Snapshots: Slim Pickings

Thanks to the plague descending upon our house, I don't have very many photos this week. I do have Jesus, though.

A very tiny and cheery Jesus.

There were apparently some girls going around the state FFA convention giving out these little rubber Jesus figures. I found this one in a pocket while I was doing laundry.

And I have the newest iteration of the the altar flowers. 

I took apart the remaining three arrangements and used the flowers that still looked good to make one smaller arrangement for the altar. And then I moved the Easter lilies from in front of the Holy Family statue to the main altar.

I used fake flowers up on the saints' pedestals.

I have also been culling and combining the flowers left at home.

The tiny jar was for Poppy's room.

There you have it! My life, snapshotted. Here's hoping this week features less sickness and more photos.

Friday Food: Illness

Friday 

Short version: Tuna patties, fried chickpeas with feta, macaroni and cheese or leftover rice, asparagus or raw bell peppers

Long version: Poppy had been asking for tuna patties all through Lent on Fridays, and I still hadn't made them. No reason we can't still eat them now, though, even though Lent is over.

Because there were only four of us at home, I used just one 12-ounce can of tuna and made three patties (I didn't have one). That wouldn't have been quite enough, but I had a lot of chickpeas in the refrigerator too. I fried those in olive oil--which makes a HUGE mess because they pop all over out of the pan--and then when they were crispy, I put some feta cheese on them to melt.

The kids had the macaroni and cheese because I still have many, many boxes of it from excess commodities. They had the bell pepper, too. A. had the rice and the asparagus.

Saturday

Short version: Lamb stew, fried garlic bread, cheese

Long version: When we butcher sheep, I put the shanks and other bony pieces together to make stew. That's what I used for this, which also had pureed calabaza, tomato paste, potatoes, carrots, collard greens, and peas in it. I usually finish stews with cornstarch to thicken the broth a bit, and for lamb stew, I mix the cornstarch with yogurt before adding it to the stew.

Peasant food.

Sunday

Short version: Very random casserole, asparagus, chocolate pudding with cream

Long version: I had taken ground beef out to thaw, with the thought that I would make burrito filling with it. But then I thought I hadn't made cheeseburger casserole in awhile, so I started peeling and slicing potatoes for that. I got through the rest of the bag of potatoes I had in the kitchen and went into A.'s office to get the new bag. Which is when I discovered that I didn't have a new bag. No more potatoes. Boooo.

So! Not cheeseburger casserole, then. Instead I made a kind of Mexican casserole with the potatoes, beef, pinto beans, corn, and spices, etc. The beans and corn helped to make up for the fact that there weren't enough potatoes.

Monday

Short version: Lamb steaks, rice, raw radishes

Long version: I did marinate the lamb steaks with olive oil and vinegar, but the rest of this meal was quite plain.

Plain on a plate.

Tuesday

Short version: Leftover random casserole

Long version: Oof. This was a day. Youngest son had been sick since Friday. He thought he was better enough to go to school, but I got a call from the nurse at 9:30 that he was not, in fact, better enough and he wanted to come home.

Eldest had been sick since the day before.

Poppy woke up vomiting in the morning and spent the rest of the day in a feverish haze.

That left just three of us eating. 

I heated up the casserole for the other two and had a salad myself in between providing liquids, various medicines, and comfort to the three sick ones.

Wednesday

Short version: Hamburger patties, lamb steaks, rice, green salad with ranch dressing

Long version: We had four out of the six of us actually eating, so at least there was a majority who could handle solid food. I had a couple of lamb steaks still in the marinade that I hadn't cooked on Monday, so I cooked them this day and A. had that, along with leftover rice. 

The two children eating had the hamburger patties with rice instead of buns.

Thursday

Short version: Leftovers, clam chowder, eggs and rice, popsicles

Long version: I started to feel not well in the afternoon, though thankfully only in a getting-a-cold kind of way, not a digestive illness. Luckily, I had already been mostly planning on leftovers.

I made Snow's clam chowder for the two children who were still coughing and didn't have huge appetites. A. had leftover lamb steak and rice. One child had a leftover hamburger patty as a sandwich, plus some of the clam chowder. The fourth child was at a track meet.

Given my stuffed-up nose and general malaise, I didn't have a salad as I typically would. Instead I fried two eggs and ate those with rice.

