I haven't been cooking much because, with all the moving around of furniture, my kitchen was messy. But I now make it the priority room to clean and fix up, so that I can sustain myself while doing other activities. ;-) Today I made pancakes, portobello hamburgers, and prepped a bunch of rhubarb to make dessert tomorrow.
A friend once made grilled portobellos and they were SO good, that I was excited to see a recipe for them in my latest cookbook splurge: Get It Ripe by Jai Steele. I even found wee portobellos that would fit nicely in hamburger buns.
The big trick, though, was my determination to use my indoor grill. Mother bought this for us I think around our wedding, since grilling was a Fine Tradition on that side of the family. (My grandfather was a great cook in general, including the barbie, and I remember one summer visiting my mother where all we ate was boston broils on the BBQ.)
I took the grill out to use once, when I first got it, and was overwhelmed by the directions. It's FULL of warnings. Don't do this! Wash it like this! Do this the first time! Most alarming was the message that it was going to smoke for the first 15 minutes, the first time it was used. wtf! That's the one that threw me off all this time. I don't have anywhere to cook on my balcony, and I didn't want a smoke filled home!
Anyway, I decided it's time to try out the barb, since I'm all about The Cooking. I read the instructions about 5 times through. Washed all the parts and carefully dried it. Found that I could stand it evenly on my stove--where there's an oven fan in case of smoking. I got the big fan and pointed it into the kitchen, towards the open balcony door. All Ready.
And then there was pretty much no smoke. So the spell has been broken and I can use the barb. I've discovered that the main thing needed for using appliances is convenience--if they're set out in convenient places, I'll use them. I just reorganized my kitchen so that I have two long shelves with all my appliances neatly set out.
Anyway... here are my photos from The Big Barb Attempt! After 11 years, finally christened. And I must say the burgers were great--better than any vegan burger recipes I've tried making, which always fall apart.
Fernando is now about to try them. I haven't informed them that they're made of portobellos, which I kept hidden all day while they were marinating. He hates mushrooms. I'm hoping to fool him. ...I'm back. Didn't fool him. Out for mushroom burgers, though he was a good sport. I made him a fruit smoothie as recompense.
We also took this little kitchen table from my brother. I was dithering over whether to take it, but with a jolly table cloth and my old chairs (which I painted and upholstered a long time ago, and I love them) it's been a great addition to the kitchen.
[That damn kid is pointing his laser pointer into our apt again. If only he'd shine it towards the floor so Haley could chase it.]
