The bottom of the crisper drawer

I try to keep a few things around no matter how busy I am--often too busy to shop, and not home often enough to keep food around before it would go bad. As far as fresh food goes--I choose vegetables that don't go bad quickly--onions, at least one type of bitter green, cabbage, potatoes, garlic, and ginger. Today's the day--the day I scrape the bottom of the crisper drawer--two or three days after I should have gone shopping for supplemental sources of vitamins, minerals, and especially proteins (is this common among vegetarians--to never have enough protein around?) It's 40 degrees in Seattle, and it's been twilight since 8 am. I am not going out. I have about 15 minutes stolen between yoga and a poetry editing project and I'm so hungry I'm tweaking out--every edible I see I want to eat NOW--in fact, I'm just going to fire the gas under the cast iron and throw any food items in it in the order they cross my field of vision.

4 leaves kale-cut off the yellow/mushy bits, cut 3x length-wise and again in 1' strips cross-wise.
zucchini- cut in half and left out on the counter no less than 4 days ago- remove scarred tissue-cut in medallions
2 cloves garlic-the outlandishly large non-organic variety because my underemployment has finally gotten the better of my politics-thinly sliced, not crushed
almonds
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp rice wine vinegar
1 tsp sesame oil
spices--salt, turmeric, cumin, cayenne

Heat olive oil in skillet. Zucchini goes in first; allow it to soften and get golden-brown. Add kale and garlic. Kale doesn't have as much moisture as some other greens, so leave it sit while it crisps at first, and then stir often to prevent it and the garlic sticking. Add almonds and a splash of vinegar to accelerate cooking. Remove from heat. Toss, in a bowl, the rest of the vinegar, sesame oil, and spices to taste. Zing! Working lunch is served.

Most Cheerful Breakfast Ever

This morning we got into a car accident on the way to the Elwah Hot Springs. We were a little shook up, so gave up on the rustic retreat in favor of a visit to the Lavender capitol of America, Sequim. The chef must have seen how worried I was about my bestie, Ellen, who was driving the car. He made me this:

can you read it? it says, "Smile and Enjoy"

Review: Quorn Goat Cheese and Cranberry Filet

On an impulse, and because it had the words goat cheese and cranberry all over the packaging on a shopping trip which I really should have snacked before embarking upon, I bought Quorn's "chicken filets" stuffed with the aforementioned goat cheese and cranberry, and breaded and baked. Made from myco-protein, otherwise known as fungi, the texture was an incredibly good mimic of that chewy, muscly thing that chicken breast has (god I just barfed in my mouth a little thinking about muscle-filet). Also the nutty, umami flavor derived from mushrooms? I mean it didn't exactly specify if they were crimini or shiitake or anything other than "myco-protein" on the package. But it definitely was savory. And I definitely savored it.

With a bottle of Chardonnay and some veggies. 

All in all it took me about 17 minutes.

2 Filets, in a preheated toaster oven for 15 minutes and your done with your main dish. I sprinkled some chives on top, but fresh rosemary or sage would be hella tastee too.

Zucchini got some color in a pan with a little sea salt and olive oil. Took about 5 minutes for those to start caramelizing, at which point I added the swiss chard and a little garlic. Swiss chard takes basically the blink of an eye to wilt, and then we were ready. I shot it with some fresh lemon juice as I was plating.

The filet was amazing. Just the slightest bit of both tang and butteriness from the goat cheese under the breading. The zing of lemon juice, and the juicy butteriness of the zucchini really brought the veggies together with the filet. I really liked how the goat cheese held the breading on, so it would sort of flake off and reveal all this mushy, deliciousness oozing onto the fork.

I would ask of Quorn only for a greater proportion of cranberry. It seemed to be shaved to just the essence of the dried fruit, and not in every bite, just popping out occasionally.

Chanterelle Ravioli and Gjetost Sauce

Sometimes it's too late at night to cook from scratch. Or maybe you're too bone-tired from another day of non-stop, pedal to the floor getting-shit-done. I had a night like that this week, you know the kind, crawling home from "restorative" yoga and stopping at the over-priced Marketime corner shop for a bottle of prosecco, Bitch magazine, and pre-made dinner? Yes, I was so tired I thought about eating nothing but a box of "buffalo wings" and getting full off the carbon-dioxide in my screw-top (!!!) bubbly.

