"B" is for Brussel sprouts!



 

"B" is for Brussel sprouts!

 

ok my new favorite way to make them is extra crispy!

I cut the bottoms off and take all the loose leaves I can off and toss in a bowl, and then I slice some more off of the bottom and take more loose leaves off, keep doing this until it gets to the size of a marble, and then toss it in the bowl with the leaves. It's alot of work, but well worth it if you like the crispy bits :)

 

I tossed in EVOO, sea salt, lots of black pepper, and garlic powder.
Baked for over an hour+ @350+, just keep checking and tossing them around every 15 minutes to try and get them to cook kinda evenly.

 Easy-peasy!

Happy Crisping!

the Beautiful Bounty

Kiyo's Kurly Kale patch

Don't you just want to dive in there and roll around in there naked with a fork in hand!? Ok well maybe I don't either thinking about all the little critters hiding in the shadows, but it would be a funny image at the very least!

#3's clan also shares their beautiful fresh chicken eggs with us, they're definitely more fresh & tasty than any store bought egg ever! And in every carton little A packs in at least 2 pretty green-blue gems!

Their Americana's lay the green-blue eggs! 
(3rd one back from the front)

We have enjoyed much of their labors this summer and feel so lucky they can spare enough to share with us. I just wanted to say thanks to my #3 !



My front garden boxes were thrown in the ground at the last possible minute this year, we shoved in some starts & seeds and crossed our fingers, the soil has turned out to be more sand than soil and not so good for the plants, they are small and kinda tough and dry. Ha, I really should've listened closer to #3 and mixed the compost in correctly instead of also not putting it where she told me to, oopsy! :)  But! If I didn't make mistakes then I wouldn't be learning such cool lessons, so we will get new organic compost, do it correctly and start fresh for next year! So above are what my tiny urban boxes looked like this year. I also would love a long big box for flowers, hmmm.... wonder what to try next year!?

my container gardening
(shiso & elephant garlic)

first 4 harvested and they're beautiful!
(#3, I will put some aside so you can plant or eat them)

 

 "Love you!"

#4

vegan fish sticks... FAIL :(

pretty but not so tasty :(

Ok so its all my own fault it didn't taste great as I did not follow Jolinda Hackett's  recipe very closely (to say the least) and I make a yucky-yuck. And really, it wasn't horrrrible, just not crispy or chewy savory or what I wanted. Maybe I could've baked it longer.....? or maybe it was the lemon pepper.... or (blush) maybe me using almond milk instead of soy milk, or, the fake lemon juice I wanted to use up instead of being to lazy to get one out and squeeze it, or maybe its the bagel chips I subbed for breadcrumbs!? or maybe its because I didn't follow the darn directions at all!? me so bad...

I feel there is alot of potential here, but I am going to have to ask my Sissies for help on this one! Sissie #1 made this fantastic mock eel? the other day, wow. wow. WOW!...... I mean it was so fantastic that you just wanted to sit and eat the whole batch in one sitting. The texture was perfect almost like a fried clam but obviously not as chewy, and the flavor was slightly sweet and salty. One downside is I think she fried them in oil, hee hee, which of course made them sinfully good. I will check with her and see if she can share her recipe with us!

vegan coconut curry

 delish, fast & easy!

 

thursday 8.02.12

This was really easy, even I could manage this one! Instead of chicken, I subbed canned wheat glutens (mock abalone) and they do not whatsoever taste like abalone, just delicious little tender textures!? I also did not add any sugar as the glutens are a tiny bit sweetend already. oh, I also used fresh thai basil and shiso, the shiso was really good in it! The thai basil is from a tiny sprig of it I had taken home from a restaurant from fathers day, and stuck it in a glass of water, it rooted so I planted it outside and this was the first pickings from the plant :)
easy recipe found from here !

ingredients:
organic brown jasmine rice
glutens (chick sub)
stewed dice toms
cauliflower
red bell
onion
garlic
coconut milk
curry powder
fathers day thai basil
shiso
(I didn't use tomato paste, mushrooms or chicken)

Roasted Laver Popcorn

Roasted Laver Popcorn

We used organic(non-gmo) jeweled popping corn and a Whirley Pop popcorn maker, it is a stove top pan with a crank that turns the seeds inside so they do not burn, this is a great popcorn pan if you have a glass top stove, no shaking of the pan needed. So I have found a Stainless Steel version that will be our next purchase as our original one has been falling apart for awhile now, what a great reason to upgrade!

All-righty-o, now this was pretty yummy, a bit different but a nice change. I roasted some unsalted, no oil Laver in my oven. It comes in brick-like shapes in your Asian supermarkets. I take a bit and crumble it up on a baking sheet, add some oil, sea salt, toss and broil. Be careful it burns fast!  The idea is just to crisp it up.
I sprinkled the crispy Laver onto my popcorn used a product(see pic) that is dehydrated Shiso leaves-green packet and the purple packet is Umeboshi flavor. These are salty sprinkles, I used the Shiso flavored one, I then hit it with some Shichimi Togarashi. YUM!!! And of course you can add oil or any other flavorings to your taste!

