She's a (Cooking) Maniac!

I was a cooking woman this weekend! Well, I was a documenting cooking woman this weekend!

I am a recently-faithful subscriber to Full Circle Farm and got my box on Thursday to much delight! MEH and I have been trying to downsize our spending on produce (which translates to I am downsizing my produce purchases since I'm the cook in the house) so going with FCF for organics and supplementing what doesn't come in the box/goes bad too quickly is working well. My only complain so far with FCF is that while I love their lettuce, I can only love the lettuce for a day or so and then it's wilted with it's great organicness. It just doesn't last long and many times it's started much of it's wilting before it even gets out of my box. However, everything else lasts longer; and, this weekend, much of it founds its way into an impromptu soup venture.

My box included apricots, romaine, spinach, chard, white onion, peaches, snap peas, and the contents pictured below that were thrown into Veggie Lentil Soup.


Left to right, back to front we have: Roma tomatoes, Crimini mushrooms, cabbage, red pepper, Nantes carrots, and ruby gold potatoes. I had lentils in the pantry, as well as some ruby gold potatoes, red pepper and a head of cabbage, so tossed decided to chop and toss and roast it all together with Spike, basil, rosemary, and black pepper.



This was my first try with my new Shun Santoku 7" chef's knife. Mmmmm. I almost fainted with my first cut through the potatoes:


It was divine cutting everything.



So I chopped everything up, pulled out a glass baking dish, poured the remainder of my Low Sodium Vegetable Stock in, and added all of the veggies and lentils:


I roasted them all, stirring it every 10 minutes, on 400 degrees for about 30 minutes. Then I pulled it from the oven, poured it into a big ceramic pot, and simmered it on low for another hour. MEH pulled some chives for me from our front garden, and here was the final result:


Verdict: Yum Yum Yum. The soup is definitely hearty with the potatoes and lentils in there, but it's crazy filling , perfectly spicy, and really, really good. The vegetables weren't mushy beyond compare, nor were they too crunchy. MEH's one criticism: too thick. He needed more liquid in there to tease out some of the flavor. So I did just that last night for him, added chicken, and he thoroughly enjoyed it. It's in my refrigerator now, and while the lentils have started to sprout just a tad, it's still perfectly flavorful. In all, I used 2 romas, 8 criminis, 2 carrots, 5-6 potatoes, 1/2 head of cabbage, and 1/2 a red pepper. Probably added in 2 dry cups of lentils, and lots of added spices. The vegetable stock alone wasn't enough liquid, so there were 2-3 cups of water added in over the course of the roasting and simmering. I really flew by the seat of my pants on this one.



My other cooking endeavor: Wine Steeped Cherries and Vegan Banana Chocolate SoftServ. - The SoftServ ala LoveVeggiesAndYoga.

I found the recipe for the wine steeped cherries while reading Under the Tuscan Sun by Francis Mayes several years ago. I've tweaked it (no added sugar, don't simmer as long), but it's always delicious. Very rich. The trouble is I don't tend to eat most things you can serve it over like ice cream or cake. So I usually just eat it all alone . . . mmmm. But I read on LoveVeggiesandYoga a recipe for vegan softserv by freezing bananas, so I did just that.



To do the cherries, you have to pit them (or not, depending on how easily you prefer your eating experience). I do not own a cherry pitter, so I used my wonderful Shun paring knife to do the job:





While the cherries were steeping (they are supposed to go 2-3 hours. They went about 45 minutes), I took out my frozen bananas. I added chocolate chips, vanilla, three bananas, and about 1/2-1 cup of Living Harvest chocolate hemp milk. I tweaked the original recipe a bit, but I wanted more chocolate without the crunch. I blended it all in the food processor (it made quite the noise), and was incredibly excited to taste.



I added the cherries and wine over the top, and here's what it looked like:


Verdict: I should really put the cherries with something that I don't need banana. The mixture of cherry and banana I thought would be a strange one going in, but thought I should just got for it. While it wasn't repulsive, it wasn't particularly stellar, either. The softserv alone, though, was amazing. I'm a saved woman. No more store bought ice cream for me! This stuff is now in my permanent repertoire! MEH's verdict: YUM!



And that was my Friday night. Saturday was hiking with DMsS up Flat Top in the morning, followed by a visit to VeggieMama's house, some bonding time with her, and lunch at Spenard Roadhouse. I did not take a picture of my meal, but partook in their BlackBean Burger. Go go Spenard Roadhouse for adding in more vegetarian/vegan friendly options! It was quite tasty even though the wheat certainly did some work on my stomach. Forgot about that. Must remember next time. I also got to partake in some vino with Sweet Caroline.



