Friday Food: Everyone Fed

Some weeks, that's the best I can do.

Friday 

Short version: Beef soup, pizza, carrots

Long version: I made soup with a bunch of things that needed to be used, including the remaining meat from brisket and pot roast. And since I was making bread, I used some dough to make one pizza, which also used the last bit of shredded mozzarella cheese.

The children ate the carrots before dinner, because that's the best time to get kids to eat vegetables.

Saturday

Short version: Scrambled eggs, bacon, rye crisps, carrot sticks with ranch dip

Long version: A. and Cubby were gone hunting, so it was an easy meal for those of us at home. I gave the kids rye crisps because they had bread with both breakfast and lunch and the rest of their dinner was pretty heavy. Plus, they all like them and thought it was exciting to have crackers with dinner.

Low standards again.

Sunday

Short version: Pork ribs, cornbread, green salad with ranch dressing, peach and dried cherry crisp with whipped cream

Long version: A. bought a package of pork ribs with two racks in it. I put a rub on both of racks and cooked them both in a low oven for several hours. This made everyone very happy.

I don't make cornbread very often, but everyone likes it. I use this recipe, but with several changes. I use half masa and half cornmeal, and plain yogurt for the buttermilk; I don't mess around with that "homemade baking powder" business; and I bake it in a preheated 14-inch cast iron skillet with a tablespoon of butter melted in it.

The crisp was to use up the last of the really bad peaches we got from the excess commodities. They just didn't have much peach flavor, especially when cooked. But they had to be cooked to be edible at all. So I added some dried cherries to them (thanks to JP2 for the idea to use dried fruit with the peaches) and made a crisp topping with oats. 

It was okay, but would have been better with better peaches. Of course. I did manage to use all the peaches, though, which means I will no longer have this highly amusing box in my kitchen.

Last Dance of Flavor, indeed. 

Monday

Short version: Bull 'n' beans, leftover cornbread, green salad with vinaigrette

Long version: I kept changing my mind about what I would actually make for dinner. In the end, I took out a small amount of the leftover bull meat from when I made enchiladas awhile ago. It was already flavored, but I added some salsa in with it and the half a can of black beans in the pan, plus some sour cream. 

It was quite tasty, but only enough for the children, and a bit in my salad. A. had the last bowl of beef soup and some cheese.

Tuesday

Short version: Leftover pork ribs, baked potatoes, chili, carrots, burned cookies

Long version: I made chili for dinner before I realized the children had Frito pie at school for lunch, so I decided to heat up the remaining pork ribs for them instead. I also baked the potatoes (using this trick) while the ribs were heating up.

Continuing our theme for the week, there were only enough ribs for the children, plus a few bits for me. A. had a bowl of the chili. He hadn't had any Frito pie for lunch.

Poppy and I had made peanut butter cookies while I was baking a squash for a few hours. I burned the bottoms of the first batch, and then did the SAME THING with the next pan. Annoying.

So then I spent a tedious ten minutes scraping the bottoms of the cookies with a butter knife to remove the char.

We could call this evidence of failure, but I prefer to see it as a kind of redemption.

Wednesday

Short version: Frito pie

Long version: I didn't have enough chili (sound familiar?) for big bowls for everyone, but I did have enough for Frito pie. Frito pie is very popular here. It's just a pile of Fritos with chili ladled over the top, then topped with any taco toppings you want. It's amazingly good. Not the healthiest option, given the chips, but undeniably tasty.

Thursday

Short version: Quesadillas and radishes

Long version: This evening got crazy. I was subbing for a teacher at school and didn't get home with the kids on the bus until a little after 4:30 p.m. I had to go to our neighbors' at 5 p.m. to meet the brand inspector* for the cow we're buying from them, because A. was still driving other kids home on the bus. So I made quesadillas for the children with flour tortillas, canned refried beans, cheese, and green chili, then left them eating while I went to the neighbors' house a couple of miles away. 

When I got home twenty minutes later, A. was just arriving with the bus. I made him some scrambled eggs and he ate some of the kids' leftover quesadillas before bringing the boys to judo. I also ate a piece of leftover quesadilla before collapsing. I also had some granola later.

Kind of ended this week with a whimper, but at least it did end.

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

* New Mexico is very adamant that every animal sold must have a brand inspection. The brand inspector shows up at the seller's ranch and checks to make sure the brand on the animal matches the brand of the person selling it (all brands are registered with the state), then uses the computer in his truck to print out the official paperwork. I also got the bill of sale from our neighbor, so if we're stopped on our way to the processor, we can prove that we have a right to have this cow.

Changing It Up on Tuesdays

The time has come to end the Tuesday Tips. I just don't like giving advice. Who am I to tell other people what to do? So, I won't.

I can do that, you see, because here if nowhere else, I am Supreme Ruler.

So, what will I do instead? Who knows! I used to write every day--every. single. day--for years with no idea what I would write about the next day. I no longer write every day, but I think I can probably manage one free-wheeling day a week without short-circuiting my brain.  

I think.

It'll be like those free-write assignments from school. Who can say what might come out of my keyboard?

Let's start now, with some fine randomness.

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I overheard one of my sons at school yesterday tell someone, "When I tell people in New York that I live in New Mexico, they always say, 'You live in Mexico?!' And when I tell people here that I'm from New York, they always say, 'Have you been to New York City?'"

It is amusing to me how often people mis-hear "New Mexico" as just "Mexico." It's as if the majority of the country forgets there is a New Mexico. We do generally fly under the radar here, which I actually appreciate.

Just us and the tumbleweeds.

Also amusing is how people outside of New York can't get past the idea that the entirety of the state is not New York City. It's a really big state, and no, none of my children ever made the six-hour drive to New York City. 

I also have to note that I lived in the 50th, 49th, and 48th states* as a kid--in that descending order--and now I live in the 47th. There was a 15-year interruption in my progression there when I lived in New York (the 11th), but I still enjoy the orderliness of this. Which means to keep up the order, next I would have to live in Oklahoma. Stranger things have happened.

* Hawaii, Alaska, and Arizona, respectively.

Snapshots: Breaking News

A very important announcement to start off our Snapshots today: I have a brand-new washing machine.

Cue the Hallelujah Chorus.

Our previous washing machine was purchased used two years ago, and has been dying a slow death for a few months. It finally stopped agitating completely, among other problems, and I declared the time had come for a new machine. A REAL new machine this time. 

But of course, we live a long way from new appliances, so it took a week or so before A. drove the many miles to an appliance store. During that time I was once again doing laundry in the bathtub and re-confirming my belief that I would have been a terrible pioneer woman.

Anyway.

A. did eventually get to the store. He bought a commercial Maytag washing machine, and my socks are once again white. Yay.

Moving on . . .

Samson was waiting at his takeout window for his hay when I went out in the morning.

So was Bill. He has his own window.

A moody walk yesterday morning.

Jasper is invariably cheerful, regardless of the weather.

Those clouds brought snow later in the day.

We ended up with about a quarter inch, which melted fifteen minutes after it stopped because the sun came out. Welcome to New Mexico.

There you have it! My life, snapshotted.