Get out to your local farmer’s market.
Bring your favorite vendor a cup of coffee. Thank him for his hard work (his really hard work) and dedication to harvesting from the earth in a way that makes our soil better, our rivers cleaner, and our bodies a little more glowy.

Buy as many late summer tomatoes as you can possibly eat. Take them home a serve them simply - a slice of mozzarella, a touch of vinaigrette, or just sliced with sprinkle of salt and pepper.

I just got back from a volunteer “vacation” at Pennypack Farm in Horsham, Pennsylvania. It was a perfect taste of summer, sun-drenched veggies and just enough sweaty, back-breaking work to make me want to keep my day job. Thank you to everyone - Susan, Gail, Andy, Molly, Katie, Mark and Harm. You inspire me.

Here it is, Midwestern Cuisine as documented from my 2007 family reunion in Keokuk, Iowa.

Much type as been pressed about Cajun food, California Cuisine, Tex-Mex, and Southern-Fried-Anything, but what about food from the belly of our great nation? It might not not be the stuff of Saveur or Gourmet but Midwestern Food is created, above all things, to feed the family. And food ideals can’t get any loftier than that.

Dishes are often in one pot. No fancy knifework, techniques or trendy spices. Ingredients often number less than 10.

Warning! The photos below are not censored for meat content; the Midwest is still a meat-and-potatoes place. But the generous amount of yummy side dishes and some locally-purchased Boca Burgers kept a hungry vegetarian pond-swimming volleyball-champion like me more than satisfied.

Friday’s Dinner featured a Trio of Meats: Ham, Smoked Turkey and Deep Fried Turkey. Please note the Sterzings, (bottom middle) the cultish potato chips only found in Iowa - truly salty, greasy, and fantastic. Sterzings event got a shout out in the Fourth of July issue of the New York Times in an article entitled, The Best Chip? The First One Out of the Bag:

“Jean Fuller is 71 and lives in Dallas with her husband, Dale. Anyone who visits from Iowa, her home state, must arrive with a bag or eight of Sterzing’s, which markets itself as the maker of “the most popular potato chips in southeast Iowa.” Cartons arrive for Christmas. Mr. Fuller got a supply for Father’s Day.”

Trio of Meats Dinner

^{1. BBQ’ed Potatoes, 2. Berry Cobbler, 3. Broccoli Salad, 4. Cheese n Meat Plate, 5. Cheesy Crockpot Potatoes, 6. Cherry Pie, 7. Chocolate Apricot Squares, 8. Corn Souffle, 9. Crudites, 10. Deep Fried Turkey, 11. Garbanzo Zucchini Rice Salad, 12. German Coleslaw, 13. Grandma’s Apple Cake, 14. Ham, 15. Olive-Pasta-Salad, 16. Pickles, 17. Pineapple Souffle, 18. Pork Loin, 19. Salad with Ranch Dressing, 20. Saurkraut, 21. Smoked Turkey, 22. Sterzings!, 23. Strawberry Rhubarb Pie, 24. Three Bean Salad}

And then we went to Stock Car Races to see my cousin (who is 15 and does not have a drivers license) race.

Stock Car Races

^{1. Grandstands, 2. Beautiful Night at the Stock Car Races, 3. Fast Car, 4. Flag Guys, 5. Gatekeepers, 6. Good Luck, 7. Yellow Flag Lap, 8. I think he’s here every week, 9. Seth Drives Fast!, 10. Seth’s Fanclub, 11. Trophies, 12. Wrong Way, 13. Sunset at the Races}

Breakfast was leftover Ham and Potatoes Grilled outdoors, plus Biscuits and Spicy Sausage Gravy (my vegan adaption is here.) I ate fruit and muffins.

