Friday, August 21, 2020

Friday Food: Back to School

 

Friday

Short version: Scrambled eggs, rice, pinto beans, raw green beans and carrot thinnings

Long version: Oh look! A picture of quite unexciting food!

This is Jack's plate. The red stuff on his eggs is hot sauce, because he's a good New Mexican boy.

Saturday

Short version: Bunless hamburgers, garlic bread, fried mushrooms, roasted sweet potatoes/bell peppers/onion/Delicata squash

Long version: This was the first Delicata squash from the single plant that sprouted from the six seeds I planted. I put one piece on each of the children's plates, because they'd never had it before. None of the boys like squash, and they didn't like this, either. Poppy did, though. 

Sunday

Short version: Pork steaks, boiled potatoes, corn on the cob, chocolate chip cookies

Long version: Both the corn and the cookies were courtesy of Cubby. (That's some pleasingly inadvertent alliteration right there.)

He went with A. to get firewood last week some distance away, and they stopped at a store on the way home. Cubby spied the sweet corn in the produce section and asked A. to get some. So he did, and the children were very happy.

Cubby was also responsible for the cookies. He wandered into the kitchen at 3:30 p.m. and announced that he would take care of our Sunday dessert. He wanted to make cookies, which was not something I would have done in an 84-degree kitchen, but that was his choice. Unfortunately, we didn't have enough butter in the refrigerator and I had to get some out of the freezer. So the only cookie recipe he could make was the one from his cookbook that calls for melting the butter.

Those are the best chocolate chip cookies anyway, so it was fine.

Random photo break! Another from the elk scouting trip last week. 


This one includes Odin the One-Eyed Guard Dog, who drove off something very large from the campsite overnight. A. didn't see whatever it was, but he heard it crashing as it fled from Odin, so he's guessing it was a bear. Elk aren't likely to visit a campsite, and those were the only two large animals in the area. Good dog, Odin.

Monday

Short version: Overnight brisket, rice, frozen green peas

Long version: This was our first day of school for the year. This year, given the new requirements for class size and so on, I'm acting as assistant for the Kindergarten/1st grade teacher and essentially working as a classroom teacher. I knew it would be exhausting the first day, and I would not be brimming with cooking energy by the time we all got home. That's why I cooked the brisket the night before in the oven and then just sliced it in the morning and stuck it back in the refrigerator.

When we got home, I heated the brisket with barbecue sauce, made rice, and nuked some peas.

Then I lay down in bed to rest "for a minute" and actually fell asleep for about half an hour at 6 p.m.

Good call on making that brisket ahead of time.

Tuesday

Short version: Chicken, mashed potatoes, tomato salad, roasted calabacita and onions

Long version: This chicken was a clearance package of lemon-pepper seasoned giant chicken legs. There were four of the legs, and there was no way all of them were fitting in the skillet I started browning them in. So then I had to transfer the browned chicken to a 400 degree oven. It was much too hot in the kitchen for that, and it took a lot longer to cook them than I anticipated. 

It was 6 p.m. before we sat down to eat. We usually eat at 5 p.m. But at least there was tomato salad.

It's always exciting to have the first tomato salad of the season. I didn't have any asadero cheese for it, which I prefer, but just the tomatoes and basil with balsamic vinegar and olive oil was delicious.

Wednesday

Short version: Various foods in various combinations

Long version: Another work day for me, and also a rather hot day. My kingdom for a Wendy's.

However. 

Absent any options for food made by someone else, I went with my original plan. That is, I made some taco meat with the leftover shredded chicken by just putting the chicken in a skillet with a couple of tablespoons of salsa, and some chili powder and cumin. Charlie, Jack, and Poppy ate that in corn tortillas with cheese. They also had some green beans.

Cubby had some of the chicken on its own, plus the rest of the leftover mashed potatoes and some green beans.

A. had leftover brisket, leftover rice, and some leftover peas.

I had a salad with some of the leftover brisket in it. And I managed to stay awake until 8:30 p.m., so, you know, progress.

