Friday Food: Chicken Beer

Friday 

Short version: Scrambled eggs, chili pinto beans, rice, carrot sticks with curry dip

Long version: I put some of the sauce I had drained off the Costco barbacoa in with the beans.

That's about it.

Saturday

Short version: Barbecue beef, garlic bread, coleslaw

Long version: I'm having barbecue sauce issues. The only purchased barbecue sauce I really like is NY-state specific, and that really can't be ordered online without paying exorbitant shipping costs. I've tried several Texas barbecue sauces, and they're all too spicy. A lot are also too sweet.

But I was tired of being out of barbecue sauce, so I went ahead and ordered the barbecue sauce that comes through the school Sysco program. I had tasted the barbecue sauce used in our cafeteria, and it was fine, so I figured I'd just get that.

Unfortunately, what came is NOT the same as what I tasted. And there's a gallon of it.

It's okay, but it has a very strong smoke flavor, so if I use too much, it makes food taste kind of burned. Boo. I can use it, but sparingly, and I need to dilute it with more vinegar, I think.

I did one last big harvest of the spring-planted vegetables this day:

Very satisfying.

There will be a bit of lull now until the summer vegetables--mostly green beans and tomatoes--are ready.

Sunday

Short version: Steaks, dill potato salad, green salad with ranch dressing, baked custard

Long version: I know, steaks are the ultimate cliche for a Father's Day dinner. But A. likes steak, so I guess he's a cliche too.

I made the same potato salad with lots of fresh dill that I made for our roadtrip, because A. loved it so much. This time I halved the sugar, with no appreciable difference.

I overbaked the custards, so they were a little separated, rather than smooth and unctuous. But at least I had a proper-sized vessel for the water bath!

I'm working on upsizing my kitchen, because I'm cooking larger quantities of food all the time, and that's not going to reverse course any time soon. I started by buying the largest glass Pyrex pan I could find (4.8 quarts). This was the first time I used it, and I discovered a double recipe of the baked custard I make fits perfectly in two casserole dishes that fit inside that Pyrex.

Hooray!

Monday

Short version: Pork carnitas tacos with homemade corn tortillas

Long version: After many days well above 90 degrees, this day was about 70 degrees with high winds. So I could run the oven for awhile. Thus, carnitas. I found a piece of pork shoulder roast in the freezer, and that's what I used.

It was also cool enough to fire up the cast-iron griddle pan to make tortillas, so I did that. It had been awhile. They sure are good.

Tuesday

Short version: Leftovers

Long version: An eclectic meal.

A. had leftover stew meat with some onion I had cooked with no particular purpose, some of the barbacoa sauce from the Costco beef the week before, and some pepperjack cheese. Plus beet greens I had cooked just so they wouldn't take up so much space in the refrigerator.

I did freeze most of them, however.

Cubby had some of the barbecue stew meat, the last of the dill potato salad, and some beets. He's the only child who really loves beets like I do.

Calvin, Jack, and Poppy had a skillet dish of the stew meat with leftover rice, the rest of the barbacoa sauce, the rest of the cooked onion, finely diced beet greens, and a bit of grated cheese left from the night before's tacos.

I had a salad with the stew meat, beets, some of the ranch dressing, and half an avocado. You can tell from the avocado that A. went to a store recently. 

Wednesday

Short version: More leftovers, plus chicken rice

Long version: The refrigerator really was quite full. This time, I had the food processor out to make fruit shakes (smoothies) for lunch, so I rinsed it out and made a quick pasta sauce with the last three cubes of pesto from the freezer, a can of drained whole tomatoes, and olive oil. I added that to the egg noodles I had cooked, plus some finely diced beet greens and leftover stew meat and Parmesan cheese.

Egg noodles, incidentally, are way better than regular pasta. We got this bag from Miss Amelia. I think I'm going to buy those from now on myself, though.

A. had leftover steak with Romano cheese on top, plus some beet greens.

I had another salad, just like the night before, except with leftover pork instead of beef.

After dinner, I used the big pot I had made the pasta in to make chicken rice. Not rice with chicken in it, but rice for the chickens.

We're almost out of chicken food, but I have a dentist appointment next week, so rather than make a special trip to get food I'm stretching the chicken food by supplementing with brown rice and split peas. You might recall I have plenty of each. The chickens forage quite capably this time of year, anyway, since they're very free range, so they just need a little extra.

Cooking for chickens is even more annoying than cooking for dogs, but at least I get some eggs from the chickens. The same cannot be said for the dogs.

Interestingly, the peas and rice, which are in a bowl covered with water, have started fermenting very strongly in the heat we've been having. They're all bubbly and smell like beer, and the chickens LOVE it.

Make of that what you will.

Thursday

Short version: Breakfast sausage patties, curried split peas, leftover rice, frozen green peas

Long version: Um. I fried the peas in with the sausage, because I didn't want to dirty another dish? Yeah, that's all I got.

Can you guess what I had? Yes! Another salad! This one was pretty light on the lettuce, because the early lettuce has bolted and the summer-planted lettuce is still too small. So it was just a little lettuce, with diced beets, finely diced onion, half an avocado, some of the peas, and shaved Romano cheese. It was very good.

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