Travels and Anniversary

Mr. Bolsh and I had our 1 year wedding anniversary last July, but due to an unpleasant day before our anniversary we never celebrated. Since we've both been busy with our jobs, and other activities finding a weekend when it was just the two of us has been difficult.
We finally made time to celebrate after my recent trip from Vietnam. I made a very wintery meal for a summer celebration but it was enjoyed.

Golden Chestnut Soup from The Vegan Lunchbox and roasted brussel sprouts:

This chestnut soup was so delicious. Hearty, nutty, and sweet while still being savory. The recipe calls to roast the chestnuts for 20 minutes, but I found this to be too long and dried out, and even exploded a few chestnuts.

Last week I was in Vietnam for work. I had a good chance to try fruit I had never had before. I even got to try the dreaded durian fruit. The fruit that is known to be banned from some countries because the smell is cross between sewage and rotting raspberries. Lucky for me, or unluckily, the fruit was not in season so it was not as ripe/stinky as it normally is. I didn't find it to be too unpleasant. The smell was strong, but it was the texture that bothered me the most. It looked like a steamed rollover dessert. The texture was puply, not juicey, somewhat mealy like a soft apple, but not sweet. I didn't hate it so I would like to try it again when it is ripe.

At the market I did get to pick up some fruit I'd never had. All of it great. The red one is a plum, the red and green one a milk fruit and the one with black spots is Soursop/custard apple.

To share one other thing I really enjoyed from my trip to Siagon, beside the food, was the Reunifaction Palace. This building was so beautiful to eyes. I encourage all others who love great modern architecture to visit the building if they ever have the chance.


But back to food - Since the Bolsh family date night ended up falling on the first real snow day in Portland, we celebrated by making christmas cookies:

We used my favorite sugar cookie recipe. Then we frosted them using the following recipe:

Hard Cookie Icing:
1 cup powdered sugar
2 - 4 tablespoons of soymilk or water (you'll have to play to get the right consistency)
2 teaspoons light corn syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla extract, or your favorite.
Assorted food coloring

1. In a small bowl, stir together sugar and milk until smooth. Beat in corn syrup and extract until icing is smooth and glossy. If icing is too thick, add more corn syrup.
2. Divide into separate bowls, and add food colorings to each to desired intensity. Dip cookies, or paint them with a brush.


6" of snow has made for difficult weather to return to after 10 days in 89 degrees in Siagon.

Because of my spuratic posting, this will probably be the last of my year.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Summer Time Porch Dinner

Bean and Corn Salad:
Black beans
Corn
Salasa
Salt

Mix together. It doesn't get much easier than that.


BBQ Tempeh and Onions:
Grilled on the panini ad brushes with BBQ sauce.

Fruit Salad with Lime and Salt:
Apples, yellow watermelon and peaches mixed with lime juice and sprinkled with black salt.

The black salt really helped bring out the flavors of the fruit. I love my black sea salt.

This meal was a great outside dinner. I'll have to remind myself of this time of year come January.

Kitchen Gadgets

The following meals feature dishes made from new kitchen gadgets.

First the Panini Grill:
I love grill lines on my food. I can't wait until the day we have a backyard grill to include the smoky flavor. The Panini grill is great because it's larger than a George Foreman Grill and the lines are closer together.
I wanted a quick meal so I threw on a cut of cabbage, onion and some quickly miso-marinaded tofu. I sprayed the cabbage with soy sauce and sprayed the onion with olive oil before sprinkling on some kelp powder before grilling. I walked away and when I came back there was hot, grilled food waiting for me. I stacked them on top of each other and called it a meal.


Rocket Blender or "The Magic Bullet":
The Magic Bullet is a tool I've heard people rave about for a long time and I ignored it because I have my dear food processor to fulfill all my desires for chopping, blending, shedding. The Bullet seemed like the Vita Mix people who are just loyal.
When I broke our blender I went out and bought a Rocker Blender, just to try it. I had no idea the world I was about to step into!

Peaches and Cream:
Smoothies have been a great way to fill me up while not having much time for a full home cooked meal.
1/2-1 cup raw cashews soaked in water for an hour or more (I have these soaking in the fridge these days)
1- 1 1/2 cup soy/rice milk
1- 1 1/2 cup frozen peaches or strawberries

Blend the cashews with a bit of soy milk.

