Friday Food: Soup in Summer

Friday 

Short version: Cafeteria spaghetti and meat sauce, improvised soup, raw green beans

Long version: Because I was at work on the last day of the school week, the school cook sent me home with a bunch of stuff that was otherwise going to be thrown out. That included a couple of bags of meat sauce. I still had spaghetti in the refrigerator from Wednesday's school lunch, so I just put the sauce over the spaghetti and that was for the kids.

For A. and me, I made a soup by adding a bunch of things to the last of the leftover rice, including the rest of the sauteed calabacitas, tomato, and mushroom; some of the meat sauce; onion powder; and some of A.'s wine that I was leaving out to see if it would turn into vinegar. 

It made a surprisingly tasty soup. 

Saturday

Short version: Fried bull meat, fried potatoes, carrot sticks with ranch dressing, custard

Long version: I had half a dozen potatoes left from the ones I had boiled whole earlier in the week for potato salad. So I peeled those, diced them, and fried them in tallow and butter.

All of the children elected to have the ranch dressing drizzled over their bull meat. It adds to the flavor, but nothing can make the bull meat really tender. Oh well. Only ten pounds or so to go.

I made the custard for two reasons. One was that I had three gallons of milk in the refrigerator that were already a day past their best buy date. The other was that I didn't have enough cereal for everyone to have their customary bowl of cereal before church on Sunday morning.

So I made a double batch of custard. They ate half this night, and half it the next morning before church.

Sunday

Short version: Chuck eye steaks, mashed potatoes, raw tomatoes, chicken noodle soup, rice pudding

Long version: I had never cooked chuck eye steaks, but the Internet told me to be careful not to overcook them. I was careful, and they were good. Very flavorful. I served them with the same basil/parsley butter I made for the steaks last week.

The chicken noodle soup was mostly for Cubby, who was sick and had a sore throat, but then two other children elected to have it for dinner as well. I had several quarts of rooster stock on hand, as well as a gallon bag of frozen chicken pulled off the carcass of the last rooster we got from a neighbor after I made stock with it. Makes it easy to make soup. 

Bonus of the soup was that it provided a good use for the greens from the two beets I thinned awhile ago. My children are not enthused about cooked greens in general, but chopped fine and added to soup is not so objectionable.

Unfortunately, I managed to slice the top of my thumb pretty good while I was chopping the greens, which resulted in me having this on my finger for the rest of my many kitchen tasks.

Awkward. And painful.

Rice pudding because it uses a lot of milk, and it was only in the high sixties most of the day, so having the oven on for four hours was actually welcome rather than punishing. Plus, it's Calvin's favorite dessert.

Monday

Short version: Leftovers and quesadillas, carrot sticks with ranch dressing

Long version: Steak and mashed potatoes with cheese for A. and Cubby, who was feeling somewhat better and was of course famished since he hadn't eaten anything but applesauce and soup the day before.

The other three children had quesadillas made with flour tortillas someone at school was giving away, cheese, and some of the fried bull meat.

Tuesday

Short version: Leftovers, ham, green salad with ranch dressing, chocolate pudding

Long version: The days I'm not at the school are usually the days I cook extra to have for the days I am at the school. But I spent literally all day in the kitchen canning applesauce, and preparing and canning peach jam, peaches in syrup, and peach fruit leather.

Halfway through peeling the peaches given to me by the same guy we got them from over Labor Day weekend. He has three peach trees. This should be it, though.

Thus, leftovers.

I had some ham slices I had brought home from the cafeteria the day before, so I diced those and fried them in butter.

Three children had the chicken soup with some added ham. One child was sick with the same cold Cubby had and disappeared to lie down during dinner, only to miraculously re-appear when I was dishing up the pudding. So that's what he had. A. had the ham, plus mashed potatoes and cheese. I had a salad with ham.

The only reason I made the pudding was because I still had a lot of milk to use up, so after I used a gallon to make yogurt, I used the last half gallon or so to make a double batch of chocolate pudding. It was much appreciated.

Wednesday

Short version: Fried bull, rice, raw tomatoes, peaches in syrup

Long version: I fried the rest of the bag of bull meat in tallow with spices, and then added some shredded cheese. It was serviceable, at best. I just can't get into that bull meat.

I had half a gallon of peaches and syrup that didn't fit in the full canner, so I just put it in the refrigerator, figuring it would get eaten.

It did. Almost all in one day. Prepared fruit in sugar syrup disappears like magic.

Thursday

Short version: Pot roast, leftover rice, sauteed calabacitas, raw tomatoes, potato soup, Otter Pops

Long version: A rather small rump roast for the pot roast. Luckily, the older two boys stayed at school to watch the volleyball game and ate at the concessions stand there, so there was enough meat.

The younger two were the latest victims of the cold, so they had to stay home. I had stuck a few potatoes and carrots into the casserole with the pot roast, so I added those to a quart of canned beef stock, plus some of the calabacita mixture (mostly because that had onion and garlic in it) and sour cream, then pureed it with my immersion blender. The sicklings ate that, some buttered rice, and the Otter Pops.

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