mushroom scramble

breakfast (8:30 a.m.) = oatmeal with raisins and brown sugar

brunch (11:30 a.m.) = bagel with scrambled mushrooms

Heat some olive oil and a diced red shallot, along with salt, pepper, and fennel seeds, over low heat. Add 5 small-medium button mushrooms (those small, round, white mushrooms that are easy to find), chopped. Heat, stirring/turning occasionally with a spatula, until the mushrooms are slightly browned on the edges, and you should hear water hissing out of them. Turn the heat off and let them continue to sizzle while your bagel toasts. I did mine in the oven at 400 degrees until it was slightly brown on the edges. Spread margarine on the bagel, then top it with the mushroom scramble. Don't be shy with the olive oil; mushrooms will drink it up. Fennel seed gives the topping a savory breakfast taste.

Saturday: downed trees and paper bags of fruit

Saturday Shopping List

1 pint sweet cherries
1 pint blueberries
1 pint apricots
2 quarts green peas
2 quarts green beans (and yellow green beans)
1 pint shiitake mushrooms
1 portobello cap
2 giant orange carrots
1 bunch small multi-colored carrots with greens
1 bunch kale
2 heads buttercrunch lettuce
2 bunches broccoli
5 tomatoes
2 big white potatoes
3 red potatoes
and one 16-oz. iced coffee

Total: $38.85



Roasted some squash, green beans, and shiitakes with salt, pepper, and fennel seeds. It was very strong and savory. Kind of chewy.

I have a raw vegetable and fruit snack buffet on my refrigerator door right now. Been snacking all day on cherries, blueberries, apricots, green peas, green beans.


I found the park severely wind damaged this morning.

Saturday Market

The theme today was green. Our kitchen is well-stocked with green. New today was baby bok choy, which I have never prepared before, though I think I have had it at an Asian restaurant. Also new is that I got shiitake mushrooms instead of portobello. And also, I have no idea how much money I spent today. I have the most horrible cold/flu/plague I believe I have ever had in my life. It's been raging since Wednesday. I have missed three (THREE!) days of school. It's really freaking me out and messing with my sense of efficacy and self-worth. How am I going to go back to work on Tuesday and function? I could have missed so many things while I was away. I am trying not to think about it this weekend and instead to rest and focus on good food. So anyway, because of the creeping death, I did not bother to keep a running list of items and prices as I usually do. Furthermore, I am not even going to estimate. Why? Because my brain is about 5 degrees warmer than it normally is and it doesn't like that very much. I am capable of constructing a rudimentary account of what I bought, however.

Saturday Shopping List

1 lb. cranberry beans
a bunch of asparagus
1/2 lb of baby bok choy
3 heads of baby lettuce
one head of butter-crisp lettuce
a bunch of dark flat-leafed kale for juicing
6 large carrots with splits or nicks on them, for $2
1 quart basket of Kennebec potatoes (I know b/c the sign said so)
5 large tomatoes
a pint of shiitake mushrooms
a pint of strawberries
a pint of sugar snap peas
1 oz. fennel seeds
a loaf of multi-grain bread

Total: Yeah, no earthly clue. I imagine around $30 or so, just because it's usually about that and it wasn't all that different today.

There it is. I made juice this morning when I returned from the market: carrot and kale. I'm about to fix a sandwich of mushrooms, onion, tomato, lettuce, and possibly some fried tofu. For breakfast, I went to Satellite Cafe and had the vegan bike shop bagel which is vegan cream cheese, pesto, spinach, and roasted red pepper on a bagel. I thought the pesto was a little strong and also not how I remember pesto tasting. It was very vinegary. It was alright, but I would have preferred vegan cream cheese, tomato and spinach. I don't know if they make that.

baby bok choy and kale

carrot juice

Clark Park in the snow

They chipped out a space at the corner of the park and conducted the Clark Park Farmers' Market, though it was abbreviated, as some vendors did not make the trek out in the remnants of the blizzards.

When we first arrived, we didn't think they were there. Most of the space usually occupied by the market was covered in about three feet of icy snow. The tables that were there were arranged differently, smushed together in the corner, behind a snow drift. The selection was limited. No greens, no broccoli. The guy who is usually there with all the greens and roots was not there. The bean-and-spice lady was not there. The apple people were there, as always, and the ones we think of as the mushroom people.

Saturday Shopping List

a quart of white mushrooms
6 red potatoes
2 giant white sweet potatoes
a jar of apple syrup
a loaf of multi-grain bread
a bowl of hot, black-bean soup
4 brownies

total: maybe $16, I didn't actually count

The bread and bean soup came from Milk & Honey market, on the way there. And then from Fu-Wah, we got a jar of Vegenaise and some Smart Deli "ham" slices.

