Lentils with Veggies, Sweet and Sour Cabbage with Tart Apples, Brown Rice

Dinner 9/21 by Amy with lots of help from Juan



• Lentils with Veggies

• Sweet and Sour Cabbage with Tart Apples

• Brown Rice

I spent most of today making applesauce and canning it, so dinner was pretty simple. The apples came from an orchard up in Minnesota where we just visited. They aren't organic, but since we only had one come in due to frost (and everyone's eyeing it!), we thought it would be good to pick some up for the winter. So, 12 quarts seem to have canned without any trouble, but when time to cook rolled around, I was pretty beat. Luckily Juan jumped in to help and he washed almost every single dish. He's my hero!

The lentil dish came from Aveline Kushi's "Complete Guide to Macrobiotic Cooking" which I find to have lots of great, simple, mostly-bioregional recipes. Onions, celery, carrots and lentils were layered in a pot and then water was added. After boiling, some soy sauce was added and then it was simmered a little more.

There were a few tart apples left from making applesauce, so I plucked some cabbages from the garden and made the cabbage dish. It's from Christina Pirello's "Cooking the Whole Foods Way" which I love. The recipes are a little more complex than Aveline's book, but I like how they are vegan (with the exception of the "Fish" section) and much more whole than most other books.

Flatbread, Hummus, Broccoli & Green Beans, Curried Okra, and Ginger Spice Cake

Dinner 9/20 by BJ



• Flatbread

• Hummus

• Broccoli & Green Beans

• Curried Okra with Tomato

• Ginger Spice Cake

Tonight's dinner was very bio-regional. BJ made flatbread with freshly-ground organic wheat from Sandhill community, only 3 miles away. She also made a large bowl of hummus to spread on it. The broccoli, green beans, okra and tomato came from Skyhouse's garden. The ginger spice cake was sweetened with sorghum from Sandhill as well.

It feels good to know that most of dinner was pulled from the garden or grown within a 5 mile radius. Sadly, the weather is starting to cool off, so this is the beginning of the end for our garden produce. In a month or so, we'll be opening cans of food that we so diligently preserved over the abundance of summer.

Sicilian Pizza

Dinner 9/19 by Tony



• Multiple Pizzas with lots of Yummy Toppings

So, the blog hasn't been updated too much since Juan and I went traveling. That's okay because even though you don't get to see what we ate, Tony got lots of important stuff done around the house. It's nice to be able to travel knowing that things are well-cared for in our absence. We'd let Tony take a vacation, but we'd miss his pizza too much! :)

Tonight's pizza had a thicker crust than his usual recipe, but it was just as delicious. Toppings included broccoli, peppers and okra from the garden, "squickles" which are the amazing squash pickles I'm going to blog about one day (the photos are already on the computer!), onions and homemade sauerkraut.

Yuba Knot Stir Fry, Brown Rice, Spring Rolls, Szechuan Green Beans

Dinner 9/16 by Rachel



• Yuba Knot Stir Fry

• Brown Rice

• Spring Rolls

• Szechuan Green Beans

The photo for this meal was on the camera, too. Luckily, Rachel told me she intends to write something up about it, so check back and hear the scoop!

While I Was Away #1

Dinner 9/9 by Liat and Avi



• Soup

• Crudité

• Dip

• Tomato and Basil Salad

• Pot Pie?

• Baked Apples

This meal was made while I was away. The photo was on the camera, but no one had posted it. Perhaps I'll be able to get the info from someone who ate it!

Chipoti, Indian Tomato&Okra, Indian Tofu with Mint Chutney, Zucchini Bread

Dinner 9/8 by Rachel, with some last-minute help from Tony



• Chipoti

• Indian tomato and okra

• Indian tofu and vegetables with mint chutney

• Zucchini bread

Tonight's dinner was an extravaganza of Indian flavors. Using some Indian-spiced tofu from Twin Oaks as a base, Rachel whipped up what you see. The veggies are starting to slow down to a manageable level - it wasn't long ago that it felt like we were swimming in tomatoes. Even that notorious squash is letting up.

So while quantity may be slowing down, variety is at its peak. Celery, tomatoes, okra, and beans are just a few of the ones that made it into this dish. The mint chutney made with mint from our garden topped it all off.

Thai Coconut Curry, Long Grain Brown Rice, Corn on the Cob, Tomato Salad, Melon

Dinner 9/7 by Dan



• Thai Coconut Curry

• Long Grain Brown Rice

• Corn on the Cob

• Tomato Salad

• Melon

Dan made his own coconut curry from scratch tonight. It was incredible! He used some lemongrass, cilantro root, hot peppers and garlic from his garden with some galangal and coconut milk he bought during a recent trip. The veggies are onions, patty pan squash, dakota squash and yard long beans. Served over some long grain rice (made with tomato juice) from his personal stash, it was just like I've had at Thai restaurants.

The tomato salad isn't in the photo because I don't like raw tomato and therefore didn't serve myself any. From what I remember, it had large chunks of tomato and fresh basil. I imagine it also had a dressing of some sort, but I'm not sure.

