Friday (MwM entry)

I tried to post this yesterday as a MwM posting, but I couldn't get in to the dashboard. I can now so here we go and I am at home, so I can cook and continue to share from my kitchen and get inspired by other blogs.

QUESTION:
Has anyone ever used whole candied oranges? I found these in the oriental section. The oranges were the size of grapes. The package called them oranges, not kumquats.

Ever seen or used black rice noodles or mung bean noodles (same packaging and noodle shape as soba). I'd love to do something that would allow a dramatic or pretty presentation.

SHOPPING:
To stock the refrigerator in my hotel room I stopped at the Hy-Vee Food Store. I was impressed with the wide and varied selection, espeically accomodating to various cultural cuisines and very vegan friendly AND wonderful prices. I think Hy-Vee is mainly a midwest grocery chain and the prices are very pleasant, for example I found agave syrup there for $2.79 a12 oz squeezie bottle. I purchased their brand of organic vanilla soymilk for 88 cents (store special), organic raisins, limes, carob spirulina squares, organic black bean salsa bread, Naked pomegranate juice, two small boxes of tea (bombay chai and sweet ginger peach), and at last my favorite find-noodles. The raisins are sitting on top of them, but I found organic whole wheat soba noodles for $1.69, and corn noodles, mung bean noodles, and black rice noodles. What an awesome way for grain rotation! The unique noodles were $1.59/ pkg (6 servings).

The last evening I stayed in Ames I decided to wander around the main square to see the interesting shops. Although there were many cute shops two impressed me the most (besides a natural health food store and Wheatsfield Organic Grocery), one was a "paint it yourself" ceramic shop and the other a world fair trade goods store ran by volunteers. At the paint it yourself ceramic shop I found an oriental bowl with a rim that had a raised side. The raised side had a whole that allowed chopsticks to sit in it.... the chop sticks rest on top of the bowl, but the whole allows the chopsticks to poke through so that they don't fall off. I was so impressed. The bowl was unfinished and I would have to paint it myself, and they would kiln it so it would be ready in one week. I didn't have the time to go through their process, I have got a STRONG urge to go back up and make the time. Unfortunately with the cost of gas, the bowl, the painting, ect... the bowl would cost me $75 by the time I was able to bring it home - bummer, DH would say we will not go where no common man has ever paid that high of price for a bowl before.

FINAL THOUGHT:
I am thinking of starting to prepare my blog (or a paid site) for educational purposes, both homeschoolers and a high school foods class that I get to teach this fall, I have a multicultural food fair with resource links theme going on in my mind. I found out that I will also be teaching a Child Development class and Intro of FCS at the high school I have been placed. I'm so excited!

And at last... pup and the new kitten (unnamed still) are the closest of friends now. The kitten was actually licking pup when I took this picture. My daughter desires to name the kitten Jugueto'n, meaning playful in spanish, "Huegie" for short. Kitten likes to hide under the sink to jump and attack. DH struggles with saying anything more than, "OUCH! Quit attacking my feet cat!".

It looks rainy today, our garden needs it. Have a good day!

For more information about Midweek Munchies contact Harmonia.

Added to... Not busy

Yeah! I can get into blogger again. Kai, I'm sorry to hear about your site.... so much work gone. :-(

Redeeming from Busyness:
I have to redeem my "busy-ness" from the last post. Looking at it all together, it looks like alot. The 15 credit hours is spread over the summer, I am not in more than two classes at one time ever. Taking on baking for orders one day a week for customers takes 5 hours max - I have a commercial oven and I pay my sister makes granola for me and she often delivers to the coffee house for me also. (Pix: A basket of granola going to coffee house to sell.)



