Grow Your Own summer

Last summer I had an ill-advised plot in the local community garden. I never got there often enough and every time I returned for a guilt-induced weeding fest it looked like the set of a Tim Burton movie. Long story short, you could call it the opposite of a victory garden. It in fact inspired my new year's resolution to take more advantage of the farmer's markets around here and pick-your-own places because my energy is apparently much better spent in harvesting and cooking than in cultivating.

But with the return of spring weather a craziness comes over me, and this year I decided that a more manageable idea would be to grow the basics: just tomatoes and some herbs in pots on my porch. It was also part of my mission to festoon and enjoy the porch for all the precious months that New England weather allows.

I started off with 6 tomato plants (one yellow, the rest "beef" acquired as starts from the farmer's market) and saddly got going a little late in the season, maybe the first week in june?

I also got some rosemary, basil, lavender, and mint.

My next tragic error was getting pots that were a size too small, but because of this I ended up making a friend.

One night my across the street neighbor, the sweetest older gentleman you ever met, called across and told me it looked like my pots were too small. When I went across to chat he revealed that pretty much he is a tomato-growing guru. There were dozens of plants all around the perimeter of his house and yard, camouflaged behind sunflowers, all grown in buckets and containers. He told me that his wife, who had passed away, used to call him a "pot farmer" because of how he grew them in pots! Ha, as if you weren't a Stoned Soup Club hero already!

As the summer went on he continued to give me pointers (and tomatoes, and sunflowers) and promised me seeds from his patch next summer-- he dries and saves his own, of course.

I spent a lot of time on the porch, the herbs did pretty well and adorned many a summer drink, and I added some mini zinnias and snapdragons in the too-small containers. We got about a dozen small tomatoes from the plants (all except the yellow ones, which tanked) and a lot of know-how for next year.

Further pictures and adventures in green thumbs to come!

The Surprising Appearance of Fall, or, "Where Have You Been All Summer?"

As I sit here at my computer with a glass of my favorite $5-a-bottle Pinot Noir, I feel a chill coming from my window. School is back in session, we've all busted out the sweaters for the nightly dip in temperatures, and I wonder to myself, "Where the hell did summer go?" And then I remember. It went to parties, sleeping late, weekend trips to New York, dancing, swimming, Cape Cod vacations, short shorts, and general heat-induced laziness. This is our first post since the start of summer, but who can blame us when there are so many other fun things to do? But now it's fall and we're back on track, dedicating ourselves to bringing you tasty recipes, crafty projects, and Stoned Secrets every week. Starting....NOW!

Personally, I love summer, and wish it would stick around forever. I mean seriously, what's not to love? But if there is one positive that I can find in cooler temperatures, it's that it makes me really want to cook again. When it's a bit chilly, I don't mind leaning over a hot frying pan, or increasing my house temperature 10 degrees by turning on the oven. So, I embraced the recent crisp breezes by whipping up my first real fall meal. The idea was inspired by one night in a local bar, where the dinner special happened to be Shepherds Pie. The guy next to me ordered it as we watched the first football game of the season, and after it was delivered to him, I could not take my eyes off it. Maybe it was the 3 Steel Rails I had before that, but I wanted to eat it, bad, and I cursed my vegetarian morals harder than ever for not allowing myself the satisfaction of ingesting the savory meaty goodness. But then I realized that this recipe would be a cinch to make veggie-friendly, and I vowed to appease my hunger the very next night.

If you already know how to make regular Shepherds Pie, then making Vegetarian Shepherds Pie* is quite simple. Take out the real meat, put in fake meat, and enjoy. But for all of those who have never tackled this entree, I'll list my full recipe at the bottom. My roommate and I ate the whole pan up REAL quick, even just between the two of us. It makes great leftovers, and keeps you full for quite some time.

As we sat in our living room, eating our piping hot meal in our nice and toasty house, I could not help but feel extremely satisfied. I got the meal that I wanted, the way that I wanted it, and was back in my apron once again. And then I realized, maybe fall aint so bad.

-Nikki


*Recipes featured in this meeting:

Vegetarian Shepherds Pie

You will need-

4 large White, Red, or Yukon Gold potatoes (or any mixture therein)
1 large Sweet Potato
1/3 cup Soy milk (or regular, if not making vegan)
1/4 cup of margarine or butter
1 Tube of Gimme Lean Meat-Free Beef, or 1 package of Morning Star Vegetarian Burger Crumbles
3-4 tablespoons olive oil
Several cloves of garlic (depending on how much you like garlic)
1 small onion
1 large carrot
1 can of peas, drained
1 can of corn, drained
2 Tablespoons of soy sauce (Did you know that 1 packet of soy sauce leftover from the last time you ordered Chinese take-out equals 1 tablespoon? Really freaking convenient!)
1 cup vegetable stock
Spices (I suggest rosemary, ground mustard, cayenne pepper, salt, and black pepper)
1/4 cup flour


1. Set your oven to 350 degrees. Bring a salted pot of water to a boil. Peel potatoes (take as much or as little as you want off, sometimes skin is good!) and cut into small cubes. Cook for about 15 minutes. Drain, mash the potatoes, mix in milk and butter, and add salt and pepper to taste. Set aside.

