chained to the stove

I was chained to the stove all weekend.

Right where a woman should be.

Or at least, right where a crazy person should be.

This was a long, albeit, productive weekend.

Working like squirrels gathering nuts for the winter - Nic and I worked on freezing some of summer's tastiest foods so we can enjoy them all winter.

Friday Night
Instead of going on a date, hanging out with friends, or being true small town residents and going to the homecoming game - we stayed in and processed beets. Pounds and pounds of beets.

I bet this is how Nic always imagined us spending our Friday nights when we were young and in love.

Saturday
Iowa City farmers market in the morning to pick up 39 red bell peppers for $13, cheese, bread, onions, garlic, and coffee. All to be processed over the next 36 hours.

We processed and froze:

• Butternut squash soup
• Celeriac soup
• Heirloom tomato soup
• Green beans
• More beets

Somewhere between 6:30AM and 10:00PM, I was able to take a break and have a quick fika with Nic, squeeze in a run, and grab dinner and a few beers at JP's 207.

Oh, we also managed to head downtown to check out the craft fair and to drop off my first batch of cookies and macaroons at Dodici Shop!

Sunday

Nic went to work for an hour while I roasted those red bell peppers (all before 9:00AM), we had a nice hearty breakfast of scrambled tofu, breakfast potatoes and some apple cider donuts that I made before 9:00 as well.

All in all, we processed and froze:

• Red pepper soup
• Red pepper/tomato/basil soup

I also made four experimental loaves of bread that we'll be taste testing in the morning:

• 50% whole wheat/50% spelt 
• Swedish fika bread (cardamom, espresso and chocolate chips)
• Butternut sage bread
• Apple pie bread

They all smell amazing.

Lastly, I prepared and photographed a salad that I will be entering into the Taste of Iowa Holiday Recipe Contest. This is one of three recipes I plan on entering.

I am so thankful the night is over. I was going a little crazy being chained to the stove for nearly 48 hours.



A 16 mile bike ride down the Kewash Trail was the perfect way to decompress after a long weekend on me feet.

mystery date

Monday night, Nic took me out on a mystery date. He revealed little information (I could wear whatever I wanted and should bring a notebook), and told me to be ready to walk out the door at 5:20.



I was dressed in my favorite Lole dress, sporting a new favorite necklace that I picked up at Spirals, a fair trade, eco store that we stumbled upon in Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire, and ready for my surprise when he walked in the door.

The destination:: Iowa City
The surprise:: "Theories of Vegan Cuisine" - a continuing education class offered by Kirkwood Community College.

My husband knows the quickest way to my heart, don't you think?

The instructor for the class was David Burt, owner and co-founder of The Red Avocado, a delicious vegan restaurant that we have dined at a few times in Iowa City. (We've also taken a vegetarian sushi class taught by David at New Pioneer Coop).

There were five of us in the class which made for great conversation and discussion and David was able to share the information we were looking for. Nothing was too earth shattering for Nic and I, but we did come away with a few good reminders and tips.

Take-A-Ways::

• Eating lower on the food chain allows your body to work less (use less energy) to digest and absorb nutrients, as well as reduces your ecological impact. Here is a great article highlighting the impact on the Earth if Americans gave up meat for 1-7 days.
• the less energy we use, the longer we live
  
• Eating a plant based diet does amazing things for your health. (Have you read The China Study or watched Fork Over Knives?) There was a lady in class whom reversed all of her poor medical conditions within a year of becoming vegan. After just a week she no longer needed to take her diabetes medication.
  
• The importance of seasonal eating - nature provides what we need, when we need it.
  
• The importance of eating organically (when able) - keeping in mind "the dirty dozen" and "clean 15"
• The Dirty Dozen:
• Peach, Apple, Bell Pepper, Celery, Nectarine, Strawberry, Cherry, Kale, Lettuce, Grapes (imported), Carrot, Pea
• The Clean 15:
• Onion, Avocado, Sweet Corn, Pineapple, Mango, Asparagus, Sweet Peas, Kiwi, Cabbage, Eggplant, Papaya, Watermelon, Broccoli, Tomato, Sweet Potato
  
• For the last time, YES! I eat enough protein! There have been studies that have shown that we eat too much protein anyway (over eating protein is cause of calcium loss). Protein can be found in all vegetables, all grains, beans and sea vegetables. It is much more bio-available than animal protein.
• The following are complete proteins (containing all of the amino acids that we can't make):
• Amaranth, Quinoa, Soy Beans, Black Beans, Hemp Seeds, Buckwheat, Nutritional Yeast, Spirulina
• Grains and nuts often are deficient in one ore two of the amino acids, yet nature has provided a solution - combining certain foods allow you to eat complete protein. All cultures have some example of this:
• Hummus and pita
• Black beans and corn tortilla
• Azuki beans and rice
• Beans on toast (Hey! I ate this in England a few times!)
  
