This Might Have Been a Bit Much for a Wednesday Night (Hello Street Tacos)

I should have taken a picture of the kitchen before we sat down to dinner. It was a disaster and for someone who cleans up as they go, it was really bad.

I wanted to change up the flavor profile and not do something French. I flipped through Alison Roman’s cookbook nothing fancy and saw the pork dish everyone has been raving about and considered it for a hot minute until I saw that it needed to cook for 4 hours. So instead you went with the meat that would cook for only three? (Easy, Tiger!~Terri)

Then I flipped through Deb Perelman’s smitten kitchen Every Day cookbook and must have had slow cooked food on the brain when I chose the crispy short rib carnitas with sunset slaw (p169). (Spoiler alert: it was a great choice!) It was indeed delicious. I would have helped with this decision making process but I was unfortunately tied up with that stupid thing called school. Hey Mom, maybe next time you could just pull me out early so we can cook together…(Can’t we just homeschool you and make cooking and blogging be part of your curriculum? I’d be cool with that.~Terri)

We had cabbage in the fridge because Rei wanted an Asian salad for lunch but only needed so much. We don’t generally eat a lot of cabbage so it was a total bonus that the recipe called for it. To be fair, the salads I pulled together for lunch were pretty good, so I’m going to be eating more cabbage. Still not that much, so the other dishes we make with cabbage will also be welcomed.

I quickly put the grocery list together and texted it to Zeke to pick up the items either during Rei’s therapy appointment or right after. We needed to get the short ribs into the oven to cook for at least 2 hours. Oh, it was only two and not three hours. Still a hell of a long time to cook when you said you wanted to avoid super long dinners. (My, aren’t we feisty today!~Terri)

Rei and Zeke rolled in the door about 4:30 PM so Rei and I went to work on getting the short ribs ready. The recipe called for a rub of salt and chili powder. We had a harissa chili powder mix in the pantry and I opted to use with the kosher salt. I don’t know what I was doing at this point other than not paying attention (oops).

After rubbing the ribs with the salt mixture, we squeezed an orange and a few limes and added the juice to the pan with some unpeeled cloves of garlic. We will be adding more next time because they were super tasty. I can’t think of a time when we haven’t loved roasted garlic, so I’m surprised we didn’t add more right at the beginning. Eh, hindsight is always 20/20, so we can’t be too mad.

We were so rushed to get the pan covered with foil and into the oven at 225 degrees that I didn’t take a picture.

I decided that since we were having street tacos for dinner, that we should have another protein option and had Zeke get some prawns at the store. Rei grated some garlic onto them as I added some salt, freshly squeezed lime juice, and some of the harissa chili powder mix. Then I added some olive oil and mixed it all up with my hands before covering and setting aside. We fully support grated garlic in this household. Thank you and good night.

Rei had homework so I got the slaw prepped. Slicing up the carrots like this was really time consuming. I then sliced up some of the red cabbage (a little goes a long way) and added some chopped cilantro and sliced scallions. I squeezed some lime juice on this, added some salt, mixed, and set aside. I kind of followed the recipe. Does it matter, though? It still tasted yummy, so it was a win-win scenario.

While the meat was roasting, I made myself a gin and tonic and took these two hum-yucks into my room to attempt 30 minutes of yoga. The lighter colored puppy is 12 weeks old and we are fostering him for the week. As you can see, Violet is not thrilled with the arrangement but she is doing a great job of keeping little Bugsy in line and showing him the ropes. Listen up, everyone. Bugsy is the most adorable and sweetest fucking puppy I have met, and I just love him to bits. If it were a possibility, I would be petitioning my parents to adopt him, but it’s not, so I’m just going to have to settle for making sure he gets a good forever home. If you’re interested, let us know!

As for the yoga, yeah, that didn’t go over very well and I had to kick them out about halfway through and asked Zeke to keep an eye on the little guy. He’s still being housetrained and needs constant supervision.

After the super fun and not-so-relaxing yoga, while Rei was still doing homework (damn it!), I chopped up half an onion, a bunch of cilantro, and sliced some red onions for the tacos. I also sliced up some limes so everyone could make their own tacos at the table. Oh, no, whatever shall we do? I could just…not go to school and spend all day reading…and playing with Bugsy…the horrors…

Since dinner was taking a while, Zeke put out some snacks with the usual fare. Adam had a college friend over who decided at the last minute to stick around when he heard we were having street tacos. They both must miss Mexican food in San Diego.

After the short ribs had been in the oven for about 2.25 hours, I set the oven to 425 degrees and uncovered the pan. Unfortunately I turned on the lower oven while the ribs were was still at 225 in the upper oven. Oops! Zeke caught and rectified my mistake after about 10 minutes while Rei and I were finishing up the rest of dinner. The meat turned out just fine, don’t worry.

