Vegetarian Split Pea Soup

Split Pea Soup.

So I got home from work, and decided that I was darned well going to eat the split pea soup for supper. I mean, how bad could it be? I took the crock pot crock out of the fridge, took off the lid, and grabbed my smallest ladle and my cute little soup mug.

And promptly burst out laughing, because cold split pea soup has the same consistency as cold gravy. With just about as much palatability.

So I decided that I'd eat it anyway. I warmed up a ladle full in the microwave, then poured it into my soup mug. And then I grated just a little bit of Lacey Swiss Cheese on top. Took a picture, then sat down, opened my book to read, and...

Next time, I will cut back on the rosemary, but that's my only complaint, really. It was very tasty. The cheese was the perfect finishing touch. In fact, I might actually make it again with cheese in it, which would work just as well as the milk I added at the very end.

I declare this a success. I would make it again.

The Recipe:

--2 cups split peas, rinsed and picked over
--6 cups of water
--1/4 cup barley
--1 large clove garlic, peeled and chopped
--1 1/2 tsp. thyme
--1/2 tsp. marjoram
--1/2 tsp. rosemary (or optional, really)
--1/2 tsp. seasoned salt
--1/2 c. milk

Combine all ingredients except the milk in crock pot, stir, cook on low for 4-5 hours or until peas are mushy and barley is cooked. Stir in milk. Serve topped with good cheese.

You shouldn't have to puree this at all.

No-Rise Pizza, Take 1

So, the pizza looked quite nice, but the crust wasn't to my liking. It's edible, and tasty, but the recipe also contained honey and I thought that detracted from the overall taste of the pizza. It also wasn't chewy--at all. It was more like fluffy bread if that makes sense.

Now, I would be interested to see what happens if you make this as a small loaf of bread. I think it would be quite tasty, and if it rose to 1 inch thick for the pizza, I'd think it would rise enough to use as bread (versus flatbread) as well. So I might make this again tomorrow. I might also try it without any sweetener at all; I think it would make a good quick French Bread too.

It makes a serviceable pizza if you don't care about chewiness. Here's the recipe.

I think I will try this one next. However, I'm of the mind that all the toppings should go on at once, so that's what I'm going to do.

Puffed Cereal Granola

1 cup puffed rice or kamut (I used Arrowhead Mills Organic)
1 cup puffed amaranth (same)
2 cups oats (not quick oats)
1/2 cup chopped nuts or sunflower seeds, optional
1/4 cup olive oil, or canola oil
1/2 cup maple syrup or other syrup*


Mix ingredients together in order listed. Spread on cookie sheet. Baked at 325 degrees F for about 20 minutes or until granola is evenly browned. Cool, then store in an airtight container. Makes about 4 cups.



*honey can also be used, however I would add more oil because honey granola tends to be very sticky and hard to remove from the cookie sheet. You could try half honey/half maple syrup, perhaps?

Eggless Spice Cake

I ran out of eggs, but I wanted something for dessert tonight, so I adapted a Depression-Era eggless, milkless, butterless cake and made up my own (since I had milk and butter.)

It's delicious!

Eggless Spice Cake

Ingredients:

1/2 c. sugar
2 T. butter
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
3/4 tsp. ground cloves
1 1/2 tsp. bourbon vanilla
1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/2 cups milk
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
2 cups whole wheat pastry flour


Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease one 8 or 9 inch cake pan.

In a saucepan over medium heat, combine the sugar, butter, ground cinnamon, ground cloves, vanilla, salt, and milk. Bring to a boil, stirring frequently, and boil for at least 3 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool. Be careful that it doesn't burn. Let cool.

Mix the whole wheat pastry flour, baking powder, and baking soda together. Add the flour mixture to the cooled spice mixture. Stir until combined. Pour batter into prepared cake pan.

Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes, or until toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.

Eat!

Fresh from the garden dinner!

five new potatoes
one garlic scape
a sprig of rosemary
a handful of sugar pod peas
a few leaves of swiss chard

and the only things not from the garden: olive oil and a sprinkling of Ohio-made mozzarella cheese.

Put the olive oil in a hot cast iron skillet. Add chopped rosemary and chopped garlic scape. Let them saute for a while as you are cutting up the potatoes (in slices.) Add potatoes, cover, and let cook. Once the potatoes are about halfway done, add the sugar snap peas. Cook for about five more minutes, or until potatoes are done. Add swiss chard at the very end and cook until the leaves are wilted. Sprinkle with mozzarella cheese. Serve. (Serves 1, but can be expanded easily.)

