Wasabi mashed potatoes, mei quin choy stuff

Wasabi mashed potatoes, bok choy-like stuff
Originally uploaded by wbajzek

The stuff on the left is mashed potatoes with some wasabi powder. More subtle than you'd think... Inspired by Veganomicon.

The stuff on the right is finely sliced onions, fennel, and mei quin choy sauteed with some soy sauce. Very flavorful!

Raw cashew & lemon cookies

Raw cashew & lemon cookies
Originally uploaded by wbajzek

Sorry for the late post, I actually made these last weekend. I soaked raw cashews overnight, let them dry, and then pureed them with fresh-squeezed meyer lemon juice. I formed them into "cookies" and dehydrated them for about 12 hours at 105 degrees. They were really nice, and I will make them again, but they didn't keep as well as I would have liked.

Grilled tofu and zucchini

Grilled tofu and zucchini
Originally uploaded by wbajzek

Actually, the tofu's not grilled, because there wasn't room in the grill pan with two halved zucchinis filling it. The zucchini was fresh from the garden and the tofu was fresh from San Jose Tofu, pressed to drain a bit and with light slatherings of a maple syrup/soy sauce glaze on the cooked sides. More subtle than I expected, but nice.

Corn

I lived in Illinois for four years and I am fairly certain that the closest I got to an actual corn plant was helping to set up the 'Children of the Corn' room in the theatre department's annual haunted house one year. I remember driving to work every day in the summer of 1995 past acre after acre of corn and you could practically watch it growing if you were stopped at a stoplight. There's a lot in the news about corn right now and most of it isn't very optimistic.

I think it's pretty.

June 22nd, Biointensive bed

It's been hot all week, the Internet says up to 97 but I'm pretty sure it was over 100 for a couple of days. So, this bed has pretty much doubled in size. The potatoes are starting to fall over and I'm going to try to stake them up tonight. The corn is...huge. The squash is about to flower and the canteloupe keeps wandering into the onions and carrots. The beans, cucumbers, and tomatoes are all doing beautifully as long as they're restrained.

When I first planned this garden, back in January or so, I thought it was far too big and I kept telling myself that if I only got half of it done then that would be plenty. Well...I did it! Our bedroom window looks out on the backyard and that's the first thing I look at when I get up in the morning, making sure everything's alright and just enjoying the transformation from bare dirt with occasional weeds to food, food, and more food. Almost there...

June 22nd, raised beds

We've had 6 zucchini from the garden so far: 4 grilled, one given away, and one made into zucchini bread. There will be more zucchini, probably, oh, tomorrow. Maybe Tuesday. There is one little Green Zebra tomato in progress - I'm keeping a close eye on it because I had so much trouble with the tomatoes last year. I'm trying to water only the base of the plants and only when they look like they need it and so far the blossoms are hanging on...we'll see if all the plants set fruit. The bell peppers are now next to the tomatoes because, when they were between the corn and the potatoes, they got about 2 hours of sun a day. Hopefully this is the last time I'll have to move them! I need to cut the parsley and mint back and use some of it. I made pesto with the basil this week and used most of 4 plants in the process. The basil seedlings (in pots) are doing okay despite being dug up by something one night this week, but the cilantro and parsley aren't sprouting at all. The chard and arugula are coming back and I'll try to use the leaves when they're smaller this time.

Squash slaw

Squash slaw
Originally uploaded by wbajzek

Well, the latest batch of beer bread came out poorly. So, here's some "squash slaw" to make up for it. Two summer squash, two other unidentified green squashed, and two carrots grated into a bowl, with the juice of a meyer lemon and a bit of olive oil stirred in.

It's really good but needs something else. Raisins, maybe?

Vegan quiche closeup

Vegan quiche closeup
Originally uploaded by wbajzek

This is more or less the same recipe as last time, but I used whole wheat flour instead of chickpea, garden-fresh zucchini rather than broccoli, and the crust contains sunflower seeds, cashews, and pine nuts. I also baked this in the regular oven, since I'd already preheated it to cook the crust and I wanted to be able to have some of this for lunch. To atone for the non-solarity, I made some beer bread again in the solar cooker, which I had already preheated anyway. I will post about that when it's done.


