Author: Leslie Cook

Like the opening day of the Woodstock Farmers Market, in fact each day of the Market, everything on the Square felt festive this past Saturday. Although it rained the night before, by morning the sun occasionally peeked through the clouds, taking some of the early spring chill out of the air.

Andy Andrick and Gloria Burchfeld from Off Square Music played and sang 60s music and Americana from the gazebo in the center of the Square, and booths filled with produce and other farm products were spread along its paths and on the streets around its edge. It’s still early enough in the spring that everyone is excited to be outdoors, and the Market pathways were crowded with people greeting each other and shopping.

This week, I went to the Market with my son, Jeremy, who tried out a cup of iced caramel brulee latte from Ethereal Confections, our delightful local confectionery, before we started our path around and through the Market. He enjoyed that so much that the first thing he wanted to do when we returned four days later for a Stage Leftovers performance at Stage Left Cafe was get another cup! His punch card will fill up pretty quickly, I imagine.

Here are the treasures I brought home this week, all green and making me feel like it’s finally spring! In the microgreens department, I got sorrel, sweet pea greens and mustard from Troy at Edmond’s Acres. I also picked up some asparagus at that stand. My find this week was the plump bag of fresh, organic spinach I got from Elaine Book at Providence Farm, Belvidere. The spinach was over-wintered, and it came in strong, very early.

Jeremy stopped by the Riemer Family Farm table to visit with owners Bryce and Jen Riemer and arrange to bring home the bacon, and we checked out the table of a new vendor in the Market, Ludwig Farmstead Creamery, with their award-winning raw milk artisan cheeses. This Certified Humane Creamery is getting ready to enter a market niche that is currently under-served when their cheeses are certified kosher. I purchased a cheese that will soon have a “heksher,” a kosher certification, and Jeremy bought their spicy Habanero.

We continued to wander around the Square, visiting with our friends, until we came to my good friend, Jaci, world’s best cookie maker. She had a special surprise for us this week and for anyone with kids or grandkids who are into Minecraft: Jaci’s Cookies Minecraft Cookies! Of course we had to get one for my grandson, Zachary.

With two more stops, we finished our shopping for this week. Jeremy was envious of my popcorn last week, so we stopped by the Brook’s Farm table to get some for him from Rich. While we were there, we sampled some delicious “Butter Toffee” corn which I didn’t take home because I would have eaten it all up! And Jeremy picked up a jar of red raspberry preserves from Rosinski’s Produce in Antioch. We chatted about adventures picking wild black raspberries with our kids, which always resulted in blue-black juices from finger tips to elbows and all over little faces.

Finally we headed into the center of the Square to enjoy the music and see what else was happening there. Have I ever mentioned how great it is to be in a town that attracts so many wonderful musicians? Andy and Gloria were still going strong with their toe-tapping music as they came up on three hours, and we sat to enjoy the beat for a little while.

On the way out, we stopped to pick up information about the week-long Orson Welles Centennial Festival and to visit with Marty Brunkalla, our very own local luthier. His beautiful custom-made stringed instruments are highly prized!

Our little town has it all, and it’s all gathered together on our Square on Tuesday and Saturday mornings. If you’re ever nearby, be sure to stop in and join the celebration.

Here are some things I made for lunch when I got home with my treasures:

For more, visit my blog, vegetatingwithleslie.org, “Like” me on FaceBook/Vegetating with Leslie or follow me on Twitter, @vegwithleslie.

Once upon a time I searched on Pinterest for every cabbage recipe I could find. I love cooked cabbage! With all that hunting and pinning, two simple “recipes” that I created myself are still my favorites: sautéed cabbage “steaks” and this delicious Potato & Cabbage Soup.

I thought I was finished with my hearty soups for this season, but after I was ready to relax and enjoy those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer, we got a cold snap. I keep reminding myself that I can count on those in May! So I made up some Potato & Cabbage Soup earlier this week to warm myself.

It does have that tantalizing little hint of spring in the dill.

