lemon honey mustard chicken

What’s for supper? Vol. 419: A masterful gambit of one’s own

Happy Friday! What’s new with you? I’m making notes on how to build a tree house, and now I know what a lag bolt is! I’m carving a sleeping bat, that’s not turning out very well! I’m driving around town surreptitiously taking photos of people’s porticos, so I can figure out how to do ours, or maybe I’m just being creepy!

We started a second batch of duck eggs incubating and Damien and I both think we see something happening this time. Duck shells are pretty thick, so it’s hard to say, but Coin has literally one job and we’ve definitely all seen him doing it (ducks are not known for their romantic finesse), so I do believe we’ll have ducklings eventually.

Until then, here’s what we ate this week:

SATURDAY
Taquitos, quesadillas

It was Saturday Leftover Buffet, but last week was already half leftovers built into the menu, so we didn’t have a lot to draw on. I got some frozen taquitos and made some quesadillas, and that was that.

SUNDAY
Mexican beef bowls, corn bread, tres leches cake

Sunday was Lena’s birthday! She requested Mexican beef bowl, and I was happy to oblige, because it is yummy. I sliced up the meat and got it marinating in the morning (I used London Broil, but this marinade is pretty acidic, so it should tenderize some pretty tough cuts if you give it long enough). Here is that recipe:

Jump to Recipe

Made a big pot of rice, blackened some corn, shredded some cheese, chopped some cilantro, and fried up some sweet red peppers, and we had it with sour cream and lime wedges, and black beans.

Frickin delicious.

Here is my basic bean recipe:

Jump to Recipe

I had two cans of black beans from Aldi. One turned out to be a dirty dirty lie!! But I didn’t have the emotional wherewithal to save the can, so I guess I’ll miss out on their “twice as nice” guarantee, alas. I always make too many beans anyway, so we had plenty.

I also made a pan of corn bread, which is probably what made me forget to serve the corn chips I got. I just followed the cornbread recipe on the cornmeal package

It was fine. I used to make corn bread CONSTANTLY, but I think mostly just Damien and I eat it, so I don’t usually bother.

For dessert, we had a tres leches cake – or a collection of them, really, employing I don’t even know how many milks altogether. Damien and I have apparently been dealing with stress by buying half and half and also requesting that each other pick up some half and half, so we had your three milks right here:

except that this recipe doesn’t even use half and half; it uses condensed milk, evaporated milk, milk, and heavy cream. Which is four milks, tres notwithstanding. To add to the confusion, Corrie’s class baked bread and made butter at school, and she brought home some of the butter in a sandwich bag, and proceeded to extrude and devour it all the way home. We’ve been tussling over her lunches lately, and she finally wore me down enough to acknowledge that a small container of Greek yogurt does, in fact, have quite a bit of protein for a kid; and from there, she concluded that Good Ol’ Cousin Butter must be even healthier than yogurt, because it’s even thicker! I started to argue with her, but quickly realized that I don’t really know what protein is. But I’m fairly sure she’s eating the yogurt, and not just bringing it to school and throwing it away. So that’s a win. She could absolutely beat me in a wrestling match, so maybe I shouldn’t be pushing protein anyway.

The only other time I made tres leches cake, it was extremely soggy, so this time I tried Pioneer Woman’s recipe. I made it the night before, and ended up sort of draining a lot of liquid off in the morning and then continuing to refrigerate it until evening. Then I topped it with the sweetened whipped cream and berries. It was good!

I guess this is just never gonna be my favorite cake, but this time was a vast improvement over last, anyway. It wasn’t screamingly sweet, and the cake part was very moist but not disintiningratingly wet.

And Lena liked it, which is the main thing.

Whew!

MONDAY
Quiche, onion soup

Monday, I really did use some of that half and half, and also a bunch of the eggs the ducks have started reliably laying. And so it was quiche day! Quiche is something else I used to make all the time, until we got pretty burnt out on it. But it was a chilly, drizzly day, and it SNOWED, and oh boy, a sunny, fragrant wedge of oven-fresh quiche really hit the spot.

