Ah . . . Sundays

I love Sundays for many reasons--one of which it's the day that not only do I have lots of yummy fresh local fruits and veggies from my weekend farmers' markets . . . but I actually have enough time to prepare them.

This was our Sunday dinner this weekend . . . steamed artichokes; roasted red, yukon gold, and sweet potatoes; and salad made with the most buttery butter lettuce, cherry tomatoes, and snap peas . . . with dressing made from local olive oil and vinegar.

Oh and can't forget dessert! Strawberry shortcake of course. I love spring on the central coast!

Which would you buy?--Part Two

So to follow up from last week's big lettuce dilemma of whether to by lettuce treated with pesticides and chemicals or to buy organic lettuce packaged in plastic at 2 1/2 times the price.

This is what I did.

Drum roll . . . .

I bought the organic packaged lettuce. Now like I said last week, even in the checkout line I was still questioning my decision, as I did every time I took that lettuce out of the fridge but this was my reasoning at the time . . .

I felt like by buying the organic lettuce, I was supporting organic farmers and letting the supermarket know that people want organic produce and are willing to pay more for it. I recycled the plastic package--but of course can't do anything about the energy that went into creating it in the first place. Still, it really irks me to have paid that high price when I could get local organic lettuce at the farmers' market or Rutiz Farms' for $2.00. If the supermarket was my only choice for produce, I don't think I could afford to eat organic!

So there you have it. Don't know if I made the right or wrong decision and guess it really doesn't matter. I was so happy to get my yummy farmers' market veggies this weekend and I made a big pot of curry stew. Delicious! There's nothing like fresh, local produce.

Autumn Veggie Stew

The inspiration started when I cooked a big pot of white beans . . . and then took shape after a trip to the Farmers' Market . . . and then was finished off by homemade Thai Green Curry Sauce purchased at Rutiz Farms to create one of the best stews I've made. It's so darn good, we are eating it for snacks as well as meals . . . and I'll share the recipe with you. (Since the types and strengths of curry sauces and pastes are so different, add a little at a time until it's to the spiciness and flavor that you like--I used about a tablespoon of Ruth's Green Curry Sauce.)

Autumn Veggie Stew

olive oil
2 cups sliced leeks (white part of about 3-4 leeks)
4 cloves garlic, minced
4 stalks celery, sliced
1 butternut squash, peeled and cut into 1-inch cubes
1 red bell pepper, cut into bite-sized pieces
1-2 anaheim chilis, minced
2 cups diced tomatoes (or 1 15-ounce can with juice)
1 quart vegetable broth
1 3/4 cups cooked white beans (or 1 15-ounce can)
6 cups chopped kale
green curry sauce or paste to taste
salt and black pepper to taste

Place a large pot over low heat. Add enough olive oil to coat the bottom. Add leeks, garlic, and celery. Cook about 5 minutes to soften. Add squash, pepper, chilis, tomatoes, and broth. Cover and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat to low and simmer 10 minutes. Add beans and kale. Cover and simmer another 15 minutes, or until squash is tender. Season with curry sauce/paste and salt and pepper, to taste.

Serves 8

Rhubarb-Peach-Raspberry Crisp

We just can't get enough of all these delicious local summer fruits--nor can we get enough of the yummy desserts made with them. Here's our latest experiment. I did the filling and my daughter Emily came up with the topping!











Rhubarb-Peach-Raspberry Crisp
Serve with whipped topping, ice cream, or try our favorite—a generous dollop of vanilla yogurt.

Filling:
3 peaches, diced (about 2 cups)
3 cups sliced rhubarb
1 cup raspberries
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1/3 cup natural granulated sugar
pinch salt

Topping:
3/4 cup rolled oats
3/4 cup barley, spelt, or whole wheat flour
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
grated zest of 1 lemon
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon cardamom
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1/3 cup oil

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Oil a 9-inch square baking pan. Gently toss filling ingredients together until fruit is coated. Pour into baking pan. Stir topping ingredients together. Pour evenly over filling. Bake 45 to 50 minutes, or until topping is golden.
Makes 9 servings

Loving that summer produce!

