Friday Food: Back in My Own Kitchen

Friday

Short version: Breakfast sausage links, rice, sauteed sugar snap peas/mushrooms/garlic

Long version: I had purchased the sausage before we left for our trip, figuring it would be a good thing to have on hand for a quick dinner if we got home late and didn't stop at a store. We didn't get home late, though, and we did stop to get eggs for the sick children, so I made the sausage this night instead.

The peas were overly mature ones from our plants. They were too starchy to be good raw, but cooked, they were very good.

Saturday

Short version: Tacos, watermelon

Long version: Our forecast was calling for 100 degrees this day, so I made the taco meat in the morning while it was still relatively cool. That way, when the kitchen was 85 degrees, I just had to microwave the tortillas and cheese and add the meat and toppings.

This was A.'s seeded watermelon. We ate a lot of it.

Sunday

Short version: Ribeye steaks with basil/shallot butter, boiled potatoes, cucumbers with salt and vinegar, chocolate banana ice cream

Long version: I made the butter because I had pinched off the tips of my basil to keep them from flowering and ended up with just a tablespoon or so. Not enough for much, but enough for a butter flavoring. The shallot was a last-minute addition when I ended up with half a shallot (one of ours, gratifyingly--shallots appear to grow well here) left after cutting one for my salad.

I dug up my experimental potato plant near the lettuce because it had already flowered and was looking pretty dry and sad. The harvest was not impressive.

AA battery for scale. Pathetic.

Good thing I had a ten-pound bag of store potatoes on hand.

We had the banana ice cream because A) It was Sunday and a homemade dessert is required on Sundays and B) When A. went to the store for me with a list that included bananas, he came home with fourteen bananas.

That's a lot of bananas.

I make the standard frozen bananas whirred to ice cream in a food processor, with the addition of a little cream and cocoa. I like peanut butter in it, too, but was vetoed this time.

My freezer here must freeze things at a lower temperature, because the food processor almost rocketed off the counter when I turned it on. It did eventually break down the bananas, but they looked kind of like a granita. So I added milk until it got to a creamy consistency, because no one wants to eat frozen banana sand. Well, maybe someone does, but not me.

I am always amazed that frozen bananas and cocoa can make something that is startlingly like a Frosty. Miraculous.

Monday

Short version: Pot roast, leftover potatoes, green beans, kohlrabi greens, Tim Tams

Long version: One of the things we got from Ray's delivery of his excess meat was something labeled "Pike's Peak Roast." I had no idea what this was, but the internet told me. It's for pot roasting. So I did that.

The frozen green beans and kohlrabi greens (also frozen--I harvested and froze those right before our trip) were just chucked straight into the pot with the meat and liquid. Fancy,

Okay. So Tim Tams. These are an Australian biscuit. What I would call a cookie, of course, but that's because I'm American.

My sister sent them to us--along with several other Australian treats--because she was in Australia last month for a World Strongman competition that her husband competed in.

Tim Tams have cookies in the middle and are coated with chocolate. My sister shipped these from Florida to our home in New Mexico. In July. They were a bit messy.

Just a bit.

Worth it, though.

Tuesday

Short version: Cube steak stir-fry with peanut sauce, rice

Long version: Still one of my favorites. It seems sad that I just discovered the wonders of peanut butter in stir-fry sauce in my 39th year on this planet.

Wednesday

Short version: Bacon, fried eggs, garlic bread, fried tomatoes, cucumbers with vinegar and salt, Grandma Brown's baked beans

Long version: My sourdough starter is mad at me. Per all the standard advice, I froze it while we were gone because I didn't want to bring it with me and bake at Blackrock. Everyone says it will thaw out and be right back to normal.

It didn't.

I don't know what's up with it exactly. I've never been very interested in all the technicalities of sourdough baking; I just do it with the starter A. started years and years ago and the MiL used for so many years. But now, though it seems to be rising, it has a really strong, alcohol-y smell and the bread I baked with it, while edible, did not rise while baking and has a very sour taste.

No one else minded the taste, but I hate it. So I'm continuing to work with the starter, trying to coax it back to its former self.

Anyway.

This was the day I baked the sour bread, along with a head of garlic. The bread was okay sliced and covered with butter and the roasted garlic and broiled. Okay, but not good.

So much boo.

The baked beans were from a giant can the MiL bought for us when we were in New York and never ate. It is a LOT of beans. I'll have to freeze some.

Thursday

Short version: Pork with apricot sauce, leftover rice, steamed carrots, frozen green beans, baked beans

Long version: When I called our chicken-sitter--Jack's preschool teacher--to see when we should come pick up our chickens, she mentioned she was elbow-deep in apricots from her brother's apricot tree. She had picked 92 pounds of apricots from his tree.

We have an apricot tree, too. We are ten miles from her brother's house, and we have harvested exactly eight apricots. I think we lost a lot of our fruit to high winds that weren't such a problem at her brother's house in the village, where it's more protected by buildings.

When I expressed my delight (and jealousy) at her great good fortune, she said there was actually a second round of apricots on her brother's tree that were getting ripe and told us we were welcome to go pick some.

So we did.

I love apricots so much.

Since there was a box of apricots sitting on the woodstove, I used them in the pork I was slow cooking. I did it in the morning, as it was going to be close to 90 degrees in the afternoon. All I did was lay out the country-style pork ribs in a big Pyrex dish and cover them with salt, balsamic vinegar, mustard, a drizzle of maple syrup, and about six pulled-apart apricots. Then I covered the dish and baked it at 350 for a few hours. When the pork was tender I poured off the sauce and put both parts in the refrigerator.

At dinnertime, I took the fat off the sauce, reduced it, added some chicken stock, pulled the pork into pieces, fried it in bacon fat to get it brown, and then added the sauce. It was really good, though it needed more sauce.

Today is A. and my's wedding anniversary. Sixteen years of marriage, and there will be no fancy dinner. Why? Because A) We have four little kids, and B) The nearest fancy restaurant is like 150 miles away. But who needs wine and candlelight when you have hamburgers and pasta with pesto from homegrown basil?

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