Farewell, tomatoes.

I'll miss you. I'll pretend you only exist in non-gmo cans until late spring once more. Watery, pale tomatoes are pointless.

I suppose I can think of it this way, instead of new episodes of LOST to keep my life exciting, I get flavorful, local tomatoes during the rest of the year. It doesn't exactly pair up, but you get the idea...if you adore Benjamin, like I do.

In Denial Cherry Tomatoes

Just look at them. I noticed they were in denial about the season the first moment they came into view. Somehow, inside, I knew this would be my last chance, my last hope, for tomato sweetness. Truly, they were sweet. They had flavor. They were in denial about the oncoming Autumn.

Only two more weeks of my precious downtown farmers market! [weekday]

Here's my haul from last Wednesday:

I've been throwing green cabbage and peppers into everything I've been cooking!

And creeping my sister out by eating raw corn. Over the phone.

Till we meet again, peppers...

Don't fret, I'll be stalking the farmars until tomatoes and peppers are truly pathetic/not present.

The dramatic black & white stand I bought my cabbage from.

You can feel the mood of this post.

Happy Hoodie weather to all!

I hope you're prepared with a new Herbivore sweatshirt!

More PumpkinOSITY.

Major props to Julie Hasson~ I made two of her recipes on Wednesday evening, both involving pureed pumpkin, and both simply delicious.

Pumpkin cake with raisins, and chocolate chips all ooey-gooey on top. I prefer my chocolate chips on top of cake ever since making VWAV's raspberry chocolate chip blondies last year.



For spices, I only had cinnamon and nutmeg in the house (oh my), and I also cut the oil in half by simply using a little extra pumpkin. I often cut some oil with applesauce as well, but never all of it. I don't swing that way.



Julie's Smokey Pumpkin Hummus - used my homemade pureed pumpkin and the chickpeas I soaked over a week ago and had just a bit left of. Julie recommends using toasted sesame oil in this, fyi. I knew I'd like these recipes, a I sampled Julie's homemade versions of them at the Vegan Holiday Festival earlier in the month.




At the demo, Julie added candied pumpkin seeds on top, and since I had seeds myself, I toasted some in a pan with a touch of maple syrup, cayenne, sea salt and a wee bit of canola oil.



This is the dinner that used the rest of my purple cauliflower.
Maybe I'll get more cauliflower at the farmer's market tomorrow - maybe.
If I do, I'll probably be cheaper and just get white. This is a meal I made using what was in the house - simply roasted a veggie, reheated some baked yam fries and made those famous chickpea cutlets for a who-knows-how-many-nth time.
On the side is some Nomicon cheezy sauce and roasted garlic marinara.



P.S. My toes are now orange from all the pumpkin consumption.
P.P.S. This time next week, I'll be on day one of my Boston/NY trip, woo!

Eating at work.

I try to specifically make enough food for leftovers, and/or grab greens with me for steaming or salads to eat at work during the week. Fortunately, we have a spacious fridge, kitchen table, toaster oven, microwave and plates to work with. Ever notice blue plates here? Totally not mine.
Today I ate instant wild mushroom cous cous (Mmmm Near East!) and round two of the salad mixture below for lunch. I do dine out on a regular basis, particularly when a meal can last me more than one lunch's worth of food or I can share it. Sometimes I'm just not in the mood for leftovers, and sometimes I remember I left my lunch at home while on my way to work - that 'oh mannnnnnnnnnn' moment (especially when I recall something great like chickpea cutlets, just sitting.in.the.fridge). My lunch staple is definitely soups - particularly this time of year. I like to make a batch on Sunday evening, and then enjoy it's savory warmth for the next 3+ days. The Creamy Tomato soup from Veganomicon is certainly in store soon.

So far this week, my lunches have featured this salad with romaine lettuce, purple cauliflower, tamari roasted chickpeas and green bell pepper :

On Monday I dined on Saturday night's leftovers: chickpea cutlets and mushroom gravy:

A surprise on my work kitchen table!

Ow, ow! Field Roast sent me some goods! More on them to come.

White truffle pate, lentil sage loaf and celebration roast.

Roasted Squash Seeds

Let's go back to celebrating autumn, the start of rainy season in Portland...

Roasted Squash seeds:
First, de-gunkify and rinse your seeds.
Then, preheat your oven to 350F.
In a small bowl, spray the seeds with some oil (I used canola), and add a shake of sea salt, cayenne, nutritional yeast, chili powder, oregano and paprika. Stir well.

Consider adding a pinch of cumin, cocoa powder, pepper, coriander, curry, whatever you like.

Spread the seeds out on a lightly oiled baking sheet, or line it with parchment paper.
Cook for 10-15 minutes until lightly browned, stirring a couple of times.

Remove from oven, let cool a bite, and enjoy. Snack, garnish or add to salads. These are addictive.



