I love a good excuse to spend an entire day in the kitchen. To me, there is something about chopping, peeling, grating and cooking all day. No time pressure, no worries, just a nice relaxing day to cook. So I invited a few people over for Memorial Day and used it as my excuse to cook.

I started with chicken and ribs. Orange and thyme marinated chicken and cider braised ribs.

The chicken was a total experiment. Zest and juice of two oranges, thyme from the garden, three chopped cloves of garlic, salt, pepper and olive oil. Marinade for twenty four hours. The pork was simple and tasted oh so good …

Apple cider, soy sauce and brown sugar. Marinade overnight then braised in a 250 degree oven for about four hours – turning once. They come out juicy and falling off the bone.

Add some home made BBQ sauce and grill – they were the star of lunch.

The chicken was good, but not nearly as good as the ribs.

Now lunch would not be complete with just the chicken and ribs. So we also had my no mayo coleslaw

cucumber and tomato salad with a white balsamic and dill vinaigrette

potatoes (which I forgot to take a picture of) and a quinoa tabbouleh – a total experiment and not bad. It looked really pretty though.

I also added some pineapple and watermelon from the farmers market. The pineapple was amazing; the watermelon not so great. But it sure looked pretty.

No meal would be complete without dessert. And as much as I hate making it, I did make the fabulous French Silk Pie.

I know I’ve made and posted this one before but really when you start with

and

and mix it for a LONG time to come up with that pie … Well, it is worth posting again. Although whoever decided that it takes “7-10 minutes” to get eggs to 160 degrees over a double boiler while mixing with an electric mixer was insane. Try 23 minutes. But the pie is so worth it.
And since I can’t do dessert half way and it is the beginning of summer, I had to go with berry shortcake.

Vegan scones, macerated strawberries and blueberries (maple syrup, sugar and vanilla) and whipped cream. Yes, real, homemade whipped cream. Ohh … It is almost as good as the pie.

The picture at the top is the lizard one of the cats brought in. I thought it had gone back outside, but apparently it went up in the pantry and sat near my vanilla. I almost had a heart attack but Bob saved the day – I think he was afraid I may not move it myself and then all the desserts would not get made.

Hope everyone had a great Memorial Day!

I’ve been wanting to make the zucchini and tomato fritters I found in my vegan cookbook for a while. Even for omnivores, the Veganomicon cookbook is incredible. I’ve gotten biscotti, cakes, side dishes, etc out of there and so long as I “forget” to mention that they are vegan everyone loves them. The zucchini and tomato fritters were something I stumbled across, they sounded great, so I tried them – slightly altered as usual, but it worked.

I had some fresh zucchini and two beautiful tomatoes left, so I decided on this dish. I grated the zucchini and peeled the tomatoes then chopped them. No precision here, just used what I had.

The base was a little harder. I took one package of firm tofu, drain it and chopped it up. Into the food processor it went with three cloves of garlic, about a quarter cup almonds, a hand full of panko breadcrumbs, the juice of half a lemon, some fresh herbs from the garden (in this case dill, oregano and mint) and salt, pepper, tomato paste. The pepper was a hot blend Bob likes.

I figured a little heat would make up for the tofu. Once this was blended

I folded in the zucchini and the tomatoes. Because I forgot I was working late Monday, the mixture sat in the fridge, covered, for two days, but it was it was fine.

Today I heated a frying pan, added olive oil and fried tablespoons of the mixture that I coated in more panko. They are delicate, but if you just leave them and only flip once, they seem to come out ok.

I made these with panko crusted chicken with the same pepper blend since I just wasn’t 100% certain about them.

Bob really liked them and asked me to make them again and I have to say, I was happy with them – lots of flavor and a good texture with the tomato chunks and the crunch of the breadcrumbs. It was a really great side that I could turn into a main dish pretty easily.

All in all a success and not too bad for a Tuesday night!

I’m pretty sure I cooked more this week than I did all of April. It felt good, but all made me look forward to work slowing down a little more so I can get back to experimenting.

I started out simple. Hamburgers with a great little salad. Tomatoes that taste like tomatoes, fresh cucumbers and an amazing goat cheese. The cheese is Midnight Moon from the same cheese maker that does my Lamb Chopper and Bob’s Humboldt Fog. Once we figured that out we knew why it was so good.

Next was the honey ginger chicken. It was pretty good but I really needed to marinade the chicken. Making it as a sauce only gave it a good flavor, but very little depth.

Now today’s experiment …. Unexpectedly delightful. I wanted something lighter but still filling. I had pork out, and I wanted to use the leek I picked up last week. So … I found a recipe for a pork pie and totally changed it.

I used boneless pork chops, cut up into cubes. I got a nice brown crust on those, then added the leeks and carrots to the pan. Once those cooked down a little, I added veggie stock, apple juice, tomato paste, thyme, pepper, salt and cornstarch dissolved in water. I let the cook on the stove for about 15 minutes then transferred it to a pie pan and covered it with phyllo dough. I then baked it at 400 for 30 minutes and then let it sit for ten. The result didn’t look pretty

but wow did it taste good. Bob and I ended up eating the entire thing. Rich flavor, a nice sauce, but not a heavy dish at all. And it looked better on the plate than in the pie dish.

We also got some new wine. Bob discovered woot wine and this is our second order. They do a different selection every day and the one that came today looked interesting.

Six bottles of reds, but two are a 1996. Not sure if that is a good year or not. But we will soon see.

Zucchini and tomato fritters are on for this weekend. I finally found the right tofu to make them!