Brussels Sprouts and Millet

Right now I am hoping to get to see the "Supermoon" they are predicting for tonight. Since it is 8:44pm and it was supposed to happen at 8:34 I may be out of luck.

It has been a long time since the news had made me laugh, however this did crack me up:

But KING 5 Meteorologist Jim Guy says there are a lot of clouds over the Cascades, so we may not get a good look.

“You’re going to have to wait until that moon climbs up over these clouds that we have,” he said. “And at that point I’m not sure it’s still going to be ‘super.’”

Totally figures.

At least I didn't drag Nim out for a night hike like I did one terrible freezing night to Odin, only to find out whatever celestial event I was chasing that time was too much to the south and I was on the wrong side of the mountain.That was a miserable, icy, and dark, hike down.

Today was a baking day.

The main course recipe is called "Creamy Lemon Tofu Layered Bake." The above photos is of course the beet and millet. I have never worked with millet before and not even sure if I have eaten it. Another great experience. I will be seeking out more recipes with it in my continued effort to diversify my diet. It is considered a very healthy grain and it was cheap which is a huge bonus to me. I absolutely loved it plain.

Naturally I added kale to the veggie layer. I just used plain crimini mushrooms. I also used miso instead of the soy sauce.

I had to substitute both vinegars on the tofu layer. I used balsamic in place of the apple cider and red wine in place of the umeboshi. These were possible substitutions I could find online. I don't know enough about all the vinegars out there. The tofu layer did taste good however so it must have been sufficient.

In between all the stages of the layers I was very excited to work with two different Brussels Sprouts recipes!

Sweet and Sour Brussels Sprouts
Roast Veggie "Candy" (because of this post I now know that Brussels Sprouts come on a stalk. I don't know how I thought they grew before, but large stalk wasn't the immediate visual).

 I couldn't chose between the two and have only had them once in my entire life to my memory with my Grammy Mary and Grandpa Tom. As memory serves they were frozen and I remember liking especially the novelty of them. We were a nook eating area and Grandpa still got his wine in a jug at that time. He is probably the only wine drinker I know that the brand of wine was in a jug. I wish I could remember what we talked about that night because all around that is a strong memory night.

Back to the Brussels Sprouts...

Much to my surprise, I truly loved both of them the same. I kept eating from one and then the other. The ones on the right are the Sweet and Sour and the ones on the left are "Candy." Dry roasting and putting the coconut oil on afterwards made a huge difference and I will remember that for other veggies. Also, who knew that Italian spices and cinnamon would work together?

It was funny, as both recipes started roasting up (one in the oven and one on the stove) the memory of the smell did hit me hard. Frozen or fresh, that apparently is not a smell that you forget.

The Tofu Bake came out well. By the time it was done I had been eating my way through the baking experience so I didn't eat much of it for now. The leeks might be pretty strong. I will reassess tomorrow.

Meanwhile I have made my favorite attempt of Genius Blondies to date! Still no flax so I went back to omitting the oatmeal and I added apple sauce. I have decided chickpeas versus white beans really are different and I prefer the chickpeas.

Finally I needed to use up my pineapple and coconut milk before it went bad. I have been going with the mini loaves, cutting them in half and freezing them. This round of the Coconut Breakfast Cake I divided into 12 muffins. This was an OK experiment. They seemed to stick to the paper more than a muffin would. I will go back to mini loaves or greasing a muffin tin next time. They definitely taste fine however.

Tomorrow myself, Nim, my mom, and her tiny mini-Aussie-with-giant-attitude "Gypsy" will be heading to Lacey so that Gypsy can take her odor recognition test (ORT). Everyone into Noseworks will be familiar with the term.