March Gardening Chores and What the. . . Snow?! (And Books I'm Reading Now: Padma Lakshmi, and When Breath Becomes Air)

I'm so glad mother nature has a sense of humor. It's not unheard of to have snow in St. Louis in March or April for that matter. But this morning, it looked like a December morning when I pulled back the curtains and looked outside. The flakes were like wet cotton balls coming down. Very odd.

Vegan Potato Kale Cauliflower Soup with Bernard Clayton's Dinner Rolls (let me catch you up on what's happened. . .)

It's soup season. I could eat it year round, but soup's appeal really begins to nestle in my bones around late October and runs all the way through til April. I blame this soup on my sister. She visited last week, and during one of our many "excursions" around town--(and there were many), we stopped in at Foundation Grounds Coffee in Maplewood, Missouri. They have vegan options on their menu! Yay! I had a bowl of their potato kale soup--a very restorative and nourishing break, with a cup of their hot chocolate. So. Good. I couldn't get the soup out of my mind and my food memory backlash wouldn't let go. So here I was yesterday afternoon trying my hand at the same soup, only this time, going into our garden for fresh kale, tossing in some cauliflower we had on hand and aromatics of onion and garlic for good measure. In total this soup has six ingredients give or take. The hands on time is minimal for such a ridiculously good soup. So simple. I needed simple as I am experiencing my first full-on cold. Or maybe it's a light case of flu. Whatever I have, it's rendered me light headed and low-energy. So soup making was something I could handle. Well, and then I craved bread. 

 Never one to ever, ever serve a bowl of soup without crusty rolls or a loaf of bread, I opted for one of my old time favorites: I whipped up a batch of Dinner Rolls from Bernard Clayton's Complete Book of Small Breads. Love this cookbook. 

When I bake these, I modify the recipe quite a bit to my vegan/whole grain style of baking.  

If you'd like to make these rolls with less "hands-on" time, place all the ingredients in a bread machine. It's much quicker. I make these at least once a week.

They bake up superbly, crusty and are pure heaven. Freeze the left over rolls for the next night.

 (*My god it's taken me an hour to write this first paragraph, cough, cough, sniffle, sniffle.) 

Roasted Corn, Avocado and Black Bean Salad (A Yankee as "Miss Maudie" reading . . . To Kill a Mockingbird)

This salad is a result of a time-honored tradition as head chef of this household: It's a hundred and thirty here in St. Louis. Cripes almighty! No cooking will happen--we are all raw foods here. This salad took literally five minutes to prep. I have tomatoes and cucumbers galore from the garden--I pulled out whatever else I had on hand to make a lovely main-dish salad. It was dressed with a yummy balsamic vinaigrette and fresh lemon juice. I had so little energy yesterday afternoon, I could barely scoop the avocado from its shell. Chopping and peeling the cucumber from the garden nearly did me in. And the corn roasting part!--I was able to muster only because I had made a quick dash to the store after my morning run, husked it right away and put in a bag in the fridge. All I had to do was place the corn over the open flame of the stove for a few seconds to add a nice color of "I-worked-hard-to-make-you-a-salad-for-dinner" appeal. Simple. Straightforward and filling. I topped the salad with some quinoa for an extra protein boost. Salads are an essential summer staple right now. 

Soaking Rains. . . Sewing Myself Sane (and Frankie is eleven months old today!)

The last time I saw the sun, or the last time I can recall seeing it, I spent a lovely, albeit, very hot day in the yard: mowing, pruning and . . . picking some delicious black raspberries for my smoothies later in the day.

 It's been horrible ever since. 

The weather forced me into needing some indoor therapy and productive days in My Sewing Lair. 

Days of happy harvesting and romping through the woods for good fruits.

Long . . . ago.

We're veering off the track of food and recipe sharing for a while. I have to be honest, I've been a single lady here at home a lot these past few weeks and finding solace in other areas of creativity--like sewing. Eating, not so much. (Though I did whip up a big batch of chocolate chip cookies and munch on those little guys regularly. I haven't completely lost my cooking/baking mojo.)

Nothing like a trip to the fabric store to cure what ails you, right? I've shopped for fabric lately more than I have for food. I can go hours and hours sewing. It's meditative to me. Time seems to slip by and suddenly. . . it's almost five in the afternoon. 

