Porcini Mushrooms over Garlic Polenta, Broiled Tomatoes, and Smoked Mozzarella

Please, please, please go buy a few fresh porcini mushrooms that are now available at Whole Foods. At 40 bucks a pound, they are not cheap, but you will not often have the chance to get your hands on these rare gems. They can't be cultivated, so like truffles, they must be found in the wild. The Wife says they taste like bacon. I'll have to take her at her word. All you have to do is get them to the plate without messing them up. This entails sautéeing them in a little bit of butter, seasoning them with salt and pepper, and serving them over pasta or polenta. It is that simple, and it is money well spent.

Perfect BBQ Tofu

Does your BBQ tofu look like this? I wish you could taste it. This tofu has it all: smokey, spicy, tangy and sweet. Come to my vegetarian grilling class and I'll show you exactly how to make this veggie classic. Register HERE.

Fig Salad with Spinach, Beets, and Blue Cheese

The first figs of the season are in, so we picked up a box at Whole Foods. Looking at the price tag on them made me long for the upcoming mid-summer days when local figs are abundant. We track the daily progress of the few green fruits on the two fig trees we planted last year, and cannot wait for the fruit to ripen on a huge tree that hangs over into my older brother's yard.

This simple salad is a celebration of the fig. The other ingredients are designed to coax out the sweetness inherent in the fruit and then balance it out.

Makes two large salads.

For the dressing:

1 small shallot (finely diced)

a few glugs of olive oil

a tablespoon or two of honey

1 tablespoon of golden balsamic vinegar

s & p

Whisk all ingredients in a large bowl.

For the salad:

1 small bag of spinach

4 large black figs

6 small beets (or 1 large one)

4 ounces of danish blue cheese

salt & pepper

olive oil

2 thick slices of rustic bread

Cut peeled beets into bite-sized pieces and sauté in olive oil until tender. Remove beets and set aside. Place slices of bread into the pan to soak up the remaining olive oil. Allow the bread to brown in the pan. Add the spinach to the dressing and toss until evenly coated. Arrange spinach on a plate; top with sliced figs, beets, and crumbled blue cheese. Serve with grilled toast.

Duck Egg Scramble, Mexican-Style

This meal, in all if its variations, is by far my favorite breakfast. It's fast to make, portable, and you get your veggies and your protein all in one delicious rolled-up package. This incarnation is particularly special as it is made with leftover grilled portobello mushrooms, green peppers, onions, and fire-roasted poblanos. Additionally, it is made with a combo of both duck and chicken eggs. The duck eggs have a much larger yolk (as you can see in the photo) and a far creamier texture than conventional eggs do. If you ever get the chance to get your hands on a few, you should. They are wonderful.

Makes two servings:

2 chicken eggs (scrambled)

2 duck eggs (scrambled)

1/2 onion (sliced)

1 portobello (sliced)

1/2 green pepper (sliced)

1/2 fire-roasted poblano (chopped)

1 tablespoon ancho chile powder

1 oz grated oaxaca cheese

hot sauce

s & p

olive oil

2 large wheat tortillas

The veggie, chile powder, and a few tablespoons of olive oil go into a pan over medium-high heat. Sauté until the veggies are cooked through. Remove veggies from the pan and add eggs. Move eggs around until almost cooked through. Top tortillas with eggs, then add veggies. Add a bit of grated cheese and hot sauce. Roll it up and take a bite.

The Chubby Vegetarian: The Helmsman Interview

I cut my photography teeth at The Daily Helmsman, the student newspaper at the University of Memphis, over a decade ago. Recently I had a nice chat with my new friend Beth Spencer who is the chief reporter, webmaster, and sole employee of the paper this summer semester. She turned our conversation into a story about my upcoming class on the vegetarian grill complete with quotes from some nice folks who took my last class in March. I was glad to see the kind words of my former students in print, and I feel fortunate to have the opportunity to teach again. Click HERE to view the story in The Helmsman.

