a minor observation inducing great expectations.

The harvest season is fast approaching. Produce and Farmers' Markets are growing sturdy with warty gourds and thick-skinned squash. Sleeping in is starting to seem very appealing.

All I want to do for the next five months is hang out in my backyard during the day, cooking intermittently. At night I would like to be nestled in front of the fireplace with Merlin, watching movies and cooking intermittently.

Moroccan-Spiced Eggplant and Kale

Matt and I love Mediterranean Food. This dish was inspired by the Vegetarian Moussaka at Cafe Mediterranean in Baton Rouge, LA. They serve an array of delights from crispy falafel and tangy tabbouleh to meatless moussaka and garlicky baba ganoush (VERY garlicky, actually...but that's how I prefer, well, everything!). While Cafe Med's owners originally hail from China, they certainly don't fail in capturing the flavorful essence I've come to love of Greek and Lebanese food. While some of the dishes I've come to love contain a particularly heavy amount of oil, owner Diane Zhang is actually a nutritionist boasting meals that are low in cholesterol but "still preserve flavor and taste."

There vegetarian moussaka is probably one of Matt's favorite meals and in an attempt to bring that dish I home, I created this:

Moroccan-Spiced Eggplant and Kale

1 medium onion, thickly sliced
1 green bell pepper, sliced3 cloves garlic, minced
1 medium eggplant, chopped
2 tablespoons Moroccan Spice Rub
1 can roasted & diced tomatoes (feel free to use any kind of canned tomatoes or tomato sauce)
2 cups kale, washed and roughly chopped
1/4 cup olive oil, divided

Heat a large, heavy-bottomed pan on medium to medium -low and heat 2 tablespoons of the oil. Toss in onions and peppers and saute until onions are translucent and everything is very soft, about 10 minutes. Add the garlic and saute another 2 minutes.

Add the eggplant and another tablespoon or two of olive oil. The eggplant will soak up a lot of oil, so try to resist the temptation to add more. Cook until eggplant has browned up a little. Add the spice rub, stir to coat. Add the tomatoes and their juices and bring to a simmer. Add the remaining oil (optional) and cook for 7-10 minutes. Add kale and simmer until wilted.

Serve this on top of couscous, inside pita or as it is.

YUM!!

breakfast fajita burritos.

Good morning.

a summer lunch.

Prospect Park Potato Salad

Saturday was a designated "clean house" day. After not being able to locate the key for the shed, I gave up on mowing the lawn, which ultimately means I gave up on cleaning anything (thought I did wipe the kitchen counters and have Matt do the dishes!). There's always Sunday, right? Instead of cleaning Matt and I sporadically watched crappy television - SyFy's Spring Break Shark Attack, Lake Placid 2 - and made food. Once we came to our senses, we put on the last few episodes of 30 rock season 4 and chuckled along with the immortal Kenneth and sexy and scrupulous Jack Donaghy (yeah, I said it) while eating a filling and effortless lunch.

Prospect Park Potato Salad

I haven't been to the grocery store in a while. In fact, the last time I went I got very few groceries due to a lack of funds. So when our stomach's began a-rumblin', our eyes began a-searchin' for the right lunch fixin's. Needless to say our prospects looked grim. What we discovered after a little brainstorming and cookbook-index-referencing was a light and satisfactory meal of pantry staples. We improvised Veganomicon's Prospect Park Potato Salad, using lemon juice instead of vinegar and adding half of a diced sweet onion. This recipe is simple enough to throw together at anytime, and requires little effort. Most the time spent on this recipe is idle - boiling potatoes, waiting for them to cool, and chilling the salad. I also usually have all of the ingredients on hand, except for veganaise, which I sporadically buy (but this could easily become a vinaigrette-styled potato salad by omitting the veganaise and using more oil and lemon juice/vinegar).

Cheezy Chick'n and Avocado Wrap Prospect Park Potato Salad

Matt and I paired the salad with a sandwich and wrap, respectively. Both consisted of Cluckphrey-brand chicken patties, avocado, tomato and a sprinkle of Daiya Mozzarella cheese. I try not to include many frozen meat substitutes in my cooking, as they are often fried and relatively expensive. The great thing about these patties is that they are baked and contain no GMO's. I recommend baking rather than microwaving, as they get a little mushy.

a new thing.

Merlin, the greatest dog with whom I currently live.

