Vegan Peanut Butter Caramel Sauce
1/2 Cup non-dairy milk (I used Organic Vanilla Soy)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 Cup peanut butter
1/4 Cup sugar
1/4 Cup crushed peanuts (I used salted, no skins)
Combine the milk, sugar, peanut butter and salt in a medium sauce pan. Heat and stir constantly until mixture begins to boil. Boil for one minute. The texture will change and become caramelly as you stir. Add peanuts.
Serve over ice cream, brownies, on a spoon. Refrigerate leftovers if there are any.
I haven't mentioned my upcoming travel plans on the blog yet. So consider this an announcement. My daughter (also known as &) and I have a trip planned. Started out a road trip and has morphed into a super sweet deal on plane tickets and stays at two different Air BnB's.
Where are we going? Seattle and Portland. Why? Well, one of us had a crazy idea that we should honor some significant birthdays. One of us is currently twenty-five and one of us is ahem...forty-nine. We will be celebrating the flipping of the mileage counter past and upcoming.
Why did we pick Portland/Seattle? Veg Fest. We are flying to Seattle, hanging out and being tourists, going on a coffee crawl, seeing the sights, shopping, walking then heading to Portland for two days of Vegan seminars and booths, and Multnomah Falls, and places that have been blogged about by other Portland fans.
To prepare, we've been researching and watching episodes of Portlandia. Ha. Ha. Should be a very crazy fun trip.
I'll be I-phone blogging travel updates so you can come along for the fun. Who knows what will appear here.
But before I head out on a jet plane I'm going to post a recipe for peanut butter caramel.
Tomorrow.
Here's a teaser. This caramel sauce tops one of the desserts that I've been experimenting with for Vegan MOFO. The whole recipe will be appearing here in October. And you are going to want the whole recipe. But, tomorrow, you can come back for a sliver of the delicious concoction -- something delicious to dribble over ice cream or eat by spoonfuls.
After seeing a few recipes for Roasted Tomato Soup and trying one prior that was okay but not quite there, I played around and came up with this concoction. I love soup, but vegetable soup is not always filling enough to make it a full meal.
Rob says it's the best soup ever. That's high praise.
10-12 medium (organic/heirloom) tomatoes cut into wedges
1 can (or 1 2/3 cups cooked) white beans
1/2 cup or so of diced eggplant
4-5 mushrooms (regular sized)
6-8 Kalamata olives
1 sliced onion
6 cloves garlic sliced
5 cups vegetable broth
fresh basil (6-7 leaves chiffonade)
fresh thyme (the leaves from 3 sprigs)
Sea Salt
Heat oven to 425. Chop and dice eggplant, tomatoes, onions, garlic, mushrooms. Lay out on two greased cookie sheets. Sprinkle liberally with sea salt.
Roast for 20-25 minutes. When they are close (check at 18-19 minutes place the basil on the cookie sheet) Veggies should be tender, beginning to caramelize and are darkening. Place the slightly cooled veggies in a food processor with the beans, olives, thyme and another few shakes of salt. Puree all.
Dump into a crockpot or large saucepan. Add the vegetable broth and heat through or simmer on low.
So. I found out something somewhat hilarious yesterday.
But first, a little background. My dad is pretty techie. He's had a computer for a long time and does all sorts of things with it. His VCR clock. Ha. Ha. No one uses VCRs anymore...his DVD player doesn't blink 12:00 endlessly either. He's had a Blackberry for years.
My mom, though no slouch with the computer (unless she gets frustrated with either IT or it, as in the computer....just sayin I've seen her threaten to throw either/or out the window) is a little more tech-wary. She's become pretty computer savvy out of necessity, but.....
The latest piece of technology that she is refusing to embrace is a cell phone. Yes. My mom has a cell phone and she could even text. Note, I say COULD. However, mastering of the DOING is going to require quite a bit of flinging phones toward glass or at least threats. For now the phone just takes up precious space in her purse. I love that my dad put in all the ICE contacts for her. And she says that if she enunciates and yells "Call ___________(fill in the blank!)" It will usually offer to call someone else. One step at a time, Mom. Ha. Ha.
But the craziest part of this whole thing is that my 94-year-old grandma now has a cell phone.
Yes. It's true. She hates paying the rising cost of a landline just for the privilege of receiving pesky telemarketer sales calls. My dad is working on making a cell phone easy-peasy and into something workable for her.
His work is cut out for him. I might mention that seeing and hearing are not her strengths. However, she excels at saving money and at being determined. I'm hoping this works out. I'm thinking it's pretty sweet to have a hip 94-year-old grandma packing a cellphone. I think I need to bedazzle her a sweet cell phone case.
A few weeks ago we had pears.
This week the theme is apples. Lots and lots of imperfect apples.
During the pear blitz & and I made pear sauce, pear pies, pear tarts, pear pie filling and dehydrated pears, Last night I arrived home to the delicious scent of freshly baked apple pie. I've frozen cups and cups of applesauce...just apples no sugar and it's amazing. We've dehydrated a dozen or more cups of apple slices, made up bags of apple pie filling and there are still cups and cups more to process.
