Things To Stuff In A Tortilla (and some other random things)

Check out the new blog layout! I was doing some other "administrative" tasks and decided I wanted to make a little change. I hope it is still easy to read and navigate - comments are welcome.

I also re-did the recipe index. It was quite hard to navigate and required lots of scrolling. Some funky things also happened with the HTML and it would have been a pain in the ass to try to fix manually, so I just started fresh and created a new index. I hope this one is easier to manage.

And finally, I also updated the J's Recommended Reads post, it was out-of-date and also needed a bit of editing.

Needless to say, lots of work has been going on behind the scenes here at Veg*n Cooking.

It has been quite a week or so too with the arrival of Butters. Things are slowly moving along, but the "peace" between the cats is tentative. And Butters is a kitten - all he wants to do is play and whenever the other cats come to try to sniff him, he bats at them and changes the whole mood entirely. He is kind of a punk though - he has a tendency to bite, which we are hoping we can discourage him from doing (it hurts, the little shit!) and he bothers the other kitties when they try to go to the bathroom and that is frustrating too. But he's also really sweet. He likes t have his belly and chin rubbed, he lets you hold him and get in his face, and he is really soft.

Admittedly, he has been far more interested in Gabby and Nermal than Brett or I and I am just having to deal with that at the moment and try not to smother him in love like I want to. :-)

When Butters was found, he was starving in a dumpster - on his vet forms they called him "Orange Dumpster Kitty" at first. When I read that on the papers the first day we had him, it made me tear up a little bit - it is pretty sad, BUT he was lucky. In the little over a week he has been here, he has put on weight, his coat looks shiner and thicker, his coloring is brighter, and he is active and playing. Hopefully things stay on the up and up and the little guy is okay. He was found during an unreasonably cold time here in Missouri - it is hard to believe her survived. But he made friends at the vets office, they sent him with food, bowls, a bed, toys, medicine, all sorts of stuff. It is amazing what a cute kitten can do to a person. :-) He is gaining weight incredibly quickly. I had taken to calling him "Butter Bean", but I might have to start calling him "Butter Ball". :-)

Check out some recent pictures.


I love the tongue!


Brett did buy this giant stuffed elephant (we call him Packie) for me, but both Nermal and Butters have claimed him and I don't have the heart to take him from them. I mean, see?


So cute when he isn't biting you...


Gabby doesn't realize that Butters is sleeping with her. :-)



Though this picture is blurry, it is my favorite we have of Gabby - it captures her essence - curious and super sweet.

Alright, enough with the kitties and onto the food!

What follows are three simple meals - 30 minutes or less, that are tasty when stuffed into a tortilla or taco shell. We really like our tortillas and taco shells...


Option #1
2 tbsp safflower oil
2 red potatoes, scrubbed and cubed
1/2 onion, chopped
1-2 red New Mexican chiles, chopped
1/4 cup sweet corn
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup black beans
salt

Heat oil in a large skilled and add the potatoes and cover, stirring often, for about ten minutes or until they begin to soften a little bit.

Add the onion, chiles, and corn. Cook for an additional ten minutes.

Add the garlic and beans and cook for an additional five to ten minutes.

Stuff ingredients in a warmed tortilla and serve with super hot salsa!

If you eat cheese, Manchego is a good addition to this option.


Option #2
2 tbsp safflower oil
1 large sweet potato, peeled and cubed
1/4 cup sweet corn
1/2 cup black beans
chipotle chile powder
New Mexican oregano
cumin
salt

Heat oil in a large skillet. Add the sweet potato and cook for about ten to fifteen minutes until the begin to caramelize and soften.

Add the corn and black beans and season to taste. Cook until heated through.

Again, you just need to stuff your ingredients into a warmed tortilla and serve.

If you eat cheese, Cotija is a good pairing with this option.