I bought a digital camera! At last, I have expunged my final (and most brilliant, might I add) excuse to neglect this blog. Prior to this purchase I was begging my roommates to borrow their cell phones, which have significantly better picture quality, and simultaneously crowding their phone memory cards. No longer shall I settle for lackluster photographs of luster-full vegan food! No longer shall I cradle my face in humiliation, ashamed of my grainy and over-edited photos. This camera will change the way you and I see food. I'd like to thank a very good friend of mine for previously owning and turning me on to the G9. This camera is just about every feature I could hope for - raw file support (!!!), optical zoom, huge lcd screen, over 12 megapixels, - and a few extras, like color swap (does just what the name says). I debated with myself for a while before making this purchase; I don't normally buy expensive items, regardless of whether or not I'll utilize them to their fullest potential. This is one purchase I'm ecstatic over, and couldn't have made a better decision.

Now I must cook!

work. eat. sleep.

Farmer's Market Bounty : peaches, asian pears, 7 kinds of bell pepper, white and purple baby eggplants

I've been staring at this screen for a good twenty minutes, trying to dip into my brain and provide some words of substance to accompany the plethora of food porn I am about to post. I have yet to uncover an iota of intriguing information or story. I've operated within a particularly rigid and boring routine these past 2 weeks. work, eat, sleep. Oh, the Sims 3 has made appearances, and I've cooked some food, but little more than that. Oh, Matt and I returned to Tallahassee for a weekend! We saw some much-missed friends and I cleared out my old apartment. It was a short weekend, but well worth the 15 hour drive.

Soooo here is some food that I'm too lazy to write about:

Eggplant and Broccoli Stirfry with Brown Rice Syrup & Soy Sauce
(which I forgot to photograph; these are both pre-sauce)

Matt has bought Daiya Mozzarella Cheese EVERY time we've gone grocery shopping. I want to revel in the melty goodness, but I'm beginning to feel a little selfish...not everyone can eat Daiya every day. But I guess I can...

Farmer's Market Deep Dish Pizza with Daiya
(baby eggplant, pell peppers, onions, spinach)

I'll tell you, and myself, to make us both feel better, that it is the weekend, which means I'll be cooking and documenting. We'll see...

Eggplant and Zucchini Rollatini

Genovese and Sweet Basil in the bowl, Lemon Basil on the board.
Fresh herbs from my garden. Such a bounty!

I'll never come to terms with an office job, the 9-5 (6-5 in my case), pushing paper, literally. I've settled for this routine that has developed over the last month, but it's not making me happy. I'm trying to utilize my free time for activities that are all my own. For one, I'm entering the beginning stages of writing a vegan cookzine, but an unconscious fear of incompletion or ill-favored reviews is holding me back from getting it started. I've gathered a modest amount of recipes, compiled mostly from commonly cooked dishes stored in the back of my brain. I'll be requesting the help of my most creative friends to collaborate on the design and layout, and I'll need some recipe testers when the time comes. This idea spawned (at work) out of this realization that I need to be doing more. Something more needs to come out of me, something positive, tangible, and beneficial to others. Something I can take credit for and be happy with.

That being said, work has left me drained. I'm working 5 days a week, leaving the house at 6AM and returning home around 5PM. Needless to say I'm exhausted and have been alternating between mildly dressed up frozen burritos, salads, and pasta. Not this weekend, I told myself. Matt and I have been on an eggplant binge for the last few weeks - they are plump and deliciously cheap at the farmer's market - and I've had my heart set on eggplant rollatini all week.

Eggplant and Zucchini Rollatini with Cashew Ricotta and Lemon Basil

I breaded and baked the eggplant slices, and decided to throw in some sliced zucchini. It's filled with the cashew-ricotta from veganomicon and some lemon basil from my garden. Everything turned out wonderfully...better than I anticipated. Time-consuming and ingredient-heavy meals have a tendency to be altered significantly during my cooking process. I'll usually eat 1/3 of the meal during the time spent in the kitchen, tasting this and that until I'm too full to ever sample the final and complete dish. Not this time around. The effort and time spent on this meal was worth the reward.

Keen on Peaches

I tend to use holidays as an excuse to whip up more extravagant meals and desserts, regardless of whether or not I partake in them. This being the fourth of July, I thought a hearty summery Southern dessert was in order. Peaches have finally started to show up at the Farmer’s Market and I took home 10-12 small/medium sized peaches for $4! Amazing! I’ve eaten a peach everyday for the last week and still have several sitting (and softening) on the counter. My initial response was to freeze them, ensuring their freshness for later in the year. Then I thought to myself, “it’s the beginning of July; I’ll have peaches at my disposal for several more weeks! Let’s make cobbler instead!”

And that is what I did.

