more adventure food: a quick post

I had a great dessert entry planned for you this week, but my camera ran out of batteries so it is not giving up the desserty pictures I have on it until I get new ones. Annnnnd since batteries are expensive, I figured I'd wait until I visited my folks back in NY to swipe some rather than buy my own (attn mom and dad: please pretend you did not see that).

I am normally not a soda person. Even natural/organic soda sodas. I simply do not like my drinks to be too sweet. I water down my juices whenever I can, for example. I do, however, like bubbly things... so sometimes I mix juice and selzer. I sometimes get italian sodas when I am out somewhere... but they're often really sweet (and who KNOWS what kinds of artificial sweeteners/colorings are in some of those flavor syrups!).

BUT THEN. I visited a local turkish grocery sore and found a whole shelf of syrups made from boiling down various fruits. It was a tough choice, but I ended up with Mulberry syrup (more often called mulberry molasses). Its only ingredient is mulberries, and it can be cloying in large amounts, but I've been stirring tablespoons into my yogurt and making an Italian-soda-like concoction of it and selzer:
Pretty, n'est-ce pas? Never mind the rainy weather out there. April showers and all that. It tasted pretty soda-y, like a knock-off dr. pepper. just not as sweet.

I also bought some carob paste (in the same kind of jar, but with even less english on it), for which I have yet to find a good use beyond putting in yogurt and pouring over (soy) ice cream. I'll figure something out. You'll hear about it, I'm sure.

One of the best things about spring, besides the weather: the produce that comes into season!
Organic asparagus was almost as cheap as conventional asparagus last week! So I've been buying a bunch of it. Normally I just steam it, but there's only so much steamed asparagus a girl can take, so I made Asparagus Potage with Garlic "Cream" from Myra Kornfeld's Voluptuous Vegan.
She calls for potatoes, I used sunchokes. Result? Very creamy, with that richness soups usually get from potatoes, with a nice strong asparagus flavor. I don't entirely understand why I went through the process of making the garlic "cream" only to have to blend it in with the soup, though - it seems like I could've saved time and dishes by just including the garlic from the start. Myra kornfeld, what were you thinking?

Seriously, though, I recommend it.

Expect a dessert-themed entry sunday night or monday, after I return from a weekend in upstate NY. It will be worth the wait. (Three words: vegan.gulab.jamun.)