Good evening!
Today has been another busy one as I catch up from last week’s Canada Day Glo Out. I am happy to say by tomorrow at noon I will have over 25 orders shipped out. I hope to have everything shipped out by Wed/Thurs. I also have a big Ambrosia order to bake tomorrow and then market prep Thurs + Fri! Going to fly by as usual.
Two reasons why I was excited about dinner tonight:
1) CSA red potatoes
and
2) Cold dinner (it hit 37/99F today!)
I decided to make a cold pesto potato salad using up some of my vegan garlic scape pesto and other random things in the fridge!
First, I boiled about 10 small red potatoes for about 10-15 minutes until tender. As the potatoes were cooking, I chopped 1 large green onion, 1 garlic scape, and 2 tomatoes.
I put the tomatoes in a small bowl and added about 1/3 cup of the vegan garlic scape pesto and some paprika (for no other reason than just being obsessed with it).
I stirred this very well and added about 1 tbsp of cold-pressed sunflower oil to thin it out. I drained the taters and mixed everything in a bowl…
I also added some lemon zest and a couple squirts of lemon, along with tons of freshly ground black pepper and sprinkled of kosher sea salt.
In theory, it was the perfect dinner. That is my story and I am sticking to it.
In theory, it was awesome. In real life it was not so great.
Too much garlic + onion…and yes, dad there is such a thing as too much garlic! :lol:
It overpowered the entire dish and I just was not a fan. If I were to make this again I would not add scapes + green onion because the pesto is already very garlicky. I’m kind of stumped on this one…does anyone have any ideas on how to save this dish? Maybe it was the pesto mixed with he paprika too…
In other news, there will be no vampires near me tonight! Poor Eric is working late and will probably choke this down when he gets home. I will warn him, don’t worry! Then he will say something to the effect of, ‘If YOU don’t like it, it must be really, really bad!!!"’ I will agree.
What does a girl do when dinner is a flop in the taste department?
She makes a wicked delicious dessert and she forgets it happened. That is, until she enters the kitchen and sees all the dishes waiting to be cleaned.
Yes please.
Pretty please with a cherry on top!
(I can’t be the only one who used to say that to their mom?)
The ‘monster’ told me to make something sweet and to hurry it up! So demanding!
I made cake batter banana soft serve (1 frozen banana processed with 1.5 tbsp carob powder), and had it along with a cherry, banana, coconut butter mini loaf (drizzled with maple butter) and some cacao nibs.
I don’t fool around. This was pure bliss and I enjoyed every cold and sweet bite after a long and sticky day of work.
It melted soooo fast in this heat!
I also snapped more backyard pictures…
Presenting the things I love about our backyard…
[Warning: If you are scared of spiders I suggest you do not go any further!]
1) Flowers!
2) Basil I haven’t killed yet (although I was NOT pleased to see a spider web on my basil today!!)
3) Animal Homes
4) CHIPMUNKS!!!!!
Meet Alvin! :biggrin: I know, I know I am too original. He loves us because we fill up the bird feeder every week and he hangs upside down to eat from it.
Isn’t he beautiful? I totally want to train him to do tricks.
This is a MUST WATCH:
I laughed So hard when I watched that video!!! Totally was not expecting that! I also was totally creeped out by that man with the mask…!?!? :lol:
You can just tell that Alvin would be an excellent participant.
Presenting things I do not like about our backyard…
1) %#^$&^@&#*^*&#!!!!!
What nightmares are made of!
(No, I did not get this close, I zoomed and cropped a photo, but I’m sure you knew that!!!)
I like to pretend that these bugs do not really exist. I’m much happier as a result.
That is a huge spider! I would not like it in my back yard.
Cold dinners are the best on hot days…. I anticipate lots of cold dinners this week!
What a bummer about dinner. I thought it sounded really good! Maybe you could try replacing some of the pesto with plain Greek yogurt?
At least your dessert looks amazing! Yesterday’s heat definitely called for some frozen treats!
I hate when you get so excited for dinner and then it just doesn’t work out. Sounds like the garlic and onion were a bit overpowering, so maybe try cutting back on the onion a bit and maybe adding a light cashew based cream dressing to the pesto to mellow out the taste a bit? Some dijon mustard in potato salad is always good in my books too ;)
My husband was laughing at me at our picnic dinner this weekend because I LOVE the outdoors but FREAK over bugs. I don’t do spiders, cockroaches, and anything that stings especially.
That does sound like it would be an amazing blend of flavors. I’m surprised it didn’t turn out. I bet you will find a way to make it taste even better if you make it again. And I agree that delicious desserts are always the way to salvage a not so great dinner.
Aw, I love chipmunks! We used to feed two at our cottage (named Chip and Dale, so don’t feel bad about naming yours Alvin, haha). That potato salad looked amazing, too bad it didn’t taste as good as it looks!
I was away from civilization (no internet) for the weekend, so I just caught up on your posts from the weekend. Congrats on having your biggest week of sales at the Farmer’s Market, yet. That’s amazing! You must feel so empowered!
Sorry your dinner didn’t turn out great…I hate it when that happens. But you dessert definitely looks like it more than made up for it!
Oh my good gracious, excess garlic and onion! I would be running!!
I always ask my hubby if he can hose down the backyard in the morning (to destroy spider webs etc.) around the eating area. I am SO afraid to eat out there otherwise, because of the bugs :-(
I’ve had some of those dinner flops as well….never thought of having a delish dessert to counteract though. Good gosh, I need to make banana soft serve but I just hate taking out my big ol’ food processor for such a small serving, wonder if my magic bullet would work….hmmm, might have to try that one.
Eeeek spiders and bugs, TX has them all, hate them….hate them! And I’m an outdoorsey kinda gal too. LOL!
I had tater salad on Sat. but it was the original yucky kind, oh well.
WHAT IN GODS NAME is that SPIDER!?? URGGHHH if I saw one of those in my house, i’d flip.
Wait..I have. >:| In the maritimes we have stupidly big spiders, too, but I haven’t seen any with legs like yours…ughhh.
ON THE BRIGHT SIDE, your dessert looks fantastic!
A dinner flop definitely calls for a delicious dessert! That little chipmunk is adorable – the bugs, not so much!