Happy Friday! Since it is apparently indeed Friday. There has not been one single day this week when I knew what day it was, so why start now?
I will begin with an abject failure from last Friday, which I hadn’t yet made when I wrote last Friday’s post. It was French onion pasta, and the recipe included fresh thyme, white wine, tons of freshly-grated cheese, and all kinds of lovely things. How could it go wrong?
I still don’t know, but wheeee-ew. The recipe said to make sure you measure the liquids carefully so it didn’t turn out soupy. So I did, and it did. So I spooned off quite a bit of the liquid before baking it, and apparently that’s where all the flavor was? But also, it was still soupy.
Doesn’t look terrible in this picture, but believe me. It was terrible. It tasted like the water you use to wash actual food. Man! Oh well.
Anyway, on to what we had this past week:
SATURDAY
Leftover buffet
In the morning, I drove into Nice New Hampshire and picked up a ton of windows from a guy who was converting a porch into a room.
The windows themselves are great (I think I got fourteen total), and also — and this may be something only cheapskate DIYers will understand — it was encouraging to get in on these materials so early in their life. Lots and lots of free and cheap windows are described as “collected to build a greenhouse but decided to go another route,” and that is . . . a little alarming. Because I am building a greenhouse/porch/solarium. But things will be different for me! I will collect windows, but I will not go another route! Probably!!
Then I went shopping, and we had leftovers for supper. I added taquitos, but there were so much leftover food, we didn’t really need them, and then Clara stopped by with some day-old baguettes from the bakery she works at. I myself mostly had the Middle Eastern Meatballs with yogurt sauce and Jerusalem salad, and also more day-old bread than you might think one person could even want.
I’m amazed at how well this planned leftover day is working out. Much less food waste, obviously, and the fridge is much tidier; and people are actually looking forward to it, either because you get a second shot at a nice meal, or because of the frozen food I add. Most of all, it’s super helpful to have a stress-free meal to count on after shopping on Saturdays.
SUNDAY
Nachos
Sunday we had nachos (I make really subpar nachos, and I just don’t care. They’re just chips, seasoned meat, jalapeños, and cheese. Salsa and sour cream on the side. It’s fine.
I also made Monday’s meal on Sunday. For whatever reason, I’ve been building up a supply of lamb shanks for the last several months, one or two at a time whenever they went on sale, and it was finally time to drag them all out of the freezer and do something. I decided on this curry recipe.
I will tell you ahead of time that it was a tiny bit disappointing. It had all the right spices in it, but the end flavor was just kind of muddy, and the lamb was not nearly as tender as I hoped. It was good, just not great!
Anyway, I had fun making it. First I browned up the lamb
much to the dog’s interest. And I do mean MUCH
and then I made a paste out of all the spices
then browned up some onions and other spices
then you add a bunch of chopped tomatoes and the spice paste
and also chicken broth and coconut milk, and then you put the lamb in. I let it simmer for several hours and then packed it into the fridge for the night.
MONDAY
Lamb curry, rice, pita, pomegranates
Monday, the kids had the day off, and I think Moe and Clara stopped by for supper, but I can’t even remember which day that was. I started the lamb heating up a few hours before supper, and made a big pot of basmati rice. I soaked it first, and that really added to the light, feathery texture of the rice, so I’ll be doing that going forward. Gosh, I love basmati rice.
A few hours before supper, I started some naan. I am not entirely happy with the various recipes I’ve tried, so this time I went with the Recipe Tin Eats version, which doesn’t include yogurt, but does include a little egg and ghee.
Friends, Nagi was right again. It turned out so good. Much fluffier than any other naan I’ve made, and it had a nice flavor, too.
I couldn’t find my iron frying pan, but this double-walled steel one worked fine. I wish I had been a little more assiduous about wiping the burnt flour out of the pan in between naans, but I will still very happy with the results.
So then it was supper time! Rice was ready, naan was ready, and I had cut up some pomegranates and some cilantro, and all I had to do was combine the two pots of lamb curry into one very large, brimming pot and carry it into the dining room without–
never mind. I sloshed a little bit out, slipped in it, and sloshed a lot of it out. But didn’t drop any actual meat! But sheesh, what a mess. You can see, this is a fairly greasy recipe, which is one thing I wasn’t crazy about. I think you can see my actual slipping toe marks, which is kind of funny.
ANYWAY, it was good, though!
Pretty good. Like I said, a little muddy, and just not as flavorful as I was hoping, considering how many THINGS went into it. There was a lot left over, and I cut the meat into pieces and returned it to the masala sauce, and I’m kind of looking forward to Saturday. It was fun having some of the big kids over, anyway. It’s very jolly when they’re here.
TUESDAY
Bagel, egg, cheese, sausage sandwiches; OJ
Over the weekend, Damien pushed really hard and got the porch debris to the dump, which was a huge relief. On Tuesday, I got out there with a rake and got the small bits, so it looks much more respectabiggle out there. I found a very old bone which I’m about 87% sure is a chicken bone.
In the late afternoon we had the pleasure of watching Moe read some of his short stories at an event at the college. He won a creative writing award and also recently got an internship with a publisher, and it was hard to say what was more gratifying: Hearing his excellent work, or hearing everyone say nice things about him!
Then we got home and had bagel sandwiches. I tried the oven rack toasting method again, and had slightly more success with the bagels than I did with bread, because they are more rigid
Turns out the kids are much more willing to eat duck eggs if you scramble them than if you fry them! Good to know.
I don’t really blame the kids for feeling a little icky about eating the duck eggs. You spend enough time witnessing the ducks’ personal habits, and you start to feel a real need for some kind of buffer. I get it. Lucky for me, the main thing I care about is eating, so I love duck eggs, despite What I Know.
