It has been, in the vernacular, that kind of week. A combination of my Old Man Back and Cathy's cold has made this one of those weeks where cooking has had to happen, but where the actual act of cooking, and correspondingly, the act of writing about that cooking, has been a fucking chore.

But we all have to cook under duress sometimes, at least we do if we don't have stockpiles of restaurant money socked away in Swiss bank accounts. When I cook under duress I look for two things. Comfort and shortcuts. Comfort, because if I'm going to go to the trouble of cooking, I'm damn well going to enjoy the result. And shortcuts, because the quicker and easier the process is, the happier I am when it's done.

On Monday we had the gaming crew over, and I'd already planned on making Multican Monday Chili due to its ease and simplicity. Thanks to my back, I wasn't in a mood to codify the recipe, but thanks to my back, I did have the day off work, so I had plenty of time to space out the prep and ease the overall burden. Multican chili is a basic, large-scale chili that gets most of its bulk from canned crushed tomatoes, canned diced tomatoes, and canned black beans, along with a simple base of onion, garlic, meat (usually and in this instance ground beef, but sometimes sausage or chicken). It's seasoned with my workhorse southwestern spices, cumin, ancho, chipotle, and oregano. Bonus this time was using some really nice cheddar I got from Costco as a topper. 

Tuesday was when Cathy came down with her cold, so I went straight for a variation on the Vaguely Asian Soup that I often make when she's sick. The big shortcut in this version was making it a noodle soup by cutting some leftover wonton wrappers into strips. Otherwise, this version came together pretty quickly using a bunch of fridge vegetables - the last of the fresh water chestnuts, some shredded green cabbage, a bit of mushroom, and some scallions. The last remnants of the frozen shrimp from the freezer got tossed in for good measure.

Wednesday was tricky, because not only was it the third consecutive day of Duress Cooking, I also had done zero advance planning. Which means nothing was thawed. The only upside was the knowledge that Cathy's current work schedule meant that I had almost three hours after I got home to do the cooking. Again, comfort and shortcuts. Skirt steak for beefy goodness. The last half-bag of Ore-Ida Steak Fries, not something I usually have on hand but had bought because I made an epic shitload of ketchup. And a very quick salad of cucumber and tomato, just chopped and tossed with red wine vinegar and olive oil. The skirt steak thawed fast and cooked quick. The fries just needed one sheet pan and a hot oven, and the salad was maybe ten minutes of work, tops.

Of course, now we're on Day Four, which is just like Day Three only with even more dirty dishes cluttering up the kitchen. But that's why God invented deli counters.</p>