cerulean.

'hick's orchard' • 7X10" • watercolor on paper

what an amazing bright, spring weekend, eh? (except, perhaps, if you live in minnesota or wisconsin.)

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i got my hands in the dirt and wrangled some early weeds. adam mowed the lawn for the first time this year. we grilled our saturday night dinner and i finally think i (may have) mastered a vegetarian "meat" sauce for loaded veggie dogs. we finally watched '7 psychopaths' which i think is my current favorite movie. it reminded me of 'reservoir dogs' although not quite as violent.

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we have a very exciting vacation planned for the end of this month. i plan to take full advantage of the time to relax as i have a couple big projects planned for june. 

more on june to come!

mushroom, cashew & leek veggie burgers.

it's time for another try at a veggie burger recipe. my first attempt seemed successful but considering that i haven't made the recipe since, i suppose we couldn't have liked it too much.
after pouring over my "burger" board on pinterest, i referred again to veggie burgers every which way and chose to try a patty with cashews. there are quite a few recipes on the internet that are similar and apparently they are all based off a mother recipe created by cook's illustrated.
truthfully, this is a labor intensive recipe with many steps. i used half of the pans in our kitchen to make these burgers but it was worth it. the texture of the patties is dense and holds its shape in a bun. there's not many things worse than a veggie burger that squeezes out of the sides of the bun on your first bite.

mushroom, cashew & leek veggie burgers
(makes 6 patties)

1/3 cup red lentils
1/3 cup bulgur
4 tablespoons olive oil
8 crimini mushrooms, sliced
2 medium leeks, cleaned and thinly sliced
1 teaspoon of thyme
1 teaspoon sage
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1/2 cup raw cashews
2 eggs
2 teaspoons dijon mustard
1/4 teaspoon fresh ground pepper
1 cup bread crumbs

•cook the lentils in a pan covered with 1 cup of water. bring the lentils and water to a boil, then simmer until the lentils are tender and beginning to fall apart, about 20-25 minutes. drain any excess water, then set aside to cool.

•bring 2/3 cup water to a boil then stir in the bulgur. cover, remove from the heat, and let stand for 15-20 minutes or until all the water is absorbed. set aside to cool.

•preheat oven to 375ºF.

•sauté the mushrooms in 1 tablespoon of the oil at medium heat. cook until the mushrooms release their moisture and the fluid cooks off. set aside to cool.

•sauté the leeks, sage, and thyme over medium heat until tender and beginning to caramelize, approximately 12-15 minutes. add the garlic and tomato paste and cook for another few minutes. combine the leek mixture and the mushrooms in a bowl.

•using a food processor, pulse the cashews, eggs, mustard, and pepper until combined. add the mushrooms, leeks, and half of the lentils and bulgur. pulse until roughly combined. return this mixture to the bowl, adding the remaining bulgur and lentils. work the breadcrumbs into the mixture until it just holds its shape.

•form the mixture into 6 patties.

•in an oven safe pan, sauté the remaining 2 tablespoons of oil over medium-high heat. cook the patties until browned on the bottom, about 2-5 minutes, and flip to cook the other side. transfer the pan into the oven and bake for 12-15 minutes, until the burgers are firm and cooked through.

(i will try to freeze a few uncooked patties wrapped in waxed paper. some of the other web based recipes suggest adding a little extra bread crumb to the patties that will be frozen as they will become wetter once they are thawed.)

honestly, every night is date night.

adam and i have an established tradition of not exchanging gifts at holidays. despite this, we do take each other to a rare dinner out alone for our respective birthdays. nearing his 34th year, adam's choice of sushi luckily led us to the fantastic place right in downtown glens falls, siam thai sushi restaurant.
adam successfully experimented with a captain crunch roll in addition to his usual sushi platter. i took his word that it was the best roll he's ever had because while there are vegetarian sushi rolls, the captain crunch was certainly not one of them.
i filled up on edamame and tofu with cashew nut sauce. despite what i always say about ordering sushi, i can never resist the thai dishes, especially the ones that threaten you from the menu with their multiple red chili pepper warnings. admittedly, i have quite a taste for spicy food, but i have never found those dishes with the pepper icons to be as hot as they are advertised.
would it be foolish that next time i ask for my dish "thai hot"?

