GARLIC SOUP

Raise your hand if you’ve been feeling under the weather. Okay, everyone put your hands down now. Remember, this is January. I personally think everyone should stay home and sleep through this month. But this modern world won’t let us, and so we go out there and we get sick. I’ve been fighting some sort of crud for a few weeks. I’ve had enough, so I declared war. Thus, this soup was created. It’s kind of my version of a flu shot.

• 2 whole bulbs of garlic, minced
• 1 tablespoon olive oil, or as needed
• 3 cups veggie broth
• 1 cup water
• 1 cup spinach and/or kale
• 1 Tablespoon miso
• 1 bay leaf
• Seaweed to taste
• Oregano, thyme and cayenne to taste
• Nutritional Yeast to taste

In a large saucepan or frying pan, sauté half the minced garlic until browned. Add veggie broth, water, and bay leaf. Let simmer about a half hour or so. Add rest of garlic, seaweed, and spices. Let simmer about 15-20 minutes, then add  the miso and spinach. Do not boil. Cover with lid and let simmer a few minutes until spinach is wilted. Your soup is done.  Pour some into your favorite bowl and sprinkle with yeast. This will send all those crud germs fleeing in terror!

Enjoy!

When my kids were small, they used to love this milk. The recipe I used said that sunflower seeds and sesame seeds make a complete protein. I don’t know if that is true, but I do know that this milk have a distinctive flavor and quite delicious.

The ingredients are pretty simple:

• 1 cup Sunflower Seeds
• 1 Cup Sesame Seeds
• 2 Cups Water
• 1 Teaspoon Vanilla
• ¼ cup organic sugar and ¼  cup boiling water

I soak the sunflower seeds with just enough water to cover them and put them in the refrigerator overnight. This softens them. Put the sunflower seeds with their water, the sesame seeds, and 2 cups of water in a blender, and blend until smooth. Pour into a fine meshed strainer over a bowl. Let it sit and drain into the bowl. Now place sugar in a heat proof bowl and bring a ¼ cup water to boil. Pour the water into the sugar and stir until sugar dissolves. You’ve just made a simple sugar sauce! Pretty simple, wasn’t it? Once this cools down, add it to the seed milk. Add vanilla and stir.

The leftover pulp is good to use in casseroles. I’m thinking of making some into a dip by adding some garlic, some steamed spinach and some spices. I am also thinking of using some pulp as the basis for a veggie burger. Anyone have any other ideas?

I started with 4 cloves of garlic (What can I say? I like garlic) and about ¼ of a red onion. While they were simmering in my frying pan in some olive oil and a bit of white wine, I gently rinsed the mushrooms and removed the stems. I diced the stems after trimming the ends, and added them to the frying pan. After they were golden brown I turned the heat to low and added about half a block of cream cheese that had been cut into small pieces. This recipe could be made vegan easily by using vegan cream cheese. I used a fork to mush it, and then added about 1/4 cup of bread crumbs and a bit of oregano, thyme and rosemary.

I then lightly oiled a baking dish and turned the oven on to 350.  Once the mixture had  combined and heated through, the fun part commenced.The stuffing part! I stuffed each mushroom and placed them on the oiled baking dish. Then I placed them in the oven and baked them for about 20 to 30 minutes. While it was baking I made a salad, and added a loaf of garlic bread the last 10 minutes of baking time.

Vegan Cornbread Muffins hot out of the oven and slathered with margarine.

Freshly made cornbread is such a treat and very fast and easy to make. These are a definite family favorite around here.

Here’s my recipe:

• 1 1/2 cup flour
• 1 1/2 cup corn meal
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 cup sugar

Mix together, then add:

• 1/2 cup safflower oil
• 1 cup soy milk, unsweetened
• 1 cup water

The Dough

My son only likes plain ol’ cornbread, whereas my taste is much more adventurous.So, for him, I pour half the cornbread mix into the pan. The other half is for me, and I add various yummy things like some whole corn kernels, some diced red onion and garlic, and some mild chiles. I put mine part into cupcake papers because I just found some really cool ones that are stripped and polka dotted!

The son’s plain ol’ cornbread and my spicy version.

done!

This is quick and easy to put together.

My son and I were in line at Grocery Outlet last week (Love that store! You never know what you will find there.), and I noticed that the woman in front of us had a container of marinated fresh mozzarella in her cart. That reminded me that I love fresh mozzarella, especially during tomato season.  Inspired, I ran and got myself a container of them. Back in line, she told me her recipe for them. As soon as I heard it, I had no doubt that I would love it. I asked if she would mind if I posted her recipe on my blog and name it for her. She graciously said yes, so here it is! Thanks Sasha!

Sasha’s Marinated Tomato & Cucumber Salad

1 Ripe Tomato

Cucumber

Red Onion

Mozzarella

Red Wine Vinegar

Salt & Pepper

The Ingredients meet.

There are no amounts given, except the tomato, and that’s more of a guideline than a rule. Chop the ingredients in amounts to your liking, then add the vinegar, and some of the flavored oil from the mozzarella. I added a few things to Sasha’s recipe. I have fresh basil in my garden, so a big hand full was diced and stirred in.Yum. I also added a couple cloves of garlic, and some oregano. This comes together quickly and is a perfect way to enjoy the last of the summer’s bounty. It’s even better the next day, provided you don’t eat it all up at once!

ENJOY!

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The Finished Conserve.

I visited a good friend of mine last week, and came home with a couple of full bags of very ripe Green Gage plums. I decided to make them into jam.  My mom gave me the recipe years ago. It’s a little different than most. I usually use purple plums, but any kind of plum will be good  and would work with this recipe. I like tasting the fruit instead of sugar, so I don’t add much, but you can add more if you prefer it.

