House-Packing Food

In other words, largely crap. I had to go down to the old house to finish packing up the things I didn't get to before the movers came. I had been dreading it, with good reason, but my mom was in town and, thank you Jesus, agreed to help. I picked up McDonald's for breakfast on the way down Monday morning. I was given an extra hash brown by the man whose Pride bracelet I admired. Food as a way to recognize and appreciate members of the tribe...gotta love it!

When my mom & I had tired of packing and were hungry, she took me to lunch at Bob Evans. It's not the most vegetarian-friendly place, but my mom was happy at the prospect of grilled cheese and fries. I had planned to get the chicken salad plate, chicken salad being one of my all-time favorite foods. However, my mom's enthusiasm over the grilled cheese was contagious, so we both ended up with the same order. It was good, too, if a little bread-heavy. I don't think Texas toast is a proper bread for grilled cheese.

Dinner ended up being much, much later. I decided to stay overnight, with my mom, at my grandparents' house. So, when we finally ate at 11 at night, it was pieced together from what my grandmom had around. We started with a boiled egg apiece, then moved on to these snacky little Mediterranean pizzas from the freezer, with feta, olives & tomatoes. I had a smidge of my grandmom's yummy potato salad, while my mom finished up the baked beans. All this accompanied by chocolate chai tea, with my mom's homemade chocolate cake (with orange zest in place of vanilla). Sounds like a very odd dinner, and sure to impart weird dreams, but it was tasty and well-appreciated after a hard day's work.

We started our morning with a Braeburn apple and key lime pie yogurt, then got to work again. I left for home at lunch-time and did another McDonald's run. I was too rushed to bother with something decent...and was really glad to be getting back to my kitchen that night! I suppose McDonald's is all well and good for some purposes, but it gets tiresome very quickly. Unless you're one of my kids.

I stopped for a vanilla latté on the way home, which gave me the energy to plunge into cooking as soon as I walked in the door. J was planning to grill the Lithuanian sausage, along with Bar S hot dogs for the kids. So, I made guacamole potato salad, unlovely to behold but superbly avocado-y. The kids were unwilling even to try it. I got the recipe from the June/July 2001 issue of Family Fun magazine.

Guacamole Potato Salad

3 lbs. red potatoes, cubed 2 crushed garlic cloves
2 tbsp. + 1-1 1/2 tsp. salt 1/2 c. chopped cilantro
1 avocado, peeled & pitted 2 tbsp. mayonnaise
2 tsp. grated lime zest 2 celery stalks, sliced
Juice of 2 limes (1/2 cup or so)

Boil potatoes with 2 tbsp. salt just until tender. Puree avocado, lime zest & juice, garlic, cilantro, mayonnaise and remaining salt until smooth. Mix this dressing with potatoes and celery. Chill.

We took the food down to the pool to grill. J & I had our sausage with The Ojai Cook's lemonaise, which is good with just about everything. We also had tortilla chips with market pico de gallo. Dessert was Pink Lady apples (J's favorite variety) and navel oranges.