Orange Soup

Well I didn't know what else to call the soup because I used carrots, butternut squash and sweet potatoes....oh, and orange juice.

THE RECIPE......

Prepared:
4 C. Diced Carrots
2 C. Cubed Butternut Squash (which I had left over from Veganomicon - Butternut Squash Rice
Paper Rolls - I love these things...I've made them twice so far! no pics though)
2 C. Cubed Sweet Potatoes

In large pot, combine above veggies with:
3 C. Water
1 C. Orange Juice
1 small Veggie Bullion Cube (optional, I didn’t add salt)

Cook until veggies are tender.

In the mean time- Saute:
4 tsp. vegan butter
1 C. Chopped Onion
3 Cloves of chopped garlic
1 tsp. of chopped hot pepper—I used Serranos (optional)

After the above has sautéed for a few minutes add:
1 tsp Curry Powder Seasoning (this had ginger, cinnamon, cloves etc. in it too)
1 Tbs. Fresh Grated Ginger (think 1.5 tsp would be good next time)
1 Tbs. of Dried Parsley
Fresh Ground Pepper to taste.

When the sautéing is complete, add 1/2 C. of Ground Cashews (measured before grinding) – Here, I used raw cashews, I think toasted cashews would be good too, or you can just leave the nuts out altogether….I’m easy like that.

Now add the sautéed mixture to the cooked veggies (no not drain).
Add 1 C. of Soymilk

With my emulsion blender, I love love this thing, I blended it smooth.
Tasted it, humm, Goods tasted it- I made the following additions:
1 C. of Orange juice
1 more Sweet Potato (I had one in the freezer just waiting to become sweet potato biscuits)

By adding the extra items, it tamed down the ginger that was a tad strong, and it you now could taste a hint of Orange in it, which I was striving for.

Then I heated again for 15 minutes. I served with a sprinkle of toasted pumpkin seeds and some croutons.

I give this a 4 out of 5 forks. I need to play with the seasonings some. I would make this again, but it won't be for a while, I made a TON.

I'll end with a photo of Guido playing with her imaginary carrot--really, she plays with a lot of imaginary things.

Okay- I'm almost ending with Guido.

If you are from the Detroit area, there is a restaurant in Grosse Pointe that we went to Saturday night that Goods and I both very much enjoyed. The name of the joint is "City Kitchen" I've included a link. The atmosphere was great, we sat at the bar- THE NON-SMOKING BAR! The whole restaurant is NON-SMOKING. The food was great, they went out of their way to make my meal vegan (even checking their pasta lables!) - I had a pasta with veggies in a wine sauce - sorry no pics THIS TIME. Oh, and I had a super spinach salad with jalapeno mango dressing. The people were extremely friendly, both the people that work there and the patrons.

Okay, NOW I'm ending.

January 07- Flowers of the week

Happy Monday!!!
It's going to be in the high 50's today here in Michigan- I'll be taking photos of my flowers growing outside soon...well okay in a few months. So until then, here are my inside flowers for the week. A real food post coming at you tomorrow.

Merry Belated Christmas

....and Happy New Year

And I'll be back soon with more Goods....
(and yes, we had a santa skeleton in our front yard)

Shoot....hunting season starts tomorrow!

Deer killing season starts tomorrow here in Michigan. I know there is nothing I can do to stop it, but I can enjoy and share with you this article I found....

http://www.dmgd.org/



HA!

Happy Halloweenie

Been extremely busy and blog lazy....but I'm back, for now,
well to at least wish you a Happy Halloweenie!!!!!

Our Halloweenie Yard for this year.........

http://www.flickr.com/photos/good-dees/sets/72157602797174695/

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Lot's of GOOD things to do in DEE-troit

Goods and I try and do some fun things throughout the summer even though our yard and home projects should have 100% of our attention. This past weekend Goods suggested we go to the Henry Ford's Greenfield Village. The village is set up with various houses, workshops and stores that Mr. Ford bought and moved to the village. The Wright Brother's House and Bike Shop, Edison Homestead and my favorite, the Cotswold Cottage.....