You might need more soy milk or other liquid, so just blend until it's thick and creamy.

Add the frozen fruit and maybe more liquid. Blend until the consistency you desire.

Take off the blender attachment and add the drinking cap.

We've really enjoyed this kitchen gadget because it's quick and easy both in clean up and use.
The pros, beyond the clean up and user-friendly style, are how well it blends ice and how you don't have to push down or stir the items -you can just lift it up and shake! When it's ready to serve you just throw on a little drinking cap to cover up the threaded edge and drink away.
The cons to this toy is the annoyance of screwing and unscrewing the blender attachment. Blenders are great because you can continue to add items while blending, something you can't do here.

Creamy Potato Soup:
I've been pretty stuck on the cashew cream lately. I used it in a potato soup to make it creamier and a bit thicker. It was a hit.
Cashews, veggie broth, carrots, onion, potatoes, and basil.


Pesto Shells:
Here I was trying out the Bullet again while making pesto.
basil, olive oil, veggie broth (to cut the oil down), garlic, cashews, sun dried tomatoes.

The problem with using the Rocket here was that to dice the garlic small enough the pesto became soup-like it was so smooth. I prefer various sized basil pieces in my pesto over a pesto-soup. It still got the job done but I will be sticking to my food processor for pesto.

Berry Picking

One of the greatest things about living in Portland is summer-time and with summer-time comes berry season!
This past weekend a few friends and I went berry picking on Sauvie Island. We gathered blueberries, raspberries, marrionberries, and strawberries!
I prefer my fruit fresh and simple.
Here a few of the ways I've been enjoying the fruit.

Fruit on skewers with a side of cashew cream and raspberries. Putting fruit in skewers just makes it more fun to eat!


Fruit layered between cashew cream.

Check out Jess' blog because you know you'll be doing something crazy with berries!

Grains

Since I haven't been to the farmers market in a few weeks the house has been lacking many vegetables. Below are some simple meals with mainly grains.

Garlic Israeli Cous Cous:
1 cup Israeli couscous
1 cup vegetable broth
4 cloves garlic
1/2 bunch garlic scapes

Cook couscous in broth until tender.
Saute 4 cloves of garlic for 1 minute before adding the small chopped garlic scapes.
Sprinkle with your favorite salt and serve warm.


Shells and Fresh Herbs:
Since visiting a great new Italian joint in my neighborhood I have been craving pasta - something I've stayed away from for years.
It also helps that my little herb garden is growing into a medium sized herb garden.
Here I used a similar mixture as I did with the popcorn, but with the special inclusion of garlic, and lots of it. Shells are easily my favorite pasta.


Roasted Corn and Rice:
1 cup rice, I used a mix of brown and black
2 cups water or vegetable broth
1 cup corn
1/2 cup frozen spinach
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 tomato

Cook rice as normal.
Saute corn on high until it looks like it's burning a bit, just give it a good char. Add garlic and spinach and stir until the spinach is hot.
Mix the cooked rice and corn mixture. Add more powdered vegetable broth, pepper and salt to taste.
Serve warm with a side of tomatoes and sprinkling of salt and chopped parsley. This mixture held together really well and were almost like burgers so it went perfectly with the tomatoes.


Raspberry Lime Fruit Salad Dressing:
Juice of 2 limes
1/8 tsp guar gum
2 Tablespoons seedless raspberry jam/jelly
1/8 round of fresh ginger root, or to taste
1 teaspoon toasted poppy seeds

Juice the lime, add the minced ginger, guar gum (it acts as a thickener, if you don't have it, don't sweat it) and raspberry jam. Blend together until well combined. Add toasted poppy seeds and toss with the fruit.
I used grapes, cantelope, cherries and apples. This dressing was wonderfully tart, and spicy and a little bit smoky with the seeds. Enjoy this salad on your deck with good friends on a warm day.


My life no longer lacks a food processor. My kitchen feels complete. For the salad. I was able to use my food processor to juice the limes, mince the ginger and blend everything together. It was so quick and simple. I can't wait until I can whip up my favorite carrot salad in just a few minutes.