were super dooper easy to make and are very tasty. I didn't toast the nuts per her directions though because I prefer raw nuts. And I have a few ideas to make them my own that will suit my tastebuds just a bit better. Heidi is such an inspiration.

I've noticed that some sweet things I've been making with various sweeteners (agave, brown rice syrup, turbinado sugar and honey) are just too sweet for me. Mike doesn't think so, but I really believe I can cut back quite a bit on the sweetness in some of the treats I make. Some recipes really just don't have to be so sweet!

It was a fun and productive day in the kitchen and I'm ready for the weekend again. Now.

Tofu shirataki

Here is a gluten-free, dairy-free, low calorie fun noodle from House Foods in California. I just got back from grocery shopping and wanted some lunch and decided to try it with some leftover eggplant w/garlic sauce. I ate the whole 8 ounce bag of the shirataki angel hair and it was only 40 calories for the noodles... 40 calories! And they have a wonderful texture; kids would love them. And you don't even have to cook them. And they weren't that expensive - $1.79 for the bag. And they are vegan! What a deal. I wish I'd gotten more than one bag!

No time to write more - just wanted to hollar about these fun "noodles". 

Harissa

I've discovered a new food that rocks my boat. It's harissa - "a North African hot red sauce or paste whose main ingredients are chili peppers (often smoked or dried) and garlic. Though most closely associated with Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria, it is a standard ingredient of North African cuisine.

Harissa often contains seeds like coriander, caraway, or cumin, and usually olive oil. It may also contain tomatoes. It is used both as a condiment and as an ingredient in recipes." - description from Wikipedia

I was on Heidi Swanson's 101Cookbooks site again and when reading about one of her recipes, a vegan asked what a good substitute might be for Parmesan cheese. Heidi suggested that she might try harissa. I'd never heard of it, so I did a little research. It's nothing like Parmesean cheese, but it sure offers a punch of flavor where you need it so was a great suggestion. I'm not much for very hot food because my tongue just can't handle it, but in my new vegan cooking, I am trying all kinds of new things. And I have a yen to grow lots of different peppers next year and am looking at the mild and hot ones. They are so easy to grow and I've enjoyed my bell and banana peppers this year so much. I'm letting the banana peppers mature to a flame red and they are so much more flavorful riper. And my bells are actually "chocolate" bell peppers, turning a beautiful brown when fully ripe. Now I have a desire for some peppers with a little more heat.

I found a recipe for harissa that looked good and tried it recently. You can make it as hot or mild as you want, so I decided to start on the mild side, though the more you use in your food, the hotter it will be even when "mild". I'm using it as a condiment. I've added it to spaghetti just before eating it, vegetable soup and stir-fried veggies that I put on top of all kinds of things. I can see it being used in lots of different foods. Here is a great article about harissa and the possibilities; some of the info I have added here.

I got my recipe here and changed it slightly because of what I had on hand. Here is the recipe I used:

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Basic Ingredients:
2.7 ounces ancho chilis (dried poplano peppers)
1.3 ounces sun dried tomatoes
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil, divided in half
7 or 8 cloves garlic
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
1/2 teaspoon salt, or to taste

Directions:
1.  Put enough water into a medium pan that would cover all the dried chilies. Bring the water to boil and then turn off the heat. Add the chilies and cover. Allow the chilies to soften - about half an hour.

2.  If you are using whole spices, grind them in a coffee grinder or mortar and pestle.

3. After the chilies are rehydrated, squeeze out water and seed and stem them. Some suggest to wear rubber or latex gloves, as the oils from the peppers can irritate your skin and remain on your hands. I didn't use gloves and had no problem. But don't handle hot peppers and then scratch your eye!

4. Blend the chilies, tomatoes, 1/4 cup olive oil, garlic, cumin, coriander and salt in a food processor. The consistency should be a thick puree, the color dependent upon your ingredients. Mine looked like dark chocolate, because my chilies were very dark.

