And the weekend continues....

Seriously, there is nothing better than long weekends. Why don't we do this EVERY week? First up? I washed my filthy car and took Bella for an hour long walk.

Almost clean car.....

Pretty clean Alfred. I should have taken a picture of my hands...they were BLACK. Gross! After that, it was time for the faux hike again. It's still 10 miles and it sounded like fun. So, after a stop at Ladro, it was go time. Once again, it did not disappoint. After that, it was a sort of post fourth of July feast at my house:

Sauteed farmer's market veggies (zucchini and mushrooms) plus fresh corn ears....

Patriotic potatoes....

So. The potatoes. Everyone knows I've been in some weird cooking phase. Welcome to another round. I got this weird idea to make twice baked potatoes... vegan style! (aka not using milk). So, I found this recipe in in Tal Ronnen's cookbook, The Conscious Cook, (a vegan cookbook) for cashew cream. It's basically a substitute for anything cream or milk based... and it's SO EASY. Basically you soak 2 cups of whole raw cashews in cold water in the refrigerator overnight, then drain, put in a blender, top with more cold water (use less for thicker consistency, more for thinner), blend and VOILA. You can also just use a couple of tablespoons of water when you blend and throw in some herbs and you have a cashew cheese-type spread. I have never used the above blender and got it as a wedding present at my FIRST wedding so this baby has been sitting dormant for, oh, YEARS. WHY?!?! After dusting it off, I realized how it was SO easy to use, even though it sounded like a small airplane was taking off in my house. I'm definitely going to be putting this to use more often.

The finished product- cashew cream. I was a little skeptical at this point... I really didn't know if it would end up being any good in the twice baked potatoes.

The finished product- twice baked potatoes with cashew cream, garlic, pepper, and some butter (I used earth balance vegan/vegetable butter). Um. LET ME JUST SAY. The cashew cream? AMAZING. It was SO GOOD. I probably could have inhaled all of the potatoes by myself. Not kidding. The only thing I would change is I probably wouldn't make two whole cups of it... I didn't even make a dent in it for the potatoes so now I have pretty much two cups of cashew cream that I don't really know what to do with. I could probably freeze it or something but I'm thinking I might just make a giant batch of mashed potatoes to use it up along with the potatoes that I bought at the market.

OH and the corn on the cob which we ended up cutting off the cob and throwing on the salad. HOLY GOD...fresh corn? YUM. I guess I'm on a burger/fresh veggie kick. Burgers and tons of fresh veggies just scream summer food so I think it's just a residual craving of the season... assuming that the season (aka hot weather) ever fully arrives in Seattle....