despite my name, i am not french.

today is the last day of my four day weekend. i've been pretty lucky with the weather and have been able to get out, dig around, rake and uncover the new growth in the yard. happily, our first tulip opened and it looks like my rose bush survived the winter.
i'm trying to occupy my mind in the kitchen as i wait for fed ex to deliver my new macbook pro. i am typing this post on my old macbook and i feel a little sheepish about how excited i am for the new machine; like i'm cheating or something.
i decided to try a recipe that i've never made, nor have ever eaten. it's a vegetarian version of choucroute garnie which i found in one of our many cookbooks. apparently, this cookbook has what might be the only vegetarian version of the recipe because after only a quick google search i found that choucroute garnie is possibly the least vegetarian dish around. images are of a dish piling over with sausages, bacon and other animal products.
no bother; it was an excellent excuse to go to our local natural food store and pick up some veggie sausages. the recipe also calls for reisling. it's an odd feeling to be in a liquor store at 9:30 AM on a tuesday; the merchant hadn't even put cash in his register yet.
all but the sausages & tempeh are in the crockpot and hopefully my delivery will arrive soon so i can steal some time up in the studio before going back to the office tomorrow!

veggie burger experiment.

i eat a lot of veggie burgers.  there's probably three to four boxes in the freezer right now.  i get anxious if the supply drops below two boxes.  i like to have a variety of choices; black bean and "chicken" patties are a necessity.
considering my near addiction to these easy meal makers, it's a wonder i waited so long to try my hand at making them from scratch.
i figure the best place to start is an attempt to replicate my favorite frozen burger flavor-black bean.
i would say that the outcome was positive.  on the next try, i will certainly bake the burgers longer, perhaps at a higher temperature.  they were a little soft on the inside for my tastes, but were otherwise delicious.


chipotle black bean burgers
adapted from veggie burgers every which way by lukas volger

3/4 c TVP (textured vegetable protein)
2/3 c boiling water
1 can black beans, thoroughly rinsed (1 1/2 c)
1/2 onion, roughly chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped
3 chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, minced, plus 1 TBSP sauce
1/2 c frozen corn, thawed
juice of one lime
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
1/4 tsp dried chile pepper flakes
1 cup cooked brown rice
3 TBSP whole wheat flour
3/4 c panko bread crumbs
2 TBSP oil

•preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
•reconstitute TVP by pouring boiling water over it.  let sit for 10 minutes.
•combine 1/2 cup black beans, garlic and the onion in a food processor and pulse until coarsely pureed.
•place remaining beans in a bowl and coarsely mash with a potato masher or a fork. add the bean-onion mixture to the mashed beans, and then gently fold in all the remaining ingredients. let stand for 10 minutes.
•shape into 6 burgers.
•in an oven safe sauté pan, heat oil over medium-high heat.  add burgers and cook until browned on each side, 6-10 minutes total.  transfer pan to oven and bake for 12 to 15 minutes, until the burgers are firm and cooked through.

earthlings.

"as long as there are slaughterhouses, there will be battlefields"  leo tolstoy



for those who thought that food, inc. was a movie that everyone should watch, i would challenge that earthlings is twice as enlightening.  i suspect that earthlings didn't get as much attention as food, inc. because it is difficult to watch and shakes the curtain of ignorance; whether you don't know or don't want to know.

earthlings is an intellectual and comprehensive look at the five ways animals have come to serve mankind; as pets, food, clothing, entertainment and as test subjects.

