Jorma Kaukonen - Song for the north star

Braised Butternut Squash

I showed you what I did with the bottom portion of the butternut squash.

I sliced the top portion in 1/2 inch rounds and braised them in about two cups apple cider, rosemary, vegan margarine (New Balance, flaxseed oil), the rest of the strawberry maple syrup I made this morning, about 1/4 cup, sea salt, fresh ground black pepper, and a hit of golden balsamic vinegar.

Melt about 2 TB of the margarine with some rosemary, add the butternut rounds, a little salt, and the apple cider, bring to a boil and simmer until the liquid reduces to a glaze, about 20 minutes. Add the salt, pepper, and balsamic vinegar.

Gratitude and Growth

I'm a bit melancholy today.  Part of my son's current journey is over today.  I don't think there are any more charges to be brought against him.  He now has to get through the summer in jail and then get on to rebuilding his life. He's got a much harder path to walk then he had two years ago. He has plead guilty to two more felonies.  This makes six felonies in three counties for a very stupid decision. How the F*!k does a person ever get a job with that many felonies? (Pardon the anger showing please.)  When this all started, my biggest fear was that he would spend six months in jail.  He has now been in five different institutions and pretty much incarcerated for the last two years.  He was 21 when he went away, he will be 24 in March. We've spent a lot of holidays talking with glass in between us.

Today he is officially sentenced to 70 months of correctional custody.  They have suspended 5 years with probation and he will serve another 210 days in county jail.   My very polite son, who had so much promise, has now spent the last two years in some kind of correctional facility.  I chose not to go to the courtroom today. Most of me feels good about that decision. One of the biggest lessons I've learned from this ordeal is that I cannot change anything.  I am reminded that the only thing I can change is how I react to the situation.  Instead of being angry, I can find another way to get through this day. I haven't slept much, I knew that would happen.  Even if I am not there, I am still feeling what is about to happen today. This is not what I had in mind for that cute little baby boy. I don't think I will accomplish anything by going through that fear in the courtroom today.  Instead, I'm taking care of myself. I've taken a vacation day and doing a little pampering and then some preparations for spring. Today the gardening begins, indoors and hopefully a little outdoors.Yes, gardening is cheaper than therapy.

My dear friend Cheryl, who passed away in 2009, would have reminded me that everything does work out.  It doesn't always work out the way we want it, but it does work out.  She'd remind me that getting out of ourselves and helping someone else usually helps us feel a little better. She'd ask me when the last time I did a gratitude list was.  You know, it's been awhile.  'Bout time I think.

I am grateful to be a sober. I only thought about drinking a couple times through this ordeal.  I am grateful for all I've learned that helped me not drink.

I am grateful for my loving husband who shows it every day. Sometimes I haven't been too much fun through this.

I am grateful for my sons and grandchildren.  Although we worry, there's a lot of love.  I've heard we can't appreciate the joy without the pain.  I'll try to be grateful for the pain too.

I am grateful for my beautiful warm home.(Especially the great kitchen I spend most my time creating edible art.) I heard yesterday that cooking was a great distraction.  It's working.  Happiness is taking photos of the great experiments gone right. Oh yeah, then sharing them.

I am grateful we found gardening.  My husband and I share a lot of love when we are in the sunshine and dirt taking care of our babies.

I am grateful for the busy job I have which keeps my mind active and allows for a vacation day when necessary.  My job is never boring and always changing. I usually feel appreciated there too.

I am grateful for the loving friends I have in my life. There is a lot of love in my life.  

I am grateful for the ability to be creative and share that with others. Love sharing art and the love of good food with others.  The potluck is a great new distraction. It's been a blessing to have this in my mind instead of my son's troubles.

Now Cheryl would have me do at least five, there's eight.  On my way to feeling better I think.  I haven't slept as much as I would like.  But that's OK, I get to move at my own pace today.   Another reason to be grateful for vacation days. I'm doing OK, but I don't think I want to interact with too many today. I need some solitude myself.  It's time to get ready for spring.  I am starting the day with a deep muscle massage, then a pedicure, (which also comes with reading time), and then if it's not too wet I am headed out to the garden to start some lettuce, onions, and peas.  If it's raining, I'll get them started here.  I also have some Almond Madeleine dough setting in the fridge, I'll share them with you later. I am looking forward to the day!

