scape pesto

June is that magical time of year when your garlic bulbs even do pirouettes that spiral into pretty or delicious. The cress or the sorrel should also be booming because the full heat of summer has not yet hit. Your scapes will be best just as they come out of their first spiral. Any longer and you want to dice them for a stir fry or other steam cooked thing. As with all garden produce wash it well and check for insect damage , although garlic is repellent to most insect and is unlikely to be so afflicted.

1/2 chopped to fit your blender/food processor garlic scapes
1/2 cup sorrel(lemony), cress (peppery), spinach or chard (if using spinach or chard add 1 tb lemon juice.
1/2 smoked cheddar or other very sharp cheddar
1/4 cup olive oil
pinch salt
blend until a smooth paste
sequester in jar and cover with a thin layer of olive oil.
eat with bread, crackers,in risotto, with white beans, on apples, etc.

Laziest dinner ever. mushroom pizza

1. Wash a Portabella mushroom
2. You know that partial container of spaghetti sauce in the back of the fridge?
Check for ick and if not icky pour a few tb in the mushroom cavity
3. fill cavity with other tasty noms and top with cheese if desired. Put on a cookie sheet.
4.bake 10-15 minutes at 400 degrees or on a grill
5.You will need a knife and fork.Eat with salad....If you have the energy, otherwise just grab the carrot sticks.

ful medames- egyptian style fava beans (vegan option/ gf)

While fava beans are a bit more effort than most other dried beans, the deliciousness and nutrient density of them more than makes up for the PITA factor. Fava beans have fiber, folate,and tend to be lower sodium even when canned. A bag shouldn't run you more than 2$ conventional 4$ organic. Do not attempt to crockpot fava beans unless they have been soaked overnight. Try to find haba style beans (pre peeled). If you cannot find haba style, peel the outer skin after soaking and before cooking for approximately 8 hours high in a crockpot or 3 on a stovetop.  Once the beans are cooked this thing takes 15 minutes max. Yes, you can also make this from canned fava beans...and let's be honest I did tonight.

Peel and Slice 1 small red onion into pretty little rounds. You can use any sweet onion but I like how the red looks and  it's the same price by the bag at our local market Or you can just use 3 green onions chopped up. If you choose those add them with the parsley.
Slice 3 cloves of garlic
Put the above in a pan with 2 tb olive oil and heat at medium until onions are translucent.

Optional: add  1 tb cumin seeds, a pinch of oregano or cinnamon or some red pepper flake.

Add 12 ounces mostly drained beans. Note: if you plan on mashing your ful leave in about a half cup of the liquid. I prefer mine unmashed.
Cook with onion mixture and the juice of 1/2 large or 1 small lemon until liquid is mostly evaporated.
Salt to taste or Salt after cooking. Mash, if desired.
Garnish with 1/2 bunch chopped parsley and tomato.
Crumble in 1 oz feta if you like.   Drizzle on thinned tahini or  Bakdoonisiya. 
It won't taste quite right without some tahini flavour and the addition of tahini makes the favas a complete protein.
 
Eat with rice, chopepd cucumber and tomatoes, dill rice, pita,on its own, or with yogurt. Seriously, make the Bakdoonisiya if you have an extra 10 minutes.

batch cooking 'sauteed onions"- aka frozen onions.

This is one of the many things you can make when you're already firing up the oven so you aren't wasting fuel which is of course both money and very likely to be a non renewable resource. Freeze or store in fridge for later use.Most of my soups for  will start with 1 sauteed onion..that's about 1/2 cup.
Slice 5 onions into rounds. Throw in a baking vessel. Toss to coat in 3 tb olive oil. Bake at 350-425 (it will tolerate anything in these ranges) for 20-45 minutes (higher heat equals less time) Check and stir every 10 minutes.

Bake fried tofu / marinated baked tofu/ glazed tofu

 I came up with this method after giving myself a lovely 1 1/2 in long tofu pan frying scar and decided only things like latkes were worth that kind of pain. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Put parchment on a baking sheet or your tofu will adhere with a death grip to the pan. Cursing and possible spatula injury may ensue. take your 1 lb block of water packed tofu (not the shelf stable stuff here) and cube into blocks about 1 inch cubes or 1" by 2" blocks (shrinkage will occur). Toss in spices if desired. Space evenly on papered cookie sheet. Spray or brush with oil. This all takes maybe 5  minutes. Put in oven. feel free to roast squash or garlic or whatever because it's going to be heating up your house and using fuel for 1/2 hour. Bake 15 minutes and flip the tofu then bake another 15. allow to cool. put in bags to store for up to 10 days in the fridge.

