Friday Food: The Return of the Stabby Cake

Friday

Short version: Leftover meat, calabacitas, after-play pasta

Long version: Every year--well, except last year because of COVID--The Missoula Children's Theatre traveling directors come and help our school stage a play. The play was this night, so the boys were at school in the evening and had dinner there. 

They had ham sandwiches and chips and were all starving when we got home around 7:30 p.m. So then they all had leftover pasta, to which I added some cream cheese for a bit of protein.

A., Poppy, and I all had leftover beef rib meat. Poppy had hers with barbecue sauce and also had some bread and butter and cucumbers. A. and I had ours fried with the zucchini-like calabacitas, tomatoes, and garlic, and then I added some asadero cheese, too.

Saturday

Short version: Beef fajitas, pinto beans

Long version: The processing place that butchered our latest steer asked me if I wanted some fajita meat. As I mentioned before, I am all about them doing as much prep work as possible for me, so I said yes. I used one package of that for this meal, marinating it oil, vinegar, garlic powder, and chile powder and then frying it on my big griddle pan with bell peppers and onions. It was really good.

I think I still have about eight pints of pressure-canned pinto beans in the pantry. I really need to use more of them so I can cook some more of the dried ones that have been there for, uh, two years.

Sunday

Short version: Slow-food chicken strips, fast-food tater tots, corn on the cob, cucumbers with ranch dip, pots de creme

Long version: A. butchered the very last meat chicken. It weighed in at 13 pounds.

That's obscene.

The breasts on it were so large that I decided to separate them and use them to make breaded chicken strips, as a treat for the children.

I know I've said here before that the giant chicken breasts we would sometimes buy in New York were alarming to me. Like, what on earth does the bird look like that produces such giant breasts? Well, now I know. It looks like a small turkey.

Here's a visual for you:

Tablespoon measure for scale to show the alarming size of these things.

Anyway. 

I pounded those a bit with my giant rolling pin to flatten them, then cut them into strips and did the whole flour/egg wash/breadcrumb thing before baking them.

I very much dislike breading things. So tedious. Also, I really don't like the way my fingers get all gummy. I never think the finished product is really worth the whole process, but the rest of the family loved the end result, so it's a nice treat for them occasionally.

And after making an actual running-around chicken into breaded chicken strips using eggs gathered from our own chickens and breadcrumbs made from the bread I made myself, I served them with . . . generic tater tots.

I never claimed to be a really dedicated locavore.

Mostly I just wanted to get the remainder of the giant bag of tater tots out of the freezer where they've been for like eight months, but they were actually really good with the chicken.

And A. completed the children's absolute satisfaction with this meal by buying corn on the cob last time he was at the store.

Or maybe I completed it by making the pots de creme requested by Calvin. Which actually set up properly this time. It's been pretty liquidy the last couple of times, for unknown reasons, but this time it was the proper texture.

Incidentally, I must admit that although I proved it can be made with evaporated milk, I do make it with regular whole milk when I have it. I just don't really like opening cans to cook. Although it's nice to know it's an option.

Monday

Short version: Chicken soup, cheese, bread and butter

Long version: I spent many, many hours in the kitchen on Sunday. One of the reasons I was in there so long was because I had to deal with the remainder of the chicken carcass after I had removed the breasts. I pressure-cooked that in water to make stock, then picked off all the meat and used some of the stock and some of the meat to make soup. 

I really didn't want to be doing anything more in the kitchen Sunday, but I knew I would be glad I did when I got home from work Monday and only had to re-heat soup instead of actually cooking something.

So I made the soup with garlic, onion, carrot, celery, potatoes, some marinara sauce I had made with the food processor after I had made Sunday's pots de creme, half a jar of leftover pinto beans, and some frozen green peas. Sort of like a chicken minestrone.

It was very tasty, and I was indeed very glad when I got home from work that dinner was already made.

Tuesday

Short version: Bunless cheeseburgers, rice, green salad with ranch dressing

Long version: Nah.

Wednesday

Short version: Italian sliders, pasta, calabacitas/tomatoes/onion, green salad with ranch dressing

Long version: This was Michaelmas, the feast of the Archangels. We always celebrate this by stabbing a chocolate cake. It's supposed to be a devil's food cake (because Michael was the Archangel that cast Satan into hell using a sword), but I just make Grandma Bishop's Chocolate Cake because . . . well, because it's really fast to make.

We were home this day, because the elementary school went virtual for a week and a half, due to the large numbers of kids that were absent because of colds/allergies/whatever. So, since we were home and Cubby had football practice in the evening, we had our cake after lunch instead of after dinner.

I was actually out of toothpicks for stabbing, but I have three boys in residence who are each the proud possessors of pocketknives and who are very happy to carve their own stabby pieces of wood.

Yes, I made calabacitas twice in one week. I'll make it as long as I have the calabacitas.

Late summer in a skillet.

Thursday

Short version: Chicken fusion soup, cornbread

Long version: There was definitely chicken in the soup. Also black beans, corn, rice, tomatoes, a bit of chile powder, and sour cream. So was it chicken and rice soup? Or corn chowder? Or taco soup? 

Whatever. It was good.

I always make Edna Lewis' recipe for cornbread muffins, because it calls for corn flour. Which is pretty much what the masa I have on hand in quantity is. It makes for a very soft and tangy cornbread, what with all the buttermilk in it.

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