Hector for President and Other Silly Ramblings

Whew

I hope I learned my lesson this time.  I ate some spinach artichoke dip yesterday and within half an hour had swollen feet and hands and felt like a slug...It was delicious but not worth that.  Guess I will need to make my own version without the dairy and the salt.  If fact yesterday was a dairy binge - I had a bit of greek yogurt on my berries in the morning (can't find plain soy yogurt without traveling to cool springs and the flavored stuff is okay, but too sweet for me).  That dip for lunch and dinner had cheese on the veggie enchiladas and jalepeno dip and tres leches cake for dessert...(Chuy's rocks)  The veggie enchiladas were very good and next time I'll just have 'em hold the cheese, skip the dip and maybe the cake (but really it is the best dessert in Murfreesboro and very nearly irresistable).  Sooo, breakfast was a bowl of brown rice, pumpkin seeds and raisins and a couple of Morning Star link sausages and a mango and berries smoothie made with almond milk.  I could live on this, it was yummy and I feel better already.

This weekend is going to be a challenge - there is a huge gathering of Kermicles in Illinois and the food so far on the list of what people are bringing is not vegan friendly.  Plus this is a town with only a few restaurants, all meat and dairy havens cause it is farm country.  Guess I'll be bringing my own tofu salad sandwiches.....

What a busy day yesterday

Finished planting the new rose arbor...(pictures later) We rescued some sad looking roses from KMart - one is a beautiful yellow and orange - Joseph's Coat - and is blooming already, though of course it is small yet. I then mulched everything in the yard that needed it - all the flowers and the tomatoes Doyle planted (13 plants)  Don't know if they will produce the way the ones last year did in the square foot garden but it they do I will have tomatoes for sauce for a year or two to come.  I made up some olive oil with cinnamon oil  to combat the mosquitoes.  It seemed to help, they were threatening to pick Doyle up and carry him off and I only had to swat at a few from time to time as it wore off.  I got to pick dinner between rain storms yesterday too - a really big salad from the garden - lettuces, sorrel, mints, sugar snap peas and then Kale and chard for later in the week.  Also had some brown rice - just plain with some earth balance and raisins and pumpkin seeds.  yummy.

Oh the Garden......

Doyle had a long day on Wednesday...He tilled the existing garden bit, and then used the tractor to till up the rest - which we managed to plant mostly before the rain.

 I planted green beans, Armenian cucumbers - those long less seedy ones - butternut squash, acorn squash, watermelons, cantalope, a bizillion sunflowers......There is still room for more in the other end of the garden.

Then there is the square foot garden.  The garlic is high and still no scapes (I am not patient)

 We had tilled the remaining kale under - it was gettin buggy and going to seed.  There is a bit of red russian kale in the square foot garden, some chard and I will plant some more chard for the summer.  The asparagus is finally up and the peas are starting to have pods on them..

 Oh and lettuce, did I mention lettuce...

Here's a moth I saw yesterday morning on the garage....makes me want to knit something complicated.... a shawl is greys and black...mmmmmmm

New Recipe

While in Italy I had spaghetti cooked in Chianti...Here's my version.....Serves 2-4 people

A handful of dried Chanterelle mushrooms (morels or portabella or fresh will do as well) soaked for 30 - 45 minutes, chopped.

One leek, cleaned, white part only, sliced thinly.

2-3 c. Chianti - or other good red wine - don't use a wine that has turned vinegary - it''ll make vinegary spaghetti.

Spring rosemary

1/2 lb spaghetti - the thicker kind, not angel hair

Saute the leeks and mushrooms in a Tablespoon of olive oil til translucent - in a large flat saute pan.  Add a sprig of rosemary to the pot.  Add a bit of vegetable stock if extra liquid is needed. You can use up to a cup of  stock with the wine to cook the spaghetti.  Add 2-3 cups of red wine to the pan and the spaghetti.  Only break the spaghetti once.  (You can also cook it slightly in water to make it bendy before adding to the wine for the real cooking if you like to be able to twirl it on the plate)  When the spaghetti is cooked remove to plate - garnish with fresh parsley (or pecorino or parmesan if not vegan). The wine will have reduced to make a light sauce.

yumm!

I know it has been a while...

Italy was wonderful.  The wild plants there are similar to here and I have wonderful pictures of things that will inspire dyeing later this spring.  Some of it the stuff you see here, but in a different place you notice them more. The plants around the castle were amazing - old wisteria with trunks 8" thick and climbing three stories up a wall.  Cypress trees that look ancient and tower over the castle walls even when you are three or four stories up.  Old roses climbing every wall and lemon trees blooming with their sweet scent in the gardens.  Olive trees and grapes everywhere in the distance.  I was wondering why there were so many piles of olive branches around and being burned - Olives produce only on last year's growth so they keep older growth trimmed back and thinned out.  Grapes on the other hand produce on this years growth so they are trimmed way back every fall. 

