Vegan Garden

I love vegetable. I always have. I started my first garden when I was 9. My mom helped me turn an old sand box into a garden. My first harvest wasn't much - a bowl of 1" round potatoes, 1" long carrots, and some tomatoes. But it was mine. I grew it all from seed.

Today my entire yard is my garden, thanks to my mom for teaching me to garden. And,

yesterday I planted carrots and lettuce. Tomorrow I will plant some chard. But that's just for the winter.My garden did not do as well as I had hopped it would this year. It was the first year for my large raised garden beds so the soil is still adjusting. My little puppy took over the green beans. She does not seem to understand the idea of sustainability and decided to lay on the plants as she ate each bean without sharing.

I have planted many food producing plants outside the garden bed, so join me in a tour through my yard - both edible and not.

Figs. The husband bought me two fig plants for our 10 year anniversary this year. just beyond the figs, you can see one of my four blueberry plants. Duke and Berkley plants have been my favorite so far.

Okra is something I grew up eating and I still love it. I tried my hand at growing it this year and it's been okay, a bit too tough with the northwest weather. But still a nice adventure.

The potatoes have taken off this year. All those pretty green plants on the left are my potatoes. I am looking forward to a big potato harvest and possibly a potluck to follow.

This is what I think of when anyone says potato flour. After this stage they develop cute little balls.

Earlier this year I purchased two tea plants. From this one plant I can make a variety of teas by processing the baby leaves differently.

There are many more edibles in my yard but 'll skip to my top favorite non-edibles. The rattlesnake is so cute. I cannot wait for this to grow up and make babies so I can have more little rattlesnake plants.

My snowberry is so beautiful right now as the white berries have come on to last all winter long.

Another plant with berries that last all winter is this purple berry. It seems so out of place to see this purple in nature.

Finally, Mountain Laurel. I harvested these seeds from my gandparents gravesite and grew them from seed. It's a very hard plant to grow from seed because it has a hard coating on the seed, like bluebells. So I had to sand it with an electric sander and soak it in water for a long time. I ruined 16 other seeds until this one started. I will plant it in memory of my Nana and Granddad.

Thanks for touring my garden with me.

Watermelon Cake

Fruit is one of my favorite things to eat.

As a kid, I remember picking, cleaning, and eating strawberries until I was sick. Every cherry season you'll hear me say, "I would eat cherries forever if I could!" During blueberry season I dream of quiting my job and joining the ranks of the harvester because I love the way the berries fall into your hands with th lightest of touch - and no juice. I could go on.

Watermelon....ah. Watermelon. I remember feeling releived when I first saw the great/terrible

movie Rubin and Ed with the epic line, "My cat can eat

a whooooooooooole watermelon." It put possibility to my ideas that I too could eat an entire waterm

elon - no need to share. No need for one than one cut. Cut it in half and dig in. I have eaten plenty of watermelons in my life in this manner.

This summer, deep in my watermelon meal replacement kicks, I decided I wanted watermelon cake - a raw dessert. Internet searches for watermelon cake bring up im

ages like this cake. Cute, but not what I was looking for. I thought a raw watermelon cake would be obvious - slabs of watermelon stacked with layered fruit in between. But it wasn't.

It was more difficult than I thought it would be to pair the "filling." It needed to have a consistency that would work well with the cellular crunch of the watermelon - a unique crunch that most fruits don't have. Something too creamy or smooth would feel odd - so no peaches, or bananas. Mangos can be difficult to cut so cutting the cake would not turn out pretty and the top layer would probably slide across the room. A citrus would be nice and compliment the flavor, but I needed it to sit for a few hours and oranges would bring too much added juice. I settled for apples because they have a similar crunch, would cut well without adding too much juice, and a tart apple would pair with the sweet watermelon flesh. This is what I came up with:

Watermelon Cake:

1 whole watermelon

1 green apple

Lemon juice

1/2 cup blueberries

Cut 4 inches out of the middle of the watermelon. Select one that is more oblong than sheprical to avoid irrigular layers. Cut off the rind. Then very carefully cut the 4" slab in half. Set aside.

Core the apple slice into 1/8 inch slices. Dip the cut slices into lemon juice or lemon soda to avoid browning. Arrange on top of one of the watermelon slabs so no piece overlaps but with minimal gaps between the apples. This may take cutting some interesting shapes.

