Recipe? I Don't Need No Stinkin' Recipe!

So I decided to finally try cooking with seitan (a high-protein wheat meat substitute) and I wonder why I've been avoiding it for so long.  Turns out you don't even need to cook it, it's ready to eat right out of the package.  But considering it looks like dog food right out of the package, it's a good idea to do some doctoring to make it at least look appetizing!

This weekend I purchased some chunk-style seitan while at Mustard Seed.  I thought about finding a recipe, but thought, "Well, how hard could this be?" so I decided to channel my recent meal at Melt Bar and Grilled, and try my hand at making a fancy grilled sandwich.  I also picked up a really nice loaf of country-style bread while shopping and that made a really nice base for the sandwich.

I started by slicing then caramelizing three small onions (from my garden, of course!) in a bit of olive oil.

I then added the sliced seitan into the pan.  The seitan out of the package was in the shape of chunks, which didn't appeal to me, so I simply sliced them in order to appear more like sliced roast beef.  (I said appear...)

For flavor I added a few shakes of soy sauce, some ground pepper, and garlic powder.

Then in another pan I placed slices of the bread, buttered side down, in the pan to brown.  I added a handful of vegan mozzarella cheese (by Daiya, one of my new favorite vegan ingredients) to start to melt on the bread.

Then the seitan layer goes on top of the cheese, which helped to melt it.  Then squish it like a regular grilled cheese to get the layers combined.

Ta-Da!  My no-recipe seitan sammy.

It turned out to be really yummy.  I'm not going to hesitate to use it again it was so easy.  And the sandwich was very satisfying with a Killian's!

The Pot Rack

I have been wanting a pot rack in my kitchen ever since we got married and we received some very nice All-Clad pots and pans as wedding gifts.  I hated keeping them all cooped up in the cabinets where I couldn't grab them very easily or just stand there and look at them if I liked.

So this year Richard got me a book shelf pot rack from Amazon and Dad was generous enough to spend a third day over at our house offering his tools and overall handiness.

Here's the wall before they started:

After finding the studs and making sure everything was level, in went the screws and bolts.

Since I wasn't home when they work was completed Richard thought he would come up with a secondary use for the new rack.

But when I got home I found homes for most of my pans and lids.  Aren't they just gorgeous????

My Closet by Mom, Dad, and Richard (and the Container Store)

So this weekend we penciled in plans to finally tackle the closet that exploded on me one fateful day this summer.  Well, that's what happens when you have way too many clothes (many of which really need to be given to Good Will) on a single 124-inch rod.

So here's the project as it started yesterday and was completed this afternoon.  First, this is where it all began: The closet rod bowed in the middle and protruding out.  The shelf on top was also full at the time of the explosion, and it all tumbled out on top of me.

Here's a close-up of the bent closet rod and top shelf tipping over.

Yesterday dad and I took out the closet parts while Richard was in Accounting class.  I do believe Richard really would have rather been here working on the closet instead of in class.  He's not loving accounting....

The wood supports have been removed and Dad patched all the holes.

Now, isn't that a nice white wall?  The closet took almost an entire gallon of paint.  The walls and ceiling are very spongy!

Richard joined the fun this morning while Mom and I took out all the stuff in my kitchen cabinets and rearranged my gadgets, pots, and pans.  The folks at the Container Store insisted the closet system was a complete cinch to install.  For the most part it was uneventful, but I wouldn't say that a caveman could do it. (But perhaps two cavemen could do it?)

Once they figured out the spacing of the components it was time to follow the plan and install the shelves and bars.

There's a shelf that extends all the way across the top, which will be great for storing those less-used items.  I'm thinking my sewing kit?  Cleaning supplies?  Exercise accessories?

For the first time I'll have lots of shelves to keep my stuff organized.  The Elfa shelves work a lot like library shelves.

Scout supervised.  She was very happy to find that we couldn't reach the high top shelves to install this little shelf cover.  She thought it made a much better cat toy.

Here are the shelves installed:

Both the left and right sections are set up with an additional shelf and a section for long-hang clothes.

