A Vegetable Lull

The current contents of my refrigerator crisper drawers include five medium carrots, two mini bell peppers, and the last few small interior leaves of romaine lettuce. It has been two weeks since I have purchased any fresh produce at a store, and even that was just a minimal stop at a very small store in a very small town.

And yet, I eat salad every day.

I have been doing this by eking out my remaining lettuce with chopped collard greens from the freezer and relying on pickled beets and onions as other add-ins, besides the carrots and mini bell peppers.

Last night's salad before adding the pickled beets from the jar.

Similarly, vegetables for the rest of my family have mostly been coming from the freezer.

Last night's fried rice included frozen peas, collard greens, beet greens, and a few dandelion greens I picked by the back steps.

There's still cooked cabbage, squash, green beans, peas, and corn in the freezers. There is sauerkraut from what I canned last summer in jars on the office shelves.

We have zero fresh fruit right now, but I do still have canned apples and pears and applesauce. Plus some store canned peaches.

It has been a recurring event in my adult life to have periods of time where the stock of fresh produce in my house is very low, but it doesn't really bother me. It's just part of living really far from stores. And it's why I keep fall-back vegetables and fruit in freezers and jars.

Anyway, it just makes it that much more exciting when I do finally get to the store and come home with such thrilling things as oranges, bananas*, and cucumbers. It's the little things in life.

* My children do actually consider having fresh bananas to be a notable luxury. Low standards, as always.

Snapshots: Many Spring Things

 

Spring on the peach trees.

Spring on my table.

Spring in the garden as A. uses the propane torch thing to burn the emerging weeds.

Spring for the dogs, who are spending a lot of time lying around in the sun and rolling in dirt and dead leaves.

I subbed for a couple of hours in the preschool room on Wednesday, where I spent much of my time playing with one of the students in this bean table.

It's like a water or sand table, but with pinto beans. Much easier to clean up.

Poppy got home from school on Thursday and created the following visual of the days of the school week:

Looks about right.

And last, today is Palm Sunday. Our church is ready.

Waiting on Easter.

There you have it! My life, snapshotted.

Friday Food: Lady Day Waffles

Friday 

Short version: Fried seafood, baked beans, potato salad, carrot slaw, frozen grapes

Long version: My friend was getting their whole cow for the freezer and found some things in her freezer she didn't have room for and didn't want to cook. She gave those things to me, and one of them was a bag of shrimp. We still had a bag of "octo-mari" in the freezer, which I think are big squid tentacles cut to look like calamari. A. loves these sorts of things deep fried, and he is our fry cook, so I suggested that he do that for this Lenten Friday.

I invited our priest and his brother to join us for dinner, which of course all had to be meatless. Thus, no bacon in the baked beans. I used slightly more molasses in them, instead. It has a little bit of a smoky flavor, and the beans turned out well.

I made a classic American potato salad, with the pickles and hard-boiled eggs and all, though I don't use quite as much mayonnaise as most recipes call for, and I do add mustard.

I was going to make coleslaw, but absent any cabbage, I made carrot slaw instead. This is just shredded carrots and finely diced pickled onions with my coleslaw dressing, minus the celery seed.

Our guests aren't eating added sugar during Lent, so I didn't make a dessert. I did have quite a lot of green grapes, however, that were not going to stay good for too much longer. Since it was a hot day, I decided to freeze them individually on a baking tray. I put the whole big bowl of frozen grapes on the table and they were all gone within minutes. A perfect non-dessert dessert.

Saturday

Short version: Leftovers, sandwiches

Long version: Our family went three different ways this day, two to Albuquerque, two to an FFA contest, Poppy and me to the Peewee basketball tournament. We stayed there until late afternoon. Poppy ate two pieces of pizza there and wasn't hungry for dinner. I didn't eat there and was starving when we got home. I had leftover potato salad and carrot slaw.

I had thought everyone else would eat before coming home, but two of the boys were hungry when they got back. One had a grilled cheese sandwich with leftover baked beans and carrot slaw on the side. One had a grilled salami and cheese sandwich.

Sunday

Short version: Lamb chops, deluxe rice, caramelized onions, green salad with vinaigrette, gingerbread with whipped cream

Long version: This was the first meat we tried from the two wethers A. and I butchered on Thursday.

Ready for the freezer.