Option #3 (Vegetarian)
2 tbsp safflower oil
2 small red potatoes, scrubbed and cubed
5-6 baby portobello mushrooms, sliced
1/4 yellow onion, chopped
1 clove of garlic, minced
salt
2 eggs, scrambled

Heat oil in a large skillet. Add the potatoes, mushrooms, and onions and cook for about fifteen minutes or until potatoes begin to brown and soften. Stir often.

Add the garlic and season with salt to taste. Cook for an additional five to ten minutes or until the potatoes are soft.

Layer potato mixture in a warmed tortilla and top with some scrambled egg. Enjoy!

If you eat cheese/dairy - shredded Mexican cheese blend and/or sour cream are a nice addition to this option.

And now for something completely different...


Doesn't that just look so darn appetizing? Well, it might not look good, but it sure tastes good.

J's Pink Egg Salad
1 egg, hardboiled and chopped
2 tbsp yellow onion, chopped
1/2 small carrot, peeled and microplaned (hence the pink color)
2 tbsp hot pepper relish (instead of the cucumber kind, I like spicy, that's just how I roll)
2-3 tbsp mayo or Veganaise
1 tbsp spicy brown mustard
a few dashes of cayenne

Combine all ingredients in a small bowl and adjust ingredients to your liking.

I serve this on toasted Jewish rye bread with lots of baby spinach.

And finally, here are a couple of other things I've made as of late...


Banana cake! I had some bananas on the counter I've been using for smoothies get a little too ripe on me, so what to do? Make banana bread! Brett and I prefer it to be more "cakelike" than "breadlike", so I just used my Banana Bread recipe but put it in an 8x8 pan and cooked it for an hour instead of an hour and fifteen minutes or more.

I also used all whole wheat pastry flour instead of just part.


When Brett was at the store the other day, they were out of his beloved cookies. I have been in a bit of a baking mood so I decided I would make him some. I just used my Super Yummy Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe and subbed in a mixture of M&M's and Reese's Pieces for the chocolate chips. He hasn't missed his store bought cookies after all...

AND - I was able to get at least something semi-wholesome into his cookies but using whole wheat pastry flour. :-)

'Til next time.

Peanut Butter Kitty (a.k.a Butters)

I don't feel too much like blogging today - I'm pretty tired. We've been staying up late and have had family visiting each of the last few days and it has caught up with me. But I DID wan to make sure that I got some pictures of our new kitty Butters up for everyone to see. He is quite the sweetie and we've had a blast with him so far.

I hope to be back in a day or so - I have some recipes to post!

Hope you enjoy the pictures.


















If you look closely, you can see a kitty snuggled up in the blanket. Of course, it's Gabby, not Butters, but it is so cute I couldn't help but share. She is such a photogenic kitty.

And now introducing Butters, 5 pounds of orange kitty goodness!

Black Bean Shepherd's Pie and a New Addition to the J&B Household

Yes, um, I actually made this quite some time ago, but seeing as I've been afflicted with that horrible Lazy Syndrome, I'm only getting around to it now. Many, many moons ago, Jessy from the oh so awesome blog, Happy Vegan Face, posted about a Shepherd's Pie recipe she had made.

I'd never had Shepherd's Pie before vegetarian or otherwise, but who doesn't like mashed potatoes, veggies, and beans? Why not put them together? I know! Great idea! So I decided to make up my own recipe based on what I had around and it was pretty darn good. I think I'm going to try using green lentils in place of beans next time I make this.


















Black Bean Shepherd's Pie

The Taters:
4 russet potatoes, scrubbed and cubed (leave the skins on for some excellent fiber!)
2 cloves of garlic, peeled
1/2 cup milk
2-3 tbsp butter or Earth Balance
1/2 cup gouda or non-dairy cheese shreds
salt

Bring a large pot of water to a boil and add the potatoes and garlic. Boil until potatoes are tender and drain.

Combine all the ingredients with a mixer or potato masher, seasoning with salt to taste.

Rest of the Stuff:
2 tbsp safflower oil
6 carrots, peeled and sliced
1/2 onion, chopped
1 cup sweet corn
1 bell pepper, seeded and chopped
5 cloves of garlic, minced
1 small can tomato sauce
2 cups black beans

Preheat oven to 350.

