Three Questions —

First, in two parts, is a little plea from me:

A. I found a Vinod pressure cooker — stainless steel. Looking online, I see some places say it’s not recommended for use on electric burners!?! If it’s on the box, I missed it…

B. I realise the serving sizes are different on these nutrition info panels — and the fat and fiber make sense — but can anyone clarify the discrepancies in carb. and calorie content between these two brands of toor dal? Both are dry, not oily.

one of these things is not like the other… dating myself with a throwback to
(and copyright by) the classic and still-fabulous

Sesame Street!

Many thanks in advance for any assistance!

Last but not least…

hmmmmmmmmm…

A little drive to the tip of the Leelanau Peninsula on a stormy day in autumn…

cherry orchards ablaze with autumn color ~ as far as the eye can see

one of the crowd

cedar trees leaning away from the wind ~ shore of Lake Michigan

Grand Traverse Lighthouse from the lee side

facing the shore ~ steadfast in wind and rain

masses of red osier dogwood grow near the lake

can’t get enough of those stormy days!

~~~~~

Easy Winter Veggie Bake
makes about six cups

colorful veggies

6 cups butternut squash, peeled and cubed
2 cups parsnips, peeled and cut into thick matchsticks
2 TB (or more if you dare!) roughly chopped garlic
6-8 small garlic cloves, peeled and cut in half
2 tsp good olive oil
salt and freshly ground black pepper
grated parmesan cheese (optional)

~~~~~

Toss everything together in a large bowl, except the optional cheese.
Place in a shallow baking pan. Bake 15 min at 375. Pour in about 1/4 c water, cover loosely with foil, and bake a further 30-45 minutes at 350, until veggies are soft.

Optional: in the last 10 minutes, uncover, sprinkle the top with grated cheese and allow to brown.

garlicky rich and delicious even without cheese!

“… let there be spaces in your togetherness and let the winds of the heavens dance between you…” – kahlil gibran

I took my heart home to my beloved Michigan on a blustery autumn weekend.

Something in the wild beauty of roaring wind and rolling waves feeds a craving that lives deep within my soul. There truly is no place like home.

“Roads go ever ever on,
Over rock and under tree,
By caves where never sun has shone,
By streams that never find the sea;
Over snow by winter sown,
And through the merry flowers of June,
Over grass and over stone,
And under mountains of the moon.

Roads go ever ever on
Under cloud and under star,
Yet feet that wandering have gone
Turn at last to home afar.
Eyes that fire and sword have seen
And horror in the halls of stone
Look at last on meadows green
And trees and hills they long have known”.

— J. R. R. Tolkein

Oh yes, at last to home, and my heart sings once more

butterscotch banana cake

My kids — funny monkeys that they are — will only eat green bananas.
Yesterday while cleaning the counter, I found three lovely ripe bananas they had hidden beneath the usual clutter. Thinking I could whip up something weight-watcher friendly, I went googling for ‘lowfat banana bread’.

I may roam far and wide across the internet, but I always end up back at the blogs I know and love. Here is the butterscotch chip-laced banana cake I made, inspired by ISG’s (inspired by Nupur’s) banana bread — thanks ladies!

Butterscotch Banana Cake

Dry ingredients:

1 1/2 c white whole wheat flour
(I used King Arthur’s)
2 TB splenda
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
pinch salt

Wet ingredients:

3 large ripe bananas, mashed
3 TB molasses
1 egg
1/2 c plain yogurt (I used Fage 2%)
2/3-3/4 c butterscotch chips

In a large bowl, stir together the dry ingredients. In another bowl, mash the bananas, then add the remaining wet ingredients and stir in the chips. Pour wet ingredients into the dry and stir to blend — don’t overmix. Spray an 8×8 pan with Pam (Pam for baking works great) and bake in a preheated oven at 350 for about 30 min, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

I used the toaster oven and it worked like a charm. No added fat, other than the egg, and I think this would work with just egg whites.

Even the kids loved this cake — and only 2 ww points per piece!

The garden is still plugging along. I picked every green tomato before trashing the poor blighted plants. Most are ripening indoors, in paper bags. I am thankful they weren’t a total loss! Eggplants are still blossoming, and the peppers were the amazing hit of the year. Serranos, hungarian wax (mild) and cayennes are still on the plants, in varying degrees of ripening.

