Strawberry Cashew Shake- So yum!

Judging by past photos of our garden, spring was indeed early this year in the Pacific Northwest.  This is both a good and a bad thing, in my opinion.  Good because spring is fun and I love watching things bloom and grow and burst into life.  Bad because weeds are also doing this.

I spent a couple hours weeding in the strawberry patch and "orchard" today, in between rain showers.  While I was out there, I collected our first good strawberry harvest of the year.  I'm glad we decided on getting varieties that fruit at different times, so we can have a prolonged strawberry season!

I thought I would share a really simple recipe for a drink I've been having a lot lately, usually with frozen strawberries.  Tonight's strawberry shake was a treat because I made it with fresh-from-the-garden strawberries.  The cashews have a substantial presence, without making the shake too rich.  Yum yum yum.

You should really try this and get your yum on.

Strawberry Cashew Shake

This will make one large shake or two medium-sized shakes.

Ingredients:

4 good-sized strawberries*
1/4 cup raw cashew pieces
2 cups non-dairy milk of your choosing (I usually use rice)
3 dates, pitted
Agave, optional (if you want added sweetness)

Method:

Blend all the ingredients in a blender until smooth!

*If you use frozen strawberries, as I usually do, the shake will be a little thicker.

Vegan MoFo: Fig and Ginger Jam and Cream Cheeze

I told ya all about my Fig and Ginger Jam yesterday, right?  Well, while I was busy at work making the jam, Julian was working on the cream cheese recipe by Miyoko Schinner in the recent Cheese Issue of VegNews.  Each of these things are wonderful standalone toppings, but when spread together on a baguette, they become pure magic!

Don't believe me?  Try it for yourself.  Sooooooo goooooooood.

The jam, as you can imagine, has a nice ginger flavor that isn't too over-powering.  You get extra jolts of gingery goodness when you get a chunk of the crystallized ginger, as you can see here.  I realized after taking this photo that strangely, there weren't any fig chunks in this plop of jam. The creamy, slight smokiness of the cream cheese adds a richness to this snack.  Seriously, this is good stuff.

VeganMoFo: When life gives you figs...

You know, I'm not sure why the phrase "When life gives you lemons, make lemonade" exists.  They're not just some sour, single-use ingredient.  I put them in everything.  Enough about lemons, though.  Today we're talking about figs, and more importantly, fig jam!

Our neighbor has a 20+ ft tall green fig tree in her yard, which happens to have sent a bunch of branches over our way.  We're not complaining and neither are the dogs, who immediately zoom to the spot below the fig tree when they're let out.

Yesterday I set out with my ladder and my biggest colander (which I had to empty three times) to collect roughly 170 figs (and I left a ton on the tree).  Remember, this amount was only from the branches that have grown over from our neighbor's yard since Feb 2011 when we put up the fence!  Basically, I got a lot of figs.

This photo is deceptive.  This bowl is HUGE.  I ended up only using half of these.

Then I made Super Scrumptious Fig and Crystallized Ginger Jam 

I am not a canning expert, so I mostly just followed the directions that came with my pectin box.

Here's what I did:

Ingredients:

24 cups quartered figs (will turn into roughly 12 cups when cooked)

1/2 cup water

Juice and zest of one lemon (~1/4 cup juice)

1/2 cup chopped crystallized ginger

6 cups sugar (can you believe this is the "reduced sugar" recipe?)

A full box of Pomona's Universal Pectin (follow the directions on the pectin box you choose)

1. I sterilized several jars (although not enough, so I ended up making a few jars to keep in the fridge) and their lids.  As they were sterilizing I began chopping figs and preparing the rest of the jam.

Sterilizing the jars at 350* F for 20 minutes.

2. I quartered figs until I had 24 cups of fruit, which was all that would fit in my biggest soup pot.  I placed them in the pot along with the water, lemon juice, lemon zest, and that calcium water made from a packet that came with my pectin (yours may differ).  I cooked this over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until the volume decreased by half and the figs were pretty soft- about 10 minutes or so.

