Gone Spiral

summer squash, daikon and carrot noodles with cinnamon basil pesto

Holee molee, this post has been a long time getting off the ground; it's been sitting in my publish Q since last Sunday; better late than never, I guess. 

Last Saturday, when I received my latest kitchen acquisition, I couldn't wait to try it out:  

I'm a big believer in the saying that the best tool in the kitchen is your hands but, I'd be hard pressed to do this to such effect with my bare hands: 

spiralized veggies 

I've been wanting one of these for a while, and in looking around for which kind to buy I read several product reviews. Some spiralizers were said to produce a lot of waste, leaving a lot of the vegetable unspiralized after it was all over. Others worked on soft veggies like zucchini but didn't do so well with hard ones like carrots and beets. This one got good reviews on both those counts. 

It has a simple design, which is an attractive characteristic in a gadget if you ask me. It may seem a little pricey for what it is, but it works well, is easy to use, and easy to clean. I feel like it's worth the money, provided it's something you'll use with some frequency. It's funny, you read such wildly different reviews; some people hated this product, others loved it. In the end, everyone has to decide for themselves. 

I know a lot of you have spiralizers: any tips or tricks or things you especially like to use them for? There's a picture in the instruction booklet of potato curls...(I'm thinking curly fries). 

For my first run, I decided keep it tame and make some veggie noodles to toss with pesto.

Speaking of kitchen gadgets, I don't know whether a pestle and mortar qualifies as one or not, but either way, I don't have one.  A shameful state of affairs really, so I usually make pesto by chopping it up really fine, tossing it into a bowl and stirring in a tablespoon or two of oil at the very end.  I used cinnamon basil for this batch--the leaves are less spongy than sweet basil and it has a subtle cinnamon scent and taste. It's great used in desserts and produces pretty purple flowers.

In other new products, I ran across these tofu-based dips:

We tried the curry flavor, which was tasty...it reminded me of tofu "egg" salad, but, I'm not sure I'll buy it again. They have a few other flavors, has anyone seen or tried any of them? 

We spent most of the weekend lazing around in the garden, which gave way to making pickled nasturtium seeds.  I have lots of them in the garden and it was easy to gather a little jar full of fresh green seeds. It's an interesting idea from one of my fav kitchen books called The Magic of Herbs; they're supposed to be a similar to capers when they're done, which makes sense. They won't be ready for another six weeks, and I'll post more about them then if they turn out well. 

green nasturtium seeds

And finally, please ignore my gnarly knuckle, but here's a cute little ring made from a blade of grass, a clover, and some teeny yellow flowers. It actually stayed on most of the day; I was quite chuffed about it:

Panko Crusted Seitan, Country Bob and More...

A good week or so ago, Michelle of Lovinlivinvegan blog hosted a giveaway for some Country Bob's All Purpose sauce, an item that makes regular appearances on her blog...and I got lucky and won! Thanks Michelle!

This post was a long time in coming; I received the sauce a week ago, but I wanted to use it a few times before I posted about it. So, this is the official Country (-ountry, -ountry, -ountry) Bob's (-ob's, -ob's, -ob's) Mega (-ega, -ega, -ega) Post (-ost, -ost, -ost).  (BlessedMama: I couldn't resist :D

Country Bob's All Purpose Sauce:

Country Bob:

The sauce is made from tomato paste, molasses, and tamarind pulp and a blend of onion, garlic and other spices. It makes a sweet, deep, slightly tangy condiment for savory dishes. 

The first thing we tried it with was some panko-breaded seitan and shredded cabbage:

A a squeeze of fresh lemon, some Country Bob's, and some daikon radish on the side, made this really tasty, crispy, and satisfying. 

