mondaze

There is never enough time in the day! I haven't had a chance to update this blog in a few days because time has been slip-slidin' away from me. But, rest assured that I have been eating. Last week I was dog-sitting a lovely pup named Zeke. He's swell. And, his house is awesome. Right in the Mexican War Streets--close to the park, close to Beleza. Perfect. I filled me with joy to be walking around in that 'hood for a few days. That's livin'. I always knew I liked that neighborhood, but now I *love* it! I'm going to dog-sit Zeke again this weekend, and I'm really looking forward to it. I heard my neighbor's dog let out a little whine yesterday that sounded exactly like Zeke's, and it made me miss him--real bad! This is his adorable face.

He and the K-Bear are now BFFs, and that's real sweet. And, they both love the "caleb cookie" treats I made. I'm going to have to make up a new batch tout suite.

Maggie came over for dinner on Friday, and we had leftovers of the vegan sprout burgers, the mushroom quinoa and sprouted hummus with carrots and peas. I'm not sure why all my pictures came out fuzzy. I must've had my camera on the wrong setting. Hope it's not too annoying. Maybe you should squint for best viewing. No, squint harder. No, harder.

And, then we made the spiced caramel corn. She made the popcorn this time, and it was so easy! Why is it so hard for me? Is it because I have hate in my heart? Anyway, it was fluffy and delicious and addictive. Again, Heidi = genius.

Speaking of, on Saturday night I had a friend over for dinner, and made a little Japanese-ish feast. I wanted a meal that would be energizing, so I made some edamame, veggie sushi, otsu and genmaicha tea. And, ginger ice cream with caramel-coconut sauce. Dang. It was some serious delicious.

For the veggie sushi, I used nori, brown basmati rice (which I kinda burned, but just used the non-burnt part which tasted toasty 'cause of the burn) with sushi vinegar powder, grated beets, baby corn, peas, carrots, avocado, enoki mushrooms, green onions, cucumber, red bell pepper and wasabi. It was absolutely lovely.

The noodle dish was Otsu from Heidi's Super Natural Cooking. It's soba (buckwheat) noodles with a spicy-hot ginger sesame sauce with tofu, cucumbers and green onion. The sauce for this is so good that you could dive into a vat of it with your mouth open. Yum.

The ice cream and sauce recipe, I found on the blog My Husband Cooks. Here's the recipe: http://myhusbandcooks.wordpress.com/2006/10/25/ginger-in-ice-cream-hmm/


Okay. Gotta head out now. The Queer Dinner is tonight at the Gypsy Cafe (http://gypsycafe.net/), and they always have fantastic food. Yummy.

homecoming

Yay! I like having a real-life, grown-up blog instead of just my myspace account. Plus, it was just a little embarrassing when I'd mention my blog and someone wanted to read it, but then they also saw my silly myspace stuff, too. Anyway, yeah. Feels good to be home!

I went to four innings of a Pirates game last night with Lauren and her friend Henry. (I had to leave early because I was dog-sitting and Lost was on...but, I fell asleep during Lost. dang!).


For our sports snacks, I made a batch of Heidi's Sprouted Garbanzo Burgers (from Super Natural Cooking), but changed the recipe I tiny bit to make them vegan. The original recipe calls for 4 eggs, and I wasn't quite sure what the best substitute would be. I ended up using flax seeds (grind up 1 T. in a coffee/spice grinder, and mix with 3 T. water to equal one egg. It should kinda have the consistency of egg whites), and it came out perfectly! So perfectly, in fact, that I may just make that my standard. They were a little bit wetter than the original egg version, but otherwise tasted the same--which is to say: yummy!



I made a vegan mayo (again, Heidi's Super Natural Cooking), and mixed a little with some miso paste. We used that to top the burgers along with some sun-dried tomato paste (I bought it), fresh spinach leaves, grated carrot and onion slices. And, some of the leftover spiced caramel corn for dessert (does it still count as dessert when you eat it first?).

It was fun, and I got to see a Pirates home run, someone catch a pop fly in one bare hand, and get schooled by a random passing sports fan 'cause I thought I was standing in front of the Roberto Clemente statue when it was, in fact, Willie Stargill. Silly me.

Also, made some quinoa with creamy fromage du pays and sauteed mushrooms--loosely based on another Heidi recipe. I shoulda stuck to the recipe because my version came out kinda boring, but Ellen said she made the original and it was delish.


