goodbye, vacation!

My vacation is almost over!  I can't believe I've been away from work for an entire week, and it's already time to go back . . . I had a great week, though.  Saturday through Monday, John and I traveled to Wisconsin to visit my family, and we spent the rest of the week hanging out at his house.  (We even brought Oliver along -- and he did great!  He only hid in John's boxspring for the first day, and then spend the rest of the time trotting around, sniffing everything, and having "conversations" with John's roommate's cat through her closed bedroom door.  Ha!)  I did plenty of baking and cooking, we spent a day volunteering at the organic farm where John has been helping out this summer, spent plenty of time doing yard work, and made time for reading, watching movies, and relaxing.  :)

Of course, we did plenty of eating!  After a restaurant-marathon while visiting my family, we have been eating at home the rest of the week, trying to "recover."  Does anyone else feel just awful after eating out too many meals in a row?  I know I sure do.

We had lots of leftover beans, rice, and cheese, so ate plenty of Tex-Mex meals during the week:

After we ran out of tortillas, we finished almost everything up  in nacho form.  :)  Refried beans, cilantro rice, cheese, homemade tomatillo salsa, garden tomatoes, lettuce, sour cream, and homemade guacamole.  MMMMMM.  Kind of want this plate for breakfast right now!

We had a surplus of kale this week, which is definitely a good thing!  We left the farm on Tuesday with a huge bunch, and also had a nice-sized harvest waiting for us in the garden.  After more "Magic Kale Salad" with tempeh, I made soup!

Kale, vegetarian sausages, onions, garlic, white beans, tomatoes, olives, broth, and seasonings made for a spicy-delicious soup!  I ended up with the hugest pot of this stuff, so we are still eating leftovers, and they are still just as tasty!

One of my kitchen projects this week was my first foray into cheese-making:

The last time I made butter, I used the leftover liquid to make "buttermilk cheese."  This is seriously the simplest thing ever -- you let the true buttermilk sit out at room temperature for 24 hours, and then heat it slowly until it begins to curdle.  Strain for 4 hours, salt, and enjoy!  I would describe this cheese as a somewhat creamier, less tangy ricotta -- I think it would work nicely in a lasagna, or on top of a pizza, or pureed with herbs, pepper, and lemon juice to make a dip for crackers or veggies.  It was pretty tasty just on crackers!

No big plans for today, yet -- but we hope to have some fun on my last vacation day!

great day, great food

Oh, how I love the weekend! We started our day yesterday with a lovely batch of baked oatmeal:

I find that neither Dan nor I really cares much for regular oatmeal, but we love a baked version! Stuffed with walnuts and dried blueberries, this was a lovely way to wake up on a Saturday morning.

Later, nachos for lunch!

Organic yellow corn tortilla chips topped with taco leftovers from Thursday night -- black beans, peppers and onions, chipotle gouda, salsa, guacamole, and sour cream. MMMMMMMMMMMM!

I decided we needed to have a veggie-packed dinner, to make up for the small serving of veggies at lunch:

Vegetarian pho!!! Yum. I've adapted this recipe, using vegetable broth, tofu, and soy sauce to replace the turkey stock, turkey, and fish sauce, and it is always well-received! (I also choose to serve all of the herbs and green onions on the side, only adding the sliced white onion and bean sprouts to the soup broth.) Dan's brother, Ryan, joined us for dinner, and the three of us managed to take down almost an entire batch! There was lots of sniffling and sweating due to adding too many jalapenos and too much sriracha, but it was soooooo worth it! :)

Dessert was a special request of Dan's:

Caramel custard is one of those dead-easy desserts that never fails to impress the socks off of anyone! Truthfully, I find the hardest part is getting the custards into the oven in the water bath without creating a sloshy, watery mess. I wonder why I don't make this dessert more often? :)

Thankfully, I have a second weekend day ahead of me to enjoy! Woo! What have you been up to this weekend?

a day in the life of a food snob

Salad for breakfast is a good, good thing:


Homemade, garden-fresh, pico de gallo:

Three different kinds of tomatoes, purple bell peppers, jalapenos, green onions, (all from Dan's garden,) lime juice, cilantro, fresh garlic, and salt. A lot of chopping, but well worth it!

Nachos for lunch:

Organic blue corn tortilla chips, black beans, local, organic monterey jack cheese, loads of homemade pico, and local, organic sour cream. I restrained myself to this platefull, but Dan went back for a second helping. Not pictured: Virgil's root beer. Perfect salty meal, sweet beverage combination!

We enjoyed the rest of the pico, with a few remaining black beans mixed in, with leftover chips as a late-afternoon snack.

Vegan spanikopita and tabouli for dinner:

I made the tabouli using quinoa, since I didn't have any bulgur in the cupboard, and all the usual tabouli ingredients: tomato, cucumber, green onion, lemon juice, olive oil, parsley, mint, chickpeas, and salt. I like a LOT of mint in my tabouli -- I use roughly equal parts mint and parsley. There's that fine line between minty deliciousness and toothpaste-land that I like to walk right up to, but never cross. :)

I loosely based the spanikopita on a recipe from Fine Cooking. This was "effing" amazing! I can't believe how good this was, containing no cheese! Yay for tofu vegan deliciousness! Here's what I did:
1. Heat a tablespoon or so of olive oil in a large skillet. Add one very large clove of garlic, minced, and two shallots, minced, and cook until soft. Add 1 1/2 pounds spinach, roughly torn into bite-sized pieces. Cook until the spinach is almost completely wilted. Add about 3/4 cup sliced green onions, and cook until the spinach is completely wilted. Cool.
2. Smush up one 10-ounce package super-firm tofu. Add 4 tablepoons lemon juice, 2 tablespoons olive oil, 1 tablespoon nutritional yeast flakes, 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano, 1 teaspoon salt, 1/4 teaspoon grated nutmeg, pepper to taste, and 1 handfull whole almonds, pulsed in a food processor until very finely chopped. Mush the whole mixture together with a fork until it is well combined.
3. Add 1/2 cup chopped fresh dill, 1/3 cup chopped fresh parsley, and 1 tablespoon chopped fresh mint, along with the spinach mixture and any liquid left in the bottom of the pan, to the tofu. Mix well.
4. Preheat your oven to 375. Melt 1/2 cup (1 stick) Earth Balance or other favorite margarine. You could also use olive oil. (Don't despair -- I was somewhat generous with my margarine brushing, and still didn't use the full stick. Plus, spanikopita just isn't health food!! If you're really worried, pick up one of those oil spray pumps and get spritzing.)
5. Open a 1-pound package of filo dough, and cut the large sheets in half. Wrap up half of the sheets to use another time. Brush the bottom and sides of a 9X13 pan with the melted margarine. Layer 8 sheets of filo in the pan, brushing the top of each sheet with margarine. Add the spinach mixture, spreading evenly. Layer the remaining filo sheets, brushing the tops of each sheet with margarine.
6. Cut the spinach pie into 9 squares. Brush the cut seams with margarine. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes, or until the filo is golden brown. Allow the pie to cool until just warm before serving. (You may need to re-cut the squares before serving.)

And, there may be pie yet before bed!

Question of the evening:
What was your best meal or snack today?

My answer? That's a tough one. Everything I ate today was so fresh, delicious, and mind-blowingly awesome . . . but I think lunch had to have been my favorite. The balance between the salty nachos and the sweet root beer was soooooooo perfect!