h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I didn't post here yesterday. My supper was tuna tagine.

Saturday, I will mess about with beef in 2 very different ways:

Presently, I have 2 lb 9 oz of inside-round roast, cut with the grain, into roughly 5" long sticks - maybe 3/8" thick and wide - marinading in a mixture of soya sauce, Worcestershire, molasses, water, garlic, black pepper and liquid mesquite smoke. (The marinade is about 20% water to thin it some) These sticks will be drained off and laid out in my electric dehydrator for much of 12 hours to produce perhaps a pound of beef jerky.

For supper, grilled skewers.

A nearly 2-lb sirloin steak will be trimmed and cut into roughly 1" cubes. These will go into a mixture of BBQ sauce and a little corn oil (or soya sauce) to marinade for a couple of hours.

Some Cremini mushrooms will have the stems removed, and the caps perhaps cut in half. A good measure of white mushrooms will get the same treatment. I have about 3/4 each of red and yellow bell peppers, to clean and cut into large sections. About 80% of a Spanish onion will also be cut into fair size sections - smaller inner layers set aside. All of these veggies will then marinade in a simple Italian salad dressing.

Meat and veggies will be alternately mounted on pre-soaked bamboo skewers to grill on the propane BBQ.

To accompany, and remaining mushrooms (cut to 1/4) & stems and onions (add more as needed) will get a tumble in a mix of corn oil, garlic powder, seasoned salt and black pepper. Into a foil wrapped pan to sautee on the upper rack of the BBQ.

And one or two potatoes will be peeled, cubed large, and tumbled in a little corn oil, garlic, seasoned salt, parsely and rosemary. To then go into a foil covered pan and given to that top BBQ rack.

Why go simple when you are retired?

Simple measures are often dictated by a shortage of either energy or time. Just about the time you retire, there's more time to work with, but less energy. That's probably why most people retire.

Little appetite on account of the triple digit heat.

Living mainly on variations on Ramen noodle soup.

Congratulations on the new great grandchild!

I don'
t have much appetite either. I ate out for supper: turkey avocado BLT with Greek salad.

Made a big pot of pork, bell pepper and bean stew last night... so we've got that again tonight... and probably tomorrow and the next day too its a big pot/pan slightly spicey with nearly a kilo of onions, and over half a kilo of red bell peppers, diced, plus several tins of mixed beans, and added fennel seed ground, black pepper, and a lot of paprika to it, plus rosemary and several tins of chopped tomatos - we're running the freezer down hence using up the pork, before the next big freezer shop

Tonight I will have another helping of fish tagine.

2legs, it sounds like you could feed a small tribe with your pork and beans bucket.

The kebobs were okay, but the beef got over done. And keeping in line with that, my beef jerky got over done - and not an apple in the house to help that out. Got the apple matter sorted this morning.

Supper is one of our basics - baked Atlantic salmon, mashed potatoes, chilled small peas, and a mixed garden salad.

Today's lunch will be more of an event. I'm about to shop for steak, potatoes, and other ingredients for a grand beef stew.

The jerky is much better today. A half of a macintosh apple, in a dozen thin slices and tumbled among the meat stick did the right amount of re-hydrating gently. And added 0.7 oz to the net weight of jerky.

This evening is a really lazy supper, a pound of lean ground beef browned off, and a tin of a Sloppy Joe mix stirred in and heated. "Manwich" is the commercial name of the stuff.

I used to enjoy Sloppy Joes. I didn't realize that people still made them.

We have them 3 or 4 times a year. Hers is always just in a bowl with bread on the side. Mine is dumped on plain bread, buttered toast or a left-over burger bun.

Today (Tuesday) supper will also be easy. The remaining baked salmon and mashed potatoes from Sunday are close to equal volumes. Mixed in with them will be an egg, some chopped onion, some common seasonings and fine crushed bread crumbs. An iron pan fries them to just crusty golden browned "fish cakes", great to serve with any vegetable. Hot or cold.

PS: the fried fish cakes make great cold snacking too.

Actually, I have a good recipe for it somewhere.

Recipe

Yes. Here's the one I use:

SLOPPY JOES CALZONE



Spices:

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/4 tsp cumin

1/4 tsp oregano

1/2 tsp chili powder

1/4 tsp dry mustard

1/2 tsp paprika

1 beef bouillon cube



other ingredients:

water, as needed

olive oil

1/2 pound ground beef

1/2 cup chopped green pepper

1/2 cup chopped onion

small can mushrooms

1 cup tomato sauce

[optional: corn, peas, celery, 1/3 cup lentils]



(It can be a very flexible recipe. Simple, with few ingredients, or more elaborate if you want to make a one-dish meal out of it, with leftovers for several days thereafter. I usually serve it on bread or toast, topped with cheese.

Saturday will see a colourful supper. My elder but little sister will visit again. She lives about 4,500 km from us and drops in every 2 years or so. She is also the hypochondriac of the family, and has convinced herself that many food groups and sources disagree with her.

So one of our versions of a Chinese dinner:

- simple white rice with mixed veggies from frozen

- commercial gluten-free veggie egg rolls

- a wok stir-fry of Spanish onion, green onions, red bell pepper, orange bells, yellow bells, white mushrooms, Cremini mushrooms, celery, carrots, garlic and maybe something that I have forgotten

- a generous rack of meaty pork ribs, baked in a honey/garlic glaze

- wheat-free breads

- iceberg lettuce, radish and carrot salad

- assorted fresh berries for dessert

She may be a hypochondriac, but that menu sounds delicious and very healthy. More power to her.

I will relax Saturday evening in a restaurant somewhere. I don't know yet what I will order.

We'll take her to a pretty good restaurant on Sunday, and she can just choose what-ever from the menu. It's a Canadian-Greek-Italian sort of place, so there are plenty of options. Of course, I am already pretty sure of what I will have. For a change, while I will still have my favourite appetizers, my entree will be either pork tenderloin or one of two pasta dishes.

I don't eat Greek food as much as I used to. Souvlaki, Moussaka, and baklava are among my favorites. Wait, I eat Greek salads fairly often. I even made one to bring to a party in June.