WEDNESDAY
Chicken drumsticks two ways, vegetables and dip, chips
In the morning, I drove into Sticksville and picked up a beautiful heavy door, only $20. The lady says, “I’m sorry I can’t help you lift it; I’ve hurt my back” and I said, “Oh, I’m sorry to hear that. I’m just rushing around lifting as much heavy stuff as I can before I have surgery myself” and she says “What kind of surgery?” and I said, “Uh, hernia.” and we just kind of looked at each other like, well, bitches be crazy.
Then I got home and tried to do some writing, and then got an irresistible urge to, uh, plant a bunch of marigolds for the turtle to eat.
I have an awful lot of seeds hanging around, and seeds go through my kitchen constantly. Last year I did some winter sowing (starting seeds inside jugs outdoors, like miniature greenhouses, so they are somewhat self-watering and are already hardened off and start to germinate earlier), which is a nice way to get through the dark part of winter. But I’m having fun finding edible plants I can grow right now. The turtle has been very active and adventurous lately, and is enjoying the geraniums and pansies I put in his tank.
I roasted a bunch of chicken drumsticks with olive oil, salt and pepper, and then I made two sauces: One with honey, mustard, and lemon juice, and one with buffalo sauce and melted butter. Then I divided the chicken and mixed half with one sauce, half with the other.
I did this in the morning, and then I had the kids start heating the chicken up in the evening while I was out, and by dinner time, there were two tasty chickens from which to choose. Also veggies and dip and chips.
Pretty popular meal. It was only a tiny bit of extra work to do the two kinds of sauce.
THURSDAY
Grilled ham and cheese, tomato soup with rice
Thursday is an absolute blur. In retrospect, I was starting to hatch a migraine (WHICH, I should mention, are much rarer than they used to be! Emgality has really made a difference), and it was one of those days where I had to think about where to put my foot for every step I took, etc. You know, just living is a lot of work sometimes.
So for supper, we just had grilled ham and cheese on sourdough bread, and I heated up some condensed tomato soup with milk, and I put leftover basmati rice in mine.
I absolutely love cream of tomato soup with rice in it. Makes you feel like you’re sitting in someone’s lap.
FRIDAY
Ravioli?
I feel like it might be ravioli. For lo, the migraine has come into full power and I don’t know much. But at least we have windows! Lots and lots of windows, and surely everything will work out, one way or another. Or maybe we’ll go another route.
Speaking of which, I stopped interacting with Twitter about a month ago, and yesterday I finally started up with Bluesky. It’s nice! It’s like Twitter used to be, and lots of people are making a conscious effort to be friendly and pleasant and not horrible. If you’re there, let’s connect!
A few years ago an Asian cashier at World Market convinced me to buy a Zoorishi rice cooker. I have to say that the Basmati rice turns out perfectly. You can only cook two cups at a time though. It’s also compact and can fit in a drawer.
My husband cooked all day yesterday which we found very annoying. He has a “if you cook you don’t clean” policy which only refers to himself. I used to have a “don’t go to bed without a clean kitchen to wake up to” policy, which I finally realized was skewed toward everyone but the one who does the kitchen. Last night I said, “I’m pretty sure there’s this thing about resting on Sundays.”
My fifth kid also did poetry readings at his college. He’s the one who worked in the student garden and walked around shirtless with only his brown scapular and jeans on. He couldn’t be more different than his other brothers. He just married his very adorable Protestant girlfriend. His siblings were shocked but liked her so much they wondered why she would marry him. But the one they give even more hell to right now is his younger brother who goes to mass everyday. I don’t know where he came from. The priests are after him to convince him he has a vocation. We’re just scratching our heads wondering how that happened.
I hope your glass room happens. I love that idea. I’m obsessed with having another roof deck, but my husband just asked me if I’d be willing to move to Seattle. :/ Brrrr
Well, French onion pasta sounded like a good idea to me! Bummer it wasn’t. I hope a Certain Someone got some of the lamb :). And I hope your migraines are fewer and fewer and disappear, like my mother’s eventually did – never knew why, but they went away and she was not wanting them back! She thought perhaps it had to do with changing hormones – she called them “sick headaches” and they plagued her until they didn’t and I hope the same for you.
For sure, my migraines were also related to my hormones. Figuring out what foods I couldn’t eat helped me regulate my hormones, but I know it’s not so simple for most people.
I feel you on really elaborate recipes that turn out meh. We’ve all been there, sister!
Way to go on implementing a leftover day meal! I’m happy to hear it makes things easier for you.
“and we just kind of looked at each other like, well, bitches be crazy.” made me laugh right out loud. 😂
Thanks 😊
Looks delish but I will need to pass for today’s meal since we give up eating meats on Fridays. Maybe tomorrow.
Very pretty lamb curry plate. It might not be as flavorful as you hoped but it still looks like it could be featured in a food magazine.
And good call quitting twitter. The next 4 years are going to be rough and I don’t doubt twitter will only get worse.
Nagi always knows! I have 2 of her recipes in my meal plan for the next week. I learned to make better rice from her, too.
ooh, what are you making?
I love lamb shanks, but you do have to de-grease any of the liquid used to cook them. I prefer to cook them in a tomato-based sauce until they’re falling apart, then get the grease out of the sauce and pull the meat apart to add back to the sauce. Or I use them to make lamb stew, which is delicious.
good to know! I did skim quite a bit off the grease off after refrigerating it, but not enough.
Her stroganoff recipe, but with deer instead of beef, because we have SO MUCH. And the “hot buttered corn rice,” because that just sounds great.
IT DOES