I have learnt silence from the talkative, toleration from the intolerant, and kindness from the unkind; yet strange, I am ungrateful to these teachers.


Kahlil Gibran

Dairy Free Orange Creme Ice Cream & Pistachio Madeleines

Orange Creme Ice Cream & Pistachio Madeleines

I made a coconut milk, vanilla bean base for ice cream just like the Black Cherry Almond Ice Cream with the juice of four tangelos added instead of the cherry juice.  OMG I hit the orange cremesicle flavor.  I cleaned out the insides of four large tangelos and juiced them. I also stirred in the zest of one whole tangelo. After the ice cream base was made I stirred in the juice and let the mixture rest in the refrigerator. 

I used the tangelo shells for bowls and froze the ice cream in them.

I saw this recipe for Pistachio Madeleines on a blog I follow, Cook Almost Anything.

I made a couple changes by using xylitol instead of the white sugar in the recipe, used sucanat instead of brown sugar, and coconut butter instead of dairy butter.  These came out very nice. I think I might bring these to the next potluck in March. I used eggs this time, I have some good ones. I will try some egg substitutes to see what I can come up with for a vegan Madeleine sometime. I sprinkled them with some cinnamon sugar.

Saturday Winterfolk Surprise

Winterfolk 23, Portland, OR

As I left the office Friday, I mentioned I had no plans for the weekend other than do some cooking, reading, and relaxing. If it was dry at all, I'd get some work done out in the garden.  I received an email Friday afternoon informing me I had won a couple tickets to Winterfolk in Portland from KBOO Friday evening. That was a very nice surprise.  I entered a comment on their Facebook page for a drawing early Friday morning.  I didn't even remember doing it as I have done that so many times before without expecting to win. Now we had some plans. We headed to Portland in the afternoon Saturday. I got a chance to hit the Peoples Co-op and stock up on some needed items like vanilla beans, fresh tempeh, pure maple syrup, and some bulk grains and nuts. There are so many nice items in People's that I can buy in bulk that I either can't get in town or they are much more expensive.

We arrived at the theater about an hour before the show. There's a little bar and cafe next door with an entrance to the theater. We had a nice meal for about $25 and headed into the show. For people who had no plans, it turned out to be a lovely evening for the both of us. We bought a raffle ticket for the cause, and a chance to win a nice guitar.  The whole date was $35. 

I love folk music and I really like the Aladdin theater. It's small and accessible, never a problem parking, and it's a good place to go hear live music. We've seen a lot of musicians there. We've seen some famous people who've been writing music and singing their songs some as far back as the 50's. Many have been performing for 30-40 years. It's nice to hear them now and to hear the stories they tell about how the songs came to be written and what the motivations were at the time. It's a reminder to me that even with so much change, so many things remain the same. This night the performers were young and old, I believe Joe Hickerson may have been in his late seventies. He, we all, sang "Where have all the flowers Gone" and he's been singing his own version with three added verses since it was originally written. Many of the musicians Saturday night played songs written or performed by artists we've seen at the Aladdin, Jorma Kaukonen, Jack Cassidy, and Joan Baez. Winterfolk is an annual benefit for the Sisters of The Road Cafe. 

There were lots of wonderful musicians, three sessions with two different sets of performers each session.  The MC even got in a few songs. We heard: Tracy Grammer, Beth Wood, Dncan Phiilips with Kate MacLeod, Doug Wintch & Gigi Love, Tom May, Joe Hickerson, Chris Kokesh & Lincoln Crockett, and one of my favorites, Doug Smith.  His guitar sent me off to wonderful places.

The Garden Song

 

 

Garden Song

Written by: Karisha Longaker, MaMuse

On this bright and healthy morning
I wanna sing my song
Let it be sung
And as I let it fly out into the world
Let it be known
I hear the music in all things today
The dance is on

I lay down on the ground
In the garden,
let the earth
Crawl up into my clothes
Stared up at the sky and we fell together
We really are so close
He whispers hello, hello, hello
And the dance is on

All the world is conspiring for me
The dance, the dance
Everything everywhere nourishes my growth
The dance is on
Let it be known
I can hear the music in all things
Today it's on
This one's for me

The bees are buzzing for me
The dance, the dance
Even the distant train is calling my name
The breeze is orchestrating
a complicated ballet
Between the leaves
The dance is on
This one's for me

All the world is conspiring for me
The dance, the dance
Everything everywhere nourishes my growth
The dance is on
Let it be known
I can hear the music in all things
Today it's on
This one's for me

The spiders are making rainbows
Between collard greens and the sun
There's a hummingbird calling
Up in his tree
I can hear his wings from way over hear
They beat for me
This one's for me

Perfect Love

Perfect love sometimes does not come until grandchildren are born.

