Friday Food: Illustrated With Random Photos

A. takes my cell phone with him now when he's driving the school bus, as it's the only one that we have and there are no longer radios in buses. This means that he almost always has my camera. And thus, I have very few photos. Let's see what I can scrounge up, shall we?

Friday

Short version: Tuna salad, garlic bread, raw cucumbers and tomatoes

Long version: Cubby and A. were gone all day, scouting for Cubby's elk hunt coming up in a couple of weeks, so I thought the two younger boys and Poppy would like to have tuna salad with the garlic bread I made. I had some leftover soup. I thought Cubby and A. would eat some of the leftover beef rib taco meat, but they ended up finishing the tuna salad instead.

Whatever. Everyone ate.

Saturday

Short version: T-bone steaks, rice, steamed broccoli, leftover sauteed summer squash

Long version: This seems to be a banner year for summer squash in Rafael's garden. I will never complain about free vegetables, even if they're not my favorite kind.

Ah yes, the books I lent to a fellow mom. I took the photo so I would remember which ones she has.

Sunday

Short version: Italian beef stew, pasta with marinara sauce, roasted summer squash, foraged fruit betty

Long version: "Italian" means I cooked stew meat with tomatoes--the leftover juices from cooking the ribs the week before, actually, plus some extra juice from another can of tomatoes--plus garlic, onion, basil, and oregano. I also added some of the too-large and starchy green beans to cook for awhile at the end.

The actual tomatoes from the can I used to make the marinara sauce, mostly in the food processor, which I already had out to make bread crumbs for the betty.

This betty had the last of the peaches from the orphan tree by the post office, a few pears Rafael got from a friend of his, plus some more pears from the tree in front of the village offices, and some plums Rafael gave us because he wasn't going to eat them. The plums were just from the store, but they were fine for the betty.

It turned out well again. Kind of hard to go wrong with fruit covered in butter, sugar, and cinnamon, I guess. I didn't have ice cream or heavy cream this time, so I served it with maple-syrup-sweetened yogurt, which was very good and much cheaper and more readily available than the other options.

Monday

Short version: Various leftovers, tomato/cucumber/cheese salad

Long version: A. and I finished the beef rib taco meat. The children ate the leftover pasta with added cheese--Monterey Jack, because I didn't have any asadero--and some of the Italian stew meat.

Mondays and Wednesdays are now for leftovers. Amen.

Tuesday

Short version: Barbecue beef, garlic bread, roasted bell pepper/onion/summer squash, raw tomatoes

Long version: I've gotten awfully lazy with the big roasts. I don't even get them out the day before because they take up so much room in the refrigerator while they're thawing, so they're always completely frozen when I need to start cooking them. This means I can't brown them before I braise them. I usually brown the meat after it's all cooked and pulled into pieces. This time I put barbecue sauce over the pulled-apart meat and stuck it under the broiler for a few minutes.

You can always assume that if you see a day in which I make garlic bread for dinner and a bunch of roasted vegetables, it's a day on which I have baked bread. I use some of the dough for the garlic bread and fill the rest of the oven with vegetables while the bread is baking at high heat. So efficient. And tasty.

Time for another photo!

Tuesday was really rainy, so I broke out this stuff my parents left for the kids that's like a less-messy alternative to modeling clay. I did not break out the liquor you see classily displayed on the windowsill (thanks to the marauding baby grabbing it off the shelves meant for its storage in that nice liquor cabinet on the background), which was also left behind by my parents.

Wednesday

Short version: Refreshed leftovers, bread and butter, sauteed summer squash, raw tomatoes

Long version: If leftovers are on the menu, it must be a workday.

I had quite a bit of the Italian stew left over from Sunday, but there wasn't enough meat left in it. So I just browned a pound of ground beef and dumped in the stew. I also put in some extra garlic, salt, pepper, and vinegar, because I felt it needed a flavor boost. It came out well.

Thursday

Short version: T-bone steaks, mashed potatoes, sauteed summer squash, tomato salad with basil

Long version: I made a little more effort with this meal, because we had a guest with us. And by "effort," I mean I added a clove of garlic to the mashed potatoes, and another to the squash, and went to all the trouble to get fresh basil for the tomato salad.

A.'s friend did say the tomatoes were really good, so I'm glad I walked those twenty yards.

The friend drove from eastern Texas to go elk hunting with A. today. I made six steaks, four of which were for dinner last night, two of which I cut up and made into foil packets with a bunch of boiled potatoes and butter so the men could warm them up over their campfire tonight. After that, they have to kill an elk and eat the liver or something, because they don't have the room in their backpacks for more cooked food. Or possibly the stamina to carry the weight of more cooked food into the wilderness for six miles.

Better them than me.

One last photo! The most random of all. And I think probably not my work.

A lone running shoe and lonely sock, abandoned and out of focus by the trash can. I feel like there's a metaphor in here somewhere.

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