Friday, October 29, 2021

Friday Food: Hospitable Leftovers

Friday 

Short version: Leftover taco meat and cheese, guacamole, tortilla chips, carrot sticks

Long version: I was going to make flour tortillas to make up for the fact that this was like the fifth day out of six that we had some version of ground beef. But then I found we still had some tortilla chips my sister had brought. 

Everything is better with chips. And I didn't have to make them. Hurray.

All I did was heat up the meat with some shredded cheese and let the kids scoop that up with the chips. They also got some guacamole made from another giant avocado.


That's a "large" egg for scale. Is that not the most obscenely large avocado you've ever seen?

Saturday

Short version: Tuna patties, mashed potatoes, green salad with vinaigrette

Long version: Time for a beef break. Two big cans of tuna made into patties (bread crumbs, eggs, mayonnaise, mustard, pepper, dill) made for a welcome change. 

Sunday

Short version: Beef fajitas, more guacamole, leftover black beans, calabaza, chocolate pudding

Long version: Back to the beef. Fajitas are delicious, though. 

A. cut up the largest of his calabaza squashes and I cooked and pureed the large quantity of flesh that came from it. It ended up being about six quarts of squash.


As A. is so fond of saying, there's a lot of food value in those calabazas.

Most of it went in the freezer, but I did serve some with dinner. I put about a tablespoon on each child's plate, as I always do with the first calabaza of the fall. Just in case they've changed their minds about hating it. 

Two of them feigned death by squash, one grudgingly admitted it wasn't bad, and one asked for more. I'll take it.

A. learned from one of the elderly ladies in the village that when she was a girl they would cook the halves of the calabazas, then season the cooked squash like pumpkin pie with spices and brown sugar, put it back in the scooped out skins, and bake it some more, finally topping it with cream.

The skins are very hard and maintain their shape even after long cooking, so I can see how that would work.


A perfect baking vessel.

Delicious as that sounds, I went with the less traditional chocolate pudding for our Sunday dessert. Mostly because I had some milk I needed to use up quickly, but also because everyone likes pudding. The same cannot be said for calabaza.

Monday

Short version: Breakfast sausage patties, lentils, rice, green salad with ranch dressing

Long version: It had been awhile since I had gotten any sausage from Sysco, so I got some. And then I decided I should cook some of the half-gallon jar of lentils that have been in my pantry for several weeks. So I cooked those on Sunday--onion, garlic, tomato, chicken stock, balsamic vinegar--in anticipation of making the sausage after work on Monday. Lentils and sausage go together.

Surprisingly, everyone enjoyed the lentils. I was not expecting that, but I was pleased by it.

Tuesday

Short version: Shepherd's pie, green salad with ranch dressing

Long version: I needed to make something for a family that is moving, because that is what I do when I know of a family with small children who are in the miserable state of flux that is moving all earthly possessions. At such times, fully-prepared food is the greatest gift. At least, it's what I would have most wanted when I was in the middle of the combined mess of little kids and packing.

So I made two shepherd's pies: One for us, one for them.

I have no idea if that family likes shepherd's pie, but mine sure does. Calvin even had thirds.

Wednesday

Short version: Beef and rice soup, cheese, bread and butter

Long version: I spent most of Tuesday in the kitchen. The eventual output of that day was two shepherd's pies, a dozen cookies for Poppy's preschool Halloween party, six quarts of pressure-canned beef stock, and beef soup made from the same stock and the beef rib meat from the ribs I used to make the stock.

I was really sick of the kitchen by the end of the day, but very glad Wednesday that I had made the effort to have soup already prepared and ready to be re-heated at the end of a workday.

Thursday

Short version: Leftovers, shrimp, garlic bread, cabbage, roasted tomatoes, calabaza, leftover dessert

Long version: Crazy day, culminating in my parents arriving at dinnertime. I knew my mother would be bringing a ton of food for my refrigerator, which was full of leftovers. I also knew none of my children would be particularly hungry after their Halloween parties at school.