• Micro-nutrients are important and sea vegetables are a great source, especially for iodine, which can be low in a vegan diet.
• Kelp, kombu, spirulina, arame, wakame, and nore are examples of where to get micro-nutrients
• 1/4 teaspoon of kelp powder each day
• soaking beans with kombu is a great way to get micro-nutrients, also aid in digestion
  
• Layering flavors/flavor enhancement
• The following are great ways to add/enhance flavors of vegan foods
• lemon, lime, vinegars, shoyu, tamari, miso, salts, sugars, olive oil, sunflower oil, safflower oil, sesame seed, fresh herbs, spices
• Useful flavor combinations
• Tamari + olive oil
• Tarka of whole cumin seeds quickly sauteed in a hot neutral oil (1T oil to 103T seeds)
• 3:1 combo of ground fresh coriander to ground fresh cumin (especially good with beans)
  
• Resources/Authors to check out
• Paul's Grains - Organic Iowa grain producer
• Gold Mine Natural Foods
• Madhur Jaffery - cookbook author
• John Robbins
• Joel Fuhrman
• Dr. Michael Greggor - bringing nutrition related research in the form of easy to understand, short, videos
• Vegetarian Summer Fest - (vacation 2012??!)
• Physicians Committee For Responsible Medicine

David has a vegan cooking series at Kirkwood in the coming months that I would love to attend. As much as I already know about cooking, I can always learn something new!

The Red Avocado is having a five-course beer dinner on December 21st! You can bet your bottom dollar that Nic and I will be there!

Best surprise date ever! Thanks Nic!

ultra creamy hummus

There are thousands of recipes out there for hummus. I realize this, and the recipe below is nothing earth shattering.

And the method might not be new to you, but it's the method below that produces an ultra creamy, silky hummus.

What's the secret?

Let me tell you what its not first - you don't have to spend hours peeling the skin off of all the chickpeas.  That is just crazy. Believe me, I've been there before and am not going back.

Are you ready for it? You might want to have a seat, as this is earth shattering.

Leave your beloved food processor in the pantry and pull our your raggedy blender that you've had since college and cost a mere $15.

Believe me, it was hard passing up my food processor, but wanted to give thee old blender a try when whipping up a staple food item in the PS house.

Ultra Creamy Hummus




In the mix::

• 1.5 cups cooked chickpeas, drained and rinsed (reserve liquid)
• 1-2 cloves of garlic (I used one, but love garlic, so would use two next time)
• 2 teaspoons lemon juice
• 2 teaspoons tahini
• 1 T olive oil
• Salt to taste (about 1/2 - 1 teaspoon)
• 7-9 tablespoons of chickpea water (or just water)
• Kalamata olives, optional

Process::

Put chickpeas, garlic, lemon juice, tahini, olive oil and 5 tablespoons of the chickpea water into the blender. Blend on low until everything comes together. Be patient, you will have to scrape down the sides often. Begin adding more water, 1 tablespoon at at time, until you have a silky smooth hummus. Season with salt and blend to combine.

To serve, top the hummus with a drizzle of olive oil and a few chopped kalamata olives. Pita bread and veggies are good choices to serve with this silky hummus. My favorite though, is a spoon.



Can you imagine how silky smooth this would be if I owned a $500+ VitaMix? That might just be the death of me.

Like I said, this is not a crazy new recipe for hummus, but if you want homemade hummus that even comes close to the delicious dip that you get at your favorite Mediterranean restaurant, ditch the food processor and give your blender a try.

"just clean"

Take note all you single people out there!  Here is the key to a happy marriage (well, at least if your are Nic and Kier, who live in Iowa...)

She cooks.
He cleans.

No matter how many times we fight about Nic not helping me prepare meals, and
No matter how many times I feel like I do everything for him except bring the fork to his mouth, and
No matter how many times I beg him to do the cooking at least two times per week, and
No matter how many times he actually tries to do the cooking at least two times per week...
What works for us is me cooking, and Nic cleaning up right along side me.