Here's the seitan recipe I made:

Panko-Breaded Seitan 

1.5  cups Vital Wheat Gluten + 2 Tbs chickpea flour

1/4 tsp Garlic Granules (or to taste)

1/4 tsp Onion Powder (or to taste)

2 sprigs fresh thyme, removed from woody stem

1 cup Seitenbacher veggie broth (or 1 cup no-salt veggie broth + 1/4 cup nutritional yeast) 

1 cup cooked white beans, like cannelini

1 Tbs Soy Sauce or Bragg's Aminos

1 Tbs Vegan Worchestershire Sauce

Combine the wheat gluten, onion powder, garlic powder and thyme in  a large bowl. Pulse the beans in a food processor so they're finely chopped, or coursely mash them with a fork or potato masher, and add to the mixture.  Pour in veggie broth/nut yeast, soy sauce, and worchestershire sauce and mix to combine. 

Shape the seitan into a large roll, wrap tightly in tin foil and steam for 1 - 1.5 hours, turning occasionally until it feels firm to the touch.

Allow the seitan roll to cool and cut into 1/2-inch cutlets. I cut mine length-wise, and I got 4, 6-inch peices.

For the Panko Breading

Combine 1 Tbs egg replacer ( I used Ener-G brand) and 1/3 cup non-dairy milk and whisk until smooth and frothy. (You may have to add a little more liquid to adjust the consistency; it should be loose enough to dip in, but thick enough to stick to the seitan.) Add a pinch of cayenne pepper and garlic powder to taste and whisk. You'll need about 1 - 2 cups of panko bread crumbs, depending on how many cutlets you have.

Dip the seitan in the egg replacer mixture  and then dredge in the panko crumbs unitl coated, then repeat the process, so the cutlets are dipped and coated twice.

Heat about 3/4-inch of high-heat oil in a pan over medium-high until some crumbs dropped in sizzle upon hitting the surface and fry the seitan until golden brown,  ~ 1 minute on each side. 

This seitan also went well with some steamed cabbage, mashed potato with spring onion, and cooked apple. I made this last week, but come to think of it, this would be a fab St. Paddy's Day meal...we may just have this again tomorrow:

The third time we broke out the Country Bob's with was some of Melody of MeloMeals blog 3-ingredient veggie burgers on rosemary focaccia with two-bean chili and homemade oven fries (the chili is underneath the burger):

I can't say enough good things about these burgers. The three ingredients are rolled oats, hot cooked beans, and onion soup mix. The beans have to be hot, so the oatmeal plumps up as the beans are mashed in and the mixture binds. I didn't have any onion soup mix, so I made up my own spice profile with garlic powder, onion powder, some oregano, etc. The possibilities are endless with these I think; you could add in any spice combo for different flavors: curry, southwestern flavors etc. I could also see adding in finely chopped veggies, sun dried tomatoes, or other additional goodies. 

So, if you're on the lookout for a good veggie burger, head over to Melody's blog, because I highly recommend these. In fact, all her recipes are wonderful in my opinion. 

Speaking of which, here's another one of Melody's recipes: Lentil Loaf, (of course adorned with CB's sauce):

I had some leftover brown rice pilaf and braised lentils and decided a lentil loaf would be good way to use them up. This loaf is super tasty. I added a little horseradish to the loaf mix too, which was good. Melody's recipe calls for a cranberry glaze, but  I didn't have any cranberries on hand, so used some Spicy Garlic Apple Jam for the glaze. 

These Country Bob meals have been the dinner highlights of the past 7 days or so. Outside of that, we've been eating mostly beans and salad, which is good, but not necessarily that exciting to blog about. 

Thanks again to Michelle for hosting the giveaway and for the yummy sauce!

And, Happy Paddy's Day to everyone! 

Green Banana Curry, Shukta Vegetables and Panch Phoron

**Post Factum:** 

This is one of a series of posts for Vegan MoFo 2010; my theme was a 'Virtual Random Road Trip', where I used random.org's random geographic location generator to select locations around the globe, I then attempted to cook a few dishes from the traditional cuisine of that place. I didn't have a lot of time between generating the locations and coming up with recipes (~ 1 day). So, lacking time to do proper research, I can't vouch for the authenticity of anything I came up with. However, they are what they are, and it was a fun theme. 

