Thursday Blog

Uninspired to cook or get take out - HECK - I don't even want to go out for dinner. Do you know this head space? The dinner hour approaches and the hard working hungry folks are hungry.

Ahhhh .... frozen Mac and Cheese? No, I can't. Although I have in the past served The Beecher's frozen Mac and Cheese. Made here in Seattle with penne pasta and Beecher's cheeses, this is one expensive and delicious quick dish. Served up with steamed broccoli carrots or other vegetables, it's a fine dinner. Or include it as a side to fish, or a nice hot out-of-the oven garbanzo bean loaf.

The old garbanzo bean loaf.

A "Goodness Shows Deli" recipe from the early 80's, another Terry Inzerillo invention. I've got it here, makes two loafs. It goes a long way...you can make a sandwich out of it...you can freeze a loaf.


2 chopped onions
4 stalks celery, chopped
2 grated carrots

Saute the vegetables in olive oil until soft, pour into a bowl large enough to add all the other ingredients

and add

1 1/2 teaspoons of thyme
1 1/2 teaspoons of coriander
1 teaspoon salt
1 bunch of chopped parsley

5 cups of cooked garbanzo beans, pureed with 2 eggs
1 cup of sesame meal
6 tablespoons of tamari

4 cups bread crumbs

Mix it together (add water if the mixture is too stiff) and form a loaf in a greased bread pan.

Bake at 350 for 30 minutes, or until shrinking from sides of pan and nicely brown.

It's tasty and healthy. I made it for a river trip once, without the eggs for the vegans (added more tahini) and it was a big hit.

Back to my dinner dilemma..the grill, cook something on the grill with a salad and bread. Easy.

Back to the garbanzo bean loaf....I am wearing my new Missoula Community Coop tee shirt. Yes there is a new coop in Missoula, member driven. It is based on the Park Slope Food Coop model, a 35 year old food cooperative in Brooklyn, New York, where all members work and only members can shop - in exchange for a 20-40% savings in groceries.

Great timing with our food costs soaring and incomes stalling.

Montana

Vacationing in Montana means cooking with friends and drinking the local beer.

Bayern Brewing Company for the unfiltered Pilsner, Big Sky Brewing for a glass of Moose Drowl, Flathead Lake Brewing for the beer and the view, Kettlehouse Brewing, and Bitter Root Brewing, my favorite. There is a new pub, the Tamarack Brewing Company up in Lakeside on the west side of Flathead Lake, that I have yet to visit.

Last nights dinner - "Uncle Bill's Sausage" made in Missoula and his "Sweet German Mustard" with a glass of Bitter Root IPA - sauted chard and a green salad from the garden ... sitting on the edge of the Mission Mountain foothills. Man o man I am a lucky one.

Support your local brewing company, please, if you like beer.

World Spice Merchant in Seattle

I am off to World Spice for a bag of Black Assam Tea and a bag of Irish Breakfast Tea. I love my tea. I do not however have the palate for the subtleties.

I'll undoubtedly buy a bag of curry powder, one of the many house blends that suck you through the door as you inhale the world.

This small shop is on Western Avenue right behind the Pike Place Market.

Actually, I am going to get my list together online before I go. This MAY keep me from buying more spices than I have plans for.

Join me for immediate salivation by clicking on "Spice blends" and scrolling down to the Indian Subcontinent to read the long list of Curry's. DO scroll back up and read the whole list. It's an inexpensive trip.

Remember Brewer's Yeast?

The yellow powder that hippie's ate?

B Vitamins dudettes.

I first heard about it as a hangover cure. A tablespoon or two in a large glass of orange juice was popular. A shot of B Vitamins. And where does
Brewer's yeast grow? It is a bi product of brewing beer ...yeast that is dried and killed. (check out wikipedia)

The Nutritional Yeast Cookbook is available, still, today.

Just now I mixed up one teaspoon of extra virgin olive oil with two teaspoons of yeast and crumbled it on dry toast. Tea and toast. Delicious. I crave more brewers yeast. It is like that, people get addicted to it fast.

Then there is Vegemite which I have never craved and avoid. It is concentrated yeast extract from Australia and the jar says -

"B the best you can B with Vegemite..." "One of the world's richest known sources of Vitamin B"

It is an excellent product but one I never developed a taste for. Besides yeast extract, Vegemite has salt, mineral salt, malt extract, colour, flavors, niacin, thiamine, riboflavin and folate. I am fond of the packaging, Kraft, because it reminds me of the 50's.

Yesterday, after swimming laps for half an hour, I was h u n g r y and whipped up a vegetable pasta dish topping it with a teaspoon of vinaigrette and a small hill of brewers yeast.

Leftover spaghetti, cauliflower, red pepper, red onion and garlic. I blanched the cauliflower in the microwave, something I rarely do but works nicely, tossed it in with the sauteing pepper, onion and garlic, added the pasta and heated it up. I topped it with yeast...it looked dry so I added the olive oil vinaigrette. Could have been rice and veggies with tamari and yeast.

My memory jogs to a friend who ate pasta tossed with red pepper flakes, garlic, yeast and olive oil every night for dinner. Sometimes with a dash of balsamic vinegar.

The ALL TIME FAVORITE, popcorn tamari and yeast.

Since reintroducing yeast into my diet I've put it on salads, rice, oatmeal - not. I recently added a layer of yeast on to my fried egg sandwich....egg from the farm and a big fat layer of greens from the garden, which is about all that is growing with this cold and wet weather.

I do have a full head of romaine to pick and I'm going to make a Cesar with it tonight. Egg from the farm, garlic, olive oil, lemon, a little anchovy and Brewer's Yeast? Why not. Save on the Parmesan cheese

Now I ask you this readers...do you know any men who are gluten intolerant? I have not dined with one but I have dined with many women who are and to you I say, try the new Mary's Gone Crackers - gluten free and tasty. Just had a sample of the black pepper. Mary's son Jeb is gluten intolerant so I guess it's not about testosterone.

That's all from the Sassy Omnivore today and hey, look for me on Thursdays cause now that I know you are out there reading this blog, a schedule is called for.

Ciao