Heat oil in a large skillet. Add the veggies and cook for 10-15 minutes or until soft. Add the tomato sauce and black beans and cook until heated through.

In an 8x8 pan, spread the bean/veggie mixture and top with the potatoes.

Place, uncovered, in the oven and bake for about 30-40 minutes or until top is nice and golden.

Enjoy!

Yum, just posting about it makes me want this again, it was hearty, filling, and super tasty. I just wish I had had some green beans or peas to add to the mix. Or broccoli like Jessy used. Mmmmmm, green veggies...

So, in some exciting but completely off topic news - Brett and I are getting ready to welcome a new addition to our home.

A couple of weeks ago, Brett and I went to St. Louis for the weekend to celebrate (belatedly) the holidays with my parents and brothers. I met my first little nephew - Gabriel - and he seemed as scared of me as I was of him. Perhaps when he is older we will both be more comfortable...

Anyway, while we were up there, my parents took our Cocker Spaniel, Sadie, to the vet to have something checked out. While there, they discovered that a kitty had been found very sick in a trash can and was brought to the vet by a daughter of one of the nurses who found him. He was this tiny little orange puff ball who was scared, thin, malnourished, and in need of love and food. Stacey fell in love but was torn - she might have an infant in the house soon and a little kitty and babies don't usually mix. But the kitty was so sweet and unless someone took him, he would be taken to an animal shelter and likely put down because he was a runt and they couldn't guarantee his long-term health. So she asked Brett and I if we might want to take him.

Now, as a little aside, I would love to take ALL animals in need of a home. But we cannot. We live in an apartment and are limited in both funds and space, so we can only have so many critters and still be able to provide a good home with plenty of love. There is a shelter here in Columbia called Second Chance. They don't have a facility, rather, all the animals are put in "foster homes" where they live until they are either adopted or, well, they've lived out their days. They are no-kill. I think this is one of the most amazing organizations I've heard of and I would love to be able to help foster one days.

Anyway, back on topic. While we can't have all the animals that need a home, the more I got to thinking about it, the more it seemed like we had more than enough room for another kitty. I spoke to Brett about it and he agreed that we could go see the kitty at the vet. He knew (as I did) that as soon as he agreed to go see it, we were going to be adopting the cat, whether it had three legs and one eye, it didn't matter, we were going to give this unwanted kitty a home.

So we went to the vet and the nurse brought out this tiny orange fluff ball. He is so cute! He was very shy but took to me instantly. He let me love on him and didn't cower as he usually did. He was just the sweetest little thing. We decided we would call him Peanut Butter (we will call him Butters for short, like South Park :-)) and that he would definitely be welcome in our home.

Since he was so thin and was having some problems with his kidneys, they kept him at the vet to fatten him up and get his insides working a little better. Oh, and they are also going to fix him. EEEEEEK! Word from the vet is that he is really coming out of his shell and is starting to play a lot. They think he is 10-11 months old. He will be ready to come home on Saturday and my parents will be bringing him down. We can't wait!

Except...we have to introduce a new cat into our home and though I've only had to do it once before, it was not fun and was quite a stressful time. So while we are looking forward to him coming home, we are not looking forward to the introduction process. Yuk.

Anyway, that's about all the news I have for now. I'll get some pictures of Butters this weekend and post them for all to see.

'Til next time.

Weekly Local Booty 5/2/09 - I Love Mid-Missouri!

Today was my first trip to market this year - even though it opened a couple of weeks ago. Last week, Brett and I were sick, the previous week I forgot, and the week before that Brett stopped by and reserved our CSA, so things just worked out to today being my first trip. It was a very successful trip, I must say. It being fairly early in the Mid-Missouri growing season, I didn't expect as much variety as I found, I am really stoked to get in the kitchen

There is something about winter that kills my cooking "mojo", part of it was that we were pretty unprepared to "eat local" over the winter, and I was reluctant to buy a bunch of out of season produce, so our meals got pretty lame. Hopefully we can prepare a little better this year. I know that next weekend, I am stocking up on asparagus and freezing some for winter. Wahoooooooo!

