Thursday, May 24, 2007

Meowza Summer is Near


Meowza summer is near, check out my mother's day goods (a snapdragon and cauliflower plants) above and Sophie all curled up in the garden produce basket I just brought in anticipation of fresh garden goods, but I still have a wait. Around June 15th I can begin to harvest a little spinach and then other stuff after that. It is funny to watch how the cats seem to love little boxes to curl up in. Sophie is the adoptable cat we are still fostering. She's a good cat so I don't mind, however she stalks me... really. Whenever I go into a room she waits outside the door for me to come out, when i reach down to pet her she scampers off like I shouldn't be noticing she is there. I gave her a rude awakening with this picture but it didn't seem to bother her much because she laid her head back down and continued about her very im-paw-tant business.

Some great smells were coming from the kitchen! I think the one I liked the most came from the seitan o' greatness I have been wanting to try for so long. The recipe was doubled and made one "regular" size and one in quarter logs. The large one was sliced on the mandolin for sandwiches and the smaller logs were cut into "seiteroni" slices - yum! Being no virgin to seitan, I thought it was tough and dense baked liked this, but with the right knife it can be cut really thin which makes it kind of like commercial vegan pepperoni, but a little dry. The mandolin slices remind me of dried beef. I was thinking that the crock pot might work here also instead of running the oven for 90 minutes in hotter months. I like the smaller rolls best and here is my favorite thing that I did with them. GRILLED PIZZA
I was inspired by a journey through blog land one day reading blogs all over the place following a link here and link there.... I don't even remember where I was when I received the inspiration. Anyways when I received it I knew that I needed to try this. We are going camping for three nights this weekend and I wanted to know that this could actually work... it did!

UPDATE: KATE 'S vegan ventures BLOG gave me this inspiration (recipe here). She also has a great mini cookbook.

The pizza I made was super unique with white bean hummus, seit-a-roni slices, pickled beets, grilled onion and chopped green pepper. Despite unique, although nothing I would "write home" about, it was satisfying and vegan. I was out of everything tomato for a sauce and had little choice for toppings.

Basically pizza crust recipes are the same, in grilled pizza cook the crust for 3 minutes, flip and cook 30 seconds more. Next add toppings and cook again until cheese melts, I had no cheese or cheeze for that matter so I cooked until it appeared to be evenly hot (about 3 minutes).

GARDEN REPORT:
Spinach is up and will the first to harvest, corn is peeking through the ground, I have been doing ALOT of weeding, and yukon gold potatoes are looking good. The cauliflower and broccoli plants finally got big enough that the rabbits seem no longer interested. A gardener friend told me that she put plastic cartons over hers until they were 6-8 inches tall, at that height they aren't as tasty to the bunnies. The only problem with this is that I don't get plastic cartons on a regular basis because I do not buy dairy milk. I have also been working on beautifying my front walkway (and my aching back is proof) with petunias, glads, allyssum, and morning glories. The herb box is doing well too: marjora, dill, and chives came back from last year and is doing wonderful. I started rosemary, basil and parsley from seed and then transplanted a few of the healthiest looking plants. I started them in organic growing mix from our local lawn and garden store. I have tried cheap potting soil before, but there is a science to starting new plants stuff and it does not work well.

I have also been keeping a written journal of our garden layout / location of plants since 2003. Once reason I do this is because I rotate crops yearly to keep them moving so they do not get planted in the same place two years in a row. I learned that I should not plant root vegetables where cabbage family plants has grown for three years or they will get a bunch of dirty pinholes due to a bug that likes the cabbage plant and manages to have an effect for at least two years. Also moving the plants each year helps to keep pests that like a certain plant "guessing" and infestations are kept as minimal as possible.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

the food looks great! i will love to see the garden!!

erica said...

mm, pepperonis! I'm sad I never tried the "seitan o' greatness", but then again, I never tried quite a few things.

I've been eating baby chard from my garden, and tiny arugulas I thinned. The radishes are going crazy and my snap peas have lovely white flowers. The strawberries and raspberries are on their way, with tons more flowers appearing, and I'm still digging and planting in the front and back yards (with my zone, most summer crops can be planted through June-July). Just planted two tomato and two cucumber seedlings, as well as zucchini from seed, and I'll plant watermelon and summer squash seeds tonight. It's so exciting for me! I'm learning to compost my food scraps, too.

Carrie™ said...

I've never done grilled pizza. I'm told it's quite easy.
I can't believe you have plants up already! Around here, people do their gardens on the May long weekend (just past). That's pretty much the time when it's guaranteed there will be no more frost. You get a jump start on all of us!

bazu said...

Oooh, I've always wanted to try grilled pizza! It looks and sounds mouth-watering.

Anonymous said...

I've never grilled pizza before. It looks good.

Love the garden report. We're planting our garden this weekend. We just tilled the land today. I hope we're not too late planting.

Anonymous said...

grilled pizza.... I LOVE it!
Seitan O Greatness. I find it's just OK. It's doesn't have me doing cartwheels either.

Vicki's Vegan Vice said...

Your mother's day snapdragons are beautiful! I love your camping pizza - hope you have a fabulous time. :o)

aTxVegn said...

I love grilled pizzas - they taste just like the ones from brick oven restaurants. I can't wait to see your harvest!

Shananigans said...

I love reading about your gardening! I am quite excited about the tiny patch of ground we’re getting when we move in just over a week! It’ll be too late in the season to get much started, but I plan to grow some tomatoes and peppers in big pots out there at least.

I really liked the seitan o’ greatness, but 90 min is a really long time to have the oven on in the hot months. How long did you quarter logs take?

Grilling pizza sounds so fun, can’t wait to get a mini grill and go camping. Something about cooking outside is extra rewarding.

Kate said...

I am so glad to see that you made grilled pizza. I love love love it and make it all the time (as you may have seen in my blog). Nice to hear your garden is doing well.

Dori said...

Thanks for reminding me of your grilled pizza Kate ... I am sure it was you who gave me the original inspiration!

Shann - I baked the quartered logs just as long as the big one because I did them in with wax paper in between them and all four in one pkg of foil.

Tanya Kristine said...

whoa...that looks great! my next pizza will be raw.

wish me luck!