Asparagus sandwich

Yesterday I saw on Facebook an asparagus sandwich on the menu at the Carrot Barn in Schoharie, New York. I knew I had in my refrigerator a bunch of asparagus from The Boys Farmers' Market in Delray Beach, so I decided to try my own version. The Carrot Barn sandwich is described as steamed asparagus, cabot cheddar, scallions, mayo, salt and pepper on a French roll served warm.

Using what I had on hand, I made a sandwich containing mashed avocado instead of mayonaise, roasted red peppers (from a jar), fresh ground black pepper, scallions, steamed asparagus, sliced heirloom tomato from the CSA I belong to, and red leaf lettuce on a toasted sub roll from Publix. I thought it was outstanding. Next time I think I will cut the asparagus spears into pieces about two inches long instead of leaving them whole but I will not change another thing.

Locavores delight

Boxes awaiting pick up

This week when  I went to my Green Cay CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) to pick up our vegetables, I took along my camera. Each member of the CSA who picks-up (as opposed to gets delivery) finds a labeled box on the table with their share for the week. The boxes are kept on tables under a canopy to help keep them fresh. 

The crop just beginning to grow looks like corn to me and I am getting excited by the thought of some really fresh corn. Although we have had delicious corn from The Boys Market,  I am sure that corn picked in the morning and driven 2 miles to my house and cooked for dinner will be the best we have had since we left Central New York. My house would not really be 2 miles from the pick up spot, if we could cross the canal and travel in a straight line through the fields. My house is just over the canal behind the silo in the back of the photo.

Once again, the heirloom cherry tomatoes were outstanding. We also received regular tomatoes, zucchini, broccoli, romaine, carrots, and bell peppers. J has discovered how good fresh raw vegetables taste with hummus, so the veggies disappear from the refrigerator. Although the weather has slowed the output a bit for this time of the year, we are still getting more than enough vegetables to last us until the next box arrives. In fact, there is the usual surplus of zucchini. Did you ever hear of a farm that didn't have lots of zucchini? I think I will have to make and freeze more zucchini muffins to be sure that I don't waste the food.

A favorite meal revisited

When people ask me what I eat,  I always tell them that I don't like things pretending to be meat, that I just don't miss meat that much. That is true - I really do not miss meat that much after over 6 years of not eating it. My husband, however, really does miss meat. He is wonderful about eating whatever I eat and trying to eat vegan foods so we can both be healthier. Because he is so good about it, I was eager to try the recipe for meatloaf in the Engine 2 Diet Cookbook by Rip Esselstyn, professional triathalon athlete, who is now an Austin Texas firefighter . The diet is based on whole foods, including whole grains, fresh fruits, vegetables, legumes, nuts, and seeds.

I prepared J for disappointment, even to having leftover pizza on hand just in case we were left without something to have for dinner if the meatloaf failed. No disappointment tonight. I have to say that this is one  of the best recipes I have tried for something pretending to be meat. I served J his favorite meal: meatloaf, mashed potatoes with gravy, and lima beans. I added a salad of the heirloom tomatoes from the CSA, a few French breakfast radishes, thinly sliced sweet onion dressed with a teaspoon of olive oil and an excellent Italian red wine vinegar.

I searched in vain for a long time to find this recipe online and at last it has been posted on the Engine 2 Diet website.

Rediscovered treasure

 Ada Dedell 1924, aged 42

Today I did some rearranging of paperwork and supplies in my office and I discovered a manila envelope, labeled in my mother's handwriting "Recipes - Ada May Greenia Dedell- in her handwriting." Ada, my grandmother, was born February 25, 1882. Ada like so many of her generation was an excellent cook. I remember well enjoying the meals she cooked for me when I stayed at her house for a few weeks in the summer. We would walk around the block to the neighborhood grocery store in the early afternoon or late morning and buy fresh vegetables and meat for our evening meal. I especially remember shelling peas and eating about as many as I put into the pan. I expect that she planned on that happening!

The treasure part is that one of those recipes was her mother's recipe for Rhubarb pie. Ada's mother, Nellie Ruth Greenia, was born in 1855. This is the recipe for Nellie's Rhubarb Pie just in time for spring rhubarb in the northeast:

"Skin the rhubarb. Cut in 1/2 inch pieces. Fill the crust with the raw fruit and sprinkle liberally with sugar and 2 tablespoons flour. Bake about 3/4 hour."

When everyone cooked nearly every meal at home, it was assumed that the cook needed very little in the way of instruction. First my grandmother and then my mother expanded the instructions and now I am adding what I think is required for today's cook.

Rhubarb Pie Filling

3 cups rhubarb cut into 1-inch pieces

1 1/2 cups sugar

3 tablespoons flour

1 bottom and 1 top pie crust

Follow the instructions on the package for the pie crust. If you have made your own pie crust, you do not need to be told what to do.

Preheat the oven to 400 F.

