Weekend Ramblings

Nice weekend. The weather could have been better, but it was good enough for my husband to get out into the garden and do some weeding.  I guess I did have some lettuce out there, but the slugs thought it was delicious.  I do remember having a bit of a slug problem last year. We'll take care of that.  I do hope this blog does become more about gardening soon, I am getting anxious.

Our artichokes are coming back, all of them.  I was a little leery about them coming back, but I went and looked at the master gardener's artichokes at the fairgrounds.  Theirs looked as bad as mine did, that gave me some hope.

I attended a spiritual, meditation, workshop this weekend.  It was a very relaxing and educational day.  Met a few women who are working through challenging times in their lives. I am pretty sure I just opened up a new channel of support in my little word. I met a local composer, Tami Tack, who shared her wonderful music with us. Small world event, she is the sister of someone my husband knew as a child.  I left with some new personal tools and a very relaxed, but energized feeling. I did manage to find six more people interested in attending our next potluck.  That's scheduled for May 20th, by the way.  I'll get a flyer posted soon.

Kerycia and Randy got married Friday night.  Seems pretty weird, I see Kerycia's pictures on Facebook and I still see a little girl in a pretty little dress getting ready for church.  I've known her since she was a baby.  It feels like one of my own children just got married. Seems like there's a line up of weddings to attend in the next couple of years.  The babies we raised are getting married now.  The wedding was very warm and sweet.  Not too big, but big enough and it had all the elements a girl could want at her wedding.  Rhonda and Lupe were both glowing.  The whole family was glowing actually.  It was pretty cool to see all Rhonda's children grown up and being gracious hosts at their sister's wedding.  Rhonda should be very proud her parenting.  I've seen her children, being siblings, wanting to tear each others hair out at times, but Friday night, there was nothing but love in all of their eyes.

Chocolate Tofu Pudding ~ Vegan

I finally got a decent blender for the food I want to prepare.  The blender has really become my main cooking tool.  I bought a Blendtec. It came with a pretty nice cookbook too.  I've tried quite a few recipes already.  This pudding is of the first I tried.  I made really good creamy chocolate pudding in like 90 seconds.  The pudding was as warm as if I simmered it on the stove top. It also made the cashew coconut creme the way I like it, creamy not grainy.  This blender made it with a smooth creamy texture in just a couple minutes.   Before this, I ground my cashews and nuts in the food processor then transferred them to the blender, stopping and scraping them down for quite awhile.  I am pretty impressed with it already.  It took me a long time to break down and buy one.  I've bought whole cars cheaper than this blender.  Of course, I probably would drive cars most people wouldn't. A fancy new car has never been one of my top priorities. But, if I put together all the cheap blenders and food processors I've killed because of the use I put them through, I've probably spent more.

Chocolate Tofu Pudding
 10.5 oz soft tofu
¼ cup non dairy milk, plain or vanilla
5 TB vegan margarine, melted
2 squares semisweet chocolate, broken
½ cup agave, maple syrup, or sucanot
1 tsp vanilla

I put this on the soup cycle twice.  It took about 90 seconds.  If you don't have a blender like this, I would blend it all up in the blender anyway and then simmer on the stovetop a few minutes until it was bubbly and getting thick.  Chill for at least 1 hour.  Top with cashew coconut creme.

Cashew Coconut Creme

about a 1/3 cup raw cashews (soaked in water for an hour or more)
1/3 cup confectioner's sugar
the creme from a can of coconut milk
the seeds from one vanilla bean blended until smooth and creamy.

Red Lentil Soup with Homemade Naan Bread

I took it easy last weekend, my neck has been bothering me so I kept the chopping and slicing down to a minimum. Pitchers get pitcher's elbow, I had knife shoulder and neck I think.  This is a pretty easy dish.  Just a chopped onion, a shallot, red lentils, and some brown rice.  I found an organic mix for the Naan at the local liquidation store.  It contained  whole grain spelt flour, yeast, and flax and caraway seeds for the Naan. Naan is pretty basic, flour, yeast, hot non diary milk, and a little warmth.  It came out pretty good.  I rolled out one and showed my husband how and he rolled the rest.  It's been pretty cold around here so they came out more like tortillas.  Yeast and bread rising doesn't work out too well for me on a cold day.  I made a cucumber dill sauce too.  It gave the meal a nice freshness.

Red Lentil Soup with Brown Rice

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 onion, chopped
3 shallots, chopped
1/2 teaspoon red-pepper flakes
6 cups low sodium vegetable stock (or water)
1 1/3 cup red lentils, rinsed
1/2 cup brown rice, rinsed
sea salt to taste
slivered almonds, toasted


In a big soup pot, over medium heat, combine the olive oil, onion, shallots, and red pepper flakes. Let them brown, and caramelize a bit, stirring occasionally.

Stir in the broth, bring to a boil, then stir in the lentils and rice. Simmer for about 30 minutes or until the rice is very tender, and not at all toothsome. By this time, the lentils will have collapsed into a thick slop of sorts. If you need to add more water/broth at any point do so a splash at a time, until the soup thins out to the point you prefer.

Unless you used a salty broth, you will likely need to salt generously, until the the soup no longer tastes flat. Serve each bowl topped with almonds, olives, and a slight drizzle of olive oil if you like.

Serves 4 - 6.
Prep time: 10 min - Cook time: 30 min

Cucumber Dill Sauce

1 cup veganaise
6 oz. vegan cream cheese or firm tofu
1 medium cucumber (equivalent to 2 cups) chopped
2 tsp fresh dill or ½ tsp dried dill
2 green onions, rough chopped
1 TB fresh lemon juice
dash cayenne

Place ingredients into blender and blend to desired consistency.  

Still Indoors ~ Garden 2011

 I was hoping to get outside this weekend and begin clearing the weeds the rain brought in the garden.  No such luck, it was cold and very rainy today. We did have a couple breaks in the clouds, but it never lasted very long.  I feel like I am in a big holding zone, just waiting for warmth from the sun. There are quite a few plants coming up out there, but it's hard to see most of them right now through the weeds.  I've got some garlic, onions, radishes, peas, lettuce, and herbs growing.

We've had a record breaking raining streak in the pacific northwest. I think, 28 days of continual rain. There was a short break in the afternoon Thursday.  It was warm and clear.  I spent some time playing with our camera in the backyard while we had the sun.  Almost gave me some hope that we would see some spring sunshine this weekend.  I am used to the rain in the northwest, but this time of year I am anxious to get out in the garden and get to work.  I feel like that old Mervyn's commercial where the gal is at the door at 6:00 a.m.on the morning of a big sale, "OPEN, OPEN, OPEN". The seedlings are doing well indoors right now.  Most of these are from the indoor greenhouse, a few of the herbs are out in the garden waking up from the winter, the columbine and artichokes are coming up out there too.




Today was the first day of our farmer's market season.  It's always muddy and a bit rainy the first few weeks.  I welcomed back some of my regular vendors. Right now the most that's available for about a month at the market will be plants, crafts, breads, and locally roasted coffee. There are a few farmers with greenhouses that have some lettuces and greens. I purchased a few things from Eva: a couple rosemary starts, some Jerusalem artichokes, and some kiwis.  I've heard that some people have started growing kiwis in the northwest.  I'm anxious to try hers. I took my camera ready to take some shots at the market, but it began to hail and rain very hard.  I stood under one of the canopies waiting for it to stop, but it just kept coming down. I was pretty drenched by the time I got back to my car. Those photos will have to wait.