Hot Day

Lime lemonade

It is official: today we turned on our air conditioner: temperature inside was 82F, outside was close to 90F (30C). I looked at the calendar three times to make sure that last week we switch only clock to the summer time, not the season. No, still March. 
Traditionally I start making a lemonade on Memorial Day. This time mother nature made correction to this routine as well: we were desperate for a cool drink and a spicy meal.

Pasta with a spicy parsley sauce and a lime lemonade

I made a lime lemonade and a pasta with a spicy parsley sauce. Lately I fell in love with all type of garlic sauces, dressings, and dips. This one is one of my latest creations: handful of parsley, a small piece of Pecorino Romano cheese, juice of one whole lemon, 3 cloves garlic, a tablespoon of good olive oil, a tablespoon of veganaise, a handful of walnuts all run through a food processor or a blender. Teenager had it twice!

Have you re-discovered a "new" old ingredient? 

What is it?

Until next time,
Cowboy Country Vegetarian

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

A little bit of luck: something green - parsley dip, a shamrock, a pint of beer, and some potatoes! 

Enjoy the day! Cheers!

Until next time,
Cowboy Country Vegetarian

Random

Skagit Valley Tulip festival in Mt.Vernon, WA. April 2010

1. Today I lost my income. Bummer! I knew it was coming and was prepared (?!), mentally, emotionally, financially (?). Was I indeed prepared? Can you ever be prepared for any negative news in your life? Well, I am not smiling today, that's for sure. I have this heavy feeling in my chest, ready to explode at any moment. And I am not really looking forward to be in this stage for a long time. I need to do something. I went for a long walk to explore the beauty of the spring colored land, but mostly to explore my options. Yes, we still have husband's income, not much, but something, and it's not my income either anyway. 
Since I left my parent's home, I always had my own penny in my pocket. I don't like to be 100% dependent on someone, even if that someone is a person I love and share everything. So, what are my options really? The town we live in now doesn't have that much to offer. The school ends in May thus until then we have to manage here. I really miss Seattle now... I didn't come up with too many solution, did I?

Skagit Valley Tulip festival in Mt.Vernon, WA. April 2010 

2. Today I lost two of my tomato plants to viruses. I nourished them since January 6th, but they had to go. Last year my hesitation cost me a few mature plants with almost ripe tomatoes on it. I've learned my lesson then: sick plant has to be removed from the garden immediately.

Bread...

3. When I am stressed (and I am stressed, even though I am hiding it well and refuse to admit to it out loud), I cook. I made some bread, more pasta, well, I made enough food for a whole week! Is anyone hungry?

Same bread: savory filling inside.

Happy runner

4. I want to run. I want to run long and far to a place where I can find answers to many questions.

Pacific ocean. My dad and son with a pirate ship kite... July 2008

Am I exaggerating?

Until next time,
Cowboy Country Vegetarian

Kale Tuesday Food

Sorbet with a little bit of cherry  liqueur  (for adults)

Some time ago, when I just started this blog, I decided to call Tuesday a Kale Day. Since then I fell in love this that fuzzy curly leaf plant, and so did my family... somewhat. Sometimes they don't even know that they eat the kale. Today is a good example. I made a kale-blueberries sorbet to everyone's delight. I blended kale, that I piked this morning from my garden, frozen blueberries, some lemon juice.  Then I placed it in a glasses, trimmed with sugar, and added a splash of a cherry  liqueur (optional, and for adults only). Let it stand in the freezer for about 30 minutes and we enjoyed every spoon of it. 
For a hot day as it was today (temperature in 80F or 27C) we had a very cool dessert.

How was the weather in your parts of the world?

Did you have any kale today?

Until next time,
Cowboy Country Vegetarian

Pasta (homemade)

Carrot-apple-ginger juice - for energy!

This post was written a few months ago when my parents still were here. Things have changed since, and you can see how from the crossed text. 
Remember Happy March 8th! post? It's not just a holiday, for us it is a big holiday, like another Christmas, which means some gifts. I got a few. 
Do you want to see some?

That made me happy!

***

For many years a word "pasta" gave me a shivering. Nothing "pasta" would raise my appetite, on contrary I would rather eat just a plain bread than pasta. Needless to say, I rarely cooked pasta at home, just when kids were asking bagging, not that often though.
Why is that? Many reasons, I would say, main being that pasta doesn't taste good. Didn't taste good to me until I discovered a home made pasta. Apparently, my taste buds were in dormant stage for the store bought pasta.
And then mom came to the rescue. 
And then to everybody's happiness pasta found a place in this home. 

