Friday, September 30, 2011

Scraps and Snippets ~ Daily Bread, and Chocolate and Farm Thoughts



Insanity comes in many forms. 

One of those might be writing a blog post at a wee late hour when I should be chasing sheep. But. I gotta make hay while the sun shines. Or the moon shines. Or...


I digress. 


Speaking of sheep and moons. The farm day was actually kind of a sad one. Oh. The weather was amazing. The kind where you roll down the car windows and suck all the scents into your nostrils with gusto. Where the wind blows through your hair so you arrive at your destination looking a little like Harpo Marx (or a clown should you need help with that visual.) (Actually. That might be just me this happens to.)


So after a perfect drive in weather that was perfect, I arrived to a pack that was full of glorious veggie bounty and quick to boot. Why was it sad? Because it was officially the last day.


Because of the hail, the farmers are going to keep it going. But, our official duties have come to an end. But the invitation was extended for us to come same time, same place as often as we want to. And I think we have to, the farm has gotten under my skin, and completely so, like the dirt works it way into my fingernails (and toenails.)


Tonight ^, Mrs. Toad-Boy and I took an Artisan Bread making Class at the local college. We each took bags of freshly baked bread home. Ahhh. The car smelled heavenly. Not sure how they taste. ^ and I were not even tempted to taste as we were full from gorging on a new recipe my sweet tooth required me to make today. I'm giving you the link. (Scroll down for the version I made.)

Think before you freak. This stuff is delicious. Now I know. Some of what I make and call delish isn't something you are going to be making any time soon. Or even become tempted to try. But. If you have a sweet tooth but want something slightly better for you than most of the crud out there....well, you could do far worse.

(What I did different. I made the batch of chocolate chip (about halfway down the page, highlighted and clickable). I added a total of 2 TBSP almond milk, 3 TBSP of oats, and blended very well. I also added half of the chocolate chips and blended those, too. Then I took half the batter and put them in half a bowl and sprinkled the rest of the choc chips on top. To the mixture in the food processor, I added 1 TBSP of cocoa powder. Then blended it up and spooned it into the bowl next to the choc. chip version. It thickened up decently. Especially the chocolate one. Oh my it's good. )

Thursday, September 29, 2011

Scraps and Snippets ~ Garden Garlic Soup

Here's a quick recipe I need to slide in while I actually have Internet. My connection is unstable. Why? I suppose it's because it's MY connection. As my internet waxes and wanes like the moon but with way less predictability, I'm going to take a chance at posting rather than put that energy into throwing my computer, Frisbee style, across the room. 

This is tasty and hearty. And has already been made twice. To raves. Methinks it's a keeper. It really needs only garlic, onion, water, potatoes, corn and salt/pepper. Of course everything we used we got from the Farmer, including the basic recipe.

Garden Garlic Soup


Melt 1 TBSP or so of Earth Balance in large pan. (A Dutch Oven works the best)

Add an entire minced garlic bulb (the whole thing, with all the little cloves, but not the papery stuff around the cloves, those you should put in a bag in the freezer and use when you make your own veggie stock like I plan to do.)
1 Onion, minced

Heat/saute until the onions are translucent. If they get browned that's great. 

Add 1 LB Organic Potatoes, chopped. Peel only if they need peeling. (I'm guessing about 6 biggish potatoes, and a dozen or so small ones.)

Sweet Corn, scraped from about 6 ears. (I used it raw because the starch from the uncooked corn made the soup thicker.)

Any other veggie that tempts you. I chopped up some carrots. Thought about adding green stuff but decided not to, but probably will next time. 

Pour enough water into the pan to cover the veggies. Heat on low for an hour or so. (Or stick it in the oven on low, or in a crock pot for a few hours. Add salt and pepper to your family's liking (or your own). Makes about six decent sized bowls of soup.

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Scraps and Snippets ~ Funky Monkey Pancakes in Honor of National Pancake Day

Farm day report tomorrow.


It has been preempted by National Pancake Day.


Did you know there was such a thing? And yesterday was it.


We feasted on Scrambled Tofu


and


Funky Monkey Pancakes.

1 Smashed ripe banana
1 1/2 TBSP baking powder
2 TBSP vegan sugar
2 TBSP nut butter
2 Cups non-dairy milk
1 Cup unbleached all purpose or whole wheat pastry flour
3/4 Cup oatmeal
Vegan Choc Chips...about 1/2 Cup

Smash banana with baking powder, it will get foamy, mix well, add sugar, nut butter. When well mixed add non-dairy milk. Stir in flour and oatmeal.




