What’s for supper? Vol. 408: Are we cumin? or are we dancers?

Happy Friday! Let’s hop to it, she said, while propped up in bed. Here’s what we had for supper this week, which turned out to be a combination of quite good food and fair-to-bad life management otherwise:

SATURDAY
Domino’s, cheesecake with strawberries

A belated birthday celebration. I made my top secret cheesecake recipe, the details of which I have been sworn to secrecy about; but the general advice for this mile-high, lusciously creamy megalith (or I guess megaτυρί) of a dessert is:

Put the cheese out the night before, so it’s really truly at room temp; mix it only lightly, so as to introduce as little air as possible, and scrape down the bowl often, or else stop mixing and drop the bowl a few times, to knock the air out; wrap the pan thoroughly in heavy duty foil and bake it in a water bath, and then, without opening the oven, turn the oven off and let the cheesecake sit in the cooling oven for a few hours before you take it out and chill it; and chill it overnight. So essentially you need to start two evenings before the day you eat it. 

What I do NOT recommend is: Press the graham cracker crust into the pan, but forget to bake it before pouring the cheesecake batter on top; forget to grease the pan before adding the batter; and bake it way high up in the oven so the top gets absolutely roasted brown. Also do a poor job wrapping the pan, so a little water leaks in.

But I did all these things. 

So, NOT MY FINEST WORK. But, still, cheesecake, and lots of it! I cut some strawberries into some sort of non-specific flower shapes and pressed some sliced strawberries onto the sides. Forgot to take a pic of the whole cake, but here is a wedge

and here is a piece with a scoop of strawberry sauce on top:

I made the strawberry sauce by cutting up two pounds of strawberries and heating them in a pan with the juice from one lemon, plus the lemon zest, and 2/3 cup of sugar. I simmered this for about twenty minutes, then got annoyed and threw it in the food processor and pulsed it a bit. Then I put it back in the pot and stirred in a roux of about two teaspoons of cornstarch. Simmered and stirred for another five minutes and then I chilled it. 

This cake was a bit of a mess, so I was glad for a little bit of zing from the lemon in the topping. Really not as bad as it might have been, with all my errors. Everyone liked it, and it was pretty. 

SUNDAY
Leftover buffet

Sunday we were back on our leftover grind. Looks like we had some rotisserie chicken, chicken biryani, pasta salad, and something in tinfoil that I can’t quite make out; plus lots of pizza pockets. 

I have clearly been making too much damn food, but it’s just not an area of self-improvement that I have the will to take seriously right now. 

It was the first weekend in a long, long time that we weren’t both crazy busy and sick, so didn’t plan anything, and happily spent a lot of time carving wood for no particular reason. I’m really, really enjoying this hobby that I have no plans to monetize or make useful in any way.

It’s a creative and artistic outlet like drawing, but since I’m a rank amateur, I have very low expectations for myself (unlike with drawing); and it feels great to use my hands and muscles, which is something I really miss over the winter when I’m not building anything or working in my garden. 

I had so much free time on Sunday, I looked ahead and made a double recipe of pie crust for Tuesday’s dinner. Here’s my pie crust recipe.

Jump to Recipe

I take the “do not over handle” advice for pie crust really seriously, and honestly don’t even completely incorporate all the flour until I roll the dough out. I mean I leave it slightly disorganized in the bowl, and only use the rolling pin to finish making it into actual dough, if that makes sense. It would be more satisfying to have a neat round ball of dough to start rolling out, but I do get really flaky crust this way. 

MONDAY
Meatloaf, baked potatoes, peas

Ground beef was on sale in a way that makes me think there is some sports event coming up? I’m not being coy; I’m genuinely 100% out of the loop. But ground beef prices are a sign of sports just as surely as little birdies are a sign of spring. (If little birdies were on sale, I would buy a bunch of those, too.)

So I made a ton of meatloaf, which we haven’t had in quite some time. This is strategic, so my family still continues to think of meatloaf as a treat. When I was growing up, we had meatloaf so often that my father made a little song about it (“Meatloaf on Monday”), which my mother did not like.

HOWEVER, my meatloaf recipe is quite delicious, so I could probably make it a little more often. If ground beef were on sale more often! Come on, football! Shake a leg! Shake a foot! Shake a ball! 

Here’s my recipe:

Jump to Recipe

and it came out absolutely monstrously yummers, which is how meatloaf should be

I buy fatty ground beef and then cook it in such a way that I drain out the fat. Does this make sense? I don’t know. I feel in my heart that it’s the most virtuous thing to do, but there is no actual evidence for this. Good meatloaf, though. 