The road trip has fizzled out a bit over the  last week or so, but I wanted to put up one last post in honor of wrapping up VeganMoFo. The last locale for the road trip turned out to be Bangladesh, so here's my shot at a couple of recipes I found on this Bangladeshi cooking site.

The first recipe that caught my eye was a green banana curry. As with the green mango recipes, I can't say whether the plaintains I used are the same variety of hard, cooking banana that would be traditional, but at least these plaintains were truly green, and I think,  probably similar in texture starch content to ones used in that part of the world.

Kanchkolar Dom or Green Banana Curry from Bengali Cooking Recipes

(Serves 6)

4 green/unripe plantains, peeled and sliced  into 1/2-inch pieces

2 green chilis, chopped (I used green serrano chilis)

2 potatoes, cut into 1/2-inch cubes

2 small or 1 large onion, minced

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon.

1-2 tablespoons cooking oil as needed/or desired

1/4 teasoon ground cardamon

1 tablespoon cumin seeds

2 teaspoon sugar or other sweetner of choice

2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric

salt to taste

In a sauce pan add two cups of water, 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon turmeric, and the plantain slices, bring to a boil and allow to cook for ~5+ minutes. (I boiled mine for ~ 7-8 minutes). Drain the plantains and pan fry in ~ 1 tablespoon oil/or use a non-stick pan w/o oil, unitil the plantain slices are browned on both sides.

While the plantain slices are browning, parboil the potatoes in salted water until somewhat tender, but not cooked all the way ~ 6-8 minutes. (Alternately, you could process the potatoes along with the plantain, but keep in mind that depending on how big your potato slices are, the plantain will probably take a little longer to cook.)

When the plantains are brown, remove from pan and set aside. In same pan with remaining oil, or a touch more if there's none left, add cumin seeds, onion, green chilis, cinnamon, and cardamon and allow them to saute over medium heat for 2-3 minutes. Add the potatoes and saute for another few minutes. Finally, add the plantain back in with the lemon juice, sweetener, and 1/2 cup of water, bring to a simmer, cover, and allow to cook for another ~ 5 minutes. Add salt to taste.

The starch from the potatoes and the plantain should help thicken the broth. (Use more water for more broth if desired.)

 

An easy way to peel the tough skin from the unripe plantain is to cut the ends off, slice through the skin lengthwise and then pry the skin off slowly by running your fingers underneath the skin. (I hope that doesn't sound x-rated or anything.)

I was tempted to add coconut milk to this, but didn't in order to keep with the original recipe. The dish is quite pretty because the turmeric turns the plantains a lovely yellow hue. It is nicely spiced, and I especially like the lemon juice added at the end. 

The second dish I made is called Shukta Vegetable with Lentil. The recipe calls for a lauo (or lau), which is bottle gourd. Bottle gourd is a squash/or melon (whatever you want to call it)...a curcubit at any rate that is described as having a light green skin with white flesh inside. Harvested young, it is used as a vegetable. Harvested when mature and dried, they can be used as bowls or bottles. (Very cool, I totally want some gourd bowls now.)

Well, it probably won't come as a surprise, but I did not use bottle gourd. It's not generally available in my local grocery, and I will admit that I'm a bit lazy when it comes to sourcing ingredients. Instead, I used another member of the curcubit family: chayote, which is like bottle gourd in so far as it has a green skin and white flesh inside...outside of that, I do not have a clue as to how they might compare. 

I had never tried chayote before, and didn't actually buy it specifically for this recipe. But rather, I bought a couple a few weeks ago after being inspired by Zoa's cool post on this squash earlier this month. With no bottle gourd around, I figured what the hey, let's give the chayote a try.

Shukta Vegetable with Lentil from Bengali Cooking Recipes

(serves 6)

1 lb lauo/bottle gourd (I used 2 chayote squash (unpeeled)), cut into 1/2-inch peices

1/2 cup dry mung beans

1 cup green peas, (not dried)

1 teaspoon sugar or other sweetener of choice

1 tablespoon cooking oil
1/2 teaspoon mustard seed
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

handful of coriander/cilantro leaves, chopped

1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric

salt to taste

In a sauce pan over medium-low, dry roast the mung beans slightly (~1 minute). Now add the ginger and turmeric, salt and 2 cups of water, cover and cook over medium-high until mung beans are tender. About halfway through cooking, add in the chayote pieces. When the mung beans and squash are tender, toss in the peas, the sweetener, and cilantro and cook for another minute or so.