Smoky & Sweet Grilled Pizza

That's right, I said grilled pizza...right on the fire. Wanna learn how to make it? Then sign up for my Vegetarian Grill Class to be held on the 12th of July. Click HERE to register. There are only a few spots left. We will also try some BBQ tofu sandwiches, harissa-marinated seitan skewers, a surprise dessert, and much more.

Popsicles!

The power's back on, it is 100 degrees outside, and this means we're all about popsicles around here. We dusted off a little ten-section popsicle mold from way back and ordered two more this week. Now even our daydreams are popsicle-colored.

Flavors so far:

cucumber lemonade + ancho pepper

blueberry + lime

cherry + peach + nectarine

dark chocolate + sweet curry

peach + pink peppercorn

sweet and salty watermelon + lime

raspberry + strawberry + blueberry vanilla lemon

green tea + lemon cream

coconut + banana + clove

watermelon + mint

meyer lemon + red grapes

Creamy:

2 cups yogurt (nonfat, lowfat, Greek yogurt, or even whipping cream is okay)

1 cup fruit pureé

1/2 cup chopped fruit

2/3 cup raw sugar

1 tbsp. honey

squeeze of citrus (optional)

spice (optional)

OR

Icy:

2 cups pureéd fruit, strained

2/3 cup raw sugar

1/2 cup yogurt (optional)

1 tiny pinch of salt

squeeze of citrus

Mix ingredients and use a funnel to pour into popsicle mold. Using metal or plastic top, place sticks in center and freeze for at least four hours. Run warm water on the outside of mold for a few second to help pops emerge. Freeze immediately for 30 minutes. Then you can eat them or pack them up to share.

I wasn't sure that packing them up would work, but it was fine -- nothing melted at all. We wrapped them individually in waxed paper, stuffed them in a little cooler with ice, and put them in a bigger cooler. They transported well.

TCV's dad suggested trying ginger or jalapeno. We will add those ideas to our list of 100 flavors. Any other ideas?

The popsicle molds we use can be found HERE.

Help Needed in Holly Springs

Farmer Van Cheeseman needs some summer help in Holly Springs, Mississippi. He is a great guy who has beautiful produce and gardens plus cold frames. Post a comment or email vanlee2001@yahoo.com directly if you or someone you know would like to work with him, even if it's for a day before market or a weeklong stint.

Fire-Roasted Spaghetti on the Grill

We were about to lose our minds up in here (up in here). After a fierce summer storm with high winds, we were without power for four long days. We lost everything in the fridge and in the freezer as we waited for MLG&W to get the power back up and running. Among the casualties were some of my sauces that I make in large batches and freeze: smoky BBQ sauce, spicy enchilada sauce, and a roasted vegetable & tomato sauce. A few of my friends are STILL without electricity. If you know people in that situation, please be nice and offer them a cold drink. They are not having a good time.

By Monday night we longed for a home-cooked meal. Something as simple as spaghetti with tomato sauce would do. So I fired up my outdoor grill and got to work. With a pot of water on the side burner starting to come to a boil, I placed all of the tomatoes I could round up straight onto the grill grates. I diced an onion and three cloves of garlic and threw them into a pan with a good bit of olive oil. I set the pan on the grill next to the tomatoes to allow the onion to sweat. Lantern in hand, I made my way to the garden to cut handfuls of fresh herbs to add to the pan: thyme, basil, rosemary, sage, and oregano. A handful of pasta was tossed into the boiling water, and the charred tomatoes were added to the pan and smashed along with a can of diced tomatoes. Once the pasta was cooked, I tossed the pasta with the sauce, topped it with bits of shaved parmesan, and served it right in the pan.

Because we were starved for a home-cooked meal, I was ready to dub it the best pasta I have ever tasted. It was good, but I'm not sure about all that. But I am sure that a little bit of innovation and thinking outside of the kitchen may have saved our sanity.

Powerless

This is day 4 without any power.

Everything in the fridge and freezer is ruined.

I'm annoyed and hot.

I did make a great grilled zucchini sandwich with roasted red peppers and feta.