Other treats include Chanchal okra — the best okra I have ever grown — three varieties of long beans, and the summer squash, planted late in July to avoid vine-borers, is bearing fruit now. I also got one, countem one ridge gourd!

And yes, the swiss chard I cut back to the root is growing once more

hungarian wax and serrano peppers, long beans, yellow and red tomato, chanchal okra, and never-fail ichiban eggplant, all in my favorite antique Munising bowl

my one ridge gourd — thanks, ISG!

tomatoes! left: anna russian, right: marianna’s peace, bottom: carmello, middle: lemon boy

highlight of the garden ~ beautiful ruby and fordhook swiss chard

Swiss chard is a vegetable from my childhood.
Nana always had a patch in her garden, and it was cooked up simply
with a little salt water, then sprinkled with vinegar and dotted with butter.

Back then we boiled greens within an inch of their life;
no wonder we kids couldn’t appreciate the goodness.

Nonetheless, when I had my first home, I couldn’t wait to try growing chard.
I got myself a nice pot and dutifully planted a few seeds.

O Joy, the green leaves sprouted easily and soon I had a little harvest awaiting me. I will never forget the day, I had my little son, only 2 years old at the time, out there barefoot with me in the yard, and when I came to cut the chard leaves from the plant, out came a million earwigs ready to bite!!

That was the end of chard for me, for a long time

Past few years I have grown it again, thankfully without earwigs. Last weekend
I went out to cut a bunch, and what to my wondering eyes should appear but a GIANT black caterpillar, of the ‘wooly bear’ type. Said caterpillar was happily munching away on a leaf, and I couldn’t bring myself to remove the bug or the plant. I looked him up online; I think it was one of these.

I waited for my son (now 21!) to arrive home before I cut off the whole plant at the base and had him carry it to the woods.

The caterpillar is welcome to the plant, but he can’t live on my deck.
Seems chard is destined to present a little challenge in my garden

Last night, I cut leaves from the remaining plants. They should grow anew long before frost comes, and I wanted something for dear ISG’s Chard Challenge! Thanks, ISG, for always inspiring me in garden and kitchen

Here, with kind permission from Jigyasa and Pratibha, is Pedatha’s recipe for Thotakoora Koora. I have substituted chard for the amaranth, and made a
lip-smacking “Thotakoora” Koora Rice (with chard).

“Thotakoora” Koora Rice with Swiss Chard
adapted with permission from Cooking At Home With Pedatha

chopped chard, sans caterpillars!

swiss chard, 1 bunch, chopped
roasted gram, 2-3 TB powdered
oil, 1 TB
Salt to taste

the paste

ginger, 1 in. piece
garlic, 2 flakes
coriander leaves, 1/2 c
green chillies, 4

the tempering

split black gram, husked, 1 tsp
mustard seeds, 2 tsp
turmeric powder, 1/4 tsp
asafoetida powder, 1 tsp
curry leaves, 6-7, with stem

