International Care Packages + More!!

Over at the PPK, from time to time, we have organized swaps. You enter in your name and what sorts of special goodies you can't find in your area that you'd like to receive... and also what kind of special goodies you have that you could share with others. Well I got paired up with the super awesome Efcliz of "Cooking The Vegan Books," and she sent me some awesome goodies!

Unpacked!! Mini super-cute papadams, Ras-el Hanout spice mix, HobNobs, Marzipan bar (chocolate covered and with orange!), marmite, white chocolate buttons, a yummy looking malt loaf with fruits, two white chocolate bars, *rainbow candles!*, English mustard (yum!), gummy candies, marmite rice cakes (this was a good idea, because I have been a little scared of marmite, but these snacks were an easy introduction, and they are very yummy - so soon I will break open my marmite packet and try it on some toast!), Reggae nuts!, & caramelized cookies. It's so much fun. Most of all I am totally head-over-heels in LOVE with those white chocolate bars. Wow. They are really, really good. I thought I would use them for baking, but instead I think I will slowly nibble away at them and savor each and every bite. Thanks Efcliz!

Meanwhile, aside from my postal adventures, our tomatoes haven't petered out quite yet... so we're still on a high-tomato-consumption plan around here. I noticed last week at the farmer's market a dark and foreboding sign: "Last Week For Basil". AAAAAh! Say it ain't so! Well, it is so, and I can probably deal with it. One way I dealt with it was to purchase said basil and run home and make some delicious pizzas. In rainbow order, of course.

Also, I recently made these cuties. Some of you long-time readers may have noticed that I haven't been doing as much baking as I used to. Mr. Vegan Eats & Treats has really changed his diet and his efforts at watching calories have had a positive impact on the whole House of Good Repute*. But last week, in my Tuesday night yoga class, we discovered that we had four birthdays within about a week of each other... so I decided to have a little birthday celebration! We've got a couple gluten-free folks in that class, so naturally I wanted my treats to be enjoyed by all. I turned to the timeless classic, Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World, and made a half-batch of both the gluten-free vanilla cuppers and the GF chocolate cuppers, and then marbled them. Because marbled is more fun and special than plain. I put chocolate frosting on them, but they looked prettier like this (my frosting piping skills apparently need a lot of work)! I think this was my first experiment with baking GF cupcakes and the results were so encouraging - great cupcakes loved and enjoyed by everyone! Hoorah!

* That's the name of our house. I like houses with names.

Finally... Last But Not Least! I am gearing up for round four of VeganMoFo. Starting in November, I will attempt to blog everyday for the whole month. Furthermore, I have big plans. I will be blogging "Around The World In 30 Days," featuring a different meal from a different country every day for the whole month. In geographical order! Because I am nerdy that way. I've been rifling through my extensive cookbook collection, and got a huge stack of books out of the library and I'm hard at work planning which recipes to cook and which countries to feature. It's hard to pick!

Putting My Tomatoes to Good Use!

Well, finally the tomatoes are starting to come in. We have had so much fog this summer, it's just crazy. I've nearly lost my long-range vision! Luckily, I only need short-range vision to pick tomatoes. Here you see some of my Stupice (red ones), SunGold (little orange babies), and Aunt Ruby's German Green (the green ones, duh!). Aren't they just beautiful!?
First things first... PIZZA! Yum! Using Vicolo corn meal pizza crusts, I added crushed garlic, fresh basil (lots!!!), fresh tomatoes, a dash of olive oil, and a sprinkling of coarse salt. This is one of the best foods I have ever eaten and I love it so so so much. Maybe I will marry it. Sorry for the dark picture, but we are too busy desperately enjoying the afternoon sun* to eat while it is still light out.

*(before the fog comes back in)

This simple salad was a HUGE German Green tomato with chickpeas and salad dressing. Perfect and crazy delicious. Served with green grapes, and some tamales which somehow escaped photo-documentation.

A summery lunch: 1 apple from my aunt's apple tree, 1 carrot, 1/2 yellow bell pepper, 1 green tomato, 4 cracker, 1 nectarine, 1 basket of strawberries, 1 giant blob of soy yogurt. All adds up to one happy belly!!! Also, I like to arrange my food in rainbow order whenever possible. This joy/affliction goes back many years to my early days of ravenous JellyBelly eating and organizing.

