Friday Food: Full-time and Not Loving It

Another full work week. I don't know when the other teacher's aide is going to be able to work again, but I guess the school year is over in three weeks anyway, so the end is in sight in one way or another.

Friday 

Short version: Quickie stir-fry, rice, oatmeal chocolate chip cookies

Long version: I spent a lot of time this day doing a lot of things other than cooking--mostly laundry and garden things--and we ate early so A. could take Cubby and Calvin camping/turkey hunting. So I went with the path of least resistance. Two bags of stir-fry vegetables, a quart jar of canned bull meat, soy sauce, vinegar, ginger powder, garlic powder, peanut butter, done.

After the hunting party left, the remaining two children helped me make cookies. They each had two cookies for their dinner. There has to be some compensation to not going camping.

Pause for a random photo!

This is my brother in Tucson, who completely unconsciously assumed the pose of Rodin's "The Thinker." But with clothes. Good thing, given the wide variety of thorny things in the Sonoran Desert.

Saturday

Short version: Bunless cheeseburgers, baked beans, leftover rice, cucumbers with salt and vinegar, oatmeal chocolate chip cookies

Long version: I canned more pinto beans this day, and had some beans that I had quick-soaked and needed to cook. So I cooked them (allll the way with nothing but salt and water, because I can learn), then dumped them in a casserole dish with a few slices of crumbled bacon, ketchup, mustard, vinegar, and maple syrup. Three out of four children gave them the thumbs up. The fourth child doesn't really like baked beans, so I didn't worry about him.

Our priest has decided to have the last Mass of the month at our church on Saturday afternoon, which means once a month we don't have to wake up early to get to an 8 a.m. Mass. It also means I let the kids have the rest of the cookies on Saturday, since that was technically our church day ,and church days are for homemade desserts.

Sunday

Short version: Pot roast and beef ribs with green garlic puree, garlic bread, roasted peppers and onions, pureed calabaza, raw tomatoes, marshmallows with or without peanut butter

Long version: In the morning I put a chuck roast and two beef ribs in my enameled dutch oven with some diced onion from the freezer, tomatoes, and bay leaves, and cooked that until it was done.

At dinnertime, I pulled the meat off the bone and mixed it with some green garlic puree I made with, well, green garlic.

Green garlic is just like green onions, but, obviously, it's garlic, not onions. We have volunteer garlic eeeeeverywhere, and A. told me anything outside his main garlic plantation is fair game for early harvesting. So I dug up all of the garlic around my lettuce box and used that for this meal.

Green garlic before cleaning.

I put the cleaned garlic, greens and all, in the food processor with enough olive oil to make it smooth and processed it into a puree. The resulting puree was a startlingly bright green.

It looked kind of like if Slimer got liquefied.

It was very tasty with the meat, despite its unsettling appearance.

I mostly gave the kids a marshmallow each because I needed something to bribe Calvin and Jack so I could cut their nails without too much drama. A. introduced the children to the concept of marshmallows with peanut butter, which I had never heard of before. Jack and Poppy prefer the marshmallows with the peanut butter, the other two prefer their marshmallows plain.

Monday

Short version: Scrambled eggs, leftover rice, pinto beans, frozen peas

Long version: Some scrambled eggs with cheese and salsa (fiesta eggs!), some plain. A good, quick after-work dinner.

Tuesday

Short version: Ground beef tacos, pinto beans, leftover cucumber slices, pureed squash, chocolate chip cookie bars

Long version: The fastest taco meat I could make was browned ground beef, some of the Slimer green garlic puree, the last few tomatoes in the can in the refrigerator mashed up, salsa, chili powder, cumin, and vinegar.

The pinto beans were even faster. Pressure-canning pinto beans so they're ready to eat is one of the best new things I've started doing.

And why did we have a dessert on a random Tuesday night? Because I offered to bring in a treat for the elementary kids who are doing their state testing. They're all kind of nervous about it. Nothing like a homemade baked treat to calm the nerves.

Last week, Cubby's class had the science portion, and I made them blueberry muffins.

This week, it's both Cubby's and Calvin's classes for language and math on Wednesday and Thursday. Thus, chocolate chip cookie bars. Waaaay faster than actual cookies. It took all of ten minutes to get these in the oven.

Anyway. When I cut them up, I had 18 bars so the 9 students testing could have one after each session of their test Wednesday, and then exactly 4 left over. And how many children do I have? Right. And every single child was extremely surprised and thrilled when I called them in to the kitchen before bed and presented them with such an unexpected treat.

It's fun to be indulgent sometimes.

Wednesday

Short version: Steaks, pasta, green salad with ranch dressing, pureed calabaza

Long version: When I give the instructions for our cow at the butcher, I always ask for the steaks to be cut one inch thick. That's pretty thin, but the benefit of that is that they cook quickly. So steak is a fast food. Of the most delicious sort.

We have discovered that our children prefer their steak pretty rare. So I endeavor to keep the steaks about medium-rare to medium. I'm accustomed to cooking meat more well done, but I do my best.

The pasta for the kids had butter, cream cheese, and some of the Slimer garlic. I also put some of the Slimer garlic on the steaks for the adults. Handy stuff.

I did not measure when I made the ranch dressing because I was just trying to get dinner on the table as quickly as possible, but I promise I remember your request for a recipe, Linda. Maybe next time.

Thursday

Short version: Leftovers, scrambled eggs

Long version: Cubby and Jack had leftover stir-fry and rice.

Calvin and Poppy had scrambled eggs in corn tortillas with cheese. And still-frozen peas on the side.

A. and I had scrambled eggs with bacon and cream cheese, and pureed calabaza.

This all cleared out the refrigerator in a very satisfactory way.

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