2. Dice garlic, and cook in olive oil for about 2 minutes. Add diced onions, cook for 2 more minutes. Add carrots, cook for 2 more minutes. Add fake beef (if you're using Gimme Lean, my personal favorite, you are going to need to dice it up really well first. Once it starts coooking you can even crumble it further with your spatula) and cook for 5-7 minutes, until meat starts to brown. Add peas and corn, stir for 1 minute. Add vegetable stock and soy sauce, and let simmer for a few minutes on low. I like to add the liquids closer to the end, as it can make the beef a little mushy. As it simmers add spices to your preference; I used an equivalent of about a half a tablespoon of each. Lastly, sprinkle flour over vegetables and stir. This will thicken up your mixture and make it much more hearty.

3. In a 9x12 baking pan, spread vegetable mixture into a flat layer. Spread potatoes on top, and then sprinkle with cayenne pepper (mostly for looks). Cook pie for 30 minutes, allow to cool, slice, and enjoy!



In case you've been living under a rock and don't know what Shepherd's Pie looks like, here it is:



And cut up:

Little Boxes

Not to get all gooey about it, but sometimes a person you like a lot does something you're really proud of, and hence you smoke a little and get carried away with a wrapping job. My talented fella is graduating from photography school this week. (Let me step right up and state he hasn't taken any pictures on this blog; they're rubbish, I know) I had some free time on my hands tonight and started doodling. One part of the gift is yet to arrive in the mail, so I'll try to take a picture of the finished masterpiece later.

Just a little something to keep this blog sweet. It's been a while since we posted but can anyone blame us? Summer weather is here! Stay tuned for adventures in gardening, new frontiers in punch recipe creation, legendary picnics and all aspects of The Good Life.

The Importance of Eating Brunch

I, like many other people I know, have a strong love/hate relationship with Sundays. It's lazy, it's the weekend, but soon, the dreaded Monday will rear it's ugly head, and the prospect of that can ruin any day off. Now obviously this only applies to people whose job forces them into The Daily Grind. If you have a job where Monday morning is of no real source of misery, well, fuck you, and consider yourself lucky. But for the majority of us, Sunday sometimes needs some saving. And that, my friends, is where Brunch comes in.

Sunday Brunch, in my opinion, is the best meal that can happen all week. I LOVE breakfast, but the problem with breakfast is that it happens in the morning. I do NOT like the morning, or anything contained within it. So for Sunday Brunch, I just have it at whatever time I wake up. Brunch doesn't necessarily need a set time, as long as it's in the afternoon and it's the first meal you eat. We've eaten Brunch as early as noon, and as late as 4. Brunch is flexible. I like that. Brunch also encourages drinking in the afternoon, another thing that I really like. Being tipsy while it's still daylight out is a MUCH different feeling than normal night drinking. Lastly, some really clutch foods are associated with Brunch, and they are all SO filling. So lets review- Breakfast foods served at a later time, drinking in the afternoon, being full for pretty much the rest of the day...all of these seem to add up to a very winning combination.

The Stoned Soup Club approaches Brunch from a different perspective every week. Maybe this week we want simple fried eggs and homefries with lots of crazy crap added in (think tempura, sweet onion, spinach, asparagus, and mozzarella cheese). Maybe next week we want simple roasted potatoes, and scrambled eggs with lots of crazy crap added in (think veggie sausage, peppers, mushrooms, onions, and cheddar cheese). Maybe the week after that we watch French Toast! We tend to wake up, look in our respective fridges, and then shoot from the hip. This is a great time to experiment with different veggies, different cheeses, different spices. So many things taste so good in various combinations, it's fun to just use what's in season at the moment as inspiration, and get creative.

The recipe included at the end of this blog was our most daring feat yet, Asparagus and Tomato Eggs Benedict*. We long put off attempting the process of learning to poach an egg, as it seemed just too overwhelming a feat, but once we got over our fear and faced it head on, we realized it's not so scary at all, and actually a fascinating wonder of science. As my roommate so poetically put it, "I looked into the eye of the whirlpool and saw the egg within." Although, he might have just been making fun of us for being stoned and thinking that the centrifugal force at work in solidifying the eggs whites was just about the coolest thing we've ever seen. Either way, we had a good time, and that's all that matters. But we also now know that we have the ability to concoct an 1000 calorie breakfast item pretty easily, and that is dangerous information to have.