Ingredients

• Garlic, 8 cloves minced
• Onion, 1 large Spanish, 1-2″ chunks
• Extra virgin olive oil, 1/4 or cover the bottom of soup pot
• Tomatoes, petite diced, 2 lb. (or a 28 oz. can of petite diced tomatoes)
• Tomato paste, 6 oz. can
• Chickpeas, 1/2 cup dried
• Canellini beans, 1/2 cup dried
• Red kidney beans, 1/2 cup dried
• Carrots, 4-5 large sliced
• Celery, 4 large stalks sliced
• White cabbage, 1 whole small, 1-2″ chunks
• Potatoes, 3 large, 1-2″ chunks
• Salt, 2 TB (start with 1 TB and bring up to taste)
• Cumin, 2 TB
• Szeged hot paprika, 1 tsp., slightly rounded
• Dill, fresh, 1 large bunch, minced
• Water to cover

Procedure

1. Rinse beans and add to a 2-4 quart pot, add plenty of water, bring to a boil, lower heat and simmer until barely al dente. Remove from heat, and set aside.
2. Sauté garlic in extra virgin olive oil in a large soup pot.
3. Add onion, carrots, celery and cabbage, and sauté for a short while.
4. Add tomato paste and diced tomatoes to the mix and stir in.
5. Add the barely cooked beans with their cooking liquid.
6. Add water to cover. I added three quarts, but use the water to make it the consistency you like. Bring to a simmer and cook until flavors meld and potatoes can be pierced with a fork.
7. Add seasonings and additional water if needed. I usually use about 1 TB of salt per gallon of soup, and this recipe makes about two gallons.
8. Sprinkle minced dill in at the end of the cooking time reserving a little bit to sprinkle on servings.
9. Serve and enjoy!

For more, visit my blog, vegetatingwithleslie.org, “Like” me on FaceBook/Vegetating with Leslie or follow me on Twitter, @vegwithleslie.

One of the features of Middle Eastern food that I really appreciate is its tendency to mix things that I grew up thinking shouldn’t be mixed. Today the wisdom in the U.S. is still that two grains and three beans would be too much to load together in one meal. That it’s frequently done with great effects in Middle Eastern foods feels almost like a celebration to me.

Koshari is an example of this joyful piling together of starchy foods. Koshari is an Egyptian dish, a layering of rice, pasta, black lentils and chickpeas along with other ingredients. This delicious, creamy Persian soup, Aash e-Jo (barley, rice and 3 kinds of beans), is another example.

I started with a recipe from Persian Recipes. I made a few changes in the process so it would be easier to make, some changes in seasoning to suit my taste buds and a change in ingredients to make it vegan.

The result is a delicious, creamy, mildly seasoned soup with a nice hint of dill. I enjoyed the soup with a piece of my homemade spelt challah, of course.

Ingredients (10-12 servings)

• Barley, 250 grams
• Greens & herbs (parsley, cilantro, spinach, dill), 250-300 grams
• Beans (garbanzo, white beans, kidney beans and lentils), 750 grams
• Brown rice, 1 cup
• Spanish onion, 1 large petite diced
• Extra virgin olive oil, 1/4 cup
• Coconut milk (full fat), 1-2 fourteen oz. cans
• Salt, 2 TB
• Hot paprika, 1 tsp.
• Turmeric, 1 TB
• Water, 3 quarts plus

Procedure

1. Petite dice the Spanish onion and put into a soup pot with 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil. Saute until caramelized.
2. Rinse beans (about 4 cups) and add to soup pot. Add three quarts water and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to a low simmer, cover and let cook until done.
3. While the beans are cooking, prepare the barley in a second pot. Just place the barley in the pot and add at least three times the volume of water. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat, cover and let cook until done. Check the water periodically to be certain it covers the barley. When done, drain and set aside until the beans are cooked.
4. Prepare the rice.  Please one cup of rinsed rice in a pot with 6 cups of water. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat, cover and let cook until done. Drain, and set aside until the beans are cooked.
5. Combine rice and barley in the soup pot with the beans and onion. Add seasonings and let continue to cook covered on low heat until the seasonings blend.
6. When the soup is finished, add chopped spinach, cilantro and parsley. I always end up adding more than this because . . . well, I have more and I like veggies.
7. Just before you’re ready to eat, stir in the minced dill (I used about a cup), reserving a little bit to sprinkle on top as you’re serving.

Enjoy!

