Hey, the world didn’t end! Per se! And I didn’t even pack up to go live at the P.O., although I was tempted. Here’s what we ate this week:
SATURDAY
One pan chicken thighs with squash and potatoes
Old reliable. This is even better when you have a big variety of vegetables, but just potatoes and squash is good, and it’s stupid easy to make, and nice, honey garlic, mmm. In conclusion, you may think it’s easy to be a food writer, but it’s actually hard, with words, booo.
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Speaking of stupid, it was only some technical difficulties that prevented me from starting a Twitter account called @potatoeswithbutts.
I uhhhh have a collection. This poor fellow appears to have a pilonidal cyst, which is unusual in potatoes, and you can see by his posture that it’s really getting him down. Yes, I have work to do, what do you mean?
SUNDAY
Chinese roast pork and vegetable lo mein
Here was something new I tried, because I’m bored to death of all my pork recipes. You marinate the meat in chunks in a simple sauce, then roast it over a pan of water, then cut it up.
I had mine with some excellent pepper jelly we got for Christmas, and it was a great match. It would also be good with that super strong Chinese mustard, or any number of sauces.
This is most certainly an Americanized Cantonese recipe, and there’s nothing wrong with that, especially if you don’t like five spice because, try as you might, you just can’t get used to *ptui* anise. I’ll go ahead and write up a recipe card
Jump to Recipebut I expect to change it a bit. Next time I will buy fattier meat and cook it in bigger chunks before slicing it. It was a tiny bit dry. If I make those changes, I’ll be able to cook it longer and work up a little crust on the outside. The boiling water made it tender and taste was good, though, if slightly bland. It would also be great cut up and added to stir fries or lo mein.
SPEAKING OF LO MEIN, this continues to be a popular dish around here. I had bought some flat rice noodles intending to try some kind of Vietnamese noodle bowl (which is what I bought the pork for), but for once in my life I listened to the “nobody’s going to eat that” alarm going off in my head, and made lo mein instead. The only vegetable in the house was green pepper, so I added that, plus some red onion and . . . and this was a most excellent choice . . . some fresh minced ginger, which I’ve started keeping in the house routinely.
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I was careful not to overcook the vegetables, so they were still crunchy. Man, what a high-yield dish for flavor, with very minimal effort. Sometimes I will add a little fish sauce or oyster sauce, but it’s honestly fine without.
MONDAY
Tacos, tortilla chips
I do not remember making or eating tacos. I do remember people saying, “You should have made this on Tuesday for taco Tuesday!” and me going “bahhhhhh” in a growly voice.
TUESDAY
Chicken caprese sandwiches, grapes
Tuesday was grocery shopping day this week, so I needed something very easy. Aldi had big cartons of frozen breaded chicken cutlets, so there was my answer.
We had basil from the Vietnamese noodle bowls I never made, and no end of cheese from various cheese adventures. I was planning to make a shortcut version of the lovely chicken cutlets Damien makes for special occasions, but while shopping, I became confused, and bought a large amount of tomatoes, so we had caprese chicken sandwiches, which I usually make with grilled chicken, but it turned out nobody cares about the arbitrary chicken rules in my head, especially when it’s very late and everyone’s hongry.
WEDNESDAY
Meatball subs, raw broccoli and hummus
Again, nothing special, but always a popular meal.
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This was my third day of watching Bridgerton for a review, and let me tell you, if you have to lock yourself in your bedroom and watch four episodes of Bridgerton in a row, getting up and making eighty meatballs is a good antidote.
THURSDAY
Beef barley soup and pumpkin muffins
A couple of the kids have been begging for this meal. Benny and Corrie were done with their school work early, so they made the muffins with just a little supervision. This is a good recipe, very reliable.
Jump to RecipeThis is a light, tender pumpkin bread, not some kind of challenging artisinal loaf-log. It has a hearty flavor but is pretty fine-grained. We made a double recipe which gave us 18 muffins plus a small loaf.
You can add all kinds of things to these muffins (or bread) — oats, nuts, raisins, dried cranberries, chocolate chips if you’re a monster, sunflower seeds, chunky sugar, etc. You can add more sugar to make them more dessert-y, but as is, they make a fine dish dish.
