It's been a good week!

This week's share gave us some happy surprises. We got some kale, more freckle lettuce and garlic scapes, green onions, some great big snow peas, carrots, and a choice between a garden fresh cucumber or yellow/zucchini squash. We just couldn't turn away from a lovely cuke.

So the freckle lettuce and green onions made their way into Zips' absolute favorite: Taco Night!! We use tvp (textured veggie protein) to make ground crumbles, tofutti non-dairy sour cream, guacamole, mexicorn, and spanish rice. Oh yeah, and LOTS of lime and cilantro. Sorry there's no horchata pictured here. Taco Night would be incomplete without it! (mmmmm. horchata goodness)

Last night I made veggie Pad Thai after a hiatus. I guess I've forgotten to boil the noodles a bit before pan frying them with the sauce. In any case, it turned out better than I've made it in FOREVER.. The csa snow peas snuck into the dish, and they were perfect.

But tonight we had SUSHI!!! Zips loves the crackle of the nori.
My speciality takes inspiration from several wonderful sushis. The summer roll at Oysy in Chicago (As they'll tell you, "OYSY means delicious") is the first sushi I ever had with fresh bell pepper and cilantro inside it. It's served with chili oil and a squeeze of fresh lime. And then one of the local sushi joints here has the best spicy mayo (you have to order it on the side if you get a veggie roll. The waiters get yelled at by the sushi chef if you ask for it afterwards). So I combined the best of both, and of course, no fish are involved (Fish are not vegetables. Pescatarians are not vegetarians!!)

It's my goal to make a batch of vegetable tempura (see my discussion of TJ's below) this summer, and try to roll it into a veggie tempura maki. I'll keep you posted on that one, though.

We're dashing off to Chicago tomorrow. I've already whipped up a new batch of cannellini bean salad for a picnic at Lincoln Park. I can't help but munch on it as I type this.

And I really want some horchata.

God Bless Grilled Plantains and Pineapple Skewers!

We trotted off to the State Parks of Southern Indiana over the weekend... toting a plethora of things to throw on a grill. We read up on grilling pizza on various foodie blogs, and as pizza is one of Zips' favorite things, I thought I'd give it a whack.

The verdict for grilled pizza is still out for me. The roof of my mouth is still burned from the melted cheese. We used boboli pizza crusts and topped 'em with green bell peppers, black olives, tomatoes, onion, I included pineapple and Yves meatless pepperoni. On the grill with a lid on, everything got good and toasty, but by the time the cheese melted, the bottom of the crust burned ENTIRELY. I never thought I'd ever say this, but I think I put on...(this is difficult to write)... too much cheese.

There. I said it. Maybe it's because we used prepackaged pizza crust. Maybe it's not the type of thing to travel with. Maybe the smell of grilling evokes such an appetite for hot dogs that NOTHING, no matter how tasty, will take its place (we LOVE Yves Good Dog!!). Hot dogs next time.

But I'll tell you what's good. Grilled pineapple and grilled plantains!!! How have I lived this long without eating these every week!?! Here are the pineapples on the grill with the boboli:

We made a marinade/baste for the pineapple that included 1/4 c. honey and a Tbs. of butter and a sprinkle of cinnamon, but I'm not sure it was necessary. The pineapple itself was so sweet and juicy, it would've caramelized itself!

The grilled plantains could've been skewered too, but with all the burned cheese on the grill, I made a packet for them. I cut them into pieces, and dotted with butter, and sprinkled turbinado sugar and cinnamon. After you close up the packet, you can turn the whole lot of them with just a flip of the tongs! They start off orange-ish...

When they're done, they turn a lovely deep yellow...

Zips prefers hers with more cinnamon sugar and a dollop of whipped cream. Despite a scorched mouth, I wolfed mine down so quickly, I can't say I was missing a thing. As Rachel Ray says, Yum-O!!!

Latest Excursions

Okay-- it's been a little too long since my last update. I have to look back at my photos to remember what's been going on in the right order. Here's a look at last week's csa haul-- "freckle" lettuce, swiss chard, carrots (carrots!!), green onions, and radishes:
When I went to pick it up, I was also asked conspiritorially, "do you like garlic?" and introduced to an odd curly thing called a garlic scape-- the sprouty thing that grows out of the "finest of the hardneck varieties" of garlic, that curl and straighten and produce seed-like bulbs.

It turns out, they make a delicious garlic butter!



Aside from that, the garden has taken off wonderfully. We've already picked and eaten the first 6 baby cherry tomatoes and are keeping a keen eye on everything else. I can't wait until I can eat a salsa entirely made up of produce I've grown (except for lime). Zips came out to visit at the garden, and spent time checking out the romas.

We've also got tomatillos, jalapenos and other hot peppers (I don't remember which are planted where, so it's going to be a game of spicy russian roulette!!) on the vine. Just need the sun and water. Salsa. Verde. Can't. Wait.

Zipper's still sleeping off the effects of the green tomato aroma.

