First Lenten Dinner
I cooked dinner last Friday for a Lenten dinner after Stations. For those of you who have me listed as a friend on Facebook, you may have seen the photos. For the rest, here's a recap.
I decided to do burritos with a variety of options to put in them. A burrito bar, so to speak. I bought most of the ingredients Thursday night, but had to return on Friday because I forgot some of the most important ones--rice and beans, specifically.
This is the "before" shot, of all the ingredients: brown rice, black beans, potatoes, squash, peppers, onion, mushrooms, jalapenos, corn, cheese, tortillas and limes.
Ingredients
I started cooking at about a quarter til three. Stations would be at 6:30, so I'd need to do it by then. Plenty of time.
The kitchen below St. Paul's has two stoves, so I could use several burners at once. (Probably a good thing, because I found the burner I was using for the squash didn't seem to be working. No wonder the squash was taking so long to cook!) If you remember, there were also some basketball games going on Friday, so I set up my laptop on the counter to watch/listen to the games as I cooked.
Setup
I started the brown rice first because I know it takes a while. I didn't have a lot of big pots or pans, so I had to boil the potatoes and grill the peppers in two batches. The squash sat in its pot/pan (I can't figure out if it's a pan because it has a handle or a pot because it has higher walls) for about an hour while I was wondering why it was taking so long to cook until I realized that the burner wasn't hot, so I transferred it to another burner. I grilled the portabello mushrooms a la Matt (who first showed me how to do that)--removing the stem, sprinkling the gills with oil and seasoning, and then placing it face-down on the burner until soft, then flipping it. I also did this serially because I only had one small pan left, big enough to hold one mushroom. Somewhere around the middle of this, I realized that I'd be done kind of early and that the food might get cold, so I took a 30 or 45 minutes break.
I can't seem to cook rice well. Maybe it's because I don't measure the ratio of water vs. rice, but it seems that when I make it, either it turns soupy or sticky. This looked decent, but was still a bit crunchy when I tasted it. When I cooked it further, it just turned into one huge clump (and crisped the bottom of the rice). I didn't drain my first can of beans, so they were a bit saucy, too. (I also added slightly too much cajun seasoning, but when it was combined with everything else in a burrito, it was OK.)
Green and Yellow
Portabello Mushroom
It turned out that I hadn't quite finished by the time Stations started. I was carrying the food upstairs and poking my head in to take pictures of Stations as I made the trips.
Stations
I love how you can see the incense hanging in the air in this picture.
The burritos turned out pretty well. People liked them, but unfortunately, only 10 people stuck around to eat. (On the other hand, these 10 people really went at the food, and there wasn't a whole lot left, so I don't know if I'd have been able to feed many more.)
I decided to do burritos with a variety of options to put in them. A burrito bar, so to speak. I bought most of the ingredients Thursday night, but had to return on Friday because I forgot some of the most important ones--rice and beans, specifically.
This is the "before" shot, of all the ingredients: brown rice, black beans, potatoes, squash, peppers, onion, mushrooms, jalapenos, corn, cheese, tortillas and limes.
Ingredients
I started cooking at about a quarter til three. Stations would be at 6:30, so I'd need to do it by then. Plenty of time.
The kitchen below St. Paul's has two stoves, so I could use several burners at once. (Probably a good thing, because I found the burner I was using for the squash didn't seem to be working. No wonder the squash was taking so long to cook!) If you remember, there were also some basketball games going on Friday, so I set up my laptop on the counter to watch/listen to the games as I cooked.
Setup
I started the brown rice first because I know it takes a while. I didn't have a lot of big pots or pans, so I had to boil the potatoes and grill the peppers in two batches. The squash sat in its pot/pan (I can't figure out if it's a pan because it has a handle or a pot because it has higher walls) for about an hour while I was wondering why it was taking so long to cook until I realized that the burner wasn't hot, so I transferred it to another burner. I grilled the portabello mushrooms a la Matt (who first showed me how to do that)--removing the stem, sprinkling the gills with oil and seasoning, and then placing it face-down on the burner until soft, then flipping it. I also did this serially because I only had one small pan left, big enough to hold one mushroom. Somewhere around the middle of this, I realized that I'd be done kind of early and that the food might get cold, so I took a 30 or 45 minutes break.
I can't seem to cook rice well. Maybe it's because I don't measure the ratio of water vs. rice, but it seems that when I make it, either it turns soupy or sticky. This looked decent, but was still a bit crunchy when I tasted it. When I cooked it further, it just turned into one huge clump (and crisped the bottom of the rice). I didn't drain my first can of beans, so they were a bit saucy, too. (I also added slightly too much cajun seasoning, but when it was combined with everything else in a burrito, it was OK.)
Green and Yellow
Portabello Mushroom
It turned out that I hadn't quite finished by the time Stations started. I was carrying the food upstairs and poking my head in to take pictures of Stations as I made the trips.
Stations
I love how you can see the incense hanging in the air in this picture.
The burritos turned out pretty well. People liked them, but unfortunately, only 10 people stuck around to eat. (On the other hand, these 10 people really went at the food, and there wasn't a whole lot left, so I don't know if I'd have been able to feed many more.)