Harvest Box - Week 1

I am so very excited today. Not only because it is a four day week, and not only because we were technically done with work early to enjoy a beer bust, but because today is the first week of our second year with the Harvest Box from Denison Farms!

This week came with a pretty decent assortment: lettuce, carrots, red potatoes, zucchini, red onion, Walla Walla onion, basil, garlic, and strawberries! I love the local strawberries more than just about anything - the only good part about Jonathan being gone the next two weeks will be that I will get all of the strawberries and not have to share!

Since we've been out of town several of the last few weekends which is when we normally do our grocery shopping we're still a little low on supplies so I'm going the simple route tonight and making Zucchini-Black Bean Quesadillas based on a recipe my friend Sara makes. I had no actual peppers to add but I did have some canned chipotle chillies in adobe sauce in the fridge so I added one of those - the chipotle will be a slightly different twist on what I usually make so I hope it's still just as good!

Update: Zucchini-Black Bean Nachos instead because Jonathan was so eager to get back home and hang out with me that he forgot to stop and get the tortillas. Or at least I will just pretend that's what happened.  :)

More updates soon on our latest trip to Houston to visit Jonathan's sister and her boyfriend and how awesome it was to not be the only vegetarian in the group for a change!!

-C

Sick Kitty

I know I haven't been very good at keeping up with the Sunday Dinner theme lately. I had every intention of getting back to it this weekend until my cat Pixel got sick and I spent the last 24 hours worrying over him. This cat has had more issues in his five years of life than I care to think about, so anytime something is even a bit off I get pretty nervous. Luckily after his last big ordeal a year ago I finally purchased pet insurance so at least that's not a huge worry anymore.

Pixel is the kind of cat who would spend all day long eating if he could, so when he suddenly doesn't touch his breakfast or his dinner you know something is up. It's not so much the not eating that worries me (I suppose it may be possible that Pix could lose a pound or so) but when he stops drinking I get very worried. So all day long I have been trying to give him space so I don't stress him out while simultaneously trying to convince him to drink and eat.


I think I've had success! He finally drank out of the sink (his favorite) and ate a bit of food - he's not acting as aloof and is following me around again. He finally came and curled up in my lap too.

Can you tell that I love this cat more than just about anything? He's special. I'm glad he seems to be doing better - perhaps I'll have more food related things to post later in the week!

-C

(Photos by Jonathan, not while Pixel was sick - he sure loves bags and boxes)

Garden Progress

For some of you it might already feel like summer, but here in Oregon we're still on the weather roller coaster. Some days are beautiful, sunny, and 70 degrees, and then other mornings we still have frost on the ground (I'm hoping we've moved past that now though).

Last year when we moved into this house we built two 4x8 raised beds. Since we moved right about this time of year we got a bit of a late start on the garden - I don't think we had finished the raised beds until the first week of June. It ended up working out ok because we had a terrible spring and probably couldn't have planted much before then anyway.

This year Jonathan decided to build a hoop house over one of the raised beds to help us get started a little earlier on the garden (plus if we end up with more terrible weather we might actually still manage to get some tomatoes!). I'm really excited about this hoop house because we already have tomatoes, peppers, and corn planted!

We also have kale, potatoes, brussels sprouts, and something that looks like a mini tomatillo plant that is apparently called a ground cherry (or so Jonathan tells me) planted in the covered bed. The last few days it has been much warmer out so we've been opening up the hoop house during the day. I'm not sure if you can read the temperature on this photo, but it says it was 95 degrees in there even with it open! I'm not sure I quite believe that, but it definitely keeps it nice and warm.

Our other raised bed is not looking quite as exciting yet, but we do have peas, swiss chard, and a delicata squash planted, as well as the seeds in for fava beans, onions, and carrots. In my planter box that I usually use for herbs I have radishes and spinach planted - no photos of that since you can hardly see the radishes starting to come up and it mostly just looks like a box of dirt still!



This whole gardening thing is still quite new to me so I'm hoping some of it works out! It's fun to learn about but since it's a whole year before you get to try it again it kind be a little overwhelming! I suppose if nothing actually grows the way it is supposed to at least we will have our CSA Harvest Box to feed us!

-C

Sweet and Spicy Chili with Skillet Cornbread

I love soups, stews, and chili. For years my go-to chili recipe was a spicy black bean chili. Then one day I came home and my then-roommate Maureen and her then-boyfriend (now husband) were making their own version of chili. They were nice enough to leave out a separate pot of non-meat chili for me, and it was delicious. I learned the ultimate secret to making chili - molasses. It gives it that delicious baked bean flavor all in chili form. I don't really follow a recipe when I make this, I kind of just eyeball everything and then taste until I have the flavor right, but I will try to share roughly my recipe with you anyway!

