Friday Food: Return of the Squash

Friday

Short version: Sirloin steaks, rice, green salad, steamed sweet potato

Long version: I very rarely cook sweet potatoes in the microwave; I much prefer the texture and taste when they're pan-fried or roasted. However, I spent almost all day outside digging in cold frames for the lettuce, cleaning out coolers, picking up pieces of glass, and various other necessary but tiring tasks. Thus, when 5 p.m. sneaked up on me and I had a hungry, crying baby clutching at my knees, I took the easy way out and nuked that sweet potato.

This is when I discovered that Poppy really likes microwaved sweet potato. She's never been all that enthusiastic about my roasted or pan-fried ones, but she was all about that microwaved one. She ate about half of it while I was making dinner.

She also gnawed a steak bone almost clean and ate about half a cup of rice during dinner, so I guess she was just really hungry.

Saturday

Short version: Pork, mashed potatoes, sauteed cauliflower with garlic, green peas

Long version: Another package of pork loin chops, another opportunity to be completely repetitive. As always, I just chunked the pork up and fried it in bacon grease with a lot of salt, pepper, garlic powder, and the MiL's paprika. I used up the last of that really good paprika this time, though, so maybe next time I'll have to make something different.

Have I mentioned that I never cut up cauliflower before it's cooked? I find it much easier to just cut off the stalk and leaves around the bottom and steam the whole head stem side down in a big pot. It gets less waterlogged this way, as what remains of the stem keeps it out of the water. Also, then you don't have those annoying little bits that always fall off when you're cutting off the florets.

Anyway, once it's almost all the way done, I take the whole thing out and then cut it into chunks. I usually saute it in olive oil with garlic at this point, although sometimes I saute it in coconut oil with curry powder. I wanted curried cauliflower this time, but I thought it would taste weird with the paprika pork.

In any case, it's always good, especially if you don't stir it too much and let the cauliflower get a little brown in the olive oil. Just add the garlic after the cauliflower is pretty much done in the oil, otherwise the garlic will burn and get bitter.

And speaking of mashed potatoes . . . When I was little, my dad referred to the conk-out-anywhere tiredness of children as "falling asleep in the mashed potatoes." As in, "Kristin is so tired she looks like she's about to fall asleep in the mashed potatoes."

Jack fell asleep in the mashed potatoes right on the living room steps. So of course I took a picture.

Sunday

Short version: Italian cube steak, pasta, roasted bell peppers and onions, steamed broccoli, chocolate coconut-flour cookies

Long version: "Italian"=I have tomatoes to use up. I had a can of tomatoes left after using the juice in the soup earlier in the week, so I made a sauce with mashed tomatoes, garlic, Vermouth, basil, and oregano, and baked the browned cube steaks in that. While that was in the oven, I also put in a pan of peppers and onions to roast.

The broccoli was a bag of prepared florets. It was the only kind at the grocery store. I had deep reservations about buying cut-up florets in a sealed bag, but they actually weren't that bad. I disapprove on principal, however, of buying things in plastic bags in general, and only having broccoli florets in particular. I like the stems. How come it's so hard to get the stems anymore?

Anyway.

I do approve of the cookies I made for our traditional homemade Sunday dessert. I used this recipe again, but didn't have any chocolate chips and so added about 1.5 tablespoons of cocoa powder. Also, I used maple syrup instead of honey. They were really good. For coconut flour cookies, that is. The texture is always going to be different than regular cookies, but they still tasted good. I actually liked them better with the cocoa powder instead of chocolate chips.

You may notice this is not a Superbowl sort of meal. That's because A. and I are so profoundly disinterested in football that I didn't even know it was Superbowl Sunday until we went to visit Miss Amelia and she had it on at her house. Her daughter told me who was playing, but I forgot already and I don't actually know who won.

We do have a real football, though. Charlie got it in the Christmas gift exchange at school. So maybe the kids will develop an interest on their own. Then they can play on the six-man football team that is occasionally scraped together with the school in the next village over. Some years. If there are enough players.

And if this one decides to play, they'll have to call it six-person football, thank you very much.

Monday

Short version: Rabbit and chicken with cream gravy, sourdough biscuits, frozen green beans

Long version: The rabbit was one that A. shot in the morning when he saw it near the lettuce beds. Wrong place, wrong time, rabbit. I browned it in butter and olive oil, along with a package of chicken thighs, then put the meat in the oven to finish cooking. In the skillet the meat was browned in, I added four cloves of crushed garlic and a half-pint jar of milk shaken with cornstarch to make the gravy.

I made the biscuits because in the morning I was at the point in bread-making where I take starter out for the next batch, so I figured I might as well take out a little more starter and make some sourdough biscuits. All my butter was frozen, so instead of cutting it in, I just grated it and stirred it in. Either way, it's a pain to incorporate butter.

I decided what our insane school mornings were missing is me trying to grate butter, measure yogurt and milk, and stir together both bread dough and biscuit dough while yelling at Cubby and Charlie to stop shooting their sister with Tinker Toy guns and get their shoes on so they don't miss the bus. So fun.

Those biscuits sure are good, though.

Tuesday

Short version: Bunless cheeseburgers, chicken soup

Long version: I had two chicken thighs left--from which I stripped off a surprisingly large quantity of meat--plus about a cup of gravy. I used these to make soup by adding onion, celery, carrot, potatoes, frozen peas, some venison stock from the freezer, and a bit of thyme. The soup wouldn't have been enough on its own. Thus, cheeseburgers.

Wednesday

Short version: Pot roast, rice, frozen peas

Long version: Long, long ago, in the ancient days before we had children, A. and I took a trip to Corning, New York. There you can visit the Corning Museum of Glass, which we did, and also buy a really, really big stainless-steel saute pan, which I did. I don't remember if this is something I got at a museum-affiliated kitchen store or what, but I think of this trip every time I use this pan because every time, I kick myself for not getting the matching lid.

That's a lot of kicking, because I use this big, straight-sided pan anytime I want to cook something acidic that would be bad for my cast iron skillets. Like this pot roast, which I cooked in tomato juice and which I had to cover with the cast iron lid from my really big cast-iron skillet.

The cast-iron lid fits, but I wish I had a glass or aluminum one. I've been wishing this for, what, 12 years now? Let this be a lesson to you, children: Always buy the matching lid. And perhaps the lesson to me is that I can probably just go on Amazon and get a matching lid for like ten bucks and not get mad at myself every time I make pot roast. Would that qualify as "self-care"?

Thursday

Short version: It's a Skillet Special! Plus pinto beans and the return of the squash.

Long version: Diced leftover pot roast, sauteed onions, mashed canned tomatoes, leftover rice, cumin, chile powder, grated cheddar cheese. There's dinner.

I used some of the liquid from the pot roast in the beans, and that was it besides salt and water. I didn't over-salt them this time. Yay me.

And yes, this was The Squash. The squash I spent a whole week trying to finish before finally giving up and freezing a quart-bag full. There had been enough of an absence for my fondness for squash to return.

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