Skip to main content

Day 75/76: Midweek Update

I don't know about you, but today was hard.  Technology didn't cooperate, people were crabby, and, in DC at least, it was hot and humid, portending the summer haze to come.  This evening, though, the 9000th Zoom of the day was my niece, Emily's, 4th birthday party!  I didn't have time to bake, so I walked to a treat shop a few blocks over and picked up a couple of cupcakes.  Alice (our bulldog) even wore a party hat.  It added a little cheer to the day, and now Wednesday is a wrap.  Onward!

Elote, Beans, and Carne Asada
Tonight's dinner brought to you, courtesy of Trader Joe's.  I put the marinaded carne asada in to the immersion circulator, and it cooked at 129 for an hour, and finished with a pat dry and a quick sear.  I also seared some sliced green onions in a bit of vegetable oil, salt and pepper.  Frozen corn was dressed up with a bit of mayo, TJ's Everything but the Elote seasoning, a squeeze of lime, and some of our very persistent jar of grated parmesan.  Refried beans and pico de gallo finished the plate.  It was a delicious meal.  
You may also notice that this is a new napkin!  When I cleaned and organized the pantry this weekend, I came across this set that I purchased around Thanksgiving.  There was some uncertainty how many guests we'd have, and I wanted to make sure that we had enough. No time like the present to add them to the table.  They're hand printed by the lovely Rangemark Textiles, and as the blue ones can attest, the colors stay bright through many, many washes.  Highly recommend her work!

Korean Chicken Thighs with Green Beans and Shiitake
During our weekly prep, Jeff made the chicken marinade and put boneless, skinless thighs in to soak up the flavor. I sauteed green beans and shiitake mushrooms in some garlic, ginger, a spoonful of fermented black beans, and a dash of hoisin.  Tuesday is guitar lessons for Jeff, and by the time the chicken was cooked afterward, I was done with my yoga class.  We reheated the beans and topped it all with some kimchi.  A delicious dinner ready to go!

Pasta Primavera
This recipe dates back to 2004-- March 23, 2004 to be exact, according to the printout from the apparently now-defunct ilovepasta.com.  It was a dinner staple in my first post-college kitchen, and it still hits the spot.  This week, I made a big batch for lunch.

10 oz rotini pasta, cooked al dente according to package instructions
Veggies (I use broccoli chopped fine, shredded carrots, and white mushrooms.  Frozen peas are also a good option.  As is asparagus, but that would've been a real splurge in 2004)
Chicken broth
Chicken breast
Many cloves of garlic (Think: 8 or so)
Olive oil
Dried dill, thyme, and oregano
Grated parmesan (lots)
The technique is to gently steam the veggies in garlicky chicken broth, adding each edition to the pasta and stirring.  The recipe suggests throwing them all in together, and I'm sure that's fine.  I like my steamed veggies kind of al dente, so I do them separately.  Using the pasta pan, add a drizzle of olive oil and some garlic. Sizzle until the garlic is fragrant and add enough chicken broth to cover the bottom of the pan.  In goes the broccoli, stir, steam for 3 minutes and test for doneness.  When cooked to your liking, add to the pasta.  Prep the pan the same way, this time for the carrots.  These only take a minute or so.  Follow with mushrooms (I add thyme to these as they cook, for extra flavor).  Finally, do the chicken, with a good serious amount of dried herbs and whatever garlic is left. 

At the end, add all the veggies and pasta back to the pot, mix well to combine, adjust the seasoning, and then stir in a ton of Parmesan.  Enjoy hot or cold.





Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Constructivist Crap

Reading this post was like deja vu for me! I took a class just like this as an undergrad... (surprise, surprise) in the education department. I made it through that semester by taking solace in two facts: (a) I was also taking The Sociology of Education in the soc department, with a professor who actually taught the material and (b) most of us in my little liberal arts bubble wouldn't end up teachers, thus wouldn't have an opportunity to inflict such pedagogical torture on kids who needed to actually learn stuff. It would appear that Newoldschoolteacher has neither of those to help her out. God save her. The professor in my class repeatedly insisted that we were a "democratic classroom" and that she wasn't any more of an expert on the material than us. WHAT? I paid good money for that course, money that employed her to teach me. I hope that she was more expert on the material than I was! Also, when I "took responsibility for myself" and said that ...
5 comments
Read more

Privilege of Being

Robert Hass Many are making love. Up above, the angels in the unshaken ether and crystal of human longing are braiding one another's hair, which is strawberry blond and the texture of cold rivers. They glance down from time to time at the awkward ecstasy-- it must look to them like featherless birds splashing in the spring puddle of a bed-- and then one woman, she is about to come, peels back the man's shut eyelids and says, look at me, and he does. Or is it the man tugging the curtain rope in that dark theater? Anyway, they do, they look at each other; two beings with evolved eyes, rapacious, startled, connected at the belly in an unbelievably sweet lubricious glue, stare at each other, and the angels are desolate. They hate it. They shudder pathetically like lithographs of Victorian beggars with perfect features and alabaster skin hawking rags in the lewd alleys of the novel. All of creation is offended by this distress. It is like the keening sound the moon makes sometimes, ...
5 comments
Read more

Singing Metro Man

This morning on the Orange Line train to work, Singing Metro Man made an appearance. If you ride the Orange or the Blue Line, you may know of him...I’ve heard from other passengers that he’s been around for years, though I can only confirm the last three. He’s an elderly Asian gentleman, well-dressed, who steps onto the train right before the doors close. Once the train begins to move, he clears his throat, says a polite but insistent “Excuse me,” and begins to sing a hymn from his songbook. The effect is eerie. The silent morning train, everyone still half-asleep before their first cup of coffee. The whoosh of the tunnel. The man’s gentle, earnest voice singing a capella (he’s not half bad) about how we should trust in Jesus. As he reached his crescendo this morning, I half expected the train to explode or something—the moment just felt very... cinematic. Luckily, life is not a movie, and after the song was done, he wished us all a good day, exited the train and moved to the n...
2 comments
Read more