Best Baby Photo Ever?

You decide.
P.S. Mia had just gotten up and was stretching when I took this. She was also about to yawn, apparently. Or maybe she was about to rip Cubby's face off. He certainly looks like he thinks that's a possibility.

Friday Food: Ponudo on Repeat

Friday

Short version: Hamburger skillet casserole, green salad with ranch dressing

Long version: Still sick of the kitchen after a week of baking, but dinner waits for no woman. I walked into the kitchen at 4 p.m. with no clear idea of what I was going to do with the three pounds of ground beef that were sitting in the refrigerator. I ended up with a skillet casserole comprised of beef, onion, garlic, frozen green beans, red wine, a little ketchup, plus sliced potatoes (cooked first in the microwave) on top that in turn had cheese on top of them. Then I shoved it under the broiler to melt and brown the cheese.

This was a popular dish. I don't know why I bother making anything other than casseroles. I don't think I've yet made one that everyone hasn't eaten.

Saturday

Short version: Pork chops, rice, fried onion, sauteed carrots and broccoli, carrot sticks with ranch dressing

Long version: Still sick of the kitchen, still no other option besides cooking. Seasoned pork chops and a sliced onion on the griddle pan (salt, pepper, garlic powder, paprika), rice with butter, sliced carrots and broccoli florets cooked in olive oil, and carrot sticks with leftover ranch dressing for the two boys that don't like cooked carrots. Thirty minutes and done.

Certainly nothing exciting, but there were no complaints and everyone was satisfactorily fed. That was pretty much all I was going for.

Break for random happy baby photo:

Less baby and more toddler by the day, though. 

Sunday

Short version: A.'s ponudo returns, plus leftover rice and frozen green beans

Long version: A. used the rest of his tripe and hominy to make another batch of his signature stew, this time with pigs' feet. He had put some pork chops in it, so I fished that out for the children. Cubby and Jack tried the pigs' feet, but in the end elected to go with the less-exotic pork chops.

I can't blame them. I wouldn't even try the pigs' feet. They made A. happy, though. And they certainly made a very gelatinous stock. I had to gouge out the leftovers with some force after it had been chilled.

Monday

Short version: Takeout green chile-hamburger soup and frijoles from Miss Amelia's Homestyle Restaurant

Long version: Miss Amelia called at noon to let me know she had just made a big pot of soup she wanted to share with us. She wanted to let me know early so I wouldn't start my own cooking.

As A. said, "There's a woman who's been where you are." Miss Amelia had five children and I'm pretty sure there were no restaurants around when she had them at home, either.

Anyway, A. went over later in the afternoon--bringing with him a loaf of sourdough bread, which Miss Amelia is luckily very fond of--and returned home with two quart jars of soup and a container of pinto beans. The children and I ate that, while A. had more of his ponudo.

Tuesday

Short version: Swiss steak, boiled potato chunks with butter, green salad

Long version: Browned cube steaks simmered with a sliced onion, a sliced bell pepper, garlic powder, and a can of tomatoes. Does that sound like Swiss steak? Sure. That's what we had, anyway.

Can you guess what A. had? Dingdingding! Yes! More ponudo! And then he had some beef and potatoes.

Wednesday

Short version: Barbecue beef, sourdough biscuits, green peas, baked sweet potato, roasted cauliflower

Long version: I made both an arm roast and some beef ribs by cooking them in a covered roaster for quite awhile at a low heat. Then I sliced the roast, and broiled the ribs to get them a little crispy, adding barbecue sauce on top of both.

I think A. said it best about this when I asked him how the ribs were, "They're okay. I mean, it's meat."

Yeah. Kind of underwhelming.

The biscuits were really good, though, as always.

Thursday

Short version: Tacos, ponudo, forgotten pinto beans, carrots

Long version: I made the taco meat out of the leftover arm roast and used the liquid from the roast in the beans. Which I then forgot to actually serve at dinnertime. I did all this in the morning because I was gone right before dinner delivering doughnuts with Cubby and Charlie. The elementary school students sold Krispy Kreme doughnuts to raise money for an end-of-year trip to a city.

Thankfully, this doughnut selling did not include the preschoolers. Although I bet this face could sell a lot of doughnuts.

Cubby and Charlie sold fourteen dozen between them, and the school as a whole sold an incredible quantity, considering how few people live around here. Everyone in the county is going to be eating doughnuts today. Given that someone had to drive 300 miles roundtrip to pick them up, I hope they all enjoy them.

Anyway. Cubby and Charlie were eating cupcakes to celebrate their hundredth day of school when I got there to pick them up, and Jack took advantage of my absence to beg peanut butter and jelly from his father (as always) so no one was particularly hungry for dinner. They ate, but only because I told them they could each have half a doughnut after dinner. Dessert bribery works every time.

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

I Think We'll Keep Her

I came downstairs this morning to find the MiL carefully layering apples into a cast-iron skillet. This is what she was making. It's called a Dutch Baby. I don't know where she comes up with these things. It's apples and sugar and cinnamon and nutmeg and some kind of crepe-like crust. It puffs up like a souffle, and then deflates really fast. It's also called a german apple pancake, I think, but I like Dutch Baby so much better. And once again, ignore my complete lack of photo skills. That's just pathetic.

Now, I would not be amenable to making this little treat at any time of the day, and especially not when I first wake up. I am not so much a baker. And this is where it's useful to have the MiL around. Because my God, can that woman bake. She's totally spoiled her sons with baked goods, and now they expect nothing less than the very best. A. won't even eat pie anywhere but this county, because he says only women in this county can make a good pie crust. I think that's a little provincial, but I can see that his point of comparison is a little higher than your average Marie Callendar's pie. It is not unusual to have a dozen pies for two dozen people at the MiL's family holidays. Her mother had 6 kids, and 4 of them, including one of the boys, should have been pastry chefs. Seriously, it's nuts.