I opted for pre-baked pie shells, and I made one quiche with diced ham and provolone (left over from last week’s chicken cutlets), and one with crumbled sausage and, feeling a little silly while I did it, some sliced-up Baby Bel cheese, which is apparently approximately fontina. (It was breakfast-style sausage, and that was the mildest cheese we had in the house.) I added salt and pepper and some parsley on top to both, and they turned out gorgeous.

I realized I’ve been over-baking quiche most of my life, so I didn’t do that this time! I just baked them until they were just set.

Here is my recipe

Jump to Recipe

and if you can find fresh eggs, it really does make a difference. Look how fluffy:

I also made some onion soup. We still had some Italian bread from something or other, so I cut that into large hunks and toasted it. I forgot I had a recipe for onion soup, so I wung it, but here is the basic recipe:

Jump to Recipe

I only had chicken broth, not beef, and I really prefer beef, but it was still pretty great. I like it with lots of pepper, and I really don’t like the thick crust of melted cheese on top that French onion soup is supposed to have, so I just served some freshly-grated parmesan on top. Big crouton, a few scoops of hot soup, and then the cheese. Did I mention it was a chilly, damp day, and have I mentioned how I feel about soup?

Delightful. I was surprised at how popular the soup was, although I did cook the onions for a long time, so they were sweet and friendly; and I did also add sugar.

TUESDAY
Honey mustard chicken, buffalo chicken, pasta salad, vegetables and dip

I think it was Tuesday that I finally got my car back. It needed an alternator, a transmission fluid hose, and a serpentine belt, so I was happy to have all that stuff done before I got stranded somewhere. Less happy to have to force myself to admit that, as soon as I got the car back, it started making a brand new sound. Fiddle dee dee. So I spent about 24 hours in denial and then brought the poor old thing back to the mechanic. And yes this makes the third time in 4-5 weeks I’ve had to bring it in. It’s still a good car. It is trying, I can tell.

In the morning I roasted a bunch of chicken drumsticks in oil, salt and pepper, and then while they were hot, I divided them and rolled half in honey mustard sauce and half in buffalo sauce. The honey mustard was half honey, half mustard, with the juice of a whole lemon, and some pepper; and the buffalo sauce was melted butter, a bunch of that Valentina hot sauce, and a bunch of paprika and garlic powder.

Then I made a big pot of pasta salad, which, and I guess this is the theme for the week, I used to make constantly, but haven’t made in quite a while. It was a real odds-and-ends salad from things I found in the cabinet: Pasta with red wine vinegar and olive oil, quite a bit of salt and pepper, garlic powder (rather than fresh, because I wanted it to cling to the pasta), and . . . let’s see. Black olives, marinated peppers, shredded parmesan, and then some things I got specifically for the salad: fresh parsley and the effusively-named “Wild Wonders” selection of multicolored cherry tomatoes.

I tend to under-season pasta salad, so I really went nuts with the seasonings, and it was good.

Chopped up a bunch of vegetables, and when it got close to dinner, I re-heated the two pans of drumsticks.

Nice little meal, although I wish I had saved out some of the sauces to juice up the flavor a bit toward the end of reheating.

I have been eating so many vegetables this week, it’s grotesque. (Mostly for lunch and snacks, in case you’re scrolling up and thinking, “THIS is what she considers a lot of vegetables??)

WEDNESDAY
Ham, peas, mashed potatoes

Wednesday we had the rest of the ham I had already cut into for the quiche. Wednesday is already always a little bananas, because we have STEM club and catechism after school, but everything is spaced out in such a way that I essentially have to circle the globe a few times in order to get everyone where they need to be. This week they added swimming lessons, so I also went to the Y, and I was a little frazzled, but seeing all those chipper, dripping little ten-year-olds stomping around in the locker room made up for a lot.

The ham was pre-cooked, so I cut it into thick slices, put it in a pan, added a little water, and covered it with tinfoil, and shoved that in the oven in between trips, and when I got home, I made a giant bowl of instant mashed potatoes and heated up some frozen peas. It’s not sophisticated, but it’s an immensely satisfying meal. For best effect, garnish generously with extra tinfoil so it’s easy to wash the pan.

