On My Own

I’m not really the most creative cook. I follow recipes, even when I don’t measure precisely, and I have a difficult time imagining how different things will taste together. There are so many obvious combinations that I wouldn’t have thought of unless I saw them somewhere else.

This morning, I saw that Carissa was having a sandwich with almond and cashew butter and strawberries. Not only did this look delicious, but I had the ingredients on hand! I’m normally big on jelly or jam, but if I think that I’d eat peanut butter and banana, or pb and strawberry jam, why not pb and strawberries? It was perfect.

Can you tell that those are delicious ripe red organic strawberry slices? They are. With Trader Joe’s crunchy Valencia peanut butter. Yum. And yes, I like pickles with my peanut butter. Maybe the problem is my palate, not just my imagination.

See, here’s what happens when I open the fridge and try to make a meal with what’s on hand. I make mushroom stuffed mushrooms.

I’ll chalk part of this up to trying to cook on Friday night. I’ve been working really hard lately. And after work, I’ve been exhausted, but I’ve also been trying to do more things around town. All this cuts into my dinner time. (I did try Currito Burritos, though – genius idea! – and one you may be seeing my interpretation of what they do sometime soon.)

Back to Friday. I had ingredients I wanted to use. So I sauteed some cremini mushrooms left over from the stir fry, seasoned them with thyme and salt and pepper, and put them on top of a balsamic-marinated portabella and baked it. Yum, right? Sure, if you like mushrooms!

Have I learned my lesson? If it’s to experiment with some direction, sure. Tonight I’m working on something different, but at least I have a plan. I promise to share the results, good or bad. Hold me to it, okay?

Best Lunch Ever

I actually had my heart set on sloppy joes and tater tots for lunch today and went to pick up some Fantastic World Foods sloppy joe mix. I walked from my house to the library and then to the grocery store. Today was a wonderfully warm day for a long walk, but my hunger was making me a little grumpy and I can’t say I didn’t overreact in the aisle when I saw no sloppy joe mix.

Thankfully, I calmed down and decided that I could handle this. I came home, snacked a little to tide me over, and made my own joes in the time it took to cook the tots.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup TVP, rehydrated in 1 cup broth
• 15 oz. can diced tomatoes and green chiles
• 3 oz. can tomato paste
• Vegan Worcestershire sauce (I used Bourbon Barrel)
• Brown sugar
• Garlic powder
• Onion powder
• Cumin
• Red pepper flakes

I didn’t measure the seasonings, but I used lots of garlic powder, a little onion powder, a little cumin, a tiny shake of red pepper, and probably a tablespoon of brown sugar. You may also need salt, depending on you broth. I cooked all this for about 15 minutes and tasted for seasoning.

This was slightly sweeter than the mix I normally use, but this was really good. I’m happy with what I threw together.

This was a perfect lunch with some tots and onions. I had some extra sloppy on the side and I was so ready to dig in I almost didn’t stop to get a photo. Yum! Plus, I’m proud of myself for not throwing a fit in the store.

I have two giveaways to tell you about – first, check out Vegan and So Forth where Jenny is giving away a $40 gift certificate to Vegan Essentials. Also, Noelle at Opera Singer in the Kitchen has several giveaways going on right now, including a TofuXPress. Good luck!

Reinventing Leftovers

I typically eat a lot of leftovers. I rarely eat sandwiches or go out for lunch. But sometimes, I want something different from more of the same.

I had extra rice and portabellas from last night’s veggie roast, and also s small batch of frozen cannellini beans after I used most of them in soup last week.

Lunch: wrap with bean dip made with cannellini beans and sundried tomatoes, raw red bell pepper, carrot, lettuce, and leftover rice and corn.

Dinner: roasted asparagus and portabella cap, topped with Daiya.

This concludes your daily MoFo.

Unrelated, I took saw some deer from my window. I hope these guys are okay tonight.

