Scraps and Snippets ~ Gobble, Gobble, Gulp...

My anxiety level clicked up a notch today.

Why? Probably because I solidified plans for two Thanksgivings and remembered a church Harvest dinner I'd signed up for. Not a big deal. Really. None of them are at my house. And I kind of have them all on my radar. But. These suckers are all a week or less away.

Yikes.

This is the first year we are going to concern ourselves with the Vegan thing, too. Which means that what I prepare has to be Vegan for us to eat without guilt and/or sadness that we are gorging on stuff we don't really want to gorge on, and it has to taste good to others, those who are hoping that what we bring to the table is going to be deliciously up to our normal standards of food.

I've been called a good cook. And I've had folks ask my husband and kids what I made so they can be sure to grab some at potlucks. I don't want to become the weirdo lady who brings tasteless food to gatherings. I want to keep my good cook badge.

The other issue I have is the stupid Martha Stewart inner freak who wants to not only make things good enough, she wants to make things that cause tastebuds to rejoice, and tears to well and maybe even spill over the eyelid and trickle down a cheek. You know. Sappy stuff which is better than a purple ribbon at a state fair.

My challenge over the next few days is to find, tweak, twist and wrestle foods that embody the spirit of Thanksgiving and the heart of "Kind" eating i.e. Whole Food Plant-Based.

I'm not even thinking about Christmas. The Eves of many Christmases past have been at my house and full of soups rich with meaty goodness, cheeses, creams. Cookies, and candies made with items like butter.

Suffice it to say. This blog is going to continue to be about food. I'm very grateful that there are hundreds of other blogs that are about food, too. I'm going to need all of them as I take the holiday challenge to beat my own holiday food expectations.

Scraps and Snippets ~ Monkeying Around

Crazy day.

For starters. I was a little crabby. People annoyed me today. So it's probably good that I didn't have a patient filled day as I was seriously lacking patience. : ). However. I did start out my morning with a new guy who laughed like I was a stand up comedian. (This is my absolute favorite thing. I have another patient that hoots and hollers at almost everything I say. Trust me, a person is seriously good when she can make, "I need you to put this paper top on so it opens in the front. Remove your blouse and bra and lay them right here." funny on any level. I do, apparently. It's pretty amazing. (Okay, sometimes I ad lib and add a few other one-liners, and these folks are fasting which means they DO not have the benefit of coffee in their systems, which can affect common sense and bring drastic mental changes.) But still. However, an enthusiastic hooter generally only crosses my path a total of three minutes, and they are usually long gone when I hit the paperwork part of my job.

I left work when the scanner took the equivalent to a spring break and refused to come back, even when I whistled for it and promised it treats.

& and I went to the big city again for groceries, our Financial Peace University Dave Ramsey class, and candle shopping et al. Ecoscents, a local "cottage" candle shop was kind enough to honor a Groupon we both purchased and then procrastinated and tried to redeem on a day they were closed, the last day of redemption. They gave us the full value, even though the date had passed, and really, honestly, we should not have procrastinated and should have noted that they wouldn't have been open on the last date because they don't have weekend hours. Nice of them to be generous, they really could've just given us the value we paid as required, instead they let us spend the full amount. The candles smell amazing. And they will refill the jars, and any other candle jars we have, for a discount of 30%. Kind of cool. I picked out a cranberry hot tea and an herbal medley that are yummy. 

Since we were in the neighborhood, (literally, we walked through the ditch that separated the stores) we visited an indoor farmer's market that is chock full of locally grown and made items. Fun and quirky and nice to know we can still find some local stuff after the farmer's markets go to sleep for the long winter.

Finally, the pictures. This is Latte Art. & made me a monkey. I'll let you figure out which one is her monkey in my mocha soy latte, and which is the pro's monkey. We will be generous and say this was a) her first attempt at a monkey, and b) soy milk doesn't quite produce the foam that milk does, so there's that. 

As far as financial wisdom. Uhh. I wish I had taken Financial Peace University about twenty years ago. I'd be typing this from some beach somewhere...maybe. :  )

Scraps and Snippets ~ Monday Malaise...

...might just have to do with the time change. Or the fact that Monday comes too early and weekends are too short. Or because the weather tells me that the cocooning season is here.

It is dark at 5:15 around here. Dark. Last week found me in PJ's and slippers twice before 7:00 p.m. In my defense, 7:00 p.m. felt like midnight. And I technically could wear my PJ's out and about. Could. Shouldn't, wouldn't, but could.