Had a delicious vegan, almost 100% local dinner tonight thanks to the wonderful produce from Rutiz Farms in Arroyo Grande. Corn on the cob, roasted zucchini and green beans, braised spinach, and salad. Seasoned with olive oil, blood orange balsamic vinegar, and seasoning mix from Global Gardens in Los Olivos.

Rutiz Farms CSA Box

Thanks to my wonderful CSA -- Rutiz Farms . . . look at all the wonderful meals we had this weekend made from food in Friday's CSA box.

Roasted potatoes, beets, cauliflower and broccoli; strawberry-blueberry pancakes (using the multi-grain pancake mix from The Vegetarian Mother's Cookbook); Minestrone Soup; and to relax a lovely cup of lemon-balm tea made from leaves of my new lemon balm plant!

Salad Spinners

I gave a talk Saturday about ways to incorporate more local foods and greens into your diet. One of the recipes I demo'd was a salad with my 30-second salad dressing. I told participants that a salad spinner is a great idea. When your lettuce is dry, the salad dressing adheres better so you need less of it. (Another tip for using less dressing is to toss your salad in a bowl with the dressing. When you put salad on your plate and add teh dressing there, you'll use much more.)

I also love that my spinner came with a cover. When I get my head of lettuce home from the farmers' market, I tear off the leaves, soak and wash the whole head and spin in the spinner. Then I replace the spinner part with a cover and I have clean, ready-to-use lettuce all week. It's much cheaper and much healthier than the bagged lettuce sold in stores which has been found to contain high levels of bacteria.

One of the attendees gave me a couple of other uses for salad spinners so I thought I'd share.

- If you put too much dressing on your salad, put it in the spinner and spin off the excess.

- When you hand wash items, spin them in your spinner before you lay them out to dry. She says she has an old one exclusively for this--I'm going to check the thrift store when I go. I think this would be great to dry bathing suits too. Would I look weird carrying a salad spinner to the high school pool?

So how about you--any salad spinner tips you want to share?

Summer Baking

We are enjoying The Sono Baking Company Cookbook to bake up some goodies featuring fruits and veggies from our garden and farmers' market. We adapted the recipes to use whole wheat flour and a lot less sugar (the original recipes are very sweet).

Emily made the Blueberry-Nectarine Buckle (we added strawberries too). And here is my variation of the Zucchini Carrot Muffins (the original recipe was Zucchini, Carrot, and Cranberry Muffins, which I'm sure is delicious . . . but we loved this version).

Zucchini-Carrot Muffins
This makes 12 large muffins . . . you might want to make these as mini muffins to add to school lunches. These freeze very well.

2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 cup natural granulated sugar
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup oil (safflower, canola, etc.)
2 large eggs
3/4 cup grated carrots (about 2 carrots)
3/4 - 1 cup grated zucchini (about 2 zucchini)
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Oil a 12-cup muffin pan. Sift together flour, baking powder and soda, salt, and spices. In a large mixing bowl, whisk sugars, oil, and eggs together until smooth. Stir in zucchini and carrots. Stir in flour mixture just until combined. Divide batter into the 12 muffin cups. Bake 20 to 25 minutes, or until tester inserted in center comes out dry. Let cool 10 minutes. Using a table knife, gently remove muffins from tin and place on a wire rack to cool.

Almost totally local meal

Romaine lettuce from our garden, eggs from our hens, and everything else from Rutiz Farms in Arroyo Grande. I think the only thing not local is the veganaisse on the potato salad!

Book Review: Farmer Jane

Women increasingly own their own farms and businesses, are active in their communities and government—and as shown in the book Farmer Jane—are strong advocates for sustainable food. This inspiring book profiles female farmers, chefs, activists, and educators working to change the way we eat and farm.

