Here are some recipes I've tried lately and done well with:


Pasta with Peas, Asparagus, Butter Lettuce, and Proscuitto
I ended up stir-frying the asparagus and peas with a little garlic rather than boiling them, as boiling tends to leech the flavor, IMO. Turned out very flavorful.


Shrimp with Broccoli Stir Fry, made from the cookbook that came with my wok. I've ended up doing a lot of stir fry in recent months, and have gotten to the point where I can experiment away from my recipes pretty handily. As long as I don't dump too much fish sauce in there. :) Another really good one: Spinach and Mushroom Stir-Fry -- but be careful with this one, as the red pepper flakes can make it feel like someone sprayed some pepper spray in your kitchen if you don't ventilate properly.


Moroccan Chicken with Lemon and Green Olives
This turned out to be the best recipe I've tried in at least a year. I've already facebooked about this, but hadn't posted it here. I've made this about three times in the past month. Yummy-dummy!

I also had some good luck with a gluten-free version of this recipe from kph for Ginger Pecan Lemon Bars, although gluten-free flour meant they didn't hold together well. Still tasted great.


Movies I've seen recently and enjoyed:

Star Trek. Zach Quinto made an excellent Spock. Cheesy, for sure, but a nice re-beginning for the series.

Terminator Salvation. Super-duper cheese, and the plot doesn't hold together well, but I wasn't expecting much. Lots of eye candy.

The Hidden Blade. Strangely comedic in places, and with a fairly trite ending, but I enjoyed the historical aspects of the filming, and the martial arts were interesting.

Caprica. This was an intriguing beginning to what will hopefully be a compelling series. Didn't care for the pouty teenage female lead, but love that Polly Walker (Rome) has shown up in another interesting role.

The King of Masks. Sad tale for the most part, but interesting look at the plight of orphans in 19th (?) century China. Based on a true story, which makes this even more interesting. Also makes me want to re-watch Farewell, My Concubine, which I haven't seen in a number of years.

The Reader. Kate Winslet absolutely deserved the Oscar for this very complex role. Intriguing film.

Hope someone else enjoys one of these recipes or films. :)

I went to a cookout yesterday, and made a few recipes that I had never tried before. This Mustard Lime Chicken from Elana's Pantry (one of my favorite gluten-free blogs) turned out fabulously. I'll definitely be making it again. I should have made twice the recipe so there would be more to go around.

I also tried two other new recipes that turned out really well. First, there was this Grilled Asparagus with Lemon and Garlic that turned out very nicely. I used dill instead of paprika as one of the commenters suggested, and let it marinate for an hour or so before grilling. The wooden stakes were a disaster when I tried to skewer the asparagus, as the asparagus kept breaking and they were all different sizes so the skewers were all wonky. Instead, Chris S. let me use his vegetable grilling basket thingy, and that worked like heaven.

Also, I made a Caprese Salad for the first time ever, which I got rave reviews about. I thinly sliced the tomatoes and mozerella, and added some nice fresh basil. The vinaigrette contained olive oil, balsamic vinegar, celtic sea salt, and a healthy shaking of Penzey's Pasta Sprinkle. I was very happy with the outcome.

I hope everyone had a chance to cook out this weekend or do something else fun! Thanks to Maura and JP for hosting, and Chris S. for manning the grill.

My friend cec recently called me out (and rightly so) for not blogging any more and instead posting exclusively to Facebook, so I'm here to make apologies and give a couple of updates. I find Facebook to be the quick-and-dirty version of blogging, like going to a fast food restaurant instead of cooking at home. I've actually been doing a lot more cooking at home lately than blogging, come to think of it.

So here's what my past week has been like:

Sunday: cook a really awesome paella, and stick the left-overs in the freezer to be eaten later. Do laundry and clean the kitchen (but not the bathroom or the floors.) Get last-minute invitation to friend jhv's birthday party, bring frozen paella which doesn't end up reheating well, stay up too late.

Monday: Get up early and be at work before 8:30. Meet with boss at 9:00. Meet meet meet meet meet with people all day. Get called into CIO's office at 17:00 and meet until 18:30. Go play video crack to de-stress. Stay up too late.

Tuesday: Get up early and be at work by 7:30. Meet meet meet meet meet meet meet. Go home about 18:00. Eat leftovers, read, go to bed.

Did I mention I work through all lunch breaks?

