This post is full of moaning and complaining, some great food I didn’t make, plus one really excellent recipe I did make.
SATURDAY
Bacon cheeseburgers
Damien made this, and took care of everything all day. On Friday night, I suddenly got mysteriously sick and haven’t completely recovered yet. Horrible vertigo and nausea, no other symptoms. I went to the doctor and of course I felt fine while I was there, so who knows. It seems to be going away slowly. Anyway, Damien did everything while I lay in bed and whimpered, and the kids have been picking up the slack magnificently.
SUNDAY
Grilled pork chops, red cole slaw, chips
I did manage to do the rest of the shopping that day, but hit a parked car in the Aldi lot. I blame the vertigo, as I’ve been driving oversized vehicles for 13 years and hardly ever hit anybody. Happily, the other car was at least as tattered and junky as ours, and we haven’t gotten a call from anyone’s insurance company.
Damien made a sugar rub (the card below says “chicken thighs with sugar rub,” but it’s the same rub) for the chops and grilled them outside (first time grilling outside this year, hooray!). They were magnificent.
I made a simple coleslaw with a red cabbage, mayo, vinegar, and sugar. I love a sour, snappy coleslaw with savory pork. Mm-mm-mm.
MONDAY
Pork ramen, pineapple
Nuttin’ fancy. I made a bunch of chicken ramen (the only flavor my kids will eat) and sliced up the leftover pork into strips and heated it up. I soft boiled a bunch of eggs and set those out with crunchy noodles and raw snap peas. I had mine with a little hot sauce. It didn’t blow anyone’s mind, but it’s a filling meal.
As I prepared to carve up the pineapple, I briefly considered the viral video where astonished people were today days old when they discovered you could serve a pineapple but just trimming off the ends and then grasping the individual — listen, I went on a bit of a wild goose chase trying to find out what the separate bumps on a pineapple are called, and what I learned is that a pineapple’s ovaries coalesce into berries. Anyway, there is this video where you just grab the bumps and they come away in your hand like nature intended, and then white people feel stupid because they didn’t know about pineapples. Then I thought, “Screw it, I already got a knife.”
TUESDAY
Salami caprese sandwiches
This was a little sad. The plan was ciabatta rolls with genoa salami, tomato and mozzarella, lots of fresh basil, olive oil and vinegar, and a little salt and pepper. These sandwiches are so much better than they have any reason to be. But the basil got shoved to the back of the fridge, where it froze. Bleh. So we had the sandwiches without basil, and they were really lackluster.
The only bright spot was that I was down for the count again, and when I woke up, Clara made me a sandwich to be consumed on the couch, so that was nice.
Then Corrie brought me “a clementine in its own special holder,” and that was nice, too.
WEDNESDAY
Jerusalem mixed grill with pita and Israeli salad
Wednesday I was feeling much better, and this meal was a real bright spot. Most definitely making it again. The NYT has the recipe (which is, at least for now, not behind a paywall), but calls for baharat, which I couldn’t find in the stores. It’s one of those mixes of spices that varies by region, and I wasn’t sure which taste was the most important. I finally ended up just mixing together a bunch of stuff that seemed likely. I’ll put a card at the end for this. And look at this pretty picture! Yay, daylight savings time!
It’s a really easy recipe. I took a bunch of boneless, skinless chicken thighs and cut them into largeish chunks, mixed them up with a bunch of chicken livers, and stirred it all up with the spice mixture. I also bought chicken hearts, but somehow lost them. We may need a smaller refrigerator.
Previously, I had set a big pot of red onions to caramelize. I left a full hour to let them finish, since I know about onions. And then . . . I forgot to turn the stove off, so they caramelized for over three hours. And apparently that’s what it takes! Now you know.
So basically you heat up some oil in a big skillet, sear the chicken and livers on both sides, then turn the heat down and let it finish cooking with the caramelized onions. You can see I crowded my pan here:
It turned out well, but be aware the livers cook much faster than thighs. You dish up your meat and squeeze a little fresh lemon over it. We had it with pita bread, lots of yogurt sauce, hummus, nice dill pickles, and something called Israeli salad, which is apparently a regional staple.
My version had European cucumbers, tomatoes, some kind of orange grape tomatoes, parsley, a little red onion, lemon juice, a little olive oil, and kosher salt. Oh my gosh, it was such a wonderful meal. We are absolutely adding this whole meal to the rotation. The cool, bright, acidic salad made a wonderful companion for the sort of dusky intensity of the chicken.
If you don’t like chicken livers, you might try this meal anyway. Of course you can just skip them; but the cinnamon and nutmeg really soften the bitterness, and they taste more like especially savory dark meat.
THURSDAY
Pizza
I managed to get the dough on the pans and then had to go lie down. No, I’m not freaking pregnant. I’m just dying. My 40’s have been one long list of things I can no longer handle. First afternoon coffee, then chocolate, then sugar, then perfume, then salt; and now apparently being upright is asking too much. Anyway, the kids finished the pizza while I went to lie down. Then I got up to eat some pizza; then I went back to bed.
FRIDAY
This is what I seem to have written at the beginning of the week:
because Damien and I are going to a reporter thing, leaving behind a house full of competent children, and cheese. However, Dora had a yen to bake yesterday, and made two giant cheesecakes for dessert. We don’t usually have Thursday dessert, much lest Thursday in Lent dessert; but on the other hand, cheesecake. She left me with blackberries and chocolate so I could make toppings for them, but instead, I fell asleep on the couch. So it looks like the children will be having cheesecake for supper tonight. The graham cracker crust is the vegetable.
And now I have four parent-teacher meetings to attend. Should probably put pants on.
Recipe cards:
Smoked chicken thighs with sugar rub
Ingredients
- 1.5 cups brown sugar
- .5 cups white sugar
- 2 Tbsp chili powder
- 2 Tbsp garlic powder
- 2 tsp chili pepper flakes
- salt and pepper
- 20 chicken thighs
Instructions
-
Mix dry ingredients together. Rub all over chicken and let marinate until the sugar melts a bit.
-
Light the fire, and let it burn down to coals. Shove the coals over to one side and lay the chicken on the grill. Lower the lid and let the chicken smoke for an hour or two until they are fully cooked.
Yogurt sauce
Ingredients
- 32 oz full fat Greek yogurt
- 5 cloves garlic, crushed
- 1/4 cup lemon juice
- 3 Tbsp olive oil
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp pepper
- fresh parsley or dill, chopped (optional)
Instructions
-
Mix all ingredients together. Use for spreading on grilled meats, dipping pita or vegetables, etc.
Jerusalem mixed grill
May not be the most authentic spice mix, but it sure tastes good. Serve with pita bread, hummus, yogurt sauce, dill pickles, and Israeli salad
Ingredients
- 4 lbs boneless, skinless chicken thighs trimmed and cut into pieces
- 8 oz chicken livers
- 6-7 red onions, sliced thin
- olive oil for cooking
- 4 lemons
spices:
- 2 tsp cumin
- 4 tsp cinnamon
- 2 tsp paprika
- 4 tsp thyme
- 1 tsp nutmeg
- 1 tsp red pepper flakes
- 1 Tbsp salt
Instructions
-
First caramelize the onions. You know this will take at least an hour. Set the onions aside.
-
Toss the chicken thigh pieces, hearts, and spices together.
-
Heat the oil in a large skillet. When it's very hot, add the meats and sear on all sides. Then turn the heat to medium and continue cooking, stirring occasionally, until the meat is cooked all the way through. Note that livers cook faster than thighs, so make sure the thighs are done all the way.
-
Serve with pita and yogurt sauce. Squeeze the fresh lemon over the meat.
Woe for the mysterious maladies! As one with chronic illness, you have my deepest sympathies.
On the other hand, I agree that God allows we mothers to undergo such things if only for the sake of making the children rise to the occasion & pick up the slack. And they do! Rather a minor miracle, if you ask me. The clementine in its own special container!
I don’t know if this helps, but sometime in my early forties, it seemed like I couldn’t drink any alcohol without feeling terrible the next day. By the time I was fifty, though, that was just a bad memory. Liquor and wine are back on the table, baby!
Coffee past 2 pm is gone forever, unfortunately.
I hope you get well. I am praying for you.
“My 40’s have been one long list of things I can no longer handle.” I feel like this needs to be a mug, and I would buy one, because I am right there with you. I started getting migraines after I turned 45, which seems very unfair, and they are manageable as long as I avoid chocolate, caffeine, gluten, soy, aged cheese, vinegar, nuts and seeds and make sure to get on average 8 hours of sleep at night. That last one isn’t hard at all (she said bitterly).
Ooh! Not that anyone asked me to be Merck Manuals over here, but your mystery malady sounds kind of like labyrinthitis – twice I’ve had a lesser version where allergies led to fluid in my inner ear but no actual infection, giving me bad vertigo and nausea with no other symptoms (well, sometimes a minor headache, but that’s apparently an optional feature). In any case, ugh, you have my sympathy on that one.
One of these days I intend to try that chicken-thighs-and-sugar-rub recipe, which sounds delicious.