I'm dog-sitting tonight, so probably no cooking. Just have to figure out what to forage from the fridge and cabinets before I go settle in with Zeke (my new dog pal).

from 5/15/2007

I did no cooking last night, but I did do some snacking!

I went to book club, and I brought the spiced caramel corn and sprouted hummus. Kara made these beautiful little fresh rolls that were amazingly deelish. Roya brought a vegan peanut-butter pie that was bomb. And, there were fresh veggies and fruit, edamame, and greyhounds (the drink, not the dog). Yummy.

Tomorrow I'm going to a Pirates game with Lauren, and volunteered to make the snacks. I want to make the Sprouted Garbanzo Burgers, but need to make them vegan. The original recipe calls for four eggs, so I've thought about using flax seeds, but they have a fairly distinctive taste--especially with that many. Maybe half flax seeds and half soy yogurt? Maybe some vegetable broth? Anyone have any ideas? I'm gonna be really bummed if they don't come out since it takes about 4-5 days to sprout the little babies.

Awwww, babies!


I'm currently enjoying a cup of Guayaki Greener Green Tea, compliments of Hurd. She gave all the book clubbers a snack-pack of the greener green and the mate chocolate tea last night. I'm not really such a fan of yerba mate (so bitter!), but Hurd raves about this tea, and it's good for you (mate, green tea, lemongrass), so I'm giving it a try. After a (big) spoon of honey, it's pretty good. But, I'll stick with my favorite tea of all time. Lemon Solstice from Tea Source (http://teasource.com/index.htm). It's a black tea with almond brittle, lemongrass, flavor (??), licorice roots, strawberry pieces, and blackberry pieces. An ex-girlfriend's dad sent her some from Minnesota, and I've been hooked ever since. It's the Best Tea In The World!

I have not lost a pound in almost two weeks. That is making me mad. But, mostly mad at myself because I haven't been exercising. My feet have really been bothering me (plantar fasciitis), but I finally made an appointment with a podiatrist for this Friday. I normally am not such a big fan of the doctor's office, but I can't wait for this appointment. I hope he's able to help. I'm ready to get out and about. But, in the meantime I could be doing yoga or swimming, which I'm not. I gotta get on the stick. I've become complacent, and complacency is never good. At least Operation Sappho is this weekend where I will surely shake it-shake it.

A woman I work with stopped by my desk a bit ago, and said, "why do you always have weird food on your desk? are you a vegetarian or something?" (I had soybeans, some spiced popcorn and a wrap on my desk). So, we started talking about food and nutrition and organic/local and farmers markets and all the stuff that I LOVE to talk about, and now she wants me to send her info on the Firehouse farmers market and CSAs and the co-op! Hee! And, two other women wandered over during the conversation, and they want the info, too. I love it when eating is a political act.

And, that reminds me. My mom called this weekend while I was cooking, and I was telling her about what I was making. She cautioned me, "You know that organic can kill you, right?". Um, what?! Somehow she had the idea that all the e-coli outbreaks were organic products and that "they use cow manure, and it can creep up the stems and kill you." Now, meanwhile, my step-dad grew up on a farm, which they now live on. It's no longer functional, but they do have a garden every year. Which they fertilize. With manure. Evidently my mom doesn't realize this. I don't know. Or, maybe they say that organic stuff is from the devil on Christian talk radio. But, she did buy tofu and soy crumbles last week. She hasn't used them, but they're still in the fridge. Probably plotting her demise.

I'm not sure, but I'm guessing that the subject of this Natalie Dee (http://www.nataliedee.com/) comic is organic.

from 5/14/2007

Dang! Does it get any more beautiful that Pittsburgh this past weekend? And, today, and the most of the rest of the week? Pittsburgh--you are lookin' cuh-yoot!

I had a great weekend! But, I did officially turn old yesterday. I woke up at 5:00 a.m. and was okay with that, and then I threw my back out in the afternoon! What the bleep! Next thing you know I'll be asking you to pre-chew my food and complaining that the kids are making too much noise past 4:30 p.m. I thought aging was a more gradual process.

Anyway. It's still sore, but much better than yesterday. I did have to call off kayaking and dinner last night, but it ended up being really nice just lying on the couch and watching netflixes and finishing the book club book.

