Friday, August 23, 2013

From Ontario to Erie and home

Last week I spent six days with Thich Nhat Hanh (and 1,399 other people) in Ontario, Canada. Five days spent mindfully, including mindful eating for every meal, in silence, bowing to the group before and after eating, no distractions, enjoying vegan versions of college cafeteria meals. On my way home I drove through Erie and looked on line in advance for somewhere to stop for a casual meal. I came across the Whole Foods Co-op (which I assume predates the grocery chain). They make sandwiches and pizzas, mostly with dairy, and coming at 12:30 pm, the line was long, so I helped myself to a couple of items from the cold case, and enjoyed a lunch of tempeh bacon mini-wraps with cashew cheese, and a kale salad. Yum. They hadn't heard of either tempeh or kale in the college cafeteria.



Now back home again and I am slowly resuming cooking mind. This was my CSA box for this week:


It included: lettuce, celery, lots of tomatoes, TWO eggplants, two peaches (luscious, already eaten chopped up in cereal), one green pepper, one zucchini, potatoes, a bunch of rosemary, and some green beans.

I think I'm being tested with the eggplant. It was NEVER a food that I bought of my own volition before the CSA. I've finally discovered one recipe I like with them (roasted eggplants with mushrooms and onions) but I already made that this week with last week's leftover eggplant, and now I get TWO more? On top of that, Bruce is out of town for another week and can't help me eat any of this.

My plans for cooking are:

1. Stir fry string beans with ginger and sriracha sauce
2. Zucchini banana bread (recipe from the Post Punk Kitchen web site)
3. Eggplant tomato, chickpea soup from DrFuhrman.com


The celery and the rosemary are the two items that I foresee going bad before I get to them. I have trouble using the fresh herbs I get, as they go bad so fast, and whenever I find a recipe that uses them, there is inevitably at least one or two more herbs that I need to go with it. Any ideas for rosemary?