holiday delights

2 years ago i made vegan chocolate truffles, and they were DEElicious. i'm going to make some this year, and i'm thinking about flavors.


in the past, the flavors i made were:

peanut butter
pumpkin spice (nutmeg, clove, cinnamon, mace)
curry-lime
chili-hibiscus

and they were delicious.

i used dagoba baking chocolate as well as some ghirardelli chips, and for the inside of all the truffles, i mixed the melted chocolate with cocoa butter, coconut milk, coconut butter, and the flavorings. i mixed them over the stove in a double-boiler, then put them in the fridge once they were uniformly mixed. when they cooled, the texture was like modeling clay. i used a melon baller to scoop out circles, then used a wooden skewer to dip each one into melted plain dark chocolate. i dusted each one with appropriate spices or decorated it with little dried bits of the ingredients.

anyway. this year i'm thinking of making more intricate little guys. like making a creme or something to put in the center with the chocolate instead of just blending the flavors in with the chocolate, like putting actual penanut butter on a bit of chocolate instead of blending the two. so you bite in and see peanut butter and chocolate. am i being redundant? i aim for clarity through this foggy mind of mine right now. i'm going through nicotine withdrawal. please forgive me.

so flavors i was thinking about maybe:

raspberry, using raspberry preserves

mint (maybe with a cream?)

peanut butter and honey

vanilla + sea salt

eh? eh? sounding good? i'm not sure yet.
also i think im making these for new years rather than christmas

oooh also maybe some liquors? a local place makes these champagne truffles that are SO damn good... i wonder how they do that. i want to do that!

maybe some with this lambrusco i bought a case of...

ok, well, we'll see how they turn out! let me know if you have any suggestions! <3

working like a dandelion

i'm working on a real website! i can be so scattered and silly about these things.

this one blog is difficult to maintain because i set a parameter around making this a food/health/garden blog. but i also like to make pretty things and sing and dance and party and travel and space out and wonder and wander, and i want to tell you about all those things, too! the other hard part is my lack of design skills. my craftswomanship is very simple. i have grand visions, but a tough time with the execution of it all. anyway. it isn't quite ready yet, but it may not be for awhile, so if you'd like to have a gander, mosey on.

late august garden update

so summer is falling down and its been raining for 4 days. i can't believe its almost over. this transition, summer into autumn, is my least favorite time of year. it makes my heart sink. all i can think about is making some big change in my life to keep me occupied enough not to fall prey to the sadness. the dreary-time-of-year deep blues. i better stock up on vitamin D supplements while i have an income. i'm already thinking of jumping off the deep end and moving to an unfamiliar place...

anyway. the garden is just becoming abundant. here and there i had little harvests, but now there are real meals going on. and soon it will be even more plentiful! there are so many big green tomatoes about to turn, and about a dozen cucumbers almost done plumping. the corn, oh, the corn! its not ready yet, but its got ears! and hair! like a real baby! i love my corn babies. i can't wait to partake in their delicious! here are some pictures:


the whole darn thing


nature's candy, sugar cherry tomatoes, everyones' favorite snack.


flamingo peppers... i'm not sure if they're done maturing so i let them get a little older for now...




the flowering bloody butcher corn, so pretty!



ground cherries. of the cossack pineapple variety. these things are so amazing. nutty and sweet and tangy and buttery almost... they're so odd and delicious!!! yum. and prolific plants, man.


sugar snap peas and muskmelon leaves... i can't wait for the melons!!!

there a lots more garden pics on flickr- cayenne pepper, 5-color peppers, more corn pics, broccoli, and such if it fancies you to look at growing things.







love

summer salad

i do not like lettuce. only butter/boston/bibb lettuce that is green and watery and not bitter at all. i do NOT like bitter lettuce. keep your endives and frisee, you gourmand. give me the sweet stuff.

i like to use herbs as my salad greens, and pea shoots are another fave. anyway. here's an easy, delicious salad to make when peaches are ripe and beautiful heirloom tomatoes are juicy.



cilantro, tomato, avocado, peach, and squeezes of lime+orange juices. that's it.
so good.

i made a small, personal portion and put it in a tortilla wrap, to go.

saucy saucy sauce.

my girl, disaster, has some garden-happy neighbors. they gave her enough roma tomatoes to fill a shopping basket to the brim. more the microwave-and-takeout type, she kept trying to pawn them off, and i'd have gladly taken them, but she was piqued when i said, SAUCE!

so. we did it!

roma tomatoes are made to be sauce. they are the sauciest saucy tomatoes.
they have nipples, like this:



to remove the skins, you can blanch them (boil in vigorously boiling water for about 30 seconds) and bathe them in cold water, then puncture the peel with a knife and it will slide right off.



