Long weekend in Door County, Wis. to attend a wedding, part 1

Roadside art — not the bride and groom.

At 6:20 a.m. Friday morning we left for the airport to begin a four-day weekend on the Door Peninsula in Wisconsin to attend a wedding. After a long day in planes and airports, we landed in Green Bay and drove 1-1/2 hours to our hotel, Baileys Harbor Yacht Club, in Baileys Harbor. The wedding ceremony was Saturday afternoon, and the reception Saturday evening. We've known the groom and his family for more than 22 years. Other good friends who we haven't seen since we left Wisconsin last year were also there, making for a great weekend. It was a beautiful event and we're so glad we made the trip!

The evening we arrived we stopped at Greens 'N' Grains Natural Foods Store in downtown Egg Harbor before heading to our hotel. Housed in a charming late 18th century building, this is the only full-service natural foods store in Door County. In addition to a full line of natural foods, Greens 'N' Grains has a vegetarian and raw food deli. We hadn't been to Door County in a very long time but we still remembered how hard it was to be vegetarian there, let alone vegan. Picking up a few items for dinner just seemed like the easiest thing for two tired travelers to do. We got wraps, cabbage salad, crackers, strawberries and a small tub of hummus to stash in our refrigerator. We were so tired that we ate our little supper before I even thought of the camera.

On Saturday morning our friends Claire and Alan, who were staying nearby, brought breakfast over to our hotel room. We had a kitchenette, which we were pleased to discover had dishes and flatware along with a small fridge and microwave. We also had a table and chairs in our extravagantly large room. They had driven up the night before from Madison with a food-filled cooler, and had brought home-made granola and soymilk. We added organic strawberries we'd bought the night before on our way to the hotel.

Claire uses the granola recipe from the old, vegetarian cookbook, Deaf Smith Country Cookbook, and the classic breakfast treat tastes as good as it looks.

After breakfast, which lasted a pretty long time, Claire and Alan went back to their hotel to get ready for the wedding. When we picked them up to drive to the church in Ellison Bay, Claire pointed out the bumper stickers on the hotel owners' SUV. Sheesh. Spread a little love, why don't you.

As a point of comparison, I photographed the bumper stickers on Claire and Alan's car.

The wedding ceremony was unconventional but meaningful. It took place in a beautiful white church but was non-religious — in the church but not of the church, so to speak. After the ceremony we had a couple of hours to hang out before the festivities began again at 4:30 with a cocktail reception and then dinner.

At this point, I want to offer a bit of advice, especially for new vegans, about what to do when you're invited to an event where food will be served. Rule number one is never take anything for granted. Let people know in advance what your restrictions are. Everyone will be happier if you are not sitting at the table with an empty plate. I followed the first rule (even though the groom's parents are vegetarian, and the groom, while not vegetarian now, was raised as a vegetarian), but because of a misunderstanding, there wasn't anything at the dinner other than a small salad, that a vegan could eat. I had e-mailed in advance, and the groom sent me a list of buffet foods Joe, the food and beverage director, said were vegan. In addition, he said that Joe would let the chef know we were vegan. He also sent me Joe's contact information in case I had any further questions. I hate to make a pest of myself, and it really sounded like everything was arranged, but because pesto (not usually vegan) was on the "vegan" list, I decided to follow rule number two. Rule number two is follow up on your request to make sure the caterer understands. I sent Joe an email. He didn't reply but it was so close to the date I didn't try to contact him again.

At the dinner, the salad came with cheese and a creamy dressing, and I thought "uh-oh." I requested, and received, a plain one. We went to the buffet line and I took the foods that had been on the list, but I was suspicious. I found Joe and asked if the food had butter, and guess what — everything including the green beans, carrots and vegetarian pasta with mushrooms was made with butter. The chef graciously offered (insisted, actually) to make something for the three vegans, and he created a pasta, green bean, spinach, garlic and olive oil dish that was absolutely delicious. Apparently, Joe expected me to call, and when I didn't, he'd assumed I'd changed my mind about requesting special food. He didn't receive my e-mail, and speculated it went to his junk mail. I was supposed to call him but I didn't know that. It was a misunderstanding. It all ended well but was awkward, and had I followed rule number two with a little more gusto, the situation could have been avoided. (I would have just made due with the salad had not the staff insisted on cooking something.)

