A Dinner Made Out Of Sin

Refrigerator pickles! You know how we got that 'pickle pack' from our CSA? Well, yesterday I was looking in the refrigerator and realizing that I'd better use all that up before we left for the long weekend and I remembered that you can make refrigerator pickles! And that sounded good to me as I didn't have the time nor experience to do all the hot water stuff...

I made it pretty much the same, except I used 1/4 t celery seed powder and 1/4 t dill in place of the celery seeds and I didn't use crushed red pepper, I used those yellow paprika peppers! I also topped it off a little with vinegar and water, I hope that's okay. We'll see in 4 days! Notice I improvised and used the pickle jars we had in the refrigerator already. We had 2 jars of Milwaukee's Best Kosher Baby Dill Pickles and I dumped those out and washed the jars and used them for my pickles. Hah! Take that Milwaukee's Best! (They had been in there forever, really. No, I don't feel guilty for dumping out perfectly good pickles. Really, I don't. Really.).

Next up, a supper made from sin*. No, wait, that's not what I meant. A supper made from a mistake I made when trying to make burgers for our camping trip. See, you're supposed to chop up the walnuts in your food processor, then the rice, and then mix in everything else. Well, I had this brain wave to mix it all in the food processor. "Mix it all in the food processor!" I said to myself. Warning; error. So it turned into ?a puree? and I stuck it in the refrigerator (why do I keep wanting to spell that with a d as in refridgerator?!? argh!) in disgust. Later I thought, I'll make them into patties and bake them for supper. And then I thought they were 40 points and so I thought I'd make 40. So I did. I was really in the zen zone, rolling and patting and placing and scooping and rolling...
They turned out good! But my husband kept thinking they were ginger cookies. Next time I will make them bigger. And they were only 30 points.

*that's the last of the Artisan Bread in Five. It gets soggier as you go. More moist and tastier. And that's a bunch of CSA beans that I had to use before we left this weekend. If you're interested. Did you know that when you boil up the purple beans they just turn yellow? True fact.

Oh! Oh! AND I got to use my new HP sauce, straight from Canada that a friend brought me! Woo! I think it really makes this recipe. Frankly, I'm going to add it to any burger recipe I make.

Walnut Burgers

1 C walnuts (20)
1 1/2 C cooked rice (6)
1/4 C vital wheat gluten (2)
2 T Bacos
2 T water
1 T olive oil (4)
1 T HP sauce
1 t salt
1 t onion powder
1/2 t garlic powder
1/2 t browning sauce

Process until smooth. Make into 10 patties. Bake at 350 degrees for 20m or until browned.
Conversely, you can LIGHTLY process the walnuts, remove to a bowl, then the rice, remove to the bowl, then stir in by hand the rest of the ingredients and make more appealing burgers. Unless you want everyone to think they're cookies.

And here is a shot of some granola bars. Yumm. The time before last that we went up to our land up by Ely, the friends that we went with brought these. Well, I don't know if exactly these, I didn't get the recipe, but I think it's pretty much the same. She said it had wheat germ in it. My 'mix ins' were 1/2 C chopped cashews, 1/2 C chocolate chips, 1 C craisins. I can't wait to try them!! I have to say, if you make these, use a mixer. That is all.

So I've been kind of nuts running around making stuff for the camping trip. On today's docket: make Morning Glory Muffins and bake them, bake the felafel, make pitas and bake them and roll out flax seed crackers and bake them. The baking of the flax seed crackers will hopefully be accomplished on the grill as well as the pitas- can you put a pizza stone on the grill? We'll see. Tomorrow; prep flatbread ingredients, prep red lentil curry, prep desserts.

So, Eragon is not holding my attention. When surfing for 'camping dessert' is more interesting than your book, you know you're in trouble.

No knitting.