When you are ready to serve, heat the oil in a separate pan, add the mustard seeds and stir quickly. Remove from heat and pour cooked vegetables/mung beans in the oil and stir through.

(Note: the original recipe says to add the bottle gourd in at the beginning and cook it with the mung beans the whole time, but I wasn't sure whether the gourd might be a little harder than the chayote, so I added it in later, probably  ~10 minutes before the mung beans were done.)

Both dishes were tasty, especially with a little Frank's Red Hot sprinkled over the top.

And finally, this is more of an aside, but I wanted to quickly mention Panch Phoron, or Bengali 5-spice (panch=five, phoron=flavor). I thought I would use it for this destination, but as it turned out, none of the recipes I ended up making called for it. It consists of fenugreek, anise, nigella, mustard (some sources call for yellow mustard, some for brown), and cumin. It can be used to aromatize oil, or stewed into dals and other dishes. The overall flavor is a little bittersweet, a little licorice-y, and I think it looks pretty.

So there you have it. This random road trip has come to its end. I had a great time and learned a lot from trying new (to me) recipes from other countries and veganizing them. Although, I didn't get to many destinations, I think Algeria and Hungary were my favorites.

I didn't get to read nearly as many blogs as I would have liked either, but I intend to keep perusing the blog roll at over at Vegan MoFo HQ throughout the year to come. There are so many great blogs out there, in MoFo land and beyond!

Bye, bye Vegan MoFo, until next year! Thanks for all the great blogging and good luck to all MoFoers everywhere! And to all vegan bloggers in general (MoFo or not): you guys rock my world! --Love Central--

Finally, *thank you most sincerely* to everyone who came along on the road trip...I really appreciated your company, humor, wisdom, and fun comments!

So long, farewell, and adieu to yieu, and yieu, and yeiu in the languages from the road trip along the way:

Adios
Catch ya later
Ma’a salama 
Viszlát
Aabar dekha hobe

Ratatouille-Stuffed Aubergines

Ok, I admit it's a little pretentious of me to be calling eggplants by their otherwise French/British English name, seeing as how I'm blogging from the US. But, what can I say? I love that word! And since 'ratatouille' already had me on the turf of the ancient Gauls...why not?

I thought I might as well use the three wee eggplants that graced my garden this year; late-bloomers that they were, they weren't going to get any bigger from here on in. So, I whipped up some hummus, topped it with a bit of harissa, and served it with some ratatouille-filled mini eggplants. It got a bit messy, but it was a colorful feast of the eyes.

The harissa was a treat that my neighbor presented me for watering her houseplants while she was away.  I had never had it before, and while it's bit on the salty side (this particular jar is anyway) we enjoyed the deep, peppery tang of it.

Also, if you haven't already, don't forget to sign up for VeganMofo IV. It really is a lot of fun and a great way to discover cool blogs from all over the globe. 

Speaking of vegan coolness (or should I say "ghoulness"), if you haven't yet, I have to recommend you check out Manifest Vegan's seasonal take on chips and guacamole, cuz it is really is way too cute. 

Happy Thanksgiving weekend Canada!

Breaded Tofu with Horseradish & Green Coriander Seeds

green coriander seed

All you coriander/cilantro growers out there probably already know this, but just in case you don't: when your cilantro (aka coriander) starts to bolt, let it. That way, you can harvest the seeds...and they are especially tasty while still green. Of course, you can let them dry out and turn brown, but definitely try some of the green ones too. Whereas you can buy whole coriander seed (dry/brown variety) in most any super market...getting a hold of these green gems is really only the privilege of those who grow it themselves.