Vegan Strawberry Crumb Tart (and. . . under my WIDE brimmed hat in the garden)

This is what you get when you bring home a 2 lb. tray of strawberries and are home alone all week. The strawberries were obviously going to find a home in a smoothie here and there, but not 2 lbs., worth of them. What is marvelous about this delicious, nutty, cinnamon-y treat was the time it took to prepare it. Let's just say, by the time you've read this post, you could have made this already, okay?! I go for simple cooking here lately. And when I glanced in the freezer and saw the almonds and pecans, I thought nothing of throwing them in the food processor with a little vegan butter, some sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg and whipping up a nice little mini-tart shell (it took seconds, really!). The aroma from this baking was enough to satisfy my craving for something sweet, baked in quaint little ramekin and out of the oven ready to serve: crunchy, tart, sweet and yummy.  

Strawberries are a fruit favorite of mine going way back. I was the kid who'd order an ice cream sundae, "hold the whip cream. . .more strawberries." However, there's a limit to when I'll consume a strawberry. I won't eat them in the middle of winter unless they've been frozen by me during their peak months of May and June. After that, it's as if the strawberry never existed. (It's the same for tomatoes, though I do allow for some "Italian" canned varieties to enter the home in the dead of winter--a girl's gotta have her vegan lasagna.) We've moved so far off the Eat Seasonally path that I find it disturbing shopping in February and March surrounded by the same produce I saw the previous July. . . in the same places! We are a spoiled, rotten food nation. But that's okay 'cause when I want an avocado, I want an avocado.

Here is the beauty of making this Strawberry Crumb Tart: just put the nuts you have on hand in the dish and you will be fine, trust me. After a few pulses, you'll have this sticky, crumbly mixture--perfect for pressing into the ramekins. Then toss your filling with a bit of sugar, lemon zest and nutmeg, top that with a bit more of the crumb mixture and there you have it! It's delish. Go crazy and mix the strawberries with some blueberries or cherries, it's all good, I promise.

Vegan Chewy Double Chocolate Chip Cookies (in my garden and our 30-mile bike trip on the Katy Trail. . . whew.)

When something grabs my attention, like say a cookie recipe, life as we know it pretty much stops. Such was the case this afternoon. I had taken a nap. Napping is under appreciated. I don't indulge in them very often, but when I do, I will confess to feeling like a new woman after a little day time shuteye. Usually I'm hungry when I wake up. I suddenly had an urge for baking after spotting a "Thick and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookie" recipe on the Cook's Country blog, The Feed, while catching up on my reading (post nap). I probably shouldn't have been looking at food right after waking up. My whole afternoon schedule got re-arranged because of this cookie. Alas--I had to recreate a vegan version of the cookie. No problem-o. You will have to try this recipe to see for yourself if you agree about the "chewy" part. If you go to their post, they break down into helpful, straightforward speak why this recipe works. I just had to make sure it "worked" as a vegan cookie. And thank god it did because not only was I just waking up from my nap, my blood sugar demanded I have a cookie SOON. 

*And yes, I am well aware this is like the twentieth vegan chocolate chip cookie I've posted on this blog. But I ask, is there any such thing as "too many chocolate chip cookie recipes"? I think not.

Vegan Asparagus and Roasted Cauliflower "Quick" Pizza (A girl walks into the botanical garden with her camera and. . . )

Pizza always works in this house. I'll whip up a batch of pizza dough in the bread machine to make the task of having to knead and rise the dough less cumbersome (not that there's anything wrong with hand kneading--but just not right now), thereby allowing more free time for me to either traipse through the yard, walk the dogs or dig up weeds, knit, hike, run--you get the picture. I found the perfect pizza dough recipe on the King Arthur site. At three in the afternoon--(I realize this is late in the day for deciding on pizza, but my dinner planning skills are on hiatus), I placed the ingredients in the bread machine, programmed it for the "dough" process, removed it from the machine, split it in half, prepared one pie for use immediately, and the other was put in the fridge for later. So easy. So quick. My kind of spring cooking. Plus dinner for another night, too!

Vegan Green Tiredness-Be-Gone Smoothie (A little bit of everything today. . .and some knitting from my Yarnbox, too!)

I find my best smoothie recipes are those that have no recipe. Usually I have a craving for something packed with flavor and protein. I had just finished a four-miler on the treadmill and was famished. After dawdling around a bit afterward, I still felt tired. Usually my runs give me an energy boost. But given I am head-long into my mid-life "woman time" and have had a few horrible nights of sleep (which can make me cray-cray), I thought I might try a little less in the tummy today--go light on lunch and again at dinner--hoping to catch up on some much needed "good" sleep tonight. Well, smoothie was a success. Not only did it kick up my energy level, I was able to manage a yoga session after a house cleaning blitz whereupon I found myself "doing windows". And. . . I don't DO windows.

