Namaste Market, Boulder has a Gluten free heaven & Hot pepper-Tomato Jam Recipe

Readers, sorry for the delay in my posts. I had dear sister visiting as yoga teacher training wrapped up with a beach graduation party & then my annual reunion with my college girlfriends (which we did cook in our cabin one meal not including breakfast, but it ended up being a variation on the quinoa salad dish I made with Lisa on our southwest road trip, so nothing to blog about except about the restaurant we ate at in Boulder and a lovely few snacks from Namaste Market). I am just getting used to a new weekly schedule that requires late nights 3 days during the work week.

NAMASTE MARKET

Hit this market up after hearing that my co-worker and yoga teacher both had positive things to say about it. I gaped at all the desserts at the bakery that the buffets never offer. The man at the counter was patient enough to explain to me which ones had wheat/all purpose flour and which had dairy as you would never guess it from how they looked. Uber bummed that a dessert I thought was safe and made of cheese (my restricted but not banned list) is actually usually made with a pancake like batter-as confirmed by a restaurant I went to last month too.

 I settled on a golf-sized date-cashew-pistachio-spices balls (forgot to copy down the name-guess I have to go back-darn!) to enjoy while sis-star was here and a bag of Chana Dal (lentils with savory spices) snacks to tide me over on my CO trip.  Chana Dal was my hero during the layovers and going to the airport without lunch on the way back.

I'm excited to try out the dosa mix and sambar soup mix. I love trying things from scratch, but some days you just need some help. I'll post if they end up being really great (or really awful!)  Decided to try out chestnut flour as well-seems to be a mild taste. So many kinds of flours-made from beans and grains, gluten free jackpot! I added it to my protein pancakes and tastes ok. Not super nutritious as far as I can tell but does have 4% D.V for iron. 

So very happy with the pickles and veggies-can never have fried stuff usually (aside from lentil flour pakoras)

Chicken or Jackfruit Tacos-love the smoky flavor

Trout salad (front) and beet hummus (back)-go for the beets unless you love celery

BOULDER RECOMMENDATIONS
Since Yanny brought up stopping in Boulder for the Celestial Tea Factory --which is a cheap, interesting thing to do on the way to Estes Park from Denver-but check your GPS ours thought we were on some other road and actually we still had 30-40 more minutes of driving! I had to use android phone to get us there...but I digress. After the tea tastings we worked up an appetite for Shine. They have an all gluten-free menu, and not to worry carnivores-they do offer local meats in addition to vegetarian dishes. Amazing to not feel restricted at a restaurant-ordering normally taboo restaurant food: mac n' cheese, fried pickles (never seen that before) and veggies with blue cheese sauce and coconut shrimp. We had other items but those are normally safe. We sampled and split 7 happy hour dishes for $12.50 per person! Hard to find a dinner made with organic ingredients for that cheap! I wish we could have stayed for the live entertainment.

THE RECIPE-Hot Pepper-tomato Jam

The recipe this week is inspired from a bunch of tomatoes obtained from a work assignment (I picked them once we finished for the day. Nothing like getting your hand dirty after cramping up on the computer all day) so I decided to try out a recipe received on the CSA list from the blog "There's a Newf in my Soup" (very memorable!) called tomato jam. This is perfect because I still have a bunch of hot peppers from my CSA pick up three weeks ago. I had to half the recipe, but kept most spices at their original strength since I only cook for myself as the yield was originally 2 cups.

Really easy recipe stepwise, just give yourself an hour total for cutting, simmering and clean up. One pot, cutting board, knife, measuring spoons and one stirring spoon to clean up-oh YEAH!

1 pounds ripe tomatoes (cored and coarsely chopped)

3/4 cups sugar (try coconut sugar)

1 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon

1/4 tsp powdered ginger (or 1/2 tsp fresh grated ginger)

1 teaspoon ground cumin

¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon

2 whole cloves

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 Serrano chile, stemmed, seeded and minced

¼ cup veggie stock (or Ruby Port, I didn't have any)

1. Put all ingredients in a medium sauce pan. Bring to boil and then simmer.

2. Let cook 45 minutes or until reduced to a thick jam consistency.

The suggestion and lovely picture of Newf shows the spread atop bread and mozzarella cheese. I'm trying out my own loaf of bread (yeast's expiration date is tomorrow, ack!) in the machine tonight. The bread looks lumpy and ugly...but it has the crispy crust and tender inside.

What's your favorite airplane snack?

