Monthly Archive for August, 2006

JAM*stir fry

I think I’ll rename this blog to JAM*stir fry. Seems like that’s all we’ve been eating these days. It’s never the same stir fry, not even close. In fact I don’t know that I’ve ever made the same stir fry twice, but still… I’m kind of getting bored with cooking the same type of dish.

Besides being quick, healthy and appealing to all three of us, stir fries have been the perfect way to use up veggies before we pick up our crop share each week.

Although I’m dying to get in the kitchen to preserve some more produce for the winter, our share each week (which we split with my sister) combined with the harvest from our little garden really doesn’t justify preservation. Unless of course, I wanted to preserve one jar at a time. Seems like the embodied energy of one jar of tomatoes or string beans just wouldn’t reconcile, you know?

So, stir fries usually win. And seriously. What else could I have possibly made with a package of seitan and this?:
This is what we had in the fridge and on the counter. A handul of this, one of that, two of these. It’s not enough to do a whole meal with just a couple ingredients - we need to use up a few of these. Stir fries are good like that :)

Last night’s stir fry included some of the above, with the Blooming Glen long red sweet peppers and our own garden green string beans co-starring. Like I said, I’ve been getting bored with stir fries, and in order to compensate for that, I’ve been doing little things like cutting up the veggies in unsuspecting ways.

While I lightly fried some purple onion and the above green onion in a couple drops of olive oil, I cut the peppers and string beans into disc shapes. Once the onions were tender, I added torn up seitan strips and fried for seven or eight minutes, until the seitan was just starting to crisp on the edges.

I removed the seitan from the pan, added the pepper, beans, broccoli and some water, covered the pan and steamed everything for five or six minutes. Meanwhile, I pricked the potatoes with a fork, microwaved them for a few minutes (until tender, but not baked, so they could hold up in the pan) and diced them. I diced tomatoes as well, then added them with the potatoes, a bit more water, fresh chopped basil, some nutritional yeast and the cooked onions and seitan to the pan, covered and let simmer for a couple minutes.

Now, usually Jason eats the veg*n meals I cook exactly as they are. However, there is the rare occasion that he wants to make additions or adjustments. Such was the case for this meal. He wanted scallops. How does an omnivore and a veggiesauraus both get what they want? Like this:Separate, but together. See how we did that? :)

Jase seared his scallops in some earth balance, green onions and hot banana peppers from our garden. Once they were done, I scooped some of the veggie and seitan mix into his pan and he mixed it all together.

Tolerance, people. It’s always a good lesson :)

We’ve got more trim than you…

Good god, there’s a lot of white trim in our living room. And Jason touched up every last square inch of it this weekend :)

The banister is my nemesis. My friend Michelle and I spent an afternoon shortly after we moved in (almost TWO YEARS AGO) trying to cover the maroon with white. Covering up a dark color, especially red, with a light color, especially white, is hard enough, but we ran into an additional bizarre problem:

Everywhere there is maroon paint (all the trim in the upstairs hallway, the banister and staircase, and the living room and dining room trim) there is also a force field that repels any other paint form covering it.

I’m not kidding people. When one tries to paint white over the red, it “slips” off. After about 14 coats (with drying time in between each), the maroon goes away. It’s really, really strange and really, really frustrating. Which is why the banister and upstairs trim is half-assed not done. See that first picture for an example of “half-assed not done.”

Jason had the white paint out for some minor touch up work in the living room and for the repairing of the living room window sill. Cinder likes to throw herself at the window whenever another dog dares to walk down the street and her claws have scratched the daylights out of the sill. Also, one side of our couch is near the window and there’s a gap of about two feet between the arm of the couch and the window. Cinder’s preferred investigative perch is in the shape of a bridge, with her back legs on the couch, front legs on the radiator and slobber dripping onto the sill. Cute, i know.

So, that was Jason’s mission today, to repair and repaint the window area, as well as finish up the box-that-looks-like-a-column he made to cover the radiator pipe. Because he had the paint out, he decided to tackle the banister. He’s good like that.

The banister looks awesome and so does the window. We’re ordering a piece of Plexiglas to cover and protect the newly-painted sill.

