Cooking Floyd: Seitan - The Other Wheat Meat

Not too long ago I went off about vegan/vegetarians using meat names for non-meat foods instead of just calling the food what it is.  Like "vegetarian meatloaf" instead of cheese and nut loaf.  It's trivial I know, but I like to know what I'm eating and just because I'm an omnivore doesn't mean I have to be tricked into eating all vegetables for a meal.  I'm omni- I eat everything!  Well, not reptiles and amphibians.  I don't eat them.  And I'm not big on rodent-like vermin.  Squid and octopus- right out.  But what I'm getting at here is I've been playing with this vegetable protein substance called Seitan (SAY-tahn.  Yeah, watch the pronunciation or the born-agains will be right on ya.).  It's an Asian concoction made from wheat gluten and, like a number of Asian soy products, is decidedly meat-like in texture.  Which has earned it the moniker of "Wheat Meat".  I hate calling it that but it is the easiest way to convey it's use, texture and mouth feel.  There are two reasons I've been experimenting with it: A) I want to become more familiar with vegetable protein sources, especially those I can make at home and B) I'm absolutely convinced that while we will have cheap meat available for the next few months (because farmers are thinning their herds and flocks due to the drought and corn crop failure), meat prices will rise steeply next year because corn prices will rise due to the lack of crop.

So here it is, Seitan, aka Wheat Meat.  Yep, I hear the gluten-free crowd moaning.

Cooking Floyd: Tomato Cobbler

We are in the throes of all things tomato around here.  A description of this savory cobbler caught my eye and taste buds so I had to try it.  We love savory pies as well as sweet ones so why not a savory cobbler?

Preserving Floyd: Tomato Powder

Nose to Tail use of animals that feed us is coming back into "style" again thanks to proponents like Fergus Henderson who has saved recipes, methods, and techniques using the whole beast that are in danger of being lost forever in this era of disconnect from our food.  Pretty prime cuts of meat are the norm and flavorful but tougher cuts, organ meats, and what's considered the "nasty bits" like tongue and tendons have disappeared from view.  The same holds true for vegetables.

Joel and Dana of the blog Well Preserved are getting this nose-to-tail eating down to an art form with fruits and vegetables and Joel's dedication (he even scrubs the roots of leeks clean, dries and powders them) has motivated me to find more ways of making something useful out of the trimmings and leftovers from preparing fruits and veg for preserving.

After preparing this year's batch of the greatest tomato paste ever I had a pile of pulp and seeds leftover.

There's a lot of flavor in that pile and while I could recycle it via the chickens I thought I'd try a Joel-inspired powder.

Serving Floyd: Is that what I'm doing?

We had an excellent tomato canning class last Saturday in spite of my totally geezer moment of leaving the house without the cherry tomatoes, herbs and garlic for the roasting segment.  Micah's Garden came through with little paste tomatoes and saved the day (and my butt)!

In addition to the students we had a photographer and a writer from Virginia Tech in attendance.  They spent the afternoon documenting the class and  talking to folks.  At one point Lori Greiner, the writer, asked me what volunteerism meant to me.  I had an uhh...uhh... moment and then babbled out something totally disjointed about tradition, giving back to the community, self sufficiency, and god knows what.  Because I don't think of what I'm doing as volunteer work.  I don't really think about it at all.  I just enjoy doing it and having a venue to pass it on to others so we can have fun doing it together.  And yup, there's that little piece of me that does a happy dance while waving the one finger salute at Big Food with both hands.

Michael and I have talked about what we do as Master Gardener/Food Volunteers.  We do have an answer to that question, I just spaced it.  Lori, if you're reading this, here it is:

We can give a family a sack of food and they'll eat for a week.

But if we teach them how to garden

and cook and preserve

they will be able to feed themselves forever.

That's what volunteering means to me.

Preserving Floyd: Ajvar! (Eggplant and Red Pepper Spread)

Last month Shana and I stopped in at Big Lots because they had gel-filled chef mats on sale and I wanted a bunch of them.  Turns out it was their International Foods sale as well.  Shana loaded up on her fav Euro-cookies and I went with imported priest stranglers and little ears.  That's pasta actually- strozzapreti and orrechiette.  Then I spotted a jar filled with a bright red something and had to check it out.  Ajvar.  No idea.  The ingredients list said sweet red peppers, eggplant, garlic, olive oil, vinegar, and salt.  Seriously.  Nothing I couldn't pronounce and a use within 4 days of opening warning.  That's my kind of ingredients list.  Since we are eggplant lovers I snagged a jar.

oh. my. god.

So much greater than the sum of its ingredients would suggest!

Preserving Floyd: Bread and Butter Pickles

The summer that I began my food preservation adventures, bread and butter pickles was my second ever canned product, strawberry jam being the first.  Since then I have altered strawberry jam with all kinds of flavors but my bread and butter pickles recipe has never changed.  It's classic, versatile, friends get miffed if they don't get a jar.  The pickles are great straight, chopped into relish, made into tarter sauce or Thousand Island dressing.  My grandfather insisted the only ham salad worth eating was made from ground country ham, Helman's mayo, and finely chopped bread and butter pickles, no substitutions, no additions!  It's a winner.

Gardening Floyd: ma-mA-MA MY KABOCHA!

Ya know, when you're gardening your mind tends to wander.  You think about all kinds of things and mostly that's good.  But sometimes there's places you just shouldn't go.  For Michael it was belting out KOHLRAAAABI!  OH-OH! to the tune of "Volare" when working in that bed.

My no-go happened today.  It sounded like this:

because I was delighted to find that not only do I have a load of these growing,

Sunshine Kabocha Squash

 but I seem to have a "Knack" for growing them.

Now I'm stuck with an earworm from a not particularly shining era in the history of rock for at least the rest of the gardening year.