Friday Food: Patriotic Ugly Cakes

Friday 

Short version: Steak strips and gravy, mashed potatoes, frozen peas

Long version: I used sirloin steaks for this, which are very lean and boneless. I just cut them into strips, browned them in leftover pork fat, then cooked them with onions, parsley, and the remains of the pork liquid from, uh, before our trip. It was in the back of the refrigerator and had been covered in the fat, so it was still good. Nice and gelatinous, and added a lot of flavor to the beef juices. To those juices, I added cornstarch and milk to make gravy.

Saturday

Short version: Sheef cheeseburgers on homemade buns, oven fries, green salad with vinaigrette

Long version: Does anyone else remember those old Sizzler commercials from the '80s that tried to get people into the restaurant between lunch and dinner by asking if they thought that meal should be called "dunch" or "linner"? 

No? Just me?

Well, anyway, I had the same sort of question about these burgers. I used two pounds of ground beef and one pound of ground sheep in them. So, are they sheef or beep burgers? I decided beep burgers sounded stupid, so sheef it is. Ahem.

In any case, the sheep meat had a lot more fat in it than the ground beef, so it was a good combination. Also, by request, I smashed the patties firmly as I put them in the pan, so as to make very thin hamburgers. This takes more time, because more individual burgers have to be made, but they were good.

Sunday

Short version: Bull and rice casserole, baked custard

Long version: I took out one of the bags of prepared (pressure-cooked and food-processed) bull meat from the freezer, knowing that meat works best in a casserole. So a casserole is what I made.

I literally threw the following things into a Pyrex casserole: rice, bull, the rest of the pork juices and fat, frozen onions, frozen peas, garlic powder, shredded cheddar cheese, and a random cup of milk I found on the counter from a child who didn't finish it.

It came out surprisingly well, given the complete randomness of its preparation.

Monday

Short version: Salmon/tuna patties, spaghetti, green salad with ranch dressing

Long version: If I wanted to be really obnoxious, I suppose I could call these suna patties, since I used both sorts of canned fish in them. But that would be annoying. The patties were good, though.

I made the spaghetti with just butter, garlic powder, and Parmesan. I think this is the first time I had made pasta this way for my children. At least one of them declared it the best pasta ever. Of course it is. It has virtually no nutritional value.

Tuesday

Short version: Independence food

Long version: The major components of this meal came right from our property. A. did his annual barbecue to cook sheep ribs, which are his favorite food.

I boiled the potatoes I had harvested a few days previously and just doused those in a lot of butter and salt. 

We have a TON of lettuce at the moment that will shortly be too bitter to eat, so I made another green salad. The ranch dressing included parsley and dill from the garden as well.

I made Grandma Bishop's Chocolate Cake, with the addition of some chocolate chips. Why not, right? I figure Americans have a reputation of being sort of extra, so I might as well gild the lily. The chocolate chips all sank to the bottom, so when I flipped the cakes out, there was a layer of chocolate at the top. This was very good.

We had two cakes only because the only rectangular dish I had to bake the flag cake was quite small. So I made another small cake in an oval dish and used my imagination for the decoration.

My signature Ugly Cake. But patriotic!

The cake was only nominally from the property. I used the strawberry-rhubarb puree I had made earlier in the day to make the stripes on the cake, as well as the lettering on the extra cake. 

The frosting was a buttercream that I made without consulting a recipe for amounts, and then I added too much milk and had to add more of the other stuff and . . . well, it kind of got away from me. It was a bit runny, but it firmed up nicely in the refrigerator and received enthusiastic praise from the children, which is all that matters.

Wednesday

Short version: Pizza, meatballs, green salad with ranch dressing

Long version: I made one cheese pizza and one pepperoni. 

The meatballs I made for me. I used a pound of ground sheep, with zaatar in the mixture, and cooked them in the juice I drained off a can of tomatoes opened to make the pizza sauce. They came out well.

Thursday

Short version: Leftovers

Long version: Pizza, meatballs, potatoes . . . leftovers.

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