Chugging along...

AS Spring rears it's head, I realize how far behind I am in life. Winter has definitely made me a bit lazy, but with everything coming back to life I feel a bit more motivated. Our starts are almost too tall to stay in their trays, but with another dusting of snow on it's way we can't get things into the ground quite yet. The construction of our porch is also about too start. At this point we are pulling nails from some reclaimed wood and the fun part should start in the next few weeks. Actually the fun part will be sitting on the porch in the afternoon during a thunderstorm with tea and a book, or grilling seitan out of reach of direct sun during a mid Summer day. I'm mostly happy that our six months of Winter is almost over.

Spring?

Well, it looks like we finally made it past the frostiest part. This Winter has been way too long. Now we get to be wet for a while as the Spring rains bring everything back to life. It'll be nice to see all the trees and bushes turn green and yellow and pink and all the wonderful colors of plant life. Our seeds are sprouting indoors and soon we will start working the garden. Our greens have sprouted as well as broccoli, cauliflower, peas, tomatoes and a few others. This years we are going to put a fence around the garden to keep Ed from using the potatoes as a cat box. Soon it will be time for bbqs and bonfires!

Will Winter ever end?

The weather has been getting warmer lately so naturally the garden planning has started along with thoughts of nature walks, biking, bonfires and bbqs. When I got up this morning there was something akin to blizzard outside! We had gotten a couple of inches and continued to snow on and off all day. It all a part of living out this way I guess. So, to help us to forget about the outside I baked a dozen vanilla agave cupcakes and some basic chocolate cupcakes with a bowl of chocolate buttercream frosting for the both of them. For dinner I decided on pizza. Actually, it was going to happen because Hell's Kitchen is on and we're an old married couple that has weird routines. It's going to be fairly basic so that I can same some of the ingredients for either a mini lasagne or eggplant "parm" in the next day or so. We decided on spinach, onions, crumbled tempeh and our version of ricotta(block of tofu, 1/4c or so nutritional yeast, 1TBSP vegenaise, 1 1/2 TBSP Celtic sea salt, 1 tsp oregano, 1 tsp basil, 1 1/2 tsp garlic podwer, 1 TBSP olive oil, and a splash of soy milk. Blend well in processor.-The measurements are an estimate since I usually only measure when I bake!)

Full blown snowpocalypse.

Winter is in full swing and the garden is covered in snow. All that is visible are the stakes marking the garlic and asparagus. This year we are going to double the amount of hot peppers and probably plant all of our squash around the border of the property to maximize growing room. I'm hoping to take advantage of things already growing in the area such as burdock, dandelion, red clover, wintergreen, blackberries, etc. We've gone through almost everything we grew last season so we are going to work a little harder this year.

the new year

So, it's been a while since my last post due to the holiday season and other random things. This year I hope to lean more towards the healthier side of vegan cooking as well as keeping things simpler and more local. Yesterday we had a simple potato dish for breakfast.
1 T Earth Balance
1 T olive oil
1/2 Spanish onion, diced
1 quart fingerling potatoes sliced into 1/4 inch thick discs
1/4 cup veggie stock
1 t paprika
2 t dried rosemary
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 400F. In an iron skillet on medium melt EB together and olive oil. Add onions and cook for about five minutes. Add potatoes and coat with oil/onion mixture. Turn heat to medium-hi, add some salt and broth and continue to mix for a few more minutes. Remove from heat add stir in paprika and rosemary then place in oven for 20 minutes or until potatoes get soft and begin to brown.

Apple risotto stuffed squash, asparagus and tempeh

This one is fairly simple and very filling.
What you'll need for the stuffed squash:

2 medium acorn squash
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 cup arborio rice
3 cups vegetable broth
1 medium red apple
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 teaspoon ground sage
1 teaspoon black pepper

Preheat oven to 400F
Cut enough of the bottom off of the squash so that it can stand upright. Then cut about half and inch off the top so that you can scoop out the seeds. Place them in a lasagna pan with 3/4" of water and bake for 30 minutes(give or take a few).
Next heat a large skillet over medium heat and add olive oil. When oil heats up add rice and stir until rice is coated. Reduce heat slightly and add 6oz broth. Stir occasionally until almost all the broth is absorbed. Repeat. Cut apple into 1/4" cubes and right before 3rd round of broth. Keep adding broth 6oz at a time until rice is tender. Add salt, pepper and sage.

When a fork can easily pierce the squash, remove from oven and turn off. Stuff risotto into squash and place back in oven to hold.

The tempeh:

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 small yellow onion thinly sliced
2 3"x3" squares of tempeh cut into 1/2" wide strips
1/4 cup vegetable broth
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon ground pepper
2 teaspoons tamari

Heat oil in medium skillet on medium heat and saute onions for 3 minutes and add tempeh. Cook for minutes stirring occasionally. Slowly pour in broth and simmer for another 5 minutes. Add salt and pepper. While simmering start asparagus.

For asparagus:
12-16 small to medium stalks asparagus, with woody bottom cut off
1 tablespoon Earth Balance
1/2" teaspoon kosher salt
1/8" cup cooking sherry

In a large skillet melt the E.B. and add asparagus. Mix to coat and sprinkle with salt. When E.B. seems to be absorbed(about 6 minutes)add sherry. When sherry is absorbed asparagus is tender remove from skillet, but leave the skillet on and gently scoop in tempeh and onions and sprinkle tamari. Flip contents a few times and cook till light brown. Plate everything together.

dressing up the usual

Tonight I decided to do potatoes, seitan stakes, and asparagus.
I started but cutting and boiling the potatoes. While they were doing their thing I lightly sauteed about ten chopped cloves of garlic in olive oil and set aside 3/4 of the garlic just before it browned. After removing the ends I added about 20 pieces of asparagus and let it go on lo-medium heat for approx. minutes. The only seasoning I used was a little kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper. In another skillet I heated a tablespoon of earth balance with a tablespoon of olive oil. Then after alight flour dusting I placed four 1/4" seitan steaks in the pan until lightly browned on each side then increased the heat a bit. When it started to sizzle I hit it with a few tablespoons of cooking wine. Then after about three minutes added two tablespoons of capers. Then the heat goes off for both the seitan and the asparagus. The potatoes were drained, mashed with soymilk, the rest of the sauteed garlic, earth balance, kosher salt, fresh pepper and finished with truffle oil. It only took about an hour start to finish.