We still have broccoli, sandwich greens, brussels sprouts, peppers, and green beans from Weaver's Way. We're planning to make another trip out there on Monday. Now that I have sweet potatoes, I'm going to make another yellow split-pea soup. I still have just enough split peas for one more soup, and this time I have an orange pepper to add to it.

Perfect sandwich greens from Landisdale Farm

I take back what I said about these being overpriced. I would pay a zillion dollars for these sandwich greens.

You eat them with thinly-sliced Portobello mushrooms drenched in balsamic vinegar, coated with olive oil, onions. Mustard would be perfect, but I don't have any. Had a very thin coating of Vegenaise on each slice of bread, because the cracked-wheat bread is very heavy and requires dressings. I would prefer mustard. You want to layer the greens with the mushrooms. Pile them pretty high. Remember, your bread is heavy, so lots of wet ingredients are good, and your mushrooms and greens are coated in oil and vinegar.

My camera's batteries died before I could photograph the finished sandwich.

Saturday: purple kale, mushrooms, and winter apples

Got to the market late today, not until after one o'clock. My sleeping has been a little off, due to training institute getting underway this week, and the wave of excitement and anxiety that came with it. I got my practice teaching assignment and started to practice the daily routines that will become familiar to me over the next four weeks. Early morning, trolley, subway, walking a few blocks in my old neighborhood, checking in at the principal's office, taking a tiny elevator up to the fourth floor. Then, after a day in the classroom, taking the subway north to gather in a hot, second-floor high school classroom for framework sessions with other new teachers like me. I did not really meet, but sort of briefly glimpsed, some of the students who will be kind of my students over the next four weeks. They're not mine for keeps. I'll meet those students in February and they'll be mine until June. I don't know where they'll be, what age, or what they'll need. All of these questions require good nutrition to gather and answer. Which brings us to this sunny, cold Saturday.

Saturday Shopping List

Several bunches of purple and green curly kale
A paper sack full of carrots - orange, purple, and white
4 big yellow onions and 2 small shallot-sized yellow onions
About a quart of white mushrooms
1 Portobello cap
3 sweet-tart apples
a 12-oz. jar of apple syrup
a 23-oz. jar of apple sauce

total: $25.40

No one had any leeks, but I still have one from last week, for a soup. We are all stocked up on potatoes. We still have about half a head of cauliflower and a little broccoli. No one brings beans anymore. I guess the bean people have quit for the winter. The spice lady seems to have packed it in until spring as well. I need to find a place to get fennel seeds. That's how I flavor my breakfast mushroom scramble. That's the key ingredient that makes that breakfast taste like breakfast. We have beans, though. We were fairly well stocked on those. We have kidney beans, black beans, and red lentils. We do need to make a trip to Trader Joe's for flaxseed and tea, along with a few household basics like dishsoap.


One thing you'll find in abundance at the farmers' market in winter is apples, in various forms. One table has nothing but apples, apple cider, apple sauce, apple butter, and today for the first time, apple syrup. The lady says it's good on pancakes, just like any other syrup. We have buckwheat pancake mix. This may necessitate getting some rice milk or almond milk and making pancakes this week.



The kale in winter seems frail, less juicy. Maybe it's been frozen, I'm not sure. We buy it from a different person now. It's still curly kale, but it's more in a bunch or bouquet, rather than a "head" formation. And he has the dark purple kale you saw in the picture above.

When I got home, Mark was in the middle of juicing some carrots and kale (leftover from last week). I threw some purple kale into the mix, and when he ran it through the juicer, it gave off a sweet smell, almost like fruit. The resulting juice was the best-tasting juice we've made so far. It seemed to have mostly the flavor of carrots, rather than greens. The carrots were dark purple, and the dark purple kale I'm sure added some sweetness as well. That purple is good for you. The purple comes from flavonoids.

Here is how our juicer works, working on the kale:



So, what do we have to eat this week? The menu will probably shape up to look something like this:

potato-leek soup
lentil soup
bean and vegetable stew
mushroom hoagies
baked potatoes
fried potatoes with mushrooms and gravy
noodles with mushrooms
raw carrot snacks
carrot and kale juice
pasta with marinara and mushrooms
onion-pepper quinoa
buckwheat pancakes with apple syrup
oat bran
apple tarts

That's it for this week's groceries. Write me with any questions. Comment, bookmark, or otherwise follow the blog. And, as always, remember the animals. Have a great weekend!

Chinese food and winter vegetables

Mark and I went out for lunch yesterday at Su Xing House, one of our favorite restaurants.

My fortune said: Good news will come to you in the mail.

Mark's fortune said: The night life is for you.

Once, at Kingdom of Vegetarians, a less upscale but still yummy place in Chinatown, where we had our first date, Mark got a fortune that said: A nice cake is waiting for you. Actually, I believe that happened on our first date. Come to think of it, I'll take that as a compliment.

