Thankful.

Yeah, it's a couple days late.  But the last couple days were filled with more cooing and cuddling and smooshing the cheeks of my nephew, playing cards and having grown-up conversations with my family, driving to Billings with my dad.  Add to that repacking my bag at the ticket counter since it was overweight,  a long day at the airport while carrying a 30# box full of dishes, and dinner with my hub who I had left home in Portland all week, I just didn't have time to blog.  But I did have time to be thankful.  What I'm thankful for:

family.  all of them

my husband

Gilda

sewing

creativity

orange jello with cool whip

running

Montana

friends

Faith

coffee

the human body

sharing talents

forgiveness and grace

shavasana

 My mom always makes us do "affirmations" at holiday meals.  We always groaned at them as kids, but as an adult I really appreciate this.  It really just means that we go around the table and give an honest affirmation to each individual, something we appreciate about them.  Something more than "you're cool" or "I like your hair."  It's hard!  But rewarding.  I got choked up.  All the little things that bug you about a family member (let's all be honest, they exist) seem to disappear and you realize that you really do appreciate X,Y, and Z about them.  Try it.  I think you'll like it.

Stealing my sister-in-law away for a run around the lake

look!  turkeys have a medial and lateral meniscus too!

Potholder made by mom

What's not to be thankful for?

Space

I just got home from a crafternight with some very talented and creative women.  Sadly, I did not take pictures.  Happily, my husband has become a model.  Maybe this could be his next big thing...

photo courtesy Robyn Steely, ED at Write Around Portland

Also this breakfast tofu recipe has been hanging out in a blog draft for long enough that I've referenced it to make breakfast multiple times, so I figured it was time to actually post it.  I've been finding more and more lately, though I try and deny it, that I just don't like eggs.  That's it.  So tofu for breakfast is a tasty alternative.  Because it can become anything you want it to be.

Also did you know that it's actually not proper grammar to have two spaces at the end of your sentence?  Read this.  I just spaced twice.  What do you think?  Do you use one space or two?  I think this will be a hard one to break.  space...space...

The Farm to Table

Part dos of mom and dad's time in Portland.  Time with loved ones always involves food and drink, no?  We are foodies, and I think one of my goals for this blog, apart from sharing with all you faithful readers (whether you are out there reading or not), is to keep a little archive of our recipes, a box full of index cards that doesn't get smeared with butter and oil.  We find a lot of our recipes online anyway, and print them out then fish them out of a too-stuffed file folder on the shelf.  And here I know exactly where to go to find them.

We cooked in a lot with mom and dad here, which I love.  And we went out a little too.  I'll let recipes and pictures tell the story.  We'll start at The Farm Cafe on Burnside...

Best beet salad in town

Mom was daring with the tofu

Snapper & Acorn squash

Fall vegetable galette...obviously being enjoyed

On the home front...

Roasted Squash Risotto with Chicken Apple Sausage
adapted from Aidells (yeah, the recipe on the package from Costco.  We don't always use Gourmet)

2 cartons low-sodium vegetable broth
2 T butter or olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
4 links Chicken Apple Sausage (Aidells is pretty good, and we made it again with some from New Seasons that I dare say was a little superior)
3 cloves garlic, chopped
2 cups arborio rice
1/2 cup white wine (I prefer Chardonnay, but we made it with a Reisling too)
2 cups roasted squash (butternut, acorn, summer, winter...)
1 tsp fresh rosemary
salt and pepper
Asiago or parmesan

Roast the squash: cut in half, spritz or brush with olive oil then roast in 350˚ oven 45 min or more until soft when stabbed with a fork.  Let it cool before gutting it out.

Place the stock in a large pot on the stove and bring to a simmer.

In a large heavy skillet or big stock pot, over medium heat, heat the olive oil. Stir in the onion and sauté until fragrant. Add the sausage and garlic and cook, stirring, for 2-3 minutes, until the sausage begins to brown slightly. Add the rice and stir to coat with the olive oil. Stir in the wine and one ladle of the stock. Stir until the liquid is almost absorbed. Add the squash and another 2 ladles of stock. Cook, stirring, until almost absorbed. Continue adding stock and stirring until the rice is plump and tender, about 15-20 minutes. Add the herbs and season to taste with salt and pepper. Remove from the heat. Garnish with Parmesan.

