Picnic Perfect

Our spring time celebratory picnic was a quick deal. Shown here, cucumber salad, slice cucumbers and a cup of mayo, some white onions, some carrots (texture), and sunflower seeds, salt and pepper. Let sit for an hour, it will become creamy.

Slice an apple, munch down chips and crackers, enjoy Camembert cheese and half sandwiches with Samuel Smith's apple cider (alcoholic, crisp and very refreshing!).

Morning baking of Lemon-rosemary cupcakes, rewarded in the afternoon at dessert!

Salads / Pasta / Soup / Baked Goods of past days

Whipped Cream, made by little whips. Start with heavy whipping cream, add 1/2 cup powdered sugar, whisk until thick. (takes a lot of time).

Tofu Pumpkin Pie. Yep. Beats the heck out of high cholesterol eggs. One small baking pumpkin can fill up to four shells. I had to use it in a pinch when there was a pumpkin shortage (believe it!). Love your pumpkins. Serve with Whipped Cream, or cashed butter.

Pumpkin Roll, recipe straight from Libby's Pumpkin can label. A labor of LOVE. Lots of work. This Monster Apple Crisp used a flour top and brown sugar. It is a Pampered Chef Deep Dish Baker that is at least two inches deep, and over a foot wide. I used apples picked at a friends' place. It's great to substitute Maple Sugar cup for cup instead of Brown Sugar. Serve with Cashew Cream (grind cashews in food processor, add water, and freeze, allow to warm before serving).

Processed breakfast, but I was really satisfied with it that day, so I snapped a photo. Chik'n nuggets (vegetarian nuggets), Strawberries, honey on nuggets, almonds, and a cheese stick. Of course, ketchup!

A Poor excuse for French Onion Soup, but, that's a part of the learning process. It wasn't until my boyfriend and I got together that we were both finally successful in recent attempts to perfect French Onion Soup. This was from "Real Simple" magazine. I find that you must make your own broth from Bouillion, don't use canned beef broth, as is the case here. I enjoyed eating it, but lessons will be learned!

The Brussel Sprouts over shells ended up as more of a photography project than something I really enjoyed, mostly because the sprouts are not nearly as tasteful warm as when they're hot. I really enjoyed the photography, though! I would eat Brussels Sprouts more, they are good for you!

This salad is topped with salsa, raisin, parmesan, marble jack cheesr and carrots.

This is Jamaican Jerk Tempeh, it has a lot of sauces, and is very good over salad, you bake the tempeh for about 45 minutes.

Stir Fry

What do you do with an overflow of extra Veggies? Cut them up and get them drunk. I recommend winging it. I often like to cook this way.

Saturday night's dinner was: Seitan (wheat gluten -- protein) Snow Peas, Zucchini, Broccoli, Carrots, Portobella Mushrooms, Green Peppers, Fresh Ginger, and Fresh Garlic.

I let the rice cooker cook Basmati Rice and I took a bunch of bottles and made my own sauce. It started with Tamari, then I added some Bragg's Liquid Aminos, some Lime juice concentrate, Toasted Sesame Seed Oil, and for frying the veggies, Safflower Oil.

I started by steaming the carrots in the rice cooker with the broccoli. I added them to the Zucchini and Mushrooms, adding all the sauce ingredients at once. I added arrowroot to thicken the sauce. I added the green peppers and snow peas last.

To keep the lime flavor at the top of your palate, add cilantro and fresh tomato ( I feature a green heirloom here).

I enjoyed this as a leftover!

Raspberry Harvest

First off, I'll explain why it's been awhile since I've posted! It's summertime, and that means people are more capable of roaming freely about the land, without restrictions. I've also been spending time in a friends' garden, enjoying a hands and knees in the dirt education. I love it!!

I spent two hours picking raspberries in the garden of Jan Erdman this week and filled this bowl completely full of her bountiful harvest! I could only dream of such an accomplishment.

I'll certainly be sharing what I've got here, I intend on them as Christmas presents. Out of the window (it's a novelty thing for me) and into the pantry! I'm proud that the latest batch was 'fruitful'. The last batch had only a fraction of the jars sealed.

This was a simple recipe: Four cups Raspberries, one package pectin, and 1 1/2 cups sugar. Boil jars, lids and bands for ten minutes, end pour through wide mouth canning funnel into jars. For jam, cook fruit, but don't overcook. You can mix the sugar and pectin and then add that two fruit, stir for several minutes. Then, pour fruit into jars and place lid firmly, band lightly. It can take up to two hours for the lids to pop. One of my favorite pasttimes is counting pops!

I've got bigger plans when I get my hands on my own harvests, maybe next year!

Thanks to Jan!

Balsamic Reduction and Bruschetta