I Bought a Papaya

The Papaya in Question

This entire post is dedicated to the fact that I bought a papaya for myself, ate it, loved it, and went back and bought another papaya.

Here's the thing, where I live in Coastal California, there is abundant local, organic, seasonal fruit all year long. Whatever time of year it is, I can purchase great fruit for myself at the market: apples and pears, oranges and pomelos, berries and cherries, melons, etc. So I almost never buy tropical fruit. It's not quite a moral principle... but it's just like "I don't need to do that, so I shouldn't." I probably buy bananas 1-2x a year if the spirit moves me, and lately I have been enjoying the occassional chocolate-dipped frozen banana. Mangos, maybe 1 per year, but they're rarely as good as I know they could be. 

But a papaya? I don't know how long it had been. Easily a few years. For some reason, as soon as Covid and the shelter-in-place restrictions hit our community, I started thinking about papayas. It was a very stressful time for me, because my business partners and I had to make the decision to move all the yoga classes online, learn how to teach online, tell the students, etc. It was overwhelming. And I kept thinking about papayas.

This is the second papaya.

So, finally, after about six weeks, I drove down to the little open-air produce market near our house and BOUGHT MYSELF A GOSH-DARNED PAPAYA.

Guess what??? It was extremely perfect, excellent, delicious. Everything I ever wanted it to be. It was huge, so I parsed it out over 4 days, in 4 big bowls of giant papaya chunks, doused liberally with fresh lime juice. 

Bask in the glory

Believe you me, I have been indulging in all the usual comfort foods of chocolate and carbs as much as the next stressed out global citizen... but these papayas filled a special and mysterious void in my heart. I will probably have to go get another one, even though now berry season is fast approaching. I mean, one more. Right? 

dreaming of more papayas

Lime Bonanza: Marmalade, Jam, Syrup, Juice...

Forward: Thank you all so much for your resounding encouragement to publish some of the blog posts I wrote last year but somehow never hit "publish." This is the first of several! I wrote this last year, but it's well-timed because our lime tree is going full throttle at this very moment. I've given away huge boxes of limes, and plan to start another batch of marmalade this afternoon. I hope you enjoy the post! 

~ 

We have a really lovely lime tree, and it goes through these phases where it just pumps out SO MANY LIMES. In the "olden days," I used to bring huge boxes of limes into my yoga classes and share them with my students. But this year, everything was shut down.. and there were literally limes raining down upon us. I can't stand watching good food go to waste, so I got busy! I did lots of new things that I'd never done before, and made a few old favorites. 

First up, Lime Marmalade!

One project I did make time for was a big batch of my Lime Marmalade - ripe fruit waits for no man, and pandemic-or-not, it was time to get cookin'. I use two different varieties of limes from our trees: Bearrs Limes (which look like lemons) and Calamondin Limes (which look like tiny tangerines). Together they make a really wonderful marmalade! I use this recipe every time, but I reduce the sugar quite a bit, and just boil a bit longer to get a good set. This was a late-night project, and it was so fun to set out all the jars in the backyard for their big photoshoot and see how beautiful they are. Marmalade tastes amazing and is also so beautiful.

All in a day's work. 

For a while there, I could pick up at least this many limes (and a few oranges) every couple days. These are just the ones that fell off the tree onto the ground! 

lime juice ice cubes!

One easy thing I did was make two batches of lime juice cubes. The funny thing about our lime tree is that it goes through these phases of overwhelming abundance, and then long stretches where the tree is busy making a new batch of limes. So, these ice cubes will be good to have when the limes are gone, whenever a recipe calls for fresh lime juice. 

Juicing up the Wazoo

The first couple batches I did, I didn't even bother doing anything productive with these lime peels. Later, I learned that I could have dried them in the dehydrator and made lime powder!! I really look forward to doing that NEXT TIME. 

I filled several large jars full of juice... and then I had to put it all to use! 

CANNING BONANZA! 

So, I went on a serious canning rampage!  I made:

~ Straight-Up Canned Lime Juice: I had never done this before. I just brought the lime juice to a boil, canned it (in tiny jars), and boiled the jars for 5-10 minutes. So easy! This is cool because they're shelf-stable and won't take up value covid-hoarding space in the freezer like the lime juice cubes. 

~ Lime Syrup: This was another new one for me! I looked at a few recipes online and ended up doing 3 cups lime juice to 2 cups sugar. Bring to a boil, simmer until the sugar is totally dissolved, can it up, and boil the jars for 10 minutes. I love this stuff! Limeade on demand, all year long! I've been adding a little teaspoon or two to my fizzy water, and it's great. The limes are finally slowing down, but I think I'll make another batch of this before they stop entirely, because it's really nice! 

