"I'll have a blue Christmas..."

in a few weeks we will be hosting a holiday dinner party.  I think I probably enjoy the planning and preparation that go into dinner parties more than the party itself-usually, but this is different.  I am excited to say that (at least) for the evening, some of my favorite people in the entire world will be here-in one place!  one of my younger sisters-Jaime (the one I can actually have a conversation with, without *facepalming* the entire time) and her long-time boyfriend Jordan, my close, good friend-Mel (one of my favorites from Brooklyn via Buffalo(currently)), my best, good friend, Lee-from high school and of course, my husband and current best friend-Jacob.

so much yay!

the menu is "appetizer" themed and still in the finishing "brainstorm" phase, so could change/be enhanced. 

fondue "say cheez" gravy (total eye-roll at the name)
crumpets
stuffing muffins (half with cranberry)
candied yams with Sweet and Sarah vegan "pumpkin spice" marshmallows
glazed carrots
pumpkin mousse w/ginger snap pieces
blueberry/cranberry tarts(galettes?)
baked artichoke dip


(yes, it has been pointed out that this is a very "orange"-themed menu) (whatever)


it has also been pointed out that this menu is lacking in protein (which I'm mostly, "whatevs" about), so Lee is allegedly bringing some kind of lentil chili-may The Force be with her.

also wine (muddled or not or "whatever") and warm spiced cider with rum. 

since my only real defense against wanting to kill myself during the Winter are the holidays and the planning/decorating that (I make)happen, there will be some gift exchanging and Elvis Presley Christmas album-playing...

...and cats wearing reindeer antlers.  but only cats, because I've broken my human-pair :(

oh!  and besides general present-ry that will be happening we have a small pile of stuff from around the house (or that we have never even used)  that we are going to donate, but will have our friends take whatever they might want-first.
which-totally reminds me of the party that we had in Brooklyn before we moved to Oregon that was "getting rid of stuff we  don't want to move across the country"-themed and ended up with Benjamin wearing my Jr. prom dress and playing with dolls...

FALL!

i've never experienced buttercup squash before. it's pretty tasty. sweet and dense. made an apple and buttercup squash bake w/raisins.

2 lb. squash
2 Cortland apples
1/2 C brown sugar
1/4 C melted Earth Balance
1 T flour
1 t salt
1/2 cinn. and nutmeg

bake at 350 for about 30-40 minutes.

there really isn't a proper way to describe how difficult it is to actually cut up this particular squash. i didn't have the patience to slice it in half and bake it in water and THEN let it cool before using it...but i should have.

still have one left. considering using some of it in the pumpkin ravioli that i anticipate making this week, as it will make it pretty sweet w/out using sugar...idk. ideas.

* * *

Pumpkin Coconut Bread

2 C sugar
1 C brown sugar
1 C oil
4 eggs(egg replacer =4)
15 oz. pumpkin puree
3.5 C flour
2 t baking soda
2 t salt
1/2 t cloves
1.5 t cinn.
1 t nutmeg
2/3 C water
1 C coconut
1/2 C walnuts

@350 for 60 minutes


cooked down some blackberries w/ a little water and maple syrup to make a coulis to put on top.

zucchini (or in my case-yellow squash) burgers

4(ish) zucchini (yellow squash actually works amazingly well and when that's what you have an abundance of...)
1/2 t salt
1/4 C almonds (crushed or slivered)
3 T minced basil (fresh from our garden!!!)
1 T flour
egg replacer equivalent to 1 egg
1/4 C bread crumbs
1 T oil

as always, of course, doing what a recipe tells you to do is vital and makes a huge difference/makes you not want to pull your hair out and cry.

after shredding the squash, squeeze out the excess water via cheesecloth.

combine all ingredients. shape into patties and fry in a good amount of oil until lightly browned. transfer to a tray and bake at 350 degrees for 20-30 minutes.


also, another good lesson is to actually use (purchased) breadcrumbs as opposed to just toasting leftover bread and making your own as this works much better for desired results.

as we (of course) STILL have a bunch of yellow squash from my mom's garden, but alas, have no more almonds, i will be making them w/walnuts, today. we'll see.
*shrug*



credit to Emily Gould:
http://thingsiatethatilove.tumblr.com/post/919605145/cookingthebooksshow-this-morning-we-had-a-visit
the link to the actual recipe is not working anymore, FYI.