Place the second watermelon slab on top with the angles of the rind cuts aligning with the first slab.

Sprinkle with blueberries and garnish with cut apple shapes. Add other fruit as desired. I created a blueberry compote to "frost" mine.

I came across this similar fun watermelon dessert.

I would have loved to have used more than two layers but I used the other portion of the slabs to make this Watermelon Steak. It was an interesting experiment that turned out very poorly. I might try it again next year, but cooking watermelon for 2 hours is a long time to wait to enjoy the beautiful pink fruit.

Vegan MoFo - The People's Sandwich of Portland

Welcome to my first post for VeganMoFo, and my first post in a long, long time. For the month of October I may or not provide my normal (how can I say normal if it's been so long since updating?) posts with recipes - starting with this post.

As many of you know, I review restaurants for Stumptown Vegans. Most of the time we visit a place at least two times before doing a review. So, there are those few times where we cannot even bring ourself to visit a restaurant for a second visit for a review. Then, there are other times when we cannot wait for the second visit to spread the word. This is one of those times.

The People's Sandwich of Portland is a great little restaurant in Old Town Portland where they handcraft sandwich like the Hammer and Pickle, or the only vegan sandwich - the Peoples' Sandwich with "soylent green." A lightly panfried slab of tofu with hazelnut pesto and wonderfully marinated peppers.

However, this sandwich does not have a people's price tag at $8 a pop - but it's worth it. The flavors tickle all the taste buds in the order they are supposed to - the sweet balsamic vinegar marinated peppers, the salty tofu, and the sweet hazelnuts and basil. Plus there's the side of hand cut potato chips deep fried to crunchy perfection with a light seasoning. I only wish they would give more of these crispy little morsels. I cannot wait to try their curly fries.

Check out this shop by visiting their website page, then heading over to 53 NW 1st Ave.

Dog Treats

My little doggie, Coda, had 33 teeth removed on Thursday. We think she has 5 left, but she won't show us yet. She's recovering well, so most is good. Coda's aunt gave her many homemade vegan cookies a cook book for Christmas called Emma's K9 Kitchen.With Coda's lack of teeth I've been concerned about how she's going to have treats for all the good things she does! Flipping through Emma's K9 Kitchen I came across No-Bake Peanut Butter Balls, but the recipe wouldn't quite work because of the dried fruit and cereal. I modified the recipe with agar so it would go down a bit easier. So here it is:

Coda's Peanut Butter Agar Treats:
1 cup + 2 Tablespoons water
1/3 cup peanut butter
2 Tablespoons molasses
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
1 Tablespoon flax
1 Tablespoon agar
Buckwheat flour as needed

Mix 2 tablespoons of water with 1 tablespoon agar and set aside.
Bring water to a boil, add peanut butter, molasses. Whisk until combined. Add nutritional yeast and flax. Then add agar mixture and cook for 5 more minutes.
This recipe may need additional water.
Pour/spread into a parchment paper lined paper. Let cool. Once it's cool, cut into pieces and toss with buckwheat flour to prevent from sticking. Place in an air tight container. I don't know for how long, probably 7 days.

Coda recovery post op:

Coda's Peanut Butter Agar Treats:

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!

Happy Birthday Nana

My Nana would have turned 82 last Saturdau. I was planning to visit her, but she's no longer around to visit.
In celebration of her life I made this cake:


Three layers of chocolate cake, two layers each. Chocolate raspberry filling between each layer. A raspberry buttercream and thick chocolately ganache all over the top. I love how it looks like it's melting.

And this cake:



















This was a chocolate, chocolate, chocolate cake.

Fueled by Popcorn: The Zine

It's now available to two locations!

If you're in Portland you can purchase my zine at Herbivore, or from me directly for $3.
Or, you can purchase it online from Small World Buttons for $3 plus shipping. And from Small World Buttons Etsy Site. (Buy some coffee while you're there. I recommend the half-caf.)

Webly, from the Website Stumptown Vegans, has released her first in a series of cook zines, this one is 22 pages and features popcorn! It is named after her food blog Fueled by Popcorn

Webly tells the story of her favorite snack from how a kernel evolves into a puffed white ball with just the right amount of heat and what to do with it once it gets there! She provides valuable information on the different types of corn, oils, cooking methods, salts, spices how to use them to their fullest, and even how to store popped corn. All this before giving you 15 popcorn recipes!