Check out my first haul of the year. This ran somewhere in the neighborhood of $50 (oh, and check out Gabby in the background).















(Sorry about the picture quality, I think there was something on the lense.) Starting from the bottom right: 3 bunches of asparagus, 1 lb. oyster mushrooms, 4 tomatoes (!!!!!), 1 lb. ground flax meal (!!!!!), garlic chives, 2 bunches of spring onions, a dozen eggs, spinach, penne pasta (!!!!!), and Country Goodies Salsa.

I'd say we made out pretty well. I thought I would show some pictures of my favorite finds.















Garlic chives! I have always wanted to work with garlic chives as it would be something we could easily grow in our apartment, it being a little early in the season for "regular" garlic, I decided I would give it a shot. I have many ideas already....















Ground flax meal! I am excited to see things like this ground flax meal and the Missouri Grain Project, it is a wonderful experiment and it allows locavores to source even more of their diet from their local region. We use a lot of flax meal, in our granola bars, in our oatmeal, in our gravy, all sorts of things. AND, this was less expensive than the kind we usually get from the store.















Oh glorious tomatoes, how I love them. I do not even want to venture to guess how many pound of tomatoes Brett and I ate last summer, we both LOVE them, very, very much. Hence why we are planting about 12 tomato plants this year. :-)















Asparagus, one of my favorite things about spring! Local asparagus is so fresh, so tender, I don't know if there is anything quite as good a garlicky roasted asparagus. Oh my, I can't wait!

We have company coming tomorrow, so we figured we would make a nice yummy dinner of Our Take on L's Black Bean Burgers (with local tomatoes of course) and garlicky roasted asparagus. Mmmmm.

And finally, here is photographic evidence of why Gabby's middle name is indeed Trouble.















Something she quite enjoys doing is burrowing in my pajama drawer and then pulling all the pajamas out of the drawer. She was caught red handed here. It is hard to be made at such a cute face though.

Don't forget about the "It Seemed Like A Good Idea At the Time" writing contest. It is "open" through May 31st. And be sure to vote on the goodie to be received by the winner.

Have a great weekend!

'Til next time.

Local Booty and Garden Update - 2/19-2/28/09

It is hard to believe that it is already the last day of February, but here it is, time sure seems to fly as you get older. Anyways, after doing something I rarely forget to do - go to the Root Cellar when we need something - I remembered to stop by yesterday after work and was able to score some good finds. A lot of the produce isn't local, but it is winter in Missouri, what are you going to do?

Since not a whole lot is happening on the garden front, until things pick up, I will be doing joint local booty/garden updates.

Let's start with the local booty. This is our week's haul from the Root Cellar, I don't remember what this ran, this has been a bad memory week for me - meaning, I forget things a lot in general, but this week was particularly bad I suppose. Thank goodness for lists and notes! But anywho...


Starting from the bottom right: eggroll wrappers (not local), red and yellow onions (not local), ginger root (I'm pretty sure this isn't local), avocados (not local), oyster mushrooms (local), red cabbage (not sure), Uprise Bakery's Columbia Sourdough (local), red potatoes (not sure), organic white flour (not local), active dry yeast (not local - these last two items are for a "sponge" for a ciabatta I plan on making), peach butter (local), and Country Goodies hot pepper relish (local).

And now onto the garden update. A few of our seeds have germinated! I was planning on making newspaper pots this weekend and starting more seed since I ran out of pots last weekend, but - big surprise here - I forgot to bring home the newspaper I had been collecting from work. Sigh.

First, I will show you our revolutionary and high-tech seed starting operation.