Rinse the rhubarb and cut it into 1-inch pieces, removing and discarding any tough ends and all of the leaves. Combine the rhubarb, sugar and flour in a large bowl. Place the bottom crust in a pie pan. Pour the mixture into the bottom crust and cover with the top crust. Make a few slashes in the center of the top crust to allow steam to escape. Trim the crust to fit the pan and crimp the edges of the top and bottom crust together. Bake for 10 minutes at 400 and lower the heat to 350. Continue baking until the crust is golden brown. Cool on a rack and serve at room temperature.

Writing cookbooks

For years now I have been working on a healthy vegan cookbook. I began writing my first cookbook at the age of 10 and I still have that yellow-covered spiral-bound notebook, as well as the red-covered second one.

 

As you can see,  the yellow one cost 50 cents, while the red one from some time later cost 49 cents. Until I looked at them through someone else's eyes (yours), I hadn't realized how awful they look all covered with the remains of my cooking with them for decades. The red one has pages of scribbling added by one of my children who took advantage of my attention being elsewhere to decorate my books with artwork. At the time, I was furious and now I cherish the scribbles. Isn't life funny that way?

That little digression is apropos of nothing except that it was part of my journey that brought me to writing my current cookbook. Right now I am working on a chapter of Greek foods because of a woman I sat next to on an airplane recently. She and I talked the entire flight about food. Actually, she talked and I listened to her describe the wonderful food she had learned to cook before arriving in America. Her children, now grown, were all born in the US, but their favorite foods are the traditional Greek foods she still cooks for them. Lucky them! She cooks and delivers food to their houses!

People say Mediterranean foods are so healthy. I say they are if the food is prepared and eaten the way it was a couple of generations ago. The woman on the plane told me about all of the wonderful vegetable dishes she cooks and that her family loves. Those are the recipes that I am working on now.

Even in the red notebook there is a recipe for Beefburgers Greek Style. I have no idea where I discovered it, but I remember cooking Greek-style burgers for the five of us at home when I was a teenager. My father, I am sure, would have much preferred a plain American hamburger, but he never once complained about my kitchen experiments.

As my cooking skills improved, I added moussaka and spanakopita to my repertoire with the help of a cookbook I received as a gift when the book was first published. My cookbook collection grew and by the time I was ready to move to Florida, I could only bring half of my cookbooks. One I needed now and no longer have was Greek Cooking For the Gods, by Eva Zane. I looked on Amazon, thinking it would probably be about $1 by now, but no, it now sells for $46.99 to $139.95. 

And that brings me to what I really started out to say today, aren't public libraries the best? My local library obtained a copy for me, which I just brought home. And that is what sent me down memory lane, posting this message when I should be reading the recipe for Lopia Plaki or Lima Beans Plaka Style.

Sweet Potato Lunch

Thanks to Rip Esselstyn for Rip's Sweet Potato Bowl in The Engine 2 Diet   book for the inspiration for this unusual salad. I had a huge sweet potato but I didn't have the mango or red bell pepper called for in Rip's recipe. So I improvised and ended up with a very tasty and quickly prepared lunch.

Ingredients per serving:
1 cup cooked sweet potato chunks, skin removed and discarded
3/4 cup cooked black beans, drained and rinsed
1/2 avocado, cut into bite size chunks
1/2 cup canned diced tomatoes with chopped green chilies
chopped cilantro
juice of 1/2 a lime
splash of balsamic vinegar

Take some already cooked sweet potato and cut it into chunks into about as big as you think you would like to place on a fork.  If the potatoes are very cold, warm them in a microwave to about room temperature. Put the sweet potatoes into a bowl, add the beans, avocado, tomatoes, cilantro, lime juice and vinegar.

A healthy and satisfying lunch for a plant-strong diet.

Pressure cooker chick peas

 

Another fine recipe based on one from Susan Voisin at Fat Free Vegan Kitchen! I cooked the chickpeas in the pressure cooker and have made real progress with learning to use it thanks to The Veggie Queen. This time I got all of the steps right and ended up with perfectly cooked chickpeas in a very short time. 

I  had half of a huge raw sweet potato leftover in the refrigerator and nearly a pound of okra that had to be used really soon. I found this recipe at Fat Free Vegan and changed it some, of course. First, I liked it much better without the peanut butter that the recipe says to add at the end of cooking. I tried it both ways because the broth tasted so good without it. I would not include it or the liquid smoke flavoring. With enough smoked paprika, the liquid smoke, which I do not have, was unnecessary. I had no green peppers either, only half a red pepper, so I made half of the recipe. The next time I would use a green pepper.  I left the celery at 2 ribs, used regular diced tomatoes, and Sriracha Hot Sauce because I like the heat it gives to the food.

Although the recipe recommends cooking all of the ingredients until the sweet potatoes are close to falling apart, I found that after 90 minutes, they still were not near falling apart and finished the cooking at that time. 

So this is what cooking is supposed to be like. Start with an idea, use what you have on hand and like to eat and then make the recipe your own.