So the next time you wake up some Sunday hungover, hungry, and bummed about having to start yet another long and tedious work week, round up some friends, mix up a batch of Cape Cod Mimosas*, and let Brunch cure what ails you.

-Nikki


*Recipes featured in this meeting:


Asparagus and Tomato Eggs Benedict

You will need:

Hollandaise Sauce-

4 eggs yolks
1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 cup of butter
A few dashes of Cayenne pepper
Freshly ground pepper
Freshly ground sea salt

1. In a blender, combine egg yolks, mustard, lemon juice, pepper and salt. Blend on low for a few seconds.
2. In the microwave, melt the butter, but make sure not to burn it.
3. While blending on high, SLOWLY pour the butter into the mixture in a steady, thin stream. Mixture will eventually thicken.
4. Place the blender container in a bowl of hot tap water to keep it warm until use.


The Benedict-

(For the sake of simplicity, this will make a full Benedict for 1 person. If you're feeding more people than that, you do the math.)

2 eggs
1 English muffin, cut in half and toasted
Butter
2 slices of tomato
4 pieces of asparagus
2 teaspoons of white distilled vinegar

1. Cook asparagus on a baking sheet, coated with olive oil, sea salt, and pepper for 10 minutes at 350 degrees.
2. Bring a pot of water to a boil for egg poaching. Once it starts to boil, lower it to a simmer. This is really important. The water needs to be hot, but it shouldn't have bubbles breaking the surface.
3. Add vinegar to the water and stir. The vinegar helps keep the whites from breaking off in the water.
4. Break one egg into a tiny bowl or ramekin. Stir the water in a circle, and slide the egg into the middle of the pot. Try to bring the bowl as close to the water as possible. The egg should remain mostly in the center, and solidify before your eyes. Leave for 3-4 minutes. DO NOT touch it until it's done! I know it's tempting, but restrain yourself.
5. Toast the English Muffin, and spread liberally with butter.
6. Place a slice of tomato on each half, as well as 2 pieces of asparagus.
7. Remove the egg from the water with a slotted spoon, allow all water to drain out, and slowly slide over the English muffin.
8. Repeat for 2nd egg.
9. Pour hollandaise sauce over the top.


Cape Cod Mimosas-

Champagne
Orange Juice
Cranberry juice (100% juice is always encouraged. We once tried Ocean Spray 100% Cranberry/Pomegranate Juice, and it was AWESOME )

1. Fill wine glass half full with champagne.
2. Fill the remainder of the glass with orange juice, leaving a little space at the top.
3. Add splash of cranberry juice.
4. Get drunk.

It's business time

Big things are brewing for the Stoned Soup Club. This Sunday we are pleased as punch* to be serving veggie chilli and cornbread at the grand re-opening of the Flywheel in Easthampton. We will be rocking the flea market to sate the appetites of hungry crafters and hipsters alike. And of course we wanted to drum up some recognition for this sweet little blog, so business cards seemed like a good idea...except with all our other recent activities certain things fell by the wayside, and thus we come to Stone Project #1: Making Business Cards. I essentially survived high school because of constant doodling. No matter the subject, I bet I doodled in it. Thank goodness I can now look back and realize how worth it all that practice was. Presenting, our one-of-a-kind hand doodled business cards. It's like having 24 differnt logos to pick from! Grab yourself a glass of wine or spark something up. Spell Check Yo Self. Get a pen you really like and some quality paper, and have at it. Instant Business Cards.

Stay tuned for more about the flea market!

*A note on punch:A certain Commander in Chief of the stoned soup forces recently inherited a punch bowl. Many good times have since revolved around this delightful piece of entertaining equipment. More recipes and scandalous stories to follow.

Pi(e) Day 2010

Perhaps you have been feeling a void in your life lately and thinking "Gee, it's been a while since those gals at the Stoned Soup Club made up a wicked awesome holiday..." well friends, we are one step ahead of you, except that the holiday already happened and I have been lazy about posting so in fact we are probably a step behind. Know that this is only because the SS Club has a lot of things in the works for the month of April, and our energies have been devoted elsewhere-- more on this soon.

Speaking of March, what a long pointless month! No long weekends, 31 days of heartbreaking

fake out almost-spring weather, and aside from St. Patrick's day, nary a holiday in sight. That is until we combined out love of pie with our hazy memory of high school mathematics and Eureeka! Pi(e) day was born. We have set aside 3.14 (March 14th) to be an annual celebration of eating pies and we set the bar with our first one.