The melons are some of the last from our garden. We had lots of small cantaloupe and a few tiny, not sweet watermelons this year. Some of the cantaloupes were sweet and others not so much. I wonder what we could do to encourage sweetness in the melons we grow. Perhaps it's the variety?

Corn Chowder, Corn on the Cob, Cornbread and Edamame

Dinner 9/6 by Tony



• Corn Chowder

• Corn on the Cob

• Cornbread

• Edamame

Corn! Wonderful corn! We purchased a few dozen from a local organic farmer and have been happily munching away at it. I guess it was getting to the end of it's super-delicious window, so Tony cooked it all up to be a totally corny dinner. :)

The corn chowder included potatoes, yellow squash, onions and red sweet peppers along with the corn. The cornbread was from The New Farm Cookbook but instead of cooking it in the oven, Tony did it on the stovetop in a cast iron pan with a lid. The result was very moist cornbread with a golden chewy bottom. It may be my new favorite way to make cornbread!

Seitan, Sauteéd Veggies, Brown Sauce, Sweet Brown Rice, Trail Mix Cookies

Dinner 9/3 by Juan and Amy



• Baked Seitan

• Sauteéd Veggies

• Brown Sauce

• Sweet Brown Rice

• Trail Mix Cookies

Tonight's dinner is one that Juan and I make pretty regularly, but usually it's General Tso's sauce. We try to cook together two nights back-to-back; that way we don't have to spend four days in the kitchen. Sometimes when we're busy, we fall back to this old standby. Juan made his delicious seitan. The veggies were onions, garlic, cabbage, broccoli, green beans, carrots and yellow squash — all from Skyhouse's garden. YUM! The brown sauce was sautéed onions and garlic mixed with the marinade from yesterday's tofu satay, some sorghum, more soy sauce and a splash of cider vinegar.

Normally, we wouldn't serve sweet brown rice as a side dish on its own, but we've run out of all the other kinds we stock. Our brown basmati got an unusual moth infestation. Usually that doesn't happen to our rice, so we stopped using it. That meant we ate through our short grain brown rice faster than usual, so only sweet brown is left. It's more glutinous than short or long grain, so it's great for sushi-making (I use half sweet, half short). Now, we're just waiting for the next bulk food order to restock our rices.

The cookies were special though. They were the oatmeal cookie recipe from The New Farm Cookbook but with oil instead of margarine, and sorghum instead of the sugars, PLUS the bottom of a bag of Trader Joe's Cashew Macadamia Cranberry Trail Mix left over from my recent trip. I accidentally overcooked the first batch, but people still seemed to enjoy them.

Tofu Satay, Spring Rolls, and Tofu and Veggies on Rice Noodles

Dinner 9/2 by Amy and Juan



• Tofu Satay

• Spring Rolls

• Tofu and Veggies on Rice Noodles

Tonight's dinner was a Thai extravaganza brought to us by a can of coconut milk and rice noodles galore from the Asian Market in Iowa.

The tofu was marinated in a mix of water, soy sauce, ground ginger and fresh, chopped garlic. I let it marinate for a few hours and then put it on skewers in the oven for about an hour at 350 degrees. Served with our variation of chinese peanut sauce from "Asian Noodles" by Nina Simonds.

The spring rolls were filled with mung bean noodles, grated carrot from the Skyhouse garden, sliced cucumbers from Dan's garden, fried tofu strips (from Twin Oaks) and mint and thai basil also from Skyhouse's garden. Juan whipped up a tasty soy-based dipping sauce to go with them.

The main dish was rice noodles served with fried tofu and veggies. The sauce was *very* loosely based on this one. We served chopped cilantro from Dan's garden and sliced thai chili peppers from Skyhouse's garden.

Edamame, Rice Patties, Fried Squash, Steamed Corn, Leftovers and Gingerbread

Dinner 9/1 by Rachel (with help from Cynder)



• Edamame

• Rice Patties

• Fried Squash

• Steamed Corn

• Leftovers

• Gingerbread

I listed edamame first because it's Rachel's favorite! This year, Skyhouse has a big patch in our garden and it's great to see them coming in such delicious quantity. Edamame is the Japanese name, but they're also called green soys or butter beans (but other things are called butter beans, too). They're just boiled with a bit of salt in the water and eaten right out of the pods.

Rachel is the leftover queen. She does a great job of taking stuff that's been in our fridge (that people are usually tired of eating) and transforming them into something new and exciting. Tonight's magical transformation happened to a container of mostly rice with a few veggies that she mixed with flour and onions and then fried into patties. I thought they were great!

Fried squash. Still delicious to me. Still old hat for everyone who wasn't away for two months. Stay tuned for my blog entry about pickled yellow squash. Some folks made a batch while I was gone and I was blown away by how sweet and crunchy they ended up. It's a great way to use up a bunch of squash and turn it into something the even self-proclaimed pickle-avoiders like!

I'm not sure where the corn came from. Maybe Dan's garden? I'll have to check.