Okay - this isn't the cottage part, but people where having "TEA" outside, and it would have ruined the pic so I didn't take any pics of the cottage itself.

My next favorite was the Firestone Farm- some inside pics....

As I stated, they call it a working farm. The ladies in the house just explained what they made, and ate for lunch - Ham Pie.....I didn't ask.

Tons of ChooChoos, not sure what they had to do with the Model T or any other models he produces but they were cool.....

I also drulled all over these wagon wheels, since I've wanted one - like forever - to put in our yard. The old sign said that they were only $26/pair, but NO ONE was around to take my money.

And we ended with an Old Time Baseball Game - what a hoot. Note, they don't wear gloves, helmets, spikes- NO PROTECTION!!.... but they did have some spiffy ties!

We had a grand ol' time at Greenfield Village- check it out if you are in the area.

My next entry will be more adventures in the Raw -
our first Raw Potluck!

Raw-Goods and Good Visit

I've been experimenting with RAW "COOKING"
I love the freshness and the energy you get when you eat RAW.

I bought an Excalibur Dehydrator - and made some cookies- one very good (I forgot the cocoa and dehydrated for 10 hours), the other, not to our liking.

In the next couple of days I'm going to make "KALE CHIPS" - with the excessive amount of kale I have in my garden - I'll let you know the outcome- they sound totally delish!
My nephews flew in from Connecticut to torture visit me for a few days. My youngest neff is very noisy inquisitive and asked what the thing was on top of they refrigerator - I told him it was a dehydrator and went into a short explanation of what I use it for. He looked in my "Living on Live Food" cookbook and spied a photo of Angle Hair Pasta & Marinara Sauce. "Can you make it?" the question came from the pasta boy (he loves loves (cooked) pasta) - "Sure, you're at Auntie Dee's and you can have anything- want ice cream for breakfast too???" I was fairly certain that Goods & I would be the ones eating it- but we go ahead and made it.

Pasta boy stretching before he starts to work in the kitchen....

Pasta boy using the mandolin like a pro- no blood shed, all fingers in-tacked.

And a FUZZY picture of pasta boy with finished product.

And the verdict: Pasta Boy - as suspected, didn't like it. The Adults - 5 out of 5 forks! It was great! But I have to confess, the leftovers sat in the fridge for almost a week so I used it as the sauce when I stuffed banana peppers with tofu- and poured it on top of the peppers and baked. It killed any germies that may have developed- and I didn't waste it. That was totally yummy too.

I've also made this dish a few times, out of the same cookbook....

This is Pesto Pasta on page 417. The pesto is made with basil and cilantro and tons of garlic.

While they were in town, we ventured to the Detroit Science Center to see "The Body Human" exhibit and to check out the other exhibits

And before the science center I drug them to Cass Cafe where I had a delicious sun dried tomato hummus and a salad. Quite a few vegan options for me.

I'm not sure in the above photo is Big Furbee is saying grace or being camera shy.

We also went to see Spiderman 3, okay but not the greatest - and I loved #1 & #2. Then we went to Red Robin for dindin, not that they were hungry after all the popcorn and smuggled in candy they ate. I really like Red Robin - great vegan choices, any burger they sell can be made with a BOCA Burger, but I usually get a salad because they are very yummy.

So the visit was short but a lot of fun- Goods & I rule at Pictionary, no matter what my nephews say! And I end with a pic of me and my neffs....

Garden Good-Dees

Oh - it's a happy time of the year. Our garden is producing such goodness that yesterday I got to harvest a variety of items to make dinner last night. Here is a peeksee of our garden as of yesterday.....

Even though our tomato plants are taller then me (I'm 5' 7"), we sadly do not have any tomatoes yet- but soon, that is if we can get them before the squirrels do.