Breakfast

^{1. Biscuits, 2. Cream Horns, 3. Blueberries, 4. Grapes, 5. Spicy Sausage Gravy, 6. Ham, Sausages, and Potatoes on the Grill, 7. Mini-Quiches, 8. Muffins!}

I’ll go into a little more detail about Saturday’s lunch because Maid-Rites are an Iowan institution. Basically crumbly ground beef cooked up with onion and served loose (not in a patty) on a bun. My cousin pointed out that the Loose Meat Sandwich Restaurant from the Roseanne show was probably based on Maid-Rites. Fascinating. You can dig up more fun facts - and franchise info! - on Made-Rite Restaurants here.

I myself ate a Loose Veggie sandwiches (crudites stacked carefully on a bun, laced with dill dip.)

Maid-Rite Lunch

^{1. “Maid Rites” - an IIlinois/Iowa Specialty, 2. Beefy Con Queso, 3. Buns, 4. Red Velvet Cake, 5. Cereal Pretzel Mix, 6. Dill Pickle Chips, 7. Fruit Salad, 8. Kettle Pops, 9. Maid-Right Filling, 10. Pasta and Bell Pepper Salad, 11. Pot-o’-Dogs, 12. Saurkraut, 13. Crudites}

Saturday Dinner was Iowan Beef Burger and Wisconsin Brat night. This is when I broke out the veggie burgers.

Grill Night

^{1. A Discriminating Eater, 2. 7-layer Dip, 3. Baked Beans, 4. Burger Patties, 5. Fruit and Nut Salad, 6. Fruit Salad, 7. Grilled Homegrown Zucchini, 8. Pastachio, 9. Spinach Dip, 10. Strawberry Rhubarb Pie, 11. Buns, 12. Wisconsin Beer Brats, 13. Saurkraut}

More Family Fun!

Thank you to my wonderful family for arranging this weekend. It was perfect. I am particularly grateful for the strength and grace of our hosts for putting up with air mattresses, beer cans, and assorted strange requests from 70+ of us relatives. Didn’t mean to scare you by setting up our tent in your garage.

You all have an open invitation to stay in Brooklyn anytime - I’ve got an open kitchen, bathtub, and air mattress that’s all yours.

Midwest Landscapes

And now for something completely different; a totally unseasonal dessert that is not particularity quick or easy to make.

Don’t worry – this is a vegan Pina Colada Ice “Cream” and I’ll provide a hint on how to make the recipe quite a bit easier.

Sort of like Christmas-in-July, the sisters and I experienced some summer-in-February during a visit to our dad’s in Florida this weekend. Whilst lolling about in the 72 degree sunshine, The Li’l Sis and I got to reminiscing about tropical drinks, speaking in great detail about a particular Pina Colada she had on Roatan, an island off of Honduras.

She said that “there was a rickety stand on the beach where an old lady made amazing Pina Coladas with only a regular kitchen blender, coconuts, pineapples, and some rum.” I was a bit skeptical, thinking that there had to be more to it than that. The only thing The Li’l Sis couldn’t figure out was how the Pina Colada lady got the extension cord for the blender to run the whole way out to the beach.

Following our estimation of the beach lady’s technique, we created a Pina Colada mix that was too textured for a smooth summer drink but upon freezing made an excellent and satisfying vegan ice “cream.”

Here’s what you do:

Gathering the following:

a whole, shell-on coconut.* you’ll use 2/3 of it
1 fresh pineapple
some of your favorite rum (you can sub pineapple or orange juice)
1/2 lime
a little salt
honey, optional

Take your cute little coconut and, with a hammer and nail, pound a couple of holes in its indentations. Drain and reserve the liquid that comes out.
Now smash the heck out the coconut. This is much more fun when done outside in one’s bathing suit with sunglasses as protective eyewear.
Pry the coconut meat out of the shell with a flathead screwdriver or similar. Keep doing this until you’ve hurt yourself and have to stop OR until you’ve gotten 2/3 of the meat out of the shell.
Now for the REALLY tedious part: using a paring knife, remove the last of the brown skin from the outside of the coconut meat. You want your coconut to blend up the color of a white sand Caribbean beach, not look all brown and junky like Rockaway.
Put your coconut meat in a blender and whip it up as much as possible, using the reserved coconut juice as liquid to facilitate the blending.
*you can totally skip this whole step and use a can of coconut cream instead

Now, take your pineapple and whack off the frilly top. Same to the bottom, minus the frilly. Sheering down the sides with your knife, slice off all the skin. Cut the naked pineapple in half lengthwise and then in half again so you have 4 long thin pieces. Core the pineapple by cutting away the “V” portion of each of the 4 pieces. Then dice up the pineapple.

