Friday Food: A Single Sunflower and S'mores

Friday

Short version: Pizza, carrot sticks

Long version: It was actually not only below 90 degrees this day, it was below 80 degrees. This hasn't happened in some time, so of course I took advantage by baking bread. And of course I used some of the dough to make pizza.

I made one cheese and one pepperoni. And I made the same two half-sheet-pan pizzas I always make, even though two of our biggest eaters weren't home. This way, I could plan on leftovers. Which there were.

Saturday

Short version: Meatballs, leftover rice, frozen peas

Long version: I used ground sheep for these meatballs, so I seasoned them with zaatar. Then I cooked them in the liquid I drained from a can of tomatoes used for pizza sauce, and added more zaatar to the tomato juice.

I guess that's all. How about a photo?

The lone sunflower that survived the hail. I hope more will bloom soon, but so far, this is it. No table bouquets this year. Boo.

Sunday

Short version: Leftover pizza, green salad with vinaigrette, rhubarb-strawberry-cream popsicles

Long version: I actually had enough leftover pizza that I consolidated the leftovers onto one pan and just covered it with foil and stuck it in the refrigerator. This took up a lot of space, but made it very easy to just put that pan in the oven to re-heat the pizza this night.

I used the rhubarb-strawberry puree I had made a couple of weeks ago for the popsicles, to which I also added a little maple syrup and heavy cream.

They were too sweet, I thought. They definitely didn't need the syrup, and I think would have been better with a little yogurt added to cut the sugar a bit. My children did not agree, however, so I guess it was fine. And I didn't have to bake anything, which was more than fine.

Monday

Short version: Bean and cheese quesadillas, scrambled eggs and rice, carrot sticks

Long version: Just me and two kids, which means not too much cooking. They had the quesadillas. I had the scrambled eggs and rice. 

I was so lazy, I actually cooked the scrambled eggs in the microwave in the glass container the rice had been stored in, just so I wouldn't have a pan to wash. It worked pretty well, actually.

Tuesday

Short version: Tuna salad sandwiches, sirloin strips and vegetables, carrot sticks, fruit shake

Long version: Still just me and two kids. They really wanted the tuna sandwiches, so I made that for them.

They also had the carrot sticks and fruit shake--a smoothie to the rest of the world. Mostly because it was hot.

I don't much care for tuna. I had taken the sirloin steaks out just to have them ready to cook, so I sliced off some thin strips from one of them and cooked that with onion, carrot shavings, frozen peas, and sauerruben.

Let's talk about that last thing, shall we?

Sauerruben is pretty much sauerkraut, except instead of fermenting cabbage, you ferment turnips. And who accidentally had a bunch of turnips and no great desire to eat them? I did!

I decided fermenting them couldn't make them any worse, so that's what I did. It's just shredded turnips in a brine of water and salt, put in the crock I use for sauerkraut. I left it four or five days, and then tried it.

Woah. The fermented turnips were some strong food, for sure. I did not care for it raw, but then, I don't much like sauerkraut raw, either.

So, in defiance of every health guru who chides us for cooking fermented foods because it kills the beneficial bacteria, I cooked the sauerruben. Specifically, I put it in with the sirloin.

It was very, very good. There was no turnip taste left. It served the same function as sauerkraut. That is, it was a salty flavor enhancer. So I guess I can use the rest of those turnip seeds I have to grow more turnips and then make sauerruben.

Next year, anyway. The garden is pretty much a loss this year.

Wednesday

Short version: Anniversary sausage, fried potatoes, green salad with ranch dressing, s'mores

Long version: A. brought back several packages of Italian sausage for me from New York. But not just any sausage: Gianelli sausage.

Gianelli is a central New York company that makes the best Italian sausage. And it is not available anywhere outside the northeast. So A. bought it and kept it on ice for the three days it took him to get home.

True love.

So that's what we had for our 20th anniversary dinner. 

My favorite way to cook Italian sausage links is actually roasted in the oven with potatoes, but it was too hot to have the oven on that high for so long. So I fried them in a skillet in butter instead.

We did have potatoes, too. For those, I microwaved a few potatoes until they were mostly cooked, then chopped them up and fried them in butter as well.

The salad was courtesy of the excess commodities brought to us this day. Included was a CSA box of New Mexico products. This box had a bag of green oakleaf lettuce in it. My lettuce either got obliterated by hail or is starting to bolt and is inedibly bitter, so I was very glad to get this lettuce. 

A. had also bought me some tomatoes at a roadside stand somewhere in Oklahoma, so we even had tomatoes in the salad. Luxury, indeed.

He had also bought a watermelon that I was very much looking forward to. Unfortunately, it cracked in transit and was fermenting by the time he got it home. Sadness.

However! The MiL had purchased the makings for s'mores for Jack, who went with A. to New York. They never made them while they were there, so she sent all of it home with them. So A. built a little fire in the outdoor grill, the kids all sharpened their own sticks, and they made s'mores.

S'mores pan ready to be transported outside. (And the anniversary card sent to us by my parents.)

Thursday

Short version: Beef stir-fry, rice

Long version: I used the rest of the sirloin steak for this, cutting it into small pieces that I cooked in the morning before it got hot. I find the sirloin needs to be cooked for awhile in liquid to get less chewy, so it's not really stir-fried, I guess.

Another of the things in that commodities CSA box was daikon radishes. I have never had a daikon radish. The box came with a little informational sheet about them. It claimed they are milder than red radishes.

I tasted one raw, and I beg to differ.

The sheet also gave a recipe for "sweet and spicy daikon radish fries." I did not make this, instead cutting small sticks from the biggest one and adding it to the stir-fry. After cooking, it had a very unpleasant bitter taste, so I can't think fries made from them would be very good.

Not a fan, I guess. But now I know!

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