Also, I have a supportive DH who really took over things for me this past four weeks... I had been taking on line classes so that I can do them on my time, this is the only one I had to go away for. Also, right now is summer and my kids are considerably independent aroud the home (with some guidance). At home my kithen, family room, and dining room table are all in an open area. So when they are watching TV I'm ususally on the computor doing schoolwork or if I'm in the kitchen we are still together and sociable, but DH does say that I have two speeds: Fast and really fast. And with the sleep, I have had to make a few short nights but not to often . . . family FORBIDS me to do that anymore.

When I started taking classes we were all in 100% agreement that it would truly be a team effort if I was to accomplish this goal and then we keep a note of the benefits of the outcome. One of which is my kids both want to attend college and momma needs to bring in some extra financial $$ to help them achieve that. The Bakehouse is wonderful, but $100 a day as a sub teacher in addition to a few homeschool family visits will sure help accomplish that besides the Bakehouse is more of a passion than it is a profession in pay, cool thing is I get paid for something I love. DH and I love the farmers market and the veggie garden is a family project (DS often mows with a riding mower).

Also, my family consists of DH & two teens (come August, age 15 and 18)... I do 80% of household cooking, kids do dishes and trash, we all do our own laundry, I tell kids to clean up bedroom once a week and they do. I have pretty good kids.... I really do. Sometimes I look at them and think to myself, "How is it that you are turning out so well considering all the mistakes I've made along the way?". All in all, my the secret is the bible verse that we based our first homeschool year on. Matthew 6:33 But seek ye first the kingdon of God and all these things shall be added unto to you. This has been a priority my personal goal and I realized seeking isn't hard. Honestly, I feel added to.... not busy.

Confession:
Schoolwork secret, I learn the best place to slack. Last semester I had two finals and a 1 1/2 hour video response to do on the same day. The video response was worth 5 points. I did review it (okay, fast forward mode) and made 5 very simple short comments one of which was, "Children are cute." Well the prof e'd me and said that she felt I didn't make a good effort in the review and didn't give me the points. I did that in order to give the two finals the time they needed. I got a B in the class and an A in the other two. DH gave me a hard time (via phone) last night about making sure I didn't attempt a "children are cute" kind of response for the final I have to take in about four hours.

STAY TUNED!
Okay, next post is Midweek Munchies. I'm so excited about some of the things I have to share. I have to wait until I get home to take pictures though!

School Bells Ring... are you listening.

My title is sung to a common christmas tune. (sleigh bells ring...).

Here's a report on what I'm up to in "my time away"...

Class 1, almost done:
I have one day left of the multicultural education class I am taking and then on Thursday the final. Despite the challenge of being away from home I have really enjoyed this class. The class started with alot, no underemphasized... ALOT! of reading to help us understand historical issues of various problems in society that need to be recognized and hopefully someday "fixed". I presented a unit today that contained culture identification and acceptance lessons. It ended with a foods unit (yeah, I know... hard to imagine this for me right) studying common foods in various parts of the world. I never realized how many people in the US believe they do not have a culture... we have had a historical past that has attempted cultural genocide.

Class 2: I have been in Interior Design 129 (via the web) at University of Colorado for the past three weeks. I am in week 4 and just finished a neat concept design assignment in which I had to draw "word" pictures and represent mood/feeling with colors. We have covered more technical stuff than fun stuff so far, but I am looking forward to completing it and plan to use my bedroom as final project design (and then really do it in January). I have four more weeks of this class.

Class 3: June 1, I officially started another class via the web offered through ISU. This one is called Apparrel Assembly Processes. As a future FCS teacher I guess the state requires that I know how to sew. I really don't know how to otherwise. As of right now I am waiting to receive the package that the teacher of this class is sending out, a DVD and patterns. I am borrowing my mom's sewing machine for this class. This class goes throughout all of June and July... 8 weeks I think.

I'll have two more classes come July - August for a grand total of 15 credit hours throughout the summer.

Top three things I love to do when my nose isn't in classwork (besides telling the kids to do their laundry and other household chores)...

#1) Swim with the family in the pool.

#2) Enjoy the kids making music.