I marinated the chops in olive oil, vinegar, and garlic powder and then just pan-fried them. The meat on wethers tends to be quite good, and this was no exception. 

Quite small.

I didn't make a sauce for the chops, but I had just enough caramelized onions from the steaks we had awhile ago to put those on the lamb chops.

The rice was deluxe because I fried it in butter with spices (thyme, cumin, paprika) before adding chicken stock to simmer it in. I also put in a little bit of tomato paste. It was very good.

Poppy made the gingerbread. It, like her famous brownies, calls for melting butter rather than whipping it with a mixer. Much easier for her. I read the recipe to her and helped her measure the molasses, but she otherwise did it herself. Hooray.

Monday

Short version: Pizzas, carrot sticks, ranch dip, leftover gingerbread

Long version: One cheese, one pepperoni.

All good.

I was informed this was the best pizza I have ever made. Too bad I just wing it every time, so the odds of exactly replicating this are low.

Tuesday

Short version: Leftover pizza, scrambled eggs, peaches with or without cottage cheese, fried egg sandwich

Long version: The older two boys were gone on an FFA trip, and there was enough leftover pizza for those at home if I supplemented with scrambled eggs for A. Which I did.

I didn't really have a good vegetable option, so we had peaches instead. Because I buy the peach slices in heavy syrup, these are more like a dessert, but always appreciated. Some people like them with cottage cheese; some like them plain.

One of the FFA boys was hungry when they got home, so I made him a fried egg sandwich. I have plenty of eggs on hand because my one friend brought me four dozen eggs the day before from her plethora of chickens, and then my other friend sent two dozen eggs home on the bus with A. It is definitely Egg Season.

Wednesday

Short version: Chili, corn tortillas with cheese, Lady Day waffles

Long version: It was almost 90 degrees this day, which made chili seem a little strange. However, I had made it the day before because I knew I was subbing at school at the end of the day and wouldn't be home to cook dinner. Thankfully, our house hasn't heated up to the point that eating chili was punishing.

The waffles were just from the last of the batter I had made in the morning for breakfast. I do not typically make waffles on weekdays, but this was the feast of the Annunciation, when the angel Gabriel appeared to Mary and revealed to her that she would be the mother of Jesus. This has been called Lady Day for centuries, and apparently in Swedish, the word for Lady Day and the word for waffles are so close that Sweden now celebrates it as a national waffle day.

I thought this was funny. Also a good excuse to have waffles. There was just enough batter to make one more waffle for everyone after dinner, and then they got to choose what to put on it. Two chose butter and apricot jam, one chose butter and powdered sugar, and one chose peanut butter. 

Thursday

Short version: Chili+rice+cheese, applesauce and cream

Long version: It actually was 90 degrees this day, and I did not want to cook much. I had some chicken stock in the refrigerator, with which I made rice. Then I just dumped in the leftover chili and some shredded cheese to all heat together. 

Sloppy, but tasty.

I gave the child with a delicate stomach just rice cooked in chicken stock, with butter, and then he got some of the applesauce I canned last fall. It didn't seem very nice for him to get applesauce and no one else got any, so I opened another jar and everyone got some. Much happiness.

Refrigerator check:

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

A Dangerous Discovery

When my children got home from their trip to Arizona to visit family, they presented me with a bag of kettle corn my mom had sent home for me.

I love kettle corn. Like, a lot. It checks all the salt/fat/sweet boxes that make something taste good to me.

I did send a jar of it with each of the younger two children to be their school snacks a couple of days, but then I ate the rest of the bag all by myself. Which is what I do when given access to kettle corn.

Popcorn, however, is a pretty healthy snack all in all, and I thought maybe I could make something like kettle corn that would satisfy my desire to eat something sweet without going overboard on the sugar.

I make popcorn on the stove in a big saucepan. Typically, I pop the popcorn in the pan, dump it into a bowl, and then put the butter right in the very hot pan to melt before drizzling that over the popcorn and then salting it. 

To make something like kettle corn, I figured I could just add my very dark maple syrup to the pan before the butter, and the maple syrup would quickly release most of its water content on contact with the hot pan. Then I could add the butter, etc.

That is what I did, and it did indeed work quite well.

But then, of course, I had kettle corn. A lightly buttered and sweetened kettle corn, to be sure, but still the salt/fat/sweet popcorn that is so hard for me to stop eating.