Click here to read my review of Farmer Jane: Women Changing the Way We Eat.

Orange Cranberry Rye Scones

Got more rye flour in my CSA box this week and came up with these scones which were a huge hit at breakfast Sunday.







Orange-Cranberry-Rye Scones
These dense, flavorful scones are great for breakfast or tea but would also be great with soup or salad.

1 1/3 cups whole wheat pastry or unbleached white flour
2/3 cup rye flour
3 tablespoons packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
grated zest of 1 orange
5 tablespoons cold unsalted butter
2/3 cup plain yogurt
1/4 cup fresh orange juice
1/2 cup dried cranberries

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Oil a medium baking sheet. Stir together flours, sugar, baking soda, salt, and orange zest. Cut in the butter until mixture looks like course crumbs. Make a well in the center and add the yogurt and juice. Stir until the batter holds together. Stir in the cranberries. Knead the mixture until it forms a ball. Place the ball on the prepared baking sheet and press into a 9-inch disc about 3/4-inch thick. Use a sharp knife to cut the dough into 8 wedges, but do not separate the wedges. Bake 20 minutes. Serve warm.

Hulls in rolled oats

I finally figured out how to get rid of all the hulls that were in my local rolled oats. I put the oats and water into the pot and stirred them up so the oats would absorb the water. Then I let it all settle. The hulls rose to the top and I skimmed them off. Then cook as usual. Voila! Perfect oatmeal without any hulls.

Quick bread made with rye flour

I got a couple of pounds of rye flour in my local grain CSA box this week. Of course, my first thought was to make a few loaves of yeasted rye bread but the day turned out so warm and sunny that I didn't want to spend my day kneading and rising dough. I paged through my Laurel's Kitchen Bread Book and found a couple of recipes for rye quick breads. Based on their method, my daughter Aimie and I came up with this one . . . and boy was it good--moist with hints of orange and spices--and vegan as well. Perfect with a tall glass of rice milk after a walk on the beach.

Orange-Spiced Rye Quick Bread
This is wonderfully moist and flavorful. Great for breakfast, tea, or with a soup or salad.

1 cup whole rye flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1/3 cup maple syrup
1 1/3 cups water
3 tablespoons oil
grated rind of 1 orange
juice of 1 orange
1/2 cup chopped almonds, toasted

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Oil a loaf pan. Sift flours, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and spice together. In a separate bowl, whisk maple syrup, water, oil, orange rind and juice until combined. Stir in flour mixture. Reserving 2 tablespoons chopped nuts, gently fold in the almonds. Pour the batter into to the prepared pan and sprinkle reserved almonds over the top. Bake 50 to 60 minutes, or until tester inserted in center comes out dry. Remove bread from pan and let cool on a wire rack before slicing.

Makes 1 loaf

Local Grain CSA

Well this is exciting. We now have a local grain CSA here on the Central Coast of California. It's called With The Grain and run by John DeRosier in Paso Robles. Every two weeks I'll get a box with an assortment of local grains. My first box contained hard winter wheat flour, spelt flour, soft white wheat flour, Khorasan wheat flour, rolled oats, and cracked millet.

We had the cracked millet cooked into a porridge for breakfast Friday. We often have whole millet porridge but this cooks a lot faster and was creamy and delicious. This weekend, my daughters and I made some bread using the recipe from Laurel's Bread Book. We used a combination of the winter wheat and spelt flours and made one plain loaf and one cinnamon raisin. Both were absolutely delicious!

Pasta with Fresh Tomato Sauce and Roasted Veggies

Well -- after typing up that last post I decided the pasta sounded really good. I made up another batch of Fresh Tomato Sauce -- though with a lot more basil -- and tossed it into the hot pasta. I roasted some green beans, eggplant, and summer squashes to go with it. Yum!