5.  Transfer to a jar and pour the remaining 1/4 cup olive oil on top. Cover tightly and refrigerate for a few days before using. Taste and adjust salt as needed before serving. If kept tightly covered, it can last up to 3 months in the refrigerator. More olive oil might need to be added periodically to the top of the harissa to prevent it from drying out.

Additional Ingredients:

After you've made the basic harissa, you can also vary the flavor profile you want - adding cilantro and dried mint to the chili paste, or fresh chilies, onions, roasted bell pepper, or a dash of lemon juice. I added the dried tomatoes and will probably continue to do so. It's such a fun and easy thing to make and can be fine-tuned to your own taste preferences

Food and pictures

I've been having so much fun cooking lately, but this weekend time has been limited and since Mike and I will be gone part of next week, I don't want a lot of food around anyway. But I did make Mike a vegan chocolate birthday cake and it is one of the best chocolate cakes I've ever had. No eggs, no butter, but it is very rich tasting and I really don't think anyone would ever have a clue. They would just say, "Can I have your recipe?" It does have some sugar and maple syrup and is half white flour and half whole wheat pastry flour, but I bet it could be tweaked. I decided to go by the recipe exactly the first time. It has a "cream" filling between the layers and a very chocolaty icing. Here is a picture of a slice:

After making the cake, I picked some tomatoes from my deck garden. I ate one right off the vine and was reminded by the ripeness and explosion of flavor in my mouth how much better home grown is compared to store-bought. I wish I could grow them year-round. Here they are in a bowl... they are so pretty...

I made some salsa (thank you for the recipe, Mermayd) and tried to spice it up a bit this time. It calls for serrano peppers and the last time I made it, it never got hot - not one bit. Mike picked up four more peppers and I put them all in this time - seeds and everything- and it is slightly hot. I don't get it; serranos are supposed to be pretty dern hot. But it's still really good. Mike loves to sweat when he eats spicy food, but I can't eat food that hot. I'm trying to get a heat we can both enjoy. Here is the finished product:

I finally found some stacking bowls I like and ordered them last week. They arrived yesterday and I love 'em! They're stoneware and the perfect sizes for me - and only $18 for the whole set. I do a lot of cutting and chopping when I cook and I'm always grabbing bowls here and there to put stuff in. This way, they're all in one place. I wanted blue ones, but they were out, so decided the off-white would do. Sophie is checking out the strawberry.

We're going to see Julie & Julia later this afternoon. I read somewhere that you should eat before you go because all the sumptuous cooking that goes on in the movie will make you hungry. Maybe I should have a big piece of chocolate birthday cake just before I go.

"Cheesy" Potato Casserole (vegan)

Here's a fun potato casserole/gratin. I've made it twice already and Mike said he'd be happy if I made it every week he likes it so much. Mike is a cheese and meat lover and I am a vegan, so I was a little worried he'd miss the cheese and gooeyness in a potato dish like this. But he loves it! Whuddaya know? I didn't sell it as a fake cheese and potato casserole; I just said it was baked potatoes.

I wish I had a picture of the potatoes on a plate to show more detail... and a better picture all-around. All I had was kitchen light to shoot by so it's not very pretty. 

The recipe came from Chooseveg and I think it is okay to share it here. I made a few minor changes.

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"Cheesy" Potato Casserole
Makes 6 large servings

Ingredients:
4 to 6 large potatoes, thinly sliced (I used a mandolin)
1/2 cup (1 stick) vegan butter (I used Earth Balance)
1/2 cup flour (click here for gluten free options)
3 1/2 cups boiling water
2 Tablespoons soy sauce (I used wheat free tamari)
1 1/2 teaspoons garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon turmeric
Salt and pepper, to taste
1/4 vegetable oil (I used olive)
1 cup nutritional yeast flakes (Bob's Red Mill is gluten free)
14-ounce can diced green chilies, optional
Paprika

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.

2. Oil a large casserole dish and set aside.

3. In medium saucepan, melt the butter over low heat. Add the flour and whisk it continuously to form a roux. Add the boiling water, soy sauce, garlic powder, tumeric and salt, whisking continuously for 1 to 2 minutes or until sauce is thick and bubbly. Add the oil and nutritional yeast and whip again until smooth. Stir in green chilies, if desired.

