Friday, March 29, 2024

Friday Food: Broccoli Salad for Mom

Friday 

Short version: No-meat fried rice

Long version: All day I had thought I would make breakfast burritos for dinner, and then I went into the kitchen to actually make dinner and saw the leftover rice while I was taking out the eggs.

So I used the rice, the eggs, some already-cooked onion from the freezer, and frozen peas to make fried rice, instead.

This is what it's like to cook without a meal plan. You just never know what I'm going to do.

Saturday

Short version: Lamb 'n' bean burritos, broccoli salad

Long version: I used the random bits and pieces from our sheep butchering to make a burrito filling. All I did was simmer the meat pieces with a couple of onion ends (I keep these in the freezer after I cut up an onion for stock and so on) until it was tender. Then I broke it up with my immersion blender. To the blended meat, I added sauteed onions and garlic, tomato sauce, cumin, chile powder, paprika, and both pinto and black beans.

The kids ate their with flour tortillas. A. ate his with corn tortillas. I didn't eat anything, instead making the broccoli salad my dinner.

I don't think I have ever made a broccoli salad before. My original plan for dinner had been to use the meat for something like sloppy joes (there I go being unpredictable again), and I had thought I would want something like coleslaw to go with them. I didn't have any cabbage, but I did have broccoli. Hence, broccoli slaw.

But then, when I was looking at recipe for broccoli slaw, I came across several broccoli salad recipes that called for bacon. And I had bacon leftover from breakfast.

See how it all worked out?

I used the broccoli (chopped quite small, because I don't like big, chewy broccoli chunks), finely diced onion, diced bacon, and raisins in it. For the dressing, I pretty much made the same dressing I make for coleslaw, except without any celery seed in it.


It was really good. A couple of children tried it, but I pretty much ate it all myself. Which is how I thought it would end up. 

Sunday

Short version: Roasted rooster with potatoes and carrots, giblet gravy, green salad with vinaigrette, chocolate ice cream

Long version: The rooster was one we got from our neighbor. A. prepared it all the way from killing to cooking. He roasted it on a bed of potatoes, carrots, onions, green garlic, and parsley, with butter and garlic under the skin.


Rooster ready to roast.

All of the children love chicken, so this was a very popular meal.


Pretty plate.

Monday

Short version: Lamb 'n' bean quesadillas, raw broccoli, yogurt with strawberry jam

Long version: I had enough of the lamb burrito filling to make quesadillas when I got home, so that is what I did. I had meant to make an enchilada casserole with it, but never did that on Sunday, so quesadillas it was. No complaints.

I've noticed an increase in yogurt consumption since I started making strawberry jam. It is awfully good as a yogurt mix-in.

Tuesday

Short version: Lamb chops, rolls, carrot sticks with curry dip

Long version: Some of the many lamb chops A. cut with his reciprocating saw when we butchered sheep last week. All I did was fry them in tallow with salt, pepper, garlic powder, and za'atar.

I had made the rolls when I thought I would make sloppy joes with the lamb meat. But since we had burritos instead, I still had the rolls. They were slightly stale, but I cut them in half and microwaved them with butter, and they softened right up again.

I found this meal that the one child who doesn't really like lamb much will eat it much more readily with the curry dip (mayonnaise+sweet curry powder). Nice to know, given how much lamb we have in the freezer now.

Wednesday

Short version: Chicken stew, oatmeal/walnut muffins

Long version: I had simmered the chicken carcass the day before to make stock, then picked off all the meat and made a stew with that, the stock, and all the leftover potatoes/carrots/onions/gravy. Plus peas.

I also made the muffins the day before. They were a new recipe I tried and they were very unsweet. I don't like supersweet muffins, but these I think needed more sugar than the recipe called for. They were fine as an accompaniment to the stew, however. And one child announced with great satisfaction while he was eating his, "You're a great baker, Mom," so I guess they had at least one real fan.

Thursday

Short version: Elk steaks, boiled potatoes, green peas, rotisserie chicken on the road

Long version: This day ended up being crazy busy, with a lot of driving* for me. I left at 10 a.m. and didn't get home until after 8 p.m. 

My sister also arrived for a visit this day, of course while I was gone. When she actually got here, I was at a track meet with one child and A. was driving the school bus. To ensure there would be an proper meal for our guest (and everyone else), rather than just quesadillas, I made most of this meal in the morning before I left.

I actually mostly made it at 5 a.m., which is when I peeled, chunked, and boiled the potatoes, steamed the peas, and put the steaks in a marinade. Then, when A. got home after 5 p.m., all he had to do was fry the steaks and re-heat the sides.

Not that my sister would really care if she were presented with a quesadilla, but steaks are better. A. made a sauce for them with cream and red wine, so they were very well-received.

