Appetizing Muse

Today's lunch was an odd assortment of sliced and baked zucchini, stuffed mushrooms, cucumber sandwiches, and peanut butter and sliced banana sandwiches. The items may not be odd on their own, but together they formed quite an eclectic meal.

The baked zucchini was my husband's idea. He received a large zucchini from a co-worker last weekend, so he decided to prepare it as follows: he sliced the vegetable, dredged the pieces in a mixture of egg and spices (basil and garlic), and then coated them with cornmeal. He baked the zucchini on a cookie sheet for about thirty minutes at 375-degrees F. They were very tasty, and without a drop of grease. Wilbert likes to cook foods in oil, but I've been trying to steer him away from it. Apparently it's working.

I had fresh mushrooms and leftover spaghetti sauce made with ground beef and Italian sausage. I scooped the stems and inner meat out of the mushrooms with a melon-baller, minced them very fine, and then cooked them with fresh Italian sausage. I them minced the whole lot yet again, and added spaghetti sauce. I stuffed the mushrooms with the mixture and baked them at 375-degrees F. Very savory indeed – the mushrooms were the first to go.

My father is a big fan of Cucumber Sandwiches, but Wilbert has never tasted them. Using Dad's recipe for the most part, I cut the crust from white bread, spread each half with butter, and then placed thinly-sliced cucumber in one layer on one side. Voila! Wilbert loved them.

(Above): Banana, Cucumber & Peanut Butter Sandwiches.

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Finally, I prepared peanut butter and thinly-sliced banana on white bread, which was taste sensation for Wilbert. Raised in a Mexican culinary environment, there are some foods he has never eaten in his life that I consider commonplace. Even the simplest of "dishes" delight him as long as they contain ingredients he likes.

I'm ready for a plain salad tomorrow, with my standard olive oil and red wine vinegar dressing.