Props and Probs: Food Funk

Dateline end of June, early July 2012:  Somewhere outside Cheney, WA

After the busiest two weeks of the year at my job were finally over, I thought I would be free to create some awesome dinners.  Instead, I thought most were pretty dud-y.  So, as part of my self-flagellation, I thought I’d review the last five dinners with commentaries about what went wrong (or right in a few cases).  I can see that part of my problem is that I have two freezers filled with pork products, and I’m not digging far enough to unearth the other yummy things in there.  Time to re-organize the freezers!

FRIDAY:  collards with bacon, chicken and dumplings.

Props:  incredibly delicious, no fuss meal was easy to make, home grown collards, made lots of leftovers.

Probs:  store bought bacon and chicken not as good as home grown, made lots of leftovers.

Reasons:  ran out of home-cured bacon, lack of planning to defrost whole home grown chicken in advance.

SATURDAY:  tossed salad with kohlrabi and other veggie goodies, parmesan toast, BBQ pork ribs, cherry/rhubarb cobbler.

Props:  balanced, home raised pork, tried something new from the garden (kohlrabi), awesome cobbler used my farmer supplied cherries and homegrown rhubarb.

Probs:  off-taste to pork, ribs not juicy, forgot to serve the cobbler (but ate it for breakfast the next day).

Reasons:  should have completely brined the ribs the day before; I just used an apple cider brine for about an hour, which was not enough; poor planning—started dinner tooooo late and I got impatient waiting for the ribs to cook, so I cranked up the oven; spent most of the day making furikaki chex mix and cherry jam, both of which were yummy.

SUNDAY:  chorizo and red bean chili, big salad with toms, onions, and avocado.

Props:   balanced, home raised pork, lots of greens, red beans (from dried) were perfectly cooked, made good lunch leftovers.

Probs:  off-taste to chorizo (I was the only one who thought this), tomatoes in the chili did not break down.

Reasons:  underspiced, canned tomatoes should have been pureed in food processor prior.

MONDAY:  ham and cheese sandwiches (tomatoes, onions and lettuce) on Kaiser rolls with kohlrabi oven fries and chili/yogurt dipping sauce.

Props:  very easy, tried something new, yogurt dressing was tasty.

Probs:  boooring, kohlrabi fries were soggy even if tasty.

Reasons:  too many carbs, used too much oil in the pan with kohlrabi, oven not hot enough.

TUESDAY:  pork steaks in teriyaki marinade with red peppers, white rice, steamed artichokes with homemade lemon mayonnaise.

Props: home raised pork, used up leftover peppers, meat cooked to medium-rare/medium just right and tender, rice nice and fluffy, mayo was excellent and plenty for leftovers.

Probs:  bland rice, bland chokes, not enough sauce on the meat, served too late in the evening.

Reasons: lack of planning; spent most of the evening walking around outside and enjoying the weather; had a piece of fresh picnic ham that would have taken too long to roast, so I cut it into steaks; chokes were just not quality—note to self to stop buying stuff that has been picked 2 weeks ago and grown 2 states away;  rice would have been fine with more sauce.  OMG, are we having pork again!?