It was with a little trepidation that we faced my latest experiment, a vegan recipe I found on Pinterest. I had invited the kids over for lunch, mostly because I got a big bag of artichokes from Costco, and when my daughter was over cutting my hair, I showed her my prize. Kid has a way of looking with big doe eyes at me when she wants something, and she barely has to express in words a request before I'm volunteering whatever it is. She got that look at my artichokes, so without missing a beat, I started asking what day would be good for them to come over for a cookout. Today worked out best for all of us.
I started prepping things a few hours before they showed up. That's when I found the recipe for "chickpea fries" and a vegan "cheese" dip. I'm a fan of foods made with chickpeas in general, and I always have a bag of chickpea flour in the house. The recipe was so simple it seemed like a trick. Boiling water, chickpea flour, salt, pepper. Optional, curry powder. When I was a teenager, I faced foods like this, and was horrified when I found myself obligated to eat them. Still, Adult Anne was game to try. Boil water. Dump in a tablespoon of curry powder, salt, and pepper. Add chickpea flour. Realize that it turns into a gel almost immediately. Once again pat myself on the back for having the gumption to buy a new, powerful wand blender from Costco last year. Without the immersion blender, this would have never made it out of the gate. But I smoothed it into a thick batter, and put it in a parchment paper lined pan to chill. Closer to lunchtime, I cut it into strips the size of steak fries and baked them along with the roasting artichokes. The "cheese" sauce was a little weird. It was supposed to be carrots, red lentils, coconut milk, and nutritional yeast. I thought I had an old bag of dried lentils tucked away, but apparently they had been used in something forgettable. So it was really more of a savory carrot and coconut cream (back with the immersion blender). I didn't keep the Pinterest page open long enough to read the proportions of each, so I winged it. It was okay. I didn't get a cheese vibe out of it, but we all ended up being surprised at how much we liked it all.
I had marinated some chicken for us and eggplant for the kids, which came out well too. Nearly everything went on the grill, while I limped around inside, regretting how much energy I'd put into the day. I'd had to stop halfway through the food prep process to tackle the ludicrous amount of junk that had been piled on the peninsula, that I pretended I didn't see for the whole time I was dealing with my diagnosis and surgery. I was just out of clean counter space on which to make lunch, and we couldn't work around it any longer. It made lunch later, like after 3 pm, but it afforded Mr S-P and our son-in-law time to construct the second garden bed, which we've needed for a few weeks now. I was wiped out for the rest of the day, wishing that my latest incision was healed enough for the hot tub (it's not). I've got to learn how to pace myself properly. I'm either racing around trying to do all the things at the same time, or I'm one with my chair and ottoman, feeling like I contribute nothing to this household other than to be a bed for a pack of very tame housecats.
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