Finally, the piece d'resistance, "Coconut Crusted Tofu with Lemongrass and Peppers" from The Urban Vegan. WHOA. This recipe caught my eye the other day, and the book promised it was easy to make... Well, she was right! It was a pretty quick recipe (other than marinating the tofu), it was definitely under 1 hour from start to finish, but looks and tastes like a million bucks. Comments from Mr. Vegan Eats and Treats included "This is an instant classic!" "I don't like this. ... I love this!!" and "I used to just have affection for you... now, I love you!" Clearly, he is an enthusiastic eater.

The flavor combinations in this dish were really wonderful, I especially loved the sweetness from the coconut flakes on the tofus. I made a couple of tiny changes - I only pureed about 1/2-2/3 of the sauce, and left the rest chunky. Also, I turned the heat up to 425 at the end and gave the tofu an extra 5-7 minutes in the oven. Final bonus - Not only did this recipe call for some of our homegrown tomatoes, but I also finally got to use the lemongrass from my very own garden!! Super exciting!

VeganMoFo 22: In Which I Eat The Whole Entire Thing.

Please allow me to express my deep and enduring love for the Vicolo organic corn meal pizza crusts. Synonymous with yumminess and with super-scrumptious! Every once in a while, I'll blog about these for dinner... but rest assured, I make them more often than I blog about them. Especially this summer, with all our amazing tomato bounty, we have enjoyed them with some regularity.

I have a special favorite way of preparing them... it's easy and super delicious. In addition to everything pictured here, you need some salt and some olive oil.

Here is my mise-en-place of everything ready to go!

First I press one big garlic clove onto each crust, then I pour a little touch of olive oil on. Maybe 1/2 - 1 teaspoon.

Then I use my special culinary fingers to spread the olive oil and garlic evenly around the crust.

Next I pile on lots of basil chiffonade. Sometimes I use even more than this. Tomatoes go on top! One last thing, before baking, I sprinkle on a little touch of salt.

Here's the first one from last night, fresh out of the oven, with the some of the last few purple cherokee tomatoes off our vines... and a few errant cherry tomatoes for decoration.

... and here's the other, made with good ol' Early Girl tomatoes, a plant that is still going strong.

These pizzas are so extremely simple and delicious, they are heavenly. It is not uncommon for me to eat the whole thing in one sitting. Last night, though, I was a good girl and also prepared a bountiful salad and a couple sundried-tomato sausages... so I had a couple pieces left over to enjoy for breakfast this morning. A less gluttonous couple could easily split one pizza, but we don't swing that way!

Vegan MoFo 4: Isis Candy Pizza!

This year, I grew 6 varieties of tomatoes, and they all did well. Most of the varieties were tried and true favorites, but one was a total gamble: Isis Candy Cherry Tomatoes. I'm not sure what inspired me to try them... they probably had a good description on the tag, or maybe the guy who sells seedlings at the farmers' market recommended it. Either way, I LOVE these tomatoes!

The plant is huge and rangy and growing all over the driveway like crazy bonkers, and it's full of tomatoes. The Isis Candy tomatoes are bigger than the traditional cherry tomato, and they are orangey-red in color... often reddish at the base and orangey on top. I like this variety because if you eat them when they are still mostly orange, they have the clear acidic tomato flavor of a traditional tomato, but if you let them stay on the plant and turn much redder, then they have the much sweeter flavor that we associate with cherry tomatoes. Also, they are late-bearing, so they're still going strong long after most of my other tomatoes are decidedly winding down. Now that I have experienced the glory of Isis Candy, I'll for sure plant this variety again next year! Plus, I just really like that cool name.

Alongside our totally delicious Isis Candy Pizzas, we had the first roasted squash of the season - a beautiful and sweet delicata squash from our own front yard. Yummy!

A Week of Dinner Parties!