#3) Tend to my herb box or garden (cauliflower, lettuce, brussel sprouts, and broccoli here)

I'll be shopping Thursday on my way home and will share with you all the great things I found at the store today in Ames for a "late" MwM!

BAKEHOUSE HAPPENINGS:

DH just called and said that I have two orders to fill of "ugly muffs" ( like a mini essene bread) and a batch of muesli dry mix on Monday next week. Last week I had my sister bake 75 pounds of soynut flax granola for a customer order. I stopped at the coffeehouse where my granola products sell and sales are going well. I need to have my sis bake up a batch of cinnamon raisin granola and banana nut... the shelf stock is low. That is good news. I stopped by the market that I usually sell at and visited with other vendors and former market customers who said that they wish me well in my educational pursuit and sure wish I'd teach my sis how to make bread... I will be offering breads by order at the coffee house on a one time a week delivery starting next week. I do allergy free bakings by order also, so I have some customers who are eagerly looking forward to me being "back in business" Monday.

Ok! Breaks over, back to the books for me.

Food-o-philia

This is my wonderful DH. He cooked himself breakfast and decided to use a peice of the onion naan bread from theindian store. He called me down from upstairs to make sure I took a picture of it for my food blog. Here he is... the proud cook with his naan, peaches and soy yogurt topped with bakehouse granola, omelet and juice (Good Job Honey!).


After doing a search on the word biophilia for a class I am taking I discovered -philia means a combination of the terms "friendship, fondness," from Gk. philia "affection," from philos "loving" (from http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=-philia ). I like this word and for my own personal self identification purposes have decided that I have food-o-philia or maybe a food-o-philiac. When the people that I live with explain to others how I food"blog" and that they won't find the latest "velveeta, burger, and salsa" crockpot dish in my recipe box, they can now happily explain that I have been infected with this wonderful condition.... a friendship, a fondness, and affection towards food. In turn this also means that I do not like blood shed, merciless care given to animals raised soley for the purpose of being pumped full of antibiotocs and growth hormones, and in turn I have a friendship, a fondness, and an affection towards my body in choosing the diet that I have chosen. However I have this same kind of friendship with fellow humans and can accept those who do not or can not embrace this food-o-philism which is a part of me.

Yes, my new word is sentimental and the meaning of the original meaning somewhat stretched. Any other self proclaimed food-o-philiacs out there?

Okay beyond making up new words I have been making up a thing or two in the kitchen this past weekend. You'll have to bear with me I think I might be a bit unsocialized as I prepare for a final test and present an entire unit using multicultural education methods this week, so I am looking for ways to entertain myself.

MY KITCHEN MAKINGS...

I call this dish "wanna be Indian food". It began when I opened up a package of ready to eat Alu Mattar that I bought at the neat little Indian Food Store I found last week. The food was packaged in a thick plastic/tin combination type bag, I just had to open the bag and dump the mix into a bowl and microwave to heat. When I opened it it was covered with orange oil, I poured off about a Tbsp of it. The side of the box said 1/3 C = 1 serving, so the whole package had 3 servings therefore 1 Cup of goodie for about $1.75 . I looked at the ingredients and discovered this orange stuff was probably common (non organic) vegetable oil and the the majority of the calories in this food was fat. There were very few peas and potatoes in an oily gravy (the gravy had a nice color though). Although I was a bit freaked out by all the oil I tasted it and the curry flavorings weren't bad, but I couldn't eat it just to eat it. SO.... I went to my creative drawing board instead. After rummaging through my cold storages, I found that I had chopped onion, mushrooms, spinach, and califlour. I started stir frying all this in a pan and when I was satisfied I added soymilk (for a gravy) and seasonings... alot of mild curry and turneric, a little cardamom and cumin, some of that black salt I got at the indian store, a pinch or two of dried cilantros. I kept adding a little more of this seasoning or that as I went along and kept tasting it. I then added a little cornstarch to water and mixed it in to make the now colored soymilk into gravy... it worked and the dish wasn't to bad. I ate it with a slice of garlic sourdough bread (okay I should have used the naan bread if I truly wanted it to be an indian dish).