The soup was good, too.
Jump to RecipeAlthough, as you can see, I couldn’t find the barley, so I used pasta rings instead, because I happen to have a lot of different kinds of pasta in my cabinets. Which immediately led the kids to assume I had WASHED OFF SPAGHETTIO-S AND PUT THEM IN THE SOUP. I told them I had not and would not, but they just stared at me. And that’s why, if I lived at the P.O., why.
The other reason I might live at the P.O. is that, before Christmas, I bought about nine boxes of different kinds of pasta in various shapes, because I made myself believe we were going to make Christmas tree ornaments out of pasta, hot glue, and gold spray paint, and now here we are in January and I can’t find the barley because my cabinets are crammed with pasta. Shut up, it’s a good craft. We just didn’t do it, that’s all. Hey, have you seen my potato butt? And my food writing? It’s very good.
FRIDAY
Tuna noodle casserole and Brussels sprouts
That’s a little weird, but that’s what the blackboard says. I feel like the Brussels sprouts were expensive, too, so I better actually make them. And you know what, maybe tuna noodle can be made with pasta rather than egg noodles. Because I have–
Aw, skip it. Here’s the recipe cards:
One pan honey garlic chicken thighs with fall veg
Adapted from Damn Delicious
Ingredients
- 18 chicken thighs
- 2 lbs broccoli in spears
- 4-5 lbs potatoes in wedges, skin on if you like
- 1 butternut squash, peeled and cubed
sauce:
- 1/3+ cup honey
- 1/3+ cup brown sugar
- 3 tbsp dijon or yellow mustard
- 9 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 tsp oregano
- 2 tsp dried basil
- salt and pepper
- 6 tbsp olive oil
- olive oil for drizzing
Instructions
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Preheat oven to 400. Prepare the sauce.
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In a large, greased sheet pan, spread the potatoes and squash. Drizzle with olive oil and season with salt and pepper.
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Lay the chicken thighs on top of the potatoes and squash. Brush the sauce over the chicken skins.
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Roast the chicken for thirty minutes or more until they are almost cooked.
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Add the broccoli, arranging it on top of the potatoes and in between the chicken. Return the pan to the oven and let it finish cooking another 10 -20 minutes so you don't die. The skins should be golden and the broccoli should be a little charred.
Chinese Roast Pork
This is a recipe in progress, but it's easy and reasonably tasty as is. Serve with any number of sauces.
Ingredients
- 6-8 lbs boneless pork
- 1/4 cup soy sauce
- 3/4 cup white sugar
- 2 Tbsp hoisin sauce
- 2 Tbsp bean paste
- 2 tsp salt
- RED FOOD COLORING, DO IT
Instructions
-
Cut the pork into long chunks
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Mix together all the sauce ingredients and marinate the meat for several hours or overnight.
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Preheat the oven to 375
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Boil some water (I used a tea kettle)
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Line a large roasting pan with tin foil and put cake racks over it. Lay the meat on the racks, put it in the oven, and then carefully add the boiling water to the pan.
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Roast for an hour or more, adding water if it cooks away. Turn meat once during cooking. The outside of the meat should be dark and glossy.
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Slice and serve hot or cold.
basic lo mein
Ingredients
for the sauce
- 1 cup soy sauce
- 5 tsp sesame oil
- 5 tsp sugar
for the rest
- 32 oz uncooked noodles
- sesame oil for cooking
- add-ins (vegetables sliced thin or chopped small, shrimp, chicken, etc.)
- 2/3 cup rice vinegar (or mirin, which will make it sweeter)
Instructions
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Mix together the sauce ingredients and set aside.
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Boil the noodles until slightly underdone. Drain and set aside.
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Heat up a pan, add some sesame oil for cooking, and quickly cook your vegetables or whatever add-ins you have chosen.
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Add the mirin to the pan and deglaze it.
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Add the cooked noodles in, and stir to combine. Add the sauce and stir to combine.
Meatballs for a crowd
Make about 100 golf ball-sized meatballs.
Ingredients
- 5 lbs ground meat (I like to use mostly beef with some ground chicken or turkey or pork)
- 6 eggs, beaten
- 2 cups panko bread crumbs
- 8 oz grated parmesan cheese (about 2 cups)
- salt, pepper, garlic powder, oregano, basil, etc.
