#Microblog Monday 325: House Meal
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Eater has an article about “house meals,” which are defined as “a dish that perhaps was once inspired by a recipe, but you’ve made it so many times, and riffed on it so often, that it bears little resemblance to any known dish. It is comfort food at its finest, a thing designed for your specific palate, with absolutely no thought paid to impressing anyone else.”
Ours is, without a doubt, this potato-and-Morningstar-vegetarian-bacon thing that Josh and I dreamed up years ago. It is so horrible-looking and horrible-sounding on paper. It is so good in your mouth. We have it at least once a month, down from once a week.
My other house meal is black beans and rice with roasted red peppers and an egg (over medium). It’s gooey and yummy and so easy to pull together without thinking.
My old house meal was a red sauce, but I’ve dropped it in favour of either Marcella Hazan’s red sauce or the one I learned from Da Mario’s last spring. So both real recipes, as opposed to the mess above which is unique to our home, and we’ll never serve it or give the recipe to anyone outside the house.
What is your house meal?
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8 comments
My mom’s recipes – usually funeral meals meant to feed a lot of people for a little money. One is…well, basically swedish meatballs without the sour cream. Another is her chop suey. My kid hates the first (she is against ground beef in any form) and loves the other. Our whole extended family loves “Grannie’s dip” which is cream cheese, garlic, and green olives (and milk to thin it to dipping texture – all proportions to taste).
I really am more of a recipe person, though. Occasionally, I’ll discuss how the end product could be better, but then figure I don’t like it well enough to make it again.
Interesting concept! My own red sauce would be one of our house meals (it has ground beef in it, so I can’t make it for A’s kid, lol). It’s seasoned according to my family’s preferences. My daughter wants my recipe, and I tell her there is none and she just watches me make it.
My other would be lemon chicken. I started using a recipe, but now it’s my own, with corn meal breading and a tangier marinade that what I started with.
Great question.
We don’t have a house meal in our house. Before we had children, my husband and I ate out A LOT, and when we ate at home, we generally prepared separate meals (he is very picky, and I generally make healthier food choices than him).
Since having children, I am a little ashamed to admit that we have not really followed the advice of experts in serving one meal for the whole family. One of my sons inherited his father’s pickiness about food, and we got tired early on of battling him. So we generally prepare “kid friendly” meals for my sons like macaroni & cheese, quesadillas, toaster waffles with peanut butter & jelly, cheese & crackers. (Not only is said child picky, he is also a self-proclaimed vegetarian for the past two years.)
The not-as-picky child will eat healthier options, so I sometimes prepare meals for him and me and let my husband and the picky child to eat their preferred foods. *sigh*
One glimmer of hope: the picky child has become interested in cooking and is more willing to try new dishes when he actively participates in their preparation. So perhaps he will broaden his food horizons yet.
Ours is what we call “bean dish”—pasta sauce, cannellini beans, vegan mozzarella cheese, plus spinach if we have any. Mixed together and baked in a Pyrex dish. Usually served with pasta. Very yummy, and I am a former beanaphobe (still can’t stomach—can barely look at—red kidney beans).
Oh, I love this. For our house, it’s a beet and black bean burger recipe. Many years ago it started out as a printed recipe based on the veggie burger at a local restaurant. It’s been so revised over the years that the only remaining similarities are the presence of beets and black beans. It’s good stuff!
I love this too. I tend to follow recipes, though have a number of dishes where I know the recipe off by heart, and it is real comfort food. (My fried rice is one – I shuddered at the one in the article, but if she loves it that is great.) My comfort house meal is probably a Thai curry, but with any sort of meat and all sorts of vegetables thrown in. But it still bears resemblance to a Thai curry. I do have a favourite invented lunch which is just brown rice, some veges (carrots, onions, frozen peas and corn, maybe broccoli or asparagus if it is there in the fridge) stir-fried with turmeric and some Thai chilli sauce, with a single-serve size can of flavoured (preferably Thai style) tuna on top, then stirred up together in the bowl. Or sometimes I’ll replace the vege with an egg.
Oooh, those sound yummy. Sometimes things that look gross are super delicious.
Our Sunday morning breakfast is definitely a house meal. We have pancakes every Sunday, with bacon and maple syrup, but because I have to make the pancakes gluten free they are my doctored creation now. I substitute melted butter for oil and buttermilk for milk, and add a cup of greek yogurt or sour cream. Whipped up with the pancake mix it makes completely delicious, fluffy, moist pancakes. Blueberry in spring and summer, pumpkin in fall and winter.
Bryce also has scallops that he pan sears in a cast iron skillet and old with a white wine-shallot-herb sauce that is insanely good. It’s a little different every time he makes it but always delicious. He’s a bit fancier than me!
Love that term, House Meal.
I like this! I’m not much of a cook. I used to dump cans of rotel on top of chicken breasts, bake it, shred it, and serve it over baked potatoes. But now I don’t really like chicken anymore… My boyfriend makes what we call Refrigerator Soup where he cooks onion in oil with spices and then adds whatever vegetables are about to go bad with a can of beans and some chicken, beef, or vegetable bouillon. It’s a little different each time but always good.