35 new salads to make

Now that your garden and your local farmers' market are overflowing with with fruits and vegetables, you have a perfect way to eat the bounty in salads. Mark Bittman, in his New York Times Minimalist column, has written 101 "recipes" of just 2 or 3 lines describing inventive combinations of ingredients and dressings. Many of them are vegan and most are vegetarian.

The first one combines cubed watermelon with tomato chunks with basil and vinaigrette. The second features wedges of tomatoes, peaches, slivers of red onion, crushed red pepper, and cilantro with an oil and citrus dressing.

There are 33 that I want to make! This could be half of my menu planning for the rest of the summer and beyond.

What is your favorite?

Addicted to Green Beans

How can it be possible that I am addicted to green beans? Have you ever experienced a craving for a food that is so strong it is almost an addiction?

I suppose I am not exactly addicted to green beans, but in reality I just cannot get enough of green beans prepared in a manner that I am calling Greek because it makes me remember our great meal at Scholarhio in Athens. The recipe is in Donna Klein's "Vegan Italiano." I tried improving on the recipe by making the dish with grape tomatoes since I have long had a recipe for green beans using those little tomatoes. For some reason, the little ones just don't release the strong flavors the way a large beefsteak tomato does. This recipe is changed from the original only in halving the olive oil and tilting the bean/tomato ratio more toward tomatoes. Calling for just a few ingredients, the recipe's flavor payoff comes from cooking for an hour. You would think that by the time the beans had stewed for that long you would have a mushy mass turning grey and lacking in taste. Fortunately, the green beans remain quite green and the taste takes me back to the Plaka.

I served the beans with oven-roasted Greek potatoes and a Greek salad.

Here is Donna Klein's recipe. If you like this one, you will like many others in the Italiano cookbook and "The Mediterranean Vegan Kitchen."

1 Tablespoon olive oil
1 pound fresh green beans, trimmed
1 large tomato, seeded and chopped
2 large garlic cloves, pressed
½ teaspoon dried oregano
grind of sea salt
grind of black pepper
water as needed

In a large non-stick skillet with a lid, cook the green beans in the oil over medium-high heat, stirring and tossing often, about 5 minutes. Reduce the heat to medium-low and add the remaining ingredients, stirring well. Cover and cook until beans are very tender, about 1 hour, stirring occasionally and adding water as necessary to keep the mixture from drying out. Tastes fabulous warm or at room temperature (Florida room temperature!)

Off to The Boys Farmers Market to buy... green beans to make this again!

Farmers' Markets

Last Fall's Selection

The top reasons to visit a farmers' market near you

1. You help grow the local economy. Money spent locally tends to remain in the local community.

2. You support small farmers who are committed to providing you with fresh, high quality food.

3. You get to personally know the people who grew the food, baked the bread, and knit the sweater.

4. You take home fresh and probably healthier produce and products.

5. You will have fun.

6. You don't need a shopping list. Just take home the freshest and the best and plan meals around your purchases.

7. If you are lucky enough to be in the Albany NY area, you can visit the Capital District Market at 381 Broadway in Menands.

The Menands market is open to the public on Saturdays from May through October from 8 AM to 1 PM. In addition to Schoharie Valley Farms (The Carrot Barn), other vendors include an Amish baker, several crafts vendors, a bread baker, and other fruit and vegetable vendors. Saturday, July 25 will be the Corn Festival, but every weekend there are wonderful reasons to visit.

At the Schoharie Valley Farms booth, in addition to the vegetables, Stony Brook Farm sells pasture-raised and grass-fed pork, lamb and chicken. And the handsome young farmer who raises the animals is my son, so say hello from The Quilted Cook.

Pizza!!

Vegan pizza and so easy. As much as I like to cook, I have never been happy with pizza I have made at home. So I am always glad to hear J say that it is Tuesday and pizza is on sale at our favorite local pizzeria.

While J orders and picks up the pizza, I brown sliced onions on a baking sheet in a tiny bit of oil in a 350 degree oven. When the onions are nearly done, I halve grape tomatoes and put them on the baking sheet to sit in a turned off oven until we are ready to eat. I chop and steam broccoli florets.

When the pizza arrives, I top it with a sprinkle of Nutritional Yeast, a very little crushed red pepper, chopped black olives, capers, cooked broccoli, and the onions and tomatoes. And I even have time to take a photo and blog about it.

