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Day 39: Ramen!

I'm pretty impressed with what we've been able to make without any trips to specialty stores.  We haven't been to anything other than a regular grocery or Trader Joe's in probably 2 months.  Sometime soon, enough of our Asian condiments will run low that a special trip may be justified.  Typically, produce is beautiful there too, so that will be nice when we get there.

Pork Ramen
Tonight's kitchen adventure was pork ramen.  Believe it or not, we had everything necessary for this in our pantry, except for the noodles, seaweed snacks, and pork belly.  Jeff was craving ramen a couple of weeks ago, and we had never made it before.  I wasn't about to boil bones for hours to make the broth, so I did a bit of research and found a recipe for a miso-style ramen that was delicious using boxed broth.  I did spring for a fancy bone broth, but I'm not sure how much difference it actually made.  It certainly was delicious!
Alice was very interested in the delicious, porky smell:
The pork belly was from Trader Joes-- it's fully cooked, and just requires slicing and crisping.  And these marinaded eggs were my first time ever soft-boiling.  I made them at lunch and let them sit until dinner in a mixture of dark, sweet soy and Shaoxing wine (as opposed to the called-for Mirin). It came together in under 30 minutes, and I'd call this dish a success!

Bonus Meal: Eggroll in a Bowl
My ground pork was frozen, and after I defrosted and put a bit in the soup, I needed to use the rest up tonight.  This quick stir fry is a standard weeknight meal here.  The original slap-together recipe uses a bagged coleslaw mix, but we had carrots and a cabbage on hand.  We'll enjoy this for lunches or a dinner later in the week.  

Pasta Salad with Roasted Veggies, Feta, and Basil
This Ina Garten recipe is a summer favorite, and is great cold or room temp.  I love taking it to pot lucks.  This week, I thought of it as I figured out what to do with the remaining fresh basil.  We had the key ingredients on hand, so it was a no-brainer.  One of the things we prepped yesterday afternoon.  I subbed farfalle for orzo, and left out the yellow bell pepper, which we did not have. I never use the pine nuts; I don't think they're necessary here.  At the last minute, we decided to toss in the remainder of a huge tub of spinach (wilted down and mixed into the dressing before adding the pasta).  It's flexible like that, and always a hit.  I can't wait to have it again later this week.
Cornbread in Milk
I discovered the joy that is breakfast of cornbread and milk back in grad school, when I had a seemingly endless pan to finish.  If I have Jiffy, I'll add some sugar in the breakfast version.  But this stuff was sweet enough on its own, and oh-so-delicious.  Who needs sugar cereal, when you can have buttery sweet corn cake?




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