Friday Food: We Need 103 Candles

Apparently, two weeks ago was my one hundredth Friday Food post. Let us all applaud the utter absurdity of my writing down every single dinner I make. With excessive commentary.

Done applauding? Okay! On to 103!

Friday

Short version: Scrambled eggs, oven fries, leftover pinto beans, steamed or roasted broccoli

Long version: I still had eight dozen or so eggs in the refrigerator, along with three egg whites left from when I made the custard. Scrambled eggs took care of the whites and at least some of the eggs.

I was going to make tortillas, but I figured it would be a better idea to keep chipping away at the sprouting potatoes. Nobody complained about the fries.

Saturday

Short version: Breakfast sausage patties with cream gravy, mashed potatoes, sauteed mushrooms, green salad

Long version: I had about half the tube of breakfast sausage left A. had bought, so I fried it in patties and made cream gravy in the pan with cornstarch and milk.

There wasn't really enough sausage, so I had a salad with some leftover carnitas pork and roasted vegetables, to which I added some dandelion greens I dug up when I was preparing more ground for planting cabbages. A spring tonic. With pork.

Sunday

Short version: Green chili beef stew, cornbread

Long version: I had a few cups of beef stock in the refrigerator I needed to use, and also a few cups of chicken stock I had made with the chicken bones left from dinner a couple of nights previously. So I took out a package of beef stew meat and used it, the stock, carrots, potatoes, and some of the roasted green chili we froze in the fall. It was quite good.

I made the cornbread to finally finish the last half cup of stone-ground cornmeal that's been sitting in the freezer for months. I needed a cup for the recipe I use for all-cornmeal cornbread, so I just used half a cup of masa, too. This actually made a very good cornbread. With honey, it was a good dessert.

Monday

Short version: Scrambled eggs, leftover stew, pinto beans, tortillas and cheese, carrot sticks

Long version: So many combinations possible with these foods, and as a family, we covered them all.

I cooked some dried pinto beans just to have on hand, and then added those to the leftover stew for me and Cubby. Jack ate a tortilla with cheese and pinto beans. Charlie ate his eggs in a tortilla and cheese as a taco. A. ate his eggs on top of tortillas and cheese.

Poppy ate everything, because that's what a two-year-old wants at all times: everything.

Tuesday

Short version: A very-not-Irish St. Patrick's Day feast.

Long version: We were supposed to go to a St. Patrick's Day dinner fundraiser at the village restaurant for the local EMS company, but that, along with everything else, has been postponed.

Plan B: Pasta with the last of the pesto still in the freezer from last summer. If not exactly Irish (or, uh, at all Irish) it's at least green. But then I remembered I was out of Parmesan cheese.

Plan C: Pesto pizza.

I was already making bread, so I just used some of the dough to make a pizza. Half had pesto, half had a bit of leftover pizza sauce from the last time I made pizza, all of it had asadero cheese.

I should have left a strip of white dough in the middle and then pretended I meant for it to look like the Irish flag.

St. Patrick's Day never tasted so good.

I also made some of the Italian sausages the MiL ferried here from Albuquerque, at the taste of which the whole family once again blessed the MiL's name.

As a nod to Irish cuisine, the children ate some raw cabbage as their vegetable. An odd assortment for a meal, but delicious nonetheless.

Wednesday

Short version: Carnitas tacos with homemade corn tortillas, refried beans, green salad

Long version: The last time A. went to the store, he returned with two ENORMOUS packages of pork butt. Seriously. They were obscene. Like almost twenty pounds each.

I've never seen such large packages of meat at that store, but then I remembered it's branding season on some ranches. This means the ranch wives are buying large quantities of food to feed the gathered branding crews.

Funny story: Last time I was at that same store, I was talking with the guy bagging up my groceries, and, obviously taking note of my very large quantity of food, he asked me if we were branding. Nope, just feeding my own crew of not-at-all useful junior cowboys.

Anyway. I cut the butts (heh) up into about eight large chunks. The carnitas were made from one chunk. There are many carnitas in our future.

Oh! And a good discovery this time. When I made tortillas, the seasoning on my cast iron griddle pan takes a hit, because the tortillas have no fat in them. But! If I use some of the rendered lard from cooking the pork to fry the pork pieces in, that re-seasons the cast iron right away.

Then I can use the rest of the lard to make the refried beans. It's all very efficient and pleasing. And, of course, delicious.

Thursday

Short version: Elk bites, oven fries, green salad

Long version: Marinated elk chunks fried with paprika and served with ketchup. And oven fries. There are never enough oven fries.

The day is coming soon when "green salad" here will mean MY LETTUCE, HOORAY! Soon.

And maybe "oven fries" will mean OUR POTATOES, HOORAY!

However, given that we just planted the potatoes two days ago, that will not be soon.

Okay, your turn! What'd you eat this week? And, more importantly, how are you doing during this bizarre moment in history?