A twenty minute supper, if you include picking the produce from the garden.

Yum!

(Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture. It was pretty, though!

Gingered Carrot Cake with Orange Cream Cheese Icing

New, Healthier version!

Gingered Carrot Cake with Orange Cream Cheese Icing

Ingredients:

2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1 cup sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
4 eggs
3 cups (approximately) finely shredded carrots (see, it's good for you!)
3/4 cup canola oil
3/4 tsp. ground ginger

Orange Cream Cheese icing (recipe at end)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. While you're at it, take out your cream cheese and your butter for the icing, and set them on top the oven so they'll be nicely soft by the time you're ready to make the icing.

Grease bottom and sides of 13x9x2 inch pan. Set aside. In a large mixing bowl, combine all ingredients, dry first, then wet. Mix in the carrots last. Pour batter into prepared pan, bake for 40 minutes. Remove pan from oven when toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Let cool for at least 45 minutes.

NOTE: this recipe will also make 24 regular sized cupcakes. Bake @ 350 degrees for approximately 15-17 minutes or until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean.

Orange Cream Cheese Icing

Ingredients:

1 pkg. cream cheese (8 oz.), softened
1/2 cup butter, softened
About 3-4 cups of powdered sugar, depending on the consistency of your icing.
1/4 cup orange juice (fresh-squeezed is best, of course.)
2 T. grated orange peel. (fresh-grated is best here too.)

Mix everything but the powdered sugar together, until blended. Add powdered sugar one cup at a time, blend, and then add the next cup until the icing is the right consistency. (Think chocolate mousse.) Spread icing on cooled cake; refrigerate. Makes 12-15 servings, depending on how big of a piece you really want. (It's very rich.)

Note: DO NOT melt the butter in the microwave. It will make the icing runny. DO NOT try to put the icing on the cake before it cools. It will make the icing runnier.

Variations: Lemon Cream Cheese Icing. Also, you can always add raisins (ugh) or nuts (about 1/2 cup) to the mix. Some people add dried fruit other than raisins as well. Your choice.

Nutrition information: I have no idea, but three cups of carrots is three cups of carrots. How many servings of veggies is that?! :)

Lentil and Spinach Soup

2 cans kidney beans (or the equivalent of 2 cups if you are using dried)
1 cup lentils, dried
8 cups water
1 cup chopped carrots
1 cup corn
4 cloves of garlic, chopped
2 tsp dried sage
2 tsp dried thyme
1 tsp dried rosemary (of course you can use fresh if you have it)
a sprinkle of seasoned salt
a sprinkle of pepper
3 cups spinach, chopped (I used frozen; you can use whatever is available to you)


Add all ingredients, except for the spinach into a 5qt. pot and simmer on low for about an hour or until beans and carrots are soft. Add spinach, cook for about five more minutes. A very simple, easy, and tasty soup.

Note: I didn't add onions because onions don't agree with me. By all means, if you like onions, feel free to add them. You could also add different kinds of beans/more beans to this as well. I think it would also taste good with chicken. If my pantry had contained any mushrooms, I would have added them as well. Mushrooms would be fabulous in this recipe!

Fresh Apple Mint Tea

"Yum" just doesn't cut it on this one. I tried it earlier in the year and it didn't really have an apple taste. But when I tried it right before it's going to bloom, there's definitely an apple note in there! Fabulous stuff. I'm going to ice what's left and see how it tastes then.

Bagels!

After waffling about it for much too long, I finally made bagels today. Why did I wait so long? They aren't complicated at all! Sheesh.

Okay, so they don't look absolutely perfect, but this was my first time. They taste yummy, though!

Next up: Walnut Rye bread (hopefully.)

Vegetable Bean Soup... with a twist

I wanted to make minestrone today, but I ended up making vegetable bean soup instead.

