Friday Food: Boring, Boring, Boring, SNAKE!

One child was having persisent mild stomach upsets, and his dad prescribed a diet of primarily ground beef and rice. That's why A. took out ten pounds of ground beef on Sunday, and I've been cooking it all week.

And then there was Thursday. We did not have ground beef. And if you're easily grossed out, you should probably skip reading about our Thursday meal.

Friday 

Short version: Bull enchilada casserole, guacamole and chips, margaritas

Long version: Feliz Cinco de Mayo! I actually thought ahead enough to ask A. to get the ingredients for the margaritas and guacomole and chips when he was at the store the week before. Yay, me!

We had the guacamole and chips and margaritas around 4 p.m. Then the kids watched a movie so A. and I could drink our margaritas without interruption.

PARTY BLENDER!

I made the casserole ahead of time so there would be dinner without me having to cook it right beforehand. Because I find cooking to be a big buzzkill.

It's sort of ridiculous how much planning goes into my having a drink, but I did very much enjoy my margarita.

Incidentally, Cinco de Mayo is not as big a deal here in New Mexico as it was in Arizona. That's because the Spanish people here actually left Mexico about two hundred years before the event celebrated on Cinco de Mayo. They don't consider themselves Mexican at all. They consider themselves Spanish. They don't take any notice of Mexican holidays. 

But I still like to celebrate it, because it's fun.

Saturday

Short version: Pork ribs, rooster rice, coleslaw

Long version: I overcooked the ribs, so they were kinda dry, but they were still all eaten. I don't usually cover them, but next time I might. It would give me a larger margin for error in my timing.

Sunday

Short version: Bunless cheeseburgers, leftover rice, sauteed asparagus and mushrooms, leftover coleslaw, ice cream

Long version: I appreciate that coleslaw tastes even better the day after it's made. Not that I ever make it a whole day before I'm planning on eating it, but leftovers that actually improve with age are always nice.

Monday

Short version: Ground beef tacos

Long version: Just ground beef with salsa, spices, and onions in store-bought corn tortillas. 

Walmart Lady would not approve.

Tuesday

Short version: Fried rice

Long version: Leftover rice+ground beef+freezer onions+peas+garlic powder+soy sauce+vinegar+ginger. That's it.

Wednesday

Short version: Leftovers

Long version: Hamburgers with bread and butter, or fried rice. Those were the choices. Everyone ate.

Thursday

Short version: Fried snake, tacos, baked custard

Long version: And here we are. Stop reading now if you're squeamish.

In the afternoon, Cubby shot a bull snake that was coiled right around the eggs in the chicken coop. As he was carrying the snake out, he wondered aloud if it was edible.

The answer, of course, is yes. In actual fact, apparently almost all snakes are edible. Even the venemous ones, provided you chop off the head pretty far up so as to dispose of the venom sac behind the eyes.

Who's hungry yet?

He wanted to cook the snake. Of course he did. He is his father's child.

I stayed inside while he was doing the skinning ("It pulls right off like a sock!") and gutting ("It's pretty gnarly smelling, but it's not as bad as a chicken."). And then I went outside while he dredged it in egg, then in seasoned cornmeal, and then fried it in corn oil.

He plated it up and prepared for the great unveiling.

The suspense was terrible.

Because I was not present for any of the preparations, I was not prepared for the fact that he had not actually cut the thing into smaller pieces. So it really looked like . . . fried snake.

Not our typical dinner fare.

The bones were all still in it, and snakes have a lot of bones, so he had to chop it into smaller pieces with a cleaver. 

The verdict is . . . tastes just like chicken. Very chewy chicken. Almost anything deep fried tastes most like the breading, but I pulled off a bit of plain meat to taste and really, there was no discernible taste at all. Everyone ate it.

There isn't a lot of meat on a snake, though, so I also provided some corn tortillas with cheese and leftover taco meat.

I had made the baked custard for the one child with a sore throat. However, I had also made rhubarb/strawberry jam earlier in the day (I used purchased frozen strawberries, and about twice as much rhubarb as strawberries), so two children chose to have yogurt with jam instead of custard.

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