One of the things we did was go to a weekly market in a smaller village - I love farmer's markets and this one was really wonderful.  I temporarily went off the diet.  I did eat cheese while there and found a wonderful one at the market.  The fruits and veggies were so colorful and vibrant.  Baby artichokes, fresh asparagus, the best mandarin oranges I have ever had - ever.  And I also had a taste of salami and one of proscuitto because I was sure it would be a mortal sin to be in Italy and not eat those things.  I discovered that they don't taste the same as my memory of them, can leave it there now without wanting more.  Cheese is a little more difficult and I have decided to eat it occasionally - if I find a spectacular one somewhere, or mozzarella in Caprese salad this summer.  But only on occasion.  Mostly I stuck to veggies there.  Riboletta is one of my new favorites that I will be making.  It is basiclly reboiled veggies - thick and full of lovely vegetables.  Sounds not so great but is truly tasty and wonderful.  Oh one more food thing - Spaghetti cooked in chianti is awesome, just saying....

The garden is booming already.  The peas are a foot high and appear very happy in their square foot garden space.  Doyle had the idea of tucking tomato plants in amoungst them so that by the time the peas are done the tomatoes will have a bit of a head start.  We'll see.  The garlic is tall - about 18".  The two chard plants from last year that did nothing have come back and I pretty much have to pick it daily.  I didn't know they would do that but it is a happy discovery.  Stuff in the big garden - peppers, squash, cucumbers and eggplant -  did not drown and appear, if not happy, at least okay. 

Oh Asparagus Beds

I am pretty tired now - Saturday I dug an asparagus bed (down 12" in mostly clay) and then Sunday I enlarged a flower bed by at least 5 sq feet - same clay dirt.  This also involves mixing some better soil to plant in and spreading it...Doyle is invaluable in this last step, but I did the digging by myself.  No more garden til Wednesday - my feet hurt.  But hey the kale and daikon are up, the lettuce is peeking up through the soil (hope for no more freezing).

Yeah Gardening

This weekend, plant fever struck and I spent much of Sunday out in the garden, getting things ready for planting. I did succumb to buying one plant - a daisy - but mostly just did cleanup.  The square foot garden is half full already with early crops.  There are 7 squares of garlic, very happy garlic, a couple squares of red russian kale just coming up, one of daikon.  I planted lettuce, mixed greens and lots of peas.  The peas will be up and out about the time tomatoes need to be planted.  Since we got a CSA this year (Flying S Farm in Woodbury) I will be doing more early crops and just a couple of tomato plants in the square foot garden.  Well, peppers and squash in the big garden - can't do without that late crop of butternut squash. and the big garden is already giving us greens - lots of kale and lots of turnip greens.

I want to put in a small asparagus bed this year and will start digging that this week.  Doyle wants to put it in the space between the square foot garden but i think that would be too crowded with the other stuff and take away from the space around it that makes it easy to garden in.  we'll see....

Oh it was good

Last night Darlene, Jan, Christina and I went to cooking school - at Viking in Franklin - and learned to make some Indian dishes.  The kitchens were, of course, amazing, and the food was REALLY REALLY AWESOMELY GOOD!.  I was not overly enthused at going anywhere yesterday (Il ove being home on my day's off) and don't really like Samosas much, but by the end of the evening I was really happy.  The samosas were fabulous, the Dal (lentil soup) was very yummy, the curry incredibly flavorful.  I even ate a bit of the yogurt/cucumber dip cause it was just too good.  And our Chef/teacher is the sweetest person.  If you ever get a chance to go to one of these, jump at it.  I'll be going back.

Yeah, another restaurant

that I can eat at.  Puleo's has great veggies, uses whipped margarine on them too.  The appetizer yesterday was really good and could serve as an entree - veggie egg rolls on sesame noodles.  Then I had a plate of veggies.  Other restaurants that are good: my favorite Mellow Mushroom Pizza - the mega veggie pizza tastes great without cheese even, the hummus is delicious and they have a pretty decent veggie hoagie which you can get with Soy cheese.  Subway will make a fair veggie sub.  Olive Garden has vegetarian vegetable soup and so does Panera.  Camino still only has a vegetarian taco salad - though I don't think I trust that the beans are lard free.  But in a situation of margherita desperation it can be tolerated I guess.

I have taken to doing veggie scrambles for breakfast - sometimes with tofu, sometimes without. This morning was with - and peppers, onions, mushrooms, peas.  Yesterday without - but with potatoes, onions, peppers, mushrooms, smoked paprika, black beans.  Kale or spinach make a good addition too. I know oatmeal would be healthier maybe but it isn't what I want. Plus I don't get hungry until mid afternoon with this.  Even with steel cut oats I am hungry an hour later.

At Doyle's birthday party I made a rice/kidney bean/butternut squash jambalaya sort of thing - I managed to get a good serving of it but it got completely scarfed up by the meat eaters in no time.

Okay I guess that's enough of food obsessing for the day.

Random Ramblings

I was thinking of Hector the other day, remembering what a sweet soul he was.  He probably would not approve of the veganism - he liked meat, but he would have let it go without saying a thing. Cats are kind of that way anyway - Letting you be yourself and not trying to change you. I hope I can do that.  I know I have to bite my tongue sometimes when folks are complaining about how they feel, and I am sure that diet changes would help.  But unless they ask, I should butt out.  I try not to push it and keep my comments to a minimum, but it's hard.  I am feeling so much better, have comeoff one of my blodd pressure meds and even when I am not feeling well I have so much more energy than I used to.  I was reading Veganomicon  and Isa says everyone you know will eventually go vegan.  I'm not sure about this but maybe - it'd sure help the planet if it happened.  And Skipper - well he keeps begging at the dinner table even though he doesn't like anything I am eating - He's not a veggie sort of dog.