1 Year Later...

And not a scrap of meat.  I made it the entire year without consuming any meat.

How do I feel?  Pretty good.  I set out to see if I had the discipline to do so, I think I nailed that.  I also learned a lot about vegetarian cooking, discovered new foods and new ways to cook them.  Overall, it was a good experience.

But now the time has come...

I have decided to start eating meat again, with the following caveats:  Lean, local, & sustainable, with the occasional bacony or wing indulgence. I will continue to eat veg at home, and most likely about 90% of the time I'll eat veg outside the house since there are only a few places locally that offer meat like that.

And I'm leaving it up to you, the three of you that actually read this blog, to decide where my first meaty meal will be after 1 year of no meat.  Over there on the right è you'll see a poll.  Make my choice, poll closes 11:59PM on Friday

Thanks for sticking with me!

Jamaican Me Crazy

Ok... confession time.

For as much as I make fun of my mom's Shepherd's Pie, I actually like it.  A lot.  So much that I've made a couple different vegetarian versions of hers.  They were good, but not like hers, they were all missing that secret ingredient only moms can add (Hint:  it's love)

So... the other day I was brainstorming a new version.  Coincidentally, it was cold and snowy, and I was thinking of a line from Jimmy Buffett's Boat Drinks:  "Lately, newspaper mentions cheap air fare, I gotta to fly to Saint Somewhere" and it hit me...

Jerk Shepherd's Pie!

A quick survey of what I had on hand revealed I had all necessary ingredients, so cooking commeneced.  It turned out better than I expected - sweet, spicy, and very filling.  Carol loved it, and she's finicky as anything  It only lacked one thing, mom's special ingredient.

Here's how I made it - feel free to improvise with what you have on hand.

Jerk Shepherd's Pie

1 12 oz bag Morningstar Farms Grillers Crumbles
1 small onion, chopped
1 16 oz bag frozen mixed veggies
8 oz fresh mushrooms, sliced
1/2 cup Caribbean jerk sauce (I used World Harbors)
4 cups mashed sweet potatoes
1/2 cup low-fat shredded cheddar cheese.
1 tbs Olive oil
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 375.  Heat oil in a large skillet, then add crumbles and onions and saute until onions soften and brown slightly.  Stir in the jerk sauce, mushrooms, veggies, salt & pepper and cook about 5 minutes more.  Spoon the mixture into a 9x5 baking dish and sprinkle with the cheese.  Spread the mashed sweet potatoes over this (Note:  This works best if they are warm.  Cold mashed potatoes don't spread very well) and pop in the oven for about 10 minutes or until it's heated all the way through.

That's it, makes about 6 servings.  Douse it with some Pick-a-Peppa or other hot sauce of your choice and dig in. You'll be glad you did.

A Bowl of Awesome

What do you do with leftovers on a snowy winter day.

Soup... soup is always good.

And how do you take this bowl of awesome and make it even more awesome?

Awww yeah.

I call this "Leftover Veggie, Pasta, and Bean Soup" and pronounce it "Awesome."  Feel free to improvise with any leftovers you have.

Leftover Veggie, Pasta, and Bean Soup

1 Tbsp olive oil
1 small shallot, finely chopped  
1 garlic clove, minced
1 medium yellow onion, chopped
2 medium carrots, sliced (I used a crinkle cutter to be fancy)
1 medium red bell pepper, seeded and chopped
1 large yam 
1 cup cut green beans
2 cups Pacific Natural Foods Organic Broth Organic Mushroom Broth  
4 cups Pacific Natural Foods Organic Broth Organic Vegetable Broth  
1 tsp freshly-ground black pepper, Or to taste  
1 tsp kosher salt, or to taste  
1 tsp dried thyme  
15 oz can Bush's Great Northern Beans, undrained  
4 oz Barilla Whole Grain Penne, cooked 

 Heat oil in heavy bottomed pot over medium heat. Add shallot, onion, carrots, and garlic; stir and cook one minute.  Add the yam, bell pepper, green beans, seasonings and broths; increase heat to med-high and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer until yam is tender, about 30 minutes. Add cooked pasta and undrained beans (you can drain the beans if you want, but this really makes it nice and thick) and heat through. Just before serving, stir in the parsely and correct the seasoning.

We had it with some crusty bread, it was most delicious

Scenes from Findlay Market

After walking the Queen City Underground Tour, I was going to head to Soho Sushi, but I decided to put that off until Carol could join me.  Instead, I headed to the Findlay Market nearby.

Findlay Market has been around since1852 and is the longest running public market in Ohio. Local farmers come and sell their produce, crafters sell their goods, and all kinds of other trinkets and goodies abound

Fresh produce of all varieties make this a vegetarian's heaven.

 

Or other offerings appeal to the carnivores

Trotters?  No thanks.

You can grab a quite bite at several places there, like the World Food Bar

Taste of Belgium (Get a waffle, you must.)

Dojo Gelato - Dogfish Pumpkin Ale Gelato, you can thank me later

Or something a little sweeter

When I lived in University Heights, I used to shop at Findlay Market all the time, I could take the bus right down the hill and get all my groceries for the week.  Carol and I are going to start shopping there more, we're planning weekly menus that will concentrate on fresh ingredients and minimal waste. What better place than Findlay Market?

Simple Pasta Sauce

Ok, first off this isn't going to be one of those fancy cooking blogs where more time is spend composing and setting up pictures than is actually spent making the food. Unless someone wants to gift me with a Canon EOS 7D.  Then we'll talk f-stops and apertures.  Or go see my friend Leigh for a gifted camera-slinger. 

