It’s a cold, snowed-in Monday. While cabin fever will set in
soon, I don’t mind the day in, this past weekend was filled with parties,
gatherings, and food of all kinds. It all started Friday night.
One of the Meetup groups to which I belong hosted a white
elephant gift exchange and potluck. Unlike some of the other meetups, the key
to this particular event was to bring food already made, no cooking on-site. My
offering was a dessert, rice pudding. White rice was boiled with coconut water
until it reached its usual consistency. Lightly scented with the tropical fruit,
I then added whole milk, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg coconut flakes and raisins and
continued to cook it over low heat until creamy goopyness. However, my dish was
not the star of the show. Another member brought a curry that consisted of
yams, onion, garlic, tomatoes, peanuts and peanut butter, curry powder, roasted
red peppers, paprika, and other things that I can’t remember, all stewed
together in a crock pot. It was a sweet/savory, Thai/African dish that everyone
loved. Needless to say, there was none left.
Saturday was a birthday party, but dancing was more of a
focus than the food.
Sunday was back to back parties. The first was a “healthy
lunch” party. A friend of mine recently changed her diet and has been reaping
some serious health benefits, so she invited people over to share wealth.
Sunday proved that healthy and delicious are not mutually exclusive. Among the
appetizers were baked kale chips, homemade hummus with no oil (my concoction of
garbanzo beans with ½ the reserved liquid, lemon, salt, pepper, paprika,
parsley, chili powder, a little onion, and garlic, blended in the food
processor to a smooth consistency. The onion and garlic give enough liquid to
replace the oil) There was a Shepard’s pie made with ground turkey, fresh
vegetables, and topped with a blended cauliflower instead of mashed potatoes. The
host made a pulled chicken that was stuffed with apples, cranberries, cinnamon
and nutmeg. Cooked in a crock pot, it was pulled and had the consistency of pork,
but with a light, sweet flavor as well. One person brought a lasagna whose “cheese”
was made from pureed, soaked cashews and coconut milk. It was rich, creamy, and
provided a nuttiness to the vegetable layers that replaced pasta.
Sunday night was the super bowl. Before I go into the food,
let me just say that the game, for once, was far better than to commercials,
but I digress. As expected, wings, sandwiches, nachos, and pretty much the
polar opposite of everything I mentioned above was present. Much was store
bought, which for the purposes of a Super Bowl party, is completely acceptable.
My submission was a simple chili cheese dip, warmed in the oven to get some
browning on the cheese, then topped with sriracha. My favorite dish may have
been the chicken mole quesadilla. The pulled chicken was a dark brown from the
spice rub and was thickly layered between the two tortillas. Then again, home
made wings, drowning in a sauce of A-1, Worcestershire, Italian dressing, salt,
pepper, red pepper flakes, and baked (basting the wings in their own juices of
course) was quite the contender.
Good food, good friends, good times, great weekend. Too bad
it had to end in a snow storm.
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