Watermelon & Feta Salad with Meyer Lemon & Honey Vinaigrette

This salad is so simple to make, but it is the presentation that makes it special. This crunchy, refreshing, sweet-meets-sour treat is the perfect salad for the summer.

Makes 4 small salads or two large.

Meyer lemon dressing:

1 shallot (minced)

a few glugs of olive oil

a nice squeeze of honey

the juice from 1 meyer lemon

S & P

Whisk all ingredients in a large bowl.

For the salad:

1/2 seedless watermelon (scooped into balls with a melon baller)

4 slices of feta cheese

8 ribs of romaine

S & P

Toss romaine with the dressing and place onto a small plate. Fill one rib with melon balls and place feta over the other. Drizzle with some of the dressing that is left in the bottom of the bowl. Season with sea salt and black pepper.

Vanilla Ice Milk

We always wait to the last minute to make ice cream, and then it's never hardened off enough in time to serve it. This time, we did better. We let the ice cream maker run forever. We froze it early. And we ended up getting the prettiest scoops of ice milk that we served with lots of extra options: raspberries, blueberries, strawberries sprinkled with raw sugar, white chocolate syrup, all of it in cute little waffle cone cups. The recipe could not be easier:

Vanilla Ice Milk Whisk 3 cups milk, 1/2 cup whipping cream, one cup raw sugar, and one tbsp. vanilla. Pour into ice cream maker, let it go, freeze at least an hour.

From the Unsolicited Advice Department

Fellow vegetarian food enthusiast and blogger Vegan Dad graciously accepted some unsolicited advice from yours truly. Commenting on his BBQ tofu post I wrote:

"Living in memphis I have learned a lot from my meat loving city mates. Try a dry rub with paprika, sage, garlic powder, black pepper, and nutmeg. Put that on the tofu to marinate. Grill the tofu over high heat to get the grill marks, place over indirect heat, and then sauce it. This method will keep the sugar in the sauce from burning and you have a double wall of flavor."

He calls the updated BBQ recipe Memphis BBQ Tofu. If you have not visited his blog please take the time to do so. He recipes are creative and concise and his photographs are great (that is his tofu photo).

Panko-Crusted Squash Blossoms Stuffed with Goat Cheese on Truffled Risotto

On Saturday, The Wife and I returned home from the farmers' market with an incredible bounty. This was the first week squash blossoms were available, and they were the first thing I bought at the market. Then I carried them around with me in a brown paper bag and showed them off to everyone I met. They were $3.50 for 10 flowers, and they had little baby squash attached to them. We also got eggs, beets, nectarines, bread, carrots, and onions.

So what do you do with these beautiful flowers? You fry them! I threw together an earthy, sweet filling of one ear of roasted corn, 2 boiled carrots, 3 ounces of goat cheese, 1 clove of garlic, a touch of cream, and a little panko.

All the ingredients except the panko went into the food processor and were blended until smooth. Then I used the panko stiffen the consistency. I placed the mixture into a pastry bag and piped the filling into the center of each flower. Next, I lightly breaded the flowers by dipping them in an egg wash and rolling them in a mixture of all purpose flour and panko. The squash blossoms were then lightly fried in canola oil until golden brown. I served them over risotto made with "Not Chicken" broth and finished with a tablespoon of black truffle butter. What more could you want from a Saturday lunch?

Radish, Orange, and Mint Salad

We got pretty bored with thinly sliced English breakfast radishes on buttered bread, but had no idea what else there was to do with radishes. I typed in 'radishes' on recipezaar.com and was surprised to see a whole bunch of new options. I wasn't sure about this cold salad at first, but it ended up being really interesting. I added honey to the dressing, and it balanced it out nicely. Do y'all have any other ideas for what we should do with radishes next?

Registration Now Open for "The Vegetarian Grill"

*
I'm teaching another continuing education class. On July 12th I will be talking about how vegetarians can make use of the outdoor grill. We'll do pizza & BBq tofu & seitan skewers & even dessert. It is going to be a blast. Go HERE to register. Don't wait! My last class sold out.

There are only a few spots left.

*Thanks for the pics Budd!