Instead, I picked up a pack of frozen ravioli by Rising Moon Organics. I've enjoyed their butternut squash ravioli quite a bit on other over-worked, under-napped nights. I've also been looking for a meatless way to enjoy the Gjetost Sauce featured on New Scandinavian Cooking, which is paired with meatballs in Norwegian fare. Holy Shit, they're like little umami dumplings slathered in the sweet dreams alfredo sauce has of being young and in love again. Feeds 1 (or 2 with a salad, you know, if you can bring your poor calloused hands to make one).

Chanterelle Ravioli (1 pack)

1. Boil water, no oil or salt, as these ravioli are fragile!
2. Bring the water from a rolling boil down to a soft one. Add the ravioli unthawed.
3. These are ready in exactly 8 minutes, no need to throw them against a wall.

Sauce
1/2 cup sour cream
3 oz gjestost cheese
zest of one lemon
pinch of sea salt

1. Get a small pot warmed up.
2. Add sour cream.
3. Add shaved gjetost, a little bit at a time, stirring and integrating the cheese before adding more.
4. When the sauce is nearly hot, add the zest of an entire lemon, and a tiny bit of salt.

One of the most exciting things for me about this recipe was the opportunity to put Ski Queen and Ektoste to a Pepsi Challenge. These are the two most popular brands of Norwegian Gjetoste in the US, if you've been living under a cheeseless rock.Ski Queen is part cow and part goat's milk and whey. Ektoste is more traditional, 100% goat whey. This gives it a slightly sharper tang than the Ski Queen. The caramel smoothness is stronger in the Ski Queen, so, although I'm ordinarily a goat cheese purist, I am really glad I ended up using both brands.

The dish turned out looking kind of sick in the pictures. It looks sort of like a melted Werther's Original in the picture, and although it had a salted caramel thing going on, it was complex and soft and stuck to the noodles more than the sides of your teeth. It was simple to make, only three ingredients, and yet really complex and tangy (goat whey will do that for you). It amazed me that with sour cream and gjetost, it was set to be really tangy, obvs., but it was the lemon rind that really brought out the tang, really mellowed out the almost too-creaminess of it.

Also it took me, seriously, no more than 10 minutes.

Veggie Sausage!

Tonight we launched our first full-scale veggie sausage attempt. Breakfast for dinner is one of my favorite meals (especially when I take naps after work until dinner) and we spend about $6/package for vegetarian sausage (esp. Field Roast's apple-smoked sage, yum). So tonight, we endeavored to transform Joe's famous "Hot Morning Jumble" from mashed beans in a clump, to beautiful little sausages, using our new meat grinder!

Veggie Sausage went something like 2 cans of black beans, 2 cups TVP (soaked) and 3/4 cup of cooked brown rice. We added a pinch of cornstarch, and a bunch of sage, salt and pepper. It went through the grinder once, and then again on the smallest setting and with the sausage stuffing attachment. It was actually pretty painless and quick, despite employing a hand-crank machine, because nothing has to cook (except the rice obviously, and it's great to use leftovers here since the process calls for so little).

It cooked up really nicely, and had a fair amount of flavor (though we might add vegetables or something next time to give it umph). I think maybe they were too heavy on the black beans though, because the mixture was very gummy. We might add a different type of thickener next time, and more of it, because they were sort of easily broken, and didn't hold shape that well under heat.

almond-ella and nectarines

Tonight I made a crazy dinner. As I was throwing together some red curry and rice, I came across some unsweetened baking chocolate powder. I almost wanted to throw some in the curry, that's how much I was craving chocolate in the moment when it caught my eye. But I restrained myself, remembering that I had gotten Joe a nectarine from the public market as a present. It would make a great desert somehow. And because the nectarine was battered and bruised by a couple novels in the tote bag I carried it in, I knew I wanted to cook them up a little. I never measure when I start throwing something together for the first time, so basically every ingredient should be added to taste, and with desired end consistency in mind.

Nutty Chocolatey Sauce

1/2 c soy milk
3 tbsp unsweetened baking chocolate
a bunch of brown sugar (2 tbsp? 3?)
1/4- 1/2 c almond butter
dash o salt

Put the soy milk in a saucepan and turn the heat to low.

Add the baking chocolate. Taste here because most soy milk has some sweetener in it, and soy milk is naturally a little sweet. Then add as much brown sugar as you want. I added some sea salt here because of a recent episode of Modern Family which featured chocolate milk (I think that show is kind of hilarious, but I'm not sure if I should), and it really brought out the rich chocolatey flavor.

