Not How It Should Go.

I've been dealing with a lot of death recently and it's taken its toll. This one is more tragic because it was not time and it should never have happened.

Phil "bear magnet" Nierenberg died of complications from chemo yesterday. My heart is breaking for Dani and all those who loved him.

With love to all of them, please feel free to read about his struggle and amazing courage at his blog:

Bear Thoughts.

If you are interested, please make donations in Phil's name to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, Donor Services, P.O. Box 4072, Pittsfield, MA 01202, so that they can find a cure and no one ever has to go through what Phil went through again.

A Wednesday in the Life of Lyco

So this morning, someone lovely left a chunk of candy cane on the dining room table. Somehow under my helmet. It stuck to said helmet. I placed said helmet upon my head and blithely rode off to work. When I arrived at said work and removed said helmet, said candy cane was FIRMLY lodged in said bangs of doom (or s-bod). The s-bod was sticking straight up and holding fiercely to the helmet. I yanked. No good. I had to walk into my office with my helmet stuck to the candy cane and stuck to my hair - I clearly went straight into the bathroom, but not before a coworker saw me. It took me 15 minutes to get said candy cane out and it involved ripping and yanking feverishly. My coworkers came in and laughed at me. Then they told me it was too warm out and to work harder.

And later on that day in a series of emails from a coworker:

CW: "And now you know, when I see the word 'gas,' I think of you."

Lyco: "I hope that's because of my project."

CW: When the project fits the gal....

Braised Tempeh Bowl

This made a fantastic winter meal. Keep the pieces warm in the oven as you assemble so everything comes out nice and toasty.

Serves 2

Lyco's Braised Tempeh Bowl

1 package tempeh
1 container Pacific Organic mushroom broth
1/2 cup red wine
1/3 apple cider
2 shallots, thinly sliced
7 small-med mushrooms, sliced
1 small bunch spinach, cleaned and stems removed
3 garlic cloves, minced and separated
5 sun dried tomatoes
2 roasted yellow bell peppers
1 tsp dried thyme
1 bay leaf
olive oil
salt and pepper
Enough brown rice for two people


Preheat oven to 375. Cut tempeh into two even pieces and then slice those pieces down their centers (the tempeh thickens a lot as it cooks). Place all four pieces in a small pan evenly spaced. Cover with the wine and apple juice, then add enough mushroom broth to submerge the tempeh. Throw in the sun dried tomatoes and the bay leaf, and add some pepper. Cover the pan and cook in the oven for 1 and 1/2 hours, occasionally adding more mushroom broth to keep them submerged. When the tempeh is done, pull it out and lower the oven temp to 250. Remove the sun dried tomatoes onto a cutting board to let them cool. Once they are cool, slice them. Put two large bowls in the oven to warm them up.

Cook rice while tempeh is braising and keep warm. Slice the roasted peppers and keep aside.

Warm about 1 tsp of olive oil in a large nonstick pan over medium high heat. Saute 1/2 of the shallots with 1 clove of the garlic for about 1-2 minutes. Then add the mushrooms and thyme and cook until soft. Put mushrooms on a plate and stick them in the oven.

Lower heat to medium and add another small drizzle of olive oil, the remainder of the shallots, and another clove of garlic. Cook until shallots are soft, or 3-5 minutes. Add the spinach and 1/3 cup of the tempeh broth and cook spinach until soft and wilted, about 3 more minutes. Remove onto the mushroom plate and put into the oven.

Turn the heat up to med-high (on the higher end) and add another tsp olive oil and the remaining garlic. Still until the scent is released, about 30 seconds. Add the tempeh and fry on each side until golden, about 3 minutes on each side. Remove to mushroom plate and put back in oven.

Put the remaining broth from the pan into the sautee pan and reduce by 1/3. Then assemble your plate:

Evenly distribute the rice into the warmed bowls, carving a large dip in the center. On the bottom of each "dip", put in half of the spinach, top with two of the pieces of tempeh, and cover with the half the shallots and mushrooms. Pour the juice evenly over each dish.

Turn the heat back up, toss in the roasted red pepper and tomato slices to warm them up - about 30 seconds. Then lightly dress them around the edges of the rice.

YUM!

Garden Update - Building Cold Frames

My recent post got me a lot of emails and a surprising number of them asked a simple question:

"What's going on with the gardening, Lyco??"

So I will give you a short garden update while I eat my yogurt and drink my morning coffee of pre-bike winter ride warmth. Brrr.

As you know, I don't have a garden of my own right now. I have herb pots, and a couple chili peppers I grew this summer, but that hardly counts. I am, however, volunteering at the 7th Street Gardens. Which, as I said before, raises organic produce for low income DC residents. It also provides nutrition and urban gardening classes to them and to local public school kids. So what have we been up to?