A typical conversation in our house goes a little like this:
Kier (cooking and getting frustrated because Nic is not): Nic, will you pleeaase help me? I am not your mother.
Nic (probably doing something productive, but I can't see..so it doesn't count): Sure. What do you want me to help with.
Kier: Ummmerhmmmm, just clean.

OR

Kier: Nic, don't you think it would be fun to cook dinner together? Like actually try, and I will try to actually let you do something without me watching every move you make?
Nic: Sure!
Kier (after starting to prepare said meal and watching every move he makes): Nic, you are not stirring right. Don't you know how to stir things?
Nic: I am stirring, how many ways are there to stir things?
Kier: Give it to me. Just do the dishes.

(the above conversation can also be applied when I ask Nic to sweep - I literally have to leave the room because I can't stand to watch is poor sweeping technique! :) But this post is about cooking, so forget I even said anything!)

"best ever" spinach artichoke dip

Before I work on a post with about 42,824,234 photos from our weekend in Minnesota (updated below!), I thought I'd share the recipe for the "best ever" (thanks Aaron!) spinach artichoke dip that I brought to Crystal's. I cannot verify that this is the best ever, as I only got one bite of it before it was pretty much gone - but I've had a version of this before... The recipe is pretty much a good guess of what I actually prepared - as anyone who knows me, knows I NEVER follow a recipe to the T.

Adapted from this recipe on Allrecipes.com

1 package cream cheese
1 16 ounce container sour cream
1 package Italian Style Five cheese blend, or something similar - asiago would be great.

A little less than 1 package grated Parmesan cheese

2 handfuls of shredded mozzarella cheese

1 red pepper - diced

2 cloves garlic - minced

2 jalapeno peppers - seeded and diced

about 1 package fresh baby spinach - chopped

1 can artichokes - rinsed and chopped

1 teaspoon basil

1/2 teaspoon oregano

Salt and pepper

Mix sour cream and cream cheese until smooth. Add everything else and bake at 350 until the top starts to brown.

prep work

I am a huge fan (a recent fan) of doing as much prep work as possible when cooking or baking. So what do you do when you are planning a weekend in Minnesota and will only be in the state for 40 hours? {A mere 40 hours which includes at least 8 hours of sleep (I HOPE) for the entire weekend - so 32 hours to see our families, as many friends as possible, and a 10-13 mile run. Balance that with enough down time so that Nic and I don't get fed up with each other by mid Saturday...}

What do you do when you looove baking in your Mom's fantabulous kitchen and just HAVE to bring tasty treats to all of your friends that you haven't seen in way too long and you just have to cook your famous chicken gyros with tzatziki sauce for your family?

Answer: you thank the almighty power above that your boss had to reschedule your quarterly review for Friday morning, and stay up way too late on Thursday night making a huge mess in the kitchen (secretly praying that your husband will clean it up over lunch tomorrow), mixing as many ingredients as possible in order to save, what - maybe 30 minutes?? 30 minutes that could be better spent sipping a glass of wine with Mom, Roger and Maddie around the dinner table, playing with Jackson for just a bit longer, getting a few more photo tips from Barb, or sitting around the camp fire drinking just one more beer with awesome friends.

A late night of prep work - worth it?? I think so.

It is bound to be an insane weekend, but I am so looking forward to it.

Oh wait, what was that? You want to know what I plan on making? OKAY... 1) root beer float cake, 2)shortbread cookies dunked in chocolate, topped with toasted coconut and caramel, 3)spinach artichoke dip and 4) chicken gyros. Oh sure, so NOW you want to hang out with us...

The Oven Mitts are Coming Off...

That's right people. I am taking off the chef hat today and handing it over to my trusty side-kick. Nic will be doing all the cooking today and I will try to keep my mouth shut and my hands off. This wasn't my idea either! Before I got my lazy butt out of bed this morning (at 7:30 no less) Nic had already made some bread (from scratch) and was cooking up a breakfast of eggs, potatoes and coffee. Now these potatoes...I just assumed they were some left overs he' found in the freezer, but no! It was Nic who cut them into perfect little bits! Delish!

Not sure what he has in store for the rest of the day, but I am sure it will be tasty!

(The only downside to this - if Nic cooks, that means I have to clean. And we all know how much I hate cleaning!)