Goodbye Big Tex…But now we serve Deep Fried Tex

Don’t worry Big Tex, I’m sure you will be replaced by some sort of facsimile of yourself.

But until that time arrives…The Texas State Veggie Fair is coming Sunday, October 21st.

James Scott, the founder of DallasVegan.com and The Texas State Veggie Fair Loves Strawberry Fanta, lotsa things hot, and tacos. Basically everything we love as well, except for the hot sauce on oats, don’t know about that one James…

Homemade Hummus: Original Flavor

W – We have been wanting to do some fancy hummus flavors lately, but, for comparison, I was wanting to try a homemade original flavor first. So I said to myself, “W? Get into the store and buy some chickpeas!”. So I did.

I parked at my local grocer and whipped out my handy phone and quickly entered, “Hummus recipe” into Google and went with the first thing that came up. I am sure there are better recipes out there but I was in a hurry and I have almost everything the recipe was asking for.
Here are the ingredients that the website listed.

Ingredients:

• 1 16 oz can of chickpeas or garbanzo beans
• 1/4 cup liquid from can of chickpeas
• 3-5 tablespoons lemon juice (depending on taste)
  • I used about 2-3. Next time I will try 5
• 1 1/2 tablespoons Tahini
  • Tahini is one of those ingredients that can really be the taste that makes your dish subtly distinct from your friend’s hummus. I did not have any, so I guess I will be serving the crapy un-refined hummus to everyone’s dismay.
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
  • Not real sure why you have to crush your garlic up, since the recipe was asking to “blend it for up to 5 minutes”. I simple put those in first and gave them a quick blend then threw in the ingredients (minus the liquid). 2 cloves of garlic was toooo much. I was silly to assume that cloves are all the same size. The 2 I used are big ( check the photos ). So I would say 1 large clove, or 2 small ones. Unless you want heart burn which I am experiencing right now.
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • I first tasted it without salt. It was fine. I then added a dash off salt to see the difference.
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • I used my spoon to make a crater and poured some of my favorite OO in the valley.
• Oh, and I decided to add an olive from the olive bar. I bought 3 but I wanted to see how potent 1 would be. I will be adding the other 2 next time.

## Problems finding the Chickpeas? Check the ethnic aisle

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Inspiring Flavors Add Silver Lining To The Boring Salad

W – I don’t even like salad but these Zukay dressings may just be my secret silver lining to eating salad. If we do not eventually buy one to try, we can at least try to make our own.

Beer is not vegan? Seriously?

Correction. Some are vegan some are not.

Here is a vegan beer we had the opportunity to try.

It was good.

Dont want summer to end yet? Summer Spumz.

Need a change? Something lighter and with a non-traditional summer twist? How about this fresh take on Spumz (aka Spaghetti)?

We were up in Denton TX at Cupboard, a natural organic grocery who sells local produce, and we spotted some yellow tomatoes…inspiration crept our way.

We placed the tomatoes in boiling water for about 15 seconds, removed them and peeled the skin off. We sliced them up and put them into a pot set on medium high. At this time we also placed the onion, salt, pepper, and garlic into the pot as well. We also added a splash of peach lemonade for a citrus twist.

Honesty, there is no real need to go out and buy a jar of peach lemonade, just add a splash of lime or something else tangy.

After you have your pot of citrus sauce going, cover with a lid or at least cover partially. There needs to be some steam to soften those garlic pieces. The water from boiling the tomatoes should still be boiling so go ahead and get those noodles goin.

The sauce should take about 10 minutes to cook. The noodles will most likely finish before that. You can turn the burner down to low to keep a small boil goin (But don’t overcook!).

Place noodles on plate, then the yellow sauce. After that, add your strawberries and a light drizzle of Olive Oil.