4. In a large bowl, pour the sauce over the sliced potatoes and mix well, making sure all potatoes are coated. Pour potatoes and sauce mix into the casserole dish. Sprinkle the top with paprika. Bake, covered, for 30 minutes, then bake, uncovered for 30 minutes more, or until potatoes are tender and the tops is browned.

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Notes:

The first time I made this, it was done all the way through after cooking as directed. The second time, it wasn't quite done in the middle because I used more potatoes since there was more sauce than I needed the first time. The recipe calls for 4 large potatoes, but my large potatoes weren't large enough to accommodate all the sauce the first time. Second time I used 5 larger potatoes and it was a perfect potato-sauce ratio, but it needed about 15 more minutes cooking time. Also, my potato slices are almost paper-thin, cut with a mandolin; it might require longer cooking time if the slices are quite a bit thicker. I always leave the skins on my potatoes.

Also, the first time I made this I didn't have any green chilies, so left it out. Second time I added them and Mike liked it even better.

Garden update

Just thought I'd add some recent pictures of my deck garden... only I forgot to get any pictures of my herbs and the garden as a whole. Doh! But below are some of my peppers and tomatoes; they are doing quite well in their pots.

Here are the bell peppers... they are beautiful! I'm leaving most on the vine until they start to turn red - unless I can't resist them.

And here are some of the banana peppers; I have only one bush and it is prolific! I've been eating one pepper a day along with whatever I take to work for lunch. They are very mild and crisp and "refreshing". I love 'em!

And, below are a few of the tomatoes. The larger ones are "Brandywine" tomatoes and are soooo good. The smaller, grape tomatoes are called "TammyG" and I'm in love with these little guys. I've been grabbing a handful of them before going to work each morning and adding them to my lunch. I reallly want to grow some heirloom tomatoes, but that will have to wait awile yet...

I wish I'd gotten some pictures of the herbs; don't know why I didn't think of it. I've been using them a lot in cooking and I must say that it feels like a luxury to just walk out on the deck and cut what I need. Last night I used some oregano and the night before that I needed some basil. The only two herbs I wish I had for cooking that I don't are dill and chives. Next year!

And speaking of cooking, I made a vegan potato gratin that Mike has fallen in love with! It has no dairy, but he looooves it. I am ecstatic! All the vegan experiments haven't been hits with him - though I have loved most of them - but this one was. I will post the recipe tomorrow or the next day for those who can't or don't eat dairy, but in the meantime, here is a picture of how it looked right out of the oven:

I continue to have too much fun in the kitchen and am looking forward to winter when I start making our own bread. It's just too hot here in the summer to bake - though we've had an unusually cool summer for us this year.

Veggie overload

By overload, I don't mean I'm eating too many veggies; my kitchen was just bursting at the seams with them. Mike and I had gone to the new farmer's market and then my friend Carol had brought me a lot of fresh produce from her farmers market and my tomatoes and peppers are all getting ripe too. They were everywhere.

I didn't want anything to go bad, so made a tomato sauce with all the tomatoes I had and used it on spaghetti pasta. After making the sauce, I added sauteed portabellos, banana peppers, red onions and a lot of roasted eggplant and it was wonderful. I think I could call it a "rustic" spaghetti sauce... was very chunky and textured. Certainly not "refined".

But I still had way too many other veggies. So I made a throw-in-everything-but-the-kitchen-sink-clean out-the-frig soup. Here is what I tossed in:

1 large red onion
2 stalks celery
1 large carrot
2 large portabellos
1 large pattypan squash
1 large shallot
3 ears of fresh corn
2 cups fresh okra
2 medium Yukon potatoes
2 cups left-over Mayacoba beans and liquid cooked in 
2 cups fresh spinach
1 cup already cooked brown rice
Some additional veggie broth

It turned out really well and I've been eating it for lunch this week. I seasoned it only with Braggs Liquid Aminos and a little salt and pepper, so Mike couldn't call it "underarm stew" as he does when I use my beloved cumin. He hates cumin.