my addition:
1/2 c sona masuri rice, rinsed well and drained

~~~~~~~~~~~

1. Chop the greens roughly, along with the tender stems.
This should amount to about 6 cups after chopping.
mine amounted to about 3 cups, and I should have halved the seasoning,
but the extra worked out great when cooking rice *in* the koora

2. Grind the ingredients for the paste using a little water.

3. In a wok, heat the oil for tempering. Add the gram; as it turns golden, pop the mustard. Lower the flame and add the turmeric, asafoetida, and curry leaves.

4. Add the greens, and stir. Cover and cook (until well done — original instructions).
I cooked partway, to allow for additional cooking time with rice

5. Now, add the paste and salt and continue to cook for 2-3 minutes.
here I added the rice and about 1 cup of water, covered and cooked about 15 min till the rice was done

6. Finally, switch off the flame and add the powdered gram.

From the book:
“Serve with steamed rice, or as a side dish in a meal.
Pedatha says, you may substitute spinach for the amaranth”.

Pedatha’s “Thotakoora Koora” Rice with swiss chard ~ packed up for
lunch at work today

What a delicious meal this made! When I warmed it up at noon, the aroma was even more amazing than when I cooked it last night.

This dish is going straight to you, dear ISG, for your yummy swiss chard challenge, with many thanks to you, dear Jigyasa and Pratibha, for your generosity of spirit in allowing me to share another of Pedatha’s delights ~ from the heart and hearth

chard will keep growing until frost ~ cutting the plant to the base brings healthy new growth

heirloom tomatoes in an heirloom munising bowl ~ a happy start to september

Late blight has wreaked havoc on potatoes and tomatoes over much of the US this year, spreading as far west as North Dakota, according to this article.
Fortunately, I am not depending on a potato crop… but of course it would be the year I tried to grow heirloom tomatoes!

Here in my northeastern garden, I’ve been fighting off the blight as best I can,
but I see it creeping in and I am hurrying to save every ripening tomato I can before the plants succumb.

From what I have read, many heirlooms are notoriously finicky, low-yielding, and more susceptible to disease than their hybrid cousins. Considering these factors, and the rampant spread of the fungus among-us, I feel fortunate to have at least a few vine-ripened treats.

Here are the tomatoes I picked last night; given time on the counter, they should finish ripening nicely. As for those left outside — I am hoping, with some TLC, they will see this through. If not, the good news is, late blight can’t survive the cold of a northern winter — and there’s always next year!

anna russian ~ very prolific with beautiful heart-shaped tomatoes ~
grown in the garden

carmello ~ one of the tallest plants at almost 7′ high ~
grown in a pot on the deck

goose creek ~ the one with an interesting history ~
grown in a recycling bin on the deck

lemon boy ~ a sweet yellow tomato ~ grown in a pot on the deck

sisters ~ this was supposed to be the one that produced when
all others failed, but I got one tomato ~ grown in the garden

mortgage lifter ~ interesting history to this as well, but I couldn’t pay
the rent on its low yields ~ grown in the garden

ichiban eggplant never disappoints, along with three varieties of long beans,
sugar crunch cukes, and beautiful chanchal okra

To read about Goose Creek and Mortgage Lifter, check out Laurel’s Favorites.
I bought all my heirloom plants from this company and was thrilled with them. They arrived healthy and happy all the way from California, grown from seed just for my order. I can’t and won’t judge the quality of the plants by how they survive this particularly difficult year. I think they were excellent, and I’ll be ordering again for next summer, come Labor Day weekend.

For the lovely Chanchal okra, long beans, and lots of others, check out a favorite seedmonger — Seeds of India, also the source of the little-curry-leaf-tree-that-could

I hope you got some tomatoes this year!

OK, so enough quasi-philosophical talk from me!
Time to get back to the kitchen.

It may not be the banner year for tomatoes that I had hoped,
but I am fortunate enough to have beautiful peppers in abundance.
Who am I to complain?

banana and serrano peppers from the garden

Ever since Shammi posted this recipe for baked (lowfat!) veg pakodas, I have been thinking of how much I love pepper and besan combo, and how much I wanted to make them with the peppers in the garden. Friday’s storm had me picking peppers like mad, so I had lots to play with and tonight I tried it.

I followed Shammi’s excellent recipe and instructions and only changed the ingredients a little — ok, I love cumin and peppers too!
I halved the recipe because I was experimenting and also using the toaster oven.

No dissertation is necessary; here’s how I made them:

Shammi’s Baked Pakodas with Banana Peppers

1 c chopped banana peppers
1/2 c chopped onion
1/3 c grated potato
1 serrano pepper, seeded and diced fine

1 tsp cumin pwd.
1 tsp kashmiri chile pwd.
1/2 tsp salt

1/2 c rice flour
1/2 c besan

1/2 TB canola oil
Pam and Olivio sprays

~~~~~

Microwave the peppers for 2 min with a TB water. When cooled slightly, mix in the onion, potato and serrano pepper.

Sprinkle the cumin, chile pwds and salt. Mix well.
Add flours, mixing well again. Sprinkle clean hands with water and begin to mix, stopping when the batter comes together tightly. It should be sticky.
For this quantity I used about 1 TB water.

Heat the oil to smoking and add to batter — allow to cool slightly and mix thoroughly.

Preheat the toaster oven and its tray to 350F. When hot, line the tray with wax paper sprayed with Pam. Scoop the pakodas into balls with hands or two spoons, flatten and spray lightly with Pam.

In the toaster oven I baked as follows:

For softer pakodas:

Leave the balls a bit thick and bake 7-8 min — turn over while the Pam is still liquid and bake an additional 3-4 min. This gives a nice bit of crisp on the outside while soft inside.