One night last week, I caved in and made one of my favorite tomato-season indulgences: a "Vicolo" corn meal pizza crust with garlic, olive oil, fresh basil, and piles of juicy ripe tomatoes. Oh, it is so so so good. I could eat it every night. But that wouldn't be healthy now, would it? Sigh. I could just eat it for a whole week, and tell you all that my camera was broken or something like that. But then, that wouldn't be healthy OR honest. I'll just have to enjoy it when I can!! :)

This is an especially beautiful rainbow salad that I made for us last week. I had to include it! The little orange & yellow cherry tomatoes are from our garden. Fun!

Dinner Party #1: Italian Night!
Last week our wonderful friends Fabrizio & Pasquale came over. They are both Italian astronomers who work with my dad and spend some portion of each year over here. Fabrizio and I get together pretty often when he's around, so that I can practice speaking Italian (which I speak reasonably well... but not nearly as well as I once did). We came up with a plan for them to come over and make pasta and then watch an Italian DVD together. It was a great night.

This picture does not do justice to the incredible yumminess of this pasta. It was made with olive oil, a small amount of onion, a LOT of cherry tomatoes from the garden, a can of Muir Glen tomato sauce, and a big pile of fresh basil from the garden. It was not what Fabrizio had initially envisioned - but it was very very good. Something about the cherry tomatoes made the sauce SO creamy. It was amazing. You could have sworn that it was full of cream.

It was so fun being in the kitchen with them - all speaking in Italian and joking about the pasta and its evolution. Would it be good or not??? Since things were evolving away from expectations, this was the big question. Italians are so delightfully specific about their pasta - and in the end it was delicious & we gobbled it all up. Fabrizio needn't have worried!

Here, Pasquale is serving up some steaming piles of pasta! Mmmm. Don't worry, we also had a big salad with dinner.

For dessert, I made this ****incredible**** melon sorbet. You know, there are a lot of vegan blogs out there these days - and it's always fun when you learn about a new one. One of my new favorites is the Urban Housewife. It's not 100% vegan, but she's fun to read and has some great ideas - including this one. I followed her recipe, but made a double batch and we had some incredible sorbet. I used a nice flavorful melon from the farmers market... sorry I don't remember what variety it was. We were all crazy about this yumminess. I can't wait to try it with all sorts of fruits.

Dinner Party #2: Mexi-feast!

Our super fun cousins were in town from North Carolina, and so we had a big family dinner party. So fun. They made a bunch of enchiladas - accomodating everyone's needs (some vegan, some with cheese, none with salt, some without spinach for my grandparents... so sweet). I was too busy eating, and forgot to document all the eats, but I did capture a pretty photo of the fresh Pico de Gallo salsa that I made. oooooh, I love homemade salsa.

Dinner Party #3: Labor Day Barbecue!

We had our patio redone this summer, and yesterday we got some really beautiful patio furniture. We got it at a neat place here in Santa Cruz, called Greenspace. They have all eco-friendly design/interior/home building supplies. The people there are super friendly and very helpful. We got a beautiful table & 4 chairs and a little side table - all made out of sustainably grown and harvested hardwoods. It's really well made and was SO much less expensive than everything else we looked at. Good for the earth AND the pocketbook!

So, we had a fun late afternoon bbq to celebrate. Lately, we are into small parties. As Musty put it, "small enough that everyone can be a part of the same conversation." It's nice because you are actually relaxed, and you get to visit with everyone - instead of running around refilling bowls of baby carrots or whatever. It's also fun to carefully pick small groups of friends that you think will enjoy each other's company.

Bell peppers & eggplants from the farmers market - ready for the grill

Here they are, on the grill!

Today's party was just wonderful- great warm weather, great company and super delicious food. One small oddity - our backyard (actually the whole house) is currently COVERED in little caterpillars. It's a long story, but the warm weather has lead to a serious bumper crop of Oak Moths. Now that they have *COMPLETELY* decimated the two giant oak trees in our neighbors' yard, they are crawling across our patio, and our driveway, and our clothing - in search of more oak trees to eat. They are kind of cute, but we all had to be careful about not sitting on them, and were constantly removing them from each other's clothing. Ha! Like little grooming monkeys.

