Friday Food: The End of the Tomatoes

Friday

Short version: Pizza, pork, green salad with ranch dressing

Long version: A meal that was foreordained by the foods on hand. Dough from the bread I was baking that day plus some of Finny's sauce from a batch I had made to freeze plus asadero cheese from the freezer=pizza. A bit of lettuce in the refrigerator plus a bit of ranch dressing that needed to be used=salad. And the leftover pork for A. and me.

Saturday

Short version: Breakfast sausage patties, scrambled eggs, mashed potatoes, fried tomatoes and onions, leftover coleslaw

Long version: I get 50-pound bags of potatoes from the school Sysco ordering program. The variety of potato in the boxes is not the same every time. Last time, it was a waxy variety of potato. This time, it was nice big russets. That made me happy, because russets make much fluffier, and therefore more delicious, mashed potatoes.

Sunday

Short version: Tuna patties, oven fries, green salad with vinagrette, peanut butter balls

Long version: French fries are also more delicious made with russets. Hooray for russets. 

I much prefer a vinagrette dressing for salads. The rest of my family does not agree, which is why I've been making ranch dressing most frequently lately. I decided to indulge myself with a vinagrette this time, though. Because I am a master of self-care.

Ahem.

Cubby usually chooses and mostly bakes our Sunday desserts now, but I decided on this one. Two reasons: One is that A. can eat it because it doesn't have any flour in it. Two is that we were almost out of eggs, and this doesn't use any.

It also doesn't hurt that it is insanely delicious. It's like a superior version of commercial peanut butter cups. The dipping in chocolate is messy and annoying, but the end result is most definitely worth it. I hadn't made it in a long time, and everyone is now thinking it would be an excellent permanent Sunday dessert. Which would mean this would be our Sunday night face:

The chocolate-smeared face is a sign of great happiness.

Monday

Short version: Leftover pork, chicken patties, rice, mashed squash, frozen peas

Long version: Pork for A. and me, those frozen chicken patties for the kids, and nothing remotely exciting otherwise. Must be a workday.

Tuesday

Short version: Oxtail vegetable soup, grilled cheese

Long version: We're getting pretty low on meat, which means I'm much more motivated to use the packages that have been sitting at the bottom of the refrigerator for a long time. Like the package of oxtail.

It's not really an ox's tail, of course. It's just the tail from the cow we bought almost two years ago. It looks pretty gross, since it's literally just a skinned and partially segmented cow's tail, but it makes excellent stock. All that cartilage, you know.

Anyway.

I browned and simmered the tail in the morning, then did the tedious job of pulling the meat off the bones. It never looks like a lot, but I got over a cup of meat from the tail. Enough for soup. Which is what I made, with the meat, the broth, onion, garlic, tomato, carrots, potatoes, green beans, and peas.

The kids thought it was hilarious we were eating a cow's tail. "Did it have poop on it?" they asked. Har har.

Grilled cheese to fill things in a little. Because a cup of meat in a whole pot of soup may be enough, but it's not a lot.

Wednesday

Short version: Leftover soup, scrambled eggs, rice, tomatoes or frozen peas

Long version: Workday. Leftovers and scrambled eggs. The end.

Thursday

Short version: Beef goulash with sauerkraut and carrots, mashed potatoes, mashed squash, frozen peas

Long version: This was the very last package of actual meat from the cow we got two years ago. Now all that's left are nasty organ meats, fat, and soup bones. Time for another cow.

We were anticipating a freeze this night, and I decided it wasn't really worth covering the tomato plants again. So we harvested all the tomatoes, ripe or not.

Poppy and Charlie--who was home from school with a slight sore throat, but was otherwise fine--helped me.

"These aren't plants!" exclaimed Charlie. "This is a jungle." Accurate.

Odin helped, too.

Well, he was willing, but his lack of opposable thumbs made him quite ineffective.

We harvested a lot of tomatoes--most of them green--but I didn't use any of them in the goulash. I elected to open a can of already prepared tomatoes instead of chopping up two cups of fresh tomatoes. Lazy.

I used my own sauerkraut, though! It was the sauerkraut Poppy and I started a couple of weeks ago. I just scooped out a cup or so and then covered the rest up to keep sauering.

Also our squash, of course. Forever.

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