Christmas Culinary Delights

I'm not known as a good cook. It is mostly by self admission that people know this but there may be a silent underground backing up my statement. I don't know. So, I had a few days to prepare for being chief cook during our stay at Big Bear. On my flight out to California I read my January copy of Good Housekeeping and I noticed a few recipes that I thought sounded delicious and didn't seem too hard to fix. They were actually advertised as "easy-to-fix-meals". Good for me. So, I prepared my grocery list based on these meals and I now relate to you my success in the kitchen. DAY ONE--suppertime. African chicken. I fixed chicken (my favorite) by using curry, peanut butter and garbanzo beans, etc. I served it over a delightful rice mixture I affectionately call Rice-a-Roni. Absolutely delicious. I got rave reviews. I asked my son that is rolling around the idea of opening a Curry restaurant if that would pass and he said I could make that meal anytime, just add more curry.(He's a curry man)(Did that sound funny?) Hurray! I'm in! DAY TWO--breakfast. Eggs(made by #2), bacon, oatmeal, OJ, coffee (of course) and toast. Yummmmm. I decide to fix a crock pot. I put a roast in the pot with red potatoes and carrots and put an envelope of onion soup mix on top(opened and emptied, of course). After a walk outside in the driving sleet/snow we settled in for a hearty meal and topped it off with hot cocoa and mint M and M's. Yummy! DAY THREE--Another hearty breakfast of eggs, bacon, oatmeal, OJ, coffee and toast. The lunch is on the go and packed by Jeremy. Sandwiches, soup, power bars, etc. and all this to be eaten on the slopes. I don't know how I did it(my shins were killing me!) but after eight plus hours skiing I was able to pull off a miracle. Curry salmon with ginger cabbage. I can't believe I pulled this one off but I did!! And all by myself! I basted the salmon with a mixture of spicy mustard and curry and baked it. I then made a mixture of seasonings and onion to which I added shredded cabbage(a bag of finely shredded coleslaw). I made rice for a side dish and--VIOLA!--a great meal. A critics triumph! And again I'm in!(That's my plan) DAY FOUR-- Another great breakfast and lunch on the go. We were off to the slopes for another day of playing in the snow. So, that night I didn't feel too bad physically(my shins weren't killing me) so I put my little brain together and fixed what was described as a HEARTY meal. It was leftovers BUT used in a creative way. It turned out to be a stew and I was able to use the leftover rice, black beans, pot roast and chicken in a very nice tomato-onion gravy/sauce/broth. You pick it. I'm no cook, remember. It certainly hit the spot! More minty M and M's and some hot cocoa topped off the evening. DAY FIVE--and it was time to go. Breakfast only and it involved all the leftovers. I'm pulling out all the stops now. I'm on a roll--a cooking frenzy roll, if there is such a thing. I made scrambled eggs and to these I added onion, black beans, red and green peppers, tomatoes, cilantro and to spice things up I added the remainder of the curry salmon. Oh, boy, was this well received!!! Accolades accepted. In like flint. And then it was time to leave. The aroma of breakfast lingered in the air as we walked out of the cabin for the last time. Oh, the memories. Skiing, snowboarding, laughing, talking, being together. The food. Oh, the food. "Food, glorious food", as Oliver would have sung it. This five day cooking marathon goes down in my memory book as a success!! I was quite a good cook, actually. And secretly I knew it all along.