Oh my goodness… maybe soon we can look into putting up curtains! How exciting :D

"Farmers Market"

It’s in quotes you see, because it’s not actually a market. But as these photographs prove, we’re all farmers, especially this time of year. These roadside stands are one of many reasons why it’s great to live around here - in August ;)

We saw the following on our 12-mile drive to Ott’s. There was also a place with a “Fresh Eggs!” sign, but I couldn’t get the camera together in time. Just imagine it, somewhere between photo number two and three :)



I’m not sure how common this is outside of Montgomery and Bucks Counties, PA, but these “stands” in our neighbors’ front yards are so usual, that I didn’t think to include them here until recently :)

Ott’s!

One of the most fabulous benefits of living in this area is Ott’s Exotic Plant and Nursery. What is Ott’s, you say? Well, it’s a plant place.

That has a rain forest.

And two ponds with fish, turtles and frogs.

And a mountain that blooms pansies in the spring and mums in the fall.

It houses fruit trees, exotic plant species, and when went today, we saw a hummingbird and a swallowtail butterfly inside one of the greenhouses.

I’ll stop talking now, just look :D Clicking a photograph will open a larger version in a different window. Check out the purple passion flower. To. Die. For.

Oh, and when you’re done looking, go see everything - and much more! - for yourself (853 Gravel Pike, Schwenksville, PA 19473).

NHL pre season

Oh, we didn’t tell you? Yeah, Tubby’s playing for the Flyers this season.

Pretty awesome, I know :)


We’re all pretty excited about him making the team - and his obvious hatred for the Rangers. A Philly boy to the core :)

PS: Tubby is quite photogenic, as you can see here and here.

Veg*n Dinner Party, Installment One

Well, lookie here. It’s a collection of lovely, veggie loving, local babes!

[Kelly, I SWEAR that this was the best photo of the group, and I totally think that you look super cute and mischievous, but if you really don't like it (aka, you have no idea) then I will take it down. ]

Specifically, that’s Jessica, Mikaela (that’s me), Kelly Ann, Laura, Brookie (that’s my seester), and Alli. Notice the front-back positioning so that we could all squeeze onto the couch. What’s that? You never heard of this alleged “front back, front back” seating? Yeah, us either. Jess made it up.

So, after much chit chat, a whole lot of, “we should”s, and a bunch of “wouldn’t it be cool”s, Kelly took the initiative and scheduled the first of what will be a rotating vegetarian/vegan dinner party. Fun! :D

This is what we had:

Not pretty as pictured, I know. The photo was a bit of an afterthought I’m afraid, and does not do the yummy vegan meal any justice whatsoever. That in mind, clockwise from left is: chilled cucumber dill soup, portabello-seitan hash (from Vegetarian Times, Feb. 06, p. 61), tomato basil dip with french baguettes (leftovers from Saturday), roasted apple and rutabaga, brown rice.

So. Good.

This was a landmark event for me, personally. I do not like mushrooms. Not because of the texture or the taste. I wouldn’t know, as their repulsive origin repels me from letting them pass my lips.

But you see, Kelly has this power over me. She’s a new-ish (less than one year) vegetarian and brand new vegan, who never - like, NEVER used to cook. Seriously. How could I not eat her freaking awesome hash? And besides that, I was uncertain about whether I would be able to make it to the dinner (football practice blows), and as the date approached she needed to make some decisions. She’s really quite a lovely gal, and had she known that I was going to be able to pull off being there (thanks to a super supportive boyfriend), I know she would not have made ’shrooms the main dish.

So, I ate them. And I liked it. With wine. A lot of wine. It’s amazing what one can get through with dulled senses.

Yes, the food was to-die-for, but the company? The company rocked the shit out of that hash. Note to readers: Invite actors to house parties. Jess and Alli were freaking hilarious as always. Of course, if Brooke comes to your party, your never short on conversation, and Laura is always at the ready with an opinion - and a sweet smile :)

We had such a good time:

We’re hoping that this event will be a sort-of-monthly occurrence, so stay tuned for Installment Two! :)

PS: Thank you Justin, for taking a break from healing the world to take these photos. You’re a good person.

Brocolli Rock

Since Avery Cain announced his new vegetarian status (so excited!), we’ve been celebrating by preparing his favorite veggie, broccoli. Yumm!