I had bought a rotisserie chicken on my way out of Walmart. I ate some of that for my lunch in the car as I was driving to the track meet. And then the trackster ate most of the rest of it on our way from the track meet to Holy Thursday Mass.

Refrigerator check!


Stocked up for Easter.

Okay, your turn! What'd you eat this week?

* We have to drive a lot to get anywhere, but this day I had to go several wheres, so it was a total of almost 300 miles. 

Tuesday, March 26, 2024

Seasonal Flowering

Look what's on my table right now!


Spring!

Those daffodils and apricot blossoms replaced the arrangement of dried weeds I'd had on the table since Thanksgiving.


A study in contrasts.

Although I do appreciate the subtle beauty in things like that dried arrangement, by the time spring rolls around, I am definitely ready for something more colorful and not brown. 

I purposely don't buy flowers at the store. I have the same feeling about store flowers that proponents of seasonal eating have about produce: It's better to wait for them to be local and in-season. 

This means that it is a long wait for there to be flowers around my house in the spring, but that just makes it all the sweeter when they finally appear. That vase on my table brought joy into my home in the form of flowers.

So tell me: Has spring sprung where you are yet? What are your signs of spring?


Sunday, March 24, 2024

Snapshots: My Apologies

First, I am so sorry I forgot to put my refrigerator photo at the end of Friday's post. Let me remedy that now.


There. Don't we all feel better now?

I walked into the kitchen the other day to find this on the floor.


Rag dolls do the splits. 
Girls are fun.

I spent about three hours at a track meet on Thursday, which is about two hours and fifty minutes longer than I want to be in the sun. Luckily, I am a Mom with a capital "M," so I don't care at all about the fact that I have to wear a long-sleeved button-up linen shirt and the world's dorkiest (but shady!) hat to avoid the sun.


This is my "Fun in the Sun" face.

That very strong sun has been good for the spring flowers in the mechanic's pit.


Crocuses! Daffodils!


The apricot tree behind the pit was also in full bloom.

The butchering we did on Saturday was much less aesthetically pleasing. We had two sheep to cut up. That's a lot of meat.


This is the meat from only one sheep.

Butchering always results in some . . . interesting dishes.


Mostly of the sharp variety.

And lastly, when Poppy went out to feed the chickens and collect the eggs, she came back in with this:


An old calabaza shell makes a surprisingly good egg carrier.

There you have it! My life, snapshotted.

Friday, March 22, 2024

Friday Food: Green Food

Friday 

Short version: Fish sandwiches, oven fries, carrot sticks

Long version: A. had asked me to get some fish for sandwiches. I got whole battered fillets. I probably should have gotten some kind of fish patty, but I think the fillets were better. They were kind of like a double-sized fish stick, so each sandwich had two on them.

We had some of the Big Mac sauce left from the cheeseburgers the night before, which worked well as a tartar sauce substitute with the fish.

I had made oven fries the day before, but I made more because Poppy had been sad she couldn't have more.

Saturday

Short version: Creamy sausage and potato soup, pumpkin-pecan muffins

Long version: I had all the juices from the pork roast I had made a few days previously to use, so I decided to make a soup. For the meat in it, I used a package of plain smoked sausage. And then there were also onions, garlic, carrots, celery, green peas, and, of course, a lot of potatoes. I used diced potatoes, but then also thickened it with some of the instant potato flakes I still have. At the end, I added some milk.


Soup in progress.

I made the muffins as a consolation prize for the children who are not thrilled with soup. Also because I had cooked and pureed our last winter squash this day, so I just used some of that before I froze the rest.


Poppy decorated them with the pecans. Someone get that girl a Pinterest page.

Sunday

Short version: Green food! And meatballs.

Long version: It has become our tradition to have pasta with pesto on St. Patrick's Day. This is, of course, not at all an Irish food, but it is green. And delicious.

Since we were having pasta, I took out some of the ground bull meat to make meatballs. These were not green, since they were in a tomato sauce.

The salad was green, though.


Well, except for those red tomatoes again.

I also got all ambitious for dessert and decided to use some green sugar I had and the clover cookie cutter someone gave us when we did 4-H (the symbol of 4-H is a four-leaf clover) to make sugar cookies. I hate rolling out cookies and cutting them, but I did it. 


The clover shape is not so obvious, but they were green. Tasty, too.

Monday

Short version: Small meatloaf, baked spaghetti, baked potatoes, frozen green peas

Long version: While I was clearing up after dinner on Sunday, I put together a casserole of baked spaghetti by simply chopping up the leftover spaghetti, mixing it with the rest of the tomato sauce from the meatballs, and adding the grated asadero cheese I keep in the freezer.

I didn't use all of the meatball mixture to make meatballs. The last of it I saved to make a small meatloaf, which I baked along with the spaghetti casserole when I got home from work.

