Here we go!
SATURDAY
Fancied-up chicken burgers, chips
The chicken burgers from Aldi are pretty good, and taste like actual chicken. We dressed them up with bacon, honey mustard, and in-sandwich onion rings. Not bad atall. Probably didn’t need to serve chips alongside a sandwich that actually contained onion rings, but the freedom to make this kind of decision is what being an adult is all about. That and a little sex, and some booze, lots of interior pep talks, frightening conversations about major appliances, and you’re the only one who can change the toilet paper. And coffee.
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SUNDAY
Pork Bánh mì
We’ve made steak bánh mì a few times, and it is delightful, but expensive. Pork, however, is cheap cheap cheap. So I got me a half loin (about four pounds), sliced it thin, and started it marinating in the morning using this recipe from Serious Eats.
I also sliced several carrots into thin coins and set them to quickle-pickle in wine vinegar and some sugar.
In the evening, I spread the pork slices in a single layer on broiler pans and put them right up under a hot broiler, turning once. We toasted some rolls and piled them up with the pork, pickled carrots, sliced cucumbers, jalapeno slices from a jar, lots of chopped cilantro, and plenty of mayo. (You can stir some sriracha into the mayo, but there’s plenty of flavor without the extra spice, and I appreciated a little creamy coolness.)
Verdict: It smelled completely revolting as it cooked, because fish sauce; but the taste was superb. The pork picked up much more of the salty, tangy fish flavor than the beef. Put it together with the sweet, crisp carrots and the cool cukes and cilantro and the zippy jalapenos, and it was just a swingin’ party in your mouth. Ha cha cha!
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MONDAY
BBQ chicken thighs and sausages, fruit salad, spicy grilled corn, S’mores
My husband cooked the meat outside, in the drizzle, in air so cold we could see our breath. Stupid New England. Here’s how he describes the rub he made for the meat:
Lots of kosher salt, like unhealthy amount, lots of brown sugar and white sugar, generous amounts of garlic powder, little bit of cumin, paprika, and chili powder. Works for pork, too.
I thought it was fantastic, but he is researching different chicken-cooking methods with more indirect heat. I happen to like it charred, but I will probably force myself to eat the next meal he cooks, too, because I’m a good and generous wife that way.
It’s still a bit early for really good corn, but check it out! You grill it, roll it in butter, sprinkle on a little parmesan cheese and paprika, then squeeze on some lime juice.
So nice.
Some of the kids had read about S’mores and really wanted to make them (even though they shivered as they toasted their marshmallows). S’mores are completely lost on me. They are fine, I guess. I feel resistance toward foods that don’t have a food for the noun. Corrie approved.
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TUESDAY
Tacos, tortilla chips
Nothing to report, except that I finally smartened up and bought two tubs of sour cream, one for the family and one for Corrie.
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WEDNESDAY
Cuban sandwiches, cucumber avocado salad
It Instant Pot time! (affiliate link) I’ve made Cuban sandwiches before, using oven-roasted pork that I marinated for several hours ahead of time. This time, I took a four-pound half loin and threw it in the IP with a bottle of Goya Mojo Criollo marinade. I don’t quite trust the “meat” button yet, so I set it to manual high pressure for 45 minutes. Perfect. It was very moist but cooked all the way through, and the marinade had permeated the meat. No yummy crust, of course, but it was fast and easy, didn’t heat up the kitchen (yeah, it suddenly got hot out. Stupid New England), and clean-up was a snap. I let it stay on “warm” for several hours until I was ready to make the sandwiches.
I sliced the meat up and put it on ciabatta with deli ham, pickles sliced into long flats, swiss cheese, and mustard. Grilled the sandwiches in butter, then pressed them hard on both sides with a glass pie plate. They were excellent and insanely filling. Here is a terrible picture:
I think authentic Cuban sandwiches are supposed to be made with spongier bread, and probably heaped ridiculously high with meat and cheese but I had zero complaints with our results.
