I cooked up a storm on Friday. My daughter had her soccer team picnic that
night and I had to bring something.
I made a Black Bean and rice salad. Basically the same recipe I posted as
Tortilla Salad a few weeks ago. I don't make it the same every. I also made
Nori Rolls. I use the recipe from "How it all Vegan" but I use Brown Rice
syrup instead of Maple, and Rice Vinegar instead of Cider. I stuffed them
with avocado. They were a great hit.
Then I veganized My Mom's Coffee Bar recipe. I'll try to post that one
later.
I'm off to the park with my children now.
ta
-nancy-

Nancy wrote:
>I cooked up a storm on Friday. My daughter had her soccer team picnic that
>night and I had to bring something.
>I made a Black Bean and rice salad. Basically the same recipe I posted as
>Tortilla Salad a few weeks ago. I don't make it the same every. I also made
>Nori Rolls. I use the recipe from "How it all Vegan" but I use Brown Rice
>syrup instead of Maple, and Rice Vinegar instead of Cider. I stuffed them
>with avocado. They were a great hit.
> Then I veganized My Mom's Coffee Bar recipe. I'll try to post that one
>later.
>I'm off to the park with my children now.

Hi Nancy! Vegan coffee bars sound delish! I'm going to have to try to
recreate a frozen food item that I had recently...it was 'manchurian dumplings'
in a tangy garlic sauce made by Green Guru...very tasty. Short list of
ingredients and already vegan, but I know I can make it at home for less &
fresh. Now that the weather is getting hot, I probably won't be doing too much
cooking though.

I'm off to search for a Lebanese salad dressing recipe...tried a local Lebanese
place the other night for the first time and it was awesome...had gone by the
hotel that it's in for years but never realised that they had a fantastic
restaurant inside.

Cheers,

Fritz

"T5NF" > wrote in message
...
> Nancy wrote:
>snip for space<
>
> Hi Nancy! Vegan coffee bars sound delish! I'm going to have to try to
> recreate a frozen food item that I had recently...it was 'manchurian
dumplings'
> in a tangy garlic sauce made by Green Guru...very tasty. Short list of
> ingredients and already vegan, but I know I can make it at home for less &
> fresh. Now that the weather is getting hot, I probably won't be doing too
much
> cooking though.
>
> I'm off to search for a Lebanese salad dressing recipe...tried a local
Lebanese
> place the other night for the first time and it was awesome...had gone by
the
> hotel that it's in for years but never realised that they had a fantastic
> restaurant inside.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Fritz

Hey Fritz,
Good to see you back. I'll go get the Coffee Bar recipe and post it.
I'm also in search of a good Balsalmic Vinegrette recipe. We (my family)
like the Paul Newman's Basalmic but it is a little $$.
We moved into a bigger house with a 3/4 acre lot. I'm doing a lot of work on
the house. The yard also needs tons of work. I won't be able to get a
garden going until next year. I'm starting compost heaps where I want the
garden to be.
The kitchen is huge (by my stadards) I have more counter space than I ever
dreamed of. I spent two weeks organizing the kitchen. We've been here 2
months now and I need to re-organize the kitchen already.

Okay, I'll go get the recipe now.
-nancy-

Nancy wrote:
<snip>
>I'm also in search of a good Balsalmic Vinegrette recipe. We (my family)
>like the Paul Newman's Basalmic but it is a little $$.

I posted one just a minute ago...don't know how close it is to Newman's own as
I've never had it before, but it's tangy! I dilute it with a little water or
grape juice depending on what I'm using it for.

>We moved into a bigger house with a 3/4 acre lot. I'm doing a lot of work on
>the house. The yard also needs tons of work. I won't be able to get a
>garden going until next year. I'm starting compost heaps where I want the
>garden to be.

Sounds wonderful....it's our second summer in this house...last years garden
was a trial run to see what I'd have to do differently this year...I'm late in
putting stuff in the ground as we've been besieged with cicadas...can't wait to
plant my kale...I grew some Italian dinosaur kale last year (has long thinnish
leaves that are bubbly looking, not ruffled at the edges--not bitter or tough
and the young leaves are really nice raw) and am doubling the planting this
year since it was soo good.

>The kitchen is huge (by my stadards) I have more counter space than I ever
>dreamed of. I spent two weeks organizing the kitchen. We've been here 2
>months now and I need to re-organize the kitchen already.

