Soup's On!

Check out my new friend. The boys watched him for hours the other day. They even got to see him pounce on and then leisurely eat a giant fly.

The temperature started to drop yesterday and the wind picked up a bit. It's really starting to feel like fall. I celebrated this by making split pea soup last night. Although split pea soup is one of those simple recipes that is always a hit around our house, I'm always looking to get it closer to my pre-veg version. You know, the one with the ham in it.

I know liquid smoke is supposed to do the trick but I've never bought the stuff. I've tried adding bits of seitan with pretty good results. (I find baked seitan works best.) Last night I didn't have any leftover seitan so I decided to try a little tvp.

While my cast iron frying pan was heating up, I tossed in:
3 cups dry tvp
3 cups of water
2 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp basil
about a tablespoon of tamari
several squirts of ketchup

I stirred this together and let it cook until it was dry and a bit crispy. You'll notice that the inspiration for this is once again drawn from Russell's Sausage recipe (which I'd link to but I can't find. Ruthie where is it???)

I served it sprinkled on top of the split pea soup, although a few food purists in the house demanded that I serve it on the side. (I can't stand the "I don't like my foods touching" phase of childhood.) Everyone liked the way it came out. I've got to store that one away for future reference.

The CSA pickup last week had mixed greens in it. The flavors were too strong for salad and initially I was at a loss. I think making greens palatable is such a challenge sometimes. Oddly enough, I don't include kale, collard and swiss chard in this. My family is already very willing to accept them. Perhaps in time, the mixed greens will join that list but in the interim, I still had a problem.

I opted to make sweet and sour sauce. I use the one in The Compassionate Cook for inspiration. I mixed it in the bottom of large Pyrex bowl and then put the chopped greens on top. I covered the bowl with a plate and microwaved it long enough to wilt the greens. Next, I tossed the wilted greens to distribute the sauce on the bottom. The result was some very palatable steamed greens. BTW, I didn't use any thickener (ie. cornstarch, arrowroot or flour). I didn't think it would work out well the way I was using the sauce.

Happy almost weekend to everyone!

Freezer Diving Isn't for the Fainthearted!

The weather is miserable here in NY but we're keeping warm with some corn muffins I made yesterday. Jim had a hankering for "real" corn muffins so I opted for a recipe from the Simple Treats cookbook. True to their description, they do taste just like the Jiffy muffins of my youth. Jim was tickled. Personally, I like Ruthie's cornbread recipe better but some days you can't compete with nostalgia.

In my freezer diving, I came up with what I thought was frozen parsley, although it did look a little thick. Turns out it was really skinny celery and it didn't taste so good in the tabbouleh I added it to! Lesson learned, let's all say it together. I hereby promise to label EVERYTHING that I put in the freezer! I really mean it this time! A few shakes of real parsley, all right a boatload of real parsley, and the flavor of the tabbouleh was back on track. Making broth may be the only safe way of dealing with the remaining mystery herbs in the freezer.

In a more successful freezer dive, I combined frozen eggplant, chopped fennel (I chop the whole thing - fringy stuff and all), the last of the garlic scapes and a half can of tomato puree (my daughter had used the other half and left this uncovered in the fridge...Grrrr). I also added some red lentils and a bit of water, brought it up to a boil and then let it simmer for about 30 minutes. Before serving I added this vinagrette to it and served it over whole wheat couscous. This was a big hit.

Now I'm off to catch up on laundry and hang out with my kids who have no school. I might try to do a little sewing too.

Fruits & Veggies on My Mind

Its astounding to calculate how much food a family of six will go through in a month (or any period of time for that matter). What looked like an overful freezer that would surely last until spring, is dwindling.

I was a little aggravated that we will only are making it partly into February with my freezer/canning stash. Looking back on last year's posts I discovered I was still trying to empty the freezer in March! So what went wrong? How could we have increased our CSA shares by two yet ended up with an inadequate supply of veggies for the winter?

