Sunday Dinner: Coconut Vinegar Cured Tofu Sea Scallops with Lemongrass-Basil Cream Sauce and Cilantro-Garlic Coconut Rice

What a recipe title, huh? I feel out of breath just trying to say it! A few weeks ago I bought a new cookbook (love you, Borders coupons!) called Veganize This! So far I've only made the Chicken Setian (which I turned into Orange-Sesame Chicken) and the Caesar dressing. I would love to have tried more of the recipes but honestly - they are pretty complex! Case and point - the title of this post! It wouldn't irritate me expect that in the introduction the author claims that these are recipes for the "lazy vegan" who wants "simple food" - this recipe was supposed to take a day and a half to make! What kind of lazy cook wants that!?

Anyway - I actually really enjoy complex recipes, especially on the weekend. I get to spend a lot of time in the kitchen and then enjoy the results of the project! This morning Jonathan picked out this recipe to try, so after we gathered the bajillion ingredients it took to make it I got started. I had to cut a few corners and shorten the marinating times since I only had seven hours and not thirty-six, but I think that's ok!

The verdict: Yum! I have no idea what scallops taste like, and I'm pretty sure these weren't an exact replica - but the flavors were quite good and it was kind of a fun way to serve tofu! Also - coconut rice really may be one of the best foods ever.

New Happenings

I've been working on some updates to the blog recently - I have made sections for posting recipes as well as restaurant reviews. So far I've tried to share a lot of the things I cook with you guys, but I don't necessarily post the recipes - I am going to try to get better about that! I also seem to have a lot of opinions about the various restaurants I eat at and I thought those might be fun to share. It will probably take me a little longer to get going on those since there is a total of about four places that I eat at here in Corvallis!

Also new - Spring quarter starts next week and I decided to try to find some classes to take through the local community college for fun. Unfortunately the class I was most excited for - Chocolates, Confections, and Frozen Desserts - was full and I am wait listed... keeping my fingers crossed I can get in, I think it sounds really fun! I also signed up for a Hip-Hop dance class but I won't go into details on that (no need to embarrass myself any more than I already do!). I'm hoping these classes serve multiple purposes - give me something fun to do and new to learn, but maybe also meet some more people in the area. Let me tell you - Corvallis is a bit of a tough town for getting to know anyone!

By the way - it's finally Spring now and that means we're getting close to CSA time! If you have one nearby I highly recommend them. We get ours through a farm just over the hill from us called Denison Farms, but there are several in the area. I love getting a surprise box of vegetables and fruit every week, except that I am a planner so not knowing what I will be able to cook until that afternoon (at least on the pick up day) is tough for me. I get over it though because it's so so worth it! Besides the great produce I think it's kind of cool to be a part of something in the community. If you haven't done one before really think about it - I bet you'll love it too!

Garden Planning

I have great news for those of you who love to grow your own vegetables but really have no idea what you are doing (like me!). There is this seed company nearby called Territorial Seed. I get their emails now since I signed up for their catalog and on Friday I received an email about this new tool they have to help you plan your garden!

It is amazing - you can draw out the area that you have to plant, they have just about every fruit and vegetable you can imagine, and you drag and drop what you want to plant. Each plant takes up the amount of space it needs and you can drag to expand each plant into rows or blocks. Also? It will remember what you planted from year to year and warn you where not to plant the same things next year so it helps you with all that crop rotation stuff!

Then, once you have laid out your garden you can go to your plant list and it will tell you (based on where you live, no less!) when you should start plants inside, when you should plant them outside, and when to harvest! Amazing, right? Well I really love it because my attention span for reading all those gardening books is pretty short plus they are never quite relevant enough to the exact climate I live in.

You can check it out here: Garden Planner. It's free for 30 days if you just want to plan your garden for this year, or you can pay an annual fee for continuing access and the ability to plan your garden year after year! Here is what our garden will look like this year (or at least I think...):

We took a mini road trip down to their store in Cottage Grove this weekend to pick up the seeds we needed and got a few other things for the garden. I can't wait to get started! Most of the stuff needs to start indoors still and a few things will go outside next month. Jonathan has been building a hoop house over one of our raised beds, so hopefully even if we have a cooler start to the summer again we can still get a decent crop!


If you have your own vegetable garden how do you go about planning and deciding what to plant? I'm still pretty new to this, so any suggestions would be wonderful!

-C

Toasted Walnut Thyme Pasta

Ever since Oba! became one of my favorite restaurants I have wanted to learn how they make the walnut sauce they use on top of their enchiladas. That was sort of where I started when I made this pasta sauce last week, although it definitely wasn't the same as what they use for those enchiladas it was really quite good! Once again I never measure or write down what I do, but I will try my best to describe it here!