Welsh Proverb

The Vegan/Vegetarian Potluck was a Success!

Our first vegan/vegetarian potluck in Longview was a delightful experience.  We cleaned up the store and put out some tables, lit some candles, and put out some wonderful food.  Thirty five people showed up with a nice variety of vegan and vegetarian dishes. I didn't taste anything I didn't like and I saw many people going back to the buffet tables more than twice. 



I may have missed some, but of the wonderful dishes to choose from for dinner was:

Lentil Salad
Cauliflower & Raisin Crustini
Spanikopita
Vegan Mac and Cheese
Spinach Quiche with green & red peppers and cheddar cheese
Vegetarian Pizza
Roasted new potatoes with cheddar cheese, yellow bells, olive oil, butter, and balsamic vinegar
Vegan Taco Soup with crunchy toppings like tortilla ribbons and roasted sunflower seeds
Butternut squash and white bean stew with almonds, chickpeas, potatoes, raisins, and spices
Crock Cheese made with tofu and white miso
Raw Kale Salad with Root Veggies
Green salad with romaine, green leaf lettuce, spinach, almonds, and pureed plums
Vegan Cornbread
Asian Pasta and Greens salad
Pumpkin Pie Bars
Sweat Meat Squash Muffins
Peanut Butter Celery Logs
Chocolate Beet Cake muffins with Raspberry Icing
Hibiscus Lemon Cheesecake (I have some of that to munch on today, Thanks Morgaine  :D)

Thanks to my friends for all your help.  Rachel put together a beautiful flier, Michele used her fantastic scrap-booking skills to make us some table signs, Christy, Lester, Rhonda, & I turned that little produce store into a dining room for the evening, and everyone prepared something great for the dinner. I do believe the potluck was very successful. Everyone I've heard from enjoyed themselves and are interested in doing it again.  Peter gave a great talk with a lot of information in a very short time. I was toast yesterday, but I don't think the next one will be as much work. Next time, I'll have a little more help with the arranging. I think having one monthly might be too much, but every two or three months might work.  We'll see. Christy and Les at Payton's enjoyed it and are up for doing it again.

Bob Weir w Kingfish - San Gregorio 1989

While looking around for sites this morning for my blog I found a video from a benefit concert behind the San Gregorio store in may 1989.  We were there. I made about 50 gallons of my vegetarian chili and ran a booth selling tie dyed shirts.  Shirts my friends and I stayed up many nights dying ourselves. Scott was somewhere in this crowd as were many of our close friends. Our Marty was just two and Bob was eight at the time.  He was climbing the hills on the outer edge of the field with the other children. We gave him a bright red tie dyed shirt so we could spot him from a distance.  It was a fun day. This was in May 1989.  It was our last summer in California.  We moved to the northwest in October which has been home ever since.

Garden 2011 Begins Soon

Today was my annual review at work. Well, I'm happy to say I got through another year still employed.  I didn't used to worry about annual reviews.  Last year I received some negative feedback or, I should say 'opportunities for improvement'. That's not happened before or not in many years.  So, I was mindful of it all year and really worked at improving my knowledge of my job and making somebody else's life a little easier while I am there.  I'm a very lucky person in that I really like what I do and the people I spend my days with.   But, due to the emotional stress I was under in 2009, I made some mistakes.  I wasn't surprised and I don't think my boss was either. My heart, mind, and hands were not often in the same place at the same time. Among some of the issues I faced was a broken ankle that kept me down for almost three months. One of my best friends died early in the year. Robert went to Afghanistan. He did make it home this last December.  Marty was arrested and is still sitting in a cell awaiting the outcome of his big mess.  It's been a full two years since the detective came to our house and took him away.  I managed to make it through this year with the same emotional roller coaster going on, but handled it much better. (In front of people anyway.)  Shew, that worry is over for a few. Things went well today.