So I served leftovers for dinner. I am the consummate hostess. But hey! My parents had never had any of that food before, so it wasn't leftovers for them.

I put out beef soup, fajita meat, tuna salad, lentils, pureed calabaza, Holy's cabbage, tomatoes I had roasted while I was baking bread, garlic bread, and pureed calabaza I pulled from the freezer. Plus some shrimp my mom had brought. 

And then there were the leftover brownies and chocolate chip cookies I had brought in for class parties.

I still ended up putting a lot of things back into the refrigerator, though. Everyone needs to eat more.

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

6 comments:

  1. grilled steaks,, mashed garlic potatoes, salad, garlic bread
    tuna melts, roasted potatoes, salad
    mini quiches, salad, garlic bread
    meatloaf/potatoes/carrots in crockpot, apple salad, toast
    stir fry with rice, toast
    ground beef/tomato/tortilla skillet, roasted acorn squash
    And for tonight salad with chicken, garlic bread
    Linda

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  2. I harvested the all the remaining poblanos this week, so I made a green chile and pork stew, very free-form. For some reason, I had two pork jowls in the freezer, which are mostly fat. So I cut up and cooked one down, extracted the meat, poured off lots of fat, and made the stew with the green chiles, onions, potatoes, and tomatoes. The poblanos are plenty hot this year. There's more of that stew for the coming week. Also two or three nights of calabacitas, once with corn added, once without. Burgers, one with green chile and cheese. And a quesadilla to fill in the gaps. Cream of carrot soup for starters several nights, and the last of the tomatoes on my salads, which I had with blue cheese dressing made with gorgonzola. What I ate on any given day is anyone's guess.

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  3. Friday-salmon loaf, baked potatoes, broccoli
    Saturday-steak and potato pie made with leftover pot roast (not steak), peas, chocolate pudding cake, and one child had yogurt
    Sunday-fish sticks, oven fries, coleslaw, and that same child had more yogurt
    Monday-camping with 4 adults and 3 children who pretty much just ate pb&j all week. The adults had lentil soup brought from home and biscuits which I cooked on the griddle, butterscotch brownies and chocolate brownies for the adults and s'mores for the children
    Tuesday-hamburger stew in the crockpot, coleslaw, s'mores and brownies
    Wednesday-sausages and hamburgers on the fire, coleslaw, s'mores and brownies. The kids did eat the sausages
    Thursday-home again and I pulled some chicken enchiladas out of the freezer. And the last of the brownies.

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  4. Hello, this week we ate:

    Monday - Grilled catfish and potatoes that I skewered with peppers and onion, candied oranges, buttered bread

    Tuesday - Hamburger patties, baked acorn squash, spinach salad that I topped with some toasted filberts and the last of the candied oranges, leftover bread

    Wendsday - Black bean, roasted yam and peppers tostada's, a politely shared avocado, and some roasted corn

    Thursday - We were all heading out in different directions at the speed of chaos and eating on the run so I sliced up a small ham and made huge sandwiches, trail mix in containers (thank goodness I made this earlier in the week), honey crisp apples, and filled thermoses/travel mugs with cocoa (it's cold and rainy here)...and that was dinner...nobody complained

    Friday - Have a bunch of odds and ends of veggies, meat and cheese so I'm making french bread pizzas and since it's movie/pajama night Carmel corn with peanuts and some hot apple cider sounds good to me.

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  5. Maybe try calabaza pudding? Maple flavor or brown sugar or both.

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  6. Friday - leftovers, I can't remember which ones
    Saturday - pizza made with various sauteed garden greens and leeks
    Sunday - whole chicken in the crockpot with carrots, celery and mushrooms, gravy, sweet potatoes
    Monday - leftover chicken, veggies and sweet potatoes
    Tuesday - chicken and pinto bean tacos
    Wednesday - butternut squash, swiss chard, lasagna sort of thing
    Thursday - leftover lasagna sort of thing
    Pam in Maine. I'm briefly anonymous again

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