And, for all of you that wonder what happens to leftovers that don't get polished off at lunch the next day, here's the ugly truth. If it's not transformed into something else, we eat it again! Shocking! But true. ;)

The gingerbread was made entirely by Cynder, one of the kids here at DR. All Rachel did was point out ingredients and turn on the stove. It turned out great and I thought it was perfect — moist and gingery. Thanks Cynder!

Spicy Shelled Beans, Beets and Potatoes, and Fried Soysage

Dinner 8/31 by Dan



• Spicy Shelled Beans

• Beets and Potatoes

• Fried Soysage

Tonight was our Community Dinner (where Rabbits each bring their own plate to the Common House and eat together), so I didn't see Dan to ask him lots of details about dinner, but I have a feeling a lot of it came from his garden. The beans were spicy with chunks of tomato and onion. I'm not sure how the beets and potatoes were prepared, but they had flecks of fresh basil which really brought out the sweetness.

The soysage is from Twin Oaks Community. There were two kinds — one chewier than the other. Both delicious! An amazing meal considering Dan spent most of the day shoveling gravel for the foundation of his house. Thanks Dan!

EDIT: Dan told me that it's three different kinds of shell beans from his garden: hyacinth, cowpea and tongue of fire.

Manicotti, Fried Okra, and Cinnamon Pie

Dinner 8/30 by Tony



• Manicotti

• Fried Okra

• Cinnamon Pie

Tony made this manicotti from scratch based on a recipe in The New Farm Cookbook. The filling is tofu and broccoli "ricotta" with pasta wraps similar to crepes. They were rolled up and topped with homemade tomato sauce made from scratch with the tomatoes from our garden and finished off with a layer of nutritional yeast cheez.

The okra was covered with a mix of cornmeal and herbs and then pan fried until crisp. They get a nice crunchy outside and there is none of the okra's signature sliminess left. It's one of my favorite ways to eat okra!

If you haven't figured it out already, cinnamon is one of Tony's favorite flavors. This pie crust was made with some chocolate cookies from the local market that were going stale — which I think was a great idea! The filling is more Twin Oaks tofu with lots of cinnamon, some sugar and a pinch of salt.

Here's a better shot of it:

Seitan Fajitas and Steamed Broccoli

Dinner 8/27 by Amy and Juan



• Seitan Fajitas

• Steamed Broccoli

Tonight's menu may seem slim, but it was actually made up of many parts. We started with the homemade, whole wheat tortillas. Then added a scoop of brown rice and Juan's fried seitan strips. Topped with fried onions and peppers from the garden. Finally, people could add any combination of condiments — tofu sour cream, nutritional yeast cheez and salsa.

The side dish was particularly exciting to me — broccoli from our own garden! I have never grown broccoli before, it was very exciting to come home and see it in the Skyhouse garden. Last year, I tried to grow broccoli, but didn't have any success. The seeds had very low germination and seemed to take forever to make the florets. Still, I babied them and tried to nurture those five plants as best I could. Finally, a neighbor came by when I was in the garden and said, "I hate to break it to you, but those are turnips." Yeah. So it didn't work out last year, but this year there are lots of broccolis!

Breaded Baked Tofu, Veggie Steam-Fry, Brown Rice, and Brownies

Dinner 8/26 by Juan



• Breaded Baked Tofu

• Veggie Steam-Fry

• Brown Rice

• Brownies

When I came back from the Communities Conference, I brought a cooler full of goodies from Twin Oaks Community. They were quite generous to gift us with a cooler of the tofu and soysage that they make and Bobolinkers are enjoying every bit of it. Thanks Twin Oaks!

Tonight's dinner, Juan breaded some of their tofu thinly sliced and baked it in the oven. We try not to run the oven on hot summer days because it heats up our house, but I had some cocoa powder left over from my birthday last month, so I made some brownies. Since the oven was on already, baking the tofu made sense.

The veggie steam-fry is Juan's signature cooking technique. First, sautée to get the onions and garlic nice and sweet. Then toss in some other veggies — tonight was yellow squash, okra and sweet red peppers that look like hot peppers (we're not sure why!). Next, add some soy sauce, vinegar and spices (Juan won't share his secret recipe), put a lid on and let the flavors all steam together. Finally, take the lid off and allow the liquid to boil off. The end result is tender, flavorful veggie dish.

The brownies were an adaptation of this recipe from Vivacious Vegan's blog. We used sorghum from Sandhill instead of the sugar and omitted the chocolate chips and walnuts. It was quite a treat!

Empanadas, Crudités and Hummus, Fried Squash, Edamame, and Melons

Dinner 8/24 by Rachel



• Empanadas

• Crudités and Hummus

• Fried Squash

• Edamame

• Melons

I'm baaa-aaack! I've been traveling for about two months having all kinds of eating experiences far and away from Dancing Rabbit. Still, there's no place like home and after eating so many processed, refined and convenience foods, Bobolink's simple, pure, whole fare was just what my heart (and tummy) needed!

Rachel put together these beautiful plates of summer's very abundant bounty. Everything looked so good, I wasn't sure where to start! The empanadas were filled with either lentil paté or black beans — an excellent use of leftovers from previous meals.

