Photo Friday: How's That Square Foot Garen for You? My Chocolate's in The Mail And So Are Some Seeds!

 First harvest: Spring 2011. . . counting the days down.

My heirloom tomato patch. Behind this are the roses that had a true hard cutting in March and are growing remarkably well after suffering the abuse they took. Mixed in between are cloves of garlic.

My square foot tomato patch, chives, more garlic and carrots. Everything was planted using square foot gardening guidelines, and companion planting techniques. I also used crop rotations to justify placing certain plants in certain areas based upon what I had planted in the spot last summer. Supposedly, this will confuse the "bad bugs" that will emerge looking for their buffet table and now find something intolerable in its place. Yeah, I'm still seeing bugs, but that is the beauty of organic planting.

My peas! Then, lettuces emerging, and behind the peas are cabbages and, yes, my first year for brussel sprouts. (Just because I grow them does not mean I will eat them.) In the front of the shot, lettuces coming up, sharing the square foot with leeks and scallions.

I love my sage. Love it. It is a no-fail, always beautiful abundance of purple flowers--bees love it. Next to this is a clump of lavendar (which comes back every year as well) and loves being next to Mr. Sage.

Vegan Monte Cristo Sandwich with Chive Talkin' Potato And Pea Salad

Anything between bread works in this house. The bread in the Monte Cristo is made luscious by dipping and frying (much like two slices of French Toast.) Key to this is the sauce: a yummy vegan Thousand Island sort  drizzled over the top. The grill marks are a nice touch, and will happen after you have assembled the sammich. Simply grill it, then flip it and viola--a great vegan meal is made!

I had a yen for something with peas. I also craved potatoes. (What else is new?) This is a fast and simple salad but packs a powerful taste punch. My chives are in full bloom and seem to double in size each week! I had to find a way to use these bad boys! I would traditionally use chopped onion in this salad, but the chive situataion warranted my attention last night. My garden peas are not quite ready yet. They are climbing and really getting tall--so I suspect by next week we may be seeing some pea pods. Very rarely do the peas make it into the house, I am too tempted by their beauty and crunch that I just pluck and eat right off the vine!

When I say we love sandwiches, I mean we LOVE sandwiches. This is our second "sammich nite" this week. The traditional Monte Cristo is more like a bistro sandwich. It got its start in Paris or some other place. It's usually carrying ham (eww) and maybe some sliced chicken (eww) with Swiss cheese. You can totally vegan-ize this with plenty of lattitude in what and how you dress it. Topping it with a sauce is a must!

There is something about a gooey mess sitting between two ciabatta slices. And I know I am not in a minority when I say, if it has mayo, it works for me every time. 

Moist Vegan Banana Bread (Gardens, Blondes, Scissor Therapy, Mothers. . . And Need I Say More?)

A really good vegan banana bread. Really good. And moist. And made even better with a swipe of Earth Balance across the top. Perfect snack. Perfect dessert.

I made mini loaves for this recipe because this way I wouldn't feel like I was eating an entire loaf by myself, just several "little loaves".

I have tried to grow Oriental Poppies for three years. I have just thrown seed and thrown seed. This is my first year for this flower and I think it is one of the most beautiful I've ever seen.

Another iris. Beautiful.

Can you guess what this flower is? If you said "chive"--you'd be correct!

 My chia-chives are covered in their "dress blues" (as I like to call them) and are too pretty to shear off. Plus, this flower is quite edible and tasty!

Somewhere between last week and today, I lost a bit of my way. How, might that be? Every year about this time, I begin to have waves of memories surface--memories of my mother. (I really miss her.) And though it isn't even Mother's Day, I still feel this unbearable weight of all things "mom". So I try to dither around and mostly distract myself with silly little things like: getting my hair cut--in a short pixie! (Was this a mistake? Gee--I don't know yet, because I've gone through this bit at least once a year for the past thirteen years now--let it grow, cut it off.) I may have more mom moments in the coming days--for what it's worth, I may even blog some more on the topic. It's my blog, I can write about my mom if I want to. What else is new you ask?

Best Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookie Redux (A Little Southern, A Little Chewy And Amazing!)

Finding yourself in a quandry when it comes to making the perfect vegan chocolate chip cookie can perplex even the best of vegan home cooks. Many have tried, many have failed. I am a skeptic by nature. But in this cookie you will find that yummy, chewy, down home, almost heaven-like chocolate chipper. This recipe now holds highest esteem in my kitchen chocolate chip-making-ness. I have so many, but swear to goodness, this one will win you over--even better on day two!

As I eat more. . . I couldn't help myself! (So thought a two-bite view was called for!)

I have a bit of a problem when it comes to cookbooks: I covet them! Cookbook display equals: stop in my tracks. Such was that case on Wednesday when I had a "few" items I needed to pick up from the store. This cute little bookstand was sitting next to the pears when I glanced down to see something new: Trisha Yearwood's Home Cooking. Just a side note--I don't own all vegan cookbooks--I'd worry I'd starve if I did. I draw vegan cooking inspiration from a plethora of cooking genres.

Vegan Chef Tal Ronnen at Le Cordon Bleu St. Louis (And I was there. . . OMG!)

Is this a big deal to have one of the world's most famous vegan chefs come to St. Louis and be a guest instructor at Le Cordon Bleu? Yes!

Was Vegan Thyme on hand to enjoy this amazing, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity? Yes!

Was she nervous, star struck, sick in the morning with butterflies? Yes! Yes! And Yes!

