I don't bake Blackberry PIE!

Once upon a time baking scared the bejesus out of me. This particular once upon a time was about 9 months ago. Boxed cupcake mix gave me anxiety. An-xi-e-ty. Then on Monday I was out to dinner for my friend Alex's birthday and my Chocolate Cherry Coma Cookies came up. I had made a batch to give as part of a wedding gift that weekend and a few friends got the leftovers. Since there were a few people out with us that I didn't know super well one of them asked, "So you're a baker?" I almost laughed out loud that someone would even suggest that. Me?! Heck no I don't bake! I cook!

During the same dinner conversation another friend, Nick, gave me grief that I never made the blackberry pie that I had allegedly promised via a facebook conversation. He was mistaken. I do not bake pies.

Then guilt set in.

And somehow I made this.

So as I was waiting for my pie (my first pie) to finish baking, I got to thinking. Over the past few months I have pulled out of my oven: pound cake, soft pretzels, a couple of types of scones, endless batches of cookies and, in a few minutes, a pie. All from scratch. All using bags of flour and sugar that I've been buying as regularly as cereal.

So...shucks...I guess I am a baker.

No recipe post today. I have yet to taste the finished product since I'm still full from dinner so that will have to wait for another day. Each individual item tasted lovely, so I have high hopes. If you'd like to use the recipe I tried, check this chica's site out.

And sorry to not only be MIA for over a month, but to leave you on such a DOWNER post! Eek! More to come...

Insomnia bites

I can't sleep.

I'm pretty sure it's the combination of a too long nap this afternoon + too much food in the evening + too much on my mind tonight. Being unable to sleep is like being trapped. Being trapped in my head, in my bed, in my room, in the night. The perfect cure for everything right now would be a walk, but that just doesn't seem like the best thing to do by myself at 1am. This makes me wish I had a dog. A big, calm, easy natured dog that could go on a walk with me any time of the day.

Alas, no dog. Just a blog.

Instead I peruse some of my favorite foodie internet sites for meal inspiration. I've been craving poached eggs lately - and there just ain't an animal free substitute for that one. Bummer. I'm sure I'll have an egg again someday. Albeit a egg from a chicken that actually lives like a chicken ought to live. I have nothing against eating animals or things that come from animals - I just have an aversion to eating things that are raised in conditions that keep them on the brink of death (or, let's be honest, push them over the brink) in the kind of conditions that remind me more of that human battery scene from The Matrix than Old McDonald's Farm. Without a second thought we spend the extra money to buy toilet paper that's two-ply and quilted to pamper our backsides but pay so little attention to the quality of food we fuel our bodies with. I gives me indigestion.

I have patients that go days - DAYS! - without eating a single piece of unprocessed produce. Breakfast: two sausage burritos and a diet coke. Lunch: fettucini with chicken and texas toast. Snack: crystal light and cheetos. Dinner: fried chicken, macaroni and cheese, mashed potatoes and gravy, ice cream for dessert. Repeat.

They use better gas in their cars, better fertilizer on their lawn, better shampoo for their hair. Absolute crap in their body. The sad thing is you only get one body. New car every 5 years, new lawn every spring, new inch of hair every 2 months. One body.

Somewhere in the last few generations we forgot how to cook. How to make things like broccoli or carrots taste good instead of boiling it into mushy submission and then assuming they always taste that aweful. Instead we all hung up our aprons and started paying minimum wage to short order cooks like Marie Callenders, Dave Wendy, Chef Boyardee, and Stouffers (because nothing comes closer to home). Why are we surprised when we "suddenly" have heart disease, diabetes, osteoporosis, knee replacements, slipped disks, sleep apnea, stroke, hypertension, trouble conceiving, lethargy...

Everyone blames the environment we live in. I agree, it's a huge factor. But WE create the environment we live in. Think about it. You do, every last bit of it. We created the demand for a McDonald's in every town in America, not the CEO of McDonald's. It's the simple economics of supply and demand. Demand less, supply goes down, environment changes.

But it's true, once you get to a certain point it's hard to turn the tides to a healthier lifestyle, but you have to start somewhere don't you? Or would you just rather continue to get sicker and sicker? The way I see it, it's try or die folks, try or die. But maybe I'm just tired....

Whole Wheat Strawberry Rhubarb Scones

I delved a little further into the world of baking this weekend.

I already mentioned that I had picked up this book from the library and Saturday I marked the 3rd recipe I've gotten to try from it. I have to alter 90% of the recipes to make them vegan, and most of the flours I don't already have on hand, but I'm still contemplating outright purchasing this book. I love how it stretches the limits of what you can do with both typical and atypical flours and grains. Since I can modify most any of the recipes to fit what my pantry actually contains it allows you todecide how ordinary or extraordinary I want to make each recipe.