The veggies were all grown in our garden and had so much flavor! It's amazing how spoiled we get by eating vine-ripened fruits and veggies. The stuff sold in stores (that's picked early and gassed to bring out the color, or waxed to create not-particularly-important-in-my-opinion shine) just can't compete with the real deal.

Bobolinkers who have been here all summer may be tired of eating squash, but to me, it was buttery and delicious. I can't wait to eat my fill and find new and interesting ways to cook it up!

Just look how easy and delicious sustainable meals can be! I am really infused with so much excitement about what we're cooking up here. We've all been busy with the bustling activity of summer, but we hope to update more frequently and have more recipes for y'all soon, so please keep coming back! ♥

Stuffed Tortillas, Fresh Tomatoes, Mexican Fried Vegetables, Honeyloupe

Dinner 8/23 by Tony



• Stuffed tortillas

• Fresh tomatoes

• Fried vegetables with Mexican spices

• Cubed cantaloupe and melon

Tony surprised us all with tortillas stuffed with black beans. Apparently, Penn made these once and called them papooshkas or something similar. I tried looking them up and had no luck. Regardless of what they're called, they're delicious. The veggies had a distinctive south-of-the-border flavor, and the fresh tomatoes were sprinkled with fresh basil. Yum!

We have so many tomatoes coming in from our garden now that we have to process several times a week. We won't be short of tomato products this winter, that's for sure.

Some of our melons and cantaloupes fell off their vines (or the vine withered) before they reached optimum sweetness, so Tony reinforced these with a bit of honey. Honeyloupe!

Mashed Potatoes with Chickpea Gravy, Lentils, Sauteed Squash, Deep-fried Okra

Dinner 8/22 by Brian



• Mashed potatoes with chickpea gravy

• Lentils

• Sauteed squash

• Deep-fried okra in chickpea flour

Tonight was the last meal at DR for Ali, Summer, and Purl. We'll miss them. As a farewell, Brian whipped up some deep-fried okra that Summer, who's allergic to wheat, can actually eat. The chickpea gravy was fantastic over the mashed potatoes, and the lentils added some protein to the dinner.

I pretty much mixed it all together into a big blob and dug in.

Sushi fest

Dinner 8/20 by Juan



• Nori rolls of various types

For tonight's dinner, I made several varieties of nori rolls. From the typical cucumber & carrot rolls to the experimental fried onions and white miso. I also made pesto-and-sauerkraut versions, as well as the ever-popular nut-butter and sauerkraut.

I think I may have underestimated how hungry people were. There wasn't a single bite left after dinner.

Okra & Potatoes, Curried Lentils, Brown Rice, Chapati

Dinner 8/16 by Tony




• Okra and Potatoes

• Curried Lentils

• Brown Rice

• Chapati

Tonight's dinner was an Indian feast. There hasn't been much okra from the garden until recently. We finally had enough to make a meal of it, and Tony did just that. The brown rice and curried lentils rounded off the meal, with chapati on the side.

Purl also whipped up some lemonade using lemon juice from the local Mennonite general store. Its refreshing coolness was the perfect balance.

Pakoras, Home Fries, Fried Squash, Iced Tea, Fruit Salad

Dinner 8/15 by Dan and Summer



• Vegetable pakoras

• Home fries

• Fried squash

• Iced tea

• Fruit salad

For tonight's dinner, Dan got some help from Summer, who's on leave from Twin Oaks. The pakoras were delicious, and had just a little kick to them. We had them with apple chutney or barbecue sauce. The home fries helped to balance that kick, and the iced tea cooled it all off.

A significant amount of melon, cantaloupe, and watermelon, have been falling off the vines in Dan's garden, so Summer chopped them up and made this fresh fruit salad. That felt like an incredible luxury; it's so rare that we have enough fruit in season to make something like this. Yum.

Moroccan Chickpea Stew Over Rice, Corn on the Cob, Pineapple Upside-Down Cake

Dinner 8/13 by Rachel
Cake by Tony



Dinner:
• Moroccan chickpea stew over brown rice

• Corn on the cob

Rachel whipped up this fantastic chickpea stew from World Vegetarian. It had a little kick and was complemented easily by the rice. The corn on the cob completed the meal.

As part of a three-person birthday celebration for Ali, Rachel, and Thomas, Tony whipped up this pineapple upside-down cake from a recipe he found here. He added cherries in between the pineapples for extra flavor.

Rice & Beans, Sloppy Joe Mix, Indian Squash

Dinner 8/12 by Juan with help from Skyhawk



• Short-grained rice and beans

• Sloppy joe mix

• Indian squash

Tonight I had the unique pleasure of being the only Bobolink member at dinner. Nevertheless, I tried to ensure the Dancing Rabbit visitors had a tasty meal before leaving tomorrow morning. As such, I started with the sloppy joe mix from The Farm's cookbook served over rice with some black beans thrown in for extra protein.

One of the visitors, Skyhawk, claims to be a complete amateur at cooking, yet he suggested the idea of frying squash and spicing it heavily with Indian spices. I ended up adding curry, pepper, cumin, and a little ground mustard. It ended up making a meal we've had frequently of late, fried squash, new again.

