Kickass Burritos

Burritos are super easy to make. With anything. At anytime. Again, I'm using up some extra stuff in my fridge. No photo. I was ravenous.

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 garlic clove, minced
1/4 cup green chilies, diced
1/4 cup scallions, sliced
1/4 cup tomatoes, diced
1/4 cup lettuce, shredded/chopped
1/4 cup vegan cheddar, shredded
1 cup black beans, cooked
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp chili powder
1 tsp coriander
1/2 cup rice, cooked (you can cook the rice while putting the rest of this dish together)
Tortillas (makes approx. 2)

...why didn't I pick a jalapeño?!? Ohmygah, culinary regret. (You might want to add some sliced jalapeños if easily accessible to avoid culinary regret.)

In a large frying pan over medium heat, sauté the garlic, chilies, and scallions in oil. Add the black beans, cumin, chili powder, and coriander. Reduce heat, stirring occasionally. When rice is done cooking, add it to the frying pan and toss with the bean mixture. Add more spices to taste.

Sprinkle half the shredded cheese onto each tortilla and microwave for approximately 20 seconds to soften them. Spoon the bean mixture on, then the lettuce and tomato. I also shredded some carrot over these for more color and vegetable goodness.

Spicy tofu scramble

 

I've made many different variations of this recipe, but this week I needed to use up some peppers and tomatoes.

Note on tofu: Drain or press to your heart's content. It saves cooking time in this recipe, but my morning laziness usually makes me skip that part.

12-14 ounces tofu, crumbled but still chunky
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
Ground black pepper to taste
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1 tablespoon soy sauce
2 scallions, sliced
1/2 cup vegan cheddar, shredded

1-2 tablespoons olive oil
1 jalapeño, seeded and diced
1/2 hatch chile, seeded and diced
1 sweet banana pepper, seeded and diced
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 small tomato, diced

Gently heat the olive oil, garlic, and peppers in a small frying pan. Once heated, add the tomatoes (they cook much faster than other veggies). Mix all the other ingredients in a bowl and add the mixture to the pan, cooking about 4-5 minutes, or until most of the excess moisture is gone and the scramble is heated through.

Serve on toast, tortillas, whatever makes you happy. Ketchup and toast make me most happy.

PEPPER BURN SUCKS

Have you ever heard or read, "Wear gloves when handling hot peppers"?

I had. I ignored. And the pepper gods smote me.

Let's rewind to last week. A Friday night housewarming party awaited, I was dying to try some new recipes, and there were ten or so jalapeños in my garden corked and begging to be eaten. What better challenge then vegan jalapeño poppers? None, I say. None. [recipe forthcoming.]

Anyone who knows my food habits knows I love spicy food. So this was not my first time working with jalapeños. And to me, jalapeños never constituted a "hot" pepper... at least not enough to warrant gloves. Gloves, really? Gloves are for suckers. Or habaneros.

I harvested my glorious peppers and went inside. I laid all out on the cutting board when a voice in my head said I should wear gloves. And I replied: Eff off, little voice. The voice told me it remembered some recipe that said homegrown peppers were hotter than storebought peppers. I replied: Seriously, little voice. Get a life. It's all lies. And if it's not, I'm a grown woman. I am built for pain. I can handle it.

So I sliced and seeded with haste and got my hands all up in that capsaicin goodness. I was coughing more than usual, but that didn't ring any warning bells. It wasn't until all the peppers were cut that I started to feel the burn creeping into my fingers. I acknowledged it, but kept cooking, first blanching the peppers, then stuffing them, then rolling them in the batter and setting them up to fry. During all this, I started to feel the throbbing and the scorching heat. And it was spreading. And I started to see crimson burn marks all over my hands. It reminded me of when I was six years old and "checked if the iron was on" right before a Christmas party. I walked to the neighbor's with my hand in a cup of ice water.

Immediately after the poppers were done (because of course I'm crazy and insisted on finishing the stupid poppers before tending to my screaming hands) the ice water thing was the first thing I tried. Ah, cold relief. Short-lived. I alternated running my hands under cool water while looking up pepper burn remedies on the internet. I tried detergent. I tried lemon juice. I tried vegetable oil. I took a couple of painkillers. I tried baking soda paste. I tried rubbing alcohol. I tried everything again. Some temporary relief, but no luck with anything lasting.