~ Blueberry Lime Jam: Yet another new-to-me recipe! There are several blueberry-lime jam recipes out there, and in the end I used this recipe. I recently found a cool neighbor who sells blueberries - (and honestly this jam doesn't use that many limes) - so this was really a fun project. I'll probably keep 1 jar for use and give some away for xmas gifts. 

~ and ... I made another HUGE double batch of marmalade! This time I used the Bearrs Limes, the Calamondin limes, and about a half pound of Meyer lemons. Oh my gosh, just look at all those beautiful jars of goodness. I've already given several jars away, and some will be xmas gifties too. I could seriously look deep into the eyes of marmalade forever. It's so pretty.

Dried Limes!!!

Huge props to my friend and yoga student Carol for suggesting that since I love Persian food so much, I might try my hand at making dried limes! I can't believe it had never occurred to me to make these. I just assumed they would be made with some special limes or something. NOPE! I watched a few youtube videos - and they were easy to make. Blanch the limes in salted water for 90 seconds. Cool in freezer or ice water. Set outside until shriveled and blackened. We were having a little heat spell, so my limes spent the first couple days outside drying. For better or for worse, Coastal California isn't quite as dry and toasty as the desert climate of Iran, so the fog rolled in and I finished drying my limes in two overnight stints at 170F in the oven. So cool! 

I love the funky flavor that dried limes impart, and I'm pretty thrilled to have my own homemade batch on hand. I have a couple recipes bookmarked to put them to use soon. 

Candied Citrus Peel!

I also made a big batch of candied peels - mostly limes, a few oranges from our orange tree, a grapefruit, and a couple pomelos too. It was a fun project and I canned the syrup from boiling the peels afterwards too. You can't really tell, but this is a BIG ziplock full of candied peels. I'll be able to munch on these, and also use them in baked goods. Yum.

So, there you have it! There are just a few limes left now... so I'll use them wisely, and get to work on other culinary projects in the meantime. All this canning and lime-ing was a nice duty to have during the most stressful shelter-in-place days... but I'm also a little relieved to be done with all those limes coming out of my ears!!! 

Burning Question Buns & Brunch

Happy SpringTime! 

This weekend we had a very sweet little brunch-in-the-backyard with my parents - "just us chickens," as we say in our family. We aren't Easter people, per se, but we are definitely "any chance to get together" people! And so a brunch was convened! 

I made a nice little spread, and my mom brought over some of her cute spring-y decor items. I know it seems like a ton of food - ha ha - but my nephew was also supposed to come and couldn't at the last minute.

I made five glasses of freshly-squeezed orange juice with oranges from our very own tree! It was so good. Our orange trees have lots of oranges on them, but you have to be patient! I usually just wait until they fall off the tree, and save those until there are enough for some OJ!

Roasted Asparagus!! Asparagus is a must-have, of course! I got two big bunches at the farmers market, and Googled "how to roast asparagus." I think maaaaybe I've roasted asparagus before but, geez, I'm in love!! It was super easy, took about 12 minutes, and they were delicious!!! Definitely my new go-to method.

I also made two kinds of breakfast sausage links: Field Roast and Beyond Meat. None of us had ever tried the Beyond Meat links before. We all agreed that we preferred the look and texture of the Beyond Meat links, but the Field Roast links had better flavor. So, I'll probably stick with Field Roast, because, in the end, flavor wins.

And fruit salad, cuz ya gotta have it! 

Burning Question Buns! 

I am a true fan of Hot Cross Buns, but the cross never really reflects my belief system. Delicious fruity buns certainly do though! So, Mr. VE&T had the excellent idea to put big question marks on the buns!! YES. At first, we called them Hot Question Buns, and Agnosti-Buns, but then Mr VE&T came up with BURNING QUESTION BUNS. Excellent. Finally, I feel seen by my holiday baked goods.

  

My plate of deliciousness. Don't be fooled, I totes went back for more. 

I have these cute little Peter Rabbit napkins left over from a baby shower - which was co-incidentally the very last gathering we held before covid changed everything! Perfectly appropriate for Easter-y celebrations! 

My mom even brought over a little Smurfette dressed up as the Easter Bunny, back from my days as a smurf-collecting kiddo. I used to be SERIOUSLY into Smurfs. Ha ha. See my cute plate with a bunny on it? I have four of them, and in each one, the bunny is holding something different - a strawberry, a carrot... they're so cute. I literally use them once a year. ha ha. 

We had a really long and lovely visit together with my parents. My parents are both vaccinated now, and I even got to sit next to my mom on our little patio sofa. Ahh. Such a sweet and tender joy. We talked and talked about a million things, laughed, ate, and relaxed. It was all quite sweet. You know how it is... we just don't take anything for granted these days. 

The jasmine in our backyard is going gangbusters. At night, it smells especially amazing. 