(you can watch the entire movie from the website and it's available via netflix)

meatout.

if you weren't already aware, this weekend marks the 25th anniversary of the great american meatout. 
honestly, i am not doing anything special, mostly because i've been a vegetarian for about 20 years.  of the many types of vegetarianism, i adhere to a lacto-ovo vegetarian diet.  i haven't knowingly eaten a meat product since freshman year of high school.  while i do consciously prepare vegan meals, i have never tried to completely convert to this type of diet.
as the years have passed and i've become a little less teenage angsty, being vegetarian has morphed into a normal part of my life.  i rarely point out this personal, ethical choice to others and am not on a mission to preach the vegetarian way of life.  the only times it is brought to my attention as out-of-the-ordinary is by non-vegetarians, which are most of the people in my daily life. 
my non-scientific observations suggest that the general public is a bit more educated about vegetarianism than it was two decades ago, but often people have a visceral reaction to meeting vegetarians.  i still get comments about how i can't possibly be getting enough protein.  (what am i, some kind of body builder?  this is one of my trigger statements as it shows people's lack of understanding of nutrition...or it suggests that they subscribe to that whole adkins phenomena.)
i can always tell when someone doesn't know many vegetarians (or perhaps they only know vigilant preachy ones?).  we can be eating together and they will ask, "does it offend you that i eat this [insert non-vegetarian food item here] in front of you?".  it does not offend me when other people eat meat, because it is only fair for me to assume that they made an educated decision to do so.  while i feel that eating a vegetarian diet is ethically and environmentally responsible, other people can (and do) disagree.
ultimately, it's important that people are aware of the impact of their choices.  my knowledge of the meat industry practices and it's inhumanity are too much for me to overlook.  i will not personally support those activities when i can eat satisfying, healthy and delicious meals without meat.
anyone else out there vegetarian?  do you ever get quizzed or lectured and if so, how do you deal with it?

a quick book review.

being a vegetarian for 20 years, i was looking forward to Melanie Joy, PhD's book, Why We Love Dogs, Eat Pigs and Wear Cows and her concept of carnism.

in the book she writes: "we don't see meat eating as we do vegetarianism-as a choice, based on a set of assumptions about animals, our world and ourselves. rather, we see it as a given, the "natural" thing to do. we eat animals without thinking about what we are doing and why because the belief system that underlies this behavior is invisible. this invisible belief system is what I call carnism."

unfortunately, i felt that the carnism concept wasn't examined in enough depth. granted, it is a short book, under 150 pages when you remove the resources and bibliography but much of the book is composed of descriptions of slaughterhouse practices and the suffering of animals. while I feel this is important to be aware of, it is not something that hasn't been covered by other books (Animal Liberation by Peter Singer) and movies (Food, Inc.).

i liked what she had to say about how society justifies the eating of meat through myths. she calls these myths the "3 N's of Justification"; that eating meat is Normal, Natural and Necessary. she discusses how "carnists" are able to continue eating meat through the objectification and abstraction of animals, hence blocking feelings of disgust triggered by empathizing with animal suffering.

overall, i think this is a valuable book, but not one that covers any new ground.

whattcha been up to?

so you've probably been noticing that i've been kinda callin' it in for the last two weeks. let me give you an abridged version of what's been going on.

•my vegetable garden has been crapping the bed. it never really took off this year, mostly because of our wet and cool summer. my eggplants are only now starting to really set fruit and the tomatoes all "caught the blight". the flowers haven't really fared much better. it's most obvious with the sage and snapdragons. everything just stayed pretty small and hasn't been very spectacular. it's not a total failure as any gardener knows, because this year's failures have taught me many lessons for future gardens.

•i've been recently obsessed with cooking with eggs. it started with this article from the kitchn, then it just took on a life of it's own. frittatas, carbonaras (sans bacon), etc.