"this must be what eyeballs feel like, right when you take them out of a skull and they're still warm." -jenny

after they're peeled, you have to squish them into submission.


it feels really smooshygoobleyucky like, in a fun way.



we sifted the seeds out, lots of them anyway, by using a collander and a sieve.



you end up with this brainy meaty paste and the juice


other ingredients:
garlic (a whole head, if you like it) diced
a large onion, diced
a handful of fresh herbs that you like- i used a whole bunch:
parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme, and oregano, and basil, all fresh from my garden, except the oregano.

i used a dash of red wine vinegar and paprika also.



i added chpped parsley and basil to the onions and garlic while browning them in a little cooking oil, with salt, and added the dash of vinegar at this stage also.




add the brains



and the juice


and sizzle it for awhile on low.

jenny made separate sauce. she added canned tomato puree and didnt use the tomato brains from the romas we prepared, just the juice. her sauce was a lot saucier:


she put a little too much crushed red pepper, and it was a spicey spicey sauce. still delicious, just a point to watch for next time.

i ate my sauce with gluten-free corn+quinoa spaghetti, and jenny used some ziti noodles. SOOOOOOOOO YUMMMY!!!!!! i saved the seeds so next year i can plant a giant roma tomato crop and do it again at greater volume. YUM.

simple snack/light meal

snack, originally uploaded by jacquelinedandelion.

times when i ate gluten and dairy, i would snack on buttered toast or grilled cheese when i was too hungry to cook. now, i make things more like this.

while i toasted a rice tortilla in the toaster, i got all the toppings out. easy peasy.
pea shoots, cilantro pesto (my mom made it earlier, cilantro, pine nuts, salt, olive oil, i think that's it) hummus (store bought) and hot sauce. yum. snack on.

garden update,early july

so, its easy to see that i planted late as my luscious little growing things are dwarfed by other local gardens. its ok, though, they're growing as well as they can.



cherry tomatoes have green future fruits, a couple of other tomatoes have flowers, as well as the zucchini, cucumbers, and musk melon.





also, my ground cherries have little husk pod things, like tomatillos do. last year, i had to give away my plants when i moved out of my apartment in august, and i gave away my ground cherries, which were assumed to be tomatillos and were consumed as such. so, i'm not sure what to expect from them. they're called pineapple ground cherries, so i assumed they would resemble one of those fruits in taste....

my brassicas were all chewed up. i pulled two caterpillars (cabbage worm) off two broccoli plants, and four more off the brussels sprouts. i am not sure if they are going to do well, they were pretty eaten up, plus they haven't grown much since i put them in the ground over a month ago... i hope they do. also, caterpillar poop is kind of cool looking, little green balls...



also, every eggplant plant i planted (plant a plant, plantyplants) has major bug bites. the leaves look like lace. i wonder why! i planted all the nightshades together, with aromatic herbs all about, and marigolds as well, with some carrots in between. i read that this was a way to repel the bad bugs. apparently, the eggplants are too delicious for the insects to resist... there is minimal damage to a few tomato leaves, and surprisingly to some basil, too, which i thought was unnatractive to leaf-eaters... apparently not. i hope some eggplants come up anyway, as i planted a variety of colors and shapes, and i just love eating things that look pretty and different. imagine the pretty kebabs! i rubbed all the leaves, hoping to kill any bugs i can't see. fingers crossed it works.



tomorrow, i'll sprinkle them with cayenne and hope that helps, too. i know its good for keeping animals away, not sure about insects... vinegar? does that work? soap? i've heard these things help... anyone? experience?

check out the little baby cornfield bed! there are like a hundred plants in here. 2 types, blue iriquois sweet corn and bloody butcher. i couldnt resist. i hope there will be speckly purple corn in the middle.



love <3

singing a song

here's a song i wrote while working on my friend's farm (one woman farm) last autumn. (read about it here:bigskydandelion, september 09




let's go to bed like carrots in the ground
carrots in the ground sleep so sound
ooh let's be carrots in the ground

let's go to sleep like weeds under the sea
weeds under the sea swaying in our dreams
ooh let's be weeds under the sea

let's make love like flowers do with bees
flowers and bees make the honey sweet
oh, let's be flowers, let's be bees

let's float along like dandelion seeds
dandelion seeds carried on the breeze
oh, let's be dandelion seeds.

july pie

july pie, originally uploaded by jacquelinedandelion.

here is a fun, festive, delicious project. it took precious time, but the end product was decadent and well-enjoyed. make this! its fun!

gluten free, vegan, made without sugar. mostly raw. made with so much love.

each layer was put in the food processor (except the garnish layer)

crust: dates, macs, almonds, vanilla bean, himalayan sea salt- pulse quickly, leaving the nuts chunky. use just enough dates to make it stick together.

thick chocolayer: avocado, cacao powder, agave nectar, cayenne (a pinch)- blend until smooth.

thin fruit layer: fresh raspberries, dehydrated watermelon, process well.

extra thin spontaneous layer: fresh mint, agave, lime juice, tiniest bit of fresh ginger, not really necessary, but added a little zing. process well.

creamy layer: coconut milk, lime juice, agave, ground fresh mint- this works well if you keep the coconut oil in the freezer for an hour or so, not to completely freeze it, but make sure its creamy. if your coconut milk separates into clearer watery stuff and cream, just use the cream. process to smooth. break the mint down on its own before adding everything else.

garnish: dehydrated watermelon slices cut into stars with cookie cutters + fresh chocolate mint.

i found it incredibly delicious. i never made anything like this before so i was nervous putting it out there for my friends and family, but the response was almost unanimously in love.

botany of desire

watch this movie: the botany of desire

featuring michael pollan, narrated by frances mcdormand, this film talks about how certain plants (apples, marijuana, potatoes, tulips) and humans depend upon each other, and manipulate the other to serve its own needs. its really interesting and a fun way to look at the evolution of species. enjoy!