So I feel kind of guilty over yesterday's malaisical post (not to be confused with musicals which I hate. BTW fact that you were just dying to know about me.)
Here I am to rectify it. I will give you all you never knew you wanted but might have felt a teensy weensy spark of curiosity over...or not...you still get it, regardless of your want to know or not. And that spark of curiosity might have been more along the of indigestion and yet still...here it is.
And. At 1:45 p.m. it was only 79 degrees. It was beautiful and not horrid. So I guess the weather, the endless heatwave, the great outdoors offers no excuses. Ha.
My "chalk" outlined island. You can't possibly figure it out from the picture. But. I felt the need to share it. Next see the lovely red wall next to the marbleish looking step. That step is new and it is clad in my new floor. My floor has yet to be clad elsewhere which is why permanent marker was applied to it. The floor was an amazing price and we LOVE it. Faux but it looks so much like the tile in the adjoining room we were shocked. I feel like we are so close to getting this thing done. YAY!
Next. My $1.99 red purse. Okay. It's not Coach or Kate Spade or anything. But it's cute and has an inner section that is the wallet. It's way smaller than I normally carry. But I like it.
The red purse is posing with the now wrinkled from the dirty-clothes-pile maize sweater. Once it's washed and the weather continues to move toward fall...I'm so going to love it.
Pasta Rustica. Adapted from The Kind Diet cookbook.
Pasta of your choice. We used this one. But as I was rereading the ingredients whilst taking the picture I realized the dang stuff has eggs in it. So. Keep that in mind. I loved/liked it because it has lentil flour in it giving it extra protein. Prepare pasta according to instructions and set aside.
Finely mince two garlic cloves
Finely chop an onion
Dice an eggplant (or zucchini)
Chop/slice a handful or two of mushrooms.
And finely chop a small cabbage (or half of a large o
ne)
Dab (about a TBSP) fat (or broth) of your choice (olive oil, coconut oil, Earth Balance, Lard...whateves) into a skillet (large).
Begin sauteing garlic, onions, eggplant, mushrooms...when they look and smell almost done add the cabbage and cook for a few more minutes, stirring everything together. The cabbage will begin to turn translucent, that's a good time to stop. Mix the veggies into the pasta. Set aside.
In small bowl take 1/4 cup +(don't be stingy) soy sauce (or favorite equivalent) and mix with a 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder and 1/3 to 1/2 cup of your favorite marinara sauce. When mixed, dump over pasta and veggies and mix. Weirdly delicious. It reminds me of low mein. You could also add Kalamata olives, green olives, capers, other squashes/veggies.
And now the piece de resistance. MWA. No pictures. It was DEVOURED.
SERIOUSLY YUMMY CHOCOLATE VEGAN CHEESECAKE
Based on this recipe which was borrowed from another.
1 12.3-ounce package tofu (She used regular)
1 8-ounce package Tofutti Better than Cream Cheese
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup chocolate hazelnut milk (Silk's Chocolate Almond milk would work)
1 lb. dark chocolate (melted)
2 Tbsp. lemon juice
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 cup of cocoa powder
3 Tbsp. cornstarch
* (cookie crumbs, fruit etc. if you want to go fancy)
She made a graham cracker crust: She tossed cocoa powder, a little sugar (a TBSP of each give or take) and a brick of graham crackers into the blender and added 2 teaspoons of Earth Balance til it all stuck together.
Blend tofu, Tofutti, sugar, milk together for several minutes. Add lemon juice, vanilla, cocoa powder and cornstarch, blend again. Finally add melted chocolate and thoroughly combine. Pour mixture into prepared springform (greased) already "crusted" or pie plate (ditto). Bake at 350 for 55 minutes. The middle should still move when removed from oven and nothing should be browned. Let cool. Then place in fridge. I would let it sit at least overnight in fridge and preferably 24 - 36 hours.
*She poured half the cheesecake mixture in prepared pan, then added a layer of crushed vegan cookies and then dumped the rest of the cheesecake mixture over that.
Hmmm. It's been awhile since I struggled with what to say at the Dregs. I'm blaming it on the Dog Days of Summer.... which I have never really researched but think means that there's a certain malaise that hits after the temperature hovers in the 90's for weeks on end and the grass begins to brown, crinkle and die. When the haze of humidity greets each morning and closes out each night, and everything just feels soggy and sloppy.
