Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Vegan, really?




OK, I love to eat meat. While I’ve flirted with the idea of vegetarianism, I’ve never been able to go fully meat free. Mainly, because I love cheeseburgers. But since reading In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan, I have cut the amount of meat I consume and make the effort to buy grass-fed beef or free-range chicken whenever possible.  (And by the way, homemade burgers made with grass-fed beef and a pinch of chopped sage are really, really good.)

Trevor recently read Omnivore’s Dilemma by Pollan, and made horrified gasps and exclamations as he was flipping the pages. And now he’s really determined to know exactly how the meat that makes it to his plate is being raised.

So to fit the more expensive (and humanely raised) meat into our budget, we eat less of it and more meals that are meat-free.  And now that Persephone Farm has more produce at the Saturday PSU Farmers’ Market, and Trevor is working the stand again, we’ve got a lot of ingredients to make fabulous vegetarian meals.

Last night we tried a new recipe from Cooking Light magazine’s July 2010 issue: Chickpea Bajane. We used Persephone garlic and spinach, and thyme from our own garden. Trevor insisted he didn’t really like quinoa, a slightly nutty grain, but once we started eating this meal, he decided he like this quinoa. The recipe is time-consuming, but not too hard. And it was so tasty it was hard to believe it was vegetarian, let alone vegan.



Links:
Chickpea Bajane 

Napkin by Rustbelt Fiberwerks   http://www.etsy.com/shop/rustbeltfiberwerks


Friday, July 16, 2010

Why I Love Trevor: Reason #62

He makes cherry pie. Do I need to elaborate? I guess I should say it is the best cherry pie in the world. The Hood River cherries were in full force at the Farmers’ Market last weekend, so Trevor bought enough for a pie.

The cherries were a glorious claret color. Their juice was so dark that after helping pit them, my nails were stained for a few days.

Trevor followed the Joy of Cooking for the filling and crust. But we made a slight swap in the filling. He used amaretto instead of almond extract and added a few squeezes of lemon since our cherries were sweet, not tart. When it comes to crust Trevor does not skimp on the fat and the result is worth it. The crust almost falls apart before you can get a bite into your mouth.

My parents were visiting Portland, so they were lucky enough to get some of Trevor’s pie. And they raved about the pie as much as I did. They still talk about a Concord grape pie he made several years ago. I have a feeling they’ll be talking about this cherry pie for years to come, too.

One a side note: I’ll be posting more about Persephone Farm produce in the coming weeks. Because of the heavy May and June rains, the crops couldn’t get planted at the usual time. That means not as much produce as normal for this time of year. But Trevor will be back at the stand in a few weeks and I’ll have more to write about. And, of course, eat.