Amy writing from Topsail Island, NC

Spring greens from my front yard 

garden represent a labor of love

 As I reflect back on this semester at University of North Carolina Asheville, (where I have the privilege of teaching and researching), I feel huge gratitude to my friends, colleagues and my place of employment for providing a variety of opportunities to share delicious plant-based foods with groups of 20 to 100 people. Over the next few posts I will tell you about a few of these events.

In April, my four writing group colleagues and I, with the financial assistance of the National Endowment for the Humanities Distinguished Professor, Dr. Sophie Mills, hosted a Symposium on Storying as Knowledgemaking on a Friday afternoon. The funding was used to bring in guest scholars from University of Derby in England, Dr. Fiona Holland, and from Hopkinsville, KY, writer, Jennifer Brown. Together with my writing group colleagues, we each talked about ways that we use narrative, or storying for research or for otherwise making sense of the world around us.

Spring greens and violets salad

 and prepared artichokes 

(some whole and some cut 

in half with “choke” removed)

My focus was on how our stories and reflections about and with food influence how we eat. I am especially interested in how our experiences (in particular how shared new one’s can guide or lead us to make new healthier choices). My talk was titled, “Reflecting on Shared Food Experiences: What does it take to bring it home?” and it occurred as the symposium goers were dining on food that I (with help) had prepared for them.

It is this meal that I want to tell you about. It was an all vegan and mostly gluten-free menu with lots of local ingredients. I chose the menu based on foods that had stories or other associations for me. About 20 people joined the 6 speakers for lunch.

Serving artichokes (beautiful edible flowers) invokes my whole family, but especially my late step-dad, Frank Lanou. He had grown up in San Francisco and Carmel, places where these large plants from the thistle family have been cultivated for many years and they were on his list of favorite foods. Many of our special family meals included an artichoke and butter (for hot artichokes) or curried mayonnaise (for cold artichokes) in which to dip the individual leaves. I still crave them when it has been a while since I have had one.

Mixed berries, Thanksgiving salad 

and spring vegetable platter

A salad made from home grown greens, wild-found violets and fresh spring strawberries and blueberries and toasted hazelnuts topped with locally made and aged thick sweet balsamic vinegar represents how close we can get and be to the source of our food.

Cranberry jalapeno salsa is a recipe I learned from a friend and colleague who was also in attendance at the event. It is a lovely tangy, spicy dip that is great on chips or as a salad topping or as a contrast to a savory dish. The recipe comes from myrecipes.com (http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/cranberry-jalapeno-salsa) I just left out the sugar and added a small amount of maple syrup in its place. Agave would work just as well.

I included my vegan version of my mom’s Thanksgiving fruit salad because it is a necessary dish for me at large gatherings and because I hoped she would to be in attendance (she was!). I have made it every year for thanksgiving wherever I am and whomever I am with since I moved away from home more than 30 years ago. It is unpretentiously made from canned fruit and Tofutti sourcream (recipe below). The original also had marshmallows and was made with dairy sourcream, but its taste is remarkably similar and still takes me home to fun family times when I eat it.

The cucumber, avocado and tomato salad is my signature salad and a go-to lunch for me when I am cooking for one. It is super simple and is dressed with seasoned rice vinegar and black pepper (recipe below). I included spanakopita and the collard rolls because fresh spinach is plentiful, thick and delicious in the spring time and because this is a dish that I associate with my friend and sister-in-law, Lori and her mother Carole. The last time I was at Carole and Mario’s house, Lori, her mom, and I made a giant vegan spinach and mushroom spanakopita for Christmas dinner. I learned from these two fantastic chefs to use double the spinach you think you will need to add toasted sesame seeds to the mix and to the top of the spinach pie.  The flaky, salty, nutty, filo on top is delicate and belies the soft, almost creamy spinach and mushroom filling. Steamed new potatoes, peas, mushrooms and asparagus are just the right foods for eating in spring in North Carolina so they were tender, fresh and delicious.

Neither version of grape pie looks exactly

 like Nana’s, but they tasted right.

Grape and rhubarb pies take me to my grandparent’s farm. I learned to make pie from Concord grapes from my Nana and learned to love its thick, tangy, almost overwhelming taste at her kitchen table in she and my Pap’s farmhouse in Belle Vernon, PA.

To make grape pie, you pick concord or other thick-skinned grapes when they are ripe in late summer or fall. We had a bumper crop in our campus “Ancient Garden” last fall. This is a student and faculty run garden where plants that would have grown in Greece, Turkey and Italy in 500 b.c.e. are cultivated and used for campus food events.

Once picked the grapes need to be removed from their stems and washed. After washing, each individual grape is squeezed to push the innards and seeds into a saucepan and the skins are reserved in a bowl. Once all the grape skins are separated from their innards, the innards are cooked over low heat for 15 to 20 minutes to soften them and then are pressed through a strainer or processed through a Foley food mill. The seeds are discarded and the innards are recombined with the skins to make the pie filling. The grapes can be frozen at this point for later use. Once thawed, you simply add a small amount of sugar or other sweetener to taste and a tablespoon of tapioca starch per nine-inch pie and put into a prepared pie shell and bake it. It is delicious at room temperature untopped or warmed slightly with a small scoop of non-dairy vanilla icecream.

The moments and anecdotes that people shared about the meaning and relevance of food stories were delightful as we all dined on this lovely and meaningful food.

Spring Storying Luncheon Menu

Artichokes with curried vegannaise

Cranberry jalapeno salsa

Black bean dip

Tortilla chips

Red pepper and eggplant spread

Spring greens salad with berries, hazelnuts and violets and aged balsamic vinegar

Cucumber, avocado and tomato salad

Thanksgiving fruit salad

Spanikopita and collard rolls with spinach and mushroom filling (GF option)

Steamed new potatoes

Mushrooms and peas

Steamed asparagus

Mixed berries

Grape pie (one with and one without gluten)

Strawberry-rhubarb pie

Thanksgiving Fruit Salad

1 large can of pineapple chunks, packed in juice

2 small cans of mandarin oranges, packed in juice (or light syrup)

½ to ¾ cup of dairy-free sourcream (I like Tofutti brand)

½ cup chopped pecans or walnuts

½ teaspoon of cinnamon

Drain pineapple and mandarin oranges (you can save the juice for another purpose) and place in a medium bowl. Add remaining ingredients, stir and refrigerate for at least an hour before serving.

Amy’s Signature Salad

1 medium or two small cucumbers (your favorite variety), peeled and chopped

1 medium ripe (but not overripe) avocado (can substitute chopped snap peas to reduce fat content)

2 medium ripe tomatoes, cut into small bite-sized pieces or 8 to 10 cherry tomatoes, cut in half

2 to 3 tablespoons of seasoned rice vinegar

fresh ground black pepper to taste

Put ingredients in a bowl and toss together.

Many variations are possible: try adding fresh coarsely chopped basil or cilantro; switching chopped strawberries or mango for the tomatoes