Check out my farmer’s market, yo

By Monica on July 11th, 2008

So while Raleigh certainly isn’t vegan paradise, I wanted to elicit sympathy show folks why I found the NC State Farmer’s Market so exciting. Behold, this is my farmer’s market, all 5 booths of it:

The photo is from my car as I drive past because I have not bothered going so far this year. (Please ignore the dilapidated orange ghetto trains in the background, my town thinks those are “antiques”.) From my car window each week I can spot lettuce, spinach, cabbage, and more lettuce. Illinois won’t have much else for another month or two. There are 5 booths so far; there will be about 10 when sweet corn season hits. The nice older lady in the middle there sells beer mustard, and the booth on the far right is non-vegan baked goods, so technically there are 3 booths of produce. I hope this explains my fascination with REAL farmer’s markets now!

Moo-ving on, here are some smoothies made from aging berries I would not allow to go to waste. Really though, this is just an excuse to show off my new glasses. The animals all have butts on the other side, heh.

In actual food this week, I made a double batch of Jessy’s Mom’s Magnificent Tuna-Free Tuna Casserole. Rule of thumb in my house is to double any casserole recipe to save more for later. That would have worked well if we didn’t eat the entire damn thing over the course of the week. A word of advice if you double this recipe - immediately freeze half of it because self control is powerless here.

And to round things off nicely - Apricot Cranberry Nut Pie from The Garden of Vegan. It’s so pretty one can almost overlook the pre-made crust, I hope.

But wait, there’s more!  Despite being labeled a weirdo for making soup in July, we made a batch of V’con Roasted Garlic Tomato Soup with Beans and Rice.  July or not, it was delicious…

…especially when paired with Bryanna’s Focaccia Bread - a tomato basil variety, of course.  Both the soup and the focaccia recipes make enough to feed an army, so I have all these delightful leftovers to look forward to this weekend, yay!

Raleigh!

By Monica on July 4th, 2008

So I spent the better part of last week in Raleigh, NC.  While certainly not the vegan mecca of PDX, there were way more food choices than I’m used to in Illinois.  Go North Carolina!

Up first was a stop at Mellow Mushroom for some Spring Water Dough Pretzels with marinara:

And an amazing pizza aptly called the “Mega Veggie”, loaded with sun dried tomatoes, mushrooms, spinach, onions, green peppers, black olives, tomatoes, banana peppers, broccoli, artichoke hearts, and tofu.  The tofu is really not radioactive, the sun was just that bright!  Mellow Mushroom was a really fun place, good food, very veg-friendly with knowledgeable staff, and  we got to sit outside enjoying the gorgeous NC weather.  I’d go back in a heartbeat.

The next day it was off to the State Farmer’s Market in Raleigh, an amazing 225,000 square feet of gorgeous local produce and plants.  Peaches and melons were in season, tomatoes (which won’t be in IL for another 2 months!), squashes, peppers - it was amazing!

There are even a ton of fresh beans, which I would have loved to take home with me, but I didn’t think they’d fare so well in the cargo hold of the airplane!

As if that weren’t enough, there were pineapple trees for sale!  I’m a pineapple fanatic, so the prospect of being able to grow these suckers was enough for me to move to NC right then and there!

Our next stop was Spotted Dog in Carrboro.  Admittedly, we ended up there only because the THREE other restaurants on our list were all closed for various, strange reasons.  Apparently divine intervention wanted us to have these faux wings:

and this imitation chicken BBQ sammich with beer battered french fries.  Both were pretty good, even though I thought the wingz were a bit overpriced at ~$8 for the portion you see above.

Overall, I was pleasantly surprised that Raleigh, technically being a part of “the south”, was as veg-friendly as it was.  I didn’t find bacon in every single vegetable dish like I have in Florida and Georgia, and most places had vegetarian sections of the menu.  Again, go North Carolina!

But lastly, I’m going to leave you with a recipe for Rhubarb Ice Cream, about the only thing I’ve managed to cook since coming home.  It doesn’t look very appetizing, I’ll admit.  What it does, however, is taste like a rhubarb pie in ice cream form.  And if that isn’t the best thing EVER, I don’t know what is.

