Today’s blog title is inspired by The Jolly Fox, a new blogfriend with a beautiful site that you should visit. I like keeping up with her because she posts pretty pictures of ambitious food I’m usually too much of a scaredy-cat to make (think pie, and lots of it!). I’m no big fan of apples, but she recently posted a towering apple sour cream pie that I’m considering attempting. I’m also pretty sure she had a party where she made not one but two cakes and homemade soft pretzels – among other things! She also veganised Red Lobster’s garlic cheezy biscuits, if you’re into that. Seriously, she rules. Go now.
Since I haven’t posted since early this week, I figured I’d walk you through what I’ve been up to. For those wondering, my relative who was in the hospital for two weeks is doing a lot better – thanks for your concern. Oh, and thanks for all your sweet Birthday wishes to Nate!
I work for a CSA-like organic local produce delivery; on Wednesdays I drive a route and get a basket in trade. The big thing right now is that we’re offering Georgia’s only organic apples to our clients This would be a giant deal for me if… I actually liked apples. As it is, I need to experiment with baked recipes (like the one linked to above) to start to develop a taste for them.
My first try was Myra Kornfeld’s apple-walnut crisp from The Voluptuous VeganImage may be NSFW.
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It was pretty good! I was able to use up several pounds of apples. Nate, the resident apple expert, loved it.
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For dinner we had Nate’s special turnip dish. It is prepared in accordance with the Japanese concept ichi motsu zen shoku (one food, used entirely), which is an “ecologically and nutritionally sound practice (that) encourages the use of all edible parts of plant foods: peels, roots, shoots, stems, seeds and flowers.” (Elizabeth Andoh, KanshaImage may be NSFW.
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, pg. 2.) Nate starts by sauteing thinly-sliced greens stems with garlic, then adds turnips, spices, and liquids, followed by the greens. The greens vary each time he makes them: this time he used lacinato kale, turnip greens, and beet greens. The beet greens stems are responsible for the lovely pinkish tint to the formerly snowy white turnips.
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Isn’t it neat how the lowly turnip is transformed, with a bit of beet juice, into something that resembles a pink grapefruit segment?
This is my favorite thing that Nate makes, and it’s the only way I like turnips. While the recipe is his entirely, it is inspired by Bryant Terry’s collard confetti from Vegan Soul KitchenImage may be NSFW.
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(pg. 118) and Andrew Weil’s hot and sour greens (pg. 144) from Eight Weeks to Optimum HealthImage may be NSFW.
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Lua’s got this thing now where she likes to sit in one of our laps while we eat our dinner…
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…tries to sneak a bit…
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…and then looks incredibly distressed when we finish.
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It’s okay, little cat, you wouldn’t have liked it anyway.
Thursday we had to unexpectedly take Miss Perl to the vet. It was very stressful, so we stopped at Dough Bakery for this week’s Gutenfleischers’ sandwich special. It’s warm roast beef on a homemade kummelweck roll:
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Gutenfleischers’ makes the best-ever kale salad ever ever ever.
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I was a piggy-wiggy and had the kale salad and the new kelp noodle pad thai salad.
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The cat doctors took very good care of our Miss Perl, who stayed overnight at no expense so that they could get a urine sample. They sent us home the next day with two medications (one an antibiotic) and buprenorphine for the pain. The buprenorphine has got her chilled out like I’ve never seen.
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Miss Unix is suspicious of all the extra attention Perl has been getting.
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Perl’s gonna be on pesky medication for another week, but she should be just fine!
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The big surprise of the day: discovering that our shiitake logs had been growing mushrooms without our knowledge! When we did the workshop earlier this year, we were given 12 – 18 months as an estimated wait time before we’d make our first harvest. These are super early!
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Sadly, a little over half the mushrooms had become so wizened that I had to toss them into the woods.
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What I could use went towards breakfast. I had planned to do fried tempeh over grits for our lazy Sunday brunch, but plans changed, as I exclaimed, once I discovered the “meat of the woods”! Here they are getting started in a little organic coconut oil and organic canola blend.
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Browned with tender young garlic and herbs…
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…some hearty cooked-from-dry chickpeas…
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…and, oh my, what a meal!
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Of course, Lua had to sit it someone’s lap…
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…angle for food…
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…and feel the deep sting of an empty bowl.
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Oh, and I had my first bialys today! They’re making them at the Dekalb Farmer’s Market now. Wikipedia tells me that a bialys is a Polish/Ashkenazi chewy yeast roll with a savory oniony-poppyseed filling. Can’t wait to get some more of these next time I’m there.
Now, to catch up on my unofficial VeganMoFo reading list: Vegan Soul Power!, Vic at The Life, AwesomeVeganRad, Olives for Dinner, The Jolly Fox, Cold and Sleepy Cooks, Kittee, Eating Appalachia, Vegan In Brighton, Vegan Fazool, Cupcake Kitteh, OMGoshI’mVegan, Lacey Loves Food, Spabettie… good folks. Who else should be there? I like checking out new blogs, so long as they’re not covered in ads. (That’s my only blog peeve. If your site loads clumsily because it’s burdened with ads, it doesn’t matter how great the content is – I probably won’t visit again.)
Ooh… I know! I know! Joni at Just The Food. Why am I not following her already?! I just got her new book, Vegan Food GiftsImage may be NSFW.
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