Vegetarian Summer Series #7: Clean n' green citrus cucumbers & Basil-tomato Beans

Many things coming to an end this month-teacher training is down to the last week, furloughs end next week, getting a few 2+ year old projects out of my hands and into their final stages at work and hopefully before sis-star gets here next week I should be unpacking my last office boxes. I'm just wondering what I would like to do to celebrate these things.

I have a food related accomplishment: finally making a recipe I marked & the bonus was finding another way to eat cucumbers (not a fan of them plain. I can handle them best in spring rolls, sushi, juiced-with other items or pickled). If last week's cooked spicy-tomato dish  (including a round up of other cucumber recipes over the last year) wasn't enough and you still need more cucumber ideas from your harvest or your box or spontaneous market purchase, this week I have a raw one for you. A. Clean n' Green Citrus Cucumbers is a CSA-provided avocado/orange dressing that I decided to toss over sliced cucumbers.

The box also presented a bounty of ripe tomatoes and basil as well so the second vegetarian dish features pasta sauce adapted from my Art Smith Kitchen Life cookbook. I placed it with lima beans and quinoa/brown rice instead of pasta. Remember if you want to use dried beans to allow an overnight soak and 45 minutes-1 hour to cook them.

Clean n' Green Citrus Dressing

1/2 avocado
1/2 cup orange juice (about one large orange)
3 green onions (I used 1/4 cup chopped yellow onion)
1/8 tsp ground pepper
1/8 tsp sea salt

Place everything in a blender and whir until smooth. Store for 1 additional day in the fridge.

I put over 1.5 cups of sliced cucumbers and let it marinate for 8 hours.

Another pairing for this dressing as the CSA suggests is with strawberry-asparagus salad. I drizzled some of the dressing on my tuna sashimi too.

Basil-Tomato Sauce-makes enough for about 4-6 half-cup servings

about 2 lbs of diced fresh tomato, 1" chunks
1/2 cup packed rinsed basil leaves
1/2 small onion, diced
optional: 1 serrano pepper diced finely (or hot pepper flakes to taste)
salt to taste
1/6 cup extra virgin olive oil

Beans and Rice/quinoa- for 4 servings with the tomato basil sauce

1 cup dried lima beans (or other white bean)-soaked over night and simmered about 1 hour OR buy it canned-think the yield was about 2.5-3 cups once it was cooked
1 cup rice dried (used rice cooker, takes 30 minutes)   or 1 cup quinoa (boil 7-10 minutes until spirals begin to separate, then drain)

Instructions
1. Combine oil and onion in a large skillet. Cook over medium heat, stirring often, just until onions and serrano pepper soften ~2-3 minutes.

2. Add the tomatoes and increase heat to medium-high. Cook, stirring often, until the tomatoes release their juice, about 4-5 minutes. 

3. While this is cooking, coarsely chop the basil. After the tomatoes are juicy, add the basil and lower to simmer for 2 minutes. 

4.Season with salt and if using the pepper flakes.

5. Can keep it chunky or pulse in a blender (allow it to cool so the lid doesn't fly off from the steam pressure or use a stick blender).

6. Portions up to you, I used about 1/2 cup cooked rice or quinoa and 1/2-3/4 cups of beans and topped with 1/2 cup of the tomato basil sauce. Best served warm.

So back to the beginning question-and maybe you can give me a nifty idea, what do you like to do to celebrate an accomplishment? For a few months, I would kind of like to just give myself a break to set some standing recurring dates to be social nights/weekend outings so I don't necessarily have to plan details and coordinate each time. A pedicure might be nice-I think I've only ever had two in my life. Perhaps buying something fun for the house to decorate (was eye-ing art work at La Jolla farmer's market before).

Vegetarian Summer Series #6: Spiced Cucumbers with Coco-nutty Sweetness

Not as much prep space as I used to have (an island) but there is still more on either side of the stove. I like being able to see into the living room.

I broke in the kitchen this past week making tons of salads and spicy noodle soup to combat my summer cold. I even tried baking some pumpkin-oatmeal muffins (they were ok, maybe the type of oats I used). Happily, I hung up some pictures over the weekend, got the shoes out of the garbage bag and into the rack and placed a few boxes into the laundry closet. Decided I would finally try organizing my bookshelves by color. I see it in the decorating magazines so much. Hopefully I remember what color the books are when I look for them!

