Porch Picnic

Here's the menu for tomorrow. Once again, I am challenged with preparing epicurean delights for my vegan sister-in-law. I used to resent that mightily, intolerant as I am of people's "food issues." But I've come to love it. So, instead of when I would open up a can of baked beans for her while we all enjoyed my pot roast, these days I'm orienting the entire menu to exclude meat, fish, dairy, eggs, butter, and whatever else doesn't come up out of the ground.

Couldn't quite hold myself back on the shrimp salad, although she can have it without the shrimp. And I decided to go ahead and make my barbequed chicken. But pretty much, everything is fair game for her.

•Mexican Corn Salad with Sweet Corn, Black Beans, and Tomatoes (Easiest thing in the world. I'm roasting the corn and the tomatoes today.)

•Vietnames Shrimp Salad (Make the salad out of seeded and skinned cucumbers, sesame oil, lime juice, honey, a wee little bit of rice wine vinegar, red onions, mint, basil, and cilantro. Then over a high heat in a cast iron skillet, cook off the shrimp with sesame oil and lots and lots and lots of Tabasco sauce. The end result is that you've got this cool, sweet cucumber salad paired with little balls of shrimpy fire.)

•Barbequed Chicken (Best made over a smokey Weber grill--not the gas grills, a waste of money if there ever was one--where you soak hickory chips in water and put them over the coals. I'm making it in the oven. At a verrrrry low heat. I slice up peaches and sweet onions, and douse it all in Balsamic vinegar. Then put it in the oven for eleven days and just forget about it. Amazing.)

•Roasted Yukon Gold Potatoes Paired with Roasted Green Beans. (Tossed with walnut oil, black pepper, and kosher salt, in the oven at 500°, first the potatoes, then add the greenbeans. I think I'll have some chilled chevre standing by to finish it, if the non-vegans around the table are so inclined.)

•Sautéed Zucchini (Oh yeah. Dust with flour, salt and pepper, and sauté. In walnut oil instead of butter. I'll have some shaved parmesan at hand, again for the non vegans. When I was a little kid, my family used to make an entire meal out of just sautéed zucchini.)

•Cantalope Salad (So simple. Balled cantelope. Mint. Basil. Lime juice. Honey.)

So, there'll be some good eatin' at the Kramer's tomorrow.

Hope all of you enjoy the weekend, too.

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