Part of me wants to give a weekend update...with a recipe. But the picture is less than appetizing. And the weekend was pretty low key.
I should go downstairs and take a picture of the island permanent markered outline in the middle of my kitchen floor. Major progress actually. It means that at any point I could walk in the front door and see flooring on the floor instead of in the boxes that lean against my pumpkin colored wall.
I found some sweet deals while thrift store shopping. But again, I'd have to remove my hind-end from the couch, go downstairs and snap a few pictures...and it's really, really not at the top of my list. However, the red purse is pretty fabulously cute and was only $1.99...and the maize colored sweater makes me hope for a long and early autumn.
I finished two of the books I've been plugging away at and I need to review them at Amazon. One of them will be here...when I get the review written. But the book is so good it needs to percolate in my mind a bit.
If you want my version of Pasta Rustica, I suppose I can post it....as long as no one makes comments on the unappetizing picture. I also could give a glowing review of the Vegan Chocolate Cheesecake that 24 tweaked and adapted for her sister's birthday. With the link and the changes she made. Dang. It was super, super tasty.
And look. I managed to fill a blank blog page with a lot of words and hardly any content. Yes!!!!
Come farm day, I'm not even looking at the temperature now. I just assume it's going to be suck-the-air-out-of-your-lungs-and-spring-outta-your-step hot. So I wasn't disappointed when I hit the sizzling pavement after work and drove to the country.
Yes, indeed, it was hot.
I will admit there was a breeze. And that my outside job, after yanking turnips from terra firma, was washing them and the radish harvest. Me, being the less than coordinated woman that I am, managed to soak myself so thoroughly that my faux-crocs squeaked and squealed when I walked the rest of the day and my underwear finally thoroughly dried HOURS after the hose encounters.
But the water did save me from wandering lost and dazed in the tall corn. So we should all be thankful. Can you imagine the stories that would come from that kind of incident?
My musical theme music started playing in my brain when we found that we lacked zucchini but one of the farmers had harvested a few new little squash. Buttercup squash. If you've ever seen the hilariously stupid 90's gem "The Three Amigos" remember Little Ned's hit song. Ha. Ha. If you've not seen this movie (Steve Martin, Chevy Chase, Martin Short) you really, really should look into it.
The second part of farm songs (errr chants) follows: I did not have to squish bugs. I suppose, as a Vegan, I should be alarmed about squishing bugs. However, as I've pointed out, I'm a health motivated Vegan. (BTW my aunt tells me that technically I should call myself a whole-food-plant-based eater because lots of Vegans, who are of the animal rights version eat crud that doesn't do a whole lot for them healthwise. But I digress.) ... 24 was assigned tomato wrangling and squash picking. She killed lots of squash bugs and a few new little critters that come straight out of a horror movie....wait for it...wait for it. The Tomato Worm. Now, apparently this guy is about the size of a pinkie finger and squirms whilst being squeezed, so much so that the farmer said strong, strapping males recoil at the sight of a dying Tomato Worm. 24 shuddered when she told the story.
The farmer added elements of horror while she carried armloads of turnips to one of the tables for sorting. She said that these horrible little bugs even have horns, "like demons." And suddenly she burst out in a little bizarre chant of "ooh..ooh...oy." and kind of hopped skipped to the table while waving the turnips in the air.
The room grew silent. Then we slowly realized that this was no demon-begone-turnip-waving-dance-and-chant at all. She was simply trying to keep the aforementioned armload of turnips from tumbling off the table. Ahhh. Fun and games, kids. Nothing like a little heat exhaustion and talk of killing and demons to add a little spice to your life.
And. I have discovered a sweet little bonus (Oh, my, speaking of sweet. We actually shared an ear of freshly picked sweet corn. RAW. Still slightly warm from the 
sun. Oh, oh, my was that tasty!!!) again, I digress, remnants of sun poisoning, no doubt. The benefit is, now with all these pounds of produce coming in, there are seconds that are not fit for CSA boxes or market. A blemish, a few too many bug bites...and well, we get to take a few little misfits home with us and eat them, too. Wahhhahhahhahha.(Meet Casper, the white ghost eggplant.) Muwhahahaha
ne)