Taste that rainbow :) 

Our front porch has its welcome mat and plants wave howdy. We'll see how they do with less sun. The tomato plant gave me just enough to make dinner Sunday night. What else inspired my dinner? Over the previous weekend we went to celebrate with Dave's nieces for their birthdays-they twirled and frolicked in the white "princess" dresses. So cute, creative with their playing and always energetic. But as soon as we got there, no time to kick it with the kids, we got put to work making mashed potatoes while his sister went to the store for the cake. The man of the house was out of sight, prepping one of the 5 dishes he was going to be making that day. He eventually emerged briefly with handing one of the girls and I supplies to cover the tables in pink. And then I was also told I could pick some extra tomatoes, cucumber and peppers from their family's garden as they weren't going to be able to eat them all. With cucumber from the party and wee guy from my box I thought I had better get crackin'. Pickles alone aren't going to cut it.

The CSA list provided a Spiced Cucumbers with Coconut Milk recipe from Bon Appetit. How perfect! And it's a cooked cuke recipe...I really liked the sauteed cucumber with black bean sauce and fish that my co-worker (Mr. Tony!) turned me onto so this recipe made me very hopeful.

INGREDIENTS

1 tbsp vegetable oil
2 cups 1/4 inch thick of cucumber peeled (although I left the peel on mine no issues)
kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 small tomatoes, peeled, seeded and coarsely chopped (left seeds in and had no problems)
4 scallions, thinly sliced (I used about 1/2 cup of spring bunching onion tops instead)
2 red Thai chiles (with seeds), thinly sliced (or other hot peppers)*
1 garlic clove, smashed*
1/2 cup unsweetened coconut milk ( I used vanilla coconut milk and just omitted honey below)
1.5 tsp honey
1/4 cup fresh cilantro leaves*

*I substituted my leftover 2tbsp of Cilantro Chutney from earlier in the week.

STEPS

1. Heat oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add cucumber. Saute until beginning to soften, about 1 minute. Season with the kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper.

2. Add tomatoes, scallions, chiles and garlic. Saute until vegetables are soft, 2-3 minutes.

3. Add coconut milk and honey; simmer until vegetables are cooked through 2-3 minutes. Stir in cilantro leaves and a squeeze of fresh lime juice. Season with additional salt and pepper if desired

4. Suggestion to serve with rice or something to soak up the delicious sauce!

It filled the kitchen with the slightly sweet coco-nutty scent. Mmmmm. It tasted so nice and clean too. I'd love to throw in some chickpeas to give it some protein next time and make it a vegetarian main. For Sunday, I ate it as a side with my leftover taco-seasoned chicken. Monday at lunch it was with half cup of quinoa and 2 hard boiled egg whites.

Have you re-organized something lately? 

ROUND UP OF CUCUMBER RECIPES:
Cucumber-rice flour pancakes 
Mystery Ginormica Squash Gratin 
In the Savory Salad of Spunky Grapefruit Dressing 
Cantalope-Cucumber-Carrot Juice
Cucumber-Melon Salad
Add into the Seaweed Salad

Vegetarian Summer Series #5: Indian Potluck Inspired Jalepeno Dal (Red Lentils) and Cilantro Chutney

The move happened! We spent 2 hours Thursday night with the help of a friend and 6 hours Saturday moving all our things over.  I'm climbing around mountains of boxes and digging in various backpacks and suitcases for what to wear to yoga practice and to work, but what's the first room I get in order? The kitchen of course!  I can only indulge in Dominoes gluten-free vegetarian pizza and Chipotle so long.

TOP 5 NEW THINGS THIS MONTH:
1) Going out to eat Vietnamese food unexpectedly-got to try Banh Xeo! a rice flour based crepe. The restaurant only had seafood/meat based but I am eager to try out mushrooms instead at home. Vietca says they even sell pre-measured flour with the tumeric portioned out at the markets. I got lots of lettuce in my box right now so this would be great! Want to grow herbs or pick up some mint and shiso (aka perilla, tia to, beefstake leaf, or Gee So according to the seed catalogue for evergreen seeds)

2) Bought sea snail from Marukai .................to eat (not a pet!) Gonna say I'm not a fan of the cartilege like texture.

3) Not food related, but I have had three people offer to pay me for helping to care, cook or make a product in the last week! Really weird...but it times well with the furlough...if I can make the time to do it.

4) Bought a hybrid nectarine plum from one of my favorite farms (I think it's Maciel Farms) at La Jolla. They don't have a name for it yet...any ideas? Fellow yogi Sara-squared says "nums" -which is my favorite so far. Dave says "nectum" which I thought was kind of gross since it sounds very similar to another word.