Sure I made butternut squash soup last weekend and there is no photographic evidence, until now, technically. Speaking of photos..as I mentioned a couple posts ago, my camera is in its last days, if not already dead for good. Feel free to send digital camera recommendations my way - I'm looking to cap my price at $250, if that. I didn't want to make this purchase until after my NY trip, but it's time.

Vegan Pear and Hazelnut Crisp

I recently picked up a big bag of red pears for $3 from the farmer’s market, and kept thinking about the crumble from the final Red & Black Vegan Family Style Dinner, so I spent a morning make this Pear and Hazelnut Crisp.
Honestly, all I did was veganize this Allrecipes.com recipe, change the cut of the pear and add in some maple.
And it was so, so easy to do.



Ingredients:

3 pears – peeled if desired, and cut into cubed (I used red pears)
1 teaspoon of lemon juice
1 tablespoon of maple syrup
1.5 tablespoons of brown sugar
3 tablespoons oats (I used barley oats)
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Pinch ground ginger
1 dash ground nutmeg
Teeny dash sea salt
1 tablespoon cold earth balance
2 tablespoons chopped nuts (I used hazelnut)

Directions:

1. Lightly grease something along the lines of a pie plate of 8x8 baking dish. I used a pie plate that was graciously donated to me by the amazing Julie Hasson. I know that helped this dish out.
2. Toss the pear cubes with the lemon juice and maple syrup.
3. In a medium sized bowl, combine the flour, spices, brown sugar and sea salt. Cut in butter until crumbly and then add the nuts.
4. Sprinkle the crumb topping over the pears and bake at 350 degrees F for 30-35 minutes.
If you choose not to cube the pears, starting checking on it after 25 minutes.

FYI, I halved this recipe in the photographed dish above.


Didn’t I tell you it was easy?

The sad part - I only had a serving before leaving for my work trip.

I <3 Fall

Fall and Winter are my two preferred seasons. The leaves change color, the air gets cooler, my birthday, new school year (well I'm older now),sweatshirt and warm sweaters, scarves, winter holidays and family get-to-gethers, the possibility of snow...

And it isn't my favorite thing about the cooler weather, but it sure is a huge plus - being able to truly appreciate a bowl of hot soup. Below is a recipe from Dreena Burton's new book, Eat, Drink & Be Vegan! - Spicy Pureed Yam and Chickpea Soup. Gah, it was good. The woman had me using coriander and not complaining!
I had leftover stuffed mushroom filling, and a chunk of tofu that hadn't been cooked, so I stuffed it. I marinaded the tofu chunk in braggs, olive oil and garlic, and coated it in flour/oats/nutritional yeast/basil/thyme/sea salt and freshlong grounded pepper. It was then oven baked. The things you do with random leftovers..
A recent pizza pie - before going in the oven and after.

Homemade half whole wheat pastry/half white flour garlic and herb dough, Isa pizza sauce from VWAV, roasted garlic tofu ricotta (some from a fresh batch and some that had been frozen), maroon bell peppers, collard greens, pine nuts, crushed garlic, red pepper flakes and chopped shallots on Thomas' half. I admit, I'm going nutty and sauced my slices up with Frank's Red Hot.

Half of a roasted eggplant sandwich from Veganopolis in downtown Portland. Yes, we have a restaurant called that, yes, we are lucky! I have some complaints about em, like everywhere, but really service was fast and the food was spot-on Friday for lunch.
The above is my absolute favorite thing on the menu. This one had a TON of fresh spinach since I asked for no onions, roasted eggplant slices, roasted red pepper spread and almond feta - served on a great ciabatta roll (I think from Grand Central). I took half the sandwich home for dinner and I was a full girl.
Organic mini tortilla chips with cashew cheddar from The Real Food Daily cookbook, defrosted and smushy black beans (I'll just throw the rest in chili) and chopped jalapenos. I'm on my sorta exciting homemade cheese kick!
I honestly can't decide if I like this one or last post's Smoked Gouda better. I'm leaning towards this one, since it did become a block and also melted - at least at first. So far I'm eating it on crackers, maybe shredding or melting some more soon..



Homemade garlic & herb breadsticks - I had some pizza dough leftover from that experience. These are topped with olive oil, nutritional yeast, chopped garlic, coarse sea salt and oregano. Thomas and I were both really impressed with how good these came out. We dipped them in more sundried tomato pizza sauce.

Sometimes, meals don't go as planned..... I'm certainly guilty of screwing up meals - this was supposed to be the Black Eyed Pea and Quinoa Croquettes from VWAV, and they just weren't forming. I subbed millet for quinoa, I could blame that.... Really, even with adding breadcrumbs, it was just too moist, maybe flour would have helped. Oh well..
I topped it with shiitake mushroom gravy, and on the side are roasted potatoes, turnips and golden beets.
Special occasions = half a batch of peanut butter bombs!


And lastly, home popped popcorn with melted earth balance, nutritional yeast and sea salt. Because it rules.