Okay, it's been a while since I posted anything, beloved food blog. I could make an excuse but really I have just been lazy about it. I even took photos of the delicious vegan cinnamon buns I made and various other things but just never wrote 'em up. Anyway, now I am going to write out what I made for dinner last night. It took about 5 minutes of prep, 20 minutes of cooking time and voila.
Ingredients for 1 hungry person (adjust quantity based on number of people and their various stomach sizes):
broccoli - about a cup chopped to bite sized
1/2 red pepper chopped
1/2 green pepper chopped
1/2 red onion
2 inches of a standard block of tofu chopped into small cubes
olive oil
lemon juice
sea salt (much much better for this than just your standard table salt)
fresh ground pepper
pasta flavoured with garlic butter (I keep one margarine (becel vegan kind) tub for a supply of garlic butter)
So yeah, just dump veggies and tofu into a casserole dish, drizzle with a generous quantity of olive oil and douse with a more generous quantity of lemon juice and season with lots of sea salt and pepper. Bake at 425 for about 20 min. I grilled it for the last couple of those minutes to make the broccoli extra crispy. Then I just mixed that with the pasta aaaand you're done.
Totally scarf worthy and very easy!
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
Saturday, August 7, 2010
Wherein I marvel at what can come from dirt...
Food has humble beginnings I guess. It's just crazy that all the stuff I need to make a tomato or a carrot is in seed + water + dirt. This entry is (mostly) about firsts. I've been away for awhile, but I did try my best to make sure I documented the first everythings that all of our wonderful food plants produced. Props go out to Eddy of course, as well as J.E., L.J., and C.B. for contributing sweat, blood, and tears (but mostly sweat) to this garden.
Tomatoes! Costoluto Genovese went from this...
To this!
And Champagne went from this..
To this!
Zucchini!
Kale in its natural habitat:
First harvest of the back garden: green beans, snowpeas, and aforementioned kale.
Beet (Golden Detroit) and carrot (Nantes):
Our first ripe bell pepper:
Baby French Fingerling and German Butterball potatoes:
Time for eatin'. Rice bowl with a tonne of garden produce and peanut sauce:
May the season be treating your stomach as well as it is mine.
Tomatoes! Costoluto Genovese went from this...
To this!
And Champagne went from this..
To this!
Zucchini!
Kale in its natural habitat:
First harvest of the back garden: green beans, snowpeas, and aforementioned kale.
Beet (Golden Detroit) and carrot (Nantes):
Our first ripe bell pepper:
Baby French Fingerling and German Butterball potatoes:
Time for eatin'. Rice bowl with a tonne of garden produce and peanut sauce:
May the season be treating your stomach as well as it is mine.
Monday, June 14, 2010
Vegetable babies!
Apparently I spoke too soon about the Costos being the tomatoling winners, because the Champagne plants have been busy too:
And look! Our first baby pepper!
Gardens rule.
And look! Our first baby pepper!
Gardens rule.
Sunday, June 13, 2010
Real grown-up business
Well, I'm officially a real grown-up. I like (1) landscaping and (2) gardening and (3) dark greens.
(1) Today we planted a cedar hedge! No longer is the front of our yard an empty rocky ditch. We used some horse compost we got from the farmer's market (thanks HC!) to line the ditch and then planted the suckers in. They'll eventually fill out, thusly increasing their awesome factor.
From the street:
From the house:
(2) LOOK! OUR FIRST TOMATOLING! Costoluto Genovese wins the race.
(3) Kale chips! Chopped up a bunch of kale, removed the big stems, rubbed with olive oil, lemon juice, nutritional yeast, and salt n' pepper (Thanks JF for the recipe), laid flat on cookie sheet and baked at 325 degrees for about 15 minutes.
Before baking:
After baking:
OMNOMNOMNOM.
Actual food on the photo-food blog? P-Flog is back with a vengeance.
(1) Today we planted a cedar hedge! No longer is the front of our yard an empty rocky ditch. We used some horse compost we got from the farmer's market (thanks HC!) to line the ditch and then planted the suckers in. They'll eventually fill out, thusly increasing their awesome factor.
From the street:
From the house:
(2) LOOK! OUR FIRST TOMATOLING! Costoluto Genovese wins the race.
(3) Kale chips! Chopped up a bunch of kale, removed the big stems, rubbed with olive oil, lemon juice, nutritional yeast, and salt n' pepper (Thanks JF for the recipe), laid flat on cookie sheet and baked at 325 degrees for about 15 minutes.