With the wedding taking most of Saturday, and a full day planned for Sunday, there wsn't much sitting-around time, but here's Mr. EV pretending to relax by the lake. You can see he's wearing a sweatshirt because it was pretty chilly most of the weekend, but at least it had stopped raining.

And here's the sun setting over the lake. Most of the time we were there the sunsets were rained out, so we were pretty happy to have at least one sunset we could actually see. After all, we paid extra for a lake-view room!

Last but not least, here are a few signs we saw tacked to trees on someone's property. There were more, but I'll spare you.

Door County Weekend Part 2

Rhubarb-banana tart | synchronicity

This time last year I was living in our house in Wisconsin, plundering our ever-willing rhubarb plant, and happily making muffins, crisps, sauces and tarts. That plant was like a whole welcoming committee to the new season of warmth after a long winter, and I miss its tasty, ruby stalks. So here it is, early June again, the season of rhubarb and TV reruns, and I'm about to dabble in blog reruns, re-posting a recipe from last year in honor of my lovely rhubarb plant, but also you'll see, because I must. I am compelled. Read on.

Now remember, the dish I'm posting appeared on the blog a whole year ago, and I'm sure many (most?) of the current readers of this blog weren't even reading back then. And everyone else has probably forgotten the post anyway. Seriously, even I had forgotten about it, delicious as it was, until this very strange event occurred. Dare I call it an incident of synchronicity?

My friend Claire was attending the Annual Burrito Dinner and silent auction fund raiser sponsored by Alliance for Animals, in Wisconsin. (I attended this same dinner with her last year but, alas, I'm living in Seattle at the moment, and was unable to attend this year.) She was doing some tabling with one of the event coordinators (I'll call her EC). EC was talking to Claire about rhubarb, and telling her about a recipe she had just made that she'd found through a Google search. Then, the organizer of the amazing vegetarian meetup group I used to attend, and which Claire still attends (I'll call him Dave) came over and said to Claire, "aren't you Andrea's friend?" At some point Dave started talking about this blog, and suddenly EC put it together that this was where she'd found the tart recipe! Now how weird is that? And how small is the Universe? I HAD to re-post it, if only so I could tell this story!

Rhubarb-banana tart (11" tart pan)

Filling ingredients

• 4-5 heaping cups fresh rhubarb, cut into 1" pieces
• 2 level tablespoons coconut flour (this is for thickening the rhubarb juices. Coconut flour is very absorbent so measure carefully. You don't want to soak up ALL the juice.)
• 1/2 cup Sucanot (more if you like it sweeter or if your rhubarb is extremely sour) or other sweetener (I almost used maple syrup, until I remembered how expensive it was.) I like my rhubarb tart to actually be a little tart. Maybe I should call it a tart tart.
• 3 very ripe bananas, mashed
• 1/2 cup raisins
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 2 tablespoons unsweetened, dried coconut (optional but I think you should use it)

Pressed pastry ingredients

• 1/2 cup walnuts, raw or toasted
• 1/2 cup rolled oats
• 1 cup white whole wheat flour
• 2 tablespoons sucanot
• pinch of salt
• 3 tablespoons oil
• 4-6 tablespoons cold water

Directions

1. Pulse the oats and walnuts in a food processor until they look like cornmeal.
2. Add the flour, salt and sugar, and pulse a couple of times to combine.
3. Add the oil and pulse to incorporate. (I'm talking quick buzz buzz.)
4. Add 4 tablespoons of water and pulse a few times. Continue adding water a tablespoon at a time until the mixture is still crumbly but sticks together when you press it with a finger.
5. Lightly spray the pan with oil and, with floured hands, start pressing the crust into the bottom of the pan. You want a thin but not too thin, even crust. When the pan bottom is covered, nudge the remaining mixture onto the sides with the backs of your fingers. At this point I start to worry that there won't be enough, but there always is! When the crust is complete, place the pan into the fridge (or freezer, if you have room).
6. Toss the rhubarb with the coconut flour, sugar and cinnamon in a large bowl.
7. Mash the bananas. If you mush them up a bit with your fingers while still in the skin, they will mash right up when the skin is removed. Mix the bananas and raisins into the rhubarb, taking care to incorporate completely. Arrange the filling in the crust.
8. Bake in a preheated 450˚F oven for 15 minutes. Turn the heat down to 350˚F and remove the pan from the oven so you can sprinkle the top with coconut. Return the pan to the oven and bake 20 minutes or until rhubarb is tender but still holding its shape.
9. Cool. Eat. I like my tart chilled.