I made the yummy Chicago Diner Veggie Burgers, from a Vegetarian Times article earlier in the summer. I made the stuff last night, so that they would have time to mix the flavors, and to get a bit more sticky for patty-making. The recipe says to make 8 patties, but that is just absurd. I made 14, and they were a good size. First you bake them, and then grill them on tinfoil. I'm not sure why, but I'm not complaining either - they turned out Great! Everyone loved them!

My mom brought along this delicious Baby Potato & Green Bean Salad. It's so delicious. It's from that great cookbook called "Vegan Mediterranean." Not sure exactly what it's called in there.

Of course there was corn on the cob from the Farmer's Market. 5 for $2.00! Organic & delish.

Here are the burger fixin's that I prepared. All from the farmers market - except for the beautiful and scrumptious golden tomato, which was from our very own front yard. Yeah!

Also, you can't really see it, but my friend Sandy gave me this gorgeous Polish serving dish last weekend and I love it. Thanks Sandy! xo

My aunt Laura brought along a colorful and delicious quinoa salad - full of veggies & flavors.

Here's Musty - grinnin' like a fool! You can see our pretty table and a couple of our new chairs (along with one of our old folding chairs). It was quite a spread!

I am a Half-Bun Person. I only use half of the bun, and then I use the burger as the top bun. Otherwise I get full so quickly. Why would I want to fill up on buns, when I could fill up on corn, potato salad, summer squash with cumin salad, and grilled veggies?? Oh yeah - it was a great dinner!
For dessert? Of course I had to make another batch of Urban Housewife's summery melon sorbet! This time it was EVEN BETTER. I used some sort of special melon - on the outside it looked like a cantaloupe, but inside was a beautiful light green & the flavor was like a very sweet honeydew. It was a great, refreshing treat.

They don't necessarily go great together- but I've also got a tree full of ripe apples, and there was 1 batch of pie crust in the freezer left over from when I made my blackberry pie a couple of weeks ago. I didn't have enough for a covered pie - so I decided on a galette. I picked about 8-10 apples, washed them, peeled them, and then cut out all the wormy bits - which is no small task. We've got great apples, but the bugs like them too. The galette turned out absolutely amazing!

This recipe is basically from the Joy of Cooking

1 batch of pie crust
8-10 apples, peeled, sliced 1/4 - 1/2 inch wedges
2 T Earth Balance margarine
3/4 cup sugar (I used Rapadura -yum!)
1 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
1/2 tsp cinnamon

Preheat the oven to 375 F. Roll out the crust into a big circle. It does not have to be perfect. Carefully transfer it to a large cooking tray lined with parchment paper. Set aside.

Heat the Earth Balance in a large skillet, until it's sizzling. Add the apples & stir it all up. Cover and cook for about 5 minutes until soft. Add the cinnamon, lemon juice, and sugar, stir around and cook until the sugar is dissolved.

Carefully spoon it into the center of the rolled out crust, leaving about 3 inches around the edge. Fold the edges in and let them overlap. If you have more juices in the skillet, spoon some over the apples.

Cook until the crust is golden. Sorry, I didn't look how long I cooked it for - I just kept checking. Maybe 20-30 minutes?

Lastly! I have posted pictures in the past of our cat Yummers gobbling up his veggies - well today I took a cute little movie of him enjoying Laurie's leftover corn cob. Corn is one of his all star most favorite foods... Look at him go!

Monster Post! - Pizza, Storing Basil, and New Products!

Okay, I'll start with our last few meals:

Two nights ago I made a very tasty dish from the last issue of "Vegetarian Times" - Lentils with Couscous and Chickpeas. It's really good! I made it exactly as the recipe said, except I used white canellini beans instead of chickpeas & I used my giant lebanese couscous. MMM! If you get VT, I really recommend this nice recipe. Musty and I both loved it, and we aren't even big lentil fans. Isn't that nice with the pine nuts and fresh mint on top?


I bought a package of 2 organic Viccolo cornmeal pizza crusts (see product reviews below)... oh these are SO GOOD. I know I've blogged about these many times before, but I just can't overemphasize how strongly I encourage you to run out and buy some! I make mine with 2 crushed garlic cloves, a 1/2 tsp of olive oil, a BIG pile of minced up fresh basil, and 1/4"-thick slices of fresh tomatoes. Ooooh. And, of course, with such simple ingredients, the better the ingredients, the better the pizza. It was so good, that we had it two nights in a row.