24 cups of quartered figs!

3. I mixed the pectin powder (your directions may differ) with the sugar, then added the mixture to the figs, stirring continuously for 1-2 minutes.  Then I brought the mixture to a boil and removed it from heat. 

4. I filled my jars, leaving 1/4" of space on time, wiped the rims clean, screwed on the dried lids, and tightened the lids until my wrists hurt.  I gave them a boiling water bath for 10 minutes.

That's it!

15 jars of varying sizes

Oh we did some very yummy things with the jam last night.  More on that tomorrow!  For now, some more dog and fig photos!

Emerson Fig Lover, has become quite adept at standing on his back legs to position himself directly under a particular fig.  He'll even stay outside in the rain, something he ordinarily avoids.

Getting Emerson to look at the camera has never been easier.  A fig was the answer.

Andy, Jungle Beast.

Vegan MoFo: Milkshakes are pretty great

Milkshakes. They're pretty fantastic, amiright?

My faves to find around town include The Chocolate Moca from Back to Eden and the Strawberry shake from Sip.

But you know what the very best milkshakes are?  Those shared with friends.

Tommasina and I made milkshakes today with fresh peaches from the CSA box, a banana, almond milk, and So Delicious vanilla ice cream.

Do you have a favorite milkshake flavor?

Vegan MoFo: Pizza Night

It's pretty sweet having bread master, Julian, staying with us for a bit.

Among other tasty treats, last week he made a batch of pizza dough from The Bread Bakers Apprentice, letting it hang out in the fridge until we were ready to use it. The next day he harvested a ton of basil from the garden and whipped up a healthy amount of pesto, some of which is in the freezer, waiting to be used.

Mighty fine bubbly action.

We had quite the pizza feast.  Toppings included the pesto, tomato sauce, melty gooey Follow Your Heart, black olives, sun dried tomato spread, shaved fennel, mushrooms, arugula, red onion slices, and fresh avocado.  I throw together a salad to go along with our carbfest- arugula, chickpeas, thinly sliced red onion, diced apples, and raw pumpkin seeds, tossed with olive oil, apple cider vinegar, nooch, and salt and pepper.

We were loosing daylight, so sadly four pizzas went unphotographed!

Tonight, Julian is cooking up an Indian feast (which I think you'll be able to read about here tonight).  I'm sitting on my butt, MoFoing while inhaling the aromas coming from the kitchen.  It's pretty nice to have someone else cooking after you've worked all day!

You three, pose awkwardly with your pizzas!

Vegan MoFo: A Quick Weeknight Meal

Quick!  Dinner time is approaching and you haven't planned a meal for your family.  What should you make?  Last night I faced this very dilemma (as I do multiple times a week) and made something that all four of us proclaimed 'downright tasty'!

And so a creamy (and healthful) pasta dish made its way out of the kitchen and into the tummies of our household.

Remember that delicata squash I received in my CSA this week?

Well, I cubed it and set it steaming for a few minutes while I started on the the rest of the meal.  I based a sauce off of the cheeze sauce in Vegan Diner, working with what I had on hand, adding some silken tofu that was open in the fridge and the delicata squash.  The squash added an even creamier texture to the sauce, packed in some nutrients, and added a greater depth of flavor.  Try it!  (I wouldn't recommend summer squash, though.  I wouldn't recommend summer squash in general- blech!)

I boiled some pasta, throwing in collard ribbons during the last minute of cook time.   Then I tossed the pasta and sauce together, topped the dish with more sauce, then a pile of collard ribbons, and finally some chopped tomatoes from a friend's garden.

Crappy night-time photo.  C'est la vie.

Voila!  A quick, tasty, and healthful weeknight meal, featuring collards from our garden!

Garden Quinoa Salad

A hearty salad to eat in the garden!

A few weeks ago I stopped by the home of my friend Kittee (of Cake Maker to the Stars), where my hungry tummy was generously fed a delightful bowl of quinoa salad.  Quinoa salads are so easy and healthful.  I asked myself, "Why don't I make these more often?"  So later that day I did just that.