5) Got a vacation planned for the Denver, CO area for next month-I have never been! Anyone have recommendations for things to do or places to eat? Also hoping to visit the Rocky Mountains park for a day trip.

I broke the streak of raw food, to bring you spicy jalepeno red lentils. I was supposed to have a potluck with a few co-workers last week but they wiggled out of it on me the day before.  I still made the dish since I needed vegetarian Tuesday food anyhow. The recipe comes from Food Network (actually Wolfgang Puck) with very minor modifications.

Dal on the left and variation on Aloo Gobi on the right

 DAL WITH JALEPENOS
Makes 4-6 Servings
~40-50 minutes for making spice, prepping and cooking.

• 1/4 cup ghee or clarified butter  substitute red palm oil or coconut oil
• 1 1/2 cups diced onions
• 2 tablespoons minced garlic
• 2 jalapeno peppers, cored, seeded and minced
• 1 tablespoon cumin seeds, toasted and crushed
• 2 cups orange lentils
• 2 tablespoons finely minced ginger
• 2 tablespoons Garam Masala, (food network provides one if you visit their website or see what I used below)
• 1/2 tablespoon salt  (or to your taste)
• 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 bay leaf
• 3/4 cup diced tomatoes
• 1/2 tablespoon rice vinegar
• 8 cups chicken stock veggie stock (I used 4 cups stock and 4 cups water and it came out ok)

1. In a large pot, heat the oil and stir-fry the onions just until wilted, do not brown.

2. Add the garlic, jalapeno, cumin, lentils, ginger, garam masala, salt, pepper, sugar and bay leaf. Saute for 1 to 2 minutes, until the herbs and spices bloom (aromatic).

2. Add the tomatoes and deglaze with the vinegar.

3. Add the stock, bring to a boil and then lower to a simmer and cook until lentils are tender (about 30 minutes), stirring occasionally. Taste and adjust seasoning with cumin, salt, pepper and sugar.

 My sister provided me a garam masala recipe and you don't need to do any toasting or grating (not sure how much a difference it makes, but I'm short on time these days).

GARAM MASALA (I think it was the first one that I used for the dal recipe, but it was a bottle of spice she made for me):

Garam Masala #1
1 tbsp cumin seeds
1 tbsp coriander seeds
1 tbsp black peppercorns
1 tsp ground cardomom
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp ground cloves
1/8 ground nutmeg

We have just ground cumin and coriander so I don't do the following steps. I
also used a pepper grinder or just used black ground pepper. but if you have
the whole seeds here's what to do:
On medium heat, shake cumin and coriander seed for 3-5 till they pop and brown.
remove from heat and let cool. place all ingridients in a coffee grinder or
food processor and grind till smooth. store in an airtight container.

Kitchen Cupboard Garam Masala
2 tbsp cumin
2 tbsp coriander
2 tsp ground black pepper
1 tsp ground cardomom
1 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp allspice

Also, because my CSA "boxmate" said she doesn't make a lot of spicy things, thought I would share this recipe that uses one spicy pepper and just makes enough for a few servings (not overwhelming for someone cooking just for one).

CILANTRO-CHUTNEY-inspired by my brief few months working at a Persian inspired restaurant after college. Just grab your blender/food processor and let's make this 4 ingredient peppy sauce. Top it on your breakfast tacos like me, have a go with it on salad or maybe as a dipper for your grilled veggies (or chicken or beef).

Ingredients
1 cup coarsely chopped cilantro leaves and stems
2 cloves of garlic 
3 tbsp white vinegar
1 jalepeno, de-stemmed and cut

Put all ingredients in the blender/processor. Blend until uniform sauce forms. All done!

I think I asked enough questions above, so nothing here this week!

Vegetarian Summer Series #4: 6 ingredient Hijiki (seaweed) and sprouted mung bean salad

The damp, warm weather persists. The heating and cooling at work is STILL on the mend (have a fix-it ticket in). Downing coconut ice cream, red bean popsicles or Naked juice popsicles every day after work to feel refreshed. So the salad and/or minimal cooking recipes continue! Give sprouting a try, it's not as crazy/weird as I thought and once it soaks and drains, it just sits and grows on its own! No babysitting-don't need to shake/stir, check water levels or anything.