We've been doing some cooking and baking. Our goal is to use up what we've already got, creatively. Some of the results are mehhhh, which is the Monday Malaise way to say, edible but not yell-it-from-the-mountaintops-worthy, hence no recipes or photos of the results.

Veganomicon (by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero, really, I'm just a fan, not a full-on stalker. She's got great recipes! ) gave me a nice little chickpea cutlet to try out. Try out I did. And they will be on the Thanksgiving menu. Yum. I made a nice little mushroom sage gravy that, with a bit of tweaking, will star as well.

My dad's birthday celebration happened last night. Save for the salmon I steamed then broiled for the meat-eaters, everything else was Vegan and pretty much got snarfed up. We had frozen squash soup base from an earlier huge batch of squash soup and we added roasted veggies of all sorts (the last of the CSA farm veggies) turnips, beets, potatoes. & outdid herself with caramel walnut pumpkin "cheese"cake, and chocolate almond pies. She even tried her hand at a tofu-free regular pumpkin pie.

We ate well over the weekend. A quick trip into Trader Joe's gave us a thrill. The farm brussel sprouts bit it in the hail storm. But these little cuties looked great, tasted even better and make for lots of fun veggie moments.

Marbled Mix-Up Oatmeal Squares

3/4 Cup Flour of choice (I used Whole Wheat Pastry)

1/2 teaspoons soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 Cup Coconut Oil or Earth Balance

3 TBSP Sugar

1/4 Cup Brown Sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1 TBSP ground Flax seed

3 TBSP water

1 Cup Oatmeal

1 Cup Vegan chips of choice/or dried fruit/nut/chip combo of choice

Grease 9 x 13 pan, pre-heat oven to 350. Place flax seed in water and set aside. In mixing bowl combine oil/Earth Balance, sugars, vanilla. Add flax mixture. Mix in soda, salt, flour. Finally add the oatmeal.

Scrape mixture into pan. Then sprinkle topping combo (i.e. semi-sweet with dried cranberry, or just semi-sweet, semi-sweet and white, etc.) over the batter. Place in oven and bake for 2 or 3 minutes. Remove from oven, run knife up and down lengthwise, then widthwise, through chocolate/chips/topping and batter, making marbled swirls. Place back in oven, finish baking for 12 or so minutes. Cool. Cut into 24 squares.

Scraps and Snippets ~ Reading, Cooking, Rithmetic....

We've been taking classes like crazy lately. And learning lots of great information. 

The farmers are taking us to an organic growing class in early December. One of the sessions will be all about non-pesticide pest control. Hopefully they will teach the words and steps to the Horrible-Horned-Tomato-Worm be-gone ritual. 

Until then & and I have signed up for four weeks of Kitchen Chemistry. Sounds dangerous to me, too. Especially with the two of us on board. Good news, we don't actually touch the hot pots, the blenders, the chef knife. We get to eat the examples though. This instructor leans Vegan. 

Our first class was all about fats. Useful information and a few great substitute ideas. Tofu Hollandaise and Caesar salad dressing were actually called tastier by several non-vegans in the class.

I learned the following: That very little flavor comes from the fat, including butter. Fat is added for texture, heat transfer and binding. So it can be tweaked with to avoid some fat. She suggested that fried foods can be roasted if the heat transfer issue is handled correctly. Fried foods need the frying oil to be at the 300-350 stage so that the oil immediately sears the food and seals it. So the oven needs to be set to 450 to compensate. A cast iron cooking source (i.e. pan or griddle) or baking stone can be preheated with the oven. Then the veggies laid upon it (allowing space for proper cooking) and the food put back into the oven. A nice crust/sear should occur and create a texture that is similar to frying. Hmmm. Going to have to try that out. She also said that nut meals can take the place of some fat and some flour. 1/2 cup equals 2 TBSP fat, 2 TBSP flour. I'll be trying that out as well. Veggie and fruit pulp can be used in place of oil in salad dressings and other items. Potatoes can add cream to soups. And when doing a vinegar oil dressing. Always put the spices/seasoning in the vinegar and let it sit for 5 -10 minutes. The water soluble portion is what accepts the flavors. 

I'm also partnering with & at a Dave Ramsey Financial Peace University class. Uhh, if you don't have common sense money skills, hate money handling, have a desperate need to make some changes, look into taking this class. Seriously good information. I actually understand the concept and a tiny bit of the language of investing after just one video lecture.

