Waiting for Vegetables

Here in my third trimester of pregnancy and deadline crutch time at work preparing for maternity leave, I've gotten a bit behind the ball again as far as the blog is concerned. This does not mean I've had no content. A lot has happened. Many things have been growing, baking, cooking, and knitted. In addition, there has been home demolition and much washing of hand-me-down baby clothes in preparation for newborn, who needs both things to wear and a room in which to put them.

So, at the time that these photos were taken, these beautiful lilies were growing right beside my front door, looking ever-so-much like cartoon flowers and not really like real flowers at all:

And by now, due to drought and changes in weather from cool to hot to cool again, the petals have all fallen and the lilies are just weird stems with nothing attached to them, just standing there awkwardly to greet any visitors that happen by.

Likewise, the zucchini, which at the time this was taken had yet to sprout a stinking thing, have exploded in vegetable goodness.

We have no less than seven zukes in the crisper drawer of our fridge now, some of them too large to do anything with but spread and bake. Then, there is the lettuce, which we just planted too much of in our excitement to have a legit garden. I have gifted empty ice cream tubs full of the stuff to various loved ones and still, it grows. Which I'm not really complaining about. At least something is growing back there.

Because that sums up everything the garden has to offer right now, here in mid-August, with autumn nipping at our exposed arms in their short sleeves. There is proof that action is happening, but little fruits from our labor to show. The daikon radishes sprout these lovely flowers but are not fully grown yet.

The kohlrabi is nearing picked size but not quite there yet.

And the tomatoes, despite three tiny red ones, are just a see of green that won't ripen no matter what.

The eggplants and peppers have flowers but no fruit. The broccoli and okra are large but no veggies. Then there are the tomatillos. They have all these little husks, but when I fondle them, alas there's nothing yet growing inside.

This waiting game is has gone all summer long and I'm ready for produce.

Separating the Seedlings

Memorial day has come and gone and that can only mean one thing: it's time to plant the garden. Unfortunately, our garden isn't quite ready for planting. After a week of straight rain, plus a long weekend visiting family, there hasn't been enough time quite yet to get the sod up and the dirt tilled. It is getting there though. The space in the back yard is marked off and almost half of that space is now sodless.

(Ignore the loose piece of fence there. The backyard is a work in progress.)

So far, I can say that the whole gardening from seed idea seems to be a success. I have separated most of the seedlings. I say "most" because I ran out of little pots to put them in before I even finished with the tomatoes and I started with the tomatoes. The finally tally for tomato seedlings is as follows: 4 Bloody Butcher tomatoes, 7 Abe Lincoln tomatoes, 8 Purple Cherokee tomatoes, and 7 Big Red tomatoes. That makes for 26 tomato plants if all of them survive until the garden is ready to be planted. This, of course, does not include the additional 8 purple tomatillo seedlings.

Upon seeing what we were in for, I sent my husband out to a home improvement store to try to find more little pots, which he did not find. In lieu of those, he brought home a package of blue Solo cups. He then drilled holes into the bottom of each cup and filled them with dirt for me. With these, I managed to get the eggplant seedlings, 16 total, (a mix of Shooting Stars and Black Beauty and I can't tell how many of each because I can't tell the seedlings apart) separated, as well as the 10 Romanesco broccoli seedlings and most of the 9 kohlrabi seedlings (though I may have the two mixed up, as they look very similar as seedlings). By the 19 mixed bell pepper seedlings, I was using little starter pots from last year and doubling each plant. Finally, I just ran out and left them in their original starter containers.

(The one on the right is a lone tomato seedling.)

Those plants in the smaller containers are clearly not fairing as well as the plants in the cups or the updated pots. Since returning from Michigan after Memorial day, though, all the plants grew significantly in size.

The swiss chard and blue kale seedlings, being cold weather tolerant, I planted in the front bed with the herbs from last year, spinach, raddichio, and cold weather lettuce. There are about 5 swiss chard seedlings and roughly 7 kale seedlings at present. They aren't getting quite as tall as the seedlings still under nightly porch protection but they seem to still be alive thus far. And that's something. The raddichio, however, looks like it might not sprout for the most part, due to mole interference.

Neither the lavender nor the rosemary sprouted at all. We have since purchased four nice-sized pots for the various herbs, so, unlike last year, I can bring them in when the weather turns cold. The  sage and half of the thyme seedlings went in one pot, while the rest of the thyme went in a pot with the rest of the rosemary seeds I'm really hoping at least one takes off this time. If not, I guess I'll have to go buy a starter plant from the local greenhouse. In the other two pots, I put seeds for the parsley and basil in one and seeds for oregano and lemon balm in another. Some green is starting to come up from the seeds in the herb pots but I can't tell what yet. I do know that there is no luck with the rosemary seeds yet. I gather it is not an easy herb to grow in a pot, let alone grow from seed. Time shall tell.