We made some Chebe bread with it too:



Gluten Free Pao de Quejo ~ Cheese Bread
Makes 12 – 1 1/2 inch wide biscuits/rolls
Ingredients:
1 1/4 cups tapioca flour/starch
2 cups shredded cheese
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 eggs
1/4 cup melted butter
2 teaspoons herbs (paprika, dill, chili flakes)
2 teaspoons dried chives
Directions:

1. Preheat your oven to 450F.
2. Mix together all ingredients in your mixer well.
3. Form in to balls (about 1 1/2 inches or 2 inches) and slightly flatten. like what is in the picture… or leave them as puffed balls! You decide!)
4. Place on parchment paper on a baking sheet.
5. Bake for 8 – 10 minutes or until golden brown

The Kitchen

We just had an amazing dinner.  I take pictures of most of the meals that are prepared in this house, at least the ones that are somewhat aesthetic in nature.  But this one, it was so good it could not even be caught on camera.  Amazing.

It all started with the simple question: What are we having for dinner?  Pasta.  Shoot, the sauce is frozen.  We still have fresh tomatoes, really they need to be used soon.  It grew from there.

We roasted the tomatoes with a few cloves of garlic and onions.  A random radish and sweet pepper.  Tossed it with some olive oil, salt, pepper, basil and oregano, and roasted it at 350˚ for about an hour, then pureed it in the food processor (I left out about a cup of chunks to give it some character.)  Brown rice pasta, again?  How about polenta instead?  Even better, baked polenta.  And then Gourmet piped in and suggested Baked Polenta with Parmesan.  That not so difficult recipe is below.  It was amazing, and now our house smells like baked cheese.  We started it off with a tomato/cucumber salad with vinaigrette, and finished with the leftovers of my friend Kim's gluten free apple crisp.  She swears it's vegan, I swear it's covered in butter (coconut oil, it turns out).  I'm full.  I'm satisfied.  I want more but will leave it for tomorrow.

Most of all, I'm happy to be able to create such delicacies on a simple budget, in a small kitchen, with my husband along side.  There are many things in our marriage that I wish we could do without, ways I wish he was different, or did things my way, etcetera etcetera (I'm sure this is true for all marriages, and anyone who disagrees is lying, right?).  But the kitchen; I'm grateful for the kitchen.  It's one place we share that we both enjoy.  We can switch roles, be the head chef or the sous chef, give input and share expertise.  Yeah, sometimes we don't agree on things, and the kitchen is by no means immune to being a warzone on a given day.  But we always come out with something to show for it.  Usually something good to show for it.  Enjoy.

Baked Polenta with Parmesan (adapted from Gourmet)

1 cup polenta or yellow cornmeal
1/2 stick unsalted butter
6 tablespoons Parmesan-Reggiano (I supplemented a little asiago too)

Bring 4 cups water and 1 tsp salt to boil in a 2-3 quart heavy sauce pan.  Add polenta in a thin stream (if you can!), stirring constantly.  Reduce heat to medium-low (or it will spit like lava), stirring constantly till the polenta is thick, about 15 minutes.

Remove polenta from the heat, add the butter and some ground pepper.  Spoon polenta into a shallow 8-inch baking or casserole, not glass and smooth top; sprinkle with cheese, then cool (they say 1 hour in the fridge, we did 10 min in the freezer).

Bake at 400˚ or until heated through, then broil till the cheese is lightly browned.  Serve immediately with the roasted tomato sauce and enjoy!

Grahamola

At my husband's suggestion, we had a lovely breakfast picnic this morning.  We had 2 beautiful sunny days this weekend and were hoping for a third; it was a bit on the cool side but decidedly picnic-worthy.  Today was the first day I have really had to rest/recover from last weekend's busy trip to Washington.  We shared a house full of love and fun and hugs and laughs as we celebrated Seth & Molly's wedding, and left exhausted and joyful.  Family is a good thing.  So is breakfast.

Regular on the left, GF on the right

 Aunt Shannon's  Granola Recipe (Adapted from Body + Soul)

3 cups oats (Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free oats for me)
1/8 cup flax meal (I added wheat germ to Graham's)
1 tsp cinnamon
a dash of cardamom, nutmeg, ginger, cloves
dash salt

Mix together

1/2 cup apple juice
1/4 cup maple syrup
1/4 cup honey

Mix it all together.  Spread on parchment paper on cookie sheet, and bake at 325 for 15 minutes.  Stir it up, then add dried fruit (we added coconut and dried cherries).  Bake 8 minutes more.  It keeps soft if you store it in the fridge.  Yum!

