Currently viewing the tag: "zucchini"
Every once and a while, you have to seek out nature, ascend an incline that is not manmade but randomly place by the elements and duck under a canopy of trees, inside their crisp, fresh breath. So CandyPenny and I braved the rough terrain of the trails of Mohonk Preserve in New Paltz, New York to find some solace, an escape from pavement and other urban pests.
Mohonk is the largest nature preserve in New York State, overseeing 7,500 acres of beauty, including the Shawangunk Ridge, part of the Appalachian mountains. Gorgeous views surrounded our climb, a cross-section of sky and land. A pie piece of the visible spectrum surrounded by puffy white.
We toiled up mountain slopes in our flimsy shoes for the reward of the glorious Split Rock swimming hole within the Coxing Kill stream, a tributary of the Rondout Creek, which flows to our own Hudson River. The deliciously crisp mountain water continues its flow to the Rondout Reservior, one of NYC’s water supplier. We were met by fellow bathers joining in a bask of sun and stream.
Adventurous souls pencil-dropped from atop Split Rock, while others, like us, followed a feet-waist-shoulder progression. The water was cold, pure, and magnificent. With its slightly numbing temperature it purged the coiled stress sanwiched inside my muscles giving palpable meaning to the words “invigorating” and “refreshing.”
The creek falls were a glory all their own. At the base of the split rocks was an accessible falls perfect for a quick ablution for one. CP and I took turns to feel the falls’ watery whap against our heads. A well-needed knock of nature on the noggin. 
After our adventure, we needed lunch and fast. We visited Karma Road, the area’s only veg-only restaurant for some hearty sandwiches and much-needed fluids. The counter service sandwich and juice joint was located across from the town’s farmers market and offered great people watching. 
Starving like Marvin, I needed a bite immediately as my sandwich was being built. I went for a chocolate chip and walnut biscotti. A good start and a sweet accompaniment to my chugged Mountain Valley Spring Water. The cookie was more moist than a traditional biscotti and required no dipping.
It was Reuben time! Karma Road’s take on the Reuben hit the spot. Baked Tempeh, a ton of sauerkraut, Russian dressing and soy mayo helped satisfy my hunger after strenuous energy output. I also tried their cold potato salad from the deli case. It was surprisingly flavor-packed and much, much tastier than it looked.
Ok, so we wanted to experience nature, yes. But we also wanted to finally try Lagusta’s Luscious, an all-vegan chocolate shop that has been on my vegan radar for quite some time. The shop is the storefront of vegan chef and goddess Lagusta, who uses only Fair Trade chocolate in the creation of her variety of goodies, uses only 100% post-consumer recycled paper in her packaging, and, clearly, aligns the shop’s every inch to her passionate values: veganism, social justice, and decadent deliciousness.
Lagusta’s shop was filled with amazing chocolate products, packaged pretty with her signature blue. But it was the display case of her unique caramels and truffles that had my attention. I ordered a small box of chocolates, selecting 8 pieces from her scrumptious case for $15… and a vanilla cupcake filled with tart raspberry preserves. 
I ordered 2 of each of her top-sellers: the caramel-infused chocolate croissant and her rosemary sea salt caramels, as well as her “Furious Vulva,” a strawberry creme infused chocolate, and her lemon truffle. Each delicate bite of her gorgeous chocolates was delicious.
Yes, I mentioned the “Furious Vulva.” These chocolate wonders point to Lagusta’s feminist ideals, a wish to counterbalance the domination of chocolate male members in the world. Named by one of the members of the feminist bookstore/cafe Bloodroot in Bridgeport, Connecticut, the Vulvas have the gentle flavor of pink peppercorn and Hawaiian sea salt.
Gorgeous pieces of chocolate. 
Finally, a quick stop at the local orchard (Jenkins-Lueken) would send us back to the Big Apple with local-grown peaches. Is there anything more beautiful than a fruit still bearing a leaf. I’ve only seen peaches as beautiful as these in illustrations. 
And one cannot resist a zucchini with this kind of girth.
And beets. Material enough for several more blog posts. I better get cooking…
Somewhere, sometime, I must have been privy to regular acts of gastronomy. I must have been a royal member of the court of Epicureanism of the highest rank. I must have tucked these food standards in the pocket of the soul that passes from life to life, like a little nagging gift. So like any true gourmet, I clip recipes from the Daily News‘s supplemental magazine! This recipe for wheatberry salad made it to my list of to-do’s for this week as I finally bed farewell to the huge batch of chili from last week. It’s texture; it’s variety; it’s color. And I am a huge fan of huge plump grains: Israeli cous cous, brown rice, arborio, wheatberries… Ah, it’s like eating berries off wheat. Yes, just like that.
I’ve been working on my layer of blubber, getting myself ready. Inadvertently. Here’s what’s anchoring me in for a long winter:
Roasted zucchini sandwich with way too big a bun X’s 5 days a week.
Huge tofu dosa from House of Dosas in Hicksville, Long Island. 
Vegan cheese whiz. What the heck am I going to do with all this stuff? 
The Tofu Benny at Bone Shakers. ::Sigh::
When boy watches Giants game, girl makes chunky chocolate chip cookies. This can’t happen every Sunday.
