I Love My Garden Friday

Okay, I’m unashamedly garden-obsessed this time of year, and I’m unashamedly posting more photos of it. I love the potential my garden has every spring, and the excitement I feel every time I see a new bloom.

Future cucumber

Future green nutmeg melon

Future pepper

Strawberry – Almost there!

The single day lily that came up this year finally bloomed

He loves being outside with me. He’s got his bottom teeth sticking out – that usually means he has something to grumble about.

Vegan Food Swap

Happy last day of May!

This month, I participated in the Vegan Food Swap, hosted by Cat at The Verdant Life. Two bloggers are matched up every month, they send each other food in the middle of the month, and blog about it at the end of the month. Awesome! If you’re a US resident interested in signing up for June, go here by June 4. If you’re a resident of Canada and would like to participate, head to MeShell’s page to sign up.

I got a really fun package together for Haley at Health Freak College Girl. Check out her Food Swap Post.

Unfortunately, my package never arrived. Better luck next month! I can’t wait to participate for June.

My Garden in Photos

My garden is growing like crazy. I picked my very first radish today, and it was beautiful and delicious.

 

Bush Delicata Squash

Radishes with tiny peppers in the center

Green Nutmeg Melon Flowers

Tomato Flower

Tomato Flower

Strawberries

Beets

Black Beauty Zucchini

Mystery Flower that just keeps growing

The First Lilies

The First Radish

Eating Vegan in Fresno – Farmers’ Market

This Friday was the second week for the Old Town Clovis Farmers’ Market. Personally, it’s my favourite market. I don’t know if it’s the live music, the Old Town vibe, the variety of post-shopping (or pre-shopping) bars, the time of day, or the variety of vendors, but, it’s the one I most often frequent.

For those out of the loop, the Old Town Clovis Farmers’ Market runs Fridays 5:30 – 9:00pm May through September, on Pollasky. In my opinion, best parking is the lot behind Kimmie’s bar on Clovis and 3rd/Tollhouse.

Not only is there a wonderful variety of fresh produce, but, there are two blocks of vendors selling everything from grilled corn, to sandwiches, to funnel cakes, to tamales.

It’s one of the events I look forward to on a weekly basis. Tonight, for only $17.50, I got amaranth, 2 kohlrabi bulbs with greens, yam leaves, curry hummus, blueberries,  squash blossoms, and dinner of a tamale with beans and rice. Awesome! And, it’ll feed me for at least a week. I’ve never had yam leaves, but, the girl at the booth told me they’re awesome stir fried with some butter. I can’t wait!

For a complete list of Fresno area farmers’ markets, check out playfresno.org

I’ve started my garden!

Wooooo! I’m doing a happy spring dance as I type.

Really.

I mostly started my plants from seed. Most of the seeds I got from Cubits on Etsy. She’s great. I’ve ordered seeds from her for two years now. Check her out if you’re even remotely interested in starting plants from seed.

 

So far, I’ve planted:

Patti Pan Squash

Black Beauty Zucchini

Amish Paste Tomatoes

Cherokee Purple Tomatoes

Italian Noir Tomatoes

Bush Delicata Squash

Chioggia Beets

Early Tall Top Beets

Mini Red Bell Peppers

Random Colored Bell Peppers (yellow, white, purple, red, and orange)

 

From Prior Years, I have:

Mystery Lettuce (It didn’t germinate last year, but it came up full-force this spring)

Strawberries (My dad keeps threatening to pull his mess of strawberries out, so I stole some for myself – they produce *amazing* berries)

Oregano (it’s out of control, personally, I think we should just pull it)

Parsley

Rosemary

 

Next to plant:

Little Finger Eggplant

Rosa Bianca Eggplant

 

I’m not growing any really big squash or melons this year, as we had a pretty dry winter, and I’m not honestly sure if we’ll have enough water for what I’ve planted.