A day in the life, brought to you by Trader Joe’s

I typically post 3-5 times per week, so posting more frequently in honor of MoFo is indeed more about food, but probably more about me too. I’ll share with you my day in food. Be warned, though. Today really wasn’t a good day.

I’ll admit it: I drink coffee. Pretty much every day. And I have one favorite mug that I like to use. I’m also in the habit of drinking Trader Joe’s Bolivian Blend. At least the mornings, I like my routine. I usually add some soymilk, but sometimes when I’m feeling extravagant I like to use So Delicious coconut milk creamer. Breakfast is often some fruit, and lately it’s been an apple, which I’ve been buying by the peck from a local orchard.

I don’t eat much for breakfast because lunch is really early, and usually I eat leftovers. However, after being out of town I didn’t have any leftovers so I had some packaged food, also from Trader Joe’s.

Vegetable gyoza (from the freezer) and a just-add-boiling-water noodle bowl. Yes, I ate from the plastic bowl. These are some of my current favorite packaged TJ’s foods. I don’t like that the soup bowl has so much packaging, but I do take my #5 plastics to Whole Foods for Gimme 5 and I buy Preserve toothbrushes (guess where? Trader Joe’s).

For dinner, I had a meeting at Max & Erma’s. I did not take pictures, so please use your imagination. If the food in your imagination looks good, you are not imagining correctly. First, let me tell you that Max & Erma’s is not a place I would choose to go, but it is a really popular chain in the area along the lines of Applebee’s, I guess. There is nothing vegan on the menu, although they do have a black bean burger that is vegetarian. (Vegan Eating Out is a great resource for info on chain restaurants.)

I ordered a salad and a baked potato. I asked the waiter for no bacon, no cheese. I told him I did not want any meat. So he brought me a plain baked potato and a salad with bacon. Bacon that I could not see. Bacon that I found with my mouth. The bacon was mixed in with the slivered almonds and underneath the tomatoes on the salad. He told me he thought I just didn’t want bacon on the potato. What? I could tell from the look on his face that he just didn’t get it and wanted to tell me I ordered incorrectly.

After the dinner meeting ended, I headed across the parking lot to Whole Foods to pick up some groceries and see if Alex wanted me to bring him any food. He was upset because someone had egged his truck. The truck was parked at the airport over actual Halloween, so this must have happened last night. Let me tell you, getting egged is no fun even if you like eggs. The paint is damaged, the inside stinks, and he had to spend hours working on cleaning up only three or four eggs.

Let’s end on a happy note. Our black cats stayed safe through Halloween. I wasn’t worried about them as they are indoor-only, but now I am. You can see the shadow of my hand holding up his little mouse, and Twinkie sitting on his hind legs like a prairie dog? He loves to do this, especially in the morning. He was doing this while I was photographing my coffee.

And I brought Alex a vegan Philly cheesesteak from Whole Foods and he really enjoyed it. He told me he wasn’t hungry but he plowed through this sandwich.

Restaurant: Loving Hut

Brace yourselves: Cincinnati has an all-vegan restaurant. Formerly known as Loving Cafe, now Loving Hut, this small, fast casual style restaurant serves an all-vegan menu from soups, salads, and sandwiches to raw creations, smoothies, and a kid’s menu. It’s been a favorite since I first went, more than a year ago.

The Loving Hut on Montgomery Road in Pleasant Ridge

There are Loving Hut restaurants in locations throughout the world, and their menus vary. I’m happy to see that through this recent rebranding, the Cincinnati location the menu has remained and the bright chartreuse walls have been toned down. The walls are newly wheat colored and adorned with photographs of famous vegetarians and facts about veganism. Another positive change I’ve noticed is that they no longer use disposable plates; they do still have the trash station divided into recycling, composting, and trash, with helpful labels about what can be put in each bin.

Along the front counter, with the new Loving Hut logo above the doorway to the back dining room. An unknown child enjoys the kid’s menu after Saturday karate class.