I made some dog treats this weekend, and the K-Bear went crazy for them! I kept trying to get a picture of him getting ready to eat one, but he kept eating them before the picture snapped. I finally got one, but only because I threw down five at a time. When the picture had taken, only one cookie and a crumb were left. That's a good sign, though! I read through about a hundred recipes, and then just made up a recipe with stuff I had on hand. They're all-natural, organic and vegetarian, but you could use some type of meat broth if you wanted. I just had a bunch of vegetable stock that I made last weekend, so I used that.





I ate one with some cheese. It was pretty good. Like a cracker that needed some salt or a biscuit/cookie that needed some sugar. And, I've given snack-packs to three other dogs, and they dug them, too. I'm going to figure up how much they cost me to make, and maybe sell them as one of my side projects. They were fun. I think my favorite kitchen tasks are chopping and rolling out dough (especially with my awesome new french rolling pin).



Anyhow. So, the Firehouse Farmers Market started up their season on Saturday! It's the only (mostly) organic farmers market in the 'Burgh. It's small, but has lots of great vendors. Ellen and I walked over on Saturday morning to get there when it opened and do a little looking around in the shops, too. We went to Reyna, where I got another batch of their lovely tortillas, but I did not buy this:


But, here's what I did buy from the farmers market:

asparagus from Next Life Farms; eggs from Deron Johnson (the Polish Hill honey guy); Minerva butter; baklava, spicy hot beans plaki and muhummara from Najat's Cuisine; green onions, sorrel and radish microgreens from Pucker Brush Farms. YUM!

I used several of those gems for lunch. I made two, um, cheese crisp (?) type things. One had sundried tomato spread, spinach, basil, garlic, calimyrna figs, gimme lean sausage (already crumbled & fried), green onions and this really creamy and delicious fromage du pays.

The other had muhummara, radish greens, green onions and feta.


Then, on Saturday afternoon I went to the Craft Factory at the Mattress Factory (http://www.mattress.org/). I'm embarrassed to admit that I'd never gone through the museum. I'd been to the temporary James Turrell exhibit a couple of years ago where you sat in this room at either sunrise or sunset and watched how the light entered and changed with the outside light that was entering through this recessed ceiling thing. Anyway. So, I went with Lauren, and we spent the afternoon there, and it was *awesome*. If you haven't been, you should. So cool.

Last night I made my treat to take to book club tonight. Guess where I got the recipe! Heidi! From Super Natural Cooking, and it is awesome! I hate (hate!) to make popcorn the good ol' fashioned way, but I did it for Heidi. I forgot to bring the recipe with me, but I did bring some of the corn itself. It is so freaking good and addictive. You use a caramel of brown rice syrup and maple syrup and add nutmeg, chili powder, salt and toasted nuts and seeds (I used pecans, pistachios, almonds, pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds and sunflower seeds). I also added a little cinnamon (and next time I'll add a little mesquite, too). Sweet, spicy, salty. It doesn't get better than this. I even shook a giant pot of popcorn with a bad back for this.


I brought some with my lunch today, along with a wrap I made with some of my sprouted hummus, spinach, radish microgreens, spicy beans plaki, carrots and feta. It was spicy and deeeelish!



Okay. I think that may have been the Longest Blog Post Ever. Phew!

from 5/11/2007

I love having a friend over for dinner. It makes cooking even more fun when at the end someone says, "this is great!". I'm a sucker for a compliment. As Maggie is wont to say: Will Work For Praise. Plus, I love the combo of chilling out around the house, but also having a friend chill out with you--and, in the case of last night, play a rousing game of Scrabble!

I made pea "ravioli" (with wonton wrappers) from a recipe in this month's Vegetarian Times magazine (they have a bunch of pea recipes in this issue, and I love-love-love spring veggies). As a kid I hated peas, but my mom also liked to open a can of them, and then boil them down to a colorless mush. (My mom's actually a really good cook, but she had the tendency to way overcook the veggies).

I forgot to bring the issue with me for the recipe, but I think I remember it:

Pea Ravioli
(4 servings)

2 c. fresh or frozen peas
2 shallots, quartered
1 clove garlic
1/4 c. parmesan cheese, grated (I used manchego)
36 wonton wrappers
sea salt, to taste

Bring a pot of water to a rolling boil, and add the peas. Cook about 2-3 minutes, then drain and reserve 1/4 c. of the cooking liquid.

Puree the peas with the other ingredients in a food processor.

Here's the pea puree because it's so gorgeously green!