Well, it's winter, so we busied ourselves by building cold frames. It started by driving down to Virginia to a couple local dumps and foraging as many old windows and scraps of plywood as we could. We then had a bunch of railroad ties and 4x4s donated to us - so we used those as the "frames". That next volunteer day, we overturned all the soil by the brick building on the eastern end of the property, leveled it out, and put a series of 4x4s and railroad ties along the back wall to make a 2.5 foot high space. We also used 4x4s to create the front space for the cold frame - measuring it by the window. We set the 4x4s into the ground 3 inches. For every two windows, we cut a piece of used plywood on the diagonal to connect the back and the front. Lots of drilling and hammers and nails, etc. At the end, we had 24 feet of cold frame. We had also contructed row covers over 4 more of the boxed garden beds. And yes, we only used non-treated wood. Period.

So what's with that?

Well, the row covers are covering collards, kale, broccoli, parsnips, bok choy, and 3 kinds of radishes. The cold frames are now hosting carrots, lettuces, and spinach, beets, turnips, chard, brussels sprouts, and leeks. We still have other carrots, 2 kinds of onions, leeks, several lettuces, 3-4 kinds of winter squash, kohlrabi, lots of herbs, and some apples out there uncovered and just taking that cold to the face.

A lot of the time lately has been spent tearing out the summer crops, turning over the soil, and getting in the seedlings before the soil got too cold. Eggplants, marigolds, tomatoes, melons, etc. all came up and out. We also had a big day where 12 volunteers showed up out of now where so we got them to dig up and sift out the soil in a back area we plan to expand into come spring. On top of that, we've been testing the soil beds to see what needs to be changed for the next season, painting new signs for the winter crops, and dealing with the fact that our tool shed was robbed and all our motorized equipment stolen. Sigh.

Anyway, for the gardeners curious, we have 32 beds, so I can't really go into details about how we're mixing all the plants. Suffice it to say, we're planting quick growing plants with large plants so they will harvest in time to make room, and interspersing thinly rooted plants with root veggies to make the most use of the garden. A few obvious pairs:

• Spinach, broccoli, radish, turnips
• beets, parsley, kohlrabi, radish
• brussels sprouts, cabbage, chard, carrots

Things grown by themselves: leeks and onions - why? Because faster growing roots will hurt these sensitive little guys.

Anyway, that's it I guess. if you really want more detail, email me again and I'll answer your questions directly, off the bl@g.

P.S. - Knitting season started and I'm SO psyched! While staying in Takoma Park last week, I bought a beautiful warm orange and browney yarn and I'm eagerly starting a double stranded hat. And I think, after years of doing this, that I finally have perling down. At least, the base of my hat says so :). I know, I'm stupid. Whateves.

Passed the Bar

Well, I passed the NY bar exam. My office mates and the policy department took me out to celebrate. It was incredibly sweet of them.

I think I lasted an hour at the bar.

I know I should have gone out and gotten wasted (or whatever the term is for it right now), but I was just so relieved to have passed that I couldn't have energy for anything else. I went home and drank a bottle of Beaujolais Nouveau (it came out 2 days ago!) and cooked a big dinner. And then slept in today until 9:00. My boss just chuckled when I slunk in at 11:00. Nice guy.

So yeah. Big life accomplishment, check.

I just want to say one little thing. Just one thing about that whole experience. Let this be a lesson to you that you CAN take the bar exam and keep your sanity and balance. I did not go insane, with perhaps the exception of the last two weeks, and I passed.

During the exam, I got one of the essays entirely wrong. I only wrote two paragraphs in another one. I ran out of time on the MBE - both sections.

And I passed the bar. So just don't believe the hype. You CAN pass the bar and stay balanced.

I guess that's it folks. Thanks for stoppin' by!


P.S. - Willie, I got you something that will TOTALLY make up for my tomslackery. Totally.

Vegan Down Home Bowl

So I'm in this book club, and it's pretty hot. It's full of a super diverse group of women who are all highly intelligent and interesting. The deal is that the person who hosts picks the book and then you cook dinner and clean up afterwards. We meet once a month - and since there are 10 of us, you really only host once a year, so it's not huge commitment or anything. Anyway, something interesting that has occurred is that the women have been cooking traditional meals according to their backgrounds. So last month, one member who is from India made amazing chai, saag paneer, and this incredible chick pea dish and served it with raita and had Indian deserts. Wow! So when it came time for me to host (I picked The Hummingbird's Daughter - magnificique!) I decided to do a vegan South'rn meal. I made Down Home Bowls, and everyone ate WAY more that I thought! The deal is that you make everything separately and then serve it together in a big dish. Make enough so that each person has two pieces of cornbread - one to crush into the bowl, and one to sop of the remaining juices!! Because you want the sop, make everything juicy. I made the beans the day before and just made the greens and cornbread the day of. I served it with mulled apple cider.

Serves 10.