Add the almond butter. The sauce should thicken up as the almond butter melts, and it will thicken more after you take it off the heat, so keep a close eye on consistency.


Meanwhile chop some nectarines, and put a frying pan on low heat. I sauteed my nectarines in butter (starting when the almond butter begins melting in the sauce) with ginger powder and nutmeg. I think nectarines are juicy enough you could just fry them in their own juice, esp. on a non-stick pan.

I also toasted a piece of French bread while the fruit cooked. I put the bread on the bottom of a bowl, added the nectarines, and drizzled sauce over. It was reminiscent of a cobbler or a waffle-style set-up. The chocolate sauce was a million times better than nutella, and made with stuff I always have lying around.

Take this Urban Hot Dog Stand!

We recently moved to Seattle. It's changed the way we eat forever (more on that in posts to come). One thing that I know I've always wanted (but have never enjoyed because I've never lived in a big enough city) is a Hot Dog Stand hot dog.

Seattle is no New York. There are not stands just any place. But the ones we do have are "surf party USA" as Tracy Jordan would say. Off the hook! We really like to stand outside of places like Cha-Cha Lounge and The Unicorn smoking, and dancing to music that is happening inside, but which our claustrophobia prevents us from listening to up close. When we've worked up a serious appetite dancing and watching strangers decked in plastic pants and costume jewelry, we head down to Comet Dog and get a vegetarian dog with cream cheese, thin-cut onions, and all the fixins: ketchup, relish, kraut, mustard. Well, Joey and I have been working on a DIY version of this late-night classic. And we managed to make it with (almost exclusively) locally sourced ingredients. Check it out:

Field Roast Apple-smoked Sage "Sausage" (Seattle)
Buns from Essential Bakery in Fremont
"Olives of Love" from PCC
Local Heirloom Cherry Tomatoes, Onion, Garlic
Some crazy-rind French Goat Cheese
Grace Harbor Farms Cream-top yogurt from Custer, WA
Blackberry Honey from High Country Honey, Burlington, WA

Cayenne Powder, Cumin, salt
First I caramelized some onions in butter. Drizzled a little honey on them (just a touch!) lots of salt, and a little cayenne and cumin. When they were golden with burn-y edges (that's how I like them, although I think the Capitol Hill style is more of an unseasoned, non-crispy thing, and it is also very good).


Then I got started chopping up these olives earl tiny. I put some raw garlic on because the late-night hot dogs are spicy. I chopped the tomatoes up small and put them with the olives. It's a little unconventional as a relish, I can see you right now scratching your chin. But it was actually very good: salty and spicy, exactly what you need to counteract the cream cheese (rather than the cream cheese cutting down the spicy, obvs cream cheese is not negotiable, where spicy certainly is). I see this as a replacement for ketchup (gross) and relish (not gross but difficult to make in 20 minutes before dindin).
Ok so Field Roast Apple Smoke Links are my favorite vegetable-gluten protein of the mo. They are savory like sausage, and a little bit sweet, with a very heady, hearty texture. But there is no meat in them! I think this recipe would also go very well with the other varieties of Links, Chipotle and Italian (although I am not a huge fan of the Italian--too much eggplant).

Then I got some buns toasting.

Then I mixed about a quarter ounce of goat cheese with a half ounce of yogurt until they were fully creamed together. It actually created a dairy product almost the consistency of cream cheese. Maybe you are wondering why we didn't just get cream cheese. Well, the only grocery store we are within walking distance of (at 8 pm when we finally decide to make dinner) is PCC where all the food is super expensive because it's a pretend co-op. Cream cheese costs like $5 there, and I just can't justify that for one meal. Whereas we eat yogurt and goat's cheese separately almost every day. I would say this mixture would be worth trying with Greek yogurt because it is so thick. Cream top yogurt is good, but it is still too thin. Also, because the Grace Harbor Yogurt is made from Guernsey cow's milk, it's a little too sweet to pass as cream cheese. Definitely sour enough and salty enough, though.


Topped all that shit with my salsa-nade and we were ready to eat. It's such a quick meal! If you are fast at chopping olives and cherry tomatoes, which, I am not, because they are very slippery, and as you know, I'm very afraid of sharp objects.