I fear I did not. I managed to put a few cups in a jar for one child's snack. But I, um, ate the rest of the batch. It was like five cups of kettle corn. 

The only survivors.

So I will not be making it again unless all of my children are home to eat it before I do, but now you know: Homemade kettle corn is easy. And addictive.

Snapshots: Spring Heat

Friday was the first day of spring, and the table flowers celebrated accordingly.

Peach blossoms and daffodils. I won't cut anymore peach branches, because I want the blossoms to turn into actual peaches, but I couldn't resist just a few for the first day of spring.

The weather has felt much more summer than spring in the last few days, though. It was about 90 degrees at the track meet I went to on Thursday.

And so of course I had to wear a long-sleeve shirt and dorky hat. Because I do not care about being stylish if it comes with a crispy sunburn.

Yesterday was 92 degrees. A. and one boy went on a school trip to Albuquerque. The older two boys went a different direction for an FFA contest. The two groups all left early in the morning, about two hours apart, so I made them all get all their clothing and so forth ready to go the night before.

Ironed and waiting.

This left Poppy and me home alone. We went to the Peewee basketball tournament so she could see her friends play.

And so they could play on the playground between games. I finished my book under these trees.

There you have it! My life, snapshotted.

Friday Food: Full-Fat Yogurt

Friday 

Short version: Fish sandwiches, oven fries, curried split peas, coleslaw

Long version: I actually baked bread while my family was gone the week before, and because it was sort of an extra baking, I used some of it to make hamburger buns. Or rather, fish sandwich buns. I had some fish fillets in the freezer for the sandwiches. The package said there were ten fillets.

I think it was stretching the truth to call all of these ten things "fillets."

There were just enough for the sandwiches, anyway, and I made tartar sauce again, too, which made everyone happy. 

The oven fries were popular too. And the coleslaw, which I haven't made in a long time.

The curried split peas weren't as popular, but I had some to be eaten, so I put them on plates anyway and they duly disappeared.

This ended up being a rather involved meal. Tasty, though.

Saturday

Short version: Curry-marinated chicken, curried split peas, rice, raw bell peppers and radishes

Long version: I marinated some separated chicken leg quarters in yogurt with curry powder, garlic powder, and lemon juice. Marinating is definitely the way to go for bland chicken, but I should not have fried these on the stovetop. Such a splattery mess. Good browning, though.

Sunday

Short version: More chicken, leftover meatloaf, baked potatoes, green salad with vinagrette, Poppy's brownies

Long version: I had more chicken that hadn't fit in the bowl with the marinade, so I re-used the marinade for that. But I baked in the oven this time. Much less messy. And then I could also re-heat the meatloaf in the oven while the chicken and potatoes were baking. I love oven efficiency.

I asked Poppy if she could like to make her special brownies and she was pleased to do so. Everyone else was pleased to eat them. Those have to bake far enough ahead of dinner to cool before being cut, so they couldn't go in the oven with everything else. I hate to use the oven for only one thing, though, so I quickly made a crisp with one quart jar of canned apple slices and one quart jar of canned pear slices that went in the oven with the brownies. That was my bribe to get everyone out of bed on a very cold and dark Monday morning to start school again after spring break.

Monday

Short version: Rib steaks, various leftover starches, cucumber with salt and vinegar, un-staled cookies

Long version: These rib steaks are thicker than I like steaks to be, and they are very hard to fit on the griddle pan, but they are undeniably delicious.

They have to be arranged just so to fit.

I was going to make mashed potatoes to go with the steaks, but then I realized I had several leftover starches that needed to be used: one serving of macaroni and cheese, one baked potato, and enough rice for the three more people. So that is what I divvied out according to preference.

A. got the last serving of crisp, since the children had had theirs for breakfast. For them, I had just enough of the chocolate-chip/oat cookies left that I had made for their road trip. They were slightly stale. Nothing that twenty seconds in the microwave under a damp paper towel couldn't fix, though. I have not been making cookies regularly during Lent--this is the penance I impose on them--so even un-staled cookies were a treat for them.

Tuesday

Short version: Not-Irish pasta with pesto, leftover steak, Italian sausage, cabbage

Long version: Our St. Patrick's Day tradition for dinner is pasta with pesto. Because it's green, you see. And delicious. I didn't have a lot of pesto from the garden basil last year, but what I did have I made sure to save for St. Patrick's Day.

