my thanksgiving in pictures (and a fun holiday tradition)

I baked my first pecan pie. I used my grandmother's recipe but subbed tapioca starch and flax for the eggs (you couldn't tell a difference!).

Homemade bread and my teeny olive tray.

Mashed potatoes by Corey.

Cashew gravy by me (MAKE THIS!).

Lots of pecan pie photos before cutting into it!

And an apple pie for Corey because he doesn't like pecans. I used this apple tart recipe, but simply added a crust on top as well.

Corey carving the Tofurky.

Homemade bread via my go-to recipe (plus I added herbs to it--delicious!). I'm in need of a good wheat bread recipe...suggestions? Looking for something light and fluffy, not super dense.

It's my tradition with my brother to take a picture of our plate at every holiday meal, then label what's on it. My archive goes back at least five years as of now. Since we weren't together on Thanksgiving this year, I asked him to send me a picture of his plate. Here's mine:

And his:

I find both the similarities and differences (when we're together AND when we're apart, actually!) amusing. He had more dishes to sample--the perk of a lot of people being at your Thanksgiving feast (mine was just me and Corey)! We both had Tofurky (my parents are also vegetarian) but he had ham too (funny that they are touching each other). And let's not forget about the olive trays...a tradition in my family that I dutifully observe even when I'm away...I'm not sure if having a serving dish solely devoted to olives is normal for holiday meals (?), so if you are wondering about that, it might just be a family thing!

Do you have any Thanksgiving traditions?

My other one is that I always watch the Gilmore Girls episode "A Deep Fried Korean Thanksgiving" (season 3, episode 9)! It is my favorite Gilmore Girls episode. Watch this clip if you haven't seen it...you have no idea what you're missing!

Tomorrow I'll be guest posting about decorating for the holidays over at Desirous of Everything! Pencil it in to your Black Friday schedule so you can be sure to read it!

getting the inside scoop on Spain's love of garlic

This evening I am thrilled to introduce my first guest post! This comes to you all the way from Spain and was written by one of my best friends, Casey. Casey and I lived together for three years in college and even studied abroad together in Italy in 2008 (yes, she witnessed some of those language mishaps firsthand!). A lover of languages, Casey has been teaching English as a second language in Madrid for the past year as a Fulbright scholar! She'll be in Spain for at least one more year, and you can follow her adventures on her witty, informative, and photo-filled blog Gee, Cassandra. And now I'll hand this over to Casey:

When Victoria Beckham relocated to Spain, she supposedly made a crack about how the place smelled of garlic. This did not sit kindly with Spaniards, who take their garlic seriously. Whether cropping up next to vegetables, seafood, or bread, it is a pervasive ingredient in countless Spanish dishes.
One day, at a restaurant going over English verbs with a Madrid native, my student said the unthinkable. “I don’t like garlic,” she divulged, glancing at the menu. She pushed la carta over to me, but the page blurred as I began daydreaming of what life would be like as a Spaniard who disliked garlic. “You pick,” I exclaimed, and those infamous last words became my introduction to callos, or tripe.
I personally enjoy the piquant flavor that garlic provides, and add a liberal crush of the stuff to many a recipe. One of those dishes is salmorejo, a cold soup often served as a first course. It can be found pre-packaged in the grocery store next to its more-famous cousin, gazpacho. While they both originate from southern Spain, this variety of tomato soup is different in that it is flavored with olive oil and thickened with breadcrumbs. It's served scattered with any number of toppings such as raw onion, green pepper, cured ham, or hard-boiled egg.

Many restaurants will offer salmorejo as a dip--my favorite was trying it with rounds of fried eggplant. If you don’t mind garlic breath for the rest of the day, you can even have it for breakfast, as a spread on toast. Whether eaten with a spoon or on a baguette, you should always have some on hand, just in case someone posh happens to drop by.

*Bonus garlic knowledge: in Spanish, a clove of garlic is known as a “diente,” or “tooth”!