First up, from Chef Tal's cookbook, The Conscious Cook, Gardein "Chicken" Scaloppini with Shitake Sake Sauce, Braised Pea Shoots, And Crispy Udon Noodle Cakes. Uh, this is the dish he made on Oprah! On Oprah!

Next up: Chef Tal with help from fellow Le Cordon Bleu cooking school students and other chefs, cooked up an amazing sample of his "Celery Root Soup with Granny Smith Apples". Heaven.

Chef Tal adding very teeny cuts of Granny Smith Apples as other chefs attend to pouring the soup samples for us to try into cups.

This was the sample of the Celery Root Soup with Granny Smith Apples (made with the chef's preferred "vegan cream" concocted from soaked, then pureed cashews). That gorgeous green oil would be this incredible "chive oil" he whipped up in a Vita Mixer for drizzling. (Okay for the one hundreth time, I really need to get one of those!) The creamy consistency of the celery root combined with the cashew cream, nearly knocked my socks off (and it was cold, so I had socks on!).

The kind chef signing copies of his cookbook.

I had to get another picture of the chef with one of the nicest students (they were all nice)--but she sat next to me and went up to get me a few "taste samples" because in all honesty, I was not comfortable being the "guest" of the school and taking food samples. She was very kind to do this for me! I had a conversation with her about "nooch" aka "nutritional yeast" as Chef Tal brought some out--stunned and surprised many. I explained that this is a vegan cook's best friend--even imparts a bit of umami flavor, used in vegan cheese-flavored dishes a lot . Did I just say "umami" to a future chef at Le Cordon Bleu? OMG!

Adorable little tortellinis Chef Tal made with several of the students. He stuffed these with an artichoke ricotta made from, what else, cashew cream. (There was not enough to go around, plus not enough time to cook, but note the yellow hue of the vegan pasta dough--accomplished egg free, but rather incorporated Palm Oil in the mixture to give it the egg yolk appeal. Brilliant!)

Vegan Onion Burger on Reinhart's Kaiser Roll (Post Tornado: 5k Race Results Today for APA's Fast & Furriest!)

Diner food at it's best. There ain't a burger you can make with meat (ewww) that I can't make vegan. Go ahead, try me! Animals need not die. Vegans need not deny themselves! That Reinhart Kaiser Roll should have had more sesame seeds and poppy seeds, but I sort of lost 'em as I was juggling the burger bun. It's okay--this burger was pure diner grub heaven--with baked fries on the side. What's not to love?

Whew. Where to begin? Okay, so if you live under a rock, you may not have noticed that the Midwest was socked with some pretty fierce weather yesterday. Here in St. Louis, some communities sustained more storm damage than others. We were lucky. It could have been much worse.

If you've ever read the book, Smilla's Sense of Snow by Peter Hoeg (btw, I loved this book)--Vegan Thyme could write a book called: Kelly's Sense of Storms. I grew up in Indiana--just off Lake Michigan. Our home was struck by lightening twice when I was growing up. I have a vivid memory of one of the holes left in the corner of our house, my grandma holding my sister and I close, calling the fire department to put out the smoking left over from the strike. And we did not live in a big house, so don't imagine this as some cavernous dwelling with us on one side of the "great room". The friggin hole was like an arm's length distance from where we sat, I swear.

Spear Me! Vegan Asparagus Pasta Toss 1-2-3 (Why I Vegan Blog)

I can barely stand watching the spring asparagus slowly go from "Isn't it lovely" to "OMG--call the produce police and pull that out NOW!" So I found a bundle of spears that were calling me to put them to good use and together with some chopped onions, fennel, mushrooms and vegan Italian sausage made for a ridiculously yummy meal! I hope my step-by-step photos will entice you to give this vegan pasta a go!

So first, saute the onions, 6 cloves of minced garlic, chopped fennel bulb and added last (to preserve their "crunch")--the asparagus spears--all cooked in some olive oil. Season with salt, pepper, red pepper flakes, dried Italian herbs, then add a bit of lemon zest, white cooking wine, veggie stock and some arrowroot slurry and you are nearly done! Meanwhile, the pasta you work with is up to you--I just use whatever's in the pantry.

I like to cook my 'shrooms separately--in a mixture of Earth Balance Butter and a dash of balsamic vinegar. And then leave them alone for about fifteen minutes.

I sliced up and browned some vegan Italian Sausage--again, by itself, then you add this to the pasta dish when you are ready to serve. So we had a few more dishes to wash, but totally worth giving this dish a pan for each part--just enlist some kitchen patrol help.

I am not a famous vegan blogger. I consider myself one of the lucky fools who dithers away tirelessly on her laptop for no other reason then to entertain herself. Well, that and keep track of vegan food stuffs from my very humble, small kitchen. Plus, I am not really a joiner. I run. I am dog mom. I garden. I knit. I read. I cook. I spend time with hubby. I march to the beat of my own drum. The only "we" that applies there is the part with the hubby and dogs. You know that saying, Do what you love, the rest will follow? What "rest"? I made it clear in my introduction to Vegan Thyme nearly a year ago, Hey, cooking is something I do every single day--thus, I thought a blog might be fun (because, let's be honest, there isn't a whole lot of anything else I do everyday that most people would find even remotely interesting to read about. Maybe some, but few.) That's not the point, the point was, I stumbled into this quite by accident, and had no expectations of it whatsoever. And personally, I found that whole "Profile" stuff I had to create a bit off-putting. So you readers of Vegan Thyme are the rare few who may find a snippet of "more personal" information scattered throughout these pages, but please don't ever think you can go to my "Profile" and learn all there is to know of Vegan Thyme--you won't.