Snapshots: Spring Flowers and Shearing

 The week started with a grim, wintery feel outside:

Moody, bare Chinese elm trees against a cloudy sky.

But now look!

Crocuses, yay!

There are quite a few bulbs coming up in the three beds we have them in. They all need to be watered, because we still haven't had any rain or snow, but they're coming. Hooray!

We have some spring inside the house, too. A. cut some apricot branches to force inside. 

The first one to open.

And now there are more. (It's very hard to get a picture of them, though.)

Speaking of flowers . . .

This past week was homecoming spirit week at school. It was a cruise ship theme this year, and we did pretty well finding appropriate clothing for every day. I was, however, kind of stymied by the day when they were supposed to wear "tropical tourist" clothing. We are not a tropical clothing sort of family. Poppy had a dress she could wear that had flowers on it. One boy wore his older brother's palm-tree-printed swim trunks (over his jeans). But the other two boys had nothing appropriate at all.

I mentioned this to A., and he said, "Too bad we don't have any white T-shirts. I could paint tropical flowers on them."

Oh, really? HOLD THAT THOUGHT.

I found two old, stained white T-shirts for him. He got out his watercolor paints* and . . .

Perfect. So handy having an artist in the family.

Our shearer came out on Thursday morning for a slightly earlier than usual shearing. It was windy and cold, but the actual shearing takes place in the shed, so it was bearable.

First one down.

Nice fleece.

They always look like goats to me after shearing.

I was dicing mini bell peppers for our Fat Tuesday jambalaya and scraping them off to the side of the cutting board as I finished each one. Look what I accidentally created.

A slightly wonky heart. Fun.

And last, this is a mayordoma month for me. I stopped in at church on Thursday morning to make sure I had turned off the heat after our Ash Wednesday Mass (I had), and was delighted by the light coming in through the windows.

Especially the pattern on the aisle.

There you have it! My life, snapshotted.

* Watercolor painting is his new hobby. He's really quite good. He mostly paints small greeting cards with flowers and birds.

Friday Food: A Fat Tuesday Feast

Friday 

Short version: Leftovers, raw radishes

Long version: We had leftovers of both birthday lasagna, and ham and rice casserole. And that was it.

Saturday

Short version: Frito pie, chocolate budino

Long version: I had a bag of Great Value Corn Chips that I bought sometime before Christmas, thinking I would make Frito pie for our Christmas Eve dinner. I didn't do it then, but I did it now.

I was already simmering a pot of pinto beans this day, most of which went into the chili along with ground beef.

Chocolate budino is the most insanely rich chocolate pudding ever. I saw a recipe for it randomly the day before Valentine's Day. My family's love for All Things Pudding is well-known, and so that is what I made for our special dessert.

This is a crazy dessert. There is no milk in it at all, only heavy cream. It's thickened with five egg yolks, which makes it very, very thick indeed. It's pretty much solid when chilled. It's supposed to be served with whipped cream. However, my children requested that I just pour heavy cream right on top, as we do with pots de creme, which it kind of reminded me of.

A. and eldest were actually gone, so it was just the four of us eating this recipe that is supposed to make 8 servings. I had a very small serving, which meant that my three children were eating more than a double serving of it. This is not typically a problem for them, but this dessert almost defeated them. They finished their bowls, but not without some effort.

It was very, very good though. Not something I would make often, but I'm sure I'll be making it again. I think it would be better with the whipped cream, however.

Oh, and from that same recipe I jumped to suggestions for recipes that use the five egg whites left after separating the eggs. I used four of the egg whites to make a double recipe of chocolate chip meringue cookies, which were also very popular even though I didn't bake them long enough and they were quite sticky. Much like marshmallows with chocolate chips in them. 

The last egg white I used to make spiced almonds.

That chocolate budino sure had a ripple effect in the kitchen.

Sunday

Short version: Chili and rice skillet, King Cake

Long version: Still just the three younger children and me for dinner. I used some of the leftover chili and leftover rice to make a skillet meal, with the addition of cheese and sour cream. 

The King Cake was sent by my mother. 

