Friday, April 21, 2023

Friday Food: Rhubarb! Asparagus! Hooray!

Friday 

Short version: T-bone steaks, rooster rice, raw cabbage, cottage cheese chocolate cookies

Long version: Definitely not Lent anymore! And that means we can have steak, and rice cooked in rooster stock, for dinner on a Friday. So we did.

I had a very large container of cottage cheese the school cook had sent home with me because it was past the time she could serve it, even though it was still fine to eat. Unfortunately, it was the reduced-fat kind, which is not universally beloved in my household. Fate stepped in, however, in the person of mbmom11, who commented here this very day that she had made cottage cheese cookies that week.

Kismet!

I was due to make some cookies, so I looked up recipes online. I used this one, except I tripled it, used slightly less sugar, added chopped almonds, and didn't dust them with powdered sugar. They were very good. Very soft, cakey cookies. My children approved.

Saturday

Short version: Pizza, green salad with ranch dressing

Long version: One cheese pizza, one with bacon and onions. I spent a couple of hours in the kitchen in the morning cooking down a couple dozen onions from excess commodities that were starting to go bad.

I'd never tried it before, but the slicing disc on the food processor is absolutely the way to go when there are many onions to be sliced. So fast, so much less teary. 

It's always fun to see how much onions cook down.


Before . . .


And after.

I actually filled that pan three times and cooked down all three batches, which leaves me with a LOT of onions in the freezer. Yay.

Some of the onions went on one pizza with bacon, and that was very good. Oh, and both pizzas had the last of the ricotta from the week before on them. Also very good.

Sunday

Short version: Brisket, cornbread, sauerkraut, raw broccoli, rice pudding

Long version: This chunk of brisket was actually from the cow we got before this last one, so I figured I should cook it now, before it's hot enough that I don't want to be running the oven all day. I cooked the meat with just a sliced onion, mustard, ketchup, salt and pepper. When it was done cooking, though, the juices needed some more flavor to sauce the meat.

I had fortuitously made some rhubarb-peach jam earlier in the day by simply cooking down some rhubarb and combining it with some of the very overly sweet peach jam that resulted from following the recipe on a pectin box last fall. Holy cow, does that call for a lot of sugar.

The rhubarb tones down the excess sugar nicely, though, and it was just what the meat juices needed for the right flavor.


A very bad photo of the rhubarb.

Monday

Short version: Spanish tortilla, asparagus, leftover corn bread

Long version: I had actually made the Spanish tortilla over the weekend for the one child who likes to eat it as a snack, but there was a lot left, so we had it for a fast after-work dinner.

I made myself a salad and was thinking that I wished I had more vegetables to put in it. Then I looked out the window and remembered . . .


It's asparagus season! Hooray!

Three of my children will eat asparagus, but only raw. So that's what they had.

Tuesday

Short version: Bull enchilada casserole

Long version: Chipping away at the bull, forever and ever. I like using it in this because I can make casseroles in my biggest 15"x9" Pyrex and then have leftovers.

Wednesday

Short version: Scrambled eggs, leftover rooster rice, raw broccoli

Long version: I really should make scrambled eggs for dinner more frequently. It uses up a lot of eggs quickly, and I'm still getting 5-7 eggs a day, so we have a good supply at all times.

Also, please be impressed that I turned on the stove and cooked something on a work day. I was saving my leftover casserole for the next day . . .

Thursday

Short version: Leftover enchilada casserole, rhubarb/peach pudding

Long version: I was at the school for a late-afternoon celebratory assembly for our state-winning FFA team. I was there until the end of the school day, which is why I saved the casserole for this night, so we could eat quickly in between the end of school and judo. 

And then there were cupcakes, cookies, cake, AND doughnuts at the assembly, which all of the children were more than happy to sample. That meant that A. was the only one who really ate the pudding, but he enjoyed it.

The pudding is a recipe for rhubarb pudding in an old encyclopedia of cooking the MiL has. I tried to find something similar online and couldn't really find anything, so I actually called her for the recipe. I might have to post it sometime.