 

The real fun began after I bought little 2″ terracotta pots and made some adorable plant markers:

These were super easy. I just used tiny terracotta pots (super cheap at craft stores), used tiny alphabet stamps to stamp the type of plant onto it (I used Patio Paint), and Modge-Podged ladybugs and butterflies onto a couple of pots. Recycle your old wire coat-hangers – straighten them out, cut them in half, then curl them into shepherd’s hooks, and hang the pots off them.

 

Do you garden? What do you use to label your plants?

Eating Vegan in Fresno – Casa de Tamales [updated 2/17/12]

I’ve been thinking for a while about discussing all of Fresno’s great vegan options for a while now.

It seems like the obvious first choice for a vegan eating out post would be Revive Cafe, Loving Hut, or even Charlotte’s Bakery (which, sadly, does not have a website). But, I decided to go with something unexpected – vegan tamales.

I ran in to Casa de Tamales today, and got a gourmet trio combination – three tamales with rice and beans.  There were only three vegan tamale options available – soy chorizo con papas (served with fresh guac), portobello and asparagus (with chiles, in a red chile masa, also served with fresh guac), and sweet corn. So, I had to get one of each.

I don’t know how I feel about the soy chorizo one, honestly. I’m going to have to try it again. It was almost too “meaty”. It was definitely hearty, and had just enough spice to satisfy.

The portobello and asparagus is my favourite (so far!). It’s a little spicier than the chorizo tamale, and the guacamole served with it cooled it down perfectly.

The rice and beans are totally vegan, and completely delicious.

I was full by the time I got halfway through the second tamale, so I haven’t yet tried my sweet corn tamale. I’ll update this post tomorrow after I eat it.

The staff said they were working on veganizing some of their non-vegan tamales (jalapeno and Daiya cheese is one they’re tossing around!). They said they’ll be posting all menu updates on their Facebook page. Check it out and show some love!

Overall, it was a great experience.  The restaurant is fairly small, and doesn’t look like it could handle a huge group. Prices are low (for a ton of food!). Dine-in, take out, or, they deliver ANYWHERE in the contiguous US (except Ore, sorry, Oregon).

For orders of a half dozen or dozen (of the same type of tamale), call ahead – it’s an automatic 30 minute wait for them – they’re all handmade fresh. 559.275.9300

Find them at 3747 W Shaw Ave; Fresno, CA 93711 (in front of Old Navy, next to a National Guard recruitment center)

 

Update!

I ate the sweet corn tamales for breakfast the day after – it was the perfect breakfast. They were pretty sweet – they’re definitely a dessert (or breakfast) tamale. I’ll definitely eat them again.

Amande review

About two weeks ago, I found Amande yogurt at Lassen’s Natural Market. I had to pick up every flavour they had, as I’ve heard great things about it. I ended up with a fridge full of blueberry, raspberry, strawberry, peach, cherry, and coconut flavoured almond based yogurt.

Amande yogurt is sweetened only with natural fruit juices, it’s gluten free, soy free, Kosher, and non-GMO.

And, it tastes good. Actually, it tastes pretty great. I ate them all plain, except for the raspberry. I used that in a batch of brownies, and they were amazing. My favourite flavour was definitely coconut, and I will be buying more of that. I think it was the best yogurt I’ve ever eaten. The rest of the flavours really weren’t so much better than the (much cheaper) soy-based yogurts I buy, that I’m a convert.

Overall, it was a great experience. I wish it wasn’t so expensive, as I’m on a tight budget, but, I definitely recommend trying them at some point. Especially the coconut one.

VeganMoFo – Creepy Cocktails!

[updated 10/30; 1:16pm]

This week, SnarkyVegan sent a handful of bloggers two martini recipes to customize.  The other bloggers include:

Jen-o-Joon

SnarkyVegan (of course)

The Tasty Vegan

Amanda Eats SLC

Little Things Big Things (check out her MummyDogs below the martini recipe!)

