Pflaumenkuchen

Sometimes my CSA gives me waaay too much of one thing, which is not a bad problem to have, a non-problem basically. There's just the part where I have to figure out what to do with that one thing before they go bad. Challenge accepted! We recently had soo many little yellow plums in the CSA, and neither Nik nor I are much on just eating plums straight up. I knew I had made some sort of plum cake previously, so I had to search my own blog (ha!) for what recipe I used. Found it and it turns out that I apparently liked it, so I went with that same recipe again. I did make a few changes this time around, mainly replacing the self-rising flour with a 50/50 mix of whole wheat and spelt flour (it's what I had.) The cardamom is especially awesome in this. The recipe is also a little unclear when you add the plums to the dough, saying to cover them, but then later to brush them with the leftover earth balance (I didn't cover them, I just left them sticking up a little, and the cake ends up rising around them and creating those cool holes in the cake.)

I STILL had leftover plums after trying to fit as many as I could into the cake, so I threw them in a pan and reduced them down, with a bit of sugar to cut the tartness, to a jam of sorts. This was so yummy spread on top of the cake! Not gonna lie; I totally had this for breakfast. 

Fava Beans

Last Saturday, in my CSA, I received some Fava Beans. I don't recall ever having them before, much less making anything with them, so I had to do a little research into how to prepare them. They're so weird! They're kinda lumpy pods with black blemishes all over them and quite large. You have to snap off one tip, and it becomes a string that you can pull to split in half. When you open it, there is a white, spongey interior, with 3-4 (sometimes just one, which seemed like a rip-off.) little smooth beans attached. 

 I thought I had a lot of beans, but once I opened them all up, there weren't that many ACTUAL beans. They're still not ready for consumption though, once you pluck them out of their pods. You have to steam them to remove them from ANOTHER shell. Yep, these are kinda time-consuming.

So I steamed them for 10 minutes, and they pop right out of their plastic-y shell. The actual bean is kinda mushy, so be careful smooshing them out of their shell. 

They basically taste like peas, not beans, but I did a little research and they are actually part of the pea family. They're pretty good for you, nutritionally-speaking, too.  Also, tasty! I threw them into a stir-fry I made, at the end since they were already steamed. I don't know if I would go out of my way to buy them, since they take a bit of prep for such a small amount, but it's fun to try new things!

Summer Food

Crazy-big haul.

I love the dog days of summer, where there is so much abundance at the farmer's market.  My fruit and veg haul was crazy huge this past week, so we have been having super-summer dinners all week. So so good.  These are the things I savor (literally!) and love about summer.  Nik and I helped distribute the shares for our CSA this past saturday, and it was a fun people/dog-watching morning in the park.  There was a little pup amputee with two rear wheels instead of legs that basically broke my heart.  So many Great Danes live in my neighborhood, and I just cannot fathom what kind of apartments these owners have that hold such gigunda dogs...

I froze a lot of stuff, corn and zuchini and pesto, in preparation for the dead-zone of winter where I will be craving some fresh veggies that don't have a root attached to it.   I love pulling out fresh corn off the cob on Thanksgiving day! 

A peek at the CSA pickup

I was the fruit lady, handing out peaches and melons.

Eggplant wings (basically just breaded eggplant smothered in a hot bbq sauce), watermelon, and a salad with cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, red onion, and avocados (red wine vinegar/olive oil/salt/pepper dressing)

Sauteed tofu and onions in spices, corn on the cob, and green beans

I love Sundays

Sundays are great; I have all day to make time-consuming things even though I have other non-cooking things that need to get done. Ha! I have been wanting to make the pierogies, from Vegan Brunch, for awhile now, and I had a cherry pie tester recipe for Jae Steele that I need to make pronto before all the cherries disappear. So I literally spent all day in the kitchen. Ha, I only got grumpy when I had to do my second sinkful of dishes.

Check out these gigunda blackberries I got from my CSA on saturday!



Mushroom Sauerkraut and Potato Pierogies, from Vegan Brunch. I really loved the Mushroom ones! And it makes soooo many! We fried them up, even though Isa says not to.



Cherry Pie tester for Jae Steele Really, really yummy, and I can't wait to have another slice tonight.



Unfortunately, I had to have a root canal saturday afternoon, so I had to be REALLY careful eating these yummy things. No fun! I have to go for part 2 on wednesday. I've never even had a cavity before, so this was super-scary. Wisdom teeth are next. Dunh dunh dun dun!

Tonight I have to work on a freelance project and finish up two more paintings. See, I have this series I am working on, that has about 20-25 paintings, and I'm still undecided if I'm going put them up in my etsy shop all together, or as I finish them. We'll see how I feel about them all laying around once I get further into the series. It's super-fun though, and my 2010 calendar will contain some of these images. I need to work faster!

Best package and MYSTERY!

I got the best package in the mail, the other day. Two actually. I finally managed to get my new J-41's from UPS' clutches, and my Cosmo's Vegan Shoppe order came, with my new copy of Vegan Brunch, two packages of white chocolate chips, and the vegan marshmallow kit! Yessssss! I see lots of delicious brunch for dinner and actual brunch, white chocolate macadamia nut cookies, s'mores, rocky road ice cream, rice crispy treats, and who knows what else! (any other ideas, pass them along!) New Shoes are pretty sweet too. They were only $20! Amazing sale online last week where they were like crazy marked down (originally $80 or so!)