We added chopped almonds and sesame seeds, and at the end added some candied ginger.

Vegans and Artichokes

I am exhausted.  It has been a crazy week at work, and I'm just plum worn out.  After a pretty go-go-go day yesterday, I was driving home at 11pm from a co-ed soccer game, and the windshield wipers decided to stop working.  Which is not really an ok thing when you live in Oregon.  As I climbed into bed around midnight I whispered to Graham, who had been in bed since 9, that there might not be wipers for his drive to work at 4 am.  Then I spent the next hour worrying about how he would get to work if it was pouring rain and he couldn't see.  So I got up, checked my email and facebook, then read blog after blog (oh yeah, I did a quick search for what to do when your wipers don't work too).  I climbed into bed after 1, woke when Graham left, then woke an hour later when Gilda puked, then at 7 when Graham called.  I slept in till 9:45.  That's so unheard of for me.  But you know what, I feel pretty darn good now.  And I've got a long week ahead...

I realized a couple weeks ago, and admitted to myself, that I don't really like eggs.  I don't like them scrambled, and only sometimes fried.  So I decided I'm going to stop eating them.  (Ok I'll still bake with them, and hard boiled is ok too).  This morning I decided to find a good tofu scramble.  Graham brought home Veganomicon, "the ultimate vegan cookbook", from the library a couple months ago, and I was a little skeptical.  I like the concept of veganism, but I like cheese more.  After a few weeks of making some really solid recipes, I was a fan.  I looked for it this morning to find a good tofu scramble, and alas, the book is gone.  That's what happens I guess when you get cookbooks from the library.  I did find this recipe online from Kitchenist.  It made a long morning of finding blown fuses and digging under the hood of the car a little easier on Graham (and a late morning seem a little less wasted for me). Enjoy!

 

Pressing the tofu

 

Tasty Tofu Scramble  
(my modifications are italicized)
250g tofu (whatever type you like, I used firm)
1 Tbs. olive oil
1/2 a small yellow onion, coarsly chopped
artichoke hearts (I got them canned from Trader Joes.  Who has this on hand in the pantry?!?)
 1/2 cup frozen peas
1/4 tsp. turmeric
1/4 tsp. paprika
1/4 tsp. chili powder
1 Tbs. soy sauce (I skipped this)
1 Tbs. finely chopped parsley
sea salt and black pepper, to taste

Drain the tofu and wrap it in a tea towel for 10 minutes or so, while you get on with chopping the vegetables. Crumble roughly into a bowl and set aside.

Heat the olive oil in a nonstick pan over medium heat, and add the onion. After a minute or two, add the frozen peas, and continue cooking for another 3-5 minutes, until the veg are cooked but still have bite. Stir in the spices. Add the tofu and turn the heat up a little; scramble gently until everything is coated well in the spices. If you’re using it, add the soy sauce at this point. After 2-3 minutes, remove from the heat and add the parsley, salt and pepper. Serve immediately.

B-A-N-A-N-A-S

 I got to baking my gluten-free banana loaves and finished off the browning nanners.  Here's a play by play.

The competitors: #1 v #2

The playing field

The Judges

I started with an extensive google search and used very scientific means to choose the recipes to try.  By that I mean I used ones with the simplest ingredients and fewest steps.  I also tend to favor recipes from blogs.  Something about "knowing" the person who posted the recipe, even in the slightest sense of the word, makes me trust it a little more.  Here are the recipes and the results.  Enjoy!


#1: Gluten Free Banana Bread from Gluten-free Girl
I left out potato starch and used brown rice flour instead, and since I spent so much grocery money on stocking up on the pricier GF flours, I skipped the extravagant ginger; I also subbed maple syrup for sugar.  Still was pretty tasty.  

