Happy Friday! It took me most of the morning to persuade my computer to turn on. But I DID persuade it, so I’ve got that going for me. Also, I slept extremely late, so I’ve got that going for me, too. But I slept late because it’s day 3 of a migraine, so I’ve got that going against me. Corrie is home sick, and we are watching Pingu. I truly can’t discern if that’s for me or against me. I like Pingu a lot, but it is LOUD. We’ll call it neither a win nor a lose, but a noot-noot, and get on with things.
Here’s what we ate this week:
SATURDAY
Leftovers
Regular shopping and chore day, nothing to report. My leftover buffet turned out pleasingly tidy.
I can feel my past self casting destitute eyes on all that parchment paper and just gazing with longing at such wanton luxury. Parchment paper is one of those things that, once I started using it, I can never go back. Parchment paper, Magic Eraser, ziplock bags, Swiffer, Scrub Daddy. I’ve been bashing myself a lot lately for how dirty I’d always kept my house in the past, and it just now occurred to me that it’s only recently we’ve had the budget for cleaning supplies like this. So I’ve been very hard on myself for not having kept things spic and span with the aid of a rag and some water. With twelve people in a then-650-square-foot house. Ah well. Sorry, past self.
(My house is still dirty, however. It’s just a mystery.)
SUNDAY
Roast lamb with yogurt sauce, Jerusalem salad, pita
Sunday I went a little crackerdog in a productive way for once, and did a large amount of cooking and baking. The first thing I made was a double batch of rugelach dough. It’s not really in season (more of a Chanukah thing), but on the other hand, it’s always a good time for rugelach. This was a “thank you” package for a Patreon donor.
AND HERE, I must pause and beg your pardon if you are a donor and I owe you a perk. I’m really sorry it’s gotten away from me so badly. Please, please, if I owe you something as a thank-you for your patronage, message or email me, remind me what it is, and give me your address! And I truly am sorry. I am a worm.
Anyway. Argh. So, here is the rugelach recipe. While that was chilling, I made six little Valentine’s mini cheesecakes, all of which sold, so that was nice.
Then I got some dough rising for pita for supper. I went to the Kitchn recipe, which I swear I’ve used before, but it felt unfamiliar, not sure why. Set that to rise and made a batch of yogurt sauce
Jump to Recipeand discovered, to my sorrow, I had bought regular yogurt instead of Greek. At least it wasn’t vanilla, which I’ve also done, but the texture is just unsettling with the savory taste. Then I made a quick Jerusalem salad, which has different variations. This time I just did chopped tomato and cucumber, fresh lemon juice, parsley, a little olive oil, and salt and pepper.
And then I got the lamb in the oven! Well, first I googled whether it’s safe to eat lamb that has been in the freezer for . . . uhhhhh really quite a long time. Google said yeah whatever probably, kill all humans lol. So I went ahead and scored the meat and prepped it according to Tom Nichols’ grandmother’s incredibly easy and inexplicably delicious recipe.
Jump to RecipeGot that in the oven. The kids were going to a movie, and Damien had to go to a retirement party, so we ate really early, which is something I always want to do anyway. My ideal meal schedule would be coffee around 9:30, lunch at 1:00, snack at 3:30, and dinner at 4:45. Alas, life is not like that. But Sunday it was pretty close!
Then I spent the afternoon rolling and baking rugelach. They turned out pretty cute!
By the time it was almost dinner, I was kind of tired of being in the kitchen, so while the lamb was resting, I opted to bake the pita all at once in the oven, rather than making them on the stovetop. To my delight, most of them actually puffed up and separated into two layers! Actual pita pockets!
They didn’t look like much (oven pita is paler than pan pita), but they were soft and pleasant, and you can’t beat fresh hot bread for dinner.
The lamb turned out excellent.
Juicy, tender, and full of flavor (and did not kill any humans). This is such a minimum effort, maximum results recipe. I served some crumbled feta, and it was a super yummy meal all around.
Poor Damien actually had to leave before dinner, but I think he ate when he got back in the evening. Benny and Corrie and I just hung out and played cards and watched TV. And that was Sunday.
MONDAY
Chicken caprese sandwiches chips
Monday I had signed up to give blood, and two neat things happened. One was that I passed the iron test, which I failed the last three times I tried to give blood. Two was that they tested my iron without me even noticing. I’m used to a finger stick test, but this time they did it with LASERS. It clips onto your thumb and I guess if you have enough red blood cells, it interrupts the laser? Or something? Anyway it was cool. And I was really happy about my iron levels. I have been eating fortified Cream of Wheat for lunch most days for months now, and I think that’s what did it. One of these days, I’m gonna get one of those iron fish to cook with, too.
When we got home, I cooked a bag of breaded chicken cutlets that has been haunting the freezer for some time. Served on baguettes with basil, tomatoes, mozzarella, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and salt and pepper.
And chips. Good stuff. The chicken is from Walmart, and I’ve found that their frozen chicken products that are breaded but uncooked are actually quite tasty, and they don’t take much longer than pre-cooked and frozen chicken.
TUESDAY
Beef and broccoli stir fry, rice, wontons
Tuesday was chock-a-block full of meetings and appointments and by the end of the day, I was feeling like something you find in the drain at the end of the day. I had bought a small hunk of beef a few weeks ago, so I made a rather lackluster stir fry. I had my doubts about the amount of beef, so I rummaged further in the freezer and found some wontons, I think from New Year’s Eve. I just cooked them in chicken broth. Went to cook some rice in the Instant Pot and remembered that the pot was frozen into a bank of snow because I’ve been using it as a duck waterer. So I had to cook it on the stove like a peasant.
