My Dream Saturday Night

My Other Fave Commerical (IT'S BACK!!)

YESS, the awesome HM commercial that MADONNA starred in has returned via Youtube.

And I still love it!!

Favorite... Commercial...EVER

One of my beloved students from a class I taught this summer shared this with me. I LOVE IT SO MUCH.

Favorite Albuquerque Eats

Okay, first on my list is a hole in the wall called Yasmine's Cafe. I got excited when my staunchly non-vegetarian father volunteered this Mediterranean cafe (he's a hot dogs and steaks kind of guy), that apparantly he frequents. I had high hopes for veg-friendly foods, but settled for this arabic salad and lentil soup (both were just okay, but nice to look at).


But the Manzana Lift! is what got me through it! A carbonated, caffeinated apple flavored soft drink. GENIUS! God bless Mexico!
My hands-down favorite place to eat in Albuquerque is the Flying Star Cafe.
My family ate there twice in the week that I visited. I really needed a third time because I missed out on their eclairs.

They have an excellent vegetarian sandwich called the Californian with grilled mushrooms, onions, tomatoes, avocado and swiss cheese:
My mom (a mostly-sometimes-vegetarian) opted for a pasta pomodoro with the soy "chicken" patty. It was super tasty!
I had to explain to my parents and their friends whenever I whipped out my camera at the dinner table... "It's for my BLOG," just before everyone dug in.

Late Summer Harvest and Fun

So it's been far too long since I've updated my blog. I ran off to visit my folks in New Mexico in early August, and with school starting again, we've been unable to keep up with the garden. Here's what we harvested earlier this week. It's probably the last of the tomatoes.

We still have celery growing, brussel sprouts, some parsley, sage, and of course my sweet basil. I plan to make a bunch into pesto to freeze. Of course I'll take photos when I do.

One of the last culinary adventures from the summer was deep fried Pepsi courtesy of the Indiana State Fair.
Okay, I was dubious (Pepsi?!). I had planned on keeping away from fried dough this year, but here they are:
I have to admit, they were adorable, tasty, and the portion wasn't excessive. And I didn't feel as though I had dunked my face in a vat of grease. The fried Snickers I had a bite of resembled a Twinkie, but was too warm, moist and, well, brown to be appetizing. The pepsi balls, though were a-ok.

In other State Fair-inspired adventures, I'm completely obsessed with fried green tomatoes right now. I purchased them once at a booth at the Parke County Covered Bridge Festival. I was a bit disappointed with the mushy, sour, egg-battered plate I got, but with my own premature tomatoes, I've taken to coating with whole wheat flour seasoned with Fiesta brand fajita seasoning (the secret ingredient for everything my whole family makes), and pan frying in olive oil. Mmmmmmm... I think the other two diners were served two apiece, and I ate the rest.
AND, another State Fair trick I've picked up is grilling corn on the cob with the husk on! Of course Martha could've told me better, but it's fun to learn things through trial and error (the husks are incredibly flammable!) They were the best corn on the cob I've ever had.

I had to try out the grilled corn as part of the perfect rustic weekend getaway we had over Labor Day weekend.

We rented out a log cabin in Southern Indiana for a couple nights, and I spent most of that time in the back staring at the fire and roasting Sweet & Sara vegan marshmallows! We haven't had marshmallows in years! Thank goodness Sweet & Sara figured out how to make 'em without gelatin! Zips and I made the perfect s'more. Zips is quite the expert at burning the marshmallows exactly right, I held the graham crackers with special dark chocolate bar on a spatula over the coals until it was just melty. Then together-- ShaZAM! The perfect s'more. (sorry, no photo. it was too dark, and the s'more was gone in seconds flat).

Here's the fully loaded grill from the second night. So as not to overdose on Yves good dogs, we made some barbeque chik'n with those Quorn naked cutlets. Not bad. Especially good as leftovers.

And our delicious big country breakfast with french pressed coffee, fresh squeezed grapefruit juice, homemade blueberry compote for the griddle cakes, veggie bacon and sausage, and homefries, and scramblers. Yum!


I'll be adding pics and tales from my visit to Albuquerue. And dreaming of fair foods, country breakfasts, and not having to get up to go to school!

Favorite New Video

I have a lot of catching up to do, but stumbled across and felt I had to share this lovely, magical video.