Easy Crockpot Pinto Beans

3 cups Pinto Beans
2 tsp olive oil
1 hot pepper, minced
1 celery rib, chopped
1 large onion, diced
2 tsp liquid smoke
1 tsp vegetarian Worcestershire sauce (optional)
1 tbs dried oregano
1 tbs garlic powder
1/2 tsp thyme
cayenne, salt, and pepper to taste
1-2 tsp apple cider vinegar
1 container Pacific vegetable broth
water

This is a really chill recipe, so make it the way you like it. Turn a crockpot on high heat up the olive oil. Saute the onion, hot pepper, and celery until softening, about 5 minutes. Add the beans, half the liquid smoke, the Worcestershire sauce, the dried herbs, and cayenne, salt and pepper to taste. Stir well. Add broth until beans are covered by 2 inches of liquid. Cook in crockpot for 3-4 hours. Go back and add the rest of the broth and probably some water until the beans are covered again. Taste it and adjust seasonings, adding more of whatever you want to get the desired flavor. Let it cook for another 3 hours or until beans are tender and liquid is thickened. Take off the heat and add the vinegar.

The Best Vegan Cornbread Recipe Ever

I got this recipe off the internet a long time ago and it is really the best one.

2 Tbs ground flax seed
6 Tbs water
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup cornmeal
1/4 cup sugar
4 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp table salt
1 cup soy milk
1/4 cup earth balance, melted

Adjust oven rack to middle position; heat oven to 425 degrees. Spray 8-inch-square baking dish or a large cast-iron skillet with nonstick cooking spray.

Bring the water to a boil in a small saucepan. Add the ground flax seed, reduce the heat to medium-low, and simmer the ground flax seed in the water for 3 minutes or until thickened, stirring occasionally. Set aside.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder, and salt until well-combined. Add the ground flax seed mixture, soy milk, and canola oil to the flour mixture. Beat just until smooth (do not overbeat.) Turn into prepared skillet. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until a knife inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Cool on wire rack 10 minutes; invert cornbread onto wire rack, then turn right side up and continue to cool until warm, about 10 minutes longer. Cut into pieces.

Savory Chard

3 large bunches of chard, roughly chopped with stems and cleaned well
3 tbs olive oil
6 cloves garlic, minced
1 large yellow onion, chopped
1/3 hot pepper, minced
1 tsp ginger, minced
2 tbs apple cider vinegar
1/2 tsp lemon juice
1/3 cup red wine
2 tbs soy sauce or Bragg's Amino Acid
dash of hot sauce
salt and pepper to taste

You need a huge pan for this, if not, you should do it in batches. Heat olive oil in large, deep pan. Saute onion, pepper, garlic, ginger and chopped chard stems until softening, about 5 minutes. Add chard and coate in olive oil and seasoning. Add the liquids and cook, turning chard every minute or two, until chard is tender and reduced in size by 2/3s. Adjust seasonings.

Take large shallow bowls, and put beans and greens in halves. Top with two pieces of cornbread. Serve with hot sauce for people to adjust the heat.

Savory Tofu Recipe

Just a note to say that I firmly believe in the superiority of White Wave Extra Firm tofu over all other tofus for when you desire a firm texture. It's delicious and stands up to anything.

For those interested in my life - read along - if not, skim down to the recipe below. Things are going well. I have a long term and short term case each. I'm learning lots. I like my coworkers and we're starting to bond outside of work. I still love DC. I'm building a strong community in my neighborhood and getting really involved in the urban gardens. I'm biking lots but mostly commuting/errands - about 50 miles a week. I know my bike is suffering, but I don't have the skills to deal with some of her issues. But still fighting my way through. I'm realizing that I'm gonna have to pay out a little in the dough-section to keep it up. Dough is something I lack. I'm po'.

I should probably write something soon about what a HUGE RELIEF it is to not be in law school anymore. I don't regret it - I loved the intellectual challenge. But damn. I'm glad that's over. Anyway, back to the recipes:


Crispy Fried Savory Tofu

Serves 3

1 package White Wave Extra Firm Tofu
liquid smoke
4 tbs soy sauce
2 tbs balsamic vinager
1/4 cup
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp minced ginger
2 large garlic cloves, pressed
2 tbs stone stone ground mustard (anything but yellow)

1/3 cup corn starch
1/3 cup vegetable oil

Cut tofu into 9 slices and press between 2 dish towels and something heavy (cookbooks, etc.), turning top towel once to press out moisture. Put tofu slices in a large container to marinate them.

Mix next 8 ingrediants in a bowl and pour over tofu slices, turning once. Let marinate for 1 hour, turning occasionally.

Heat oil in a heavy bottomed pan over med-high heat. Place cornstarch on a dish and dredge tofu slices, knocking off any extra but making sure they are coated. When oil is shimmering, add the tofu in batches, cooking until each side is golden and crispy - about 3 minutes per side. Drain on newspaper or a paper bag. If you want, this is good with gravy or a balsamic reduction, but it's also amazing on its own!

I served this with rice and roasted veggies, but it's a staple with me so I serve it all the time. Yum!