Seitan Stir-fry, Steamed Winter Squash, Brown Rice, Corn on the Cob

Dinner 8/9 by Tony



• Seitan stir-fry with sweet & sour sauce

• Steamed winter squash

• Brown rice

• Corn on the cob

With a little visitor help, Tony came up with a new tasty set of dishes. His seitan's texture and flavor was fantastic, and it went very well with the combination of fried and steamed vegetables. The winter squash were harvested out of necessity; we'd normally have left them until the late fall, but pests and weather had other plans.

The sweet & sour sauce used honey for its sweetness, vinegar for it's sourness. It had a little kick in the form of diced cherry-bomb hot peppers from our garden, and some spices (including the Tony standard - cinnamon). Great on the stir-fry, great on the rice.

Creamed Corn, Chick'n Nuggets, Cheezy Squash, Green Beans

Dinner 8/8 by Ali & Apple



• Creamed corn

• Chick'n nuggets

• Cheezy squash

• Green beans

Ali called this dinner "like grandma used to make." We recently acquired a rather large amount of corn from the local Mennonite farmers. A lot of it is now frozen for winter, but we kept some for eating. Ali cooked some of it up for us to enjoy, along with two of our other abundant vegetables, green beans and squash.

The chick'n nuggets were from a recipe created by former Dancing Rabbit member Penn. The primary ingredient is okara, giving us another use for it besides soysage. It's great to have new options.

Leftover Burgers, Fried Squash & Beans, Crispy Chewies

Dinner 8/5 by Juan



• Leftover burgers with various condiments

• Fried squash and beans

• Chocolate crispy chewies

Leftover burgers are the dinner that happens when there's just far too many tupperwares in the refrigerator. In an attempt to make room, I took a lot of the leftovers, blended them up with a little salt, spices, water and flour to bind them together, and fried them up. These particular burgers hold lentils, rice, chickpeas, green beans, onions, tomatoes, and other things I'm sure I'm missing.

There was an abundance of squash and beans from our garden, so I simply threw them in a pan with some onions, a little oil, and some soy sauce. I'm really quite pleased with how it turned out.

I came back from visiting my mother with a box of a chocolate-flavored crispy rice cereal. I couldn't let such a treat go to waste, so I pulled out Cooking The Whole Foods Way, found the recipe for crispy chewies, and made this super chocolafied dessert. I ended up using sunflower seed butter instead of almond butter (since we didn't have any of the latter). I'll tell you how it came out after my sugar coma wears off.

Pita and Hummus, Fresh Vegetables, Green Bean Casserole and Fried Squash

Dinner 8/3 by Ali



• Pita and hummus

• Fresh vegetables

• Green bean casserole with gravy

• Fried squash

For community dinner tonight, Ali got some help from Panda in making this feast. The vegetables fresh from the garden complemented the hummus on a pita, for a fresh-tasting start. The green bean casserole included onions and other veggies, and Ali made extra gravy for both the casserole and the fried squash. Tasty goodness.

Vegan Fajitas

Tony whipped up another Mexican-style feast of Vegan Fajitas. The Fajitas included refried beans, rice, nutritional yeast "cheeze", salsa fresca (made with orange heirloom tomatoes, onions, garlic, hot peppers, vinegar, and salt), and an array of fried garden veggies (yellow crookneck squash, onions, garlic, broccoli, okra, carrots, and cabbage) all coated with cumin, chili powder, and salt.

We recently discovered that we still had almost a hundred quarts of tomato juice leftover from last year and with tomatoes coming in season it is time to use it up. So the new rule is a quart with every dinner! I added some of mine to the veggies and the rest as the liquid for the rice.

This meal was brought to you by the pressure cooker. We have found that cooking beans and grains in the pressure cooker is a huge savings in time and cooking gas. Beans that would otherwise cook for two hours take just 10-25 minutes (and some don't even require soaking). Rice can cook in just 15-20 minutes, and I even put mine in the "Hay Box" to finish it off so it won't burn (a hay box is an insulated box that keeps the food hot so it can continue cooking).

Vegan Eggless Eggrolls, Fried Yellow Crookneck Squash, Summer Stirfry, Carrot Salad

Dan wowed us again with these amazing Vegan "eggless" Eggrolls. Stuffed with homemade tofu, cabbage, and carrots Rachel pronounced them "just like the real thing!" We used the pasta maker to get the wrappers nice and thin and then deep fried them. He even made a delicious dipping sauce with honey, vinegar, hot peppers, salt, water, and cornstarch.

The squash were fried till they started to caramelize giving them a delicious salty sweetness.

The stirfry was a classic summer delicacy from the cookbook From Asparagus to Zucchini - Prizewinner Green Beans and Tomatoes and Herbs (page 23) - fresh green beans, tomatoes, and onions (all from our garden) with garlic and herbs. Delicious.

The carrot salad was leftover from Ivy's meal. Dan, we've learned, is not a fan of raisins in much of anything so we wanted to be clear he did not create what to him is an abomination:-) The rest of us enjoyed the cool carrot sweetness to round out the meal.