6 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 cup sorghum flour
1/2 cup tapioca flour
1/2 cup brown rice flour
1/2 cup teff flour
1 teaspoon xanthan gum
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup maple syrup
 2 large eggs
1 1/2 cups mashed banana (about 3 large bananas)
1/4 cup full-fat yogurt (or sour cream)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1/3 cup crystallized ginger
Preparing to bake. Preheat the oven to 350°. Grease a loaf pan (the usual size). Melt the butter on low heat. Set it aside to cool. Sift the four gluten-free flours into a large bowl. Stir in the xanthan gum, sugar, baking soda, and salt. Stir them all up together. In a large bowl, combine the mashed bananas, eggs, yogurt, melted butter, and vanilla extract. Stir until they are just combined. (If you are using a stand mixer for this, be sure to mix until the liquids are just combined. You don’t want to over-cream the liquids.) Slowly, sift the dry ingredients into the wet batter, until everything is just combined. Fold in the chocolate chips and crystallized ginger. Pour the batter into the greased loaf pan. Smooth the top.
Baking the bread. Slide the loaf pan onto the middle rack in the oven. Bake about 45 to 50 minutes, or until the loaf is golden brown and a knife slides out of the bread clean.  Cool the bread for 10 minutes in the loaf pan, and then tip it out, slowly. Allow it to cool before you slice your first piece. (well, good luck.)

#2:  Gluten-free Banana Bread from A Gluten Free Day

(I made a couple changes to the recipe, so what is below is slightly different from what she has on her page)

Dry ingredients

- 1/2 cup quinoa flour

- 1/2 cup sorghum flour

-1 cup or 2,5 dl ground almonds

-2 tsp (gluten-free) baking powder

-1 tsp cinnamon

-1 tsp ground cardamom

- a pinch of nutmeg

-a pinch of salt

Wet ingredients

-3 eggs

- half a cup of maple syrup
-3 very ripe bananas

-1 tsp vanilla exctract

-1/2 cup melted butter

Heat an oven to 340F.

Grease a bread pan and sprinkle some almond meal on it, or just line it with baking paper.

Mix the wet ingredients together and mix the dry ingredients together.

Combine these two without over mixing them.

Bake for approximately 1 hour or until a toothpick comes out clean.

I think they both win

Indeed.

Yesterday we had a deliciously sunny day. It hit 73, and felt like it--I even got a little tan eating lunch in the sun at Jam on Hawthorne. Then we woke up today, Easter morning, to the drizzle we're so accustomed to. Barefeet on concrete was just a tease.

 I made myself a busy little Sunday. I got up early and sewed, then walked to the store with the camera to document my morning. I like having pictures of my life, and I'm trying to just bring the camera along more often. Life needs documentation sometimes.

 My early morning walk to the grocery store was to prepare me for the challenge that lay ahead: bananas gone bad. Someone at the Healing Place (the building my clinic is in) apparently has the hookup at New Seasons, and will randomly drop off boxes or bags of produce that's too good to throw away, but too far gone to sell. You know I hate to waste food...or anything else for that matter. So I brought home a few bunches, and looked up some banana bread recipes. By the time I made a double batch of Martha's banana bread with coconut, which barely fit in the mixer (oops), then made the salad for Easter potluck, then made banana waffles, I ran out of time to try the three different gluten-free recipes I found. I'll let you know how they turn out, when I get around to them. As for the original four loaves, I hear they were quite good.

The challenge

My go-to apron: a yardsale skirt transformed into a flour-catching cape

Graham's birthday was this week, on Earth Day/Good Friday. Two Christmases ago, we decided to start a change jar to save up for some ink (he wanted to register for tattoos for our wedding, I thought a food processor was more practical). We started with a little jar and grew into a Costco sized Adam's Peanut Butter jar, and when he cashed that baby in, it pretty much paid for the art. I'm impressed. He's very proud. Happy birthday Graham.

I have finished four different pieces this week! I'm so good at starting things, and sometimes it takes a ton of energy to just do that last little finish. Deadlines. That's what I need. We're seeing family tomorrow night so I had a deadline to get these done. I have a baby shower in a couple weeks too, which will be good to get me moving. I've also been commissioned to make a neoprene laptop case for a friend...which should be interesting, and he's setting me a deadline.

Burpie

A little shirt for Luciana

I am so obsessed with wasting as little thread/fabric/food, that it sometimes is a little nutty. I'm terrible at doing math for sewing, which does mean that I sometimes cut extra scraps that I could have avoided (though you know I'll use the scraps again...somehow). But, when I stitch in the ditch on a quilt (or on these burpies), I cannot for the life of me figure out the best way to cover all the lines only once, but also not have to pick up the needle. Any tips?

Mo's runner

Happy Easter.  It was a blessed day, with beautiful weather that couldn't decide if it wanted to be rainy or sunny. When the sun shone, the dark sky receded and great white clouds hung low on the horizon. It was a beautiful day.