Friday Food: Strong Stew for Strong Man

Friday 

Short version: Leftovers, boiled potatoes, frozen peas

Long version: A. had the last of the leftover steak, plus a couple of fried eggs and yet more beet greens.

For the kids, I simmered the remainder of the pulled pork with barbecue sauce. I amended the Sysco sauce with tomato juice drained from the can of tomatoes when I made pasta sauce, mustard, and vinegar. It was much better. They also had the boiled potatoes--just chunks boiled and tossed with butter, salt, and pepper--and frozen peas. Still frozen.

I had . . . Well. You know. A little lettuce, a diced beet, some leftover cooked peas, a bit of the pork, and some Romano cheese.

Saturday

Short version: Italian-ish sausage, fried potatoes, frozen green peas

Long version: Loose breakfast sausage cooked with the remainder of the pasta sauce and the last of the cooked beet greens, finely diced. I also threw in the last of the cooked onion that had been sitting in the refrigerator.

I made a lot of boiled potatoes Friday, figuring I would find a way to use them throughout the week. This day, that was in the fried potatoes, which were just fried in olive oil until very crispy.

Sunday

Short version: Sausage-y meatloaf, leftover curried split peas and potatoes, roasted garlic, roasted carrots, random greens, baked custard

Long version: The last of the sausage log mixed with some ground beef for the meatloaf. Instead of using ketchup--which I put both in the meat mixture and spread on top while baking--I used the amended barbecue sauce. It was really good, actually.

The random greens were from some volunteer collards, as well as the leaves from the sprouting broccoli. I sliced them thinly and cooked them in water and bacon grease until they were soft, then added garlic powder.

I did not have a salad. Because I am out of lettuce until the baby lettuce in the garden gets bigger. I just had the carrots, greens, and meatloaf.

The custard was Calvin's choice for his toilet-cleaning reward. I had just made this the Sunday before as A.'s Father's Day dessert. I overbaked it that time, and I overbaked it this time. Dangit.

Monday

Short version: Beef stew meat, garlic bread, collard greens, frozen corn

Long version: Two packages of stew meat, browned and then cooked with onion, garlic, and a quart jar of rooster stock.

And hey! I have real garlic again! A.'s Father's Day harvest of the smaller garlic heads meant that I no longer have to rely on the green garlic puree. I put some of the garlic in the stew meat, and I also used some of the roasted garlic from the night before in the collard greens.

I cooked the meat until it was tender earlier in the day and then fried it in tallow at dinnertime with salt, pepper, garlic powder, and paprika.

I wasn't sure there would be enough fried meat--I can only fit so much in one layer in even my biggest skillet--so I made myself a bowl of soup with some of the unfried meat, the cooking liquid, collards, the last of the roasted carrots, and some frozen peas.

When salad isn't an option, soup is a good alternative.

Random photo break!

The consummate guard dog, making sure the laundry is safe.

Tuesday

Short version: Strong stew, leftover meatloaf, fried potatoes, frozen green beans, pots de creme

Long version: I found a bag labeled "ram stew meat" in the freezer, so I made a stew for A. with it. It was just the meat plus a couple of cubes of frozen green chile sauce, a couple of cubes of frozen green garlic puree, a whole onion, and some tomato juice I drained from a can of whole tomatoes. I also threw in a couple of lumps of beef tallow, because that's what A. does when he makes stew.

It was not a stew for the faint of heart. A. enjoyed it, though.

I let Jack choose a dessert mid-week because he thinks it's unfair that his brothers get to choose dessert every Sunday and he never does. I could have told him it's because he doesn't clean the toilet (he and Poppy are in charge of the counter and mirrors), but then I suspect he'd be insisting he could clean it and there would be fights over toilet cleaning. So I just let him choose this night. And he chose pots de creme.

Wednesday

Short version: Leftovers, fried beef, pasta, frozen peas

Long version: A. had more of his stew. I made myself a soup with the leftover beef stew meat and liquid from Monday, plus leftover collard greens, a spoonful of pasta sauce, and frozen peas.

I had made the pasta sauce the day before when I drained the tomatoes, just because I already had the food processor out to make the pots de creme. The sauce was just the tomatoes, olive oil, the last two cloves of roasted garlic from Sunday, and some basil from the garden that was threatening to bolt. 

Maybe it's just trying to grow above the dill. A forlorn hope. Nothing can overcome dill.

I added some butter and Parmesan to the sauce when I added it to the pasta.

I cooked a few beef ribs in the oven during the day and stripped the meat off. That was the meat I fried, in beef tallow, with salt, pepper, garlic powder, and dried oregano.

I thought I was going to have to render the last package of beef fat in the freezer, but then I found a loaf of already-rendered tallow in the freezer when I was digging around. A happy discovery.

Thursday

Short version: Barbecue beef sandwiches, leftovers, still-frozen peas, fruit

Long version: I went to the dentist this day, which is an all-day affair here. I was lacking in energy and motivation when it came time to make dinner, so I made the most low-effort dinner possible: A jar of pressure-canned bull meat heated with some of the amended barbecue sauce, then served on bread with a side of peas. Still frozen.

That's what the kids had, anyway. A. had the remainder of his strong stew and I had the last of the ad hoc soup I had made the night before.

Everyone had fruit. Because the fruit truck was parked on the side of the road in the city the dentist is in, so I came home with cherries, nectarines, apricots, and plums. I think the plums and the cherries were the most popular options.

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