For crisper pakodas:

Press the balls a bit thinner and bake 10 min, then flip and spray with Olivio spray. Switch to toast setting and cook for 5 min. This gives crunchy results!

grated potato, with chopped banana and serrano peppers and onion

the mixed batter

pepper pakodas waiting to bake

Baking these in the toaster oven, I might try toasting the besan first next time –
to compensate for the lower energy heat.

Banana peppers come in hot and mild variety. Mine are mild — nevertheless when I seeded them, I got a very slight stinging sensation in my eyes. I tasted the peppers raw, but they didn’t seem spicy to me even though my tongue tingled a wee bit. Perhaps my tastes are changing for the better (read:hotter!)

Something else to do with banana peppers:

Shilpa’s Spicy Banana Peppers

and with peppers in general:

Colorado State Extension

banana pepper pakodas ~ crispy on the left, softer on the right ~ dipping sauce of anji panca mixed with yogurt

Thanks Shammi, they were delicious!!!
(PS — did I win a prize for using ‘mix’ the most times in one recipe???)

It’s been a stormy August. I’ve been pushed to the brink of my sanity; out of my mind with the ever-building heat raging round me, totally beyond my control.
This past Wednesday I could take it no more; needs must, when the devil drives.

I took a stand, said “enough, I don’t deserve to melt like
the Wicked Witch of the West”!!

And I wore my casual clothes to work.

Then Friday night was so stormy I feared the garden might be lost. A tornado watch was posted — a rarity for this part of the world. When I left work I could see a wall of dark clouds building to the west; once on the road I felt the wind rocking the car with joyful, reckless abandon.

Upon reaching home, one of the tomatoes on the deck had already toppled over in the gusts.

“Be Prepared”!! my old Girl Scout motto shouted, half in a panic from the depths of my brain, above the rising winds.

So half in a panic, I went to work picking every ripe pepper and brinjal — to save them of course — just in case, mind you.

Half in a panic, I set about making sure every container was full of water — well weighted down — and tightly tied to deck and stakes. After all, the little garden had already survived the New England monsoon of June, and the late-blight tomato scourge! I couldn’t walk away, desert it, and watch it be beaten to the ground just because this storm promised to be a bit rougher.

Once the garden was secured, I took a deep breath. A strange sense of calm came over me then; the calm that arrives once panic has passed. All at once, my heart and mind cleared as if a fog had lifted — and I was reminded of the larger lesson: you can’t be prepared for everything life throws at you. Faced with a problem, there is a choice: ignore it and let it consume you (and your garden) or address and resolve it.

I thought to myself, “I’ve done everything in my power. The rest is not up to me”.

Happily, the battering winds and rain passed (as they usually do), and the
garden survived. Oh, a few tomatoes blew off the vines before they were properly ripened, but with a little time and patience, they will ripen all the same — a testament to their hearty constitution.

It’s easy to think clearly once the panic has passed.
Sometimes I baby the garden a wee bit too much

banana and serrano peppers in safe harbor

I’ve been thinking — about life, love, and the pursuit of gardening, self-reliance, and happiness — all of which require courage in the face of adversity — courage to stand up and say, I am no longer afraid. Let the hurricane roar!

I will survive.

Here I am setting down, in no particular order, an eclectic mix of some favorite quotes — words of wisdom that bring me peace when my heart and brain are in overdrive.

Anyone else have a favorite?

“When you have no choice, mobilize the spirit of courage”.

– old jewish proverb

“Smooth seas do not make strong sailors”.

– african proverb

“The greater the difficulty the more glory in surmounting it. Skillful pilots gain their reputation from storms and tempests”.

– Epictetus

“True courage consists not in flying from the storms of life, but in braving and steering through them with prudence”.

– Hannah Webster Foster

“If you are patient in one moment of anger, you will avoid one hundred days of sorrow”.

– Chinese proverb

“Boys, there ain’t no free lunches in this country. And don’t go spending your whole life commiserating that you got the raw deals. You’ve got to say, I think that if I keep working at this and want it bad enough I can have it. It’s called perseverance”.

– Lee Iacocca

“Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time”.

– Thomas A. Edison

“Patience and perseverance have a magical effect before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish”.

– John Quincy Adams

“A diamond is a lump of coal that stuck with it”.

– unknown origin

“When you get in a tight place and everything goes against you, till it seems as though you could not hold on a minute longer, never give up then, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn”.

– Harriet Beecher Stowe

“Though you cannot go back and start again, you can start from now and have a brand new end”.