Tak-Home-A

Will Work For Veggies

 

Pumpkin Spice-tini:

pumpkin mash:

2T pumpkin pure

1T thick plant milk or creamer (I used Trader Joe’s Coconut Beverage)

1T agave

1tsp pumpkin pie spice

Mix in shaker (filled with ice) with -

1 1/4 ounces (shots) vanilla vodka

1/4ounce rum

1/4 ounce buttershots (butterscotch schnapps)

Rim martini glass with crushed graham crackers (blend graham cracker crumbs with pumpkin pie spice and sugar)

Decorate with creepy eyeballs, graham crackers, or ginger cookies.

 

Graveyard Martini:

Line the rim of a martini glass with crushed chocolate cookies – to get the cookies to stick, dip the glass on a plate covered with Kahlua (use what’s left on the plate in your martini, if you don’t want to waste).

Drizzle a bit of chocolate syrup inside the glass, let it run down a bit.

In a shaker, mix:

1 1/2 ounce Chocolate Liquer

1 1/2 ounce Vanilla Vodka

1 ounce Kahlua

splash of thick plant milk (I used Trader Joe’s Coconut Beverage – it’s thicker than So Delicious Coconut milk, but not as thick as plant based creamers)

Shake well. Top with spooky marshmallow ghost and some crushed chocolate cookies.

I made the ghost out of my last two Sweet and Sara plain marshmallows – I just cut them with a knife to give them a ghostly shape (they were stuck together).

VeganMoFo – Slow Cooked Pumpkin Latte

I promise I haven’t given up on VeganMoFo or the slow cooker. I just needed a break.

 

This morning, I made myself a pumpkin latte. The original recipe was from my friend K, who got it from the Crock Pot Girls on Facebook.

Ingredients:

3T instant espresso

6C plant milk

7T pureed pumpkin

2 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice

Sugar – to taste. (My milk was unsweetened, and I used oat milk, which I’m not a huge fan of, so I used a bit more sugar than I would have if I had used sweetened)

3T vanilla (less if your milk is vanilla)

Whipped topping – I still have some Rich’s leftover, but if you can find Soyatoo & like it, use it! (If you can find a place to get Rich’s and you’re not a restaurant – please let me know!)

 

Mix all of these in the crock pot. Cook on high for twoish hours. Top with whipped topping and a sprinkle of cinnamon

VeganMoFo Iron Chef Challenge #3

This weekend’s secret ingredient – coconut.

I think coconut is my favourite ingredient. If I see a recipe that includes it, or a (vegan) product that includes it, I can’t say no.

Today, I made coconut brittle (or, German Chocolate Cake Brittle). It was terrible. I’m pretty sure I know exactly what went wrong, and I will be re-making it. Unfortunately, I used up the last of my coconut shreds when making it, so, it’s going to have to wait until I make it to the grocery store (an hour away) to buy more.

So, I’m going to try the coconut challenge one more time today with a coconut cream pie (with meringue topping — Many, many thanks to Hannah Kaminsky for showing that meringue can actually be done vegan!)

I promise to update this by the end of the day with gorgeous (well, you know, standard) pictures, a delicious recipe, and lots of love for coconut.

 

8:02pm – Update

I made it tiny, because I’m a sucker for tiny food.

I used my favourite pie crust for this recipe.

Then, make tiny pie crusts in a large muffin pan (large muffins, not large pan ^_^). Bake at 415 for about 20 minutes. Set aside.

I also changed up my go-to pudding recipe.

You’ll need:
1/3 Cup Sugar

3T cornstarch

a shake of salt

1 can light coconut milk

a splash of vanilla

about 1/2C shredded coconut (mine was sweetened, but, generally, I avoid sweetened dried fruit)

 

Combine sugar, cornstarch, and salt in a smallish pot. Slowly whisk in coconut milk (add it too fast and you’ll have lumpy pudding – sick). Add vanilla. Heat on low until thickened. Stir in coconut.

Pour into your tiny pie crusts. Top with whipped topping (I had some Rich’s, but you can use Soyatoo if you can get it).  I didn’t top it with meringue because I got lazy. I may top the remaining 11 with it tomorrow. I promise to let you know!