Heat griddle, spray with or melt non-dairy fat on surface. When ready pour 1/4 cup circles of batter onto griddle. When the the surface is full of air bubbles, flip over. Add a chocolate chip face, or polka dots. Eat. Makes about 16 pancakes.


These are not overly sweet and taste quite a bit like banana bread. To get a stronger peanut butter flavor, I'm going to add another TBSP of peanut butter next time and see if that does it. They are tasty as they are, but, of course, I'm going to tweak em.

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Scraps and Snippets ~ What I Learned In Raw Food Class


Spices and herbs fall into different categories between the sweet and bitter spectrum of tastebud land. Our dishes need a proper blend of sour, salt, sweet and bitter to taste good. The perfect bullseye of taste falls within the mix and blends.

I knew the tastebud pleasure flood goal. But I had an imperfect education in proper spice/herb leanings. Spearmint is sweet but peppermint can go sweet or bitter. Fresh basil is sweet but the dried version will add bitter notes. Cinnamon leans sweet or bitter which explains why cinnamon is called for in so many savory recipes as well as the classic cinnamon roll. : ) Acid can also decrease the need for salt. If a dish tastes flatish, instead of another few shakes of salt an acid might work better.

I also learned that heating herbs too much kills the flavor, and that spices need the heat to bring out flavor. And that spices are two to three times more flavor packed than herbs. So. I need to avoid spices in dishes that don't get cooked and add herbs to my cooked dishes at the last few minutes. Really? That explains a few fails.

All but three of my spices are seriously outdated. Fresh is three to six months. I literally have three that young. The rest are gray haired and using walkers. So. I will be working on parting with my ancient spice. Oooh. Remember the Spice Girls? Wouldn't it have been fun to have an Ancient Spice in the band? Ha. Ha.

We also tried sprouted and soaked grains in banana date soaked oat groat oatmeal, and sprouted quinoa and wheatberry salads. Pretty tasty stuff. The class had chatting time and our classmates want to meet Mother and give kefir and Kombucha a taste. We'll pack a small jar of Kombucha and a small jar with a baby mother to class next week.

Ooooh. That will be fun. I'll try to remember to snap pictures of first encounters with Mother. Heeheehee.


Monday, September 26, 2011

Scraps and Snippets ~ Of Apple, Cinnamon, Pumpkin and Super Sweetly Cheap Cookbooks...

 I have stacks of books at my house. A result of a long term compulsion to buy books that are bargains. Some of them are cookbooks, some novels, and some are about figuring out life. I occasionally want to clear out some of the ones I've read, used and don't plan to keep using. The space I net is a bonus. Feeling green is another bonus.


We have a Half-Price Books in our metro area. And Half-Price Books buys books, and sells books at sometimes super bargain prices. I have quite the good time there. Especially when I find a book I've been wanting real bad.  


We were in the neighborhood the other day and I sold some cookbooks that were ones that didn't work for our new way of eating.

I ended up turning those few books into a SCORE. We found a cookbook we'd been eyeballing on Amazon. For six bucks cheaper. Win. Win. Win. Turn in six books, take home one keeper? Priceless.


^ (The unpronounceable symbol for the daughter who used to be known as 24 because her birthday is right around the corner and I have to change her name every year anyhoo.) made pumpkin muffins and cupcakes. Both are keepers. This cookbook will NOT be going back to Half-Price Books. I'll do a review of it soonish. I found some recipes that I'm super excited to try, too. 


The pancakes are ones I made from Peas and Thank You. Not ready to review it fully yet. But if you have an inkling, I'm telling you her Apple Cinnamon pancakes (yes, the pictured ones) are pretty much worth the purchase price if you are a pancake fan. We've been buying a Vegan pancake mix and will NOT be doing that anymore. Five from scratch batches will likely pay for the cookbook. I also found more pages to fold over of recipes I want to try. I can tell you Peas and Thank You is a keeper.


Friday, September 23, 2011

Scraps and Snippets ~ Wildlife, P B J Oatmeal and Making Grape Jam When Life Gives You Grapes....

We had grapes we needed to do something with. If there is anything more frustrating than letting hard won or expensive, or the combo of the two items go to waste, well, I'm not sure what it would be. 


Last night I had to act or the above scenario would play out. So I plucked the grapes from their skeletons and prepared to make grape jam. 

