Ger-pocolypse, 2012

I was all impressed with myself that I was going to get a good cooking post up today.  We're eating good stuff this week:

Fajitas (Monday):

1 large bell pepper (color of your choosing), sliced
1 large onion, sliced
1 lb boneless skinless chicken, sliced in about 1/2 inch slices
flour tortillas
grated cheddar cheese
optional: sour cream, guacamole, salsa

Saute the pepper and onion in about 2 tbsp olive oil over high heat (I recommend a cast iron skillet, if you have one).  When the peppers and onions are blackened and soft, remove to a bowl. 
Over high heat again, saute the chicken until slightly blackened and cooked through, about 6 minutes.  Toss the peppers and onions back in the pan to reheat.
Serve in flour tortillas topped with cheese and whatever other toppings you desire.

 Ham and Cheese Biscuits and homefries (today):

 Your favorite biscuit recipe*
about 1/2 lb deli ham, sliced thin
4 oz. cheddar cheese
deli mustard

Preheat the oven to 425.
Mix up the biscuits, then divide the dough in half.  Press or roll half the dough until it is about 1/2 inch thick across and roughly rectangular.  Cut the rectangle into six even pieces and place on a lightly greased cookie sheet.
Top each biscuit with two slices of ham, folded, then some of the cheddar.
Press the other half of the dough into a 1/2 inch thick rectangle, and spread lightly with the mustard.  Cut into six slices and top each sandwich, mustard side down. 
Bake for about 15-20 minutes, until the tops have lightly browned.  
I served with homefries and pineapple.

*I love the Moosewood Cookbook biscuit recipe.  If not for the threat of dying of scurvy, I might try to live on them.  But you could do any recipe, including Bisquick or (and I really don't recommend this) biscuits out of a can. 

 Southwestern Hamburger skillet (tomorrow):

 Yeah, I'll get this one up tomorrow.  It's only half done anyway.

So there I was, cooking up tonight's dinner AND tomorrow's dinner, because that's how I roll, when for some reason I go into the sunroom and notice that the cover is not on the gerbil cage.  How long has the cover been off the gerbil cage?  I have no idea.  But I do know that there is only one gerbil in said gerbil cage, where previously there had been two.  

See?  One.  Two.

 And up close.  Two.

Did I mention that we have two dogs that would be more than happy to consume misplaced rodents?  Did I also mention that that fact dawned immediately on the 7 year old whose gerbil had gone missing?  Cue the waterworks.  And the burning dinner.

I was luckily able to salvage the homefries (we're still out of ketchup, as we have been for two weeks) and get the biscuits out of the oven.  They were super tasty, but I didn't get pictures of the completed meal.  

And, since I like a good narrative arc, we did a little poking around after dinner and found the escapee gerbil underneath an armoire.  We scooped that little bugger up and plunked him back in his home, where his brother gerbil is adamantly refusing to let him back into their shared little gerbil house.  It's a squeakfest in there.  But Lea was elated, and I think we all learned a valuable lesson in putting the top back on the friggin' cage.

Let's hope tomorrow's dinner comes with a few more pictures and a smidge less drama.