The recipes range from simple to complex and some include mixing spices to create mouthwatering snacks that are not just for movie watching. Some examples are Webly's favorite, the savory Sundried Tomato or the caramel-corn-like recipes like the irresistible French Toast Popcorn. Pick up her zine today and start snacking!

Fueled By Popcorn - The Zine

Stay tuned for information about the zine with 15 popcorn recipes.

Grillin'

I have been grilling up a storm since May. Below are some photographic evidence of my skills, or lack there of.

Cous cous, broccoli, tofu, and garlic:
Tofu and Cauliflower:
Tofu and Greens:

Green Beans and Avocados:

I was inspired by a show on the food channel. They had a bunch of not-ripe-enough avocados and decided to grill them with lemon, olive oil, and garlic. I gave it a try and stuffed them with a carrot, bell pepper salad. It was okay, but not as good as I was expecting. It was a good way to use up unripe avocados.
Tofu and Brocolli:
Onions, Zucchini, eggplant, tofu:
Tofu and Greens:

I have some pineapple, corn, and zucchini waiting to be grilled this week.

Original Nestle Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookies

There are so many chocolate chip cookie recipes out there and I've found there are two kinds: dense and not so dense. I think most vegan chocolate chip cookies I came across a dense cookie. I love this kind of cookie, like my chocolate, chocolate cookie recipe that is almost like a brownie. But sometimes I prefer a lighter cookie.

While going through Nana's recipes I came across the, "Original Nestle Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookie" recipe. There was a newspaper clipping about the history of the cookie at the Toll House Inn on the east coast in the 1930's. The baker was making chocolate cookies and mistakenly used the wrong chocolate which did not melt into the cookie as it should have - it just stayed their in chunks in the vanilla batter - thus one of the most famous cookies was born.

Original Nestle Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookies:
2 1/4 Cup flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup soft butter (margarine)
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 eggs (I used powdered Energy egg replacer)
2 cups chocolate chips
1 cup nuts (I left these out)

Combine flour, soda, and salt.
Beat butter, both sugars, and vanilla in a large bowl. Add the egg substitute and beat once more. Slowly add the flour mixture until well combined. Stir in chocolate chips and nuts.
Drop rounded tablespoons of batter onto baking sheets.
Bake in a preheated 375-degree oven for 9-11 minutes, or until golden brown.


This is a fail-prove recipe.

Peanut Butter Swirls:
Since I cannot follow a recipe to save my life I did alter this recipe beyond veganizing it - I added peanut butter. I spread peanut butter across a piece of parchment paper and put it in the freezer for a few hours until it was hard. I took it out and quickly broken it up into little pieces. Since peanut butter defreezes quickly you need to work quickly to stir the little chunks into the batter before scooping the batter on the cookie sheet.
Cook as normal and enjoy the little bites of peanut butter goodness.

Italian Teese Appetizers

In looking through Nana's recipes I was inspired this morning and thought of a great use for Teese. For once I found a use for vegan cheese that may be difficult to recreate with real cheese.
Italian Teese Appetizers:
1/2" round of the Teese tube
6-8 basil leaves
1/4 tomato sliced very thinly

Place the Teese round on parchment paper and melt in the microwave, or broiler, until completely melted and it is spread out. Make sure the Teese is spread evenly. Let it rest for 1-2, just enough for the Teese to firm up.
Cut square edges to the sheet of Teese.
Layer thinly slices tomatoes and basil leaves.
Sprinkle with salt and pepper and carefully roll up, and poke with a toothpick about every inch.
Garnish with basil or oregano.
Chill before serving to ensure stability.

