Friday Food: Tomatoes!

Friday 

Short version: Leftovers, bread and butter, frozen peas

Long version: We had a whole elk steak that I had cooked that didn't get eaten, plus a couple of servings of A.'s sheep stew. I added the rest of the leftover rice to the stew, along with some sauerkraut and some frozen peas, and that is what A. and one child ate. The other children had the steak and the bread and butter and peas.

I had steak with sauerkraut and peas. I really do love sauerkraut.

Saturday

Short version: Lamb, fried potatoes, tomato salad

Long version: I had taken out two of the very small packages of leg of lamb still in the freezer from when we sent a ewe to the actual processor. They had been marinating in a mustard vinaigrette all day, and I just chunked them up and fried them in bacon grease, adding garlic powder and more salt.

The potatoes I microwaved until they were mostly cooked, then chopped and fried in olive oil.

And the tomato salad was from ALL MY OWN TOMATOES, YAY.

I kind of slumped into the kitchen at dinnertime, sad that my only options for vegetables were frozen peas or carrot sticks, when I saw this bowl I had forgotten about.

Happy days are here again.

I've been picking the tomatoes on the slightly underripe side, so the chickens and other birds don't peck at them, so these had actually been picked a couple of days before. I had a chunk of red onion in the refrigerator, so I finely diced some of that, added it to my diced tomatoes, used some more of the mustard vinaigrette on it (I keep this on my counter, so it's handy), plus more salt and pepper, and ta da! Tomato salad where there had been only a sad vegetable void.

Was that too dramatic? Perhaps. I get like that with tomatoes.

Sunday

Short version: Elk meatloaf, bread and butter, pureed squash, sauteed random vegetables, cookies

Long version: My dramatics were unnecessary (they usually are), because I had also forgotten about the big bowl of cooked squash in the refrigerator, the small calabacita that got partially frosted, and the last of the mushrooms in the refrigerator.

The squash was one I had bought at Walmart several weeks ago that I just baked until it was soft, then pureed, mostly to have for making pumpkin pies. For this meal, I added butter and maple to the pureed squash.

I combined the calabacita and mushrooms together with the rest of the red onion and a few Roma tomatoes and just sauteed that all together.

Dinner in progress.

I made a recipe in my old Better Homes and Gardens cookbook for "Peanut Butter Rounds" that promised to be "great for snacks!" Indeed it is, because it's pretty much just my standard peanut butter/oat/almond/chocolate chip cookies that I make for school snacks most weeks. Except I actually measured things (and reduced the sugar, of course), so it took slightly longer. And I didn't cream any butter with sugar, instead melting the butter and then carrying on from there. 

I do this with almost every cookie recipe, and it almost always works. I really hate hauling out my hand mixer and creaming butter.

Monday

Short version: Fried pork chunks, rice, frozen green peas

Long version: I had a bag of pork chunks from I think the last time I had a sirloin roast that I had put in the freezer. I thawed those while I was at work, and then fried them when I got home in the fat that rendered off of the Asian pork ribs we had awhile ago. Fat like that keeps a really long time in the refrigerator, and it had a very good flavor to it. 

I added some more garlic powder and salt to the pork, but most of the flavor came from the fat. Very good it was, too.

Tuesday

Short version: Lamb chops, garlic bread, tomato salad

Long version: These were the last chops from the sheep we brought to the processor. There was just enough for everyone.

Garlic bread because I was making bread anyway. And tomato salad because FINALLY with the ripe tomatoes and basil.

Wednesday

Short version: Meatloaf and rice skillet, apple slices

Long version: I made skillet food with the leftover meatloaf chopped up and leftover rice fried in bacon fat, with some onion powder and shredded cheddar cheese stirred in there, too. Pretty good.

I didn't have a vegetable, so I cut up some of the apples we had gotten from excess commodities the day before. They were surprisingly tart and crisp apples.

Thursday

Short version: Crispy bean tacos at home, restaurant leftovers on the road

Long version: I took the post-surgical son to the city in the afternoon to get his soft cast off, stitches out, and a "walking" boot (that he can't actually walk on) put on. We went to lunch at a chain barbecue restaurant (The Rib Crib) before his appointment, where he got a giant plate of ribs and french fries, and I got a very generous portion of chopped brisket. There was quite a bit of everything left over, which of course we got in a box to bring home. Most of it never made it home, as we were driving at dinnertime and the hungry boy in the car consumed the majority of it on the drive.

A. made cheese and bean crispy tacos for the children at home by filling and frying corn tortillas.

One child didn't eat, though, because he came home from school with a stomachache and a fever. Boo. It's been a heck of a fall for sickness so far.

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