The menu?

I’ll bring:

• Vegan potato salad
• Fruit – probably oranges and/or bananas
• Veggies and hummus
• Some kind of bean-based salad, to be determined.

I’ll also have a picnic blanket, a bunch of reusable plastic cups and serving utensils. I’ll buy some paper plates in the morning, unless anybody here happens to have them on hand.

If other folks can bring juice/water/other beverages, I think we’ll have a complete spread.

I’d like to try lunch instead of brunch:  falafel sandwiches. I’ve got pita bread, falafel mix, lettuce and will get hummus, tomatoes, cucumbers, red onions and sprouts. I’ve also got oranges  and bananas to munch on as we assemble our food. And I may offer some plain sour yogurt, which I’ve sometimes had served with falafel at Lebanese restaurants.

If anybody would like to bring apple juice or other beverages, I think that would be a nice accompaniment to our meal. Pre-made tabouli could also be nice.

Please RSVP here or e-mail me, so that I’m sure to have enough food. I’ve been absentee for a few weeks, but I’m looking forward to seeing folks again.

Hmm. Well, I couldn’t figure out how to add this photo and insert the links and keep it with the original publishing date (which I’ve now forgotten), so sorry about the confusion.  This was a month or so ago, and I thought I’d update it with the “best of” tag that we had talked about…

I’ve put in links to the recipes, and added a photo that I took of this SNDC gathering…because it was SO GOOD! I’ve made it again since then…I’d say this was one of my all-time favorite SNDC recipes. –Lena

Enjoying the Fooll Mudammes!

Just to formalize what’s been confirmed over e-mail: Brian and Lena are hosting this weekend, even though it’s my turn, because my major cooking appliance is on the fritz. Also, we’ll be gathering at 1 p.m. instead of noon because of some scheduling issues.

We’ll be having a North African-inspired brunch, with fooll mudammes (a fava bean dish) and morning couscous. I’ll bring just about everything needed — including some pitas to have with the fooll mudammes. I’m going to assume that Brian and Lena have salt and oil at their home, and not bring that.

When I visited London for a week during my Grinnell years, the hostel I was at offered a traditional English breakfast. I didn’t really understand what I was looking at, though, and so I ate the eggs and avoided everything else.  I’d like to revisit the past, only this time enjoy the full breakfast — but modified to make it vegan.

Here’s what we’ll have:

• Vegan baked beans, from a can.
• Fresh sliced tomatoes. (We can fry these if anyone would prefer them that way.)
• Tempeh bacon.
• Tofu scramble.
• Fried mushrooms, sprinkled w/salt & pepper and cooked in olive oil.
• Vegan sausages.
• Hash browns – cooked from pre-shredded grocery store potatoes.

The only major thing missing is Earl Gray tea – though orange juice or mimosas would be a fine addition too. If you’re feeling really ambitious, you could make baked beans ahead of time and bring them — but I think canned beans will be fine.

Come hungry! And please, RSVP so I get enough of everything.

Is everybody OK with dairy mozzarella? Or should I look for a vegan alternative?

IF any SNDC-ers already have Worcestershire sauce, I’d love to use yours. If nobody volunteers to bring any by noon on Saturday, I’ll get some at the store. NOTE — please only volunteer bring it if you have the kind that doesn’t contain anchovies, as I don’t eat anchovies. If you’ve got the anchovy kind, I’d rather buy vegetarian Worcestershire.

Let’s try this “vegetable tian” recipe, which seems to be well-loved by the people of the Internet – including vegans, who omit the cheese, as shall we. Apparently “tian” is either a French casserole dish or an ancient Chinese term for a supernatural ethical course. Wonder which was intended here?

Anyhow, here’s what we need to do a 1.5X recipe:

• Good olive oil – Courtney
• 3 large yellow onions, cut in half and sliced
• 3 garlic cloves, minced - Courtney
• 1.5 pound medium round potatoes, unpeeled - Courtney
• 1 to 1.25 pounds zucchini - Courtney
• 1.75 to 2 pounds medium tomatoes- Courtney
• 1.5 teaspoon kosher salt- Courtney has coarse sea salt, a decent substitute
• 3/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper - Courtney
• 1.5 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves, plus extra sprigs
• optional: vegan gruyere, if it exists.

It would also be good to have:

• some kind of juice – I think apple juice sounds good
• maybe a bottle of wine or a six pack of beer.

It takes a fair amount of time in the oven, too, so don’t forget your sparkling conversation.

I can bring my mini-charcoal grill. Mike, do you still have one of these and would you also be willing to bring it?

Food ideas:

• Hamburger buns – LOTS – Dan
• Veggie burgers – quantity depends on how many people will be there and how many people are likely to want two burgers. Eight or 12, maybe? – Dan
• Cheese – Courtney
• Soy cheese. – Dan
• Ketchup - Courtney
• Mustard - Courtney
• Onion – Courtney
• Tomato – Courtney
• Lettuce
• Veggies or fruit for munching
• Chips
• Dishes
• Cups – Courtney
• Water – Courtney
• Juice
• Added item: More picnic blankets?
• Either a salad or some grillable veggies. Sara

Also, I think a good portion of the people who will be there on Friday night might be people who enjoy eating meat from time to time. If anyone is an expert in the world of meat burgers, we might want four or six of those.

I don’t know if anyone would like to bring wine or beer. I’m not sure if it’s officially allowed, but moderate drinking seems to be generally ignored in city parks.

I won’t be able to attend any SNDC events until mid-September, because of some rather extensive weekend camping plans over the next three weeks, followed by my mother-in-law’s 60th birthday party. I’ll be back in rotation on Sept. 20. But would folks be interested in having SNDC on a Friday next week — Aug. 28? Several Grinnell alumni will be in town that Friday but not that Sunday (Sarah Aswell, Jamal Rogers). I haven’t asked either of them yet, but I think it would be fun to invite them to join us.

In a more perfect world, I’d just make Friday, Aug. 28, into a party night and invite everyone to my house. But my house has become a staging area for four people who are attending  Burning Man, and there are so many tents, sleeping bags, camp chairs and other supplies everywhere that it’s hard for just me and Ben to get around. So I can’t host.

But maybe we could all meet up at Laurelhurst Park or Mount Tabor at 6:30 p.m. that night fire up a portable grill and roast some veggies and Gardenburgers together. What do you think?

(In case I’m not explicit enough, I’m talking about NEXT Friday, not Friday of this week.)