Death by Chocolate

My Nana died this morning, unexpectantly. While I rarely share much of my personal life on this blog, this is important. Some of my first memories of food were when I was with Nana.
Nana loved food and loved to bake. Her love of food was forefront in her warm hugs. She had this soft, cuddly body - when you hugged her it was like hugging a big, pink marshmellow. You just sank into her and knew you were safe in her arms.
One of my first memories with food was with Nana. We use to eat kiwi together. She's bounce me on her knee and we'd talk and eat that funny green fruit with black dots.
She always had perfect bananas. We'd call them, "Nana's Bananas." No banana eaten at her house was ever too green or too brown. They were always perfect.
We'd bake. Cookies. Cakes. Brownies. Pies. Anything sweet. I've always had a sweet tooth and being the great grandmother she was, she'd always encourage it.
Nana would send me articles from her local central Texas newspaper on vegetarinism, or recipes that were vegan, or easily could be. She'd send me recipes for yeast free breads, cook from vegan cook books. She was so excited when she found her mom's "wacky cake" recipe to send to me. I think her's was called, "no egg or milk cake."

She understood my vegetarianism. When I went vegan she sat me down to talk about it. I was afraid it was going to be a scolding, but it wasn't. She said when she was in nursing school she learn how milk isn't that great for the body and how one doesn't really need meat. She didn't understand not eating eggs. I explained how veganism is about animals and equality and she just hugged me and said she was so proud of me for being compassionate.

But the point of this post is about Nana's love for chocolate. I didn't really come to love chocolate until I became vegan. I'd find vegan chocolates for her we could share. This September I was planning on visiting her for her birthday and making some handmade chocolates, but it was too late to even tell her about my plans. I never should have waited to tell her or ask all the questions I still have about her life. It happened without warning.
In my grieving today I decided to make a triple chocolate truffle in honor of my Nana who loved me no matter what and who I loved so dearly. Though she didn't die by chocolate, the name is catchy.

This is for you Nana. I love you and you will be missed.ingredients: cashews, chocolate syrup, maple syrup, chocolate chips, vanilla, a chocolate bar I found in the refrigerator, and probably a few tears.

Burrito Cake!

Before I tell you about the physical Burrito Cake, let me tell you the full story.

At my birthday party a few months ago my sister saw my Betty Crocker Bake 'N Fill cake pans and decided I would make her a savory cake for her birthday - a burrito cake. Since I have had great success other times using the Bake 'N Fill, but in a sweet way:

Chocolate Bomb:

Chocolate Cookie Ice Cream Cake:

We started scheming the design of the burrito cake. Cornbread, beans, rice, avocado, and tofu sour cream "frosting." The end result was different than we planned, but super tasty!

I scrapped the corn bread bottom and went with a tortilla, salsa, and cheese layered bottom, similar to an enchilada.
Next, the beans and rice. I made a mixture of beans and rice with soyrizo for the outside dome. I added some corn starch to help the form. Then I filled the divit in the middle with refried beans and soy cheese.
I didn't have much luck turning it over! Since it was hot, it separated more than I wanted it to. See the pan in the background?
Nothing a little guacamole won't fix, right? I thought of this as the crumb coat, in normal frosting terms. By this point, it really started to settle and push outward. While I was hoping it wouldn't fall off the counter, two little dogs at my feet were.
Then the tofu sour cream. It's hard to frost something that's so bumpy.
Toppings of fake cheese stars and jalapeños.
The garnish make it complete! We have burrito cake!
Time to cut the cake! Doesn't it look like something from super mario brothers?
Inside:

It really wasn't that pretty, but it sure tasted good. And it was better than my husband's "burrito soup."
If this isn't evidence of my ability to take on cooking challenges I don't know what is!

Chocolate Crackle Cookies

My good friend Jess gave me a great book for my birthday: Martha Stewart's Cookies. This book is great because it has almost 200 cookie recipes! My favorite thing about this book is the table of contents, instead of listing all the cookies it shows a full color picture of every cookie with the name and page number under the image. This is the perfect way to search for a cookie!

I've had this goal of making one cookie a week, but since we haven't had earth balance in the house and I've been beyond busy, I haven't made much.

I did make these wonderful crackle cookies.
These are basic chocolate cookies, rolled in powered sugar, then baked as normal.
I enjoyed these cookies and I would make them again when I am trying to impress because they are just so pretty. Everyone in the office enjoyed these and I was told to tell anyone who wanted to make these not to wear black while trying to sneak eating these. The powered sugar will leave little specs on your shirt.
I should note that this recipe was not vegan, I veganized it with a powered egg replacer.
*Because I fear Martha Stewart I will not post the recipe. Sorry. Borrow the book from your local library, or just take your favorite chocolate cookie recipe and roll it in powder sugar before baking.