Issue one. Not enough grapes to really justify getting the whole canning setup out and about. 


Issue two: I wanted Jam. Not Jelly. Jelly is strained and therefore you lose the chunky bits. So I had to deseed them. Is there an easy way to do this? Not sure. I should've googled it. Probably there is. But then again, I only had about three cups of whole grapes, how long could it take? A long time. Like an hour +. I had to squeeze of the outer layer of skin and then squeeze the inner jiggly part to remove the seeds. Sometimes one seed, sometimes three seeds. We took a break to do a walk in the middle of the project. It felt like hours.

Issue three: I had to look at several recipes to try to figure out what to do. In the end I just made a decision and went with it. There didn't seem to be a recipe that fit what I wanted to do. My end project plan was simply two small jars, for the fridge, to be eaten within a few weeks. So I went with the whole apple butter idea that seems to work for us. I dumped the grape bits, skins included, but not the seeds (this was about two cups total) and added half a cup of sugar into my little baby crockpot to cook down overnight. 

This morning when I woke up I did not smell heavenly grape aromas. There went my plans for peanut butter and grape jam on toast for breakfast.

Plan G: I'm leaving the lid off, hoping to cook it down further and thicken the stuff while I'm at work today. And I got creative for breakfast. I made oatmeal (a few scoops of old fashioned organic oats, 2 TBSP of chia seed) water to consistency I like, a blob of peanut butter and several spoonfuls of warm, liquidy grape jam. YUM. PB and J oatmeal. Yep. 


You might be wondering about the picture of the deer. These little guys were running away from me. I startled them while they were playing on the hill by my office. I have seen deer everywhere lately. Last night while on our walk we startled a mom and two teen deer. Last week we spied an adolescent deer hanging out in a driveway with half a dozen or so wild turkeys. Wished I had my camera for that one. Ha. Ha.

Thursday, September 22, 2011

Scribbles and Scrambles ~ Baby Steps to Change, ala DVD...

Life/Food/Health Documentaries I love. 

All available through Netflix. (Instant Streaming, too)

Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead

Forks Over Knives

Food Inc.





King Corn

Super Size Me

Why? Good question. Because each of them gives helpful information about why, what and how to make little changes. And they celebrate little choices that add up. Each of these films have moments of horrific reality that forced me to make a series of choices. Including an invitation for me to choose what I'd do with the information I'd been given.

Is every bit of information absolute truth? Do each of these films have an agenda? Those are details you'll have to wrestle with when and if you choose to see them. I'm not going to be an activist any time soon. I'm still trying to figure all this out and what the word "healthy" means to me. And, there are different definitions of that word. But. I can't not not share what I've discovered. Hence the changes and different look at Scrambled Dregs. Writing? Still important? Yes. Book reviews? Still important? Absolutely.There has been no change, necessarily, in my loves, likes and drives, but there has been a shift in my priorities and my time. 

If you are on the fence, curious, wondering or apprehensive about your food intake or choices, invest a few hours into looking into what these films have to say. If not, just keep dropping in every once in awhile, you'll never know what you might find here. I hardly ever do. :  )  




















Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Scribbles and Scrambles ~ Farm Fresh Summer

Farm day, one of the last ones of the season, was beautiful. After five days of drizzle and gray, I needed me some sun. 

The blue sky was full of it -- a big, yellow sun. And to temper the heat from said sun, we had a breeze. Not gale force winds, but a breeze. 

 ^ and I harvested lettuces and Swiss Chard. And then we tackled the last of the corn. This corn was still suffering the effects of the hail and we had to husk it to make sure it was all good. Five bushels of corn may take two people an hour to husk. Oy.

Even though the season is winding down, our box was still full of produce. And the two hours in the sunshine and breeze were as good as the goodies. 

We also had week two of our raw food class. I learned some sweet knife techniques and cuts. I learned that I do NOT hold a knife correctly, that I do NOT own a quality knife, and that I definitely do NOT hold the food I'm slicing and dicing correctly. If you've ever seen a chef chopping you've seen the weird way they hold the item they are chopping. The CLAW technique saves fingers, fingernails, friendships and lives. I'll be honest. I've sliced fingernail bits into items I've chopped. (They are clean, really, because I've generally had my hands in water for hours before this happens. And fiber. Lots of fiber. This is my attempt at trying to keep the loss of friendship to a minimum. ) The claw technique makes sure that your knuckles are a guard and buffer for the the safe flat part of the knife. If you keep everything behind the knuckles, you won't slice and dice things you'd rather not slice and dice. 