Repeat basically all week, aside from Friday, where I slacked and didn't get to work until 9:00 and left at 16:30 to go have my weekly happy hour with friends. Not sure how much longer I'll be able to get away with that, considering how the overall project I'm working on is going.

Today: Do some work from home. Cook another really awesome dish: Shrimp and Wasabi Deviled Eggs. Eat enough eggs to cause heart failure. Catch up on the netflix DVDs I have out.

My life is really nothing to blog about lately, and I am so drained that I just don't have anything creative to say. I don't see that changing until at least after August. Even my dreams/nightmares are about work, and they're not even that interesting.

Hopefully one day I'll rediscover my creativity and my energy, but for now, this is all I got. At least I've found a cure for my insomnia: overwork.

This is a particular favorite of ours for a holiday party. The beau monde in the dish is the secret ingredient - you can omit it, but the dish is much more tasty with it included. I got to bring a whole container of this home with me this year. Yum! This can be made with low-fat yogurt, cream cheese, milk, and mayo if preferred. Also, from my research online, it seems that both French's and Lea & Perrins Worcestershire sauces are gluten-free - in the U.S., anyways.

Maryland Crab Fondue

1/2 cup plain yogurt
6 ounces cream cheese, softened
2 T mayonnaise
1 T lemon juice
1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
1/2 tsp. beau monde
1/2 tsp. dry mustard
2 T milk
1/4 cup cheddar cheese, grated
1/2 lb. blue crab meat (claw meat is fine), cartilage removed
paprika for sprinkling

In a double boiler or electric fondue pot, combine all ingredients except crab meat. Stir over medium heat until cheeses melt. Gently fold in crab meat and heat thoroughly. Sprinkle with paprika. We usually transfer this to a chaffing dish for the duration of the party, but stir it once in a while so it doesn't burn. Serve with raw vegetables, crackers, or party breads. Yield: 2 1/2 cups.

I promised before Christmas that I would start sharing some of my family recipes, so here's installment number one. But first, a little back story.

Growing up, Mom was always a talented cook, but she worked a lot and thus didn't have much time to teach me how to cook. She taught me to follow a recipe, and how to make cookies, but after that I was pretty much on my own. Every holiday, however, Mom would cook up a storm, and we developed some traditional favorites that we would eat every Christmas. I never learned how to cook any of these since Mom was the one cooking and I was probably otherwise goofing off doing holiday things.

Then when I went off to college, I started to want to cook some of these dishes, but Mom was very reticent about giving them to me. "If I give you the recipe, you'll never come home for dinner!" was what she actually said. It's only been in the past five years or so that she has relented and given me the recipes for these dishes. Also, now we spend more time in the kitchen either making things together or with me writing down what she's doing, which is something I think we both wish she and I had done with Granny while she was still alive, since Granny never wrote anything down.

Last year, Mom gave me the recipes for most of our holiday dishes. I decided to keep them private for a year out of respect for family tradition, but now I'm making them public. I hope that you enjoy them as much as we have. And hopefully Mom won't kill me for posting them on my blog. :)

Shrimp in a Pickle
This is actually a recipe from a dear family friend, but we've adopted it as our own. Makes 10 servings.

2.5 quarts water
3 lbs. unpeeled large fresh shrimp
5 small red onions, thinly sliced
8 bay leaves
1 (3.5 oz) bottle capers, drained
1 cup olive oil
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1/2 cup tarragon vinegar
1 T sugar
2 T fresh lemon juice
1 T Worcestershire sauce
1/2 tsp. hot sauce
1/4 tsp. salt

Bring 2.5 quarts of water to a boil. Add shrimp and cook 3-5 minutes or just until shrimp turn pink. Drain and rinse with cold water. Peel shrimp, leaving tails intact; devein, if desired.

Divide shrimp, onions, bay leaves, and capers evenly between two gallon-sized Ziplock bags.

Stir together olive oil and next 7 ingredients in a small bowl, and pour evenly over shrimp mixture in each bag.

Cover and chill 8 hours, rotating bags occasionally. Drain before serving.

I went to my friends Melanie & Chris's house last night for a nice holiday dinner, with some Wii and card games. I think that's the first time I've really stomped a game of Gin Rummy in quite a while. It was a lovely evening that made me feel like the holidays are finally here.

