Scribbles and Scrambles ~ Weekend Adventure ~ Camping Trip

 We did a wee bit of camping this holiday weekend. Lots of fun Vegan food, including Veg French toast w/ almond butter, maple syrup and banana slices. Yum. Veg Sloppy Joes, Veg Philly Sandwiches and Veg S'Mores. 

Veg S'Mores may have been the most popular. And they were very tasty (and easy once we found the Veg marshmallows). I'll post recipes soonish. A few are keepers for sure, a few need a tweak or two. And a couple are tweaked to near perfection after they were tried during the Montana trip.

  We didn't go too far from home. Just a few hours down the road. We camped near a very small town. The most exciting part of the three block long downtown were the cool murals on the side of buildings, and the razor wire on top of a very tall fence. Inside the very tall fence was a basketball hoop and outside were law enforcement vehicles. Methinks we spied the town jail.

 Oh, we had rain. Rain and bugs. However, the rain fell when we were sightseeing, shopping and while we ate. Rob had cracked out a covering over the table before it began raining so we stayed nice and dry. A wind came after the rain and dried the tent to perfection and kept bugs away during the evening. Nice.

Highlights of the trip ended up being firsts for the canine girls and 24. We hit a pocket of Amish country. We visited a furniture shop with BEAUTIFUL furniture and a country store that carried bulk items, some organic ones. Both were lit only by skylight and windows. The furniture store boasted a fruit and veggie stand out front of it so we grabbed some goodies. We scored carob chips, organic raisins, sesame seeds and homemade jams for really decent prices, too. Nice serendipity. 

Plus. 24 was able to see her first close-up Amish children. Three little kids stared out the window at her as she checked on the dogs. (Uhhh, so it was a little odd, but it worked. The dogs were in the pickup bed while we drove around (safely secured, FYI). And when it started to rain Rob rolled the cover over them. So when we got to the country store we opened the tailgate. The Amish furniture builder called the dogs "Pampered" and the little kids probably thought that we were pretty crazy, too. Ha. Ha. )

The pampered pooches were on their best behavior all weekend. Didn't bark at people or chase wildlife. And they had their first real taste of a lake. Lily is a very accomplished swimmer after a rough start. Lola. Well, she prefers some terra firma under her feet, even if it might be a bit soggy. However, if her sister will swim out and get the frisbee or stick, she'll gladly help out. 


The cutest moment may have been when Lily lost the stick that was tossed and went to a half submerged tree and broke off her own stick to bring to her mom.

Scraps and Snippets ~ Lentils? What to do? Tapenade Alfredo

Tapenade Alfredo

1/4 small onion

3 Large green olives (mine were stuffed with a garlic clove)

3 Large Kalamata olives

2 Garlic cloves

1 TBSP sun-dried tomatoes (with the oil)

2 TBSP nutritional yeast

1 TBSP lemon juice

1/2 Cup soaked and drained cashews (I soaked them for an hour)

1 Cup of cooked lentils

1 Cup Veggie Broth

Put everything except the broth and lentils in the food processor and let it rip. Blend it up but good. Add lentils and broth and whirl again.

Ladle over cooked pasta of your choice. And add raw, roasted or sauteed veggies of choice (we added raw heirloom tomatoes and sauteed spinach and mushrooms.

Scraps and Snippets ~ Leftover Lentil Dilemma... Falafel Burgers

I had some lentils left over. Quite a few. And some brown rice. And no plans for din-din, and a few hungry mouths to feed, including mine.

So I threw a whole lot of stuff together and ended up with something I'm going to call a tasty Falafal Burger experiment. They aren't as pretty as they were tasty. My batch was nicely spiced and very falafaly in texture and taste. But it could've used a touch more flavor since I used a lot of bland ingredients. 

1 Cup cooked lentils (I used green, red might be prettier).

2 Cloves of garlic

1/2 onion (I didn't use this in my batch, but I needed a wee bit more flavor, this should do it.)

1/4 Cup garbanzo bean flour (or oatmeal would work, I'm thinking)

2 TBSP nutritional yeast

1 tsp cumin

3/4 to 1 tsp sea salt
1 tsp dried parsley

1/4 tsp garam masala

1/2 tsp curry powder

1/2 tsp tumeric

1/2 Cup sliced baby bella mushrooms

1/2 Cup walnuts

1 Cup cooked brown rice

1/2 Cup bread crumbs

1/2 Cup fresh washed spinach

2 TBSP sesame seeds

Okay. Putting the bad boys together. First SAVE the walnuts, mushrooms, rice, spinach, sesame seeds and bread crumbs. You will pulse them in later, but not mushify them because they will give extra texture.

