Kari Sullivan

I get a box of local produce every week, and it’s really awesome. The produce is incredibly fresh, and it forces me to cook things I normally wouldn’t eat. (Though I still do have a pound and a half of okra sitting in my fridge… ugh).

When I got these pickling cucumbers, I knew I had to try to make pickles. And guess what? They are super easy.

Now these aren’t the kind of pickles you can can and save for y3k. They are just a fast pickle you can whip up and keep in your fridge for a couple weeks.

You need:

An assortment of vegetables to pickle
Pickling spice (I got this in bulk at Central Market)
Hot red pepper flakes (to taste, but put in a lot, okay?)
Salt
Garlic (again, I recommend putting in a lot!)
Vinegar (rice wine, white, apple cider, pretty much anything works)

So what you do is slice up your vegetables including the garlic. Stack them up in a jar. Pour vinegar into the jar over the vegetables until the jar is half full of liquid. Add water to fill up the whole jar. Sprinkle in the pickling spice, red pepper flakes, and salt. Since you’re not boiling anything, be generous with the spices… maybe a full tablespoon of pickling spice and a teaspoon of red pepper flakes.

Refrigerate for at least 24 hours. That’s it!

The problem with my smoothies is that I will put almost anything in them. Fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, spicy sprouts, raw cacao powder… whatever I can find that’s fresh. My smoothies are usually a sludge-y brown. They’re healthy and they taste good, but they look horrible.

This smoothie, however, is great. It’s light tasting, fruity, and a pretty green color. I’m not going to be one of those green smoothie drinkers who denies the funk… you can taste the greens in this smoothie. Green smoothies take a bit of getting used to, but once you do, you’re hooked. Spinach is a good gateway green, and the pineapple does a good job of masking it. Not that baby spinach is so horrid that it really needs to be masked.

Basic Green Smoothie

1 cup packed baby spinach
2/3 cup frozen banana
1/3 cup pineapple
1/2 to 1 cup of water – depending on the consistency you like and the power of your blender

Bill and I were introduced to banana bread french toast at Watercourse about a year ago, and we’ve been dreaming about it ever since.

I decided to try to recreate this amazing dish at home, and it turned out great! Here’s the recipe I came up with (inspired by their recipe):

Banana bread:
(make this a day before)

Ingredients

3 very ripe bananas
½ cup maple syrup
1 tablespoon olive oil, plus a little more for oiling the loaf pan
3 tablespoons almond milk (any non dairy milk is fine though)
2 tablespoons soy yogurt
1 ½ cups whole wheat flour
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1 ½ teaspoons baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
¾ cup chopped walnuts

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350° F. Lightly oil a loaf pan. Put parchment paper down on the bottom of the pan. (Optional but highly recommended.)

2. Mash the bananas well and mix with the maple syrup, olive oil, almond milk, and soy yogurt.)

3. Stir together the whole wheat pastry flour, cinnamon, baking soda and salt. Stir in the walnuts.

4. Blend the two mixtures and spoon into the loaf pan. Bake for 40 minutes, or until center is set.

5. Slice the banana bread and leave it out to dry.

French toast dip:

Ingredients

1/2 cup silken or soft tofu (press it into the measuring cup)
3/4 cup + 2 tablespoons unsweetened almond milk (soy is okay too)
2 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons arrowroot (I suppose cornstarch would work too)
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
dash ground cardamom
dash salt

Instructions

Blend together until smooth.

To prepare the french toast:

Preheat a griddle or pan on medium heat. (I strongly recommend cast iron.) Put a thin coating of oil on the skillet or pan.

Make sure your banana bread is dry. If it isn’t dry, toast it lightly.

Take the slices of banana bread and soak them in the dip for a minute on each side.

Cook each side for about ten minutes, or until the banana bread doesn’t have any white spots. You may have to reduce the heat to prevent burning.

Serve with maple syrup, fresh fruit, and / or powdered sugar.