Friday Food: Summer Soup

Friday 

Short version: One-pot pasta for the kids, leftovers for A. and me

Long version: I pressure-cooked the two rooster carcasses from the previous day this morning to make stock, and then ended up with a couple of cups of meat I picked off the carcasses. 

Also this morning, I made pesto.

I just love a giant colander of fresh basil in the morning.

I froze most of the pesto in ice cube trays for future use, but rather than scrape out the food processor, I left in the remants of the pesto and added a can of drained tomatoes, olive oil, salt, some cooked collard greens, the rest of the roasted garlic, and balsamic vinegar to make a pasta sauce.

That sauce I used for my dinner, which was a skillet of some of the chicken plus collard greens I had cooked the day before, plus frozen peas, plus asadero cheese.

I also used the sauce for the kids' pasta, which also included egg noodles, chicken, frozen peas, and cream cheese.

A. had a bowl with the remainder of the lamb, plus some collard greens, frozen peas, leftover roasted potatoes, and the last bit of the curry sauce.

Saturday

Short version: Steaks, rabbit legs, boiled potatoes, frozen peas, carrot sticks

Long version: Cubby came running in around 2 p.m. to let A. know that the dogs had caught one of the meat rabbits (they escaped some time ago and are all over the place) and killed it. So A. decided it was an opportune time to show Cubby how to skin and clean a rabbit.

That done, I was left with a rather small carcass, most of which had been ruined by the dogs. The back legs were fine, though, and most of the meat is on those, anyway, so I just cut those off and cooked them for Cubby the Butcher. There was room in the pan with them, so I threw the peas in there, too.

The potatoes were from the garden. I really like having garden potatoes again. It's been several years since we've grown any, and they really are better.

Sunday

Short version: Breakfast tacos, frozen peas, vanilla ice cream with chocolate shell

Long version: "But how can they be breakfast tacos if we're having them for dinner?" Calvin asked quite reasonably.

"Breakfast" in this case just means they had scrambled eggs in them. Plus cheese and salsa.

The ice cream was Calvin's choice for his Sunday dessert. Chocolate shell is simply chocolate chips melted in the microwave with a bit of coconut oil (.5 cups chocolate chips with .5 tablespoon coconut oil), and then spooned over the ice cream. 

It freezes and basically forms candy on top of the ice cream. It's fun. And tasty.

A. took Cubby to the airport this day to fly by himself to New York for a visit with the MiL.

Sending my eldest off by himself was actually a lot harder than I expected it to be. A very small taste of what's to come, I'm sure.

Anyway.

A. stayed near the airport, since Cubby left from Denver, which is not close to us, and his flight left in the evening. So no A. or Cubby for dinner, which is why we had basically scrambled eggs.

Monday

Short version: Barbecue bull, garlic bread, carrot sticks with ranch dip

Long version: It's going to take me a very long time to get through the gallon of barbecue sauce I got from Sysco. Especially because I have to adjust it with more mustard and vinegar to make it more palatable, which of course increases the amount of it.

Break for a random dog photo!

The children "taught" Jasper to shake, which really just means that he's constantly pawing whenever I sit down outside. Looks cute, but is kind of annoying. Thanks, kids.

Tuesday

Short version: Sausage-y meatloaf, leftover potatoes, roasted carrots, frozen peas

Long version: All meatloaf from here until eternity is going to have barbecue sauce instead of ketchup both in it and on top of it. At least, until I use up the gallon of sauce. So . . . a year, maybe? It's good, actually. Especially with the sausage in the meatloaf. Which I'm using with the ground beef because I only have a few packages of ground beef left.

Luckily, our neighbor said he has a few steers he's probably going to be sending to the processor soon, so we can buy one from him and replenish our beef. Benefit of living in cattle country.

Wednesday

Short version: Creamy green chile bull soup, cheese, bread and jam

Long version: Soup is not generally on the menu in the summer. 

However.

I had two quarts of rooster stock that didn't seal when I pressure canned them, plus some liquid from tomatoes I had drained for pasta, and a really large bag of carrots that needed to be used pronto. And it was only 83 degrees and windy.

Soup it is! 

I used some of the green chile sauce I made on Mother's Day, as well as a jar of bull meat and finished it off with some sour cream.

Soup is definitely not the most popular meal with children, so I also let them have some bread with butter and the apricot jam I had made earlier in the day.

Thursday

Short version: Leftover meatloaf, leftover boiled potatoes, cucumbers with salt and vinegar, roasted carrots

Long version: I bought two very large bags of carrots at the store when I went in to the dentist, and they were really terrible carrots. Kind of sprouty and nasty and most definitely not fresh. 

This is one of the downsides to living so far off the supply routes: Produce is often less than optimal.

The carrots were not any better two weeks later, so I roasted the remainder of the second bag while I was making spiced nuts and roasting a beet for my salads in the morning. Roasting doesn't totally mask the inadequacies of the carrots, but it proved to be the most palatable way to consume them.

Happily, the lady who runs our post office brought me some cucumbers from her garden when she heard I didn't have any yet. (She lives down the hill where it's about ten degrees warmer.) Those cucumbers were absolutely fresh. And delicious. Hooray.

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