I was somewhere or other in the afternoon, so I left directions for one of the kids for when to put the meat and potatoes in the oven, and it worked out swell. Served with microwaved peas from frozen, which I also try not to serve too often, but honestly I could probably get away with more. Peas are something else I love now, but hated as a kid, because I’m so old, we had canned peas, which are the color, consistency, and taste of mud. Happy to report my kids like and appreciate frozen peas. 

TUESDAY
Chicken pie, roast carrots

Tuesday morning, I smugly pulled the pre-made pie crust out of the fridge, and made the chicken pie filling. This is a wonderful and lavish dish which i made because, I don’t know, it was Tuesday and I like pie. 

I used red onions because I was out of yellow, and dried thyme rather than fresh, and I used a bunch of leeks rather than the celery I used last time. Leeks are what the original recipe, which my friend Rebecca Salazar wrote, calls for, and YES, I took a joke picture of the leeks under the bathroom sink. I’m not made of stone. 

Jump to Recipe

Anyway, this is a joyfully delicious dish. How could it not be, with these ingredients?

I got a little cute with the top crust, and used a cookie cutter and one of those cut-out rolling pins to add some detail

Then I took a kid in for a driving test, and let’s just say that through a combination of said child not listening closely to instructions and then not wanting to ask anyone for clarification, and me driving a car that I haven’t super duper gotten around to putting the bumper back on, we . . . did not do the driving test. And went away sad. 

But how sad can you be when there is chicken pie?

Last time I made this, I was very impressed at how well the pieces held their shape. This time, the gravy turned out a little thinner, for some reason. 

Possibly if I had let it sit for a bit before cutting it open, it would have been more cohesive. I’m not really convinced this was a flaw, though. It was truly heavenly. 

The potatoes were actually a little under done, but this didn’t even slow me down. Next time I will give it an extra ten minutes in the oven, though.

You can see that I made roast carrots for a side dish, because that’s what I wrote on the menu, and apparently Corrie had been looking forward to this all week. I was planning to follow this recipe, but got my wires crossed and did the wrong one, and then realized it was wrong and tried to finesse it, so we ended up with slightly underdone carrots roasted in olive oil, brown sugar, garlic powder, and pepper that were ALSO DELICIOUS. 

Corrie thought the carrots were great. Damien and I thought the chicken pie was great. THE REST OF THE KIDS HAD RAMEN. I don’t care! I’m making it again, and soon! Might make a smaller one, though. Might not. 

WEDNESDAY
Oven fried chicken, Prongles, more peas

Wednesday morning, I threw a bunch of chicken drumsticks in a bowl with milk, eggs, salt, and pepper, and then I drove over and dropped off the relics of St. Helen and St. Peter at my local church!

 

I figured someone in the area once owned them before they ended up at the Salvation Army, so it makes sense to keep them local. The pastor will be displaying them for veneration on their holy days, and I think they’re going to be incorporated into the high altar at some point.

My brother-in-law built a reliquary and my sister made a glass fronted case for them, and my niece sewed a beautiful cloth to drape over it.

I got them authenticated by Sacra Relics (and fervent thanks again to everyone who pitched in to fund that!) and it turns out the St. Helen one is a first class relic, but the St. Peter one is a piece of his altar. I will be talking with Sean Pilcher more soon, to get more information. All in all, it was sad but a bit of a relief to have them out of the house. We had them in the living room and it was a little too easy to forget they were there! But I am grateful for our extended visit. What a to-do. 

Wednesdays are a little snazy in the afternoon, and I generally spend three hours in the car, just going back and forth over the same 15 miles or so. So I prepped the seasoned flour for the chicken ahead of time. Here is my oven- fried chicken recipe: 

Jump to Recipe

and I just asked Benny to pick up where I left off, and she did great!

I served Prongles, as planned (that is store brand Pringles, which I can never remember the actual name of. Don’t ask me why I can remember “Prongles,” which isn’t the name of anything), and searched around for a vegetable and lo, I found more frozen peas. So much for not serving them too often. Hey, Three Things, and One Not Brown. We did it, folks. 

I also put my bumper back on. Basically.  

THURSDAY
Tacos

Thursday we had a big medical appointment for a kid an hour an a half away, and I left feeling (accurately) like I was kinda dropping the ball, and then I missed my exit, and then, as we were driving through Plainfield and I was yapping about how, when I was growing up, we always hated Plainfield because the Plainfield track team had a wonderful track made of these sproingy rubber nubbins, and our track was just dirt with grass growing on it, I got pulled over.

IT WAS WEIRD.