Here's what my quinoa salad contained:
quinoa, cooked
walnuts, chopped
canned chickpeas, drained and rinsed
an apple, chopped
dried and sweetened cranberries
the zest and juice of a lime (or two)
fresh-from-the-garden mint, chopped
onion stems, chopped (also from the garden)
cilantro, chopped
chipotle olive oil
salt and pepper

I topped it with garden collards, chopped and sauteed with tamari, apple cider vinegar, olive oil, and red pepper flakes.

It was really good! What are you waiting for?  Go make a quinoa salad!

Creamy Collards Soup and Greening Your Winter Windowsill

Although the climate in Portland suites me perfectly, it seems everyone else has complaints about the grey and drizzly winters, longing for the dry, sunny summers.  I love it all.  Just as each season is on its way out, I welcome the next.  Winter is not too cold, calm, and comforting.  Spring is still cool and provides the excitement of seeing new buds and flowers.  Summer is warm (luckily, on too-hot days I can retreat to the basement to sleep) and sunny and colorful, but can also be exhausting.  Fall is relaxing and allows me to use the oven again.

It's still winter here and right now, we're not growing much in our vegetable garden except for some greens and herbs.  I'm happy to have year-round collards, because, among other dishes, I'm able to make Creamy Collards Soup.  This recipe, found below, was one I posted during VeganMoFo 2011.

If you don't have a winter garden, or any garden space at all, I have a solution to winter blues you may be experiencing.  The first item is something I started doing when I lived in a Philly apartment that was lacking in the natural light department.  It's not a novel idea, but it's a fun way to have a little "garden" on your windowsill.

Idea One: Sprouting!
All you need is a clean jar with lid and a small handful of sprouting seeds.  I've had success with dried mung beans, lentils, alfalfa, etc.

Here "salad mix" seeds have sprouted.

Method:
Day 1: Place a tablespoon or so of seeds in the jar and cover with water to soak overnight.
Day 2: Drain water by placing lid loosely over the jar and turning upright, removing as much water as possible.  Replace lid and set on a windowsill.
Day 3-7 (or longer): At least once a day,  rinse and drain the seeds/sprouts, until they're ready to be eaten!

If you want to make your job easier, you can get a small section of screening, place it over the mouth of the jar with a rubber band, instead of dealing with the lid.  Alternatively, you can get an actual sprouting jar, equipped with a fancy lid-with-screen.

Idea Two: Continuously grow your own green onions

I learned about this idea on Pinterest.  And thought "of course!"  Simply purchase a bunch of green onions at your grocery store.  After use, save the bulbs and roots, stick the roots in water, and watch the green grow back!  Empty and refill the water once per day.


Creamy Collards Soup
makes two generous bowls of soup

Ingredients:
1 large yellow potato, peeled and cubed
1 small bundle of collards, stems discarded, and chopped
1-2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1/2 carrot, shredded
1/2 small onion, diced
1 sprig parsley, chopped
1 clove garlic, smashed
4ish cups vegetable broth (I just used "Better Than" bouillon and added water until the right consistency was achieved)
salt and pepper to taste
Hot sauce to drizzle on top

Method:
1. Boil the potato in water until soft (about 8-10 min).  Meanwhile, steam collards (about 5-6 minutes) until bitterness is gone and collards are soft.  Reserve about 1 cup of the potato cooking water, draining the rest.  Cool.

2. While potato and collards cool, saute the carrot, onion, parsley, and garlic in olive oil for 5-7 minutes.  Add vegetable broth.  Add half the cooked potato.

3. Blend the other half of the potato and the collards in 1 cup of the potato cooking water until smooth.  Add to the vegetable broth mixture and stir until the contents are well combined.*

4. Serve hot with a swirl of hot sauce and nice piece of sourdough and a salad.

*If you have a high-powered blender (like a Vitamix) you may need to spoon foam off the top of the soup.