What’s for supper? Vol. 71: Your feta has given me wings!

Another week has come and gone and kicked my butt. Here’s what we had to eat:

SATURDAY
Aldi pizza 

All of Saturday was consumed with the installation of our new couch from Craigslist. Sometimes, living in a 5/8ths-scale house is just stupid, especially if you just got a swell deal on a truly enormous overstuffed sectional.

If you think Valentine’s Day is romantic, you should see my husband obligingly sweating his way through an absurd, five-hour, perpetually escalating “if you give a mouse a cookie” situation, and not even swearing.

Here, we see the old, faithful couch cast out after years of service, and the new one being broken in with My Little Pony and cheese sticks.

That’s how it goes. It’s a hard knock life for couch.

***

SUNDAY
Chicken shawarma

Shawarma is one of the greatest contributions the east has ever made to the west. Almost makes up for algebra. It’s even better if you marinate it starting the night before, but marinating all day is good, too.

Like a maniac, I bought sixteen pounds of chicken thighs, and by the time I skinned and trimmed them all, I was pretty much over the raw chicken experience, so I left the bones in and marinated and cooked them that way, rather than de-boning.

It wasn’t a mistake, exactly, but it definitely detracted from the delectability of this dish (NYT recipe here). This is a meal that you want to be able to gather up with eager fingers and pop into your mouth with glee, while mumbling insincere resolves to stop eating soon. Bones just slow you down.

We served it with pita bread, cucumbers, feta cheese, red pepper hummus, olives, parsley, and yogurt mixed with fresh garlic and lemon juice.

I also fried up some eggplant, but that did not turn out great. I couldn’t get enough of that cool, sharp yogurt sauce, though. Man.

I give this meal a A for content, B+ for execution. Wish I had gotten some tomatoes.

***

MONDAY
Penne with sausage sauce, salad

Snow day! Again! A good day for hearty pasta. Damien took the kids sledding, while I bravely stayed home and fried up diced onions and loose sausage, basil, and oregano, added a few jars of spaghetti sauce, and some red wine, and let it cook for a while, then served the sauce over penne with parmesan.

I also made hot chocolate again, which is why, this morning, I had to stop at the minimart and buy a gallon of milk for $4.79 to get us through the day. Humph.

***

TUESDAY
Corn dogs, chips

I have no memory of Tuesday. Oh, wait: I remember seeing a plate holding a pile of tattered and discarded corn dog batter. Animals.

Oh, wait, I remember more. It was Valentine’s Day, which I like, so there. I made a cheesecake using this basic Philly cheesecake recipe, and it turned out just fine. (It did crack, but I don’t care.) I made a chocolate ganache which turned out garbage, so we just had strawberries on top. I also made some fudge using Skaarup’s Lunatic Fudge recipe, which is fast and easy, no candy thermometer required. I made it in a heart-shaped pan, because I like that.

***

WEDNESDAY
Panic omelettes, biscuits, leftover chicken, salad

Because supper was going to be easy, I thought I’d go lie down for ten minutes and surf through Facebook until it was time to get things going. Next thing you know, I’ve accidentally made the acquaintance of some extraordinarily imaginative folks who, when they open their eyeballs in the morning, see nothing but a menacing horde of their fellow Catholics who are using NFP for the wrong reasons.

You know and I know that there is no worse use of one’s time than trying to make sense of a conversation like this, but I did it anyway. And so, suddenly, it’s half an hour after we should be sitting down to eat, and I’m just now staggering into the kitchen, wondering what would in the world would motivate someone to try and make marriage harder, and also where all the friggin eggs went.

(They went into the cheesecake, and also everyone has to make eggs on a snow day. It’s the rule.)

I usually make omelettes to order; but since I could only find eleven eggs, that seemed futile. So I made a six-egg omelette with pepper jack cheese, turned it too soon, got mad, and burned the rest. Then I ripped up some ham and did the same thing with the rest of the eggs. I divvied them up, and then discovered that my 12-year-old son was waiting for the next batch, which there warn’t none. SADNESS. Good thing I had made sixteen pounds of chicken not long ago.

We also had biscuits, which I made with Benny. Come to think of it, we made them before supper, so I can’t have been arguing about the scourge of wild, unrestrained Humanae Vitae parties at the same time. I guess that was a different day. Well, we used this recipe, anyway.

***

THURSDAY
Japanese-style beef stew, rice, rice rolls

This seemed like a really swell dish — chunks of beef and sweet potatoes and fresh ginger slices in chicken stock with soy sauce, pepper, honey, and lemon juice —  but it turned out no better than adequate. I don’t know what I did wrong, but it must have been more than one thing.

There weren’t any clean bowls, so I served it angrily over rice.

You know what’s going to make my cooking a lot better? Spring. So I can have some natural light to take food pictures with.

I also managed to cook it in a skillet, transfer it to a dutch oven, put it in the fridge, take it out of the fridge, transfer it into the crock of a crock pot, and heat it up in the microwave. Thank goodness for all these labor-saving devices. Next, I plan to pour the leftovers into one of those plastic bags that you seal up with a vacuum cleaner, then store it under my bed, sell the house at a stunning loss, and move into a wood-panelled van in Martha Stewart’s back yard.

Also on Thursday, I made 53 stained glass heart cookies, and Damien dipped sixty strawberries in chocolate, because I signed up to bring treats in for three separate classrooms for a belated Valentine’s Day party.

