You can probably put that peculiar CSA share vegetable on pizza.

Since I've taken on vegan-ishm, I've cooked a few batches of cookies that were mildly tasty, as well as some simple stews that I served to the folks here at the farm with no complaints. I've never been a fan of vegan dairy and meat substitutes (just skip the cheese and meat, don't give me something synthetic and vaguely cheesy), so I've stayed away from cooking anything that traditionally has those ingredients in it.

I love pizza. In my former life as a middle school science teacher, apparently (in addition to teaching my students basic physics and biology) I was vocal enough about my love affair with pizza that my kids spontaneously began to wrap slices in napkins on Tuesdays (pizza day!!!), stuff them into their pockets in order to sneak them out of the cafeteria and bring them to me as a gesture of kindness. (I love pizza, but I don't love pocket pizza. However, that doesn't mean I didn't pretend to be grateful and wait until school was out to throw them into the trash).

When I decided to take on vegan-ishm, I assumed I would have to give up pizza. Have you ever had a good cheese-less pizza? I've tried a few, and the fact that they're even classified as pizza is an insult to the institution of Pizza. Soy cheese- in addition to being an estrogen mimic- has texture issues comparable to raw eggplant, and vegan pizza minus the cheese substitute is just crust with tomato sauce and some vegetables on it. Neither is very exciting.

While surfing the web for dinner ideas, I found this recipe for vegan pizza, and decided to take a risk and try it out. I made a few modifications in order to include more of the fresh vegetables we've been harvesting at the farm:

Whole wheat crust:

You need:

1 tablespoon yeast

1 tablespoon of sugar

1.5 cups lukewarm water

2 cups of whole wheat flour

1.5 cups of white flour

2 tablespoons of olive oil

1 pinch of salt

You should:

1. Mix 1 tablespoon active dry yeast, 1 tablespoon of sugar and 1.5 cups of lukewarm water. Stir it up gently, and let sit for 10-15 minutes (until you see evidence of the little yeasties munching on the sugar; i.e. bubbles)

2. Mix two cups of whole wheat flour and 1.5 cups of white flour in a bowl. Add 2 tablespoons of olive oil and a pinch of salt. Pour in your mixture from #1 and mix well.

3. Cover with a damp towel. Let the dough sit for >1 hour. It should have doubled in size.

4. Pour some extra flour onto the surface you're going to work the dough with. If the dough is too sticky, pour some extra flour into the bowl before you begin to knead it.

5. Punch the dough! (Ok, you don't have to do this, but it's super fun because of the all of the gas the yeast created).

6. Knead the dough well, Divide into two sections. Roll each out with a rolling pin.

7. Lay each section of pizza dough out on to a well oiled cast iron skillet. Bake at 425 degrees for about 10 minutes (you need to check on it, it's hard for me to give an accurate time for this because I've been cooking at 7000 ft above sea level), then remove and put on the lentil sauce and toppings.

Red lentil sauce and veggies

You need:

2 cups of red lentils

4 cups water

2-3 cloves of garlic

2 tablespoons of olive oil

Cumin, yellow curry, cilantro, tumeric

About 2 cups of green

1 onion

You should:

1. Do this before you make the crust: Rinse 2 cups of red lentils in cold water, then let soak for > 30 minutes.

2. Combine 2 tablespoons olive oil, 2-3 cloves of chopped garlic, 4 cups of water and bring to a boil. After boiling, turn down to low-medium heat and add cumin, yellow curry powder, cilantro, and tumeric to taste. Cook until lentils are tender (about 30 minutes). Wait until the last 5 minutes of cooking to add salt to taste.

3. While your lentils are cooking, chop up those greens you got at the farmer's market but don't know what the hell to do with and stir fry with chopped onion, olive oil, salt and pepper until tender. The following greens are your best bet: gailon (brocolinni), bok choy, koji, kale, texyl greens, turnip greens. In fact, the only green I wouldn't recommend adding is chard, due to it's bitterness.

4. When you take your pizza crust out of the oven, spread the lentil sauce evenly over each pizza. Next, add your sauteed vegetables.

5. Bake your pizza for another 5-7 minutes, or until the crust is done (it should be lightly browned).

 
6. Cut into slices and chow down.

So this isn't really pizza in a traditional sense. It's more like middle eastern food on a gigantic, warm pita. However, it was a big hit at the farmhouse, and it's a great way to use up those greens your CSA farmer insists on giving you every week. Speaking of which, pizza- vegan or otherwise- is a great way to use up most vegetables. After all, you can saute most things in olive oil with garlic, cover in cheese and it will likely taste good. (Probably not okra).

Until next time, I leave you with cute farm dog #2, Lakota:

The secret to eating bok choy is:

Grow your own!

I've frequented farmer's markets and participated in community support agriculture before, so I've cooked my fair share of esoteric greens. Even though vitamin green, gaillon, kale, braising mix, collards and bok choy are essentially the same species, some of them are more intimidating than others. (In fact, I've kind of always suspected some of them don't actually taste any better than a leafy plant growing through the cracks of the sidewalk, they just have someone ultra-hip marketing them to the general public).

Which brings me to bok choy. In the past, my bok choy experience has been lackluster at best. I've always felt like I was eating crunchy, stagnant water. But, while harvesting for CSA shares last week, some spirit moved me to take a heaping bite out of a head of bok choy.