Sweet & Spicy Chili
1 Large onion, diced
1-2 Red bell peppers, diced
1 Jalapeno, diced finely
1 Serrano chili, diced finely
Optional: Additional peppers, sometimes I add small yellow peppers as well
Optional: Vegetarian ground beef (or maybe real ground beef, but I don't know how to tell you to cook that!)
2 15oz Cans black beans, drained and rinsed
1 15 oz Can kidney beans, drained and rinsed
1 15 oz Can white beans, drained and rinsed
2 15 oz Cans diced tomatoes, undrained
1 Tbs chili powder
1 Tsp Cumin
1/2 Tsp Cayenne powder
1/2 - 1 Cup Dark Molasses (this one I eyeball and taste for sweetness vs. spiciness)
Salt & Pepper as needed (I never remember this part)

If using the vegetarian ground beef (or non-vegetarian I suppose), start by cooking that first. Then add the onions and assortment of peppers - cook until tender. Add spices, beans, and tomatoes with their juice. Simmer for 30 minutes before adding the molasses to taste. Check for sweetness - you definitely want to be able to taste the molasses but you should still get a kick of spice. I usually just hold the molasses bottle upside down for several seconds, taste, and then try again.

This past week I decided that cornbread would be a really good addition to the chili, so I looked for a recipe at one of my favorite websites, VegWeb.com. I found one that was rated well, and it was made in a skillet which I thought was cool. The only problem was they didn't specify the size of the skillet and my first attempt resulted in cornbread overflowing all over my oven and setting of smoke alarms.


The second attempt was much better. I used half of this recipe and used a 10" cast iron skillet. There were no cornbread explosions in my oven, only delicious cornbread served alongside the sweet and spicy chili. I don't think I'll ever go back to the way I used to make it!

Cinco de Mayo, a few weeks late

I've been a little absent lately - between some traveling and work being extra busy I haven't had a lot of energy for coming home and writing and going through photos. I never even finished up writing about our San Diego trip - oops! Anyway, I do have things to share! Like Mexican May (is that not PC? it's just that one day on Cinco de Mayo isn't enough for me!).

In case you didn't know, Cinco de Mayo is one of my most favorite holidays (Is it even considered a holiday here? Doesn't matter really - I consider it one). In college our best parties were on Cinco de Mayo, they were usually filled with pinatas, sombreros, and giant buckets full of margaritas. These days I can't quite imagine drinking a margarita out of a bucket, or at least not on a weeknight. Instead I decided to celebrate the second best way, by making lots of Mexican inspired food.

I came across a recipe for Spicy & Smoky Lentil Taco Meat on another blog - The Chubby Vegetarian. I love tacos and I was excited to try something other than my standard mashed kidney bean mix. The recipe called for smoked sundried tomatoes, which I could not find - instead I used regular sundried tomatoes and a little liquid smoke. I liked the idea of using a smoked cheddar cheese in the tacos as well - usually I'd just use a plain cheddar and this added a nice flavor. Overall the recipe was good, but I would have to disagree with the statement that this replicated the texture of taco meat. Even though it has been a good 14 years since I've had real taco meat I promise you it does not have the texture of lentils. I has tried this recipe out ahead of time thinking I might bring it to work for our Cinco de Mayo potluck, but I decided it wasn't something I could really sell to my meat-eating coworkers.

I decided to go with a Soyrizo stuffed Empanadas to bring to work instead. I used a simple dough recipe I found online and made the filling by sauteing red bell peppers, onions, and jalapenos with some chipotle chili powder and a little cumin, then adding the whole package of Soyrizo and cooking until the peppers and onions were nice and soft. I was really pleased with the results - even my non-vegetarian coworkers seemed to really enjoy them! I forgot to take any photos of them, but to be honest I don't think empanadas photograph all that well anyway.

Now I think I need to make a grocery store run and buy some more avocados! Perhaps I can find something to use them in for Sunday Dinner...

-C

Blossoming Lotus - PDX

A long time ago I decided I would start writing about my opinions on various restaurants, but then since nothing was all that new and exciting in Corvallis to eat I never quite got around to it.

Well today I wanted to share with you one of my most favorite places for breakfast in all of Portland - Blossoming Lotus! Why I never tried this place out when I was living there is beyond me - especially because at that time they had a location in the Pearl District which wasn't too far from where I lived.

They are only open for brunch on Sundays so I've only managed to make it up there three times now. They are open for lunch and dinner the rest of the week, but I'm a big breakfast fan and I'm always disappointed in the selection of things I can eat at most restaurants, so the fact that this place is entirely vegan makes me feel really warm and fuzzy.





I have sampled several things on their brunch menu now - the pumpkin dipped french toast, the Lotus benedict with butternut hollandaise sauce, the brunch burrito with avocado ranch sauce. But the very, very best is their Seitan Rancheros - usually I am not a savory-for-breakfast fan, but this dish is amazing. It consists of maple seitan sausage and black bean chili (which is perfectly spicy) served over tortillas with avocado and red pepper sauce and a side of chips. I wish I could eat this every weekend - maybe someday if I am ever so lucky as to find myself living back in Portland!

The lunch and dinner menus sound equally good as well - plus they have a new bar and lounge and offer happy hour specials. Hopefully someday I'll make it up there for that and can share that with you as well!


