Fermented Friday: Sun-Dried Tomato and Basil Appetizers (part 2)

Fermented Friday: recipes featuring yeast, wine, beer or some form of fermentation.

What started out as a recipe for Tuesday's Twist has taken all week, thanks for your patience. After a third try I finally got the pictures to work.  Something is still a little goofy with the formatting, but at least I can see pictures instead of blank, invalid images.  I wasn't intending to use this recipe for a Fermented Friday, but such is life.  Technically speaking it does contain yeast and balsamic vinegar, both of which involve fermentation, so let's just go with that.

The Sun-Dried Tomato and Basil Filling I posted on Tuesday was inspired by two recipes for stuffed tomatoes.  I wasn't in the mood to stuff and bake tomatoes, so I decided to play with won ton wrappers.  These thin sheets of dough are extremely versatile and perfect for bite-size appetizers.  The squares can be stuffed with a wide variety of fillings and then baked, fried, boiled or steamed.  I liked the idea of baking, but also tried making tortellini by boiling the filled pockets.  Since I'm playing with my food again, it's probably easier to just show you what I did (which is why I wanted to wait until my camera was working).

Thursday's Thoughts: Anticipation

Thursday's Thoughts: a taste of what I'm thinking

Anticipation and excitement are a normal part of life.  Yet often times, the pessimist in me holds back, saying, don't get your hopes up, you'll just be disappointed.  This can lead to a boring, middle-of-the-road outlook that zaps the fun out of life.  On the other hand, it's good to look at a situation realistically rather than dreaming of idealistic extremes.

I think I associate disappointment with the same negative feelings I associate with failure and rejection. I don't want to get my hopes up and then be let down.  If I'm not expecting too much in the first place, then I won't be disappointed if it doesn't turn out.  And, if it does turn out, then I'll be pleasantly surprised.  It's almost as if I try to save the excitement until I'm sure it's valid.  But disappointment is a part of life, as are failure and rejection.  Rather than fear them or brace myself for their potential impact, I could accept, process and move on.

Blah, I really don't feel like over-analyzing this right now.  I somehow lost both my train of thought and motivation between here and the first paragraph.   Besides, I should probably think this through a little more before I go posting things online for others to read.  There are several ways I could go on this and I'm not quite sure what I think yet.  Anyway, I know there's a healthy balance out there between excited anticipation and the "yeah right" pessimistic attitude.  That's as deep as I'll go for now.

About the only thing I can remember not doing this with is snow days.  Growing up I would hope and hope and hope for snow days.  I remember excitedly listening to the radio and watching the school closings endlessly scroll across the bottom of the T.V. screen, just waiting for my school to be announced.  Being that our school was near the end of the alphabet, it would take forever and the anticipation would continue to build.  When the announcements finally came to the letter R, it was unbelievable how many other schools started with R as well.  Surely if they were all closed, ours would be too.  If our school was listed, it was utter excitement and then we would watch the listings once more to be sure and then again to celebrate.  If the cancellation was a 2-hour delay, the anticipation would continue and our eyes would remain glued to the screen, waiting for a full closing.

No matter how small the chance of snow, I always got my hopes up.  Probably because I knew the results were not dependent on me, my performance, or anything in my control.  If we still had school, it was a little disappointing, but it wasn't a huge let down.  The thought of a snow day was so exciting that the neighborhood kids would plot ways to create a snow day.  We lived right next to the department of transportation and fantasized climbing over the fence to unscrew the bolts on all the snow plows.  Without plows to clear the roads, we we wouldn't need as much snow to warrant a day off.  If that scheme failed, we planned to gather all the snow in town and pile it in the superintendent's driveway or just outside his window.  Of course this would trick him into thinking there had been a huge storm and he would then declare it a snow day.

Sorry to bring up the s word.  I should have left those stories for another time.  Don't worry, there are still plenty of beautiful fall days left and maybe even an Indian summer. I've been loving the weather these past few weeks, but that's another topic for another day.

Food for Thought: "The prudent see danger and take refuge, but the simple keep going and suffer for it." -Proverbs 27:12

Weird (Recipe-less) Wednesday: Random Pictures

Know what's weird?  My camera.  I found just enough time to re-photograph today's recipe before heading into work.  I thought my camera problems were solved, and all appeared to be going well.  The issues I had the first time didn't happen so I continued to snap away.  Yet once again, when I went to transfer the pictures they were blank.

I've been waiting the past few days for a new memory card to come in the mail.  It hadn't arrived yet so I used the card out of my old point and shoot.  Apparently it doesn't work that way.  The new card arrived in the mail  after I finished the second picture attempt, before I realized it didn't work, and moments before I left for work.  I haven't had time to open it yet, nor been home during daylight to try a third time.  By the time you read this I'll be back at work, but there's a chance I will get off while it's still light out and have time to use that new card.  No promises, but hopefully Friday you'll be able to see what I've been trying so hard to show you.

In the meantime, here are some random pictures that resurfaced from my point and shoot as I attempted to transfer those phantom photos.

