THE SHOW MUST GO ON.

Hello, friends.

It's been awhile since we've updated. Our apologies. Following the loss of Oops! beloved mascot and favorite team member, Carly, kitchen inspiration was lost. I ate a lot of crap for two weeks because I was lacking any and all creativity for cooking. Cereal happened to be dinner often. Or vegan pizza roll knock-offs.

Additionally, I was away for a bit competing in the Great Lakes Relay, a running race that goes across the Great Mitten State, starting in Rogers City and ending on the shore of Lake Michigan in Empire. Although my team suffered disastrous injuries and ultimately spent the third day playing Wiffle ball and drinking booze at the finish line instead of running, it was a good, adventurous time. Cars wouldn't start when we'd need to be at the starting line, runners were lost as a result of terrible directions, interesting people were seen engaging in such activities as walking their dogs out the windows of their trucks while towing a boat, having to drive underneath a developing tornado on the way home...Adventure! Curiosities! Danger! And long walks on the beach, holding a pole proudly displaying our team number (78).



Anyhow, I'm sure you're looking forward to the recipe that marks our valiant return. It is a lovely one!

Chocolate Chip Zucchini Bars



Preheat oven to 325.

1/6 block of tofu
1/3 cup soy milk
4 T Earth Balance

Combine in food processor until smooth. Add

3/4 cup light brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar

Put into a medium-sized bowl. In a smaller bowl, mix
1 1/4 cups whole wheat flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground cloves

Add the bowl of dry ingredients to the wet ingredients. Mix until smooth. If it's too dry, add a little soy milk as necessary. Mix in
1 1/2 cups grated zucchini or other summer squash
1/2 cup chocolate chips

Put into greased 8-inch round pan, and spread with spatula. Cook for 30-35 minutes, or until a tooth-pick comes out clean. Delightfus!



Wait until it's cool to cut it, too.

A Tribute to my Furry Bestie

Carly Butters Pooper Hebert: May 4th 1995-July 13th 2010. She loved the kitchen.

We love you!

Look at those yogas doing hippy.

Hello, hello!

Xtina and I have recently returned from a weekend of bliss...at the Blissfest! This year was the 30th anniversary of the event. Blissfest is just one of many lovely hippy jam fests that keep The Mitten swinging throughout the summer.



Although our initial arrival was NOT blissful (hippies aren't super-organized people, so getting through the line-up at the gates was a long wait. We saw the Thai-food-booth-guy get pulled over by the sheriff, too), we left blissed OUT. A wonderful weekend!



It's obvious that we here at Oops! love to enjoy Michigan products on our stove-tops, in our beer mugs, and our wine glasses. Well, we also like to jam to Michigan's home-grown tunes. Some of the local fair we enjoyed at the festival?


The Billy King Band [special plug for these cats ;)]
May Erlewine and Samuel Seth Bernard
Josh Davis (remember our love for him?)
My Dear Disco
Rachel Davis
And many many more...



These were performers X and I were already quite familiar with, but there were new artists that were a great pleasure to come across, and not all from Michigan alone. The most pleasant new discovery of the weekend? FISHTANK ENSEMBLE. Everyone should check these cats out. Their shows were a serious mind-fuck. We were left wanting much more, but they journeyed beyond the festival after one day. Incredibly energetic and outrageously talented individuals, and with fascinating travel tales to boot.

If you've never been to a hippy jam fest, we highly encourage you to attend one. Other notable parts of our vacation included: 9 men in skirts, naked-overalls-man, the drum kiva, children, shockingly excellent festival food, dancing next to Lady Gaga (or just an old woman dressed like Lady Gaga), music workshops, and an abundance of fascinating and friendly people. Want to join us some time? CHECK OUT HOLLER FEST! The Oops! Team will be there, and we'd love to meet you.

Junk Food Veganism, Part Two: Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

Happy July dear friends!

You may remember my recent post on junk food veganism. I must report that I have since reformed my ways, thanks in part to all the delicious produce infiltrating the fertile fields of Michigan, and hence my kitchen. Before I start posting about that stuff though, I must include this last - although certainly not final - junk food recipe. My boss's seven-year-old proclaimed these cookies to be 'THE BEST!!' she'd ever had. I like this recipe cause it's easy, and features one of my favorite ways to make desserts super-classy without actually trying: a simple sprinkle of sea salt before baking. Onward!