"raw" corn chowder, rawr.

"raw" corn chowder.

4 C raw corn
1 red bell pepper
2 C almond milk
1 t salt
1 T agave
2 tomatoes
1 t dill


* * *

as we had some corn leftover from mom's harvest this year i just used what we already had in-house...so i substituted a green for a red pepper, regular soy for almond milk and maple syrup for agave.

while i think it would have been slightly better w/the original ingredients, i found it to work quite well, otherwise.

don't know how i really feel about the dill in this, though.

dill is more of a savory spice than i think this recipe calls for...

also, the original recipe is "raw," but in using the maple syrup i clearly wasn't "going for" that aspect...

cucumber salad, pickled cucumbers, corn pancakes, perogies...

i'm super terrible about this! (the beginning of every entry!)

i've started about 5 posts and let them sit idle for days and not revisited them. i suck.

BUT...

we can say that my reasons for not being super-active online are that i'm being super-active in real life.

but now it's going on day 2 of rain-all-day-ocity.

froze a lot of marinara sauce this past week(or tomato base w/basil, salt,pepper,garlic and oil...that's marinara base, no?)

cucumber-yogurt salad has taken over our lives as we have a lot of lemon cucumbers going on and, really, how many things can really be done w/cucumbers? namely-lemon cucumbers. yellow, round, tennis ball sized...

1 C soy yogurt
2 (ish) cucumbers
1 C water
1/4 C vinegar
1t dill
1 onion (finely chopped)
1/8 t tumeric (or a little more if you heart it, in some things-as i do.)
dash pepper
1/2 t salt

serve over greens

* * *

something that we just decided (and by "we" i mostly mean "Jacob") to try, yesterday, b/c we just couldn't fathom using the cucumbers in a timely enough matter, was that we "pickled" 2 big mason jars-full. here's hoping it works out as we have tons more on their way, still.

mason jar of raw cucumber slices, 1C vinegar 1C water, S&P, spices.


* * *

i read a recipe for "corn pancakes" and veganized it and it was awesome.

2T oil
3/4 Corn
1/8 t salt
egg replacer for 1 egg
1 1/4 C buttermilk (soy w/vinegar)
1/4 t vanilla
1 T sugar
3/4 C flour
1/4 C cornmeal
1 t baking powder
1/2 t baking soda

fry in a pretty hot pan of oil to prevent sticking.
maple syrup to taste.
viola.

* * *

perogies? pierogies? peirogies?

well, "the computer" says that those are all "not wrong" while simultaneously letting me know that they are incorrect. idk. super Polish power, go!

either way, whatevvvvs.

made some garlic pierogies and froze them, this past week.

2 C boiling water poured over a mixture of 4 C flour and 1/2 teaspoon salt.

potatoes mashed w/roasted garlic, salt and pepper.

i use my ever-trusty ring molds to size out good-size dough-to-potato filling ratio.

* * *

a good companion to this is-of course-apple sauce as well as some beet horseradish:

3C cooked beets
6oz. horseradish
1 T brown sugar
1 t vinegar
1/4 t salt.

blended.

When it's 100 degrees in New York, it's 72 in Los Angeles. When its 30 degrees in New York, in Los Angeles it's still 72...

...However, there are 6 million interesting people in New York, and 72 in Los Angeles." ~Neil Simon

yesterday i harvested another 1/4 row of potatoes and these ones seem to be free of blight. i've managed to cut around on the blighted ones and par-boiled a few cups of cubed potatoes for freezing.

going to make and lightly cook some latkes to freeze, but still have a row and a half left to harvest, which can wait awhile...so i think it's pretty apparent that potatoes are going to be our winter food for this year.

pierogies will also be made and frozen w/in the next week.