Everything else, mushify in food processor until combined. Then add the walnuts, rice, spinach, sesame seeds and bread crumbs, and pulse just till everything is pulled into the mixture.

Form into patties. I got seven medium sized ones, chill for a half hour of so. Then cook on sprayed skillet, flip burgers til both sides are crusty/brownish, and burger is heated sufficiently. Three or four minutes total was about what I did.

We ate them with our Super Genius Tortillas, spicy mustard, romaine lettuce, onion slices and fresh heirloom tomato slices.

Scribbles and Scrambles ~ Life Continues Just Add Sun, Water and Love

It's been almost two weeks since the really, really hailish hail storm.

The farm took a hit. Big time.

The CSA will limp on.

Maybe the boxes won't be so densely packed with food from here on out, but the food we get will feed us, body and soul.

The bread and butter of the farm was wiped out in twenty minutes of rain and hail.

However, I've visited a few times the past week. And each time I see the farm there is clear evidence that life goes on. From the asparagus that survived softball hailstones and needed to have a little TLC weeding done, to the gems (sweet potatoes) hidden safely in their underground nest, these little veggies are hanging in there.

Pat, my pop drives the Super Weapon. (Weapon to weeds, only, unless I'm driving it which was not allowed.)

And the hand in the plastic glove?

It is the only view 24 allowed me to post, stating that the others were horrific and would make people hurl their breakfast. Fine.

There was an injury at the farm today. There could've been more. It rained all morning and the word MUCK is an understatement. 24 and I hightailed it to pick tomatoes in the garden behind the high tunnel. We slip-slid our way up and down the mud road, laughing our fool heads off. Neither of us fell which was a miracle.

But while digging for onions, I pulled a weed. It was a weed that did not want to leave the ground. It bit back, slicing my ring finger joint wide open.

Yes. I left some serious organic material on the farm. And I one-handedly took some impressive pictures. But, again, I was FORBIDDEN to post those. : (. You can thank 24 later.

Quick post-farm dinner deliciousness.

Garlic Pomodoro

5 good-sized heirloom tomatoes, diced.
5 cloves of freshly-grown-from-your-local-organic-grower garlic. minced.
Splash of Olive Oil (1 tsp or so)
6-8 fresh organic basil leaves (roll leaves into tubes and slice for the cool strip look)
Pasta of choice. Cooked.


Toss olive oil in pan. Add garlic and cook a minute or so, toss in basil strips and tomatoes. Cook just til it is warmed through. Ladle over pasta. Scarf it down and forget to take a picture.

Scraps and Snippets ~ Tortillas To Feed Super Internet Genius Guys and Anyone Else, Too...

Whew! I thought I might have to blog via my phone and my phone is NOT smart.

But my super internet genius and all around nice guy brother saved the day. It was almost day, too. I think he left at midnight. In a way this makes me feel less like an idiot. I had pictured him walking into the house, making two quick mouse strokes, switching out a cable and shaking his head at me. But he had to work hard to prove his geniusity. (Yes, spell check, another made up word.) And I, being who I am and all, will hijack this and use it to make myself feel better about my own skills. Win. Win. Win. Win.

My brother is not Vegan but he ate a Vegan feast with us and went back for seconds and made appreciative noises. My friend gave me her fabulous tortilla recipe which I have souped up. It will make about 16 small fajita sized tortillas or 8-10 bigger ones.

Super Genius Tortillas

4 Cups flour
1/2 Cup fat (not oil) (I used Coconut Oil but would use half coconut oil and half Earth Balance to cut down on hint of Coconut taste in future batches)
1/3 Cup Veggie Broth (LESS 2 TBSP and add 2 TBSP of Lime for an extra flavorful kick)
1/3 Cup Warm Water
1/2 teaspoon salt
Spices -- I added dried cilantro (2 tsp) and 3 cloves of garlic (I added, actually only 1 tsp cilantro and 2 cloves of garlic and it just wasn't enough kick but if you want slight, slight hints of flavor you could back off a bit.)

Liquids, fat, seasonings dumped in food processor and spin it. Add flour and mix it until dough forms. (Can do by hand. add spices and dry ingredients, (put minced garlic in with liquid) cut in fat until it is a coarse meal - add liquid and mix until dough forms. Then knead about three minutes (you will need extra flour if it's sticky).