Work quickly with the wonton wrappers because they dry out quickly. Wet the edges with water, put a little of the pea filling in the center, and fold into a triangle, sealing the edges. Place on a tray lined with damp paper towels, and cover the ravioli with more damp paper towels so they don't dry out.

Bring another salted pot of water to boil, and drop in the ravioli. Cook about 3 mintues, then remove with a slotted spoon to skillet with your sauce.

In the article they suggested using a tomato sauce or butter and parmesan sauce, but I've been thinking about a sauce from Heidi's Cook 1.0--a lemon cream. I didn't want to make it that heavy with the cream, but I used it as an inspiration. So, for the sauce:

zest of 4 lemons
juice of 1 lemon
4 ramps - bulbs and stems
1/4 c. olive oil
1/2 c. grated machego cheese (could use parmesan), plus another 1/4 c. for topping
1 large bunch of asparagus, cut into 1" pieces and blanched
crushed red pepper flakes

Heat the zest, juice, ramps and oil in a large skillet. Add the asparagus and raviolis and toss to warm and coat. Add the manchego and serve! (I'd also planned to add some basil, and then spaced it, but it would've been good). Top with crushed red pepper flakes and additional cheese, if desired. Eat it up.



I started a new batch o' chickpea sprouts this morning. I loved those sprout burgers, and I'm going to a baseball game with Lauren next week, and I think they'd be great ballgame snacks. I just need to find a good egg replacer. Maybe flax seeds. I've never tried them as an egg replacer, and I know they get goopy, but we'll see!

And, I made Heidi's wheatberry salad again this morning (cooked the wheatberries last night). Wheatberries, the citrus dressing (posted the recipe on 4/26). I changed it slightly this time--used garlic instead of shallot and added fava beans. I could freakin' swim in the citrus dressing. It is magically delicious!


(side note: aren't those little dolls in the background adorable? one of the guys I work with brought me them back from Japan. I love them. They represent the seasons.)

Also, I'd frozen a batch of mesquite chocolate chip cookies the last time I made some, and just thawed them out. I mentioned them to some guys at my office, and they wanted to try them, so I baked a tray of mini-cookies this morning. Me + mesquite meal = TLA.

Have a great weekend, dear readers! I'm planning on some good treats in the next few days, and will report back on Monday.

Oh! Also, the farmers market at the Firehouse in the Strip starts this week! It's the city's only (mostly) organic farmers market. Get the scoop here: http://www.slowfoodpgh.com/farmers.html
Ellen and I are walking over to be there first-thing on Saturday morning. I can't wait!

from 5/10/2007

Last night I took it pretty easy--mostly organized my loose recipes, read some cookbooks and paged through magazines, watched some of the tv (Wednesdays are Lost, ANTM and American Idol. Awesome. I feel no shame. Well, maybe a little, but not much.), caught up with my long-lost BFF via the telephone, rubbed some cat belly and massaged some dog shoulders (that's where he carries his stress). I tend to not leave myself a free evening very often, so when I do it is glorious. Glorious!

I can never figure out if I'm an introvert with extrovert tendencies, or an extrovert with introvert tendencies, but either way I hover right on the cusp. Last night was for recharging, and I love recharging.

The only thing I cooked last night was to make the rest of my sprouts into hummus. They didn't want to puree as easily as chickpeas from a can, so it was just a trial-and-taste kind of thing. I'm not sure about amounts but I used around 3 c. of sprouted garbanzo beans, 1/4 c. olive oil (didn't have any tahini), about 1-2 T. of sesame seeds, 3 cloves of garlic, 1/2 c. parsley, juice of one lemon, 1/2 c. (1 c.?) of water, some sea salt, and about 5 sun-dried tomatoes. But, I didn't have any bread or pita or anything, so I ate a little with some raw green beans, and stuck the rest in the fridge to use as sandwich spread or dip or whatever. I shoulda taken a picture because the color and consistency came out quite nice, but I didn't think about it because I was too busy hussling to the couch to catch my stories.

But, here is a cat belly for your viewing enjoyment. This little lady just turned 15 last month!



And, for good measure, here's Caleb (aka "The K-Bear" aka "K-Lip, Mommy's Baby Tulip" aka "CornNibblet" aka "Kipper" aka "Kibbie" aka "BabyBear") eating a doggie cupcake from Dozen.

I'm going to make up a big batch of natural, organic doggie treats this weekend for all my dog-pals. I will report back on The K-Bear's review.