This post is for Ann since she says she feels lost going to an Asian market (I still don't know what most things are at the market, but if its label translated in English sometimes, I may just buy it and look up a recipe when I get home...like the agar agar still sitting for the last 3+ months)

I threw together some panty ingredients to make a very easy salad. For planning ahead, you need half an hour to soak the dried hijiki seaweed. I picked this up at a local Japanese market. There are three in the Convoy area of San Diego, Marukai, Mitsuwa and Nijiya-

• Be a Marukai member for $10 per year to get things on sale or $1 per shopping trip to get the sale prices and get a fun monthly sales leaflet that gives the history of Japanese foods/drinks.
• Marukai carries free range Shelton's chicken and free range eggs. I think the other meat may be all natural.
•  Marukai also has it two stores in the same plaza-one sells home goods and Hawaiian products, and the other one has $1.50 items.  
• Nijiya has a lot of organic options and I found some awesome black tea flavored with banana--possibly not natural but yummy.

Speaking of Japanese places, I finally tried Niban, just off the 805 freeway and Clairemont Mesa, in the Wal-mart shopping center. It's a order at the register, then sit place. With tip, dinner was only $8. I gave the vegetarian sukiyaki a try and it was a very generous portion -it did come with rice (which texture could have been better, a bit mushy) and had a nice flavor, also included miso soup and a salad--am sure this doesn't fit gluten free diets nor soy free though due to soy sauce, miso and tofu. I make my occasional exceptions since my sensitivities are not so extreme.

You also need 2-3 days if you are sprouting your own beans (grab a soup pot with a lid, a tea towel and do as described for red lentils last week). Short on time? Pick up sprouted legumes at the health food store or I'm sure the  more fully developed mung bean sprouts you can pick up at any grocery store would also work (those white ones you throw in stir fried or sukiyaki or they come with pad thai! Yeah you know, they must be used in about 3 days or they get limp. I don't really have storage tips other than don't rinse until right before you need them and cook them panfried or in a soup if you can't use them raw after 3 days)

Salad:

The seaweed is already in nice small pieces.

1.3 oz of dried hijiki-yields about 1 cup of plump seaweed after soaking half an hour
3/4 cup of dried mung beans (un-sprouted): which yields about 2 cups sprouted

Dressing:
2 tbsp Braggs Amino (or soy sauce or coconut aminos, whatever suits your diet, more or less to taste)
1 tsp honey (or other sweetener)
1tbsp sesame oil
ground pepper to taste

1. After draining the hijiki, toss it with the sprouted mung beans and dressing.

2. Can chill for best taste. Eat, savoring the crunch and slight sweetness of mung beans and savory,slick seaweed.

Idea: add some chopped cucumber for additional crunchiness.

Do you have any new favorite apps? I have an Android phone started using Ibotta a month ago and finally made my first coupon purchase of Silk coconut milk.

Vegetarian Summer Series #3: Raw Curried Sprouted Lentil-Collard Greens Salad

Can't escape the heat and humidity (relatively speaking...I know we San Diegans are fickle)! Our half of the building at work is stuffy and the other side has the girls bundled up in sweaters. Then I go off to 80 degree yoga in the evenings.  I can try to do less stuff on the stove while in the kitchen at least...

I've been making a lot of veggie sandwiches this week with avocado, cucumber, sprouts, mustard and sundried tomato--and sometimes hard boiled egg. I tried out Glutino brand bread...which while tasty, sadly does not hold together (exhibit A) unless toasted  (exhibit B).

                                                EXHIBIT A:  Not a good lunch to take out.

                                                      EXHIBIT B: Solid grip! Much better!



Taste-test Summer adaptation. Try swapping dill for basil and swiss chard for spinach in a pesto recipe...pairs nicely with a white fish or I imagine awesome with chopped hard boiled eggs!

Now onto the real recipes. Two posts in a row from Rawmazing website recipes (cucumber cumin dressing over melon and beans salad last week)! Great to try raw recipes when it just feels too sticky to use the stove for much more than 10 minutes-this recipe I stuck pretty close to the original ingredients and steps and didn't even steam the veggies like last week.  This was supposed to debut at a yoga vegetarian potluck this week, but it just didn't work out to get enough people together. Ah well, more for me!

This did take some pre-planning, if you want to try your hand at sprouting your own lentils. You can also buy them this way-try health food stores or if you're in San Diego, hit up Suzie's stand at a farmer's market or the farm itself! I enjoy the slight crunch that the lentils have.