We didn't eat the beads and coins.

We ate it warmed up, with butter on top, as is proper.

Monday

Short version: Enchilada casserole, carrot sticks

Long version: I had some broken pieces of corn tortillas to use up, so I used the rest of the chili to make an enchilada casserole. I also had to supplement with some of the plain beans I had in the refrigerator, which I flavored with spices and salsa, so it ended up being a very bean-heavy casserole.

A study in orange.

Tuesday

Short version: French 75s and a cheese plate, jambalaya, butter-swim biscuits, green salad with vinaigrette, butterscotch pudding

Long version: Fat Tuesday, hooray! This year I added a cocktail to our now-traditional jambalaya dinner. I thought about Hurricanes, which are very much associated with New Orleans, but they had too many ingredients and too much sugar. Instead, I got the ingredients for a cocktail called a French 75: 1 ounce gin, half an ounce each of simple syrup and lemon juice, shaken with ice to chill, and then topped with 3 ounces of champagne. 

These were so good. Actually the best part of the meal for me. When I was reading about this cocktail, I saw that some older recipes for it call for cognac instead of gin. I like cognac, so I may try that next time. It was awfully good with the gin, though. Not too sweet, but a little less dry than straight champagne.

The cheese plate was solely because I was at a rarely-visited store a couple of weeks ago when I went to get our beef, and this store has interesting cheeses. I bought Edam, blue cheese, and goat cheese, and then kind of forgot about them. But this was the perfect night for a cheese plate before dinner, being not only a feast, but also a night when we had two guests with us. So that worked out.

I even had crackers, which is not always the case.

For the actual meal, we had the jambalaya, of course, for which I very loosely follow this recipe, making a recipe and a half. I mostly use the recipe for the spices. I don't use that method, though, instead sauteeing the vegetables--I used onion, bell pepper, and a little garlic--until very soft and then frying the raw rice in with those plus the spices before adding the meats and chicken stock to cook the rice.

I had made the stock while simmering the rooster I used for the chicken meat. I also separately browned the diced andouille sausage and chopped chicken before adding it to the rice and vegetables. And I used the tip given to me here previously of putting a layer of foil on the top of the pot before putting the lid on, to steam the rice properly. This worked, yay! Thanks, Casey!

I must note that I used olive oil and bacon fat to cook the vegetables, then another cup of rendered lard to brown the meats, and then added another cup of butter to the pot before cooking the rice. And then! I put the resulting cooked jambalaya into a Pyrex casserole dish so it would be easier to re-heat evenly before dinner, and when I did that, I put another maybe half cup of butter on the top.

Before adding the top butter layer.

That means there were at least two and a half cups of fat in this dish. And it STILL wasn't at all greasy, just tasty. Amazing.

I made this ahead because I was at First Communion class until 5:30 p.m. I also par-baked the butter-swim biscuits before I left (meaning I just baked them until they were pretty much cooked through but not browned), so that when I got home I just needed to stick the foil-covered jambalaya back in the oven with the pan of biscuits. Interestingly, the biscuits fully absorbed most of the butter during their rest and were much less greasy in the end. Everyone preferred them this way, so that's good to know.

I made a double recipe of this butterscotch pudding, as always adding a little extra molasses and, this time, a cup of cream in place of some milk. I made this because one of our guests was our priest. It was his birthday, so I told him he could pick dessert. Much to my children's delight, this pudding is what he chose. So nice for them that he shares their opinion that dairy desserts trump cake any day.

Wednesday

Short version: Fried eggs, pasta

Long version: No more feasting, since this was Ash Wednesday. We always have our Ash Wednesday Mass at 5 p.m. at our church in the village. Because school gets out at 4 p.m., I just keep the kids with me in the village and we don't get home until around 6 p.m. Everyone is always very hungry by then, so I always make something (meatless) that can be ready very quickly. This time, that meant I made the pasta before I left home. Then I just needed to fry eggs and microwave the pasta when we got home.