Before baking:
After baking:
OMNOMNOMNOM.
Actual food on the photo-food blog? P-Flog is back with a vengeance.
Sunday, June 6, 2010
'Tis the season to homestead...
Hi P-Flog! Sorry I've been away for so long. I've been really busy with the gentleman friend workin' on the house and garden. Let me share our progress with you!
Today, Ed and I spent the afternoon building shelves in the pantry to better organize our jars. We're pretty damn proud of ourselves. 2x2s to hold everything up, 1x4s as the shelves, quarter-rounds glued and nailed to the edge of the 1x4s to make lips that prevent the jars from falling. What do you think?
Last week, Ed spent a day in the sun building a planter box for our sadly concrete-y back patio. The front of it is an old closet door that we bought at a barn sale near Thornbury when we were up north with Ed's family for the May 2-4. The rest of it was built from random scrap wood that we had lying around. Not bad, huh, P-Flog? I think it really ties the room together. The containers on the right are raspberries and hostas, the ones on the left are blueberries, and the plants in the container proper are, from left to right, thyme (thanks for the suggestion, Y!), columbine, white bellflowers, hops (!), coral bells, and thyme again.
Look, P-Flog, our garden is up! From the left to right is sugarsnap peas, bush beans, rainbow chard, dinosaur (!) kale, some sort of orange carrot, and golden detroit beets. Everything's organic and heirloom. Some of the stuff didn't germinate super well, so we'll probably try starting more stuff inside next year, but what's up is looking pretty snazzy.
Ed and I left some garlic for so long that it sprouted, so we threw three cloves into a container. A couple of scapes are poking out of each one now! Exciting.
Our bell peppers are doing great... (I should probably read up on how to take care of these, because so far I'm just doing the water them when they're dry thing...)
And so are our tomatoes! These things are giGANTIC compared to the size tomatoes were this time last year. It's going to be a great year for tomatoes, methinks. Time to build better trellises for these guys and do some pruning!
We're also trying our hand at front yard beautification. In the front is a peony bush, some periwinkle covers most of the garden (hopefully it'll fill in over time), and there's a euonymus growing near the tree. The ditch by the fence will soon be filled with a small cedar hedge.
The herb boxes (chives and cilantro on the left, basil and mint on the right) are goin' crazy! Ed's parents gave us these trellises to decorate the front, which is a way nice improvement. We haven't attached them yet because we want to strip the gross white paint off first.
Look! Strawberries! I had one this morning and it was freakin' awesome.
Also in the front yard, we're growing zucchini...
And potatoes! Both of which are going nuts. Yes, yes, P-Flog, I know it's time to add some more soil to the potatoes so they can spring forth more delicious potatoey brethren. Tomorrow, I promise!
Lastly, P-Flog, I hope you don't mind me posting this picture of our rosebush for my mom, who planted it. It's looking great! Thanks mom.
Goodbye for now, P-Flog. I'll be back soon, I swear!
Today, Ed and I spent the afternoon building shelves in the pantry to better organize our jars. We're pretty damn proud of ourselves. 2x2s to hold everything up, 1x4s as the shelves, quarter-rounds glued and nailed to the edge of the 1x4s to make lips that prevent the jars from falling. What do you think?
Last week, Ed spent a day in the sun building a planter box for our sadly concrete-y back patio. The front of it is an old closet door that we bought at a barn sale near Thornbury when we were up north with Ed's family for the May 2-4. The rest of it was built from random scrap wood that we had lying around. Not bad, huh, P-Flog? I think it really ties the room together. The containers on the right are raspberries and hostas, the ones on the left are blueberries, and the plants in the container proper are, from left to right, thyme (thanks for the suggestion, Y!), columbine, white bellflowers, hops (!), coral bells, and thyme again.
Look, P-Flog, our garden is up! From the left to right is sugarsnap peas, bush beans, rainbow chard, dinosaur (!) kale, some sort of orange carrot, and golden detroit beets. Everything's organic and heirloom. Some of the stuff didn't germinate super well, so we'll probably try starting more stuff inside next year, but what's up is looking pretty snazzy.
Ed and I left some garlic for so long that it sprouted, so we threw three cloves into a container. A couple of scapes are poking out of each one now! Exciting.
Our bell peppers are doing great... (I should probably read up on how to take care of these, because so far I'm just doing the water them when they're dry thing...)
And so are our tomatoes! These things are giGANTIC compared to the size tomatoes were this time last year. It's going to be a great year for tomatoes, methinks. Time to build better trellises for these guys and do some pruning!