The popsicles were some I had made with the extra of the fruit shake I had made for the sick children earlier in the day. It was frozen banana slices, frozen strawberries, canned peaches, and yogurt. To make the popsicles, I added some cream--to make it less icy when frozen--and strawberry jam before pouring it into the molds.

Refrigerator check:

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

Homemade Jello

I guess that should just be gelatin, so as not to use a proprietary name, but then would you know what I'm talking about?

Actually, I guess I really should just call this Mom's Gelatin, because it doesn't resemble the brand-name stuff in anything but texture.

I started making my own gelatin maybe two years ago. I have one child with an unfortunate tendency to frequent digestive upsets. When liquid diets are prudent, gelatin is one of the very few things that can be more or less eaten, rather than consumed as a drink. It's interesting how much one misses chewing when on a liquid diet. Gelatin requires a little chewing, which makes it a nice break from juice or stock.

I didn't do a whole lot of research into the best brand of gelatin. I just went online and bought one that looked good.

Grass-fed, unflavored, etc. With the unfortunate name of "Hearthy."

You can see that I wrote right on the bag the proportion of gelatin to liquid. I had to figure that out for myself, because all the recipes I found online for homemade gelatin were from keto people who wanted as much gelatin as possible. Those recipes made a very, very firm gelatin. That wasn't what I was going for. I wanted something as much like the texture of the name-brand Jello as possible. After some experimentation, I settled on 3 cups liquid to 2 tablespoons gelatin powder.

The next thing I learned was how important it is to dissolve the gelatin all the way. The general recommendation is to sprinkle the gelatin powder over cold water and let it sit for a bit before stirring it into hot liquid. I don't do that. I just sprinkle it over the hot liquid right in the dish and then vigorously whisk it until it's dissolved. If I see any little lumps, I just fish them out with a spoon.

Flavor is really where this is different from store-bought gelatin. Whatever liquid the gelatin is mixed with needs to be a clear juice. I don't have strawberry or raspberry juice to imitate the flavorings used in the name-brand stuff. What I make most often is lemon gelatin. That's just lemonade--sugar, boiling water, bottled lemon juice, and for this a bit of salt as I'm trying to hydrate the eater--with the gelatin mixed in. 

For the child who loves switchel, I'll make switchel with all boiling water and mix in the gelatin. I have also successfully used the liquid poured off of home-canned pears and apples, which makes a gelatin that tastes like apple cider. I bet peach juices would work as well, although I haven't had enough of that to try yet.

It takes a few hours to set the gelatin properly, so it needs to be made well ahead of time. And then you give it to the sick child and cross your fingers that solid food can be consumed before you have to make another batch.

Snapshots: Spring Themed

A rare selfie at a track meet in which I am not hiding from the blazing sun under my dorky Mom hat. 

The sun was just starting to come out, but most of the meet was cool, cloudy, and windy. Except for the wind, it was such a relief.

After a too-long hiatus from running, I'm easing myself back in with intervals of running and walking.

This week's intervals were too random for me to remember easily, so I wrote it on my hand. I felt kind of like a fourth grader trying to remember homework.

The last of the spring bulbs bloomed in the heat just before Easter and we had a very random assortment on the table.

So long, daffodils and tulips.

And now I have some very exotic flowers on the bookcase, thanks to the purchased flowers for the Easter altar.

The only time of year I'll have store-bought flowers in my house.

Speaking of the altar flowers, I've started culling the wilting ones and rearranging what's left every week until I don't have any in good shape anymore. For this week, I used all the flowers in the arrangement in front of the lectern to fill in the main arrangement where I had to take flowers out. I also cut some lilacs to help fill things out.

More purple in it now, which is not totally liturgically correct for Easter, but oh well.

The arrangements on the saints' pedestals had held up pretty well and only needed a little re-arranging.

The potted hyacinths and tulips had finished blooming, so I just took those home and left the Easter lilies in front of the Holy Family.

Finally, as always, we dyed our hardboiled eggs for our after-church Easter egg hunt and then I made them into deviled eggs.

I am very basic with my deviled eggs: just mayonnaise, mustard, salt, and pepper in the mashed yolks, with paprika on top.

One of our guests at dinner had never heard of doing an egg hunt with real eggs. He's seventeen, so maybe it's a generational thing? I don't remember plastic eggs being a big thing when I was a kid, but it does seem to be all you see now. I refuse just because I'm stubborn and I don't like plastic. Nor do I wish to have more seasonal things to store. Plus, then we wouldn't have deviled eggs after church. 