THURSDAY
Chicken burgers, chips, raw vegetables

Thursday, for reasons I don’t understand, I scheduled . . . everything. I had a doctor’s appointment in the morning, and then in the afternoon we had one of the most frustrating and unprofessional meetings I’ve had the displeasure of fuming through in many a year, and then in the evening was something I can only describe as a surprise science fair. I don’t know why they do these things to us. It can’t possibly be that they sent me several emails, pamphlets, and Class Dojo notifications, and I just ignored them. I also woke up at 3:30 a.m. and didn’t get back to sleep until after 6, and then my alarm goes off at 6:40, so by evening, in clinical terms, my ass was draggin.

For her contribution, Benny threw together a game of Astronomy Jeopardy to test the wits of the elementary school kids, and it turns out there are two secrets to a successful science project: (a) a very loud button kids can press, and (b) Benny.

I didn’t get a picture of later in the evening, when her male classmates came around to be questioned, and she made them put their hands behind their backs, kneel on the floor, and hit the buttons with their heads. I don’t know why she did this, but I believe they would kill a man if Benny told them to.

So I texted the kids to heat up some chicken burgers, and Benny and I had a slice of cold science fair pizza and went home to do evening chores, and I was feeling a little bit like I wanted a treat, and I suddenly thought maybe there was a stray Italian ice in the freezer! I rummaged around and, to my delight, way in the back behind some bagged corn and elderly fudge, I found one!!

No I didn’t.

So I had some dried mango and shuffled off to take a shower. Emerged to find that Damien had changed the sheets and made the bed and turned on my little lamp, so I put on my fuzzy pants and put myself to bed at 9:30. Pretty nice.

FRIDAY
Spaghetti

Friday Damien and Benny got up super early to get the . . . remote control submarine contest at UNH? I’m a little fuzzy on the details. This has been my experience as a woman in STEM my whole life: ” . . . Wha?” But as I said, Damien took the hit and they’re there now. I myself went and got some fasting blood work done, meaning I had to get the kids to school, go to the doctor, and THEN get coffee. No one has ever suffered more.

Will we get to stations of the cross at the church tonight? PROBABLY NOT. We did do it at home last week, and maybe we can do that again. I found this text written by Cardinal Ratzinger, and it’s so much more thoughtful and less goopy than any other stations I’ve found. I mean it’s no “Simcha has to drive to school without coffee,” but pretty good.

And that’s-a my story.

Simple French onion soup

Serve with a piece of toasted baguette at the bottom of each bowl. Finish with cheese on top.

Ingredients

4 Tbsp butter
4 cups onion, thinly sliced
1 Tbsp flour
1 tsp white sugar
4-6 cups beef broth (can also use chicken broth or a combination of water and white wine)
pepper
parmesan or mozzarella cheese

Instructions

In a heavy pot, melt the butter and then add the onions. Cook very slowly over a low heat for about an hour, stirring occasionally, until the onions are very soft and somewhat darkened.
Stir in the sugar until dissolved. Stir in the flour and mix to coat.
Add the broth (or water and wine). Add pepper to taste and simmer for at least 30 minutes, preferably longer.
Serve with a hunk of toasted bread in the bottom of each bowl. Sprinkle cheese on top, and if you have oven-safe dishes, brown under the broiler to form a skin on top of the soup.

Quiche

Ingredients

2 pie shells
8 duck eggs (equivalent of 10-12 chicken eggs)
2 cups half and half
salt and pepper
1/4-1/2 cup meat/vegetables
1/4-1/2 cup shredded cheese
chopped parsley (optional)

Instructions

Preheat oven to 400
Poke shell with fork several times and bake on a shallow pan for 12 minutes or until slightly browned
Remove pie shells and lower oven to 350
Beat eggs and then beat in half and half, salt and pepper
Sprinkle vegetables and/or meat on pie shell, then sprinkle on cheese. Pour egg mixture on top. Top with extra cheese and/or parsley if you like.
Put the quiches in the oven, still on the pan, and bake, uncovered for about forty minutes until the middle is just set, not wobbly
Serve hot or room temperature.