We're also trying our hand at front yard beautification. In the front is a peony bush, some periwinkle covers most of the garden (hopefully it'll fill in over time), and there's a euonymus growing near the tree. The ditch by the fence will soon be filled with a small cedar hedge.
The herb boxes (chives and cilantro on the left, basil and mint on the right) are goin' crazy! Ed's parents gave us these trellises to decorate the front, which is a way nice improvement. We haven't attached them yet because we want to strip the gross white paint off first.
Look! Strawberries! I had one this morning and it was freakin' awesome.
Also in the front yard, we're growing zucchini...
And potatoes! Both of which are going nuts. Yes, yes, P-Flog, I know it's time to add some more soil to the potatoes so they can spring forth more delicious potatoey brethren. Tomorrow, I promise!
Lastly, P-Flog, I hope you don't mind me posting this picture of our rosebush for my mom, who planted it. It's looking great! Thanks mom.
Goodbye for now, P-Flog. I'll be back soon, I swear!
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie...
... that's amore?
In other news, I wrote a bunch today and now I'm caramelizing onions with the back porch door open letting in the streaming sunlight. I can see the garden, and it smells like, well caramelizing onions. Good day.
Have fun in Greenland, Em!
In other news, I wrote a bunch today and now I'm caramelizing onions with the back porch door open letting in the streaming sunlight. I can see the garden, and it smells like, well caramelizing onions. Good day.
Have fun in Greenland, Em!
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Praise the return of early spring vegetables!
Pretty fiddleheadWhen I put you in my mouth
So content I am.
To go with the fiddleheads, I made enchiladas loosely based on this recipe, using some farmshare beans. I added a homemade salsa (diced tomatoes, finely chopped onion, cilantro, hot sauce, cayenne, salt, sugar, lemon juice, mexican chili powder, cumin) and spinach into the mix and it was pure win. OMNOMNOMNOM.
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
P-Flog Revival (again)
It's gardening season! And gardening leads to organic fruit and veggie production which leads to my mouth, so I think talking about gardening is pretty germane to the aims of this blog.
A few weeks ago, Ed and I planted some tomatoes and peppers into little peat pods. I got the seeds a few weekends back from Seedy Sunday, an organic seed fair with tonnes and tonnes of heirloom varieties (thanks for the tip, HC and SJ!). The tomatoes we're planting this year are Costoluto Genovese, an amazing Italian tomato perfect for sauce, and Champagne, some sort of hybrid variety that comes out sweet, yellow, and perfect to eat fresh. The peppers are a Bell cultivar.
A couple of weeks later, they looked like this (notice the sad sideways one, which is now existing happily upright in its new digs)...
So we decided that it was time to plant them, some into pots...
And some into containers (I found them on the street! I think they're Canada Post bins, perfect for container gardening. Yoink.)...
The current state of affairs includes the aforementioned potted/containered tomatoes and peppers (the littler guys are peppers):
The plants from last year that survived the winter (from left to right, raspberry, thyme, strawberry, and a creepy ground covering that we're thinking about using for a green roof over the shed):
Our water barrel, set up artfully with the help of Ed's plumbing handiwork and my genius idea to use a tire (which I picked up originally to build a potato tower) to hold it high enough off the ground to use the faucet (we're still planting potatoes, but in a different container type, more to come on that in later entries):
And our back garden, which is weeded and ready to receive seed (ew?). Which it shall, this weekend! In addition to the tomatoes and peppers, we also plan to grow kale (russian and dinosaur. DINOSAUR.), rainbow swiss chard, butter lettuce, snowpeas, potatoes (french fingerling and german butterball), zucchini, beets, and carrots.
Many many many unending thanks to Ed's parents for donating the water barrel, tools, and time to help us get our yard ready for the season.
Emily, where are you? :)
P.S. If anyone is interested in a tomato seedling, let me know, since we've got several healthy ones going and wouldn't mind one bit spreading the love!
A few weeks ago, Ed and I planted some tomatoes and peppers into little peat pods. I got the seeds a few weekends back from Seedy Sunday, an organic seed fair with tonnes and tonnes of heirloom varieties (thanks for the tip, HC and SJ!). The tomatoes we're planting this year are Costoluto Genovese, an amazing Italian tomato perfect for sauce, and Champagne, some sort of hybrid variety that comes out sweet, yellow, and perfect to eat fresh. The peppers are a Bell cultivar.
A couple of weeks later, they looked like this (notice the sad sideways one, which is now existing happily upright in its new digs)...