I brought a couple of side dishes, one of which turned out really well, and the other of which was only so-so. This Indian Spiced Carrot Soup which I posted about before is a real winner. Everyone enjoyed it. Then there was this Asparagus Pesto Pasta Salad from FatFree Vegan Kitchen which was only okay. I think it probably would have been better to steam or stir-fry the asparagus rather than boiling it. And although the pesto was fine, and the toasted pine nuts were a nice touch, the dish seemed really bland. Maybe some sun-dried tomatoes or some sauteed peppers or something would help. Not sure. Also, so far I am not impressed with the gluten-free pastas I've found. They just taste wrong.

There will be plenty of more yummy treats in the days ahead while I'm visiting in Maryland. I keep forgetting to release the super secret Copeland recipes including the one for Shrimp In a Pickle, but I will do so over the coming week or so. That's my holiday gift to anyone who bothers to read my blog. :)

I had another delightful Thanksgiving yesterday at Maura and JP's house. I went over early to help Maura with cooking and cleaning since her back is in bad shape right now, and had a good time visiting and hanging out. We made the turkey and the polenta, which was an interesting thing that I'd never participated in making before. After cooking the corn meal and some water in a double boiler and stirring frequently, you have to work with it very fast because it solidifies quickly. After we got it into a baking dish, Maura put some lovely parmesan and butter on top and baked it - turned out lovely.



Maura does things in a stone soup manner, so everyone brought something to contribute. We ended up with quite a smorgasbord:

Appetizers:
two types of soft cheese
a very tasty salami from Parker & Otis
hummus
black olive tapenade which totally rocked if you like garlic
asparagus with beurre blanc
pickled shrimp (recipe coming soon)
a salmon/cheese spread which I would like to have had more of
and probably more that I've forgotten

Dinner:
stir-fried broccoli with slivered almonds which I made from this recipe, and which turned out a little sweeter than I expected but still good
polenta
the turkey, which cooked really quickly but turned out great
Joe's ham and ham gravy which was, as usual, out of this world
dressing
mashed potatoes
regular gravy
pureed carrots with cardamom and other spices that was amazingly flavorful
3 types of homemade bread

Dessert:
lemon curd tart
tiramisu
pumpkin caramel whipped cream pie
pecan pie
chocolate chip cookies
... and probably some others that I was trying not to notice so I wouldn't be tempted to eat them

I did end up cheating on the gluten-free diet, and I am suffering some effects today, sadly. I actually was going to try to be very strict with myself and then suddenly I discovered that I had totally unconsciously cheated already when I grabbed some pizza-dough bread to eat the olive tapenade with. I hadn't even thought about it until after I'd eaten a few pieces. So once that line had been crossed, I decided to eat two other things with gluten: Joe's awesome ham gravy and Beth's lovely lemon curd tart. But I did stop myself from eating any of the other tempting wheat-based things like the dressing, the other gravy and other desserts, and the homemade bread. As a result, I think this is the first time in recent memory that I haven't overstuffed myself with Thanksgiving dinner. I was comfortably full, but no more.

After dinner, as things were winding down, someone put on The Wizard of Oz. I hadn't seen it in a few years, and I was quoting it as I went along as were Maura and, surprisingly, Michael. It was a lot of fun. People would pop in from time to time and occasionally sing the songs with us. It really was a joyful end to the evening. I started to pontificate about how this movie represents a female vision quest, and that I couldn't think of any other similar female-oriented vision quest stories. (Maura jokingly suggested "Flashdance".) Then I started talking about the use of the color red in the movie (the ruby slippers, the poppies, the red sand in the hourglass, the red heart for the tin man, the reddish balloon at the end that carries the Wizard away) at which point I think everyone in the room decided I was insane.

I can't tell you how important this movie was to me growing up, as I pointed out not long ago. I think that Dorothy's journey was an inspiration to me. Can anyone think of another heroine that is similar?

Thanks so much to Maura and JP for hosting us all again!

Bizarre weather today. It was like fox wedding weather, only with snow instead of rain. It would snow shower violently for five minutes, then burst forth with bright sunshine, only to snow heavily again a few minutes later. I find that photographing snow falling is nigh-on impossible.



For dinner, I made an old recipe that my Dad invented which I haven't made in a very, very long time. I'm going to call them Copeland "Fajitas" because they are almost, but not quite, entirely unlike fajitas. Even back in high school, it was pretty difficult to find anything like authentic Mexican food anywhere. That's my excuse. It actually has more resemblance to some of the Indian food I make nowadays than to anything Mexican. I still like it, but it may not translate to other folks. All amounts are approximate, since I wrote the recipe down without many amounts about, er, 20 years ago.

