FoodFash

Adventure Begins in the Kitchen

Last Of The Cafe Hey Days

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Am I sad that limited grocery runs mean more Cafe Hey lunch excursions for the next TEN days?  Absolutely not!  I used today as the first of many excuses to mangia mangia on new-to-me menu items I’ve neglected over the past few years.

Seeing Mushroom Miso soup as the soup du jour meant only one thing:  my favorite specials board knows me all too well.  I ordered the cup of warmth and a half of the hummus and fresh veggie sandwich.  I waited patiently for my order, catching up on my Scramble with Friends  queue (KVGator, add me!), thinking about how I take Cuban bread for granted.

And then I spotted this “local is the new black” sign and got a little giddy.  Because I appreciate local businesses.  Because supporting local businesses is something my mom has encouraged for as long as I can remember.  And what do you know… I’m ten days away from living in a place where local isn’t the new black, it just IS.

Community Pie

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Cafe Hey appears on FoodFash frequently.  It’s almost exactly halfway between my house and my office.  They have the most vegan options in town. They don’t cringe when I butcher their VLT cause I don’t do T.  I love it there.

And since I compulsively refresh Facebook newsfeed throughout the day and Cafe Hey updates their status almost as often as I refresh, we have a pretty solid virtual friendship as well.  Typically, their updates include info on daily soups, grain salads, and quiche, but yesterday…  I noticed they were hosting a vegan pumpkin pie cooking class for Tampa Freeskool.  Hurrah!  I signed up.

As soon as everyone arrived, we got friendly in the kitchen.  We learned that a pumpkin is a gourd, a calabaza is a sweet Caribbean squash, and that you could use either of these in a pumpkin pie and they would taste equally, if not more, delightful than your run-of-the-mill Libby’s.

Soon after, we stood in a circle, utilitarian bowls in hand, and waited as the ingredients were portioned.  At that point, I think Anne, the owner, was concerned that we weren’t getting enough hands-on time with the ingredients.  What she didn’t know?  Measuring is my least favorite part of baking and she was doing this cook a tremendous favor!

Getting my hands dirty made me realize how I badly I want to get back into bread baking.  And watching this stand mixer do it’s thang reminded me how much I’ve neglected my own.  Me and bread are gonna happen this weekend.

We mixed and mixed and splattered and mixed until the pumpkin-ness was ready to be poured into our ginger and molasses crust.

And then we parted ways, carefully so as not to spill our pies, rushing home to bake our creations.

An hour later…  The pie turned out A+ and I have to believe that’s largely due to how much fresh ginger was both in the crust and filling.  The crust puffed up nicely, like a soft cookie, and complimented the creaminess and the spice of the filling nicely.

Thanks a million Cafe Hey and Tampa Freeskool for reeling in such good company to make delicious community pies!

Just Another Cafe Hey Day

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Let me just start with…  It POURED today in Tampa!  So much so that I buckled a golf umbrella, spent 45 minutes driving four miles, and considered writing someone of importance requesting that Tampa now be called Atlantis.  And when it came time for lunch, I wanted only two things: something close and something cozy.

I speed dialed my favorite neighbor, Cafe Hey, and placed an order for the VLT sandwich and kale salad.  I butchered the VLT even more than usual (sorry chef!) by adding avocado (duh!) and nixing tomatoes and vegenaise.  The next modification would happen in the privacy of my desk…

I mile high piled the kale salad on my sandwich and went to town – cuban toast crumbs were a flyin’!  I didn’t care though, the dressing on the kale salad and the crunch of the lettuce and sunflower seeds were so darn good!

Here’s to hoping for a dryer tomorrow!

Gingerness

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I was determined to recreate the Cafe Hey cabbage salad that I had for the first time after our yoga in the park picnic a couple weeks ago.  It was SO perfect.

The problem with recreating something that you haven’t freshly eaten is…  You kind of forget all of the components that made it good, and just remember good.

The other problem is ramen.  Plain ramen is hard to come by and ramen soup has 48% DV of sodium – yikes!  I’m hoping that using only the noodles and tossing out the flavor pack brought the sodium down to a less ridiculous percentage.

FoodFash’s Attempt at Ginger Cabbage & Ramen Salad

2 Packs of Ramen (any flavor, you’re going to ditch the salt monster)

1 Small Head of Red Cabbage, chopped

3 Green Onions, chopped

1 Handful of Sliced Almonds

3/8 Cup of Ginger Dressing

While your noodles are boiling, chop the cabbage and onion.  Drain the noodles and add to the veggies.  Add the almonds and dressing, then stir until dressing is evenly distributed.  Voila!

My notes for next time include finely chopping the cabbage and chilling the end result for an hour or so until the noodles cool.  I think the chilling time would allow more of the ginger flavor to be absorbed as well.

My fingers are crossed that Cafe Hey has this salad again soon so I can sleuth my way to the perfect Ginger Cabbage & Ramen Salad!