What’s for supper? I thought you’d never ask.
SATURDAY
Pork ribs, roasted red potatoes, broccoli
I’m always amazed and grateful at how succulent and wonderful are simple roasted pork ribs. A little salt and pepper on both sides, roast ’em up under the broiler, and serve with bottled sauce. So delicious.
The potatoes were made more or less the same way, except with some olive oil and Goya adobo seasoning, and on a regular baking pan instead of on a broiler pan. I wish I had a bigger oven!
The broccoli, I served raw, and no one ate.
***
SUNDAY
Beef and cabbage stir fry, brown rice; chocolate plum clafoutis
I had low hopes for this recipe, but it was really tasty. I didn’t overcook the cabbage, so it gave a good snap to the stir fry.
I can imagine making this dish with other kinds of meat, but it wasn’t one of those “Ughhh, what is this ground beef doing with all these actual ingredients?” dishes. Recipe from Budget Bytes.
For dessert, I had a million plums (79 cents for two pounds! I bought eight pounds) that were going bad fast, so I found a recipe for chocolate cardamom plum clafoutis. Clafoutis is such a revelation to me. It’s so easy and elegant. Maybe kind of an odd pairing with spicy cabbage, but we lived.
I couldn’t find my cardamom, so I used cinnamon. I also screwed up adding the dry ingredients, and didn’t blend them properly, so the cocoa balled up a bit and wasn’t really incorporated all the way into the custard (I should have used a sifter, or maybe made a paste before stirring the dry ingredients in), but it was still delicious.
It’s nicely weird-looking (the way I made it, the plums stick up out of the custard like Dalekanium), and warm plums baked in chocolate are even better than they sound. This would make a good dessert for company.
***
MONDAY
Grilled chicken and salad
The chicken got to marinate in olive oil, lemon juice, oregano, salt and pepper, the lucky thing. Roasted under the broiler, sliced, and served over salad and black olives.
I made fresh croutons, which are totally worth it. Leftover cheap hamburger and hot dog buns make good croutons. Cube whatever bread you have lying around, mix it up with melted butter and whatever seasonings you want, spread it in a single layer on a flat pan, and bake at 250 until they are dry all the way through. I could honestly make a meal out of croutons.
***
TUESDAY
Fish tacos, corn chips
Batter fried frozen fish filets, with sliced avocado, shredded cabbage (we had plenty left over from the stir fry), sour cream, salsa, and cilantro. Actually we couldn’t find the cilantro until yesterday. Someone had tucked it away in a “things I don’t feel like putting away” basket by the window, where it turned a lovely shade of yellow. It may have been Italian parsley anyway.
***
WEDNESDAY
Pancakes, sausages, grapes
I made about thirty pancakes and then went and lay down. The next 48 hours are kind of a blur. I got sick on Sunday but hadn’t really had time to be sick, and on Wednesday my eyes started to cross.
***
THURSDAY
Chicken nuggets, french fries
I went to bed at 7:00 and didn’t get up until 8 the next morning.
***
FRIDAY
Quesadillas, maybe beans and rice
Oh, so those juju scallions from last week? I went ahead and used them in the stir fry, because I forgot to buy wholesome scallions from the land of the living. They tasted fine; nobody grew a tail and nobody’s eyeballs went all dark. Since I’ve already crossed over into sorcery, I put the scallion roots back into water again, and . . . they live.
They live again, just from getting stuck in a cup of water! So this is the third generation of these scallions, that I know of. For all I know, these same scallions saw the rise and fall of nations. Maybe they witnessed the last massive block of limestone slide into place in Angkor Wat, eh, wat? Maybe they nestled quietly on a platter in Vienna, biding their time as the city endured three months of Turkish siege. Could be they were there when Elvis first thought “blue suede” and “shoes” in the same sentence. Who knows what they have seen?
So anyway, now they’re on my kitchen windowsill thinking, “Boy, even Typhoid Mary washed her windows once or twice. Nice lady, by the way. Made a really excellent peach ice cream.”
Shut up, voodoo scallions. You don’t know me.
***
Is it getting cold where you live? Thinking about cold-weather cooking, apples, pumpkin, dumplings, something? I don’t know how much longer I can hold back before the stew takes over. What’s on your mind, cooking-wise?
And today we celebrate...