Friday Food: More Tamales

Friday

Short version: Leftover tamales, ice cream

Long version: Epiphany! I made several dozen tamales before Christmas and froze a couple of bags of them. Those are the ones I steamed this evening. So I guess you could call this Christmas Redux.

The ice cream was a gallon tub of Walmart brand Neopolitan, and you know, it was pretty good. A. was surprised that the Great Value ice cream was actual ice cream, not faux "dairy dessert" garbage like most of the big tubs are. 

That's just for future reference, should you ever need need a giant container of ice cream. Which we do, because half the gallon was eaten just this night.

Saturday

Short version: Leftover pork, bread and butter, green salad with ranch dressing, cookies

Long version: This was the pork from a couple of days prior. I just pulled it apart and fried it in some of the leftover rendered lard. 

This week's cookies for the cookie jar used an opened can of condensed milk that had been in the refrigerator. I used this recipe and added chocolate chips to them. 

They were okay. Sort of like shortbread with chocolate chips. Oddly, they reminded me of chocolate chip pancakes, but in cookie form. So of course, the one child who doesn't like chocolate chip pancakes didn't like these. The rest of the kids ate them.

As I said, they were okay. Definitely not as good as a standard chocolate chip cookie, though.

Sunday

Short version: Braised chicken and potatoes, frozen green peas, more ice cream

Long version: We culled three old hens and one of them A. thought would be okay for braising. The other two I just used for stock, but this one I cooked covered in the oven with onion, garlic, tomato sauce, and some random dried rosemary from last year's garden. 

I wanted to use thyme, but I didn't seem to have any. I'm not a huge fan of rosemary, because it tends to overpower other flavors, but it was just a little and it turned out quite tasty.

Aromatics ahoy.

The best part of this chicken was that I added some of the stock made from the other two chickens to the leftovers, plus the leftover peas, and it made the most delicious soup for my work lunches this week. Yum.

Monday

Short version: Leftover tamales, chicken soup

Long version: I got my Thermos all filled with hot chicken soup and some cheese packed in my lunch bag . . . and then I forgot my lunch at home. 

Booooo.

I had a quite good salad in the cafeteria at school, and then I had my lunch for dinner. It was delicious.

Cubby, who is a big fan of all things chicken and almost all soups, had some of it, too. Everyone else had tamales.

Tuesday

Short version: Sirloin steaks, garlic bread, carrot sticks with curry dip

Long version: I hadn't made curry dip in awhile (mayonnaise+sweet yellow curry powder). It really is amazingly good with carrot sticks. Pretty good with the steak, too, actually.

Wednesday

Short version: Chicken quesadillas; various leftovers; raw broccoli, bell pepper, and green beans

Long version: The quesadillas--leftover chicken and salsa with cheese in flour tortillas--were for the kids. A. had a plate of the last of the pork and steak, plus the last few tamales, all covered with salsa.

I got a Misfits Market box for the first time in many, many months, and it included the broccoli and bell pepper the kids ate before dinner, plus the green beans they ate with their dinner. 

I sauteed some of the green beans with some of the leftover chicken and had that for my dinner, with a microwaved sweet potato that also came in the box.

I had been resisting getting a Misfits Market box because it makes me sad to have to buy produce, but since I don't overwinter anything in my garden, it was definitely time. And I was very excited to have all that produce. So next year, someone remind me not to wait until after the new year to start ordering from them again.

Thursday

Short version: Buckwheat pancakes, bean burrito, Cheez-its, Larabar

Long version: I was at school for a teachers' meeting and then went to the basketball games. In between I raided Jack's snack box in his classroom. That's where I got the Cheez-its. 

After Cubby's basketball game, he got a bean burrito at the concession stand. I grabbed a Larabar from the teacher's workroom.

A. made the buckwheat pancakes for the home crew, and I ate the leftover cold pancakes on the kids' plates when I got home.

Just keeping it real here.

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

Resolutely Storebought

A. was in a Walmart the other day in one of the larger towns we sometimes shop in, and on his list were both flour and corn tortillas. He dutifully got the tortillas, and then, while he was stopped and examining the hams, a middle-aged Spanish lady looked in his cart and admonished him for buying tortillas.

"Those are no good!" she said. "I always make my own. Your wife should make your tortillas."

Yes, I know. I should. 

However.

I can make tortillas. I do sometimes make tortillas. But I do not like making tortillas. Anything that has to be made individually is a huge pain when feeding six people, four of whom eat a LOT. Making enough tortillas for all of us to have them with a meal takes almost an hour, and, in the case of flour tortillas, requires rolling them on the counter.

Downer.

If all I was making in a day was tortillas and frijoles--traditional fare here in New Mexico--then I probably wouldn't even think about spending that hour making the tortillas. But I'm not. I'm making bread and pizza and yogurt and cookies and granola and chicken stock and coleslaw and LOTS of meat.

So tortillas are something I am willing to buy, even though, yes, the ones I sometimes make are a lot better than the ones we can buy.

We all make choices about our priorities. And my priority right now just isn't exclusively homemade tortillas. 

I'm okay with this, even if Walmart lady isn't.

So tell me: What is something you have decided is definitely not worth doing for you, even if others don't agree?

Snapshots: Early Morning

The moon was still so bright on Saturday morning just before sunrise that it almost hurt to look at it.

Meanwhile, the sun had yet to make its appearance.

Who's that I see peeking over the fence?

Good morning, Bill. Hay coming right up.

You're welcome.

Have some ice water, too. (That's an old ax I use to break the ice in the tank.)

There you have it! My (early morning) life, snapshotted.