Memorial Day weekend is here at last!
We kicked off our weekend with a Friday night grilling-and-game night and had a blast. The weather behaved beautifully for the occasion, and there weren’t even many mosquitoes to speak of – a true miracle up here in the late spring!
The chipotle franks were very good, as was the baked potato and, of course, the squash, cooked on the grill in a foil packet. You can’t go wrong with good summer squash and zucchini!
Saturday brought with it some excitement of its own – my first canning expedition! My friend Denise and I took to the kitchen with two quarts of strawberries to try our hand at strawberry jam. Though we had some trouble determining the “gelling point” – clearly, we needed a candy thermometer, which we did not have – and worried initially that we were going to be left with strawberry syrup instead, everything ended up as it should.
LeeLee and I also spent a good bit of Saturday preparing our new community garden plot for planting. It started off in a rather sorry state, but by the end of the day it was looking much better. Tomorrow, we’ll add some vegetable plants, which will make it look better still!
Before:
After:
And, finally, on Saturday night we grilled out once more, serving Tofurky kielbasa, baked potatoes, Brussels sprouts and sauerkraut to our friends. Everything was met to rave reviews (if I do say so myself!) – I think I’ve finally gotten the hang of Brussels sprouts!
Because we’re feeling all loosey-goosey this weekend at Chez Recessionista, I’m not including any stats for the weekend (though they’re all coming in around $5 or $6 a person a meal), but I feel the need to explain something anyway. Recently, we received some goodies from Tofurky in the hopes that we’ll give their new tempeh products a try (and, in fact, one is on the menu for next week, so stay tuned!). So over the next little while you’ll see the occasional product marked as “Free” in the stats, and that’s why. Thanks to Tofurky for letting me give some new products a whirl!
More barbecuing to come over the next few days, so stay tuned!
:)