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Scraps and Snippets ~ VEGAN "CHEF BUTTAH" BROWNIES

This is a picture of 3 Flax eggs. I.E. 3 TBSP ground flax seed and 9 TBSP water.

Applesauce, sugar and fat blend.
  • If you have followed my various attempts at making THE brownie...one that is not horribly life suckingly bad for you and yet, still delicious, you know I've had some moderate success. Not total, not complete brownie Nirvana that caused me to scream SCORE!!! so loud that you could hear me wherever you happen to be. 
My quest has been to replace the go-to brownie from the bad days of eating. The measuring stick is tough to compete with....this particular brownie has been my recipe for when I needed to make THE ultimate smack-down taste sensation. It's been tweaked over the twenty years I've used it. Not much though, just a bit. The original recipe called for butter, eggs, melted bittersweet chocolate, vanilla and resulted in a crusty brownie so gooey in the middle, so chocolatey, so delicious in all it's buttery chocolate goodness that no one even CARED how awful it was for the circulatory system. 

 
This weekend required a little flexibility in the Vegan eating routine, and I've noticed that the more I eat less than clean, the more I want to eat less than clean. I do pay for it. I feel like a slug... UGH when I eat dairy. But there are just times I make that choice. 

So Monday hit hard. And the craving for Chef Buttah Brownies resurrected and started following me around like an annoying zombie. 

Then it occurred to me to take a look at THE recipe and see if I could Veganize it. 


And by golly. I think it worked. Rob says it's a keeper.

He said he couldn't tell they'd been tweaked or messed with. And, well, they weren't the full of BUTTAH brownies I remember from the past, but they are close. Close enough that I may consider this quest closed and I almost feel like screaming "SCORE!!!!!!!"

VEGAN "CHEF BUTTAH" BROWNIES

Lightly grease 8 x 8 pan.

3/4 Cup cocoa
1/2 Cup applesauce
1/2 Cup plus 1 TBSP water
3 TBSP ground flax seed
3/4 Cup Vegan fat source. (I used 1/2 cup coconut oil and 1/4 Earth Balance, if you don't like the faint taste of coconut you might want to reverse that ratio or use all Earth Balance.)
2 tsp vanilla
1 and 1/2 Cup Vegan sugar (yeah. And that's reduced...maybe could be tweaked a bit more.)
1 Cup Flour (I used whole wheat pastry flour).
Optional 1 Cup chopped nuts or you could add chocolate chips and go for the complete and total chocolate overkill.

In small container mix water and flax seed. Set aside. In bigger bowl mix Earth Balance/Coconut oil and sugar together until creamed together. Add vanilla and applesauce. Mix well. Add the Flax mixture and cocoa. Mix well. Stir in flour.

Scrape mixture into greased 8 x 8 pan. Bake at 350 for approx 30-35 minutes. These will be gooey, but they will continue to set up after you take them out of the oven. (You can double the recipe and bake it in a 9 x 13 but will need to bake it for about an hour or so.

Monday, September 19, 2011

Scraps and Snippets ~ Weekend Frivolity and Harvest Cinnamon Rolls

Not gorgeous, but yummy.
Full day on Saturday. 

 We had a bridal shower at 7:00 p.m. ^ (^ is going to be the new unpronounceable symbol for the daughter who used to be known as 24.) (Do you think that's as amusing as I do? If not, that's okay. I'll laugh enough for all of us.) ^ made a zucchini chocolate bundt cake that turned into a keeper. (But that's not all she made this weekend.) I made a few items, too. The most memorable was the Vegan Phillie Sandwiches. Yum. Sizzle. There was an issue. I sliced up all the peppers we had on hand, one of them turned out to be hot. Not sure of the actual pepper, but it was S-P-I-C-Y. My hands HURT, as in burned, for most of the evening and even first thing in the morning. 

But ^ didn't have any food fail issues. These Harvest Cinnamon Rolls were amazing. We will continue to tweak them because the pumpkin flavor could be a touch more. Recipe details below.

We also went to the farmer's market for the first time this year. We haven't gone because of our terrific CSA box. I met an organic farmer who's into sprouting and microgreens. I asked if they ever welcomed volunteers who wanted to learn the skills. She lit up and answered affirmatively. Yes!
^'s boss had told her about an organization in Omaha that serves gourmet style organic food and takes donations. Since we were near, we headed over for lunch. 

