Woody Harrelson loves Twinkies and, apparently, animals

I guess I have to see this movie now, since it stars both a vegan and Vegan Twinkies.

This is news to me. Woody Harrelson is vegan (yay!) and was in need of some Vegan Twinkies while filming Zombieland.

The fake Twinkie they made of cornmeal to shoot the scene doesn't sound all that appetizing to me. Thank goodness for the folks at Vegan Lunch Box for coming to the rescue.

I don't see me actually attempting to make Vegan Twinkies, but I love the exposure, nonetheless.

I knew I liked Woody Harrelson.

Season's Last Local Peach, and What I Did With It

You've read here about Quinoa Soup, and about NASA's consideration of quinoa.

Here are two more things you can do with quinoa.

One of them tastes like pizza. The other is crumbly, peachy, and sweet, like cobbler.

Mark made the first one this afternoon.

You know how to cook rice, right? Two parts water, one part rice, a dash of salt, bring to a boil on the stovetop, reduce heat and simmer until it's done. To cook quinoa, do the same thing and simmer for about 10-15 minutes. Before cooking, rinse the quinoa grains with cool water and drain.

For the above quinoa pilaf, add to the quinoa and water on the stove some diced onion, chopped broccoli, and mushroom. Add the vegetables at the beginning, bring them to a boil right along with the grain, simmer everything together.

When it's done, the quinoa is soft and translucent and you can see the white curl of the germ along the outside of the grain. The water should all be absorbed. If there is excess and you don't want it, it can be drained.

While the dish is hot, add diced tomatoes and stir them in. The hot pilaf will heat them and give them the taste of stewed tomatoes.

Season with oregano, basil would be great (we don't have any), salt, and some raw chopped onions, sprinkle with oil and vinegar. With the hot tomatoes, onion and oregano, the finished, seasoned dish has a taste similar to pizza or spaghetti. (Damn, basil would be perfect!) Could serve with garlic toast.

I had a little of that this afternoon, but I was full from a plate of potatoes, okra & tomatoes, and green beans, and just had a taste of the pilaf so I could report on it. Thanks to Mark for being patient while I photographed his food before he ate it. I'm looking forward to trying this one myself.

Now, here's something I did with quinoa later in the evening. It was so dreamy I can't believe I made it myself at my house.

I started by cooking some quinoa for cereal, planning to have it with molasses and brown sugar (which I finally bought). Two parts water, one part quinoa, bring to a boil, reduce heat, simmer for 10-15 minutes or until grain is translucent and soft and you can see the germ along the outside.

Remove from heat and mix in about a tablespoon of molasses (10% of your "recommended" daily calcium, iron, and vitamin A). Add cinnamon and stir it in.

Then I had an idea.

I diced the last peach of the season. Left over from last Saturday, and the peach lady said then that that was the last week they would be bringing peaches. I ate several slivers of it raw and heated the rest in oil. Poured it over the hot quinoa cereal and sprinkled with flax seed and brown sugar.




This dish tastes like peach cobbler. I didn't stir in the brown sugar, just sprinkled it on top and left it in clumps of crystals along with the flax seed, much like a crumbly cobbler topping.

There may be frozen peaches or peaches from a grocery store later, but this is likely the last local peach of the season.

That's the way to do it.

Puff: Sweet & Savory Pastry ideas that set off the smoke alarm

Since the delicious success of the soy sausage pastries, I've had two more successes with ingredients that I'm much more likely to have on hand than soy sausage.

For dessert last night, I made Peach Puff Pastries.

Warm the diced peaches in a pan with a little oil and a good bit of cinnamon.

After spooning the peaches onto the pastry sheets, you could add some brown sugar if you had some (I would). I drizzled a little molasses over the mixture for two of my pastries, but the third I left without molasses, just peaches and cinnamon. You can see the difference in the finished pastries. Both were good. The one without molasses was a little more refreshing and fruity, while the molasses ones were heavy and sweet and smoky.


Perfect.

We have quite a bit of leftover vegetable stew (apparently Mark thought we were more than two people when he made the stew). So for lunch today, I spooned some of the stew (mostly vegetables, leave out the liquid) onto some pastry sheets and fried them up.

Here's the secret. Pour some olive oil into a little dish. Add very finely diced onion and... wait for it... ground rosemary. After adding the stew mixture to the pastries (about a tablespoon and a half per sheet), spoon a little of the oil, onion, and rosemary mixture around the edges to seal the pastry. Rub it in with your fingers if you want and pinch the edges together.


Serve the finished pastries (samosas, basically) with blue and red potatoes, which look nice and pink and purple when they fry. The potatoes are seasoned with salt, pepper, onion, and rosemary.
The stew mixture has black beans, corn, Great Northern beans, peas, carrots, potatoes, mushrooms, and tomato. I found the corn was actually pretty dominant. That, combined with the rosemary and the pastry itself, gave these a sweet taste.

For the peach pastries, and for the soy sausage ones last night, I used single pastry sheets, but for the stew, I found I had to use two sheets together for each one. Otherwise, the wetness of the mixture caused the sheet to tear. When I used one sheet, the whole thing fell apart in the oil and started spitting hot oil sparks all over the kitchen and the smoke alarm went off.

Good times.