Friday Food: The Kitchen of Enchantment

Friday

Short version: Dry pork, rice, roasted sweet potatoes, roasted broccoli and onions

Long version: The pork was dry because it was boneless loin end chops, which have almost no fat. I hadn't yet unpacked my spices, so I used some Texas barbecue sauce (Stubbs). It was too spicy for the kids, though, so I didn't use very much. Thus, the pork was both dry and bland. Win!

We did eat on real plates with real silverware, though, leading Cubby to remark with satisfaction that finally we were having a real dinner.

Saturday

Short version: Scrambled eggs, bacon, bread and butter, green salad (with tomatoes!)

Long version: When A. went to the nearest (small) city to drop off our U-Haul trailer, he went to the grocery store and, among other things, bought five dozen eggs. He said he didn't want to run out. Considering I had bought three dozen when we stopped at the store on our way to our new house, I don't think that's going to be an issue for awhile. Eight dozen eggs lasts quite awhile even in our house.

And that's why we had scrambled eggs for dinner.

The bacon I brought with me from Blackrock in one of our food coolers. It's from the MiL's brother's pigs and man, I am going to be SO SAD when I'm out of real bacon. And real bacon grease for cooking my eggs.

The tomatoes in the salad came from the teeeeeeny market in the village. They were grown by the proprietor in his home garden. A. bought them for me. Yay.

And now for a random photo from our road trip:

In the schoolhouse at the Little House on the Prairie Museum in Independence, Kansas. Cubby was the only boy who would stay still for a photo. 

Sunday

Short version: Chicken drumsticks, roasted potatoes, cucumber and tomato salad with asadero cheese

Long version: A. picked up the asadero at the grocery store along with the absurd box of eggs. Asadero is indistinguishable from mozzarella, except for the fact that it costs three bucks a pound here.

This meal was also notable because I found the booster and tray for Poppy, and thus was able to set her up with some small pieces of potato and a mostly-stripped chicken drumstick. She was so excited. I maybe let her get a little carried away pounding on the tray with her drumstick, but it was just so dang cute. A. even took a video, though I am not delusional enough to think that anyone except grandparents needs to see that.

Monday

Short version: Tacos, sauteed zucchini with onions and garlic

Long version: In the morning all four kids and I walked to the post office to get some stamps and mail some letters. We had just gotten to the corner of our street when a truck pulled up to us. The older gentleman driving it greeted us and asked if I wanted some vegetables.

Do I want vegetables?

Does A. want sheep? Do my sons want to menace each other with sticks?

Of course I want vegetables.

He handed me a bag with cucumbers, zucchini, and hot peppers in it, explaining that he grows them on his ranch and gives them away. He told me his name, which I unfortunately promptly forgot as I was a little distracted by Charlie trying to use Poppy's stroller as a lawn mower. He also told me he had seen us at church the day before. I bet. Hard to miss us, what with the three squirming boys and the crowing baby.

Anyway. That was pretty much the highlight of my day. And the zucchini was delicious.

Tuesday

Short version: Pork goulash with carrots, mashed potatoes, sauteed lettuce

Long version: This was a very seasonally-inappropriate meal, but I was trying to find a more appetizing way to prepare the dry pork loin ends. They were still dry in the goulash, but at least there was a delicious sauce to eat with the dry pieces of pork.

I mashed the potatoes with the bottom of a canning jar because the potato masher I ordered hasn't arrived yet. It worked pretty well, though there were still a few lumps in there.

I had to cook the lettuce because the damn refrigerator froze it when I had it on the bottom shelf because it wouldn't fit in the produce drawers. I had this problem with the refrigerator in our last rental house, too. Thanks to that, I know you can cook the lettuce instead of chucking it. I also now know that it's better to put the carrots on the bottom shelf to make room for the lettuce in the non-freezing drawers.

Unless the Blue Ninja finds the temperature control on this refrigerator, that is, and then the carrots will freeze too. It's a constant battle around here.

Wednesday

Short version: Cookout food--hot dogs, hamburgers, Fritos, cucumbers and carrots

Long version: One of the things I brought along on our cross-country odyssey was a bag of Snappy Grillers. This is a hot dog made in upstate New York that is mostly composed of pork and veal. I find them revolting, but they are the only hot dog Charlie will eat. I brought them because I thought one night we might find a public park with grills and cook some hot dogs.

We had the charcoal and the hot dogs, but we never did cook them on our drive. So we cooked them this week in the public park in our village, on the grills there. The park is about 300 yards up the street. It was just like going to the beach at Blackrock to grill--loading up bags of food, cutting up carrots and cucumbers, mixing gin and lime in a canning jar with a screw-top lid . . .

Except, of course, that instead of swimming while A. cooked the food, the kids were swinging on a swing set. And instead of putting rocks in her mouth, Poppy instead found some horrible spiky weed seed called a goat's head and put that in her mouth. Awesome.

Thursday

Short version: Fried eggs, tortillas with cheese, tomato/cucumber/asadero salad

Long version: Despite having eggs twice this week for dinner, we still have a hell of a lot of eggs in the refrigerator. A. achieved his objective of not running out.

The cucumbers were Persian cucumbers. I had never seen Persian cucumbers in a grocery store, yet there they were in the small grocery store we stopped at in the small town two hours from us on our way to the house. You just never know.

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