Category Archives: Food

Poppy seed dressing

A few days ago, when I posted this recipe, I decided to add a “Recipes” category to this blog.  Despite the fact that I have plenty of “Food” posts, recipes are lacking because I rarely use them.  Most dinners are a little of this, a touch of that, add lots of garlic, and voilà — dinner (and leftovers for lunch)!

However, we follow recipes from time to time.  Using a little magic math, I reconstructed the recipe for our favorite store-bought poppy seed dressing.  I’m sure the make would not give me the recipe, but all I needed was the ingredient list and nutrition information.  Yes, I do feel rather clever!

Poppy Seed Dressing

6 oz. canola or olive oil (I use a combination)
3 oz. water
2 oz. white vinegar
1 oz. apple cider vinegar
7 T. sugar
1 t. salt
1 T. finely chopped onion
1/2 t. mustard powder
1/4 t. xanthan gum
1 T. poppy seeds

Place all ingredients EXCEPT for oil and poppy seeds in a blender.  While the blender is running, slowly add the oil.  When thoroughly mixed, turn off the blender and stir in the poppy seeds by hand.

Notes: Xanthan gum is a thickener — you can find it in health food stores.  If you omit it, the dressing will still taste fine, but it will be thinner.  If you don’t have a blender, you can still make this dressing.  Just place all of the ingredients in a jar and shake thoroughly (will work best if you put the lid on first).

Serving suggestion: Our favorite salad with this dressing consists of arugula (or mixed greens that contain arugula), roasted beets, thinly sliced onions, toasted pecans, and goat cheese.

Rumor has it that eating poppy seeds can produce positive results on drug tests, so I may try to avoid them before my drug test for the new job.

 

 

 

Cabbage, and broccoli, and turnips, oh my!

Dear Weather,

I biked in the rain both ways yesterday.  Tuesday I bussed because of the rain.  Today it was not supposed to be raining.  Yet I stepped outside with my bike this morning, only to experience drops of water falling from the sky.  I object.  This was not part of the deal.

Sincerely,

A Disgruntled Bike Commuter

Now that I got that off my chest, on to local goodness.  Our regular weekly farmer’s markets are on hiatus until spring, except for a market at my husband’s place of employ, which continues to offer fabulous produce.  Here is their list for this week: Tomatoes, Bell peppers, Cauliflower, Butternut squash, Cabbage, Brussels sprouts, Acorn squash, Pie pumpkins, Sweet potatoes, Potatoes, Broccoli, Scallion, Swiss Chard, Lettuce, Spinach, Arugula, Turnips (a white, Japanese turnip that is mild and sweet with beautiful greens) and Radishes.

I’m not really sure about tomatoes at this time of year, but everything else sounds great.  We already have bell peppers, broccoli, cabbage, and cauliflower in the fridge from last week’s market.  Today’s list includes brussels sprouts, scallions, arugula, and sweet potatoes — yum!

Little wiggler

Photo 17
Broccoli worm

That little green thing toward the top of the photo is a broccoli worm (not a scientific name).  I find the little guys to be rather cute, and I don’t mind picking them off my pesticide-free broccoli.  Rather than killing them, I just toss them in the compost bucket.  Sometimes they crawl out and we find them wandering around on the kitchen counter, to my great delight and my hubby’s everlasting annoyance.  Given the rather tiny size of the worms in one of our recent local broccoli purchases, I may have strayed a bit from being 100% vegetarian over the last week.

People doing cool things

Today I attended a talk by Robert S. Lawrence, the director of the Center for a Livable Future, focused on food production, diet, environment, and human health.  I can’t help but love it when lots of research supports my dietary choices.  The talk caused some squirming among those in the audience who might have different relationships to meat.

Nosing around the CLF website led me to their blog, which features a “Resource” list on the right side of the page.  I found The Green Fork and the Eat Well Guide.  You can use the Eat Well Guide to find local/organic/sustainable food in your area AND (my favorite part) is that you can use it to plan a trip and it will show you all of the food options along your route!  I will definitely be using this in the future.  I also look forward to checking out some of the other cool resource links when I have more time.

All around the town

The wheels on our bikes completed lots of rounds over the weekend.  After much debate (Will we get there in time?  Is it too windy?), we opted to bike to the veggie potluck on Friday night.  As soon as we set out, I knew we had made a great decision — gorgeous early November night, good route with relatively little traffic . . . . Our contribution was nestled snugly in the milk crate on my hubby’s bike.

We dined on delicious food with “A Very Veggie Thanksgiving” theme.  I tasted my first ever Tofurky (a couple of years ago,  I made my own version out of tofu) and a Quorn roast.  We usually avoid fake meats (AKA [at least in my head] “feat”) in favor of less-processed sources of protein, like beans and nuts, but they are fun on occasion.

Sunday, I visited Cafe Ventana for the first time.  The cafe gives every biker a free beignet, served hot out of the fryer.  They reminded me of funnel cake, which I haven’t had in forever.  I only had a few bites before I hit my quota of fried for the day, but it was tasty!