Alfred, our cat, is handsome, but not all that brilliant. He’s a lover, not a mighty hunter.
Tonight a very lucky stink bug met Alfred…not me.
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He is!
Made some tacos again tonight. I really like how pretty Swiss chard is. The veining is exceptionally pretty. The theme was red. So got cherry tomatoes, Swiss chard, red potatoes and cayenne pepper sauce with impossible beef ( plant based meat ). Pretty tasty. I’ll have to look into what “greens” are kind of yellow for next week.
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Looks tastey!
We tried Impossible Burgers on vacation a few years ago. It’s amazingly accurate for having no meat in it.
Oh! I thought of you some time ago, when I bought some green onion kimchee at the Korean grocery store. The first one I bought was the best. It was still fermenting, so it was sprudly (It’s from a German verb “sprudln” which means “to effervesce.”). It was so incredibly delicious! So umami! That flavor came through the fermentation and seasonings (garlic, Korean red pepper (tastes a lot like paprika)). I could have just sat down with the jar and a pair of chopsticks. Mamph!
And this reminds me of you, when I make it. It’s so tangy and perfect!
Vegan Tomato Kibbeh
Photo: Jason Varney
- Yield: Makes 8 servings
We tend to think of kibbeh dishes as having to do strictly with meat, but there is a tremendous Lebanese tradition of vegetarian kibbeh. While tomato kibbeh is at its finest at the height of tomato season, it tastes wonderful even with winter tomatoes. Serve the kibbeh with fattoush or a romaine salad, labneh, pita bread, and olives.
- 1 1/2 cups / 285 g fine bulgur (#1 grade)
- 5 sprigs fresh flat-leaf parsley
- 2 sprigs fresh mint
- 1 medium-size sweet onion, coarsely chopped
- 2 large, ripe tomatoes (1 pound)
- 1/2 red bell pepper, seeded, cored, and coarsely chopped
- 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
- Few grinds of black pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 2 teaspoons crushed dried mint (see note at bottom)
- Juice of 1 lemon
- 1/2 cup / 120 mL extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for garnish
Place the bulgur in a medium mixing bowl. In a food processor, pulse the parsley and mint until they are finely chopped, but not pureed. Add the onion and continue pulsing until it is also finely chopped, stopping to scrape down the sides of the bowl. Use a rubber spatula to scrape the herb-onion mixture into the mixing bowl with the bulgur.
Halve the tomatoes through the stem end and use your fingers to pull out the seeds. Discard the seeds and coarsely chop the tomato. Add the tomatoes and red bell pepper to the processor. Pulse a few times, until they are finely chopped but not liquid, stopping to scrape down the sides of the bowl. Scrape this mixture into the mixing bowl.
Knead together the bulgur, herb-onion mixture, and tomato mixture, seasoning with salt, pepper, cinnamon, cayenne, crushed dried mint, lemon juice, and olive oil. Let the kibbeh rest for about 1 hour at room temperature, so that the bulgur will soak up the juices and soften. Taste the kibbeh and adjust the seasonings.
Serve the kibbeh by spreading it to about 1/2-inch / 1.5 cm thickness on a platter. Using the tip of an overturned spoon or the tines of a fork, decoratively score the top of the kibbeh by making ridges all over. Chill until you’re ready to serve the kibbeh, and then drizzle generously with more olive oil, and serve.
Reprinted with permission from Rose Water & Orange Blossoms © 2015 by Maureen Abood, Running Press, a member of the Perseus Books Group.
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Sounds tasty. Funny enough i was looking at sweet and tangy taco and veggie burger recipes earlier. One things I’ve been enjoying with the AI chatbot is
Using it to come up with recipes. Though I’m goofing off when I do it as shown in the thread. It’s fun.
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I haven’t had time to look at that thread much, but it looked like people were having some fun with it. The answers they reported back are incredibly articulate.
Some of it is very good. I noticed it really struggles with animal rights. Asking is it ok to ever eat a kitten gives you a different answer from eating a cow. It reminds me a lot actually of the bizarre logic and contradictions I get when talking about it to people in real life.
But it was very negative and so I moved towards things that was not confrontational and fun. So I started asking things like “ give me a recipe for spruce cookies as a rhyme by a Bigfoot “ and it was enjoyable. I also asked more scientifically driven questions such as “ a list of six native trees of southern alabama that covers seasonal interest because of their bark “ and it gave a really good response. Also had fun doing “ Christian sermons on stewardship about “ some specific topic like caterpillar conservation “ by a specific mythological creature like a fairy.”