I threw some potatoes in the oven, too--after pre-cooking them in the microwave for a bit--thinking I could use them for a meal later in the week.

And then half the family ended up eating potatoes, as well, and I was left with one lonely baked potato. So much for that.

Tuesday

Short version: Sheep tenderloin chunks, mashed potatoes, cucumber

Long version: I pulled out a bag of sheep tenderloin to thaw. For this meal, I just trimmed it, chunked it up, marinated it in olive oil, vinegar, garlic powder, and salt, and then fried it. Then I made a sauce for it with garlic, some cooked diced onion from the refrigerator, apple cider vinegar, and cold butter.

The rest of the tenderloin I used to make . . .

Wednesday

Short version: Sheep curry, rice

Long version: I made this in the tandem with dinner on Tuesday, so I could just heat it up when I got home from First Communion class. Besides the sheep meat, in included onion, garlic, carrots, potatoes, green peas, yellow split peas. 

I also made a pot of rice on Tuesday, so when I got home at 5:30 p.m., all I had to do was heat up the curry --still in the skillet--and add some cream to that, and microwave the rice.


Yellow sludge: It's what's for dinner.

I do think next year I might make just a few pints of chutney, because I really like it with curry. Chutney is one of those things that can get out of hand and result in dozens of jars that never get used, but I think if I make maybe a half recipe of my favorite green tomato chutney, that would be about the right amount for a year.

Thursday

Short version: Pigs in a blanket at home, fast food on the road

Long version: I was at a track meet all afternoon. 


Track shadow.

The track team got burgers and fries after the meet, which my trackster elected to eat in the car so we could get home earlier.

The pigs in a blanket at home came from the school cafeteria. Someone else has been hired to help the school cook this year, so I haven't been working in the cafeteria and bringing home leftovers. The helper had taken the week off, however, so I went in to the kitchen during one  of my breaks to help the cook with the lunch dishes. She had a lot of pigs in blankets left, and gave me a whole bag to take home.

She makes the dough that goes around the hot dogs from scratch, and they're actually surprisingly good. Everyone at home was happy with them, anyway.

Okay, your turn! What'd you eat this week?

Tuesday, March 19, 2024

Another for the List

I make a lot of things from scratch that most people buy: yogurt, chocolate syrup (for chocolate milk), bread, salad dressings, and many other things. I do buy some condiments, though, including salsa, mustard, ketchup, and jam.

Except I guess I won't be buying jam anymore. And it's all because of the tea party.

I had promised Poppy that we would have a tea party while the MiL was here. Tea parties must, of course, include scones. And those scones must, of course, be accompanied by jam.

We were out of strawberry jam, and I had put it on the list for A. when he went to the store. He missed it, though, and never got any. So there I was, with a tea party promised for the next day, no jam, and no way to get it that didn't involve driving 60 miles.

I did, however, have the last of a bag of strawberries in the freezer, bottled lemon juice, and sugar. And these are the ingredients for strawberry jam.

I've made a lot of jam over the years, so I didn't use a recipe. I didn't even use pectin, because I didn't have any.

I dumped all the strawberries in a pot, heated them gently (so they wouldn't stick) until they were thawed, mashed them with my potato masher, dumped in slightly more than an equal amount of sugar, added a few squirts of lemon juice, and boiled it all furiously, while stirring, until it was sheeting* on a flat wooden spoon. 

This jam was enormously popular with everyone, of course. A. especially liked it. His theory is that it tastes better because there's no pectin in it, so the flavor of the strawberries is undiluted.


Eating it on a scone is also a good idea.

Out of curiosity, I did a little cost comparison between the ingredients for this jam and a jar of store-brand strawberry jam. What I found is that this jam is about half the cost of the store jam. And it's a lot better than store jam. 

Making jam without pectin does require more sugar to get it to a spreadable consistency, otherwise it can be slightly runny. However, we don't worry too much about runny jam. Particularly since it's often used in yogurt.

So I guess we can add jam to the list of things I make now. It's a lot easier than the bread, at least.

* Sheeting is when the jam doesn't drip in individual drips from the spoon when it's upside down, but rather all gathers and falls off all along the spoon in a line.


Sunday, March 17, 2024

Snapshots: Flowers and Tea

So many dainty photos this week.


Buds on the apricot tree, which turned into . . .


Flowers on the apricot tree.

Unfortunately, it's unlikely there will ever be many apricots on the apricot tree. We usually get a bad freeze or wind storm that kills off the blooms or tiny apricots. But you never know! This may be our year!

Meanwhile, in the mechanic's-pit bulb garden . . .


Crocuses!

The children associate the MiL with tea parties. With good reason, as some of you might recall if you've been reading here a long time. (Wookit da widdle baby boys!)