Beet Salad + Swiss Chard Pasta

We are loving beets right now, and we got our hands on some from Downing Hollow Farm yesterday at the Botanic Gardens Wednesday farmer's market. Many were nice striped beets, too! The Wife made a salad with bits of honeycomb, thyme, pink peppercorns, and local goat cheese. Boil and peel the beets and sauté them in some olive oil, and then add the rest of the ingredients above -- that's all there is to it. TCV also made summer pasta with Whitton Farms swiss chard, Van Cheesman's garlic, and some broken-apart grape tomatoes. Andria's Summer of Magical Eating potlucks have us trying out our ideas for what to do with local produce all week long now; we'll keep you posted on what we try next.

Snow Peas with Kosher Salt & Olive oil

I know many of you are wondering what to do with all of the snow peas that keep showing up at the market and in your CSA boxes. I have a bold suggestion for you. Eat 'em raw. Seriously, they are delicious. If you like edamame, then you will love this healthy snack. Wash your snow peas and dry them. Then toss them with a tablespoon or so of good-quality olive oil and top with a pinch of nice flaky kosher salt. The taste is sweet, clean and grasssy. Try it.

Basil Omelette Sandwich with Zucchini and Mozzarella

I hardly ever follow a recipe exactly. (I just don't have the attention span.) However, I constantly gather ideas from cookbooks and magazines. I found this great little magazine at the supermarket called La Cucina Italiana. The photos are beautiful, and it drew me in with an in-depth article about porcini mushrooms and and another on panini sandwiches.

Anyway, I ended up making one of the wonderful panini sandwiches after returning home from the farmer's market on Saturday. The recipe happens to be online HERE. I used nearly all local ingredients: Paul & Angela's eggs, Sherry's wonderful baguette, Whitton Farms' new potatoes, zucchini, and Gracious Garden's sweet basil. What did I do differently? I grilled the inside of the bread in olive oil for extra crispness, I did not grill the cheese, and I used mozz instead of whatever hard-to-find cheese they suggest. I served it with roasted rosemary new potatoes.

Shiitake Mushroom Sausages with Sauerkraut, Mustard, and Provolone

This is way too complicated to do every day. I mean, I babied these things to death to get them the way I wanted them. They were delicious and worth the time, but I fumbled through the process so much I'm not even sure I can tell you what I did. I'm just figuring it out, so it'll get easier. Right now they're sauteed, boiled, baked, and then grilled. Whew! Really, I'm not kidding.

In essence, the sausages are comprised of chopped vegetables held together with breadcrumbs and wheat gluten that's flavored with vegetable broth and sausage seasoning. Here is the rundown of what's inside:

1 carrot

1 celery

1 medium sweet onion

4 cloves of garlic

10 oz shiitake mushrooms

6 oz baby bella mushrooms

1 new potato

2 not beef boullion cubes

1 1/2 cups red lentils (cooked)

1 cap full sesame oil

1 cup panko

2/3 cup wheat gluten

tablespoon Penzy's breakfast sausage seasoning

This recipe makes about 14 dogs. All aromatics are pulsed in a food processor until very finely chopped but not mush. They they are sauteed until the onion is translucent. Do the same with the potato and mushrooms but add the boullion cubes. Mix that and all remaining ingredients in a large bowl. At this point, you could make burgers or meatballs or sausages. To form sausages, lay a 1/2-inch mound of the mixture across a piece of foil leaving a 1/2-inch margin on either end. Roll it tight like a sushi roll, and twist the ends shut. Find the middle of the large roll and twist it forming two smaller links. Repeat. Boil all links in a large pot for 20 minutes. This will activate the wheat gluten and help them stay together. Once the sausages have cooled, remove them from the foil and place them on a large baking sheet. Stick them on a 250 degree oven for one hour to dry out. Now when you are ready to eat, all you need to do is grill 'em.

At the OSOME gathering as we went around the table to tell what we made for everyone, Andria proclaimed that it is not a contest to see who can use the most local ingredients. "Too bad," I said jokingly, "because I would have won." The onion, garlic, shittake mushrooms, and new potatoes were all local. So there!