The green seeds have a bright and citrus-like flavor, reminiscent of cucumber and lemons.  They go great in salad dressings, marinades, or just sprinkled over your favorite dish. With that in mind, I threw together this quick sauce:

Cashew Cream with Horseradish and Green Coriander Seed

1/2 cup cashew cream (I made mine on the fluid/less thick side)
1 tablespoon prepared (vegan) horseradish (or adjust to taste) ( I like Bubbies brand)
2 tablespoons green coriander seed, roughly crushed with the flat side of a knife (or adjust to taste)

If you don't have any green coriander seed, capers and lemon zest would be good too (or just fresh coriander leaves of course).

Note: the cashew cream recipe I linked to above mentions something like "if you don't have  a Vita Mix you'll have to sieve the cashew cream to get a smooth consistency"... this is false. I don't have a Vita Mix; I just let it blend for several minutes in my food processor--eventually you'll get a lovely smooth texture.

cashew cream with horseradish and green coriander

The sauce has a mild horseradish flavor, brightened by the citrusy coriander seed. It went well with some  oven-baked, breaded tofu.

For the tofu, I began by marinating it in lemon juice, white wine, and garlic.  For better absorption potential, I used frozen tofu, defrosted and pressed to remove the excess liquid. I used a biscuit cutter to make little rounds (tofu circles are fun!): 

marinating tofu rounds 

After letting it marinate for several hours, I breaded it and let it bake in a 375 (F) oven until it was toasty brown. 

Bread Crumb Mixture

mix of sprouted grain (Genesis Bread) and panko bread crumbs

Old Bay Seasoning to taste

dulse flakes to taste

chili powder to taste

We had them on a bed of lightly sauteed chard with some rice/legume pilau and some salad from the garden:

tofu "scallops" with horseradish-coriander cream,  chard,  and rice/legume pilau

You can't really see the chard in the photo, because it's hidden underneath the tofu. The rice mixture (I'm not sure whether it qualifies as a "pilau") is a mix of brown and wild rice with lentils and spilt peas: 

rice/legume mix

It cooks up in the same amount of time as regular brown rice--I usually cook it in veggie broth with some diced onion and it turns out pretty tasty.

This was a consoling dinner on a Sunday evening; it was fun to make so it helped take my mind off of Monday, which is  looming it's big ugly head. 

Mid-week Mezze

After dutifully plodding through leftovers on Monday and Tuesday, we finally busted loose for some much more exciting fare tonight, munching our way through a variety of savory snacks. It was a nice way to spend an April evening.

Stuffed grape leaves have been on my mind for a while now; I've had them in restaurants,  but I had never made them myself, so I was excited to try.

I stuffed the leaves with some leftover brown basmati rice, chick peas, lemon juice, and fresh mint. I love the tang of the leaves with the taste of fresh mint.  On the side (lower right corner in photo), I made some Bulgarian-style tofu yogurt, and added some cucumber and parsley to it. The recipe is from Bryanna Clark Grogan, and I read about it in this post from The Airy Way blog...Zoa from The Airy Way is right:  this stuff is good...it's not sweet like store-bought soy yogurts tend to be, and you can add any flavors to it to make it as sweet or savory as you like. Thanks to both Bryanna Clark Grogan and Zoa!

This plate has some marinated asparagus with butter bean and rosemary hummus and some kalamata and manzanilla olives on the side. The idea for the asparagus came from Alicia of Vegan Epicurean, when she posted  about the benefits (both health- and taste-wise) of eating raw asparagus and provided a quick and delicious recipe for making a marinated asparagus salad. I've always loved asparagus in any form, and this made a crunchy delicious dipper for the hummus. Thanks Alicia! ( And yes, we double dip...hee-hee.)

For the hummus, I blended 1 cup cooked butter beans, 1 small clove garlic, two tablespoons of ground flax seed,  1 tablespoon of fresh lemon juice, and I think about 1/4 teaspoon of salt. Over the top we drizzled some extra virgin olive oil and sprinkled fresh rosemary to taste. 

