HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!

Finger suckers

Today is my Dad's birthday :)  

The pics are from a venture to the Japanese Stroll Garden with my brother and his baby Jude.

Two blog entries in one day...crazy, huh?  (here's the other)

Creamy Green deLight

Strange title, I realize that.  Last night we were listening to Type O Negative.  And while we were gazing at the very greenness that we were about to munch on, Adam realized that the song Creepy Green Light was playing and I couldn't resist ;)

We tried out mung bean noodles for this dish.  These fellas have a definite beany taste and hearty texture, both of which we enjoyed.  And, like Soba noodles, are a quick fix, taking no more than 6-8 minutes.

For the sauce we were inspired by the Roasted Garlic Artichoke Spread from Eat, Drink and Be Vegan.  For 45-50 min. you roast a mixture of garlic, artichokes, oregano, oil and lemon juice.  I mashed some white beans and mixed them with soy milk and black pepper while heating over medium low heat.  Next I added the garlic artichoke mixture, red onion, chopped olives, and marinated shiitake mushrooms. 

This dish was served up on a bed of spinach and sprinkled with leftover topping from the previous night (cashews, nutritional yeast and hemp seed).  After the photo was taken I covered it in nutritional yeast and I would highly recommend this!  In fact, this dish would be quite good with nutritional yeast mixed into the sauce to create a sort of beany fettuccine.

All in all, not bad.  In the future I would like to add more herbs and garlic.  I would also recommend frying the onions and mushrooms ahead of time (which we did not do) to really bring out the flavors.



  

"Squash the Shiitake" Stir-fry

Just a quick number from tonight's dinner.  Most of the veggies were local.  Since we missed the Farmers Market on Saturday we stopped by Homegrown Foods while doing laundry.  This place is awesome!  They just got started this year and already serve up a wide assortment of local foods and related items (coffee, pottery, etc.).

Before cooking, the shiitake mushrooms were marinated in tamari, Worcestershire sauce (vegan of course!) and brown rice vinegar.  The following were stir-fried in toasted sesame oil:  red onion, elephant garlic (local!), marinated shiitake mushrooms, yellow squash, green pepper, turnips, cashews and the remaining marinade.  

After boiling and rinsing the soba noodles, I mixed in some toasted sesame oil, basil, black pepper and black sesame seeds.  Then these were tossed in with the veggie mixture.

Served up with a topping of fresh sprouts and a mixture of finely chopped cashews, hemp seed and nutritional yeast.

Dancing Rabbit pt. 2 - Canning

This is the second installment about my adventure to Dancing Rabbit, an amazing Ecovillage in North East Missouri.  In case you missed the first part, you can check it out here.

We had an AMAZING time!  We made salsa, applesauce, peach jam and pickled okra.  Check out the Milkweed's entry, too!

Getting started with salsa

Down to business

A giant bowl of salsa!

Tina cranks while I concentrate, oh so hard, on watching

We got to take home lots of goodies, as you can see above :)  Aprons, canning books, canning funnels, canning tongs, FOOD, and a few other things (like smiles!).  And yes, that is Vegan Cream Cheese topped Carrot Cake.  If you have the opportunity to take part in such an excursion, I highly recommend it!

Other things...
I have been enjoying my offline time more and more.  And in my efforts to make more time for other things, I'm trying to spend less time online.  This week I made a firm decision to only check facebook once a week.   I have already been limiting blogging time, but still plan to aim for 1 to 2 entries each week, so please stick with me :)  I do still check out many other blogs, though I haven't been leaving as many comments.  Just fyi, for anyone who might wonder.  There is so much inspiration out there and it would be a shame to give up all of that!

Speaking of blogs, I was sad to discover that Green and Crunchy no longer exists.  If anyone knows the story, please fill me in.  This blog was a true inspiration!  It's what gave us the motivation to join a bulk-buying co-op.


Blog Updates (They may happen slowly, but they are coming!)
Coming Up:   Cookbook reviews and giveaway;  DR pt. 3;
Summer Garden pics

Why Vegan? - a story from Warped Tour

Here's a pretty cool video about a girl who decided to go vegan after attending Warped Tour.  I could not post the clip here, so please follow the link.  To those who are already vegan, this shows that we can make a difference in a variety of venues.  You never know who might be inspired to make a change ;)  Organizations like Vegan Outreach off lots of resources to help anyone interested in reaching out to their community.

