"fish" and chips

At our house, when my husband slathers red miso on the tofu and begins the process of making tofu cheese, it's the beginning of a string of favorite meals! The tofu cheese itself is a fermented wonder, tasting a lot like feta, and it's great crumbled over salad or as a veggie sandwich spread.


Here's where I come in. I slice the tofu cheese into sticks, dress them up with a spicy breading and bake with french-fry-sliced potatoes, for fish-n-chips. The tartar sauce brings it all together. I go for ketchup on my potatoes, but the Mister goes for straight tartar sauce all the way around. Recipes follow.

A couple of days later, it's fish taco time! Find yourself some simple corn tortillas made with just cornmeal, lime and water. Toast over an open flame. Add a fish stick or two, tartar sauce, green tomatillo salsa, shredded cabbage and a squeeze of lime. Tonight we had cilantro on hand, and if avocado is in season, these tacos are even more perfect with guacamole.

In November, Torrey and I stopped in at Native Foods for "Baja Surf Tacos" when we were studying Permaculture together up in Laguna. They're made with battered tempeh, and I love them too! Even better when your friend brings limes to share!

TOFU-CHEESE FISH STICKS (adapted from Shmooed Food)

1/3 cup fine organic cornmeal
1/3 cup ground raw almonds
1 teaspoon sweet paprika
1 teaspoon dulse flakes
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/4 teaspoon onion powder
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/8 teaspoon dill weed
1/8 teaspoon black pepper (more or less to taste)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment.

Cut tofu cheese into sticks/fingers. Dip them into a shallow dish of plain almond milk, and coat with thoroughly mixed dry ingredients.

Place sticks on baking sheet. Bake for total of 30 minutes, turning them over after 15 minutes. You can sprinkle with olive oil to make them more crispy.

TARTAR SAUCE

1/2 cup Vegenaise
1 tablespoon dill pickles, finely chopped
1 tablespoon stuffed green olives, chopped
1 tablespoon onion, grated
1 tablespoon parsley, finely chopped
1 1/2 teaspoons capers, chopped
1 teaspoon lime juice
1 teaspoon garlic, minced

Mix it all up and refrigerate for a bit before serving.

blueberry muffins

Like every recipe I've tried from the Babycakes NYC cookbook, I am completely pleased with these muffins!


Along with pumpkin spice muffins and spelt biscuits, this is one of my new go-to recipes. I made a couple of minor substitutions, like homemade almond milk in place of rice milk, and the zest and a teaspoon of juice from a Meyer lemon in place of lemon extract, and I used less salt. Here's my version:

BLUEBERRY MUFFINS

2 1/4 cups whole spelt flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
pinch of sea salt
1/2 cup coconut oil
2/3 cup agave nectar
2/3 cup almond milk
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 teaspoon of juice, plus the zest from one Meyer lemon
2/3 cup fresh organic blueberries

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line a standard 12-cup muffin tin with paper liners.

Whisk together dry ingredients. Mix in all wet ingredients, except blueberries. When well-combined, gently fold in blueberries.

Pour about 1/3 cup batter into each cup. Bake for 22 minutes, turning 180 degrees at 15 minutes for more even baking.

perfect spot

a hummingbird nests,
tucked safely under the eave --
spring is near

circles of light

Head on over to the brightly shining Sophia Circle for news of our recent gift to Mother India.

san diego getaway

Portland friends Holiday and Don came for a weekend visit. On a sunny Saturday, we did yoga with Bhava at Ginseng, picked up some Rooibos Chai (with lots of cardamom) and Moroccan Spice chocolate from Eclipse at Halcyon Tea in South Park, and later walked along Moonlight Beach in Encinitas after a terrific lunch at Lotus Cafe. One enormous vegan cupcake cut into quarters was just right for dessert.


Fresh off the plane, we walked them to Santana's for burritos and used hats and hands to carry home our bounty from the farmers market. That evening we enjoyed a Camarada performance at Saint Paul's Cathedral, right at the edge of Balboa Park.


Sunday it rained lightly and the whole garden was aglow.


Succulent in Bauer pot.


[All photos by D. Vanderlaag]

Donald has a knack for photography, don't you think?

she likes to draw

I'm a student of graphic design, exploring the edges of creative freelancing.

["Freelance Dance" postcard from Carolyn Sewell's awesome collection Postcards to my Parents.]

It's the first week of a new college term and I'm always up for learning something new. When I landed in my first graphic design course on Tuesday, I had a super-grounded feeling. Like when this little girl said she wanted to be a cartoonist, she knew she'd come back around to drawing, one day. That day is today.


From my "School Years" book, it looks like I was keeping "secretary" as a back-up plan, no doubt influenced by the times. I mean how weird is it that there are "boy" choices and "girl" choices? And it's a pretty narrow list on either side of the aisle, right?

I'm starting with learning the Adobe Creative Suite of software, and getting right back to Amy Becraft's Typography course at City College, once I get my digital toolkit together!

sweet oranges

From John McPhee, I learned that the word 'orange' evolved from Sanskrit. "The Chinese word for orange ... is jyu, but it did not migrate with the fruit ... The Hindus called an orange naranja, the first syllable of which, according to Tolkowsky, was a prefix meaning fragrance. This became the Persian naranj, a word the Muslims carried through the Mediterranean. In Byzantium, an orange was nerantzion. This in Neo-Latin, became variously styled as arangium, arantium, and aurantium -- eventually producing naranja in Spain, laranja in Portugal, arancia in Italy, and orange in France." Fascinating.

By any name, I will never tire of having sweet oranges right outside my door in January. We've harvested 90-something so far (I'm trying to keep count) and the tree still looks full.

On the other side of the garden, aloe flowers glow orange against the canyon this afternoon.