So the first thing I picked from the garden was MINT. What did I make with MINT? This liquid goodness.... MOJITOS. I used 2 different recipes this one and this one

This is what I did-

12 mint leaves
2 tsp raw sugar (oops, I think I used 2 TBS and I wasn't testing the rum ahead of time either)
3 tbs fresh lime juice (worked out to be one lime)
1.5 oz of light rum
5 oz of *chilled* club soda

put the mint leaves, sugar and lime juice in tall thin glass (which I was lacking) - Muddle with a pestle. Add crushed ice, rum and club soda. Stir well. Enjoy.




I thought these were very refreshing and yummy- and I really don't do rum- I USE NOT TO DO RUM, I will be making these again and soon.

On to FOOD......

We had a couple of Italian eggplants ready (yeah ask the squirrel who had a snack!) so I thought I would throw together a pasta dish. So from the garden I used, eggplant, banana peppers, parsley, basil, and oregano. From the fridge, tomatoes, zucchini, green pepper, leeks, garlic, onion and roasted red pepper. All from my organic home delivery service. Topped with toasted pinenuts.



Also this weekend I used the spinach I planted to make artichoke & spinach dip and I used a few jalapenos and stuffed them with "cheese" for some appetizers.

Oh- then we had the basic salad that featured lettuce and kale from the garden.



So overall - 5 out of 5 forks - how can't it be with all that garden goodness!

Good Pizza

Conversation I had a few days ago with Goods:

Me: You know what I'm in the mood for???
Goods: What?
Me: Good Pizza, you know, the really good stuff with FAKE cheese.
Goods: says nothing, but rolls his eyes.....

I'm guessing only vegans would understand.....

I scream, you scream we all scream for ice cream

I have this-

I had these-

And I made this-

Blueberry Strawberry Cheesecake Ice Cream

from: Vegan Ice Cream Paradise blog

2 c. Silk soy creamer

1 c. vegan cream cheese (approx. 8-ounce container Tofutti)

¾ c. sugar

1 T. lemon juice

½ c. soy milk

2 T. arrowroot

1 t. vanilla
1 c. blueberries strawberries fresh or frozen)

1/8 c. sugarsplash lemon juice

Combine soy creamer, cream cheese, sugar, and lemon juice in a saucepan. Heat and mix contents. It will take some whisking to break up the cream cheese and get it to dissolve. While heating, combine the ½ cup soy milk and 2 tablespoons arrowroot and set aside. Once the pan’s contents are boiling, take from heat and add soy milk–arrowroot mixture. The liquid should thicken quickly. Add vanilla extract. Set aside to cool.
Combine blueberries, sugar, and lemon juice in a small saucepan. Heat until boiling and some blueberries have burst. Set aside to cool.
Freeze cream cheese mixture according to ice cream maker instructions. Add blueberries strawberries 5 minutes before end of freezing cycle.

Extremely yummy- extremely easy and sooooo much better then store bought soy ice cream!

Not sure what flavor I'm making this weekend from her blog.

Time to BUG you....

I've been so busy gardening, I've been way too busy to blog to the 3 people who read Good-Dees. I little bit of info about me - I kill nothing. I won't even not kill a bug, not even in the house- okay with a couple exceptions- if it's a mosquito and it land on me- it's MY personal space- there is a whole world at your disposal, please don't land on me. And there is another reason I will scarific a bug's life, it will be explained later. Oh, and I've been known to name our spiders in the house (but that's in the winter, otherwise I put them outside to live in the fresh air) and I upright bugs that need help.

So anyway.....There's some excitment happening in Good-Dee's yard! Last year I planted some milkweed in the yard - Monarch butterflies love milkweek, in fact that is the only plant they will lay their eggs on, that is why I planted it. So last night, Goods & I inspected the milkweed that is about to bloom and........WE HAVE BABY MONARCH CATAPITTERS! (okay calipillers to everyone else)

I'll give you a looksie

Hummm...maybe a closer looksie will help!

It is (I need to name it yet) not more then 1/4 inch long. And befriended a tiny misquito - how sweet. It must be a very social catapitter - maybe I should name it "Paris" - I think not, and don't get me started on HER!