Add the diced pineapple and a good cup of rum or juice to the blender, along with the lime and salt. You can add some honey if your pineapple isn’t particularly ripe or if you like things sweet.
Blend it all up.

Pour into a container and let freeze. It will be easier to scoop out if you stir the slush a few times during the freezing process but just letting it freeze and then unthaw for 10 minutes before you eat it works too.

Serve with blackberries and sunblock.

Those of you who have been following this blog (thank you, by the way, you’re very much appreciated) may have noticed that I haven’t added any new food drawings for, well, pretty much the whole summer. So, where I have been channeling my creative energy, you ask? Rest assured, I haven’t started making balsa wood birdhouses or taken up miming or anything, I spent pretty much all summer on the very enjoyable Mask Task.

The Mask Task was assigned to me and my two roommates/sisters The Sistaster and the L’il Sis by our older sister, let’s call her Miss Mousey. Miss Mousey got married last weekend to my new brother-in-law, Froggie. They decided to get married to the lovely little ditty “Froggie Went A Courtin’ ” (check out the Bob Dylan lyrics and music here) and tasked us Brooklyn sisters with creating a dozen (that’s 10 + 2, people) papier-mâché masks for their young friends to walk down the aisle in. I suppose this story is better illustrated than written, so behold below the cutest children ever wearing the strangest wedding attire ever:

^{Froggie
Miss Mousey
Uncle Rat
Flyin’ Moth
Juney Bug
Bumbley Bee
Broken Black Flea
Mrs. Cow
Little Black Tick
Big Black Snake
Old Grey Cat
Lily White Duck}So what does this have to do with food? Vegetarianism? Nothing. Everything. Being surrounded by family and the people you love, celebrating life and family cycles, honoring love and vows - what’s a wedding if not a corporeal event to commemorate some of life’s finest ideals? I didn’t plan on starting my 3rd official month of vanesscipes by getting all philosophical on you, but how better to honor your own corpus than by taking the time to create, enjoy, and appreciate every morsel of food that enters your body? Bonus points if it’s fresh, healthy, vegetarian, and delicious. I’ll spare you the symbolism of the wedding feast and the toast to the happy couple (you know… fertility, abundance, renewal… yada yada), but seriously, it’s not a special occasion unless you’re scarfing something yummy and washing it down with something yummier. And, let’s not forget everyone’s favorite part of the celebration: mmmm, cake!

Here are some snaps of my dinners in San Francisco. I didn’t take pics of my breakfasts and lunches, though I wish I had documented the sourdough bread and Chinese noodle soup I had on the run. Everyone is right – the food in San Francisco is fantastic!

Swank late night at the Millennium Restaurant:
I had such a great time at this place and the food was so good I seriously contemplated going back the next two nights. Blame the wine for the blurry photos. I loved that it was dimly lit and romantic – isn’t anyone else get tired of the sunshine-and-patchouli vegetarian restaurant decor? This place looked as un-vegan as could be but even the bread comes with a complex and earthy tasting tofu spread instead of butter. I had a purslane & cucumber salad followed by an amazing grilled tempeh with orange wine reduction served over an incredible toasty brown rice. I was too full to get dessert, but the vegan desserts I checked out looked pretty amazing. My words and photos do not do this meal justice so please check out the online menu and photos for a better idea. This place is for sure on my list for my next trip to San Francisco. Does anyone have the cookbook? I may get it.