I know, I know, very complicated and sophisticated right? We use these plastic bins to store our seed starts in. We've had most of these containers for awhile; we were using them as "storage solutions" for things we were never going to use. So, as we have slowly "pawned off" the stored items on people who wanted/needed them, we have gained "hot houses". We like starting our seeds in bins like this for a number of reasons: it saves space - these are stackable, it keeps the cats out of them, it helps the soil maintain moisture longer, and it provides heat and humidity. I use the spray bottle you see to water the plants. I use the "mist setting" and saturate the soil, I don't uproot plants that way and there isn't a whole lot of soil disturbance either. And of course, you see my handy-dandy gardening journal. If it wasn't right there with the starts, I would forget to document their progress. I've learned over the years many ways to compensate for my horrible memory.


Here is a Sheepnose Pimento pepper sprout - it germinated on Wednesday (2/25).


These are Winterbor Kale seedlings, we noticed they had sprouted yesterday (Friday, 2/27).


These are Renegade Spinach seedlings; they also sprouted yesterday (2/27).


These are Bright Lights Chard seedlings; we also noticed they had sprouted yesterday (2/27). I don't know if you can see it or not, but there are a couple more seedlings in one of the slots in the back.

Not much else to report on the garden front - we have been making sure that we keep the soil for the starts moist, and we are still battling the aphids, we want to get rid of them before we take the plants outside, and before we start anymore indoor things in the AeroGarden or otherwise. We do seem to be making good progress with the aphids, but I think this is also going to involve some sort of "starving out period" as well. Our "plant room" may have to be plant free for a little while. We have our seed starts in a different room, we don't want to deal with aphids on them unless they are an issue once they are outside - not that we want to deal with that either, but it would be better than them starting out with them from the beginning.

So, in other errant parts of J&B's strange world, I have "re-discovered" my camera, so to speak. Seeing that it is winter, and thus there isn't much in the way of good nature photo opportunities (not even snow dammit, you can't take pictures of the wind and that is what our winter seems to have been comprised of for the most part), and I don't like taking pictures of random people, or even really people I know for that matter, so what follows are some of the highlights from my novice photography stint this week in my free time.


Meet the other love of Brett's life: Ms. PS3. Isn't she lovely, what with all her cords coming out the back and her spaceship like functionalities?. I hate to admit it, but I am actually a bit scared of the thing, it can connect and communicate information with his PSP. What the hell? Am I the only one who is uncomfortable with that? Where will it end?

Anyway...


This is yet more of the competition I face: Head Coach 2009. You know I willingly purchased this for him as a surprise? No, I joke, he is really nerdy about the football like I am about books so we understand each other, even though our particular focus is different. And what's more, we are both comfortable enough to get lost for hours in our respective forms of entertainment, it is very nice.

And yes, those are "rabbit ears" atop the telly. We don't have cable and honestly don't watch TV unless it is football season (we did watch Obama's speech the other night). I know there is that whole "digital switch" thing on the horizon, but Brett's mom got us the converter box you need for Christmas, though we didn't get to go up there, so it is still in Illinois, but we aren't concerned about it, we won't need it until football season starts again.

Whew, am I long-winded or what?

Here are a few cat pictures because, well, when you don't take pictures of people, and also don't like going places you have to use whatever inspiration you have at your disposal. So I torment the cats by taking their pictures.


Both the cats really like having their heads rubbed. Nermal also likes you to rub behind her ears (she has some ear problems), she is like a dog, she'll even get a leg going from time to time.


Doesn't it look like she is smiling? Maybe I am just anthropomorphizing the cat.


Gabby looking like she would like me to stop taking her picture (which I obliged - I loathe having my picture taken, so I understand).

Well anyways, I am off to make a sponge for a ciabatta, enjoy some reading, some music, you know, all those things that boring (young) curmudgeons like me enjoy.

I'll leave you with my Song of the Day:

"Blues in A Minor" - Modern Jazz Quartet

Have a great weekend!

'Til next time.