Looking back through the archive, it seems that I never posted about the previous one, although I did take a photo of it. Nevermind, then, this one came out better anyway :) The recipe's from the Ultimate Uncheese Cookbook.

June 14th, Biointensive bed

Again, a fine example of my jerry-rigging skills: I made a trellis cage for the beans that'll probably fall down in the first strong wind, but so far it's doing its job. Everything is growing like crazy! I dug around at the base of one of the potato plants this week and knocked off a tiny little potato, so that's going well. I'm actually starting to wonder if there will be room for everything when it all starts producing...

June 14th, raised beds

Missed another two weeks...anyway, you can see that everything looks great. The giant squash turned out to be zucchini, with the delicata coming along nicely behind it (although you can't see it). I need to label everything when I plant it! As I type this, William is sauteing the first 2 zucchinis and 2 blossoms as well, for lunch. Hooray!
I've started various basil, cilantro, and parsley seeds in the pots that you can see in one of the photos. The cilantro is going to seed and I'll try to save some of it, although it's a quick-bolting variety. I harvested all the chard and arugula this week and we've used it in salads, along with the romaine lettuce from the CSA. The lettuce is doing well and the spinach is...not. All the herbs are fine and the tomatoes are flowering - I can't WAIT for the fresh tomatoes!

Angeline in her garden

Angeline in her garden
Originally uploaded by wbajzek

June 2nd, Biointensive bed

Here's where all the work's been done lately. On May 22nd, I transplanted the green onions and regular onions and some summer squash from the nursery. Then I built a fence (such as it is) to keep the rabbits out and re-seeded the carrots, which are starting to come up now. I also thinned everything since so many seeds came up and were doing well. I tried to move some healthy plants into spots left by plants that got chewed on, but I almost wish I'd left everything alone since the plants I moved almost didn't make it. Anyway, everything is going great. The potatoes are ready to be hilled and I'll try to get to that this week.

June 2nd, raised beds

Okay, I've missed a couple of weeks. Things are going well! This weekend we used cilantro in the spanish rice, made pesto with basil, and froze a WHOLE bunch of fresh oregano, which will keep us supplied with oregano for about a year. Next time I'll dry it. Not much else to report on the raised beds...I moved the peppers to the Biointensive bed since the delicata squash was blocking almost all the sunlight. There is zucchini on the other side of the squash but you can't see it! It was slow for a while but now it looks like it might actually pull through. I'm going to start basil, cilantro, and parsley seeds this week in pots and in the ground, just to see which way works out best. I also plan to start using the chard and arugula in salads, I've let them just sit there for too long since we get a lovely salad mix from our CSA.

Solar-baked stuffed peppers

Solar-baked stuffed peppers
Originally uploaded by wbajzek

And, the final assembly! Two green bell peppers stuffed with spanish rice and refried beans, topped with some colby uncheese, and cooked in the solar cooker for about 4 hours. See how the uncheese browned? Nice! I wish it had melted a bit, but you can't win them all.

Refried beans

Refried beans
Originally uploaded by wbajzek

Pinto beans cooked twice in the pressure cooker, with a change of water in between, as recommended on Miss Vickie's website. After draining them, I sauteed an onion in the cooker, added back the beans, some pomi, salt, and bean water, and mashed it up. This is the best version of this that I've made yet.

Spanish rice

Spanish rice
Originally uploaded by wbajzek

Brown rice, pomi chopped tomatoes, cilantro from the garden, and an onion. Toasted the rice, added the rest, and cooked it in the pressure cooker for about 20 minutes or so, I think. Nice rich flavor and creamy texture!

Colby "uncheese"

Colby "uncheese"
Originally uploaded by wbajzek

Here's the colby "uncheese" from The Ultimate Uncheese Cookbook. We didn't have roasted red peppers so I tried the paprika variation. It's good, but too paprika-y and a bit dry, probably due to powdered paprika versus juicy roasted peppers. If I do the paprika version again, maybe I should use less agar to make it softer?

Anyway, the taste is really nice. Very cheesy, if not a dead ringer for real colby cheese. Goes well with crackers, stuffed peppers, etc...