Here I Yam!

It's highly unfortunate that I don't post my photos until about 4 months after the food has been consumed, digested, and recycled back to the earth and atmosphere, because I have such a terrible track record for writing down recipes (umm, I don't), and I have long forgotten what goes into each delicious dish. Not very helpful to you, the viewer. Still, I thought I'd get a few of these (poorly lit) out of my backlog box, in hopes that it will create the vacuum necessary to get my slackin' fanny back into the kitchen, creating and documenting a new slew of terrific disasters.

This here is some of the best stuffed zucchini I've ever shoved in my spit-hole in my life!

It's hard to tell from the yellowness of the photo what-all went into it, but I'll try to make a few edumacated guesses: onions, corn, sundried tomatoes, bread crumbs, oregano, a layer of red pepper/cashew "cheese", and a couple of other veggies that have slipped my mind. Not a pretty picture, but you can pretend to salivate anyway.

This is one of my favorite dishes from Rosetta's Kitchen in Asheville, NC, an awesome vegetarian/vegan soul food spot that's open long after the bars close. It's called peanut butter tofu, and it's one of those things that you either love or you despise (like cilantro)...I have to have it every once in a while, and more often than I make it up to Asheville. Basically, you cube and freeze some extra-firm tofu, thaw it, then toss it with a mixture of peanut butter, shoyu, miso paste, olive oil, and little bit of sweetener. Their recipe calls for sugar, but you can easily substitute maple syrup. Bake it in the oven for about 30 minutes, until everything gets brown and a little crunchy. I like to serve it with a mess o' spicy greens, and here I've made blue corn crepes and threw in some sliced avocadoes.

Rainbow Slaw.

2 different kinds of cabbage in a salt rub, red and yellow bell peppers, toasted mustard seeds, brown rice vinegar, sesame oil (toasted and raw), and shoyu were the basics.

Roasted red pepper, marinated shiitake, and lettuce norimaki.


Raw vegan lasagne kicks all kinds of summertime ass!
Layers of zucchini, yellow squash, spinach, sundried tomato sauce, cashew "cheese" (pinenuts work well, too), portobellas, a walnut meaty layer---and I mean that in a Bible sense, as in "I give ye these nuts and fruits and seeds as your meat"---, and of course(!) a nice slathering of pesto sauce. Add any other thinly sliced veggies you like, wrap it and let it sit a few hours, then slice and gobble up (and watch your carcass-eating friends have embarrassing orgasmic attacks and beg for more).


This one looks good, but it's too bad I don't remember the flava-rings. Potatoes, tofu, daikon, squash, and orrechiete over lettuce? I wonder what it tasted like...

Well, that's all I've got time for today, folks. Cross your fingles and maybe I'll be back!

Sometimes some JABBERWOCKY...

...can really help you get through the day. Especially when life is not making a whole lot of sense, but you know you can divine something from the murkiness of it all, if you just look deeply enough, or abstractly enough.

And here's mine:

As I stand in this floambertsnog listening to schizzle
And the flip-flap of the winged Be-He-Moth sets me to frizzle
The splorts in my mind begin to cronk back and forth
Across schasms of dunkrock from south Crag to north

Should I ascue the critter and fling through the proush
Setting all subsequent beskwittles a-whoosh?
Or is it bester to toigh down and batten the Gildershod
Thereby sneeching further plaise from El Bunder God?

Itʼs quackshuns like this that give my razz a twittle
And thereʼs nought left to droom but google P. Diddle
For the wisenack oft blooms when snorching hubriskly
Instorgation desmacks one upon blacker he kissed me.

But now I groph too far awarft of the gayden
Which skines no promish for Lorsh to say then
Whither the grung Be-He-Moth finds his Frodung
Or sufrices all life on the errant Lacklung.

The left arm moveth atwine, water twurgs down,
The Hordnath hath come to clunter a chown
This marth be the last Toblerooter I am gibbons
To besquath my evortlast Smot from the hibbons!

I dart longly with my flortle-ink, twerds the critter
Draply luring it asnonk with nought a low twitter
Checking each splort that groams up to give me droth,
Alas, the proush flies wide and off flaps Be-He-Moth!
©Natalie Stroodnorts--2008

JUST MORE PICTURES

Well, it seems I have not only fooled you, the public, but I have fooled myself into thinking this blogging would be a great medium for me to share all of my most profound, intellectual thoughts on food, consumption and consumerism, the earth, environmentalism, greater imperialsim (within the whole animal kingdom), love and hate, compassion vs. tolerance, recipes, the importance of clarity in speech, yada yada yada... because, apparently, I have entered a simpleton era, where I have exchanged deep thought for deep sleep, coffee and writing for wine and dumbbells, mind-opening documentaries for mind-numbing "romantic comedies", and my red bug for my red bike (see photos below!). However, now that my good friend e-mile-high has begun her own blog, I feel pressured into proving that I am more than just a web page with sexy photos! She's so much cooler than me at everything else, and now she's outted her hidden skills once again (like, witty on paper as well as in person. I also found out earlier this year that she's got a bit of a baking-gene up her sleeve...I never knew)



Anyway, the awful truth is, post-tirade, I've still got not much to say. So I'm thinking about taking questions. I may even have to develop an entirely new webpage with a built-in forum or ask/answer session, then scurry out of bed in the wee of the night (uh, usually the wee-wee of the night), before the glory of morning dumbs me down again, and give you my exalted philosophy on all the intricacies and abnormalities of life. Seriously, folks, right now, 5:30 in the afternoon, all I can come up with is 42. And this ziti/asparagus/pesto salad.

