Lovely piece on me, Beloved, and Figless Manor…
www.Bobvila.com

Number one

all photos by Tracy Ketcher

The wondrous Tracy Ketcher - www.tracyketcher.com - arrived this morning with a ton of camera equipment, lights, and Horsey Girl as her assistant, and we proceeded to have the most fun and relaxed photoshoot I have ever had. It helped that Tracy suggested Mimosas at around 11am, and then we threw the music on and basically had a great time.

But more to the point, I think these may be my favorite pictures of all time. I can’t decide which to use for my new author photo…I’m leaning towards the garden ones but I love the interior ones too.

These are the pre-shots, as in, the photographer takes these shots, then makes them the best they can possibly be. You’ve also got to hope they photoshop out any horrible blemishes, but not, as has happened to me in the past, too much, or you end up looking like Barbie. But this is me, warts and all (A little strange to admit, but the more grey I have - very evident in the outside shots - the more I love it).

So which picture??? Help!

Number Two

Number Three

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Number Seven

The longer I do the vegan thing, the more I enjoy it. On Sunday night we threw an impromptu barbeque, and I present you with the menu. I will confess to also doing lemon and oregano chicken kebabs for the hardcore meat eaters, but I’m hoping to convert them to the dark side with such delicious veggie food, why bother with the meat…

Roasted Portobello Mushroom burgers

Serves 4

These were so unbelievably good, I swear you didn’t miss the meat for a second. Hardened meat-eaters were going into raptures. I think the marinade is the key – I found this one on the Mayo clinic website, and it added a whole new level of flavor.

We served the burgers with roasted red peppers, basil pesto (see earlier recipes), and basil mayonnaise. I urge you to try them as an alternative. Even the kids liked them and I think that was mostly the novelty of the ‘woooah! Ginormous mushrooms!’ factor.

Ingredients
4 large portobello mushroom caps
1/3 cup balsamic vinegar                                                                                                                                                                                                                  1/2 cup water
1 tablespoon sugar
1 garlic clove, minced
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper, optional
2 tablespoons olive oil
4 whole-wheat buns, toasted
Roasted peppers (see below)
Basil mayonnaise (see below)
Basil pesto optional (see previous recipes)

Clean mushrooms with a damp cloth and remove their stems. Place in a glass dish, stem (gill) side up.
To prepare the marinade, in a small bowl whisk together the vinegar, water, sugar, garlic, cayenne pepper and olive oil. Drizzle the marinade over the mushrooms. Cover and marinate in the refrigerator for about 1 hour, turning mushrooms once.
Prepare a hot fire in a charcoal grill or heat a gas grill or broiler. Away from the heat source, lightly coat the grill rack or broiler pan with cooking spray. Position the cooking rack 4 to 6 inches from the heat source.
Grill or broil the mushrooms on medium heat, turning often, until tender, about 5 minutes on each side. Baste with marinade to keep from drying out. Using tongs, transfer the mushrooms to a plate. Build burger with basil pesto on bottom bun, mushroom, red peppers and basil mayonnaise.

Spinach quiche with herb and quinoa crust
The filling of this quiche is so delicious, I promise you won’t miss the butter, eggs and cream. You could absolutely use a wholewheat pastry crust – I just try and avoid flour when I can choose something that’s better nutritionally, and quinoa is such a superfood, as are flax seeds, I thought I’d try it, and it worked perfectly.

My favorite part is adding turmeric. If it were white, I guarantee it wouldn’t be as convincing, but it turns a lovely eggy pale yellow, flecked all over with the green spinach, and this has to be one of my favorite recipes.

Serves 4

Ingredients:
For crust:

1 cup cooked quinoa
2 tablespoons flax seeds                                                                                                                                                                                                                          2 tablespoons of quinoa/spelt/rice/wholewheat flour to bind. You may need a little more or less.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            Small bunch of basil and thyme, finely chopped.                                                                                                                                                                              Salt and Pepper

Mix quinoa, flax seeds, and herbs together, add seasoning to taste. Grease a flan tin with a removable base, and press the quinoa firmly and evenly over the base and up the sides.

For filling:
1 pkg firm tofu, drained
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 tsp tumeric (for color)
1/2 tsp sea salt                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       ½ teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
1 tbsp dijon mustard
juice of 1 lemon
10 oz fresh spinach
¼ cup roasted pine nuts (from Trader Joes, or toast regular pine nuts on a dry skillet, turning constantly until brown)

Directions:
Combine Tofu through lemon in a blender and puree until smooth. Add spinach leaves and pulse until blended. Pour into base, sprinkle pine nuts over top, and bake 30-40 minutes at 350. Serve warm or cold.