 These first few are from a project I did in college.  I had to do the start-up planning and financial stuff as if I were going to start my own business.  Of course I picked something food related and went with a cookie business.  The pictures were for my display board, but I'll spare you the details of the business I am not planning to start.

 This little guy was IN my kale.  Wash your produce, snails do live in grocery store kale.

 Heirloom tomatoes from last summer.

 Sunrise or sunset (maybe both?) in Iowa.

I woke up extremely early one Saturday morning and couldn't sleep. I went out with my camera and found these.  Much better than sleeping in.

 That same summer there was a balloon festival in the town I lived in.  Hundreds of hot air balloons took off just a few miles from the apartment. I enjoyed watching them all week long.

 This is a really old one.  If you've never picked and eaten a strawberry straight from the field, you're missing out.

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Food for Thought: "The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him" -Lamentations 3:24

Tuesday's Twist: Sun-Dried Tomato and Basil Filling (part 1)

Tuesday's Twist:  A basic recipe with a fun twist.  In other words, just another excuse for me to play around with weird recipes I've been dying to try.

I'm on the schedule to work a lot more this week.  I'll still be serving food or in the kitchen, but it will be at work, not here.  I'd love to tell you I'm way ahead of the game and got all the posts for this week done over the weekend, but I didn't.  After waking up around 3 A.M. Saturday morning to take my mom to the airport I suppose I could have stayed up and gotten a few things done.  I was home by 6:30 that morning but gave in and went back to sleep around 8.

I made this savory filling and then tested and photographed 5 different ways to use it.  When I went to transfer the pictures to my computer nearly all of them were black rectangles with red text reading "invalid image".  Not helpful.  I have a few hours of daylight before work to try it all again, so maybe you'll see pictures tomorrow.  Anyway, all that to say the posts for today and tomorrow are related. We'll make the filling today and I'll show you a few fun things you can do with it tomorrow (assuming I figure out what's up with my camera).  While this recipe stands on its own as a delicious dip or spread, we're going to use it soon as a filling for something a little more adventurous.

Oh, by the way, I "forgot" to mention this is one of those reoccurring tofu recipes I alluded to way back when Tofu Tuesday was discontinued.  Thankfully that tofu flavor is completely hidden by the tang of balsamic vinegar and citrus of fresh lemon.  Nutritional yeast and sun-dried tomatoes lend salty and savory notes that pair perfectly with the last of our summer basil.


Sun-Dried Tomato and Basil Filling/Dip/Spread
inspired by Baked In and Running to the Kitchen

Ingredients:

1 clove garlic
10 oz firm tofu*, drained and pressed
1 cup cooked white beans, drained and rinsed
1 Tbsp nutritional yeast
1 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
1/4 tsp freshly grated lemon peel
1/4 tsp salt
freshly ground black pepper, to taste
6 sun-dried tomato halves (not oil-packed), chopped
1/4 cup packed fresh basil leaves, chopped

* After 15 minutes of pressing my tofu weighed 8 oz.  I used half of one box of the water-packed tofu from Trader Joe's with the hot pink label.  It doesn't specify a firmness level, but medium-firm or firm is my best guess.


Instructions:
* In a food processor pulse garlic clove until finely chopped. Add tofu and beans; process until smooth, stopping to scrape down sides if needed. Add nutritional yeast, balsamic vinegar, lemon juice, lemon peel, salt and black pepper.  Process until combined.  Add sun-dried tomatoes and basil; pulse to incorporate. Refrigerate at least 1 hour to allow flavors to develop.  Serve as a vegetable dip or cracker spread. Also works well on sandwiches and tortillas. Stay tuned for ways to use in hot appetizers.

Update: See this post for some ways to use this filling.

Food for Thought: "Because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail . They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness." -Lamentations 3:22-23

Mindful Monday: Early Morning Thoughts

Mindful Monday: On Monday's I'm going to share what's been on my mind. I by no means have any of this figured out, I'm just thinking out loud here.

I woke up at 3:05 A.M. Saturday morning. On purpose. Actually, I woke up several times before that thinking I had missed my alarm and overslept- only to find out my ears and alarm were indeed still working, and I really was supposed to be asleep. Rats, don't you hate it when that happens? I mean, it's great that you're not late and can go back to sleep, but if you're going to keep waking up it kind of defeats the purpose of sleeping.  Annnnyway, I got up to drive my mom to the airport.

I am not a morning person.  At all.  As in, don't even think about talking to me first thing in the morning.  I need time to wake up.  It's pointless to ask me any questions after my first waking moments (err, hour?).  You likely won't get much of any response to anything, even if it's just a "good-morning" without a question attached.  I will try to acknowledge your existence, but that's it, sorry.

While it was technically 3 in the morning, it still felt like night to me.  I've become more of a night owl lately so I didn't feel all that tired.  I bet my mom has never heard such lively conversation cross my lips so soon after waking.  We had a nice chat on the way up to the airport and then it was me, coffee and the radio for the next hour and a half.  There really isn't anything good on the radio at that time night, morning, whatever.  I usually get super sleepy while driving, but I was hardly tired.  While I had no trouble staying awake, I wasn't exactly thinking deeply profound thoughts either.  I did, however, make one life observation relating to driving in the dark.