Me to Ox: "Thinking hanger steak for Sunday but it requires a 3.5 hour lead time before serving and I will still be at work. Can you handle it (it's for the gratin...no pressure)."
Ox to Me: "I got this one"
So I'm thinking, "Holy Shit, Ox has already decided what we're making, and it sounds like he's thinking big!"
Sunday rolls around and he arrives early, as expected, but empty handed. Confused looks, shrugs, awkward laughter...
Apparently, "I got this one" means "I won't fuck this gratin up like I have the last 7" and not, "I've got the meal planning and preparation handled this week."
So, having explored the limits of pure text communication, Kari, Ox and Mary (remember I'm doing taxes right now - try to keep up) brainstorm on what can be done with the limited time we now have - since shopping has to be done. As an aside, it was nice to be the cause of the scrambling, but not having to be involved in the panic. The Great Book was consulted, and a lot of recipes had to be discarded due to lead time and/or ingredient needs, so they decided to go with a side of some sort. We had some Flying Farmer Corn Meal, so they decided to go with the Hoecakes. For the main dish, thwarted food desires made the choice - let me 'splain, no, there's too much - let me sum up: Mary and Ox had been to Hominy Grill for breakfast, and wanted the Huevos Rancheros, but both wanted something else more, and they couldn't agree on who would sacrifice their primary desire for the good of the group, so Huevos de Hoecakes it was!
Ox has a great Huevos Rancheros "recipe", involving a lovely heated chipotle salsa, homemade refried beans, spanish style chorizo and a bunch of mexican herbs and dried chils from a "nice" Mexican Market on Ashley Phosphate (seriously - there's some awesome food there).
I made the hoecakes, which was super easy and fast (I actually finished ahead of time and had to wait on Ox, who, a few minutes before had said he though he was forgetting something.) Turns out what he was forgetting was how fast things come together and how many burners you need to make this all work. I was frying hoecakes on one burner, Ox was cooking eggs on another, Mary was cooking chorizo on a third and the beans were keeping warm on another. Kari was setting the table, defending the kitchen from the 4 year old, and rushing to the beck and call of the three of us as we needed ingredients or equipment. It was wonderful chaos!
The mix comes together in literally minutes, and then it's just a matter of frying them up. If I'd realized how fast it would go I would have pre-staged the skillet with the lard and butter and had it warming up (If there had been a spare burner - I'm getting a six burner oven when I remodel my kitchen - in 2050). Seriously, stage everything you need and be ready. You can literally make these in minutes! The hardest part was getting them to form nice circles, and getting a feel for the cooking and turning time - I burned a couple, and some of them were shapes that could not honestly be called "round". 
But they were fricken' delicious! They also made for AMAZING Huevos de Hoecakes!Advice: Pre stage everything so you can go directly from one step to the next. Have the cornmeal in a dish with the tablespoon of lard on top, ready to pour. While the water boils, start heating the lard and butter in your skillet. These are really all purpose, and go great with sweet syrups and butter, or savory toppings.
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| The picture doesn't do it justice. We took like 30 pictures trying to get it right and then we said fuck it - and ate it! |
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