Hey, sorry about the radio silence. It’s been a rather purgatorial week. Both cars broke down unexpectedly and RATHER EXTHPENTHIVELY, the washing machine and pool repairs are ongoing, plus there’s some kind of mystery medical baloney shit going on, and this morning the cat died. We don’t exactly know what happened — likely he tangled with a bigger animal. Poor guy. He was terrible but beloved, and did not die alone. Here he is on Monday, doing what he loved best:
Rest in peace, Kyat. And may we all merit a day that is all chicken and scritches.
NEVERTHELESS, people still needed to eat every day, so we kept on chooglin’. Here’s what we had:
SATURDAY
I don’t even know. Aldi pizza?
SUNDAY
Vermonter sandwiches, raw broccoli
Vermonter sandwiches are ciabatta rolls or sourdough toast, thick slices of roast chicken or turkey, thick slices of sharp cheddar cheese, bacon, Granny smith apples, and honey mustard dressing.
I forgot to buy apples, though, and got cheap with the bacon, and the sandwiches were decidedly subpar. Very sad.
MONDAY
Smoked chicken thighs, chips
Damien made these with his lovely spicey-sweet sugar rub.
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Delicious. The meat was juicy and the sugar caramelized on the spicy skin. Just great.
TUESDAY
Mexican beef bowls
A tasty treat, which I made because beef was kinda sorta on sale and I just felt like splurging. I cut up a roast and marinated it in the morning
Jump to Recipeand pan fried it in the evening,
and made a big pot of rice, and served it with cilantro, sautéed sweet peppers, shredded cheese, sour cream, corn chips, and some very fine black beans.
I was very happy with the beans. I still had quite a bit of kale leftover from something or other, so I chopped up several handfuls of that and added it into the pot when I was cooking up the onions, and, yes ma’am, I’ll be doing it this way from now on.
It just added a little extra layer of smoky flavor and texture and was not overpoweringly vegetablly at all. I’m turning into a kale enthusiast right before your eyes! Me and the ducks.
Here’s another picture, because I have two, and it was yummy enough to deserve two pictures.
And aren’t we all.
WEDNESDAY
Spaghetti with Marcella Hazan’s sauce
Requested by the kids, made by Damien. Always quick and delicious, with a very few ingredients
Jump to Recipebut maximum savory . . . ness. We leave the onions in, because we like onions.
It’s been a little chilly and rainy, and nobody minded having a hot steaming bowl of pasta for dinner, May or no May.
THURSDAY
Gochujang pork chops, sugar snap peas, fresh pineapple, hot pretzels
I made a recipe and a half of the sauce for gochujang bulgoki,
Jump to Recipeand used most of the sauce for marinating, and set aside the extra half batch for brushing on while it was grilling. Damien made these on the grill outside, on his Interchangeable Cinderblock Meat Altar Situation.
Served with fresh pineapple and raw sugar snap peas and some hot pretzels that were cluttering up the freezer.
Slightly weird meal but it hit the spot. Sophia can now sound out enough Korean characters that she could read what it said on the side of the gochujang tub (it said “gochujang.”)
FRIDAY
Tuna noodle casserole
Look at us, we made it to Friday! Hope you did, too.
Oh, here is the source for the gorilla sounds:
Sounds a little fishy to me, but it’s too good to look up.
Smoked chicken thighs with sugar rub
Ingredients
- 1.5 cups brown sugar
- .5 cups white sugar
- 2 Tbsp chili powder
- 2 Tbsp garlic powder
- 2 tsp chili pepper flakes
- salt and pepper
- 20 chicken thighs
Instructions
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Mix dry ingredients together. Rub all over chicken and let marinate until the sugar melts a bit.
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Light the fire, and let it burn down to coals. Shove the coals over to one side and lay the chicken on the grill. Lower the lid and let the chicken smoke for an hour or two until they are fully cooked.
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.
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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.
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."
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Add beans with liquid. Add cumin, salt, and cilantro. Stir to combine. Close the lid, close the vent, and press "slow cook."
Marcella Hazan's tomato sauce
We made a quadruple recipe of this for twelve people.
Ingredients
- 28 oz can crushed tomatoes or whole tomatoes, broken up
- 1 onion peeled and cut in half
- salt to taste
- 5 Tbsp butter
Instructions
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Put all ingredients in a heavy pot.
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Simmer at least 90 minutes.
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Take out the onions.
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I'm freaking serious, that's it!
Gochujang bulgoki (spicy Korean pork)
Ingredients
- 1.5 pound boneless pork, sliced thin
- 4 carrots in matchsticks or shreds
- 1 onion sliced thin
sauce:
- 5 generous Tbsp gochujang (fermented pepper paste)
- 2 Tbsp honey
- 2 tsp sugar
- 2 Tbsp soy sauce
- 5 cloves minced garlic
Serve with white rice and nori (seaweed sheets) or lettuce leaves to wrap
Instructions
-
Combine pork, onions, and carrots.
Mix together all sauce ingredients and stir into pork and vegetables.
Cover and let marinate for several hours or overnight.
Heat a pan with a little oil and sauté the pork mixture until pork is cooked through.Serve with rice and lettuce or nori. Eat by taking pieces of lettuce or nori, putting a scoop of meat and rice in, and making little bundles to eat.