Every cook deserves a day off once in a while, don't you think?

Sukiyaki

I first cooked sukiyaki in the early 1970's. Of course, back then as a serious carnivore, I started with slicing beef. I think the recipe was originally one of Craig Claiborne's in The New York Times Cookbook, but I have changed it over the years. A fan of quick cooking meals, my son still phones me from a grocery store to ask me what ingredients to buy to cook sukiyaki.

Today's recipe is a healthier version of sukiyaki with vegetable broth and tofu instead of meat. Without the meat and meat flavored broth, the taste of the fresh vegetables shines through. A one-pot stew served over either noodles or rice, this is a fast and easy meal to prepare. I served it over half a package of soba noodles, thin Japanese noodles made from buckwheat flour. The recipe with a whole package of noodles is supposed to serve 4 people, but 2 of us ate it all.

Sukiyaki

8 ounce package of soba noodles
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 large onion, peeled and sliced in rings
1 bunch scallions, cut on the diagonal into 3-inch pieces
8 large white mushrooms, cleaned and sliced
1 can sliced bamboo shoots, drained and rinsed
½ cup Tamari or soy sauce
½ cup Mirin
1/2 cup low-sodium vegetable broth (optional)
1 large bunch fresh spinach, well-washed and thick stems removed
1/2 pound extra-firm tofu, drained and cut into 3/8 inch slices

Boil water in a large pot to use to cook the soba noodles. The noodles will take only about 6-8 minutes to cook, so during the time you are cooking the vegetables, you will put the noodles into the boiling water and cook according to the package instructions. After the noodles are cooked, you will drain them and set them aside until the stew has finished cooking.

In a large non-stick skillet over medium heat, cook the onion slices in the oil until they begin to soften. Add the scallions, mushrooms and bamboo shoots and continue to cook for about 3 minutes. Stir in the Tamari and mirin. Layer the spinach on top. If you would like more broth, you can add 1/2 cup vegetable stock. Cover the skillet and cook about 10 minutes until the spinach is wilted. Place tofu on top and cook covered until the tofu is warm.

Serve over the cooked noodles.

Too many bananas!

Here in Delray Beach, The Boys Farmers Market is famous for the outstanding selection of produce, the high quality prepared foods and baked goods, and the insanity of the crowds in such a small space. Outside The Boys, there is a stand where they sell their overstock and over-ripe produce for $1 a bag. Jerry always stops and checks it out to see what kind of bargains he can find. And they are bargains, perfectly usable food - if you can consume them right away. Often there are bananas in bags there and we do eat a lot of bananas. But, with half a dozen bananas waiting in the freezer to be used, this most recent purchase may have been too many bananas. I am trying not to waste food, which means I have to use up those overripe fruits today!

Breakfast was the first meal of my attempt and although we usually eat a lighter breakfast, this morning we had banana pancakes. My neighbor just yesterday gave me a copy of "La Dolce Vegan" by Sarah Kramer. I always try to research recipes on the Internet as well, and found several sites with recipes for banana pancakes, supposedly from the same book. However, the recipe in the book varies significantly from the recipe online attributed to Sarah Kramer's book. I have rewritten a recipe as I made it this morning.

Banana Pancakes

1 ½ cups whole wheat pastry flour
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
dash of salt
1 cup “milk”
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 banana
2 tablespoons sugar
maple syrup
fresh blueberries

In a medium bowl, stir the flour, baking powder and salt together. In the bowl of a food processor, add the milk, oil, banana, and sugar and buzz until smooth. Pour the wet mixture into the flour mixture and stir gently until just combined. (About 20 circles around the bowl with a spoon.)

Heat a non-stick griddle or lightly oiled or non-stick frying pan over medium heat. Using a 1-cup measure or ladle, pour about 3/4 cup of batter for each pancake onto the pan. Be sure to leave enough room for the pancakes to expand and for flipping them over. Cover the pan and cook over medium heat until the centers start to bubble. The bottoms should be golden brown. Flip the pancakes over and cook on the other side for a couple of minutes. Keep cooked pancakes warm and repeat cooking process until the batter is gone.

Serve with maple syrup and a garnish of fresh blueberries.

Now what else am I going to do with nearly a dozen bananas?