We had a very nice dinner tonight. I made a tabbouleh salad, avocados with a caper dressing, pan-fried pork chops, and bread & tzaziki. We couldn't grill the meat as there wasn't any propane left for the BBQ, but Gregory deglazed the pan (with orange juice & white wine) that I had cooked the pork in, so we had a delicious sauce as well. It was great.
Greg said the tabbouleh salad was the best, so here's how I made it:
first I cooked 1/3 cup of couscous in 2/3 cups boiling water (I added chicken bouillon, but you could just add salt for a vegetarian version) add 1 tsp olive oil to water. When the water boils, cover the pot, remove from heat and let sit for 5 mins. fluff it up with a fork.
In a large bowl, whisk together 1/3 cup of olive oil, 2 cloves of garlic, crushed,(1 would be fine), and the juice of 2 lemons. This will be the dressing. Oh, add pepper & salt, too.
You will need 1 cup each of the following;
tomatoes, cucumber, green onion and parsley. Also at least 1/2 cup mint. All chopped finely.
Toss veggies, herbs & couscous all together with the dressing in the large bowl.
Transfer to a smaller serving bowl and refrigerate. Serve cold. This salad is very refreshing on a hot summer evening.
Mary took this photo of me, sanding/cleaning the desk before painting it. Too bad you can't tell how awful it really looked. I bought it because it is big enough for her computer, with lots of extra space, and the drawers are quite spacious. Also, the chrome legs are cool.
All done. After all the painting was done, I covered the top with some self adhesive paper - the kind you can line your cupboards with. The paper is neat, it looks like leather. It would have been impossible to put the paper on properly without Mary's help. Thank you, thank you, thank you, Mary Margaret!
The front of the drawers are decorated with some neat stickers. I was going to do some freehand painting, or stenciling, but this looks great, and Felicity can change it up any time she wants to.
A side view of the desk. I ordered a piece of glass for the top of the desk, so Felicity can put her poems, or pictures, or whatever on the top of her desk (under the glass). She can change it up anytime, and add to the desk, like a scrapbook. I hope Felicity likes it. She is in Vancouver with Eva right now, and hasn't seen it yet. The girls will be home on Saturday. Yay!
