Cajun Black-Eyed Pea Tempeh Stir-Fry

Here's my thought process regarding dinner last night:

* Black eyed pea patties with chipotle remoulade sound tasty.
* Hm. Out of tofu. I could have them with salsa instead!
* Black eyed pea and tempeh patties sound even tastier.
* Damn. I'm really hungry. Patties are too much work. Let's throw it all in a pot instead.
* And add... tomatoes? And diced green chiles.
* Hm. No diced green chiles. Jalepenos!
* You know what would be tasty? Kale!

My boy declared this scrumptious. Funny how the tastiest recipes are borne out of desperation.

1 tsp olive oil
1 onion, diced
1 block tempeh, thawed and diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp bouillon powder
1/4 tsp Cajun seasoning
1 can diced tomatoes, with juice
2 cans black eyed peas, drained and rinsed
5-6 tamed jalepeno rings, diced (optional)
3-4 shakes Tobasco
3 kale leaves, washed and torn into bits (stems discarded, optional)

Heat the olive oil in a large pot. Add the onion, tempeh and salt and cook for 5-7 minutes, or until the tempeh is starting to brown. Add the bouillon powder, Cajun seasoning and garlic and cook for another minute or so. Add the tomatoes and juice and lower the heat to a simmer. Add the black eyed peas, jalepenos and Tobasco and stir well. Add the torn kale leaves on top, cover and cook for 7-10 more minutes, or until the greens are dark and wilted. Stir in the greens and serve!

Double-Chocolate Spelt Muffins

These fluffy, tender, decadent chocolate gems are, amazingly, wheat, egg and dairy-free. These are based off Isa's delightful recipe at the PPK.

1 1/2 cups spelt flour
3/4 cup Ghiradelli hot cocoa mix
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1 cup vanilla soy milk
1/2 cup canola oil
2 tablespoons soy yogurt (I used Wildwood's raspberry flavor)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 handfuls chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Spray muffin cups with oil. Sift flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt together in a large bowl. In a smaller bowl, whisk the soy milk, oil, yogurt and vanilla extract.

Add the wet mix to the dry mix and stir just until combined. Gently mix in the chocolate chips.

Fill the muffin cups until nearly full. Bake for 10-15 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Potato-Butternut Curry w/ Edamame

2 Tbsp olive oil
2 tsp mustard seeds
1 medium onion, chopped
3-4 cloves garlic, minced
1-1/2 tsp curry powder
1/4 tsp garam masala
a few pinches saffron
4-5 potatoes of various sorts, diced
1/2 cup water
1 cup frozen peas or edamame
1/2 butternut squash, peeled and cubed
1/2 tsp salt

Heat olive oil in a large soup pot. Add mustard seeds, stir, and cover so that the popping mustard seeds don't escape. Let pop for 30 seconds or so, then add the onion. Cook for 5 minutes, or until starting to turn translucent. Add garlic, curry, garam masala and saffron and cook for another minute or so. Add the potatoes, and if uncooked, the squash. Add the water, cover and let simmer for 15 minutes or so.

Once the potatoes are tender, add the peas and, if cooked, the squash. Add salt to taste and cook, uncovered, until all the water has evaporated. Serve with rice, dosas or flatbread and tamarind sauce.

Preserving 101: For Those of Us Too Scared to Can

One of these days, I'll get around to canning. But the Polk County Master Gardeners have managed to put the fear of God into me, and I don't have a pot large enough to submerge jars in anyway. So for now, if I'm going to preserve any of all this farmers' market bounty, it's going to have to be frozen.

Note: One side benefit is that this forces us not to clutter our freezer with processed crap that we basically never eat.

We did a little of this last year, freezing corn kernels and a few strawberries. This year, we've already frozen twenty quarts of strawberries and a few plastic tubs worth of corn and green beans.

Fortunately, the process is pretty simple. You briefly cook whatever you're going to freeze, then you either pack it into tubs or spread in a layer on a cookie sheet to freeze. (We usually don't bother to cook corn or strawberries.)

Last night, I froze five pounds worth of roma tomatoes by dipping them in boiling water for a minute or two, then plunging them in cold water. Once chilled, the skins slipped right off. I packed the skinless tomatoes into a plastic tub as tightly as possible (oxygen is not your friend in the freezer), then sealed it.

Tonight, we're roasting a whole crisper drawer's worth of beets. After they're cooked, we'll peel, slice and pack those into tubs as well.

Next up: kale!