* * * *

just picked 5 smartypants' of blueberries w/mom at mom's neighbors'!

probably going to make some blueberry/gooseberry/blackberry muffins later as we have a few cups of gooseberries from mom and there were random blackberry bushes w/in the blueberries that attacked me a lot.

doing that just cut into my normal sitting around time, so i guess i've gotta go get THAT taken care of...

While we ourselves are the living graves of murdered beasts, how can we expect any ideal conditions on this earth? ~George Bernard Shaw

we took in all of the garlic last week and it really is a beautiful thing! we got about 12 full, beautiful bulbs and a handful(5-6) of partial bulbs that had a few cloves that had to go...

lemon cucumbers are doing amazingly well. we've noticed 1 blighted tomato and have hundreds of potential healthy ones on the way. *crosses fingers*

took in about 1/4 of a row of potatoes and about half were blighted...

looked up whether the potato blight would hurt a person, if eaten, and found nothing saying that it would. apparently it just makes them kind of woodier but i cut around the actual blighted spots (it seems to mostly be nearest the surface on the potatoes...the tomatoes are the real fatalities. either way, i made a batch of samosas and still have 10-12 potatoes left.

4 mystery squash plants.

already done are the purple mustard greens that replanted itself all over the place. and snap peas and collards.

first time i've ever grown brussels sprouts and they grow like such aliens! but they are doing well, i think.

we bought some hot pepper starts but despite the fact that they all seem to be producing peppers, they remain short, so can't really-physically deal w/more than 1 or 2 peppers.

peppermint seems to have taken over and despite the fact that horseradish is "unkill-able", ours seems to be the most apathetic, sad looking horseradish-possibly ever.

catnip is still alive. Fat Tony and Deimos have both found it and tried to thwart it but were quickly ejected from the garden.

the dahlias seem to be doing ok, but have no blossoms yet. my tiger lilies are all done for the year. my lily of the valley has just gone into full effect. a mysterious red lily popped up that i did not plant-but am pretty excited to have, even though it is also done for the year...

"bad to the scone."

Preheat oven to 400 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Sift together

1 and 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1/2 whole wheat pastry flour

2 teaspoons aluminum-free baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

with 1/2 cup brown sugar

Add 6 tablespoons of chilled unsalted soy margarine chopped into small pieces. Gently work the flour-butter mixture with a pastry blender until the dough looks like coarse meal.

Tip: Overworking the dough makes scones tough or heavy.

In a separate bowl, mix together

3/4 cup soy milk, or 1/2 soy milk and 1/2 tofu cream.

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/4 cup sesame seeds

For variations, you may add an additional 1/2 cup chopped pecans or walnuts

Add to flour mixture and stir just until blended.

On a floured board, pat the dough into a circle and cut into 8 wedges.

If you are making small scones using this cranberry scone recipe, divide the dough in half and pat into two rounds, then cut into wedges.

Place on the baking sheet, bake for 15 minutes until lightly golden. Cool on wire racks.

so i found this online b/c i have no recipe for cranberry scones and i had lots of cranberries. it was a lot different than the other recipe that i've been working with, i.e. the ONLY recipe i've ever used.

as usual, i used w. wheat flour.

i also cooked them about double the time since i forgot to pay attention to the recipe, but i think they needed a little extra time from the original recipe and about 5 minutes less than i cooked them. either way, i think they're good.

oh, and i also forgot to "sweeten" the cranberries, besides the fact that "honey" was suggested and i'm not that kind of dirty vegan.