I'll have to update you on new foods and travels and late summer harvesting at the garden. Perhaps once we lose the garden space, I'll finally get back to sewing and begin posting crafting rather than gardening adventures!

Tomato-Rama: Part 4: What the Hell do I do with all these TOMATOES?!

To begin with, we used up the leftover MAMMOTH zucchini by making zucchini bread (again, inspired in part by Dr. Stonielove, and partly from How it All Vegan). We fudged recipes and approximated (mostly because we ran out of both sugar and cinnamon and don't have any soft tofu or eggs in the house right now). The resulting loaves were excellent! I think we ended up using 4c. whole wheat flour, 1c. oat flour (which we just figured out how to make. god bless food processors!), applesauce, 4 c. shredded zucchini, cinnamon, nutmeg, raisins, walnuts, and other odds and ends.
Excellent with coffee for breakfast, and excellent for luring little black cats into photographs.
Okay, so the hundred-plus tomatoes from yesterday added to the forty-plus tomatoes from earlier in the week need to be dealt with. We started off blanching, peeling, and freezing some for the future (but our freezer is sadly running out of space!)

We also found out about making fresh tomato juice. After blanching (1-2 minutes each), and peeling them (and after a while we even quit peeling or coring them), throw your tomatoes into your food processor or blender and whiz up until pretty well liquified

Following some recipes, we threw in a small onion, a couple ribs and leaves of our garden celery, and a squirt of lemon. Then we poured the juice through a sieve. I saved the leftover tomato pulp. I'm convinced I can make something with it. The JUICE has been employed in two ways so far:

Makes a bloody marvelous Virgin Mary:

(I'm not sure, but I think I just made up that name. I don't fancy the Bloody Mary, but I do like the IDEA of Bloody Marys..)

Then, after whizzing up a TON of tomatoes, we ended up with about 2 quarts of juice which then made a rather gratifying Garden Vegetable Soup!!

The whole peeled tomatoes, tomato juice, onions, cabbage, carrots, green beans, corn, and potatoes are all either fresh from our garden, or from our CSA. We also added some frozen edamame (although we WILL have some fresh ones soon), and some frozen mixed veggies for good measure.

We've also frozen a large batch of salsa. The JUICE, though, will totally be done again to stock up for soup for the fall!!!

Tomato-Rama: Part 3

Baked Oats with Blueberries for breakfast. Inspired by Dr. Stonielove (see her "branch platter"), but meddling with recipes, this batch turned out a tad mushy. I've since burned a batch. I'll post a recipe when I've figured out how I like it. Here's another unfortunate victim to melon splitting. I cry when there's too little rain. I can hardly complain when there's a little too much at once!And the GREATEST TOMATO HARVEST SO FAR THIS SUMMER.
Here's 38 Early Girls, 69 Romas
A handful of cherry tomatoes, a couple of tomatillos and various peppers.
Stay Tuned for What the Hell do I do with all these TOMATOES!!

Tomato-Rama: Part 2

Here's a more recent tomato haul. We got a ton of basil to dry too. And the baby watermelons are splitting from the erratic rainfall. We've lost four or five now, but we've tried to ENJOY what's been left of the split babies. This one was delicious, crisp, sweet. I can only imagine how it would have been if it grew larger.
Here's the LOAD of basil. I have to document it now, because the cruel Indiana winter will make this all seem like a pleasant dream!
Here's our cantaloupe (?) hiding in the straw. I figure the longer I ignore it, the bigger and more beautiful she will grow.
And we're finally growing EDAMAME!!!!!
And an even more recent tomato (plus bell pepper, jalapeno pepper, tomatillo, and basil/cinnamon basil) harvest.

Tomato-Rama-Lama-Ding-Dong: Part 1

Zips' favorite breakfast item: breakfast tacos!
Our garden has totally spoiled us this summer. It's still astonishing to me that I can just go out and eat tomatoes to my heart's content, and not have to hand anyone any money for them!
Here's a haul from about a week ago. The plants have since yielded SO MANY that we can barely keep up. Nightly arabic salads, daily salsa batches, and occasional insalata caprese cannot dispose of as many tomatoes as we are producing. We have had to resort to other, more creative tactics.

But first, the blueberry U-pick opened for one more day, before being completely cleaned out. We did our part, picking approximately fifteen pounds. Here's Zips' big brother Bijoux, and Mini's tail checking out the haul. Some of them (the berries, not the cats) made it into our happy bellies, and two thirds made it into freezer bags for blueberry pancakes and pies in the future.