For all the soup I eat at home, I still enjoy eating soup out. At Loving Hut, it’s a pleasure to know that even the creamy potato soup is safe. Not only that, it’s delicious. Besides pho, which is on the regular menu, the soups change and are listed on the blackboard specials. Several times when I’ve been, I’ve enjoyed the pumpkin chili. This chili is slightly sweet and just hot enough, and it’s full of garbanzo beans. Another favorite is the avocado spring roll, which is served with almond sauce.

Alex’s favorite sandwich is called the American Panini, which is tofurkey, mustard, pickles, vegan cheese, and slaw, pressed and grilled panini style. On our most recent visit, we got the portabella panini, which is similar but with a portabella and roasted red pepper spread. This sandwich is overflowing with goodness.

I’ve never tried the raw pizza or any of their raw dishes, so we got the Raw Reuben. The dehydrated bread brought the rye flavor you’d expect in a Reuben, and there were plenty of marinated vegetables to top it.

I’ve liked everything I’ve gotten at Loving Hut/Cafe. Many of their items are faux meats – those get the attention, but it’s less than a third of the menu. They have great barbecued chickn wraps and one time I had a chickn salad sandwich that was a delicious daily special. My biggest problem is deciding whether to get something I have had and enjoyed, or whether to try something new. Pretty good problem to have, huh?

Garlicky Not-Fried Not-Chicken

I have a many, many more photos from my Texas trip I want to go through, but I’ve been unusually busy since I have been home. I agreed to travel to Louisville for work the day after I got back from Texas and had to leave at 6:30 a.m. (when I am usually still sleeping) and wear nice clothes (not usually a requirement). Complaints about getting up and the almost two-hour drive aside, the day went well.

I was outside all day yesterday, under a tent, in the parking lot behind an anonymous-looking corporateplex.

The weather cooperated, and a cold morning turned into a beautiful day, although the nice breeze insisted on blowing the papers from our tables. Lunch was provided, but I packed my own (again, not something I normally have to do as I am home for lunch):

I packed tempeh salad, mixed greens and Ezekiel bread. This was a perfect first opportunity to use my bamboo To-Go Ware. The night I got back from Texas, I whipped up a quick batch of tempeh not-chicken salad. This is only my second batch, but this is a favorite for me. I mixed in grapes, walnuts, dried cranberries, and celery.

Are you wondering what I was doing under the tent? This was a health and wellness fair. I sat next to a man from the American Heart Association who, although he didn’t ask why I was photographing my lunch, did express interest in my vegan lifestyle. He said he was trying to be more healthy, too.

One of the most popular things people were collecting, besides the free massages and glucose tests, was healthy recipes. The most popular recipe was the Garlic Oven-Fried Chicken. Everyone wanted to try it! So, I decided to try it myself, but veganize it. Plus, Alex has been asking for me to try out breading seitan.

Success! I served this in true American style, with skin-on mashed potatoes and oven roasted broccoli. This dish was really good. I made the seitan the day before, so that really sped things up. Alex was thrilled to have breaded seitan, and I found this to be especially delicious as well.

Garlicky Not-Fried Not-Chicken

Ingredients:

• One recipe seitan (I used the cutlets recipe from Veganomicon and had 6 pieces)
• 1 teaspoon Earth Balance
• 1 teaspoon oil
• 3-4 cloves garlic, minced
• 2/3 (or more) cup panko
• 1/4 cup vegan Parmesan (I used Alemsan from Veganomicon, I have a batch in my fridge)
• Italian Seasoning blend, or your favorite spices, to taste (I used a lot, probably 3 tablespoons. Actually, I just emptied the jar because it was getting old.)
• Salt and pepper, if desired

Method:

Preheat the oven to 400F, and prepare your baking dish or sheet. Use either a nonstick silicone sheet or spray your dish with cooking spray.

