Wednesday, July 10, 2019

Plain, Filling Fare

With two teenage boys in the house, my food bill is going up, sure as God made little green apples.  That isn't a problem, because my grandparents and parents taught me how to cook.  And I love to cook when I have a reason to cook.  My problem is that I've never learned to cook for two, but now, it's changed.

The cooking rules in our house are simple.  I cook once a day.  Normally, a lunch, and the leftovers go in the fridge.  If the boys get peckish at dark, they're free to nuke whatever they can find.  Belle keeps a certain amount of what I call freezer-food on hand (hot pockets, etc), so they have options, but there are leftovers there too.

Yesterday, I cooked a big jambalaya for lunch.  Jambalaya is a Cajun food, with as many variants as there are cooks who have a big pot.  The variations are endless, and don't let anyone tell you that they have a hook on a definitive recipe.  A simple YouTube search will get you a dozen good recipes, white jambalaya, dark jambalaya, red jambalaya, they're all good.  Take your pick.

For myself, I like a white jambalaya.  That's what I cooked yesterday.  Plain, filling fare.

Chicken and sausage jambalaya
We each ate a bowl at lunch, and I put the rest away.  I looked in the fridge this morning, and it took a hit during the evening hours while I was in bed.

This morning I'm going to hook up the trailer, load the lawnmower and go to the church, where I'll knock back the Bahia grass.  At noon, I'm going to put on a big pot of spaghetti and meatballs.  Take some leftover hamburger buns and make garlic toast.

Plain filling fare.  It's what I'm good at.

4 comments:

Well Seasoned Fool said...

In my youth spent every summer putting up hay for a great uncle. His wife made "plain fare", in large quantities, to feed the crew. Delicious, filling, and healthy. Good times. I would start high school football at 195 lbs.

Old NFO said...

Leftovers are good! :-)

BobF said...

I don't believe there is a bad jambalaya. Well, maybe somewhere, but I haven't come across it.

Several years of barracks life a long walk from the chow hall taught me the virtue of canned food. Lazy by nature back then, I gave up heating efforts (first the upside-down iron between two chair backs) and went to direct from the can. I still do it even with leftovers in the fridge and a microwave nearby. The guys might want to give it a try. Canned corn is a decent starter and baked beans are always a backup. Good stuff.

Reminds me -- need to check the expiration dates on my hurricane MREs. Might need to kill a few of those again one of these days.

Steve said...

And I hope you are teaching the boys the technique of KP duty after a meal.

Steve