Homemade Rosemary-Scented Whole-Milk Cheese

Three ingredients -- that's all it takes: whole milk, salt, and lemon. Three little ingredients that you probably have in your house right now and a tiny bit of know-how is all it takes to make your own cheese. I love that moment of discovery when you realize that you can make something that you usually buy. Collect these things and meet me in the kitchen:

cheesecloth

chopstick (or wooden spoon)

1/2 gallon of whole milk (not ultra-pasteurized)

1 lemon (juiced)

pinch of salt

two whole sprigs of rosemary

Pour the milk into a large pot and set it on the stove, and add the sprigs of rosemary. Set the eye on very low. You want to slowly bring the milk up around room temperature. Add a pinch of salt and set the eye on high. At this point you want to bring the milk to a boil. Stir it to ensure that the milk does not scorch. Once you achieve a nice rolling, frothy boil hit it with the lemon juice. You will be amazed. The curds grab on to one another. You will see the milk separate into the whey, a yellowy liquid, and the curds, solid white chunks. Let the mixture sit for about 10 minutes to cool and to make certain that all of the curds have gathered up. Remove the rosemary. Line a strainer with cheesecloth and pour the mixture through. Tie the cheesecloth over a chopstick and hang the cheese suspended inside of a large bowl. This will allow it to drain. After one hour in the fridge cut open the cheesecloth and place your cheese in an airtight container. It will keep about 5-7 days in the fridge.

I used mine to stuff some ravioli. I made green dough by blanching some arugula, squeezing it dry and blending it with my dry flour. I then added three egg yolks and proceeded as normal. The sauce is simply a head of roasted garlic mixed with olive oil and one diced tomato. It was wonderful.

King Oyster Tacos

Oyster mushrooms? Lobster mushrooms? Look around and you will discover that when people describe mushrooms they often use the flavor of seafood as a frame of reference. Why, you ask? Well, mushrooms and seafood actually share many of the same flavors and textures with one another. That makes many mushrooms great to use in place of seafood in many dishes.

One of my favorite mushrooms is the king oyster. It is really a weird little guy. A good sized king oyster will be about 5 inches long and about as big around as a peeled banana. The flesh is white, and it has a diminutive cap. Unlike most mushrooms, it's prized for its stem but not its cap. The flavor is mild, and the texture is chewy and meaty. The first time I ever had one, I thought I had been given meat. No joke. As a nice bonus, they pick up and display the flavors in a marinade very nicely. Slice them into rounds to simulate scallops, or slice them longways to use like little fish filets.

3 large king oyster mushrooms (thinly sliced long-ways)

1/4 cup of olive oil

3 cloves garlic

4 fresh sage leaves

juice of 1 lemon

splash of rice vinegar

chili powder

s & p

Everything but the chili powder goes into an airtight plastic container. Add enough water to cover, and refrigerate at least 3 hours or overnight. Remove from marinade and towel off. Sprinkle with a good-quality chili powder. Grill over a hot fire for about 2 minutes per side. Serve with warm tortillas, sour cream, shredded cheese, cilantro, diced tomatoes, and avocados. Round out the meal with grilled corn and frozen mango margaritas. Ole'!

Lunchbox: Smoked Almond BLT with Blue Cheese

There are some big, big flavors in this little sandwich. The smoked almonds are a great stand in for bacon in my version of the classic BLT. I"m starting to use smoked almonds in place of the over-processed fake bacon products. They are healthier and more delicious.

This sandwich gets an extra boost with a few crumbles of blue cheese. It is the thing that makes this sandwich a real standout.

10 or so smoked almonds (chopped)

2 slices of seed bread (toasted)

lettuce

a few slices of tomato

vegan mayo

a few crumbles of good quality blue cheese

I won't bore you with instructions on how to assemble a sandwich, but I do have one quick tip for you. When using tomatoes on a sandwich you are not going to eat immediately, you should first leach some of the moisture out of the tomato so your bread doesn't get soggy. Do this by slicing and salting the tomatoes, allowing them to sit for a few minutes, and toweling them off. This will remove enough of the moisture to prevent soggy sandwich syndrome.