On the menu were 2 savory pies (a vegetable pot pie courtesy of Vegetarian Times and a mushroom and goat cheese pie made up by mac whose recipe follows below) and 2 sweet pies (vegan chocolate with a granola crust, and a heavenly apple cream pie made by

some SS Club associates). But the true beauty of pie day is that you can never have too much! Pi is an infinite number.

Other things that make a party fun: having a crafty project for your guests. We cut a bunch of pie-wedge style flags out of brown paper bags, invited guests to decorate them, and then sewed them together lickety split to create these charming banners. Particular love goes out to an SS Club favorite who took the time to look up Pi online and wrote out as many decimal places as would fit on his wedge. Which also caused us to realize that the 5th year anniversary of Pi(e) day will be 3.14 2015, and you may or may not know that the next two digits of pi are? Yep, 3.1415. We have already dubbed this highly anticipated future event Super Pi(e) day. Where will YOU be on future 3.14s? Hopefully taking some time out from the middle of a tedious month to celebrate the fact that winter is almost over, and eat some delicious pie with friends.

Mushroom Goat Cheese Pie

Crust: Okay, so I think the reason that a lot of people get intimidated by pie-making is the crust. It seems like such a process to make one, but let's face it, store-bought crusts are a cop out and

you know it. And home made crusts are really a lot easier than you think. Here's all you need:

2 sticks of butter, really cold, cut into small chunks

2 1/2 cups flour

1 tsp sugar

1 tsp salt

a few tablespoons of ICE COLD water. I am serious. put some ice cubes in a cup of water.

rolling pin

wax paper

Why all this

coldness? Because the secret to a good flaky pie crust is to not work up the gluten in the flour, and keeping all things cold (plus handling the dough as little as possible) will keep that gluten at bay.

Combine the sugar, salt, and flour in a bowl.

Add your chunks of butter to the flour, crumbling it together with you hands. Some people use a pastry-cutter type tool for this. If you have one, knock yourself out. But as we like to say in our kitchens "Hey, fingers work just fine!" Try not to knead the butter and flour too much, in fact it is okay if there are some small lumps of butter still left in tact, but you do want it to be mixed pretty well before adding your ice water, a table spoon at a time-- less water also equals lower gluten work up, and a dryer, flakier dough. You don't want your dough to be sticky, it makes the next step trickier.

The Next Step:

Divide your dough into equal portions. Place one on a sheet of waxed paper, then cover with an equal-sized sheet of wax paper. Use your rolling pin to smooth the dough out evenly between the pieces of wax paper. (It is a fun under-the-influence activity to control the direction the dough spreads in via the power of your mighty rolling pin, but again, we urge you to not get too wrapped up in this and discover that you have spent the last 20 minutes rolling the dough into a layer so thin that you can see through it)

Set aside the dough still within it's wax paper (in a fridge is ideal) and give portion #2 the same treatment.

Remove the half you first set aside in the fridge, peel one side of the wax paper off carefully, flip the exposed-dough side down into your pie pan, and peel off the other layer of wax paper. There are all manner of techniques to make the edges of your crust pretty. I like to just roll the dough up so that it is all on the edge of the pie pan (not hanging over the sides) and then pinch it between my fingers at regular intervals.

The second layer that you set aside will eventually become the top layer of crust after you have added your filling. Usually I like to get the bottom crust installed in the pan, then put it all back in the fridge to deal with the filling knowing that the stressful part is over.

The beauty of pie is that you can fill it with whatever the ding dang dong you want! For this recipe I sauteed a bunch of shitake, porcini, and white mushrooms in some butter with an onion, thyme, rosemary, sage, salt, and pepper. I also added a splash of sherry. Mmm. Mushrooms release a lot of water as they cook, so don't be afraid to cook them uncovered even if they seem dry at first. Also, let them stand for a few minutes and cool before pouring it all into your crust.

Once you have filled your pie crust with mushroomy goodness, top with some medallions of goat cheese, and the top layer of crust. Bake it at 350 for 25ish minutes.

Eat with pride that you have mastered the elusive (but not really that complicated) art of the crust.

*A final serving suggestion: yes, pie on its own is awesome, but pie with mashed potatoes is even better. Ours were roasted garlic and we threw in a sweet potato, too.

