cooking: memorial day et al

I'd actually been cooking breakfast lately: a poached egg atop one buttered English muffin and strawberry or apricot jam atop the other with a cup of Earl Grey tea. 

And relying on convenience foods like Stouffer's meatloaf in gravy though cooking macaroni and cheese and roasting Brussels sprouts from scratch for meals in the last couple weeks of school.

But one night I did go all out on making Asian noodle bowls. I marinated and skewered pork shoulder. I had just enough Vietnamese marinade leftover from my last grilling adventure.

I let the pork marinade overnight.

 

I prepped the lettuce, cucumber, bean sprouts, mint, Thai basil, scallions, cilantro beforehand and made nuoc cham while grilling the pork.

 

I had also boiled rice vermicelli before assembly. And Patrick said the bowl was too full of vegetables.

 

And so there were enough leftover vegetables and grilled pork the next night plus some shrimp for another meal the next night.

And it's been a week since these noodle bowls for dinner...

...and so I'm thinking of grilling a couple of the pork chops that are thawed in the fridge again for a noodle bowl because I've still mint and Thai basil too. And maybe use the other pork chops for bahn mi sandwiches because I forgot to bring the Đồ Chua to my brother's last Sunday. And in the meantime, these flowers are shedding pollen all over the table.

Ugh, I'm not feeling well because of bronchitis from the nasal dripping and sneezing from allergies and stuck at home and lamenting how much making I want to do.