I love when I can just throw ingredients together and not use a recipe!

But now I am low on veggies. Gee, how did that happen? Well, they had to be cooked last weekend or they would have gone bad. I didn't waste any of them. But now it's time to go shopping again. I love food shopping!

Rancho Gordo beans and things

I'm a bean person; I love beans. When I was younger, one of my favorite lunches was a baked bean sandwich. Multigrain bread, mayo and baked beans. It was a sloppy mess to eat because with each bite several beans fell out, but I didn't mind. And the soup that I've made every winter since I was in my twenties is a mixed bean and veggie soup that is still a favorite. 

So, beans and I are buds.

And, since I have recently become vegan, I'm trying to incorporate more beans into my diet. Thanks to Heidi Swanson's wonderful food blog, I was turned on to Rancho Gordo beans. They are beautiful! Some are like little pieces of art in their own right. Take a look at these Vaquero beans from their site:

They were so pretty, I just had to order some, along with all you see here on my kitchen counter: (Click picture to see their prettiness.)

I love the different sizes and colors; I can't find anything like these in the stores around here. I read somewhere recently that the beans in the grocery stores can sometimes be years and years old and who knows how they are grown or where they came from. At Rancho Gordo I like that they don't have any genetically altered seeds or plants. All the beans are heirloom varieties and I can plant them myself if I want to and get the exact same bean. That is very cool.

This past weekend I decided to try Heidi's Carrot, Dill and White Bean Salad recipe. It looked intriguing and I was in the mood for a bean salad. Only I used my newly purchased Mayacoba beans instead of white beans and fresh lemon thyme instead of dill since I didn't have any dill but had a whole bush of thyme. Well, let me tell you, the salad is scrumptious. Heidi has a talent for combining flavors, texture and colors and this is at least the fifth recipe of hers I've tried that has been a winner.

Here are the Mayacoba beans I used:

And how they looked after soaking all night:

And in the pot ready to cook, along with some onion, celery and carrots:

And the end-result salad:

My salad looks different from Heidi's for several reasons: different beans, different herb and I kept the veggies that I cooked with the beans in the salad. I just couldn't see tossing them. They had mostly disintegrated so were very soft and small. Then I froze the broth for the next soup I make.

I'd never eaten shallots raw before. I use them often, but have always sauteed them. I might have a new addiction; they imparted such a nice flavor to the salad that I could barely stop eating it.

I highly recommend Heidi's recipes and Rancho Gordo beans; they are wonderful.

Saturday morning at the market...

Mike and I got up early this morning to go to a new local area farmer's market nearby. We'd heard it was inexpensive and just starting out - so thought we'd give it a try. It starts at 8:00 a.m. and goes until noon - and after 9:30 most of the good stuff is gone we were told. So we were there at 8:00! Which worked out fine since Zena rarely lets us sleep later than 6:30 in the morning anyway.

And what a beautiful day! Oh my goodness, to get a 60-degree morning here in July is unheard of, so we enjoyed being out in it immensely - and spending time together. There wasn't a cloud in the sky and the humidity was low. I took my camera in case I saw any interesting shots...

Here is part of the little market as we were walking to it:

We bought fresh corn from some guys who have a farm not too far from our acreage, so we chatted with them awhile. Here is their truck loaded with the corn...

... and some cucumbers, carrots, peppers, tomatoes, beans and yellow crookneck squash ready to sell.

The next place I wanted to go was the Indigo Bath and Body booth. I talked to Jennifer and Justin and Jennifer has been making soap since she was 13! They smelled heavenly, but I didn't buy any since I still have plenty I've made myself. Justin's t-shirt says, "Real men use handmade soap!"

Here is a picture of Mike testing out some basil lemonade, something I had never heard of. It's made with lemon juice, basil, sugar and some "secret ingredients". It was pretty good!

And here I am picking out some patty-pan squashes. I love patty-pan squash; they look so cool - and yeah, they taste good too.

