All things shall be well, and all things shall be well, and all manner of things shall be, well, here’s what we ate this week:
SATURDAY
Hot dogs, hot pretzels
I vaguely remember Saturday.
SUNDAY
Thai food
The kids had chicken nuggets at home and Damien and I went to a party at the house of one of his editors. We had a really nice time! We took our time coming home and stopped for dinner at Siam Orchid Thai Bistro in Concord, which has a pleasant outdoor table area. Lovely meal. We had a plate of various appetizers, all very fresh and delicious, and then Damien had some kind of amazing crunchy duck arrangement on spicy noodles, and I had a spicy beef and vegetable situation, also scrumptious. My rice came in an adorable little basket.
We felt like such hot shots, we even ordered dessert. Damien had mango fried ice cream and I had coconut ice cream with peanuts on sticky rice.
This refreshed and enchanted me so much, I went home and starting mooching around for information about ice cream makers, and I ended up getting an excellent deal on a like-new Cuisinart ice cream maker on FB Marketplace. It should get here in a few days, so hold on to your butts.
MONDAY
Blueberry almond chicken salad
Easy and pleasant. The blueberries are sweet and cheap this year. I roasted some chicken breasts with olive oil, salt and pepper and garlic powder, sliced it, and set it out with mixed greens, blueberries, slivered almonds, thinly-sliced red onions, and some freshly-shredded parmesan cheese.
I had mine with red wine vinegar for a dressing, and stale crackers on the side. I didn’t toast the almonds, because it was already monstrously late, and sometimes you feel like you don’t even have two more minutes to spare. But here is my periodic reminder that you can easily toast nuts in the microwave, and it makes them crunchier and nuttier, and only takes two minutes.
TUESDAY
Chicken enchilada bowls
I keep making this meal and it keeps not being anything more than okay. Why do I keep trying? Nobody knows.
I made a big pot of rice in the Instant Pot, and roasted the chicken breasts with olive oil and lots of Tajin seasoning, and then shredded it. I mixed half the shredded chicken with red enchilada sauce and half with green enchilada sauce, from cans. And I served the rice and two saucy chicken varieties with some black beans, shredded cheddar cheese, corn chips, and sour cream.
It was fine. I guess I’m just going to have to break down and make actual enchiladas again, though. I guess the real problem with this dish is that it’s not actual enchiladas.
Tuesday, or possibly Wednesday, was also the feast of Saints Anne and Joachim. The only reason I know that is because I was looking for something that rhymes with “ice cream” for the title, and I was like, hey; so I looked it up the date, and I was like, hey! Or should I say: “AIEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!”
WEDNESDAY
Carnitas, guacamole and tortilla chips, corn on the cob
Now this meal turned out great. I made a large dish of guacamole, including one of the more successful tomatoes from our largely unsuccessful garden
Every year, I plant six tomato plants, and five of them are spindly, wizened, and blighted, and one of them is cheery, robust, and prolific. I water and fertilize them all exactly the same, and they all get the same amount of light. I know why this happens, though. It’s to drive me crazy.
I didn’t take a picture of the guacamole, but one must imagine guacamole. One must imagine Simcha happy. Guacamole makes Simcha happy.
Jump to RecipeFor the carnitas, I followed John Herreid’s simple, delicious recipe, which I have finally made up into a card, because I altered it slightly.
Jump to RecipeIt turned out so lovely. You cook the seasoned meat up in oil and Coke with cinnamon sticks, orange quarters, and bay leaves,
fish out the flavoring elements, continue cooking, and then scronch that meat.
I forgot to drain the fat out of the meat at the end, but there were zero complaints. I took my plate outside with the carnitas, some guacamole chips, and an ear of corn, and listened to Benny talk about how beautiful the world is.
And this is the best possible way to eat carnitas.
THURSDAY
Burgers and ever so many raw vegetables
I’m vegcoring
I ate outside again and saw THREE hummingbirds. Here are two of them. I think they were mad at each other:
I installed the Merlin app on my phone, and it’s very entertaining, but I can’t say it’s taught me anything. I’ve always had a hard time remembering all but a few bird calls, and now that my phone tells me what they are, I still can’t remember them unless I’m looking at my phone. Nicely designed app, though.
FRIDAY
Pizza
Later today MY SISTER IS COMING OVER. I AM EXCITE!!!!! Get ready for lots of food, because that’s what I do when I am excite!!!!!!! She and several of her kids are staying the weekend, and we are also having lunch tomorrow with a priest who is passing through on his way home from seeing the pope. I hope the hummingbirds behave themselves.