Instant Pot black beans

Ingredients

2 tsp olive oil
1 onion, diced
6-8 cloves garlic, minced
2 16-oz cans black beans with liquid
1/2 cup fresh cilantro, chopped
1 Tbsp cumin
1-1/2 tsp salt
pepper to taste

Instructions

Put olive oil pot of Instant Pot. Press "saute" button. Add diced onion and minced garlic. Saute, stirring, for a few minutes until onion is soft. Press "cancel."
Add beans with liquid. Add cumin, salt, and cilantro. Stir to combine. Close the lid, close the vent, and press "slow cook."

Beef marinade for fajita bowls

enough for 6-7 lbs of beef

Ingredients

1 cup lime juice
1/3 cup Worcestershire sauce
1/2 cup olive oil
1 head garlic, crushed
2 Tbsp cumin
2 Tbsp chili powder
1 Tbsp paprika
2 tsp hot pepper flakes
1 Tbsp salt
2 tsp pepper
1 bunch cilantro, chopped

Instructions

Mix all ingredients together.
Pour over beef, sliced or unsliced, and marinate several hours. If the meat is sliced, pan fry. If not, cook in a 350 oven, uncovered, for about 40 minutes. I cook the meat in all the marinade and then use the excess as gravy.

What’s for supper? Vol. 403: Nagi knows

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!

What’s for supper? Vol. 215: In which I get carried away with chickpeas

Hey, who wants to talk about food? I do! Here’s what we had this week. For goodness’ sake, don’t skip over the biscuit recipe.

SATURDAY
Burgers and chips

We dig dig dig dig dig dig dig from early morn till night.
We dig dig dig dig dig dig dig up everything in sight.
We dig up diamonds by the score [not really].
A thousand rubies, sometimes more [actually not even interesting rocks].
But we don’t know what we dig ’em for [increasingly true].
We dig dig dig a-dig dig [accurate].

It seems unfair that this song should still be going through my head, but I suppose I deserve it. Damien made burgers on the grill, which is better than I deserve.

SUNDAY
Lemon honey mustard drumsticks, broccoli and dip, biscuits

You’ll be surprised to learn that we spent Sunday digging in the yard. We’re almost done, though! Really!

In the morning, we watched mass on Facebook Live, then drove to the church to receive communion. When we got home, I roasted up a bunch of drumsticks with olive oil, salt, and pepper. I made a sauce with lemon juice, honey, and mustard, and mixed up half the drumsticks with it, and left the other half plain, and put it all in the fridge. The longer the chicken sits with the sauce, the yuhmmier it gets.

I really wanted biscuits, and I do believe I’ve found the perfect recipe. It’s a little fussy, with more ingredients than seems strictly necessary, but my goodness, those were some perfect biscuits.

Light and airy on the inside with a paper-thin crisp outside, and wonderfully buttery.

I, uh, had five. They were small! (I made a quadruple recipe and got 48 smallish biscuits.)

This was a very pleasant, picnic-y kind of meal after a day of hard work.

We started moving some of the dug-up rocks to a different part of the yard, which is very disorderly and overcome with vicious blackberries, so I am very pleased. It almost looks like someone lives here now. And the hard labor is a good thing. A very good thing. Many, many times this week, I put down my phone and went out to the yard with a pair of clippers or a shovel and took care of a problem I could take care of. I don’t think I have solved racism yet, but anyway I’m sleeping better.

We’re all sleeping better. Some of us in our parents’ beds, but whatever.

MONDAY
Chicken enchiladas, pineapple

We had a bunch of smoked chicken thighs left over from . . . something. So I shredded those up and added them to chicken I shredded after pan-frying it in oil with plenty of chili powder, salt, and cumin. I basically follow Pioneer Woman’s recipe.

You know, my enchiladas are kind of gross. Not in a bad way, necessarily, but undeniably kind of gross. They’re just really flabby. Are they supposed to be flabby? I just don’t know.