The tart before it was baked.

Find the original post here. (It's much more interesting than this one.) And then head on over to Ricki's blog for the June S.O.S challenge; it's rhubarb, of course.

Oats and wheat pancakes

Miss E, our two-year old granddaughter, arrived Sunday afternoon for a sleepover. It's always fun to have the charming Miss E running around the house (she never walks), sharing meals and snacks with us. She loves to eat and is willing to try just about anything before passing judgement. She's just started using the word love to describe how she feels about things, and it's hilarious to hear her tiny self say things like, "I love tempeh!," or "I love pink!" or "I love quinoa!" For dinner she had some unusual-looking seitan which she tentatively picked up and nibbled before exclaiming, I LIKE it!"

Miss E likes to have pancakes for breakfast when she stays with us but I was debating between pancakes and oatmeal, and ended up making pancakes with half wheat and half oats. I even measured the ingredients so I could post a recipe. Then I searched this blog to make sure I hadn't posted the exact recipe before and nope, not the exact one. So here it is.

Oats and wheat pancakes

• 1 cup white whole wheat flour
• 1 cup regular rolled oats, ground to flour in blender or food processor
• 1 tablespoon evaporated cane juice (natural sugar)
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon sea salt (optional)
• 1-3/4 cups soy or other non-dairy milk
• 1 teaspoon cider vinegar or rice vinegar
• 2 tablespoons canola oil

1. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, oats, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt, if using.
2. Add the vinegar to the milk and stir to curdle. Stir the oil into the milk.
3. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix together. The batter will be fairly thick, but if it seems too thick, add a small amount of additional milk.
4. Heat a cast iron griddle over medium heat until hot, then lightly oil it by spreading the oil with a spatula. Throw a few drops of water onto the pan and if it hisses and jumps, it's ready.
5. Drop batter onto the pan to make approximately 2" pancakes. When bubbles form on top and the edges look dry, turn the pancakes over and cook about 15-30 seconds or until browned.
6. Serve with pure maple syrup, applesauce, or the topping of your choice.

Makes 4 — 6 servings.

Update: I had batter left over so I stored it in a glass container in the refrigerator. On Wednesday morning I made pancakes again, and they were just as yummy (maybe even better) than they were on Monday. Of course I had to add a little more soymilk to the batter because it had thickened, but having the batter in the fridge made pancakes seem as easy as cold cereal. Well, almost! Had them with date syrup.

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Food odds and ends

When my husband is out of town I tend to make myself simple suppers that usually end up being stir fries cooked in my wok. I love cooking in my wok. It's the perfect place to make a one-dish meal. Here's a little back story about our wok. We bought our favorite, flat-bottomed wok when we were living in Australia. We were visiting a living museum — a reconstructed mining town focused on the 19th century Australian gold rush era. All the businesses of the town were functioning as they would have been back in 1861; the bakery sold bread, the foundry produced metal objects, etc. Since many Chinese people had been brought to the area to work on the railroads, Chinese culture influenced the products available in the town. The foundry of the mining town made woks, and, missing my wok from home while living in Geelong, I bought one! We still have it and use it often.

Here's a dinner made from leftovers brought home from Bamboo Garden, a vegan Chinese restaurant. (Everything served at the restaurant is vegan except the fortune cookies.) The crunchy-looking tidbit on the right is fried yuba. After reheating, it had lost its crunchy texture, if not its crunchy appearance. Still tasted great, though.

This is what I currently see when I look out my kitchen door. It seems to be a rhododendron tree. Seattle is loaded with rhododendrons. They're not only abundant, they're enormous. Everywhere I go they are in bloom. I'm familiar with the shrub variety but until I came to Seattle, I'd never seen them grown as trees. The tree is beautiful but piles of the sticky blooms litter the back patio and constantly get tracked into the house. I no sooner sweep them up than they are all back again. It's hard to believe that the tree hasn't run out of blossoms yet.