Purslane!

It has been an industrious afternoon. Got some deep cleaning done in the 'ol bathroom and kitchen. Good times.

Light, short work-day at the climbing gym, folks, so I had a lot of time to play around in the kitchen this afternoon...And a big new box of CSA goodies, too! Delicious things happened, and they happened with gusto.

First, let's talk SCAPES. Wonderful, delightful garlic scapes. A tastydactyl that I was introduced to last year working in Vermont. What a treat! Today, I took the advice from my Frog Holler friends (pressed to me via my CSA newsletter) to make garlic scape pesto. Here's the recipe, folks! It's delightfus!



Garlic Scape Pesto

9 garlic scapes, chopped up
1/3 cup walnuts
1/2 cup safflower oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Put the scapes and walnuts into a food processor and process until smooth and blended. While processing, add in a little oil at a time until entirely incorporated. Stir in salt and pepper!

Easy peasy lemon squeezy. I have also taken their advice to put some of the pesto into an ice cube tray to freeze for future individual servings of pesto when the season is over. Hurray!

I did get to use the pesto immediately, as well. I made a WONDERFUL sandwich. This sandwich was made wonderful by another special surprise in this week's CSA box.

FROG HOLLER, THANK YOU. THANK YOU FOR



PURSLANE.



This marvelous little green took my sandwich to the next level. I did nothing to it (although there are plenty of options). I just put it on my sandwich, straight up. Friends, purslane is new to me, and I am already SOLD.

What else was on this sandwich? Well, I toasted a piece of bread, spread it with Earth Balance, Veganaise, and my scape pesto. On top of this went the purslane. Next, two pieces of baked tofu, which I had pressed and soaked in a marinade composed of safflower oil, maple syrup, tamari, and liquid smoke (I like to keep a bag of this mixture on-hand in my fridge whenever I want a tofu sandwich). Finally, I buried the whole thing in Frog Holler lettuce. Bliss.



BUT I'M NOT DONE YET, KIDS.

I had some bananas on their way out. Naturally, I made banana muffins.

Banana Nut Muffins

2 medium ripe bananas
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup safflower oil
1/2 cup vanilla soy milk
1 3/4 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda (I don't know if this is actually necessary, I put it in mindlessly)
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
A handful or so of chopped walnuts

Preheat the oven to 350. Mash the bananas in a medium bowl, and mix with the sugar, oil, and soy milk. In a separate, smaller bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. Add the dry mixture to the wet mixture and stir until totally incorporated. Finally, throw in the walnuts! Prepare a muffin pan, and start filling it up. For me, this made exactly enough batter for 12 muffins. Bake for approximately 25 minutes. Allow to cool in the pan for 10 minutes before you go letting them cool on a rack.



Enjoy, kids! I sure did. Now, off for some night riding in town. Use lights. Wear helmets.