And here's the real kicker. She can't even eat this stuff. Because of a wheat sensitivity. Can you imagine baking an apple pie and then watching other people stuff their faces while you eat an oatcake? No, me neither. I'm not that selfless, sorry.

But this mad baking prowess is the reason I will not make pie. I have never in my life made a pie crust, and I'm sure as hell not going to start now. Too much pressure. I mean, Christ, the MiL rendered our own leaf lard primarily for pie crusts. How am I supposed to measure up to that?

I can't, and I'm okay with that. Because I happen to share a house with one of the best bakers outside a professional kitchen. So I can be lazy and just get up on Saturday morning to a freshly prepared apple confection. Works for me.

Friday Food: When Mom Flies Solo

A. was gone all week, leaving me to cook as best I could with three rampaging boys and a fussy baby on the kitchen floor. Everyone was fed. Sometimes that's all you can do, right?

Friday

Short version: Sweet Italian sausage, roasted onions, leftover pasta, roasted sweet potatoes, leftover peas

Long version: I got nothin'. I guess the short version is the only version. Bet you never thought you'd see that, huh?

Saturday

Short version: Pig butt, rice, not-iceberg salad

Long version: In the morning I put a still-frozen pork butt roast in the oven with a chunked-up onion to cook most of the day. This turned out to be very fortuitous as we decided last-minute to go to the late afternoon mass, so we didn't get home until almost 5 p.m. The pork was done, so I pulled it into chunks, mixed them up with mustard, maple syrup, and apple cider vinegar and crisped them up under the broiler.

After pouring the liquid out of the roasting pan, I mixed some leftover rice in with the remaining onions, added a little of the liquid back, and heated that in the oven with the pork.

The salad was made from red leaf lettuce, because A. had to go to a city on Friday to get toner for his printer, so he was able to buy some real lettuce for me. The excitement was palpable.

I don't get out much.

Sunday

Short version: Pulled pork sandwiches, carrot sticks with curry dip

Long version: Leftover pork+storebought barbecue sauce+bread=dinner. Hooray.

Except for me, of course. I had pork and various vegetables with rice, all the while coveting my children's sandwiches.

Remember this dip? I made that. The children were quite touchingly grateful to have a dip for their carrot sticks. Poor kids. They don't get out much, either.

Monday

Short version: Chicken, rice, roasted sweet potatoes, salad

Long version: Apparently, I am now a person who buys chicken at the store. I have not been that person for many years. And as soon as we can raise our own meat chickens, I will not be that person in the future.

I am so grossed out by grocery store chicken, and yet, I buy it. Maybe it wouldn't be so repellent if I didn't buy the leg quarters and then have to crack the joint and sever the drumsticks from the thighs? Maybe. But the boys like the drumsticks, and A. and I prefer the thighs. Plus, the leg quarters are the cheapest, and if I'm going to be buying nasty chicken, it's going to be the cheapest. The breast of those chickens had no better life than the legs.

Anyway.

I should probably come up with another way to cook it other than just roasting it in the oven with whatever else I'm roasting--these days, always sweet potatoes--but the kids haven't complained yet.

Tuesday

Short version: Scrambled eggs, tortillas and cheese, carrots and curry dip

Long version: I purposely chose this meal because I knew I would not be into cooking and cleaning up this night. In the morning I took all four kids to the dentist (the toothless infant was there in a supportive capacity only, obviously) and after dinner I took them all to the village for two baseball practices in different locations at different times.

I was tired. I needed something quick to cook and quick to clean up so I wouldn't be faced with a dirty kitchen when I got home at 8 p.m. with three hyped-up boys and a hysterical baby. That was a good call.

I had leftover cabbage with diced deli ham and rice, which I shoveled into my face while scrambling eggs and nagging Charlie to find his baseball glove.

He didn't find it, but his practice was canceled anyway. And I found it the next day in an unexpected place, so at least I don't have to buy him a new one. I just love a happy ending.

Random photo break:

The Blue Ninja's archenemy, I presume.

Wednesday

Short version: Tuna salad, potato chips, still-frozen peas, ice cream

Long version: What do I even say about this? I made tuna salad because it was over 80 degrees outside and all us northerners were melting. I was running low on bread, but uncharacteristically had potato chips. And, as we all know, chips are the best utensils. There were no complaints from the children.

They like to eat peas frozen while I'm making dinner, so I didn't bother cooking the peas. I just poured them on their plates still frozen. Hey, it was hot. Frozen peas made sense. Ahem.

And how about some ice cream to round out this carefully prepared and supremely healthy meal? Might as well.

I ate a random skillet thing with bacon, tuna, rice, shallots, and shredded carrots. And no ice cream. Boo.

Thursday

Short version: Italian sausage, roasted sweet potatoes and onions, garlic bread, salad

Long version: Laziest garlic bread ever, I'm pretty sure. Thick slices from a loaf of sourdough slathered in butter and garlic powder, then under the broiler on both sides until brown. The boys loved it, and I really, really wanted to eat like five pieces myself.

I didn't.

When I made the mustard vinaigrette for the salad I accidentally added Worcestershire sauce instead of balsamic vinegar. They're both dark brown. And I am brain dead. I only added a little before the smell hit me and I realized my mistake. I continued making the dressing with the proper ingredients and couldn't taste the Worcestershire in the end.

Just thought I'm throw that PSA out there for anyone else who has a moment of mental failure and accidentally uses Worcestershire sauce. It won't ruin the salad dressing.

Even though it was still just me and the kids at the table (I have mentioned before how much I enjoy this), it was a downright leisurely meal because Cubby's 6 p.m. baseball practice was canceled due to rain. Thank you, Mama N. I don't dare to hope that I might be so lucky with Charlie's practice tomorrow night, but there is a chance of thunderstorms. Crossing fingers for another weather event.

I just realized that I started and ended this with Italian sausage, just like last week started and ended with ribeye. Perhaps I need to branch out a bit?

