Kathy Fortner

Afternoon Tea

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With Mother’s Day quickly approaching, I thought it would be fun to spend the next few weeks talking about Afternoon Tea. When researching this post, I found a wonderful explanation of Afternoon Tea vs. High Tea at AfternoonTea.co.uk. I enjoy going for Afternoon Tea. I don’t get to do it often, so it’s a real treat. I have had a few delightful experiences though. If you have the opportunity to visit Acadia National Park in Maine, I highly recommend stopping for tea at Jordan Pond House. One year to celebrate my birthday, I requested Afternoon Tea at the Washington Duke Inn. The MOPS group that I was a part of celebrated the end of one school year with a tea party – we even made elaborate newspaper hats! Almost every week a group of ladies from my church get together for tea and knitting. Each experience has been very different and special in it’s own way. I’ve been looking for somewhere to go for Afternoon Tea in Central New York and I think I finally found it at Mad Hatter Restaurant in Rochester. This is definitely now on my “to do” list. They even have a vegan option, which is as close as I can find to my plant-based lifestyle.

As fun as it is to go out for tea, having friends in for tea or enjoying it with family at home is a great way to relax for a bit in the afternoon. In the next few weeks I’ll share some of my own ideas for adapting Afternoon Tea to a whole foods, plant-based lifestyle, but I thought I’d start by sharing some recipes and site searches for some menu options. Enjoy!

Dreena Burton – Breakfasts (scroll through for muffins, etc)

Dreena Burton – Desserts

Forks Over Knives – Breakfasts

Forks Over Knives – Desserts

Happy Herbivore – Muffins

Happy Herbivore – Desserts

Roasted Red Pepper Hummus

This is my husband’s hummus recipe. I could honestly live on this! We make it in giant batches, cooking 2 lbs of chickpeas at a time in our Instant Pot. Then we freeze it in 1-1/2 cups jars in our freezer. It makes about 7-8 jars. Note: the pictures are from when I was teaching a cooking class to a local homeschool co-op. This is a very kid friendly recipe, both in taste and ease of making it.

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1 15-ounce can chickpeas, drained and add back ½ the liquid
3 cloves garlic
2 Tbsp tahini
2 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
½ tsp sea salt
2/3 of a red pepper, roasted skin side up at 400 °F for about 25 minutes (until there is some char on the skin)
5 drops of liquid smoke (optional)

Microwave chickpeas, chickpea liquid, and garlic for 4 minutes. Food process everything until smooth. Chill before serving (if you can wait that is). Chilling allows the hummus to thicken.

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Southwestern Dinner Bar

Busy nights are common and ideals often fall victim to these nights. This is where having a plan, or even better, a routine makes a world of difference. One of our “go to” menus is a Southwestern theme. Think of your favorite burrito place, just at home. It’s really not that complicated and many times you can have it ready in less time (and definitely less money) than it takes to go out and pick it up. Just put out these ingredients:

rice (this is the most work, i.e. time consuming, but easy and can be made ahead)

beans (pinto, black, or both)

salsa

quacamole

lettuce

corn

tortillas (corn and/or wheat)

Now everyone can create a custom meal. I usually do a burrito bowl or salad. One of the kids makes a burrito every time – and requests future ingredients (love it!). Tacos are an option as well as tostadas. Burritos are great if you need to eat on the go and as leftovers for upcoming lunches. Keeping it quick and easy helps the evening flow, keeps the budget low, and leads to better health.

“Cheezy” Creamy Potato Soup

So, school and related activities started, birthdays and holidays came, and that was all she wrote until January. Whew! What a busy fall! Sometimes it’s all we can do to get dinner on the table, right? We have managed that, most nights. Miraculously I’ve even been taking some notes so that I can share some new recipes with you (my husband is much better at the note taking than I am – I like to just throw things in).

Our latest easy go-to is what I am calling “Cheezy” Creamy Potato Soup. This is something I made up in the moment with what I had on hand, hence the soy milk powder and vegetable bouillon base (staples that don’t require refrigeration). I have noted where to use plant-based milk and broth, if you have them on hand. I hope you enjoy it!

cheezy creamy potato soup

“Cheezy” Creamy Potato Soup

1/2 cup onion, chopped
1 1/2 tsp Better than Bouillon Vegetable Base (omit if using broth)
1 1/2 cup water (or vegetable broth)
10 oz diced potatoes (frozen, cubed hashbrowns work great)
2 Tbsp Flour (or other thickener)
2 Tbsp soy milk powder (omit if using plant-based milk)
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
1 cup water (or unsweetened plant-based milk)

Saute onion until soft. Add Vegetable Base and 1 1/2 cups water (or broth). Bring to a simmer. Add potatoes and simmer until potatoes are cooked through. Meanwhile, mix the flour, nutritional yeast and soy milk powder (omit if using plant-based milk). Add water or plant-based milk. Mix thoroughly. Add to soup. Stir until thickened. Serve hot. Serves 2

Red Flannel Hash

I know. Finally. A recipe! This is one of our favorites. The original recipe is from Chowhound, but we’ve made some adjustments to make it plant-based. I hope you enjoy it as much as we do.

Red Flannel Hash from the oven

Red Flannel hash served

Red Flannel Hash

2 1/2 cups diced potatoes
1 1/2 cups diced beets (unpeeled)
1/2 medium onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp salt
1 tsp ground black pepper
1/8 cup dried parsley
1/2 tsp sage
leaves from 6 sprigs of thyme, chopped

Preheat the oven to 425F. Line a 9″x13″ pan with parchment paper. Combine all the ingredients in the pan and spread evenly. Roast in the oven for 25 minutes. Remove from oven, stir, and roast for 25 more minutes until veggies are fully cooked and browning. Remove from oven, stir, and serve.

