What’s for supper? Vol. 152: We put the rab in it

According to tradition, I skipped the Friday-After-the-Thursday-That-Is-Thanksgiving food post, because guess what we had? Turkey. Guess what it looked like? Turkey! Now you know.

Here’s what we had this week, including two meals with leftover turkey:

SATURDAY
Brats, sausages, and onions three ways

Damien made supper and it got away from him in the way that weekend suppers sometimes will. Everybody liked it, but there was no denying it was brats, sausages, raw onions, peppers and onions, and then other onions. And chicken tenders!

 

It was so much onions, the vampires were like, “You know what, close enough. We’ll just wait outside.”

SUNDAY
Turkey bacon Welsh rabbit

I’ve always been curious about Welsh rabbit. Turns out it’s basically just toast with a savory cheese sauce. We had sliced turkey, naturally, and I got some thick bacon, and I figured it couldn’t miss. I got some thick rye-pumpernickel swirl bread and made the cheese sauce using Alton Brown’s recipe, which calls for Worcestershire sauce, mustard, and beer.

Well, it was doomed from the start. Half the kids were upset because they thought there was rabbit in it, and the other half were upset because there wasn’t. The food itself was tasty, but . . . I don’t know, it’s possible I was still full from gorging myself like a monster over the weekend, and I just didn’t want a whole lot of savory cheese sauce.

Oh well. Oh Welsh.

MONDAY
Turkey enchiladas and tortilla chips

The last of the leftover turkey. I shredded the meat and mixed it up with plenty of chili powder, pepper, and cumin. We are always low on onions for enchiladas, so Dora prepped an avalanche of onions for me before she went to work. I cooked those down (to lazy to wait for them to caramelize, because it would have taken twelve years).

Normally I sort of dredge the tortillas in enchilada sauce, then add meat, onions, and cheese from separate bowls to each one, and roll them up. This time, I mixed the turkey and onions all together, threw in a few cans of drained diced roasted tomatoes, and heated it up together, then spooned the mixture onto the tortillas and added cheese. If this is wrong in some way, I don’t care.

I poured the rest of the enchilada sauce on top of the rolled enchiladas, threw the last of the cheese on, and chunked it in the oven. I had sour cream and some cilantro to top it. Scallions are better, but I lost them. I like the green sauce better than the red.

So, I have tried enchilada lasagna/casserole before, where you have all the same ingredients in there, but layered, rather than wrapped. It is easier, for sure, but I just didn’t enjoy eating it the same way. Maybe it’s some latent cannibalistic instinct, but I really like eating things that look like something’s sleeping inside.

Which is ironic, considering a really awful story involving a surprise dead mouse which I will not relate at this time.

They were pretty good enchiladas. I made a bunch with red sauce and a bunch with green. I felt like I could still detect a ghost of stuffing and yams under the chili powder and cumin, but I may have been imagining that. For one thing, we did not have yams this year.

I will make up a recipe card at some point, but when I’m not cutting corners, I basically follow Pioneer Woman.

TUESDAY
Mushroom bacon corn chowder

Completely fabulous soup. How could it possibly not taste good? Bacon, thinly-sliced red potatoes, diced onions, corn, sliced mushrooms, plenty of pepper, beef broth, and half-and-half. I basically followed this recipe from Damn Delicious, except with more bacon and with sliced potatoes instead of diced, but I’m too lazy to make it into my own recipe card.

Actually, I got confused and completely messed up the direction. I fried the bacon, then added flour to the bacon grease, then added the vegetables; and then I got confused and just threw everything else in together and cooked it until the potatoes were soft. Oh, and cream at the end. Tasted good to me.

The kids moaned and groaned as if I were serving them castor oil on sandpaper. I suggested that, if they didn’t like soup, there were plenty of leftover enchiladas. But they didn’t like the enchiladas, either. What a fwiggin shame. Look at me crying.

I had that soup for lunch the rest of the week. At one point, I opened the fridge and discovered that they had put the soup pot in the fridge, covered it loosely with plastic wrap, then put a small plate of enchiladas on top of the pot, and then A GALLON JUG OF MILK ON TOP OF THAT.

Savages. Savages. Barely even human. I fished the enchiladas out and ate the soup anyway. Savages.