Finally, I tried the baking soda paste again. I made it super thick and slathered it on my hands. I laid down on the couch with my hands over my stomach and took a fifteen minute nap. While I lay there, the heat got worse, but it felt more like a sauna under the paste and I didn't mind that sensation. When I woke up, I was covered in baking soda, but my pain was.. was it gone? Not totally, but it was a memory of what it had been before. YAY!

So, I washed off the paste and....damn it. The pain was back. I had to mail a bill out before I left and I couldn't even hold a pen long enough to write a word in one try. I do believe that was the longest address I've written since Kindergarten.

I was hours late. I was angry. I put some more paste on, put on some vinyl gloves, and drove to the party an hour away. The steering wheel was my enemy.

Beer, of course, became my fast friend. When I arrived I stripped my powdery gloves and donned some clean ones to slice the chilies for my seven layer dip, also delicious, recipe also forthcoming. And I was still burning throughout the night, but it's amazing how a good old keg will dull that pain. [I should mention, that in the hours before, I wanted to kill the bastard who wrote that the only thing that stopped the burning was lots and lots of rum.]

I woke the next morning with no burning.

So, maybe you feel like a sissy if you wear gloves. Well you'll feel like a total jerk if you don't and end up three hours late and miserable to a party because you're freaking out over your pepper-scalded hands. Wear the gloves. Really.

Photo update

My favorite things..

Lettuce is still coming! Aside from the heads finishing up, I had a head regrow itself, and it's actually looser and bigger... which means it's much harder for slugs to hide in there. Bwahaha.

I was able to harvest and eat some damn fine looking carrots. Unfortunately, not too many were damn fine looking, as I didn't thin them out well enough earlier in the season. Used them in stuffed peppers, salads, and to make a ton of vegetable broth to hold me over for a few months..(did I mention I went vegan??) Carrot tops impart a really beautiful parsley-esque flavor, and aren't bad as additional salad greens. (If you like the taste of parsley.)

Yesterday I transplanted my summer squash, an eggplant, and a couple of pepper plants out of the way of the vigorous (read: crazy) tomato plants. Pruned those suckers..literally..and tied them up a bit higher. The ep and peppers moved without any trouble. The squash notsomuch, but have since perked up.

And without further ado, the fruit files:

There are at least fifteen plump green tomatoes on my plants, some of which are just hinting to yellow. I am thrilled for these.










Baby sweet banana pepper.









Baby jalapeño.

And summer has begun...

Cleaned up the weeds, peas, and grass. I also staked all of the tomatoes.







Carrots are nearly beefy enough to be picked.












This photo shows a couple of peppers blossoms. I'm waiting (praying?) for fruit set.







This squash had a gorgeous bloom the other day. Multiple flowers on there now, so as long as I can keep the slugs away...








Peppers are exploding in a good way.











Lots of green tomatoes out there!

















My big eggplant has one flower coming along so far. It's suffering from slug and earwig damage, so I need to set out some traps this week.

Update

Some peppers have blossomed!

Pulled some baby carrots.. I'll eat them tonight.

Weeded a bit and turned in the spinach plot.

I think the beets are overcrowded, hence no roots. Silly me.

Some more veggies!

My fridge is full of Little Gem, radishes, and snap peas... seriously full of peas. Here are some more updates from the garden...


I couldn't get a great shot, but the carrot foliage is quite large now. I dug a bit and found that the roots are beginning to plump (and orange, yay).










Contrary to my post last time I harvested Little Gem... now the rest are maturing very quickly... I pulled about five heads yesterday. However, given the likelihood of hot weather soon, that's now a good thing.









Next year = Pea fence. No exceptions. Peas are doing awesome. A couple of more big time harvests and they're done for the season.










Pepper plants are showing the starts of tiny blossoms, I think. I'll keep an eye out. And it is embarrassingly clear from this photo that I need to do some weeding. Oy.







This eggplant is about ten inches. Once the peas are gone it'll have a little more room to grow. I'm happily surprised that the peas haven't really tried to choke it off.









Cukes? I think? The squash/cuke/whatever-it-is plant that got magically (birds?) moved to the back of the garden is in similar condition.






Tomato blossoms are pretty! I pruned like crazy yesterday. Gotta stake these buggers and pray for lots and lots of delicious fruit.








Beets aren't really plumping yet, but the greens look great.

Fruits (Vegetables?) of my labor

I had already harvested PLENTY of radishes... actually made some radish top soup last week...and some of the earlier ones were gorgeous!

A few more are left to plump up a bit, then I think my spring radish season is over.



