Lots of Cooking Today

We had a potluck dinner at Curtis & Lori's house tonight. It was not as sumptuous as previous get togethers since it was organized yesterday evening. Tonight was chosen since DT, Bick, & Ron flew in last night, the memorial service is tomorrow, and Aunty Daisy, Scott, David, & Kai fly out on the following day. Tonight was really the only night we could all easily get together.

Clockwise from lower left: sushi, haupia, gluten-free chocolate chip cookies, pineapple, apple crisp, ribs (being uncovered), gluten free biscuits, fluffy dinner rolls, salmon, another plate of ribs, and green salad.

We cooked all day. It started with Kai making haupia right after breakfast was done; he started first since his dish required time to cool and set. Then I started the Fluffy Dinner Rolls; during the 1 hour rise time David started the Gluten-Free Chocolate Chip Cookies. In the meanwhile, I was finishing off the printing of the programs for Mom's memorial. Her old printer can only do one side at a time and the feed tray can only hold about a dozen sheets of paper. During the rest period for the cookies I formed the rolls; while they went through their 2nd rise time I started the Gluten-Free Biscuits. (They are actually called rolls but look more like biscuits, and they are very good biscuits.) By then David's cookies were ready for baking. When he was done I put the dinner rolls in, by then the biscuits were ready for their rise period, so I started on the Hot Crab Dip. As the dinner rolls were getting ready to come out I put the egg wash on the biscuits; the egg wash gives the biscuits a nice brown color. The biscuits went in and I went to take a shower. Once the biscuits were out I put the Hot Crab Dip in and worked on the salmon. Crab dip out; salmon in. While the salmon was cooking, I started packing everything else up to go. Once that was out, it got packed and I was on the road to pick up Bick & Ron!

David making gluten-free chocolate chip cookies.

We had a great time. Besides good food and fun conversation, we also folded programs for Mom's memorial. While we were folding Aunty Daisy was asking who each of us was and how we were related to Mom, so we ended up pondering genealogy and relationships. We found this helpful chart and determined that Aunty Daisy is David's grandaunt and Scott is his first cousin once remove; but we just call them aunty and cousin. Bick said in Vietnamese there is a different term for each of these depending on whether it is on the mother's or father's side and also a designation for the birth order of the relative.

From "Finally, a chart explaining who your second cousin twice removed is".

Happy Birthday to Carole & Heather!