Sunday saw more food documentation/makeage. First thing in the morning I decided to try Earth Muffin's Carrot Cake Oats, tweaked to what I had in my fridge (which does not consist of non-chocolate hemp milk). So, I got my oats together, slowly cooked them over hot water, and added in some chopped carrot, nutmeg, and cinnamon. Simmer simmer simmer it went, and then bam: Oats!



I topped it off with a dollop of Bee's Knees Peanut Butter (honey flavored), and went at it.


Verdict: I needed more cream. More something. I now know that something to have been vanilla. It was a bit lacking in the smooth/creamy factor, which I love about oatmeal when enough hemp milk is added. The taste of the oats and the flavor of the carrot meets pb meets spices though was wonderful. Will do again for sure.



Saturday saw the start of my Almost Raw Rhubarb Cookies. Unfortunately, my phone saw fit to delete all of those pictures. Sunday saw the finishing product of them, since I got lazy on Saturday. The cookies included 4 stocks of ripe rhubarb picked from our garden, 2 cups pecans, 14 dates, vanilla, 1/3 cup (maybe) turbinado cane sugar, and shredded coconut. I soaked the pecans, pitted the dates, and let the rhubarb soak in the cane sugar.

After about 30 minutes of soaking, I put the pecans, dates, and coconut in the food processor. Bszzzzzwhhhrrrrr. Then added rhubarb. Bzzzzzwhrrrrrrr. The not so raw part came when I barely baked them in the oven on 400 for 10 minutes just to dry them out a bit since I don't have 1) a dehydrator *yet; or 2) the patients to just bake something on 200. For MEH, I gave half of the cookies chocolate chip smiley faces ( I know, cheeseball).



Verdict: YUM! I topped my half off with shredded coconut and they are divine. Very rich, nice and yummy. They are not at all a classic cookie in the sense that they are chewy or crunchy. It 's a very different texture, but really delicious. And now I have something to do with all that darn rhubarb coming up in our yard! MEH's verdict: he has yet to branch out in his love of rhubarb. Updates to come.



Our Sunday saw us at brunch at the Bear Tooth Grill. We hadn't been there for brunch before and didn't particularly feel like cooking all that much either (meaning I didn't really want to cook) so we went out to run errands and stopped by. MEH got their biscuits and gravy, I got their tofu scramble, and we shared an appetizer of their legendary garlic cilantro fries.

Here's the problem: MEH is picky with this B&G. He has yet to find a place that has a proper biscuit to gravy ratio and ends up only eating half his meal because of it. This was a last ditch effort on his part to try B&G at a restaurant. My Deal: I'm trying to wean off of tofu but feel guilty. I feel like a sacrilegious vegan. Don't ask why. But I figured I'd try it one last time to see how I felt.



Verdicts: MEH indeed stopped eating his B&G half way through because of rock hard biscuits and not enough gravy. I couldn't finish the tofu - lukewarm and overly seasoned. Also, I',m pretty sure I've cured myself of my tofu lust. The service was mediocre - people at a table across from us actually left because the server never came to take their order - and the girl only checked with us once. No suggestions, didn't tell us any specials, very disappointing overall for a place that is usually so good! Don't know that we will go again, unless we get up earlier and try for some different dishes.



Did you try any new dishes at home or at restaurants? What did you think of them?



We spent this rainy Sunday running errands and then vegging at home. I insisted on purchasing the first season of I Love Lucy when I saw it was only 16.99 at Freds. I grew up with this show. I stayed up to watch this show with my Gramma. I love it in so many ways it's ridiculous. MEH has never watched a single episode. I made him watch Lucy Does a Commercial (the infamous Vitameatavegimin episode) and The Publicity Agent, where Lucy pretends to be the Maharincess of Franistan. HILARIOUS! It's such innocent television. No violence, no dirty sexual tension, no drugs, no blah that is all over tv now. Don't get me wrong, I can enjoy myself a good dirty sexual tension scene or Law And Order episode every now and then, I just can't stand that it's all there is anymore. Give me some good slapstick 1950's tv almost any day. Go Lucy!

Do you have any favorite shows from times before? Another favorite of mine is Saved by the Bell!



Mantra of the Day: Hari Hari Hari Har. Very seriously, this is the mantra for happiness. How funny?! I actually chuckled to myself in yoga when our instructor told us that. I mean, how fitting that as you repeat a mantra for happiness you are saying "hari hari hari har" to yourself? Perfect. Go get happy!



Question of Gratitude Who, or what, are you grateful for?: I am grateful for my OJPOP. My grandfather is a bad ass. And I'm sure most grand-daughters think their grandfather is a bad ass, but I cast mine out as the most bad ass of the bad ass. He's just plain cool. And he drinks oodles of OJ (cousins and I have joked about honoring him by getting his classic oj glass tattooed somewhere). But he also loves all of his family. He takes care of everyone. And he always keeps in touch. He wasn't always this way, but having him around and having as close of a relationship to him as I do is truly special to me. Thanks Pop for just being wonderful!