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:
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.
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.
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?
out for husband's birthday
ReplyDeletegrilled steaks, mashed sweet potatoes, garlic bread, salad with homemade ranch dressing, Pots de Creme
chicken patties, garlic bread, baked spaghetti squash casserole, Pots de Creme
skillet dish of grd. beef/zucchini/mushrooms/marinara & garlic brd.
broccoli/chicken casserole, sweet potatoes, garlic brd.
roasted oven fries with sirloin & cheese overtop, garlic bread, broccoli & carrots
And for tonight pizza, salad
Linda
Friday-stir-fried hamburger and green beans and a baked potato
ReplyDeleteSaturday-grandchildren to cook for, so hot dogs and potato chips (does that count as cooking?), and angel food cake
Sunday-grilled cheese sandwiches, green beans
Monday-just me again. Ham and cheese sandwich, corn on the cob
Tuesday-cheese omelet with tomatoes, toast
Wednesday-leftover chicken from the freezer, noodles, green beans
Thursday-cheese omelet again, starting to get boring but not enough to really cook just for myself!
Was it 13 lbs live weight or dressed weight? How does the flavor profile develop as the chickens get bigger and bigger?
ReplyDeleteMiL: Dressed, believe it or not. Although I was weighing it while I was holding it on a floor scale and I did it really quickly because it was dripping on the floor. So it might not be an exact weight, but still. It was WELL over ten pounds. I didn't notice a big difference in flavor between the first and last chickens we butchered. The meat was slightly tougher, but fine once it was pounded.
ReplyDeleteWow that was a huge chicken! I wouldn't want to meet it in a dark alley...
ReplyDeleteSaturday I rescued the too-dry boar meat from the night before, put it in the slowcooker with the leftover mushroom sauce, chopped carrots, more mushrooms, choppedbacon and covered it with cheap red wine. I cooked it until I could shred the meat and it was very satisfying stew, we had it with pasta. There was enough leftover to freeze for a future quick meal.
Sunday i made balsamic mushroom with basil and halloumi, from a very funny food blog I just started following : https://studentcuisineforthegloomyteen.com/2021/09/09/balsamic-mushrooms-with-halloumi-and-basil/
We had it with bread and a tomato mozzarella salad
Monday I had to work late, so my BF made cheese fondue. We dip bread in it. I had raw kohlrabi sticks on the side
Tuesday was a big fridge clear-out salad with halloumi, chorizo and croutons
Wednesday pork sausage cooked with onions and white wine, with rice and salad
Thursday homemade pizza
Friday T bone steaks with garlic butter, roast potatoes and pak choi from the garden