So I've been doing this thing for a few years when I work day shifts. Eric works late on Thursdays, but not very. Usually he's home by 9:30 or 10. I like to make dinner on those nights; the goal is to have it almost ready by the time he rolls in so he has a few minutes to cool off before we eat. It almost never happens that way, but I try.
After doing this for a while I wanted to make it even more interesting, so I decided I would only cook things that I have everything for on hand. I can't run up to the store to fill out the recipe with a few ingredients. It has to be here already.
I'll break the rule if I really want to make something in particular, but sticking to it as often as possible has helped me a lot in the kitchen. It encourages me to use and branch out with the herbs and vegetables I grow, as paltry as they may be these days. It helps us be more efficient and adventurous when we shop for groceries. I tend to look more for things that can be used across a lot of different dishes. I buy more dried foods, root vegetables, and things that can be frozen until we need them. We try to make sure we always have onions, garlic, tomato paste, lemons or limes, red pepper flakes, and some sort of broth or stock around. If you have those things, you can make almost anything taste okay.
Weird Food Thursdays have helped me learn to improvise in the kitchen and, I hope, become a better cook. I've had some real successes: Thai basil pesto with rice and (frozen) mussels cooked in leftover white wine; a really good lasagna with chopped, toasted walnuts to make up for not enough meat; all kinds of casseroles and soups.
Sometimes I make some perfectly fine but not very exciting things, like baked chicken and salad or turkey spaghetti and garlic toast.
I've made a few really fucking vile things too: please, please, do not under any circumstances thaw out frozen shark filets, soak them in orange juice, and bread them in underseasoned cracker crumbs before baking. It tasted as disgusting as it sounds.
Tonight I was going to make hamburgers by pulsing some cheap steaks we had in the food processor, but they were sirloin--it turns out you need some chuck in there to get enough fat to make the burgers taste good. My sister suggested steak sandwiches since I already had some buns. So I put the meat in the freezer for a few minutes and then tested out the slicing disk on the Cuisinart, and it worked famously. And now--oh shit! Eric just came home, and I was writing this because I am starving and wanted to kill some time before dinner, so I guess I will go fry up some onions and see how it goes. I will let you know in a little while.
10:13 p.m.: Oh, hey, it was pretty good! I wish I had seasoned the meat more and used a mustard I liked better in the mustardayonnaise I mixed up. The best thing I learned tonight was the meat-slicing capabilities of the food processor. I always forget I can break out the slicing disks. Thursday night! Whoo!
