WFMW and Wordless Wednesday (well sort of Wordless)

Well, you might say that our Canada Day plans & celebrations yesterday were all awash. Literally. In the early afternoon our fair city was hit with a superstorm. A big old thunderstorm rolled through flashing it's lightening and dumping it's contents to the tune of 21 mm of rain in one hour. In four hours our city recieved 44 mm of rain. Our usual is 37 mm in the whole month of July. To say it rained is a major understatement. Roads had to be shut down, underpasses were totally flooded with water up to the roofs of cars, some streets were floating in ankle and calf deep water. The mayor declared a local state of emergency which was still in effect 10 hours later. (That's a fancy way of saying the council can make decisions like telling people they can't do laundry, run dishwashers, take showers, and ask them not to flush toilets unless absolutely necessary. And to be able to call in whatever expert they need to, to help out). Everything, including fireworks was cancelled. So yeah, I spent Canada Day celebrating with a hot cup of coffee, my fave pizza and Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer singing to me from the Austrian mountains and doing this post while occasionally checking my basement to make sure we weren't floating away. 'Cause I'm just a real party animal and all.

Anyway, Shannon at Rocks in my Dryer is hosting a themed Works for Me Wednesday week, with that theme being recipes with 5 ingrediants or less. I can hardly wait to read all the great easy recipes from all you guys. And here's a few that have been hits around here. We'll just pretend salt and pepper and oil don't count as ingrediants. Summer and easy go hand in hand.

Marinated Vegetable Salad

-Kraft Greek Dressing with Feta and Oregano

-2 large, ripe tomatoes

-1 red onion, thinly sliced

-1 can sliced black olives

-1 cucmber or zuchhini cut into chunks

At least 2 hours before serving, mix all ingrediants together in glass bowl. Refridgerate stirring occasionally until ready to serve. Drain or serve with a slotted spoon.

Of course, you don't have to limit yourself to the 5 ingrediants. Use these as a base and then add any fresh vegetables you desire. The key is marinating them for a length of time. The longer the better.

Rakott Krumpli (Layered Potatoes)

-6 to 8 potatoes, washed

-4 to 5 hard boiled eggs, sliced

-1/2 cup (250 ml) sour cream

-1/2 lb. (1/4 kg) Hungarian sausage (or garlic, ham or ukrainian sausage), cooked and cut in slices

-1 onion, thinly sliced

Boil the potatoes in their skins. Drain and let cool until easy to handle. Peel and cut into thin slices.

In a buttered casserole, place a layer of potatoes. Sprinkle lightly with salt and fresh ground pepper if desired. Then add a layer of onion, then egg. Top with sausage slices. Place half the sour cream by tablespoons around the casserole and spread as best as possible. It won't be perfect. Repeat layering ending with a layer of potatoes. Cover with sour cream.

Bake at 350*F until top is browning and heated through.

This is a main dish but if you want to use it as a side, just remove the meat out it. It's so good.

Garlic Lime Chicken

-6 to 8 chicken breasts

-3 garlic cloves, crushed

-2 Tbsp. fresh, chopped basil or 1-2 tsp. dried sweet basil

-1/4 lime juice, fresh or Real Lime

-2 Tbsp. olive oil

Combine all ingrediants except chicken. Add the chicken and toss. Refridgerate, covered and let marinade for 2 hours, shaking or tossing chicken ocassionally during marinading time.

Grill on medium-high heat until cooked through and juices run clear.

This may also be baked at 425*F, covered for 50 - 60 minutes.