Those free apples and pears are saving me $$$ on organic applesauce usually purchased from the store. Dried apple slices, uh yeah, those aren't cheap. And using the imperfect apples makes me feel virtuous and earthy.
Tomatoes are on my agenda for the weekend, too. Our garden is producing those little suckers now. Oh what a problem to have too much delicious organic produce to put away for a rainy day!
Speaking of rain. We got an entire summer's worth last night. Whew. The temperature on Tuesday hit 100 (hearsay, not necessarily fact) today is looking like sweater weather. Crazy Iowa.
Things you might overhear at an organic CSA pack.
"Don't forget to grab all the discards you want from the pile."
"The white ones are thin-skinned."
"Uh oh, we have an extra bag. Who didn't get one?" This is a favorite, it is followed by the sound of several people going through 42+ boxes until either a) the box with the missing produce is found or b) we determine the count was over by one. It is a standard statement. When there are six women packing about a dozen or more items into 40+ boxes, you can bet your bippy that it is blurted almost every week.
"So, then what did you put on it? How long did you cook it?"
"My spiralizer is on it's way." Yes. We talk about food. Quite a bit. And how we like to prepare it. And sales of spiralizers have spiked in the past few weeks.
"That one's weeping. Get rid of it!"
"If it's crying, clearly it's upset, getting rid of it just seems cruel."
"And this one is thin-skinned. Chuck it."
"So there is no room for weak tomatoes, is that what you are saying?" Many, many sarcastic and goofy comments are made and we are usually tired, dirty and punchy enough we laugh hysterically.
"How many half share boxes again?"
"Who's box is missing? Someone read the list again."
"Those cucumber beetles are a scourge this year. No more sweet corn, they ate the silk."
"The basil got burnt!"
"Snack time?" "When is Costco going to get the Ghiradelli chocolate chips back?" Farmer number two packs each helper a baggie of dried fruit and almonds (and the above mentioned chocolate when available.) After a few hours of intense and sometimes dirty, nasty work, these baggies almost bring us back to life. There may even have been tears of gratitude during some packs. She also brings tea which we manage to guzzle with gusto, too.
"Look at this __________fill in the blank, radish, tomato, etc. __________________? Isn't it beautiful?"
So & and I were headed out to walk the girls last night. Casually, I mentioned that I had seen a wild bunny by our bunny cages the night before last and that I'd had a bizarre thought that it wasn't wild. It had such light coloring and seemed too fluffy and tame to be wild.
All of a sudden & stage~whispered that I needed to get close to her side of the yard, real fast. So I did. And there was the "wild" bunny, hopping along checking out some vegetation. "Look at his gait. He's not wild. No way." And I had to agree. Our neighborhood wild bunnies are speedy, skittish and all angles and sinew as well as being the traditional speckled gray, brown, black with just a hint of white under their tails and around their ears.
If this guy was wild, he was a mix of wild and domestic. No way he was the pure thing. And his feet. Big old honking fat feet. Wild? Nah? And where the heck did he come from? Really? Another domestic bunny loose in our yard?
Crud! Now what? Seriously, we watched him sniff around getting closer to the cage where Charlotte was enjoying grass time. He hopped around without a care in the world. Of course, at this point, the dogs were all interested in the loose bunny on the other side of the fence. We couldn't leave this little guy out when there were predators about. I've heard racoons in our back yard the past few nights. Racoons don't have a bunny-friendly reputation.
& put the girls in the house and we both walked around to the other side of the yard to where this little guy roamed. She cut a wide arc and I brought up the back. Rob ended up joining us. & got to within feet of the bunny as he zeroed in on Charlotte. The guy was looking for a date, clearly. First he hopped over to &'s outstretched hand and actually sniffed it before heading back to charm Charlotte. Catching him was as simple as reaching out and grabbing him.
And he might be the tamest rabbit in the pack. No back foot defensive action, no wriggling to get away. He just let himself be captured and held and picked up and moved several times as we rearranged apartments and living quarters.
Enter Willoughby. The newest member of the Klepfer Bunny Herd. Should we incorporate? LLC. That's got a nice ring. And should we build another cage. We no longer have any vacancies. Or maybe we should build a bunny ark. & is either a modern day bunny Noah wherein the critters now come to her. No more need to hunt and chase or visit Craig's List, those little suckers and bounding on up to the front door and ringing the bell. Facebook friends suggested that she might be the bunny whisperer or even Snow White. Ha. This little bunny summer saga definitely feels Walt Disneyish to me.
10-12 medium (organic/heirloom) tomatoes cut into wedges
Heat oven to 425. Chop and dice eggplant, tomatoes, onions, garlic, mushrooms. Lay out on two greased cookie sheets. Sprinkle liberally with sea salt. 
So & and I were headed out to walk the girls last night. Casually, I mentioned that I had seen a wild bunny by our bunny cages the night before last and that I'd had a bizarre thought that it wasn't wild. It had such light coloring and seemed too fluffy and tame to be wild. 