Weekend Dinner

(Or: In Which This:

Led to This:)

Scott and I walked the dog over to Rogers Park Fruit Market yesterday afternoon, and Scott went in and bought $13.66 worth of groceries while I walked the dog around the block. ("Blaze, leave it. No garbage-eating today. Leave it. Leave it. DROP IT. Come on. Come on, Blaze. Blaze, come. Blaze, heel. Blaze, heel. Blaze, leave it. Leave it. Leave it. Come on, let's go sit down.")

When we got home, I made this Vietnamese Lemongrass Marinade that's linked all over the internet (just search "lemongrass" and "marinade"), but with about a teaspoon of salt and some water instead of the fish sauce. (Someday I'll make a substitutions-table for food allergies, but I'm afraid someone will take my word for it and everything will go wrong.) Anyway, that's what the first picture details.

While the beef marinated, Scott made some jasmine brown rice ("I'm something of an expert at making rice, my dear," he said.) and washed and chopped a lot of vegetables, including:

Bok choy (1/2 head)

Jalapeno

Green onions

Cilantro

Mysterious wild-looking mushrooms

Bean sprouts

Then some things happened in two pans (one for the mushrooms/meat-minus-marinade, and one for everything else), involving lime juice and canola oil, and then: FOOD.

Everything had to get cooked in stages, because the wok got lost when we moved in September, but: 6 servings. $13.66. ($2.28 per serving.) And: DELICIOUS.

(Notice the tupperware container with vegetable trimmings: This next batch of soup will involve lemongrass. Oh, baby.)

Dinner

Last night for dinner I wasn't up to anything as epic as pan-fried 10-ingredient fish cakes, so:

1.) I made some mango chutney (diced mango, onion, Tajin, and curry powder; heat up in a small saucepan with a little bit of olive oil until the onions are clear).

2.) Scott made some kind of crazy coleslaw. I don't know what was going on over there, but it involved a 1/4-head of cabbage, parsley, lemon juice, and chili powder.

3.) I threw two defrosted hamburger patties onto the nonstick frying pan and, while those were cooking,

4.) Heat up some leftover red rice in the microwave.

The best part was trying to get some of each thing onto the fork at the same time.

The chutney will definitely be happening again. Oh, baby.

(Notice we had to get out the Big Plates for this one.)