4 cups  plums

1 cup sugar, plus 1/4 cup sugar.

1 Tablespoon grated lemon

1/2 cup chopped walnuts, pecans, or whatever your favorite nut is

1/4 cup orange juice (I had pineapple, orange strawberry juice, so I used that.)

1 package pectin.

Pit & finely chop about 3 lbs. plums, any variety. Combine with the lemon ( I keep a lemon in the freezer and grate whatever I need from it.), the chopped nuts, and the juice. Mix the 1/4 cup of sugar with the pectin, and add to plum mix. Stir well. Let sit for 30 minutes, then add the cup of sugar. Stir well. Let sit at room temperature for 24 hours, then pour into pretty jars and freeze.  This comes together very quickly, and is delightful on a cold winter morning. It’s good on toast, of course, and also good mixed in yogurt, or over ice cream, or as a topping for pancakes.

Preparing the ingredients.

ENJOY!

I make this every summer just as soon as I have enough ripe tomatoes in the garden. Then I eat way too much of it.  (I’ve long held the theory that germs can’t survive in a body that consumes lots of garlic, chilies, and onions! This gives me a good excuse to indulge. )

This is the recipe I’ve perfected over the years.   It is very forgiving. You can use any type of tomato, or a blend of types.  Make it as hot as you desire. Try different kinds of chiles.  If I have gotten carried away and added too many, I sometimes add half a cucumber. Not traditional, but good. This lasts for a few days in the fridge, but usually disappears right away.

5 or 6 Tomatoes

1 or 2 Jalapenos

2-4 Cloves of garlic

¼ Red onion

Cilantro to taste

1-2 Tablespoons of cumin and oregano

1 Lime, juiced.

Dice the onions, garlic and chilies.

Stir it all up.

Finely dice the tomatoes, garlic, onion and cilantro. Add spices and lime juice. Mix well Get the bag of chips and dig in.

Enjoy!

I was out weeding the other day and looked up to discover that the raspberries are ripe! They always sneak up on me like that. I’m sure that there were not any berries even close to being ready the day before.  And now I have more than I can eat–a delightful dilemma.  However, there’s also not enough to make into jam. So what I do is freeze them.There’s a trick to it though, unless you want to end up with a big ol frozen lump of berries. This method works on any berry.

Here’s what you do:

Gently pour picked berries into a colander and rinse. Drain and let air dry a bit. Now put them onto a cookie sheet or pizza pan. Spread them out so that they do not touch. Place in freezer until frozen. This does not take long since they are so small–about 1 to 2 hours. Now, using a spatula up- side-down (Don’t know why, but it works best that way.)  gently scrape the berries off the pan and scoop into a labeled and dated freezer bag. Carefully place in freezer. You can continue adding to this bag until it is full. Since each berry has been individually frozen, they pour out separately. You can take out the exact amount you want.

There are so many thing that you can do with these  little frozen goodies. Once you have enough, you can make a batch of raspberry jam.  Another of my favorite things to do with them is to use these as ice cubes in lemonade, wine, and in some mixed drinks. These are also excellent in smoothies. You don’t need to add ice! They can be added to your hot or cold breakfast cereal. Top your ice cream with them! These are a few examples; I’m sure you can think of more.

ENJOY!

This recipe was invented because I don’t like beer. I feel a bit left out–it seems like everyone else in the world enjoys a nice cold beer. So, I decided to try again. Who knows–maybe my taste buds will like it this time. Ever the optimist–that’s me.  I bought some raspberry wheat berry beer at my local store and opened it one hot summer day, and took a swig. Nope, still tastes like beer. Not wanting to waste the beer, I decided to make it into a beer batter, and use it on some tempeh.

Here’s the recipe:

1 cup unbleached white or whole wheat flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon cayenne

1/3  cup beer.

Mix ingredients  together in shallow bowl. Place frying pan on burner, add canola or grape seed oil and turn burner on about medium heat. Cut the tempeh into nugget sized bits and dip in the beer batter.

Tempeh meets beer batter.

Carefully put the nuggets in the hot pan and sear until golden brown on one side, then turn them to the other side. Repeat.  Drain nuggets on paper towel, and serve. These are good as a side, to add to a salad, and also good to eat with your favorite dip. This is the best way to have beer, ever!

Enjoy!

I love lemons and all things lemon flavored. It follows then that I would come up with a lemon liquor recipe, since I like to make my own, rather than buy it. I’ve been making this for several years.

It makes a nice gift if decanted into a pretty bottle and labeled.

It is easy to make, and can be made in about 30 minutes.  The hard part is waiting for the two to three months it needs to age!

You will need:

3 lemons & 1 lime, well scrubbed and.preferably organic

1 ½ cups organic sugar

2 cups good quality vodka

3 cups m/l water

First zest the lemons and the lime. Be careful not to zest any of the white part, as that will make it bitter.

Making this post gave me the excuse to buy this zester! It’s all shiny.and new.

Now roll the lemons back and forth with the palm of your hand several times..

This gets the most juice from them.

Now half them, juice them and pour into a measuring cup.  Add enough water to get 4 cups of liquid.

Now add the liquid to a pan, along with the lemon and line zest, and bring to a boil watching carefully and stirring often. As soon as it reaches a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes.

Remove from burner, add sugar, and stir well. Add vodka and stir again.

Decant into a pretty bottle, label and date it, and then store in the refrigerator for two to three months.

You will be very glad in July!

ENJOY!