Meals from the week of June 4th
Mmm, no-knead bread, Hawaiian pizza, salmon kabayaki, coffee cake, etc.
Hello! I started writing this post on June 4th, and it is now 64 days later. I just want you to know how much time has passed so you know how incompetent I am. Set the tone right, you know?
Cool. Here's a bunch of stuff I ate two months ago!
(Unless otherwise noted, weekday lunches are just for me, while all other meals are also for my husband, Kåre, and my three-year-old daughter, Tilda.)
Sunday, June 4
Lunch: For Kåre, a BLT; for Tilda, a grilled cheese sandwich; for me, a grilled egg and cheese sandwich, all on no-knead peasant bread [Alexandra's Kitchen]
Dinner: BBQ party at a friend's house
Kvelds: Grilled cheese sandwiches on no-knead peasant bread
Alexandra's no-knead bread is the easiest bread I’ve ever made. Although I hate waking up early on the weekends to make it—I start three hours before chow time—there's so little work involved that I can get it going even when my brain is half asleep. If I’m smart, I’ll fill the bowl with the dry ingredients the night before so all I have to do the next morning is add water. Another plus is that the bowl-shaped loaf is perfectly sized for my family: Tilda gets the smallest edge slices, I get the medium middle slices, and Kåre gets the largest slices in the center. (Note, to get the mama-papa-baby slices you have to bake the bread in one-liter oven-safe glass bowls as Alexandra recommends. If you live in Norway, you can get the bowls at Jernia.)
Mini Norwegian lesson: In Norwegian, “kvelds” refers to the meal eaten after dinner. It's a shortened version of "kveldsmat", which means "evening food". When we visit Kåre’s parents, they usually serve a basket of warm bread rolls plus a wide variety of toppings (cheese, cold cuts, scrambled eggs, veggies, spreads) for kvelds. Kvelds at our home might be quesadillas, pasta, or sandwiches, like the grilled cheese sandwiches I made this night with leftover no-knead bread from lunch. But that’s when I make kvelds for the whole family. I usually just make kvelds for myself when it’s after 10 pm and my stomach is blurbling like a deep sea volcano, in which case I just heat up a bowl of random-ass leftovers and grab whatever fruit looks like it's about to go bad. If I wanna treat myself, I’ll finish off with some chunks of a neglected chocolate bar. I AM LIVING THE HIGH LIFE!!!
Monday, June 5
Lunch: Fiskekaker, leftover steamed veggies, kimchi [NYT Cooking], and rice
Dinner: Hawaiian pizza [Serious Eats's NY-style pizza] with salad [using shallot vinaigrette from Alexandra Cooks]
Kvelds: Bread and toppings at my in-laws’ house
This lunch is called "put a bunch of random leftovers in a bowl with rice”. Fiskekaker (Norwegian fish cakes) are like the milder, softer cousin of Asian fish cakes, similarly made of pureed fish. They either come puck- or heart-shaped. Why heart? I don't know, but I like it.
Kenji's NY-style pizza recipe is my default thin-crust pizza recipe, and Hawaiian is my default topping combo. I know Hawaiian is possibly the most derided pizza topping combo ever, but after trying other toppings, I’ve found pineapple and ham to be the tastiest combo for the least amount of effort. Trash me, I don’t care. And I get a bonus beverage of canned pineapple squeezin’s. Last note, I always double the pizza sauce recipe and freeze half of it for later.
Tuesday June 6
Lunch: Egg rice [NYT Cooking] with fiskekaker and kimchi [NYT Cooking]
Dinner: Beef onion stir-fry [Woks of Life] with stir-fried cabbage [A-Diao Kitchen on YouTube]
Kvelds: Quick stovetop mac and cheese [Smitten Kitchen]
This beef and onion stir fry was easy and tasty enough but probably about a tenth as good as the one from the Woks of Life’s kitchen. I mostly blame myself for overcooking the the beef (although tenderizing the beef with baking soda helped). I’d prefer a saucier recipe, though.
This stir-fried cabbage recipe from a tiny YouTube channel has been my default stir-fried cabbage recipe for the last few years thanks to its ridiculously precise seasoning amounts. I can measure two grams of MSG-enhanced seasoning, and I will. Instead of the recipe’s vegeta, I use Gastromat, one of Norway's two MSG-enhanced seasonings (the other one is piffi).
Wednesday, June 7
Morning baking: Shokupan [Kitchen Princess Bamboo on YouTube, previously mentioned here]
Lunch: Hot dog fried rice [Just One Cookbook’s fried rice recipe with hot dog instead of ham]
Dinner: Classic beef stir fry [Khin's Kitchen]
Kvelds: Bread and toppings at my in-laws’ house
I liked this beef stir fry more than the previous day's—it's got more sauce and vegetables—but not enough that I'd want to make it again. Again, not the recipe's fault. I think I'm just bad at stir-frying beef.
