Day 142 More Chaos in the kitchen

More chaos in the kitchen, only this chaos was completely unplanned. Let me paint the scene for you: Nine people are arriving for dinner at 6:30. Bill and Debra arrive at 5:30 and we are planning to cook dinner together. However, somehow, I was thinking that Bill and Debra were bringing the ingredient for 2 dishes from the cookbook and Debra clearly remembers me emailing her that I would pick up the ingredients (which, now that I think about it, I do recall emailing that). Long story short, we have not got any of the ingredients for the recipes we thought we were cooking!

So what do you do? As vegans you can't call Dominos! We began pulling things out of everywhere: the freezer, the frige, the pantry, the garden........what can we make? As we thumbed through the cookbook, we came across Farro Jambalaya pg 90. "Yipee," I said as my finger ran down through the list of ingredients. "We've got it all.". I began throwing things on the counter, left and right. Last item was the okra, the most essential item for jambalaya. I run to the freezer because I know I have 2 packages in the freezer. "Oh, no, who stole the okra?" I ripped the freezeer apart top to bottom...no okra.

"Bill, can you use brussel sprouts instead? He replied, "Not if you want to call it Jambalaya!"

Somehow, Bill and Debra whipped together the most incredible meal. Our company never would have known our dilema if Sam hadn't told them!!!!

Tomorrow, I will give you the recipe for Maine Jambalaya................

Day 141 and recipes 115 &116

Two more fabulous recipes: Holiday Salad (pg 41) and Spaghettini Squared (pg 141). The Salad was both colorful and delicious. I did not add the seared cheese package or the pomegranite seeds and even still it was great. I have some of the dressing left over so I think I will do a repeat tomorrow night. The dressing is wonderful!

This salad made a nice compliment to the main course: Spaghettini Squared. All five of us at dinner tonight went back for seconds so that tells you something. I did not have basil oil so I just used olive oil and added extra basil to the pot. I served it with warm bread.

Both recipes earned a check ++. Bill and Debra are coming tomorrow.............

Day 140 Wonderful, quick and easy recipe

Red Beans (pg 133) made a perfect summer supper accompanied by my cucumber salad and warm rolls. When you are short on time, like I was tonight, you can use canned kidney beans to create this delicious and colorful dish. My son, Loren is nibbling on the cold leftover beans as I write and says they are great cold. We rate this dish check ++.

Tonight we picked up my rain barrel in Scarbough from "The Barrel Man". What a character. He works for the town and makes whiskey barrels into planters and rain barrels in his spare time. Hopefully, we will get it all set up tomorrow. I must say the barrel smells like 100proof. Hope my plants won't get intoxicated.......................

Day 139 Rain chain photo

 
Here is the picture I promised you of my new Rain Chain....what a beautiful alternative to a gutter! It will be totally functional, as well. It will fill my rain barrel which I will then use to water my plants with fresh water instead of the semi salt water in our well.

By the way, Bill and Debra are coming this weekend so I will be cooking with Bill again.

Day 138

 
Here is the best musakka recipe you will ever find. It was given to me by a friend who lived with the Bedouins in the Middleast for several months. We serve it with warmed pita bread to sop up the juice. Enjoy............................

Days 136 &137

The big cookout was a great success. We prepared two more recipes: Grilled Asparagus (pg 112) and Cuban Black Bean Burgers (pg 113). Both recipes earned a check + rating. We did have to grill the burgers on aluminum foil as they kept falling through the grill.

The Wild Rice Salad (pg 111)and the Spicy Black Eyed Peas (pg 113) that we prepared on friday were served as well. The salad was wonderful, great texture and color. It kept well in the frige and even tasted great 2 days later (We finished it tonight).I would give it a check ++. The spicy black eyed peas were good and might have been better if I had cooked the dried beans instead of using the canned variety as I did.

We rounded the meal out with Tofu Pups ( I am not crazy about them) and a big Vegan Potato Salad with dill (my recipe). I will share it tomorrow.................

Day 132-135

We had our Chaos in the Kitchen Party tonight preparing for our big cookout tomorrow. Two recipes from Bill's book were cooked: Spicy Black Eyed Peas (pg68), Wild Rice Salad (pg 64)and one of my own favorite recipes: Musakka with eggplant, onions, chic peas and tomatoes. I will pass on the recipe to you soon. Tomorrow, we will make Cuban Black Bean Burgers and the Holiday Salad.

We celebrated my 65th birthday tonight, with 3 of my sons and daughter-in-laws. They did all the cooking which was a big treat for me. They served the musakka with a wonderful arugula salad, pita bread and topped it off with a delicious homemade carrot cake that my son made for me. I have to say it was the best I've ever had. I think the secret was the ginger.

After dinner, I was surprised with a professional chopping knife and sharpener that will cut my veggie prep time in half. Also, I received a new roof gutter, which would not normally be exciting except that it comes with a copper "Rain Chain" downspout and rain barrel. I will have to send you a photo. It is the most amazing thing as the water feeds down through a series of copper, flower shaped, cups to the rain barrel. It is absolutely beautiful and very functional as our tap water has some salt in it and that is not good for my garden. So now I will be able to water liberally. I can't wait to see it all go up.

I'll let you know how everything tastes tomorrow................