I had gotten some fresh rhubarb from a coworker this week and have been trying to decide how I wanted to use it. I haven't been brave enough to try a pie just yet, and didn't feel like the dainty, showiness of making tarts so when I came across a recipe for Strawberry Barley Scones it hit a foodie taste bud. Since I recently splurged on a bag of quinoa flour, and I have plans to buy some bread flour for another recipe in this book I opted out of using the barley flour it calls for, instead swapping in some whole wheat flour.

The real highlight of yesterday's cooking was actually the strawberry rhubarb compote. After I did a midpoint taste test I actually said (to no one in particular, mind you) "Oh Wow!" I've never made any sort of jam or compote before and it's so infinitely better (even from a novice's standpoint) that I can't ever imagine justifying using the store bought stuff in the future. In all these created a great and filling breakfast scone. Don't expect a copy of the uber-sweet versions Panera sells. This is better.

So, for the recipes! First, as you can expect, the batter for the scones is adjusted to be vegan, but I noted her [Kim Boyce's] original ingredients in case you want to go that direction. Second, I used the last of my non-frozen strawberries in the compote and added a touch of balsamic vinegar thanks to a suggestion made in Good to the Grain. Third, if you'd like to try the barley flour, just replace it 1:1 for the whole wheat flour I used.

Since is should be sufficiently cooled off now, I'm off to have a slice of homemade lasagna! And when I say homemade I mean homemade. 3 1/2 hours homemade. Recipe to follow...

RECIPES

Strawberry Rhubarb Compote

Ingredients:

7-8 rhubarb stalks, rinsed

1 1/2 cups strawberries, rinsed and stemmed (sliced if strawberries are larger than 1")

1 + 1/4 cup dark brown sugar

2 Tablespoons balsamic vinegar (optional)

Directions:

Slice the rhubarb in half lengthwise and cut on the diagonal into 3/4" chunks. Put 3/4 of the rhubarb in a large pot along with the 1 cup of brown sugar. Hold the rest of the rhubarb to the side for later.

Turn heat onto medium-low and stir to mix the sugar and rhubarb. Cover and cook for 15 minutes until the rhubarb starts to release most of it's juices.

Remove the cover, add in the strawberries and increase the heat to medium. Stir the sauce regularly for the next 15-17 minutes until it thickens up enough that your spoon can leave a trail at the bottom of the pan. Add the last of the rhubarb and balsamic vinegar and let cook just 1-2 minutes more. About now is when you should taste test to see if you'd like it sweeter; if so add the last 1/4 cup of brown sugar.

Pour the compote into a bowl to cool. This will be much more than you need for the scones recipe. The rest (roughly 2 cups) will keep in the fridge for up to 1 week.

Whole Wheat Strawberry Rhubarb Scones

Ingredients:

DRY MIX

1 cup + 2 Tablespoons whole wheat flour

1 cup AP flour

1/4 cup dark brown sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

WET MIX

4 ounces cold Earth Balance Buttery Sticks (or 4 ounces unsalted butter)

1/2 cup soy milk mixed with 1/2 Tablespoon vinegar (or 1/2 cup buttermilk)

1 Tablespoon ground flax seed mixed with 3 Tablespoons hot water (or 1 egg)

FINISH

~1 cup Strawberry Rhubarb Compote (or store bought jam)

1-2 Tablespoons granulated sugar

Directions:

Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 350F. Cover a cookie sheet with parchment paper, spray lightly with non-stick spray and set to the side.

Sift together all the dry ingredients into a large bowl. Cut the "butter" into 1/2" pieces and add them to the dry mixture. Use your fingers to break the butter into the flour until it's the size of grains of rice to flattened peas. As Kim notes, the more quickly you do this, the more the "butter" will stay solid, which is important for the success of the recipe. I actually stuck my "butter" in the freezer for a bit so it was less likely to melt in the bowl.

In one small bowl mix the soy milk and vinegar, stir and let sit for ~10 minutes, in another combine the ground flax and HOT water and let sit for ~3 minutes so it can thicken up (see picture above...it really does have the same thick/emulsifying affects of an egg). Once they've set up, combine the two mixtures into one bowl, stir well, and then add to the dry mix. Mix the batter until all the ingredients are just barely combined.

Transfer the batter onto a well-floured surface. If it's too sticky to handle, add a little more flour until it's more workable. Divide the dough into two pieces. Flour your hands and pat each of the two pieces until they're 3/4" thick and approximately 7" in diameter. Make sure they aren't sticking to your work surface once you're done, otherwise you'll have some troubles moving the finished scones to the baking sheet!

Cover one disk with the compote and top with the second disk, gently pressing them together so that the dough settles into the jam. Sprinkle the top with sugar then use a sharp knife to cut the dough into 8 slices - just like a pie.