In a small skillet, melt the butter and oil and saute garlic until fragrant. (Note: The original healthy recipe called for 2 tablespoons of each; I found this excessive. I pulled the seitan from the broth so it was still slightly wet, and the garlic and breading stuck just find without six times as much oil.)

Mix the panko, parm, and seasonings in a shallow dish.

Press the seitan pieces into the garlic mixture, allowing it to pick up pieces of garlic. Then press the seitan into the breading mix, coating all sides. Place on your prepared baking sheet or dish.

Repeat with each seitan piece and then bake for 20-30 minutes or until browned, turning halfway.

Getting Lost-in Austin

I’m visiting my brother in Texas, and we went to Austin for the day. After learning the limitations of our GPS when it comes to overpass highways and feeder roads with exits, then fighting the UT pre-game traffic and searching for parking, we were ready for lunch.

We ate at Mellow Mushroom, which is mainly a pizza place, but I selected a tempeh sandwich. This guy was really good – better than it looks. It was grilled tempeh cubes, grilled onions, green bell peppers, and mushrooms, along with lettuce and tomato. We were at a pizza place, so a few red pepper flakes from the shaker on the table really rounded this sandwich out.

It didn’t come with a side, but we got some hummus as a starter for the table. My sister in law likes hummus, but it’s one of those (many) things my brother won’t eat, so she enjoys it with company. A dollop of hummus can look so unappetizing; I’m glad they dressed up this plate with carefully arranged pita triangles.

After lunch, we headed to Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Preserve. We walked around a saw some wildflowers, some cacti, and climbed a little tower to get an aerial view.

I like how much bigger my brother is than Alex. Even I’m a little taller than Alex!

Me trying to make a pirate face with the monocular on top of the tower.

Alex practiced his Spider Walking in the entryway.

After a bit of walking around, it was time to eat again. We headed out to sno-cones at a place that came highly recommended, Sno Beach, located in the food truck court. Each table had paper towels and Windex in an attempt to curb any bee problems.

Shelby using her iPhone, which really proved helpful navigating a new city.

The place had a lot of flavors, so many that it was difficult to choose what to get. I went with cantaloupe and really enjoyed it; Alex selected grape and validated his choice of simple flavor by pointing to the giant sunglass-wearing sno cone atop the stand. This was a fun little break. Next, on to the bats…

Eggless & Olives Sandwich

When I was a kid, one of the sandwiches my mother loved to make was something we called eggs and olives. It was basically an egg salad made with loads of green olives. I’ve never been an egg lover, but this sandwich was a favorite because there’s so much good olive flavor.

Alex doesn’t like olives, so this is something I will get to enjoy all by myself. Although I’ve made a great tempeh not-chicken salad, I wanted to veganize eggs and olives by using tofu. You don’t really need a recipe, but I checked out a tofu "egg" salad recipe.

I don’t have a recipe to share with you because I didn’t make any precise measurements. Basically, I pressed a block of firm tofu, kept half for another recipe, and diced half for this salad. I used Vegenaise and mixed in some of the liquid from my jarred green olives, along with some turmeric and cumin. Then I folded in the tofu and copious sliced green olives. That’s it.

I actually made this last night and enjoyed a sandwich for lunch today, on toast, with lettuce and a generous sprinkle of seasoned salt.

I eat lunch at home almost every day, so it’s great that I don’t have to buy a ready-made lunch, but sometimes I get weary of eating leftovers, especially when I don’t want two hot meals in a day. I doubt I’ll eat eggless and olives often, but it’s a nice treat and it’s comforting to enjoy a better version of a longtime favorite. (The Beanie Burger Biscuit Pie is coming, I promise, as soon as it’s oven weather again.)

I’ve never met anyone else who has heard of this kind of sandwich. What do you think, is this weirdo food? Mother, are you reading this? How did you come up with this? Would you try it with tofu?

