Friday Food: A Rather Random Week

I feel like I was all over the place with cooking this week. Some weeks are like that.

Friday

Short version: A cobbled-together meatless meal

Long version: I was out of eggs and almost out of cheese, which left me with beans and tuna.

I made some pinto beans, into which I added most of the extra sauce from the chili from a couple of days before. I roasted a sweet potato, a bell pepper, and an onion, and ate all that together with the beans and some sour cream for my meal.

With the tuna, I made a skillet thing with onion, celery, tuna, mayonnaise, shredded cheddar, and green peas. A. ate that. The kids also ate that, with some of Miss Amelia's sopaipillas on the side. We had gone to bring her some bread earlier in the day and walked in just as she started frying sopaipillas. So the kids got to eat fresh, hot, homemade sopaipillas with honey at Miss Amelia's house, and she sent some home with us, too.

Lucky kids.

Saturday

Short version: Brisket, boiled potatoes, steamed carrots and broccoli, a classic A. Stew

Long version: A. used the stock he had made from the sheep bones to make one of his pigs' feet/hominy/chili stews. So he ate that.

For the brisket, I just browned it and then dumped in sliced onion, some canned tomatoes, mustard, ketchup, apple cider vinegar, and a little maple syrup. This made something that tasted more or less like barbecue sauce. I cooked the brisket in the oven for several hours. Not as long as I was going to, though, as I checked on it at 1 p.m. and realized that the oven had stopped working.

Appliance Man to the rescue!

A. spent some time looking at repair videos online and took the oven apart to clean out the igniter that was apparently covered with ash. Such a useful man, that A.

I didn't bother putting the brisket back in, though. It was pretty much done, so I let it cool, then sliced it and re-warmed the slices in the sauce at dinnertime.

Sunday

Short version: Fried eggs, fried leftover potatoes, leftover vegetables

Long version: Fry it all in bacon fat and call it dinner. The end.

A. ate more of his stew. He will be eating more of his stew for the foreseeable future. As always.

Monday

Short version: A New Mexico feast courtesy of the American Legion

Long version: We went to a dinner sponsored by the county's American Legion and they had a really impressive spread of food. There were three kinds of enchiladas--red with beef, green with chicken, and green with cheese--pinto beans, chips and salsa, tortillas, and various kinds of desserts.

My only complaint is that there were about eight different kinds of desserts, and not a single one contained chocolate.

Then again, I didn't have to cook or clean up, so in the end, I have no complaints at all. Thank you, American Legion.

Tuesday

Short version: Miss Amelia's leftovers, cube steaks, baked sweet potato, oven-caramelized onion, green salad

Okay, most important thing first: That salad? MY LETTUCE.

Still in its very classy cold frame.

You can see that I have waaay fewer plants than I started with, but the cold had its way with everything but the ones planted under glass.

No matter. I'm eating homegrown lettuce in April. Thank you, A.

Miss Amelia's leftovers were enchiladas, Spanish rice, pinto beans, and some eggs in red chili sauce that she sent over. The eggs were kind of an odd texture, so I threw them out--sorry, Miss Amelia--and used the sauce instead to cook the cube steaks (browned, with onion and garlic). Because I had the oven on for awhile to cook the cube steaks, I also baked the sweet potato and a beet (saved for a later meal) and then I also thinly sliced the half an onion left from the meat and put that in a dish with a bunch of butter and salt to caramelize.

I will definitely do that with onion again. Yum.

The kids ate the enchiladas and rice, A. ate his stew with some added cube steak, and I ate a salad with the cube steak, sweet potato, onion, and some leftover cooked carrots and green beans.

Wednesday

Short version: Leftover cube steak made into tacos, raw vegetables with ranch dip

Long version: The vegetables were the leftovers from my assigned "healthy snack" that I brought for Jack's class Easter party. The children were shocked and amazed that I bought baby carrots.

I know. Lazy and shameful.

These boys are not lazy. Or rather, these monkeys climbing this tree are not lazy. And they really like baby carrots. Don't get used to them, monkeys.

Thursday

Short version: Pork chunks, rice, frozen green beans

Long version: Another class party, this time for Cubby and Charlie, although I was not assigned a healthy snack for this one, so I made brownies and chocolate-chip-cookie bars.

We did not have those for dinner.

I was kind of out of energy to make much for dinner. Sauteed pork chunks, rice, and green beans seemed manageable. And thus it was done.

Okay, your turn! What'd you have for dinner?