Lucky thing ( counter space)...my kitchen now is the largest one I've ever
had but it doesn't have much in the way of counters...it's a large room with a
small room off the back with the stove and about 2 1/2 feet of counter
space...I guess when they built the place in 1880 it made sense to put the
kitchen off the back to keep some of the heat out of the main part of the
house...works out fine for me though as I have a table in the main part of the
kitchen that I do prep work on and I can look out into the garden from
there....we have a grape arbor that I'm going to try preserving some leaves
from next year...wanted to go three summers without them being treated (house
was vacant for a year before we got it) since I don't know what or if anything
was used/sprayed on them by the previous owner.
>
>Okay, I'll go get the recipe now.

Thanks for posting it....I printed it out for future snacking :-).

Cheers,

Fritz

"T5NF" > wrote in message
...
> Nancy wrote:
> <snip>
> >I'm also in search of a good Balsalmic Vinegrette recipe. We (my family)
> >like the Paul Newman's Basalmic but it is a little $$.
>
> I posted one just a minute ago...don't know how close it is to Newman's
own as
> I've never had it before, but it's tangy! I dilute it with a little water
or
> grape juice depending on what I'm using it for.
>

Looks good. I'll print it out and give it a try. I just bought two bottles
of Newman's on sale and with a coupon. It may be a week or so before I give
your recipe a try.


>snip<

I'm having a ton of work done on the house. We are finishing the basement.
The guys are in the basement now with a jack hammer or big saw or something
making a H*** of a racket. They're installing an egress window.

We work on the yard every weekend. I have Grape vines also but who knows
what all is on them. I plan to build an arbor for them. Next year I'll have
stuffed grape leaves.
My Jordanian neighbors at my old house just froze grape leaves. They
explained that the brine preserving made the leaves too salty and mushy.

We bit the bullet and subscribed to cable tv. My husband and son are bicycle
racing fans and OLN is only brocaster of the Tour De France. I think OLN
stands for Only Lance News. We also went for cable internet sevice.
I've been ODing on the HGTV and TLC home improvement shows. I've seen a few
kitchen remodels that would suit your kitchen.
My daughter (age 9 )has taken to watching the auto shows. She likes TLC's
Overhauling and MTV's Pimp My Ride. I got the answer the question... "Mommy,
what does Pimp mean?" Anyway, if she gets inspired to replace the headliner
in my station wagon...

We finally made a pilgrimage to Ikea. After about 30 minutes in the place my
son (13 now) described it as Walmart with umlauts. We did buy some book
shelves and a loft bed for the Girlilla (the daughter aged 9)
I was not impressed with the quality of cookware at Ikea. I needed a new wok
and the ones they had were flimsy. I actually bought a decent one at
Meijers.

-nancy-

Nancy wrote:
<snip>
> We are finishing the basement.

Ours was finished, but we have to replace the windows...it's on the 'to do'
list...

>We work on the yard every weekend. I have Grape vines also but who knows
>what all is on them. I plan to build an arbor for them.

We didn't know what ours were going to produce either, but I suspected they
were wine grapes from the old bottles full of the stuff we found in the
basement...we planted another concord vine last year and it's doing well but
it'll be awhile before it produces.

> Next year I'll have
>stuffed grape leaves.
>My Jordanian neighbors at my old house just froze grape leaves. They
>explained that the brine preserving made the leaves too salty and mushy.

That's a great tip! I'll have to give it a go..

>I've been ODing on the HGTV and TLC home improvement shows. I've seen a few
>kitchen remodels that would suit your kitchen.

lol...me too, but I like the way this works and since the stove room is only
big enough for one, that means my husband stays out of my way while I'm cooking
;-).

>My daughter (age 9 )has taken to watching the auto shows. She likes TLC's
>Overhauling and MTV's Pimp My Ride. I got the answer the question... "Mommy,
>what does Pimp mean?" Anyway, if she gets inspired to replace the headliner
>in my station wagon...

*grin* hopefully she can pick up some good tips...lol

>I was not impressed with the quality of cookware at Ikea. I needed a new wok
>and the ones they had were flimsy. I actually bought a decent one at
>Meijers.

I don't like their cookware but do like their garlic press and their 'as is'
section has been the source of bookcases...but since there are so many
universities here, craigslist works out better since most of the kids give
their furnishings away once the school year is over.

Since going to that Lebanese place, I've been on a middle eastern food finding
kick, I bought some sumac the other day for the first time and will be trying
it out in different things....it's fun to experiment with new spice :-).

Cheers,

Stacey