Friday Food: The Moving Edition, Round Two

Amusingly, the first round of Friday Food: The Moving Edition was posted exactly five months ago on June 29. We need to stop moving now.

All photos in this post are from our road trip to Arizona. Fortuitously, they all feature food.

Friday

Short version: Bunless hamburgers, mashed potatoes, green salad

Long version: This is a pretty typical meal for me to make, right? Ah, but I didn't make it. This was our last meal at my parents' house in Arizona, so my mom made it. Thus, it tasted even more delicious. Also, they have a grill. Grilled hamburgers are the best.

Road trip picnic lunch. No one wants to sit down to eat after sitting in the car for five hours.

Saturday

Short version: Scrambled eggs, tortillas and cheese, green peas

Long version: This is the, "we just got back from a long trip and this is the food that will last in the refrigerator/freezer while we're gone" dinner. It took us almost 14 hours to make the 10-hour drive home from Arizona. We left my parents' house at 4:30 a.m. and arrived at our house at 6:15 p.m. I started dinner immediately upon walking in the door. A. had to finish it because I had to put the hysterical baby to bed.

I've had better days.

The baby in a happier, non-hysterical time.

Sunday

Short version: Oven-fried pork chops, roasted potatoes, green beans

Long version: The green beans were from a huge bag of fresh ones my mom sent home with me. She said she and my dad would never finish them. I have no such problem. The boys ate theirs raw, as is their preference. I roasted the rest on the pan with the potatoes, with olive oil and garlic. They were delicious.

Monday

Short version: Venison with garlic butter, potatoes, green peas

Long version: I used the last roast from Ray's deer leg for this meal. A few hours before dinner, after it was thawed all the way, I dumped some of my apple vinegar, oil, garlic powder, and lots of salt and pepper on it in the bag it was in to marinate. I browned it all over in a hot skillet, cooked some sliced onions in the pan, then added the thinly sliced venison back to the pan to cook a little more. I didn't overcook it this time, and it was quite tender and very good.

The potatoes were red potatoes. I never buy these--we always get russets--but my mother had added them to my pile of things to take home, so I did. I just chunked them up, boiled them until tender, then added lots of butter, salt, and pepper, and a little of the garlic butter I had made for the meat.

We eat a lot of frozen peas during particularly challenging weeks. A week in which we are moving  definitely counts as challenging.

Tuesday

Short version: Meatloaf, baked potatoes, green beans

Long version: Nah.

Wednesday

Short version: Bacon, scrambled eggs, tortillas and cheese, cabbage and onions, apple slices

Long version: You may notice this is the first time I have ever included fruit in our dinner menu. And that is because I don't see the sense in serving any form of sugar--even a natural one--in place of a vegetable.

However.

In my zealous packing of the kitchen, I emptied out the freezer and refrigerator of all vegetables, including the peas I had been planning to make. There was a bag of apples still, though, so that's what we had.

The cabbage was leftover from a couple of days ago, but Jack and I are the only ones who like cooked cabbage.

The boys thought having apples with dinner was very exciting. Cultivating low standards in children is an excellent thing.

Low standards were also the reason they thought these caramel flavored rice snacks I got for the car were the best things ever. They were pretty good, actually.

Thursday

Short version: I can see into the future . . .

Long version: I'm posting this before we have dinner tonight, because at dinner time we will be moved into our new house*, where there is no internet service yet. But I wouldn't want to leave you without the crucial knowledge of what we ate on Thursday night. That would be cruel.

So! My plan is to not cook, because I know I will be exhausted. I have cheese, salami, crackers, apple slices, grapes, peanut butter, cream cheese, and carrot sticks that will all be presented for the children to make their own plates.

I will also be making them some grapefruit juice with the fresh grapefruits we brought from my brother's backyard tree in Arizona. They can toast to our new house with that. A. and I will be toasting with the extra-large bottle of gin on the liquor cabinet. I already have seltzer in the refrigerator for making my drink, because I may not be able to find the the nail clippers (or anything else), but I know where everything is for my celebratory cocktail.

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

* With horrific amounts of unpacking and organizing to be done, but moved in! Yay! Dealing with two houses is for the birds, man. I will never buy a second home.