Friday Food: And Then It Got Hot

We've definitely left behind the unusually cool and rainy weather and are having much drier and hotter weather. Which means it's 80 degrees in my kitchen in the afternoon, and I've started doing more of my cooking in the morning. It's the summer schedule.

Friday 

Short version: Fried pork, leftover rice, raw cabbage, pureed calabaza, baked custard

Long version: This wasn't canned commodities pork. This was a pork shoulder I cooked for awhile in the morning. While the oven was on, I made custard too, because I definitely have children that need the extra calories.

I still have at least half a dozen quart bags of pureed calabaza in the freezer that I need to work through before fall. The only way to do that is to thaw them and have it taunting me in the refrigerator, daring me to let it go bad.

What, your food doesn't have an attitude? Weird.

Saturday

Short version: Meatloaf, baked potatoes, frozen peas

Long version: Nothing to report here, except maybe that the potatoes A. got last time at the store were so huge that I split one into four pieces for the kids, and that was plenty potato for them. Seriously large potatoes.

Sunday

Short version: Father's Day steak, dill potato salad, pureed calabaza, raw snow peas, rhubarb/strawberry slump with whipped cream

Long version: Last package of rib steaks, more or less this potato salad (I use less sugar, more bacon, and regular onion), and the same rhubarb/strawberry dessert from last week that A. declared perfection. Except of course, since I didn't measure last time, I couldn't measure this time, and I apparently didn't get the fruit quite sweet enough.

Oh well. I made up for it with the whipped cream, which I did add enough sugar to this time. This is the hazard of cooking without recipes. 

I didn't intend to stage a shot of the Father's Day food, it's just that I use the top of the woodstove as an extra counter in the summer, so a lot of things end up here.

Monday

Short version: Fried pork tacos, raw snow peas

Long version: A. went to Kansas to buy a horse trailer.

A cute little two-horse one that was made in the '70s. You can tell from that totally '70s orange color.

It was just me and the three younger children here for dinner. For them, I mixed some of the leftover pork with salsa, put that in folded-over corn tortillas with cheese, and fried them to make crispy tacos.

I had some of the pork in a salad. Because it's garden lettuce season, hooray!

Tuesday

Short version: Leftover steak, rice, raw snow peas

Long version: Nah.

Wednesday

Short version: Chicken and rice skillet, fresh bread and butter

Long version: It was over 90 degrees this day, and I had to bake bread in the afternoon, which always raises the temperature of the kitchen at least five degrees. All the way until pretty much dinnertime, I was planning on tuna salad with the bread. But then I changed my mind last-minute and used the leftover rice with a can of chicken from commodities, plus onion (from the freezer), garlic powder, mayonnaise, grated cheddar, and frozen peas, to make a hot skillet of food.

A very popular dish, it turned out. A. also had some leftover steak.

Thursday

Short version: Spanish tortilla, green salad with vinaigrette

Long version: I have to space out my serving Spanish tortilla, or it loses its appeal for the children. It had been awhile since I had made it, though, so they were all happy to eat it. This was a basic one of just diced bacon, onion, potatoes, eggs, and cheese.

And it is definitely garden lettuce season, which means salad every day. Even if I don't serve it to the children, I have one.

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