And speaking of pies, here's our veggie "chik'n" pot pie. The crust turned out better than usual, I hope to have the hang of it now, after absorbing some Paula Deen and Barefoot Contessa and Martha Stewart tips. The "chick'n" is thawed, cubed Quorn "chicken breast" style "Naked Chik'n Cutlets."


Veggie Pot Pie:
3 Quorn Chik'n Cutlets (cubed)
1 c. frozen mixed vegetables (corn, carrots, peas, green beans)
1-2 small potatoes, cubed (I used yukon gold)
1 can condensed cream of mushroom soup (cream of celery also works)
1 c. soy milk
2 9" pie crusts

mix the soy milk with the soup mix.
mix cubed chik'n, mixed veggies, and cubed potato together and pour soup/soy milk mixture over it.
pour it all into a crust lined pie plate, top with crust and crimp the edges.
Poke holes in the center of the top crust to let steam escape.

Bake for 45 minutes at 350.

Abbondanza!! Part 2

Let me preface this by saying I have never gardened before this summer. I have killed unkillable mint plants. I have nursed potted cilantro past when it should have been eaten. I have watched beloved herbs die in beautiful terraced pots. On and off in my life, I have loved the IDEA of gardening, but have never been motivated to action. I have known people whose idea of a good weekend is to re-pot fifty baby tomato sprouts from peat pots to larger pots. I have not joined those people in their dirty idea of fun.

I now know that I just needed to find my soulmate in order to appreciate all the joy that sinking your hands into nature and cultivating living things brings me. Now that we are mid-July, I realize that it's mid summer. School will begin again in six or seven weeks. We'll have the garden until mid-October, but I know that one day too soon I'll be kicking myself for taking this kind of abundance for granted. After all of our time hacking at the dirt, getting eaten by chiggers, weeding, crying for rain, and getting sunburned just above where my waistband, today yielded our first real recolte. Because of the dry spell and the multiplying weeds casting our fledgling onions in shade, we harvested quite a few of our baby yellow onions.

We also got a nice haul of tomatoes (17 early girls, 8 romas, 15 cherry), tomatillos, some of our struggling cucumbers, and we pulled up one of the celery plants to give the others a little more breathing room. It's just astonishing to me that we've gone for weeks without purchasing a significant amount of tomatoes in a grocery store.
I also cut some of the mint and basil that's flowering . From L to R, thai basil, sweet basil, spearmint, and the surreptitious cinnamon basil (I thought it was thai basil until I realized it smelled totally different! The nursery got it wrong!)(That same nursery also sold us some cabbage that has turned out to be cauliflower!) I've been looking up how to freeze herbs (rather than dry them)-- I'll try it and provide the link if I like the results.
Here Mini scrutinizes the sweet basil... she approves!
Oh, and our neighboring gardeners who gave us celtuce last week graced us with three beautiful chinese cucumbers, each as long as my forearm!
It's going to be a happy time making arabic salad, maybe tabouleh, and even pickled cucumbers, all from non-store-bought produce. I can begin to understand those foodies who won't eat tomatoes out of season.

As long as they're in season, and I have good french bread and fresh mozzerella handy, Zipper's caprese panino will always be on the menu.

Today's Tomatoes & Tempura

(Not together, of course)... First off, a quick swing by the garden gave us this lovely handful of tomatoes and herbs: Zips has her sights set on another arabic salad before the night is over. I grabbed some sprigs of parsley and mint and basil just for good measure.

Here are some of the happy melons we have growing in the melon patch. The watermelon is a crimson sweet. We refer to her as "Mama," as she has taken the lead in size. There are also two growing at the edge of the garden we call "the twins," and a small sugar baby we call "baby."
I hope it's not too weird to name fruit as it's growing. We also have several honeydew melons in the works (4 of 'em), and a lone cantaloupe growing that Zips has just dubbed Canaloupe. Because the cantaloupe CAN. Here's Canaloupe now. Growin'.

