Friday Food: Heeey Kiiids! It's TESTICLE TIME!

 

Friday

Short version: Bull goulash, garlic bread

Long version: I cooked the bull meat for this for almost 8 hours, and it wasn't too chewy. Certainly not falling apart, but not as tough as before. 

I also added sauerkraut, carrots, and green beans to the goulash, turning it into more of a soup, I suppose, but I am all about one-bowl meals and not cooking a separate vegetable, so there you go.

Saturday

Short version: Pork roast, roasted potatoes, green salad with ranch dressing

Long version: This salad came entirely from the garden, which is pretty remarkable for mid-November. The lettuce was mostly Cubby's lettuce, which is in a sunnier spot than mine in the backyard. I did use some from my planting, though, which is also remarkable, because I didn't even cover it when we had the last cold snap. Which means that it survived 12 degrees without any protection.

The carrots survived, too, although they were covered. I dug up a few at the end of the row that I had never thinned, and they were like very, very small. Like mini baby carrots. Fine for a salad, though.

The tomatoes were from the boxes of green tomatoes that Charlie and Poppy helped me pick before the freeze a month ago. They've been slowly turning red ever since.

Sunday

Short version: Pizza, testicles, yogurt with maple syrup, carrot sticks, candy bowl

Long version: I was making bread again, so I made a pizza this time with some extra dough, rather than the usual garlic bread. I didn't have any asadero cheese, so I just used a mixture of store-brand "sharp" cheddar (more like medium cheddar), good extra sharp cheddar, and Parmesan. That, plus some bacon and Finny's sauce, was the pizza.

It was good, but because there was only one, it wasn't enough. Good thing A. fried the testicles from the lamb he killed on Friday! The kids don't mind the taste, but they're not huge fans of the squishy texture, so they each only ate one slice. And then they finished their meal off with some yogurt and maple syrup. Except Cubby, who had some walnuts.

I did not make a dessert, but the candy bowl is still well stocked from Halloween. It was fine.

Monday

Short version: Breakfast sausage patties, chicken patties, Grandma Brown's baked beans, rice, tomato salad

Long version: Oh man, this was A DAY. I sprained my ankle in the morning right before work on the steps leading into our living room, so I was gimping around all day, and then my stomach started feeling less than stellar in the late afternoon.

I still made dinner, though. Albeit an easy dinner. 

I ate some rice and declared myself done with the day. A. did all the dishes. Good man.

Tuesday

Short version: Lamb, garlic bread, frozen green peas

Long version: An even worse day, health-wise. I spent the day napping every few hours, in between helping A. butcher the ram and watching Poppy.

In truth, A. did almost all the cutting of the meat, and I just labeled the bags and got everything in the freezer.  And cleaned up. 

Poppy helped us cut up the backstrap:

It was surprising to everyone.

Though really, she mostly watched quite a bit of Berenstain Bears on YouTube.

Whatever. I got through the day, and even made dinner.

The lamb was the backstrap of the ram, which I marinated in red wine, olive oil, garlic powder, and salt, then fried in its own fat. I made a sauce for it with more red wine and the very last cube of garlic scape pesto. Tasty.

Wednesday

Short version: More lamb, leftover sausage, leftover rice, more green peas

Long version: I was feeling better and went to work, but was pretty tired by the time I got home. I hadn't cooked all of the piece of lamb backstrap the day before, so I made the last of that. Plus the leftovers.

Thursday

Short version: Pasta, leftovers, green salad with ranch dressing

Long version: The only thing I made for this dinner was the pasta, which was just pasta, some of Finny's sauce I already had in the refrigerator, some sneaky pureed squash I put in there, and asadero cheese. The kids ate that, plus salad.

This was the first salad in many months that was made of store-bought lettuce. The end of an era.

A. had the leftover lamb with Finny's sauce and asadero, plus a potato I nuked, and some leftover peas.

I had a salad with salami, Parmesan, leftover peas, and the leftover tomato salad. It tasted like an antipasto salad. That is, good.

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