The pasta was very random. I made the sauce with a cube of frozen tomato paste, heavy cream, someone's leftover milk in the refrigerator, already-cooked onions, about a third of a package of cream cheese, garlic powder, and a can of kidney beans. I blended all of this together because I thought my children would balk at whole kidney beans in their pasta. Then I added some frozen peas. It was fine. Not great, but fine. 

Thursday

Short version: Homecoming food, leftover jambalaya

Long version: I was at homecoming with three of the children. They had various concession things, including a burrito and nachos, I think. The two at home had leftover jambalaya.

Refrigerator check:

Blurry, because it was late and I was tired.

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

Let's Talk Books

A friend of the MiL's (hi, Mikey!) apparently mentioned that I haven't talked much about what books I've been reading lately.

Well! Allow me to remedy that!

Here they are:

Secular on top, religious on the bottom, because why not?

I didn't actually intend to get that many religious books. This seems to be my tradition now for Lent, though, as I did the same thing last year kind of on accident.

He Leadeth Me is by the same priest who wrote With God in Russia. My sons really enjoyed that one, as did I, so I thought we'd try his other book. I haven't read it yet.

Seasons of the Soul was recommended by our priest. I  haven't read that one yet, either.

I'm part of the way through A Canticle for Liebowitz, though I'm not sure if I'll finish it. It's a novel that takes place at a monastery in the future after a nuclear exchange. A. bought it and read it, as did one of the boys. Both of them said it was okay, though not great, and that's what I'm thinking so far.

I did read the Mother Teresa book. That was a challenging one. I'm not sure I would recommend it to a lot of people--it's pretty startling and depressing in some ways--but it certainly made me think, and I'm not sorry I read it.

I haven't read Go Set a Watchman yet. That one I bought mostly for the boy whose favorite book is To Kill a Mockingbird. I may save it for his Easter basket.

I read pretty much every Agatha Christie book when I was in middle school, I think. Ten Little Indians is one of my favorites. The youngest boy saw me reading it and asked me about it. I'll give it to him next, and probably his older brother would like it, too.

Katherine Center is one of my favorite new authors. I don't like most modern authors, especially those who write romcoms, but she's good. Her books are like literary junk food without being stupid and irritating, which is more than I can say for the majority of books in that genre. Hello, Stranger is one of her newer books. I read it in about two hours and liked it very much.

An American Childhood is by Annie Dillard. I was not familiar with her as an author. This was the book I bought at the antique shop during my overnight in town. It's just what it sounds like: The story of her childhood growing up in Pittsburgh in the 1950s. She was an unusual child, but her childhood was in many ways very typical of the time. I enjoyed it, although I don't think I'll seek out anymore of her books.

Ditto Invitation to the Waltz by Rosamund Lehmann. She was a prolific author in the 1930s. The book was good enough that I finished it, although I didn't find it all that gripping. It wasn't really about anything significant. In that way it reminded me of Jane Austen. I looked up the author's other books, and the others are apparently much less innocent than this one, so I probably won't read any more by this author.

There! That's what I've been reading lately, or am about to read. How about you?

Snapshots: I Spy . . .

I made overnight cinnamon rolls for the recent birthday, and as always, one of the more challenging parts was getting those rolls warmed up again after a night in the refrigerator. Our house is 55 degrees when I get up in the morning. Yeast does not like that.

So I parked them in front of the woodstove that I always start first thing.

I was out in the morning feeding the horses and spied something purple in the middle of their paddock.

Can you see them? They are Poppy's socks.

I of course had to ask her when she got up why she left her socks in the middle of the horse pen. The answer I got was that she was in there for . . . something and only had her socks on and she took them off so they wouldn't get ruined. 

I had to point out that leaving them there was just as likely to ruin them as wearing them back into the house. 

Poppy asked me if we could play Scrabble the other day. I don't play Scrabble for points, and when I play with my kids, I always help them when they get stuck. The goal is not for anyone to win, but to use everyone's tiles by the end of the game. We usually end up with an irritating "q" or "j" that just can't be used, but this time, we did it.

I was particularly amused by the "beer" that was used to create "bevvy" there on the left. Our Official Scrabble Dictionary told me that bevvy is short for beverage, usually alcoholic. So appropriate. I was also very proud of my "patois," though surprised that was allowed, given that it's a French word.