The best alarm clock is sunshine on chrome. -Author Unknown

last week we made a pesto out of our garlic scapes. we were gifted w/the garlic scapes from my mom's garden as they thought they were too creepy to eat. (they are creepy looking, but once they're cut up it's easy to forget since they're filled w/garlic-y goodness.)
i, of course misplaced the recipe that we used but it really doesn't matter since we altered it so much, anyway.
this time the recipe went:

1 C scapes
1/3 C nuts
about 1/2 C oil
a little sprinkling of "cheese" type something or other
salt & pepper to taste.

i also made garlic scape "scallion pancakes" last week, too, which will be revisited as well, as soon as i can get the jar of sesame oil open...

greens of all sorts from both our garden and my mom's. salad it up.

there's some sort of motorbike event at the end of our road again this weekend and for the past few days RVs and pick-ups have been going by in caravans. much-less maddening than the constant rumble of said-bikes on the trail that is directly adjacent to our property.

i think i'm going to make some muffins, later. maybe cranberry. possibly w/walnuts. maybe raisins, idk. feeling indecisive. i just know that i have all of these things! possibly do nothing but go out to the garden as it's supposed to be a pretty rainy weekend.

tomatoes are looking more promising than last year! come on, tomatoes!

"In order to live off a garden, you practically have to live in it." -Frank McKinney Hubbard

after what was possibly an entire week (the first week that posed no threat of frost, so-the week to put in starts) w/out rain-it began raining last night and is scheduled to return to a more "normal" pattern of no rain for a couple of days and then a day of rain/thunderstorms for (about) the next few weeks, which i am mostly fine w/though it's scheduled to just be pretty rainy here, for the next week.

really hoping that the tomato blight that hit the NE last year doesn't reoccur. a super-rainy season is what brings it out from dormancy and allows it to ravage the tomatoes/potatoes.

so far, our garlic is being good as well as a set of Brussels sprouts starts that we got from a farmer at the Ithaca farmers' market that i don't remember the name of.

we also had to buy a bunch of tomato starts from another farmer at the market as our one window that faces South and is able to be closed off from cat-activity is just not cutting it as far as getting starts properly started.

also got some Hungarian wax peppers. a couple of our own pepper starts might survive. a bunch of Japanese Giant Mustard reseeded itself from last year so is sporadically strewn throughout the garden(as we tilled it up-twice before planting.) Stan gifted us w/some OG lemon-cucumber seeds that none of us have any first-hand experience with. * shrug*

as far as herbs go, basil is this years' winner. yay! have about 12 little plants that are looking promising. also have chive, our always-faithful rosemary, horseradish and the wild mint that planted itself and continues to spread.

got some strawberry plants that we have yet to decide on a home for.

kale and spinach are doing well, the former more-so than the latter.

snap peas, also.

weeds are the bane of my existence. no, that's a lie. rocks are. no. bugs. all team together. team horrible!

we went over to my mom's for Memorial Day and i made an apple pie. it was my first attempt at making a pie crust from the whole wheat flour that we've taken to dominantly using, as it's local and bought in bulk at the Greenstar Co-op in Ithaca. it's incredibly hard to work with. it acted like it was a really dry dough even though it wasn't dry at all. basically, it fell apart a lot. but really, i thought it tasted fine despite the fact that my mom wasn't too keen on it.

tonight is the season premiere of Hell's Kitchen and that usually means pizza, but we've decided to go the calzone direction, instead. Gordon Ramsey, pizza-type-food and wine. yes!

later this week we are going out to dinner w/dad to this place:
http://www.moghulcuisine.com/

hope it has good samosas. actually, i hope it's all good as Central NY is severely lacking in the "other cultures" department.

Once in a young lifetime one should be allowed to have as much sweetness as one can possibly want and hold. -Judith Olney

a scone. essentially, a sweet biscuit. never had a non-vegan one.

never tried my hand at making them...until today!

muahahahah!

i think that they turned out exceptionally well.

i used the "Classic Currant Scone" recipe from the Joy of Vegan Baking by Colleen Patrick-Goudreau, which is the best for everything that is vegan baking. <3

1 egg(egg replacer euivalent)
2T water
2.5 C flour
1/3 C sugar
4 t baking powder
1/2 t salt
3/4 C non-dairy butter, cold
1C currants or raisins
1/2 C non-dairy milk
2-3 T non-dairy milk for brushing the tops
cinnamon/sugar for sprinkling on top.

good. having warm cinnamon-sugar biscuits w/a cup of coffee is next to perfection on a brisk Spring morning....or probably any other kind of morning.

mmmmm, sweet biscuits.