I have also made falafels for the first time. I strived for low-fat and they turned out a bit dry, but I will be making these again for sure and posting a recipe once I get it right. I baked these in the oven.

And one last note on my food-o-phlia entry, I took a picking of marjoram and dill. They are hanging in my kitchen drying and when they are complete I will crumble them up and put them with my spices.

. The weather here is wonderful! Have a great day!!

Faux Friday: Seitan

Earlier this week I made a B**fy seitan roast that uses tofu, Bryanna truly is the queen of sietan roasts. As usual, it turned out wonderful. I took a portion of it with me for eating while I was away from home. Tonight I will be making Au Jus sandwiches using my seitan roast (DH favorite!) and have a spinach salad, fresh picked from my garden on the side. This picture consists of a stir fry in which I combined onions, red and yellow peppers, greens (chopped), with sietan and served it over rice.

Here's a picture of my veg gyro (seitan, grilled onion, chopped garden spinach, and some greek hummous on an onion flavored naan that I bought from Nameste foods). I also discovered Nameste means = > I salute the light in you. The picture here doesn't make my veg gyro look as good as it tasted. I grilled the onion and seitan in the george grill. The salad is a dilled english breakfast radish and carrot salad, it isn't glamorous nor gourmet, but I was able to use up the bunches of radish that I picked last weekend.
english breakfast radish (mild)

Pictured is a variation of seitan roast from Bryanna. Link to Vegan Feast Archives (scroll down for seitan turkey and then lower for seitan au jus). I think she might be in process of another cookbook because she recently taught a seitan making workshop at a fancy veg chef conference, so I won't give out newsletter recipes ... however the link above is to the FREE Vegan Feast Archives. My family enjoys roasts that includes tofu in the wet blended ingredients because the tofu gives the "meet" an incredible texture, the roast pictured does not contain tofu. I like them either way!. Sometimes I freeze portions of either roasts so I can grab some when desired. They freeze well, just thaw or refrigerate until thawed and eat. I have packed seitan in the cooler for family trips and cold "meet" sandwiches many times. Every thanksgiving and christmas I have made great fancy "b**f wellingtons" and roulades "stuffing rolled sietan roasts". It has been wonderful. I have followed Bryanna's cooking and cookbooks for the past seven years.

The Many Faces of Seitan ...
I pronounce this Sie-ton, but I have been informed that it is actually pronouced say-tan... I like my pronunciation better, maybe because it's not so devilish.

Here is an opened face seitan sandwich. I broiled shredded homemade vegan gruyere cheese on it and had a layer of my favorite homemade mustard on the bread. I love the way Bryanna's gruyere cheese recipe shreds from the frozen state. This little bit of cheese is leftover from when I made the mushroom polenta casserole. I served this with a green salad fruit salad.


It is also nice to have a roast in the frig to chop up for salads or to make a fast sandwich wrap, but also just for grabbing a bit of protein from the frig when I want. The picture to the left is made using a whole grain wrap baked a little crispy and until the insides were nice and hot.

I have cooked great roasts in a clay cooker, but also find them quick and easy to throw in a slow cooker and let it go on high. I like them either way. The clay cooker method is a bit more time consuming. The last variation pictured here is seitan mushroom gravy over a quartered baked potato with a side dish of muskmelon.

NOTE: I do make my sietan roasts using a bread machine or electric dough mixer. I like the texture better with the long knead and rest method... the roasts actually turn out "stringy". Roasts without tofu tend to be a bit chewier, ie "rubbery" my family says, compared to the wonderful textured roast with firm tofu added.

I strongly recommend giving one of Bryanna Clark Grogan's roasts a try, she has many many many variations and often comes out with some new flavor/ serving variation in each newsletter. I am in agreement when I see others calling her the QUEEN OF SEITAN.