The side was something I took from The New York Times Cooking. I took it, and then I made it slimy somehow, I dunno. My version had red onion, avocado, cucumber, cherry tomatoes, leftover grilled corn, fresh lime juice, olive oil, salt and pepper, and feta, and I ended up just mixing everything together, rather than spooning things over other things.
It was good, but it tasted like guacamole that left home on a quest to become pasta salad, but couldn’t find any pasta, so went back home, only to discover that the guacamole family no longer accepted it. Probably won’t bother with this again. Stupid New York Times.
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THURSDAY
Pizza
Didn’t take pictures of pizza. Husband did snap a photo of the river as we slogged by on our evening run.
Stupid New England. I mean, wait! Lovely, gorgeous New England, my love! Feeling better and being more in shape are fine incentives, but really I’m in it for the pretty views and the husband time.
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FRIDAY
Tuna, maybe risotto?
Stupid Friday.
Tell me what you ate and how you felt about it!
I’m reading this late at night, right before bed, and hungry – supper was SO long ago – and I think I’m going to be dreaming about your Pork Bánh mì. Such a fabulous, mouth-watering photo…and the river picture is not too shabby, either!
You cook so darn well for your dozen mouths. Gosh. That’s all I can say.
I did my pot roast thing this week. Get a big chuck roast. The original recipe calls for you to rub it with fresh crushed garlic and ground pepper. I usually use either lemon pepper or garlic powder + pepper (because lazy). Sear the roast in a skillet in some vegetable oil, then put in slow cooker. Deglaze the pan you seared the meat in with a beer or some beef broth, then pour the liquid into the slow cooker – there should be enough to come about half way up the meat. Put the meat on low and cook till done (about 4.5 hours).
Serve the beef with whatever, but save 1/2 to one cup of it. Also save all the juice, as it is destined for higher things. The juice goes in the fridge. Next day take off the congealed fat and put the juice in a pot with a 28 oz can of tomatoes, some water, chopped onion/celery/carrot, and green beans if you like. Simmer for an hour and then add frozen peas/corn/lima beans and the diced leftover meat. Cook till done. Good with corn muffins.
You can do banh mi in the instant pot too!! I loosely followed this recipe (bowl form) with pork shoulder, and it was great!!
http://www.thedessertdietitian.com/new-blog-1/2016/9/5/banh-mi-bowl-recipe
I was a free-wheeling, devil-may-care, cook-whatever-I-feel-like kinda beezy because my husband was gone. I’m on a wine diet, so on Tuesday and Thursday the kids had 50% free range hamburgers w/ avo, on sourdough. On Wednesday I made them pork tenderloin with mango salsa and Mac ‘n Cheese. I gave them some carrots and made them each a bowl of little cantaloupe balls, which they thought was very nifty. I’m sure I broke some law of the universe that has to do with the color orange, but I was all “I don’t care.” I was in the same mood when I started to surf the net, and somehow found myself perusing stoves on eBay. My current stove only has three working burners and it needs to fill the room with noxious flammable gas and hear me say something terrible about it’s mother before it will allow me to bake anything. So yesterday, when my husband was sweating it out on his new job, I called him and I was like, “huh huh huh huh, you’ll never believe what I did”….(he was quiet), there was a little more “heh heh heh.” So I switched gears and said, “you know, I’ve never bid on anything on eBay before! It’s kind of FUN, and guess what? I WON!”
So now after driving home from Mountain View tonight he needs to help me pick up my new stove in L.A. first thing in the morning. 😀 I’m so excited. And the pick up spot is right next to Ikea!
🤗🤗
S: Dorito salad
M: Asian coleslaw…. always a fave!
T: Carrot, onion, swiss cheese quiche
W: leftovers
Th: Black bean tacos
F: Scrambled eggs in a biscuit
Tomorrow – soup
Sunday: not sure yet!
The NYT recipe you mention above I have had it before. My cousin made it when we were visiting them a couple of summers ago and it was AMAZING!! Loved it! I came home and made it a couple of weeks later and meh, nothing special! Weird, but I feel your pain!
Saturday: burgers with bacon aioli, sliced fresh jalapeno, and a fried egg on Aldi’s brioche (one of my favorite products they have!) with a side of diced crispy potatoes.