"Education consists mainly of what we have unlearned." -Mark Twain

i'm a fan of muffins or cupcakes versus breads or cakes. this is b/c of a few things-ease of storage, which includes being able to store for freshness(sometimes in a refrigerator-even though "i hate cold bread!") or away from cats who love to eat bread and steal frosting...which we have multiple of and the simplicity that is eating a cupcake, which can involve nothing more than your hands while a slice of cake very often involves things like plates and forks...who needs those things?

anyway, i've been dreaming about making raisin bread muffins for awhile but always forget. this morning when Jake was making his breakfast oatmeal before work, it smelled raisin-y and oat-y so it was on my mind all morning.

i couldn't find anywhere that "raisin bread muffins" were mentioned so i just found an adequate-sounding vegan raisin bread recipe and just figured i'd bake it a shorter time and make sure it was a wet enough mixture, which it was.

2 C flour
1/2 t nutmeg
1/2 salt
2 t cinnamon
1 1/2 t baking powder
1t baking soda
1 C (sour) soymilk(+1T vinegar)
1/2 C maple syrup
1/2 C raisins
1/2 C pecans

bake at 350 for about 20-30 minutes



i think they turned out pretty well. i wouldn't add the pecans again as they weren't necessary and i guess i don't appreciate that much "work" in my muffin. also, perhaps a little more spice, like more cinnamon? or clove? idk. i suppose a small amount of flax could be added if you want it to be that kind of day. as far as the sweetener being maple syrup, i like the way it works in this(as opposed to usually just using sugar that tastes like...sugar.) . it gives it a breakfast-y type flavor.

In the spring I have counted one hundred and thirty-six different kinds of weather inside of four and twenty hours. -Mark Twain

i guess one could say that i've been pretty dormant, like the weather, since i haven't updated this in months and months.

days ago we made (pineapple) chutney. were inspired by the samosas i made that i used the Moosewood cookbook recipe, for. the recipe for the samosa dough is SO GOOD. i've tried it before w/out the yogurt and the last few times i've made them w/the Silk plain(unsweetened) soy yogurt and it is so much better that way, go figure that using what the recipe actually calls for is a lot better than not...
we kind of just made up the chutney recipe...
samosas:

Filling

• 2 large potatoes, cooked and mashed
• 1 cup finely minced onion
• 2 medium garlic cloves, crushed
• 1/2 teaspoon grated fresh gingerroot
• 1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds (I use dry mustard)
• 1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
• 1/2 cup diced carrot, cooked till just tender
• 1/2 cup cooked green peas
• cayenne pepper
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 lemon, juice of
• 2-3 tablespoons butter

Pastry

• 2 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 4 tablespoons melted butter
• 1/3 cup yogurt
• water

there's still a few feet of snow...argh.

i'm finding conflicting information about the appropriate time of year to prune fruit trees. we have 3 fruit trees that didn't die and are more than a year old at this point. so, i think that the beginning of April is when it should happen...?

this year we plan to purchase a tiller b/c we did not borrow one last year and the results of trying to hand-till our land is frustrating and tiring. plus, time consuming.

also, we have so many seeds leftover from last year and we've tried to keep them stored pretty well, so i hope they work out even though it's highly predicted that "old seeds" don't work as well. if not, we'll just pick up some starts of the basics at a local garden store...

we'll also get to put to the test my ability to not kill dahlia bulbs over a winter...i hope i stored them okay b/c they really are gorgeous.

we have ONE catnip plant that is alive and well, despite getting knocked out of a window and chomped on no less than a dozen times. preventative measures have now been taken...this may or my not involve Jake bringing it w/him to work for his office...everyone has an office plant,right? and it's usually catnip,yes?

sage, dill and cilantro are the extent of my winter herb gardening...better than nothing?

there.