Fresh Tomato Sauce

I'm trying to eat as much locally-grown produce as possible so when we had a family pizza night, I figured I'd make sauce from our own tomatoes and herbs rather than canned stuff. It came out so good that I thought I'd share.

Fresh Tomato Sauce

5-6 medium tomatoes, diced

4 green onions, sliced thin

1/4 cup chopped fresh basil

2 tablespoons chopped fresh oregano

salt and pepper to taste

 Mix all ingredients together in a bowl. 

For the pizzas, I got round flatbreads at Trader Joe's. We spread the tomato sauce of the flatbreads, and then added other veggies I had roasted in the oven -- eggplant, summer squash, onions, bell peppers--as well as olives and mushrooms. Then sprinkle with cheese if you like (it's good without too). Bake at 450 for 10-15 minutes.

This sauce would also work tossed into hot pasta, I bet. Maybe with some toasted pine nuts . . .

Food Samples and Movie: Fresh

I'll be sampling vegan ice cream from my book Lick It! before the screening of the hot new foodie movie FRESH on Friday, Aug. 7th at 6 p.m.  Food tastings start at 6 pm. The movie starts at 7 p.m. Admission is $7.00.

Tullius Chiropractic & Pilates Center

902 W. Grand Ave. 

Grover Beach, CA

805-481-1566 

FRESH celebrates the farmers, thinkers and business people across America who are re-inventing our food system. Among several main characters, FRESH features urban farmer and activist, Will Allen, the recipient of MacArthur’s 2008 Genius Award; sustainable farmer and entrepreneur, Joel Salatin, made famous by Michael Pollan’s book, the Omnivore’s Dilemma; and supermarket owner, David Ball, challenging our Wal-Mart dominated economy.

FRESH is a call to action; it means to inspire its viewers to positive change, not scare them into a terrified complacency. We will bring together farmers, activists, chefs, and policy-makers, all working to create a more healthy, tasty, and sustainable future. Please join us, not just as part of an audience, but as part of a movement to better our food system, and to bring about a new vision, a new paradigm, a new reality, one that works for everyone.

Cuba--a model for organic, sustainable farming

Since 1990, Cuba has carried out the world's most comprehensive and successful organic food and farming revolution, including the ongoing cultivation of over 60,000 organic urban gardens that supply 50-80% of its urban food needs. Cutting off trade with Cuba forced the population to live by their own means. Over time, urban areas in place like Havana have overtaken wasted space with a vast tapestry of medicinal and food gardens. The current Cuban urban agriculture model has become one of the most sophisticated and sustainable organic farming operations in the world. Watch this clip from the BBC's "Around the World in 80 Gardens" (2008)showing some of this innovative urban food gardening. For more info about what Cuba is doing, visit the Organic Consumers Association.

Help for eating local

For those of us wanting to eat more locally and sustainably, I found this helpful guide at www.eatwellguide.org. You can search by zip code or city/state, etc. to find restaurants, farmers' markets, caterers, etc. that serve local and/or organic foods. They have trip planning guides, recipes and more. Right now on their blog, they're challenging people to have at least one local, organic dish this Thanksgiving.

Vegetarian Thanksgiving

VegFamily Magazine has some great info to make your vegetarian Thanksgiving great.

Check out my article on vegan lasagnas: http://vegfamily.com/whole-family/vegan-lasagna.htm

Everyyear, I pore through the thanksgiving book display at the library looking for books where no one is eating a turkey. Here is a list of children's books that promote a meatless thanksgiving: http://www.vegfamily.com/vegan-children/vegan-thanksgiving-stories.htm

Also, check out my book review of "In Season: Cooking with Vegetables and Fruit." It's not vegetarian, but has some wonderful recipes: http://www.vegfamily.com/book-reviews/in-season.htm

Also, check out these Thanksgiving suggestions from one of my past blogs: http://catheolson.blogspot.com/2006_11_01_archive.html