I concede that I am counter-cultural in this, however. As in so many other things.

There you have it! My life, snapshotted.

Friday Food: The Easter Feast

Friday 

Short version: Fish sticks, baked potatoes, green salad with vinaigrette

Long version: Before Lent started, I bought the biggest available bag of Great Value fish sticks. That was enough for two full meals for our family of six. This was the second of them.

As always, the Great Value ones are just fine, provided you absolutely do not follow the "bake for 18-20 minutes" nonsense on the bag. I baked these for a full hour at 450 degrees and they still could have used more crisping.

The longer baking time makes it convenient for also baking potatoes for an easy side dish, although baked potatoes don't seem to go with fish sticks, somehow. I was going for low effort, though, and this certainly was that.

I didn't even make tartar sauce this time. Everyone made do with ketchup. 

Saturday

Short version: Sausage, leftover pasta or fried potatoes, collard greens or still-frozen green beans

Long version: I cooked one package of Italian sausage links and one of jalapeno/cheddar sausages. The leftover pasta was the baked spaghetti I had made with the can of chicken. There wasn't quite enough of that for everyone, but since A. doesn't eat much pasta and one child doesn't like it that much, I just microwaved a couple of potatoes for them. Those I diced and fried in the pan with the sausage.

Sunday

Short version: Lamb gyros; potatoes and onion; peas with mint; strawberry-rhubarb pie, baked custard, brownies, vanilla ice cream; French 75s

Long version: I liked the French 75s so much when we had them on Fat Tuesday that I got everything to make them again. They're very much a special-occasion drink, what with the champagne and all. The champagne also makes them something best made when there are multiple people drinking, so the whole bottle of champagne is used in one night. There were three of us drinking them this night, which worked out. (We had guests. I did not give any to my minor children, thank you.)

When we butchered the two wethers a few weeks ago, A. boned out two of the back legs. I used both of those for our Easter feast. I shoved garlic into slits all over them, then covered them all with many spices plus olive oil before rolling them up and tying them for roasting.

Not quite done.

I thought one roast wouldn't be enough meat and two would be too much, but we had two guests with us and everyone ate an amazing amount, so we didn't really end up with a lot of leftovers.

I made pita bread so we could make gyros with the lamb. Also hummus and tzatziki sauce, and then I set out lettuce, tomato, pickled onions, and feta cheese. Because more toppings=more better with gyros.

Topping table.

The potatoes were just potato cubes with onion wedges that I covered with olive oil and the same spices that went on the lamb.

Ready for the feast.

I have learned that the best part of holiday desserts for my family is quantity. For that reason, I made a strawberry-rhubarb pie, and then I also made baked custard. I hadn't made that in a very long time, and everyone was very enthused about it. I made it in two smaller casserole dishes so I would have my bigger Pyrex for the potatoes*. One of my smaller casseroles is oval, which meant I had the opportunity to make an Easter egg custard with colored sugar.

The brownies were a last-minute thing I threw in the oven with the custard because, for various reasons, the kids' Easter baskets didn't have the overwhelming amount of chocolate in them that they usually do. And just for fun, I cut the brownies into a cross.

I made a very whimsical dessert table with all of this.

Also featuring Poppy's blanket and some of the flowers I didn't want to use on the church altar.

Anyway. There was a lot of food, all of it delicious, and everyone ate far too much and was pleased with that. Happy Easter!

Monday

Short version: Leftover lamb, mashed potatoes, leftover peas, leftover brownies

Long version: The only part of this meal I had to make this night was the mashed potatoes, because there weren't enough leftover potatoes from the Easter feast.

Tuesday

Short version: Baked beans and rice, ice cream

Long version: I had some baked beans that had been in the refrigerator for some time and needed to be used. There were only two children at home, because the older boys left this day for the state FFA convention.

I also had one serving of baked beans+ground beef in the freezer. I gave that to A. over rice, and then the children had the plain baked beans. This was a very fast meal to get on the table after getting home with Poppy from her First Communion class.

They had ice cream after dinner because Poppy had her first confession at class and I figured there should be something celebratory for that. Ice cream works.

Wednesday

Short version: Salisbury steaks with milk gravy, leftover mashed potatoes or rice, asparagus yay!

Long version: First asparagus!

Right in the pan with the meat.

The grasshoppers got after the asparagus last year and we weren't sure how it would come up this spring. It's looking really good so far, thankfully. Tasting good, too. Yum.