Now, I never had peach cobbler before I became vegan, but I could imagine and ended up successfully recreated the warm velveteen peach buried under crisp and flaky cinnamon-scented biscuits. Since I didn't have any granulated sugar at my disposal, I used agave in it's place. I also used hemp milk as my non-dairy milk.

Vegan Peach Cobbler
adapted from vegweb.com
2/3 cup light agave nectar
1 1/2 cup flour
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 tablespoon light agave nectar
1/4 cup water
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
2 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
4 cup sliced peaches (about 6 medium peaches)
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoon lemon juice
3/4 cup soy or almond milk
4 tablespoons vegan butter

Heat oven to 400. Mix agave, the cornstarch and cinnamon in a saucepan. Stir in the peaches and lemon juice. Cook, stirring constantly, until the mixture thickens and boils. Boil and stir for one minute. Pour into an ungreased 2-quart casserole; keep hot in the oven.

Cut vegan butter into flour, the baking powder and salt until mixture resembles fine crumbs. Stir in milk and agave. Drop dough by the spoonful onto hot peach mixture.

Bake until topping is golden brown - about 25-30 minutes.

Pumpkin Seed Butter

A few weeks ago, before leaving Tallahassee, a couple of friends and I got together for a BBQ. We planned to make the get-together a monthly, if not bi-weekly occasion. Sadly the move to BR limited my attendance. At our first jamboree, our friend Lindsay had recently returned from a trip to Jacksonville. While there she went to one of the most spectacular farmer's markets I have had the experience of hearing about. She brought back a couple of dips and spreads, and I have been on a dip-kick ever since.

There was an Artichoke-Walnut Pesto which everyone seemed to enjoy. The flavors were spot on: a mellow tangy-ness from the artichokes, that was subtly muted by the earthy walnuts. I thought it was a bit too oily, but definitely delicious. I also sampled some raw cashew cheese, which I've been making on a semiweekly basis since that day. All that was in it was raw cashews, lemon juice, nutritional yeast, tahini, garlic, and salt.

All of those spreads and dips were fantastic, but the last one I sampled takes the cake. It was a Pumpkin Seed Butter! I've never had raw pumpkin seeds before, and I never enjoyed the toasted ones my mom made after the Halloween tradition, but this was AMAZING! It was creamy and salty and thick and everything I wanted. Needless to say I slathered it on my portabello mushroom burger, baked potato, and even on the cob of corn.

Since then, I've been working on my own recipe for the infamous Pumpkin Seed Butter. Mine has more ingredients than the one I originally sampled, and it also has a hint of sweetness from the agave I decided to add to it. I decided to add some cashews to this recipe just to give it more volume, so feel free to purely use pumpkin seeds. My partner declared this the "IT" dip for pretty much the rest of his existence. Here the recipe and a photo; I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

Pumpkin Seed Butter
makes 1.5 cups
1 cup raw pumpkin seeds
1/2 cup raw cashews
1/8 cup light agave nectar
1/8 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 garlic clove, roughly chopped
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
3-4 Tablespoons water

Place pumpkin seeds and cashews into a food processor or blender. Pulse the seeds/nuts into a medium-sized crumbs. Add the agave nectar, olive oil, garlic, salt and pepper. Pulse until everything is uniformly combined. Slowly add the water, running the blender until it all comes together as a thick paste. Add more water by the teaspoon until desired consistency is reached.

I prefer my Pumpkin Seed Butter to be thick, so I stick to 3 T of water. At this consistency, it is thick enough to dip and hearty enough to withstand being spread on breads.

Serve this as a dip or spread with crackers, veggies or on sandwiches. I think this would make a really good pasta sauce with a few tweaks. In that case, thin it out with another tablespoon or two of water and throw in some fresh basil for a Pumpkin Seed Pesto (in fact, I think I'll do that for tonight's dinner!).

Moving On + Loads of Food!

Hello again!

These past few months have been nothing but hustling 'n bustling. I'm proud to say that I am now a college graduate, and I'm shaking in my boots. While my day-to-day activities have hardly changed (aside from three or more hours of required reading a night), I'm beginning to understand my life within the "bigger picture." My experiences as an undergraduate were mostly devoted to bettering myself. All of the studying and all of the classes were to foster my interests and expand my capacity for knowledge. Now I'm at a stage in my life where all the lessons and skills ingrained into me are mine. I've learned a great deal from the people I've encountered the last four years, and I'm confident enough in them and in myself to pass these lessons on.

Vegan Yum Yum's Avocado Wasabi Salad

Brown Rice with peas, carrots and a garlic-ginger sauce