Salmorejo

Ingredients for 2-3 servings

4 ripe tomatoes
1 green pepper
1-2 cloves of garlic (or more!)
1 slice of slightly stale or toasted bread
¼ cup olive oil (you may not use it all)
1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon white wine vinegarSalt and pepper to taste

For toppings: slices of hard-boiled egg, ham, diced onion, and/or the rest of the green pepper

Chop the tomatoes, half of the green pepper, and garlic and put into a blender. Add the bread, half of the olive oil, and a dash of salt. Mix together, and add a splash of water to make the texture creamier. Blend again, this time adding the white wine vinegar. Check the seasonings and add more salt, vinegar, and oil if necessary.

Once in the serving dish, swirl a bit of olive oil on top, add the toppings, and sprinkle with black pepper.

- Casey

eggplant club

In Italian, the word for eggplant, melanzana, means literally, "toxic apple." A member of the nightshade family, it was once believed to have caused insanity.

In Italy, I discovered how much I truly love eggplant. Luckily it is no longer attributed to madness. My friend Casey and I started an eggplant club. We were the only members. No one could love eggplant as much as we did, we joked. We had it at every meal!

Last year I had one Japanese eggplant in a container. It produced a single fruit late in the summer, which withered and died before reaching maturity. I questioned whether I should try again this year, but since I'm in a different zone now, I went ahead with it. I got two plants: a black beauty and a gretel, and planted them in the raised bed rather than a container. They are doing beautifully and producing eggplants, dare I say, like mad. We harvested the first one yesterday.

It was so beautiful and perfect, that I couldn't stop admiring it. It amazes me that I had so much trouble last year, and that this time around it has been so easy.

We put it on a homemade pizza, one of my favorite uses of fresh summer produce.

green tomatoes

What's a girl to do when she finds herself with a stockpile of these when all she really wants is a tomato sandwich? Because of a handful of storms over the past two weeks, we've had to prune back the tomato plants more than usual. There is still an impressive crop beginning to ripen on the vines, but a few branches were severed from the heavy wind and had to be removed, resulting in a bowl full of unripened tomatoes. I tried putting them in a brown paper sack to ripen them, but they were not mature enough when they were picked, I suppose, because after five days there was no progress.

I've been looking for ways to use them. Of course, they can be fried. Or pickled. Both of those sound tasty, but I wanted something a little simpler, so I decided to make a green salsa. I was worried that maybe they weren't mature enough to use for anything at all, but the salsa tastes great.


Here it is. I came up with it based on what was available in the garden and fridge. It has a tangy flavor with a hint of mint and lime in the aftertaste, sort of like a certain chutney I particularly like, but don't know the name of (I've heard it called mint chutney as well as cilantro chutney...perhaps those are two different things...I've been unable to locate the right recipe).

5 small green tomatoes
10 mint leaves (I used lime mint)
generous pinch of cilantro leaves
3-4 small chard leaves
1 slice of onion, chopped
1/2 Tbsp cumin
2 Tbsp liquid from a jar of jalapenos, + 5 jalapeno slices
1 tsp lime juice
1/2 tsp minced garlic or garlic powder

Chop the tomatoes into small pieces. Throw them along with everything else into a blender or food processor, and blend until smooth. This could be tweaked in a number of ways. Salsa is easy to adapt to your liking!

vacation, staycation

First meal on the new barbecue grill! Homemade veggie burgers and roasted pineapple.

The garden is growing!

I'm on day four of my ten-day break from teaching and classes, and it's been great! I feel human again. Last week I seriously spent 12-17 hours a day at school! It got a little insane at the end of the quarter. Also, being on quarters, rather than semesters, for those who don't know, it's absolutely nuts. As of last week, I had been in school since January 3rd with only spring break and two one-day holidays off. I do realize that people who work normal, full-time jobs often go that long without taking time off. And sometimes those jobs demand a LOT outside of the normal 40 hours a week as well. But most weeks I was at school 6-7 days in a row, because I had so much stuff to do outside of normal hours. That might be normal for grad school, but I just couldn't keep it up anymore. It feels amazing to be done for a bit and to have a lighter load this summer.

And it wouldn't feel like a summer break without some delicious food. Let me tell you about my absolute favorite food offerings in Columbus.