I have finally picked up a breadmaking book: The Bread Book by Sara Lewis. It’s a gorgeous book with tons of innovative bread recipes that are very easily veganizable. Yes, it isn’t an exclusively vegan cookbook. I don’t believe there are any bread ones! (Can someone get on that?) This week’s loaf is a courgette (uh, zucchini in American), tarragon and lemon bread.
Look at those colors! Here shredded zucchini, chopped fresh tarragon and the zest of one lemon sit in a pool of shallow olive oil and wait to be spooned with 4 1/2 cups of flour. I ran out of bread flour and subbed in a cup of dark rye flour and a cup of all purpose flour. Luckily the texture did not suffer.
There she is all ready to be dressed, a speckled green and golden crusted canvas!
A few years back I did my student teaching in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn. Reveling in the fact that I needn’t join the morning straphangers with a trip into Manhattan, I day dreamed during my quick walk to to N. Henry that I was employed by my fieldwork school, that I had gotten my certification, completed my degree and had my first classroom. This was an important time in my life. I had, after 5 years, bid farewell to an cozy office job in order to student teach, and had just ended a 6 year relationship. I was planning my 2-month stint in Thailand and compiling my graduate school applications. I have vivid memories of feeling invigorated with living, like I was finally getting to where I wanted be. I casually and contentedly strolled to my placement each morning, occasionally picking up a morning bagel to spread with the tofutti I had stashed in the mini-fridge. So, years later, it was nice to stumble back into that bagel spot, Brooklyn Bread, on a lunch break from my current teaching job in Carroll Gardens and realize I had been there before. Ok, so my knowledge of this part of Brooklyn is limited. I had no idea I now worked so close to where I did my day dreaming years ago… and I had no idea that Brooklyn Bread had such delicious sandwiches! I speak of the The Vegetarian Special. Grilled portabella mushrooms, artichokes, grilled zucchini, roasted peppers, arugula and Tuscan olive oil on their delicious fresh bread. Besides its perfect combination of taste and texture, the colors pay homage to the old school Italian cluster in the neighborhood.
A neighborhood can be accurately judged by the quality of their… Thai lunch special! So Em Thai Kitchen confirms the wonderfullity of Carroll Gardens. With big lunch portions and the inclusion of two, yes, two appetizers in their cheapo lunch special ($8), it is a great deal indeed. But more, they offer seitan as a choice for their standard dishes. Of course I rarely get anything but a big pile of broad rice noodles in sweet soy sauce and Asian broccoli: Pad See Ew. Better still, this is two lunches. After three scrumptious and delicate little dumplings and two sturdy spring rolls, I boxed up most of my entree and ate it the next afternoon. That is $8 well spent. Em also gets pluses for ample people watching (and natural light for food photos) on Smith street and a table set-up that caters to the lone eater. 
Of course I have to pay homage to my go-to for a quick and easy bite, Park Natural. I rather enjoy the vegan macrobiotic bento box and an original Synergy kombucha beverage. It’s kind of like my super value meal except, with my usual Greens+ bar, it runs me about $11 or so. Eeek. Park Natural is a great little health food store which supplements my regular grocery shopping/food errand running just a couple of blocks from my school. The meal always causes quite the stir with on-looking colleagues back in classroom, although here it rests calmly on my vintage fabric-dressed teacher desk.
With a slew of produce from Fresh Direct panting in their plastic bags in my refrigerator, tonight I was in “use it or lose it” mode. This mode refers specifically to my disgust of food waste, my want for efficiency and my need to make lunch for the week. With the weather crappy and the roommates gone, the kitchen was mine. Here’s what I made:
Roasted tomatoes. I can live off roasted tomatoes. This is my favorite form of the tomato. I slice some plum tomatoes thick and long and roast them slow at 300, swimming in olive oil and the rotating seasonings of my fancy. This time it was the standard salt and pepper along with rosemary and some parsley for some complementary color.
Roasted zucchini. My second favorite vegetable to roast. Zucchini is quite unstunning in its natural form. But roasted, its texture is like a tender fleshy eggplant. It also sucks up flavor real well. Topped on warm thick bread and you got the beginnings of an amazing sandwich.
Almond and kale pesto. Absolute deliciousness. I processed a huge bunch of blanched kale with some olive oil, nutritional yeast, tons of garlic and ample nutritional yeast for a big tub of the stuff. Pesto is one of my favorite things to whip up because it dresses up so many foods so nicely. Paired with Vegenaise, it is an absolutely perfect sandwich spread. With that in mind, I thought I’d put the pesto not just on the bread but in it!
Yes, polishing off my first bag of bread flour, it was time the week’s bread selection: Kale pesto bread! Besides the beautiful specklings of green throughout, this loaf marks big progress in my breadmaking experiences thus far. Last week’s olive French bread was far from finished so I have to slice ‘er up for croutons. My breadmaker is spoiling me.
Last but not least, beet greens. Trimming these leaves in preparation for my roasted beet sandwiches later in the week, I sauteed up these lovelies to up the greens intake for the week.
Vegan Reporting By Location
