Part of the reason for limited posting this season has been the energy we’ve been putting into my daughter’s wedding last weekend. The video will give you a taste of the festivities.
Corey and Noah’s wedding in 2:40
Category: Food
Treble in the kitchen
That was the theme of last weekend’s Memorial Day potluck. Ticket to get in: a dish and a song about it. My favorite dish (and not a bad song):
Here’s the playlist with most of the songs.
And some pix shot by Marc and Carol. (More in Carol’s Facebook Photos.)
Elly with the menu.
(Most) everyone around the fire pit.
Elly, Corey and Elaine.
Me and Nate.
Corey and Noah once again take home one of the prizes — a vinyl record melted into a bowl.
Saying goodbye to Corey.
Imperial tofu poohbahs
Last Memorial Day at Carol and Marc’s, the theme of the day was jello. This year it was tofu, and the best in show award went to our daughter Corey and her boyfriend Noah for their tofu spring roll entry, beating out the tofu walnut balls and a load of entries in the dessert category.
Nate learned not to chase frisbees into the nettles barefoot.
Corey and Noah check out the water garden.
Bittersweet weekend. Lots of excitement with friends and family and graduation going on here in Ithaca. But Fred the Dalmatian is very sick. He had kidney stone surgery last Tuesday and had complications that required a second surgery. We got to see him today and got him to eat a little bit. He’s weak and thin and not out of the woods yet. Please send some good thoughts his way.
Local foods Catch-22
Thought-provoking column (under the header ‘Arugula Politics’) in this morning’s Washington Post: Go Slow, Foodies. It’s the Way to Win.
Shorter version: The problem with transforming the food system is that it takes a holistic approach. And that has movers and shakers thinking that foodies lack focus. How can politicians get behind foodies when their issues are all over the map, from tilling up the White House lawn for a garden to reducing cow flatulence?
I’ve long been a fan of the Thom Harmann view of politics: We, the people, are a parade. And when we get enough marchers all headed in the right direction, politicians will quickly jump in front and declare themselves the drum majors.
The good news is, the local foods band is growing by leaps and bounds. Witness the article Good Eats in Cornell Alumni Magazine. The feature details how faculty, educators, students and alumni-turned-farmers aren’t waiting for the policy changes. They’re plowing ahead and laying the groundwork for local foods now.
Join the march.
Jello contest
On Memorial Day, as is the tradition, my sister-in-law Carol and her S.O. Marc (his woodwork featuring carved wooden bowls and sculpture make great gifts) hosted a lovely picnic at their place. They decided that we should all get back to our somewhat redneck roots and have a jello contest along with the other festivities.
You may want to try something like this at your July 4th celebration or other summer gathering.
I suggested someone try this garden salad or meat entombed in gelatinous horror from the Gallery of Regrettable Food. But the description scared everyone off.
While not jello, Bob and Ginny got us off to a good start with a Costal Ozark Sushi appetizer — basically pickles and cream chees wrapped in white bread. Not bad.
Our artist friend Lori made this All Star entry from scratch.
One of my favorites, my brother-in-law Charles’ dish had a key favorite ingredient: Spam. He definitely won the ‘Savory’ category.
My mother-in-law Eunice used to serve this to her kids. They called it glop then. They call it glop (endearingly) now. They don’t hold it against her. It’s jello powder, cottage cheese, canned fruit and CoolWhip. Mmmmm…mmmmm.
This is my Pond Scum. It’s a riff on my Mom’s standard lime jello/7-Up/canned fruit mix. The evil guy is my Mexican tequila cork.
Marc was just coming off a sinus infection. You don’t want to know.
Carol’s entry was my favorite. It tasted like an orange creamsicle. Maybe she’ll link to the recipe in the comments.
Friend Helen brought a specially blessed dessert: If you look carefully, you can see the Virgin Mary in the nut topping.
I don’t remember much about this layered entry from Bob and Ginny, but it was all starting to blur together by then. But that’s what happens when you put six or seven gelatinous desserts on top of a big meal. We were all starting to get a little whoozy.
And the winner was: Jello-Wello. A true oxymoron, this healthy jello concoction by Liz has fresh fruit, splenda, granola and all sorts of stuff you won’t find in most jello dishes.
Got any favorite jello or other redneck recipes? Share ’em.