Again, Scout supervises from the top of the tall dresser.  Yes, Jeph Remley, that is in fact the tortured Barbie trophy Richard won at  your costume party last Halloween.  It does hold a place of honor in our house!  (Until Scout decides she doesn't like the way she's looking at her!)

After enduring accounting class yesterday, and installing a closet system today, Richard was quite tuckered.

So while Richard slept I took some direction from Scout and started putting my closet back together again.  Monkey stopped in to make sure there was plenty of clearance under the clothes.

Up next: A trip to Good Will and then SHOPPING!  And tomorrow Dad comes back to help Richard install his 40th birthday gift to me, my hanging pot rack in the kitchen.  Isn't 40 the year of organization?

Summer Loving...

Now is the time to pull out all of those zucchini and tomato recipes to take advantage of the garden surplus.  Tonight I had two really good recipes.  Yesterday I made Disappearing Zucchini Orzo I blogged about a few years ago (one of Barbara Kingsolver's recipes from her book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle).

To go along with the pasta salad I made a recipe I saw in this month's Vegetarian Times. The recipe is for Quick Pesto and Broiled Tomatoes.  The two dishes together make good use of the plentiful ingredients from the garden and taste so good together.






Only a the small tomatoes are from my garden. (The larger ones are from Giant Eagle!)

You can make your own pesto recipe if you want to add cheese and don't happen to have nutritional yeast on hand like I do!

How have I not known about Panko bread crumbs?  Panko is da BOMB!

Hey, it's summer!  Don't turn on your oven... Use your toaster oven!

The toaster oven works just as well and I didn't feel like passing out in the kitchen.

Add some orzo zucchini pasta salad...  It's amazing together.

Scout Gets Cat Grass

Richard picked up some cat grass at Petsmart this weekend and we decided to capture her enthusiasm while we watched the Godfather on TV.

Nom nom nom...

Monkey Gets a Bath

This is one kitty who is secure in herself and her "plush" physique.  Enjoy watching a bit of Monkey's grooming time...

Tonight's Dinner from the Garden

I love summer.  Look what I found outside when I came home from work:

Now wouldn't that inspire anyone to cook?  So here's what I made for dinner.  First, I made a quick pesto with the basil, some garlic, olive oil, and toasted pine nuts.  (What, doesn't everyone have pine nuts on hands????)

Then I cut the squash into thick strips, around the same size as the penne pasta I was cooking.  Into the pan they went with a little olive oil:

After they cooked for a bit, I tossed in the cherry and grape tomatoes.

I cooked that for a little bit until the skins on the tomatoes started to wrinkle.  Then in went the cooked penne pasta and the pesto:

And voila!  Dinner!

It was really quite good and didn't take long at all.  I love dinner right out of the garden!

Canton Cougar Sightings

So most locals folks have heard the news of cougar sightings in the Canton area.  The Repository has been covering the sightings, but today they posted this article that really cracked me up:
http://www.cantonrep.com/carousel/x311101608/Is-this-the-cougar-thats-been-prowling-Stark

So, I was inspired to keep my camera at the ready to snap a picture if the mystery cat happens to end up in our backyard.  After all, it was just last year when we had the coyote swing by for a visit.

Wouldn't you know it?  I was making dinner and guess what I saw in my back yard????  Oh, my goodness!  What IS it????

Oh, don't worry...

It's just a sweet little bunny.  (Well, maybe not so little!)  I'll keep you all posted.  Who knows who will make an appearance on Deerfield Lane!

Garden Fajitas!

What do you do when you have a bunch of miscellaneous veggies fresh from the garden?  I usually make fajitas!

I had a handful of fingerling potatoes and a few small squash, as well as a really ripe tomato from the farmer's market.  Round it out with an onion, some rice and condiments... and it's dinner!

Here are the sliced potatoes and onions, a little S&P:

Then I stir fried the sliced zucchini and yellow squash with a little Penzey's adobo seasoning.

Assembly time!  There's a layer of rice, the potato / onion mixture, squash, tomato, vegan sour cream and guacamole.