Carrot Salad! Sesame Stir-fry! Baked Tomatoes & Squash! Rice! Granola Bars!

Dinner 7/26 by Ivy



• Fresh carrot salad

• Sesame stir-fry

• Baked tomatoes and squash with garlic

• Brown rice

• Granola bars

Despite recovering from a nasty bug, Ivy whipped up another original and tasty dinner. The fresh carrot salad had raisins and even a little orange she'd brought. The stir-fry reminded me how tasty salted onions and garlic an be when fried and mixed with rice, and the tomatoes and squash continued the trend.

The winner of the evening in my book, however, was the granola Ivy whipped up. Using vegan chocolate chips and shaved coconut, this desert was nothing short of fantastic. Yum!

Fresh Tomato Salad, Chickpea Salad, Focaccia

Dinner 7/25 by Brian




• Fresh tomato salad

• Chickpea salad

• Focaccia

• Corn on the cob (not pictured)

For dinner tonight, Brian broke out his standard - focaccia. It was tasty as always; I took six pieces. The vegetables continue to pour in from the garden, even if the tomatoes are still from Ironweed. Any day now, we'll have our own. The chickpea salad also included garlic, cucumbers, tomatoes, and spices. Dan contributed some corn on the cob from his garden, which brought this summer feast to a close.

Hash browns, Coleslaw, Fried Squash&Okra, Fresh Beans w/Cucumber Sauce

Dinner 7/23 by Ali



• Hash browns

• Coleslaw

• Fried squash & okra

• Fresh beans with cucumber sauce

Ali brought together another fantastic meal, starting with shredded potatoes and onions fried up with salt & pepper. Yup, hash browns.

Ali's also been making quite a bit of sauerkraut in the last few days. She had some cabbage left over from the last batch, and made some fresh coleslaw. I hadn't had coleslaw in months, and hadn't had any I liked this much in years.

The okra came in from our garden, and Ali wasted no time combining it with the squash we've been harvesting and making this side dish. It tastes as good as it looks, trust me.

As a gift to those among us who don't like raw cucumbers, Ali turned them into a dressing for either the coleslaw or the beans. De. Lish.

If you're wondering, the first tomatoes came in today as well, but there were only three, so they were simply eaten raw at lunch.

Sloppy Joe Mix over Rice, Very Unusual Stir-fry, raw veggies

Dinner 7/22 by Juan




• Sloppy joe mix over brown rice

• Very unusual stir-fry

• Raw tomatoes & cucumbers

For tonight's dinner, I wanted to go somewhere new. Instead of my classic seitan, I grabbed some TVP and whipped up this sloppy joe mix. I'd started with The Farm's recipe, but deviated slightly, using sorghum molasses from Sandhill instead of sugar. I'm pleased with how it came out, and it went well with the rice.

I cut up some raw cucumbers (from Dan's garden) and tomatoes (from Ironweed) and served them with a little garlic powder and salt on top as an appetizer.

Finally, I made what I'm calling a very unusual stir-fry, since it isn't really fried. I did start by sauteing the onions, but from there I added soy sauce and vinegar and essentially steamed the other vegetables with those two liquids. I harvested the cabbage out of our garden minutes before it went into the pan. Talk about fresh!

Indian Lentils, Squash Stir-fry, Raw Tomato Salad, Sesame Tahini Cookies

Dinner 7/21 by Ivy




• Indian lentils with brown rice

• Tempeh Stir-fry

• Raw Tomato Salad

• Sesame Tahini Cookies

Our guest Ivy took over the kitchen tonight and whipped up some goodies. And she never cracked a cookbook. Intuitive cooking all the way!

The lentils had a lot of flavor, and worked well with the brown rice. She also made up a stir fry of a few vegetables, and crumbled tempeh into it to make a delicious dish that was also high in protein. The raw tomatoes in the salad were from Ironweed - we haven't gotten any in our own garden yet, but some of them are getting close!

The biggest hit of the night were the sesame tahini cookies. Since she didn't use a recipe, I asked her to write down what she did. Here's what she gave me.

use lots of:
buckwheat flour
tahini
brown sugar

use some:
vegetable oil
sesame seeds

use a little bit of:
salt
baking soda
cinnamon
nutmeg

She baked them at 350F "til they were done".

Pasta Salad, Root Bake, Lairdpeas, Squash & Tomatoes

Dinner 7/20 by Rachel



• Fresh pasta salad

• Root bake

• "Lairdpeas"

• Fried squash

• Fresh tomatoes

Rachel whipped up quite a mixture of foods for tonight's community dinner. The pasta salad included broccoli and tomatoes from a local garden. The root bake was a mixture of beets, onions, and carrots tossed lightly in oil and spiced.

"Lairdpeas" are named after Laird from Sandhill. They're chickpeas (aka garbanzos) fried with soysauce. A salty and tasty side dish. Fried squash and fresh raw tomatoes completed another tasty summer meal.