I'm making dinner for a friend tonight, but I haven't decided what yet. I set some wonton wrappers out to thaw and put some wheatberries in a pot to soak. Something will come to me, I'm sure (I hope!). She's bringing a (healthy-ish) dessert. And, then we will throw down some Scrabble!

Remember how I said yesterday that I had an excuse to email Heidi again about the sprouted garbanzo burgers? Well, I did, and I had a lovely reply waiting for me this morning! She's the best guru ever! And, she even looked at my blog. Dang. I love her. And, she told me that if she gets to PA for a booksigning that I should come out. She has no idea what she's getting herself into with that one...

from 5/9/2007

Last night the Sprouted Garbanzo Burgers came to fruition. And, they were delicious and adorable--my favorite combo!

Here's the recipe from Heidi's site (and it's also in her book Super Natural Cooking): http://www.101cookbooks.com/archives/001567.html

She tells you to actually use the burger (split in two) as the bun, and I love this idea because I hate having too much bread that obscures the flavor of your burger and toppings. Brilliant!

Plus, in my email exchange with Heidi, she told me to let her know how my burgers come out, so now I have another excuse to email her again. I will try to not be crazy (a la The Alison Bechdel Incident).

I made a minor change to the recipe--I didn't have much cilantro, so I made up for the rest with parsley. Tasty-riffic anyway!

Here are the sprouts in all their full-grown glory:


And, here they are fully realized as dinner with deviled ramp pickled eggs, and topped with avocado, spinach, grated carrot, paprika and a yogurt sauce (just some low-fat plain yogurt with toasted cumin and fennel seeds, a dash of salt, and some minced parsley). And, a bottle of vigonier.

The ramp eggs are TANGY. Like, there's no other word for it. Even as deviled eggs. Seriously tangy. Good, but tangy. I'm not sure I'd make that recipe again, but I am planning on making some pickled beet eggs soon. I love them. Beautiful, delicious and old skool.



And, for dessert we had some homemade vanilla bean-lavender ice cream with fresh mango:


I just sorta winged it with the ice cream because I looked at several recipes, but didn't have all the ingredients for any of the recipes, so I just mixed up some stuff from what I had, and it turned out pretty well! We ate it when it was still kinda soft (like, soft-serve consistency), but it sat up more in the freezer. It's a little icy (due to the soy milk), but it's totally tasty. Here's what I used, but I'll definitely be revising this recipe. I'm thinking mesquite chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream. MMMmmm...

4 c. plain soy milk
5 T. powdered milk
2 egg yolks
1 vanilla bean, split open
1 T. dried lavender
a little less than 1/2 c. sugar (you may need more with regular milk, but since the soy milk was already a little sweet, I went light on the sugar)

Mix all ingredients ina saucepan and whisk until uniform. Cook over low heat for about 20 minutes, then let sit on kitchen counter to cool for an hour or two, then strain and put in refrigerator until ready to make ice cream. It must be completely cooled or it'll never get beyond the runny stage. When it's completely cooled, just make ice cream according to the instructions with your ice cream machine

I have a little Donvier Ice Cream Maker that I got years ago at a thrift store. You freeze the canister for at least a day in advance, and then you crank it, but only every couple of minutes. Super easy. If you don't have a machine, don't fear! I found lots of info about making it without a machine with a quick google search. Here's some info: http://www.waitrose.com/food_drink/wfi/cooking/techniques/0207096.asp

from 5/7/2007

Oh man, that was a beautiful weekend, eh? I had a lovely one--Gist Street on Friday (ask Ellen about her uber-nerdy hand sign for writers--and tell her that she needs to morph it into a literary nerd greeting, complete with sound effects). On Saturday I was crampy all morning (still haven't started--what the bleep? am i carrying the next savior or something?), but then rallied for the afternoon and hit the Strip to find that Balcony Cookware was having a sell-all-this-shit-'cause-someone-new-bought-it-and-is-remodeling sale, so I got one million items and gadgets. Then I hit Lotus (wonton wrappers, tofu skins, parsley and some other stuff I can't remember), Reyna (I got a molcajete y tejolote! and some of their deliciously soft flour tortillas), Mon Ami (I spent an obscene amount on a Vosges chocolate bar--over $1.25 more than you normally see those obscenely priced bars for, but I'd never seen that flavor--Goji with goji berries, pink himilayan salt and dark milk chocolate--and, my uterus demanded to be satisfied), Penn Mac (raw nuts, cheese, dried fruit, white truffle oil), and so on. Sunday was brunch at Zenith, wussing out on kayaking (Lauren and I were going to go, but then everyone else bailed, and it was kind windy and cool in the morning, so...), seeing a movie matinee (Year Of The Dog, which had Molly Shannon's character's dog die, and it made me think of when my dear, dear Ursa died so I bawled for the first half of the movie), hitting a little D.I.Y. craft show at Garfield Artwoks (so freakin' cute! with free mini cupcakes from Dozen--vegan & regular), tooled around in the S.Side, then home to read and relax.

