Friday Food: Fourth Food

Friday 

Short version: Leftover meatballs, spaghetti with pesto, leftover bull stew, raw radishes

Long version: I was putting the pesto over the spaghetti and thinking it looked kind of thin . . . which is when I realized I forgot to put the walnuts in it.

So. Don't be like me.

Saturday

Short version: Pork chops, baked potatoes, sauerkraut, roasted carrots, raw kohlrabi sticks

Long version: The only reason I made this was because my first batch of sauerkraut for the summer finished up, and I love sauerkraut and pork. It was certainly not because it's a seasonally appropriate meal. Thankfully, some rain in the surrounding area pushed some cool air our way just in time to save me from melting into a puddle in the kitchen.

While I had the oven on for the pork, I figured I might as well cook everything else. Thus, the potatoes and carrots.

But not the kohlrabi. I only ever eat kohlrabi raw. I know it can be cooked, but I agree with my kids on this one: Raw is better. 

Sunday

Short version: Famous hanger steak, spaghetti with carrot-greens pesto, raw radishes, banana fake ice cream

Long version: Famous because I had no idea what hanger steak was, but when I looked it up, everything was all "Best Steak Ever!" "Butcher's Choice!" And so on.

It actually looked pretty gnarly when I unwrapped it. I had to trim quite a bit of connective tissue and things off it, but after it was seared and sliced, it was, indeed, very good steak. Lots of flavor and quite tender.

I made the pesto from carrot greens because I've been harvesting a lot of carrots lately. I was giving the green tops to the chickens, but someone recommended I try pesto with them. So I did. It was okay. The greens didn't have a lot of flavor of their own. The garlic mostly carried the flavor. Not bad, but basil is definitely better.

And the frozen banana slices turned into soft serve ice cream magic again. With cocoa powder, because it's just better that way.

Monday

Short version: So much celebratory Independence food, and a cake whee!

Long version: My version of food for Independence Day was seeing how close I could come to traditional Fourth of July cookout food while still maintaining my independence from a grocery store. That is, I didn't go shopping for this meal. Instead, I went to my garden, freezers, and pantry. And here's what I came up with.

From the garden--cabbage and carrots for coleslaw, lettuce and tomatoes for hamburger toppings

Fourth of July tomatoes AND lettuce! I win gardening!

From the freezer--Ground beef for hamburgers, frozen blueberries for cake decorations

The red stripes were strawberry jam and some bits of the three sour cherries the children brought me from the neighbors' tree.

From the pantry--Three jars of pressure-canned pinto beans that I turned into "baked" beans (actually simmered on the stove) with onion, bacon, barbecue sauce, ketchup, mustard, and brown sugar. Plus flour for the sourdough buns I made for the hamburgers and the cake.

I also found a bag of charcoal, but no lighter fluid, so I actually built a little fire in our outdoor fireplace to get the coals going so I could grill the hamburgers.

Only for America's birthday will I deal with this incredibly annoying janky grill in 20-mile-an-hour winds. Good hamburgers, though.

So in the end, we had cheeseburgers on homemade sourdough buns with lettuce and tomato, coleslaw, baked beans, and cake.

God bless America, indeed.

Tuesday

Short version: Found-food skillet, raw radishes

Long version: Oh man. I REALLY REALLY did not want to cook. It was hot. I was grumpy. And right until the moment that I dragged myself away from my bedroom fan, I was planning on tuna salad.

But then I raided the freezers. 

I ended up frying some of the processed (pressure-cooked and broken down in the food processor) bull meat with some cooked rice I had also frozen. I dumped both things into a skillet still totally frozen. Then I added the rest of the carrot-greens pesto and called it dinner. It wasn't bad, actually.

Wednesday

Short version: Fried pork, potatoes, leftover coleslaw

Long version: In order to avoid the same haphazard situation from the night before, I cooked most of this ahead. Pork chops, still completely frozen, went into a covered pan to cook for a few hours in the morning, along with some baked potatoes. Then, at dinnertime, I just diced the pork and fried it with spices, peeled the potatoes and microwaved them with butter, and had dinner without actually cooking much in an 83-degree kitchen. Yay for me.

Thursday

Short version: Leftovers

Long version: There were leftovers of the bull/rice skillet thing, and I had a salad with leftover hamburger in it. Also in my salad (of my lettuce, hooray!) were some of the beets I pickled the day before. I used a new recipe with a lot less sugar than the standard Ball Blue Book recipe, and woah, those were some really, really vinegary beets. Strong food.

Tasty in a salad, though. And beets are the prettiest of canned vegetables.

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