So it was, yanno, food that was hot. It was fine. Kind of validating that, when I do go to the trouble to make my own sauce and broth, it really is a lot better.
WEDNESDAY
Omelettes, sausage, biscuits
Wednesday I finally yelled at myself to go to the doctor because, well, for the last five months, the left side of my face tingles and goes numb randomly throughout the day, but reliably between 6:30 and 7:30 P.M. There are a number of things that could be causing this, and I’m leaning toward perimenopause because why the hell not? But I am getting a brain MRI to rule out MS, which I really don’t think it is, but once someone suggests MS, you kinda have to either run away from home and live the rest of your life in a cave in Tenneseee, or go get a brain MRI. Then I had regular errands and we got home not terribly late, so I started the sausages cooking and then quickly made a batch (a SINGLE recipe. I had to halve my own recipe!) of biscuits. Here’s that recipe, which makes 20 biscuits.
Jump to RecipeI’m gonna have to go through and downsize all my recipes, le sigh. Anyway, this is a nice, reliable recipe and the biscuits are light and fluffy inside, with a fragile, buttery crust on top.
It includes egg and cream of tartar, which sounds unnecessarily complicated, but it’s still very quick, and comes out rich and light.
While the biscuits were baking, I chopped up some ham and onions, shredded some cheese
and quickly turned out seven sloppy omelettes. I just cannot cook a tidy omelette to save my life.
Tasty, though.
I wish the ducks would start laying again! Last year, they had started laying at this point again already. Oh well. Like the old Polish saying goes, you can’t rush a duck.
THURSDAY
Hot dogs, spicy fries
And here is a picture of that!
A slightly more interesting picture is the one I took earlier in the day, headed out for afternoon driving, bound and determined to get healthier
It’s not stupid if it works.
FRIDAY
Pizza
Damien is covering adoration, and Corrie and I are now watching Milo and Otis. This movie really holds up! Delightful.
I guess the Super Bowl is this weekend. I was at a thrift store and decided not to buy a potato spiralizer, and I have no regrets about that. I can say this because I did make potato tornados for the Super Bowl one year, using various techniques, and let me tell you, the issue with that whole project was not my lack of a potato spiralizer. Leave them potatoes alone, is what I say. I couldn’t help but notice, though, that, on the same day as I made the potato tornados, I made some sausage rolls, and those look quite tasty. We shall see. I also saw a recipe for fried mac and cheese balls which is basically the ultimate Lucy Chow, so I may make that. Gotta make a few cheesecakes to sell this weekend.
But first, maybe a little purse broccoli. Just to balance things out.
Yogurt sauce
Ingredients
- 32 oz full fat Greek yogurt
- 5 cloves garlic, crushed
- 1/4 cup lemon juice
- 3 Tbsp olive oil
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp pepper
- fresh parsley or dill, chopped (optional)
Instructions
-
Mix all ingredients together. Use for spreading on grilled meats, dipping pita or vegetables, etc.
Tom Nichols' Grandmother's Leg of Lamb
Ingredients
- boneless leg of lamb
- olive oil
- garlic powder
- garlic salt
- oregano
Instructions
-
Preheat the oven to 325.
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Slash the meat several times, about an inch deep.
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Fill the cuts with plenty of garlic powder.
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Slather olive oil all over the meat.
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Crust it with garlic salt. Sprinkle with all the oregano you own.
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Cover meat loosely with tinfoil and cook three hours. Uncover and cook for another 30 minutes.
moron biscuits
Because I've been trying all my life to make nice biscuits and I was too much of a moron, until I discovered this recipe. It has egg and cream of tartar, which is weird, but they come out great every time. Flaky little crust, lovely, lofty insides, rich, buttery taste.
Ingredients
- 6 cups flour
- 6 Tbsp sugar
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 Tbsp + 2 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp cream of tartar
- 1-1/2 cups (3 sticks) butter, chilled
- 2 eggs
- 2 cups milk
Instructions
-
Preheat oven to 450.
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In a bowl, combine the flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, and cream of tartar.
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Grate the chilled butter with a box grater into the dry ingredients.
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Stir in the milk and egg and mix until just combined. Don't overwork it. It's fine to see little bits of butter.
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On a floured surface, knead the dough 10-15 times. If it's very sticky, add a little flour.
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With your hands, press the dough out until it's about an inch thick. Cut biscuits. Depending on the size, you can probably get 20 medium-sized biscuits with this recipe.
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Grease a pan and bake for 10-15 minutes or until tops are golden brown.
This may not have been useful in the moment, because it takes a few hours to get properly thick, but Greek yoghurt is just regular yoghurt that’s had a bunch of the whey strained out. (You know how when you scoop some yoghurt out and then pull the container out of the fridge the next day, clear-ish liquid has settled in the divet? That’s the yoghurt whey). You strain it yourself. Google “yoghurt strainers” if you want another kitchen contraption, or you can use a few layers of cheesecloth and suspend it in a large-mouth mason jar by screwing the ring over the cloth with enough of a “pouch” inside to hold a buncha yoghurt. Or put the cheesecloth in a mesh strainer over a bowl. Or whatever seems like a good way to keep a quantity of yoghurt suspended over a vessel that will catch the whey. (The whey, by the way, is an excellent sub for buttermilk or soured milk in pancakes or muffins or whatever, so hang onto it, too….)
Meant to say, “You CAN strain it yourself”