Indoor Cookout?!

Saturday afternoon we got together with some students who had stayed in Metz for the weekend for an indoor cookout. One of them had wanted to buy a "grill" and decided that this was the perfect opportunity. So, after a trip to Cora the guys arrived with a bunch of food.

I will describe to you some of the pictures in the following collages, but know that you can see full sized pictures on our picasa website.

For our afternoon gathering we played the Wii, made and ate lots of food, played Rock band, and David and Peter played their guitars (top left). Our "main course" was kabas (top middle) consisting of beef, bell peppers, onion, and pineapple. We also had potatoes and hot peppers (I think David was the only one who ate the hot peppers...after he teared up no one else wanted any), french sausages, and lamb prepared Greek-style thanks to our Greek contributing cook, Constantinos, and his homemade olive oil.

While at Cora David bought a pumpkin...because I thought everyone would get one and we'd carve them together after lunch...but no one else was interested so we saved it and carved it Sunday instead. The weather was decent so we ook Duncan and the pumpkin outside to the plan d'eau. We sat next to the water while we designed and then carved our pumpkin. Everyone was stopping and looking at us. Parents were telling there kids: "Look! It's for 'alloween" ("H" omitted on purpose).
Top Right: This is the view from INSIDE the pumpkin while we were carving it. I was really surprised that this picture turned out so good.

We also tried to get Duncan to sit next to the pumpkin, in some fallen leaves, after it was carved so we could take a nice holiday picture of him, but he didn't want to cooperate. I guess the picture before the pumpkin was carved was all he was willing to give us (middle). Cute enough I suppose!

Sunday for dinner we tried a veal parmesan recipe for the second time. Although the pumpkin appears to be saying it wasn't that great, it was actually really great this time. We still have a few things we want to try next time to make it even better, but I would definitely make it this was again. I also want to try it with chicken and egg plant.

I'm going to be making vampire cookies tomorrow to share with the people in our bible study...as long as they turn out ok. I was going to make them today and just bring them tomorrow but the recipe says "best if eaten the day they are made" so I'll wait!