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

Friday Food: More Beef, Forever and Always

Friday

Short version: A Leftover Skillet Special

Long version: Leftover taco meat + leftover pot roast liquid + rice + frozen peas + cheese = dinner

Saturday

Short version: Roast beef, garlic butter, baked potatoes, roasted carrots and onions, accidental okra

Long version: For the roast beef, I used a free Penzeys spice rub sample that came with my Christmas pepper mill. It had salt, pepper, sugar (why?), and turmeric in it. It was kind of reminiscent of curry, what with the turmeric. It was okay, but I much prefer the salt, pepper, thyme, and oregano combination.

Let's pause for a beauty shot of my new pepper mill and salt shaker:

With which I seasoned those carrots in a most aesthetically pleasing manner. Thanks, MiL!

The only reason we had okra is because I accidentally bought it instead of frozen green beans. The bags look almost identical. Except for, well, the photo of okra on the front. Ahem. I didn't notice this until I started dumping out what I thought were green beans into a bowl and I was all, "Those are some really big green beans."

Yup. So then I had to cook okra, which not only have I never cooked, I have never eaten except in gumbo. I looked up some recipes that claimed to mitigate the slime, and then decided to just throw them in the oven with some of the garlic butter to roast.

They tasted pretty good--much like raw green beans, actually--but I have discovered that I am one of those people who is definitely put off by the strands of slime that stretch out when stirring the okra around. Also not a fan of the mucous mouth feel when chewing. I mean, I can eat it, but I'm not going to seek it out.

The kids mostly liked them--except for Charlie, of course--and A. even took a second serving. Nevertheless, once the bag is used up, I will not be buying okra again on purpose.

When I opened the new bag of potatoes to scrub some in preparation for baking, I pulled out this:

Vampire potato has been slain.

Weird.

Sunday

Short version: T-bone steaks, oven fries, green salad

Long version: The best thing about buying a whole cow--other than never having to worry about being out of meat--is casually deciding on T-bone steaks for dinner. I would never, ever buy a steak at the store after seeing the price on the sticker, but when the entire animal is the same price per pound? Then I can cook three T-bone steaks for dinner and not feel like I'm just grilling away our life savings.

Monday

Short version: Fried rabbit, garlic bread, beef and vegetable soup

Long version: A. FINALLY finished the last of his ponudo that I had taken out of the freezer. A momentous occasion, indeed. I thought we'd never see the end of that.

I had quite a bit of roast beef left from the sirloin tip roast, as well as a very awkward bone that still had meat on it I couldn't cut off easily. So I simmered the bone most of the day to make stock, then added the stock and the leftover beef to make a vegetable and beef soup.

I made the garlic bread because I was making bread anyway and ended up with a bit too much dough for my four loaf pans. So I shaped some of it into a round loaf, poured melted butter of the top, shook salt and a lot of garlic powder on it, and baked it in a cast iron skillet. I was careful not to overbake it, so it was nice and soft and really, really good. I should do that more often.

This rabbit was a cottontail A. got. It sat in the fridge for a couple of days and I kind of forgot about it until right before I was about to serve up dinner this night. It really needed to be cooked, so I quickly cut it into four pieces--the two back legs, and the middle part hacked in two--and fried it.

I fried it too quickly, apparently, because A. noted while the children were eating their bread that Cubby's piece was dripping blood. Whoops. I took it all back and cooked it some more. They all loved it. After it wasn't, you know, bleeding. Ahem.

Baby's first rabbit leg. (Please note the sparkly sweater she wore for our rockin' New Year's Eve. Next year maybe she'll brush her hair, too.)

"Why do you only take pictures of the baby eating?" asked Jack. "Take a picture of ME." Okay.

Tuesday

Short version: New Year's Day health, wealth, and happiness

Long version: See this post.

The maple snow ice cream was really good, by the way. It reminded me of the shave ice we would always get in Hawaii on our way back from the beach. I always got vanilla, which for some reason was electric blue at this particular shave-ice stand. Though the maple snow cream tasted like that, it was lacking the excitement of the blue color. For the best, I suspect.

Wednesday

Short version: Meatloaf, baked potatoes, fried cabbage and onions, green peas

Long version: This was our last day of really cold weather, so we re-organized the meat that had been in the Woodchuck Freezer. I managed to get everything that was in the exposed and uncovered tub either in the freezer or in one of the coolers. Except for thirteen packages of ground beef that had frozen right to the bottom of the tub. Sigh. So I had to bring the tub into the kitchen to thaw to get that meat out. 

And that means that I now have thirteen pounds of ground beef to use in the next five days or so. Thus, meatloaf. Or rather, meatloaves. Three of them. 

Oh, you want to see something really exciting?

Re-usable produce bags my sister gave me for Christmas, which I had really been wanting. She didn't even know that, but she sent them to me anyway. Does she know her crazy hippie sister, or what?

Thursday

Short version: Bunless cheeseburgers; leftover rice, black-eyed peas, and collard greens; raw grape tomatoes

Long version: Nah

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

Friday Food: In Which We Just Keep Eating

And so, I keep cooking. Thusly . . .

Friday

Short version: Beef soft tacos, steamed carrots and broccoli

Long version: I had two small neck roasts and one tiiiiny flat-cut brisket left from our half cow. The neck roasts had too many bones in them to do anything but simmer them until I could pull the meat away from the bones. There's no carving a neck roast.

So I just dumped the three pieces of meat in my enameled dutch oven with a piece of onion and some salt, barely covered with water, and simmered until they were tender. Then I pulled them out, drained off the resulting beef broth for future use, and pulled the meat into pieces to fry in tallow with chili powder, cumin, and some green garlic from some of the many garlic bulbs A. planted last fall.

We ate the meat in corn tortillas with sour cream, cheese, lettuce, and salsa. Or rather, everyone else did. I had mine in a salad.

Saturday

Short version: Non-charred lamb ribs, baked potatoes, carrot sticks with ranch dressing, green salad, stewed rhubarb

Long version: A. did not send the grill up in flames this time when he made the last package of lamb ribs. Success! He raved over them, and the boys competed to see who could eat the most. And then their hands were so covered in lamb fat that I had to turn the door knob for them when they went outside to get sticks to roast marshmallows over a fire. No one left the table hungry, at least.