For more, visit my blog, vegetatingwithleslie.org, “Like” me on FaceBook/Vegetating with Leslie or follow me on Twitter, @vegwithleslie.

 VEGGIES! Beautiful spring veggies!

It was a spectacular day on Saturday, a perfect day for the opening of the Woodstock Farmers Market. I love the Market and look forward to it moving back onto the Square each spring.

Keith Johnson, Market Director, has built this award-winning Farmers Market into a happening twice a week May through October on the historic Woodstock Square.  Off Square Music performers fill the surrounding area with music. There is no better way to celebrate spring and summer days than to greet friends and shop for local products accompanied by Woodstock’s talented musicians.

And it doesn’t end in October. Now we have a winter Market as well that meets two weeks a month in Building “D” at the McHenry County Fairgrounds.

What I made from my Woodstock Farmers Market goodies

One of my favorite stops is always Edmonds Acres. Troy Edmonds specializes in specialty garlic and onions, unique apples, fruit and vegetables, wild mushrooms and fall squash.

I can always find something that I want to run home and cook up at Troy’s table, and Saturday was no exception. I combined that organic onion with some organic celery and carrots I had to make up my delicious Red Lentil Soup. This time instead of cilantro I added Troy’s early kale to the soup.

I confess I had to have some right away in the beautiful bowl made by Tyler Owcarz of Woodstock that I purchased at the Woodstock High School table. Art students created about 100 small bowls that they are selling for $10 each to benefit the Woodstock Food Pantry.

Will the circle be unbroken…

And talk about the circle being unbroken! Not only did that bowl go from the High School to the Market to me and the Food Pantry . . . but Troy’s beautiful veggies went from his table to my pot to serve up to the musicians and audience at First Saturday, an open mic sponsored by Off Square Music that meets once a month at Unity Spiritual Center on Calhoun St. in Woodstock.

And now for the fresh basil from Keith and Nancy Johnson (BlueLoom) that I snipped onto the potatoes that I just couldn’t wait to cook up and eat: nothing says spring like fresh basil! I enjoyed it twice on Saturday, once with my potato lunch when I got home and again later with a juicy tomato snack.

So as I mentioned, I went to the First Saturday open mic that evening, which is always a wonderful music event. I didn’t get to service my popcorn addiction that evening, tho. You can bet I did the next evening!

I ran out of Rich Brook’s (Brook Farm, Harvard, IL) popcorn over the winter and was waiting eagerly for him to return to the Market. I don’t know how he does it, but that popcorn is sooooooo much better than what I can get in the store. I’m halfway through the bag I bought already! Guess I’ll have to plan to visit the Woodstock Farmers Market again next week.

All in all a wonderful day Saturday. Welcome back to the Woodstock Farmers Market!

For more, visit my blog, vegetatingwithleslie.org, “Like” me on FaceBook/Vegetating with Leslie or follow me on Twitter, @vegwithleslie.

Today at Joe Caputo & Sons they had beautiful, bright green, firm tomatoes. I thought longingly of the dish I would have made with them a couple of years back with a spicy tomato sauce and brown, bubbly cheese.

What to do? What to do? I’m really tired of making those vegan cheese sauces that are supposed to taste like cheese and don’t. Time to just focus on making something tasty.

Well, I bought one of those lovely tomatoes for myself along with a little fresh basil and some leeks, thinking I might get inspired. I hurried home with my find to see what I could concoct.

What you see is the result, and it was good! I sliced the tomato, then used my grandma’s routine for making her southern fried chicken: she dipped the chicken first in buttermilk, then in salted flour, then in buttermilk again and finally once again in flour. I used almond milk, though, and salted flaxseed instead of flour. It made a perfect crust. I dropped each piece into my little Waring Pro Fryer for 3 minutes at 375 degrees, and they came out perfectly, with a nice crispy crust.

I made a sauce by boiling one peeled potato, one carrot, one cut up leek, a tsp. of salt, a tsp. of onion powder and a good pinch of hot paprika in half a cup to one cup of water.  As soon as the potatoes were soft, I put it all (including the cooking water) into my VitaMix and whizzed it with three tablespoons of oil. I used a some almond milk to thin it as needed and adjusted the seasoning.  It came out nicely!