Just Some of the Reasons We Love Nermal

Brett and I are very lucky to have two very sweet kitties - different in their own right, but they are both wonderful pets (though admittedly, Gabby seems more like a dog sometimes). Gabby, due to her permanently kitten-like face, ever-presence, and rude determination, tends to have the spotlight most of the time. And really, she tends to take better pictures than Nermal. Nermal generally looks so angry and displeased to have her picture taken, so tonight provided a rare opportunity to show her at her best.

It is moments like these that make all her frustrating quirks cease to be important. She is a very special cat who, in addition to occasionally providing free grooming, also lets you rub her belly, nuzzles your face, and gives you some very sweet (though a little gross due to kitty breath) kisses. This helps make up for her constant meowing, endless rituals, and the particularities and subtle "preferences" (read: non-negotiable demands) one must heed most of the time to pet her just right, if you don't get everything right, well, she determines you aren't worth it and either teases you by going just out of reach (stupid human tricks), or leaves the room, generally with her displeasure being made known on her way out.

The grooming is something Nermal used to do with frequency and great intensity before we got Gabby. This attention was directed towards Brett for the most part - she would try to groom me, but my hair is long and she would end up choking on it. Anyways, many o' days in the early morning she would decide she wanted to groom Brett and would go to town. He would wake up, literally, with a wet head. It was/is both gross and sweet. He was generally awoken once she had tired of his hair and moved on to his skin where she likes to focus on one area with her sandpaper tongue. This is one word - painful. She used to do this to me, and she'd often center on my closed eye, not pleasant at all.

Anyways, tonights experience was a painless grooming and after getting Gabby, she completely discontinued grooming or licking either of us very often. She has gotten back into it over the past month or so and I got the opportunity to get some good pictures tonight.




It's hard to get mad at her sandpaper tongue or smelly kitty breath (or to think about how gross her kitty slobber is for that matter), with how sweet it is.

And I had to share this gem. I haven't been taking pictures much lately and I guess I was excited because I just started snapping pictures as soon as the flash was ready and I caught this moment.


I love it! You can bet this became our computer desktop picture right away.

In other news, we got our first round of seeds started this weekend and signed up for our community garden plots. All I can say is we are going to have a lot of plants. We filled four "hot houses" with small containers of greens, herb, pepper, and tomatillo seeds. I was able to start two pots of each of the tomato and tomatillo varieties, but was getting short on containers by the time I got to the peppers (I am growing far too many varieties, but I love them all), so there are only one pot of each going right now - two of a select variety. We used egg cartons made from natural fibers (not the styrofoam ones) to start the spinach, kale, chard, cumin, cilantro, and two types of basil seeds. We have another in our fridge right now, and once we are done with the eggs, I will use those to start more pepper seeds. I've heard of folks making newspaper pots for their plants, I may be really dumb to ask this, but how is this done, how do you make the pots?

Our wormies are experiencing a bit of trouble - we are having our first worm health crisis. We've noticed that each day, more and more of the worms were making their way to the top of the bin and on top of the newspaper sheets. Each day the worms that appeared looked more and more bloated and just all around not good. We did a little investigating and research and determined that our bin had too much moisture. We added a big batch of shredded paper (courtesy of the office), and left the lid part way off for most of the day today. No more worms are trying to get to the top anymore and it seems to be helping. It is a good lesson to make sure to have plenty of fiber bedding, the ratio to food should be 50/50, which it wasn't. Phew. When lives hang in the balance, even just "lowly" worms, I get concerned, I was a bit worried that we were going to have the "blood of 1,000 worm deaths on our hands", you know, like we a worm genocide or something, but luckily it doesn't look as though that is the case. I don't know how people with kids do it, I can't even keep worms happy and I give myself anxiety over their well being perhaps beyond what is necessary, having children would not be good for my anxiety issues. I can't even imagine, I would have no hair, and I would never eat - hair and appetite loss seem to be very common stress-related side effects for me.

Anyways, I hope everyone had a great weekend and here's to a good week!

