It was a fun weekend, this whole weekend with the #park30reunion. Being part of the planning committee was also pretty fun, and I won’t speak for anyone else, but, I love planning parties, and feeding people, too.
Friday Night, was an awesome ice breaker at Blue Rock, owned and operated by one of our own, Mark Thomas. It was nice, hanging out up on the 2nd floor, and Mark made 3 pizzas. They’re really good pizzas. Eleazar brought his homemade pico de gallo with chips, and if you didn’t have any, you missed out, big time! And, being that I wanted to give people their money’s worth for the reunion, I’d made a ton of food... It was delicious, and I was a little disappointed that more of it didn’t get eaten up, but, I did get to give some out to one of the mayoral candidate’s volunteer staff, so that was a good save. Here are pictures of what I made, with the help of my hubby, Mike, and he was very helpful, because my back really was aching making all of it. But, for those who ate, I hope it was suffice.
Mini Indian Tacos
Here is a little history on Indian tacos... When the Native Americans were first put onto their respected reservations, one of the few things that were given for cooking purposes was those old fashioned deep fryers in a thing similar to Olla pots, and large amounts of government cooking oil, that no one else seemed to want. Bread dough ended up being deep fried, and here was the birth of “fry bread”, and is used in place of the tortillas, therefore, Indian tacos.
Spinach Balls & Vegetarian Indian Tacos
Here are vegetarian Indian tacos, on the right.
On the left, is a pan of Spinach Balls. I know it seems weird, I thought so, too, but, when I tried it, it was pretty good. So, I figured I’d test it out on my classmates, though I don’t think they went over well, since anything like spinach balls sounds, well. I don’t know... It’s spinach, stuffing croutons, Parmesana eggs, onion, and seasoning. It’s actually pretty good.
3 different types of my sushi rolls
With sushi being a big craze, it was fun making these different rolls. I wanted to go with meatless options, and I also wanted to do something different. Here they are, courtesy of, me. lol
1) Spanish-Italian Rolls: Mix of mostly sushi grade white rice with quinoa, another whole grain, seasoned with traditional sushi rice seasonings, as well as garlic and basil (that’s the Italian part). In the middle, were Spanish bell pepper and green onion. Unique, and it came out really well.
2) Under the Forest Rolls: Traditional sushi rice, with seasoned shiitake mushrooms, which grows in forested areas, green onions/chives, which seem to like to grow in somewhat wooded areas, and takuan, a pickled Japanese radish called daikon. This is my favorite vegetable based roll, and I don’t recall seeing this in any restaurants. So, my maiden name, Morishita, means under the forest, so that is what I call it.
3) Root River rolls: Made with water from the Root River. Okay, just kidding. It’s not. I used balsamic vinegar in place of the usual, and because it is dark, it “murks” the color of the rice, similar to how the Root River water is murky. The flavor is a pleasant change from the usual, but not super distinct. I used bell pepper and green onion, though you can be creative as to what you roll in the middle. It’s the balsamic vinegar that makes it “root river”, after our pride and joy, feeding into our Great Lake Michigan.
Japanese style sesame chicken
This sesame chicken has the distinct sesame flavor, but there is no thick breading, and does not have a sauce covering it. The sesame is in the marinade. Equally good as the Chinese restaurant counterpart, but also unique in its own way.
It was fun, and then, of course, Saturday was over at Dewey’s. With the set up, it was nice, because all of the food was catered. It was a nice spread, with cheese, crackers, soft pretzels w/ cheese, pita chips with hummus, shrimp cocktail, fresh veggie tray, sliders, and fresh fruit! The fresh fruit on a stick was my favorite. Oh, and there were cupcakes, too. It was super good.
The best part of Saturday was Duo Sonic, and everybody shaking their stuff. We had a really good crowd, and I think even the bar tender had fun, too. The band even played a little bit extra for us. It was cool. My personal contribution for Saturday’s event was the class/memorial video, to commemorate those from our class that we lost, as well as to celebrate the rest of us, all wrapped up in one. Music on the video is me, on harmonica w/ the Park fight song, Forever Young by Alphaville, and Never Say Goodbye by Bon Jovi, our class song. Thank you for watching, and your kind/encouraging words about the video.
Sunday afternoon, we had a cookout at OTL (short for On The Level), and we had a more relaxed pace to the fun. Another one of our own, Darrick Pittman, owns OTL. A big shout out goes to Sabina’s BF, for being the grill master for this event. Perfect burgers, hot dogs, and brats. Thank you. Again, I made a couple of things.
Potato Salad
There is a ton of veggies in this recipe, because it calls for a bell pepper, celery sticks, 3 bunches of green onion, and some radishes, all minced. Then, just put enough salad dressing (Miracle Whip) to make it damp. I let people add their own salt and pepper on their plates. It has good flavor w/o adding more, to be able to taste the different things in there. I think this went over pretty well.
Baked Beans
People who know me well, know that I do not have a kitchen in my house. It’s actually a dysfunctional kitchen... But it’s a science lab, that produces things good to eat. I like to use dry pinto beans or black beans, for extra flavor. Recipes are often just a suggestion, or a guide. This batch of baked beans also had a hint of Lazer, because I used some of his pico de gallo to add even more flavor into the mix. The rest, is my mad scientist secret.
Anyways, I’d like to give huge kudos to Krissy, Sabi, Lazer, and Vikki for all of their hard work and dedication to make this weekend a rocking party weekend. I figure I kind of had the easy part, stalking all of you for your current addresses, and then doing what I do, which is cook. Thank you for being awesome teammates in planning this event. I think we got to bond and get to know each other better, in ways that we weren’t able to back in high school.
I also want to thank every person who came, especially those who ate my food. Satisfaction is watching people enjoy what is served. We had a blast, the whole weekend. My back and knees will be talking to me for a while, from the stair climbing on both Friday and Saturday nights, and dancing on Saturday, but it will be worth the connections.
A recurring thought between Serena, Michael, Connie, myself, and a few others are that we should not wait until the next reunion, nor should we wait for a funeral to get back together. Life is short, and life is precious. We need to stay in touch better, more often, and have no regrets. Thanks to everyone who came, for helping to make the events totally fun. Let’s stay in touch, and not be strangers.
No comments:
Post a Comment