Alterations:
Marinated you can choose to bake marinated tofu. Pirst let tofu set on a plate or in a bowl and drain at least 1 hour. Then place in marinade of choice (lime juice , tamarind paste, ginger and soy anybody?) in bowl or zipbag for up to 2 days. Proceed as above or roast whole bricks and slice for vegan lunchmeat that doesn't taste like meat but goes great with sriracha veganise, avocado and sprouts.

Glazed- take sweet sauce of choice like mango chutney,honey with sesame seeds, bbq sauce and brush or spread lightly with a spoon on one side during 1st half of baking and on other during 2nd half. reduce heat to 375 to reduce scorching of sugar.

super easy 20 minute frig pickles

cut a smallish cucumber into your preferred pickles shape (usually rounds)
add 1/2 cup lemon juice
2 tb salt
1 tb korean chili powder
add 1 tb sesame seeds
optionally 1 green onion and 1 minced clove garlic
put this in a jar and shake- put in frig for 15 minutes

eat quickly as it will go bad fairly quickly

apple cheddar rice cooker risotto (veg,gf with dairy free / veganoptions)

I'm going to start out by saying that you shouldn't do this. Your rice cooker is not designed for it and you might set something on fire..Really.

I do it at least once a month but I don't leave the house when I do and I check it every 15 or so minutes. Even then it's really good but not quite risotto textured.

1.Take 1 cup rice (can be med or long grain) add 2 cups water with broth paste (or cubes) or broth
meanwhile sautee 1 chopped sweet onion (like a red or yellow) or one sliced clean leek.
5 cloves minced garlic
and one lb of clean and chopped mild or bitter greens (kale, collard, dandelion, chard,cress,broccoli leaves or spinach. Mustard and Turnip do not work well here)
if you want to add a chopped mushroom or a chopped apple feel free
add a bit of salt nutmeg and pepper
use olive or sunflower oil as your oil
add a handful of walnuts or pecans if you can afford to and want to


2.Cover and let sit until rice is cooked

with cheese 3.  Grate or mince up 1/2 cup very sharp cheddar. add this and 1 tb dijon to your rice and stir thoroughly.

dairy free   3. Take 1 tb dry mustard , 1 tb dijon,1 tb lemon juice, 1/3 cup nutritional yeast and 3 tb sesame paste, if you have almond or cashew butter add 3 tb. Mix all thoroughly. Now mix into rice.

4. Add 1/2 bottle gf hard cider to your pot. stir. The more you stir the more creamy.
5. Reset cooker and put back on cook cycle. allow to be used in keep warm cycle for up to 24 hours. garnish with cress or parsley if desired.

The rub down- softening shower scrub

Put these in a clean jar :
1 cup sea salt
1 cup turbinado sugar
1tb almond extract
1/4 cup apricot or olive oil
1/2 cup honey
stir until completely mixed.
Use as below:

Wet body. Apply in a circular pattern. Avoid genital and urinary region. Rinse well and use before soap.

kale(and other)greens

This is possibly the simplest cooked format for greens I have. It works with kale, collards, chard, sorrel, mustard,spinach, broccoli and cauliflower leaves. Also, sweet potato leaves, so I hear) turnip but please mix turnip with something else because otherwise it gets unpleasant. Most of the time it's pretty close to free because it's february and the garden is still making kale. This stuff freezes well. It's tasty healthy and easy. It's good hot or cold. This means it's the one used most frequently on everything from bibimbap to serving it with BBQ Tofu and cornbread.

1 lb (usually 2 biggish heads) cooking greens (anything but cabbage). Rinse well
Rip leaves from veins using your hands and rip up smaller if very large Set these aside. Toss dry bits but save stalks. Chop the stalks.
Mince 4 cloves garlic
1/2 chopped onion (red or yellow but not white as we need the sweetness)

Heat 1 tb Oil (usually olive) in cast iron  The iron will change the flavour in a good way.  Add the onions and stalks from the greens and saute until the onions become translucent. Now add the garlic. If you added it earlier the flavour will be less strong and more bitter because the garlic probably burned.
Add the leaves now .
They should wilt and be about 1/3 smaller before you
Add 1 tb lemon juice ,
1/2  cup water

and either 1/2 TB bird chile powder or 1TB samabal oelek or 1/4 tsp cayenne and 1/2 TB ancho pepper powder.
1 TB soysauce or 1/4 tsp smoked salt
greens should turn vibrant and lightly chewy. If you like them less chewy or you picked older/ rougher greens (like collards or plantago for example) add an extra 1/2 c of water.
Stir occasionally until water evaporates. Serve.

super easy macaroons and even easier macaroons

Mix together
2 cup coconut flakes
½ cup sugar
2 egg whites
¼ tsp salt or vanilla salt
1 tsp almond extract or 1tsp vanilla extract
1 tb  shortening
chill for ½ hr

pre heat oven to 325 F degrees

line a cookie sheet with parchment

drop 1 tb per cookie on cookie sheet

Bake 25 minutes until golden
allow to cool at least 5 minutes before eating
store in airtight container

Even easier vegan macaroons
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Mash 1 overripe banana until pudding textured.
add a pinch of salt and 2cups coconut flakes. Mix well.

pre heat oven to 325 F degrees

line a cookie sheet with parchment

drop 1 tb per cookie on cookie sheet

Bake 25 minutes until golden as your dwelling becomes banana scented
allow to cool at least 5 minutes before eating
store in airtight container.