Copeland "Fajitas"
Brown 2 cloves of garlic and 1/2 large thinly sliced onion in olive oil with a dash of Worcestershire sauce and a dash of soy sauce. I usually add a sliced bell pepper or two here, one green and one yellow or red. Remove from frying pan. Brown 2 thinly sliced chicken breasts in the pan. After browning, add salt and wine vinegar, steam until chicken is cooked. Once vinegar has reduced, add a little more olive oil and brown the chicken again. [I'm sure there's some way to streamline this process, but that's what it says...] Add gravy and spices as below. Cook til gravy thickens and chicken gets the flavor. Serve with flour tortillas [or, in my gluten-free case, over rice.]

Gravy:
1 lg. can of tomatoes
1 fresh tomato, quartered
1 jalapeno
handful of fresh parsley
1 or 2 cloves of garlic
dollop of Heinz Chili sauce
dollop of peanut butter - but don't overdo this, may want to stick to 1 tsp.
blend to mix

Spices (approximate):
1 tsp. cumin
1 tsp. chili powder
splash Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp. paprika
1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper

Pretty bizarre fajitas, huh? Still, I thought they were yummy.

I think this will become a regular category since I do tend to make a big pot of food nearly every Sunday.

I started a gluten-free diet last Wednesday in hopes that it will help me with my tummy issues, which have been getting worse and worse. I won't know if it's working for a few weeks, so I decided to give it a month and re-evaluate. FWIW, my doctor doesn't think it will help anything, and that there's basically nothing I can do and I'm screwed. I don't want to give up trying to find something, anything that will help, so I figured I can at least try this for a month and see what happens. I have heard some friends who got completely better after going gluten-free. OTOH, my tummy was upset on Saturday and so I missed my friend Melanie's birthday party. :(

This week I tried this Sausage, Kale and Chickpea Soup from Kalyn's Kitchen, which is rapidly becoming one of my favorite food blogs. Turned out delish, and there are plenty of leftovers for the week. I'm eating some for lunch right now.

I also made the Avocado Tomato Salsa that has become a staple for me. This week, I plan to make (gluten-free) Chicken Piccata from an old recipe I found in my stash, and some stir-fried broccoli. Oh, and I have a pomegranate, the seeds of which I plan to sprinkle on a salad. This is more planning than I usually do for a week's worth of cooking, but I need to be spending less eating out, and it's much easier to be sure that what I'm eating has no gluten.

On Sundays I usually make a big pot of something and put it in the fridge to nibble on all week. This week, I made this yummy Tomatillo Black Bean Soup I saw on Kalyn's Kitchen.




I really like Kalyn's Kitchen as she does South Beach and gluten-free recipes, and a fair bit of crockpot recipes. Worth checking out, although I find it funny that a supposedly vegetarian recipe contains chicken broth, but that's easy enough to correct. I found the soup a little bland, so I added some tobasco sauce, and found it went well with sour cream on top. Nice, easy, tasty recipe.

Today I also steamed an artichoke for the first time in my adult life. Not sure why I've taken so long to get around to it. I made a butter sauce which I poured on top which consisted of:

1/2 stick melted butter
1 dollop grey poupon
generous shaking of Penzey's Pasta Sprinkle (oregano, basil, thyme, garlic)
healthy squirt of lemon juice
capers

I poured in on top of the artichoke when it was done - turned out to be a nice compliment.

For the Geek Beer crowd, here are a few photos from Hunter's going-away Geek Beer:

This weekend, I tried out a couple of delicious soup recipes I'd read about on other blogs. First, there was this fantastic Indian Spiced Carrot Soup from Kate at Accidental Hedonist. I used my Penzey's Spices Hot Curry Powder in it, and that blend turned out to be an excellent purchase. The yogurt and lime garnish make this dish, so don't leave those out if you try it. This could be done in a vegan manner with soy yogurt, I imagine.

Also, I tried the Brat, Butter Bean, and Collard Soup recipe over at The Newlyfeds. This was a nice recipe for collards, which I love. I added some mustard greens as well, and used local brats from Brinkley's Farm. Nice yummy cool-weather food.

