anxiety steak + grief burgers

Note: This was election week. I don't directly address this because I'm pretty sure if I tried to all my skin would fall off and I would scream my soul out of my bleeding eyeballs. Instead, for some reason, I felt like writing about what I ate for dinner.

My dinners the the week in question:

Monday:

I went to a delightful event where I ate quite a large quantity of cheese, crackers, salami, and accoutrement. Go buy my friend’s book! Came home and goblined down some spicy noodles my partner made (a version of his signature dish, Ramen Special).

Tuesday:

My father-in-law’s birthday was over the weekend (Happy 75th, Kenny!), and Alex brought home some Meat. Specifically, a magnificent rib eye and a pound of ground beef. I weirdly didn’t have paper towels? So I couldn’t really blot the steak off before seasoning; instead I did my little quick version of dry-aging and set it on my smallest rack over my smallest sheet pan, seasoned with s+p, and let it sit uncovered in the fridge for the afternoon. I could have done this a day or two ahead if I really had my shit together, but it still worked. I flipped it a couple times for even-ish drying and it cooked up real nice. I also made biscuits from scratch because Anxiety Baking and Comfort Food. “Enjoyed” a delicious dinner of Anxiety Steak, biscuits, and salad, and I made Alex turn the news off and watch stand up comedy while we ate.

Wednesday:

Took that pound of ground beef and made two massive burgers. I usually make three burgers with a pound of meat but then we each eat one and the Final Patty sits in the fridge judging me until I make it for lunch or repurpose it in some way, and I just didn't need that kind of pressure this week. So I made burgers so fucking big that I genuinely couldn’t open my mouth wide enough to get a bite with both the top and bottom bun. I do not have regrets, but next time I will make them flatter and wider. I formed the patties with a divot in the middle, which helps them cook up flat instead of puffed up, seasoned them simply with smoked Malden salt and chilled in the fridge for a bit before frying up and melting pepper jack on top. Avocado, yellow mustard, lettuce, tomato, pepperoncini, and pickled jalapeño were some of the things I stacked on there. “Grief Burgers,” announced Alex as we solemnly assembled them.

Thursday:

Ate a shitload of grocery store snacks out of my purse in a movie theater where my friend and I were the only patrons. Chicago-style popcorn (caramel and cheddar mix) goes perfectly with crunchy jalapeño Cheetos, FYI. Also, Hot Tamales are the best movie candy. Afterwards, we got soft serve and gigantic mozzarella sticks. 100/10.

Friday:

Soup from Found Objects. Pulled cooked buckeye beans (Rancho Gordo) and shredded bbq chicken (catering leftovers) from the freezer and made soup with onion, sweet potato, mushrooms, and mustard greens (aka “things already in the house”). Seasoned with Old Bay. Heated up the chicken on the side since I’m eating Less Meat (don’t you dare mention the Grief Burgers) and Alex is always eating More Meat. Baked off the remaining biscuit dough to go with. I experimented with leaving half of Tuesday's dough in the fridge for a few days to have fresh biscuits later in the week. The dough got a little discolored but was otherwise fine and it was incredible having fresh biscuits again rather than perpetuating the charade that reheated biscuits are “just as good” because they fucking aren’t. Plus, I got to sneak little bites of raw dough all week because I am a goblin and raw dough heals me. Blended the soup lightly with my immersion blender and it was real nice. Served with a ton of grated cheese, obvs.

Weekend:

More soup. Loaf of sourdough from Sea Wolf. Watercress salad. Big shells in yogurt sauce. Cake from Deep Sea Sugar and Salt.

Recipes:

Buttermilk biscuits from Black Food

Watercress salad from Treasures of the Mexican Table

Yogurt Pasta from Jerusalem