Friday Food: Short and Sweet

I seem to have been uncharacteristically succint in my food reporting this week. I promise I won't let it happen again.

Friday 

Short version: Leftover meatballs, shrimp, rice, frozen green beans, and soup

Long version: I woke up with a cold this morning, so I made soup for myself. Just some of the leftover meatballs with some of my canned rooster stock, onion, garlic, celery, carrots, and frozen green beans. A. and Cubby ate that, too, with the addition of the leftover shrimp, while the other children had the plain leftovers.

Saturday

Short version: Fried bull meat, bread and butter, frozen peas

Long version: I used one and a half quarts of the canned bull meat for this--just fried in tallow with salt, paprika, and garlic powder--saving the remainder of the meat and liquid for the next day.

Pause for some horse hoof trimming.

Not a skill A. ever expected he would need, but here we are.

Sunday

Short version: Two revealing stews

Long version: A. had purchased some pigs' feet last time he was at a store, because he loves to make stew with them. I . . . do not. So I left the pigs' feet to him. He cooked them with a package of pork necks, a huge onion, several heads of garlic, and about five hot roasted green chilis Miss Amelia gave me that I've been afraid to use because even the mild chilis can be too spicy for me.

It was a strong soup.

For the less bold among us, I made a stew with the bull meat, a jar of pressure-canned beef stock, onion, garlic, celery, carrots, mild green chilis, frozen corn, a can of kidney beans, and some sour cream.

The boys ate my stew with a little of A.'s fiery broth mixed in, and declared it good. I thought that was a fitting representation of how A. and I parent: A combination of stability on my end and excitement on his.

Poppy also ate several of the pigs' feet. My southern grandfather used to eat pickled pigs' feet, so I guess she's just carrying on a family tradition.

Monday

Short version: Beef pot roast, roasted potatoes, frozen peas

Long version: A small arm roast cooked with salt, pepper, tomato juice, and sliced onions. Pretty basic. As is most of my cooking.

The only load of laundry I managed to do this week was, of course, dried inside on the drying rack the MiL gave me.

Disembodied hand courtesy of Poppy.

And why was it the only load of laundry I did this week? Because the ground froze, and with it, the drain pipe for the washing machine. Good thing there was no school this week, thanks to frozen and burst pipes in the elementary school. No one can tell how dirty your clothes are on Zoom.

Tuesday

Short version: Carnitas-style pork, garlic bread, cucumbers with salt and vinegar

Long version: I finally conquered the last intimidatingly large package of pork in the freezer, cooking about a third of it, and hacking the rest into manageable pieces before putting it back in the freezer. I had been dreading dealing with that for awhile, so it's nice to have it done.

Wednesday

Short version: Cubby's tomato soup, grilled cheese sandwiches, scrambled eggs with cream cheese

Long version: Cubby has been wanting to make the tomato soup recipe from his ATK kids' cookbook again for awhile, and I figured Ash Wednesday was a good opportunity. Kids aren't required to fast or abstain from meat, but I make meatless food for them anyway. It's not going to impact their health, and it's a good reminder that it's a notable day.

Anyway.

We made a quadruple recipe of this soup, which is "creamy" from the bread that's cooked and blended into the soup. It's a good thing we made so much, because all the boys ate multiple bowls and it's all gone.

It is very good tomato soup.

Sandwiches seemed like a bit of overkill, given the bread in the soup, but I gave each kid half a sandwich anyway. They were pleased. It's certainly not much of a penance to be meat-free if this is what they have for dinner instead.

The eggs were for A. and me.

Thursday

Short version: Carnitas tacos, with avocado!

Long version: Just the leftover pork fried for tacos, but we had avocados, thanks to A.'s trip to get hay earlier in the week.

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