I drizzled the sauce over the finished tomatoes and sprinkled a little fresh basil on top. The only thing I would do differently next time is spice up the sauce a bit more.  Oh, and reduce the quantity of the sauce. That one tomato made six slices — but one potato made enough sauce for about six tomatoes!

For more, visit my blog, vegetatingwithleslie.org, “Like” me on FaceBook/Vegetating with Leslie or follow me on Twitter, @vegwithleslie.

Cauliflower is considered a super-veggie these days, and that’s good because I love it in any shape or form.

This Buffalo Cauliflower made a fun, light dinner for us one evening along with salads. I put some of the Frank’s Buffalo Wing Sauce into the batter for the cauliflower, but it didn’t really spice it up all that much. No problem! We just dipped the cauliflower into it at the table – alternating with the Avocado Cilantro Sauce.

Avocado Cilantro Sauce Ingredients

• Avocado, one ripe
• Cilantro, 1-1/2 cups roughly cut (probably about a bunch once any brown stems are removed)
• Lime, juice of 2
• Unfiltered sugar, 1 tsp. (opt.)
• Extra virgin olive oil, 2 TB
• Salt, 1/4 tsp.

Buffalo Cauliflower Batter Ingredients

• Almond or Coconut Milk, 1 cup
• Whole wheat flour or spelt flour, 3/4 – 1 cup
• Garlic powder, 1 TB
• Frank’s hot sauce, 1/2 cup, opt.
• Salt, to taste

Directions

1. First of all, most of the recipes I found didn’t involve frying. I wanted to fry my Buffalo Cauliflower because I had a new Waring Pro Deep Fryer that I wanted to try out. Since I wanted to fry the wings, I couldn’t add the Frank’s Wing Sauce after the wings were baked some and the batter sealed them. I added it into the batter that I dipped them in. It didn’t come through that strongly, but we just dipped the cauliflower directly into the Frank’s alternately with the Avocado Cilantro Sauce. It worked well for us that way, because I have people around me who are heat sensitive.
2. I prepared the Avocado Cilantro Sauce first. I put the rough cut cilantro into the food processor and pulsed it until it was fairly fine. Then I added the seasonings and lime along with chunked avocado and pulsed a few more times. I usually leave the sugar out of recipes. Don’t need it.
3. Set the sauce aside.
4. Prepare the batter. I added the Frank’s Wing Sauce to the batter. It gave it a little zip but not much, really. You can skip this and just serve the sauce with the Buffalo Cauliflower. I did need to add more flour than the recipe I started with so the batter would cling well for frying. Replacing part of the flour with flaxseed would work well for this purpose also.
5. Deep fry the florets at 375 degrees for 3 or 4 minutes.
6. Serve with Avocado Cilantro Sauce and Frank’s Buffalo Wing Sauce.

Mmmm…mmm…good!

For more, visit my blog, vegetatingwithleslie.org, “Like” me on FaceBook/Vegetating with Leslie or follow me on Twitter, @vegwithleslie.

Posted in FaceBook 4/22/15.

Lunch! I thought I might make myself a bowl of Green Lentil Curry Soup. Had my heart set on it, actually, after I bought some beautiful organic green lentils this morning. Then I decided I wanted to try making that in the crock pot, and it would be hours before it would be ready, so maybe that’s tomorrow’s lunch.

In the meantime, I made this – left to right: mini-summer squash sauteed in extra virgin olive oil with a little basil and salt – beautiful avocado on sale at Meijer’s dressed with evoo, lemon juice, salt and a touch of hot paprika – Israeli green olives, yummmm – and tempeh, sauteed with…

Well, it was supposed to have been umeboshi plum sauce. I wondered how it would taste that way – but I think it was Frank’s Buffalo Wing Sauce instead. They look pretty similar in the storage container, and it was definitely spicy. Tasted pretty good, tho. I might make that mistake again.

Clementines for dessert.

4/23/15

And here’s the Green Lentil Curry Soup:

And I did enjoy the soup a day later. I had some of my spelt challah with it – almost a week old, but still ok, especially dipped in the soup.

This isn’t my regular lentil soup that I make. I usually have carrots and celery in mine and add some spinach toward the end of the cooking time. Mine is also a little more spicy.