The big news of the day is that I got my garden!  Yippee!!!  It's like having some sunshine come into the day.  It's time to get the greenhouse in order.  It just needs a little sweeping and organizing.  We've been keeping some avocados alive down there this winter.  Avocados don't generally grow in the Pacific Northwest.  We had some volunteers come up in the compost pile and scooped them up and put them in buckets and have kept them under the lights.  They're doing pretty well. We probably won't ever get any avocados, but we have some cool plants. I'll get some leeks, onions, and lettuces started very soon.  The lettuces can be grown indoors and the leeks and onions can be put right in the ground soon.  They have a better chance if I start them first though.  I'm very excited to get started.

This year I thought I'd try a Victory Garden Seed bucket from Territorial Seed.  It's kind of like ordering a big grab bag. I am not advertising for them, I am very pleased with my purchase.  I bought a few extra packets of herbs, Stevia, Red Noodle Pole Beans, and some cantaloupe.  But, for $79, it's a great deal.  It's got everything you could want to get a full garden going. I could stop here, but that's not likely.  I do have to shop at the farmer's market too for some plants. I can't wait to get to playing in the dirt! 

In the bucket I found seeds for:

  Bean, Dry/Shelling Pole-Bingo
  Bean, Green Bush-Venture
  Brussels Sprout-Falstaff
  Beet-Early Wonder Tall Top
  Broccoli-Thompson
  Cabbage-Danish Ballhead
  Carrot-Danvers
  Cauliflower-Goodman
  Corn-Golden Bantam
  Cucumber-Wautoma
  Kale-Winter Red
  Kohlrabi-Superschmelz ~ My favorite one to say out loud. Try it a few times. :-)
  Leek-Giant Musselburgh
  Lettuce-Heirloom Blend
  Onion-Pacific Pearl
  Pea-Sugar Daddy
  Pepper, Sweet-Cal Wonder 300
  Pepper, Hot-Early Jalapeno
  Pumpkin-Small Sugar
  Radish-Altaglobe
  Turnip-Purple Top White Globe
  Spinach-Bloomsdale Savoy
  Swiss Chard-Rhubarb
  Squash, Summer-Black Beauty
  Squash, Winter-Bush Delicata
  Tomato-Gill’s All Purpose
  Tomato-Saucey
  Herb, Chives
  Herb, Basil-Sweet
. Flower, Sunflower-Mammoth Gray Stripe

Gardening 2011 here we go.

This Grandma Makes Her Own Ice Cream

Babysitting the grandchildren this evening and I want some goodies around when they get here.  I picked up some chocolate mint soy milk the other day.  I don't usually purchase the flavored soy milk, but this was a good price and my husband and granddaughter like chocolate non dairy milks.  It didn't seem to be going very fast so I made ice cream with it. This time I did a very simple recipe with the chocolate soy milk in place of milk and coconut milk creamer in place of the cream. This can be made with any non dairy milk. 

I used a pretty simple mixture this time, it came out very chocolaty with a little hint of mint.

Vegan Chocolate Mint Ice Cream

1 cup sucanot
2/3 cup raw agave syrup
2/3 cup organic cocoa powder
1/4 cup WW pastry flour
1/4 tsp. sea salt
2 cup choc mint soy milk
3 TB egg replacer with 1/2 cup water, whisked until foamy
1 TB vanilla extract
 3 cup choc mint soy milk
1 pint coconut milk creamer

In medium saucepan combine sucanot, agave, cocoa, flour and salt; stir in milk and egg replacer.  cook over medium heat stirring constantly, until mixture boils.  Boil and stir 1 minute.  Remove from heat.  Stir in vanilla, choc mint soy milk, and the coconut milk creamer.  Chill until cold and freeze in ice cream freezer for about 30 minutes.

Now, my granddaughter's brother, Eryk, and I are just getting to know each other.   He's physically challenged and doesn't speak or walk.  He does sign, so we are learning to communicate.  This is the second time I've gotten the chance to hang out with him.  He's from a different relationship, my former daughter in law's second son. He's four years old and this year is the first time we've really met.  That's another story for another time. I'm just grateful I get to play with him now. He doesn't like ice cream much I hear because he doesn't like very cold things.  He did cringe the last time he was here when I fed him some peach ice cream.  It took him awhile, but he did finally like it.  I decided to put together a pudding just in case the ice cream isn't a winner.