Not long before that, I was at a coffee shop on South Street that gives fortune cookies with your check, and I got the fortune: It tastes sweet. I still have this in my wallet.

Yesterday at Su Xing House, we ordered two lunch specials and split the main courses: Sesame Seitan and Mushroom Delight. We always have the Sesame Seitan; this was our first time ordering the Mushroom Delight. Three different kinds of mushrooms, snow peas, and a delicious brown sauce that has a "comfort-food" taste. On the side were brown rice, miso soup, and spring rolls. This place is amazing. It's fairly cheap, delicious, and it doesn't look cheap. The decor makes you feel like you probably shouldn't be there, but the food assures you that you should.

And from Huffington Post, here is a good, quick guide to winter vegetables available year-round at farmers' markets. Complete with beautiful photos and links to recipes.

I love winter vegetables: roots and cabbage and cauliflower, red beets, yellow and orange and dark green squash, many colors of potato, and of course deep dark sweet soft mushrooms for rich, protein-heavy, comforting goodness. Add to that chestnuts, beans, and lentils, and I am learning that there's no need to change my shopping habits in wintertime. Nature provides.

Friday noodles

We're out of nearly everything. It's time for noodles. Picked these up at Fu-Wah this morning. You could use any type of light noodles. I cooked these with the stock packet that is provided with them, but it is very mild. The toppings are going to be the good part, anyway.

At first I underestimated the size of the portion and didn't saute enough portabella mushrooms, onion, and garlic to put on these. When I came to my senses, I increased the amount you see here by about three times. When it was done (about 3 minutes), I added the toppings, sprinkled on some oregano, and enjoyed with toast spread with a mixture of olive oil and crushed garlic.





The finished dish was surprisingly good. Nonetheless, tomorrow is Saturday, and I'll dream of grocery lists tonight. I want something different tomorrow. I'm going to do something we don't usually do. I don't know what yet. I want to buy something that's a different color or a weird shape or a stronger taste than anything we normally cook. I will, of course, report back.

Featured in this recipe: Portabella mushrooms. An excellent source of several good things, including protein, vitamin B6, potassium, and fiber.


(Source)

Two Seasons: Quinoa soup and Garden wraps

The colors at the farmers' market are getting brighter, richer, and more diverse as we move into fall. Root vegetables and ten different kinds of squash, purples and yellows and oranges and blues are everywhere. But today, the air in West Philly feels unseasonably warm, soft, and freshly-scrubbed. It feels like springtime outside.

So let's have a a look at a festive, summery food, and then I have a nice soup for you. First, and I know you may be getting tired of pastry wraps but I'm not out of them yet (told you, that $1.39 is stretchy) so, here' s one more thing you can do with them.

A garden wrap.

This one has green lettuce, tomatoes, portabella mushrooms, cauliflower, and onion, and it's seasoned with olive oil, salt, and lemon pepper. It would be great to have some spinach, kale, turnip greens, or other interesting greens.

You don't have to heat or cook the filling, just cut everything up like a salad, only finer. Spoon it onto the wraps, fold, and fry in olive oil. Here are some finished ones cooling while I'm prepping some more to go into the oil. What you see in the background on the plate are blue potatoes.

A closer look at the veggie mix that goes inside the pastries:


If I looked at the mix and didn't know what was in it, I would think I was seeing chicken or tofu or some "meat substitute," but what that actually is is the portabella mushrooms. We usually buy two giant caps at the market on Saturday, and they last us throughout the week, just slicing pieces off for stir-fries and things like this.

Now. Want something good for lunch, that will keep you full throughout the afternoon and rush hour? Something good and cozy for fall? Something to help you fight colds and the flu and the cold-weather blahs?

Quinoa soup.

Quinoa is incredibly rich in protein, fiber, and iron. Because of its high protein content, NASA thinks it would be a good choice for its Controlled Ecological Life Support Systems for long space flights. And that's kind of our situation here on Earth. We're here for a long time, and we don't have enough space to feed all of us the way some of us currently eat. Quinoa could help.

Now, Mark made this soup/stew (I'm not sure which it is), so it has a lot of ingredients. It contains: quinoa, carrots, cauliflower, corn, mushroom, black beans, Great Northern beans, and onion, and was made with our homemade vegetable stock and seasoned with garlic, salt, lemon pepper, and a Season All mix.

Two kinds of beans, plus quinoa, will fill you up. This soup is a nutrient-fest and tastes like it cures what ails you. I brought it for lunch two days this week. You don't need to bring much.

I like to have this soup with a slice of rye toast with strawberry jam. Any type of heavy food makes me feel like I need a nice piece of toast and jam to lighten it up. I'm a little childish about heavy foods. I feel like I've accomplished something when I eat something heavy, and I want a treat for that. Fortunately, the same woman who grows our spices also makes jellies and jams.

Happy fall, happy Friday, and I hope it's as lovely where you are as it is here.