Mystery! I got these in my CSA today, and it isn't in the list they send out via email beforehand. Does anyone know what it is? It looks like some sort of edible flower, but I have zero experience with that. Do I eat the stems? Raw, saute? Help!

Some yums.

Spicy Tempeh and Broccoli Rabe with Rotelle, from Veganomicon! This was SO good and simple to make. I had some Broccoli Rabe in the freezer, leftover from the end of my summer CSA share and I've been putting off using it. Turns out Nik isn't a fan of the Rabe, so that makes it difficult to incorporate into dinners for the two of us. But yeah, this is wayy yum and I will definitely be making this again soon.

Lentils with rice and carmelized onions and carrots with spiced and baked tortillas in the background. I made this super-spicy and it was a yummy winner in the dinner department. I had two leftover soft tortillas left that I brushed with olive oil and spiced up. Nik ate them all.



Picked up our February CSA share on saturday. It was a big one! I especially enjoy the giant sweet potatoes, the dried beans, and the walnuts! Nik and I both hate beets though! Help! what can we make that will hide that dirt taste that I hate! I've tried roasting them and spicing the hell out of them and eating them raw (BLECH). Gazborsch kinda scares me...



I made the BEST wheat buns on sunday. They were so easy! I used 3 cups of whole wheat flour and 2 cups white flour. They turned out a little small, so I just made matching 'lil black bean burgers (recipe from Veganomicon). Slap some mashed guac on top and mmm.

before going in oven:

After. Served with shredded green and purple cabbage, carrots, and green apples in an olive oil/apple cider vinegar/sea salt/pepper/thyme dressing.

VeganMoFo Day 10-Coconut Curry

Well, not exactly curry. What do you call something that was intended to be coconut curry, but you realized you had run out of curry powder so you used garam masala instead? Still yummy?

This happens every end-of-the-week. I try to use up all remaining veggies before the new CSA pickup tomorrow morning. It usually ends up being a stir-fry or a curry or a pasta primavera. I haven't used coconut milk in awhile, so I picked some up on my way home from work tonight and put it to good use. I keep it simple: sauteed eggplant, carrots, green pepper, onion, garlic, and a few radishes in olive oil until tender. One can of coconut milk and spices (garam masala, black pepper, sea salt, hungarian paprika) poured over veggies and left to simmer for 5-10 minutes. Bok Choy and some chives were added in at the end. I ate it over buckwheat soba noodles and it hit the spot quite nicely. Lots of leftovers too!

CSA rules

Nik and I received an abundance of peaches, apricots, and plums last week from the CSA, since we worked the distribution and were able to take some leftovers. Nik made super-awesome smoothies with peaches and some mango juice. Behold the floating mug:


I made a pie with peaches, plums, and apricots. Pre-cooking, sprinkled with sugar:

Out of the oven:

So delicious!

I was also able to take a pretty bouquet of flowers from the CSA distribution. Miles was so confused by them (he doesn't go outside and I don't ever have flowers or plants, due to lack of direct sunshine in the apt.).

bonus konked out Miles:

Sunshine weekend!

Seriously, sunshine does wonders! My summer fridays started yesterday, getting out at 2pm. A good friend of mine is in town, so I'll be hanging out and catching up with him for most of the weekend. Hooray for visitors! Good music and good food and good friends!

Here's some food porn that I made this past week. Tempeh wingz (from Don't Eat off the Sidewalk) with a oil/vinegar salad with kohlrabi, cucumbers, carrots, beets, onions, garlic chives, and garlic. Perfect summer dinner!

An AMAZZZZING Black Forest Cheezecake from the Delicious Choices cookbook (recipe link found in that thread) Seriously, so so so yummy. I made a cherry sauce from the cherries in my CSA. The chocolate I used in the cake part even had dried cherries in it. Nik and I have both been scarfing it down. Highly recommended!

100 posts!

Hello! This is my 100th blog post and I have felt like it had to be an extraordinary post, thus is why I haven't posted in a couple days. Silly, I know, but I felt like i had to "celebrate" it or something. I was always one of those little girls that tried real hard to keep a diary, but always forgot about it after five entries. So for me to reach 100 entries as a grown-up michelle, is quite exciting.

Also, my craft fair was on saturday and I now have absolute free time to do anything I want! Such relief! I slept in real, real late today, made a yummy brunch, and then sauntered around Renegade Craft Fair (I can't get away from crafts, right???). I spent the rest of the night updating my Etsy shop with new and exciting things (and still more to come in the next few days!).

here are the fun new recipe boxes added to my shop:








and the new planters! The first picture cracks me right up. so, so sad!










Some doodles I did during downtime at the craft fair:



I love senor cinnabun. He WILL eat your pants!

I picked up my first CSA of the season this past saturday and it was pretty exciting. So much lettuce and strawberries! I received: 2 heads of green and red lettuce, one bag of mixed greens, one bag of arugula, 2 leeks, 5 garlic scapes (!!) 18 Asparagus, 2 stalks of Rhubarb, and 2 QUARTS of strawberries!! There will be many variations of salads this week. The strawberries were most definitely the best part; I made an amazing and simple strawberry sauce to go over this morning's pancakes. Nik and I both devoured them. CHOMP. Now I must decide what to do with the rest of them or, you know, just eat them all raw. Pretty easy to do...





oof, sleep-time. i seriously just spent 4 hours editing pictures and updating my shop and making this blog entry. I can't believe it's monday already!