Table Grace Cafe truly does operate on donation only. And it does serve gourmet food. Yum. I was so hungry I didn't take any pictures. Oops. But we'll go back.

Sunday brought a "Walk A Mile in Their Shoes" event at the Open Door Mission. Toad-Boy mentioned that he and a few of his students would be taking part so Rob and ^ and I joined him. We walked a mile, in drizzle, to the mission, slurped soup, took a tour, and our entry fee paid for ten meals for hungry folks and a T-shirt for walkers. There was another terrific walk for a good cause last weekend but we couldn't pull that one off. If building an orphanage in Africa is a hot button for you, you can check them out here.

My souvenir hat from Montana that everyone says looks goofy on me. Thought I'd also do the ship figurehead pose to make it even more goofy.

We escaped the ultimate flooding that we all feared. But there is plenty of evidence of the water level. A ditch pond.

Drizzly walk.

Harvest Cinnamon Rolls

Inspired by: Novel Eats

  • 1½ teaspoons active dry yeast

  • 3 TBSP Vegan Sugar

  • 1/2 cup pumpkin puree

  • 1/4 cup almond milk, warmed

  • Vegan Egg Replacer 1 tablespoon ground flax seeds whisked together with 3 tablespoons hot water (set aside and gel)

  • 2 TBSP Vegan Butter (E Balance)
    1 TBSP applesauce
  • 2 ¾ cups unbleached flour

  • ½ teaspoon salt



  • FILLING: 

  • ½ cup brown sugar, packed

  • ½ tablespoon ground cinnamon (Idea: maybe reduce this and add some other ground spices like nutmeg, ginger and allspice)

  • 3 tablespoons vegan butter, softened


  • Glaze:

    • 1/2 container tofutti cream cheese
    • 1 cup vegan powdered sugar
    • ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
    • ⅛ teaspoon salt
    • 1 teaspoon of cinnamon
    Mix yeast, sugar, and heated almond milk in a large mixing bowl and let stand until foamy. Add egg replacer, pumpkin, melted vegan butter, applesauce, flour, and salt.
    Mix well and knead for 5-10 minutes. The dough should be firm and smooth, not sticky. Keep flour handy to add if dough is too sticky, just add a little at a time.
    Set the dough aside in a covered bowl and let double in size. (left overnight to rise)
    After the dough has doubled, turn it out onto a floured work surface, cover, and let rest for 10 more minutes.
    As the dough is resting, mix the cinnamon with the brown sugar.
    After the dough has rested, roll it out into a rectanglish shape (can't do a dough rectangle in our house).

    Spread dough with vegan butter, then sprinkle each dough evenly with your sugar mixture. You can add other items to your filling like nuts or raisins.

    Roll the dough into a log, so it the roll is longer and thinner, like horizontal profile verses landscape.  Then cut the rolls so that you have even slices.

    Place rolls in a lightly greased baking pan. Cover and let rise until nearly doubled, about 30 minutes.

    Meanwhile, preheat oven to 375, and make your glaze.
    Bake rolls in your preheated oven until golden brown, about 20 minutes and check to make sure they are done – if not, bake another five minutes and check again.

    I apologize for the font issues. Annoying.




       

    Friday, September 16, 2011

    Scribbles and Scrambles ~ Rob the Builder ~ He Can Do It.

    I've got to share some special "art" with you. 

    Disclaimer: You know that I laugh at inappropriate times. Like in church and the world's saddest movie -- and when someone suffers a non life-threatening injury.  So. This is my confession, my shame and flippin' hilarious.

    Rob teaches construction technology and occasionally he comes home with some great stories. The other day he brought home a picture. 

    My favorite, oops, "Rob didn't see that one coming" moment happened two years ago. But it didn't have any art, so I'm going to tell this one. 

    After days of studying safety with tools, it was time to work (read play) with tools. Finally. The kids were excited and maybe a little nervous. Rob had done a good job painting word pictures of "tools can hurt you" scenarios.