Omega 8006 Juicer

Ok, so researching centrifugal vs. masticating style juicers was very informative. It really depends on your needs; time, health requirements, versatility, space, clean-up time, loudness etc.
I found that you can find good/bad opinions and reviews on EVERY product testing comparison video out there.
That  being said, I picked this one up from BedBath&Beyond last night, I wasn't intending to buy one but after I talked to an employee there, Tyler told me that there return policy was "off the hook!" (*note Tyler was adorable) He told me for any reason and any length of time that I could bring it back(he said I didn't even have to clean it for 10 yrs, hahaha too funny,  if I decided I didn't like it. Well, I was sold. And I was able to use one of there (never expiring) 20% coupons which took a lovely chunk off the retail price. So I feel like I can test this puppy out for awhile and see if we like it. Its a bit of an investment but another positive thing about the Omega brand is their Warranties! This one has a 15 year warranty, which makes me feel like they are very confident about believing in their own products.

"schluuurp!"

This unit is also pretty small compared to other masticators. This juicer was easy to clean to my standards, I like the sound of it crunching slowly away, it sounds like a happy cow munching away on its dinner. It was AMAZING with the dinosaur Kale, yayayay! Cukes, Carrots, Celery, Apple, were totally fine. But ok, honestly it mushed the crap outta the Tomato, you might as well just use a blender for the softer veggies/fruits into a smoothie, just take the juice you make and pop it into the blender with  your soft veggie/fruits and make a smoothie-juice concoction. Ive done it with avocado and almond milk and it was delicious, but alot to wash with the blender and juicer but it's well worth it!
Oh also you can make nut butters, sorbets and pasta with this thing!? This could get interesting...And now I am also envisioning someone designing one of these to look like a cow, I would definately buy one!

I loaded up a video below so you can hear it munching :)

Happy Juicing!!!

Comparison test #1

Sissies 1 & 3 ran 1/4lb. of russian red baby kale each in their juicers, one being a Greenstar dual auger masticating type, the other was a Juiceman centrifugal type and I now just ran it through my Omega... We used the same kale from the same garden and the same scale to weigh it. We just wanted to see if there would be a yield difference.

Results were.....THE SAME, no difference in yield!

freshy spring rolls

simple fresh and fast goodness!

This meal was probably about 80% organic, slowly but surely we are trying to steer far and clear away from GMO  (genetically modified) foods, for REAL!

rice wrappers & noodles

firm tofu
lettuce
cilantro
basil
shiso
carrot
jalapeno
mung bean sprouts
(next time Ill use red onion too)

peanut butter
garlic black bean chili sauce (from T&T seafood restaraunt )
shoyu
lime
water
drizzle sesame oil
drizzle honey
(no fish sauce this round)

Yummus Hummus!

Yummus Hummus

Hi I am TakaSissie #4 of 4. First I must confess I am not a chefanista, nor will I ever pretend to be. I would classify myself as more of an experimenter as I was never taught how so I will usually try things because I do not know any better. And most often it sucks kinda bad like my most recent Death Metal juice, but sometimes I can get lucky.  I will share with you the ones that are truly funny and successful to me. Now my sissies may have a whole other opinion about my blendings, ha ha ha, hopefully they will be gentle on me in public!

Ingredients:

Sprouted Garbanzo beans (2.5 sprouted cups)

Avocado (1)

Cilantro (1 bunch)

Lemon (2 small)

Scape (1 peeled small elephant garlic flower stem)

4 Garlic cloves

Tahini (2-3 T.)

EVOO (2-4 T.)

Water (1-2 c.)

Dry ingredients-to taste:

Paprika

Cayenne

Cumin

Sea Salt

Pepper

I started with the ingredient list from this link, in this recipe they blanched the Garbanzos, which makes good sense to me as otherwise the texture would be very grain-esquey. I think blanching helped the overall texture to make it soft and silkier? But I wouldn't actually know this as a fact as I haven't made it "raw-unblanched" yet.

*Next time I will try adding 1/2 jalapeno for the green kick, more lemon, zuchinni, and maybe another clove of G. (If it is still scape season I will try more scape's and less garlic just because I could!) Also I will be learning how to make bread soon from Sissie #3, then I will be making a Kalamata Olive bread hopefully for this Yummus, oh my!

So here is my latest experiment, if you try it I hope you like it! And if you have fun mods I'd love to hear them too, yum!

Tobitoes!

Tobitoes!

*Poppity-Pop! It's very fun to eat!*

Basically its mashed potatoes with Tobiko (Flying Fish Roe)

 This makes a big potluck batch, so adjust accordingly for smaller amounts,
 adjust everything to your own tastes :)

Enjoy!

3 lbs red potatoes
2 cups chopped english cucumber
1/4 cup seasoned rice vinegar (to taste)
1/2 lb red and/or green tobiko
1+ cups best food mayonaise (adj. to taste/consistancy you like)