Move the scones to your baking sheet and bake for 22-26 minutes, making sure to rotate halfway through. You'll know when the scones are done because they're tops will be golden brown and some of the compote will bubble over onto the pan. Eat while they're still warm or later the same day for best taste.

Ribollita and Quinoa Cookies

It's been awhile. Mostly because I've been out of town to celebrate the nuptials of this lovely lady:
My kitchen wasn't any less busy, though. Last weekend, despite the hot and humid temperatures, I made my first pot of Ribollita, a rustic peasant dish meant to use up day old bread. About a week ago I had bought a bag of french rolls from the farmers market. Unfortunately, I was out and about most every night that week and the rolls went practically untouched. Before I knew it they were on the verge of going stale. Not being one to waste good food I threw them all into the freezer and googled recipes for day old bread. And voilá, ribollita! I browsed through about five or six recipes to get the gist of this soup dish and finally ended up with the recipe below. I can't say it's from any one recipe in particular, but I did use this one as my base, if you will, and made the adjustments noted below. I'm a lover of soup, so it doesn't phase me to eat hot dishes like this when it's 85 degrees out. However, the heartiness of the dish as a whole with the flavor bursts from the olives would make this a great pick-me-up heart warmer in the dead of winter. Goes even better with a glass of semi-dry red wine. Mmmmm.

Next up were Quinoa Cookies. For these I adapted recipe from 101cookbooks.com, who adapted a recipe from Good to the Grain by Kim Boyce, a cookbook devoted to using whole grains in baked goods. If you're like me and are curious about when the heck you are supposed to use things like teff flour then you'd probably dig this cookbook, too. I actually bought this book as a hostess gift for a friend of mine and have been debating getting a copy for myself ever since. Kim (understandably - considering she's a Pastry Chef) is heavy on the whole fat dairy products, including butter, making this cookbook very much un-vegan. Therefore, I'm borrowing a copy from my library (I say it all the time - one of the best things taxes have ever paid for) to see if I'm able to adapt enough recipes to make it worth the countertop space. This is the 2nd recipe I've tasted out of the cookbook, 1st one I've made myself - both good. This one is a spin on the classic chocolate chip cookie using quinoa flour (made from the same grain I talked about here) and rolling out the dough to make cookie cutter shapes. Being my first dive into quinoa flour it definitely came as a surprise how much different these cookies tasted straight from the oven vs. day 2. You taste the grain a lot more on day 2 and the cookies take on a very prominent earthy/nutty taste. I want to make these again, but next time I plan on starting from Kim's original recipe, adjusting for veganness, then adding some finely chopped walnuts or pistachios to the mix to harmonize with the flour a little more. The chocolate isn't a bad add-in, but the flavors felt like they were competing too much after day 1. I'll post this recipe after I test out the above changes.

Last up isn't a recipe, just an ingredient lying in wait for me. Strawberries. Lots of them. What you see here is roughly 1/3 of the plunder I took when I went strawberry picking on Thursday. I got away with 8 1/2 lbs in all that afternoon (not including the pound I think I ate right off the bushes). The ones you see here have been cleaned, de-stemmed and frozen so that I can use them in my oatmeal over the winter. I'm debating about going back to pick another 5 lbs or so this week and try my hand at canning jam. It will all depend on if I can find a strawberry jam recipe that doesn't add in sugar, but instead uses juice and juice concentrates. I know it's been done, I just have to figure out how. And find a very, very large pot. I'll keep you posted.

RECIPES

Ribollita

Ingredients:
Olive Oil (3-4 glugs, or enough to cook all the mirepoix, aka celery, onion and carrot)
4 celery stalks, chopped
4 medium cloves garlic, chopped
3 medium carrots chopped
1 medium red onion, chopped
15 oz can crushed tomatoes
1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1 heaping teaspoon dried thyme (or substitute Herbs de Provence if you have it)
1 heaping teaspoon dried basil
1 heaping teaspoon dried oregano
1 bunch kale, stems trimmed off and leaves chopped to 1" pieces
3 cups cooked white beans (I used navy beans) + 1 cup cooked white beans hand mashed
8 cups vegetable broth (you can substitute water in a pinch but more broth = more flavor)
~1/2 pound bread/4 dinner rolls/1/2 loaf, torn into big, but bite-sized pieces
1 teaspoon fine grain sea salt
1 1/2 Tablespoons lemon juice
good black olives - the kind you get from an olive bar, not a can - pitted and chopped

Directions
Combine olive oil, celery, garlic, carrot, and red onion in large stock pot and let sweat over medium heat for 10-15 minutes. If you're starting to brown/saute your veggies the heat is too high. Add in the tomatoes, red pepper flakes and herbs and simmer for another 10 minutes. Then add in the kale, 3 cups beans and broth and turn up heat to bring to a boil. Once boiling turn the heat down to a simmer and continue cooking until the kale is tender (10-15 minutes). Next, stir in the 1 cup of beans and torn bread. Continue to let the soup simmer for 20-30 minutes so that the bread can break down and the soup will start to thicken up. Before serving, while still on the burner, stir in the lemon juice and salt (if needed - depends on if you used broth and fresh or canned beans). Pull the soup off the burner and let sit for another 10-15 minutes to allow the soup time to thicken up a little more (and cool). Dish out into bowls and top with chopped olives.