    The lab consisted of kids, two by four boards and nail guns with nails. The group worked together so Rob could give tips and offer help. One gun was a bit sluggish, the other, well, calling it hair trigger might be appropriate. Each student got to nail with each gun. The speedier gun was the one assigned to the next student in the lineup so Rob got into position. "I'm going to hold this board here, you shoot it into place here." Simple, no problem. Until the kid accidentally bumped the trigger and produced an extra shot. Where did the shot go? Into Rob's thumb and then into the board. Rob's done a few different variations of this before, it's old news to him. It missed all vital stuff and he said it didn't really hurt. However. The reality of the teacher nailed to the board caused a little bit of mass panic. Rob calmly explained that he was fine. No. An ambulance didn't need to be called. All was well. He just needed a little help removing his thumb from the board. A hammer was asked for an produced and prying commenced. When that didn't work, the nail was pounded out the way it came in. All good til it twisted. Rob calmly took over the full procedure, pulled the nail, slid his thumb off the nail and went to the first aid kit. 

    All in a day's work.

    He then noticed that the poor operator of the nail gun looked a little green. He got him safely seated before nature took it's course.

    The next day the artwork appeared on a kid's desk. When asked why he'd drawn the incident. The artist said it needed to be commemorated.

    Thursday, September 15, 2011

    Scraps and Snippets ~ Vegan Mexican Seven Layer Dip & Jalepeno Poppers

     Vegan Mexican Seven Layer Dip
    Minus a layer or two. Wink. Wink.

    One can of TJ's black bean refried beans.  (Or homemade version from dried. Rinse, soak and cook Black Beans, then reheat them smashing them and seasoning them with garlic powder, a little salt and olive oil.)
    A few TBSPs of Tofutti's Sour Supreme
    Salsa Verde (green salsa)
    Romaine or other leaf lettuce chopped (several leaves)
    Chopped tomatoes
    Chopped black olives
    Finely chopped onion
    Finely chopped yellow, red and/or green pepper. 
    Trader Joe's (or equivalent) low salt organic tortilla chips for dipping. (TJ's salt free organic ones are super tasty...no sodium)


    I'm not going to give you amounts. You'll have to layer it on to taste. If you don't like onions, olives, etc. leave em off, or go crazy adding even more of one item. Put the black beans in the bottom of a flat bowl/casserole/dish. An 8 x 8 or so. Spread it out. Dollop several blobs of Sour Supreme on the beans and "frost" the beans. The next layer will be the Salsa Verde, do the same thing with dollops and spread over cream. Then top with the chopped lettuce. Next the chopped tomatoes. Ditto onions and black olives. Last will be the colorful peppers. There is enough flavor that you won't miss the cheese. You can warm the beans before adding the other ingredients. But it's really good cold. Serve it with tortilla chips.


    The Poppers recipe is HERE.

    Notes on the changes we made: 

    Bread crumbs were Panko bread crumbs. Highly recommended.
    The cheese was Daiya Pepper Jack.
    We used Almond Milk
    Our eggs were flax eggs. 1 TBSP ground flax seed plus 3 TBSP water for each egg, the recipe calls for 2.

    So here is the ingredient list we used. Go to the link for the instructions. Gotta give credit for the recipe.

    12 fresh jalapeno peppers
    6 oz.   softened Tofutii Better Than Cream Cheese
    1 ½ c.  shredded Daiya Pepper Jack cheese (or cheddar)
    2-TBSP ground flax seed. PLUS 6 TBSP water (mix & set aside)
    2 Tb   unsweetened almond milk
    1 c.     panko breadcrumbs
    ½ c.    flour


    Wednesday, September 14, 2011

    Scraps and Snippets ~ A Farm Report and Dinner Party Deliciousness

    Vegan jalapeno poppers and 7 Layer Dip
    Heirloom tomato Rainbow

    Farming was easy peasy and without injury. I killed nothing, sliced nothing off my body. I didn't fall or slide around inside my mock Crocs and pull any muscles. I snapped Swiss Chard and chatted with one of the farmers. I didn't see a bug til we were packing the boxes. Of course, it wasn't just a bug, it was a big old spider. But that's beside the point.

    Really? Do I need to post a caption?

    In our CSA packs we scored grapes. Gotta make some jam. And the tomatoes, tail end of season and the survivors of the hail, are delicious. I made Pomodoro for dinner. Yum.

    Double Chocolate Zucchini Bundt Cake with Chocolate Ganache

    The rest of the pictured food is Vegan party food. A Vegan 7 layer dip, Vegan jalapeno poppers, Vegan spinach and artichoke dip. Zucchini double chocolate bundt cake with chocolate ganache. 24 was a beast. It was her party, so I got to help and eat. I'll try to pry those recipes out of her. She's kind of a dash and pinch kind of cook. I did de-seed the jalapenos and have been breathing free since I did participated in that little activity.




    Vegan Appetizer yumminess