Lookit the green things coming up!

Tulips!

Crocuses!

Daffodils!

In New York, the bulbs came in distinct order, but here they come up all at once. They don't all flower at once, however. The crocuses will be first. And then table flowers won't be far behind, yay!

And last, just a typical sunrise view of the bulls and steers in the windmill pasture across the road.

Morning on the range.

There you have it! My life, snapshotted.

Friday Food: Birthday Oreos

Friday

Short version: Cheeseburgers on homemade buns, oven fries, green peas

Long version: The first thing I made from the beef I had picked up at the butcher the day before was hamburgers. I was making bread, too, so I made buns for those.

Poppy requested the oven fries and green peas.

Saturday

Short version: Pork stir-fry, porky rice

Long version: I was home with just two boys this night, one of whom requested stir-fry. I had lots of leftover pork from the most recent pork shoulder, as well as enough fresh vegetables, so I made that. 

Obligatory vegetable beauty shot.

Carrots take a lot longer to get cooked all the way, so I always cook them separately.

In stir-fry, I prefer them in these short sticks, rather than coins.

I still had quite a bit of the liquid left from cooking the pork shoulder, too. I used some of that to cook the rice.

Sunday

Short version: Steaks with caramelized onions and garlic herb butter, mashed potatoes, green salad with vinaigrette, many Oreos

Long version: The cow we had butchered was quite fat, and the steaks were very well-marbled, much to A.'s delight.

The one boy who only considers steak properly served if it is accompanied with caramelized onions and herb butter was in luck: There was another box of dozens of onions left on Main Street for the taking. So I took some.

Okay, so I actually took a lot. And now there are onion skins all over the back floor of my car.

I made one whole bag into a pan of caramelized onions.

Also lucky for that boy is the immortal parsley still hanging on in the garden.

It's mostly the parsley right next to the wall that has survived. Hooray for micro-climates.

The eldest boy's birthday* was Wednesday, so of course, I needed to come up with a taste-test thing for him. So far this year, we've done root beer, Pringles, and ice cream. For this boy, who has a great love for Oreos, I wanted to find different flavors of Oreos. For months, I looked every time I was at Walmart for interesting flavors to buy and never saw any. And then all of a sudden right after the new year, there were lots of different flavors.

I bought seven different kinds and we tried them all.

Reese's peanut butter, "loaded" with crushed cookies in the creme part, tiramisu, dark chocolate creme, mint, golden, and lemon-flavored golden.

Unsurprisingly, every member of the family had a different favorite kind. I myself liked the ones with the dark chocolate creme in the middle.

And then we had literally hundreds of Oreos to plow through the rest of the week. The children rose to the occasion nobly.

Monday

Short version: Many leftovers

Long version: We were at a basketball game after school and didn't get home until a little after 5 p.m. Luckily, there were lots of leftovers to choose from. A. had steak and mashed potatoes. Two children had stir-fry. I fried the rest of the leftover pork, diced, with some of the leftover garlic herb butter and the rest of the leftover rice, then added frozen green peas to it, for the other two children.

I even had two hamburger buns left. Those I just cut in half, spread with the herb butter, and microwaved to melt the butter and make the buns soft. These were the children's favorite part of this meal.

And there were, of course, leftover Oreos. Of all kinds.

Tuesday

Short version: Barbecue meatballs, cornbread, raw bell peppers and radishes. And more Oreos.

Long version: I baked the meatballs and cornbread right before I left at 3:30 p.m. to bring Poppy to her First Communion class. I had left them covered with foil and asked eldest son to put them in the oven at 5:30 p.m. to re-heat. 

Teamwork is the name of the Tuesday-night dinner game.

Wednesday

Short version: Birthday lasagna, raw radishes, chocolate cheesecake

Long version: This was the new 16-year-old's birthday dinner request. I'm not sure he could have picked a heavier meal. Thankfully, his birthday was on the one day I didn't have anything going on right before dinner. Although I did make the cheesecake the day before anyway, and lasagna is a good make-ahead meal, so it would have been okay if I wasn't home.

