Vegan Curried Chicken Salad on Homemade Four-Seed Bread (My Garden in July And Peter Piper Picked Pickles--But I Had to Can My Own!)

I was desperate for an old favorite: chicken salad--with a kick of curry powder: YUM! I'm sorry, but I am a mayo freak and really, of all mayo bites, this one classic was something I'd eat a dozen or more times before summer ran out--like the beloved BLT (come on tomatoes, ripen up already darlings). Grant it--vegan-izing this baby was not rocket science with the advent of Vegenaise. You have your tempeh--boiled first, then cubed--which makes nice with the rest of the chicken salad regulars: apple, celery, grapes, some kalamata olives, a few green onions and pecans plus the fresh lettuce and tomato wedges, sitting beautifully atop a slice of homemade, bread machine four-seed bread--it's all I could think about a few nights ago. An easy, easy recipe for anyone on the vegan summer blahs wagon. 

So welcome to our holiday weekend of being "recluse". Bang, pop, boom--these sounds all scare our canine kids to death. What joy we derive from the fact that we are no longer at the whim of a queen is all but gone when I look at the terrified eyes and shrunken bodies of our dogs--curling up, howling, barking and begging for it to stop. Ugh. So we listen to deafening loud movies on DVD and pry the claws from off our legs as we try to drown out the celebration noise. Happy fourth everyone, such is the life of a canine companion on the Fourth of July. (Hey, before you think--OH, how unpatriotic of her! Uh, I already told you I was glad we aren't under a queen's rule any longer--I celebrate stars and stripes and totally love every single service person on the planet--okay--it's just harder on the four-legged kids we happen to love so deeply, too!) And please, if you know of a dog left outside and IF you are on speaking terms with the said person with said dog, kindly ask they make haste and place the dog indoors while the rest of the monkeys light things up, begin a lifetime of hearing loss while also pouring money right down the drain. I make no apologies here--this is by far the worst weekend for us in this house. So we stay close to home, we cover the fuzzy ears with the palms of our hands and hope for Tuesday to get here. After all, the booms around here begin earlier and, unfortunately, end later.

Not to be a total wet blanket--I do have some good grub to share. Plus, I have been harvesting cucumbers like crazy! I've never seen anything like it! There aren't enough falafels for me to make to use this many cukes. I was at a loss for what I might do until I craved a pickle. That was it--I'd make my own pickles. But first, the research needed to happen. After last summer's more-than-successful introduction into the art-of-canning salsa, jams and jellies, I was certainly ready for pickling?

(Oh, and please know, THIS year, I am onto to bigger and better experiences: I puchased a pressure canner--AND, a pressure cooker! More on this fabulous life saver in another post.) Okay, I'll just tell you this--we had risotto that only took seven minutes to make last night--SEVEN minutes!. . . and it was PERFECT! For another post. I promise.

My dough addiction is still strong. I love my Eat to Live plan, however--as regular readers know, I also Live to Eat. So I found a recipe from my favorite bread girl in the whole world: Beth Hensperger, from The Bread Lover's Bread Machine Cookbook and adapted a seeded, whole wheat bread recipe to vegan, plus added ground flax seed to the already present sesame seeds, sunflowers and poppy seeds. Mmmmm. This bread smelled heavenly, tasted even better and was over-the-top right from the bread machine swiped with some Earth Balance Margerine.

Close up shot--see all the yum and check out that perfect crust. I'm telling you--it rocked! Was the perfect sammich companion for my vegan chicken salad!

I am so excited it is canning season. Last year my canning exploits began much later. Thanks to my nifty square foot garden planning, I am hitting the jackpot in cucumbers right now. Let the canning begin. Pictured here are my tools of the canning trade: the one on the right is the Ball Canning Blue Book which comes with your average beginner canning package. I highly recommend the Ball Company and their expertise in all things preserving.

Then I took a trip to our local country store down the road apiece. Canning supplies galore! I was in heaven. I found exactly what I was looking for--the Kosher Dill Spice Packet. A great little find for someone like me who has never pickled in her life, but also who never met a pickle she didn't love! I thought I'd play around and spice up three of my quart jars (I made five quarts total today). So I added some snazzy bay leaves, peppercorns, a whole garlic clove and mustard seed. I am sure that even if I made a mistake, no one in this house will care--we love the mighty pickle!

I also have a ton of fresh dill growing like gangbusters out in my garden--the likes of which I have never seen. That's what you see down at the bottom of my jars--fresh dill! Next step--make the brine, then boil the jars.

If you are so inclined to try canning out--be sure to pay attention to the details! Like for instance, do not start timing your "boiling" cans time until your water actually begins to boil. So if the water boiling directions states to boil your jars for fifteen minutes--do not start timing until your water is at a rolling boil, then set the timer. I don't think I followed this direction too well last year with all my salsa stuff but we didn't end up in the hospital as a result. I'm just saying that if you are thinking of giving canning a go--that is probably really important.

Viola! Nice and pick-ley! We let it set out at room temperture for at least twenty-four hours, then, prior to chowing, place in the fridge for a day or two to crisp up. Will they work? Will we like them? Who knows? I don't think it will take us very long to eat through five quarts of pickles around here. (Providing I didn't err terribly on the side of stupid when I decided to create a more flavored punch with the addition of the fresh dill, garlic and other stuff and cause some unknown "bad taste" to occur--but it was totally worth trying.)

And finally--flowers from my garden! Of all the bouquet of flowers I will bring into the house from the garden--this one has them all beat--it is short-lived, but my god, the fragrance they give to the house is just amazing! (And because our house is so small--we can smell them from nearly every room!) The Stargazer lily is my all-time favorite flower. I LOVE these! I added some phlox here, another yellow lily plus a stalk of pink gladiola--love the glads, too--they are so pretty right now!  

Four-Seed Whole Wheat Bread for Bread Machine

(Adapted from The Bread Lover's Bread Machine Cookbook by Beth Hensperger) 

For 1 1/2 pound loaf

1 1/2 cup bread flour (I used King Arthur and measure 4.5 ounces of flour per cup called for because that's how Peter Reinhart says to measure)

1 1/2 cup whole wheat flour (I used King Arthur--same thing as above)

3 tablespoons dry soy powder

2 tablespoons brown sugar

1 tablespoon vital wheat gluten

1 teaspoon salt

1 1/4 cup warm water (to about 80 degrees)

2 tablespoons sunflower seed oil (or veggie oil if you don't have any)

1/3 cup sunflower seeds

2 teaspoons ground flax seed

2 teaspoons poppy seeds

2 tablespoons toasted sesame seeds

2 1/2 teaspoons bread machine yeast

Add ingredients to you bread machine per manufacturer's directions. On my machine--my liquids go in first, then dry, then last is my yeast. Press Whole Wheat cycle and medium crust. When machine beeps and bread is done, immediately remove from machine and place on top of something to cool about 20 minutes before slicing. Enjoy!

Vegan Curried Chicken Salad

1 package tempeh

1/4 cup chopped green onions

6 kalamata olives chopped

1 celery stalk sliced

1/2 granny smith apple chopped

1 cup sliced grapes

1/4 cup chopped pecans

1 cup vegan mayo

1 tablespoon sweet curry powder

1 teaspoon dried oregano

1 tablespoon Braggs Liquid Amino Acids

fresh ground pepper

lettuce and tomato for topping

Remove tempeh from package (duh), then slice in like four long pieces. Place tempeh in enough water to cover, then bring to a boil--then turn heat down and allow to simmer about 10 minutes. Drain and set aside to cool a bit. Prep your veggies. In a large bowl, add all veggies, then cube up the tempeh and add this to the bowl. Mix the mayo with the curry powder, Braggs and oregano or any other dried herbs you'd like to add. Taste it. Toss all together in a bowl and serve on top of some really good bread with a swipe of vegan mayo--like maybe use the bread I just told you about!