Edamame Braised with Lettuce and Mint

My mother used to make this all the time when I was a child, but with peas. Of course you could still use peas, but I feel so damn healthy eating edamame, plus, for some weird reason, even children who hate peas will dive upon edamame given half the chance.

It’s deliciously fresh – minty and lemony, and perfect as an accompaniment to any summer meal. Plus of course it’s easy, which is always the big win for me.

2 tablespoons  extra-virgin olive oil
4 scallions, finely chopped
2 cups vegetable broth
1 medium head butter or Bibb lettuce, julienned into strips.
3 large sprigs fresh mint, tied together with kitchen string
½ tsp sugar
zest of one lemon
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
1 (16-ounce) bag frozen edamame (already shelled), completely thawed

In a large non-stick skillet, heat the oil over medium heat. Add the scallions and cook, stirring, until softened, about 3 minutes. Add the broth, lettuce, mint, sugar, lemon peel, salt, and pepper; bring to  a brisk simmer over medium-high heat.

Reduce the heat and simmer gently, uncovered, for 5 minutes, turning the lettuce wedges over halfway through cooking.

Add the edamame and bring to a brisk simmer over medium-high heat. Reduce the heat and simmer gently, stirring occasionally, until the edamame is cooked through and the lettuce is very tender, 3 to 5 minutes. With a slotted spoon, transfer the edamame and lettuce to a serving dish.

Serve warm.

Roasted Peppers

This may be the easiest recipe in the whole wide world…

Place a red pepper on top of a gas flame, on high. When the side turns black, rotate using tongs.

Blacken entire pepper, then place in bowl, and quickly cover bowl tightly with saran wrap. The pepper will continue cooking by steaming.

When cool, using kitchen towel, pull the skins off. Wash under faucet to remove any excess skin, then slice into thin strips.

Delicious as a side dish with fresh basil, olive oil and lemon juice, and perfect with burgers or sandwiches.

Lemon and Basil mayonnaise

I like dressing up my mayonnaise. Always have. With the vegan thing I’m using Tofutti sour cream, but there is also a product called Vegenaise which works perfectly. Seriously, you cannot tell the difference.

Handful of fresh basil
2 large cloves garlic
1 cup sour cream, sour cream alternative or vegenaise
zest of half a lemon
juice of 1 lemon
Salt and pepper

Chop handful of fresh basil finely, and do same with garlic cloves (I KNEW that Slap Chop thing would finally come in handy…)

Stir all ingredients together and add salt and pepper to taste. Serve as an accompaniment to burgers.

Those of you who are avid readers of mine, will know all about the fictitious town of Highfield, Connecticut. It’s where Alice and Harry first moved to in To Have and To Hold (called Spellbound in the UK); Amber lived unhappily in Highfield in Swapping Lives/Life Swap, and in the latest book, Dune Road, we revisit Highfield, home to Kit, a single mother who works for the reclusive bestselling mystery writer, Robert McClore.

We have an exclusive giveaway of Highfield car stickers. The first thirty to send their addresses to admin@janegreen.com will receive a sticker.

That’ll confuse the neighbors…

(Eagle eyes amongst you may notice my Stepford sticker too - makes me laugh every time I look at my car…)

Earlier this week I went to my annual Mad Hatter’s Tea Party to support Bethel Recovery Center in Bridgeport. It is a cause that is close to my heart, a home run by Janice Kelly that offers a chance for women suffering from drug and alcohol addiction, to get back on their feet. Many of the woman have no jobs when they first come in, many have been abused, many have not known what it is to be loved and supported unconditionally, and Bethel not only gives them the food, it teaches them how to fish for it themselves so the women can leave and go back into the world.

I love the cause, and I particularly love this fund raiser because I am obsessed with hats - must be the English in me - and I relish every opportunity to wear one. I am not comfortable wearing one around the beach,  frankly, it interferes too much with the business of sun-tanning, but invite me to polo, the Derby, a wedding, and I am thrilled at the opportunity to hat myself up.

This year’s tea party was held in a beautiful garden in Fairfield, which made me long for a garden of my own. Inspired, I left, and went straight back home to clean up my vegetable beds, and spent all of yesterday weeding and planting, and as long as we can get to it before the bastard gophers, we will be eating fresh produce all Summer long.

Horsey Girl showed up unexpectedly at the tea party, and I brought The Chestnut with me, who shares my hat obsession. I hadn’t realised, but The Chestnut is camera-shy. This picture made me laugh out loud so I am sharing it with you. So here I present two of my most favorite women in the world: Horsey Girl, and Hat (aka The Chestnut). She’s beautiful, but you’ll just have to take my word for it…