Blood tests | Tomato-artichoke soup | Free bread

I'm a difficult draw. And I don't mean with a pencil. I'm referring to getting a blood sample out of the teeny tiny veins in my arm. Every so often a technician will need to call for assistance to get the job done, but there's always been someone at whatever lab I'm at who could just go right in and collect a sample with one try. Recently, I had an unpleasant (HA! understatement) experience at a lab, where, after trying repeatedly to draw blood from both arms, the first technician turned me over to her partner. Tech #2 tried in both arms and failed. She asked if I just wanted to give up and leave but I said no, I wanted to get this required blood test done. Seriously, I try to stay calm and friendly during these sessions because I don't want to be a negative influence on the proceedings, and make things worse, but sometimes it's sure hard to maintain composure in the face of ineptitude. I was keeping calm as best I could when I glanced at Tech #2, and observed her shaking her head. I looked at her fingers, tapping away at my arm, and they were shaking, too. At that point I said, "OK. I think I'm done." And I left. Sheesh.

On Saturday I was finally ready to give it another go at a different lab, and as I faced my first technician, I gently and calmly told her what she was up against, in case she wanted to bail. She was confident, and I liked her. I had to fast for 12 hours for the test but I had drunk lots of water because that's supposed to help in situations like mine. The technician gave me even more water to drink, and she put a hot pack on my arm. I was beginning to worry. After one unsuccessful poke, she called an associate, and I smiled on the outside and cried on the inside, as I met my new tormentor. This woman, bless her, immediately found a vein and got the sample. I got her name and the hours she works, and when I need blood drawn again, I'm making a beeline for her lab.



It's weird that this post is ultimately going to be about tomato soup. I wasn't thinking about the color connection before I started writing but, there it is. It's a little disturbing to me but I hope you'll take it in stride and try this soup. :) I've been wanting to make tomato soup ever since I had a stellar version in a small café on Bainbridge Island, and I think I figured out the special flavor in that soup — artichoke hearts. I was going to wait for fresh, summer tomatoes to make it but it's just too long to wait. (If you use fresh tomatoes you might want to remove the skin and seeds.)

For the tomatoes I used Bionaturæ organic strained tomatoes with no salt added, which comes in a glass bottle, but I don't see why regular canned tomatoes or tomato purée wouldn't work. This tomato purée is very thick. (I started using jarred tomatoes when I became aware of the the dangers of BPA in the can linings.) The artichoke hearts were quartered and packed in water, but, if you don't worry about extra fat, oil-packed ones would probably be even more delicious. I rinsed the artichokes to reduce the sodium a bit, but you don't have to. I used basil for my dried herb but I think rosemary or savory might be good options.



Tomato-artichoke soup (very fast, easy and delicious)

• 2 cups chopped onion
• olive oil (about 1 tablespoon)
  
• 24 oz. tomatoes (mine were strained, puréed, no salt, bottled)
• 2-1/2 cups low sodium vegetable broth, or regular vegetable broth
  
• 1 cup jarred artichoke hearts, drained and quartered (mine were packed in water)
  
• up to 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice (to taste)
• 2 cups frozen corn
• 1 teaspoon dried herb of choice
• salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste

1. In a soup pot, sauté the onions in a small amount of olive oil until translucent, about 15 minutes. Stir occasionally so they don't burn.
2. Add the tomatoes, broth, 2 tablespoons lemon juice, artichokes and frozen corn.
3. Blend with an immersion blender until the vegetables are uniform but the soup isn't completely smooth. It should have a bit of texture but no chunks. (You could also use a regular blender.)
4. Heat until hot. Add herbs, salt and pepper to taste, and more lemon if needed.

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Free bread (for me AND for you!)



Wendy McClelland, the marketing manager at Silver Hills Bakery in Abbotsford, BC. was kind enough to send me a coupon to try a free loaf of their bread. According to Wendy, "Our organic bread is made without flour – when we get our grain (from a farm run on wind energy) we sprout it in a unique 36 hour process. This sprouting increases overall nutrition, triples the fiber and improves the digestibility. We have been making bread this way for [more than] 20 years, and still believe it is the healthiest way."