Thursday, June 8
Lunch: Leftover stir-fried cabbage and leftover hot dog fried rice
Dinner: Salmon kabayaki [Masa's Cooking ABC on YouTube] with steamed veggies and rice
Dessert: Fresh mint ice cream [Barefeet in the Kitchen]
Ooh, special drink: Strawberry milk [Smitten Kitchen]
Masa presents this salmon kabayaki recipe as a more accessible alternative to one of my favorite dishes, eel kabayaki. If you use salmon belly like Masa, it's a good alternative. If you use regular salmon filets like I do, then you'll get…a tasty salmon dish! The flavor is very similar to teriyaki.
A friend gifted me with a large bunch of frozen mint from her garden and I didn’t know what else to do with it besides make fresh mint ice cream. The results were good enough for the low effort. I skipped the chocolate chip part because uhhhhggg I burned the chocolate while melting it.
I substituted the buttermilk in the strawberry milk recipe with the “one tablespoon of vinegar + enough milk to make one cup” formula because I never have buttermilk and I refuse to buy it when I know I’ll never use a whole carton. As far as I can tell, it worked just fine, making mildly sweet, strawberry-flavored milk. I don’t think it would hurt to add a little more sugar, though.
Friday, June 9
Lunch: Leftover beef stir-fry with rice and leftover steamed veg
Dinner: Various pan-fried sausages, salad [using shallot vinaigrette from Alexandra Cooks], corn, and roasted potatoes [Bon Appetit]
Dessert: Coffee cake [Epicurious]
Please read this coffee cake recipe from Epicurious and tell me if the first sentence makes you LOLOLOL like I did: “Everybody needs a go-to recipe they can turn to for leisurely morning baking, and this easy coffee cake is just the thing.”
Are you sure this recipe is “just the thing” to make in the morning? The recipe with room temperature ingredients that I have to take out ahead of time (…while I’m in a REM cycle?) featuring divided ingredients that are just begging the brain-sized void in my technically-but-not-really-awake head to screw up? The recipe that asks me to assemble three parts? Or four parts if you count the two layers of cake? This is nothing like the no-knead bread I mentioned in the beginning of this post. If you think yes, making this coffee cake sounds like a enjoyable leisurely morning activity, then lucky you and your well-oiled brain. I do not have one of those. My idea of an enjoyable leisurely morning activity is staring at something stupid on my phone while not getting out of bed no matter how much my bladder tries to make me.
I’m probably being too hard on the headnote for setting unreasonable expectations for the average baker—what should it say, “This recipe isn’t too hard, nor easy, but it depends on your skill level, eh, maybe it’s fine, I don’t know you!”—but as a strict believer in setting low expectations (why yes, I am unemployed, why do you ask?), I do not approve. The cake isn’t that difficult, I just don’t think it’s as easy as the title “Easy Coffee Cake” wants us to believe. Part of the difficulty for me was the way the recipe was written. I understand that it follows recipe-writing standards, but if I wanted to make this cake again, I’d rewrite the whole recipe to make it easier for me to read.
…Anyway…this cake was good! Almost forgot to mention that. I made half the recipe in an 8x8-inch pan because I do not have anything close to 17 friends I could share the suggested 18 servings with.
Saturday, June 10
Lunch: For me, leftover beef stir fry with rice; for Kåre, a BLT; for Tilda, random stuff because she had no appetite
Dinner: Roast chicken, rice, corn, and salad at my in-laws’ house
I don't have much to say about this day's meals besides that I love BLTs. It's one of the only sandwiches I never get sick of.
Linky links
Frog Synth YouTube: Frog Concert - Slumbering Sounds of the Frog Fellowship (SOUNDTRACK TO MY FROG-WORLD FAIRYTALE DREAMS.)
“Bask in the glory of the ‘90s” YouTube: Design breakdown of iconic 1990s sitcom logos (This video was made by my friend Linus and you should subscribe to his channel!)
Games: Sticky Business on Steam (I just started playing this independent sticker designer emulator and it is very cute!)
Gene Luen Yang: The High-Risk Feat of Bringing ‘American Born Chinese’ to TV (If you haven’t seen the Disney+ show yet, do it!)
Gachapon: Tamagotchi rings omgomgomg
I need to go here before I die: How Japanese Hot Food Vending Machines Work (This is the mecca of old Japanese vending machines and it looks AMAZING.)