The Long Absence

noticed by few, cared about by less, but i do hear about it when i call home, so i'm going to attempt to catch up...before the celeriac gets harvested (and way before i figure out what you do with celeriac). New posts below!

Raspberry Curd

Breakfast for dinner! We're trialing new pancake recipes all the time (serious research), but this sauce only needed one taste test. The original recipe was from Tea & Cookies. Besides being too lazy to strain out the seeds, we didn't make any changes. Perfect for when those pancakes just aren't sweet enough.

Chickpea Cilantro Mash

I loved this dish. It got me away from the soup pot, gave me another opportunity to use our cilantro, and got spicier the next day. It also utilized an interesting cooking technique: you stir in uncooked pasta with the rest of the ingredients, and bake with extra water. I was skeptical, but it worked!

Here's the link to the original recipe, from Notes From The Vegan Feast Kitchen.

Biggest. Mushroom. Ever.

I just walked in the house for a quick snack and there it was. The biggest mushroom ever. At least, that I've ever met in person. The mystery of its sheer size combined with the mystery of how it got into our kitchen made for a speculation filled break. Turns out it was a gift from Les, and that puffballs enjoy getting really big to surprise foragers (in my book any fungi that's too large to fit in my sink deserves to be anthropomorphisized)). Shawn wants to slice it up (cooked or uncooked I'm not sure) and freeze it between sheets of parchment paper to make faux veggie burgers.

In my search for other things to do with puffballs (full disclosure: I'm still a little freaked out by fungi, and prefer to only it them fresh/same day), I came across Fergus the Forager, who seems like a crazy guy. His adventures include trying to go a whole month on only wild foods.


I'm a big fan of the head-as-scale-indicator; here's Emma doing the honors.

Prince's Farewell Dins

Prince heads back to Ghana tomorrow, so this was our last chance to serve him our "interesting" food, hopefully with a hint of the more familiar, from Shawn's recipe collection. Prince, we'll miss you!

If you feel guilty about the long cook time, you could steam veggies for freezing over the pot while you wait--just be sure to stir once in a while.

Sukuma wiki, vegetarian style

1 large onion
2-3 bunches of kale, stems removed and chopped finely
1 bunch collards, dittoed (or use extra kale)
1-2 bunches cilantro, chopped finely
2-4 medium tomatoes, chopped
salt, pepper

Saute onion in a small amount of oil. When translucent, add kale and collards with a small amount of water to prevent burning. Chop cilantro and add to kale. Cook for roughly 2 hours on low heat--the greens will release water as they cook, but early on be sure to stir to keep it from sticking/burning. Cook until all the water is evaporated, then add chopped tomatoes. Salt and pepper to taste. Cook for another 45 minutes, or until most of the new tomato liquid has evaporated.

Recipe for the Groundnut Stew here.

Bread & Butter Pickles: Take One

Alright, I'm off the Dr. Seuss kick, but didn't you think that this was a pickle tree? Just for a second? It's where we've been tossing overgrown pickling cucumbers, I like to fancy that they're windfalls. We planted the "National" variety, and they were a wee too prolific for our canning pace. But we tried to catch up with CanningUSA's take on Bread and Butter Pickles. Pretty good.

PPWF September Style

A little behind on skimming out the crock with this batch of sauerkraut. But it's kinda pretty, right? Not as pretty as the colors on these corn leaves...

To support my habit for non-recipe related (barely food related, even) photos, here's some more weird Food Art for y'all. I liked the computer and the watermelon face...

Raspberry Cupcakes

I wasn't going to repeat my berry mistake of earlier this season and try to go savory with raspberries. Nope. Sticking with sweet.

The recipe was based on Jamie from My Baking Addiction's chocolate cupcake with raspberry white chocolate cream cheese frosting. We (er, Emma, mostly) made just a few changes. We added some raspberries to the body of the cupcakes, and we used smashed raspberries instead of raspberry extract to flavor the frosting. I'm guessing about a pint's worth of raspberries, and we didn't bother deseeding (did i ever tell you the story of the crazy guy who came to our booth at the MREA fair and told me that it was a sign of the apocalypse that people were eating seedless grapes and such because in the bible it says that seeded fruits shall be our food? He tied this in nicely with current Monsanto happenings, and it ended up being one of his saner arguments).

Anyway, the first time we made this recipe, I couldn't get over how fluffy the cupcakes were. The second time I liked them less. Just a warning.

Mama Said There'd Be Days Like This...

The gardens look so serene from above. From below?

at least these guys are gone...

Need a hit of Shirelles? I do...