Instructions
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Preheat oven to 400.
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Mix all ingredients together with your hands until it's fully blended.
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Form meatballs and put them in a single layer on a pan with drainage. Cook, uncovered, for 30 minutes or more until they're cooked all the way through.
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Add meatballs to sauce and keep warm until you're ready to serve.
Pumpkin quick bread or muffins
Makes 2 loaves or 18+ muffins
Ingredients
- 30 oz canned pumpkin puree
- 4 eggs
- 1 cup veg or canola oil
- 1.5 cups sugar
- 3.5 cups flour
- 2 tsp baking soda
- 1.5 tsp salt
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp nutmeg
- 1/2 tsp ground cloves
- 1/4 tsp ground ginger
- oats, wheat germ, turbinado sugar, chopped dates, almonds, raisins, etc. optional
Instructions
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Preheat oven to 350. Butter two loaf pans or butter or line 18 muffin tins.
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In a large bowl, mix together dry ingredients.
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In a separate bowl, mix together wet ingredients. Stir wet mixture into dry mixture and mix just to blend.
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Optional: add toppings or stir-ins of your choice.
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Spoon batter into pans or tins. Bake about 25 minutes for muffins, about 40 minutes for loaves.
Beef barley soup (Instant Pot or stovetop)
Makes about a gallon of lovely soup
Ingredients
- olive oil
- 1 medium onion or red onion, diced
- 1 Tbsp minced garlic
- 3-4 medium carrots, peeled and diced
- 2-3 lbs beef, cubed
- 16 oz mushrooms, trimmed and sliced
- 6 cups beef bouillon
- 1 cup merlot or other red wine
- 29 oz canned diced tomatoes (fire roasted is nice) with juice
- 1 cup uncooked barley
- salt and pepper
Instructions
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Heat the oil in a heavy pot. If using Instant Pot, choose "saute." Add the minced garlic, diced onion, and diced carrot. Cook, stirring frequently, until the onions and carrots are softened.
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Add the cubes of beef and cook until slightly browned.
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Add the canned tomatoes with their juice, the beef broth, and the merlot, plus 3 cups of water. Stir and add the mushrooms and barley.
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If cooking on stovetop, cover loosely and let simmer for several hours. If using Instant Pot, close top, close valve, and set to high pressure for 30 minutes.
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Before serving, add pepper to taste. Salt if necessary.
Thank you for writing about the nine different kinds of pasta. Partly because this brought back memories of me in second grade when we did a craft involving cardboard cutouts of the Three Kings and we had to glue different kinds of pasta on them and spray paint them gold. (One had a beard of macaroni elbows, another had a straight spaghetti beard… you get the idea.) I have no idea why I remember this, but I do.
The other reason is because it cheered me up no end. My parents aren’t doing well and my aunt is about to go on hospice after fighting lung cancer for a year and a half. You recently wrote a piece about people who were helped by stuff you wrote that you thought was stupid… well, you helped today. Thank you.
I agree on the ginger. Covid has made me regularly get ginger, shallots, green onion and lime to add to dishes. Probably a blow back from using HelloFresh at the start of quarantine. These flavor boosters are worth the money!
You mentioned ginger, so I have to gleefully tell you my ginger tip.
Keep your ginger in the freezer, and when you need some, grate it with a micro plane zester. You will get a mound of soft frozen ginger snow. Grate more than you think you need, because it’s fluffy.
This way you can keep the ginger around for a long time, instead of finding that your ginger has gone all wrinkly and soft when you need it. Also, it’s so so much easier than chopping and mincing the stuff. I don’t even peel it. It’s not a helpful technique if you want little bright nuggets of ginger, but I find that I don’t. Not enough, anyway.
ohhh, I do, though. Love those bright nuggets. Frightens the children. They’ve started selling ginger at Aldi, so it’s easy enough to grab a hunk every three weeks or so. What do you make with ginger, though? Sounds like your system would work well for baking or soup.
The potato butt photo was so funny. I loved your specific directions for the instapot beef barley soup. When your children are all grown and don’t need you daily, would you be my chef?
I am your fan.