Week 6 Box

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This week’s veggies:

Head Lettuce x 2 (one red, one green)
Peas, either Snap or Snow
Zucchini and Summer Squash
Cilantro
Golden Beets (super sweet and more mild)
Radicchio x 2
Carrots
Kale
Cucumber

So here’s my game plan:

Wash and prep lettuces for salad.
Cut up carrots, zucchini, summer squash, and cucumbers so that they are ready for salads, stir fry, sautéed veggies to use for other meals throughout the week. Anything unused will be either frozen or dehydrated for future use.
Cut the radicchio into wedges and grill for dinner tonight. Yummy!
Shred extra zucchini for muffins and quick bread. Shredded zucchini can be frozen in one cup measurements (snack size ziplocks are great for this) for baking through the upcoming winter.
Cut up and roast beets for either veggie burgers or salads.

Things have been busy on the homefront lately, so I haven’t posted as much as I had planned. The next few weeks are slower, so it’s time for catching up – on housework, work work, and blogging. Will post more pics tonight on fb.

Week 4 Box

Where do the summer weeks go?! It’s very challenging to maintain a routine when life is not routine. The kids are out of school and every day’s schedule is different. I love it though. It’s a time to relax and/or do things we don’t have time to do during the school year.

I was able to dedicate this morning to processing the contents of this week’s farm box. Despite a hail storm a week ago and a massive amount of rain this past Saturday (we got 2 inches at home), the contents of the farm box are still coming in strong. There are so many great vegetables this week:

Scallions
Sugar Snap (edible pod) Peas
Lettuce Head
Hakurai (sweet salad) Turnips
Collard Greens (similar to kale)
Zucchini
Arugula
Radishes

Beets

Cilantro

I started with one of my favorite things to have available for our household – a salad bar! I tore up the head lettuces (keeps the edges from browning) and used a salad spinner to wash and dry them. I store the lettuce in a Rubbermaid container. I then sliced the radishes, turnips, scallions, and 2 zucchini and stored them in separate containers. I keep all of these on their own shelf in the fridge. At meal times, all I have to do is put the containers on the counter along with bottles of salad dressing or infused vinegars and we have a salad bar. Everyone can make their own custom salad and there’s something for everyone, even those picky eaters.

Next I made a batch of Grains and Greens using the collards, arugula, and a bag of greens leftover from last week. I’ll post a more detailed recipe later, but basically I cook a bag of Ancient Grains from Trader Joe’s along with some sliced carrots and any greens that I have on hand. I use a slightly adapted version of Happy Herbivore’s Cheater Pad Thai sauce on the grains and greens. I now have 3-4 lunches prepared for the rest of the week. I love having lunches pre-prepared – it saves so much time and stress in the morning when helping to get family members out the door.

Finally I roasted the beets and used a couple to make veggie burgers for dinner tonight. It’s the first time we’ve used this recipe and we absolutely loved it. We’ve already started thinking of all the ways we can adapt it to other beans and vegetables. We wish we had some great Kaiser buns for these tonight, but we had to go with what we had on hand and I’ve been keeping commercial veggie burgers and buns in the freezer for the kids. With the success of this new recipe, hopefully we can move away from the commercial burgers and stock some homemade ones.

I’m looking forward to snacking on the peas and using the cilantro in our Southwestern Quinoa salad (to be posted soon).

More soon…

Kathy

Week 2 Box

We picked up our second box this afternoon! It is so exciting to have such wonderful, fresh, locally grown produce. I also love knowing the farmers who grow our food. We can even go out on Fridays to the farm’s U-Pick area and pick more! They welcome us so warmly and make us feel right at home. The first year we noticed that they have sumac trees on their property. Having wanted to make sumac lemonade for a while, we asked if we could also pick the horns from the sumac trees. They said it would be fine and we made lemonade that weekend.

This week’s box contains a lot of delicious produce:

Broccoli
Broccoli Raab
Green leaf lettuce

Red leaf lettuce
Scallions
Spinach

Another leafy green that I need to identify
Garlic Scapes
Cauliflower
Radishes

I gave the lettuces and radishes to one of my kids to prep a salad for tonight’s dinner. He loves chopping veggies, tearing lettuce leaves, and using the salad spinner. I love having activities in the kitchen that the kids like to do to help with meal preparation. Win-win. If you can get your kids to help you in the kitchen, it is completely worth the time and effort to teach them. It’s quality time side-by-side with your kids, it teaches them a vital life skill (that many kids are not learning today), and it builds their confidence. They are also more likely to eat foods that they prepare.

We already have several ideas for this week’s box:

Salad (thanks to my assistant, we now have a salad bar in the fridge)

Cream of Broccoli Soup (with cauliflower puree as the base)

Sauteed greens with chopped garlic scapes and scallions

Spinach Pesto with garlic scapes

I’ll start posting recipes soon. My husband graciously handled the Borscht and Red Flannel Hash (one of his specialties) and I just got his notes this week. I love it when he comes home from work and has the time to prepare something awesome! I love cooking and the meals that I prepare, but we eat my cooking most of the time. It’s such a treat when he cooks. He’s a wonderful cook and he’s great at taking detailed notes for sharing recipes. That’s my weak point – I cook more like my grandma, throwing in a little of this and a little of that. It makes posting recipes challenging. I vow to get better though.

More soon,

–Kathy