Thursday

Short version: Breakfast sausage patties, leftover Salisbury steak, leftover baked beans, garlic bread, asparagus, raw bell peppers

Long version: I took out one tube of breakfast sausage, which was enough because only A. and Poppy ate it. The third son and I had the leftover Salisbury steak. Everyone but me had the beans and garlic bread. The adults had the asparagus. The children had the raw bell pepper.

As an aside, it is SO much easier to cook for four people rather than six, especially because the missing two are teenage boys. I am seeing my future, and it has a lot less cooking in it . . .

Refrigerator check:

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

* Making two smaller dishes of custard was also helpful because then I had a whole other one to bribe the children to get out of bed on a reluctant Monday morning. Custard is an excellent breakfast.

Easter Altar Flowers

A few years ago I started buying fresh flowers for our church for Easter. I love fresh flowers, but this is the only time I buy them. Easter is the most important holiday in the Catholic church, and I feel like the altar decorations should reflect that.

Arranging flowers is one of my few hobbies. This is convenient, because buying all the arrangements I make at a florist would be several hundred dollars. Buying random assorted bouquets at Walmart and arranging them myself is much cheaper. Also, then I can make them exactly the way I want them.

Gathering the materials.

I bought all of these on Thursday and transported them home in buckets of water I brought with me. These stayed in A.'s relatively cool office until I was ready to put the arrangements together on Saturday.

I started by taking all the bouquets apart and putting like colors together.

Poppy helped me with this.

Staged.

I use the same box every year for the main altar arrangement. Last year, the plastic liner in it was leaking. I discovered to my great satisfaction, however, that the big plastic container of salad greens I bought awhile ago is big enough to function as a liner in this box, so I didn't have to buy a new one.

I don't have any of that foam florist's stuff to stick the stems into. I hate that stuff, anyway. It always falls apart. This year I tried using some of the sheep's wool we had from shearing, but when I got that wet, it compacted too much.

Last year I used criss-crossed branches inside the box to support everything, but that didn't work this year. I think because last year I was using a lot more lilac branches, which are stiffer than flower stems. I ended up finding a piece of chicken wire in the pasture and using that inside the box for structure.

I had several fits and starts with these flowers. They were fighting me. It took me awhile to figure out how to put them together in the way I wanted, with the right shape, height, and color mixing. I spent a little more than two hours on four different arrangements.

The central altar:

The lectern:

The saints' pedestals on either side of the tabernacle:

And then the potted flowers:

I'm not a huge fan of Easter lilies, so I only get a few.

And the bigger picture:

The view from our pew.

This is so much work, but it is also so worth it to me. It's an act of service that has the selfish result of making me very happy when I turn on the lights on Easter Sunday and see all those flowers.

Snapshots: Easter Prep

Happy Easter! We spent much of yesterday preparing for today, including . . .

Dyeing eggs.

This year I just used the light green eggs that were in the ones I get from my friend, rather than buying white eggs at the store. Because I use natural dyes--beet juice, curry powder, and paprika powder--they don't get as dark as if we were using one of those kits. That plus the green eggs made for some pretty subtle colors, but that's okay. They're still good for the egg hunt.

Poppy volunteered to iron the linen napkins for me.

She prefers to do this on the floor.

I had my nimble-fingered children help me skin a lot of chickpeas in preparation for making the hummus that will be a part of our Middle Eastern Easter dinner.

Middle-Easter dinner? No? Okay.

I made a pie. 

Strawberry-rhubarb. The rhubarb is up in the garden but not big enough to cut yet. I used the last bag in the freezer from last year's rhubarb for this pie.

And of course, I arranged the Easter flowers for church. That took a long time, as always. I'm going to do a whole post about that on Tuesday, but for now, here's the mess I made on my floor while I was doing it.

I just let the leaves fall where they may while I was in the middle of it and cleaned up later.

Because I just buy pre-packaged bouquets of flowers at Walmart and then take them apart to arrange them, I always end up with some that just don't fit with the arrangements I'm making. I had quite a few that I separated into different vases at home.

The tiny jar was for Poppy's dresser.

Well, I guess I can show you some of the church flowers, since I didn't really arrange these ones much. This year I bought some potted flowers and set them up in front of the Holy Family.

We can plant the hyacinth and tulip bulbs in our garden after I take them out of the church. 

There you have it! My Easter preparations, snapshotted.