Friday Food: Green Food

Let's kick this off with a fun Friday Food fact: I have now recorded our every dinner for FOUR STRAIGHT YEARS. I started doing this on March 2, 2018, and I have not missed one single Friday in that whole time.

I'm not sure if that's impressive or lame. Maybe both. 

Regardless, let's carry on, shall we?

Friday

Short version: Salmon patties, mashed potatoes, sauteed zucchini/tomato/onion with feta cheese

Long version: We got several cans of salmon from Miss Amelia some time ago, and I've been saving the last four cans for Lent, knowing I would need it for Friday meatless meals. I used all four cans to make 13 large salmon patties (salmon, eggs, breadcrumbs, mayonnaise, mustard, pepper, dill). 

Random stove shot:

Pretty vegetables, and a LOT of fish patties, woah.

The MiL brought the feta cheese (two packages!), and I was unreasonably excited about it. I love it in my salads, but it is also good in many other things. Including sauteed vegetables. Yum.

Saturday

Short version: Many leftovers, sauteed green beans, raw cabbage

Long version: My refrigerator was way too full, so, even though I had a guest, we had leftovers. I don't consider leftovers to be a hardship if the food was good to begin with.

So everyone had some combination of salmon patties, lamb, carnitas, rice, and mashed potatoes. A. finished his pigs' feet chile (except for the couple gallons I froze). And I could once again put something in the refrigerator without playing Tetris to make it fit.

The green beans were a last-minute save of a bag I got from Misfits Market a week and a half prior. They were way overdue for cooking, but I only had to give a few to the chickens. Yay me.

The adults ate the green beans. The kids ate raw cabbage.

Sunday

Short version: Meatballs, spaghetti, roasted peppers and onions, fried mushrooms, peanut butter balls

Long version: You may celebrate Pi Day. I apparently celebrate Ball Day. Meatballs, peanut butter balls, so many balls rolled, and all delicious.

(I will not be making any off-color jokes here about that. This is not that kind of place.)

Monday

Short version: More leftovers

Long version: Work day, leftover day! I did go to all the effort of heating up the leftover pork with sauerkraut and a chopped potato that I microwaved, so that was my sole concession to having a guest. 

Otherwise, it was leftover meatballs, leftover spaghetti (no sauce left, so I just heated it up with butter, salt, pepper, and garlic powder for the children), and various leftover vegetables.

I told the MiL I should have my hostess certification revoked for serving leftovers twice to a guest, but since no one has bothered to actually give me a certificate for hostessing, no one can take it away. So there.

Tuesday

Short version: Bare-bones tacos, still-frozen green beans

Long version: Two pounds of ground beef browned with some already-cooked onion the MiL made when she was making potato soup for feverish Cubby (she remembered that you should always just cook the onion), cumin, garlic powder, paprika, and green chile. Drop that into corn tortillas microwaved with cheese on them, and that's it. That's the taco.

I was not feeling ambitious, quite obviously.

Wednesday

Short version: Leftovers, rainbow carrot flight

Long version: Even less ambitious. A choice of the same basic tacos or leftover meatballs with bread and butter.

The only interesting part of this meal was the selection of carrots that arrived from Misfits Market this very day. Just for the novelty factor, I chose a bunch of "rainbow" carrots, which meant there were two each of orange, yellow, and purple carrots. I cut each carrot into pieces and allowed the children to do a taste-test of every color.

Verdict: Yellow was the clear loser. Purple and orange were more or less interchangeable.

Thursday

Short version: Leftovers+green food

Short version: Leftover meatballs and for A., some more of his pigs' foot chile that I froze. Because it was St. Patrick's Day, I also made pasta with pesto. Not Irish--at all--but green! And a tradition in our house.

I had to sub for a teacher, so I delegated green cookies to Cubby. He was home recuperating from the nasty fever that laid him out in the earlier part of the week. He was mostly recovered, just still a bit weak and needing rest, so he stayed home again and I gave him the cookie project.

The cookies were a kit my sister brought us for, um, Halloween. They're supposed to be "monster" cookies--green with eyeballs--but we never got around to making them for Halloween. And then I thought we could make green cookies for Christmas, but there was so many other treats around at Christmas that I never did it then, either.

But there is yet ANOTHER holiday for which green cookies are appropriate!

I removed the eyeballs, though. 

The cookies themselves were pretty good, although Cubby reported that the dough stuck to everything, and the green food dye got all over the place. It even turned the dishwater green when he did the dishes after baking the cookies. 

Not sorry I missed that, but he had fun with it, and the other kids of course enjoyed eating cookies.

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

T.T.: Physics in the Kitchen

Not that I know much about physics. I never actually took that particular science, since I pretty much stalled out at chemistry.

But! I do know this: If you have a big pot of something you need to cool down quickly, a sink of cold water is your friend.

Perhaps you all knew this already. If you did, disregard. 

But if you didn't, and you find yourself with, say, gallons of pigs' foot chile that is still just below boiling point but needs to be stored overnight without cracking a glass shelf in your refrigerator or raising the temperature of said refrigerator . . .

Hot pot, cold water.

Okay, so that example is most definitely specific to me, but the big pot of something hot to be cooled down quickly isn't. And a sink of cold water is the best way to cool it quickly. Something about heat transfer. 

Like I said, hazy on the physics details. But I do know it works.

A couple of further points: Do not do this if you have a very hot glass or ceramic dish, as the hot dish in cold water might crack. 

And last, to cool even faster, stir the stuff in the pot in the sink every once in awhile ,and also stir around the water in the sink itself to distribute the cooler water so it will be in contact with the pot.

And there's your tip for the day. Onward with Tuesday.

Snapshots: Tea and Fashion

Poppy's new favorite game is dressing up in my clothes.

"I'm a miniature Mom!" (With far more attitude than actual Mom, however.)

The MiL came for a week-long visit on Wednesday, which meant Cubby was moved into A.'s office to sleep, and I got my semi-annual opportunity to clean his room out enough to make an acceptable guest room.

As good as it's going to get.

Among the many, many things I put in boxes and put into the closet, I did find two things that served as a very nice decorative element on the dresser.

Just as pretty as flowers. (Which I don't have right now, anyway.)

The MiL made scones (with whipped cream AND strawberry preserves) and treated the children to a tea party on Friday afternoon.

Grandma tea parties are the best tea parties.

This was our Spring Break week, which means my walks have been on the later side in the morning.

A frosty windmill well after sunrise.

Sheep in the morning light.

And some illuminated sunflower seed heads against a moody sky.

There you have it! My life, snapshotted.