I put the potatoes in the oven while the lamb ribs were doing their initial slow cooking in the oven, along with some rhubarb the MiL had sent up from her plant. We have a rhubarb plant here, but it's very small and has barely started growing. And I do love rhubarb. Thanks, MiL!

I had a salad again, with the remaining leftover taco meat, 'cause Mama don't do lamb ribs.

Sunday

Short version: Celebratory Italian sausage, fried garlic bread, pan-fried sweet potatoes, sauteed mushrooms and onions

Long version: Yes, I cooked my own Mother's Day meal. It's just easier that way. I made the bread by taking out the sausage from its cooking skillet, draining the grease, and using that skillet to fry thick pieces of bread with butter and garlic powder spread on them. I took a very small taste. They were really good. Obviously.

And now! A Mother's Day photo:

When this is the best mommy+kids photo we can manage, you know it's a challenge.

Monday

Short version: Country-style pork ribs, boiled potatoes, cucumbers with ranch dip, fried cabbage and onions

Long version: A. made the ribs on the grill, the way they are meant to be (paprika, garlic powder, salt). Charlie, covered in orange grease and working on his second enormous rib, announced with satisfaction, "Now this is a prime dinner." Indeed.

Tuesday

Short version: Bland meat, bland rice, bland broccoli, roasted sweet potatoes and onion, curried potato soup

Long version: I had two packages of beef stew meat left, which--thanks to sick, fussy baby and sick, fussy toddler and sick 8-year-old home from school--I just dumped in my biggest skillet and simmered with water, onion, and a bay leaf until they were tender. Then I put them on a pan and broiled them in the oven to get crispy with olive oil and garlic powder. They needed to be fried in tallow with a ton of fresh garlic, but I didn't have any tallow, and I was lazy, so they were bland. And dry. Bah.

I made the rice with the remainder of the beef stock from Friday. It needed more salt.

I didn't add anything to the steamed broccoli except salt. Why break my bland streak now, right?

I made the potato soup with some of the roasted onions, diced potatoes, the liquid from cooking the beef, curry powder, and a little sour cream. Cubby ate three mugs full and then retired to the couch to moan some more that his head still hurt, and now his stomach did too.

All of this made way too many dishes, which made it a doubly disappointing meal.

Wednesday

Short version: Cornell chicken, boiled potatoes with green garlic, sauteed mushrooms with green garlic, carrot sticks with ranch dip, The Nourishment

Long version: Cornell chicken is a New York State thing, and one of my favorite chicken dishes. Probably because the marinade is mostly vinegar. I'd never made it at home, but it's dead simple, and I will be making it again. Chicken always takes way longer on a grill than you think it will, so I always plan on it cooking at least 45 minutes longer than I think it should. This time, with whole legs, it took almost two hours.

Luckily, A. had company while he was grilling.

Yes, my daughter's shirt says and has a picture of a truck. Gender-bending clothing is her lot in life.

When A. was a boy, his pediatrician was an Italian immigrant who propounded the miraculous curative properties of garlic. In honor of Dr. Gioia, I treated A.'s cold with green garlic in both the mushrooms and potatoes. Charlie also ate the green part of the garlic plant (I only used the white part) and then ran around exclaiming, "I feel like I'm breathing fire!" I bet.

The Nourishment is a baked custard recipe from The Yellow Farmhouse Cookbook. I've been making it for years, and it's A.'s most-requested food when he's sick. Cubby and Charlie can put away astonishing quantities of it, too. Jack doesn't like it much. Oh well. More for the others.

Thursday

Short version: Pork chops, pan-fried sweet potatoes, fried cabbage and onions, steamed broccoli, cornbread

Long version: I made it; they ate it; the week is over, hooray. (That was the shorter version, actually.)

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

The Grocery Run--With Pictures!

One of the things I was hesitant about when A. proposed moving to our current location was the grocery situation. Food is obviously very important to me--for evidence, please see the 674 posts under the "fun with food" label on this very blog, good Lord--and procuring it is a large part of my job as Mess Officer for this crazy army of four small people and two large people.

We eat a lot. I cook a lot. Thus, I have to shop a lot. But where? And how?

Here's the grocery sitch in our empty corner of America:

There is a micro store in the village where I can usually get a gallon of milk, a dozen eggs, and some cheese. Usually. Sometimes he's out. But I consider myself VERY lucky that that store is there at all.

Twenty miles away is a very small grocery store that carries most of the basics, though the produce and meat are very limited. But I can always get milk and eggs there.

Fifty miles away is a slightly larger grocery store with slightly more produce, but not much more meat.

Seventy-five miles away is a "normal" grocery store in a very small city that carries everything that I would usually buy.

This means going for a real shopping expedition is 150 miles roundtrip and only happens about once a month. I supplement with the limited selection twenty miles away as necessary.

So how does the major grocery run work? Well! Let me show you!

This morning at 8:15 a.m., A. said we should go to the very small city for groceries, supplies for painting*, and a trip to the library (yes, the closest library is 75 miles away).

I packed an insulated cooler with food for Poppy, who was the only child not at school, and water bottles for everyone.

Road food: Applesauce and yogurt, cheese, crackers, raisins, and a cup of water for Poppy.

A. took the bag of ice out of the freezer and put it in the two coolers, which went in the back of the Honda.

And then we drove.

A view that could have inspired Tom Petty's Into the Great Wide Open.

And drove and drove, until we arrived in the very small city.

First we went to the cheese store, where I bought ten pounds of sharp cheddar (for $2.99 a pound!!! I will convey my excitement with far too many exclamation points!!!!!!!) and put it in one of the coolers.

Then to the library.

Crawling baby's clothes revealed the absolutely filthy state of the carpet in the library. Gross.

Then to the hardware store, and then, finally to the grocery store.

