West Coast treats

I'm not sure what the occasion is, but we seem to be having a mighty fine supper for an ordinary Monday night. Fresh salmon steaks (wild, of course) cooked up on the barbie, fresh green beans, and freshly-dug potatoes from the kitchen garden. Chives and parsley from that same patch of dirt -- mixed in with butter and smooshed around with the potatoes, mmm-mmm!

There's salad, of course, with a homemade dressing based in soured milk. Sounds disgusting, but it isn't at all.

Cheers to eating locally, especially when it tastes this wonderful!

Sensible food

Today was one of those deal-with-the-bounty days. We picked the last of the plums, sliced and froze bags of them. And at last count, there were 20 jars of jam on the counter.

So I was glad I'd had the sense to start a supper way earlier -- one with the good sense to cook all by itself.

I've always called it rouladen. Thin (usually thinner than the pieces I had today) pieces of beef rolled up with bacon, chopped onions and a bit of dill pickle. Then cooked slowly with the gravy getting thickened a bit at the last minute.

A blend of various rices with mushrooms and sliced-off-the-cob corn serves as the side. A green salad topped with bits of bacon (I cooked up the pieces I didn't use in the rouladen) and we're set.

With friends

It’s an evening when we’re sharing an early supper with friends. One made lasagna, I made a salad of mixed greens, someone else is bringing garlic bread, and the fourth one – well, it’s her place, so she doesn’t have to bring a thing.

We’re eating early, then heading out as a group for a concert, where I’m hoping there’ll be a chance to get in some dancing. After all that eating, we’ll need some exercise!

Two Part Feast

As if making up for being deprived of seeds and grains this week, we celebrated my ability to eat again by getting our best-deal-in-town takeaway again. It offers more than a little bit of nearly everything I love.

The first part was miso soup, tempura, and assorted sushi treats. The second course was beef teriyaki, rice and a mix of vegies.

I couldn't eat all of it, but made a valiant try and enjoyed every variety-filled morsel, especially the sesame seeds, rice and other grainy-type treats.

No solids allowed

And boy, does that make for a day's worth of boring meals!

Supper is a bowl of clear chicken broth. The only thing green in the meal (besides me) is the Jell-O -- and I'm not sure whether it counts as dessert or salad.

Doing just a small bit of physical work late this afternoon, I realized how little energy I had. This realization made me very grateful for the fact that hunger isn't an everyday experience for me.

The joy of another ladies' night

Ah yes, the ladies who aren't really ladies.

We had another of our famously unrehearsed potluck suppers. The meal ranged from assorted sushi to a yummily thick chicken soup. There was also a pesto tortellini, crusty buns and cabbage rolls.

But most of all, lots of great girl talk among friends.

Reworked leftovers, Ole!

With everyone going back to school today, it felt like a shift -- if not to a new year, at least to a new start. Yet supper tonight is a rerun, of more than a few ingredients.

Even after a burger went out the door for a workplace lunch, there were still a few more left. Where they already had cheese on 'em, I got inspired to make some variation on Mexican food.

I pulled out some pre-made sauce (from the packets I bought when we were in Mexico during March) and used it to make a pan full of enchiladas. Some have the cheesed-up buffalo meat, others have cheese and onions. There's even one that's completely experimental: stuffed with mushrooms and lamb (a small chunk of lamb had been hiding out in the freezer).

With an avocado, the last bit of lettuce and a couple of garden tomatoes for the Dear Man, looks as though we've got ourselves a nice, warming supper.