I will leave you with today's picks for Song(s) of the Day:

With Words: The Chain - Fleetwood Mac
Without Words: Alone Together - Bill Evans (the one and only)

'Til next time.

Weekly Local Booty 11/30-12/6/08

It's been a pretty chilly week in Mid-Missouri; thankfully we woke up this morning to some warmer weather! We are both feeling loads better - thank you for all the nice comments by the way - there is still a bit of a lingering cough, but other than that, we are close to 100%. I need to tell my mom that her "flu that wasn't contagious anymore" was in fact.

We ended up getting quite a bit of local booty this week from The Root Cellar. I made two trips there so I could stock up on a few things. I am going to take a break from baking this weekend, as I have missed having the time to make some new dishes I have wanted to try. I also have some gardening work I need to take care of. I learned that while our greens are growing a bit leggy and thus probably need some extra support, the cats also have a lot to do with why some of our plants are struggling. I think it is time to start another pot of kitty grass to keep their interest in our plants down. Brett told me that the other day, he had to get Nermal out of the cucumber pot, and get her to stop putting our pepper plants in her mouth and shaking them. Pesky critters!

You will notice that there is no ciabatta from Uprise this week. I went there yesterday morning, and they were running a little behind schedule, I didn't really have time to wait, so I decided to nix the soup and bread night this week. Instead, I am going to try Indian food again. I'm feeling brave, so I am going to make veggie samosas and a garbanzo bean curry (aka chickpeas - am I the only one who calls them garbanzo beans?). Hopefully it doesn't end in disaster, but I feel I cannot judge a cuisine from a couple of bad experiences. I did get a few granola bars while I was at Uprise for work breakfasts, but I left them in my office, so there is no picture.

Anyways, check out our local booty from The Root Cellar this week:

I believe this trip ran about $30.















Starting from the bottom right: 4 lbs. small yellow potatoes, 4 lbs. sweet potatoes, olive oil (not local), dried rosemary (I'm not sure if this is local rosemary or not, I will assume it is not), Zia's pasta sauce (it is good!), and two bags of walnuts (local nuts didn't do so well this year, I am stocking up while I can).

And the second trip, I think this load ran about $40.















Starting from the bottom right: local heirloom tomatoes, 2 jalapenos, 2 Anaheim peppers, oyster mushrooms, 2 red onions, 2 bulbs of garlic (I'm a little OCD with the local garlic), carrots, eggs, frozen peas (not local), 2 green bell peppers, a head of cabbage, salad greens, spinach, chestnuts (!!!!!), and kidney beans (!!!!!).

The stock of local tomatoes at the Cellar seems to be reduced each week. I honestly cannot believe that we've still been able to get local tomatoes this late into the year. We think that someone might have a greenhouse or something. I'll be sad when they aren't available anymore, but am very thankful to still have them when its so chilly outside.

Brett snapped this picture this week and I thought I'd share:















The rare sight of Gabby and Nermal being nice to each other. Only in sleep can they get along sometimes, it goes through phases.

I realized that I forgot to talk about fantasy football and our football picks last week (I know you are all so disappointed). We won our game last week and have now officially clinched our division. Our fantasy football team is going to the playoffs! We have some roster issues though. Since Plaxico Burress shot himself in the leg with an illegal weapon (talk about a role model!), he has is out for the rest of the season. He is one of our best receivers. I've been thinking about picking up Hixon (from the Giants) since it seems he would likely to get more catches with Plax out. We've still got Greg Jennings (Green Bay) who might be our best receiver, we've got Vincent Jackson (Chargers) who hasn't done too bad, and then we have Hank Baskett (Eagles) who, whenever we decide not to start him, gets touchdowns and something like 5 catches, but when we do start him, he doesn't even get looked at. I think we are going to see what is available in the free agency.

Brett is catching up with me on football picks, just like he did last year! My lead is down to one game, and we split on, I believe, 5 games this weekend. It is an exciting year to be a football fan!

Another random aside: am I the only one who really digs classic NFL Films music? Seriously, it's some good stuff!