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Those are fantastic. And incredibly imaginative questions!
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This was one of them.
Here’s a possible recipe for spruce cookies written as a rhyme by a Bigfoot:
Gather 'round, my Bigfoot kin,
For a treat that’s sure to win.
A cookie made with spruce, you see,
Is a delight for you and me.
Here’s what you’ll need to make them right:
2 cups of flour, sifted just right
1 tsp of baking powder, light
1/2 tsp of salt, not too tight
1 cup of butter, soft and bright
1 cup of sugar, granulated might
2 eggs, beaten to a lofty height
1 tsp of vanilla, sweet and bright
2 tbsp of spruce needles, minced with might
Here’s what you’ll do, it’s quite a sight:
Preheat your oven, to 375, alright?
In a bowl, mix together flour, baking powder, and salt, with all your might.
In another bowl, cream together butter and sugar, until it’s light.
Add eggs and vanilla, and beat it some more, until it’s quite right.
Gradually add dry ingredients, and mix until just combined, alright?
Fold in spruce needles, and give it a swirl, make sure it’s all well combined.
Drop spoonfuls onto a lined baking sheet, and bake for 10 to 12 minutes, that’s right.
Remove from oven, let them cool, and enjoy with a hot cup of cocoa tonight!
So there you have it, a spruce cookie delight,
A treat that’s sure to please, day or night.
So bake up a batch, for you and your kin,
And enjoy the sweet taste of spruce within!
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THe question, though, is even better than the answer! Which was really great. How did you come up with the question?
(Never thought of spruce as sweet. Rather piney.)
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Well spruce tips , specifically blue spruce tips of younger trees has a sort of citrus taste with earthy piney flavors. It’s not for everyone. But I also eat pine needle biscuits, cookies and even make pine needle tea.
I came up with it just probably because I read a lot and a read a wide range of stories and so I’m always half in an imagination state. I like to think of concepts and visualize it scene by scene. I was having a sweet tooth craving and a pine / spruce craving. So I was wondering about various recipes and decided to see what the AI came up with. But then I thought that’s too easy and boring and so I was wondering if it could reproduce a recipe as a rhyme. Then decided to randomly toss in my favorite cryptid which is the Bigfoot. I’m a big fan of Bigfoot lol. I go to conventions for it, and enjoy podcasts and movies on it. I don’t believe in it all, but it’s one of my favorite sub genre to stay in.
Plus I was also trying to think of ways to make foraging a bit more fun with my nieces, nephew and younger second cousins.
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It’s lovely finally to connect with some of my fan base. When I was 11, in 5th grade, I started the school year tall, and then grew 6”. The jealous boys regularly called me Bigfoot.
And the shoe really did fit.
And then I grew some more for a few more years. But @Paraleptopecten has outdone me by far.
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It kind of reminds me of a Japanese movie called “lovely complex “. I’m only 5’11. I guess it’s orettt average though. Most people I meet are about my height. Men anyways. Use to be friends with a woman named Jancowski and she was about 6’4. Very athletic. Use to complain about how hard it was to find stuff her size. I remember when skinny jeans became popular she said once they were a life saver for her lol.
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I only landed at 5’10”. Pants and shoes are a real pain to fit. I can’t imagine trying to find any clothes for a 6’4” woman.
An optimal shoe for me would have to be custom-made, because the ball of my foot is enough wider than the heel and tall enough to mean that I can either get the right width and have an extra inch in the toe, or the shoe is too narrow. I can wear anything between a 15 6E and an 18 3E.
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So, you get one new pair of shoes every 2 or 3 years and enjoy a lot of barefoot activities during the warm months, eh?
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I haven’t yet worn out any of my shoes acquired since my feet stopped growing (note that for me “worn out” means “completely unusable, even with repairs”). I do only have 9 pairs (10 if one counts costume-only, can’t be worn outside shoes), including one pair of dress shoes where the soles are coming off, starting-to-fall-apart field shoes, and only-held-together-with-duct-tape sandals that I use for mowing.
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The dark “puddle” reminded me of the black shiny goo from “ Prometheus “ and so I made a little thing using the male cones of the slash pine showing them inside of a moth cocoon, most likely a Polyphemus species, a resonant cicada and a Amanita mushroom. Fly agaric.
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I’m a little relieved to find out you constructed the pinecone thingy. It was pretty creepy to think of such a thing just developing on its own. There’s enough weird stuff out there!
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