Okay. What else? Tried out a no-bake vegan chocolate cheesecake recipe (from the April issue of Veg Times) to great effect. I'm not a fan of lots of flavored cheesecake. I'm an unrepentant chocolate lover. I'm a fan of classic cheesecake with strawberries. I try not to mix the two (unless I can snag the dark chocolate off the plate of a fellow diner's garnish). I'm overwhelmed by the Cheesecake Factory dessert menu. I'm not impressed. I just don't think they sound all that good. What's better than strawberries?? So I was dubious about this recipe.

I was wrong. It's totally tasty. I've eaten chocolate cheesecake before, and this vegan variety is totally compelling. The tofu makes for a less dense, lighter pie. The flavor is excellent! And the cookie crumb bottom is absolutely essential. (And the fact that it's no-bake won me over. Like I said. I'm no baker. trust me.)

No-Bake Chocolate-Swirled Cheesecakes



6 round chocolate wafer cookies (we had NO idea what this meant, so I unscrewed a Newman-O cookie and used the non-creme half. If I did it again, I'd crush the cookies so I could layer the bottom of the pie with cookie crumbs like a graham cracker crust)

1 c. vanilla soymilk (we only had plain soymilk, so I added a couple tsp. of vanilla
extract)

1/2 tsp. agar agar powder

2 oz. bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped (we only had unsweetened baker's chocolate and semi-sweet chocolate chips.. so I opted for the latter and used about 1/2 c.)

7 oz. silken tofu (I cut a 12 oz. block of silken Nasoya into a larger and smaller half. Obviously I used the larger)

4 oz. vegan cream cheese (Tofutti brand comes in an 8 oz. tub. I divided it in half. btw. It's delicious~!! So's their "sour cream.")

1/2 c. sugar
1 Tbs. lemon juice
2 tsp. vanilla extract


Coat 6 6oz. ramekins with cooking spray and place 1 cookie in each. (We used the ever-popular baby quiche pans and didn't use spray at all. And again, next time I'll crush up the cookies to evenly and completely cover the bottom).

Combine soymilk (some vanilla extract) and agar agar. Simmer for a minute over medium heat stirring constantly. Remove from heat and cool 3 minutes.

Melt chocolate in microwave (I always add a little water so it doesn't scorch or clump up) until smooth (in 30 second increments).

Blend tofu, cream cheese, sugar, lemon juice, and vanilla extract in food processor until smooth. Pour soymilk mixture slowly while processing until combined.

Set aside 1 c. of this mixture and add melted chocolate to the remaining tofu mixture in the processor and blend until well combined.

Pour chocolate mixture into ramekins and spoon (white) reserved mixture into ramekins and swirl with a knife (to make it look fancy. Don't swirl it too much, or it'll all just turn a lovely beige) Chill 3 hours or overnight.
No doubt. It was delicious.
I'm also really excited about trying it sans chocolate, adding lemon zest to the tofu mixture, and topping it off with the strawberry preserves we made a couple weeks ago. Or even the blackberry preserves. mmm.

Baby Pies and Cannellini Crostini

Summer school is starting soon, so we're trying to get in as much picnicking and adventuring as possible. Today I packed up the cooler with mini blackberry and peach pies, and a cannellini bean salad with crostini...but after our adventures, we ended up eating it all on the couch at home. Here they are before the mini-lattice tops:

And after...

Zips prefers the blackberry. After all, her proper name, Zarzamora, means blackberry. Can you believe we forgot to snap a photo after they were baked?? It's definitely TOO LATE NOW!

The cannellini bean salad is an approximation of a vegetarian dish served at Edo's Squid in Richmond, VA. I've never been to it, but my partner had a job interview in Richmond. Eating at Edo's and indulging in the ginger sesame dipping sauce for vegetable tempura at TJ's (which I've never visited, but of course will have to figure out the recipe for) were the highlights of her trip. In any case, I've got a pantry stocked with cannellini's and some panko crumbs for the future.

Cannellini Salad:

2 cans of cannellini beans (I use Bush's)
1/4 c. red onion THINLY sliced
1/4c. parsley (flat or curly.. I prefer flat) chopped
2 roma tomatoes chopped
1 tsp. lemon zest
2 Tb. lemon juice (or more to taste)
3 Tb. extra virgin olive oil (ditto)
salt and black pepper
The longer it sits, the better it gets...

Zips' big sister Mini checks out the crostini.

Favorite Thing: Veggie Pho

So... One of our staples (summertime, flu season, and any time at all!) is an entirely vegetarian version of pho-- (only the best noodle soup ever!). Here are some mouth-watering snaps from last weekend's batch.

This one's mine (needs just a little more cilantro and lime). The jalapeno is the first crop from our garden (pictured on previous post):



And this is the tricked out version my partner fixes. Nothing like a crisp salad in a bowl of soup!

In less than vegan news, trying to tap into my inner Barefoot Contessa, I improvised a pair of quiche recipes for breakfast. I felt sooo Ina-y rolling my french rolling pin over the top edges of the pie dough to trim it. Here's my spinach-feta and broccoli-cheddar quiches patterned after my favorite bakery cafe's offerings:

I'm salivating... more later.