Friday Food: Home Food Is the Best Food

Friday 

Short version: Catfish, sausage, cheese and crackers, raw tomatoes and carrots, ice cream smorgasbord

Long version: A. took Cubby and Jack fishing in the morning. Cubby caught a stingray (which A. threw back, just because he was so rattled to be handling a stingray, and then he regretted it), and some catfish. Although the crew of the boat we were on the day before threw the catfish back, A. has eaten freshwater catfish and wanted to see if the saltwater catfish were any different. 

Charter boat fishing, during which we caught several catfish, none of which the crew wanted to keep.

They weren't. Except for the fact that it was harder to get the fillets off of them because of their big, hard heads.

The catfish were pretty small, so the fillets were only enough for everyone to have a taste. That's why I also made some spicy pork sausage.

Poppy had been asking if we could go get ice cream, but none of the ice cream stands were open. I mean, it felt warm to us, but it is winter, and ice cream is pretty seasonal.

So we got some Blue Bell (a Texas brand) ice cream at the grocery store. No one in our family ever agrees on anything, so we got four pints of different kinds, instead of a half gallon of one kind. Thus, the children all got to sample chocolate/vanilla, butter pecan, cookies and cream, and mint chocolate chip.

And then, since we couldn't really bring the ice cream with us on our trip home (more's the pity), they got to have seconds to finish it off.

Now that's a good day.

Saturday

Short version: An elegant New Year's Eve at Chubby's restaurant

Long version: That was actually the name of the place where we ate in Brady, Texas. We stopped there for the night on our way home, and Chubby's was the closest place to our motel. It wasn't bad. Nothing exciting. We got chicken, hamburgers, and a salad for me, and it was acceptable, if not exceptional.

Sunday

Short version: A happy new year feast from the freezer

Long version: If you've been reading here for any length of time, you'll perhaps remember that I always make pork, black-eyed peas, greens, and rice for our New Year's Day meal to ensure our health, wealth, and happiness in the new year. (And harmony, which is what my children have assigned to the rice.)

It's a tradition I inherited from my mother, who grew up in New Orleans. I've done it every single year for at least twenty years. It's important to me that we have this, so I made sure we would still be able to have our traditional meal even though we didn't get home until 4 p.m. on New Year's Day.

I made the black-eyed peas before we left and put them in the freezer. The greens were some beet greens from the garden I had frozen in the summer. The pork was the extra from the pork shoulder I made the day before we left, also frozen.

So all I had to do was microwave the black-eyed peas and beet greens, thaw the pork in a covered pan with some water and then fry it, and make some rice.

This is always a tasty meal, but it is particularly delicious after two days of road food.

Monday

Short version: Bunless cheeseburgers, potato soup, leftover rice, green salad with ranch dressing

Long version: We have had what seems like a continuous round of sore throats, snotty noses, and general ickiness for like two weeks. I thought everyone was mostly recovered, but one child woke up with a sore throat this morning.

Curses.

I made the potato soup with my last five small potatoes and some of the dehydrated potato flakes to further thicken it. Also bacon, onion, milk, rooster stock, sour cream, and cream. It came out very well, but how could it not, with all that dairy in it?

Those who are not enamored of soup had the rice.

Tuesday

Short version: Sausage-y meatloaf, garlic bread, frozen peas

Long version: There was about 3/4 pound of ground beef left from the night before, which I combined with about an equal amount of Sysco breakfast sausage to make meatloaf. The sausage adds a lot of flavor, as well as some needed fat.

I also made peanut butter cookies this day to fill the cookie jar again, at Calvin's request. I used this recipe for the first time, and not only does it make a superior peanut butter cookie, the recipe as written made 72 somewhat small cookies. Which exactly filled the cookie jar. How pleasing.

Minus a few that had to be sampled by my juvenile quality control before they made it to the cookie jar, of course.

Wednesday

Short version: Carnitas tacos, rice pudding

Long version: We had to be at church until about 5:30 p.m., after being gone most of the afternoon, so I needed to make something ahead of time that would be quick to get on the table when we got home. I also had half a gallon of milk that wasn't great for drinking anymore, but was fine for rice pudding.

So. Since I had the rice pudding in for a few hours anyway, I stuck in a pork shoulder to cook, too. Then when I got home, all I had to do was fry pieces of it in its own rendered lard with some taco-ish spices (chile powder, cumin, garlic powder) and serve it in corn tortillas with cheese.

Thursday

Short version: Pizza, green salad with ranch dressing

Long version: This was Jack's raincheck birthday dinner, when I couldn't make it for his actual birthday as requested because of the nasty flour. I waited until now, because he two loose teeth that lined up so that he really couldn't chew very well, much less bite pizza. One of the teeth came out a couple of days ago, though, so he was okay with pizza again.

I had some of the breakfast sausage left, which I browned and put on one pizza. The other was just cheese.

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