Thursday

Short version: Italian sliders, pasta with pesto, sauteed calabacita and tomatoes with garlic, frozen peas

Long version: The sliders are those small hamburgers seasoned like meatballs. Poppy and I made the pesto in the morning while we were watering the gardens and harvesting things, which included the tomatoes.

A. took a photo of our harvest for you:

That round pink thing in the front is a watermelon that wasn't quite ripe. It was at least as good as your average seedless watermelon, but definitely not all the way ready. There are about five more still on the vines, however, so we have great hopes that this will be the year we grow our own delicious seeded watermelons.

A. wants everyone (where "everyone"= "my mom") to see that I am not lacking fresh vegetables. So there. You see. I have many, many vegetables.

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


6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Here in the PA, schools are still deciding whether to have "regular" classes or online learning. Challenging.
BLT's, sweet corn, cantaloupe
takeout
fish taco's, cantaloupe
sloppy joes, roasted potatoes & green beans, cantaloupe
grilled pork chops, sauteed zucchini, carrots, mushrooms, & garlic bread
pizza, chips, tomato/peach basil salad
And for tonight either BLT's again, or chicken zucchini skillet.
Linda

Kristin @ Going Country said...

Linda: It's challenging either way. In-person schooling for our tiny school required hours and hours of planning regarding set-up for distancing, schedules so the groups aren't mixing at all, how to sanitize things, how to perform temperature and wellness checks . . . honestly, it's exhausting. But worth it for us to have our kids back with their classmates and teachers. And really the only way it worked for this school was because it's so small. I don't see how it would work in a larger school.

sherri said...

I so enjoy your inventive and filling menus but moreso I laugh out loud at your commentary and artistic voice. You speak frequently about the heat of the kitchen. Is there a reason you avoid using a grill? We find grilling outdoors a lifesaver here in the heat of the deep south.

Anonymous said...

We've been back in school a week today. It's been fine. We are not under any mandates as far as class size, masks are still optional as I type, and everyone is so relieved to have some level of education happening. Distance learning was a wreck — not awful for my household, but as I talk to my kids' teachers, a disaster overall and extra bad for some of the students.

That said, it seems to be general consensus that the two-week mark will be a tipping point. Either we'll continue this way for the year, or we'll get hosed and everyone will go home with their iPads and their math books. Time will tell, obvs.

It is also general consensus that our town had our covid outbreak before covid was really realized in the U.S. — from about Christmas to about Valentine's Day. I am very interested in seeing how this plays out, kind of from the perspective of an alien watching humanity. It's just interesting.

We've had food that has included frozen chicken nuggets and fries, fresh green beans, steak, a potato-egg-sausage skillet kind of thing, more fresh beans, sloppy joes, big salads, pancakes, and leftovers. I appreciate my 20 minutes assembling lunch boxes in the morning because it means I don't have to assemble a full meal at both noon and supper. I do need to decide what's for supper today, though.

Karen.

Kristin @ Going Country said...

Sherri: I complain ceaselessly about the heat (kind of you to say I just "speak frequently" about it :-) because we have no air conditioning. When I'm cooking dinner is the hottest time of day in my kitchen. We have an outdoor fireplace thing, but it doesn't draw well and requires using charcoal. A. doesn't like grilling, and I find it more trouble than it's worth generally to be running in and out to cook. If we had a propane grill, I might use it, but I dislike dealing with charcoal.

Karen.: Our state has a lot more requirements for in-person schooling, but yes, generally we're all kind of waiting for the hammer to fall and be back at home with our four laptops.

mil said...

On the vegetable theme:
Friday: caprese salad, leftover sauted vegetable mixture
Saturday: Genoese style baked fish (potatoes, thinly sliced, olive oil, garlic, etc.)
Sunday: bacon, lettuce, and tomato with extra lettuce subbing in for bread. Peaches and cream.
Monday: skillet dinner with squash, onions, tomatoes, eggs, and cheese.
Tuesday: huge salad of tomatoes and green beans with garlic infused dressing, potato with butter. Peaches and cream.
Wednesday: lamb shoulder chop, steamed cousa squash with lemon and butter. Peaches and cream.
Thursday: burger; snacks with cocktails on the porch with a few friends, gazpacho.