Toasted Walnut Thyme Pasta
1 c. walnuts, toasted
1 c. cream or half-and-half
1 head of garlic
1/4 c. grated parmesan
1 Tbs thyme
Zest of 1 lemon + 1 tsp juice
Salt + Pepper
1/2 lb pasta, cooked
Extra walnuts, thyme, cheese, and lemon zest for garnish

Roast the garlic  - chop off the top 1/4 or so of the head (enough to expose the top of all the cloves), drizzle with olive oil, wrap in foil and bake for 30 minutes at 400 degrees. Set aside and allow to cool. Puree the toasted walnuts in a food processor until you have a fine crumb consistency. Add in all of the cloves of roasted garlic and pulse several times. Warm the cream in the microwave for a minute or so, then slowly drizzle into the walnut/garlic mixture - blend until smooth. Add in the cheese, thyme, lemon zest, and juice - continue to blend until you reach the consistency you want. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Boil the pasta and save some of the pasta water to help thin out the sauce once it is all tossed together - I added about a half cup back in with mine. Toss the sauce with the pasta and top with extra nuts, cheese, thyme, and lemon.

Enjoy!

-C

Wine, Pears, and Cheese

Riedel Wine Glass

2008 & 2009 Pinot Noir

This weekend is the Wine, Pear & Cheese Jubilee at Willamette Valley Vineyards. It's still going on tomorrow, so if you happen to live in the area I really suggest you go! It's $10 to get in, but you get to keep a nice Riedel wine glass and try a ton of different wines and cheeses!

Truth be told, I'm not a huge Pinot Noir fan and that's mostly what you find here in the valley. Luckily for me they were also sampling a Cabernet (yum!) and they had a pretty good Riesling as well. As much as I enjoy the wine, I think my favorite part is the cheese - I love that Oregon is so vegetarian friendly and all of the cheeses (or at least all that I have been able to inquire about) are vegetarian! I'm seriously craving fondue now... maybe tomorrow night for dinner!

Taking a break from the wine

I have more food related things to share with you, but they'll have to wait - it's late (for me) and since I'm losing an hour tonight I think I ought to get to sleep! Look for more tomorrow!

-C

Frozen Mocha Cheesecake

It's not really a secret that I have a sweet tooth. Even before I really discovered my love of cooking I was always a baker and when I was little and would go to my grandparents house during the day the answer to the question of what I would like for breakfast was always the same - pie. Despite my Grandpa's attempts at offering up things such as Filet Mignon (which for years I thought was something called Flaming Yon), I always just wanted pie - what can I say, my Grandma makes a really good crust!

Anyway - pie stories aside, this weekend I remembered one of my favorite desserts from my childhood - Frozen Mocha Cheesecake. This was not something I got often, it was not the kind of thing my mom would have ever made for us (we ate a lot of apple crisps and peach cakes - which are also delicious of course). This dessert was one that my best friend's mom made and it was definitely in the top ten of all time desserts for me, but being a kid the thought of getting the recipe never crossed my mind.

A quick Google search and every link I clicked on was roughly the same idea for the recipe, so I figured it couldn't be too far off! I more or less followed a recipe from Sugar Rush - here is my exact recipe:

Ingredients:
Crust:
24 Oreos (I used Reduced Fat Oreos)
1 Tbs. sugar
1/3 cup butter, melted

Filling:
2 8-oz packages reduced fat cream cheese, softened
1 14-oz can fat free sweetened condensed milk
2/3 cup chocolate syrup
1 Tbs. instant espresso
1 Tbs. hot water
1 cup Cool Whip Free (not frozen)

To make the crust pulse the Oreos in a food processor until you have fine crumbs, then add in the sugar and butter and pulse a few more times. Pour the crumbs into a spring form pan (or a 9x13 baking dish - this is how it was served when I was a kid) and press them down with your hands or the bottom of a cup.

To make the filling start by whipping the cream cheese until light and fluffy (important to make sure the cream cheese is room temperature - I am really bad at the waiting part but you get lumps otherwise, especially with the reduced fat kind). Then slowly add the condensed milk and chocolate syrup, continue to mix until well combined. Scrape down the sides and add the espresso mixed with the hot water - mix again for another minute or two until well combined. Add in the cool whip and mix until just incorporated. Pour the filling into the prepared crust and freeze for several hours.

I'm not sure, but I bet this would be good even without the coffee if you're not a big coffee fan. The texture of this cheesecake is wonderful - slightly melted, creamy, but still firm. The low fat substitutions didn't detract from the flavor or texture at all - it was exactly how I remember it! And just think, now you can eat even more cheesecake! What could be bad about that!?

-C

Oregon Mushroom Class

Last weekend we went to a mushroom class here in town with a few of our friends. To be honest I was a little skeptical that the class would be worthwhile, but it was only $25 and you got to pick a mushroom variety to inoculate a log with!

The class was about what I expected - a lot of hippies gathered in a room, the mushrooms instructors speaking flowingly about the amazing healing powers of mushrooms, etc, etc. I'll give it this - the lecture portion was incredibly entertaining if not exactly educational. By far the best part was getting the chance to try to cultivate some different varieties of mushrooms for ourselves. There were four of us at the class and we all made sure to choose a different type of mushroom - I'm not sure I remember them all: While Elm, Beech, Lion's Mane, and...  nope don't remember the last one.

We were each given a packet of dowels that had been soaked in mushroom spores and a log to drill holes into. Once you've drilled the holes and hammered in the dowels you paint melted beeswax over them to help keep other microorganisms from getting into the log. Then you leave them outside and wait - about 6 months I think. We'll see if we actually end up with any mushrooms this fall, but it would be kind of neat!

This is high on my list of the most Oregonian things I have ever done. (I'm not sure what else is on that list actually - but this one definitely is).

-C