Slider Recipe in the Commercial Appeal

I was happy to be the lone vegetarian voice in a story about little hamburgers that appeared in the pages of our daily paper, The Commercial Appeal. Don't give up trying to find me. I'm near the end of the story, because I like to get the last word. Click HERE to read it.

N'Awlins Veggie Slider with Remoulade Sauce

1 large celery stalk

1/2 green bell pepper

1/2 onion

3 cups water

2 Not-Chicken vegetable bouillon cubes

2 cloves garlic, minced or microplaned

1 cup dry yellow grits

Olive oil

1/2 cup blanched spinach, drained and chopped

1 (15-oz.) can of dark red kidney beans, drained

4 dashes of hot sauce

Remoulade sauce:

1 celery rib

1 tbsp. spicy mustard

2 green onions

1 tsp. wasabi paste

1 tsp. Braggs Liquid Aminos, or soy sauce

Juice from 1 lemon

A few dashes of hot sauce

1/2 cup fresh parsley

2 tbsp. olive oil

Pulse celery, bell pepper and onion in food processor until finely chopped. Set aside.

Boil water in medium saucepan and add bouillon and garlic. Slowly add grits while stirring liquid. Reduce heat to a simmer and cook grits, covered, for 40 minutes. Set aside to cool.

Sauté chopped celery, bell pepper and onion in olive oil over medium-high heat, until onion is translucent and all of the liquid has evaporated.

Add sautéed vegetables, spinach, kidney beans, and hot sauce to grits. Stir to incorporate. Cover and refrigerate for 2 hours. Portion into 12 patties, and brown in non-stick skillet with olive oil.

To make remoulade, place all ingredients in a food processor and blend until smooth.

Serve on baguette slices with remoulade sauce (recipe follows), heirloom tomatoes and iceberg lettuce.

Makes 12 sliders.

How to Make Pasta: A Photo Essay

Banana Flower a Bust

I often buy things at the market that I have never tried. Sometimes what I picked up turns out to be good, and sometimes it is just not to my liking. On a recent trip to the Viet Hoa Market I walked out with a banana flower, long beans, and quail eggs. I love the long beans and the quail eggs, but the banana flower is not something I'd put in the basket again. I wanted to love it because it is so pretty, but that somehow was not enough. I read all about them before I cut into it. You can use them in soups, curries, and salads. So I decided to try it raw to get the full flavor. It tastes like those bitter bits of string that live between the banana and the peel. You know what I'm talking about. So until someone changes my mind, banana flower goes on the bad list.

BTW that is a scan of a banana flower that has been cut in half.

Consolation Frittata

I told everyone that I was bringing pizza. I had this dough in my fridge that I had let rise for 3 days and I believed that it was ready to be made into pizza. It was a mess. I can make pizza in my sleep, so I'm not really sure what went wrong. It was sticky and flat. So it is now 10 past 6 and I'm supposed to be at the OSOME gathering at 7ish. What do you do? Frittata, that is what. I had the pizza topping already prepared, and I had gotten some eggs from a friend earlier in the day. I used some select pizza toppings to fill and top the frittata. It was some unplanned local deliciousness.

2 red potatoes (thinly sliced)

10 eggs

3 slices of bread (torn into small bits)

1 sweet onion (sliced and caramelized in some butter)

2 field roast sausages (sliced and browned)

1 cup mozz (shredded)

1/2 cup goat cheese (crumbled)

12 sprigs of thyme

S & P

olive oil

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Mix the onion, eggs and bread together in a large bowl. Oil a large non-stick skillet and place over medium heat. Arrange the potatoes in a single layer. Pour egg mixture over potatoes and top with sausage. Cover and cook until the edge starts to set. Place into the hot oven for 10 minutes. Remove cover and add cheese. Cook until the center is not jiggly and the cheese is golden. Top with fresh thyme.

