Preservation!

I've had the week off from work, which has been fantastic! After a short trip to visit the family over the weekend, I've been relaxing, helping John with yard work, and keeping myself busy in the kitchen. We had a sudden bumper crop of cherry tomatoes, which I oven-dried, and I FINALLY got around to my first-ever canning project! I made a batch of tomatillo salsa from "The Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving." I think it worked! My jars seem to have sealed beautifully - no clicking when I push on the top, and I can pick the jar up by just the lid (after removing the rim.) Looks like a success!

saucy!

Wow.

I. Am. Tired! Today was baking day, and boy, was it a lot of fun, and a lot of hard work! I finished the last five batches of Christmas cookies/candies today, including all of the packing, wrapping, decorating, and dish-washing involved. I somehow managed to run a couple of errands, too, and then found myself with more time to spare after dinner. Time to "get saucy!" (Ha, ha.)



My parents are coming up for Christmas this year, and I decided on tamales for Christmas dinner! Now, we can't have plain ol' jarred salsa on our tamales, and I wanted to mimic the three sauces Mexican restaurants offer with their tamales, so it was time for a sauce-a-thon. On the left is Melody's recipe for homemade salsa, with a few modifications of my own. (I cut back on the spices she calls for, since I really prefer a strong tomato flavor with an undertone of spices, used 4 jalapenos, cut down the salt, and used a can of crushed fire-roasted tomatoes. The crushed tomatoes allowed me to skip pureeing the salsa, which is a good thing -- I like my salsa chunky!) Middle, Tomatillo Salsa Verde, and on the right, Three Sisters Black Mole. Holy "mole," did that recipe yield a lot of mole! Good thing we're having tacos this week . . . and tamales next week . . . and tamales again for New Year's . . . and good thing, too, that the sauce freezes well! I got about nine cups of sauce from the recipe . . . whew! I think I'll send a jar home with my Dad. :)

I'll post a photo of the cookies soon -- I just don't want to plate a whole trayfull for no reason, other than to snap a picture. (You understand, right?) I plan to take cookies to work on Monday, though, so expect full disclosure later in the day!

Hope you are having a nice weekend!

giant whopper of a catch-up post

So, I've actually been cooking all week, even though I've mostly been posting about our Blogger Ethnic Market Tour! Consequently, I have a TON of stuff to catch you up on. Here we go . . . !

Rewind to Tuesday . . .
I made "Brooklyn Pad Thai" from Vegan with a Vengeance for dinner! While I deem this recipe more of a "weekend" meal due to all of the prep, it's a nice treat on a weeknight every once in a while. I find prepping ALL of the ingredients ahead of time extremely beneficial when making this recipe:

And here's the finished product, avec broccoli (because almost everything's better with broccoli, right?)


After devouring our plates of pad Thai, we had dragonfruit for dessert!

I think of dragonfruit as more of an experience, rather than something super-tasty that I look forward to, since it is so mild (ahem, bland,) tasting. We sprinkle ours with a little sugar and give it a drizzle of lime juice to amp it up:

It's so dang cool looking, though, I can't help but enjoy it!

Thursday was a late-start work day for me, (comp time due to training in the evening,) so I spent the morning cooking away . . .

First, I made Melody's Salsa:

This is some goooooooooood stuff! I followed her recipe nearly as written, (using way less salt, since I am trying to keep our salt intake down, and 4 seeded jalapenos for the chile requirement,) and both Dan and I love it! Jarred salsa no more, in our house! I like that Melody's recipe makes a vat, (since a jar of salsa disappears nearly as it's opened in our house,) and although I'd probably cut down on the amount of cumin next time, (I find cumin overpowering sometimes,) I love the complex, spicy, smoky flavor. Thanks for sharing your recipe, Melody!

Salsa is handy for topping "tacos-to-go" --

Tacos are kind of a hard thing to pack in a lunch, but I've discovered a way that works -- pack all of the filling in one container, and the tortillas or chips in a bag/wrap-n-mat, and assemble on site. Yum! Don't forget the homemade guacamole!

We were kind of dredging the bottom of the barrel for breakfast this morning, (out of milk, so no cereal, out of bread, so no toast,) so I improvised, and horchata oatmeal was born!

Oh, nummy nummy nummy, this was good stuff! Sweet, creamy, nutty, and fantastic! I just made regular oatmeal with horchata instead of milk or water, and topped with sliced, toasted almonds. Yum!

After meeting Courtney for coffee this morning, I went to Kowalski's and the Wedge. Had kind of a long list this week . . .


BREAD:
local ciabatta
organic, 100% whole-wheat sandwich bread

BULK:
local sliced raw almonds
locally-roasted, organic, fair-trade coffee
organic fruit-sweetened dried cranberries

CHEESE: (yes, not vegan -- some is for work, some for grilled cheese sandwiches this week)
local part-skim mozzarella (the kids want to make pizzas!)
sliced muenster

DELI:
vegan apricot thumbprint cookie (not pictured . . . consumed at the co-op to avoid fainting from hunger during my walk home!)

FROZEN:
organic cranberry juice cocktail concentrate
local, organic orange juice concentrate

PACKAGED GROCERY:
Lyle's golden syrup
3 bottles of club soda
cashew-carrot ginger soup
organic low-sodium vegetable broth
Yogi kava tea
organic firm silken tofu
organic pizza sauce
organic no-salt-added diced tomatoes
organic lite coconut milk
panko

PRODUCE:
local honeycrisp apples
aurora apples
Granny Smith apples
cranberries
organic lemons
organic green beans
organic spinach
organic parsley
local, organic white button mushrooms
local, organic cremini mushrooms
organic shiitake mushrooms
organic green onions
organic sweet potatoes
local, hydroponic tomatoes
local oyster mushrooms
organic navel oranges
organic yellow onions
local, organic Yukon gold potatoes
local, organic fresh chives
local, organic fresh thyme

REFRIGERATED GROCERY:
organic spelt English muffins
Earth Balance buttery sticks
Yves veggie pepperoni

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Why such a long list this week? Well . . . tune in tomorrow for a series of posts titled "A Very Vegan Thanksgiving!" Gotta get back to those caramelized onions now!