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?