Local ingredients: potatoes, onions, eggs, thyme

A big thanks to Andria for hosting again this week. In addition to the frittata we had a wonderful tofu stir fry, caprese salad, guac, asparagus pie, and for dessert strawberry ice cream. To read more about our local food adventures click HERE.

Mini Sausage & Potato Empanadas with Fresh Chimichurri Sauce

2 Field Roast sausages (apple & sage flavor)

3 cups blue potatoes (small dice)

1 small white onion (diced)

1/4-1/2 cup hot peppers in vinegar (diced)

1 teaspoon of paprika (sweet)

juice from 1 lemon

bunch of fresh parsley

1 clove of garlic

2 cups AP flour

1/4 cup canola oil

1/4 cup olive oil

1/2 cup ice water

1/2 teaspoon salt

Mix the flour, salt, and oil in a bowl. Add half the water and mix. Add the other half of the water and mix again. (You want a slightly stiff dough like a pie crust.) Wrap dough ball in plastic and stick it in the fridge for 30 minutes.

Over medium-high heat, drizzle a few tablespoons of olive oil in a nonstick pan. Put the potatoes in a single layer, and do not disturb them for 4 minutes. (This is the secret to crisp potatoes.) Stir; layer again. Add the crumbled sausage and paprika and allow the sausage to brown. Add the onion; cook until translucent. Remove from heat, transfer to a bowl, and toss in the hot peppers. Allow mixture to cool enough to handle.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Divide the dough in half and roll it out until it is about 1/8 to 1/16-inch thick. Use a cup to cut rounds out of the dough and stack them off to the side with a little flour in between each one so they don’t stick together. Grab one dough round and place it in the palm of your hand. Pick up a pinch of the filling and stuff it into the center of the dough round. Next, fold it like a taco, pinch the edges together, and set it on your work surface. Using a fork, seal the edge. Repeat until all of the dough has been used. This should make about a dozen. Bake on a silpat-lined baking sheet for 25 minutes.

While these are in the oven, make the chimichuri sauce. Into a food processor place the leaves from a bunch of parsley, the garlic, lemon juice, and three tablespoons or so of olive oil, salt, and pepper. Blend until it is a sauce. If it is too acidic, add some sugar.

The salad is simple, but the presentation is elegant. Layer sliced heirloom tomatoes and local lettuce on a large plate. Drizzle with olive oil, 10 year old balsamic vinegar, and crumble goat cheese over the top. Season with salt and pepper and you are ready to eat.

Happy Birthday Buddha

I could not help myself. It looked so delicious that I just dug right in without thinking: spicy shrimp, fried eel, and even pork chitterlings with onions and greens. What would cause someone like me who has been a vegetarian for over twenty years do such a thing? It was all faux.

Buddha's birthday was on Sunday and my friend Tea' invited me to a celebration at the East Memphis Buddhist Temple. She told me that the feast is all vegetarian and that they go all out. Unfortunately that was the day I did the triathlon, so I could not make it. However, she did not forget about me. Monday she called and asked me to come by and pick up some leftovers from the feast. I left with enough food to have my own Buddha's birthday feast, so that is what we did.

I called up my good friends Michael and Kelly and told them to put a big pot of rice on to boil. I showed up a few minutes later with the bounty of food and a growler of pale ale. We enjoyed the wonderful meal outside at the farm table that lives in their back yard. I have had some great meals at that table and this ranks up there with the best of them. The eel was made from dried mushrooms, The chitterlings were wheat gluten, and the spicy shrimp was fashioned from chopped tofu and rice paper skins. We marveled at the craft and attention to detail.

Tea' will be opening her own restaurant soon called New Que Huong at 942 West Poplar Ave in Collierville. She will be serving traditional Vietnamese cuisine including some very delicious vegetarian offerings. She plans on opening in about three weeks, and I plan on being the 1st one through the door.

Welcome New Followers!

I just wanted to say hi and thanks for joining the chubby vegetarian blog. You can access the site easily at www.thechubbyvegetarian.com. Expect to see an average of three posts a week most of which are accompanied by a recipe or two. I love to spend time in my kitchen and hope that my enthusiasm is infectious.