The World's Greatest Vegetarian Chili, and 101 Things to Do With the Leftovers

I LOVE spicy food. And when I say spicy, I mean like, really spicy. Like flaming hot, nose dripping, eyes watering, spicy. You ever see that episode of the Simpsons with the Guatemalan Insanity Peppers? That kind of spicy. Honestly, I find it cathartic. After a good spicy meal I feel so cleansed and refreshed, like everything unpleasant has been just purged from my body. It was this love that caused me to search for, and perfect, The World's Greatest Vegetarian Chili.

This recipe is an optimal cure for the winter blues, when you just can't seem to get warm no matter how hard you try. But in general it's good anytime, and will fill you up like no other vegetarian meal can. It will also greatly impress die hard meat eaters, as it tastes almost identical as normal chili, but substantially less greasy. There are a few things to note on this recipe:

1. The recipe, as written, produces a VERY spicy chili. My introduction is no joke. So if you think you are less brave than myself, replace the Habanero pepper with a slightly less powerful pepper, such as Jalapeno's. Also, when cutting the Habanero, be sure to wash your hands afterward!! I cannot stress this enough. I once forgot to heed this advice. Sometime later, while cooking, I encountered an itchy eye. Obviously, I scratched it. Let me tell you....Habanero juice + eyeballs= excruciating pain for hours. So be a good chef and wash your hands, and probably your cutting board/knife as well.

2. This recipe, as written, produces a LOT of chili. The first time I made it I was shocked at how much it turned out to be, as it practically reached the brim of my biggest soup pot. So be ready with something big to cook this in. For this reason I have added a special section in the end for what to do with all your tasty leftovers, which have historically lasted me over 2 weeks.

3. Lastly, this recipe, as written, is in conjunction with MY taste. I know there are definitely other things people add to chili, such as celery, but to be honest I downright loathe celery, so I don't include it in mine. It sounds selfish, but I cook for me, and if you want some too, awesome, but it's going to have the stuff I like in it. So feel free to add or take away any of the vegetables listed, and I'm sure it will still taste just as good; it's really the spices that make it what it is.

Without further ado, the recipe:


The World's Greatest Vegetarian Chili (or, as I have dubbed it, Vegetarian Insanity Chili™)

You will need:

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 2 tablespoons dried oregano
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 1 green bell pepper chopped
• 1 red bell pepper, chopped
  
• 1 Habanero pepper, chopped
• 1 large portobello mushroom cap
• 2 carrots, chopped
  
• 3 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 (12 ounce) package vegetarian burger crumbles
• 3 (28 ounce) cans whole peeled tomatoes, chopped by hand
  
• 1/4 cup chili powder
• 1 tablespoon ground black pepper
• 1 (15 ounce) can kidney beans, drained
• 1 (15 ounce) can garbanzo beans, drained
• 1 (15 ounce) can black beans, drained
  
• 1 (15 ounce) can whole kernel corn

1. Heat the olive oil in a large pot over medium heat. Stir in the onion, and season with bay leaves, cumin, oregano, and salt. Cook and stir until onion is tender, then mix in all peppers, carrots, and garlic. When vegetables are heated through, mix in chopped mushroom and vegetarian burger crumbles. Reduce heat to low, cover pot, and simmer 5 minutes.
2. Mix the tomatoes into the pot. Season with chili powder and pepper. Stir in the kidney beans, garbanzo beans, and black beans. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low, and simmer 45 minutes, stirring frequently.
   
3. Stir in the corn, and continue cooking 5 minutes before serving. Allow 5 minutes to cool. Best served with Hungry Ghost Bread, a delightful Northampton business that the SS Club basically couldn't live without.
   

So now you and your 6 friends are full of spicy vegetarian goodness, but you still have half a large soup pot leftover. What to do?! Fret not, as we have encountered this problem many times and have come up with many a fantastic solution. We may not actually have 101 suggestions, but I'm sure the ones we do will help you polish off the remainder.

1. Chili Eggs- My personal favorite leftover recipe. Crack 2 and 1/2 eggs for every person you are feeding into a bowl. For 2-4 people, add 1/2 cup of chili directly into the bowl. For 4+, try 2/3 cup. Drop a handful of shredded cheddar cheese also into the bowl, and mix well. Fry up with a tablespoon of olive oil, and you will have a serious breakfast on your hands.

2. Vegetarian Chili Dogs- Like what you can buy off a guy on a NYC street with a cart, only healthier. We recommend Smart Dogs as the superior fake-hot dog brand. Just heat up a bit of chili in the microwave, slather on top of your hot dog, and enjoy.

3. Chili Cheese Fries- 2am? Stoned? Starving? Just throw some french fries into the oven, and top with heated chili and cheese. You will be a very happy camper.


Now go forth and make chili. But if you find yourself running around your kitchen in desperate need for a glass of water, don't say I didn't warn you. Wimp.

-Nikki