And don’t forget to tell me about your homemade ice cream! I want to make ridiculous delicious flavors. We still have a few weeks of vacation left, and we are most definitely open to all kinds of ideas.
White Lady From NH's Guacamole
Ingredients
- 4 avocados
- 1 medium tomato, diced
- 1 medium jalapeno, minced
- 1/2 cup cilantro, chopped roughly
- 1 Tbsp minced garlic
- 2 limes juiced
- 1 tsp chili powder
- salt and pepper
- 1/2 red onion, diced
Instructions
-
Peel avocados. Mash two and dice two.
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Mix together with rest of ingredients and add seasonings.
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Cover tightly, as it becomes discolored quickly.
Carnitas (very slightly altered from John Herreid's recipe)
Ingredients
- large hunk pork (butt or shoulder, but can get away with loin)
- 2 oranges, quartered
- 2-3 cinnamon sticks
- 4-5 bay leaves
- salt, pepper, oregano
- 1 cup oil
- 1 can Coke
Instructions
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Cut the pork into chunks and season them heavily with salt, pepper, and oregano.
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Put them in a heavy pot with the cup of oil, the Coke, the quartered orange, cinnamon sticks, and bay leaves
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Simmer, uncovered, for at least two hours
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Remove the orange peels, cinnamon sticks, and bay leaves
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Turn up the heat and continue cooking the meat until it darkens and becomes very tender and crisp on the outside
-
Remove the meat and shred it. Serve on tortillas.
The best thing I ever did when I bought our first ice cream maker years ago was buy a copy of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream recipe book. The recipes are usually simple to make and the ice cream is to die for!
All this talk of homemade ice cream makes me miss my dad. 🙁 He loved making ice cream in his old age. He thought his best flavors were strawberry and peach.
Many years ago, I planted heirloom Brandywine tomatoes. We started them indoors from seed in mini (non draining) Pringles containers. I didn’t actually think they would grow but caring for them was something for my big kids to do. They did grow and we put them in the ground. The regular sized ones are Brandywine and I can’t remember what the grape/cherry ones are. But anyway, they are now literally weeds. They come up every year no matter what and grow great. So I would say find a breed of tomato that’s native to your planting zone – the Brandywine valley is about a half hour from here so I think that’s why our soil and the conditions lends itself to them.
My daughter just told me she has a new favorite ice cream – black licorice, descended from Finnish settlers in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula where she is now on vacation – she is determined to try to make it at home with her ice cream maker, which she loves (not sure what kind it is) and used to make Peeps ice cream at Eastertime. Good luck with your ice cream maker and hope you love it as much as she loves hers!
Homemade ice cream is awesome and no where near as hard as it sounds. I have a kid with an egg and nut allergy (boo) who has always been limited to the relatively boring safe options at the grocery store. Last summer I decided to change that, and declared it “the summer of icecream” and we made a new variety each week. I happen to really like Jeni’s Splendid recipes, and would follow those even if we didn’t have to avoid eggs.. it’s a pretty easy method and always turns out amazingly creamy and stays scoopable for days, and just.. a+ awesome. Last year we made lemon bar icecream, backyard mint, chocolate fudge brownie, coffee, brambleberry crisp, strawberry buttermilk, and at least three or four others that I’m now forgetting. This year I’m heavily pregnant and overwhelmed with life and gardening, so I’ve only made three batches, but brambleberry crisp and backyard mint are great places to start! My daughter’s favorite is lemon bar, my husband and I love the fudge brownie and coffee… Oh, and I have grand plans to make an Andes Mint fudge brownie version in the near future..
We have a Cuisinart, too, and it works like a charm… we just keep the freezing bowl in our chest freezer so it’s ready to go when I want it. It definitely helps to chill the liquid base for your icecream overnight before churning it, and then chill again for at least 6 hours after churning. And freeze any “add ins” and put them in right at the end. The only thing I might do differently, now, if it I had it to do over again is spring for the BIGGER icecream maker – ours is 1.5 qts but you don’t realistically get ALL the icecream out, because it tries to freeze to the bowl as you are trying to scoop it into a container (by far the most hasslesome part). We are a family of 5, soon to be 6, and we do small portion sizes – I’ve started buying cones because that stretches the icecream a bit further – and still one batch of icecream is at most 2 nights of dessert for us. With your bigger family, it might be worth considering getting a second freezing bowl, so that you can double the liquid base and be able to churn twice as much at a time (though I’d give the motor a good 20 min break in between batches, that thing works HARD). That’s my plan for a couple years down the road, when I foresee needing more icecream at one time 🙂