vegan green chile stew

a lil' bag o' deelishious fresh roasted hatch chiles from the farmer's market inspired this one...
ad hoc vegan green chile stew.

2 cups of roasted green chiles (skins peeled)

1 1/2 cup of chopped tomato (skins peeled)

1 cup homemade seitan

3/4 cup pinto beans (soaked overnight)

1/2 cup iowa sweet corn

3/4 medium yellow onion, chopped

3 cloves garlic

1/2 cup veg broth

salt

pepper

olive oil

soak pinto beans overnight, in a.m. put in crockpot and simmer on "low" 4 hours

saute onion and garlic in olive oil, salt, & pepper until translucent, add veg broth and bring to boil, then place in crockpot

(optional) make seitan w/ gluten & chickpea flour--boil in a bit of veg broth, liquid smoke, and soy sauce--then bake to preferred texture

deskin roasted chiles, dice and place in crockpot

flash boil tomatoes, deskin, dice, and place in crockpot

cut corn off of ear and place in crockpot

crank up crock to "high" and let 'er intermingle for 2 hours.

how do you say...deelish!

camping season

with the green season upon us, it is time to take inventory of the camping gear. rekindling with old friends: the self-inflatable air mat, stuff sacks of various sizes and colors, a cook kit with pans that conveniently fit inside one another like a russian doll, and then there are the remorseful woes that you suddenly recall and damn yourself for not remedying from the year before...


more specifically, i am now reminded of a camp stove problem that i was unable to fully troubleshoot late last fall. upon seeing the carbon-scored little widget with valves and hoses, i recollect a frustrated morning that camp coffee was unable to be made and a mere sputtering of fuel would intermittently cough out of the jets. obviously a clog in the fuel line or the like.

i monkeyed with the fuel line and disassembled the chassis of the stove to fully clean the gentle beast. reassembly happened, but fire did not.

now here it is spring camping season once again and i am going to give it another go on getting the stove up and running. let's see what happens...

dirty miso

one of the finer simple dishes is life is miso-shiru. a staple item we ate several times a week in japan and hit-and-miss around the house since then.

one of the twists that we usually take on the standard variety (seaweed and miso broth with carrot, tofu, and scallion bits) is a lil' somethin' we call dirty miso. to this end, we take the basic recipe and litter it up stew-style--mushrooms, noodles (soba or rice), broccoli, daikon, hijiki, celery, apple, etc. you get the picture.

it still remains a very simple deelish dish with a wholesome goodness that you can feel nourishing your every cell. giddyup.

the joys of having a working oven again

the last abode that a and i housed ourselves in had an old antique oven that reached a balmy 200 degrees or so. suffice to say, we engaged in virtually no baking exercises other than what we could squeeze into a toaster oven.

this was a fun adventure in patience and creativity--it was akin to finally getting the ez-bake oven that i secretly always dreamed of getting when i was a young lad. alas, we now have a stellar oven that reaches the temperatures it is demarcated to reach. what a novel concept!

anyway, we've been actively throwing around ingredients and dancing around the kitchen in a cloud of whole grain flour night after night. cookies, baked tofu, broiled eggplant, and this beautiful vegan pizza with spinach, green onion, chick-un, obligatory corn, follow your heart "cheese," and fresh mushrooms on a garlic basil crust. i'm drooling yet again...