Friday, August 31, 2018

Friday Food: The Week of Chicken Delays


Friday

Short version: Pork chops, tomato rice, sauteed mushrooms and onions, green salad

Long version: I had a few tomatoes that were not looking too perky, so I diced one up and cooked it with some diced onion to cook the rice. Plus I added the remainder of the pork juice from the pork shoulder. That's some flavorful rice.

Saturday

Short version: Ground beef with potatoes, sauteed zucchini with tomato and onions, cucumber slices

Long version: I had very virtuously prepped a beef roast for dinner, along with a pot of potato chunks. But then we spontaneously went somewhere right before dinner, and I didn't have time to make the roast when we got home at 5:15.

Plan B: Browned ground beef from the log of it in the refrigerator I hadn't yet frozen, plus diced onion, diced tomato, garlic, lots of paprika, salt, pepper, and thyme.

I was boiling the potatoes while I was cooking the beef, and when the potatoes were done, I dumped them into the beef and let them cook for awhile in the meat juices. We were eating half an hour after walking in the door.

So gourmet. And actually, surprisingly good. Everyone liked it.

The zucchini came from Rafael, who delivered not only zucchini, but a ton of cucumbers. More refrigerator pickles, coming right up!

Sunday

Short version: Roast beef, roasted potatoes, roasted sweet potatoes, roasted zucchini/onion/bell pepper

Long version: The beef roast waited patiently in the refrigerator until it was time to put it in a very hot oven late Sunday afternoon. It was heavily seasoned on the outside with salt, pepper, thyme, and oregano. I roasted it at 450 degrees for about twenty minutes, and then at 400 degrees until it got to 140 degrees internally.

My biggest meat cooking challenge is always not over-cooking. I succeeded this time. After resting, it was a perfect medium. Yay me.

I had roasted it in a cast iron skillet, so when the meat was done, I just poured off the seasoned fat onto the roasting potatoes and made a sauce in the skillet with water, Dijon mustard, and heavy cream. It was very, very good, if I do say so myself. And I do.

Monday

Short version: Eggs, bacon, chorizo, bread and butter, green salad

Long version: I had a big bag of chicken pieces out thawing for dinner, except they, um, didn't thaw in time. Eggs it is!

There was more chorizo in the package I had opened a few days previously, so I made that with scrambled eggs for A., plus bacon and fried eggs for the kids and me.

Salad with chopped fried eggs and bacon in it is really extremely good. Yum.

Tuesday

Short version: Bunless cheeseburgers, rice, sauteed zucchini/tomato/onion, steamed carrots

Long version: The chicken was actually thawed, but I was pretty over the kitchen after making and canning peach jam in the morning. So instead of the chicken enchilada casserole I had planned on, I made cheeseburgers from the ground beef in the refrigerator that I hadn't yet gotten around to freezing.

They were fine, as was everything else.


Look! Peaches in a colander!

Wednesday

Short version: Chicken enchilada casserole, baked zucchini, green salad with ranch dressing

Long version: The chicken could no longer be ignored. As soon as I got home from walking Cubby and Charlie to school, I put the chicken pieces--drumsticks and thighs--in a big pot of water with onion, carrot, celery, and a bay leaf. This way, I could cook the chicken and make stock at the same time. (Stock that did not get successfully canned. NOT THAT I AM BITTER.)

After the chicken was pretty tender, I pulled the meat off and shredded it, adding the mostly stripped bones back to the pot of liquid to simmer some more.

The shredded chicken went into a skillet with sauteed onion, garlic, and some "mild" Hatch chile salsa.

I put "mild" in quotes, because it is not mild, not at all. I have already learned never to trust New Mexican salsa labels. I've tried about four local mild salsas by now, and they are never mild by my definition of mild.

Thus, I also added sour cream and a bunch of shredded cheese--cheddar and asadero--to mitigate the definitely-not-mild burn of the salsa.

Jack helped me layer the chicken with more shredded cheese and tortillas in the casserole dish. He very much enjoyed this.

The excess of dairy didn't actually succeed in making the casserole particularly mild. The spiciness was noted by the children, but not in an accusatory way, and everyone ate it all. They might make good New Mexicans yet.


Poppy had yogurt for dinner, because I think she would not have appreciated the authentic New Mexican spice level of the chicken.

The zucchini was just sliced zucchini salted and drained to get rid of some liquid, then seasoned with olive oil, garlic powder, and salt, and baked. Never let a zucchini-cooking opportunity pass. Especially if Rafael lives nearby.