Sweet & Sour Seitan Stir-fry, Greens and Rice

Dinner 7/19 by Tony



• Sweet & Sour Seitan Stir Fry

• Greens

• Long-grain brown rice

Tony doesn't often make seitan. I think this is the second time since I've joined the kitchen. Still, you wouldn't know it by tasting it. This stir-fry included beets and other vegetables from local gardens, as well as a fantastic seitan. Tony being Tony, he couldn't resist dosing it with a little cinnamon, and it was a good choice.

Tony then cooked the rice in the broth leftover from the seitan, and whipped up some greens to round out the meal. Fantastic experiment, and a smashing success.

Pitas with hummus and veggies

Dinner 7/18 by Brian



• Pitas

• Chickpea Hummus

• Fresh Cucumbers

• Carrot and Onion stir-fry

Tonight's dinner was a mix-em-all-together kind of meal. Chickpea hummus and pitas are a great summer meal. Adding fresh cucumbers to the pita added a little variety of flavor.

Finally, Brian stirred together some carrots and onions from the garden and lightly fried them, leaving just enough crispiness so they'd fit in with the rest of the meal. Overall, a filling and tasty dinner.

Nori rolls, sesame beans, miso soup

Dinner 7/16 by Ali



• Nori rolls

• Sesame beans

• Miso soup

We call these nori rolls "sushi" around Bobolink. That's not exactly accurate. "Maki" is closer, but truthfully, we just fill the nori roll with rice and whatever else we want. Ali benefited from many of the fresh vegetables in the garden for these rolls, and also threw in some tempeh, sauerkraut, and nut butters into the mix. Perhaps the most cross-cultural nori was one that had pesto and sauerkraut, for a clash of cultures that ended up really tasty.

The sesame beans continued the asian theme, and miso soup rounded out the meal. This soup was made with the white miso that Amy and Thomas put together, added into a broth with onions and greens. I'm not ashamed to say that miso soup is my favorite soup in the world.

Seitan "steak", mashed potatoes, biscuits, carrot sticks

Dinner 7/15 by Juan



• Seitan "steaks"

• Mashed potatoes

• Biscuits

• Carrot sticks

For tonight's dinner, I took the seitan I normally make in a different direction. Instead of cubes, I sliced it into cutlets before boiling. The spice mixture was heavily italian, giving it an intense flavor to balance the potatoes & biscuits.

The mashed potatoes were enhanced by adding oil (for creaminess), salt and vinegar (for flavor). You'll notice I left the skins on - a benefit of using organic potatoes is that you can keep the highly-nutritious skins. Combined with our home-made ketchup, this combination pleased our diners.

In order to ensure folks had enough grains in their dinner, I whipped up some of Jane's Good Biscuits from The New Farm Vegetarian Cookbook. They live up to their name, and the (few) leftovers will make a good breakfast in the morning.

The carrot sticks provided a fresh vegetable as an appetizer to get folks started before they dug into the "meaty" rest of the meal. I submit this dinner as evidence that vegans don't have to miss out on the American staple of meat and potatoes - we can just make our meat out of wheat.

Tempeh, fries, "cheesy" squash, greens, carrots and beans

Dinner 7/13 by Ali



* Tempeh

* French Fries

* Greens

* Carrots & Beans

* "Cheezy" Squash

Tonight's dinner was a cornucopia of vegetable delights. French fries are always a great side dish for tempeh, and I don't know what Ali put in the squash sauce, but "cheesy" is a very apt name.

The carrots and beans were lightly cooked - still crispy. Man, I love summer food. The steamed greens rounded out another fantastic meal.

Oh, and I know tempeh isn't a vegetable. It's poetic license.

Broken Heart, Mujadara over Rice, and Cucumber Salad

Dinner 7/11 by Dan




• Broken Heart

• Mujadara

• Rice

• Cucumber Salad

Tonight's dinner was a group of new dishes for me. It was a combination of spicy cooked food with raw fresh vegetables as a counterweight.

Broken Heart is a spicy beet-based dish that Dan tells us was invented by someone at the cohousing where he used to live. Shredded coconut and spices bring it home - a great addition to our co-op's repertoire.

Continuing with new things, mujadara is a lentil dish that uses epazote as its primary spice. It had a little kick, and was complemented by a fresh cucumber salsa and deep-fried garlic and garlic scapes. Served over rice, the whole kid & caboodle made a fantastic flavor mixture.

Rounding out dinner was a fresh cucumber and carrot salad, bringing in the first cucumbers of this year's harvest. Cuc's are one of my favorite vegetables, and I've missed them. It's good to have them back.

Vegetable Fritters, Greens, Lemon Pudding

Dinner 7/9 by Jan



• Vegetable Fritters

• Spicy Tomato Sauce

• Greens

• Lemon Pudding

Jan started with the recipe soy fritters in The Farm's cookbook and started replacing soybeans with other things to make these delicious vegetable fritters. As if they weren't delicious enough by themselves, she whipped up a tomato sauce to top them off. Oh wondrous improvisation.

The greens are straight from local gardens, cooked just enough to not be bitter, but still keeping all of their flavor.