Anywho, I hope everyone has a great weekend!

'Til next time.

Weekly Local Booty 10/26-11/1/08

We actually got quite a bit of booty from our gardens this week, so our farmers' market trip was a little smaller than usual. With the three days of freezing weather last week, we had to pick all the peppers and tomatoes off our plants. There were a lot of tomatoes. As is the case with Missouri weather, it has proceeded to warm up, and we are experiencing temperatures in the 70s. It's gorgeous, but it is also frustrating since our plants our dead from the freeze.

Check out this week's container and community garden booty:















Petite bell peppers. I washed, destemed, and froze these.















A poblano and a ripe New Mexican chile.















We've got hot banana peppers and lots and lots of tomatoes. The banana peppers have been used in cooking. The tomatoes that were partially ripe were placed in the window in our computer room to finish ripening. The green ones were placed in a paper bag where they will ripen over time. I've been picking through them every few days, taking out any that are soft or show any signs of spoilage, and moving the ripening ones to the top of the bag. As you can see, the tomato plants were making a valiant effort to produce another large round of fruit, it just froze earlier than usual this year. The Roma was covered with tomatoes, we had thought it was pretty well done for, but since it no longer have to compete with the squash, it got a "second wind". I'll be using a few of the green ones to make fried green tomatoes. Yum!

Check out this week's farmers' market booty. This ran us $33.















Starting from the bottom right: new potatoes, a turnip (the purveyor we got the sweet potatoes from threw one in and told us to eat it raw), 2 "Energy" Herbal Oats granola bars, a loaf of our beloved Uprise Bakery ciabatta, 3 leeks, spinach (!!!!!!!!!!), a large jar of dill pickles, and sweet potatoes.

I also got some other awesome "local booty" today. I got a few books from a local alternative store, The Peace Nook. I don't buy books very often as we have a great library in Columbia, and I also have a university library system at my disposal. But occasionally, books come along that pique my interest that aren't available through these resources. These are the books I buy, and The Nook generally has them (or they will order it for you) - 'cause they have a lot of my kind of reading material. I've had a list of a few books I've wanted to pick up, and this is what I chose:















I know you all can see the titles - though the picture is horrible (I had to use the flash) - but let's start at the bottom. World Made By Hand by James Howard Kunstler. Kunstler also wrote The Long Emergency, and I've been a long time fan of his blog, Clusterfuck Nation. This is a novel he wrote about the post-oil world (with a little climate change thrown in I think), I don't read fiction very often, so I'm pretty excited. The next book is Crisis & Opportunity by John Ikerd. I had the privilege of meeting Ikerd at a book reading/signing of one of his other books, A Return to Common Sense. Ikerd is a professor emeritus of agricultural economics at the University of Missouri - where I work. This book is a collection of essays about the opportunity for sustainable agriculture in a peak energy/climate change future. The last book is Voluntary Simplicity by Duane Elgin. This is a fairly "old" book. It was first published in 1981 and revised and reprinted in 1993. The title of the book is pretty self explanatory, and I've never read any of Elgin's other work, so I can't say much beyond that.

I am a huge nerd, I adore books - especially non-fiction - so this was the highlight of my weekend!

I wanted to share a picture of Gabby. She has a "thing" for bags, and was quickly interested in the bag the potatoes from the farmers market came in. Luckily I was snapping farmers market booty pictures so I was able to get a few of her playing in the bag. I love this one - check out at that smug look on her face!















I'm looking forward to a day of football tomorrow, with some cooking and laundry thrown in for good measure. Brett and I do informal "weekly picks" and I am 3 games ahead as of right now. We split on a few more games than usual this week, so we'll see how it pans out. I'm sure none of you really care, but my fantasy football team is 3-3. We are currently second in our "division". A lot of our players were on a bye last week so it was pretty ugly. We appear to have a better chance this week - I hope Plaxico Burress has a better game - we are "playing" an undefeated team. Football makes winter better.

Have a great weekend everyone!

'Til next time.