Fettuccine (my favorite)

Pasta dough is easy to make even for a teenager.
Flour-eggs-pinch of salt-water-oil-mix-rest-roll-cut-cook-enjoy! See how easy, right?

Smooth dough

My mother's homemade pasta recipe:

Ingredients: 

• 3 cups of all purpose flour or 2 cups of all purpose and 1 cup of semolina flour
• 3 eggs
• 3 Tbsp cold water (she actually uses eggshell to measure water, so did I)
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1/2 tsp salt

Mother said that this recipe she has learned from her mother, and it was always done by hands, but I use my food processor or a stand mixer (lazy me!). 
Mix all the ingredients and knead the dough for 10 minutes (even I do it with my hands!) 
Form a ball and cover it with plastic wrap for a minimum 30 minutes.  

Wrap the dough

Then knead it again and ... here I wish I had a pasta dough roller...  I let the Kitchen Aid pasta roller attachment to roll the dough until it has required paper thin desired thickness.  
Cut the dough and toss it with a little corn or regular flour (to prevent it from sticking).  

Spaghetti (son's favorite)

Boil a large amount of water, add salt and 2-3 Tbsp olive oil, add pasta, and cook 2-3 minutes (this is the time for the fresh pasta. Dry pasta needs to be cooked longer, about 5-7 minutes). 
I set the kitchen alarm for 2 minutes and taste it. 
Some like it "well done", we like it al dente (firm to the bite). 

Plain pasta

Then pasta is dressed with vegetables, sauses, or just olive oil and garlic and served hot.  
That is pasta I love, we all do.

Pasta with Feta cheese and olive oil: I ate it all!

Today I made it with parsley "pesto": 
I just put in the blender a handful of parsley, a handful of walnuts, 2 cloves garlic, and a small piece of Pecorino Romano cheese (my favorite!). 
I gave it a couple of pulses and added freshly squeezed lemon juice (from 1,5 lemons) and a tablespoon of a very good olive oil. 
Pulsed again, and pesto was done. 

Pasta with parsley "pesto"

When my work was done, for a moment I imagined myself in Italy... 
Music, roses, pasta...

A-ve Ma-ri-aaaa!!!

Until next time,
Cowboy Country Vegetarian

Match Day

Source

Today is The Day for all medical graduates.  They learned where the medical residency will take them: specialty, hospital, region...  Actually, correction, information for Monday is limited to match/ didn't match, in other words, did they get in or not. And they have to wait until Friday to learn the specialty, hospital, region. It's a culmination of the process that starts in July: obtaining all documents, letters, submitting everything to Eras, applying for the programs, waiting to be invited to the interviews, flying all over the country to the interviews, choosing what's best and ranking it while programs choose and rank candidates on their end, and finally, The Match Day. 
There are no words to express the fillings that overwhelmed someone during this process: from saddest  (when one didn't match) to happiest in the whole world when at 9:00AM (Pacific time in our case) that so long awaited e-mail crawled into our in-box: "Congratulations!" 
I am familiar first skin with both feelings. Been there and done that. Therefore I want to Congratulate everyone, who matched and is eagerly waiting until Friday to find out where to. Take you time, celebrate and have some fun (there will be no time during residency, especially first year).  I am very happy for some of our friend that just send us a note with the great news! Congratulations is not enough when someone knows what did you go through all this nerve twisting 8-9 months. We will have some wine or champagne tonight! Cheers!
I also want to tell everyone, who didn't make it this time: Please, do not give up!  Learn from this experience, make a strategic plan and work it out. Take some time to rest, but don't bury yourself into a pity. You are not alone, there is always friend who is willing to help. Cheer up!


Until next time,
Cowboy Country Vegetarian

Food (in photos)

Dear friends, you asked me what we eat during a week, so I took some photos for you.


Breakfast:

Rolled oats and rye with blueberries and walnuts

The rest can be our lunch or dinner:

Roasted pepper with homemade savory bread, leek and parsley

Spicy chickpea stew 

Sandwich: mushroom caviar, tomatoes, and sprouts

Smoked paprika roasted potatoes

Tomatoes with mushroom caviar, sprouts,  and parsley

Roasted eggplants

Lemon dressing: lemon juice, garlic, dill, salt, pepper, olive oil. This dressing is perfect for any hot or cold dishes.

Cucumber boats made with homemade cream cheese

Are you ready for this?!

Yes, pie!

Which meal do you like best? 

What recipe do you want to see here?

Until next time,

Cowboy Country Vegetarian