Menus and Grocery lists, Sept, 23, 2013

"Hey, a meal is always there."

Danny Welch

These words could have been spoken at almost any meal during almost any year of the last decade by any one of my three children as they stared into their empty collegiate pantries and wondered:

They happen to have been spoken on Monday (with a laugh and a shrug) by my eldest, Danny, as he recounted his adventures at his Nana's East Texas home. My mom, who lives surrounded by acres of piney woods, was being bullied by a real pig.

No, really.

I mean a very big pig.

Her rural garden had fallen victim to the area-wide pig plague, providing Danny an opportunity to 

a. rescue his Nana's garden

b. stock his empty freezer with free pork.

c. guest write his mother's blog

d. all of the above

Danny's successful food foraging got me thinking about how often one finds oneself standing in front of a fridge or pantry thinking:

That is not food.
I think it is called ingredients for food.

But Danny says (and I know his resourceful siblings would agree) 

"In the incandescent light of a fridge a truth exists: a meal is always there.  Sometimes you just have to forage."

There'll be more interesting info from Dan's far-foraging mind this weekend- I'll spend the intervening days gleaning yummy knowledge tidbits from the paths he suggested, and cooking along with him as he prepares the pork shoulder and the two invasive half-collared doves that "he coaxed into the freezer with a shotgun"

 After all, poultry's poultry and pork is pork whether it comes from a grove or a grocery, right?

Well, ok. Maybe not.

Wednesday: Crock Pot Roasted Chicken and Roasted Brussel Sprouts

The chicken recipe is from Civilized Caveman, the site that gave me a fantastic pulled pork recipe two weeks ago. In fact, I may see if the prep method for the pork translates to chicken. I think Danny may be wrapping a couple of smaller birds in bacon and poblano peppers and throwing them on a grill. Had our grill not sputtered it's last propane breath, I'd be doing the same with chicken breast. And, as an aside on this side, I wonder how many people besides myself always want to call these wonderful little cabbages 'Brussel's Sprouts'. Our Brusssel's/Brussel sprouts won't be consorting with any high class pancetta and I don't think I ought to buy parmesan simply to use it as a vegetable garnish. Maybe bacon. And shallot, for the purposes of economy, can be considered a green onion. And feel free to substitute beer or white wine for the chicken broth, and I'm starting to wonder why I even decided on this recipe....

Thursday: Pork Tenderloin and Mashed Potatoes 

Another potential winner from Civilized Caveman, purveyor of Paleo perfection. We'll get into exactly what a modern Paleo diet is, whether or not that's an anachronistic oxymoron and how it differs from what the original Paleos ate on Sunday. After I've had a few days to learn the answers to those questions that I've only just learned enough to ask. (If you've opinions or observations on that stuff, I would really love to learn them) 

Friday: Ramen and Pork Stirfry

All hail the pantry forager's perennial best friend. I actually have 3 packages of ramen in our pantry right now, and I have no memory of how they got there. That could be a commentary on my memory, or it could be the work of ramen sprites. Either way, I've linked a fun slide show of 30 ways to turn the ubiquitous packet of noodles into something unusual. Ours will be stirfried with slivers of pork (and maybe shrimp too)  and vegetables.

Saturday: Chicken Shepherd's pie

The leftover chicken from Wednesday gets tucked into a creamy sauce and tucked under a blanket of Thursday night's leftover mashed potatoes. Danny suggests topping the potatoes in turn with a latticing of jalepeno bacon, which sounds amazing. I think though that his middle aged dad and I had better skip the bacon. The comfort we forego with bacon we'll try to obtain by feeling smug and virtuous about our food choices. Sigh. Of course, that's not going to work. 
And, as always, refer anyone who judges you for using instant mashed potatoes to me. I shall slice them to ribbons with my rapier wit.

Sunday: Shredded Pork Enchiladas

The rest of Thursday's pork combines with cheese and a can or jar of enchilada sauce for a quick dinner. Sometimes, enchilada sauce is a little too spicy for me. If your taste-buds are also a bit spice wimpy, mix the enchilada sauce with sour cream or plain Greek yogurt to cool the heat. We'll be having this with a very basic veg- maybe salad from a bag, and I'll spin this gluten free-er by substituting corn tortillas for the flour ones.

There's often a meal in there somewhere, isn't there-

though it may not be the one you wished for.

I hope that this week, you'll find

in your pantry and your fridge and your life,

more than you thought was there.

And I hope that the things you need

even more than a good dinner-

hope, love, respect, friendship-

turn out to be right where you can reach them.

Even (especially) if

you feared that maybe

They were lost forever.