We found a half of dozen little ones on the plants. Hopefully they will turn out like this one from last year-

More exciting news, it's Fish Fly season in Michigan

You can read about Fish Flies here - becuase I'm not reposting what I just wrote about them, which I lost! urrrrr

Goods, in his lederhosen and I are off to Frankenmuth - have a great weekend!

Goods Grilling

I have been accused by Goods that I spend entirely too much time in the kitchen. I beg to differ, but he has threaten to take out the new kitchen he put in for me us. So I've been trying to make yummy food that doesn't take so much time - I do have gardening to do ya know.

I did a simple meal of BBQ tofu, sweet potato, corn on the cob, and kale.

Most everything was done on the grill, so Goods was in charge. As you can see he produced some excellent grill markings for effect. This is what I did-

Corn - soaked corn in husk in water for about 12 hours.
Grilled for about 45 mins.
Sweet Potato - okay I cheated here, I did the evil microwave
cooking on those before grilling
(I don't like to microwave- but the future of my our kitchen is at steak here!)
Tofu - extra firm marinated in some store bought BBQ sauce
Kale - I sauteed chopped garlic and sliced onions until soft.
Added the kale and threw in some fresh pineapple chucks.
Topped it off w/ some Agave Nectar. Totally yummy.

So dinner was easy, fast and simple - but yet very yummy.

I hate to admit that I've only recently been eating kale. In the past I've only used it as platter decoration. SHAME ON ME. The stuff is awesome. I'm even planting it in our garden this year. I have another kale recipe I will share with you at a later date, when I'm allowed to go back using my our kitchen...but I definitely will be making the above kale concoction again with the pineapple, great combination. Just rating the kale - 5 out of 5 forks!


And some odds and ends.....


Goods' son brought us 3 new little fantail fishies for our pond...
and they are thriving!
Introducing on of the 3- "Hot Lips" Wiggles. (She wiggles when she swims)

and some spring yard pics......

Happy Birthday Spike!

Goods' son Spike is 23 today.Happy B-day Spike!!
When you grow up - will you wear a skirt too???

You can send him b-day wishes or see his amazing photographs on his webpage http://www.myspace.com/spikephoto

You can't BEET the day I'm having already.....

To start my wonderful day I'm having already, which it's not even 9 o'clock yet-

I ran almost 4 miles this morning. I've been nursing a couple of injuries for about 2 months and I haven't done too much past 3 miles on a run.

Then as I was getting ready for work - I looked out our kitchen window and there was a female oriole was eating the orange we had out - anticipating their arrival. I was super excited to see her this morning!

(The photo is from a previous year)

And when you just think you can't beat that morning, so far- try these-

BEET BURGERS....
This recipe came from "But did they eat it" blog (March 11th post)

I thought these were very yummy. I opted to grill some thinly sliced pineapple for the burger, which complemented it very nicely. But I thought something was missing as Goods & I were eating it. I suggested maybe some carrots in the mixture next time. Goods thought pickles....but he's a pickled beet freak. Then I read in "but did they eat it" post that FatFreeVegan made another version - which included carrots & sweet potato! I'll be trying that next time! But I do highly recommend the grilled pineapple on it. RATING - 3 OUT 5 FORKS

I'm going to leave you with some trivia - how many quarts of pickled beets do you get from 25 pounds???? That would be 16 quarts and 2 very purple hands.

Mosica Me

I have many hobbies. Besides cooking, I love crafting.
Mosaicing is one of my favorite hobbies.

I’ll mosaic anything that doesn’t stand still.
See- I’ve mosaic my cat- Guido

(I didn’t place Guido next to the statue, she plopped her furry little tail down there all by herself- and I’m not making typos, Guido is a girlie cat.)

I do have a ball, mosaicing-

I can mosaic night and day-

Goods thought this was TOADALLY cool when I made him this for Christmas one year.

Okay enough, I'm going to hop a long.....