I was going to be throwing a pot luck today, but I canceled it after spraining my knee - didn't think I could handle the cleaning / prep work. I wish I'd had it anyways, as the weekend turned out to be a boring one. I tried to go to the Nasher's El Greco to Velazquez show, but it was crowded as hell, and I couldn't park anywhere near close to the museum. Didn't want to walk it with my bum knee. Maybe I'll get another chance before it closes.

In any case, if I had thrown the pot luck today, I would have made this Chicken, Sausage, and White Bean Chili which I made a couple of weeks ago and which turned out fabulously. Perhaps I'll get a chance to host again in the next month.

I had some left over cooked pasta from this weekend, and a large tub of basil, so I decided to make my first home-made pesto. I used this recipe, except that I didn't blend the olive oil (as my pal Joe says, food processing olive oil makes it taste bitter for some reason) but stirred it in at the end. I also decided to add a can of tuna to the pasta/pesto mixture.

I will never buy pesto again, because home-made fresh pesto is SO GOOD. And so easy! The same thing with hummus, which I made a bit ago. I just got this food processor for Christmas last year - I'd never owned one before. It is rapidly becoming my favorite piece of equipment.

Both tomatoes and eggplants are nightshade plants, which once were thought to be poisonous. It's possible that I shouldn't eat nightshade plants, since they may exacerbate arthritis and gastrointestinal issues, both of which I have, but I just can't ever see myself giving them up (along with peppers and potatoes, other nightshade plants.)

I made two new recipes today, both of which were, sadly, only so-so. The first was this recipe for Tomato Basil Pasta from Vegan Yum Yum, which looked interesting because of the cashew component. I found it very bland, so I added some Pasta Sprinkle from Penzey's Spices and some crushed red pepper. That made it more to my liking.

Secondly, I made my first roasted-eggplant oriented dish with this Roasted Eggplant Almond Dip recipe from Fat Free Vegan Kitchen. This dish really needs some complimentary flavors and doesn't stand well on its own. I tried alternating it with hummus and that worked a lot better. Still, it's not nearly as good as Joe's eggplant caviar. It was taking forever for the eggplants to roast, so maybe I didn't give them enough time and that's why it turned out bland.

I've found that it's easiest for me to go to the Durham Farmer's Market if I do so before 10:00 a.m. I hate crowds, and it just gets way too crowded around 10-12. If I still worked in town, I'd definitely check out the Wednesday evening market which just opened recently. In any case, here's my haul from today:

fresh strawberries, perfectly ripe
pickled okra from Bonlee Grown Farm (YUM!)
hydroponic tomatoes
fresh asparagus
fresh broccoli
fresh cauliflower
fresh cucumbers
fresh eggs from Little Tree Farm
a giant head of butter lettuce
locally-raised pork garlic bratwurst from Brinkley Farms
rosemary bread from The Angels Nest Farm and Bakery
a couple of bunches of purple and yellow irises

Support your local farms!

I don't know if it was the blood loss from the nose breakage or what, but I've been desperately craving steak for the past few days. I decided to indulge myself and make a London Broil like I did a few months back. Yum. Also, I made some stir-fried asparagus with soy sauce, which is a slightly different recipe than the Citrus-Scented Asparagus I tend to make a lot. The new version wasn't as good as the old, but it was nice for a change, especially with yummy fresh asparagus from the farmer's market.

I also got to use my new food processor (which I got for Christmas and hadn't used yet) on two different recipes: a traditional hummus and this nifty roasted tomatillo and avocado salsa. That's the first time I've ever worked with tomatillos - I'll definitely do so again in the future. The roasted flavor is very nicely pungent. Finally, I made a more traditional salsa that turned out even better: the Avocado Tomato Salsa.

I was also thinking of making some traditional strawberry shortcake made with sweet biscuits, but I didn't get quite that far. In any case, I have lots of nice yummy leftovers for this week. :)

I love pork. Especially bacon and ham. It's my real Achilles heal when it comes to going pesce-veggie. I can give up beef and chicken quite easily, and I dislike turkey, but pork is very hard for me to turn down.

Which is why it was surprising that I found myself, for the first time ever, being grossed out at the idea of a bacon-related food.

Some things are just going too far.

Thanks to hsarik for the link.

There is nothing, repeat, nothing as good as a fresh tomato sandwich. Especially with a little mayo, fresh, lightly toasted whole wheat bread and a few fresh basil leaves.



Mmmmm.