After a lot of thought, I believe I've discovered the problem. Its my sons, they keep growing and earting more as a result of it. (Awfully rude of them, don't you think??) Its a simple mistake but one worth noting. Years ago it could have been a life or death mistake (and might be again with peak oil looming...)

I've heard about calculating how much food you need to get through a winter but I've never actually tried. For us, a full freezer and cupboard has been enough. If we are to become more self sufficient, this is a calculation worth taking the time to make. Good health and healthy food go hand in hand so this is not a place I want to scrimp.

To that end, and in keeping with my plan to be part of Path to Freedom's 100 foot garden challenge, I've pulled out my sprouting jars and am two days into my sprouting of broccoli, alfalfa and mung beans.


Notice the very high tech device I use for tipping the tray so any drips run into the sink. It's a spare sprouting lid!


Today's quest is to find more wide mouth canning jars so I can get more sprouts going. I'll also do a little thinking about meals that use beets, winter squash puree, parsley, figs, garlic scapes and whatever else I might find lurking in my freezer. I'm on a quest to try to make it to next Saturday's Winter Sun Farm pickup without buying veggies. That means finding creative ways to use the sprouts as well as growing them.

Its also time to start thinking about what to add to my edible landscape this year. So far we've got blueberries, lingonberries, strawberries, purslane and Jerusalem artichokes.

One final thought, a fellow ecycler brought this site to my attention. Sheds and fences made out of pallet wood? I thought it was a really great use of an abundant free resource. Note: You have to scroll down past the ads to see what he's done with the pallets.

Staying Healthy This New Year

Jim and I watched Sicko this weekend. I'm not a huge Michael Moore fan (I think he routinely goes for the teary eyed shot) but I think he's right on the money with this movie. The healthcare system in America is a broken one, how can you put a monetary value on life and limb? Why don't we have access to universal health care like our European counterparts do? Why is health care in America a big money making business? No matter what you think of Michael Moore, its definitely worth a watch.

Watching the movie reminded me about the importance of prevention. Exercise, rest, healthy foods all play a big part in keeping healthcare costs at bay. To that end I whipped up some granola, experimented with some lunch bag snack recipes (more on that tomorrow - I have to wait for feedback from the kids), made 6 loaves of Barbara's bread and vowed to clear the kitchen counter enough to get back to sprouting this week.

This weekend we have another Winter Sun Farm pickup which will add some variety to what's in my freezer. Access to local veggies grown without pesticides is so important to health and the local economy.

So far I have kept my promise to myself to do yoga every weekday morning after I drop Jim off at the train. It's hard to unroll the mat at 6:10am, it's hard to meditate until 6:15 and it's hard to begin the most basic sun salutation after that. The whole time I'm doing yoga, I'm fantasizing about relaxation pose. Am I almost there? Can I skip a few poses to get me there quicker? When I finally settle into relaxation, it's bliss. I feel the tension in my muscles just melt away. In the end, I'm always glad that I pushed myself to do it.

You Say Potato

After years of dial up connections to the internet, we've finally upgraded to fios. This means I can finally check out things that my slow dial up connection made impossible.

My first stop was the Post Punk Kitchen. I wanted a peek at the shows that grew into Vegan with a Vengeance! I watched the first two shows last night. I still don't like sushi, vegan or otherwise. I can't get past the fishy taste of the nori (sorry all you sushi lovers!) but it was great to see a cooking show that resembled cooking in my own kitchen, makeshift double boiler and all. Although, I drop a lot more stuff on the floor. (The dogs stay near my feet to catch shooting carrot coins as I drop them.)

Speaking of Isa and VwaV, I made her knishes this weekend. I made all three kinds, potato and onion, potato onion and spinach (although I used bok choy because I was out of spinach) and sweet potato. The potato ones were demolished quickly and I presume them to be a big hit. The sweet potato ones were ok but had a more desserty taste than I expected. I'll definitely make the two white potato recipes again. Now if only I could remember to call them knishes and not pierogies!