Scraps and Snippets ~ Last Farm Day and a Song...

Yesterday was the last official farm day of our extended CSA season. I can't believe there were still veggies to pick and pack. But there were. Spinach leaves the size of my hand, a bag of mixed green lettuce, sage, rosemary, thyme. (Makes me want to burst out in song. Oops, more about that later.) Tomatoes, Swiss Chard, garlic, radishes, turnips and beets. A full bag of yumminess. We had been recycling boxes every week. The picture shows just a few of the bags we packed. 24 of them that almost covered two 8 x 4 tables. That's a lot of stuff to pick, to wash, to weigh, separate, and pack. But it finished the year on a tasty note and shows that even baseball sized hail can not kill spirit, only a few plants. 

Now on to &'s embarrassing moment. 

She and I tend to be singers. (Not in public, usually, mind you). The songs we sing are usually motivated by what is going on around us and set to popular tunes/and or composed on the spot tunes. I suppose I started this twisted little thing. When the kids were little I'd sing while I drove. Or when they were pouting, or throwing temper tantrums, or whining. Sometimes in moments of cuddling, but the kids would usually put their sweet little hands over my mouth then. So maybe that's why I'd sing where the could not reach my lips. Anyhoo. I just made up songs and got a real kick out of it if they rhymed accidentally or fit into the tune. The louder the background noise (whining et al) the louder I sang.

& has this "gift". We actually have called her the singing bush girl (the movie Three Amigos...if you've not seen it, you are missing out.). So, on Sunday, the dogs had just gone out to go potty and & let them in and began singing to them. I was upstairs and heard the singing, and since it's a usual background noise, I didn't pay attention. Until I heard conversation. Uhhh. What? 

& had her back to the front door, pretty much standing in the doorway, the door was open save for the glass storm door. She was singing to the dogs and texting. Singing real loud. Suddenly, from just behind her she heard a timid knocking. She silenced the song, turned and faced some young, slightly smirking man on the other side of the glass. He was just going through the hail-whacked neighborhood leaving a business card if anyone was looking for a carpenter. 

I wonder if he's telling the story about the crazy singing lady.

Scraps and Snippets ~ Culinary Conference Two Thumbs, Two Paws Up...

Part 2 of the Culinary Conference.

Isa's session was tasty and entertaining. She brought three kinds of cookies. The maple walnut cookie was amazing, surprisingly beating out the double chocolate one.

She also has a dry sense of humor. This is my favorite. I am so not dry. If I think something is amusing, it falls out of my mouth followed by laughter...my own, sometimes ONLY mine. But someone with dry humor can deliver a killer comment with no emotion even flickering across their features. Isa delivered.

She started with a matter of fact comment that pretty much slayed the group. The previous gals had shared the details of the construction of their cookbook which included lots of local history. One piece, a rare find, proved the legend of the creation of the famous Reuben sandwich in our neighborhood. One of the gals shared that New Yorkers had claimed the sandwich beginning in the 40's, but the cookbook authors have a menu with proof that it was served locally in the 20's. I don't know if these gals were taunting the New Yorker in the audience or were clueless that they were tossing a gauntlet...

Isa began her session and mentioned she grew up in New York, where the Reuben sandwich was created. Ha.Ha. 

You just have to love people, don't you? One guy's phone rang right in the middle of her talk. It didn't just ring, first an electronic voice loudly chimed each digit of the phone number calling him. Then the ring. He did excuse himself to answer it. A few minutes later he returned, told Isa that his friend was in some other state, and wanted him to tell Isa that she loved one of her salad recipes. Unfortunately, Isa was in the middle of a sentence, during her speech, at the time he delivered the message. Yeah.

The picture of Isa gives a nice fun house effect. The lights were half on, half off as she had a power point going. This was snapped just as my mom finished telling her that & and I are big fans and we were going to begin stalking her. The fuzziness of the picture is because I really don't know how to take a picture of someone who's just been notified of impending stalking without being real creepy doing so... I think the lighting does a great job highlighting that moment of horror for Isa.

The other picture is one of her power point ones, one of her cute kitties and a friend. Not sure if this is the famous Fizzle cat, but regardless, it's a cute one.

Tomorrow. I have to share &'s hilarious "oops" moment that has NOTHING to do with Isa.