Monday, May 12, 2008

Mom's Day (part II: secret of the cheeze)

Mother's Day was to include a dinner cooked for the moms and matriarch of the Garvey clan. In truest Garvey fashion, I had finished the dessert (mom's Italian cookies) first. With the cookies out of the way, that left my Mother's Day morning wide open, so I planned to direct my culinary prowess in a slightly more savory outlet. Specifically, a few side dishes. And well... we're Irish.
As we were planning on grilling, I figured we'd need some of these starchy treats to counteract all of the juices from those hefty, mouth-watering, bloody boca burgers. 
...
Okay. I was the only abstaining from cow, and believe me. I heard about it all night.

I sliced the potatoes (baby red, yukon gold and sweet varieties) into wedges.
I then tossed them with a few tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil, kosher salt, and a whole mess of fresh ground black pepper.
After 45 minutes in the oven (tossing half-way through), I squeezed two fresh limes over the wedges, cranked MORE black pepper over them, tossed them, and served.

With dish #1 in the bag, I moved on to a slightly less orthodox recipe (for our family anyway). The way I figured, what side goes better with grilled flesh than some creamy macaroni and "cheeze"? 

Yeah. I went vegan.

In the spirit of the holiday, I did warn my mom, even going so far as to show her the recipe I would be following. She still ate it. You'd think it was Son's Day. I was so prideful and honorable.

I took this:
and added this:
and wound up with this:

Truth time. I didn't take any pictures of the initial batch. Things were kind of hectic as dinner was being served, so I didn't have time. I did, however, have leftovers, which, like any pleased cook, I happily ate tonight.

But you'll have to check back tomorrow for words and pictures of that. 'Tis a whole separate post...

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