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.

Saturday Market in the Rain

It's raining on the farmers' market. That's different. All summer, it has rained maybe twice on the market, which I didn't realize until we were walking down to the park this morning in a light, gray, drizzly sort of rain. I know it rained at least one other Saturday morning, because I do remember clomping around the market in rain boots once, but almost every Saturday has been sunny.

We went kind of late, too. We're usually there at 10 a.m. when it opens. We didn't make it there until around 11 this morning, after cleaning the kitchen and making room for the new groceries.

Here's the list:

Lots of small white potatoes
Large bunch of broccoli
3 pints of okra!
1 quart of green beans
Lots of maroon carrots
3 bunches of kale (you'll see exactly how much in a minute)
2 bunches of leeks
2 ears of sweet corn
3 yellow onions
A small head of cabbage
6 tomatoes
5 apples of different varieties
1 loaf sourdough bread
1 loaf multi-grain bread
2 brownies

Total spent: $53.44


The theme this week was green. With okra, broccoli, green beans, and all that kale, we'll have no shortage of protein, calcium, or iron (the three magic nutrients people tend to worry they might not get if they don't eat animals).

We bought dry beans last week, so we have plenty of those. This week, we were able to stock up on green veggies and still spend the same amount of money as last week. See what I was saying? It all evens out.

We're going to get back to juicing, which we've been neglecting for weeks and weeks. We have a perfectly good Omega Juicer sitting in the kitchen taking up space. Juicing is a perfect way to get nutrition from greens, so that's why we loaded up on kale this morning. Carrots are finally here in bulk (they've been scant), including maroon carrots, which have extra nutrients, including anti-oxidants. Anything purple or blue is pretty much good news, nutritionally.

We spent quite a bit on the greens. The curly kale is $2.50 per "bunch." We got three bunches, so that was $7.50. The maroon carrots were kind of pricey too, I think they weighed in around $9, but we got a ton of them. Because of our lack of resolve regarding juicing lately, I had reservations about getting so much kale.

I'm doubting. You can see the doubt there, can't you? But that's a lot of protein, calcium, and iron on that tray, so I'm just going to calm down. Those are onions on top, there. There's also a tiny head of cabbage, for the stew, underneath. Everything else on the tray is kale.

We spent $9.25 at the Slow Rise Bakery table, for a loaf of sourdough, a loaf of multi-grain, and two brownies.

$6.59 at another table for the white potatoes, apples, and broccoli. Two bunches of leeks and a quart and a half of okra added up to $8. We were psyched to find okra, which has been scarce this summer. Okra is a staple for me.

$3.50 for tomatoes. $1 for two ears of corn (we still have two more in the fridge). $3 for a quart of green beans.

Now, here's the scary part. I still don't know how much those maroon carrots were per pound but with the carrots, all that kale, three yellow onions, and the head of cabbage, we spent $22.10 at that one table. Worth it if we juice. Wouldn't be worth it if we don't end up juicing. Therefore, yes, we must juice. But that means I'll have pictures and perhaps even video of juicing, and we're talking about maroon carrots here, remember, so it's going to be quite pretty. (At least until we mix in the green.)

Milling about in the rain, with lots of people and tents and mud, with expensive equipment on me (camera, in this case), and a pen and soggy folded-up paper in my hand as I shift things around trying not to drop anything as I record information and capture images... reminds me of being at the radio station, going out on a Saturday to cover stories, festivals, parades, talking with local vendors.

I wish I could get some of the carrots from my parents' garden. Their garden is far away in West Virginia, where they are, but my mom sent pictures of the latest haul of carrots. Oh my god. Biggest carrots I have ever seen. I mean, these are fat carrots. So much goodness in there for juicing. So many sweet carrot bites for stew.

I regret that I wasn't vegan when I lived in the country. It's great that the farmers' market is a few blocks from my apartment and that all these farmers bring their good food to the city for me to buy. All those PSA's I did promoting various farmers' markets in Pocahontas County, WV, and Highland and Bath Counties, VA, for the radio stations, and I never took full advantage of what was available. Better late than never, but don't repeat my mistake: Over on the right side of your screen, there's a link where you can go and look up local farmers' markets in your area.

I'm going to go put some things away and cook something. I don't know what I'll cook yet. I like to get out a plate and a knife, heat some oil on the stove and start cutting things up, whatever looks good. I'll start with blue potatoes and we'll go from there.

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.

Progressive Pumpkin Baked Squash

Ambercup Squash. Is what this is called, as I understand it.

So that no one else falls prey to not knowing about the Ambercup Squash (or pumpkin-like squash, as I've come to call it), here is a little guide to squash, which I found helpful. If you scroll down and look on the right, you'll see a picture of the little darling you see here to the left.

What we've done with it is we've cut it in two, with a puny little knife, which is what we have right now, so it looks a little hacked, but that shows the texture off better in a later picture, so that's OK. Cut it with a big, sharp knife if you have one (don't hurt yourself, for crying out loud), because it was really hard cutting it with the little one. Anyway. You don't put the apples in right away.

Just set those apples aside for now. You're going to fill the bowl of the squash with a little olive oil, molasses, and cinnamon (brown sugar, if you have that, I'm delaying going to the grocery store, so I am currently out).

Save the seeds and pulpy stuff. You can boil them down for stock for a light, squash-flavored soup (good with quinoa or rice, and corn). Nope. Seemed like a good idea, but it didn't work. We tried boiling these down as soup stock, it started stinking to high heaven, I thought the sink drain was backed up. I have no idea why that would happen. I'll have to look into this. (update, 10/8/09, 11:20 p.m.)


Cover each half with aluminum foil and bake at 350 for about half an hour. Then you're going to take it out, fill the bowls with the diced apples, drizzle with a bit more oil, molasses, sprinkle with whatever you like, whatever you have, cover it back up and bake for about another 30-40 minutes.


When a fork goes in smoothly and easily, it's done, eat it.

You've probably noticed that I talk about molasses a lot. That's because a.) it's a smoky sweet acquired taste that I have soundly acquired and b.) two tablespoons of it contains 20% of my "recommended daily value" of iron, of calcium, and of vitamin A. I don't even know what vitamin A does, but I'll take it. I know what iron and calcium do, those are good, at least plant-sources of them are good.

Keeping your bones strong depends more on preventing the loss of calcium from your body than on boosting your calcium intake.

Some cultures consume few or no dairy products and typically ingest fewer than 500 milligrams of calcium per day. However, these people generally have low rates of osteoporosis. Many scientists believe that exercise and other factors have more to do with osteoporosis than calcium intake does.

Use molasses liberally. (Progressively, even.)

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.