 
I have two containers of French sorrel in my garden and I'm trying to use it on a regular basis. It tastes like sour apples to me, which makes sense because it's in the same family as rhubarb. Lately, I've taken to pinching off leaves and snacking on them while I potter around in the garden...I find the taste addictive. Above,  is a small-chopped, horiatiki-style salad on sorrel leaves. I didn't have any tomato, so red pepper, kalamata olives, red onion, and cucumber sufficed along with some lemon juice, black pepper, and olive oil.

And finally, here are some stewed tomatoes and artichokes along with whole wheat pita and some carrot crackers that I found at Whole Foods. The artichokes are stewed with fresh tomato, shallot, and garlic...I have some pretty pictures of the baby artichokes, so I'll post about that separately.

I leave you with a wee asparagus sandwich :

Roseann LaPonte

Rosanne Tobin

Minty Lima Bean Hummus

 

I got a hankering for some sort of green, minty, spring-like concoction the other day and decided to try some lima bean hummus...at least that's what I'm calling it...if you prefer, it's just a dip made from lima beans. I wasn't sure how it would turn out; but we liked it. It's bright and refreshing.

If you do a search for it, you'll find lots of different variations...I decided to keep mine plain and simple by blending together the following ingredients:

10 oz bag of frozen baby lima beans, thawed
1 large clove of garlic (it was pretty big, so probably the equivalent of 1.5 or 2 average-sized cloves)
15 - 20 fresh mint leaves (according to taste...this turned out fairly minty)
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
zest of 1 organic lemon
1/2 teaspoon salt ( or to taste)
pinch of black pepper to taste
finely chopped fresh chives to garnish

I didn't add any oil to this batch to keep it  lean, but it would be yummy to add a tablespoon or so of olive oil while blending, or to drizzle some over the top at the table.

It made a nice addition to last night's dinner, which was  tofu, chard, and sweet corn "quiche" on a salad of baby greens and watercress.

For the quiche, I made a variation of VeganLovlie's recipe ...thanks Vegan Lovlie! If you haven't checked out her blog, I recommend it...she whips up some great vegan food with very interesting recipes and gorgeous photos. Instead of mushrooms and broccoli, I used chard and added some turmeric and other spices. It's a versatile recipe that would be good any time of day. I'll be packing the leftovers for lunch next week.

I hope everyone has a relaxing Sunday.

Chick Pea Cakes, Horiatiki, and Baba Ghanouj

For dinner last night we had chick pea cakes with baba ghanouj and fresh salsa on a bed of fresh spinach; a horiatiki-style salad with cucumber, tomato, red onion and black olives in a flaxseed oil, vinegar, and oregano dressing.

The chick pea cakes were basically the same as Vegan Epicurean's recipe here; I also added shredded zucchini and parsley. The baba is so simple and delicious, it's the roasted flesh of one medium-sized eggplant, 2 tbsp lemon juice, 1 clove garlic, 1/4 cup raw sesame seeds, Bragg's Aminos, cumin, and pepper to taste, all blended up for several minutes unitl smooth.

Happy Friday Everyone!

Cucumber and Hummus Rollups with Salsa & Peppers

 

I got a mandoline for Christmas, and decided to take it out for it's first run today with these cucumber rollups.
 
The rollups didn't turn out as solid as I wanted; the idea was to stand them upright, but they held together better flat.  It doesn't matter; it all went down just the same:).

The peppers are just raw peppers with fresh salsa and a piece of avocado.

The hummus was sort of an experiment because I put some horseradish in it, and I have to say I enjoyed it. Here's what I put in the hummus (just an idea rather than a recipe)...it makes about 1.5 cups worth.

1 cup cooked chick peas
juice from 1/2 of a medium lemon
4 sun-dried tomatoes, reconstituted in warm water
1/2 teaspoon prepared vegan horseradish
1 small garlic clove

The sweetness of the s/d tomatoes balanced out the zing of the horseradish. In keeping with Eat to Live, I didn't add any salt (except for the salt in the horseradish) or other fats, and it was pretty tasty just the same.

RRR Sandwich w/ Tomato Marmalade

....Roasted Rosemary Root Vegetables sandwich that is.