I think the best part was the potato layer...  And the squash layer...  And the tomato...  It was really yummy!

Pizza Stone

We bought a pizza stone from one of Richard's coworkers who was selling Pampered Chef a couple years ago and for some reason I stuck it in a dark corner of the pantry and never used it.  I don't know why I thought about it today, but I felt like using it.  Total success!

I used the pizza dough recipe that only takes a few minutes to make, added some Mids pizza sauce, and asparagus that I grilled for a few minutes:

I topped it with Daiya cheese and prest-o, change-o:  Vegan Pizza!

The pizza stone worked out nicely... I don't think I'll go back to a regular pizza pan.

Meet Spot and Speckle

Meet Spot

Our newest resident of our backyard on Deerfield Lane is Spot.  She's been hanging out for the past 24 hours and we've noticed that she has a large spot on her side.  Is it just a mark?  Was she shot?  We don't know.  She seems to be getting around okay, but we think it's strange that she's hanging around so much.

Pretty Decent Vegan Pizza

I love pizza.  I know Richard *really* loves pizza, but I'm pretty fond of it, too!  I recently discovered that Tofutti makes are good frozen vegan pizza using Daiya cheese, but I can only get it from Mustard Seed, which is a bit far to drive for pizza.

Of course I've made my own pizza using the Pillsbury dough, but I really don't like that "Pillsbury" flavor.  I've avoided making my own dough because I thought it would take a long time.  Then I found this recipe for an instant dough that is pretty good.  It took all of five minutes to make the dough and you don't even have to let it rise.  I made the dough and used Mids pizza sauce and Daiya cheese.  Next time I'll add toppings now that I know that the dough is yummy.  (Most likely zucchini considering how prolific it tends to be in my garden!)

A couple new thingies

After getting our deck redone a couple years ago we've struggled finding just the right furniture.  At first we got some powder-coated metal furniture from Target, which was supposed to be rust-proof, but it collected water in the legs and when you moved the furniture around the rusty water would spill out and stain the deck.  A couple years ago I ran into a couple from Holmes Crafted Furniture selling at the Wayne County Fair and they seemed so nice.  Their furniture was just what I was looking for so about a month ago I placed an order with them.

The furniture comes in a variety of colors and is made from recycled milk jugs.  They can stay out year-round, which is a bonus because we have absolutely nowhere to store it.  We went with the brown color to basically blend in with the rest of the deck.

Here are the cafe-style chairs and tall table:

This is the glider and a side table.  The glider has a center piece that folds down with two cup-holders.

Here's a view from sitting in the glider.  If you face this direction the hill in the back yard is very nice and private.  Lots of critters pass through while you're sitting.

Well, the view from chairs facing the front of the house isn't as peaceful, especially since our oak tree is long gone.  Eventually we'll plant another tree so we can get some of our privacy back (in say, 20 years!).

One other purchase to mention... I have the WORST luck with pepper grinders.  I've gone through about 3 in the past couple of years, but I have to admit fault by continuing to purchase the same model over and over again.  The one I kept breaking matches the sea salt grinder on the left.  It has a lot of movable plastic parts as part of the grinding mechanism, which would easily jam on the pepper corns, breaking off plastic pieces.  The salt seems to work fine, thought.

So, on the right is my newest grinder and I have to say I absolutely love it!  It's made from Oxo, which makes a lot of other kitchen gadgets I really like. On the top you can control the size of the grind, which is a feature I especially like.  I picked mine up at Crate and Barrel, but you can also get it from Amazon.

OXO Good Grips Pepper Grinder

Scout vs. the Kitty Bank

Scout has a habit of sitting on Richard's night stand and knocking off coins to the floor, one by one.  So when I found this kitty bank I had to get it for Richard as part of his 40 gifts for his 40th birthday.  Here is a video of Richard demonstrating the bank, of course using all of the coins out of my purse.  So I guess Richard also got another few bucks out of the deal!

The bank is available at Amazon: Itazura Stealing Coin Cat Piggy Bank - White Kitty and also at Think Geek.