Looking at this photo I am just now remembering that I forgot to get broccoli. Damn.

That was only one of our carts. A. was pushing the meat cart, in which we had the, um, meat. I didn't want to pile raw meat on top of all that other stuff, you see. I'm sure the Food Safety Administration would approve.

Forty-five minutes and four hundred dollars later, we rolled our carts out to the car.

Poppy got to sit in the meat cart on the way out, just for a change of scenery.

I then spent about ten minutes sorting the groceries, putting all the meat in the biggest cooler, and all the dairy in the small cooler. I always wish I had room for my lettuce, so it doesn't wilt slightly, but I never do.

Luckily, the giant package of t.p. doesn't have to be kept cool.

And then we drove home. Drivedrivedrivedrive . . .

When we got home, I dealt with the irritated baby while A. hauled everything inside for me. Then I spent about 45 minutes putting away groceries, which included breaking down large packages of meat into smaller portions. This time, that included a whole brisket that A. bought. That one took awhile, even though it wasn't the first time I'd done it.

From the time we left to the time I had everything put away and cleaned up was almost exactly seven hours. And I was exhausted. 

Luckily, I only have to do this once a month.

There! I'm sure you all found that thrilling. And now back to our regularly scheduled programming. (Whatever that is.)

* Best discovery of the week: The hideous paneling in our new house is only held on by very small nails every few feet that can be pulled out with a good tug, and underneath is just the wall. Apparently, it was just "decorative." Ahem. So now I just have to yank it off, caulk in the holes, and paint the wall. Hooray.

Friday Food: A Thrifty Theme

We ate seven meals this week from just three packages of meat I purchased. That may be a record. Also, I'm trying to use up the bits of things in the pantry and freezer before we move. I'm doing pretty well with it.

Friday

Short version: Carnitas tacos, salad

Long version: One of the best things about cooking large hunks of pork is that you then inevitably have enough left over for another meal. I always either shred the pork and simmer it with barbecue sauce for pulled pork sandwiches, or chunk it up and fry it in lard for carnitas.

I went with the latter this time, frying it in the rendered fat that had solidified on top of the juices I poured off from cooking the pork butt earlier in the week. So thrifty. And tasty.

Saturday

Short version: Bunless grilled cheeseburgers, porky rice, Grandma Brown's baked beans, carrot sticks

Long version: I cooked the rice in the de-fatted juices from the pork butt. Doubly thrifty.

I sure did punk out on vegetables for this meal. Carrot sticks are what I consider a "grudging vegetable," meaning I know I need to serve some kind of vegetable, but I'm feeling sulky about having to make yet another thing, so I just peel some carrots and cut them up. Cucumbers also fall into this category.

Sunday

Short version: Sloppy joes, cucumber salad

Long version: A. and Jack were gone and the remaining children and I were due at baseball practice at 6 p.m., so simple was the objective here. I had some uncooked ground beef left from Saturday, which I cooked with a chopped onion, some barbecue sauce, and the remainder of two almost-empty bottles of ketchup that needed shaking with water to get the last bit of ketchup out. Waste not, want not!

Another thrifty thing about sloppy joes is that they are one of the only times you actually want to use the heels of the bread. The heels don't get soaked with sauce and fall apart like regular bread slices do.

The cucumbers this time don't count as grudging, because I made at least some effort with them. I made a dressing for the cucumber chunks with sour cream, red wine vinegar, salt, onion powder, and a little sugar. Okay, so it wasn't a lot of effort, but Cubby and Charlie seemed to like it.

Monday

Short version: Re-purposed leftovers, peas

Long version: Still just me, Cubby, and Charlie eating, so I heated up leftover sloppy joe meat with leftover rice and added some shredded cheese.

No one could ever accuse me of being a foodie.

Take note: Meal three with the ground beef I de-frosted on Saturday. But only because A. wasn't here.

And now! A break for a photo of the baby who still wants nothing to do with food except for greasy bones.

(New) toothbrushes are good to gnaw on, too, but much less tasty.

Tuesday

Short version: Odd pork chops, cornbread, roasted broccoli, roasted asparagus, raw radishes, baked apples

Long version: The pork chops were these boneless center cut things in odd shapes. Basically the leftovers from cutting more-standard pork chops, I suspect. Whatever, they were on sale and they were fine when grilled.

I made the cornbread to use up a bag of cornmeal that's been languishing in the freezer. While the oven was on to cook the cornbread, I roasted the broccoli and asparagus and made the apples. The apples were grocery store ones that were disappointingly soft. As they almost always are from the grocery store.

The boys ate the radishes, which A. picked up at the awesome produce store. They love them--and most other vegetables--raw. Man, I really need a garden.

Wednesday

Short version: Chicken and rice skillet casserole, green peas

Long version: The MiL sent A. home with several extra chicken breasts she had poached when she was making chicken salad for a party. So I cooked some diced bacon, then some diced onion, then added the diced chicken, deglazed it all with a little milk, then added some rice I had cooked in chicken broth earlier, then a couple of spoonfuls of mayonnaise, a little vinegar, and topped it all with shredded cheese before broiling it to melt and brown the cheese.

Got all that? Yeah, I don't know exactly what I did, either.

This was one of those sleeper hits where I wasn't sure anyone would eat it, and then they all ended up fighting over seconds and there wasn't enough.

Thursday

Short version: Chili, rice, carrots, roasted sweet potatoes, homemade tortilla chips

Long version: The chili I made from a large bottom London broil roast (plus onion, garlic, tomato, cumin, chili powder, and a little vinegar).

The carrots were eaten whole by the children before dinner.

The tortilla chips I made because I found a few packages of the inferior tortillas in the freezer and a bottle of canola oil in the pantry with just a tiny bit of oil still in it. Plus, the pan from roasting the sweet potatoes was still all oily. So I just smeared the tortillas on both sides with the canola oil, cut them into triangles, spread them out, salted them, and baked them for awhile at 350. They were a hit. Unsurprisingly.