Using What I've Got Veggie Wise

Wednesdays are such a hectic day for us. Its one of those days where everything seems to intersect. We've got swim team 6:00 - 7:30pm, lifeguard training 6:30-10:00pm, and knitting 7:00 - 9:00pm. We've pretty much gotten it down to a science but it still has us feeling like we're in perpetual motion. Thankfully, we've only got a few more weeks to go.

Dinner last night was going to be leftover pasta baked with some home made cheese substitute but when I went to get it out of the fridge I discovered a hungry child had demolished most of it after school! I had to make an alternate plan and I had to do it quickly. My solution was unorthodox but it worked out pretty well.

I took a bit of leftover split pea soup, mixed in the remaining pasta with sauce and added a bit of water to thin it out. I set this on the stove while I popped leftover veggie burgers into the toaster oven. (I had made the veggie burgers the day before using leftovers of a Garden Vegetable Borscht recipe from one of Sarah Kramer's books.) I enlisted a child to rinse and chop lettuce while another child made French dressing (vegenaise and ketchup mixed together). I scrubbed and chopped a few carrots to brighten the salad and add some nutritional punch. In 15 minutes we had a meal on the table and it was quite good, although nothing like what I had in mind. At least it used up some more of the lettuce!

Chile posted this recipe in yesterday's comments. Barring unforseen disaster, I'm planning on trying it tonight.
Lettuce & Peas Chiffonade
10 outer leaves of lettuce, stacked and rolled into fat tube. Cut into fine even shreds.
1 onion, diced
1 c frozen peas (may omit or substitute!)
Water
Salt & pepper to taste
1 tbs soy milk

Saute lettuce & onions in a little bit of water until lettuce is limp and onion is translucent.
Add peas and cook a moment.
Season and stir another minute.
Add soymilk. Stir and cook on low heat for 30 seconds.

Last night, I set up steel cut oats in the slow cooker. In the interest of adding both fruit and variety to our day, I chopped up two apple, with skin left on, added a teaspoon of ground cinnamon and tossed in a half cup of sunflower seeds. The smell this morning was divine and it tasted good too.

I put dried lima beans in the larger slow cooker last night. This morning I'll be adding in the ingredients for Cider Baked Beans from 125 Best Vegetarian Slow Cooker Recipes, mainly because I have a lot of carrots and celery on hand and the recipe calls for it. How's that for menu planning?

In decluttering news, I was able to stop by the thrift store and donate everything from our closet organizing event. It felt so good to totally complete that job.

Would you believe I found a bag of the jar sprouting lids that I love for only $1.00. This will allow me greater variety in my sprouting or even continuous sprouting when my veggie stash gets low or boring!

Cleaning Out the Closet

Jim was off the last two days, hence my erratic blogging. With the kids at school, we were able to power through several projects that had been mocking us. One of the biggest projects was cleaning out and organizing our closet under the stairs. That particular closet was a catch all for miscellaneous things. It was also the place where many of my craft supplies resided.

In organizing this closet, I took a long hard look at each thing I came across. A giant box of brand new fabric from freecycle was a keeper for future sewing projects. A half done latch hook rug was put in the pile to be donated. Lanyard that had been lying around for eons went in the donate pile. The more I dug my way into the closet, the more I discovered that really needed to be donated. There were 10 x 13 picture frames that I passed on to my daughters to use for collages of friend's pictures. (The largest pictures I ever get are school pictures and those are 8 x 10.)

Jim installed some shelves (plain pine board and L brackets) on one wall of the closet and now we have a much more functional, organized and less cluttered space. Suddenly, we can find all the leftover paint for touch up work!

Jim was so inspired by the lack of clutter that he attacked his record collection, finally sorting out the records he didn't want. I'll head to the thrift store to make a donation on my way home from work today.

Yesterday was our last CSA pick up of the season. My fridge is stuffed, my freezer is stuffed and I've got baskets of squash and potatoes in the cooler locations in my house. I think we're pretty well set with local, chemical free produce for the winter. YEAH!

Now, the cooking challenge really shifts to using what I have on hand. I have to put my thinking cap on while looking at recipes not forgetting to vary things or risk being left with a freezer full of some less loved veggie to slog through day after day.