I made an old  fashioned tapioca pudding, with the tapioca pearls, not a pudding mix.  This is a vegetarian dessert as I did use non dairy milk, but I used the eggs this time.  I wanted a nice fluffy pudding and I didn't want to fool around with a failed experiment today.  I folded in some of the dark red cherries I canned this summer along with a handful of currants, some shredded coconut, and orange zest.  I also grated some cinnamon and nutmeg into the egg whites as they were being whipped into meringue.  I think he'll like it, we do.

Tapioca Pearls

Spiced Tapioca with Cherries and Coconut

I just roasted a red pepper and made some pizza crust.  Having a rough time with the rising in this weather.  Makes me wish for a gas stove so the pilot light would help keep things warm enough for a dough.  It rose some, it will just be a crispy crust.  Anyway, we're going to make homemade pizza together.  I thought the kids would like that.  I am caramelizing onions, sauteing some fresh mushrooms, grated some organic mozzarella cheese and some almond cheddar. I got some Gimme Lean meatless sausage I'm going to dress up with some of my own herbs.  We'll let you know later how that turns out.  Fun times, I love being a grandma!

New Year's Eve ~ Black Eyed Peas & Greens

 Nice to have a Friday off for the holiday.  I got my shopping done and some cooking done that I would usually do on Saturday, so I don't try cram so much into the weekend.  It's like getting an extra Saturday or extra Sunday, however I look at it .  I enjoyed having today.  I wandered out to the garden to peek at the sleeping plants this morning.  It's somewhere in the 20's and very icy, but a beautiful sunny day.  The garlic is still growing and so are the brussels sprouts.  Most of the plants seem a little sleepy or dead, but under some of the ice, I found some green, healthy plants.

Frosty Sage

Brussels Sprouts

The seed catalogs started coming last week, I'm now deciding what to plant soon.  I feel like a kid looking through the Sears catalog making a Christmas list. Late January and early February are when I can start my seedlings downstairs, that adds some sunshine to my heart.

My sweetie and I had a lovely New Year's Eve together.  We stayed close to home and enjoyed each other's company. We took a long walk along the Cowlitz River in the afternoon and played with our cameras.  The sun was out and it was an absolutely gorgeous afternoon.  If it weren't for the temperature being in the 20's the sky and air looks as if we could take a drive in a convertible with tank tops.

Walking on the Cowlitz

Before we left I cooked a pot of black eyed peas.  I just simmered them in water and sea salt so they could be used in other recipes this week. I just wanted the flavor of the peas.

When we returned from our walk. I sauteed a carrot, a thinly sliced onion, about a TB minced ginger, 2 tsp thyme, 2 tsp oregano, and a TB garlic. When they were tender I added six cups chopped beet greens and some dark green kale, 1/2 cup vegetable broth and let that simmer on low heat about 10 minutes.  To that I added about 2 cups of the cooked black eyed peas, 2 TB Shoyu, 1/4 tsp liquid smoke, 1/2 tsp Worcestershire sauce, a dash of sea salt and a smaller dash of cayenne pepper. Let it cook for about 5 more minutes.

 Black eyed peas, greens, and carrots, A great warm meal for a cold winter night.

I WISH YOU PEACE, GOOD HEALTH,AND HAPPINESS IN THE COMING YEAR!

A Good Day for Gardening

Artichoke Blossom

Well, it wasn't a 70° day, but it was pleasant.  I spent about four hours in the garden and could have done more.  I did work up a bit of a sweat and decided I'd gotten my exercise for the day very early.  Just like a regular workday, noon came before I knew it.  I stayed out until about 1:00 p.m. or so and then went home, ate a nice bowl of beans and spent the afternoon with Rhonda.

The tomatoes are pretty tired now, I think I've gotten what I'm going to get out of them.  I did go home with about ten pounds of red tomatoes and five pounds of some nice green ones I saved.  Many of the ripe tomatoes do look like it's gotten too cold and some have experienced a little freeze. Some of the green ones I will try to ripen and some of them will go into some green tomato recipes.  I think I'm going to try a green tomato bread recipe I saw recently.

I pulled three of them up and worked the soil and planted three varities of garlic in their place, two purple varieties and one white. I think one of them is an elephant garlic.  I do love to roast those.

On top of the garlic I spread the dried seed pods from my shelling beans and a layer of the very large cauliflower leaves for a nice mulch.  I'm looking forward to seeing them blossom in the springtime.  I planted a little more than last year.