Here's what the molcajete y tejolote looks like:

And, you can get the scoop on them here:
http://tasteoftx.com/recipes/glossary/molcajete.html


So, this was more of a consumer's weekend than a cooker's weekend. But, yeah, good times. AND, the cutest thing that happened this weekend? My mom called me last night because she bought some tofu and soy crumbles and wanted to know what to do with them! Aw!

I didn't cook anything spectacular this weekend--it was more about substance and relaxing. I did enjoy quite a few bean-tofu burritos, though.

Check out the sprouts! They are so amazingly satisfying to grow because they are really quick and really adorable. Here they are on Saturday:


And, here they are on Sunday:


They're baby geniuses! I can't wait to eat them up on Tuesday! Ellen and I have a sprouted garbanzo burger date. I can't wait!

from 5/4/2007

Last night I again ramp-ramp-ramped it up! I went with a traditional West Virginia preparation (for the most part). For dinner I made ramps-n-taters, scrambled eggs, steamed asparagus and a yogurt-sun-dried tomato dipping sauce. Yuh-um. This was a little taste of heaven! Not even almost heaven, either!

Ramps-n-Taters
2 c. golden new potatoes, chopped about a 1" dice
1/4 c. onion, small dice
2 cloves garlic, minced
3 ramps--bulbs minced and separated from stems & greens, also minced
2 T. dried parsley (or 4 T. fresh, minced)
1 t. crushed red pepper
1 T. toasted sesame oil
coarse sea salt & fresh ground black pepper, to taste

Preheat oven to 375.

Heat the oil in a medium skillet. Add crushed red pepper, onion, garlic and parsley and sweat it for a couple minutes to get tender and fragrant, but don't brown. Add the potatoes, and cook for about ten minutes. Add the ramp greens, and cook for a minute or two longer.



Remove the potato mixture from skillet, and toss with salt and pepper. Spread onto baking sheet (no need to grease, since they already have some oil from the pan), and bake for about 20-25 minutes until golden brown.

And, you can't have ramps-n-taters without scrambled eggs, right?

I got some eggs from the co-op that are my new favorite eggs. They're from Nu Way Farms in Fredonia, PA. I just googled them, and it looks like they have a CSA, too. These are the best eggs ever! They're like the backyard chicken egg from Gist Street that Kara shared with me a couple weeks ago. The yolks are a brilliant electric orange, and they taste so rich and fantastic. Free-range, grass-fed and "organic" (in quotation marks because they're not certified organic even though they adhere to the true organic principles).
I found this page: http://webpub.allegheny.edu/employee/c/cbakken/meadvillecsa/csapage.htm

I just beat them with a little bit of soy milk, and used the pan that I'd used for the potatoes. It still had some oil, so I didn't need to add any. Just a little salt and pepper.

I steamed a little asparagus, and served it with the eggs, instead of mixed in because it's too gorgeous to get all eggy and obscure the glorious green.

I just made a little dipping sauce with some lowfat plain yogurt, some sun-dried tomato spread and some crushed cumin seeds.


So, after I'd gotten my strength up it was time to try my hand at canning. I'd watched my mom, grandma, great-grandma and great-aunt do it when I was little, but had never attempted it myself. I got a book out of the library, googled quite a bit, got some canning jars, rigged up a little homemade double-boiler action, started making my recipe, and then read all the way through it, and saw that it says *not* to seal the jars. They're just preserved with the vinegar. But, curiously, the recipe author says, "If you keep the eggs covered in broth and store in a cool, dark place, the eggs will remain deliciously edible for many, many years....The oldest ones I ever ate were 17 years old." Whoa. (Appalachian Cooking: Ramps and Morels by Lewis J. Matt III). Actually, the recipe says "Refrigerate, covered (do not seal the jar) for at least four days so that all the flavors intermingle." So, what does that mean? That he sealed them after that? That they're in the fridge for four days with no jar lid at all, or just not pressure sealed? I need answers, Lewis J. Matt III!