Rhubarb Ice Cream (inspired by AllRecipes)
3 cups sliced rhubarb
2 cups sugar*
1t lemon juice
1 cup coconut milk

Place rhubarb, sugar, and lemon juice in a small saucepan.  Bring to a slow boil and cook until rhubarb is tender, about 5 minutes.
Remove from heat and (carefully!) transfer contents to a food processor or blender.  Process just until rhubarb is in pea sized chunks, or your desired chunkiness.
Whisk in coconut milk.
Process per the instructions on your ice cream machine, and then freeze overnight to let harden a little more.
*This is very, very sweet.  Use less sugar if you’re concerned with diabetes or you know, tooth rot!

Hot Hot Hot !!!

By Monica on June 12th, 2008

It’s said that Illinois has two seasons: winter and construction.  I’m adding a third season, which follows a never-ending winter, and that season is “Blast Furnace”.  We’ve gone immediately from below freezing into muggy, humid, clothes-sticking-to-you high 90’s.  And I am not a summer person… So my kitchen has stopped churning out breads and baked goods and has instead focused on foods which are quick and do not require turning the oven on.

I think I am officially the last blogger remaining who hadn’t tried V’Con Chickpea Cutlets yet, so let’s start there.  I definitely appreciated the easy alternative to seitan, I tried them on the 2nd day (as recommended by other bloggers), and I didn’t have any trouble making the cutlets.  I don’t think I’ll make them again, they were just kind of mediocre for me - but I did enjoy the innovative recipe.

Like most, I’ve been eating a lot of veggie burgers lately too, especially since Ray recently got himself a big ole’ griddle pan.  Now the notorious Rayburger has been upgraded to Grilled Rayburger, ooooo, ahhh!

SusanV’s Cherry-Chocolate Mousse Pie, perfect not only because it’s tasty as can be, but also because it requires no baking or heat whatsoever.  I even phoned this in with a store-bought graham cracker crust, shame on me.

And lastly, Rootbeer Floats.  You know you want one.

P.S. - If I have any readers in the Raleigh, NC area, please email me.  I have a few questions for the locals.  Thanks!

I am a banana!

By Monica on May 29th, 2008

Yesterday Celine posted a picture of Don Hertzfeldt’s banana.  (Sounds naughty!)  If you don’t know who Don Hertzfeldt is, and if you also have a bizarre sense of humor, I highly recommend checking out this video on YouTube.  Anyway, I’ve had bananas on the brain since.

So last night we had Banana Cake, using this VegWeb recipe as a very rough guide.  I decided it needed more banana, chocolate chips, almond icing, and no oil.  Take that, banana cake!

Chocolate Banana-Banana Cake
1 mashed banana
1 diced banana
7T applesauce
1T vinegar
1t salt
1t baking soda
1T baking powder
1t vanilla
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup chocolate chips
1 cup water
3T cinnamon

To a large bowl, add the mashed banana and flour.  Stir well.  Add all the remaining ingredients except the diced banana, and mix well.  When batter is sufficiently mixed, fold in the diced banana.
Pour into a greased 9×9″ pan and bake at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes.

And even though I did just post a pizza shot earlier in the week, today is Thursday, and that means Pizza & Lost night again! This is technically from a previous Pizza & Lost night, but it’s what I’m having tonight too.  These 5 Minute Whole Wheat Calzones were stuffed with hot giardinare, onions, black olives, and some fake sausage.

The “5 minutes” aspect is in regards to the rising time of the dough, which is about all the patience I have on Lost night.  I’d much rather spend my time on the couch hoping my prayers have been answered and this week is finally the week Sawyer dumps that slutbag Kate, gets rid of that whiny Jack, and saves the island - all while being totally naked, of course.   Oh yeah… calzone dough!

5 Minute Whole Wheat Calzone Dough
1 package active dry yeast
1 cup warm water
1T sugar
2T olive oil
1t salt
2 1/2 - 3 cups whole wheat flour

Dissolve yeast in warm water in a large bowl.  Stir in sugar, oil, salt, and 1 cup of the flour.  Beat until smooth.  Mix in enough remaining flour to make dough easy to handle.  Knead on a lightly floured surface until smooth and elastic.  Cover and let rest for 5 minutes.
Divide dough into 4 equal portions.  Roll each out, stuff with goodies, seal, and bake at 375 degrees for 15-20 minutes.

And lastly, just so you know that I do consume things other than pizza and cake, here’s Golden Tempeh Curry, a recipe from the March 2008 Vegetarian Times.  I may lose my vegan-card for this, but I am not a curry fan.  I keep trying different curries trying to find some I like, but this is the only one I ate even part of, and that was mostly just picking at the mango and tempeh.  Still, an improvement!