Friday Food: Pecan Pie for the New Year

Friday

Short version: Crispy elk tacos, still-frozen green peas

Long version: A. and one son were gone, so for the other three, I made tacos by quickly frying corn tortillas to make them pliable, putting in leftover elk steak, cheese, and salsa, and then frying them until they were crispy and the cheese was melted.

If the whole family had been here, I would not have done this, because I would have had to make too many. I made eight, and that's about the amount I want to deal with frying.

Saturday

Short version: Ram and elk stew, cheese, cornbread

Long version: I used one small bag of ram stew meat for this, plus the rest of the elk steak, and some beef tallow. So three kinds of animals contributed to this stew.

I made the cornbread because I found two bags of cornmeal in the big freezer when I was organizing it. I need to use more cornmeal.

Sunday

Short version: Elk chorizo and scrambled eggs, leftover cornbread, chocolate ice cream

Long version: I spent much of the day in the kitchen making the black-eyed peas for New Year's Day, as well as a pecan pie. The elk chorizo was the first thing I grabbed out of the freezer. It made a good, fast dinner, and was a good pairing with the leftover cornbread.

The only tricky thing about chorizo is that all the parprika in it makes it hard to tell when it's actually cooked.

When in doubt, cook longer. (This is with the eggs.)

The ice cream gave me the opportunity to finally use the last of the salted caramel sauce from the birthday dinner two weeks ago.

Monday

Short version: The whole New Year's Day shebang

Long version: On New Year's Day, we must ensure our health, wealth, and happiness in the new year with pork, greens, and black-eyed peas, respectively. And, in my house, rice for peace.

This year, the pork was a picnic shoulder that I cooked slowly, pulled apart, and broiled with the rendered fat and juices, mustard, and maple syrup.

I had no greens from my garden this year, but I did still have about a cup of blanched beet greens from summer before last that were still in the freezer. And then I decided sauerkraut counts, too. The cabbage was green at one point. And sauerkraut is delicious with pork.

I had made the black-eyed peas the day before. I had also made a pecan pie.

I have never made a pecan pie. I don't think I have ever even eaten a pecan pie. But one child enthusiastically informed me that pecan pie is his favorite, this while he was eating the pie provided by the school cafeteria for their Christmas meal.

I thought if he loved a Sysco pecan pie, he would really love a homemade pecan pie. So I made one.

And then I took a picture. 

I mostly used this recipe for the filling, except I toasted the pecans as recommended in this one. I was going to do the chocolate layer also mentioned in that second recipe, but that would have required yet another session of chilling, and I was kind of over the making of the pie by that point. So I just did the standard filling.

It was very good. Very nutty, and not too sweet. I whipped cream for it, too, although I have no idea if that is traditional. About half the family ate it with the whipped cream.

The only problem I had with it was that it was not very solid and pretty much fell apart while I was cutting it. I don't think it needed to bake longer. Maybe it was the fact that I used the maple syrup instead of corn syrup. The fact that all the pecan halves were left whole also made it harder to cut. 

I don't know. Everyone liked it, though, even if the pieces were not very aesthetic.

Tuesday

Short version: Tuna-rice casserole, still-frozen peas, pureed squash

Long version: I had a lot of rice left over from the day before, so I used it to make a casserole with a big can of tuna. I fried a few pieces of bacon, diced those, and cooked onion and celery in the bacon grease. Then I put in some mayonnaise, milk, and grated cheese, along with salt and pepper. Kind of like tuna-noodle casserole, except with rice.

Wednesday

Short version: Elk burgers on homemade buns, roasted potatoes, green salad with ranch dressing, cookies

Long version: My brother and one of his daughters arrived for a quick visit this day. I had been making bread the day before, so I used some of that to make hamburger buns. 

Hamburger buns rising on the counter. The two glass pans on the bottom have the buns in them. I stacked the bigger pan on top of the smaller one, and then covered the bigger one with a cutting board, thus creating a tower of buns. This way they didn't take up all my counter space while rising.

I used the very last two bags of ground elk to make the burgers. I'll have to get out some of our excessive elk stew meat to grind. Ground meat is much easier for me to use than stew meat.

It belatedly occurred to me that I had replicated a very standard traveling meal of hamburgers and french fries. Sure enough, my niece did indeed have a hamburger while traveling, but I'm confident mine was better.

The cookies were standard chocolate chip, except I replaced some of the butter with peanut butter. So good. 

Thursday

Short version: Carnita-ish tacos on corn tortillas, pinto beans, brownies

Long version: Real carnitas fry in their own fat after all the liquid from stewing it has evaporated. These weren't real carnitas, because all I did was stew the pork roast, then remove it, shred it, and fry it in its rendered fat with cumin, chile powder, and paprika.

Since it was a snowy day and we were all home all day, I made the corn tortillas myself. 

I used my last jar of pressure-canned pinto beans, so that's going on the list of things I need to make soon, along with more ground elk.

And the brownies were extras from . . . some holiday event that required a baked treat. I can't actually remember. Whatever it was, I had stashed some extra brownies in the freezer so as not to add to the sugar overload during the last week of school. That was an excellent idea, as they came in very handy for dessert this night.

I didn't make a separate vegetable, but there were lettuce, tomatoes, and onions out for topping the tacos.

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