Friday Food: Four Food Photos

Friday 

Short version: Mystery meat, bread and butter, frozen peas

Long version: I pulled out two bags of red meat from the freezer that were labeled "neck roast." The question is: The bull's neck, or the ram's neck?

If it was from the ram, it would get tender in a reasonable amount of time. If it was the bull, it would, um, not. So I decided to play it safe and pressure cook it. That way, it would cook in a reasonable amount of time no matter what it was.

I cooked it with onion, garlic, and some of the leftover pasta sauce. Then, at dinnertime, I fried it in the tallow rendered while it was cooking and added the rest of the pasta sauce, plus some asadero cheese.

It came out well, and A. positively identified it as sheep meat.

I really need to start labeling meat more specifically.

Saturday

Short version: Tacos, raw green beans, pinto beans. collard greens

Long version: I didn't have quite enough of the ram meat left for everyone, so I added a can of commodities beef we got from someone.

Canned meat seems sketchy, but the ingredients are literally just the meat and salt. So it's just like the meat I pressure can. 

Well, the texture is a little different--shreddier--but that's probably because that meat wasn't from a mature bull.

The collard greens have definitely been an unsung hero in the garden this year. They volunteered, and while every other plant is bolting in the heat or getting eaten by various species of caterpillar or grasshopper, they keep soldiering on.

I need to remember to use more of the jars of pinto beans I pressure canned some time ago. I still have at least 12 pint jars left, and plenty more dried beans in the pantry.

Sunday

Short version: Roast chicken, roasted potatoes and onions, roasted garlic, green salad with ranch dressing, pots de creme

Long version: Poppy always goes with A. to feed the chickens. When one of the meat chickens pecked her in his zeal to get at the food she was carrying, she declared "Off with his head!"

Maybe not those exact words, but she was of the opinion that he was ready for the oven. A. was happy to oblige. He did the actual killing, as well as the scalding (dunking it in hot water--makes it easier to get the feathers out) and singeing (with fire, to get the little hair-like feathers off), but Poppy and Jack did most of the plucking, and Cubby did the gutting.

A.'s ultimate goal is to turn the entire butchering process over to the children.

Anyway.

I cooked it with butter, garlic, lemon, and rosemary. Once again, it was a very big chicken.

Very tasty, too.

We dug the potatoes earlier in the day. Not as large as some potatoes we've grown in the past, but certainly a good return on the dozen or so potatoes we put in the ground last fall.

Also tasty.

The salad was mostly beet greens, with a token amount of lettuce and spinach from the small plants I currently have in the garden. Summer-planting greens really does not work here. Too hot and dry.

Cubby chose the pots de creme. That is far and away the most-requested dessert since I've started letting them choose.

Monday

Short version: Chicken and vegetable curry, rice, garlic bread

Long version: Pretty basic curry with leftover chicken, onion, carrots, and peas, with the interesting addition of green tomatoes. I had several green tomatoes on the counter that had come off the plants while Poppy and I were hunting for caterpillars (the pest situation this year is OFF THE CHARTS--post coming soon). They were green enough that there was no possibility they would turn red on the counter, so I chopped them all up and threw them in the curry. They cooked right down and were unnoticeable in the finished product.

Before they cooked down, though, they looked very pretty:

I just love colorful vegetables.

Tuesday

Short version: Leftovers

Long version: For the kids, I made chicken and gravy with the last of the leftover chicken and the juices, plus cornstarch and milk. I added some peas to that, too, and put it over leftover rice for them.

A. and I had the last of the ram/beef taco meat fried with leftover collard greens and some onion I had roasted with the chicken.

And then we all had cherries, because I had an appointment in the Outside World this day, and never miss an opportunity to take advantage of the all-too-fleeting season in which cherries are available at the store. These were particularly good ones, too.

Wednesday

Short version: Scrambled eggs, pinto beans, quesadillas, raw green beans, collard greens

Long version: A. had scrambled eggs with feta, plus some leftover collard greens.

The children had the eggs, beans, and cheese quesadillas I made with the very exciting flour tortillas purchased at the grocery store.

Flour tortillas are a rare treat (their ingredient list is a bit alarming), so that made a meal of scrambled eggs a bit more acceptable to the children. They also had the raw green beans.

I had a salad, with this exciting addition:

The first of what I hope will be many. If I can fend off the many, many insects bent on tomato destruction this year.

Thursday

Short version: Beef goulash with sauerkraut and carrots, mashed potatoes, carrot sticks with ranch dip, vanilla ice cream with chocolate shell

Long version: I actually made the goulash the day before, when it was cool and cloudy. The sauerkraut was some I had made from a store cabbage awhile ago. There wasn't enough of it to can, so I just put a couple of bags in the freezer.

The kids got ice cream because I needed to bribe them so I could cut the boys' hair. You may recall bribery was my most important tip about cutting boys' hair. Ice cream is an excellent bribe.

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