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies, adapted from Heidi Swanson's recipe

2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 cup peanut butter (be sure to use a natural kind if you want to brag that there's no refined sugars in these cookies)
1 cup maple syrup
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup (or more!) of dark chocolate chips
a pinch or two of sea salt

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Mix the flour, baking soda and salt in a bowl. Combine all the other ingredients except the chocolate chips in another bowl, and pour the wet mixture over the dry. Stir until everything is just combined. Pour in the chocolate chips and mix a little more. Drop spoonfuls of dough onto a cookie sheet and sprinkle each cookie with a little but of sea salt. Bake for 10 or 11 minutes. Transfer to a rack and cool.

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.

Junk Food Veganism, Part One: Ginger Ice Cream

It is a myth among clueless omnivores (and vegetarians who should know better) that all vegan food is healthy. Veganland is a place filled with sprouted whole-grain bread, enormous locally-sourced salads and steamed tofu rolls right? Don't forget dessert - a bowl of seasonal fruit!! Raw fruit.

Wrong. Even though I'm eating some summer raspberries fresh from the bush in the backyard.

I have to make a confession: During the past week or so, I have become a junk food vegan. Instead of making the time to prepare nourishing food from the bountiful plant kingdom, in my busy week I've turned to kingdom of highly-processed vegetable oils and starch.

At least it's vegan starch?

Eating vegan junk food for a week straight hasn't left me feeling very good. Trouble sleeping at night, perpetual dehydration - from all those salty potato chips no doubt - and general sluggishness makes all my excuses seem like, well, excuses. I'm here to emphasize that eating junk food, even if its vegan, for an extended amount of time is detrimental!

That being said, I made some awesome dairy-free ice cream. Please incorporate this into a balanced diet and only after you've eaten your veggies and plant-based protein.

Ginger Lemongrass Ice Cream

3 cups coconut milk
1/2 cup sugar
3 tablespoons grated ginger
1/2 cup candied ginger pieces, chopped
2 stalks fresh lemongrass, chopped
2 tablespoons cornstarch

Make sure your ice cream maker's frozen bowl part is frozen. Prepare the lemongrass - remove the green leaves from the pale stalk and discard. Peel the outer layer or two of the stalk, and chop into small pieces. Tie a square of cheesecloth around the lemongrass and set aside. Pour the coconut milk into a saucepan over medium heat and bring just below a boil. Stir in the grated ginger and drop the lemongrass-laden cheesecloth into the milk, sort of like a tea bag! Turn off the heat and let steep for twenty minutes or so. This process infuses the milk with lots of flavor-flav.

Has it been twenty minutes? Good! Turn the heat back on under the pan and remove the cheesecloth. The ginger stays. Give it a good stir and get ready to prepare your cornstarch slurry. In a small bowl, dissolve the cornstarch with a few tablespoons more coconut milk. Once that's taken care of, add to the just-below-boiling milk and stir, baby, stir, until the mixture is thick. Do the spoon test: if you can coat your spoon with milk, draw a line on the back with your finger, and the line remains intact? It's thick enough.

Remove from heat and cool. This part sadly takes an hour or two in the fridge. Try to be patient, and maybe eat some potato chips while you're waiting. Oreos would work too.

Once the mixture is cool, freeze in your ice cream maker according to directions. At the very end, stir in your candied ginger pieces - or if you don't have any of those, some more chopped ginger. Transfer the ice cream to a container and keep in the freezer.

YUM THAT WAS FUN! Southeast Michigan is getting steamy outside, so expect more ice cream posts soon.

Vos Tot Lot. And Oatmeal.

Hello, hello, hello. Who wants oatmeal?

YOU WILL!

I had some leftover grated carrots from another recipe that needed using, so I went with a breakfast staple that I often made working on the farm last year.



Carrot Cake Oatmeal
1/2 cup rolled oats
1-2 tablespoons pure maple syrup, depending on whether you like your oatmeal sweet or not
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp ginger
1/8 tsp cloves
1/8 tsp nutmeg
1/4 cup grated carrot
Small handful chopped walnuts
Small handful raisins and/or dried pineapple

Cook the rolled oats up all normal-like, and proceed to mix in all the fix-ins!

Yeah. That wasn't too exciting, was it? WHATEVER IT'S A SUPER DELICIOUS BREAKFAST!



In other news, the Oops! Team went to a wedding. We boogied. We sat in an awkward sitting room. We discovered "Bongzilla" at a gas station. We saw the TARDIS cake. And then, there was Vos Tot Lot. The playground.



Congratulations to our wonderful pals for making the leap!