After that I dug up the rest of the blue potatoes, at least I think I got them all.  They do look like dirt clods.  I also grabbed a couple pepper plants to hang and let the peppers finish ripening and dry.  I planted quite a few varieties of peppers this year. Anaheim, cayenne, jalepeño, Tennessee cheese, red and green bells, something called New Mexican hot, and a few more I don't remember the names of.  I am thinking of drying them and stringing them in some artistic way for holiday gifts this year.  I came home with a few cucumber, some zucchini, summer squash, a small head of cauliflower, and some lettuce.  There's still lots of work to do. Even though I did work hard yesterday, it was a most peaceful day.

When Rhonda called, I was on my knees very deep in the potato trench.  I'd been working for four hours and when she said, let's go out for awhile, it was perfect timing.  We got to share some time talking about life and her daughter's upcoming wedding in April.  I will be helping with the food, of course.  I've catered many weddings, this will be the first that I will bring many vegan and vegetarian items.  I'm looking forward to this little adventure.

I'm a Gardener Today

Get to have a day of my own today. Starting the day a little slower than usual, sipping my coffee and listening to music. Enjoying a little extra time with my sweetie in the morning. I get to go out and do some work in the garden today.  I'm putting some bigger tools in the car than usual and getting some real work done out there.  I've been waiting for the sun to shine so I can get out there.

We've had a break in the pace at work and the sun has been shining. The weather reports say this could be the last day in the 70's for quite some time. I am fortunate enough to be able to take advantage of it to love my garden a bit today. Since the sun goes down a little earlier, we haven't been able to spend as much time out there. Many chances I've gotten on the weekends, the weather has been wet. There is much to be done. There's still lots of vegetables to be harvested, weeds to pull, and potatoes to be dug up. I can plant my garlic today and get some of the tomatoes and peppers that haven't ripened uprooted so they will ripen indoors. I'm very excited to be outside today. I do so love playing in the dirt. 

Pumpkin Curry Soup - Sunday Lunch at Grandma's

After we carved our pumpkins, I made some pumpkin curry soup. I had some fun with it by serving it in little pumpkin bowls. Kaylee loved it.  I made some quick hot water cornbread to go with it. The cornbread came out very nice, crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside. I roasted a few small pumpkins and put some soup in them for my lunch next week.

Curried Pumpkin Soup Recipe

2  cloves garlic, peeled
1 med onion, peeled and quartered
1 lg. jalapeno pepper, seeded and -coarsely chopped
2 Stalks celery, cut into -2-inch lengths
3 lg. Carrots, peeled and sliced -1/4 inch thick
2 tbsp. Olive oil
1 3/4 lb. pumpkin, peeled, -seeded, and cut -into 1-inch dice
3 c Low-salt vegetable stock
1 Bay leaf
2 tsp.  curry powder
1 tsp. Turmeric
pinch of cayenne pepper
1 1/2 tsp. salt
freshly ground pepper
1/4 c shelled raw pumpkin seeds
2 tbsp. chopped flat-leaf parsley
1 tbsp. sour cream (optional)

Place garlic in a food processor and pulse until finely chopped. Add onion and pulse until finely chopped. Set aside. Place jalapeno in food processor and pulse until finely chopped. Add celery and pulse until finely chopped. Set aside. Place carrots in food processor and pulse until finely chopped.

Heat 1 tbsp. of the olive oil in a medium stockpot over medium heat. Add the garlic and onion and sauté, stirring occasionally, until onion is translucent, about 6 minutes. Add jalapeno, celery, and carrots and sauté for 5 minutes. Add the pumpkin, vegetable stock, bay leaf, curry, turmeric, cayenne, 1 tsp. of the salt, and pepper to taste, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and cook until the vegetables are tender, about 8 minutes.

Meanwhile, in a small sauté pan, heat remaining tbsp. of olive oil over medium-high heat. Add pumpkin seeds and remaining 1/2 t salt and cook for about 30 seconds, shaking pan constantly to prevent burning, until all the seeds have popped. Remove from heat and add parsley.

Place 2 cups of the cooked vegetables and about 1/2 cups of the liquid in the bowl of a food processor and puree until smooth. Stir puree back into the soup. Adjust seasonings, and stir in the sour cream, if desired. Garnish with roasted pumpkin seeds.

We followed it up with the dairy free pumpkin pie ice cream I made yesterday.  It's just a pumpkin kind of day.