(Not the above sentence. The sentence works out, if you read it carefully.)

The officer explained that we were being recorded, and then said that someone had been following me and called 911 to say that I crossed the center line and almost hit a truck. That. . . didn’t happen, which is what I told him. He then said he was watching me and I was weaving all over the road, and he asked me if I was tired, drunk, angry, distracted, upset, on medication, lost, or driving a car that was making me drive erratically. The absolute truth is that I was all of those things, except drunk, because it’s Thursday, and this is what peak performance on a Thursday looks like for me: Everything but drunk. But I truly don’t think I was weaving, and I most definitely did not cross the center line. 

So I just kept doing the “Gee, I don’t know!” thing, which was accurate, and then he asked for my license, and here is where I started to feel a little bad, because my license has expired. I did have an appointment to renew it, though. You can renew your license online, but I had a desperate desire to get a new picture, since my old picture was when I — look, I’m not exactly trim and slender now, but I had an entire additional chin five years ago. So I made an in-person appointment, which had not happened yet.

For some reason I don’t understand, he did not give me a ticket for this. I think he didn’t like the look of my car, which was absolutely whiskery with zip ties (I had to add a few more in the hospital parking garage), and was looking for a reason to pull me over. But I turned out to be just this lady drinking Coke Zero and yapping at her kid, so he just told me to be more careful, with the result that I was just about hysterical with nerves all the way home, and drove way, way worse. 

Not gonna lie, I really thought by the time I was fifty years old, I would have my shit together more than this. But I do not. I do have a little bit of life insurance, and I bought myself some new socks the other day. I’m trying. Maybe I should go get those relics back. 

Then we had tacos, and then we went to Lucy’s art show, and I forgot to take pictures! But she good at art. 

FRIDAY
Spaghetti

Thank goodness for spaghetti. I mad an appointment for both cars to get inspected, and I rescheduled the driving test for today, and if they give me a hard time about the car, I’m going to take it pretty hard. But not learn anything! Never learn anything, that’s my motto. 

Oh, I forgot to explain the title. See, I got a bee in my bonnet and reorganized my spice shelf. It doesn’t look any nicer, but it’s ORGANIZED. The categories are: Indian, Indian Overflow, Middle Eastern, Asian, Mexican/Peppers and Spicy Blends, Herbs and Seeds, Baking, and Everyday.

These categories are fairly bogus, because there is a lot of overlap. I put the Scezhuan pepper in “Asian,” rather than in “Peppers;” and I put cumin in “Indian,” when it arguably belongs in “Middle Eastern, “etc. etc. Cinnamon could go in almost every category! But I organized them according to how I tend to actually USE them, and so far, it’s been really hlelpful. Also, I have SO MUCH CUMIN. And have spent a lot of time with Lucy lately, and she plays a lot of The Killers. So that’s the title. 

5 from 1 vote
Print

Basic pie crust

Ingredients

  • 2-1/2 cups flour
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1-1/2 sticks butter, FROZEN
  • 1/4 cup water, with an ice cube

Instructions

  1. Freeze the butter for at least 20 minutes, then shred it on a box grater. Set aside.

  2. Put the water in a cup and throw an ice cube in it. Set aside.

  3. In a bowl, combine the flour and salt. Then add the shredded butter and combine with a butter knife or your fingers until there are no piles of loose, dry flour. Try not to work it too hard. It's fine if there are still visible nuggets of butter.

  4. Sprinkle the dough ball with a little iced water at a time until the dough starts to become pliable but not sticky. Use the water to incorporate any remaining dry flour.

  5. If you're ready to roll out the dough, flour a surface, place the dough in the middle, flour a rolling pin, and roll it out from the center.

  6. If you're going to use it later, wrap it tightly in plastic wrap. You can keep it in the fridge for several days or in the freezer for several months, if you wrap it with enough layers. Let it return to room temperature before attempting to roll it out!

  7. If the crust is too crumbly, you can add extra water, but make sure it's at room temp. Sometimes perfect dough is crumbly just because it's too cold, so give it time to warm up.

  8. You can easily patch cracked dough by rolling out a patch and attaching it to the cracked part with a little water. Pinch it together.

 

5 from 1 vote
Print

Meatloaf (actually two giant meatloaves)

Ingredients

  • 5 lbs ground beef
  • 2 lbs ground turkey
  • 8 eggs
  • 4 cups breadcrumbs
  • 3/4 cup milk OR red wine
  • 1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce

plenty of salt, pepper, garlic powder or fresh garlic, onion powder, fresh parsley, etc.