Let's see....I think it was curried collard greens, coconut curry sweet pertater patties, a daikon and zucchini "spaghetti" salad (using my benriner), and cucumber curls

grilled veggie lavash roll. well, what did you think it was??


I don't know. a sallet of some sort. with peanut lime dressing. yes indeedy

mint chocolate cupcakes for a friend's burpday!

raw topping (and sauce) pizza

vegexican torta sammich (with chipotle-curried seitan)

mashed herbed tater and "cheese" cups

A veggie pot pie with lots of cauliflower. I forgot to get a photo with the top crust on.

what are YOU lookin at?

none of these guys are Waldo.

yams with pistachio, sauteed kale, grilled portobella mushroom, pesto, and fresh mater!

another versian of the above, but with beer-batter crepes and blackened tofu.

I want this for dinner RIGHT NOW.

Was that insightful enough for you?????

There's a reason for the warm, sweet nights

I found a couple of more fotogs. This probably looks very similar to one you've seen before. The males are buddhist, and are particularly fond of all things yin/yang.

Blackie is practicing his mantra.

L'il Frito believes in equality among all-creatures, sewn and sprung from She-Tiger's rib.

the Bellamy Brothers, lettin their love show

Sooprize, Sooprize! Suprizza.

and mo' sallet!

I mean, why can't we ever just have a SALLET??

homemade feelawful, err, I mean, falafel. and roasted red pepper hummus.

sakes alive, am I hongry!

just let your love fly, like a bird on a wing

(or a lucky bird, who still has its wings, and head)

wait a minute, I haven't shown these pictures before?

this is from my Xmas partay, a while back.

roasted veggie roll with red sauce, green spinach, white ricotta

mixed sweet and spicy nuts

the veggie roll, complete.

More cupcakes, with huge chocolate chunks inside, gobbled up within minutes by 2 boys.

the post, complete.

Why, that's just ththsouper!

Okay, people. I uploaded these pictures quite a while ago, saved them to draft, and now I have only my feeble memory to rely on for summoning up descriptions of what may have been going into my mouthhole at the time. The first two are easy. I had this fantastic idea that I would bake up little slices of vegan heaven (or whole pies, as is the case), and take them around to local coffeeshops, where the owners would surely realize they had been missing out not only on sensation, but on a whole clientele market, and would commission my baking expertise on a weekly basis. What actually happened was I spent a lot of money and time on baking and delivering, some lucky people got some good free eats, and the plan flopped like an eggless souffle. I did, however, have one tiny success. A neighbor bought a beautiful apple/almond torte from me to take to a party, which I somehow forgot to get a snapshot of.

Below is the extremely decadent and rich dark chocolate mousse/raspberry torte...

...and here is a chocolate covered espresso almond torte.

I'm not sure what this is, but it sure looks good! Rice noodle spicy tofu stirfry, I believe.

Probably with some sort of ginger sauce.

This I remember: I went through a soup phase for two weeks; every night

was a different soup or chowder concoction. Below we have seitan dumpling soup.

This is my first dumpling soup ever, and it was as rich and comforting as I imagine its origins meant it to be on a cold winter night.

a bowl of the yummy bone-warming elixir.

here is a couscous/almond/currant salad over red leaf lettuce with a citrus-y

vinaigrette, using fresh juice from tangerines and lemons.

I believe this to be a thai peanut-noodle dish with lightly sauteed kale, carrots, peppers, and ribbons of raw daikon. (topped with a squeeze of lime and a sprig of mint)

of course there had to be a pho night during the soup marathon (pronounced "fuh", my friends).

here are all the garnishes for diners to greedily pick and choose from:

peanuts, carrots, mint, basil, lime, jalapenos, serranos, green onions,

mung bean sprouts, and cilantro

putting it all together, we start with the noodles.

add some color and texture: thai marinated tofu, shrooms, bok choy, and green onions.

Add your sauce (sadly I don't remember everything I threw into the sauce, but if you want to make your own pho, I suggest starting with an authentic pho sauce recipe, omit the beef broth, and throw in some of your own flavors to bring back the depth and "hardiness" of the broth. It tends to be very intricate...a lot of ingredients!). Serve with garnishes and enjoy!

My neighbor was sick with some sort of cold/flu conglomeration, so I made her a beans and greens "get well" soup. She reported that her sinuses cleared almost immediately, and she was feeling good again within a couple of days. The broth was very strong in fresh ginger, cayenne, and garlic, and I tossed in a medley of kale, swiss chard, carrot and beet matchsticks, onion, kidney and black turtle beans.

This is an African "peanut egglant" soup....I mostly followed the recipe from Veganomicon (same fabulous authors from Vegan with a Vengance).

OMG I want some right now!

This is a miso/chickpea/macaroni soup, also inspired by a recipe in the aforementioned Veganomicon.

Whilst I am certain there were more soups in the marathon, this seems to be all of the pictures I retained. That's ok, there are bound to be some super soupy days ahead! Besides, I think I've found some other images in my repertoire that I may have to entice your greedy little devouring eyes with. But I will save that for a separate post (possibly another one today).........that way I can feel all caught up and gooshy inside, and who knows.......one day, just maybe, purrrrrrrrrrhaps, I will do this right and start giving out recipes! That was the purpose of this blog all along, right? Well, alas, though I may have failed at everything else in my tiny little life, at least I am a PRO at crastination!!!

honk honk!