Finally, Jan cracked open The Farm's recipe for pudding and whipped up something really special. She claims her motivation was to use up some food that was about to spoil in our fridge. If this is true, I may start leaving random things in there and seeing what she comes up with.

Summer Cool-off food

Dinner 7/8 by Ali with help from Panda



• Summer Carrot Salad

• Potato Salad

• Buckwheat

• Sloppy Joe Mix

Tonight's dinner was refreshing after the blazing summer heat we've suffered. The potato and carrot salads were both served cold, making them an ideal cool-off.

Ali and Panda turned their sloppy joe mixture into something that stood on its own - no sandwich required. The surprisingly-tasty buckwheat closed the circle on this cool meal.

Beets & Beans, Brown Rice, Tofu Stir Fry

Dinner 07/07/07 by Dan



• Tofu Stir Fry

• Brown Rice

• Beets & Beans

• "Brown Sauce"

Tonight's dinner was a veggie extravaganza, with carrots, beets, beans, cabbage, and onions from Dan's and our garden all coming into play.

Dan's tofu is always a tasty protein, and was a welcome addition to the crispy stir-fry. The rest of it was made up of the aforementioned vegetables. It was all topped off with a soy-sauce-based topping Dan called simply, "brown sauce".

Finally, the first beets from the garden, picked minutes before going into the pot, joined green beans for a delish side dish.

Potatoes, Tempeh Pate, Biscuits, and Salad

Dinner 7/6 by Brian



• Oven-roasted potatoes

• Salad

• Biscuits

• Tempeh Pate

Tonight's community dinner was an interesting experiment - and a tasty one. Potatoes from our neighbors up the road roasted with herbs are always good in my book. The salad included carrots from Dan's garden and red cabbage from those same neighbors.

The tempeh pate was originally based on a recipe for tempeh gravy from Vegan with a Vengeance. In Brian's words, "it ended up too thick to be a gravy." The texture is more similar to refried beans, and this would probably also be good in a tortilla.

Today was also Tom's birthday, so the Milkweeds brought out a vegan chocolate cake to share with everyone. It was a great finale to a fantastic meal.

Lunch in an Organic Vegan Food Co-op

Dinner 7/5 & Lunch 7/6 by Tony



• Pizza
Toppings included sauerkraut, dilly beans, soysage, tomato sauce, nutritional yeast cheez, salsa.

• Greens and Dilly Beans

• Soysage (Lunch)

• Salad (Lunch)

• Carrot sticks (Lunch)

A full crop of visitors ate dinner with us last night, so Tony made his famous pizza. As usually happens when he does so, there were few leftovers. What made this batch of pizza unique, however, was what Tony did when he ran out of tomato sauce.

He made half the pizza with no sauce (which, given the deliciousness of the cheez, was fantastic) and for the other half, he added spicy salsa, to give a whole new tasty experience. Next time, maybe he'll add some refried beans and make burrizza.

Given that the cook for dinner is responsible for lunch the next day, people tend to depend heavily on leftovers. When there are few, however, the cook ends up whipping up some new stuff. In order to help ensure there was enough food, Tony added vegetables and salad from Dan's garden, as well as some soysage to the meal. Yum yum.

Samosas, Salad, Sweet Rice and other S's

Dinner 7/2 by Ali with help from Rory & Panda



• Samosas

• Split-pea Hummus

• Salad with Cashew-Macadamia dressing

• Sweet Rice

• Apple Chutney

Ahh, Indian food. My favorite food. The samosas here tasted just like they came from an Indian restaurant. They really came from The Spice Box: Vegetarian Indian Cookbook by Manju Shivraj Singh. If you don't know what a samosa is, it's basically a deep-fried pastry filled with a potato-onion mash.

Ironically enough, Ali made the apple chutney during her last visit to DR. So using it with the samosas closed the circle. Must be kismet.

This was the first time I've had a hummus without a bread product to put it on. Instead, I mixed it in with my rice - and it was good stuff.

Topping it off was the salad. Dan grew this lettuce, and it was crispy and delicious. The dressing was made using Cashew-Macadamia (or cash-mac) Butter from East Wind. We buy it and all of our other nut butters directly from EW when we can - it's great to support another community in their endeavors.

Shepherd's Pie

Dinner 7/1 by Juan

Apologies for the image, but some dinners are just not photogenic.



• Shepherd's Pie with Golden Gravy

• Home-baked Bread

• Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

I made up the Shepherd's pie based on my mother's old recipe. Although hers used ground beef instead of TVP. Normally, I would only make this if I had more vegetables; peas come to mind. Still, it came out pretty tasty with just onions, carrots, garlic and TVP under those mashed potatoes.

The Golden Gravy is a heavily-modified (read: screwed up) version of the one from The Farm Cookbook. I messed it up, ran with it, and it came out okay.

I was going to make biscuits, but I ran out of time, so home-baked bread it was.

Vegan with a Vengeance has a recipe called Big Gigantoid Crispy Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies (or something like that). These were not them, a fact I realized halfway through the recipe. Instead, these are the Crispy Peanut Butter Cookies from the same book, with vegan chocolate chips thrown in.