Then let dough rest. Either in a blob or in smaller balls. 8-10 for large tortillas, 16 for small little guys. Give it half an hour at least.

Heat a skillet. Roll blobs into flat disks. Cook one side, flip cook the other. Depending on how hot the flame (med) or how thick your tortillas, a minute or less on each side. They will lose their gloss and get "cook" marks. They may puff a bit, and that's totally great. Cook until you are satisfied with the way they look. Slide in between towels in glass baking dish/stoneware and keep in a warm oven (170 degrees) until you are ready for them.

Scribbles and Scrambles ~ Thank You Very Much and Please Keep the recipeas coming, Sarah

I'm just going to go ahead and say it...even though I have several more recipes that I want to try. If you want GREAT Vegan recipes. If you want family friendly recipes tweaked to fit your family's likes and you want them to be healthier versions--you probably need to go ahead and get a copy of Peas and Thank You. Sarah has a lot of recipes available at her site. But there is something to be said about being able to hold a book in your hands and mark up pages, dot them with ingredient specks and add comments.

I'm hanging onto this book.

I still haven't mentioned the soup. The Lemon Lentil Soup I made last weekend. Delicious.

And I may come back and tell you how tasty it was.

But I have to ramble on and on about the two bars I made last night. I had to taste test them because they are for dessert tonight, and possibly a Vegan-squeam will be joining us. You gotta try the food if you think someone might get all weird about the ingredients. : ) A wonderful excuse dontcha think?


I mentioned that I didn't LOVE the cookies on Friday. Liked em...but was looking forward to trying the Peanut Butter Blondies with Ganache.

Go to the link and make them if you love peanut butter and chocolate combo items. They are GOOD. The ganache is made with Silken Tofu. I'll be honest. Even though we've been playing around with tofu for a few years, and have been really using it since April, I had not even encountered Silken Tofu. I didn't realize it's a different animal (uhhh actually non-animal...pardon the slip). Don't look in the cold case with the other tofus. It's on the shelf in the ethnic section of the store. The difference is that the silken doesn't have the water packing and doesn't have to be drained. Plus, it's shelf stable. Plus, and the biggest plus, it doesn't have much taste at all. Tofu, even though it's supposed to be tasteless has flavor. Kind of a synthetic taste that needs quite a bit of spice or sweet or whateves to conquer it. Silken Tofu is very mild. And WHAM! It makes an amazing Ganache. Going to be using it in all the baked/cold desserts that call for tofu now.

These bars are YUMMY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And you'd never know they weren't full of the worst of the worst. They taste as good as any decadent bar any restaurant, bakery, or box/bag can produce. Try it. If you love it. You need to stalk Peas and Thank You blog, if nothing else, and try some of Sarah's other recipes.

Double Chocolate/Single Chin Brownies. I didn't have high hopes for these. I do NOT like the texture of applesauce-subbed-for-fat-brownies. They are cakey and I'm just not a fan of cakey in my brownies.

The only applesauce I had in the house was cinnamon chunky. But I gave it a shot. I was SHOCKED at how good and texture-rich they were. I'm going to say I loved them. Really.

Serials and Scenario's Sarah Matheny's peas and thank you - again

Back to my obsessive thoughts about Peas and Thank You...the book.

The Cookies

I've baked and tasted a bunch of Vegan cookies. Some are really tasty, others are a FAIL. Now. I happen to love a cookie I've tweaked. But there is a lot of flax in it and it tastes "green" i.e. healthy. To those who don't care for green it just doesn't quite hit the spot.

Sarah's cookie -- Homestyle Chocolate Chip Cookie with Sea Salt to be exact -- is delicious for other reasons.

Soft.

Fluffy.

Sweet.

Check.

Does it taste remotely healthy?

No.

All three of us liked them very much.

Will it become my favorite cookie? Probably not mine, because I really prefer chewy, gooey. However, I will make them again and think they are a good Omnivore option wherein said Omnivore will just say "Yum! Good cookie." and never suspect something shady.

And I'm going to try her Peanut Butter Blondies with Ganache. I'm pretty sure they will become an obsession. I have never used silken tofu. This will be a maiden voyage for me. Now I'm just going to have to find it, buy it, and get this dessert made. Will it happen this weekend? Good goal.

Note: She has posted the recipe on her blog. Some of her recipes are there, some are only found in her book.