Spelt Tomato Herb Focaccia with Vegan Sausage and Grilled Red Corn-off-the-Cob

I'm so happy that I seem to be easing back into eating "real" food! We were gone for the long weekend to the mountains of Western NC, visiting Asheville and nearby Hot Springs and the waterfalls of Transylvania County. On Saturday, friends of ours made a simple meal that we could enjoy - I had a very welcome and tasty baked potato and a little bit of tempeh. On Sunday, we were planning to try good vegan food in Asheville, but the restaurant that we thought might stay open late didn't, and we, unbelievably, were finally stuck with late night pizza; though we love cheeseless vegan pizza (remember to ask for crust for egg/whey ingredients), the one we had was quite uninspired.

But yesterday we got to eat at our favorite Asheville restaurant, the all-vegetarian Laughing Seed Café. My wife and I shared salad, a tasty soup, and, when we were saddened to hear that their Rosemary-Walnut Crusted Seitan was sold-out, had their Wild Mushroom Risotto Cakes.

Today, I had limited time to cook; we received our beautiful new purple tandem bicycle from Bike Friday, and worked on putting it together (what difficulty we had with the timing chain!), then I had to leave early enough to pickup friends from the airport returning from a trip. From Asheville, I had picked up an 8" round organic tomato-herb focaccia made from spelt flour made by Annie's Natural Bakery in the mountains, and I heated it for a few minutes on my pizza stone in a 300°F oven. I also grilled some red corn over my gas range's flame, stripped the kernels, and mixed in salt, fresh lemon juice, and Earth Balance margarine. Finally, I grilled an artisanal vegan apple-sage sausage by the Field Roast Grain Meat Company.