Like most college students, I'm seeing summer. After one year in a duplex I shared with my friend, I am moving back home to save some money and finish school. I have a four-year scholarship and to finish in four years, I have to take close to 18 credits a semester. I am very thankful that my parents were willing to let crash here for a few more years. It certainly isn't the same as when I was a kid, however, but when is it ever. Since moving away I have started to de-clutter and become more domestic. I enjoyed having my own kitchen and being able to carry on my own little food experiments and mix my own loose leaf tea blends, etc. Even though I won't exactly have prime real estate in my parents' kitchen, hopefully II will be able to start my sprouts soon. I am going to try and sprout garbonzo beans and lentils. I saw a recipe for sprouted veggie burgers and I made a prototype with just plain red lentils and sweet potatoes, red bell pepper and yellow summer squash. They were Indian-spiced and tasted delicious with a little bit of couscous and wilted spinach. The sprouted version will be higher in protein, calcium and much easier to digest. Sprouts are "live food." They are very dense in nutrients because essentially sprouts of plants contain all that is necessary for the life of the plant. I love Trader Joe's sprouted 7-grain bread, for instance, because it is low in fat and actually has more protein than digestible carbohydrates (total carbohydrates - dietary fiber = digestible carbohydrates) per slice. Sprouts were even included in the rations of WWII soldiers for their protein content. Stay tuned for my sprouting pictures & progress.
Even though I love to unwind and relax, most of the time I'm not fully happy unless I'm very busy and multi-tasking. To keep myself industrious I try and give myself projects to test myself while school is out. In August I will be showing some of my art at Cadaverous Muse studio on the East side. My coworker and friend Dru Cadaver has a studio that Jerod Kenitz shares with him and every first friday they feature a new artist. I am going to focus on "Little Bites." I will be putting together small prints and mini-samples of my work, some in series and pairing them with little appetizers to feature my food. Last summer, I had another great challenge. I catered a 200 person wedding for my friend Steffanie with my coworker Rachael. Our coworker Matt Wilson also helped stuff mushrooms and worked oven duty as we tried to make sure all the food was hot and we were keeping up with demands. We spent 3 days and nights preparing a full vegan Middle Eastern-Indian fusion menu for a group of family and friends. The food went over great. Many people have wanted to know a bit about what we served and I will post full recipes for anything if you want. Just comment and I will make a special post with pictures.
For starters we had:
- We took TJ's Ruby Red Chai, Blackberry Fruit Infusion, Green Tea and brewed a big batch of sun tea and put a few packages of dried hibiscus flowers into the tea to "bloom" as the tea brewed. Hibiscus flowers are sweet and completely edible. The result was a beautiful beverage for the kids and those not wanting to partake in the alcohol.
- We made our own fruit and nut mix with TJs Sesame Sticks, raw cashews, dried black mission figs, dried chili spiced mango, golden raisins, and dried apricots. (Phew, cutting that much dried fruit into small pieces takes a good shoulder.)
- We had a stone fruit and berry fruit salad (plouts, nectarines, peaches, blueberries, strawberries, etc)
For the hot spread:
- There were vegetable chips with locally grown zucchini and squash and carrots. We just thinly sliced these vegetables into thin rounds and then drizzled them with extra virgin olive oil, salt and pepper and Balti spice blend. We went ahead and got a pre-mixed blend, but it is pretty easy to get the bulk spices and mix your own. We baked them in a 400 degree oven for about 15 minutes.
- We also made stuffed mushrooms. Most of the time stuffed mushrooms at weddings have tons of cheese and other vegan no-nos. I decided to try some new things and think outside the box. I took crimini mushrooms and popped the tops off them. Trader Joe's makes a delicious Eggplant spread with tomatoes and garlic. I mixed this spread with couscous, which made a nice mixture to stuff the mushrooms. When carefully placed on a cookie sheet they bake well and are tasty finger food.
- Our first entree was in honor of the first meal that I ever made for Steffanie and her husband, Mike. I had just bought a bunch of sweet potatoes and Steffanie was getting her wisdom teeth pulled. I combined red lentils, onions, yellow squash, celery, carrots and sweet potatoes and made a stew with Garam Masala. This stew was served over couscous with toasted almonds.
- The second entree was inspired by my fellow TJ's artist, Sherri. She was married to a Persian man for many years and perfected many traditional dishes (She is one of the most amazing cooks I've ever eaten food from, and so humble about her obvious talent). She suggested a goulash with eggplant, tomatoes and yellow split peas. We used the same Balti spice blend that was on the vegetable chips. This was just a lot of carmelized onions, tomatoes and garlic with roasted eggplant and yellow split peas (soaking suggested). This was served over basmati rice. We used white pepper in this dish to create a bit more heat than black pepper. I find white pepper to be nicer in flavor and I use less of it because it is hotter. It has a lingering spice, which also helps curb hunger.
For the cake, I used a TJ's Vanilla box cake mix to make a berry/mango cake. I made a fruit spread with frozen mango and berries pureed and cooked with some arrowroot to thicken the mixture. I used almond milk and Earth balance instead of milk and butter in the cake mix. I used the fruit puree in place of the eggs. The cake was very moist, but good. For icing we mixed confectioners sugar, earth balance and a couple tablespoons of almond milk and a touch of vanilla. I stuffed gerber daisies all over the three layer cake for a happy look.
All in all, it was a LOT of work, but I learned a lot and it was great experience for any future endeavors.
subscribed and excited to read future posts :-)
ReplyDeletekeep it up!
Thanks so much. I am going to shoot for 1-2 blogs a week and hopefully 1 recipe a week. Any suggestions or requests welcome. I am going to make a better effort to have pictures of my recipes. Have a good summer and enjoy.
ReplyDelete