That’s what we are doing; choosing happiness on this 4th of July and celebrating with a twist on an All American dish, Macaroni and Cheese from the ambitiouskitchen.com.
I am dying to try this recipe Clare sent to me.
And happy to report Rick’s good news, the cancer has not spread. He started hormone treatment yesterday, which suppresses the pituitary gland from producing male hormones, androgens. BTW androgens fuel the prostate cancer cells. Rick said, “If he could reach them, he’d slap them.” The hormone treatment shrinks the prostate and tumor. In September he’ll begin the direct beam radiation for two months. What a ride, but one thing for sure; inexplicably we feel supported and loved. Thank you.
Best Easy Vegan Mac & Cheese Ingredients
Serves 6 celebrants
Prep Time: 1 hour
Cook Time: 20 minutes
- 1 ½ cups raw cashews
- 2 cloves of garlic
- ¼ cup nutritional yeast
- 1 cup unsweetened almond milk
- 1 jalapeno deseeded and chopped (I’ll use Mrs. Renfro’s Sweet Hot Jalapenos)
- ½ teaspoon ground turmeric
- ½ teaspoon paprika
- ½ teaspoon onion powder
- 1 teaspoon dijon mustard
- 1 teaspoon salt
- Freshly ground black pepper
- 1 pound shell pasta
Best Easy Vegan Mac & Cheese Recipe
- Soak the cashews in 4 cups of water for 4 hours.
- Drain cashews add the following; garlic, nutritional yeast, almond milk, jalapeno, turmeric, paprika, onion powder, dijon mustard, salt and pepper.
- Pour into the blender, blend on high, until a thick sauce comes together.
- Cook noodles according to the package, until al dente.
- Drain noodles, add back to pot
- Stir in cashew sauce.
- Garnish with freshly ground black pepper.
This meal absolutely begs for a little something more. I’ll grill Artisan Vegan Field Roast Grain Sausages which have become a treat in this house. And will be a nice side to the M&C.
Thinking about serving a colorful plate of food to lucky Rick,
I am reminded about a previous blog, Ahhh! Delicata, where I mentioned in Japan there is a word for the importance of color in preparing and serving food; Washoku, “the harmony of food” or the Rule of Five; the meal should represent the Five Colors; red, green, yellow, white and black.
There are four zucchini needing to be cooked, ‘green’ check. The pasta will stand in for the ‘white’. In the fridge right now, are the last two ‘yellow’ delicata’s, I’ll roast those with some thyme. (I hope I haven’t over served the delicata? I have a tendency to obsessively make the stuff I love. In the early 2000’s, I’ve been told, I over-polenta-ed the whole family.)
Have any of you ever had Watermelon Agua Fresca?
Watermelon will be our ‘red’. My gift to you, I’m including the recipe. BTW, a couple years ago, we literally drank the 18 watermelons Rick grew, over the course of two months and a few parties…(Definitely over fresca-ed)
Watermelon Agua Fresca Ingredients
Serves 2
Prep time: 15 minutes
- 4 cups peeled and chunked watermelon
- Handful of fresh mint, pinch of a couple leaves for garnish
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- Juice of three limes
- 1 cup ice
- Pinch of salt
- A can of sparkling water
Watermelon Agua Fresca Recipe
(remember, presentation is everything)
- Put all ingredients in blender
- Blend on high until frothy
- Use beautiful tall glasses or simple clear tall glasses
- Rub rim with lime skin
- Pour a couple tablespoons of sugar on plate and dip rim
- Add a little ice if you want
- Garnish with a sprig of mint
- Serve with a tall spoon
(It’s that good!)
Back working on my washoku, does wearing an adorable ‘black’ dress count? It’s all about creating harmony, whenever, wherever and however we can 🙂
Speaking of harmony.
Last night while stargazing, (Rick gazing, me wondering the whereabouts of the International Space Station) I grabbed my iPad. Skyview is an augmented reality app, which lets you point your device at the sky to see what’s up there. Pretty cool, and only $1.99 at the App Store. The ISS was below our horizon at the time, but I had Rick take a picture of the screen anyway. See below, that’s me holding the iPad and pointing down off our deck.
(You can become that pain-in-the-ass-know-it-all with the Skyview app.)
This is the 20th year of continuous human presence on the space station.
It seems two lifetimes ago we stood in front of the TV and watched the launch of the first ISS module, Zarya. You can go online and see what those guys are doing up there at nasa.gov “This week, on the station, astronauts were examining the influence of gravity on electrolytic gas evolution. Meaning the process of passing an electric current through a substance in order to separate out gases in the form of bubbles and could possibly be used in devices to produce oxygen in spacecraft and future human habitations on the Moon and Mars.” That’s where the oxygen will come from. Amazing..
The astronauts who went up there on the SpaceX Dragon on May 30th, won’t be back until late August. I wonder what August will be like this year? So far this year, nothing has been the same ol’ same ol’…
The 4th of July will be different for sure.
Keep safe, and arm yourselves with water balloons, just in case you want to have a blast creaming out your family and friends. Perfect 🙂
FYI; Rick bought ZURU Self Sealing Water Balloons 100pcs $10.99 on Amazon.
Love knowing Rick’s great news most of all! That served a bunch of ‘celebrants’ I’m sure🥰.
I have a 🍉 watermelon in the fridge and will make this today! The store only had a large watermelon (I only buy the ones with seeds) so I’m now like the Forest Gump of watermelons…..trying different recipes to change it up. I love watermelon salad with feta and lately I’ve been cutting up the melon like fingers (versus cubes) so I can pretend I’m eating french fries. Lol. Works.
Happy 4th of July you two and sending you good wireless vibes as always. Go blog, go! 💋
We are so relieved! Onward and onward with the hormone treatment..I hope you have a really nice 4th. We’re headed to Peter’s with 100 water balloons !!!!