The picnic food

[feather]

We had a picnic with friends yesterday. Maybe they'll chime in.

I forgot as much food as I remembered. The cooler was full, so, I thought I remembered everything. I forgot two dressings, one kind of beans, pickled garlic and mixed pickled vegetables and more.

We had lettuce and tomatoes, beans and beans, lentils, sweet sour and dill pickles, quinoa, wheat berries. Our friends brought a delicious cooling watermelon. Fruit salad, and danish gingerbread balls. I promised recipes so I'll post them here.

Emeril's Sweet Sour pickles. This made 13 pints. EDIT: the entire brine recipe makes enough brine for 23 pints.

These were made last summer (they have a lot of sugar in them).

9 lbs of sliced cucumbers-soaked in 1/2 cup salt and covered with water, then drained.

Brine:

6 cups of vinegar

3 cups of apple cider vinegar

7 cups sugar (ouch)

4 T mustard seeds

1 t turmeric

1 whole clove per jar

10 T chopped garlic

1/2 t pickle crisp per jar

The jars were JAMMED with cucumbers leaving extra brine. Processed pints for 15 minutes in a boiling water bath.

Dill Pickle Chips

Again I jammed pickle slices (mandolin operated by DH) into the jars, so used less brine.

Per pint Jar: 1/2 t pickle crisp, a few fronds of dill weed, 1 t mustard seeds (or more).

Brine: 10 T salt to 2 and 1/4 cups water and 6 cups of vinegar, 1/4 cup sugar.

Process pints for 15 minutes in a boiling waterbath.

In both cases, for the pickles I 'thought' they might be too dilute and tasteless, with less brine and more cucumbers because we worked very hard to get lots of cucumber in the jars. After sitting about 3 months they were excellent. So no worries on repeating this. The less brine the less sugar and they tasted great.

BBQ sauce (which I forgot but it is really tasty on the lentils and mung beans) (one pint)

6 oz tomato paste

2 cups water

(or 2 and 1/2 cups of thick tomato sauce)

1 T each of ac vinegar, molasses, maple syrup

2 t liquid smoke

1 t each soy sauce, red pepper, smoked paprika

1/2 t each garlic powder, onion powder, black pepper

Maple Mustard sauce/dressing (I doubled this to make a cup)

In a sauce pan:

3/4 t corn starch

1/4 cup maple syrup

1/4 cup ac vinegar

1 T soy sauce

(2 T tahini paste/sauce)

2 t ground mustard

1/4 t sweet paprika

1/2 t onion powder

1/2 t garlic powder

(cayenne pepper to taste)

Bring to a boil, then cool and store in the refrigerator.

Catalina Dressing (one pint)

4 T maple syrup

1/2 cup water

1/2 cup vinegar

1 T ac or other flavored vinegar

2 t lemon juice

2 T tomato paste (or ketchup)

(tahini)

2 T miso paste

1 t sweet paprika

1/4 t chili powder

1/8 t celery seed

1/4 t mustard powder

1 t onion powder

2 T onion flakes

1 t garlic powder

S&P to taste

I like this dressing alone.

Catalina dressing with tomato (my husband likes this one) (one pint)

1/2 cup catalina dressing and 1 and 1/2 cups tomato sauce mixed together.

Lemon Ginger Green Goddess Dressing (one pint)

1/2 cup packed basil leaves

1/2 cup packed parsley leaves

(1 avocado) I subbed romaine leaves to give it more body and no fats.

1/4 cup lemon juice

1/4 cup garlic (I used 3 big cloves)

1/2 cup green onions

1/4 cup oat milk or other milk

2 T ac vinegar

2 T fresh ginger

1/2 t lemon zest

1 T miso paste

1 t black pepper

Process this in a food processor or blender. Very strong flavored.

Strawberry vinaigrette for fruit or veg salads (1 cup)

1/2 cup strawberries

Juice from one lemon and zest

1 T honey or maple syrup

2 t dijon mustard

2 T water

1/4 t vanilla

S&P to taste, blend in a blender.

I like this one and I forgot to bring it.

Danish Gingerbread Balls

In a food processor:

20 dates

1-2 T water

1 ounce of quality 90% dark chocolate bar

1 t cinnamon

1/4 t cloves

1/2 t allspice

1/2 t ginger

1/4 t cardamom

Blend until mixed well then add:

6 T or more of old fashioned oatmeal, blend.

With wet hands, make into small balls and refrigerate.

Dh wants these again!

Next time I go on a picnic, I'll make a list so I don't forget stuff.

[Cabin Fever]

For supper tonight, I made these Asian Crispy Brussels Sprouts. I did not use oil or salt. I also used low-sodium soy sauce instead of regular. Baked the sprouts on parchment paper. These sprouts were delicious!

thebakermama.com/recipes/crispy-asian-brussels-sprouts/

Below are the brussel sprouts I made tonight. Some may think these are burnt. No, there is some char (which is good) but most of the dark is the sauce.

[feather]

Cabin Fever, they look good and I like brussel sprouts. I love using parchment in the oven (when it isn't crazy hot outside and in the house). No mess to clean up and vegetables get browned.

[vickilynn]

Wow, it all sounds so good, although I dare not eat anything with vinegar or spicy.

Tomorrow we are going on a drive to find the remnants of Ohio’s tall grass prairies and to see some covered bridges. I made gf zucchini blueberry muffins, cheese cubes, and watermelon. I have to eat very simple foods because I have chronic gastritis. Tom will take a peanut butter sandwich also.

[feather]

Jul 21, 2019 0:13:29 GMT vickilynn said:

Wow, it all sounds so good, although I dare not eat anything with vinegar or spicy.

Tomorrow we are going on a drive to find the remnants of Ohio’s tall grass prairies and to see some covered bridges. I made gf zucchini blueberry muffins, cheese cubes, and watermelon. I have to eat very simple foods because I have chronic gastritis. Tom will take a peanut butter sandwich also.

Your stomach sounds like my DH's for years and years. He ate tums many times per day. Then in april he went low fat, no added oils, no added refined sugar, plant based, and he was telling his doctor yesterday that he hasn't had a tums since april. Now he can use vinegar and he eats things with some spices. It took him a while to get used to it, but he's happy with it now.

I hope you have a really nice drive. Dh is bugging me to make something like your zucchini blue berry muffins.