But, I think it all may be moot because I cannot wait to eat them. I made a dozen--one large jar with eight eggs and a smaller one with four. I am trying to hold off for at least four days, but I want one now. The broth smelled so fantastic I almost could not stand it.

Fresh ramps:


Pickled Ramp Eggs
(from Appalachian Cooking: Ramps and Morels by Lewis J. Matt III)

12 eggs
3 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
2 medium onions, thinly sliced (I only used about 1/2 of a large onion)
20 whole ramps, sliced lengthwise (I just used the bulbs, and saved the greens for some other use. I like to slice them off just after the stem starts to turn red/purple because they're really pretty like that)
2 c. white vinegar
2 t. ground ginger (I used a 3/4" piece of fresh ginger, minced)
1 T. pickling spice (I used about 1 1/2 T. of pickling spice that I got from the co-op's bulk section, and it's divine)
1/2 c. sugar
12 whole black peppercorns (I skipped this because the pickling spice had a lot of peppercorns)

In a large saucepan, completely cover the eggs with cold water, enough to cover them by about an inch. Bring to a boil. Simmer for not more than five minutes. Remove from heat; let stand, covered, 20 minutes. Plunge to cool at once in cold water. Remove shells.

Place the eggs in a steralized quart container, such as a wide mouth canning jar, interleaving the eggs with the sliced garlic, onion and ramps.

In a small, enameled, stainless steel or glass saucepan, bring the vinegar, ginger, pickling spice, sugar and black peppercorns to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 20 minutes, covered. Pour the hot mixture over the peeled eggs in the quart jar. If there is not enough liquid to completely cover the eggs, add just a little boiled water. Refrigerate, covered (do not seal the jar) for at least four days so that all the flavors intermingle.

[If a vinegar "mother" develops in the broth, it will get cloudy. Remove the eggs, rinse with boiled, steralized water and cover with new hot broth].

Serve eggs in wedges or halves, sprinkled with salt and pepper. Garnish with the pickled ramp and onion slices. If you use these eggs for deviled eggs, chop the onion, garlic and ramps and add to the egg [sic] yoke mix to stuff the eggs.



Those babies are gonna be awesome! All organic ingredients, too. And, I like the deviled egg idea! I hear tell that a friend might be having a WV Day celebration dinner this year (June 20th! Montani Semper Liberi!), and those would be perfect, wouldn't they?

Apart from that, I also started some chick pea sprouts. Ellen and I are going to make Heidi's Sprouted Garbanzo Burgers next week, so I finally busted out my little sprouter (and they ended up expanding so much that I also had to use two jars, additionally!). I found lots of instructions online, and printed out a couple of sets. But, then when I started doing them, I noticed that the directions were different on each set. Hmm... Luckily, my friend Jen is The Sprout Whisperer, and she advised. I think I'm going to have enough to make a couple batches of the burgers, so I'm going to try to freeze some, too. Here's that recipe from Heidi's blog:
http://www.101cookbooks.com/archives/001567.html

And here is the adventure my sprouts have been on thus far:

Step 1 - rinse & soak the beans 8-12 hours. I'm using some dried organic chick peas from the co-op's bulk section.


Step 2 - rinse and drain the beans.


Step 3 - No, really. Drain the beans. Evidently they can get pretty funky pretty fast if they're not drained properly. My sprouting container has its own draining basket and vented lid, but for the ones in the jars, I used some waxed paper that I slotted, and then I inverted the jars in a colander with a bowl beneath. Then I stuck them all in a cool, dark place (my kitchen cabinet). From here I'll rinse them 2x a day, and then should be ready in a couple days (my instructions said 1.5+ days, but The Sprout Whisperer said about 4 days). Perfect. We're making burgers on Tuesday. And, I might have to bust out a couple of the eggs, too...


Next up, for-real canning. I want to make some ramp-fennel relish.

from 5/3/2007

Now is the time for all good comfort food to come to the aid of my uterus/uterache. And, it did. Last night. I made Heidi's Millet Fried "Rice" from Super Natural Cooking. In the future I'd use a ton more veggies, but it was really good. I'd never had millet before, and it's a lovely little grain--fluffy and tasting kinda cornmeal-y. I didn't bring the recipe with me, but I think I remember...