And me again - with the sun in my eyes and my face looking weird. I was really enjoying our cool summer weather!

Mike was "starving" so he stopped to get a big ol' cinnamon bun. Okay, I had two bites.

We bought too much and it really wasn't all that inexpensive. We ended up with a round zucchini, round lemon cucumbers (so cute!), watermelon, okra, corn, mole sauce, multigrain bread, jams, honey butter for Mike and some sweet potato bread that Mike just had to have.

But it sure was fun being out in the beautiful weather first thing in the morning together. It was like a little mini-date for us since Mike is usually at work Saturday mornings.

After leaving the market, which is right next to the Chattahoochee River, we drove down a bit to take a shot where all the rocks are in the river. I couldn't get a really good vantage point, but this will have to do. It only shows a narrow part of the river and not all the big rocks where people hang out. You can't see it in the picture, but there were several people fishing and quite a few herons hanging around them hoping to steal a fish I guess.

When we got home, I checked my tomatoes and here is what they look like today. These are some of the grape tomatoes:

And here are the standard sized tomatoes, not yet red, but getting bigger daily:

I also have at least 13 banana peppers almost ready and 9 bell peppers. I'm drying more catnip, stevia and mint leaves. Here are some of the mint I just picked; I think these are the lemon mint:

This was a super fine morning. I could use more like it!

After putting away all our goodies, we went shopping for a new "outfit" for Mike to wear at my high school reunion next Saturday. He's going to look nice all spiffed up!

Cheddar Cheeze

Here is the second vegan "cheese" I made that I promised to post. So far I am not too impressed with it on its own, though as you can see, it looks kinda pretty. The rosemary on top is just for looks. But I added it to my meal last night for some extra flavor and it was quite good. Mike tasted it by itself and said, "Nah" and shook his head, but he also liked it mixed in with the meal we were having. And I think it would be good on sandwiches or in burritos. So I'll go ahead and post this. It's super easy to make and I think it has possibilities by tweaking it; I just followed the recipe exactly this time. I kind of see it as a blank canvas and am thinking about adding some of the suggested additional ingredients next time, or coming up with my own flavor. I must say that it doesn't taste much like cheddar cheese to me. But that's not necessarily a bad thing. It was my first experience working with agar, so it was worth it just for that. One note: I would definitely cut back on the salt next time.

This recipe is from April 2009 issue of Vegetarian Times magazine. Italics are my notes.

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Cheddar Cheez

Pine nuts are so small and tender, they don't need to be soaked before using to make this cheese. Agar flakes lend firmness and sliceability and eliminate the need for a straining step. Try adding other ingredients, such as chopped jalapeno chiles, cumin or caraway seeds, or a dash of smoked paprika.

1 1/4 cup unsweetened plain soy milk
1/4 cup agar flakes
1/2 cup raw pine nuts
1/2 cup organic, cold pressed canola oil
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
3 tablespoons white wine
3 cloves garlic, peeled
2 teaspoons granulated onion
1 3/4 teaspoon salt - [I will use less next time]
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

1.  Line a 2 to 3 cup rectangular (or whatever shape you like) container with 2 layers of cheesecloth, allowing cheesecloth to hang over sides.

2. Whisk together soy milk and agar flakes in saucepan. Bring to a simmer over medium heat, and cook 8 minutes, or until agar dissolves completely and mixture is thick, stirring frequently. [It took at least 15 minutes for my agar to dissolve.]

3. Blend nuts, oil, lemon juice, wine, garlic, granulated onion, salt and pepper in blender or food processor for 5 minutes or until smooth, scraping down sides if necessary. Add soy milk mixture, and blend 2 minutes more, or until smooth. Transfer mixture to cheesecloth-lined container, smooth top. Fold overhanging cheesecloth over cheese. Refrigerate 1 hour or until firm. Unwrap, slice and serve. 

Per 2-ounce serving: 167 calories; 3 g protein; 16 g total fat (1 g sat fat): 5 g carb; 0 MG chol; 522 MG SOD; <1 G fiber; 1 G sugars