Shaggy Chunko is such a good boy and we have been walking them at a place where the grass is tall and green right now. Shaggy loves to run through the tall grass and stop for a nibble or two. Also, see the little white flowers - they're everywhere right now, and they're so sweet and delicate.

I hope you are able to enjoy springtime, and that you are finding some joy and support in all the greenery and blossoms and blue skies. 

-- Also! I have a funny question: I have at least 7-8 blog posts that I pretty much entirely wrote last year and never published... mostly because our scanner was busted and so I couldn't add doodles to my posts and that was enough to never finish them. Should I still publish them? I also have some overdue book reviews to write, so I will pledge to do that! 

 

NoRooz Mobarak!

NoRooz Mobarak!!

Happy Persian New Year! Happy Springtime!  Nothing like my favorite holiday of the whole year to pull me back to the blogosphere... NoRooz is celebrated on the vernal equinox, and last year, it arrived just about 10 days after we had closed down our yoga studio and the fear and newness of Covid restrictions were at a peak. With a heavy heart, I emailed everyone and cancelled our NoRooz party. We all agreed. It was, as you know, the first of many cancellations! 

I was so wiped out last year, I didn't make a single special dish, and I didn't even set up my Haft Sin table. This year, I was feeling better - and I so grew my sprouts from lentils and set up my beautiful table (and moved it outside for our gathering)... just this act made me feel so happy and festive. It's amazing how traditions take on so much meaning over the years. 

me showing off the table of food and explaining the dishes to everyone

This year, one year later, we bravely decided to gather a small group for a backyard celebration. I can't even tell you how much this meant to me - the joy of anticipation and planning, the joy of cooking for people I love, the joy of togetherness! Having to cancel last year's gathering made this year's downsized event all the sweeter. 

There are some very special people who I love and who are so important to me that I didn't get to invite this year. Our backyard isn't tiny, but 8 is about a covid-safe max. I really look forward to next year - when hopefully I can return to invite people with wild abandon!!! 

The weather just *barely* cooperated - we had a few sprinkles, and some wind gusts, but by later in the afternoon the sun was out. A perfect first day of spring! 

Kuku Sabzi

Oh my goodness, these guys are SO DELICIOUS. Seriously, everyone needs to know about this recipe - such incredibly interesting and lovely flavors.

Traditionally, kuku sabzi is an eggy omelette, mixed with bajillions of fresh herbs. Over the years I've veganized it lots of ways. My recipe can be found here - this year I made an important change: I left out the water!! This was a big improvement as far as cooking time and texture. Also, I cooked them in my muffin tin with silicon muffin cups, which made it MUCH easier to get them out of the muffin tray (after cooling for a few minutes). This is definitely the way to do it! 

NoRooz dishes are often brimming with herbs (parsley, cilantro, chives, spinach, fenugreek, dill, leeks...), which are not only delicious and nutritious, but symbolize all the green growth of springtime! The meaning and beauty behind the symbols of NoRooz is so beautiful and life-affirming. This is why it's such a beloved holiday for me.

Cheese Platters

This year I made a *concerted effort* not to over-commit with this little gathering... and actually I was successful, because I had plenty of time to get everything ready before my guests arrived. However, that did mean that I had to somewhat compromise on my usual NoRooz tendencies - I used store-bought bread and store-bought vegan cheese!! GASP. My loving guests forgave me.

In the interest of keeping everything as covid-safe as possible, I made the cheese into little single-serve nuggets. I bought Treeline Cheese (so good!) and used my melon baller to make mini-balls. Then I rolled these in a mix of parsley, mint, and chopped walnuts. They were great! 

Shirazi Salad

Just the basics and they can't be beat! Lucky me to live in the land of amazing produce - I zipped out of the house at 7:30am and nabbed these *perfect* organic tomatoes and cucumbers straight from the farmers market. What a blessing. I added some red onion, and a simple dressing made with olive oil, pomegranate molasses, red wine vinegar, and lime juice. You can't tell here, but this was a HUGE salad. 

If Mr. VE&T had a top-5 foods list, "tomato-cucumber salad" would be near the top. He loves salads like this, and he single-handled polished off all the salad that was left at the end of the day! 

Aash-e Restheh

Oooooh, this soup is so good and so packed with flavors. One of the great things about Persian New Year is that the food is actually quite healthy - so you aren't left feeling blotto afterwards. This amazing and traditional soup is super-simple to veganize by using veggie broth (that's all it takes!). You can find my recipe here. It's got beans and lentils and spinach and beets and noodles and loads of herbs, and it's absolutely delicious. This is one of the dishes that I most look forward to every year. It takes a good 2-3 hours to make, but since I'm always in the kitchen doing a vast array of NoRooz cooking, it's no trouble at all. I love the aroma as the whole house starts to smell like herbs and turmeric and onions... 