So we decided that it was time to plant them, some into pots...
And some into containers (I found them on the street! I think they're Canada Post bins, perfect for container gardening. Yoink.)...
The current state of affairs includes the aforementioned potted/containered tomatoes and peppers (the littler guys are peppers):
The plants from last year that survived the winter (from left to right, raspberry, thyme, strawberry, and a creepy ground covering that we're thinking about using for a green roof over the shed):
Our water barrel, set up artfully with the help of Ed's plumbing handiwork and my genius idea to use a tire (which I picked up originally to build a potato tower) to hold it high enough off the ground to use the faucet (we're still planting potatoes, but in a different container type, more to come on that in later entries):
And our back garden, which is weeded and ready to receive seed (ew?). Which it shall, this weekend! In addition to the tomatoes and peppers, we also plan to grow kale (russian and dinosaur. DINOSAUR.), rainbow swiss chard, butter lettuce, snowpeas, potatoes (french fingerling and german butterball), zucchini, beets, and carrots.
Many many many unending thanks to Ed's parents for donating the water barrel, tools, and time to help us get our yard ready for the season.Emily, where are you? :)
P.S. If anyone is interested in a tomato seedling, let me know, since we've got several healthy ones going and wouldn't mind one bit spreading the love!
Sunday, February 21, 2010
New York vs. Dom's Belly: Day 4 or, Now That's a Spicy Meatball!
The day starts with us sleeping in, helping our livers recover from the onslaught of local microbrews from the night before.
Then, SJ and I head down to Times Square to meet our grad school compatriot HC for lunch. First we go to a Cuban place and realize it doesn't have any vegetarian options, so we walk next door to Minar, a fast food Indian place.
My veggie combo with naan:
SJ and HC's dosa masala with daal:
The food is slightly salty and greasy... which is kind of exactly what we want. Nom nom nom. Then, while HC and SJ check out MoMA, I walk about 40 blocks around the city in order to work up an appetite for dinner. Unfortunately, I work up a little too much of an appetite and end up chasing this food stand guy as he pushes his cart down the street (to close up at the end of the day, I assume) for a pretzel.
I catch him, he gives me a look that says "You are crazy, here is pretzel, get away from me", I take pretzel, I bite pretzel.
Having rejoined HC and SJ at MoMA, we head uptown for Koronet, take 4. Yes, sigh... take 4. This time though, it's a purely unselfish act, as I'm grabbing a slice to pack in my suitcase for Eddy, who has sadly missed out on this trip to be a busy worker bee.
8 o' clock, and the time has come for us to go to Carmine's, so to Carmine's we go. We are accompanied by our wonderful host LT and our mutual friend AA. For those of you who have never been to Carmine's, it is an amazing family-style Italian restaurant on the upper west side. Everything is served in huge family-sized-to-share portions, so you should always go with a big group for maximal food variety. HC describes it as "what East Side Mario's wishes it was", and I tend to agree. The food is amazing, the waitstaff are friendly, and did I mention that there are large containers of (a) red pepper flakes and (b) parmesan cheese on the table? Spicy stuff and cheese? Dom is in love. While Dom is writing in the third person, Dom apologizes for the darkness of the following photos.
HC and SJ:
LT and AA:
Me and my mad self-portrait skillz:
Red pepper flakes and cheese:
Delicious bread with red stuff on the top (you usually get a mix of breads, but this stuff is the best, and the waiter obliged when Lisa asked if we could "just get a basket full of the good stuff"):
Our gigantic 1.5 L bottle of Carmine's house red. It's the same price as all the other 750mL bottles, and the gigantic-ness comes as a bit of a surprise. We bravely glug our way through the majority of the bottle.
Portobellos parmesan, post-ravaging:
Carmine's salad. I'm not sure what all the ingredients are, but this salad is amazing! Roasted veggies, some sort of shaved cheese - pecorino, perhaps - arugula, etc.:
Penne alla vodka, in which HC and I make a the smallest of dents:
Spaghetti and fist-sized meatballs (for SJ, LT, and AA):
The Half-Titanic. Carmine's flagship dessert is a turkey-sized plate loaded up with warm brownies, bananas, strawberries, vanilla and chocolate ice cream, whipped cream, and chocolate sauce. Carmine's does not know how to skimp on anything, so this thing is, well, titanic. When the waiter suggests it, we all moan the moan of a stomach too full. Knowing that, despite the moans, we all have dessert stomachs (there's always room for pie!), the clever scamp then sells us on a half-portion:
Then, with mightily wonderful timing, AA hears through his iPhone that the Canada-Switzerland hockey game is tied 2-2 and they're going into overtime, followed by a shoot-out. Like the Canucky Canucks that we are, we pay the bill, and run out of the restaurant to find a bar that's showing the game. We find the game at Dive Bar, a much-loved spot from a previous NYC visit, and make it just in time to see Sidney Crosby's game winner. We all cheer, and everyone else in the bar turns around and stares at us awkwardly. "We're, uh, Canadian." "You're what?" "Uh, Canadian." "Huh. Weird. You wanted them to win?" "Yeah." "Oh." *awkward silence*
Finally, we celebrate the game, and the conclusion of my tenure in NYC, with some drinks:
Man, I love eating in this city.