Jeni's Splendid Ice Cream - It really is splendid, to be sure. The Riesling Poached Pear Sorbet is my favorite frozen dessert...ever. All of their ice creams are made right here in Columbus, with locally sourced ingredients when possible.

Hal and Al's - The only vegan bar in Columbus. Everything on the menu is amazing. The bartenders just might know Corey and me by name... They sell Columbus's famous local veggie burger, the Luna burger, cooked to perfection on a locally made pretzel bun. We've tried almost everything on the menu and have yet to find something that wasn't outstanding.

Clintonville Farmers' Market - Although hard to replace the spot in my heart reserved only for the Conway Farmers' Market, this weekly outing always provides whatever is lacking in my own garden. With everything from fruit, veggies, mushrooms, cheeses, pastries, honey, plants, flowers, and the list goes on...I could probably spend most of my paycheck here if I weren't careful!

winter cooking

Cooking in winter is not as inspiring to me as cooking in spring or summer, since of course the vegetable selection is not as great. Still, a warm meal in winter is important, especially with all of the snow we've been having lately!

happy new year

Happy New Year! For New Year's day, I had magic risotto, Tofurky, roasted vegetables, and peanut butter cookies.

Tomorrow, back to school! I'll have a brand new class to teach (same material, different students) and new courses of my own.

Here's to 2011!

never too busy to cook

1. sandwich on homemade bread with lettuce, onion, tomato, tofu, olives, and guacamole


2. wheat rotini with veggies stir fried in nutritional yeast


2. basmati rice, lentils, and stir fried veggies


4. pizza on homemade wheat crust, with tofu, bell pepper, onion, and mushroom


5. homemade pumpkin pie granola with soy milk


6. wheat rotini with stir fried veggies and tomato sauce

7. peanut butter chocolate chip cookies...cookie dough was vegan, the chips were not this time

8. salad with roasted red pepper hummus, sunflower seeds, and tofu


9. vegan chicken and dumplings...soooooo good...will write up a recipe asap!


10. amazing salad with homemade croutons and green olives


Amidst the busyness I have still had time for cooking (and these photographs are snapped awfully quickly with only available light from a window or a certain adjustable fluorescent lamp, let me tell you!) because I have put all of my other hobbies on hold until my senior show is up (sewing, reading, drawing, jewelry-making, the list goes on, oy...sometimes even laundry!). I still have to eat, however, and I just really don't believe in having premade, overly processed food at every meal. And so I continue to cook. Easy things, mostly. After my show is up, I have a ton of recipes I have been waiting to try.

stir fries and snickerdoodles

This weekend was my Fall Break...four days off from school should have been enough, right? Not at all! I worked some, did homework, caught up on chores...this word "break" means little to me right now! I got to have a little fun cooking and visiting one of my favorite parks with Corey, though. Here are just a few pictures...more soon.

On Friday night, we did one of our favorite activities...supermarket browsing. I know that might sound funny, but checking out different grocery stores happens to be a pastime of mine. We got some delicious stir fry ingredients including Japanese noodles, mushrooms, carrots, broccoli, a special sauce (Corey is the sauce expert, so he picked it out, and it was delicious), nuts, and a few others, then cooked them up in my trusty green skillet.

And these are some vegan snickerdoodle cookies I made...fall is here! (recipe from vegweb.com) This season I am especially looking forward to...

- showing work in the senior art exhibit
- graduating college (eep!)
- turning 23!

And as always, I anticipate...

- cool weather--scarves, coats, and boots

- changing leaves

- overcast days perfect for picture-taking

- the holiday season

too busy for fall

Things I have made lately....1. pumpkin smoothie, 2. stir fry with farmer's market finds + basmati rice, 3. vegan peanut butter cookies, 4. lettuceless salad, homemade croutons, and iced tea, 5. roasted red pepper hummus.

School is so busy, busy, busy for me right now. My life will return to normal after November 12, the opening of the BA/BFA Exhibit. I can't wait to have free time again! It's all I can do right now to keep my apartment clean and throw together these simple foods in what little leisurely time I have.