So of course, we had to have a tea party while the MiL was here.


Tea table.

I made scones, whipped cream, and strawberry jam*, and also put out cheese and summer sausage for the less-delicate among us who needed a heartier tea.

The mugs you see there are some of my dad-the-former-fighter-pilot's squadron mugs. Definitely not delicate, but fun for the children to use.

There you have it! My life, snapshotted.

* Yes, I actually made the jam. I'll tell you all about that on Tuesday.

Friday, March 15, 2024

Friday Food: Roly Poly Fish Heads

Friday

Short version: Fish head chowder, garlic bread

Long version: There has been a bag of carp heads in our freezer for almost a year now. A. and the children caught the carp when they were fishing, and A. saved the heads to make fish stock.

What better time for fish soup than Lent, right? Also, I really wanted to get that bag of fish heads out of the freezer. So I thawed them and A. made stock with them.


Finny stock in process.

Despite the gruesome-looking pot, the stock came out well. Not very fishy at all. The rest of the chowder consisted of a few random tilapia fillets that had also been in the freezer awhile, caramelized onions from the freezer, diced potatoes, milk, and cream. It was really pretty good, even for those of us who don't much care for fish.

The one child who didn't want to eat it did eat at least few bites, and then mostly garlic bread. Which is fine.

If you are unfamiliar with the title of the song that I used as the title of this post, you can see the lyric video for it here, along with some really unappetizing photos of, well, fish heads. Really weird song, and I have no idea why I know it.

Saturday

Short version: Elk stir-fry, rice

Long version: One bag of elk stir-fry meat, the rest of the broccoli we got from commodities, some bell peppers I had, carrots, green peas, onion and garlic.


Obligatory stir-fry beauty shot. It didn't look quite so photogenic after it had the brown sauce on it. Tasted better, though.

Sunday

Short version: Pork, cornbread, green salad with vinaigrette, rice pudding

Long version: Big ole pork butt, cooked until tender, shredded, then broiled with mustard and maple syrup. 

Do I make this every time we have company? Yes. And everyone likes it. Or if they don't, they're too polite to tell me.

I also pretty much always make rice pudding when I have the oven on that long for the pork. It's getting warmer, and the days of slow-cooking in the oven are going to end soon, so we should all enjoy rice pudding while we can.

Monday

Short version: Sausage, leftover chowder, leftover rice, leftover cornbread, green peas, chocolate ice cream

Long version: We had quite a lot of the fish chowder left, which about half the family ate. They also had sausage if they wanted it--I cooked andouille and plain smoked--and then a choice of rice or cornbread. Or both.

Tuesday

Short version: Traveling food, tortillas with pork and cheese

Long version: This was the day we went to Chimayo, so we were traveling all day. I brought all the leftover sausage, cheese, bread, mustard, a small jar of peanut butter, a quart bag full of carrot sticks, raisins, apples, oranges, and two sleeves of crackers. 

The kids wanted to eat at the Mexican restaurant right across the plaza from the church, so we did that. That was at around 3 p.m. I thought maybe this very late lunch/early dinner would prevent the usual voracious consumption of any and all food in the car on the way home. It did not. By the time we got home, the only thing left was half the jar of peanut butter. And they were still all complaining of being hungry.

So when we got home at 7:30 p.m., I microwaved corn tortillas with corn, leftover pork, and salsa to feed the hordes.

Wednesday

Short version: Pork tacos with homemade tortillas, chili beans, pureed squash

Long version: There was quite a lot of pork left, so I made corn tortillas and fried the rest of pork with spices for a filling. I had one bag of chili beans in the freezer, which I pulled out to thaw. While I was doing that, I saw the bag of pureed squash that was also in the freezer and also took that out, because the MiL, who was still here, likes squash a lot.

Thursday

Short version: Bull Big Macs, oven fries, squash

Long version: A. ground twelve pounds of yet more bull meat on Monday. I used some of it to make cheeseburgers this night. 


The only challenge with using the big griddle pan is that there's no lid to melt the cheese. Which is why I use an inverted skillet.

A. had asked if it would be possible to make the same kind of sauce that Mcdonald's uses on Big Macs.

Why, yes. And here's the recipe I followed. I didn't have any pickle relish, so I just diced up some dill pickles. I also used the optional ketchup, because I thought it tasted right that way. Not that I'm a great authority on McDonald's. I haven't had a Big Mac in probably twenty years.

I was also making bread this day, so I made hamburger buns as well. The only thing missing for an authentic Big Mac experience was tomato slices. Well, and the fact that they weren't gross because I used good meat, cheese, buns, and toppings.

Refrigerator check!


Lotta empty space in there.

Okay, your turn! What'd you eat this week?