may day lunch

did remember to take pics! the weather wasn't too warm yesterday, sunny but windy. my wrist isn't getting any better, the docs are figuring out what happens next. the surgeon thinks he'd like to do what he does best, cut me up. we are waiting what the MRI pics show. because of the wrist, my cooking has reduced to dishes that can be done with minimum effort and basically with one arm. may day lunch was super easy, just needed to cook pasta and potatoes (separately, duh!), open a jar or two and a few bags of frozen veggies, etc


here is pasta salad: whole wheat pasta, corned beef (not canned!), gouda cheese, peas and corn (frozen), bell pepper, sun dried tomatoes (from a jar, already minced), dressing made with buttermilk and mayo, salt, pepper, apple sider vinegar and some chili powder





chicken legs cut in half, marinated overnight in a mixture of bbq-sauce, brown sugar and thai sweet chili sauce and baked in oven. would have been just as fine to grill them but that would have been a lot more work...





tomatoes, mozzarella, basil, olive oil, balsamico





all time favourite , warm german potato salad





corking the bubbly, this time it was latvian





half way thru lunch i remembered that i forgot to make dessert. quickly thought of using up some bananas that were about to get tossed. i know you should make this with firm bananas but trust me, this was equally good. i served them with vanilla custard. those of you who aren't in the know, the gooey stuff on the pan is brown sugar and butter...





this was last weekend's menu, deer patties in creamy sauce. minced deer came from certain someone's freezer, used my gadgets to mush onion, garlic, parsley, egg, breadcrums and sour cream. hardest part with this dish was turning the patties...





tabbouleh made with wheat berries instead of bulgur, took some liberties with massoud's recipe





a classic cole slaw, added some cellery, though





there is a squirrel problem at the shack, they bother the dog big time. the other day the dog was going crazy in the front, i went up to see what was going on this time. i found the dog barking, yelping, making all the dog noises in the book and trying to get on, under and in my car which was parked next to the shack. it was obvious that there was something of great interest under/in my car. watched the dog for a while and decided to pop up the hood to see if there actually was something. this little creature was all couped up under the hood, shivering. i took the dog away, left the hood open and hoped that the squirrel had gone when i half hour later left for errands with the car...

hauskaa vappua! happy may day!

yesterday, vappuaatto / eve of may day was sunny but on the chilly side. we celebrated with this:



not much of a beer drinker but half of this went down quite effortlessly. later on we had company over, we had quasedillas (anna olson style), gancia asti and beer. quesadillas are super-easy to make, all you really need is tortillas,cheese and jalapenos, but it's easy to add minced beef, black beans, bell peppers. unfortunately, and it seems that this happens way too often nowadays, i forgot to take pics of the food! so you'll just need to take my word that it looked, and tasted, great.

certain someone's mom is coming over for may day lunch. i'll try to be more diligent with pics this time. in the meantime, hope your hangover isn't the killing kind...