We did some yakisoba for dinner, and I tried tempura for the first time. I used a tempura batter mix (dynasty, I think), and panko crumbs. We made green bell pepper, broccoli, onion, green onion, carrot, snow pea, yellow squash, and zucchini squash tempura. Of course we used the lovely ginger sesame sauce. I also improvised a tentsuyu sauce with 1/4 c. mirin, 1/4 c. soy sauce, 1 tsp. sugar, and some water to taste (I didn't have any broth or dashi). It was very mild compared with the ginger sesame, but I really liked it. Tempura action shot: I think that's an onion cooking away. Zips was also the genius who figured out that the semi-circular wire thingy was probably made for this exact use.

It's the best kind of battered, deep-fried food around. I am seriously re-thinking my stance against fry-daddies.

Aguas de Frutas y Amigos

Part I: Agua Fresca

New developments coming out of my kitchen this afternoon include Agua Fresca with the leftover cantaloupe and watermelon from a great weekend sale at the local supermarket-- Because our apartment is so hot right now, the cantaloupe got REAL ripe overnight, so I had to chop it up and refrigerate it, and promptly forgot about it. Blending the fruit pieces and then straining them does an amazing job of retaining the sweetness and bouquet of the fruit, while removing the gross texture of borderline overripe melon. It's totally delicious. Zips, who prefers watermelon to any other melon, and who is ambivalent about the delights cantaloupe has to offer, DOWNED the cantaloupe agua fresca in two gulps. The watermelon was excellent too. It was a wonderful GIGANTIC seeded melon. I added sugar as the recipe called for, so it ended up being a tad on the sweet side. Easily counteracted, though, with a couple ice cubes.

I got the idea for Agua Fresca earlier in the summer with a so-so not-quite-in-season watermelon. It made a horrid watermelon gazpacho, so the rest of it was an experiment. The remainder of the melon needed to be used, so I found this great site with recipes. Zips hated the first attempt at agua fresca. Probably because I cut the melon on the same board as the onion for the gazpacho-- not so tasty in juice.

Anyway, today, since I was only working with a portion of each kind of melon and only half a lime (other recipes call for as many as 2-3 limes), I fudged the measurements. Here's what I did:

Agua de Melon (Cantaloupe)

4 c. chopped cantaloupe
2 c. water
1/2 c. sugar

blend until smooth. strain. refrigerate.


Agua de Sandia (Watermelon)

4 c. chopped watermelon (remove seeds as you put it in the blender)
1 1/2 c. water
1/4 c. sugar
juice of 1/2 lime




blend. strain. refrigerate


Seriously, how can you resist? Have you no heart?


Part II: Arabic Salad

FINALLY, with the fruits of our labors! One of Zips ALL TIME favorites is arabic salad. I clipped some of our flatleaf parsley, some crazy abundant spearmint (about 1/4 c. of each, chopped), a green onion (chopped), two early girl tomatoes, and a cuke (each diced), the juice of a lemon (not from our garden, alas...I'll have to wait until we live in a different climate!), a drizzle of olive oil, and some salt and pepper. Refrigerate for about 30 minutes when you've mixed everything together to let the flavors meld. Then grab a couple of spoons and dig in! (Of course, you could eat it in a bowl or plate, alongside some lovely tabouleh or couscous...but Zips can't wait that long).

Part III: Sesame Ginger Dipping Sauce

In the continuing quest to replicate a Veggie Tempura dipping sauce (that I've never tasted) from a restaurant in Richmond, Virginia (that I've never been to), I tried out this recipe that's attempting to copy a Asiatic lettuce wrap served at Chili's (that I've also never tasted). I love it when home chefs try to figure out restaurant recipes (and of course share them). One total success I've had is the KFC cole slaw that's out there. Anyways, Zips says this sauce is very very close to what she ate:

1/4 c. water
1 Tb. cornstarch (I added even more when all the ingredients were incorporated to thicken it up)
1/3 c. sugar
1/4 c. soy sauce
1/3 c. rice vinegar
1 tsp. minced ginger (I am usually prone to add more ginger, but I stuck with this measurement. I might add a little more next time)
1 tsp. sesame oil
1/4-1/2 tsp. minced garlic (I used my microplane grater for both this and the ginger. I grated about half of one clove of garlic)

Heat the water and cornstarch to dissolve it. Add the rest of the ingredients and simmer for about 2 minutes. (And if you're me, use those 2 minutes to dissolve more cornstarch in water and add to the sauce until you achieve the desired consistency.)

Thumbs up. I think I'm going to try tempura tonight, so I'll let you know how it goes!