Tuesday, September 23, 2003

A Plum in the Plumbing

Jen could hardly contain her laughter when she confessed to dropping a small plum down the kitchen sink.

Of course, it will require a big plumbing wrench to get out. Not sure that anyone home feels sufficiently confident they can clean the trap out, but we'll see.

Speaking of food, my mom and I cooked a buttload of food this weekend. The biggest recipe source was a colorful vegetarian cookbook with lots of pictures. Mom is excited by pretty pictures of food accompanied by recipes, so we picked out a handful (out of the two dozen we were particularly enamored of) and made a few meals.

On Friday night, we made a green curry with sweet potatoes and eggplant. We ate it with brown rice and french bread while watching Season 1 of Sex and the City on my mom's laptop. It was a little too spicy for us--the curry, not the show.
green curry with sweet potatoes and eggplant...and a little carrot to take the edge off

Saturday's lunch, before the spa experience, consisted of several appetizer dishes.

mixed greens with brie, pear, and pecans
Our second salad with the wonderful pecan and pear combination, the dressing on this fell a little flat. It could have benefited from a nice berry vinaigrette, but brie is always good.

tomato, artichoke heart, and marjoram toast
The first of two bruschetta/toast-type items, this would have been better if done properly. I did it the lazy way and stuck the untoasted slices of french bread and raw tomato slices under the broiler without roasting the tomatoes separately or anything. However, the taste was good (to me), and I would make it again.

pesto and sun-dried tomato toast
Yeah, okay, just: yum. Homemade pesto (sans cheese), marinated sun-dried tomatoes, and a pinch of parmesan, stuck under the broiler for a few minutes. Yes, yes, yes.

chiles filled with mushroom rice stuffing
These...were not my thing. I could've done without the croutons and a less spicy stuffing receptacle might have been appreciated.

pesto-stuffed mushrooms
Pretty tasty. The same homemade pesto, spooned into big white mushroom caps with a pinch of parmesan and baked. Hard to go wrong. But the picture is mightily overexposed, eh?

Saturday night was our last hurrah. We did the last few things we didn't have time for before, even though they didn't quite go together.

polenta pancakes with avocado salsa
Holy cow yum. The pancakes were fluffy and a tad sweet, like a cross between a corn tortilla and a crepe. The salsa was fresh and filling. If I made it again, though, I'd put a little bit of whole pinto beans in the mix with the salsa, for protein and substance.

beer bread in the oven
It was from a mix, but it's still good. Mm-mm, beer bread.

pitiful fried green tomatoes
I did these all wrong. Kevin said they looked like confused shellfish. They didn't taste good at all. The batter was too thick and, being dense at the time, I didn't actually, you know, FRY them, just pan-fried. So they sucked, the end.

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