First two heads of Little Gem!! We'll make a nice salad tonight. Fortunately, even though I planted everything at the same time, the others aren't maturing at the same rate.

Glad it's something that Dad and Brother like to eat :)




And my first substantial harvest of snaps... I have a nice handful waiting to be eaten, stir-fried, what-have you. The first couple I picked last week were quite good. Next year I'll fence my peas.. they grow like crazy!





Have some blossoms on the tomatoes, and at least one of the eggplants is getting much larger and healthier! Looks like I won't lose them after all.

Peas

Peas are almost ready to harvest!

I had forgotten what kind I planted, but apparently they are dwarf sugar snap. Yay.

Update

Radishes - Harvested and ate quite a few so far! Yummy. The advice to pick them before they're over an inch... definitely true. Only one got bigger, and it was just starting to get a little woody. Haven't tried cooking any yet. Maybe I will with the next batch.

Beets - Coming along.

Carrots - Ditto, thinned naturally by radishes.

Lettuce - Expect to harvest soon! Little gems are coming right along.

Spinach - I'm kind of over the spinach. I didn't thin well in the beginning and now it's even more difficult to thin them out. Some have yellowed.

Peas - FLOWERING!! yay!! Pea blossoms are quite pretty.

Peppers/Eggplants - Just hanging out. Some slight progress after warm days. Next season I'll set them out later.

Tomatoes - Growing well! I think I'll need to prune a bit soon.

Squash/Cukes - Had to pull the originals.. no root progress, kind of strange. Planted some remaining seeds. Two seedlings so far. One in original hill, one way displaced to edge of garden. Birds maybe?

Photo Update

Something's eating my tomatoes..

Aphids or something. I have to do some research and buy some product. Shame. :(

My winter squash is unhappy also, though not because it's being eaten. We'll see if I can find the answer to that one.

Moved some plants outside!

Hit a high of 84 degrees today I think. Yikes!

My tomatoes, butternut squash, and cukes are now living the high life outdoors. This is earlier than I wanted to plant them out, but they were getting quite large and I didn't want to transplant twice.

Germination has started on all my little plants except my carrots. We'll see if they make it.

<3

Attractive bug repellent

Planted some plump orange marigolds along the edge of my raised bed today. And now, conveniently, it's raining again.

My first veggie garden

...in approximately ten years.

This one will be wonderful because I'm planting more than beans and radishes.. and it won't be next to the house near the dryer vent anymore. (Gotta love linty veggies).

First, near the end of February, I went on parkseed.com and had a field day, purchasing seeds and their greenhouse-esque seed starter. Aside from the SLOOOOW shipping and lack of concrete shipping times, everything arrived in good happy condition in time to plant.

I started a bunch of seeds.. and let me tell you that "Bio Dome" thing is amazing. Nothing has failed to germinate or grow a strong seedling, which has made thinning the double-seeded pods a difficult decision.

This past weekend, I built an 8x8 raised bed in the backyard out of earth-friendly composite lumber. We bought two 2x6x16s, had them halved, drilled pilots, and bolted them against corner stakes in the yard. That part was actually fairly easy. The most difficult part was digging up all the grass within our designated square. I never want to do that again.. but thankfully, I won't have to.. until I move again of course. My poor boyfriend suffered through Day 2 of that.. poor Dad suffered through Day 1. Thank goodness for help, or I'd still be out there pulling up sod.

We filled with a 3rd peat, a 3rd garden mix which included some manure and vermiculite, and a 3rd topsoil.

I'm playing with the Square Foot Gardening method outside, though for now I just gridded off the southern 4' half of my garden and planted there. The taller summer plants will go on the back half when it's safe to put them outdoors.

Here is a current plant list and growth update:

Tomatoes: 2 varieties, started indoors, kicking butt
Eggplant: started indoors, slow-growing
Sweet Banana Peppers: "Bonus" seed packet, started indoors
Jalapenos: started indoors
Early Butternut Squash: started indoors, taking over my windowsill!
Cukes: Read early butternut
Summer Squash: started indoors, late to germinate, but now they're quite healthy

Radishes: seeds sown outdoors
Carrots: "
Lettuce: "
Spinach: "
Peas: "

Beans: waiting to sow til soil has warmed outdoors

The next thing I need is some fencing for when my plants pop up outdoors... we have LOTS of rabbits nearby who I'm sure will give my veggies an unwelcome pruning.

I'm looking forward to not killing these vegetables and having something nice to eat in a few weeks. At least I know the radishes will survive!!