Sunday: Spicy chicken tortilla chip casserole. It was fine. Nothing I’d make again, but we didn’t hate it.
Monday: I asked my husband if he was philosophically opposed to the idea of having burgers again so soon and he told me that actually his philosophy was to have burgers as many nights as possible, so burgers it was! This time I did caprese burgers on ciabatta–marinated tomato slices in balsamic vinegar, olive oil, salt, pepper, garlic, and basil; pesto mixed into the patties AND slathered over the ciabatta (again, thank you Aldi for awesome and affordable prepared pesto!); and sliced mozzarella fresca. Had a caesar salad on the side (I sound like an Aldi’s spokesperson but their caesar salad kid actually has the best dressing of all of them) much to my husband’s disappointment; he was hoping for a potatoes repeat but I was aiming for something I could at least pretend was somewhat healthy.
Tuesday: Semi-homemade Asian chicken salad. Used the chicken marinade from damndelicious’ version of the salad and roasted the chicken in the oven before dicing and serving over Sam’s Club chopped asian salad kit. Very delicious!
Wednesday: Beef shepherd’s pie (so yes, I get that it’s technically not shepherd’s pie but that’s what it’s titled on food network’s website). It’s How To Boil Water’s version and I use sherry in place of beef broth and I don’t know why exactly it’s so magical but it is. One of my favorite meals.
Thursday: bagel pizzas
Friday: was planning to have diced tomato and arugula pasta but neither Aldi nor Sam’s Club had any arugula that I could find and I had no intention of making a third stop so I’m going to pull together a jambalaya instead.
We love Indian food around here, so we had Spicy Meat Cubes. That is its actual name. Take minced garlic and ginger and green chili, fry, add cubed goat meat (but we used pork, although I’d love to get my impoverished hands on some responsibly sourced goat), spices, and water, simmer covered for a while, then open up the pan and cook off most of the liquid — divine. We ate it saucier than usual, with peasant bread, and green beans.
We also did salmon croquettes, which are just plain old potato pancakes with some canned salmon mushed into the mix. Homemade tartar sauce, which I discovered is far, far easier than trying to remember to get a jar of it for our infrequent use.
Tonight is my son’s graduation, so we’ll be having grilled cheese sandwiches and sliced tomatoes and no one will even complain.
Tomorrow night, my 16-yr-old is going to learn how to make vindaloo. Yum!
Monday was Memorial Day, obvs, but we spent the day at the hardware store in the morning and working at a renovation project in the afternoon before treating ourselves and the kids to Bob Evans for dinner.
Tuesday: Mexican night. Shredded taco chicken made in the crockpot, bean and cheese enchiladas, Spanish rice and all the topping. I knew my husband would be skipping lunch (stupid other house we’re renovating and hoping to get on the market this week), so I made sure dinner was ready within twenty minutes of him coming home. We have a handy app on our phones that beeps us when somebody is leaving work/home, and that is invaluable for me timing dinner like a good wife.
Wednesday we were out all day, at different places, and ate lunch out because it was easier, so for dinner we just ate whatever we wanted that was available, because after a restaurant meal I’m not hungry for hours and couldn’t bear thinking of food.
Thursday was breakfast for dinner–made to order scrambled egg burritos (with spinach from our garden and other toppings), scrambled eggs for those who cannot bear that idea, hash brown patties and fruit.
Tonight is pasta night. Spaghetti, salad, breadsticks. Boom.
Red chile enchiladas. Sauce made from red chile pods (New Mexican style) then poured over layers fried corn tortillas, loads of sweet vidalia onion, shredded cheddar, chopped tomatoes, refried beans, and topped with 2 glorious fried eggs. Heap shredded lettuce around the edges for a pretty plate. Can use sour cream if you wish in one or two of the layers. It’s my comfort food. Seat salt sprinkled on top.
Cheap eats and leftover sauce great with scrambled eggs and hash browns in the morning. Love your meal suggestions. Got to get one of those Instant Pots I suppose. It’s on my Amazon wish list.