I found the bread at our local food coop but there was only one loaf left, so I didn't have a choice of which kind to try. I really liked the flavor and chewy texture; it was just the way I prefer bread to taste — not too sweet, not too salty, with a full grain presence. My only complaint was the bread didn't seem particularly fresh, and was a little dry. I don't know how often it's delivered to the store or how long it had been sitting on the shelf. I'd have to try it again before making a judgement.



My solution was to toast it, and it made a great accompaniment to the tomato soup we had for supper. If you'd like to try a free loaf, Silver Hills will send a coupon to anyone who takes simple online survey. I took the survey before offering it to you just to see what it was like, and it's easy and unobtrusive. You can find the survey here. Check their Web site to see if the bread is sold where you live. In addition to the sprouted wheat bread, they also make a gluten-free loaf.

Full disclosure: I was given a free coupon to try the bread but was under no obligation to write about it favorably, or at all. All opinions are mine.

Pasta with tomatoes and artichoke hearts

What can I say? I was listlessly thumbing through a Parade Magazine one lazy Sunday when something caught my attention. Although it wasn't labeled as such, there was a great-sounding vegan pasta dish filled with artichoke hearts. I immediately went for the scissors and cut it out because you can never have too many recipes containing artichoke hearts.

As it turns out, the dish was as good as I hoped it would be, though I think it should be served over linguine, which is my favorite pasta shape. We had ours over whole wheat penne rigate with a side of kale.


Tomatoes and artichoke hearts with pasta (adapted from a recipe by Sheila Lukins)

• 12 oz. oil-marinated artichoke hearts
• 1–2 tablespoons olive oil
  
• 1 cup chopped onions
• 2 tablespoons minced garlic
• 2 28-oz. cans plum tomatoes, crushed
• 2 tablespoons tomato paste
  
• 1 teaspoon dried basil
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon dried rosemary
• 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper
• salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
• 1/4 cup flat leaf parsley, chopped
• juice and zest of one small lemon
• 1/2 teaspoon sugar (evaporated cane juice)
  
• 12 oz. package dried pasta, cooked (linguini recommended)
  

1. Drain the artichokes and cut them in half lengthwise.
2. Sweat the onions in the oil for 10 minutes. (Cook over low heat in a heavy, covered pot, until translucent) Add the garlic during the last two minutes.
3. Stir in the crushed plum tomatoes, tomato paste, basil, oregano, rosemary, sugar and red pepper flakes. (Rub the herbs quickly between you hands to release their oils, before adding)
4. Simmer, uncovered for 45 minutes.
5. Add the artichoke hearts and simmer for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.
6. Stir in the parsley and lemon. Add salt and pepper if needed. Adjust sweetness, if needed.

Dried tomatoes

Many years ago, we got a food dehydrator so we could dry our surplus garden tomatoes and make stuff like fruit leather from bountiful summer fruit. One day I was feeling creative and decided to turn too much chili into dried "chili-leather" to take on a camping trip. Why buy expensive dried camping food when you could make your own? Right? Well, I don't remember exactly how long it took to dry the chili, but it was several days. And the whole time it was drying, I was picturing botulism spores growing and multiplying. Would I actually eat this stuff? Feed it to my children? I was practically driving myself nuts between really wanting this to work and fearing a medical rescue from our campsite. Well, we took the stuff camping, re-hydrated and cooked it, stared at it and then consumed it. The taste was a little unusual but no one got sick. And no, I never dehydrated chili again, although I have dried lots of other stuff.

It's that time of year again when we can't give away any more garden tomatoes and we're stuffed to near max with pasta sauce and salad. Time to bring the food dehydrator up from the basement and start slicing and drying. My drier now has the maximum number of trays (12) and if I fill all 12 trays, I end up with about 1/2 a gallon bag of dried tomatoes. I will usually fill about three gallon bags. Because it's so hot here at the moment, it took about 24 hours to dry this batch and now I'm going to pasteurize them in the oven for 10 minutes, let them cool and then pack them into a freezer bag to store in the refrigerator for use during the winter.