And tonight, we also had some nice little veggie side dishes with our pizzas: some sauteed summer squash with fresh parseley and basil, and some sauteed jacinto kale with garlic. MMM. Even Musty enjoyed his kale like this!

We've had some GREAT salads the last couple of nights too - lettuce and cukes & tomatoes & beautiful raw yellow beets & cashews & strawberries - even a nasturium flower on tonight's salad!

PRODUCT REVIEWS

I blog about these often because they are SO FANTASTIC! Most of all, I just wanted to alert you all that they are now available in organic variety - which only costs $.50 more. It's about $5 for two crusts, and I find that with a salad or veggie, one crust is easily enough for two people to share.
A new vegan cookie from Newman's Own Organics - Ginger "Hermits" cookies. They're soft, chewy, filled with raisins and molasses, and Very Good! Apparently they come in two other flavors too, but ginger was all I saw, and it sounded good to me!

I saw these Shady Maple Farms "Maple Chunks" at the grocery store - and they caught my eye. Then, I also saw them in the cupboard at our friends' house and got to try them. YUM. They make a nice little sweet niblet, but the thing that really caught my eye was the suggestion to bake them into cookies for a crunchy maple explosion. I think I'll be trying that soon!

STORING FRESH BASIL

I am so grateful for this amazing tip, I realized that I should share it with all of you. After trying many different and inadequate methods for keeping fresh basil, I finally found one that REALLY works. I've been using this method for about a year, always with great results.

Get enough paper towel to wrap around the leaves and moisten it. Wrap the leaves and put the whole thing in a plastic bag. Refridgerate until needed.Check out how great my basil still looks a whole WEEK after I bought it at the farmer's market!

That'll probably be it for a few days - tomorrow is Musty's birthday, and then we're off to visit our god-daughter up in Mendocino for 3 days. I'll be sure to take lots of foodie pics though, and tell you all about it when we get back!

Pizza & An Indian-Themed Dinner Party

Last night I made some of my favorite tomato pizzas on the storebought "Viccolo" cornmeal pizza crusts. I've blogged about these before... they are just so good & I had to have it one more time, while there were still big fat heirloom tomatoes at the market and basil leaves on my basil plant. As is always the case, they were insanely delicious. I just put on a couple cloves of garlic (put through the press), a 1/2 teaspoon or so of good olive oil, a ton of minced fresh basil, and some big thick tomato slices (oh and a little sprinkling of salt)... cook it for about 25 minutes at 425... heaven!

Also, tonight we had our next-door neighbors over for dinner & to look at some pictures from our trip. One of our neighbors doesn't eat dairy (no problem), but also prefers not to eat wheat or soy... so I wanted to come up with something that would be tasty and fit everyone's preferences. I am always so touched when people accomodate my vegan-ness... so I really like to make sure that my guests also feel welcomed!

So, in the end I went with Indian food - easily vegan and easily wheat and soy-free!
I made this Rasam Tomato Soup, which JenniferSchmoo at Vegan Lunch Box just blogged about! It was easy, spicy, and delish!!! When we were in South India about 3 years ago, one of the very best meals we had was some spicy tomato soup... This recipe was different, but still very good - and closer than anything else we've found. A new favorite for sure! For the main course, I made the Spicy Rice with Toasted Almonds from the VwaV book (very easy and very tasty), and a homemade concontion with cauliflower and chickpeas. For the Spicy Rice I decided to tone down the spicy-ness a bit, and also just oven-toasted the nuts instead of frying them. I loved the rice... a great recipe full of flavors & textures.For the Veggie Curry, I cut up a whole head of cauliflower and steamed it for about 4 minutes. Then I sauteed a can of chickpeas (drained) with some cumin, coriander, turmeric, fennel seeds, cayenne, and salt for about 5 min. I added in the steamed cauliflower, and some frozen peas (and a touch of water), and cooked about 5 min more. Tossed in a big handful of cilantro and a couple of chopped up tomatoes... voila!

It was a great meal! For dessert we had some coconut sorbet with toasted slivered almonds and chocolate sauce.... but that was eaten too quickly to photo-document. Sorry!