The cookies are not hard to make, but they take forehhhhhhhhver. You use this basic, no chill sugar cookie recipe, and cut out large cookies with a cookie cutter. Lay them on the baking sheet on parchment paper or silicone baking mats, cut out a smaller shape inside each cookie, and fill up the cut-out with crushed hard candies; then bake as usual, or a tiny bit longer. The candy melts and makes a little colored window, very pretty.

They turned out fine, if a little bleary. But they took forehhhhhhhhver.

***

FRIDAY
Shakshuka 

Here’s a pic from last time I made it:

There are many things to love about shakshuka, and not least is that you can sing it to the tune of “Volare” and really bother the children. If I have time, I want to try this pita recipe. I have until 3:45 to come up with an irritating pita song.

Oh, Dean. Just shut up.

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7 thoughts on “What’s for supper? Vol. 71: Your feta has given me wings!”

  1. We’ve been doing NFP for the 5 years we’ve been married and have yet to partake in a “scourge of wild, unrestrained Humanae Vitae parties” … or even one for that matter. Now I’m feeling left out. Clearly, we’re doing it wrong. LOL

  2. Sat: traded babysitting with brother’s family; our turn out, so burgers for kids at the fun aunt and uncle’s house and salmon soto for me at a nice restaurant. So yummy and peaceful.
    Sun: venison and cheesy potatoes, prepared by husband. Usually, he kills it, he cooks it. Venison turned out really tender and everyone liked it.
    Mon: chili from the freezer. Cornbread that I had to keep asking the internet what I could substitute for all the ingredients in this particular recipe which is the only one my family likes but calls for things like cream of tartar.
    Tues: Pizza and pasta because I had a bunch of sauce I needed to use up. Tears all around because one of the twins saw me draining the rotini and announced “Roni!” and then all kids were furious about dinner because they took the 2-y-o’s word that it was macaroni and cheese from a box. I just can’t even.
    Wed: leftovers of chili, deer, pizza, and pasta. No Tonyloaf though.
    Th: 50-cent corn dogs from Sonic. Everyone was happy about this. Served it with apple slices, and husband and I had some salad, so we could pretend to care about health.
    Fri: Mac and cheese made by husband, along with canned peas and strawberries which were on sale today. Boneless chicken thighs were on sale too, so shawarma is in our near future.
    I finally took your idea of taking a different kid on the grocery shopping trip each week and it’s the best idea ever. I loved my grocery shopping on Friday night after kids were in bed (par-tay!), but it’s gotten so hard to work in individual time with the kids that I finally switched. That shopping trip gets done every week no matter what, so time with each kid gets worked in now no matter what. So nice. If you ever wonder if your blogging makes the world better: I meal plan for the week, I spend time with my kids, we eat shawarma, the list goes on.

  3. Ummmm I’m too embarrassed to add mine. Frozen pizza, cereal, “picnic dinner” (cheese and crackers, peanut butter pretzels, fruit gummi snacks, graham cracker cookies…. Basically the smack food aisle of Kroger)…something, something. Bacon and pancakes was the one thing I attempted to cook and everyone liked it. But I love reading all of y’alls recipes; they inspire me.

    I’ve always preferred homemade cheesecake when it cracks a little on top. I don’t know why. I don’t shoot for it, but I like it. I don’t know why. Maybe it’s a tad drier?

    What kind of sausage did you use for the penne sauce? I may try that one next week…

  4. Saturday–wine and fancy cheeses and salamis from Aldi (after children put to bed). Hadn’t been planning on extravagantly having a night like this the same week as Valentine’s Day, but the last time I was at Aldi they had new limited time only varieties of salami so I couldn’t resist. Verdict: Green peppercorn salami is very good, salami rolled in herbs de provence was far, far too herby for our tastes.
    Sunday: had some various veggies to use up so I chopped them up with onion and potatoes and bacon and fried it all up in a skillet topped with feta and eggs over easy. Quite tasty.
    Monday: steaks were on sale so I grabbed a couple and cooked them up with a yummy parmesan rosemary mushroom orzo on the side.
    Tuesday: Made the horrible mistake of having the 3 year old skip naptime so we could put her to bed early so we could celebrate Valentines together without it going *too* late. Well, going to bed early (mostly) worked but I don’t think the afternoon miseries were worth it. We had cheese fondue, and chocolate fondue for our dinner.
    Wednesday: The absurdly picky three year old caught sight of a chicken parmesan recipe in Food Network magazine a few days ago and made wild, unsubstantiated claims that she would eat that delicious food if we made it. So, we did, her helping bread the chicken and everything. Naturally, she didn’t eat it. The chicken was quite good, but I wasn’t a fan of the sauce recipe. Will definitely make it again but with my own sauce next time.
    Thursday: Pulled leftover chipotle chili from the freezer and put it in the crockpot way too early in the day (chili thaws quickly!). Still delicious though, with some cornbread and some rice for my husband (never could get into rice as a chili base).
    Friday: Planning on making a spinach onion quiche with crispy potatoes. Hoping to put feta in but I’m afraid I may have used it all up on Sunday, so I may have to do cheddar or mozzarella instead.

  5. These posts give me such pleasure–even if I didn’t eat your yummy food. I love the diversity of what you make and you have led me to some cool new recipe sites. Thanks 🙂

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