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

Friday Food: A Visitor and a Shearing

Friday 

Short version: Fish patties, mashed potatoes, frozen green peas

Long version: I still have several cans of salmon from the excess commodities, although when I made fish cakes with it, we found them to be softer and not quite as tasty as the tuna patties I customarily make. So I mixed the two kinds of canned fish, using two cans of tuna and one can of salmon. This worked well, and will likely be how I will use the rest of the salmon.

On several days this week, I cooked, pureed, and froze the remaining calabazas that were starting to go south. I have discovered that the easiest way to cook these giant squash is to cut them in half, scoop out the seeds, and put the halves in my huge pressure cooker with a bit of water. I bring it up to pressure, turn it off, and by the time the pressure comes down to zero, it's done.

All done!

This works much better than the oven, because I can't fit more than one half of these big squash into my oven at a time. Plus, it takes way longer in the oven and I have to monitor the water level in the cooking pan frequently.

Saturday

Short version: Beef stir-fry, rice

Long version: I had two sirloin steaks left from the package I had thawed for Thursday's dinner, so I sliced them thin and used them to make stir-fry with onion, carrot, broccoli, frozen green beans, and half a bag of frozen stir-fry vegetables.

The great benefit of the bag of stir-fry vegetables is that is has the baby corn cobs and water chestnuts in it, both of which are favorites of my children. I think they each got a single one of each, but at least they got something exciting.

Yes, tiny corn and water chestnuts are exciting. Low standards, remember?

Sunday

Short version: Pork ribs, leftover mashed potatoes and rice, Holy's cabbage, roasted parsnips, baked peaches and cream

Long version: The MiL got the parsnips at Trader Joe's in Albuquerque before she drove here. I haven't had parsnips in years, but coincidentally bought some seeds to grow them this year. So I was interested to see which of my children will eat them.

Unsurprisingly, there was an even split on the appreciation of parsnips, as is so often the case. However, I love roasted parsnips, so I'll just eat the ones not eaten by the two parsnip avoiders.

The MiL also brought us real cream from Trader Joe's. We can't get real cream anywhere we shop--only the ultra-pasteurized whipping cream with all the stabilizers and junk--so this was very exciting. I decided the best way to enjoy the real cream was poured over sweetened fruit. So I baked two gallon bags of Nick's peaches with maple syrup, sugar, cinnamon, and cloves. 

A very popular dessert, especially with the cream.

Monday

Short version: Green chile cheeseburgers (with buns!), green salad with vinaigrette, leftover baked peaches and cream

Long version: The MiL is a big fan of green chiles. This was her last night with us, so I decided to make something with green chile. I already had dough going for bread, so I used some of that to make buns and made cheeseburgers that could be topped with chopped roasted green chiles.

Not everyone chose to have the green chile, but everyone enjoyed having a bun with their burger.

Funny story: I had also made chocolate chip/walnut cookies earlier in the day, per Poppy's request. I took the big bag of sugar out of the cabinet and put it next to the bowl with the melted butter in it. The bag of sugar was still in the grocery store bag, which came home in the back of A.'s truck, which is very frequently used to haul hay.

This is why when I opened the bag of sugar, small bits of hay came off the outside plastic bag and ended up on top of the melted butter.

Welcome to my life.

I scooped the hay out, and figured any bits I missed would just mean some extra fiber in the cookies.

Tuesday

Short version: Quesadillas, leftovers

Long version: Shearing day! Yay!

We ate a late lunch of sloppy joes after shearing was done, and then A. left around 4:30 p.m. to get the boys to an altar server training and judo. A couple of the children wanted to eat before that, so I made them bean and cheese quesadillas. The others had leftover hamburgers and rice when they got home around 7:30 p.m.

Shearing photo!

Giant pile of puffy wool. This is from one sheep. They have very impressive fleeces.

Wednesday

Short version: Cubby's spaghetti and potatoes, chicken with pesto, green salad with vinaigrette

Long version: At 4 p.m., there were children whining about being hungry, children making themselves tortillas and peanut butter while asking when dinner would be, and I was not yet ready to make dinner. So I said, with some irritation, "If you want it now, go ahead and make dinner."

So Cubby did.

He decided to make spaghetti--with a jar of roasted tomato puree, a few cubes of frozen pesto, oregano, and butter--and potatoes fried in oil.

I did note that would be two starches in one meal. He did not care. And honestly, neither did I, since A. doesn't eat pasta and would be happy to have the potatoes.

The chicken was my addition. We got two roosters from our neighbor that we had butchered this day. I had cooked them in the pressure cooker to make stock, and then I used some of the shredded meat for dinner,  mixed with pesto and butter.

I also contributed the salad. 

Obviously, we need to do some work on the idea of a balanced meal, but at least I didn't make all of it.

Thursday

Short version: Chicken slop, mashed potatoes, green salad with vinaigrette

Long version: That same rooster meat, plus the stock, plus cornstarch, onion, powder, garlic powder, and bit of rosemary to make essentially chicken in gravy. Slop sounds so much more fun, though.

When I told the boys what we were having for dinner, they all said, "Slop? Like what they eat in prison?"

Yes, children. I'm giving you prison food tonight. Eat up.

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

A Little House on the (New Mexico) Prairie Christmas Feast

Okay, so we don't technically live on the prairie, but close enough that Cubby came home with this a few days before Christmas:

He also carried it through the house to show it to me in the kitchen, dripping blood the whole way, but I don't want to talk about that.

That there is a jackrabbit, which, despite the name, is actually a hare. He chased it down and shot it with his .22 while he was out with A. on the range. He was extremely proud of himself. So of course we had to eat it.

It hung for a few days to age and tenderize, and while it was hanging, I was pondering how to cook it.

Then, just a couple of days before Christmas, at 2 a.m. when I was trying to get back to sleep after getting up to nurse the baby, I remembered something. "Hey," said my semi-conscious brain, "I think Laura and her family ate a jackrabbit one year for their Christmas dinner."