Ingredients:

1 qt. tomato juice (I used frozen fresh from the garden)
6 cups water (or thereabouts)
1/2 cup carrots, peeled and chopped
1/2 cup green peppers, chopped (I used frozen from the garden)
1 cup leftover Christmas Lima beans (mine were already cooked, of course, but you could prepare them as you would to cook them, and then add them in.)
1 cup various other beans (I used frozen from the garden; not quite dried enough to be dried beans and I did not soak them beforehand.)
3 medium potatoes, cut up (I didn't peel them.)
2 cups frozen chopped spinach (This was the experiment, and it worked wonderfully.)
2 tsp. each dried rosemary, thyme, and basil or to taste. (Fresh: use quite a bit more, I'd think.)
3 tsp. chili powder (or more; the potatoes do soak up some of the flavor, so to taste.)

Put all ingredients into a 6 qt. crock pot (you can easily halve this recipe if needed) and cook on low for 6-8 hours or until beans and potatoes are done. On high, I'd say this should be done in 4-6 hours, easily.

The spinach really did it for this recipe. The spinach flavor complemented the other flavors, and really tied everything together. I'm really pleased with how this turned out.

I also made three seed bread to go with it--two loaves. YUM!

Turkey and Mushroom Chili and Italian Bread

I made Turkey & Mushroom chili for supper tonight, along with Italian Bread (two small loaves), garlic & rosemary cheese bread, and garlic cheese bread. (I figured you've all seen my garlic cheese bread before, so I didn't take a picture of it.)

It's the best chili I've ever made. Not too sweet, not too spicy; just perfect.

Turkey & Mushroom Chili

Ingredients:

1 lb. turkey sausage, browned
1 c. slow roasted tomatoes, chopped (they were frozen)
1 can garbanzo beans, drained
1 can black-eyed peas, drained
1/2 qt. beans from the garden (there are about 6 varieties in the bag)
1/4 c. dried mushrooms, chopped (or 1/2 c. fresh mushrooms, chopped)
1 qt. tomato juice, thawed
6 c. water (or less, depending on how thick you want your soup)
dried rosemary to taste (about 1/2 tsp.)
chili powder to taste (about 1 1/2 tsp.)
dried thyme to taste (about 1/2 tsp.)
1 tsp. honey (or to taste)
1/8 tsp. cinnamon

Combine all ingredients into 8 qt. pot or dutch oven. Cook over low heat 4-5 hours, or in slow cooker 6-8 hours. Feel free to experiment with other beans or even add veggies; I only had those types of beans on hand.

Definitely a delicious supper!

One Local Summer Meal #1

Potato, Swiss Chard, and Beet Leaf Scramble

Meal #1 for One Local Summer.

Ingredients:

1 small head of garlic, or 4 cloves
2 tbsp. olive oil (this was not local, obviously)
6 baby carrots
1 small onion
approximately 1/4 cup fresh basil (I used three kinds--Genovese, Petra, and Sweet)
8 small or new potatoes (I had yellow, red, and white)
Approximately 2 cups of swiss chard leaves and beet leaves, or spinach, or other dark leafy greens
Approximately 1 cup of swiss cheese, or your favorite local cheese (I used Amish swiss cheese from the local Amish community.)


You'll need to use a deep skillet or a shallow dutch oven or whatever you call the thing I used. :)
Over medium heat, put 2 tbsp. (or less) of olive oil in the bottom of the pan. Let it get hot, then add chopped garlic (I microwave the cloves first to get them peeled easily), the chopped onion, and chopped baby carrots. Cook this mix while you're slicing the potatoes, then add the potatoes.

Chop up the basil, and add it to the mix. Cover, and cook until potatoes are soft. Wash the swiss chard and beet leaves, and then roll them up into tubes and slice them into curls. I don't know how else to describe it! Add the swiss chard and beet leaves to the mix, and cover.

Cook for approximately 1 1/2 minutes, or until the swiss chard and beet leaves are slightly cooked but not completely wilted, if that makes sense. They'll change colors a bit too, and the potatoes will probably have little pink spots because of the beet leaves.

Add the shredded swiss cheese, cook until the cheese melts, and then serve hot. Makes 2 servings.

Very easy, very yummy, and I'm glad I made this instead! I'm definitely going to make it again. Maybe even tomorrow night. ;)

More pictures here.

Whye Bread and Salad

Earlier this week, I made four loaves of bread. Actually, five, if you count the one in the bread machine. Two white, and three (I'm not really sure what to call them--white with rye flour? Oh, I know!) Whye. :)



I made the Whye bread in my hand-crank bread maker from 1904. Three loaves at a time was a snap for it; I could have easily done five, at the very least. I'm probably going to have to freeze one loaf at least; there are two left, since I brought one to work.