Garnish for the soup

Speaking of which... this is the *amazing* garnish that goes with Aash-e Reshteh: it's onions sliced verrrrrrrry thinly, cooked down and cooked down and cooked down, and then with dried turmeric and dried mint mixed in, and then cooked some more. Oooooooh it's just an incredible flavor BLAST.

I always make a lot so that my beloved friend Jasmine and I don't have to fight over it. Ha ha. 

Sabzi Polow

I'm sure you've heard of Persian rice, and especially of Tahdig - the magical crunchy crust at the bottom of the pot. Let's just say that Persians seriously figured out how to make rice!!! It's more complicated than "throw it in a pot!," but the results are so totes worth it. Sabzi Polow is mixed full of herbs (with just the bottom level left herb-free). I wished I had gotten a *little* bit more of a golden glow on my tahdig, but all in all, I was pleased with this year's polow! There's always a heart-stopping moment-of-truth when you flip your rice pot over onto the serving platter - hoping for a good golden crust and no burnt bits! It's very exciting! You can find my recipe here. 

Eggplant Pickle by my cousin Bruce! 

Wow! How special to receive a very lovely jar of homemade Eggplant pickle made by my cousin Bruce up in Portland. I don't think I've ever actually celebrated NoRooz with Brucie (maybe someday???) - but Bruce and his sister Eliza and their parents lived in Iran for several years before the Iranian Revolution, and they all still speak some Farsi and have many beloved Iranian friends. That side of my family were the first people to introduce me to Iranian culture. 

This pickle had special instructions "don't use before the vernal equinox!" - I love that! I was very dutiful, and saved it for NoRooz. I love trying pickles of the world - and this was a great condiment with our meal! Very special. Thank you Bruce! 

Limeade!

I made two quick-and-easy pitchers of Limeade: using a simple syrup made with coconut sugar (thus the lovely dark amber color), fizzy water, and lime juice (from our lime trees) - added in some fresh mint leaves and lime slices for extra pizzazz. That super fancy and ornate pitcher came from my dad's grandmother in North Carolina. She had very ornate taste! I don't get to pull it out all that often, for obvious reasons... so it's fun to get it out and put it to use! 

My plate full of goooooooodness

Ahhhhh. So many delicious and magical and beloved flavors all on one plate. 

I even busted out my cloth napkins, which were sadly rumpled after one whole year of no entertaining.

ha ha

Sweeties Platter!!

Of course you need lots of sweeties for Persian New Year, and it's impossible to pick just one! This year I practiced incredible self-restraint by only making four sweeties. Amazing, right?

Here you have:

Sohan As-Ali - a wonderful almond brittle candy made with rosewater and saffron and then sprinkled with crushed pistachios. Oh my goodness I love these candies so much. Over the years I have gotten better and better at making these - I used to experience so much stress and anxiety every time!! ha ha. If you've ever tried your hand at candy-making, I think you probably know what I mean. I've figured out the drill and also finally bought a digital candy thermometer, which definitely helps!  Just writing about these lil babies made me get up and go eat one of the few that we have leftover. Ahhh. 

Tut - the little oval ones are marzipans made with almonds, icing sugar, and rosewater, then rolled in sugar and with a little pistachio "stem" poked in at one end. They are meant to resemble mulberries. These candies are so extremely simple to make (if you used pre-ground almond meal, you wouldn't even need a food processor), and they are extremely delicious. Not too sweet, but entirely satisfying. 

Nane-Nokhodchi - The little golden cookies are made with chickpea flour, cardamom, and rosewater. Mine were a little "spready" this year, but the flavor was delicious. I think these ones are especially good the next day! 

Mini-Key Lime Pies!

Wait! Mini-Key Pies don't sound very Persian!!!??? You're right! However, key lime pie is a traditional part of *our family's celebration*, because my dad's birthday is today (March 21st). Key Lime Pie is one of his very favorite treats. Instead of making one beautiful pie like I usually do, I went for single serve, covid-safe, mini pies!

(bonus Shaggy Chunko sighting in the background. He follows me everywhere! He could literally be in every picture I took if I just zoomed out a little. ha ha)

Birthday Boy! and my Momsie!

Today my dad is 84 years old, and just got his second vaccine this week. Wooo! My mom is all vaxxed up and once my dad's 2-week post-vaccination wait is over, I'm gonna give that guy a big ol' hug!! 

All in all, it was an absolutely wonderful and perfect NoRooz - a sweet vibe with everyone feeling so grateful to be together and to have an opportunity to recognize the new year and appreciate the fresh energy and beauty of spring time. I hope you're doing okay out there, and that you can find a little way to mark the arrival of spring. <3 

p.s. One good thing about entertaining outside is that no one can see that your kitchen looks like a BOMB went off. ha ha ha Oh Lordy, it took me a good few hours to do all the dishes and get the kitchen back in working order after all of that!