This is the sort of thing a juvenile brain steeped in the Little House books will come up with at 2 a.m.

I looked it up the next day--or rather, later that same morning--and sure enough, right there in By the Shores of Silver Lake were three paragraphs describing the Ingalls family's Christmas dinner, which featured a jackrabbit shot by Pa.

Well. This was fate. Kismet. Destiny. I had to make the jackrabbit for Christmas dinner. And while I was at it, I might as well make the rest of the meal as described in the book. Because it also included sourdough biscuits (no problem for a slave to sourdough like me), cucumber pickles (thanks, Rafael!), bread and onion stuffing, mashed potatoes, and an apple pie. 

Okay, so we begin with the jackrabbit. My primary concern with it was toughness. To address this, I brined it for a day and then baked it covered, in a relatively low oven, for two hours. I also draped it in bacon. In the book, Ma uses salt pork for this, which is essentially bacon that hasn't been smoked. 

I'll spare you the photo of the raw jackrabbit curled up in the pan, because raw rabbits look like skinned cats. Not appetizing.

Next, bread and onion stuffing. For this, I set Cubby to work early in the morning cutting up a half loaf of sourdough bread to dry out during the day.

His reward for getting up so early to open presents.

This is, amazingly, the first time I'd ever made stuffing (technically a dressing, as I didn't stuff it in the jackrabbit). I looked at a couple of recipes online, and then just made it up, as is my habit. I sauteed some onion and celery in a lot of butter, added salt, pepper, and some sage that I had just received that morning as a Christmas gift from the MiL along with my pepper mill from Penzey's spices (so fortuitous!), mixed in the bread and then some venison stock I had in the fridge. It baked at the end with the jackrabbit.

I used this recipe for sourdough biscuits. The book specifically mentioned that the biscuits were small, so I made them that way. I don't have a biscuit cutter, anyway, so I can make them any size I want with whatever round item I can find to cut them with.

In this case, I used that small honey jar there. The black water bottle top was too small.

I ended up with two skillets of biscuits, but no room on my single oven shelf for both skillets plus the pan of stuffing. So I put one skillet of biscuits directly on the floor of the oven. They got a little too brown on the bottom this way, but were still fine.

And look how cute!

Mashed potatoes are pretty self-explanatory, though I bet Ma didn't have so much butter, milk, and sour cream to put in hers. I did, though, so I used it. No sense sacrificing flavor for historical accuracy.

I also omitted the cornbread the Ingalls family had, since there was quite enough bread already on the menu. The "rich, brown gravy" also went by the wayside, as the juices in the pan from the jackrabbit were far too salty because of the brine and the bacon.

Ma made a pie from dried apples. We ate all of our dried apples already, but I had also frozen some of Mr. Billy's apples with sugar and cinnamon, thinking I would use them for baked apples. Works for pie filling, too. I mean, I guess. I'm not a pie expert. I've literally never made a pie. This was my first one. 

I don't even own a pie pan. So I used my deep oval casserole dish and put just a top crust on it. I used the Fannie Farmer recipe for a 9-inch crust and I knew as I was making it that I was overworking it. It was kind of inevitable, though, as I had to use almost exactly twice as much water as the recipe called for (thanks, high altitude!). So I was judiciously adding the water a tablespoon at a time, but that meant that I had to keep mixing it and my kitchen was a sweltering 80 degrees and . . . 

Yeah. This was a terrible pie. The crust was almost inedibly tough.

Also, I overbaked it because the top wouldn't brown and then the filling was dry. Super.

I'm sure Ma's pie was a lot better than mine, but I had vanilla ice cream to go with my terrible pie, so I think that's still a win.

Oh, and here's a picture of the last few refrigerator dills:

I may have gotten a little snap happy with the food photos.

The Ingalls family's meal was notably lacking in vegetables, as was all of South Dakota in December at that time period. However, I figured carrots are a pretty standard winter vegetable, so I threw some in with the jackrabbit for the last hour or so.

Here is the final plate of (semi-) historically accurate Silver Lake Christmas food:

Have a very carb-y Christmas; it's the best time of the year.

The jackrabbit, oddly, reminded both A. and me of beaver meat. We were ambivalent about it, but the kids loved it. Of course.

So there it is. My descent into crazy Little House culinary fandom. It was fun, but I won't be repeating it anytime soon. 

Friday Food: The Great Velveeta Challenge

"Velveeta?" you say. "Why has Velveeta suddenly appeared in your kitchen?" Read on for the answer to that mystery.

Friday

Short version: Pasta with meat sauce, leftover collards, zucchini, and cauliflower

Long version: I took out a bag of ground beef to thaw with no particular plan in mind for it. I figured something would come to me. It always does.

This time, what came to me was that the remaining paste tomatoes the MiL had brought me were looking sort of wrinkly and sad. The best use for paste tomatoes is, of course, Finny's Sauce. I didn't have quite enough fresh tomatoes to fill the pan, so I also opened a can of whole tomatoes in juice and filled the rest of the pan with those (not with the juice, though, obviously).

That sauce is definitely not as good without fresh basil, though. Mark my words: Next year I am growing a LOT of basil.

Anyway.

I didn't have fresh basil or red wine, so I used dried basil and oregano plus a little balsamic vinegar. Although not the pinnacle of sauce, it was still really good. It's hard to go wrong with a whole head of roasted garlic. I browned the ground beef and then just dumped the sauce right into it. Mix with pasta and serve with random leftover vegetables, and there's dinner.

Saturday

Short version: Tortilla chips and queso dip, tamales, green salad

Long version: The guy that we bought our house from left some food for us in the refrigerator. On purpose, I mean, not just forgot about. The eggs were no problem to use. The "whole wheat" bread was happily consumed by Cubby, who always relishes the opportunity to eat store-bought bread*. The can of diet root beer I poured right down the sink. The almost-complete box of Velveeta . . .