I found a roasted corn dish online which seemed pretty easy and I thought would be tasty. Fresh corn would have been better but since it’s not in season, we opted for canned. Easy peasy. Except for when I was a clutz and decided to throw the corn across the kitchen and make a giant mess…(jk it just kinda spilled when I tried to stir it)

Rei roasted the corn and once it was done, I added some chopped scallions, chopped cilantro, chopped jalapeno, freshly squeezed lime juice, and mayo as Rei mixed it up. I have to say, when those scallions and/or jalapeno hit the hot corn, those fumes smacked me right in the eyes. It was worse when I didn’t expect it, because the cloud of (yummy smelling but apparently lethal) steam hit my face, I was momentarily shocked. Fun times.

Rei quickly cooked the shrimp in heated oil in a pan similar to what we did with the shrimp in the last post (Finally an Amazing Meal). They cooked up quickly and beautifully. Once they were out of the pan, we put Zeke to work in peeling them so I could chop them up. I helped him out by peeling with my fingers…the fork/tong method looked too time consuming. Granted they were pretty warm from the pan. I was doing something else at this point (probably helping put everything on the table) to avoid also having to help because peeling shrimp is not my jam.

Once he was done with the shrimp, I had him do the ribs. The meat fell right off the bone and Zeke shredded the meat. I poured the pan juices over the meat and added some salt. Delicious! That was SO tasty. 10/10 would make again, and it was super easy! I didn’t have to do basically anything!

I finished up the cabbage and carrot salad by adding some mayo (yep, both of the salads called for mayo). I went light on it because we didn’t have much in the fridge and zero in the pantry. It’s now on the grocery list. The slaw was one of my favorite parts, personally.

We’d been heating up some black beans so those went into a bowl and onto the table while Adam lit the candles and got the water bottles on the table too.

Rei quickly heated up some small, corn tortillas in a dry, hot cast iron skillet before putting into a basket and getting them on the table with the rest of the goodies. Again, easy squeezy lemon breezy.

I forgot about the avocado. I’d sliced one up as well. Everything was really good and we will totally be making these dishes again. Rei liked the cabbage salad so much that they used it as the basis of their lunch salad this morning along with the chopped shrimp. Yup.

We decided that the corn salad could use more jalapenos. I’d only put in half of one because Rei is just getting used to spicy stuff but we agreed that it needed a bigger kick. The corn salad was good, but it needed something more, and more jalapeno would give it the oomph it needs.

I probably overcooked the meat but with the juices from the pan, it ended up being really juicy (and was tasty as leftovers with the corn salad for lunch). Does it matter if you overcooked it if it still ended up delicious? I didn’t even notice it was overcooked.

But the kitchen…lordy…the boys got to work clearing the table and then washing and drying. We were short on containers for leftovers so Rei had to be creative. We won’t be cooking for a few days which makes me really sad since I want to make the pork recipe from nothing fancy. Maybe we’ll make it tomorrow since it’s a Friday and Rei can cook after school without having to worry about homework. I have a friend coming over and they asked to NOT have eel or lamb. Not a problem.

Cleanup was interesting but I managed to escape the worst of it by pulling the homework card (that wasn’t a lie, to be fair — I did actually have homework) but it looked pretty gnarly.

Rei? I know you are crazy busy now that you are back in school but would you mind taking a few minutes to wrap this up so we can post it? Oh, and we have to get to San Francisco to celebrate Springboard Enterprises and their 20 years of supporting women founders (I am a volunteer advisor with them) so you might want to get the lead out.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know. Whoa, guess what? I time traveled again! It’s already Friday! And you were right — we’re making the pork thing from nothing fancy! It’s gonna turn out pretty well (I have a feeling about it) and the rest of dinner is shaping up pretty nicely too. I can’t take much credit, though; I was at school when Mom planned this one out as well.

Anyways, it’s officially the weekend now and I am extremely ready for it. What are y’all’s plans for the weekend? I’m going to probably do homework and eat something and sleep and maybe even go outside. I dunno, the world’s a crazy place. Who knows what could happen?

I have some homework that I’m going to get a head start on, then pick back up on dinner where we left off (I think we’re doing something with potatoes? Not sure; kinda zoned out when Mom told me because Bugsy was RIGHT THERE and how could I not give him my complete and utterly undivided attention?).

I have a piece of advice for all of you that you could follow to make your day like a billion times better, or you could not and continue with your mediocrity: go take a nap!! Naps are the best! I don’t know why schools ended naptime in like kindergarten because they’re the best part of the day!

Seriously, though, if you’re feeling tired or just having a rough day, go take a nap. But don’t forget: hours-long naps are not good. My very scientific opinion is that 20–30 minute naps are the best (at least they work for me) and that anything over an hour to an hour and a half are kinda funky because you are going through a full sleep cycle and that’s usually a no go. (This coming from the kid who said they weren’t into naps. Not sure when this changed.~Terri)

Wow, I have no idea where that came from but now I feel a sudden urge to go take a nap. Goodnight y’all! (No rest for those of us who need to be cooking dinner so Rei’s booty is in the kitchen where it belongs!~Terri)

Until next time, ciao, and have a hingleringlefinglebingdicious day!

Rei and Terri C: