They tell me it’s Friday! Here’s what we apparently ate this week:
SATURDAY
Even though we had just come back from vacation that afternoon, I really put myself out there for my family and came up with an entire four-course meal, including chicken, mashed potatoes with gravy, coleslaw, and biscuits.
Man, am I a good mother!
SUNDAY
Grilled ham and cheese on sourdough, chips
Corrie helped with ham placement.
MONDAY
Spaghetti with sausages
A request from the kids. I remember cooking this, but not eating it. I think maybe Damien and I went running and then got half price sushi at the half price sushi place? That sounds right.
TUESDAY
Oyakodon on rice noodles, sesame broccoli, spicy honey cucumber salad
Almost a really good meal, if I had been just a smidge more competent. Oyakodon is apparently a staple in Japan. It’s chicken and onions cooked in a savory broth with a little runny egg on top, and served over rice. It turned out we didn’t have rice, but only rice noodles. And then I couldn’t find dashi, so I substituted beef broth with a dash of fish sauce. Since I don’t know what it’s supposed to taste like anyway, I figured it couldn’t hurt. But then I also, um, accidentally tripled the amount of sugar it called for.
It was still a tasty, cozy dish. You slice up chicken thighs and onions and cook that in the broth, then drizzle beaten egg over that and let it cook just a minute, and then slide it over your rice with some scallions or whatever, and spoon broth over it.
I may make it again, but probably when it’s cold out. I made a recipe card but somehow lost it. Bah! Here’s the more authentic recipe I based it on.
I cut the broccoli into spears, spread them in a pan, drizzled it with sesame oil and a little soy sauce, and sprinkled it with sesame seeds and pepper, and then roasted the whole thing. This is ridiculously tasty and takes, like, six minutes start to finish.
The cucumber salad is a snappy, refreshing summer side dish, also very fast. Vinegar, honey, red pepper flakes, kosher salt, and a few other things. Recipe card at the end if I can find it. Here’s a terrible picture.
I feel like we went to the beach after supper. I must really be feeling the pressure to end summer right.
WEDNESDAY
Chicken burgers, corn on the cob
I really don’t remember Wednesday. I was doing . . . something. I remember a lot of driving around, like a lot of driving around, some unpleasantness at Home Depot, and then I think we had a guilt trip to the playground, so we ate late. What an exhausting week it has been. I keep accidentally staying up until 2 a.m. and then dreaming I’m pregnant.
THURSDAY
Pulled pork sandwiches, french fries
Thursday was a bit nutty. We were gone for many hours for the training for Lucy’s new insulin pump. Damien took a small detour because the town we used to live in was cordoned off with a naked man shooting at police, and that’s his territory. The town, I mean. Not being naked and shooting at police. Then we dashed home, gobbled up supper, and went to Mass. I remember behaving rather badly, I forget why.
Lucy’s pump just has saline solution in it now, not insulin, while we learn how to use it. So she is pretty pleased to be a daughter of Neptune, with salt water running through her veins.
I made the pulled pork by dumping a hunk of pork into the crock pot with some Coke, cooking it all day, draining it, shredding it, and dumping in a bottle of barbecue sauce. It was indeed food.
FRIDAY
Birthday party!
I cleverly got Clara to bake the cake on Thursday night before staying up till 2 a.m. and dreaming I was pregnant. Then I frosted the cake this morning ,and then I dropped it on the floor. Actually I dropped it, rescued some of the layers, reassembled what was left, and then dropped it again. Why? Well, WHY NOT?
So I ran out for a store-bought cake and it came together pretty okay.
The candles are grouped around the letters “L-U-C-Y.”
I knew this party was coming, but somehow didn’t really make any plans. Happily, I did have garbage bags, paper bags, and thumb tacks. Voilà, The Gate.
I mean, it does look ominous. I briefly considered tearing up bits of paper and threading them on threads and hanging them from the ceiling so you got that Upside Down effect with the drifting ashes or whatever it’s supposed to be, but even I could tell that was a bad idea.
The kids are upstairs at this very moment making a Scoops Ahoy sign. The guests will be here in a little bit, and then we’ll have ice cream, then have a little beach trip, and then come home for pizza and cake. Phew.
Okay, here are some recipe cards, quick, before the guests get here!
Sesame broccoli
Ingredients
- broccoli spears
- sesame seeds
- sesame oil
- soy sauce
Instructions
-
Preheat broiler to high.
Toss broccoli spears with sesame oil.
Spread in shallow pan. Drizzle with soy sauce and sprinkle with sesame seeds
Broil for six minutes or longer, until broccoli is slightly charred.
spicy cucumber salad
A spicy, zippy side dish that you can make very quickly.
Ingredients
- 3-4 cucumbers, sliced thin (peeling not necessary)
- 1/4 cup rice vinegar or white vinegar
- 1+ tsp honey
- 1 tsp sesame seeds
- 1 tsp sesame oil
- 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
- 1/4 tsp kosher salt
Optional:
red pepper, diced
- 1/2 red onion diced
Instructions
-
Mix all ingredients together. Serve immediately, or chill to serve later (but the longer you leave it, the softer the cukes will get)
I love the Stranger Things cake….that is awesome!
I am a sucker for honey. I have not eaten honey in a very long time.
What a week! And I have to say, one of the things I so appreciate about you as a food blogger is your dedication. Anybody could drop a cake once, obviously, but the same cake TWICE? Well done.
Happy birthday. The waffle things on the cake remind me of when interior design people say a room needs texture and add a rustic throw onto the couch.