Fresh bok choy = delicious.

In fact, there is must be a positive correlation between the time your greens have been harvested and their deliciousness factor. After all, greens are the leaves of the plant, and leaves are juicy and full of water up until you disconnect the rest of the plant from its water supply (the stem and roots) with a harvesting knife. The longer you wait to stuff those guys in your mouth, the less exciting your green-eating experience will be as they begin to lose water. On top of that, the water that remains in the harvested green leaves isn't being flushed out by crisp, clean ground water; stagnant water is not too tasty.

Unfortunately, not everyone has access to a hoop house full of greens ripe for harvesting, but that doesn't mean you have to subject yourself to puddle-ly tasting greens for the rest of your life. Greatist has a great article on growing your own stuff indoors, including greens and lettuces. If you can't do that, better ask your farmer when they harvest their greens; that same day in the early AM or the day before is best if you want the tastiest.

As for cooking them, try this recipe out:

Easy greens

You need:

1 head o' greens

3 tablespoons of peanut, olive or sesame oil

salt and pepper

You should:

1. Cut the leaves from the stems of your greens.

2. Dice the stems into small chunks (think: diced onion sized).

3. Chop the greens into small (1-2 inch) pieces. 

4. Put oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the stems in only.

5. Cook stems for 3-5 minutes, add in the leaves after that.

6. Add 1/2 cup of vegetable stock or water, cook down for another 5-7 minutes, or until stems are soft.

7. Add salt and pepper to taste and eat!

Add caption

I've been writing down the recipes my teacher has shown me in order to internalize them. A little crayola doesn't hurt for memorization, either.  

In honor of my Saturn Return, I got myself a food blog.

Yes folks, another food blog.

And why not? Food is a huge influence on one's overall quality of life, and even the most opposite of folks can come together jovially over a delicious meal.  Although I've been hip to the importance of eating high quality food since my communist days eating vegetarian meals at the Eugene V. Debs cooperative in Ann Arbor, Michigan, it's just now becoming a focal point in my life. After college, I moved to Louisville, Kentucky to teach low-income students at an all-boys public school, where I realized a lack of access to healthy food was a major piece of the inequality pie. Also, during my first year of teaching (which sucked) I adopted an "eat-at-Wendy's-once-a-day" diet. Once I figured out how to manage my time spent working with time spent doing other things (i.e. cooking fresh and healthful food, staying active, socializing with people over the age of 14), it made a world of difference. And then: I became a better teacher.


(Side note: I recognize teacher quality is a multivariate thing-but eating better sure did make me feel better. And kids like happy teachers a lot better than crabby ones.)

After burning out from five years working in the public school system, I dabbled in urban agriculture and worked for a non-profit developing curriculum for youth in gardening. It seems, however, that even non-profits fall victim to the system, and I struggled to shake my burnout syndrome.

Always an idealist and never subtle, I decided to ditch my regular job and city life and move to a farm in Cerro, New Mexico. On top of that, I really dig digging in the dirt and generally being outside, so learning to farm seemed like a logical next step for me.

I've been an apprentice at the farm for almost two months now, and I've realized I could benefit from writing all of this stuff down, hence: Food, (not nuclear bombs). 

Moon rise over the farm in spring time

Before we move forward, I'll need to define and explain a few things:

Vegan-ishm: I don't have any answers (yet, or maybe ever) to the problems of worldwide food access and food quality. I do know that a meat based diet is definitely not the answer, although there are certainly healthy ways-for both yourself and for the planet- to consume animal products. I'm also informally apprenticing as a cook here at the farm, and my teacher cooks mostly vegan (and definitely vegetarian) dishes. I'll be learning and sharing recipes here on the blog as well as exploring specific issues around sustainability and food justice.

Food, (not nuclear bombs): The blog title is a reference to one of my favorite organizations, Food Not Bombs. If you're looking to volunteer anywhere, I think their mission of feeding under served folks high quality food is an awesome one, so definitely check for a chapter in your neighborhood. Also, the founder of FNB hosts a Free Skool here in Taos, New Mexico, so if you really dig it, come and visit me!

Of course, the nuclear part is a reference to New Mexico, a state that would be the world's 4th strongest nuclear superpower if we decided to cede from the union, as measured by volume of nuclear weaponry.

New Mexico: The Land of Enchantment: i.e. where middle aged folks come to find themselves. I say more power to 'em; it's freaking beautiful out here. Also, green chile is a thing here. And by "thing" I mean: it's in everything.

Vegan green chile skillet cornbread. Recipe to come later!

Saturn Return: Although I initially attributed my drastic and rather reckless life decision to pick up and move to burnout and being single, female and almost 30, I found out from an astrology diviner here in Taos that I'm actually in the midst of my "Saturn Return." Saturn orbits the sun every 29 years; in astrology, Saturn rules structure and limits. In short, my confusion about who I am and what I should do with my life and where I should be is the result of some major cosmic energy. (Or, a chemical imbalance. You say tomato, I say to-mah-to.)

In summary: I'm learning a lot, and if it doesn't benefit anyone else, codifying this incredible experience will be of huge value to me. Stay tuned for recipes, discussions on food related topics, and pictures of cute farm dogs.

Introducing: Guppy, aka Cute Farm Dog #1