Americano e Italiano Feasting

Right now I'm enjoying one of my favorite parts of the week: Saturday mornings. Everything is quite and only the true early risers of the world are awake - a decidedly cheery and optimistic group of people. I'm sure I've inherited this gene through the male line in my family. My dad and my dad's dad all seem to enjoy this time of the day as much as I do and I have memories going way back of me and my grandpa eating Eggo waffles with dark Karo syrup before anyone else gets up or me watching Saturday morning cartoons and eating Raisin Bran while my dad reads the paper. So while I wait for my steel cut oats to finish cooking (soon to be mixed with Vietnamese cinnamon and blackberries) I thought I'd do some blog updating.

Yesterday I got to make a feast for some friends who were coming over, one of them being my friend Emily who's also been going vegan. Needless to say, I was excited. On the menu? Chips and my homemade salsa as an appetizer then fiesta corn salad with edamame (which in hindsight needed more dressing), curried wild rice, green apple slaw and lots of grilled veggies. Dessert was peanut butter chocolate banana pops which I'm kicking myself for not taking a picture of. They are a MESS to make but so worth it!

We spent the rest of the night around my friend Abby's fire pit laying down the framework of our Italy 2011 trip, a mere 1 year away! Right now the plan is to start in NE Italy (Venice) and work our way down in a big, elongated "C" going through Tuscany, Rome, Pompeii, Pisa, Naples and ending up in Sicily with Emily and I potentially starting the trip a little earlier in Switzerland.

I've listed the things I'm most excited for in descending order:

1. The food in general
2. Wandering around Rome with no map and no agenda
3. Cafe con leche and a croissant for breakfast...every morning
4. Seeing the Alps again
5. Getting to speak the little Italian I know, the word due (two) in particular.

*Sigh* The only plus to it being a year away is that it gives me another 52 weeks to save up money to go. But for today I'm going to spend my love on CoMo. I'm done with my oatmeal and now I'm off to the farmer's market, then a few hours of landscaping at church and after that the possibilities are wide open.

Ciao, ciao!

Until we meat again

The past week has been whirl-wind. Up to Michigan and back with a layover in St. Louis, buffered by one or two 13 hour work days. Needless to say I've barely been sleeping, let alone blogging. However, in the interim I'm happy to announce that I have officially veganized!! Woohoo!

Prior to my Michigan departure (hi MI crew! Miss you!) I finished off the last of my non-vegan food stuffs knowing that when I entered my house again it would be as a veg-only lady. And although the trip up there wasn't for the best of reasons, being the optimist that I am there were two pluses. First, it was so nice to spend a solid three days with some cousins I don't get to see nearly often enough. And second, it was my final test in the veganization process - travel. I may not be a pro at navigating the vegan lifestyle yet but over the last month I've definitely learned how to maneuver all the potential hazard situations: eating out, catered events and travel.

I've made or tasted LOTS of deliciouso foods over the past week which I'd love to tell you all about, however I'm exhausted (note sleep-deprived comment made above). I just hated that it had been so long since I updated this thing. So instead I leave you with this image. It's me holding Fritz's frozen custard (NOT to be confused with ice cream!). I wasn't actually craving Fritz's at the time, but I was driving back home knowing that once I got there, there was no turning back. Fritz's just seemed like the perfect send off. It's a summer tradition of mine dating all the way back to my booster seat years. I have memories of getting maraschino cherry juice in such a mess everywhere my parents had to pull the booster seat out of the car and hose it down. So this quick roadside stop was more of an homage to the memories than a last ditch dairy binge.

And the flavor? This use to be a 10 minute ordeal, deciding my Fritz's concrete flavor. Sunday it was easy - oreo cookie concrete. The Kristy classic. A tried and true flavor that never fails me. Yum.

So cheers to you steak and salmon, ice cream and omelets, brie and barbeque. Until we meat again...

Drat! Foiled again!

Yesterday while perusing the ingredients section of my aforementioned 2nd favorite cereal I came across some sad news. Frosted Mini Wheats cereal has gelatin in it. Saaaaadd! Unfortunately gelatin is an animal product and therefore non-vegan. Why FMW needs gelatin in it, I have no clue so I'm hoping there's an alternative source of frosted, wheat-y goodness out there. In the meantime I'm no longer blogging about any prepackaged/boxed/manufactured food products as I seem to be a jinx.

We made some great memories FMW. Until we meet again...