The lavender, as well as the other seeds, including beets, carrots, parsnips, daikon radish, zucchini, butternut squash, chamomile, red lettuce, Black Seeded Simpson lettuce, okra, two varieties of burpless cucumbers, and Early White Bush Scallop squash, will have to wait for the weekend. Hopefully the back garden is ready by then and I'll finally have time to plant the lavender and chamomile in the front somewhere.

And if all those tomato plants live, I might be looking for new homes for some of them. Twenty six tomato plants seems like a few too many for one small family garden. Also this columbine is totally out of control:

Paht si-yu and vegan chocolate chip cookies

Last month, we slacked. It was rush rush rush and there just wasn't any time for a country of the month from which to prepare country-inspired dishes. That's why this month, we're combining two. Welcome to Chinese Thai month. It works well because there are a lot of chinese/thai cookbooks in the library, and now they're on our bookshelves.

Giant Eagle had buy one, get one broccoli, so I searched through said cookbooks for one that would use up some of the broccoli aging in our refrigerator and here it was: Paht si-yu, a thai rice noodle dish with eggs, broccoli, and dark sweet soy sauce. Added bonus, to make the soy sauce dark and sweet, you just add our own new kitchen staple, molasses!

For lack of rice noodles, we used whole wheat linguine. For lack of mushrooms, we used tofu crusted in sesame seeds, but then, by now it should be clear, this recipe, like all recipes in my kitchen, it needed to be Kate-ified.

Paht si-yu
(adapted from Real Vegetarian Thai)

1 package firm tofu
sesame seeds
all spice
teriyaki sauce
3 T soy sauce
1 T molasses
2 T veggie stock
1 t salt
1/2 t pepper
3 T veggie oil
4-6 cloves fresh chopped garlic
3 cups bite-sized broccoli florets
1/2 a red pepper, thinly sliced
8 oz. dried whole wheat linguine, cooked according to package instructions
2 eggs, lightly beaten
Red pepper flakes (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 350. Take tofu from package and cut slab into four equal rectangles. Press each rectangle into a paper towel to drain excess water and place on a tin-foiled baking sheet. Sprinkle each with allspice and teriyaki and then coat top in a layer of sesame seeds. Bake about 15 minutes per side, give or take, until tofu is slightly browned and much less soggy. Then dice the rectangles and set aside. Also, at this point, it would be good to cook those noodles.

2. In a small bowl, combine soy sauce and molasses, veggie stock (or, as I did, 2 T water and a pinch of better than bouillon), salt and pepper. Stir and set aside.



3. Heat large skillet to med-high. Add 1 T oil and coat pan. Add garlic and cook about 1 minute. Add the tofu cubes and toss. Add the broccoli and red pepper and stir fry about 2 minutes, until broccoli is even shiny and bright green. Dump all into a bowl.

4. Add 2 T oil to the skillet. Add cooked noodles and toss. Then, push the noodles to one side and add the eggs to the vacancy. Cook eggs about 30 seconds and then toss everything together, scrambling the eggs as you do.

5. Stir in the soy sauce mixture (si-yu) and then the veggies. Toss everything together and voila, a lovely vegetarian thai meal. For an extra kick, after you spoon your helping into your bowl, sprinkle on some red pepper flakes. For a vegan version, just nix the eggs. The tofu can carry this protein train solo.

Paht si-yu is delicious. The molasses gives the whole meal a delicate but rich sweetness that a teriyaki just can't match. That sweetness pairs very well with the bitterness of the broccoli and my addition of the sesame crusted tofu gives it a little nutty flair. And of course, it's still a stir fry, so not only is it healthy and delicious, you can easily eat it with chopsticks. And I'm a sucker for chopsticks.

And for dessert, why not some vegan chocolate chip cookies? I was not brave enough for substitutes, so I won't list the recipe, as it would be verbatim, but consider this my first of many recipe reviews from the Vegan Cookies Invade You Cookie Jar cookbook, and if this first recipe in their book is any indication of the quality to come, I made a very smart used bookstore purchase.

These fine women have the vegan cookie down to an art. A lengthy introduction explains how you can accurately make substitutes for more specialized diets, like diabetics and people allergic to say, gluten. Then, we get to that first recipe, the original staple cookie recipe for anyone to have and share: the chocolate chip cookie.

And their version is the single best vegan cookie I have ever made. It's moist and full of flavor (perhaps moreso do to my extra vanilla addition since all I had was vanilla soy milk). Humorously, I almost made an unnecessary substitution right off the bat. These cookies call for tapioca flour (cornstarch can be substituted).

So there I was in my kitchen wondering where one even gets tapioca flour when I had a thought: I have Egg Replacer from that one month I tried to be vegan and couldn't afford it. Sure enough, egg replacer is essentially a big old box of tapioca flour.

Tapioca aside, these cookies are brilliant. And from the looks of it, more brilliance follows in the pages that come after. If you want some good vegan cookies, get your hands on a copy of this cookbook. Vegan cookies really will invade your cookie jar... and your stomach.