Ingredients:

SAUCE

Half an onion cut to your liking (white or yellow, your preference, we went with white)

Yellow Tomatoes (we got three small and one medium, since we were not adding sauce, a couple more would have been better)

Garlic (shelled and sliced)

A splash of Peach Lemonade (Santa Cruz Organics)

Pinch of salt and pepper

NOODLES

Wheat noodles, thin

MISC

Strawberry sliced to your liking

Olive Oil at the end

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Wendy’s “Natural Flavor” a Dime-a-dozen

We were surprised to find something “vegan” at Wendy’s (other than the over baked, dry skinned, brown things they call potatoes). This sauce was actually good, just look at the ingredients, simple with no words surpassing 10 on the syllable counter. But what’s this? One of the ingredients is “natural flavor”. Who the heck does Wendy’s think they are? J. Lo? Oscar De La Renta? A pharmaceutical company? So why do they need to hide what they put into their chili sauce? We could probably guess what those natural flavors are…chili powder, onion powder and pepper, maybe? Why do these companies feel the need to hide what is in their products with the vague phrase “natural flavors” when it is not even a high priced sought after item? So it is prolly not Vegan. Oh well. We dont like day baked potatoes anywayz.

 

At least something is growing in this heat…

And at least something didn’t eat it before itz time. You waskily wabbit!

We bought some Black Hungarian Peppers from Rareseeds.com and they even threw in a free pack of heirloom carrots. (we dont like carrots….)

Our garden has been in a lot of stress this year, so we are not surprised that our veggies are fruiting late in the season, if at all.

It has been an overly hot and dry summer in North Texas this year and many of our vegetables either would not fruit or wilted and died.

The peppers themselves are about 1.5 inches right now. They need to be 2″ to 3″ for harvest.

We are pretty excited, but we have no idea what we are gonna do with them…yet

The Jackson Pollock of Soup Making.

I’ve got some left over cans of paint and a stick I found…well, more like veggies and a sharp knife.

Letz do a Veg MedLayyyy!

–

3 cups water

1 veggie bullion

1 tastes-like-chicken bullion

pinch of curry powder and cumin (left over from another meal)

a handful of whole grain saltines

a dash of lemon juice, black pepper, Italian seasoning, garlic powder

a spoon full of hummus – babaganouj style

…and diced and sliced however you want VEGGIES!

–

If you want to know all the veggies I diced and sliced here goes: sweet potato, onion, garlic, eggplant, mushroom and spinach.

–

I put the sweet potatoes in first, since I knew they would take the longest to cook.

Bring the water to boil then you can take it back down to medium and add the veggies!

It really doesn’t matter which veggies go in first.

All the veggies cook fairly quickly (except the sweet potato)

But I would add the spinach in at the last (it will wilt fast and turn mushy)

I let it cook for 8-10 minutes on medium low.

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The Lion Chases the Cat

I was working on a project and came across a do-good-blog that talked about edible landscaping. COOL! But…the-do-good blog has somethings it still needs to figure out.

Basically this blog talked about how we should incorporate edible landscaping in our gardens and feed the hungry with the food.

I fully agree with edible landscapes.

My problem is, there are already edible plants in yards, abandoned lots, and ditches all across America. But these plants are not as popular and/or palatable as more popular greens. For instance, all parts of the Dandelion are edible.

This unassuming flower, pest, weed…this brave plant that seems to find a small crevice on a sidewalk and makes a home…is edible. Hm. Interesting. Why are the do gooders not harvesting already edible plants and helping the needy? Or at least informing the needy of the edible plant varieties around them?

Live near a pond or lake? Does it have Cattails? Guess what? Those suckers are edible.

The point I am making is not about our social responsibility to feed needy individuals, but rather a need to realize how good we have it, and that treating our precious resources with respect will help to better the planet and help those needy individuals as well.

Get off your high horse and actually teach them (needy individuals) to better themselves, then maybe you can talk about how high your morals are. #JustSayn

I digress…We had the opportunity to listen to a presentation by Mr. Howard Garrett – The Dirt Doctor – at LiveGreenExpo 2011. He discussed working with architects and businesses to create edible and sustainable landscapes. He has several articles and books and his videos are insightful.