My dehydrator is pretty old. When I bought it, there were only two American Harvest models to choose from and I chose the less expensive one. If I were buying today, I'd probably go for a more powerful version so the food would dry more quickly. It originally came with four trays but I quickly found that if I were going to the trouble of drying food, I wanted to dry a lot at one time so I added the maximum number of trays. Even 12 isn't enough when you've got advancing tomatoes and bagfuls of pears.

Above: tomatoes drying on a tray

Below: a bowlful of magnificent dried tomatoes

I'm very careful when I preserve food. I disinfect all the prep surfaces and knives and wash my hands a lot. I've never had a spoilage problem or gotten sick from the food. I love having the dried tomatoes available - they really add a punch of flavor to dishes all year long.

After you have a quantity of dried tomatoes, you could create beautiful jars like this for gifts or to keep.

Rice pasta with kale and olives (gluten free)/Polish tomatoes

My daughter-in-law, Taryn and her mom, Judy are both great cooks who rely on instinct rather than recipes. I've been a guest in Judy's home and can tell you first hand that the food she prepares is fantastic and she makes it look so easy it's disconcerting. Judy has no problem cooking in any dietary style from omnivore to vegan and Taryn has obviously inherited her mother's skills. While I was visiting her last month, we were having a video chat with her parents when the subject of dinner came up, and Taryn asked for some advice. She wanted to use the red russian kale that was ready to harvest from her garden. They discussed what ingredients would work well and a plan was made. Judy suggested steaming the kale before sautéeing it but the kale was so young and tender that it wasn't really necessary. With older, tougher kale, it's a good idea to steam it first. The resulting dish was so good that we devoured it before I remembered to take a photo. I brought the recipe home and my husband finally got around to making it last night.

We served it with the simple but amazing Polish Tomatoes from one of the first vegetarian cookbooks I ever bought — "The Vegetarian Epicure" by Anna Thomas, published in 1972. This salad seems so easy you might wonder why a recipe is needed. That's what I was thinking the first time I made it. It's the perfect example of how the whole is greater than the sum of its parts! If you are flooded with tomatoes as we are, this is the perfect way to use some.

(As a side note, in addition to writing several cookbooks, Anna Thomas is mainly a screen writer and producer. She won an Academy Award for best writing/screen play written directly for the screen for El Norte, and additional kudos for My Family/Mi Familia which she co-wrote and produced. She was also a screen writer on Frida as well as other films. She wrote "The Vegetarian Epicure" while in grad school.)



Rice pasta with cannelini beans, kale and olives (serves 4)

• 1 pound organic brown rice pasta (Trader Joe's makes a good one)
• 4 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1 cup sliced black olives, drained
  
• 1 to 2 tablespoons capers
• large bunch red Russian kale or other hearty greens, roughly cut
• salt and pepper to taste
• olive oil to sauté kale and garlic
• splash of white wine or rice vinegar
• 15 ounce can of cannelini beans, rinced and drained
  

1. Cook the pasta according to the package directions.
2. Sauté the garlic for a minute or two in a large pan and then add the greens. Cook until greens are nearly done.
3. Add the olives, beans and capers.
4. Splash in the wine and cook a minute more.
5. Add the cooked pasta and heat gently until hot.
6. Add freshly ground pepper to taste and salt if needed.

Judy says, "My Northern Italian family favored greens sautéed with garlic, olives, canneloni beans, white wine and pepper flakes. Escarole was a popular favorite as well as broccoli rabe."



Polish tomatoes adapted from "The Vegetarian Epicure" by Anna Thomas

• About 6 firm, ripe tomatoes (Beefsteak tomatoes make a superior salad. I like to grow Brandywine, an heirloom, and Beefmaster, a hybrid.))
• 1 small onion, minced
• fresh sweet basil, crushed or chopped
• fresh dill weed
• salt and pepper
• fresh parsley
• 2 to 4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 2-3 tablespoons wine vinegar

1. Cut the tomatoes into thick slices. Place them in a large shallow bowl with the onion, basil, dill, parsley, salt and pepper.
2. Toss to coat the tomatoes with herbs.
3. Add the oil and vinegar to taste, and toss again.
4. Refrigerate until well-chilled before serving.
   

This is a very flexible recipe. We had lots of basil but very little dill. This simple salad always tastes great no matter what herbs you use, as long as you use good quality tomatoes.