Yesterday was my friend cec's last day at Duke. He had a going away shindig at the University Club at the top of University Tower, a.k.a., The Big Pickle. The view from up there was incredible, but for some reason hard to capture on film. Also, I foolishly had my camera on nature setting, so all of the people shots were absolute crap. Actually, I think I should only take pictures of inanimate things or vegetation. Nothing that moves too much. In any case, here are some non-ordered shots from the evening.

Last night I threw a small dinner party to thank my friends Rob and Laura for taking care of my cats while I was in Portland, and also invited Maura and J.P., whom I hadn't seen in a while (together, at least. J.P. came to the gaming session I hosted a little while ago.)

On the menu: my last non-seafood meat for a while. I've been cheating a lot lately, and wanted to get back onto the pesce-veggie diet. So I figured I may as well go out with a bang.

For appetizers, I had some gravlax and some Parrano cheese, along with a sliced fresh tomato with olive oil, salt, and fresh basil leaves. To go with it, Maura brought some of her home- and hand-made bread, which was totally spectacular. I wish they'd let her sell this stuff at the Durham Farmer's Market - I'd show up every Saturday.

For dinner, I made a London Broil which I'd marinated for about 8 hours in Italian dressing. It turned out perfectly. We ate every bit of it up. Also, I made the Red Lentil Dahl that's become part of my repertoire, and the Citrus-Scented Asparagus which I did in the wok. Since I'd prepared the dahl in advance (which froze and unfroze well), it was a really quick cooking time. Everyone seemed to enjoy everything pretty well.

For dessert, we had some luscious puddingy cake that Rob and Laura had brought. It was a very nice capper for the evening.

We had a couple of bottles of Oregon Pinot Noir, which I wanted to do specifically to show something about the wines I'd tasted while in Portland. Neither of the ones I got at Whole Foods was spectacular (Erath and Firesteed), but they weren't bad. I wish I'd brought some back from Portland. The Firesteed improved when you ate the beef and the dahl together and then took a sip, as J.P. pointed out.

All in all, it was a fine time, and I was glad for a chance to visit with everyone.

The original version of this song was going through my head, and although the Fred Rogers version wasn't on YouTube, this one was:



Mom's in town, and we spent a quiet fourth at home relaxing (and for me, de-stressing about some work stuff.) She's here until Saturday. I made the shrimp stir-fry again last night and it turned out even better this time because I stuck to the original recipe instead of trying to combine two recipes into one. Mom made some excellent from-scratch pasta with marinara sauce earlier this week. And she's planning to make some risotto sometime before she goes. Yummy!

I'll hopefully have a big post sometime soon about the work-related stuff, if I can do it without revealing too many insider details. :)

I went to my friends Mitch & Beth's house yesterday afternoon for a nice pot-luck barbecue. There was lots of good food there, including Mitch's famous ribs, which I was *very*, *very* good to have avoided eating.  That took some will power. I neglected to take my camera, so I don't have any pictures, but the three things I brought went over very well.

This recipe for BBQ Shrimp was very yummy. I also got a nice compliment from Mitch, who is a professional chef/restaurant manager, that I had them skewered very well. I put one skewer through the head part of the shrimp and one through the end near the tail, and then alternated with the next shrimp and so forth. It was a pain to do, but made them easy to work with on the grill.

In addition, I made my guacamole, which isn't as good as Mitch's, but is pretty good in its own right.

Guacamole Copeland
3 avocados
lime juice
cumin
Tobasco
chili pepper
salt
salsa

For two of the avocados, cut them in half, take out the pits, put them in a bowl and mash them into a pulp with a fork. For the third avocado, cut it in half and do the same as the above for one half. Hold onto the other half.  Add to taste approximately 1 tsp. cumin, 1 tsp. chili pepper, 1/4 tsp. salt, and several good shakes of Tobasco. Add a good squirt of lime juice (maybe 1/2 lime worth). Also add two tablespoons of salsa. Stir well.  With the remaining avocado half, score it vertically and horizontally into cubes like you would a mango, then turn the skin inside out to deposit the chunks into the mixture. Stir well. Refrigerate.


Lastly, I made some vegetable skewers with mushrooms, cubed eggplant, zucchini slices and baby corn from a can, marinated in my Salad Dressing Copeland mixture. The baby corn turned out really well, as did the mushrooms, but I think I needed to have marinated it longer for the eggplant and zucchini. Or something.

In any case, things generally turned out well and I have leftover ingredients which I can stir fry this week. Yum!