Pumpkin Kind of Day

We were all happy to be out in the sunshine at the pumpkin patch.  The goat seemed especially pleased.

We wandered out to Willow Grove Gardens with Kaylee yesterday.  It was a beautiful fall afternoon, the sun was shining, and it was kind of warm.  We didn't need to wear a sweater out to the farm.  We just wandered around and looked at animals.  Kaylee got to pet and hold some.  There is a Dri out there, a female Yak, and her baby.  It was fun to hear the children react as they came out of the barn and noticed an animal they had not seen before.  I heard "there's a bull like animal out here mom" a couple of times.  Or, "there's a big hairy bull out here mom." A Yak is not an animal we saw much of growing up. 

There is a baby yak and a momma.  Apparently the momma is very protective of  her baby and it was about the time we showed up that the baby had escaped it's pen and was running all over the place.  We could tell this baby was happy to be out of the pen, it just ran and ran and ran.  The Dri was very agitated that her baby was out with all the strangers.  The farm was pretty busy with families out enjoying the day and looking for that perfect pumpkin.  She rammed the fence a couple times while we tried to take photos. We watched as Mike, Rhonda, and Ruth worked to get the baby Yak back in the pen. That baby was happy to be running about and wasn't coming easily. It was a bit exciting.

Oktoberfest Sans Knockwurst

I made homemade sauerkraut this year.  The first thing I thought of was warm sauerkraut with mashed potatoes and gravy.  Yesterday I picked some beautiful blue potatoes in the garden.

I went a little farther than the mashed potatoes. I made some potato pancakes with a some homemade applesauce, warmed the sauerkraut and grilled some lemon pepper tempeh.  I made a vegan herb gravy with black bean flakes, rosemary, sage, salt and pepper, and garlic, for the tempeh.  It was a fine example of Bavarian Oktoberfest meal, a vegetarian Bavarian meal.

I asked my husband if he enjoyed his dinner. This was his reply...

Friends in the Garden

As I was picking beans last Saturday morning, a man came up behind me because he wanted to meet the person gardening behind his house. He would also like the corn stalks when I'm done for his friend's cows. Apparently it's a great treat for them. I know this man, his name is Steve. I haven't seen him in over a year and a half. He didn't recognize me at first as he is getting a bit old, 85 I think. When I told him my name and gave him a big hug, he remembered right away. His wife died last year and she was one of my closest friends.

Last year I experienced some emotional growth. That's what I'm calling it now anyway. It seemed that devastating news came about every two weeks. It began with learning my very dear friend would be dying from cancer. I felt privileged to be able to help her through it, but it was sad nonetheless and I miss her. I missed her terribly when life seemed a bit hopeless last year. Cheryl is the first person I thought of calling when things got tense. She'd have been at every court date she could, sitting next to me and reminding me things always work out. She'd remind me that things don't always work out the way we'd like, but they do work out. The sun usually comes out, in theory anyway, we do live in the Northwest.

One of the reasons we began the big garden was to work out some of the stress and tension we were under last year. It sure works, we also didn't realize how much we love the gardening. That's turned out to be a huge blessing that will hopefully continue for a long time. It's a very large community garden, surrounded by houses on either side. Turns out since Cheryl died, her husband Steve's eyesight has gotten weak and he can't drive. He's moved into town. He has been living directly behind my garden since last year. He says he comes out and looks around it every night. He loves our garden.

I felt comforted that someone I love has been there when we weren't. Sometimes when I'm working out there, I've had some conversations with Cheryl. I felt a little more like she has really been there. After he left I had a good cry. It was a grateful cry, kind of a cleansing cry. I love ya Cheryl, glad you are part of my life.

Cheryl Harman

Bene Bolognese

Bene Bolognese Recipe 

Made this tasty vegan version of a recipe generally made with pork, beef, and cream last night. I added some chopped eggplant from the garden, a diced mild chili, and used white troufle balsamic vinegar and water instead of the white wine. Most of the ingredients came from my garden. I am looking forward to lunch today.

Vive Bene

Garden Update - Autumn Harvest

The garden isn't ready to sleep for the winter yet.  There's been some warm fall weather and I'm getting a nice basket of ripe tomatoes every couple days.  Even the cloudy and rainy days have been warm and it seems to be dry right when we want to be out in the dirt.  The moon has kept us company a few times this past week. We have a little less daylight, but enough to get some weeding and harvesting done