Thursday

Short version: Pork, mashed potatoes, cucumber salad

Long version: Finally, the last of the lean pork loin chops. I chunked them up, browned them, cooked onion and mushrooms in the pan, added dry vermouth (what I use when I don't have wine, which is almost always), then some of the large quantity of stupid chicken stock that didn't seal (STILL NOT BITTER, THOUGH), a little heavy cream, and some cornstarch to thicken the sauce.

While I was in the kitchen doing that, the kids were in the living room doing this:


Poppy was in jail for robbing the doughnut store. Maybe she was tired of yogurt.

The cucumber salad was a pretty lame salad. Sliced cucumbers with thinly sliced onion and some of the ranch dressing from the previous day. Tasted pretty good, though.

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

8 comments:

  1. Saturday - I cooked something but can't remember what it was!
    Sunday - chicken/bean tortillas, with cheese, salsa, yogurt, peppers, spinach, tomatoes
    Monday - chicken patties, lots of sautéed vegetables
    Tuesday - spaghetti, salad
    Wednesday - stir fry with rice
    Thursday - taco salad with spinach, peppers, tomatoes, tortillas
    Friday - leftovers
    Linda

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  2. I am in awe of the fact that with everything going on, you manage to cook every day. Granted, you have people around that need to be fed, but still...

    Three day weekend coming up, and I hope to use the time with some actual meal planning. And trying out your MIL's whole wheat bread recipe...

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  3. My goodness you were up early writing this post. However, I beat you by an hour so I guess it really wasn't that early. Sounds like zuccihini is featured in a lot of meals, which is a good thing. Nothing spectacular on this end, just the same meats and vegetables. No potatoes or rice or tortillas or great breads. However, chips with guacamole was a real treat this week with our chicken mexican dish. This weekend in San Diego will be a very different eating experience.

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  4. Just be sure when you get your hands on some fresh green chiles to have rubber gloves on. It would be nice to remember what I ate last week, but I'm pretty sure it was pesto twice, chicken salad twice, a big blue potato once, and some eggs, bacon, and sauted greens at some point. And ham and eggs at some other point. And some big super-sweet tomatoes. And some orange cauliflower. And be sure not to fill your jars too full when you can (one of my besetting sins).

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  5. The pork sounds delicious. I really need to cook more roasts.

    We have had:
    Italian sausage marinara with bow tie (not certain why that shape was chosen) pasta and green salad
    Baked pork chops, baked sweet potatoes and carrots
    Baked chicken breasts, roasted broccoli and rice
    Stuffed peppers (g beef, mushrooms, rice etc) and roasted Brussels sprouts
    Pork (leftover ham) fried rice with peas (out of carrots - needed them, but still turned out ok)
    I never can remember the weekend prior, sorry. Weekdays will have to do.

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  6. Saturday - dinner at the local brewpub
    Sunday - chicken cacciatore, coucous, grilled corn, steamed peapods
    Monday - leftovers from Sunday
    Tuesday - beef and bean tacos, salad of corn, tomato, black beans and avocado
    Wednesday - Fridge foraging. No one was home at dinner time so everyone was responsible for his or her own dinner.
    Thursday - Chilean hotdogs, grilled corn, tomato cucumber salad. The hotdogs were from a local farm and did not taste anything like commercial hotdogs (Yay!). The Chileans top their hotdogs (which are more like the locally made hotdogs than the commercial American hotdogs) with mayo, chopped tomato and guacamole.
    Friday - BLT's

    Last summer, when my granddaughter was about Poppy's age, she would eat food cooked with a small amount of hot pepper, nothing like New Mexico hot. Now she rejects it, leaving me unable to cook with the jalapenos growing in the garden. I'm hoping she'll grow back into it.
    Pam

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  7. The most "exciting" food moments came last night (Sunday). My brother and his family came to visit, and DH cooked chicken with barbecue sauce. The sauce was based in my homemade ketchup, which was based on leftover liquid from a salsa canning session. My 8-year-old niece was very curious.
    She was even more curious when we pulled out the apple cider press and started chopping several pails of apples to make cider. She is a young one with a memory for detail, and she told Grandma all the details of making cider. The only thing missing was a jug of the cider itself because it was cooling on the stove after pasteurizing.

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  8. Love that you use New Mexican Chile and actually know what it is. Hatch peppers are tricky depending on the time of year and batch.

    I also love your blog, been reading before Cubby was born!

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