This is a simple pasta sauce, suitable for vegetarians, vegans, or anyone who likes pasta.  Seriously, as long as you have some basic knife skills and can work a can opener, you're good to go.

First step - gather the ingredients.  You will need:

1 - 28oz can whole tomatoes.  I like Muir Glen Fire Roasted
1 - 6 oz can tomato paste.  Again Muir Glen
3 cloves of chopped garlic - more or less to taste.  I used two since Carol doesn't like a whole lot of garlicky goodness
1 small onion, chopped
1 tbs. chopped fresh oregano or 1 tsp dried.
3 tbs. chopped fresh basil
Olive oil
Sugar (vegan sugar is available or use Stevia)
Salt

Got all that?  Good.  Now, heat a tablespoon of olive oil in a good-sized saucepan over medium heat and add the onion, garlic and salt to taste.  Saute until the onions are getting a little soft, but be careful to not burn the garlic or else you'll have to start over, because that will taste nasty.  Trust me.

Open the can of tomatoes and start grabbing them out.  You can use your (hopefully recently washed) hands since you're going to crush those suckers into the saucepan anyway.  Or you can be a wimp and fish them out with tongs.  Either way, hold it in your hand over the saucepan and squeeeeeeeeeze them all into the pan.   The idea is to make little pieces from big chunks.  Do this with all of them, then dump the juice from the can into the pan, Stan.

Starting to look like a sauce now, right?  A bit runny, but it's getting there.  Now, add in the oregano, maybe 2 tsp of sugar to knock back the acid a bit, and the tomato paste.  Stir that up good until the paste is all incorporated and the sauce is nice and thick.  Make sure it's all heated through and toss in the basil. 

You're done.  This stuff will taste better than anything you can get out of a jar, and you can tweak it how you want.  Throw in some roasted red peppers, more garlic, olives, mushrooms, whatever strikes your taste buds.  I tossed in a 1/2 bag of Morningstar Farms Grillers Crumbles that we had in the freezer and served it over whole-wheat penne.

Yum.

Corn Cob Cutter

I have had one of these in my kitchen for quite a while now. I thought it was a pretty cool tool, it would just zip the kernels right off the cob. Easy, right?

Wrong...

For a couple reasons. First, I like corn on the cob just the way it is, no need to remove it from the cob prior to eating. And B, on the occasions I have tried to use it, the corn is too big. Today for example - I stopped at a roadside stand (Ok, it wasn't really on the side of the road, it was in the parking lot of Westen Bowl) and bought some fresh corn, tomatoes, and a yellow zuchinni for a dinner idea. After shucking and steaming the corn, the cob cutter just wasn't up to the task. My trusty santoku was more than adequate though.

It not only made short work of decompiling the kernels (nerd alert), it also chopped three tomatoes and chiffoned some fresh basil. These all got tossed into a bowl with about 3 Tbs of olive oil, 1/4 cup of fresh lime juice, some zest from the lime, and a 15oz can of drained and rinsed chickpeas.

While that tasty mixture was being assembled, a box of whole-wheat spaghetti was busy boiling in anticipation of the tasty sauce.

An interjection: Carol is not used to pasta not being smothered in a red sauce. She looked at what I was making, and asked if I was going to add anything else to it while pointing at the can of tomato paste in the open cabinet. I said nope, this is the sauce right here. She looked a little leery, but she trusts my kitchen skills :)

When the pasta was done, I tossed in the de-cobbed corn to heat it just a little more, then drained it all. Back into the pot it went along with the sauce. A couple good stirs and it was good to go.

Yeah, it was good. Pretty dang good. Carol had seconds...

And to cap it off, fresh, seeded watermelon. Not that unseeded, tasteless crap. Real watermelom has seeds.

Cheap cheeps

OK, so if you're still drooling over the hummus in the last post, be aware that I just made two more batches. Yes, you can have some, come on over. But what to have with it? I mean, I would never, ever just eat hummus by the spoonful. Never.

Quit looking at me like that.

The healthy answers are veggies like baby carrots, celery sticks, and red pepper strips. The answer you probably came up with was chips, be they potato or tortilla. You could grab a bag of those ridiculously expensive pita chips, but... I have a better idea.

Make your own pita chips. They are almost too easy to make, unless you're the type who has to make their own pita bread, then use that to make chips. Me, I just went and bought pita bread. I'm not that ambitious yet.

Here's how I made them. Promise me you won't kick yourself when you realize how easy they are and how much you've been overpaying.

You will need:

1 8-count bag pita bread
Olive oil spray or mister (Dan got us a nifty one for a wedding gift)
Seasoning of your choice, I used Lawry's Seasoned Salt but feel free to experiment.

Preheat your oven to 350 and line a cookie sheet with parchment paper Cut the pita's into wedges - 4, 6, 8 depending on how big you like them. You can seperate the two layers of the pita or leave it intact if you prefer a thicker, crunchier chip. Spray them lightly with the olive oil, and dust with the seasoning. Place in the oven and bake for 12-15 minutes. Check at 12 minutes since these will crisp up very quickly, especially if you've seperated the layers. Remove from the oven, and cool on wire racks. I just lift the piece of parchment off the sheet and move it to a rack. And once they're cooled I store mine in gallon-size freezer bags.

See how easy that was? So what are you waiting for - go make some! Have fun, get crazy with them.