Friday, November 5, 2021

Friday Food: A Night Out

Friday 

Short version: Beef stir-fry, rice, strawberry-rhubarb pie with vanilla ice cream

Long version: I had pulled out a couple of packages of beef rump roast, forgetting that I had told the butcher to cut those into steaks and pound them, as for chicken-fried steak.

I didn't have any desire to chicken-fry the meat, though, so instead I cut it into strips, marinated those, and used them with mushrooms, carrots, onions, and frozen green beans to make stir-fry. It was good.

The pie is the Village Piemaker pie that is always left for my parents by the owner of the lodgings they always rent while they're here. Also good.

Saturday

Short version: Dinner out

Long version: This was the night of the village Halloween party, at which there is food provided by the local restaurant (singular). So everyone had baked potatoes and chili and enchilada casserole and a LOT of desserts.

Sunday

Short version: Pickled radish appetizer, beef, guacamole, tortilla chips, still-frozen green beans, foraged dessert

Long version: My mom brought a very large bag of very spicy radishes with her. They were too spicy for me and a couple of the children, so I sliced a bunch of them and put them into some leftover brine I had saved from making refrigerator dill pickles with the summer's cucumbers. I just warmed the brine in the microwave and added a very small amount of sugar to offset the spice a bit, then put the sliced radishes in for a day or so. 

Pickling is magic: fiery radishes went in, delicious pickles with no hint of fire came out. 


Perhaps it all leached out into the rather fiery-looking liquid.

Everyone loved them, and they ate all the radishes in the jar.

The beef was more of the tenderized rump steaks that I cut into pieces. This time I just fried them in tallow and added salt, chile powder, cumin, and a small amount of vinegar to make something like taco meat. Yum.

And of course, because this was Halloween, the children had to go door-to-door to beg for their dessert. They did not return empty handed.


Jack sorting the night's takings. Is there anything better when you're a kid than being surrounded by candy?

Monday

Short version: Breakfast sausage patties, leftovers, carrot sticks with ranch dressing

Long version: The cook at school makes a hot breakfast for the children on Monday mornings, which this week was scrambled eggs and sausage, plus biscuits and cream gravy. She sent me home with the leftover eggs and sausage, as well as quite a bit of gravy. 

I had actually taken breakfast sausage out to thaw for dinner, so anyone who wanted it had the gravy on that. A. ate the leftover eggs and sausage. 

There was also leftover rice and some lentils I had pulled out the freezer.

Tuesday

Short version: Roast beef; tomatoes, onions, and green beans; frankenmacaroni; squash

Long version: I used the rest of the cream gravy--which is really just a very thick white sauce with lots of pepper--as a base to make the macaroni. To the gravy I added some heavy cream and water to thin it out a bit, then shredded cheese, some pureed calabaza, two pieces of bacon left from breakfast broken into small pieces, onion powder, and a tiny bit of mustard.

It really needed more cheese, but I was running kind of low. It was still fine, though, and Cubby ate three helpings.

Wednesday

Short version: Leftovers, carrot sticks with ranch dip

Long version: "What do we need?" 

"LEFTOVERS!"

"When do we need them?"

"WEDNESDAYS!"

Sorry for the lapse into cheering. But we did indeed have leftovers, because it was indeed Wednesday, a.k.a., one of my work days.

Leftover sausage and roast beef, macaroni and cheese, and carrot sticks for the kids. Leftover roast beef and squash for A. and me. 

Plus leftover Halloween candy, because the kids each get to choose two pieces after dinner every night for the week after Halloween.

Thursday

Short version: Pizza, scrambled eggs, frozen peas

Long version: I was making bread, so I figured it was time for a beef break. That's why I stole some dough to make pizza.

It was just one (half-sheet pan) pizza, with asadero cheese and bacon. But! I did have quite a few tomatoes on hand, because one of the intersting and somewhat frustating things about gardening here is that I get more tomatoes after the growing season than I do during it. These are all the green tomatoes I stripped off the plant before the colder temperatures settled in at night, and those green tomatoes have been slowly ripening ever since.

