Another Lunch

Asparagus season is coming to an end and while it makes me want to curl up and cry until the next spring sprouts shoot up i am more inclined to celebrate its passing!  For lunch I had a grilled asparagus sandwich with grated carrots, radishes, and sliced red bell peppers.  The asparagus was sauteed in copious amounts of garlic with a little olive oil and a splash of soy sauce.  The bread was lightly toasted and slathered with locally produced spicy mustard.  I ate two of these and was thinking of going for a third but alas I ran out of asparagus

Strawberries Smoothed

 No joke it is summer.  The weather pushes into the 90's (that is 32-37 C for you out side of the US) on a regular basis and I cannot help but make like a lizard and lay in the sun. . . I just prefer a comfy chair or blanket in place of a hot rock.  The other way I win over your typical reptile is I can have a smoothie while I bask in the glory of our day time star.

I get these strawberries fresh from the farm and get the tops taken off so I can freeze them. . . of course (in case you didn't know) I am a science geek and I happen to have access to liquid nitrogen.  

This chilly liquid sits at a cool 77K (-196 C or -320 F) and while it does not freeze something 'on contact' as popular television would have you believe it does freeze the strawberries so fast that the ice crystals have no time to form and the cell walls of the strawberries stay intact through the freezing process.  This means when you thaw them they are almost as good as fresh picked (but we all know nothing is really as good as fresh picked). In terms of a smoothie this also means that less ice is trapped in the straw berries and you get a smoother smoothie. 

the vapor around the container is condensing water

that is LN2 boiling around the berries

so cold they crack

ready to transport!

To actually make the smoothie take your frozen strawberries (how ever they are frozen) and combine about 1C of the frozen darlings with 1C of almond milk (if you are sassy you can make your own almond milk so it is a raw treat).  Add more almond milk or a bit of water to get the consistency you like; depending on how much you put in you can get it anywhere from a nice sorbet to something more like a drink.  I use a few mint leaves a quarter of a lemon and a table spoon of agave to balance out the sweetness without detracting from a bit of a tart hit when you first sip with a cool mint flavor lingering after the berries are in your belly.  a bit of vanilla extract (or raw vanilla bean) goes a long way to balance out the flavors and make this healthful drink seem a bit like a desert!  

I have had one or three of these in the last week and I am eager to share! so come do some porch sitting with me we can yell at the other coop across the street! 

Salads for Dinner

Some days are just not what you want them to be. . . .your mind gets stuck on some idea and you spend a beautiful day inside writing letters you are never going to send. There is only one thing that helps . . . 

COMFORT FOOD

Potato salad, pasta salad a nice green salad to get those vitamins minerals and fiber and then a bean salad for that protein kick that makes tomorrow easier.  Ill tell you right now that this is going to be level less 'recipe' than usual.  I did some experimenting with the potato salad and it was PHENOMENAL.  

So lets turn this mass of veggies---->

<----------- into this mass of tasty!

The pasta salad get nixed in this post, because well it is a day like that but it is pretty simple.  Cooked pasta tossed with peas corn garlic and olive oil.  Salt and pepper to taste. For ratios you want to aim for something that is mostly pasta accentuated with some vegetables. 

 The green salad is also straight forward.  I used a spring mix with raisins, sunflower seeds, flax seeds, diced almonds, some shredded radish and a sprinkling of calendula petals for color!  Calendula (aka marigolds) have edible petals  that dont have much in the way of flavor but add amazing color to salads with a texture that is consistent with the rest of the dish. 

Bean Salad:

   Using a pressure cooker (or enough forethought that you soak the beans beforehand and have enough time to cook them)  prepare enough beans for your meal; I did about 3 cups dry white beans and 1 cup dry kidney beans (it comes out to about 6 cups of cooked beans) 

 I diced in some raw beets to add some color and sweetness and a bunch of long beans cut into one inch segments.  I also shredded carrot and zucchini into the mix.  Not only does this give an additional texture and some bonus vegetation but ti also provides more color which makes your typical bland bean salad seem fun and exciting! 

Seasonings can be as simple as salt and pepper but I strongly urge the use of some summer time herbs like oregano basil and thyme.  We had a bounty of rosemary in the kitchen so I used that as my primary flavor, using paprika to add a bit of spice and color (yes paprika can have spice you just need to get the fresh stuff)

 of course I used fresh grated garlic, yum! 

I tossed the salad with a combination of olive oil and white wine vinegar (though you can use any vinegar you like).  I wan to make up some measurement for how much I used but I honestly have no clue, though you do want about equal parts oil and vinegar!  The goal here is to make the salad moist without drowning it, add in slow amounts alternating olive oil then vinegar (too much olive oil is easier to deal with than too much vinegar) until the beans are evenly coated without there being a pool of 'dressing' in the bottom of the bowl

Potato Salad:

    I have a problem with potato salad. . . I dont like mayonnaise.  I didnt like it when I was an omnivore and i found the vegan versions just as unappealing.  I still used it when I was making some dishes but damn it!  I didnt want to this time.  I used an adaptation of a cream sauce I made for a pasta primavera alfredo.  Again with a bit of forethought I would have soaked the almonds for 30-60 minuted before I made this but i didnt know I was going to do this until i was in the store holding a jar of vegan mayo and cringed.  

I blended 1 cup of almonds with 1 large block of silken tofu (seemed about 2 cups worth) and 1/2 cup olive oil.  knowing that this was going to a potato salad I was not shy about using some vinegar to thin it out (just a couple table spoons) 

I used mustard, a pinch or two of salt and a bit more vinegar for flavoring while a few more splashes of olive oil were there to push the sauce to a more creamy texture.  I was surprised at how quickly  it all came together but in the time it took the potatoes to boil I ended up with my own vegan sauce for potato salad (That I refuse to call mayo because it is nothing like that stuff).

You cook the potatoes . . .just boil them.  I like to used red potatoes boiled in an open pot so I can make sure they dont get over done.  For my house i sued five pounds of potatoes (you might as well too because left over potato salad is GREAT).   

Mix the potatoes with the almond-tofu sauce (lets call it almofu sauce, or someone make up a word for this stuff we need a vocabulary to describe these things that does not relate it to some dairy counterpart) a hearty helping of black pepper and grated garlic ( i must have grated 20 cloves for this meal) and some diced parsley.  I also diced it the celery greens because I like the color and flavor.  I dont grate carrots for this dish, I coarsely chop them with the celery because then everything has a comparable texture.  I also use a few spoon fulls of sweet pickle relish to round out the pallet of sweet, sour, salty, and spicy.  

I feel like I am forgetting something but like I said it was an experiment and I will have to repeat it again and see what changes. . .though i hope nothing because I could have eaten this potato salad for days! (though my brother would not even try it, he has something against pickles in relish form or otherwise).

(the change in coloring of the potato salad is due to lighting only)

Enjoy!

Lunch time, yeah!

The last two weeks have been BUSY!  it may be hard to believe but I dont think I have cooked a full dinner in 2 weeks!  Egads!  yet still I crank out some tasty and quick lunches.  Above you see the toasted sesame asparagus in a balsamic reduction with a side of chipotle zucchini and roasted fennel bulb.  The salad is a Dino/Red Russian kale mix with sunflower seeds and grated carrots.  The strawberries on top are just because but made an excellent cap to the meal.

Triple Carrot!