Seitan Sandwiches

I feel like a real vegan cook now. Forget the quinoa salads, the tofu tacos, the frozen banana soft serve. It’s not the Tofutti cuties, flax eggs, or tempeh bacon. It’s only now that I’ve completed the initiation rite. Yes, folks, I have made homemade seitan that tastes good.

I’ve tried before and failed. I’ve failed so badly that I’m not going to link back. I’ve failed so many times that Alex has just encouraged me to keep purchasing the West Soy boxed stuff from the grocery store rather that put myself through the torture of making it at home. I’ve tried several recipes and it never quite came out right. I knew that the next time I tried, I needed a better recipe. I had my eye on the Post Punk Kitchen.

It’s probably been more than eight months since my last failure, and in the meantime I purchased Veganomicon, so I figured the baked Seitan Cutlets recipe would be just as good, and that’s what I used. I made six delicious seitan cutlets and used three of them for the Vietnamese Seitan Baguette with Savory Broth Dip from the same cookbook. It was heavenly.

The seitan is baked in broth, and then that broth is reserved and flavored with more garlic, ginger, and 5-spice, making a delicious dip along the lines of a the French Dip sandwich. The sandwich is built with seitan, cucumber, red onion, and cilantro.

Yes, that’s a lot of broth!

I can’t believe how much time and wheat gluten I wasted on bad seitan. Maybe I should blame myself instead of the recipes, but I had success. Eventually.

Okay, now that I’m an official member, what can I do next?

Sloppy Joe and Lazy Sunday

I hope everyone had a good weekend! I can’t believe it’s almost Monday again, but last week flew by for me faster than any I could remember before. I guess I’ve reached that age when time starts going by too quickly.

I spent a little time this weekend cleaning for some company that will be here shortly, but I also played some bocce ball and went to the Taft Museum.

You can hardly see me there! Today was the final day of an exhibit on Pictorialism and they were encouraging visitors to bring their cameras and take some photos. I asked Alex to take a photo of me. I took a photo of my car. I got a primo parking spot!

After the musuem, I had a quick meal of sloppy joes and steamed vegetables, along with some pan-fried potatoes coming into a second life after being boiled. I use the Fantastic World Foods Sloppy Joe mix, and that’s a favorite in this house. Sometimes it’s more tomato-y, sometimes less (depending on whether I remembered to purchase extra tomatoes), but I always like to have it with grilled onions and it’s a dependable quick favorite.

On the weekends, sometimes I get the desire to make an involved meal, and other times I want to go out. As much as I like to cook, sometimes I want a break – and lately, I’ve wanted that break on Sunday nights.

Do you have a favorite quick meal, or any shortcuts to share? For me, it’s either pasta and quick veggies or something like this sloppy joe. Sometimes this kind of predictable meal is just what I need.

Restaurant: Melt, for vegan supper sandwiches

I’ve recently realized that I have plenty of options for dining out in Cincinnati, so I’ve started taking my camera with me more often again. I’ve posted on Melt before, but for brunch. We recently went for dinner – keeping in mind they close at 8:00 p.m. I remember that closing time because we missed it once. If you find yourself there between 8 and 9, head next door to Picnic & Pantry, their new micromarket and specialty foods shop that also stocks Melt’s pre-made sandwiches and salads. While we waited for our meals, I wandered over to see what they have to offer and wasn’t impressed, but if I lived closer I could imagine myself dropping in for items not available at the typical supermarket.

Alex is a big eater and has mentioned before that he sometimes feels hungry after getting a just sandwich at Melt. I’m typically satisfied with the portions, but I agreed to split a salad. We chose the Spring Roll Toss, made with baby spinach, shredded carrots, cilantro, bean sprouts, red bell pepper, cucumber, and toasted almonds. The house-made dressing was a delicious ginger-hoisin vinaigrette. Even with all the toppings, this salad didn’t feel remarkable. The dressing was good, but this wasn’t our main event anyway.