The first thing I intend to use up is the lettuces, mainly because they are the most perishable. I don't really care for lettuce in the colder weather but its here so I'll us it. I like to make it a little heartier by toasting some sunflower seeds in a dry cast iron pan and sprinkling them over the top of my salad.

More on working my way through the fridge over the next several days.

My Time Out

My yoga time out yesterday really helped me get my head clearer. I had already begun clearing out my computer room/office to make it my personal yoga space as well. Moving the coffee table out of the way so I can spread my mat out in the living room has gotten a little tedious for me. Has anyone else ever noticed how their dog can be sleeping peacefully on the other end of the house but as soon as you get into downward dog or triangle they need love and attention immediately???

Having a dedicated space also makes it easier when I'm doing yoga with Kyle. Having a door to shut out the distractions of the world really helps him focus. Of course at the moment, there's no door on the room in question. There had been one but when the boys' bedroom door fell apart a few weeks ago, I moved my door onto their hinges.

If you're wondering how a bedroom door can break, you obviously don't have two sons. Sons can deconstruct ANYTHING!! The door literally fell apart (the support pieces from the inside fell out the bottom leaving two flimsy pieces of wood that periodically jammed shut) from little boys hanging on the doorknob and riding it as the door opened and closed. The demise of the door was further helped along by a little temper fit or two slamming it shut.

So getting a new door is now on my to do list. For anyone who was inspired to try doing yoga with their kids after my posts about Yoga for the Special Child but has become frustrated with the process, let me suggest mini yoga sessions. Kyle has been resistant to doing yoga since school started, really resistant. You can't do yoga with a screaming child, it defeats the purpose of it.

Instead, I've begun doing 10 minutes of yoga with him before school each day. I believe Sonia Sumar says in her book Yoga for the Special Child that a little yoga everyday is better than a lot of yoga once in a while. Sticking to 10 minutes means 1 quick round of chanting, and basically 1 movement for each directiont he body can go in (forward, backward, sideways and twisting) and the fastest relaxation you ever imagined. As he becomes less resistant, I'll begin increasing the time we spend.

Tonight is my knitting class and I've got 23 rows to finish! If only I'd remembered to grab my knitting bag when I took my son to swimming lessons yesterday. Actually its not that big of a deal at all. I discovered that taking a sweater apart is actually a lot more time consuming than you'd think. I haven't unraveled the whole sweater yet, only enough to make this project.

To finish the purse you need to blanket stitch the edge. Here's a more visual explanation of blanket stitching.

If felting really results in such a durable product, I might use the rest of the sweater to make a larger tote bag.

I made a huge batch of vegetable soup yesterday to use up the veggies in the fridge. I've frozen it all in anticipation of the cold winter ahead. Yesterday, I went through my cookbooks in search of a turnip recipe that tickled my fancy. In the past, I've roasted them with beets which is very nice but I was looking for something different. There was a turnip puff recipe that intrigued me. Since most of the recipes I found called for mashed turnips, I think I'll probably peel, cook and mash all the ones I have, especially since they're taking up two drawers in my fridge.

More on Apple Butter

Courtney asked about my apple butter recipe. I confess that I draw my apple butter inspiration from Barbara.

I love Chile's idea of straining the liquid out of the cooked apples before pureeing to cut down on cooking time (energy use). She says the liquid tastes like apple juice. What a great treat that would be for any little ones helping in the kitchen when you make apple butter. Its so brilliantly simple! Thanks Chile!

I got a lot of beets canned yesterday and I've got the dirty fingernails and purple cuticles to prove it. I have four mutantly large beets, each weighs in at about a pound and a half, that I plan to cut into fries, bake a bit and freeze for another time. They are really delicious this way and kids like them because they look like French Fries. Go figure.

We've Got the Beets!

We have way too many beets. They've begun to take over the fridge. I've been putting them aside thinking I'll can them when I have enough to make it worthwhile. Clearly, when all three drawers in your fridge are filled to the point of exploding, the time has come.