Unusually, I had half a cabbage in the refrigerator that needed to be used. What better day for it, right? Most of it I made into Holy's cabbage, but I did leave a couple of wedges raw for the kids who prefer it that way.

There was one steak from the night before that I couldn't fit on the pan. I left that to A. to cook as he liked, which of course was quite rare. I have a hard time cooking meat rare, so this made him happy.

And that was the extent of our special holiday meal. I thought about making Irish soda bread, but most of my kids don't care for cooked raisins, so I decided not to bother.

Wednesday

Short version: Chicken-fried pork chops with gravy, black-eyed peas, rice, green salad with vinaigrette

Long version: It's such a drag to dredge and fry things, but the results are so good. Especially with these thin, oddly-shaped "assorted pork chops."

They have to overlap on the pan when I put them in the oven to finish cooking, which makes them slightly less crispy, but then they're covered with gravy so it's fine in the end.

The black-eyed peas were the ones I froze from our New Year's Day meal. That was quite some time ago now, and I thought it best to get those out of the freezer.

Thursday

Short version: Leftovers at home, many things on the road

Long version: Yesterday was A Day. I went running as soon as I got the kids on the school bus so that A. and I could get right to butchering the two wethers (castrated male sheep) he had killed Monday so that I could get in the car and drive an hour and a half to a track meet where I stayed until dark and then drove home. 

All of this meant I didn't get home until 8:30 p.m., at which point I was exhausted and in no frame of mind to finish this post and schedule it to post early this morning as I usually do. In case you were wondering why I was late this morning.

We did eat yesterday, though! There were quite a few leftovers at home for the family here. It looks as if they finished the black-eyed peas, pork, rice, and pasta with pesto.

I stopped at the very small store in the village where the track meet was before going there. As I was looking for balsamic vinegar, I went past the dairy case and happened to spot whole-milk yogurt. Remember the very disappointing non-fat Greek yogurt I bought when I was going to a basketball game awhile ago?

Probably not, because why would you remember something like that, but I did. And it was disappointing, as all non-fat dairy is.

But then I saw this full-fat yogurt that actually had no weird ingredients in it, so I bought one to try before going to the track meet.

In my lap in the car, because that's how I eat when I'm going to sporting events.

It was very good. As I knew it would be. Because of all the fat.

Anyway.

I had brought a salad with me for my dinner, which I ate in the excessive down time that is always involved at track meets while waiting for the next event.

My post-high-jump, pre-800-meter salad. It had both pickled beets and hardboiled eggs pickled in pickled beet liquid, hence the color.

I had brought salami and cream cheese for the trackster to eat in the car on the way home, which he did. He also ate a banana, grapes, and the store-brand version of Cool Ranch Doritos (not as good as the real thing, but okay) I had bought at the store before. And he finished the switchel I had brought for him, because it was HOT out there on that track.

Refrigerator check:

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

Free-style Gardening

A few years ago I did a whole series of posts where I walked you through my gardening season. It started when I planted the seeds for cabbages and kohlrabi inside and ended with the first frost in the fall. I explained all about the seed-starting equipment I use, the grow lights in the bathroom, the milk jugs and rocks I use outside when I transplant the seedlings . . .

So where am I in that process this year? 

I have three tomato seedlings. 

In February, A. and I finally planted the garlic that should have been planted in October. I planted some arugula and lettuce seeds outside that have sprouted. I put some cabbage seeds directly in the ground a few weeks ago in the hopes that they'll just germinate out there and I can put the milk jug greenhouses over them without having to do any transplanting.

While my family was gone last week, I filled a couple of containers with potting soil and stuck in about a dozen basil seeds and a few dozen tomato seeds. I put those behind the woodstove to germinate, and now the tiny tomato seedlings are on the liquor cabinet by the window. Since it's pretty late already, I'm thinking I can transplant those seedlings out when they're still quite small if they go under the milk jugs.

Basically, I'm trying to avoid having to set up the whole light thing in the bathroom, which means a lot fewer plants in the house. 

It will probably also mean a lot fewer plants in the garden, but given the past few years of grasshopper depredation, our ongoing drought, and the overly warm temperatures this winter that are making me think we're going to have a hot summer, I'll probably want a lot fewer plants in the garden.

Gardening is different every year, so we'll see how it goes.