I chose a sandwich that I’ve never ordered before, but I’ve tried a bite of it because it’s one of Alex’s favorites. They call it the Yee Haw Barbecue and it’s actually hidden in the “super-clean meats” section of the menu, but you can get it with seitan and vegan cheese. This is a whole wheat hoagie stuffed with seitan and their delicious barbecue sauce, plus yellow banana peppers. In my photo you can hardly see the barbecue sauce, but there’s plenty of it and it’s really tasty and adds tons of flavor, truly making this a barbecue sandwich.

Each of their sandwiches comes with a choice of a side, and I selected the ginger rainbow slaw. I’m accustomed to getting slaw with my barbecue. It was pretty good. They have many sides to choose from (and all are vegan), including rosemary redskin potatoes, mixed green salad, Sun Chips, fruit salad, hummus and chips, and tabouli. Alex likes the rosemary redskins, and I usually try different things depending on my mood. Plus it’s been a very long time since we’ve been to Melt for any meal besides brunch.

Alex’s sandwich looks strikingly similar to mine: he chose the Veggie Cheesesteak. This is also seitan on a whole wheat hoagie, but topped with grilled onions and mushrooms. You can see the rosemary redskins behind the sandwich. He likes both items doused with the curry catsup they have on tables. (Yes, they spell it catsup but they draw special attention to it being HFCS-free.)

Melt is one of my favorite places in Cincinnati. Their menu has expanded several times since I started visiting. It’s the first place I ever tried tofu scramble, even though I prefer my own scramble these days.

I’m very happy that they make vegan and vegetarian food so accessible and visible. The menu is divided half and half (meat and not) so unlike an all-veg restaurant, they attract all kinds of diners. Melt was voted one of Cincinnati’s top-ten overall restaurants in the latest City Beat readers’ poll and snagged the top vegetarian spot for several years running. These piggy recognition certificates were posted right by my table.

If you go, be sure to check out the patio out back if the weather’s nice and keep in mind there is a second indoor dining room in the back.

Creole Soul in Memphis

I tried a new restaurant on my recent trip to Memphis! I’m excited because I typically find my myself going back to the same favorites each time I visit. DeJaVu has a vegan section on their menu, plus lots of non-vegan stuff people are raving about on Yelp and Urbanspoon. My folks each ate a chicken dish and weren’t impressed, but Alex and I both enjoyed our meals.

DeJaVu has two locations in Memphis, one downtown and the other newly opened in Hickory Hill. We visited the Hickory Hill location. It’s the larger location and even has space for live music on the weekend. Our visit was for a late lunch on Saturday and the place had a few leisurely diners scattered, televisions mounted on the wall showing ESPN bowling, and music playing over the speakers. The place felt cool, clean, and bright.

They brought out glasses of ice water, a bowl of lemon wedges, and corn muffins. The corn muffins are not vegan, but I hear they’re good. The restaurant has traditional New Orleans food (gator stew, anyone?) as well as Southern Soul standards and a handful of vegan entrees.

All of the vegetable side dishes are vegan. If you’re not familiar with Southern cooking, that may sound confusing. I think it’s remarkable, because it can be tough to even get vegetarian vegetables when everything is “seasoned” with ham hock, fat back, bacon grease, or chicken stock. All unnecessary – diners at DeJaVu may not even notice that the meat is missing in their sides. All the ones I tried were good, too, and I think if I go back I’ll get a 4-veggie plate. And I’ll be sure to try the grilled cabbage.

I chose the mock chicken salad. This was good, but messy. That can’t be a complaint. The salad was tasty and the portion was generous. I chose collard greens and smothered okra for my sides. The greens were good, tender and salty. The smothered okra was my favorite, though, even though it was a little on the sweet side (pictured above, under the sweet potatoes). I love okra, but I don’t eat it much since it scares Alex. And as I found out during lunch, my mom doesn’t like it with tomatoes, so this dish was unlike anything I’ve had before, even though it’s not uncommon. Given different circumstances, this could be a staple. I think I’m going to make something like this at home.