This soup is a different spice profile and uses coconut milk. I’d probably step up the spices a bit next time — although I must have liked it pretty well because I ate three large bowls!

I greatly simplified the directions. I just put it all in the crockpot and cooked it.

Ingredients

• Extra virgin olive oil, 3 TB
• Spanish onion, 1 finely diced
• Garlic cloves, 2 finely minced
• Thyme, fresh, 1 TB finely chopped (halve the amount if using dried)
• Turmeric,  1-1/2 tsp. ground
• Cardamom, 1/2 tsp. ground
• Cinnamon, 1/4 tsp. ground
• Cloves, 1/4 tsp. ground
• Nutmeg, 1 tsp. ground
• Hot paprika, 1/2 tsp. to taste
• Salt, 1-1/2 tsp. to taste
• Green lentils, dried, 1-1/2 cups
• Water, 5-6 cups
• Coconut milk, 1 cup full fat
• Coconut oil, 2 TB

Directions

1. Put all ingredients into a crockpot reserving one cup of the water, the coconut milk and the coconut oil.
2. Turn crockpot on high and cook 8-10 hours or overnight.
3. At some point after 5 or 6 hours, mash some of the lentils.
4. Add the reserved water as needed depending on the thickness you prefer.
5. Add the coconut milk during the last hour or two of cooking along with the coconut oil if you like more richness. I did not add it to mine.
6. Check the seasoning and adjust to your taste. I would bump up most of the seasonings in this, I believe. I also squeezed a few drops of lemon into my bowl, which always brightens food.

For more, visit my blog, vegetatingwithleslie.org, “Like” me on FaceBook/Vegetating with Leslie or follow me on Twitter, @vegwithleslie.

Today I was working on a post about sustainability. I got a little overwhelmed with the enormity of our problem even as I recognized how many smart, capable people are coming up with potential solutions in this area every day.

It was with my head still wrapped in thought about our environmental and social distribution issues that I went to make my lunch. I just planned on reheating some leftovers – Black Chickpea Curry that I made the other day from Anupy Singla’s The Indian Slow Cooker and a little brown and wild rice. When I opened the refrigerator, I spotted some beautiful asparagus I had just picked up. Even though it’s rainy and cold outside now, I know it’s spring when I see asparagus!

I started to cut the asparagus and realized I could only use about two-thirds of the stalk since the bottom third was too tough and stringy.  It’s really frustrating when that happens!

I recently read an article that pointed out that 40% of our food is never eaten – it is thrown away. This brought me back to my thoughts of a few moments before as I was trying to write about sustainability. I thought to myself, “What can I do with that bottom third of the stalks?”

What I decided to do was to make a quick sauce to pour over the asparagus: I cut off those asparagus ends, cooked them for a minute or two and threw them into my VitaMix with some extra virgin olive oil, salt, basil and lemon juice. 10 seconds of blending and … yum! My little lunch of leftovers was turned into something special. I’m going to do that again tonight. I might even share some.

Better yet, I felt less overwhelmed by my morning’s reading. Yes, my little contribution was miniscule in view of the task. Kind of like one vote in a country of 227,224,334 eligible to vote?? Or one drop in an ocean of water?

In a world of interdependence, though, each vote counts, each drop of water counts, and my asparagus sauce counted.  Besides, it was delicious!

For more, visit my blog, vegetatingwithleslie.org, “Like” me on FaceBook/Vegetating with Leslie or follow me on Twitter, @vegwithleslie.

I picked up an announcement about 3D printed meat today. Hmmm…interesting. As a longtime vegetarian, now moving toward vegan, I’m still not sure how I feel about this.

It does sound like it has more possibilities than the type of lab-grown meat I wrote about two years ago.

Certainly the potential impact on reducing inhumane treatment of animals and on reducing environmental stress makes it a project worth pursuing.

For more, visit my blog, vegetatingwithleslie.org, “Like” me on FaceBook/Vegetating with Leslie or follow me on Twitter, @vegwithleslie.

Published 4/16/2015 in 3duniverse.org.

3D printing enhances quality of life for seniors

DENTISTRY

We’ve all heard them, those jokes about getting older: “You know you’re old when you and your teeth don’t sleep together.” It’s a humorous accommodation to the fact that one of the unfortunate features of aging is that bodily structures and systems deteriorate at a more rapid rate.