On Monday, we had some baked barbecue-style tofu, quinoa, and a barbecue stirfry:


(I cooked the quinoa in butternut squash soup and added caribbean seasonings. For the stirfry, I fried some onions, then added broccoli and what I had in the fridge: mini yellow squash and zucchini, diced eggplant, and spinach. I put a bit of water and caribbean seasoning in the pan, covered it and steamed everything for about seven or eight minutes. To finish it all off, I added chickpeas, stirred in a bit of barbecue sauce and cooked for a couple more minutes.)

Tuesday was steamed string beans and broccoli with broccoli fillo pie, and yellow watermelon:

This meal got rave reviews from the new vegetarian. The broccoli and beans were picked right before dinner from our garden and were positively heavenly. The watermelon (from the CSA last week) was super-flavorful and deee-lish, as well. This meal was also a shining example of how well Jason, Avery and I can work together:

After work and camp, Avery and I went home, he changed into his gear for football practice and I filled his water bottle, grabbed him a snack, got myself a blanket and a magazine, and we headed up to the field. When Jase got home a little while later, he picked the broccoli and beans, put them in the pot for steaming, cut up and refrigerated the melon, started the fillo pie in the oven, and headed out to play volleyball with a friend. Avery and I got home around 8:30pm, and he hopped in the shower while I started the veggies and set the table. After we ate, Avery got ready for bed and I went upstairs to tuck him in. Jase came home shortly after and we were all able to hang out in bed and talk for a bit before Avery went to sleep.

Whew. I can’t imagine if I had another child to take to a different lesson or practice. How do you mommas with multiple children do it? Super powers?

So yeah, we’ve been busy the last couple weeks weeks, leaving me very little time to cook (hence the quick, “convenient” foods like fillo pie). Kind of a bummer, but hopefully things will settle down once school starts (and football practice goes from four nights a week to two).

CSA crop share 13

Jason took some super awesome photos of the share today. Lots of contrast in the colors this week - we like it! And, there’s Miss Bluex agian. Meow, meow kittie face head >^,,^<

Blooming Glen share number 12:
1 bunch of scallions
3 pounds of tomatoes
2 pounds of heirloom tomatoes
1 bouquet wild flowers
15 stalks of edamame
1/2 pound of swiss chard
1 pint of cherry tomatoes - pick your own
1 cantaloupe
1 eggplant
1 cucumber
1 quart of string beans
1 head of lettuce
2 onions
1 pound of potatoes
thyme - pick your own
basil - pick your own
dill
cilantro

Local Yokel Basil + Tomato Dip

So, we had a ton of local basil and a ton of local tomatoes. Luckily, we also had an upcoming potluck :)

Tomato Basil Dip from the book, From Asparagus to Zucchini, with freshly baked French Baguette from Bakers on Broad is what we ended up with. We were going to double the recipe, but Jason decided tripling it would be a better idea. “That way we can share with the neighbors.” How’s that for supporting the eat local challenge? :)

Step One: Gather one Whole Freaking Lot of tomatoes, one Whole Freaking Lot of basil, a couple garlic heads, olive oil, salt, pepper and balsamic vinegar. Also, grab the serving bowl, compost/garbage bowl (and an extra bowl if your countertop compost bucket is on the small side), a large cutting board, a mixing spoon and a very sharp knife. Bring the food processor, too.

That’s Brooke’s thumbs up on the left and mine on the right :)

Step Two: Rinse and chop 15 tablespoons of basil. Do you believe that I actually considered doing this by hand? Right.

Step Three: Core, seed and dice nine cups of tomatoes, depositing the gunk into the compost bowl. Um… this was Jason’s job. “Hey, you have to break a few eggs to make an omelet.” Step Four: Press three tablespoons of garlic

Step Five: Add a splash of balsamic vinegar, a few tablespoons of olive oil, and salt and pepper to taste. Step Six: Stir it up and serve with or over lightly toasted and sliced French Baguette.

Step Seven: Share it with your friends, neighbors and other assorted local yokels - and remember to tell them that 97%* of the ingredients were found right here in your community :) I heart Bakers on Broad and Blooming Glen!

* Ok, fine. I don’t really know if it’s really 97%. Whatever.

Avery Cain is a Vegetarian!


I was tucking in my monster and he told me that he decided to become a vegetarian… Details to follow!




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