Well, that I couldn't bring myself to throw out. Sure, it's a "processed cheese product," but it is kind of cheese. And my mom used to use it for cheese sauce. I wouldn't buy it myself, but I figured I could at least make macaroni and cheese for the kids with it.

What I did instead was melt some of it in the microwave with some salsa and let A., Charlie, and Jack eat it with tortilla chips. I tasted some. It was weird. It tasted sweet, even though there's no sugar listed in the ingredients.

Anyway.

We also had prepared tamales, because we had to go to the small city to get a new tire on Saturday, so of course we also went to the grocery store and Cubby begged me to get some of the tamales that were on special. The instructions on the package said to steam them in the unopened bag. I say I'm not cooking my food in plastic packaging. So I took them out and wrapped them in aluminum foil to steam them.

I don't own a steamer basket--it's one of those things I keep thinking I should get and then forget about, so I think that means I don't really need it--but here's an easy way to get food up off the bottom of a pot: lay canning jar rings all around the bottom of the pot.

Easy assuming you have a glut of jar rings, that is. As I do.

I got one package of pork tamales and one of bean (on accident--I meant to get only pork) and the bean ones were way too spicy. We ate them anyway with a lot of sour cream.

One of these days I'm going to try making my own tamales. It's kind of the ultimate kitchen challenge in New Mexico, I think. But it will be one of these days when I'm sleeping more than four hours a night and not spending every spare moment driving ten miles away to paint walls.

Sunday

Short version: Oven-fried chicken and pork chops, potato chunks, roasted sweet potatoes/onions/bell pepper/broccoli, sauteed spinach

Long version: I was so pleased with the corn flour+spice coating for chicken that I decided to do it with the combination of chicken and pork I had thawed (I had a partial package of each, but not enough of either for everyone). About noon, I dumped some vinegar, salt, pepper, and random spice mix into the bag the meat was in for a marinade. At dinnertime, all I had to do was shake the meat in a bag with the seasoned corn flour and put it on the baking sheet with melted butter.

I used the last of the aluminum foil for the tamales, so I had to use parchment paper on the baking pan. They weren't as crispy, but still very tasty. I also appreciate that the butter+corn flour helps them brown without using a broiler. I can just roast them at the same temperature as the vegetables. So efficient.

The spinach was also the result of going to the grocery store with the children. I had been letting the boys watch old Popeye videos on YouTube (do not recommend--Popeye and Bluto are really rude and mean) and they got a little obsessed with spinach. When Cubby saw it at the grocery store, he begged me to get it. I started to say no because I have a ton of collard greens at hand, but then I thought, "Wait a minute. I'm saying no to a kid begging for spinach?" So I bought it.

It was quite young spinach, so I just sauteed it quickly in olive oil with garlic. They all loved it. So it looks like I'll be growing spinach next year along with celeriac.

Monday

Short version: Not-burned brisket, macaroni and cheese, steamed carrots and broccoli, squash, cupcakes

Long version: Brisket redemption by adding more liquid and keeping the oven temperature lower.

I used some of the Velveeta to make macaroni and cheese with the recipe on the Velveeta box. I even had the tiny elbow kind of macaroni, and the resulting macaroni and cheese was pretty much indistinguishable from the Kraft kind in a box. Charlie and Cubby loved it. Jack did not. That boy's got good taste.

I don't know what the squash was. It was a pumpkin-looking one the MiL brought. I just cut it in half and put it face down on a baking sheet to cook while the brisket was in the oven.

I made cupcakes because I never measure when I'm making buttercream frosting and when I made it for Poppy's birthday cake, I added too much milk and then had to add more of everything else, resulting in about twice as much frosting as I needed. Well, I couldn't just throw all that butter and sugar away, could I? No. I must make more cake. So I did. The oven was still on anyway for the brisket, so I made Grandma Bishop's chocolate cake into cupcakes.

There were no complaints.

Tuesday

Short version: Pork ribs, corn muffins, green salad

Long version: I know the last time I made these corn muffins, the recipe was fully available for free on the New York Times website. And now it's not. As I refuse on principal to create any more accounts than necessary--and I don't feel the recipes on that website are necessary--I instead found a site that listed the ingredients and then made them from what I know about baking and what I remembered about that recipe. They turned out fine.

Also, Charlie, who claimed last time I made them that he didn't like them, ate three this time. I guess he forgot he didn't like them.

We need a photo right about now, don't we? Here, have a baby.

Fashion forward in polka dots.

Wednesday

Short version: Grease Bomb, a.k.a. Man Skillet; pinto beans; squash; green peas

Long version: Last time we were at the grocery store, A. bought some 72/28 ground beef. He told me this in the car. Had he told me this in the store, I would have said he shouldn't buy it. Waaay too much fat. He told me it was really cheap and if I didn't drain the fat we'd really get our money's worth.

I couldn't promise not to drain the fat. I always drain off excess fat. I keep it to brown or fry other things, but I drain it. So when I pulled out a bag of this ground beef to thaw, I told A. he could cook it exactly as he wanted it.

Thus, Man Food.

While I was at the new house painting, he made his own skillet thing. He cooked the ground beef with a couple of cloves of garlic, added some leftover potatoes that he had mashed, plus some masa to help absorb the great quantity of rendered grease, and then topped the whole thing with slices of Velveeta.

I had already cooked pinto beans in the morning--I had planned on making a vegetable soup with them, but didn't have the energy after the painting--so we had those, too, plus some already-cooked squash and green peas.

A. was thrilled with how his skillet meal turned out. Cubby and Jack had seconds. It actually tasted pretty good, although it was so heavy that I used just a small scoop to mix with my squash and beans.

The Man Skillet used the last of the Velveeta. I'm pretty sure the bachelor we bought our new house from would have approved of this use of his Velveeta.

Thursday

Short version: Oven Cornell chicken, roasted potatoes, roasted onion and bell pepper, green salad

Long version: Cornell chicken is waaaay better on a grill. We really need to get a grill.

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

* God knows why. Store-bought bread manages to be both sweet and unpleasantly sour. Yuck.