I found a lovely loaf of organic vegan potato bread from a local bakery, and root vegetables seemed like just the sort of "autumny" things to put in it. I used parsnips, rutabaga, delicata squash, and carrots. I tried roasting some horseradish root too, but I didn't put it in the sandwich because it tasted very bitter.

The veggies roasted in a 350 C oven for ~20 minutes with olive oil, fresh rosemary, salt, and pepper over the top.

For the "marmalade," I just caramelized some red onion in olive oil, tossed in some chili pepper flakes, deglazed with red wine, and added tomato paste, salt and pepper. The zestyness of the tomatoes goes well with the mellow sweetness of the roasted roots.


Happy Wednesday!

Ciao for now. :)

Peanut Butter & Dill Pickles

This post is about peanut butter and dill pickles... not separately...but rather, as a combo. I'm sure a lot of you out there are familiar with the old PBDP, or Peanut Butter and Dill Pickle sandwich--a 70's lunch box classic. I must have eaten one of these at least 2 or 3 times a week when I was kid:

Although there is a cult following for this lunch box treat, I understand that some of you may still be skeptical. I do think that those who prefer savory over sweet will be more inclined towards this sandwich. However, I still recommend that you give it a try regardless of your savory vs. sweet preferences. In my experience, the un-initiated often cringe when I describe the PBDB, but when they actually taste one, they are pleasantly surprised.

The ingredients are simple:

Your favorite bread
Your favorite peanut butter
Your favorite dill pickle

Last Friday, I cracked out the crock pickles that I had started 3 weeks ago, which are now fully sour.

Crock pickles three weeks ago:


Crock pickles now:

Suffice it to say that crock pickles are not for the faint of heart. They're not pretty, and they're even a little scary...a perfect addition to any haunted house..., but they are tasty. The cloudiness is expected. These pickles cure in a saltwater solution by means of fermentation caused by lactic acid bacteria, which appears as a cloudy film in brine. Despite their looks, we've been enjoying them for the last few days in peanut butter and dill pickle sandwiches.

So, my final note is this:

Don't let the PBDPs give you the heebie-jeebies!

Squash and Pickles

This weekend I had to do some garden clean up. The cucumber and squash vines were dying back pretty severely and several leaves had powdery mildew. So, I harvested all remaining fruits on those vines. Above, you can see the cucumbers. The white one is perfectly solid and good to eat; it just didn't turn green because it was growing so deep inside the vine, it never got any sunlight.


I was pretty happy with my delicata squash harvest. I like delicata, as I like pretty much all vegetables, but it's not my favorite winter squash. I grew it because I thought it had a better chance of ripening in the shorter growing season of the Pacific Northwest than say, a typically larger squash, like butternut. But now, I think that's immaterial...these delicata were set and ripening all the way back in July. They could have grown a lot bigger; they just didn't for some reason, maybe the variety (they were a bushing variety). Next year, I'll try a different kind of winter squash.

green pumpkin to ripen indoors (hopefully)

And then of course, there was my brave volunteer pumpkin vine, from which I already harvested quite a large specimen a while back. I had to cut this guy off the vine and am trying to ripen him in my sun room...we'll see how that goes.

crock pickle fixins

I decided to try some crock pickles with the fat cucumbers from my garden. I remember going to a German deli with my mom when I was kid and being fascinated by a large barrel of enormous pickles floating in an eerie brine. I always had to have one, and my mom would always oblige. I assume these pickles that I remember were crock pickles, soured in a salt brine.

I followed this recipe on Planted at Home blog. I just had to try a recipe from a lady who also likes to devour peanut butter and dill pickle sandwiches! The likes of which, I think I took for lunch every single day of my grade school career.

cucumbers in jars, along with dill weed, garlic, and hot peppers

Here they are in the brine; they should be fully sour in 3 weeks (fingers crossed) :


And then, with some pickling cucumbers from the farmers' market, I made a small batch of bread and butter pickles. Again, a childhood favorite. By the way, have I mentioned that I like pickles?