I've really enjoyed getting back to canning. I feel that it is such a worthwhile use of my time and energy. The sunny days of CSA pickups are beginning to dwindle. In the cold of the winter it will be so comforting, and economical, to dip into my cupboard of home canned foods.

After reading several bulk cooking books a while back, I've begun to embrace the logic of keeping the liquid content of frozen foods (usually water or broth) low. I've thought about it and carried it one step further. In the past, I would take the apple butter I'm working on, make it into apple muffins and then freeze the apple muffins. Well the apple muffins take up a lot more freezer space than the cup of apple butter I used in them. If I froze just the apple butter to use later wouldn't that be a better use of my freezer space?

I think constantly questioning why we do things a certain way is really helpful in breaking out of our wasteful ruts. Speaking of this, my daughters are both going to the homecoming dance this year. When we went to homecoming it was not a very dressy thing. Now, I'm told (or is it, now that I'm old?), it requires a rather fancy dress. Tasha went "shopping" in her aunt's closet of dresses that have been worn exactly once. She came up with a beautiful black dress. Leen's going shopping in the same closet today. I love that they both chose to do this without any prompting from me.

Pantry Overload with an Update

So far the spending freeze has been a ho-hum affair. One thing I've discovered along the way is that I have a ton of non perishable food in the house, probably too much. A side benefit of our decreased spending is that we will wade through some of this excess and reclaim some storage space.

There are certain staples that we just go through by the truckload, mainly whole wheat bread flour, whole wheat pastry flour, and oatmeal. These turn up so frequently in our cooking that I need to stock up on at least every other month if not sooner. Most other dry goods I don't need to buy more than once every 6 months or so (bear in mind I buy these in 25 or 50 pound bags.) You would think after buying in bulk for so long I would have this down to a science but its still just a work in progress.

We are running low on veggies and soymilk, as I suspected we would. I'm going to head outside and pick some dandelion greens before Jim mows the lawn. It always freaks the kids out when they discover that I've harvested our own dandelion greens yet they don't blink when we bring them home from the CSA. Ultimately, as long as I do it before any school children arrive home they're fine with it.

I used some of the sprouts yesterday. I'm not sure if its my imagination but I swear they were crunchier than the sprouts from our winter sprouting. The reamining ready sprouts will be used in sandwiched tonight. I defrosted what I thought was apple butter but it turned out to be broth from seitan (remember back in the old days when we boiled seitan???) I'll be using it to make Red Lentil Spread. I did eventually find the apple butter and I'll use that in a dessert, although I'm not sure what. I think I'll peruse the Use It All: The Leftovers Cookbook for ideas.

In gardening news, our currant bushes have sprung to life over the last few days. They look like they'll be very productive this year. I'm really pleased, epsecially considering the traumatic uprooting they endured this time last year. I'm anxious to see how the blueberries are doing.

UPDATE:
I've just stumbled upon the socially acceptable way to gather dabdelion greens without having your teenagers moan and groan about all the ways you are ruining their lives. All you need to do is send out one of their younger siblings to gather them for the "guinea pigs"! Of course you have to actually give some to the guinea pigs and this excuse won't work as well unless you have guinea pigs.

Katie's Oriental Cilantro Slaw Recipe

Well we've made it through the big Nor'easter with nary a scratch, although there was a mysterious small leak from the central air vent in my bedroom that Jim needs to investigate. When you consider that just down the road people had to be evacuated from their homes, I'm thinking my small leak doesn't even count. We are fortunate that our house is set up on a hill and in no danger of flooding from the creek behind us. The waters did rise high enough to completely cover our swing set though. They've begun to recede but its still an awesome sight.

I got a request for the Oriental Cilantro Slaw recipe that I mentioned last week. This is my version of the recipe Lorna Sass has in The Complete Vegetarian Kitchen. The changes I've made take into account the ingredients that I commonly have on hand. As a rule, I also tend to increase the amount of veggies in any given recipe. You might want to keep that in mind if you like a saucier product.

