Quick Thinking, No Great Recipes And Magical Moments

My 12 year old, Aviad, came home tired and HUNGRY. He had called during the day and asked me to defrost steak. Cool. No problem.

Only being my normal, scatterbrain self, I forgot to get the steaks out of the freezer until a couple of hours before he came home. Whatever!

Then one of my older sons, Avdiel, (don't mix up the names like I always do!), called and apologized cause we were supposed to have coffee together, and said he was going to come over for some supper as well. Only he is my vegetarian and steak don't go well with him.

On top of it all I really did not have a lot of food in the house. Hey, I wait for those really pretty ladies in the supermarket to shop. My spies told me they had not come in yet this week. So tough on the kids. Between ogling pretty women shopping and having to fill their stomachs, it just is not a contest.

So anyway, I put the oven on real low at 75 degrees centigrade (165 degrees F.) and put the steaks in for five minutes to defrost. Then another five minutes. (My oven has a great timer and it turns itself off - great for idiots like me who forget they are cooking!) These were not going to taste the best, but steak is steak in my house.

While I was making meat for Aviad, I needed a side dish for him cause he usually likes fries in the deep-fry cooker BUT no french fries in the fridge, and I was not in the mood to start cutting the potatoes. Aviad, to my wonderful luck, loves plain white rice.

Ingredients For Plain White Persian Rice:
  1. 2.5 cups of water
  2. 1 cup of rice (I use Persian rice here)
  3. 1 teaspoon of olive oil
Directions:

So I take out my olive oil. Why olive oil? Good olive oil in such a small amount will not effect the taste of the rice. But it will help with its cooking and it is damn healthy. It helps keep the consistency of the rice.

Put one teaspoon of olive oil in a small pot. Put that on a medium sized flame making sure the olive oil covers the entire bottom of the pot. I then quickly get one cup of Persian White Rice. I dump that in the pot, as the olive oil is getting hot. I stir the rice and oil together for two minutes watching the rice change color a bit from the olive oil. Then quickly, (this by the way is the usual) I go get two and a half cups of water and dump that in the pot of rice. Now I wait for the water to boil.

Now this is critical. Once the water is fairly at a boil, turn the flame down to real low (or use a real small flame) and let the rice alone to cook. Put a top on the pot if you can find it. (Who the hell stole all my tops? was that you Shrug?) Look at your watch. 20 minutes on a low flame. Once it is done you will see rice, and no water. Taste it. Make sure it is soft.

Steak is now defrosted. Put seasoning on or BBQ sauce. BUT go easy cause the steak is not going to be out long enough to let the seasoning or sauce seep in. Remember I started with frozen so I turned the oven up to around 250 degrees Fahrenheit and put the timer on for ten minutes. This type of cooking demands constant checking, especially since we like our steaks rare or medium rare. You are going to have to turn that steak over every 10 minutes or so, depending on thickness and size, and watch it so that it does not burn on one side. 10 minute installments is a good bet. Once you get to the point where it is almost there, put it on one side for 5 minutes and then the other side for five.

One down with steak and rice - one to go with something dairy or veggie.

Now Avdiel needed something dairy or veggie. He wont eat Tuna Fish, (how could someone normal not eat Tuna Fish? That is my most favorite food, and I could live on it for weeks!). But he is 25 and I am sure as hell not going to break him of that habit now.

So let me see..what the hell is in my fridge and still not growing mold?

I had fresh pita which I did purchase a few hours ago. I had grated cheese. I had some spices. So Voila.

I cut the pita up down the middle. In other words I cut it up to expose the inside of the bread. Like sliced bread. I took out the grated cheese from the fridge. One sec. I also checked it with my nose and looked for mold - :) For some reason my kids don't like moldy cheese (spoiled they are!) Spread the two open pitas out on a large plate, and then sprinkled the cheese all over. (It can be plain yellow, mozzarella, or any other cheese you like.) Now I needed spices to give the kid heartburn. (He likes HOT! Do not call the authorities yet.)

I rummage through my spice drawer. Okay dried hot tomatoes, and some Napoli Pasta dried spice. Sounds good. I shrug and figure what the hell? It's his stomach. Now these two bottles don't come with those holes. You have to pour out the spice and spread it yourself. So I open my palm (HEY YOU - WASH THOSE HANDS!) and I pour a bit of the hot stuff on one palm. And then I rub my hands together over the open pita and cheese, moving my hands slowly so the spice spreads evenly. I did this with both spices.

Since I had meat in the oven, and we are kosher, I only had one possibility. The microwave. We nuked that cheese for 4 minutes and thirty seconds, and my son had delicious melted cheese on pita. (Yeah stop grinning. Of course it was delicious!).

And remember that good old veggie-tomato soup I made last Friday - you can find the story here. Teddy's Tomato-Veggie Soup Madness.

Avdiel wanted that too! So I took out the pot, (not much was left since I ate it over the week) and he had a huge bowl of it. (Nuked it in the Microwave as well.)

Voila. Two stomachs fed. One meat. One dairy. And we sat around the table laughing and talking. And you know what. No frazzle. No dazzle. No junk food. Fairly healthy. And lots of smiles.

You just can't beat that feeling. Trust me!




Help! I Have A Fire In My Kitchen



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Comments

B.E. Sanderson said…
When in doubt, a missing pot lid can usually be found stuffed way way WAY in the back of the cupboard. At least that's where they end up after my daughter puts the dishes away.

-Shrug
Secret Pot Lid Collector ;)
Ted Gross said…
See .. I knew you stole it. Go ahead..blame it on the kid! :)

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