Vegan Blueberry Hemp Cinnamon Crunch Muffins (. . . an after ten mile run pick-me-up, me and sis visiting the flowers, mammograms and "more" of life at fifty)

Although the blog's been quiet, the life has been anything but that. Let's catch up a bit, then I'll talk about these amazing hemp muffins I created. (Hemp. Seed. My new best friend.) As I mentioned earlier, I signed up to run the GO! St. Louis Half Marathon . . . in two weeks. (Blog flashback moment: I broke my ankle on November 11th.) Yesterday I accomplished my biggest challenge in my training for the half to date: I ran a ten mile training run in just over two hours. Can you say "Happy"? (Which is my favorite running song, thank you Pharrell Williams.) No ankle pain! 

Vegan Semolina, Coconut and Orange Marmalade Cake with Chocolate Ganache (And. . . my first peach harvest that almost "wasn't")

I've had my eye on this cake for quite some time. But I needed two things to make it happen: sunflower oil and orange marmalade. I have both now. And the cake was completely worth the wait. The original recipe is from the cookbook Jerusalem by Yotam Ottogenghi and Sami Tamimi. I had a bigger than usual vegan challenge in adapting this recipe as it calls for four eggs! But this cake was happening regardless. The chocolate part is completely optional. Honestly, I wasn't going the chocolate ganache route until DH said, You ARE going to add chocolate to this, right?

The thing that I had trouble with in making this was achieving that little "bump" down the middle typical in loaf cakes. Or the crack on top where the syrup goes. When the baking time came to an end and I had no "bump" on top of my cakes, I was a bit crestfallen to tell the truth. I had my hopes set on this little feature. Could be my baking powder's time had run out, or something was wrong with my egg replacer (which is what I opted using for the eggs in the recipe vs. a flax and water mix or some other iteration of vegan egg helper). Truth be told, the lack of this little feature did not harm the cake's end result in the least little bit. Nada. So this past week, husband and I have enjoyed splitting a slice of this cake as an after dinner treat. It's loaded with flavor. Topped after just coming from the oven with orange flavored sugar syrup, there is really no need for more than a small piece. You will feel the love of this cake in one bite size and be satisfied. Trust me. Which is why I love it so much.   

I haven't told you about my peach tree yet. I'll try to make this short. Three years ago I brought home three fruit trees: a peach tree, apricot tree and pear tree. We planted them in our back yard (un-fenced area) and waited. 

Sideways Ripples Shawl: Finished! (Going Bread-Baking Crazy for The Farmers Market)

When you knit something for yourself, you hope it's "wearable. . . in public." I'll go out on a limb here and state for the record, "I've worn every single thing I've ever knitted for myself. Somewhere." As for knitted gifts--I don't do that as much anymore. Unless it takes less than a week--okay, maybe two--I've vowed to discontinue the practice of gift-knitting. It's best this way. But this does not include the man sweater I have been knitting for three years for DH. (However, I have vowed to never knit a man sweater again.)  

I knit this shawl for myself because I loved the symmetry. Such a clever pattern: 

Sideways Ripples Shawl by Kyoko Nakayoshi, I Raveled mine here. 

Little Rustic Strawberry Tarts (Container Growing Strawberry Know-How)

I have three pints of strawberries in the fridge. I had five! It became necessary to um, get baking. During strawberry season, there is no such thing as too many strawberries around here. Every morning on my oatmeal plus I nibble on them throughout the day (well, when I don't feel the need for chocolate). I am convinced they hold some secret cure. Of what, I am not sure. 

This recipe involves basically very little in the way of cooking. Personally, the kitchen is not where I want to be when there is so much to be done outside. Today the temps are in the nineties so I lasted outside until about noon, then had to come in to cool off. 

I grow my own strawberries, but not in the way you might imagine. There are no fields. Mine are grown in a one container that is literally maintenance free. I do nothing to this plant. I don't feed, mulch or co-plant. It is in full sun throughout the summer. In the fall, I cover it with leaves which apparently provides it with enough protection to keep it in its dormant stage without it being killed by the cold. And we had a truly cold winter, so imagine my surprise when my strawberries showed up! The homegrown strawberry is not your grocery store strawberry. IT is much better! Smaller, yes, but they are simply divine. 

Beautiful Lives of Silent Sleepers (. . . And Reading Maya Angelou's, "Mom & Me & Mom")

This happens every Mother's Day weekend. I count. Sixteen years. I will always count. For some reason this year feels as if it were just yesterday. I don't know why. It could have something to do with the fact that I am this much closer to her age when she left. 