Spicy hummus

 Recipe easily doubles and will freeze (put it back in the food processor to re mix after thawing) and is cheap
2-3 Tb smooth sri racha (that garlic, pepper, vinegar stuff with the rooster on the bottle)
1/2 tb ground cumin
1/4 c olive oil (because that's what makes it super creamy like store bought stuff)
1 tb paprika (mild or medium)
salt to taste
4 cloves garlic
1-2 lemons of juice or about 3 oz of the bottled stuff
2 generous tb of  tahini
and 1 lb cooked chickpeas:
stovetop: 1/2 lb  dry chickpeas soaked overnight or boiled in double their volume of water and allowed to rest 20 minutes
then boil up to  1 hour until tender or pressure cooker 15-20 minutes

Crockpot: add 5 cups water to each 8 oz of beans... leave on low overnight or while at work

Canned: open a 20 oz can of chickpeas ...spend 2x as much for convenience

Add ingredients to food processor. pulse until you reach desired consistency.if you don't have one  use a potato masher and expect less creamy results. Eat on everything (except peaches)

For non spicy leave out the sri racha and halve the paprika

Barley Lemon poppyseed cake (really not gf or vegan..possibly sponsored by the egg and butter boards)

Warning: this is a egg and dairy budget buster

beat 4 eggs
mix with 2 cups of sugar (used turbinado)
and 3 tb lemon curd
add 1 oz limoncello (optional) or 2 tb lemon extract
then1/2 teaspoon sea salt,
3/4 teaspoon baking powder,
1/2 stick butter melted (allow to cool somewhat so you don't have scrambled eggs) ,
1/2 cup almond milk or half and half or buttermilk or soymilk with lemong juice added
1/3 cup lemon juice,
zest of 2 lemons,
add 2 1/2 cups barley or sorghum flour
and whip til smooth (no need to mind overworking the gluten as barley is lower in gluten than wheat)
add more milk if flour was dry
(it will vary-barley being a whole grain tends to absorb water from the air)
It should look like a heavy waffle batter (and can be used that way too)
Mix in 3 tb (or more poppyseeds)
and pour into a  greased and floured bundt pan
Put in 350 F degree preheated oven and bake until med brown (barley darkens more than wheat)
until a toothpick comes out dry usually 45-min to 1 hr.

loosen sides  gently with knife and allow to cool at least 10 minutes
flip onto plate and tap to release
garnish with more lemon curd and a light dusting of powdered sugar or fresh fruit
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Inspired / altered from this recipe
http://blog.lemonpi.net/?p=5257
I used this lemon curd recipe. Leave time to chill so it won't cook the batter and can set.
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/lemon-curd-recipe/index.html
We used this as one of the civil union cakes and people were super psyched.

Sorghum quick bread and pancake/biscuit mix (vegan/ gf options)

Barley is NOT GF if you are celiac or gluten intolerant use the Sorghum...please

Barley and Sorghum are whole grains that plays well with other flavors and have a moist crumbly texture. As a whole grain you should either use the flour relatively quickly or leave it in your freezer to prevent spoilage.  Recipes doubles lovely. Don't freeze this unless you WANT bread crumbs as that's what freezing this does. You can mix the wet and dry willy nilly or if you want packets of quick bread mix for busy evenings you can mix the dry ingredients to store in a jar or tin and add the wet when you want to make it up. This will be ready in less than an hour start to finish with about 45 minutes of downtime.
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Dry mix
3 cups sorghum or barley flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
2 tb baking powder
3 tb olive oil or your preferred oil (yes this goes in the dry mix)
Mix until resembles sandy stuff and store in air tight container
If using this as pancake mix add 1 egg and 1 cup milk per cup of mix. If using as biscuit mix just add the 1 cup milk, buttermilk or milk analogue. They will be crumblier than wheat flour biscuits and pancakes but also more tender.

wet stuff
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oil to oil your pan
2 eggs or 2 tb ground flax in one oz boiling water allowed to soak until gelatinized
1 cup milk, buttermilk or milk analogue (almond worked well)
1 tb lemon juice or cider vinegar(optional-do not use with buttermilk)
heat oven to 350F
oil your pan -a dutch oven (leave the lid off), loaf pan, muffin,or bundt pan works
Whisk wet into dry and pour into pan (take care to fill it nor more than 2/3 full as this stuff rises
and allow to bake 25-30 minutes