Then, SJ and I head down to Times Square to meet our grad school compatriot HC for lunch. First we go to a Cuban place and realize it doesn't have any vegetarian options, so we walk next door to Minar, a fast food Indian place.
My veggie combo with naan:
SJ and HC's dosa masala with daal:
The food is slightly salty and greasy... which is kind of exactly what we want. Nom nom nom. Then, while HC and SJ check out MoMA, I walk about 40 blocks around the city in order to work up an appetite for dinner. Unfortunately, I work up a little too much of an appetite and end up chasing this food stand guy as he pushes his cart down the street (to close up at the end of the day, I assume) for a pretzel.
I catch him, he gives me a look that says "You are crazy, here is pretzel, get away from me", I take pretzel, I bite pretzel.
Having rejoined HC and SJ at MoMA, we head uptown for Koronet, take 4. Yes, sigh... take 4. This time though, it's a purely unselfish act, as I'm grabbing a slice to pack in my suitcase for Eddy, who has sadly missed out on this trip to be a busy worker bee.
8 o' clock, and the time has come for us to go to Carmine's, so to Carmine's we go. We are accompanied by our wonderful host LT and our mutual friend AA. For those of you who have never been to Carmine's, it is an amazing family-style Italian restaurant on the upper west side. Everything is served in huge family-sized-to-share portions, so you should always go with a big group for maximal food variety. HC describes it as "what East Side Mario's wishes it was", and I tend to agree. The food is amazing, the waitstaff are friendly, and did I mention that there are large containers of (a) red pepper flakes and (b) parmesan cheese on the table? Spicy stuff and cheese? Dom is in love. While Dom is writing in the third person, Dom apologizes for the darkness of the following photos.HC and SJ:
LT and AA:
Me and my mad self-portrait skillz:
Red pepper flakes and cheese:
Delicious bread with red stuff on the top (you usually get a mix of breads, but this stuff is the best, and the waiter obliged when Lisa asked if we could "just get a basket full of the good stuff"):
Our gigantic 1.5 L bottle of Carmine's house red. It's the same price as all the other 750mL bottles, and the gigantic-ness comes as a bit of a surprise. We bravely glug our way through the majority of the bottle.
Portobellos parmesan, post-ravaging:
Carmine's salad. I'm not sure what all the ingredients are, but this salad is amazing! Roasted veggies, some sort of shaved cheese - pecorino, perhaps - arugula, etc.:
Penne alla vodka, in which HC and I make a the smallest of dents:
Spaghetti and fist-sized meatballs (for SJ, LT, and AA):
The Half-Titanic. Carmine's flagship dessert is a turkey-sized plate loaded up with warm brownies, bananas, strawberries, vanilla and chocolate ice cream, whipped cream, and chocolate sauce. Carmine's does not know how to skimp on anything, so this thing is, well, titanic. When the waiter suggests it, we all moan the moan of a stomach too full. Knowing that, despite the moans, we all have dessert stomachs (there's always room for pie!), the clever scamp then sells us on a half-portion:
Then, with mightily wonderful timing, AA hears through his iPhone that the Canada-Switzerland hockey game is tied 2-2 and they're going into overtime, followed by a shoot-out. Like the Canucky Canucks that we are, we pay the bill, and run out of the restaurant to find a bar that's showing the game. We find the game at Dive Bar, a much-loved spot from a previous NYC visit, and make it just in time to see Sidney Crosby's game winner. We all cheer, and everyone else in the bar turns around and stares at us awkwardly. "We're, uh, Canadian." "You're what?" "Uh, Canadian." "Huh. Weird. You wanted them to win?" "Yeah." "Oh." *awkward silence*Finally, we celebrate the game, and the conclusion of my tenure in NYC, with some drinks:
Man, I love eating in this city.
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