  • ketchup for the top
  • 2 onions diced and fried (optional)

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 450

  2. Mix all meat, eggs, milk, breadcrumbs, and seasonings together with your hands until well blended.

  3. Form meat into two oblong loaves on pan with drainage

  4. Squirt ketchup all over the outside of the loaves and spread to cover with spatula. Don't pretend you're too good for this. It's delicious. 

  5. Bake for an hour or so, until meat is cooked all the way through. Slice and serve. 

5 from 1 vote
Print

Rebecca's chicken bacon pie

Ingredients

  • double recipe of pie crust
  • 1 pound bacon, diced
  • 4 ribs celery, diced OR one big bunch of leeks, diced
  • 1 onion, diced
  • 1 bunch thyme, finely chopped
  • 3 chicken breasts, diced
  • 2-3 potatoes, peeled and diced
  • 6 Tbsp butter
  • 6 Tbsp flour
  • 3 cups concentrated chicken broth (I use almost double the amount of bouillon to make this)
  • 2 Tbsp pepper
  • egg yolk for brushing on top crust

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 425.

  2. In a large pan, cook the bacon pieces until they are browned. Take the cooked bacon out and pour off most of the grease.

  3. Add the onion and celery to the remaining bacon grease and cook, stirring, until soft. Return the bacon to the pan.

  4. Add the thyme, pepper, and butter and cook until butter is melted. Add the flour and whisk, cooking for another few minutes.

  5. Whisk in the chicken broth and continue cooking for a few more minutes until it thickens up. Stir in the chicken and potato and keep warm, stirring occasionally, until you're ready to use it.

  6. Pour filling into bottom crust, cover with top crust, brush with beaten egg. Bake, uncovered, for about an hour. If it is browning too quickly, cover loosely with tin foil.

5 from 1 vote
Print

Oven-fried chicken

so much easier than pan frying, and you still get that crisp skin and juicy meat

Ingredients

  • chicken parts (wings, drumsticks, thighs)
  • milk (enough to cover the chicken at least halfway up)
  • eggs (two eggs per cup of milk)
  • flour
  • your choice of seasonings (I usually use salt, pepper, garlic powder, cumin, paprika, and chili powder)
  • oil and butter for cooking

Instructions

  1. At least three hours before you start to cook, make an egg and milk mixture and salt it heavily, using two eggs per cup of milk, so there's enough to soak the chicken at least halfway up. Beat the eggs, add the milk, stir in salt, and let the chicken soak in this. This helps to make the chicken moist and tender.

  2. About 40 minutes before dinner, turn the oven to 425, and put a pan with sides into the oven. I use a 15"x21" sheet pan and I put about a cup of oil and one or two sticks of butter. Let the pan and the butter and oil heat up.

  3. While it is heating up, put a lot of flour in a bowl and add all your seasonings. Use more than you think is reasonable! Take the chicken parts out of the milk mixture and roll them around in the flour until they are coated on all sides.

  4. Lay the floured chicken in the hot pan, skin side down. Let it cook for 25 minutes.

  5. Flip the chicken over and cook for another 20 minutes.

  6. Check for doneness and serve immediately. It's also great cold.

Liked it? Take a second to support simchajfisher on Patreon!

6 thoughts on “What’s for supper? Vol. 408: Are we cumin? or are we dancers?”

  3. Hey, maybe you didn’t get a ticket because Peter and Helen were praying for you, as you took such good care of the relics! That case is beautiful.
    I, too, have so much cumin- which is weird as I hardly use it unless my vegetarian kids are home visiting. Your spice organization makes so much sense- you’ll find things quickly that way.
    Glad that you are all recovering from assorted ills. We’ve avoided everything so far this winter, until today. Homeschooler who’s been asking if he looks tired just developed a fever. My long weekend will now be devoted to isolating the germs and buying lots of orange juice.

    Reply

  4. 5 stars
    Re: making too much food. I find myself some days making too much food because I don’t know how many people will be here for dinner. It’s a season of life thing, with older kids who don’t live at home stopping by to eat with us. I love the spontaneity and truly I don’t mind that it means I can’t plan better. I just wonder if anyone has, for example, a list of fast, last minute meal additions for when you have more people around the table than anticipated.

    Reply

  5. I’m so glad you didn’t get a ticket, and good luck to whoever is taking the driving test today!

    Your meatloaf looks delicious. I like my recipe for meatloaf too (BBQ sauce instead of ketchup, mix in cheddar cheese and bacon bits), and strongly disliked my mom’s meatloaf growing up. But my kids also dislike my meatloaf; is this just the cycle of life?

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe Rating