Katie's Oriental Cilantro Slaw
Whisk together the following ingredients in a large mising bowl:
2-3 Tbs natural peanut butter, preferably chunky style, although smooth will work
4 Tbs apple cider vinegar
3 Tbs tamari
1 Tbs water
1 cup minced fresh cilantro or 3-4 Tbs dried cilantro. You may want to use more if you're a cilantro junkie like me.

Set this mixture aside and shred the following:
1 head of cabbage
4-6 carrots, depending on their size and your tastes
You could also add any other shredded vegetables that you like.

Add the shredded vegetables to the sauce mixture and toss to coat. I like to let this sit in the fridge a while to let the cabbage wilt a bit and the tastes to blend.

What's Sprouting at My House

I'm giving sprouting a try again. I broke down and purchased Sprout-Ease 3 Screen sprouter lids. These fit on top of wide mouth mason jars, which I happen to have plenty of. In the past I've tried this using cheese cloth stretched across the top of mason jars anchored with canning rings. I found it to be a huge pain in the behind.

These lids, on the other hand, are incredibly easy to work with. We're on day 3 of alfalfa sprouts and mung bean sprouts. Both should be ready to harvest tonight or tomorrow at the latest. We're going to try them in Cold Thai Sesame Noodles. I suppose its about time we did since that's what the original recipe calls for!

I like the idea of sprouting because its another way to cut our food costs while eating plenty of fresh veggies. I don't think anyone should skimp on their fruit and veggie intake, not even in the name of frugality. Its also a way to keep the gardening, which I miss so much, going in the winter. I'm curious to see how this turns out.

BTW, I did not purchase the sprouter lids directly from this website so I don't know what their customer service is like. I bought mine from my food cooperative for about half the price listed on that website.

Raspberry Crumble Bars

Yesterday, I discovered that we had some ripe red currants as well as some ripe black raspberries in our yard. It was such a thrill to fill a bowl from our own patch!

Now that the kids are all home from school for the summer, the kitchen looked like Grand Central as dinner prep began. Tasha worked on emptying and reloading the dishwasher. Leenie chopped a large head of cabbage for the Oriental Cilantro Slaw from The Complete Vegetarian Kitchen by Lorna Sass. Ameleii was the ingredients guy. Now that he can read he's quite good at getting what you need for a particular recipe. Kyle was busy putting away ingredients that I no longer needed.

There was a hum about the kitchen as everyone worked, sometimes grudgingly, together. Then again, it may just have been the rumbling of our stomachs. Not all of my kids like to cook but its a skill that will serve them well as they get older. I include them, whether they want to be included or not.

As the meal began to fall into place, everyone's thoughts kept returning to the fresh berries. What were we going to do with them? There wasn't really enough to let everyone just eat some. Of course that was largely due to the fact that everyone had been eating them. I wanted to make some kind of a tart but wasn't really sure where to begin so I began pulling recipe books out.

Inspiration finally came from Cooking with PETA. Using the recipe for Raspberry Crumble Bars as a guide, I concocted this delicious dessert which reminded everyone of the Raspberry Linzer Tarts we used to get at a local farmer's market before going vegan.

This recipe is still a work in progress. The results are crumbly and don't maintain a bar shape. You might want to add a little more liquid to hold it all together better, I plan to. For anyone interested in recipes with little sugar, this is not the one. I think you could easily decrease the sugar without destroying the recipe. I plan to try using half the amount of sugar next time.

Katie's Version of Raspberry Crumble Bars
Combine the following with a whisk or fork:
1/2 cup canola oil
1 cup sugar
1 Tbs flaxseed meal whisked into 2 Tbs of water

In a seperate bowl combine:
2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 Tbs baking powder
1 1/3 cups shredded coconut

Add dry ingredients to wet. Press 2/3 of the mixture into a greased 8 x 8 pan. Place black rapsberries and red currants on top of this mixture. We used about 2 cups of the berries. Use a fork to crumble the remaining dough on top. Bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes.