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.
Yikes! I hate spiders! And all bugs!
Aw, that’s too bad about your dinner flop. It really looks amazing!
Um, wow. Your dessert has me drooling, seriously. I can’t take anymore of your wonderful creations, Angela! I’m gonna gain a trillion pounds! ;)
Oh, your backyard is absolutely beautiful. I love those flowers. The spiders and bugs, not so much, but they’re common in every backyard, right?
Could you add some more potatoes/veggies to the salad to strech out the extra garlic-y dressing? At least it looks tasty!
Ah, gotta love Alvin! When I was a kid we used to cottage in Sauble Beach every summer. We had a chipmunk named Chippy who was quite a character. One time my grandpa put a slice of roast ham on a paper plate on the ground next to his lawn chair (to be enjoyed later!) Chippy up and stole that slice of ham in no time flat – I only wish we had video of the slice of ham running across the lawn as the chipmunk stole it. We didn’t see Chippy for a few days after that so I’ll assume he was in “hog heaven” and taking his time enjoying it!
Aww Dang that dinner looked awesome! f it were me i’d attmept a remedy by mixing in a bunch of roughly chopped spinach and maybe a chopped red pepper and add some more oil or something to keep it moist. Perhaps a splash of Apple cider vinegar too. I would think by adding more veggies but no more pesto or garlic scapes the flavor will be less potent.
Love that lil chipmunk…just train him to eat those nasty bugs and spiders. Eeek!
As for saving your potato salad, what about some vegan cheese to mellow things out???
Even when I am camping and stand completely still with peanuts I don’t get chipmunks to get that close to me. Great video find. The mask as well as the eight legged guy creaped me out.
Chipmunks! There are no chipmunks in my area. I don’t think I’ve ever seen one! The closest thing we have are squirrels, but they are skinny and gray. I want a chubby chipmunk pet!
I can’t believe that dinner flopped! It has to be the paprika/pesto combo. Maybe try leaving it out next time?
That chipmunk is too cute!! He looks totally trainable. :)
Okay so this post it a TOTAL deja vu for me. Last week we were at the cottage and my bf took over 200 photos of chimpmunks and bugs. I wasn’t allowed to post them on my blog because he was waiting for the perfect moment to release them.
Too bad about the dinner flop :(
But your dessert definately made up for it I’m sure!
So, I finally got around to finding/buying coconut oil!! Now I need something to make with it!
Can you recommend the best/favorite thing (or two!) to try out first??
:)
Try making my raw choc chip cookies + chocolate chips (recipe page)…yum!
Alvin is precious. I love his little ear. You should totally teach him tricks. That dessert looks amazing.
I love how you package the globars. Those boxes are just perfect. So crisp + clean! Well, yes…dinner does sound amazing! Your dessert looks adorable..love the last shot in the tea cup!! SO cute :) I feel ya on the bugs….blegh!
Hi Angela! I love your website and have been creepin’ on it for a few months now without making any comments. I figure now would be a good time to start. I love banana soft serve, love chipmunks, love flowers, but HATE those bugs! The world would be a better place if they weren’t so scary lookin’!
It’s just the worst when a dish flops, especially when you have someone waiting on it for you :/
Potato and paprika is normally a real winner, maybe just sprinkle it over the top of the dish at the end? As well as maybe not adding the onion and garlic scapes, perhaps the pesto needed thinned out a bit more. Usually pesto is quite runny, but that’s because of all the oil. It can seem a bit mad having all that oil in one thing, but basically pesto is just oil with herbs and nuts blended in. I hope Eric ate it too, then he won’t have noticed your vampire defying breath! The desserts looks delicious, you totally rescued the situation:)
haha yea he ate it with ketchup on top! LOL. Still didnt like it :(
Wonderful outdoor pics! Your backyard is so… “outdoorsy” ; )
Dessert looks and sounds delish (I made cherry coconut butter banana bread today!).
Good luck with the rest of your work week — do you still have an assistant? If so, we sure don’t hear much about her.
Too much garlic!!?? I have yet to come across a garlicy dish that has defeated me, I bet I would have loved that :P
You get CHIPMUNKS wild!?That’s SO cool!! I wish we had wild ones in England :'(
Cake batter softserve sounds amazing! Alvin the Chipmunk looks cute, the bugs not so much!
Your dessert looks great. Interesting story: I’ve been eating different variations of banana soft serve for some time now. My husband stopped with a friend for frozen yogurt, and brought me back a little cup last night. Even as I gobbled it down, I couldn’t help thinking that my banana soft serve was just as good. . . possibly better. Now that is the true measure of a dessert!
I agree…as soon as I started making BSS my cravings for ice cream went away! Crazy,.
I saw the grainy stuff on your spoon and got all excited thinking it was brown sugar. I am a big, big fan of brown sugar… but your Cherry Banana (can’t remember the whole name?!) loaf looks incredibly delicious too! :D
Alvin is sooo cute! My mom is so scared of all rodents. She even calls rabbits “rats”! Jeesh.
Wei-Wei