WEDNESDAY
Hamburgers, potato salad, frozen mixed veg

I had forgotten to plan a side for this meal, so I threw the potato salad together in a hurry, and it was a little weird. I diced the potatoes before cooking them, to speed it up, and then I made a dressing with mayo, cider vinegar (why? We had white vinegar), pepper, and too much sugar. We were out of celery, and a bad child came in and persuaded me to use celery salt, even though I knew that was a bad idea. I also forgot to add eggs. I put in some diced red onions just to give it a little crunch. It was just kind of metallic-tasting, plus too sweet.  I added more mayo, so then it was gloppy and metallic. I can decent make potato salad, but this wasn’t it.

 

Then there was this.

THURSDAY
Cumin chicken and chickpeas with lemony onions, pita, yogurt sauce, and pomegranates 

A very fine meal. I set the chicken to marinate in the morning, sliced the onions, and made up the yogurt sauce. (More detailed instructions here.) My kitchen is so cold, I didn’t need to refrigerate anything [*feeble cheering sound*]. Then it was pretty quick to put the rest together an hour before supper. I had to practically grab my family by the lips and force them to say it was good, but they did say it.

It’s technically a one-pan meal,

but you do really want extra yogurt sauce, and you do want those lemony onions. And have mercy, you do want to make the marinade and give it a few hours, because look at that chicken skin:

I had a pretty good time with those pomegranates, too.

Ha cha cha!

FRIDAY
I guess bagels and eggs?

Why I ever cook anything more than this for these ungrateful crumbs, I don’t know.

 

 

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9 thoughts on “What’s for supper? Vol. 152: We put the rab in it”

  1. Thanks for the cumin chickpea chicken recipe. We tried it last night and it was a winner. It will enter our regular rotation, along with past recipes you pointed us to like easy Korean beef bowl, and mushroom bacon chowder.

  2. I like to add roasted asparagus under the cheese sauce for Welsh rabbit. Another thing that is good on the toast under the sauce is ham. You can even cheat with deli ham. But asparagus is the best!

  3. I made turkey pot pie and turkey enchiladas this week. Both were requests of the family. There were turkey sandwiches for lunch throughout the week. I still have about a gallon of turkey broth (made from the turkey carcass) in the refrigerator. So I guess we’ll have some kind of soup next week. I thought about giving the turkey theme a rest and stowing the broth in the freezer, but I know how that turns out. (In the spring, I’ll find it, wonder what it is, gag at the funny freezer burn smell, and ditch it.) Today’s Mexican meatless meal of slow cooker pinto beans was a welcome respite. I wish I dared make that mushroom soup. I am only allowed to bring mushrooms into the house if I promise to eat them myself and not slyly slip them into any recipes. My husband has poisoned my kids’ minds.

  4. Friday – Leftovers
    Saturday – Portillo’s – I got a chicken sandwich, a pomegranate/berry smoothie, and shared in the communal fries.
    Sunday – Salmon, Rice-a-Roni, and asparagus
    Monday – More leftovers
    Tuesday – Cheddar sausage, green beans, and…something else, I don’t remember
    Wednesday – Meatloaf, scalloped potatoes, and peas
    Thursday – Shrimp scampi, popcorn shrimp, linguini alfredo, and corn. The scampi sauce mixed well with the alfredo sauce on everyone’s plates. Heck, it mixed well with everything.

  5. I used to read the recipe for Welsh Rarebit in my mother’s 1960s Betty Crocker cookbook and so wanted to make it for my family, but I knew my brother and dad would be, “cheese sauce on toast? Why?” I have always looked back and regretted not making it just once.

  6. My menu list from the week is upstairs, but I’m not going to go get it. The one thing that I remember off the top of my head is making chicken with dukkah. We all liked it and all I did was put some sliced-up chicken in a pan with some butter and garlic powder and dukkah. Then we ate it with some sour cream with lime juice and more garlic powder and flatbread (with more dukkah on it). Everyone liked it which is better than I can say for most meals around here.

  7. I used the butter tip, too, for the first time! Thanks for posting your menus. It gets me through some of my long homeschooling (ahhhhhhhh!) Friday’s.

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