RAW CURRIED SPROUTED LENTIL-COLLARD GREENS SALAD

INGREDIENTS-only slightly modified from the original recipe at Rawmazing, using a different sprouting technique, dried coconut and changing from kale to collard greens.

• 1 cup red lentils, sprouted

• 1 cup dried, unsweetened coconut since I didn't have fresh coconut flesh
• 1/2 cup coconut water from young thai coconut (I used canned coconut juice-saved the rest to drink as a natural electrolytes replenisher)
• 1 clove garlic
• 2 teaspoons lemon juice
• 1/2 teaspoon Braggs Liquid Aminos (or coconut aminos for soy free)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons sweet yellow curry powder
• 2 teaspoons brown sugar or sweetener of choice*
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• Himalayan Salt to taste

• 1 bunch of collard greens leaves (after rinsing and chopping it probably made about 6 cups) or any other leafy green--save the stems for another use
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• squeeze of lemon juice
• pinch Himalayan Salt 
• pepper
• 1 medium tomato, chopped
• 1/2 cup chopped cashews 

INSTRUCTIONS-modified sprouting method

 1. About 2 days before you want to make the salad, rinse and then soak the lentils over night. Drain the water. Place the lentils in a cheese cloth or tea towel and tie the ends together (rubber band or clip) and hang over the sink to drip for half an hour. Put the towel and lentils in a covered pot to sit at room temperature 1-2 days until the sprouts form.

Waggy happy lil' lentil tails. ARF!

2. Prepare the leafy greens by massaging it in a large bowl with the  1 tbsp olive oil, squeeze of lemon juice, and pinch of salt. Let this mixture sit awhile to soften the leaves.

My roommate owns the mixing bowls and they are packed...hence using a soup pot!

3. While your leaves "cook", prepare the curry sauce. Grab the blender or food processor and add the liquids first : coconut water, garlic, lemon juice, Braggs liquid amino and olive oil. Then add the dry ingredients: shredded coconut, curry powder, sugar and salt. (Your blender will have an easier time if you do liquids near the blade) Blend until uniformly mixed. My mixture clumped up into a paste.

The coconut smells SO good.

4. Add the curry sauce and lentils to the greens, and mix to incorporate the sauce. Add the chopped cashews and tomatoes, mixing gently. Add pepper to taste.

I'll be enjoying this salad before the fireworks begin! Have a happy fourth everyone!


What's on your Fourth menu or what's your favorite no-cook recipe?

Vegetarian Summer Series Post #2 : Quick Cucumber-Melon Salad Dashed with Cumin

Happy to report that I had my first swap party this weekend! An idea which was probably found in a Better Homes and Gardens magazine that I clipped out over 3 years ago. Because we have to move next month, I was more inspired to get the event planned. Each person was to bring up to 10 items to swap. Whatever no one wanted is going to Goodwill this Friday (or in the case of Redneck Life board game..."whoever has the most teeth left at the end wins!" in a White Elephant stash).  Some of my items found new loving homes for a framed photograph I mistakenly purchased when we first moved to this house and books I finished reading (Memory Keeper's Daughter, Zookeeper's Wife, Little Altars Everywhere, While I'm Falling). Amy's puppers had a good time playing with the plush dinosaur tail that everyone tried on. I wish I had taken a photo. People tried out yoga poses from my 608 Asanas book but some were more fixated on the man's tiny shorts.

This weekend also brought me satisfaction that I got the chance to cook a meal for people who came out to swap. We had inari (fried tofu) sushi, cucumber-melon salad, and arugula and radish sprout salad with heirloom tomatoes. Also made some fancy-foo-foo water by sticking lemon verbena leaves and strawberry slices.  

Not photogenic!

CUCUMBER & MELON Salad Dashed with Cumin
Adapted from Rawmazing Jicama and Melon Salad

 
Dressing

• 1/2 cup walnuts (soft nuts don't need to be soaked overnight)
• 1 medium cucumber,  cubed
• 1 clove garlic
• Juice from 1/2 lemon (about 1 tbsp juice)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons cumin
• Himalayan salt and fresh ground pepper to taste

 Place all ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth. 

Salad

• 3 cups melon cubed (I used one not as sweet)
• 1/2 cup onions cut thin and roasted (450 F for about 25 minutes, with 1 tsp olive oil)
• 1-2 tablespoons red pepper flakes (optional)
• 2 cups steamed green beans (1" pieces, cooked about 5 minutes)
• dressing from above

1. Place all ingredients in bowl and toss to combine. 

What kind of parties do you have coming up?