Check out their menus here: www.blpdx.com
LUNCH Mon – Sat: 11 – 4PM
HAPPY HOUR Mon – Fri: 3 – 6PM
DINNER Sun – Thurs: 5 – 9PM, Fri & Sat: 5 – 10PM
SUNDAY BRUNCH 10 – 2:30PM

San Diego - Pt 2

 Now that I'm a bit more rested I thought I would finish sharing about my San Diego trip with you!

On Friday we discovered that there was a farmer's market in Rancho Bernardo, which is not too far from where Sara lives, so we headed to that in the morning. At first it looked like we were just driving through a neighborhood - actually a retirement community! - and then out of nowhere we ended up at this small little village with a winery, tasting room, cafe, a few shops, and the farmer's market! I absolutely love our market here, but it was so neat to see all the different things they grow in California that we just can't quite grow here due to the cold and rain. Tons of citrus, avocados, almonds... even their berries were out already! We ended up buying stuff to make guacamole for lunch (4 avocados for $2!? It was crazy!) and I got a few tangelos because I couldn't resist their color, they were so beautiful!

We made the guacamole for lunch and stuffed ourselves silly before deciding to go on a mini winery tour before I left to spend the weekend with Jonathan. The first place we stopped was a little family run winery - Ferrara Winery. This was another place that seemed like we were going to the wrong spot since it was right in the middle of a neighborhood practically. We were the only ones there and the wine maker himself greeted us as we got out of the car - he was headed out to run some errands but told us that someone would be with us in the tasting room shortly. We headed in and soon after a woman entered and greeted us - she is the grand-daughter of the man who originally started the winery, it is her brother who now makes the wines and runs the place. She immediately started pouring us wines and telling us about each of them as well as telling us some of the history of the winery. They actually had several very sweet wines that I enjoyed, and I am not usually a sweet wine fan. Sara bought a bottle of the Demi Sec Muscat Alexandria and we headed off to our next stop - Orfila Vineyards and Winery.

This winery had a much different feel to it - for one it was huge. It looked very obviously like a company as opposed to the small family operated winery we had just come from. I was actually a little put off by it at first - it seemed cold and not very inviting, but in the end it actually turned out to be a lot of fun. They charge $10 for a set of six tastings and you get to keep your wineglass at the end. Not too bad of a deal really - especially since their taste sizes are fairly generous. I think we each ended up with an extra taste and a half too because one of the wines we asked about was actually not one that the server recommended he gave us a taste of it without it counting towards our total and another one we wanted they ran out of after pouring for only one of us, so we just split that one.

We ended up spending so much time here that Jonathan was finished with work and had to come meet us. That actually worked out really nicely because we bought some cheese and bread and took our last taste of wine outside to sit on the patio overlooking the vineyard. I can't believe I didn't think to take a picture of this because it was gorgeous with the sun starting to go down!

We said goodbye to Sara and then headed back towards downtown San Diego. We stopped in Old Town for dinner and spent a little bit of time walking around there - it was a pretty neat area but quite touristy. We ate at a Mexican place - not the most vegetarian friendly (lard everywhere) so I wasn't super thrilled, but the margarita was good! Once we got back to the hotel and dropped my things off we decided to head over to a dessert place I had read about nearby - Extraordinary Dessert. I did not anticipate the wait being almost 45 minutes for some dessert and coffee, but I convinced Jonathan to wait it out anyway! The place was very cute and their desserts were huge so one was enough for us to share. We had the Blackberry Cheesecake and some coffees.
I was really excited for Saturday morning because the Little Italy Farmer's Market was literally right outside of our hotel. We spent some time wandering through that - the market was gorgeous with a view of the ocean at the end of the street as you walked along. They had crafts and tons of food vendors along with the typical farmer's market fare - the things I was most excited about were sundried tomatoes and apricots and a red walnut that I had never seen before. Apparently there are only 5 acres of them grown anywhere! We hurried a little bit through the market so we could head to the San Diego Zoo before the crowds got too large.

I was going to wrap up the rest of the trip in this post, but since I'm being kind of wordy today I think I'll save the rest for another time!

-C

Sunday Dinner: Marscapone Pasta with Spinach and Sundried Tomatoes

I always find it tough to get back into cooking mode after a vacation. We used up all our leftovers and perishables before we left and since Sunday is our usual grocery shopping day I just never quite got back in the pattern this week. Anyway - long story shot, this week's Sunday Dinner was a less time consuming meal because I still don't feel back in my routine.

I saw this pasta featured in Web Delicousness on The Pioneer Woman earlier this week and instantly bookmarked it. I left out the chicken from the original recipe, but other than that it's pretty much the same. We bought some neat artisan pasta made by an Italian company called Montebello who have been making pasta since 1388 - yes, I really meant 1388! It was a shape I had never used before called "torchiette" and it looked like rolled up tubes with a slightly curled edge.

This recipe is super fast and easy to make - I think it would make a great week night meal since it really shouldn't take more than about 15 minutes to make (mine took a little longer because I had to finish baking the bread before I could make the bread crumbs). Plus it made enough for plenty of leftovers - always a good thing!

Looking back over my cooking photos I sure seem to make a lot of pasta dishes - I like them because they're usually quick and versatile. Anyone have a favorite go-to pasta recipe they like to use? I'd love to hear it!

-C