Friday Food: Definitely Dill Season

Friday 

Short version: Many leftovers, cucumbers

Long version: I usually have a very full refrigerator after cooking for guests for a few days, so after my parents left, I decided a clean out the refrigerator meal was in order. There were pork and sauerkraut, steak, mashed potatoes, and rice. Something for everyone.

Saturday

Short version: Spanish tortilla, pineapple and cottage cheese, grapefruit, fresh bread and butter

Long version: I used to make Spanish tortillas--the kind with potatoes and eggs--all the time, but then I had a kid who disapproved of them and I gave up on them.

However, we had a lot of eggs, and I needed something I could make ahead while I had the oven on to bake bread in the early afternoon. So I made the tortilla with potatoes (sliced and boiled) and eggs (scrambled), and also cooked bacon bits; diced onion, bell pepper, and some wrinkled grape tomatoes sauteed in the bacon grease; and shredded cheddar cheese.

It was really good, and the one kid who used to dislike it no longer does. Hooray. Also, it was already baked and ready to eat when we got home at 5:15 p.m. from church in the 93-degree heat.

 Good call cooking ahead, for sure.

We had avocado and three kinds of salsa for the top, too. There was store-brand mild, national-brand hot, and New Mexico hot. The national brand is normal hot. The New Mexico one will melt your mouth. So of course, everyone had to have that one. Even salsa-eating is a competitive sport in a house with three boys.

We got the pineapples in the extra commodities produce boxes from the week before, and they were good pineapples. We also got the grapefruit, and since some children like grapefruit more than pineapple, they got to choose. Indulgence, indeed.

And then, of course, they had to finish off with some of the fresh bread with butter. Because who can resist fresh bread?

Sunday

Short version: More leftovers, green salad with ranch dressing, chocolate pudding pops

Long version: This cleared out the last piece of the Spanish tortilla, the last of the steak and rice, and some egg salad.

And since I didn't actually prepare anything else, I went to all the trouble of chopping fresh garlic and dill for the ranch dressing.

I know. My commitment to quality food is truly inspiring.

Calvin asked for the pudding pops. Well, actually, he asked for chocolate popsicles. And that, of course, means chocolate pudding popsicles. I searched for a recipe with cornstarch so A. could eat some, too, and found this one. Instead of two tablespoons of cocoa powder, though, I used three heaping tablespoons. That was a good call.

I only have four popsicle molds, and the recipe makes six, so I poured the rest into my non-stick cake pan and cut that into wedges for me and A. It works fine if you don't mind your fingers getting a little sticky while you eat the wedge.

Monday

Short version: Pork stir-fry, rice, leftover frozen pudding

Long version: My mother always brings a ton of fresh produce for us when she comes to visit. This time, on the day she arrived, we also got two extra boxes of commodities produce. That meant a rather alarming quantity of produce.

Luckily, I love a challenge.

Sitr-fry is a good use for a lot of produce. This one was onion, bell peppers, broccoli, carrots, and two cans of commodities pork chunks. Plus the sauce of course.

The canned pork made it a bit mushy, but it tasted good.

And then everyone got some chunks of the rest of the frozen pudding from the cake pan. Not the most elegant presentation, but still tasty.

I've started harvesting the kohlrabi from the garden, and the kids ate a whole one before dinner. I just peel them and cut them into sticks. I actually grew some respectably-sized kohlrabi this year, for the first time since we started gardening in New Mexico.

Half-pint jar for scale.

Incidentally, if you know nothing about kohlrabi, it's in the same family as broccoli, and the taste and texture is pretty much just like a giant broccoli stem. So if you're the type who peels and eats the broccoli stem while you're prepping the florets--me!--you would love kohlrabi.

Tuesday

Short version: Tuna patties, spaghetti, green salad with ranch dressing

Long version: Both the tuna and spaghetti are frequent commodities items, as well as the tomato sauce that I put in the spaghetti. Commodities does not provide the pesto that was also in the spaghetti, though. (Although they do sometimes provide walnuts, which will be in the pesto as soon as my basil is big enough.)

Cubby helped me make the tuna patties, since they're one of his favorite foods. I use tuna, bread crumbs, eggs, mayonnaise, mustard, lots of dill--fresh this time of year--and pepper. This makes a delightfully squishy mixture that Cubby greatly enjoyed manhandling.

This day's pre-dinner snack was some pickled radish slices. The combination of my mom and commodities left us with four bags of radishes. Three of them went into jars with a hot brine--water, white vinegar, salt, small amount of sugar--to pickle. Very tasty.

Very pretty, too.

Wednesday

Short version: Peasant soup, rice pudding

Long version:  It was only in the fifties all day, so I decided to make a rice pudding and find something that could slow-cook in the oven with it.

That something was pork necks. 

I finally used the package of pork neck pieces that's been in the freezer for long enough I wasn't even sure how old it was. Two years, maybe. I browned them and put them in a Dutch oven covered with water with the ends of an onion and cooked that a few hours. 

There isn't much meat on pork neck pieces, but it does make really nice broth. After I pulled the meat off the bones, there was maybe 3/4 of a cup of meat to add back to the broth, and then I added a diced sauteed onion, chunks of carrot, green peas, some of the beet greens I froze last summer, the rest of the tomato sauce from the can I opened the day before, some of the brine from the pickled radishes, a cube of pureed green garlic, and fresh dill. 

After that cooked until it was soft, I added egg noodles. Last was some sour cream and more fresh dill.

It was quite good. The children still enjoyed the rice pudding more, though.

Thursday

Short version: Barbecue meatballs, second-run tater tots, raw cabbage, pickled radishes, applesauce with cream

Long version: I had been planning on leftovers, but I decided I'd better make something substantial given the little adventure A. and the older two boys went on to the village.

They took Bill the Pony to the village. Which is ten miles away. So the boys took turns walking and riding. And A. just walked the whole way. 

For twenty miles. 

They were gone for over 8 hours, and I figured they'd be pretty hungry when they got home.

I would usually make baked or mashed potatoes to go with the meatballs, but I was out of potatoes. I did, however, have more of the tater tots the school cook had given me that were left over from lunch on the last day of school. It was a lot of tater tots, so I froze about half of them.

No one ever bakes tater tots long enough, so these were still a bit pale and wet for my liking. This made them perfect for re-baking, however, to my preferred crispiness. Which is very.

I still had three quarts of applesauce I canned last fall. Two of them were enthusiastically consumed for dessert this night with heavy cream poured right over the top.

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