Anyway, the Whye bread is absolutely scrumptious. Here is the recipe:

Whye Bread

4 1/2 cups of warm water
10 cups of bread flour
1 1/2 cups of dark rye flour
4 tsp. yeast
1/2 tsp. salt (or to taste; I never put much salt in my bread)
2 tsp. sugar, honey, or other sweetener

If you're using a mixer like mine, follow the directions on the lid, which are liquids first, then dry. Crank for 3 minutes or thereabouts; the dough will form a ball and clean the sides of the bucket. Either let rise in the bucket or transfer to a large bowl. Set in a draft-free spot for about an hour, or until doubled in size. (It really depends on the temperature.)

When it has risen, punch down, form into large oblong, and cut with a sharp knife into three pieces. Form those three pieces into loaf forms, or freeform if you wish. Slash the top with a sharp knife. Be creative. Most of the books say 'slash three times' or whatever, but really, do what you want. Bake at 400 degrees for approximately 30-35 minutes or until loaf sounds hollow when tapped.

I made a small personal pizza to go with this, since one of my loaves was a big large. It was yummy!

Tonight for supper I had a salad from my garden. The only thing not from my garden that was on the salad were the sunflower seeds and the salad dressing.

What you see:

Turnip, baby carrots, beet leaves, curly lettuce, deer tongue lettuce, the other lettuce I have in the lettuce bed, and baby peas.

It was quite delicious!

Mozarella! And more!

I am currently reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver, et. al., and thoroughly enjoying it. In the book, she mentions Ricki Carroll, aka the "Cheese Queen". Of course I had to check it out, since I had been wondering just how difficult it is to make cheese. (Or not.)

WELL.

Some of these (especially the 30-minute Mozarella) are going on my to-do list for vacation.

Cup Cheese. Farmer's Cheese. And more! And even more!

Wow. What a great resource! And it doesn't seem so terribly difficult, either!

Evidently, Creeping Charlie (also known as ground ivy) is a source for vegetable rennet used in cheese. Now all I have to do is find out how to make that, because I have lots of ground ivy around the garden. Lots and lots and lots.

Tea!

From the left: Teavana Black Currant, Raspberry Sangria, Rose Marzipan Delight, Adagio Raspberry Patch with Oolong #8, and Teavana Thai Tea Blend. In the cup: Adagio Raspberry Patch with some Orange Pekoe tea.

Crockpot Chicken

Yesterday morning at 6:15am, I put a whole chicken in my crockpot, shook some dried herbs (basil, rosemary, garlic powder, and a seasoned salt mix that contains peppers, among other things) and turned it on low. (I added no water, because everything I read said the chicken would create its own juice.)

12 hours later, I came home to a wonderfully smelling house, a tender chicken, and a yummy supper.

The top was a bit dry. I think a bit of olive oil brushed on top at the beginning might help this; I'm going to try it next time.

But I will definitely do this again.

Barbeque chicken pizza and calzones

This was my first attempt at calzones. Obviously they didn't really work, but at least all the filling didn't escape. I ate the pizza for supper, so we'll see how the calzones taste for lunch tomorrow.

Oolong Tea

After much taste-testing, I have discovered that I really like Oolong Tea. And no, not just because the name is fun to say--Oooooolong--but because the taste is smooth and as close to my normal tea as I can get.

My normal tea is Lipton. Regular, plain old tea. Nothing fancy, nothing flavored, just tea. The tea you get in many restaurants (well, maybe not Lipton, but Orange Pekoe/Pekoe Cut black tea.)

I've tried just plain Ceylon, I've tried Darjeeling, and just about everything else, but Oolong is my favorite so far in plain teas. Which is nice, because I ordered a bigger tin of it from Adagio.

I also ordered tea from Teavana, and both boxes arrived on the same day! Wow.

Hmm.

The pizza tastes like wood-fired pizza. It definitely has a different taste than pizza on a pizza stone! I wonder why that is?

Bread and Pizza

If I ever had to go wheat free, I think I would die.

Today's bread:

This is my 'enriched' white bread. (Enriched means eggs and olive oil added.) It's quite yummy.

Pizza on a griddle.
I read about this on a website, and decided to try it with the larger griddle. I haven't eaten the pizza yet, but the crust came out very nice.

There is one more bread coming--the enriched white bread with poppyseeds, basil, oregano, and rosemary.