Anyway.

I sort of use this recipe for lasagna now (minus the mushrooms), which is how I learned that a pound of lasagna noodles will actually fill a 10"x15" pan perfectly. Since that is the size pan I'm usually using, that works out nicely. I use both ground beef and loose Italian sausage, and I don't actually follow any recipe for the sauce. 

A 10"x15" pan full of lasagna weighs approximately a ton. Or at least, that's what it feels like. (Many pans of crispy rice treats in the background of this photo for Valentine's Day treats at school the next day.)

This year, the birthday boy requested a chocolate cheesecake. I make 3/4 of this recipe. I've never made a cheesecake that didn't crack, but this was the worst one yet.

It looked the worst like this, immediately after baking. When it cooled and sunk down a bit, it wasn't quite as bad.

My reign as Queen of the Ugly Cakes continues. But, as always, it tasted good. And there were Oreos in the crust, so we didn't miss a night having them. In case you were worried.

Thursday

Short version: Ham and rice casserole, leftover lasagna, leftover cheesecake, crispy rice treats

Long version: I had been planning to just have leftover lasagna for dinner, but then we ended up having a guest with us at dinner who doesn't eat gluten or much dairy. I was at a basketball game in the late afternoon and got home just in time for dinner, so I made the casserole ahead and just had A. put it in the oven for me with the leftover lasagna for half an hour or so before I got home.

The casserole was the rest of the ham from the freezer, diced, plus rice I made with the rest of the liquid from cooking the pork shoulder awhile ago. Also the remainder of the caramelized onions that were in the refrigerator, heavy cream, eggs, and grated cheddar cheese. Oh, and some frozen peas.

Ready to bake.

Refrigerator check:

A. forgot to get the Sysco milk Thursday afternoon, so there's lots of room in here for now.

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

* If you've been reading here from almost the beginning of this blog, I am sure it will be astonishing to you (as it is to me) that our tiny Cubby is now 16 years old. He is also over six feet tall. Craziness.

When Money Can Buy Happiness

At least, when a little money can buy a little happiness. Like this . . .

One of the extremely irritating places to me in my house is the pass-through. This is a spot where there were windows in the original trailer that became, well, glassless windows that lead into the added-on living room. 

There is a shelf there, and that is where our landline phone lives. Also the pencil sharpener, pens and pencils, tape, stapler, calculators, etc. It's basically like an office desk, which I do not have. 

That stuff was always all over the place on that shelf. Calculators spread out all around the phone, random pads of paper, pencils that had fallen out of the repurposed honey jars . . . It was a mess. All the time. And it drove me crazy.

Finally, and why this took me so long I do not know, I bought an organizer for this spot. I knew what I wanted to put in it already, so I looked for one that had the appropriate number and size of compartments. 

It cost me $25 and fifteen minutes to go from this:

Yuck.

To this:

Yay!

Of course, keeping it that way will require constant vigilance to put things away as they get taken out, but at least now I have somewhere to put them that is not just the general location of the shelf. And that is $25 very well spent.

Snapshots: Driving and Messes

Starting right off with a candle . . .

This one looked like a mushroom as it started to burn down, much to my amusement.

I spent much of Thursday driving. I was already planning on going to a basketball game, but then the meat processor called to tell us we could pick up our beef. This was not on the way to the game, at all, but rather directly to the east of the game. 

Our house is sort of the point of a triangle between the two towns I was going to, so I went first to the northeast to pick up the beef.

Over 100 miles of this . . .

To pick up this. I covered it with two sleeping bags to keep it frozen for the next six hours until I got home.

Then another 90 miles of this, due west.

And then about 60 more miles of driving after the game, but it was dark and I didn't take a picture.

I drove around 300 miles this day and never went through a town bigger than 3,000 people. The American West really does have some very empty places.

It's been warm the past few days, and I didn't even start the woodstove yesterday. It was nice to have a break from the mess.

Constantly sweeping up bark under the wood holder in the dining room.

And ashes from cleaning out the stove every couple of days.

There you have it! My life, snapshotted.