So while I was baking bread, I roasted a pan of tomatoes with a head of garlic, and then pureed that in the food processor with dried basil and a bit of balsamic vinegar to make the pizza sauce. So good.

The scrambled eggs were for A. and me. I fried some tomatoes and arugula (from summer plants that bolted and seeded and re-grew for the fall) in bacon grease, then added the eggs and a bit of feta cheese. We had a couple of pieces of pizza each, too, because pizza is hard to resist, but we mostly had the eggs.

You can tell the garden is mostly done for the season when frozen green peas and beans become more prevalent in these posts.

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


7 comments:

  1. casserole of chicken, cabbage, potatoes with garlic bread
    chicken/potato skillet, squash, garlic bread
    zucchini skillet over noodle, carrot sticks, garlic bread
    salmon, roasted potatoes, cabbage, garlic bread
    pizza, skillet spinach/cabbage/mushrooms
    cottage pie, garlic bread
    chicken patties, sweet potatoes, & some kind of vegetable for tonight
    Linda

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  2. I miss tomato season...this week we ate:

    Monday - Coconut chicken tenders, roasted yams with filberts, avocado halves, bread

    Tuesday - Navy bean and carrot soup, leftover bread, cheese

    Wendsday - Kielbasa and peppers over rice

    Thursday - Ham, chicken, beans and random vegetables with gravy baked casserole style with mashed potatoes on the side...not a bad "I forgot to defrost what I needed so this is what's for dinner" meal if I say so myself

    Friday - Plan on making a quiche to use up the leftover ham...if I'm feeling ambitious enough I might roast some potatoes to go with

    Happy Friday Everyone

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  3. Friday-leftover meat pie (beef, potatoes, carrots)
    Saturday-leftover hamburger stew, cauliflower
    Sunday-leftover hamburger and macaroni casserole, coleslaw
    Monday-finally, no leftovers left. Curried lentils, fresh bread and butter
    Tuesday-liver and bacon, baked potatoes, salad with the last of the swiss chard
    Wednesday-chicken and gravy, rice, salad
    Thursday-I had leftover bacon and onions from the liver (always cook the extra onion, right?), so I stirfried it with cabbage. And baked potatoes

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  4. Kit: Yay curried lentils! And yes, always cook the leftover onion. (Although, in my case, I would never cook onion with liver to start with. I am not friends with liver.)

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  5. Sat - weekend at my parents in law, I made sausage in white wine gravy and my FiL made mashed potatoes. We got our half pig, so our meals feature a lot more pork than usual
    Sun - lunch was decadent so I have to share it: first oysters of the season, from Cancale in Bretagne, gravad løx and blinis, tuna rillettes and tsatsiki. I made buckwheat blinis which turned out really good.
    Supper: baked gluten free pasta with spinach and squash. I used a recent Smitten kitchen recipe, but wasn't a huge fan, the pasta was too mushy inside and not cooked at all outside
    Mon - baked cheese on toasts (croûtes au fromage), braised endives and salad
    Tue - pasta with boar stew
    Wed - recipe testing for Tamar Adler's next book: risotto with leftover endive. I added some gorgonzola as it was a little blanc
    Thu - bread, cheese and olives
    Fri - my nephew's birthday party: linguine pasta with seafood (his request, at 6 yo !!)

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  6. Claire: I have consistently had trouble with all types of baked pasta dishes. And my oldest son has loved all sorts of fish and pasta from pretty much his very first bites of food. One of his favorite foods as a toddler was a fish pie I would make with leftover fish and mashed potatoes. I'm not really friends with fish, either, so I don't get it. :-)

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  7. Better than kids being surrounded by candy, an adult surrounded by candy he/she can eat. Oh to have those days back!

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