As anyone knows who has needed a dental implant or dental prosthetics, they are costly, as in the thousands. Medicare doesn’t cover this particular expense nor do most insurers, even dental insurers. In addition, there is usually an uncomfortable waiting period between tooth removal and implantation or development of a dental prosthesis.

That set of facts makes it exciting news that 3D printing is taking off in the dental industry. This development isn’t futuristic: it’s happening now. While at the moment, 3D print technology is focused on reducing the cost and increasing the accuracy of dental surgery through lifelike modeling, 3D printing implants and dental prostheses isn’t far behind.

Says Andrew Wheeler, a 3D print journalist of Stratasys Objet260 Dental Selection 3D Printer, showcased at the International Dental Show in Germany just last month, March 2015: “I think it’s pretty nice that we are coming to an age where you can have a crown replaced almost immediately after having it scanned with an intra-oral scanner, have the data processed on 3D software, and then have the replacement 3D printed out for you while you comfortably relax with your pin-pricked gums, numbed out face, blinding light, and crappy TV or music.”

SKELETAL IMPLANTS

More than 50% of women in the U.S. suffer from osteoporosis and more than 25% of men. Hip fracture is a serious and costly public health problem in this country and internationally. Fragility fractures as a function of osteoporosis are associated with an approximately doubled risk of death in the year following the fracture. The annual cost of osteoporotic fractures to the US healthcare system in 2001 was approximately US$17 billion.

3D printing offers life-saving solutions as implants into the skeletal system. Two particularly impressive stories are these, one a hip implant, the other an arm-saving shoulder implant. 3D printed knee replacements have been used with good success. Particularly exciting are the stories of 3D printed implant processes completed with stem cells.

• 3D printed hip replacements can save lives and improve the quality of life. A year ago, surgeons at Southampton General Hospital 3D printed a hip joint for 71-year-old Meryl Richards and used her own stem cells to hold it in place.

• 3D printed shoulder implant. Also a year ago, a hospital in the Netherlands 3D printed the first shoulder prosthetic. The expectation was that the patient would have better mobility than with a traditional shoulder implant. Prior to that surgery, only knees had been replaced through 3D printing.

In another shoulder implant story, a tumor patient’s shoulder and arm were saved from amputation with a 3D printed shoulder implant.

APPETIZING MEALS

Degenerating teeth aren’t the only reason seniors may have difficulty eating. Sadly more than 60% of elderly people have dysphagia, difficulty swallowing. Until now this problem has been addressed with unappetizing purees.

One German company, Biozoon, has a new approach. They have created a 3D printer that manufactures beautiful, appetizing, nutritious 3D printed soft foods. Developed in 2010, the concept has been adopted in over 1,000 retirement homes in Germany. Biozoon is now working with 14 companies from 5 countries and has received money from the European Union to develop the technology and improve supply. –

Transitioning from 3D Printing to Bioprinting: life everlasting?

Does 3D printing combined with bioprinting technology promise more comfortable and productive sunset years for all of us? Or even eternal life?

Bioprinting is a technology that artificially constructs living tissue by printing layer upon layer of living cells.  It is not futuristic: it is here! In March 2015, Russian scientists unveiled a functional 3D printed thyroid.  They hope to have a functional 3D printed kidney sometime during 2018.

As we are able to print functioning body tissue, some enthusiasts envision . . . well, eternal life. In this vision, 3D and bioprint technology will print replacements for each body part that wears out. In addition, by studying exact functional replicas of body parts produced with 3D modeling, we may be able to find solutions to many of the mysteries of aging.

The Smithsonian builds on this futuristic theme with “Organs made to order.”  This idea points to a shorter term, very practical and probably less ethically laden use for 3D and bioprinting technology, though: Huffington Post explains “How 3D printing could end the deadly shortage of donor organs.”

In the even shorter term, 3D and bioprinting technology may assist failing organs instead of replacing them.

We live in exciting times!

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For more, visit my blog, vegetatingwithleslie.org, “Like” me on FaceBook/Vegetating with Leslie or follow me on Twitter, @vegwithleslie.