Alex chose the veggie rolls. These were delicious, if heavy, deep fried eggroll style. They were stuffed with curried cabbage, carrots, and raisins and served with a spicy-sweet sauce. The cabbage and carrots were delicious together. He chose spinach and sweet potatoes for his sides. These were both good, and the sweet potatoes were sweeter than most desserts, but he has a sweet tooth and cleaned his bowl.

The only other side I tried was the red beans and rice, which was good and even got the stamp of approval from my mom. These red beans were just spicy enough and in red gravy, topped with fluffy white rice. She also got collard greens, like me, and my father only chose one side: spinach. He liked that so much it was gone before he offered a bite to my mom.

The good news for me is that this place is right around the corner from my grandparents, so I’ll plan to drop in whenever I visit them. That’s not the only reason, convenient as it is, so even after they “leave town” as Papa says, I’ll stop by when I’m in town.

Tempeh not-chicken salad

We’ve been eating a lot of sandwiches lately. Typically we’ll reheat some leftovers for lunch, but now that summer has arrived in full force, I don’t always want something warm in the middle of the day. I also think warm weather encourages lighter eating anyway.

Enter tempeh salad, in the style of chicken salad. There are recipes for this all over the web, but it’s also easy to just throw together whatever you like. What are your top toss-ins for a salad like this?

Start by crumbling or cutting the tempeh. I left mine large, but next time I’ll make it smaller for easier chomping in the sandwiches. Although you can eat tempeh straight from the package, if you steam it will become a little more tender and lose some of the bitter bite. It’ll still be chewy and firm. You can either use a steamer basket for about 15-20 minutes, or do it right in a pan. I put mine in my trusty pan you’ll see in many stovetop photos, put in some water, covered it and let it boil and steam for 5 minutes, then removed the lid and continued to boil until the water all evaporates.

Important step: let the tempeh cool! I made this on Sunday afternoon and had no problem just letting it sit while I did other things. I love cooking that has true downtime when you don’t have to worry about anything possibly burning.

Prepare your dressing and any goodies you want in your salad. Then toss it together and have it on hand to eat cold, whenever you’re ready. I used carrot, celery, green onions, walnuts, and dried cranberries. I made the dressing with prepared Vegenaise and added a kick of red wine vinegar and some cayenne pepper. Sounds like a lot, right? Well, I only used the carrot because I had one in the fridge that needed to get eaten.

It’s been so warm recently that my cat has taken to sleeping in the bathroom where the AC vent for the small room and the tile keep things cool. I hope summer is treating you well, wherever you are!

This is my kitty Little Fuzz, or Fuzziweena*, sniffing at the vent blowing cool air.

*spelling of the cat's name is yet to be determined

Sandwiches and Basil Spread

Last summer, I grew basil. Though I’ve never been a gardener and it’s not something my immediate family does, I find myself around more and more gardeners. This year, I’m trying to expand. Peer pressure! So far, besides my cilantro (which died when I went out of town for three hot, rainless days), basil has been my biggest success.

After I snipped off a bunch of basil

What to do with so much basil? Of course I have a few standby recipes that use it – otherwise I wouldn’t bother growing my own – but I looked through my cookbooks to find an interesting recipe for my basil. Maybe a pesto or something. Ah-ha, I made the Sweet Basil Pesto Tapenade from Venganomicon.

This is basil, garlic, walnuts, maple syrup, olive oil, and a little lemon zest all whipped together in the food processor.

I’ve been eating it on toast, or in sandwiches. It’s sweet and packs a flavor punch with all that basil. My favorite way to enjoy it, though, has been in a sandwich stuffed with other things too. Here’s a pocket with a leftover piece of broiled tofu and a slice of roasted eggplant along with the basil spread.