•i picked up working on my family tree. i added a little more than a hundred people, bringing the total tree to more than one thousand people. a few years back i got stuck and had given up the researching. recently, i found an error in my tree around 1800 which had caused the problem. my great (x4) grandfather, edward had three wives (a double widower) and i had listed the wrong wife in my tree. fixing this has brought me back to the 16th century, which is where i'm stuck again.

•hosting a garage sale is a great way to people watch. especially since the people come right to your house.

•i am particularly finicky about jewelery, but recently found a very awesome beach glass "cairn" necklace on etsy. it was hand made by sarah schneider in california. you can see her work here.

•we FINALLY got to bring home our new "child", louie blu yesterday. he's adjusting pretty well; especially since he's never met a dog before. it will be a few weeks for everyone to find their niches but it will all work out.
here is a gratuitous kitty shot:

meatless monday.

get more information on meatless monday here...

no words.

please be forewarned that this is heart wrenching. do not watch if you're having a particularly emotional or otherwise sad day. as a vegetarian (not vegan) this triggers a mixture of guilt and rage for me...

gobble, gobble.

happy (don't eat a) turkey day folks!

erebus chili.

it's been a while since we took a hike with crosbi and we've been feeling bad about that. we decided to stay close to home and head up to what i still call knapp estate. it's a large parcel of land on the east side of lake george that the state of new york purchased from the knapp family around 1941.
we chose to hike erebus mountain. unfortunately, nothing of interest happened. except for the fact it rained. we aren't even sure we summited. here is one of the few good pictures we took.

a chilly and wet fall day screams for a bowl of chili, so there was no question what dinner would be.
here is my basic recipe, adapted over time from Robin Robertson's book, Fresh from the Vegetarian Slow Cooker. please note that when i say basic, i really mean it, as i change/add to it every time i make it.

29 ounce can of tomato puree
three 15 ounce cans of beans, drained and rinsed (i usually use black, garbanzo & kidney)
1 can chipotle in adobo sauce
8 cloves of garlic, minced
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 cup frozen corn
3 fresh chile peppers, diced
3 TBSP vegetable oil
14 ounces Gimme Lean ground "beef" (or your choice of veggie "meat")
1 1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp cayenne
2 tsp paprika
1/4 tsp allspice
1/4 tsp cinnamon
black pepper to taste
1/2-1 cup water

place the tomato puree in a slow cooker. add cumin, cayenne, paprika, allspice, black pepper and cinnamon. add two tablespoons of the adobo sauce and two diced chipotles. add beans and corn.

saute the onions, chile peppers and garlic in the vegetable oil for a few minutes over medium high heat. add the "beef" and saute for a few more minutes. if you use Gimme Lean then be sure it gets "chopped up" into small pieces. add to slow cooker.

set slow cooker to high and add 1/2 cup water. add more water to achieve desired thickness.

cook for 4+ hours.

fourth of july weekend.

here are some things i learned this weekend:

it's a good idea to check your tent site for goose poop before setting up.

dinner is best served before 11PM; especially when people have been drinking all day.

being the only vegetarian at a four-day-straight barbecue camp-out is a challenge.

boys (and by boys, i mean grown men) would rather pee in a lake than go to the toilet.

chocolate and cayenne really do go together well.

nobody likes the guy who shows up to the party with no food or booze, but stays all night.

i make a pretty good oatmeal cookie.

non-vegetarians are freaked out by tempeh.

lakes are cool, but friends are better.

iron-deficient chef. genius!

i totally jacked this from ppk's blog, but i couldn't help it.
super idea; iron deficient chef!

good ole' peter singer...

yay! for this book. coming from a 16 year vegetarian who had until this reading lost an intimate connection to the original reasons for not eating meat-not that i was thinking of "going back"-but this book refreshed my vigilance.

having gone vegetarian at the age of 15 made much of my reasoning very reactionary (think PeTA). this book brings the adult logic to the party.

before this book i was unfamiliar with jim mason. i will have to give him another look.