Dial OO for Olive Oil

Just like wine, Olive Oil has a general stipulation in America of being good, no matter what brand you buy. Sure, spend an extra $10 on some wine and it should be better than that box wine, right? Well, Mr. Kurniawan has found the secret! and he has been accused of trying to sell counterfeit exclusive rare wine to persons that can afford such things. He sold $35 million worth of [fake] wine in 2006 alone. And people bought the stuff! Yeah, it is not the EXACT wine that he was advertising, but he was smart enough to find the “cheap” wine (30 dollar bottle), and relabel it as something else. And guess what? Even wine connoisseurs could not distinguish between the 30 dollar bottle, and the million dollar one.

So get to the Point already Mr W! Alright, geezzzz. The point to this post is…you can have a good bottle of olive oil at a reasonable price. Maybe this juxtaposition is crazy… I have no idea if OO actually sells for millions of dollars, or even thousands of dollars. (and yes, I shall be using “OO” for Olive Oil from now on).

Just as collectors of wine collect wine, I collected OO for awhile [ I no longer have such a massive collection :) ]. I came to posses about 6 bottles of OO, and thought to myself…Lez do a blog post about which ones suck, which ones are ok, and which ones are worth the money.

Left to right….(why are the spoons there W? Well they are there to show the color. See I thought there might be some difference, and there really wasn’t much of a difference, though the unfiltered OO is more yellow)

Colavita – Extra Virgin OO

price – .745 per ounce

The OO that got me hooked. I once thought OO was just OO. There was no difference. I was wrong.

Taste – To me it seems a little dry, but it is a solid OO for its price, and for its perseverance of taste.

Braggs – unfiltered Extra Virgin OO

price – errr, don’t remember

Bought this at a healthy/vegan/organic grocery store. It has two old people on it! And it is “unfiltered”! Unfiltered must mean that it is better for you right? And that it will taste so much better than the other filtered crap on the self, right?

taste – At first it is interesting, but the fascination wears off as quickly as the taste. It has a leafy taste, almost like tea, but in OO form.

Olave – Extra Virgin OO

price – .881 per ounce

Bought this at the same healthy/vegan/organic grocery store. Worth every penny. No joke. It holds its taste through heat and splashed on my spumz after the cooking is done. Until I find something better, this is what I buy. I make spaghetti just to have some of it. #NoJoke

taste – A robust OO that sticks around and gives my taste buds pleasure.

Gia Russa – Extra Virgin OO

price – .706 per ounce

This one, is by far the best marketed OO. It is not even with the other lowly OO. At my grocer this is found right next to the gourmet noodles. So smart. Or are they smart? Look closely at the picture…what do you see? A young girl, presumably, coming back from the OO groves with fresh olives?…oh wait…she holds not baskets of olives, but an arm full of wheat. But I’m sure the marketing team filled that concern with, “um..letz just put really large olives surrounding her. Done”.

taste – Not a bad OO, just not as good at Colavita. If you do not like Colavita’s dryer taste, then this would be your next bet. It is uplifting and light, kinda like that sweet child on the label.

“look mom! At the olive I picked for you”.

“Look mom!..at the olive I picked for you”.

That large thing you see in the random google pic I found, is one of the largest fruits in the world.

TRASH!! Below v

TRASH!! Above ^

Lucini – “Premium Select” Virgin OO

price – .941 per ounce

Wow, the most pricy, yet the sh@tiest. Don’t buy this. It sucks. At my grocer they have tried to re-marketed this with the french bread and in little kiosks with other Italian crap. Don’t be fooled.

Delallo – 100 % Italian

price – .444 per ounce (whoa! On sale?, it must be good)

This vegetable oil is ok. Oh, whatz that? Itz actually OO? Basically this stuff is by far the blandest. Buy Vege oil before you buy this.

And if you want some additional interesting information about “first cold press” “certified authentic” “made in Italy” and other things to know about OO, check out Tom Meuller’s book, Extra Virginity.