Long Time, No Blog

Wow. It's been over a week since I posted. It all started with Sleek being out of town last weekend. I took a little break from cooking. Then, I woke up Monday morning with a nasty sore throat and congestion. I'd finally caught the cold that Sleek and the kids had. I thought I was in the clear. I was feeling much better by Wednesday, though. Still a little tired, though, so instead of blogging I was going to bed early. I'm not going to go in depth about every thing I cooked last week. I'm just going to do highlights.

Monday evening, feeling like crap. I decided to make some "no-chicken noodle soup," which I had made last winter. It was the perfect thing to ease the sore throat. Who says you need chicken in your soup to make it therapeutic?

I think it was Wednesday evening that I made the Lemony Roasted Potatoes from V-con. My God, they're good. I could've damn near eaten the whole pan. And it's 2.5 lbs. of potatoes! Thursday, I made a mixed vegetable, Malaysian-style curry. It was in a recent issue of Cooking Light. Instead of okra, I used zucchini. I made coconut rice to go with it. It was nice and spicy, and worked to clear my sinuses a bit.




Friday evening, I decided on BBQ tofu sandwiches with coleslaw. I made the BBQ sauce from V-con, and baked the tofu. For the slaw, I sliced half a head of cabbage, a couple carrots and half an onion. I made the dressing with Vegenaise, soy milk, cider vinegar, a bit of sugar, a pinch of cumin, and a dash of salt and pepper. It may have been the best slaw I've ever made, and the sandwiches were just ridiculous. Sleek said, "You could sell these."



Also on Friday, I decided to take it upon myself to make some homemade chewy granola bars. I just kind of winged it. They turned out to be AWESOME. They're pretty sweet, so next time I'll definitely reduce the amount of brown rice syrup and brown sugar. Here's the deal:

1 cup quick-cooking oats
1 cup rolled oats
1 1/2 cups puffed millet
1 1/4 cups puffed brown rice
1/3 cup wheat germ
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup sliced almonds
1 cup Sunspire chocolate candies (natural M&Ms)
3 TBS melted Earth Balance
1/3 cup natural, unsweetened peanut butter
1 1/4 cups brown rice syrup

Mix dry ingredients in large bowl. Combine wet ingredients in small bowl. Mix dry ingredients until all mixed up. Add wet ingredients to dry and stir (or mix with hands) until combined. Press into 9X13 inch pan, and bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes.



Today was the first day of the season for the Morgantown Farmer's Market, so I was all over that. At this point, it's pretty much greens, meat, jellies, eggs, and plants. So, I got a nice little head of bibb lettuce, and a beautiful bunch of purple kale. For dinner this evening, I made a salad with the lettuce. I found a recipe for a bibb lettuce salad with butter dressing, so I decided to give it a try. Very different. Very buttery. Very good. For the kale, I sauteed an onion and garlic until the onion was nice and brown. After boiling the kale for about 3 minutes, I drained it and added it to the pan with the onions a garlic. I made a sauce for it using about a tablespoon of Earth Balance, 2 TBS of tamari, and a tsp of balsamic vinegar. I think it was the best kale I've ever tasted. I'll be getting two bunches of it next week. The kids wanted some mashed potatoes, so I made some of those too. I made a simple onion gravy by dicing and onion and browning it in a non-stick pan. (I didn't even use any oil!) Then I added some minced garlic, a pinch of paprika and a pinch of oregano. Then I added a cup and a half of no-chicken broth with about a 1/3 cup of flour whisked into it. I stirred while letting it thicken, then added a splash of tamari and salt & pepper. It may have been the best meal of the week.



Only a week until the Radiohead show! Whoooo-hooooo! Two new (to me) bands I'm really liking right now: Old Crow Medicine Show and Amos Lee. That's thanks to Olives and the mix cds she made as party favors for her daughter's birthday. Now that's a great party favor!

Oh, for anyone who is interested...Sleek made a slide-show revealing the horrors of mountain-top mining. It's posted over at Picture West Virginia. It's quite disturbing.