– unknown origin

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did so. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover”.

– Mark Twain

“The problem is not that there are problems. The problem is expecting otherwise and thinking that having problems is a problem”.

– Theodore Rubin

“March on. Do not tarry. To go forward is to move toward perfection. March on, and fear not the thorns, or the sharp stones on life’s path”.

“The optimist sees the rose and not its thorns; the pessimist stares at the thorns, oblivious of the rose”.

“Tenderness and kindness are not signs of weakness and despair but
manifestations of strength and resolution”.

–Khalil Gibran

“I have become my own version of an optimist. If I can’t make it through one door, I’ll go through another door – or I’ll make a door. Something terrific will come no matter how dark the present”.

– Rabindranath Tagore

“A friend is one before whom I may think aloud”.

– Ralph Waldo Emerson

“I can forgive, but I cannot forget, is only another way of saying, I will not forgive. Forgiveness ought to be like a cancelled note – torn in two, and burned up, so that it never can be shown against one”.

“Love cannot endure indifference. Like a lamp, it needs to be fed out of the oil of another’s heart, or its flame burns low”.

– Henry Ward Beecher

“Do not be afraid to cry. It will free your mind of sorrowful thoughts”.

– Hopi saying

“When we show our respect for other living things,
they respond with respect for us”.

– Arapaho saying

“Nobody is stronger, nobody is weaker than someone who came back. There is nothing you can do to such a person because whatever you could do is less than what has already been done to him. We have already paid the price”.

– Elie Wiesel

growing anew, in spite of the storms

the deck jungle still stands!

So to end this ramble, if you made it this far, thanks for listening!
Tomorrow it’s back to work, back to the kitchen, back to routine.
But tonight the little garden and I are laughing in the face of fear,
rockin’ out to the great Sir Elton John!!

“I’m still standing, better than I ever did…
Looking like a true survivor, feeling like a little kid…
I’m still standing after all this time…
Pickin’ up the pieces of my life… “

even down to one goose creek heirloom beginning to blush ripe…
who knows, maybe they will all surprise me!

remember the little curry leaf tree?
hope springs eternal…

sea creature? maxixe!

I loved all the guesses!

I found these maxixe or “Brazilian cucumber” at the farmers market. Although I have been picking cucumbers all summer, I couldn’t resist the look of them.

Shammi’s delightful Food In The Main was one of my first favorite blogs, and it remains a place I return to time and again for a healthy dose of delicious cooking (complete with step-by-step photos!) and dry wit. I can really relate to one recent post in which Shyam so eloquently struck a familiar chord in my little foodie heart:

“. . . I like having well-stocked kitchen cupboards – I have more things than I know what to do with, all of which I’ve bought on the off chance that I might need it for a recipe – because it would be a disaster if I didn’t have it when required. Sometimes I think I should just live in a supermarket . . . “

Upon reading this, all I could think was “oh, ME TOO”!!!

things like this speak to me from grocery shelves…

Case in point — this little treat found in a Latin American market earlier this summer. I had passed the place countless times when I worked in the area, but never ventured in. I caught sight of this gen-u-ine imported-from-Peru anji panca sauce for only $1.09, and of course I had to have it. I was sure I had read a hundred recipes calling for it, and would need it soon.

thick and rich anji panca sauce

Of course it’s been sitting on the counter for weeks now — not yet relegated to the pantry where myriad similar ‘necessities’ find themselves banished.

Since I had the Brazilian cucumbers, I thought I’d flavor them with the Peruvian pepper sauce. Those green spines had me a bit nervous, and they were chock full of seeds, so I decided to pressure cook the cukes with some dal.

Anji panca sauce is on the salty side, so I didn’t need salt.

Maxixe Dal with Anji Panca

Pressure cook the following:

1/4 c each toor dal and whole moong dal
1/2 c chopped onion
3-4 cloves garlic, chopped
5-6 maxixie, chopped
1 small piece of tamarind
2-3 red chillies (anji panca is *not* spicy)
drop of oil and pinch of turmeric

When done, mash the dal and stir in
1/4 c anji panca sauce

A simple tadka of cumin and curry leaves can be added.
Swirl in a little extra anji panca and it’s ready to serve.

maxixe dal with anji panca

While this tasted fantastic, I’m not sure I’d go for the maxixe again due to the millions of seeds. Anji panca on the other hand, is sure to find its way into many more meals!

hmm…..