1 1/2 c. millet, picked over and rinsed
4 1/2 c. water
2 t. fine-grain sea salt
1 carrot
2 eggs, beaten
2 T. toasted sesame oil
2 T. clarified butter (I didn't take the time to do this 'cause I was hungry, and just used regular unsalted butter)
2 cloves garlic, minced (I used ramp bulbs)
2 green onions, chopped (again, I used ramps--the greens)
3/4" piece of ginger, grated
8 oz. firm tofu, cut into 1/4" dice
1 T. soy sauce (I used Bragg's Liquid Aminos)

So, you pick over and rinse your millet, and put it into a pot with the water and salt, and bring to a boil. Then reduce the heat so that it's an active simmer, cover and cook for about 25 minutes. If any water remains, drain it off--there shouldn't be much, if any. (Also, Ellen told me that her friend Richard used to make her drink hot millet water, so I looked it up, and millet's high in B vitamins--especially B6--but, Ellen also claims that it was "traumatic". Ha!).

Using a vegetable peeler, shave your carrot, and then cut the shavings into matchsticks (I just did matchsticks, 'cause I like a little crunch). Set aside.

In a large skillet or wok, heat 1 T. each of the toasted sesame oil and butter. Pour in the beaten eggs, and swirl to coat the pan. Cook for about 45 seconds until it starts to set up, then fold it over on itself, and cook for another 30 seconds or so, remove from pan, cool for a minute, then slice into thin strips.

Wipe out any crumbs from the pan, and add your tofu, and cook until golden brown, then remove and set aside.

Again, wipe the pan of any crumbs. Add the other 1 T. each of toasted sesame oil and butter and heat until a drop of water sizzles in the pan. Add the garlic (ramp bulbs!) and ginger, and cook for about 30 seconds, then add the carrots, green onion (ramps!), tofu, soy sauce, egg and millet. Stir for a couple minutes, then remove from heat and adjust seasonings, if necessary.

--So, as I said, I'd load this up with veggies (baby corn, peas, green and red bell peppers, etc.) next time and some crushed red pepper flakes or a couple of whole dried chilis in the hot oil. But, it was tasty and really comfort food-y. Yum. Heidi, kudos to you. Again. And, I loved the millet. I'll be making some millet again real soon.



I did remember the Pocket Tarts recipe.

Pocket Tarts (from Cook 1.0 by--guess who--Heidi Swanson)
makes 9-3 1/2" tarts

Step 1--Create Filling:
[Heidi has several filling ideas, but I made up my own--Curried Potato & Pea; Spinach-Mushroom-Goat Cheese; and, Cherry-Cinnamon with Almond Cream Cheese. I've posted the recipes for those in previous posts, but you can pretty much put whatever you want in them!]

Step 2--Assemble Pocket Tart:
Unwrap a 17-oz box of puff pastry dough onto a lightly floured surface. Quickly run a rolling pin over the puff pastry only once or twice to make it a bit bigger and flatter. using a 3" square cookie cutter, cut out 18 squares.

Fill half the squares with a spoonful of the filling. Place another square on top and gently press down on the edges to seal. Use the tines of a fork to press down on the edges the way you would for a pie crust, to reinforce the seal and keep the filling from leaking.

Step 3--Brush with Egg Wash and Bake:
Lightly beat 1 egg in a small bowl. Set aside. Place the tarts on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Brush each tart with egg wash, then poke a few holes in the tops of the tarts to allow steam to escape. Bake on the middle rack of the oven for 15 minutes, or until the tarts are puffed and golden.

I'm still mad at myself for not taking pictures of the adorable tarts. Dang.

So, then last night I was watching Lost and needed another dose of comfort food. I couldn't help it; my uterus demanded it. So, I had the rest of the leftover wild rice with some grape tomatoes (halved), some blue cheese (I used bleu d'auvergne) and some fresh ground black pepper. Totally hit the spot.



I also made some vegetable stock the other day. I just save my veggie scraps (like the mushroom stems from the tarts or potato skins or carrot shavings or whatever) and use some garlic, onion, a bunch of water and all my veggie scraps and leftovers (I used the rest of my spinach-mushroom filling from the tarts, too), and some ramps. I made about 8 quarts, froze some, and have some sitting in the fridge begging me to make some soup. We'll see about that.

Tonight is The Great Canning Adventure of 2007. I'm going to try to make pickled ramps and a ramp-fennel relish. Cross your fingers and toes for me!