Other sites that might be of interest:
Info. for new vegans 
Why Vegan - Vegan Outreach

Blog Updates
Coming Up:  DR pt. 2; cookbook reviews and giveaway; and more...
Recent Changes:  You might notice that there is now a search bar to aid in searching through past entries.  This has allowed me to condense the amount of labels used ;)  More to come...    

Dancing Rabbit pt. 1 - Welcome to the Milkweed Mercantile

Milkweed Mercantile

This weekend was amazing!  We hit the road Friday morning for Dancing Rabbit, an ecovillage in Northeastern Missouri.  We stayed at the Milkweed Mercantile (pictured above), a bed and breakfast that just opened this year.  After we unloaded, Alline gave us a quick overview of the neighborhood, we had a few beers and relaxed.  Alline and Kurt were wonderful hosts!  

Alline has a point...haha, ok maybe that was corny

Jessica, Tina, Ann and Bobbie try to focus in the sun

Kurt and Alline behind the counter busy with dinner prep. and serving beers ;)

A fuzzy pic, but doesn't Kurt look so happy to serve?  haha ;)

Fancy dinner arrangement

Ann and Jessica enjoying the amazing hammock chairs

Bobbie and I having an intense discussion (evidently) over beers

Want to find an Intentional Community near you?:  Check out the Fellowship for Intentional Communities.

Credit:  Thanks to Ann for allowing me to use a few of her photos!  (The first one of the Mercantile and the last photo)

Next up: Photos from the canning seminar!

Still to come:  Dancing Rabbit tour, more book reviews and a cookbook give away, garden pics, food and projects.

FYI:  Some changes are on the way!  I'm hoping to make some long desired changes in appearance to this blog.  For awhile I considered starting a second blog for projects and inspiration, but I have decided to integrate those ideas with this blog.  Exciting for some and not to others, but you have the power to choose what you read ;)

Chocolate-Covered Almond Tangerine Balls

Chocolate-Covered Almond Tangerine Balls
from Sweet Utopia by Sharon Valencik

4 small tangerines
2 c. sugar
1 lb. raw or lightly toasted slivered almonds
1 c. choc. chips or 6 oz. semisweet choc. (melted)

Squeeze the juice from 1 of the tangerines and strain it through a fine-mesh strainer.  Combine the juice with the sugar in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil on medium heat, stiffing often.  Lower the heat slightly and simmer for 10 minutes.  Let cool.

Rinse and peel the remaining tangerines.  Place the peels in a small saucepan with enough water to cover them completely and bring to a boil.  (Save the fruit to eat at another time.)  Boil the peels for 5 minutes *start timing after the water boils).  Drain and rinse the peels under cold water.  Drain again and pat them dry thoroughly with paper towels so there is minimal moisture on the peels.  Remove any black spots.

Combine the peels and the almonds in a food processor and process until finely ground, stopping to scrape down the sides of the container as necessary.  You may need to process them in 2 batches, depending on the size of your food processor.  Do not let the mixture become a paste.  Transfer to a bowl, add the juice mixture, and stir with a wooden spoon until evenly combined.

Shape into 1-inch balls using wet hands.  Let the balls rest uncovered at room temperature for 8 to 12 hours to dry out a bit.

Dip the balls in the melted chocolate until evenly coated all over.  Arrange the coated balls in a single layer on waxed paper and refrigerate to allow the chocolate to harden.  Store layers of balls between waxed paper in a sealed container in the refrigerator.

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Don't these sound delicious?  The pic. is from the book because I still have yet to try them.  But if any of you do soon, feel free to send me the pic and I'll put it up ;)

More from Sweet Utopia:
Chocolate Chip and Nut Streusel Coffee Cake
Book Review

This weekend I am headed up to Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage with a few girlfriends.  And I'm psyched!  We're staying at the Milkweed Mercantile  and attending a canning seminar.  I will try to take some photos, but sometimes I get a bit carried away and forget to use my camera.  Regardless, you WILL hear about the adventure ;)