TUESDAY
Hot dogs, Bugles

All I have to say about this meal is that the Bugles had a A Quiet Place: Part II tie-in, for reasons known only to Bugles. I bought them to make Lena laugh, and it worked.

WEDNESDAY
Chicken burgers, pasta salad

And what a pasta salad it was!

Dora gave me a set of fancy infused olive oils for mother’s day. They are Frankie Muniz’ special olive oils, and very good they are, Frankie Muniz’ special infused olive oils for mother’s day. She went with the basil-infused one.

She added cherry tomatoes, plenty of fresh garlic, parmesan cheese, and I guess salt and pepper, not sure what else. I advised her to use a ludicrous amount of whatever she added to the pasta, so it wouldn’t be bland, and she was listening. You could almost hear the flavor. So good. I ate so much.

Oh, Wednesday was the day we went to the BLM rally.

I was smiling in a friendly way in this picture, honest!

As a side note, Frankie and Paige Muniz say: “Learning about Ultra Premium Olive Oils is one of the best things to ever happen to us.” You might want to print that out and show it to a child who wants to be an actor when he grows up.

THURSDAY
Pork, pepper, and onion skewers; roasted chick peas, sugar snap peas

I chopped up a pork butt and set it to marinate with my spiedie marinade, including fresh wild mint the kids went out and picked. This is an excellent, easy marinade. You want to add more stuff, but everything in it packs a big punch, and it’s perfect as is.

Jump to Recipe

The plan was just to broil up the meat and serve it on rolls, but it was a little skimpy, so I decided to add some peppers and onions, and then Damien offered to grill it outside, so I put it all on skewers, which takes a long time, but on the other hand, once the idea of meat on a stick comes into my head, it’s very hard to get it out.

So.

Marinating is magic. I feel like not enough people realize this. The lemon juice breaks down the fibers in the meat and lets in all the other flavors, and it was like eating a . . . hot juicy meat cloud with charred edges. Delicious beyond all reason.

The side dish situation had become confused, so I took the opportunity to roast up some chick peas, which the kids remember fondly from back when I was counting every penny and figured out that roast chick peas were marginally cheaper than chips. I drained and rinsed eight cans of chick peas and spread them out in pans, drizzled them with olive oil (Frankie Muniz’ garlic infused olive oil) and seasoned them heavily with pepper and kosher salt. Then I baked them in a 300 oven for about two hours, stirring occasionally. They came out very crunchy, but about half still had a little chewy center.

The kids were not as thrilled as I expected to have their old friend toasted chick peas back in the game. I like chick peas so much. They are so straightforward. “Here,” they say. “I can offer you what I am, which is a pale legume, through and through. No tricks, no razzle dazzle, just some textured protein, plus a cute little skin just for fun.” They are like sitting on a couch in the afternoon, reading a book you have read so many times, you can almost recite it, and it’s kind of boring, but maybe you want to be bored, you know? They’re not too shabby with the manganese, either. 14% of RDA. Well done, chickpeas.

FRIDAY
Spaghetti

I bought a ton of canned tomatoes while under the impression that tomatoes go in enchiladas. So I guess I will make a big pot of sauce with onions and garlic and wine and olive oil.

And maybe, just maybe, we will dig.

Oh, I have some pictures of that mango coffee cake I made last week. It was good, not great.

A lot of trouble (lime zest! toasted pecan streusel!) for something that tasted like normal coffee cake; and I must regretfully admit that baking doesn’t do mangoes any favors. Now I know!

5 from 1 vote

pork spiedies (can use marinade for shish kebob)

Ingredients

1 cup veg or olive oil
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/2 cup red or white wine vinegar
4 tsp red pepper flakes
2 Tbsp sugar
1 cup fresh mint, chopped
8-10 cloves garlic, crushed
4-5 lbs boneless pork, cubed
peppers, onions, mushrooms, tomatoes, cut into chunks

Instructions

Mix together all marinade ingredients.

Mix up with cubed pork, cover, and marinate for several hours or overnight.

Best cooked over hot coals on the grill on skewers with vegetables. Can also spread in a shallow pan with veg and broil under a hot broiler.

Serve in sandwiches or with rice.