The recipe is for just rhubarb, but I used the peach jam and rhubarb. It was very good. 


But not very photogenic.

Good thing we don't eat with our eyes in this house.

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

8 comments:

mbmom11 said...

Fri-Dominos pizza with gift card. because pepperoni on a Friday seemed like the thing to do!
Sat-very tired day so leftover pizza, bagel and misc for the boy who doesn't like leftovers.
Sun- cold windy day again so stew, homemade bread, broccoli, noodles. Carb heavy,but growing boys approve. No carrots in the stew as someone ate them at breakfast.
Mon- I baked chicken, but could not rustle up the enthusiasm to do anything with it. So husband got nice salad, some leftover bacon I needed to cook, kids got grilled cheese, chips, broccoli.
Tues- track meet on a gorgeous spring day somewhat far away. I dragged all the younger kids with me, so cheez-its and power-ade in the car. once we returned home, some scavenged chicken patties or Cheerios. And then one walked in half hour before bed looking for dinner- she got a string cheese and carrots.
Wed- chicken strips chips broccoli. Husband had salad too. I had the Cheerios.
Thurs- I had to bring boy to track meet so I left salad for husband and leftover pizza from the freezer for others. Got to track meet 10minutes before a thunderstorm blew threw,so meet was cancelled: dime and quarter sized hail discouraged the event. Wished they had cancelled it earlier but oh well. Pizza when we got home.
I'm Glad you enjoyed the cookie recipe and made it your own! I have to make a batch for work- there are some great bakers there who can't believe such a cookie would taste good.

Kristin @ Going Country said...

mbmom11: If they're great bakers, they should be familiar with how sour cream works in baked goods. The cottage cheese functions pretty much like that, it just requires more incorporation because of the curds.

mbmom11 said...

I think it's the mental image of "curds" that comes up. It seems so unlikely that they'd work in a cookie, regardless of the plausible kitchen chemistry. The proof will be in the baking!

Mary W said...

Please share the rhubarb pudding recipe. A dollop of whipped cream makes anything look palatable. I'm game to try anything rhubarb.

Anonymous said...

Hello, this week we ate:

Sunday - Moroccan beef stew with couscous.

Monday - Leftovers from Sunday ( stew always seems better the next day for some reason, plus I don't have to cook so maybe that's it)

Tuesday - Was in Seattle all day so we went to Beecher's and had their macoroni and cheese with a hunk of sourdough...standing on the sidewalk eating hot mac in cheese in a bustling city people watching while it's lightly drizzling was exactly what I wanted to be doing...the change of scene was great but I'm glad to be back home deep in the woods.

Wendsday - Shredded chicken with alfredo sauce over penne, veggie tray with ranch, sourdough bread.

Thursday - Tuscan white bean casserole, roasted cherry tomatoes, more sourdough bread.

Yes, I realize we had a carb heavy week...not sorry.

Friday - Really not sure...I'll think of something though

Happy weekend everyone!

Kit said...

Friday-meat loaf, baked potatoes, mixed vegetables
Saturday-sausages, cornbread, coleslaw, Easter candy
Sunday-omelet with leftover sausage and cheese, oven-fried potatoes, peas
Monday-roast chicken, rice, coleslaw
Tuesday-vegetable casserole
Wednesday-stirfried chicken and vegetables, sourdough biscuits
Thursday-split pea soup from the freezer, leftover biscuits

Daisy said...

Oh, rhubarb! Here in the frigid north, my rhubarb is just starting to show itself above the ground. It's looking very red, though, so I have hopes for some wonderful rhubarb goodies.

Drew @ How To Cook Like Your Grandmother said...

Raw asparagus? Eww. Might as well chew on some hemp twine.

But re: the onions cooking down ... They're bush league compared to spinach. You could accidentally set a bale of spinach down in the sun while prepping the rest of the ingredients for a salad and by the time you look back over it's enough to fill a cereal bowl.