My Scorched Garden

If I were to come across this photo, I'd guess it a late-September mid-October shot. Never would I imagine it late June. Never. My beautiful white-flowering hydrangea--just now beginning its bloom. It will suffer through and bloom as much as it can, then begin to slowly die back as if it were October and a chill were on its way. The strain of the heat prompting it to bloom early. That's what plants do--bloom to survive. We take for granted all the work that goes into flowering. It is their desire to live--to go on--that causes the blooms.

This afternoon our county issued a heat warning and fire-burning warning to all residents via the emergency call system they have in place. I saved the message on the machine so Dr. Thyme can listen when he gets home. 

 The temperature is at 108 as I type. The forecast is calling for more of the same for the next seven days (or longer). No rain. We are all praying for rain. I know much of the entire country is under this unimaginable heat--some battling through fire on top of it all. I cannot even begin to imagine. Our hearts are with you. 

Diversions And Delusions (There Be Wool: Knitters Unite . . . And Colbert's Feet to Benefit)

It's officially summer. I'm officially ready for winter. So much so that I've begun my "winter knitting"--starting first with a beautiful cowl (the Honey cowl) in Kelly Green--for obvious reasons this color speaks to me. I love, love, love knitting this cowl. The textured pattern is both squishy and fluid--better yet--I can practically manage working it with my eyes closed. It's a simple and brilliant design. Who knew that a mere "wyif" and "p1"  combination could create such a wonderful little experience. It does. It has. 

Vegan Velvety Chocolate Mousse (I Craved, I Conquered And . . . Morning in The Garden)

Recent events in my life lead to this dessert. Mainly stress. Chocolate is my salve. At my whit's end, the chocolate gods were smiling down at me. I feel quite accomplished after this mousse. Proud, giddy. Secure in knowing that this once most-craved dessert item can now go back into our rotation. Grant it, I had to really get creative. There is NO tofu in this. (You all know how I feel about tofu.) Plus even better--no baking! I'm slowly getting over some of my no-tofu-for-me-thank-you-very-much opinions. But not completely.

Roasted Strawberry Frosting on Chocolate Cake (My Sugar Dilemma and. . . Rainy Day Garden)

Here was a cake that came about for no other reason than to do "something" with all the strawberries I had on hand. I am the person the grocery store has in mind when the display of this fruit is so large and in-your-face you practically have to high-hurdle jump over them to not notice. And before you can reach the bananas you "originally" came in for, there they are again, in a second display area! What's a girl to do? Buy two large flats, of course.

Wordless Wednesday: November Roses

Hard to believe. . .

best roses of the year. . .

blooming now.

Listening to: Sheryl Crow, Grace Potter And The Nocturnals, Michael Buble, and The Bangles.

(I. Heart. Pandora.)

White Bean And "Lotsa" Garlic Sage Soup with Swiss Chard (From My November Garden. . . Now Reading "Rin Tin Tin" by Susan Orlean And Realizing Again Why I Love Dogs So Dang Much)

This soup originally began as a simple white bean and garlic/sage soup. It evolved as I cooked. I added carrots, fresh and canned tomatoes, then some garden finds. It was delicious. It was just what I needed to finish my day. I was recovering from a morning of stress. I wanted something simple. Our boy's eating had stalled again. Nothing since Friday night. Oh, a kibble here and there--and maybe a few treats. Here we go again, I thought. I called the vet yesterday and asked for insight into the "what now" question. Does he need antibiotics again, or another round of steroids. They said steroids--at least this would stimulate his appetite. So off I went for yet another visit to the vet. My fourth in a month. Sigh. 

Vegan Curried Cabbage And Potato Soup (Oh, The Stares You'll Get!)

I was faced with the challenge of cooking for one again last week. I usually opt for something potato-ish. And fast. I don't want to linger in the kitchen for too long because I have some Real Housewives of Beverly Hills to catch up on. As a woman, a housewife (though not of the Beverly Hills ilk), I can attest to one absolute truth in that show: women and pack mentality. It gives me shivers. I have scars to prove it. So BH girlfriends: I can TOTALLY relate! Back to my soup. This came together in a flash. I have cabbages growing like there's no tomorrow in my garden. The cabbage is a staple in our home. Apparently it wants to become a staple in my garden as well. And if you'd like to be let in on one of the best kept weight-loss secrets while watching RHBH, well, here it is: cabbage. Add some potato, yummy Indian spices and you have yourself a delightful, light and super healthy dinner: Beverly Hills style.

Yesterday morning I headed out to Home Depot. I knew there were sales to be had. I could smell it in the air. And sure enough--discounts galore. I picked out some mums to add a pop of color here and there throughout the yard before the inevitable happens and freezing temps are the norm. I love the mum!