Friday Food: Roly Poly Fish Heads

Friday

Short version: Fish head chowder, garlic bread

Long version: There has been a bag of carp heads in our freezer for almost a year now. A. and the children caught the carp when they were fishing, and A. saved the heads to make fish stock.

What better time for fish soup than Lent, right? Also, I really wanted to get that bag of fish heads out of the freezer. So I thawed them and A. made stock with them.

Finny stock in process.

Despite the gruesome-looking pot, the stock came out well. Not very fishy at all. The rest of the chowder consisted of a few random tilapia fillets that had also been in the freezer awhile, caramelized onions from the freezer, diced potatoes, milk, and cream. It was really pretty good, even for those of us who don't much care for fish.

The one child who didn't want to eat it did eat at least few bites, and then mostly garlic bread. Which is fine.

If you are unfamiliar with the title of the song that I used as the title of this post, you can see the lyric video for it here, along with some really unappetizing photos of, well, fish heads. Really weird song, and I have no idea why I know it.

Saturday

Short version: Elk stir-fry, rice

Long version: One bag of elk stir-fry meat, the rest of the broccoli we got from commodities, some bell peppers I had, carrots, green peas, onion and garlic.

Obligatory stir-fry beauty shot. It didn't look quite so photogenic after it had the brown sauce on it. Tasted better, though.

Sunday

Short version: Pork, cornbread, green salad with vinaigrette, rice pudding

Long version: Big ole pork butt, cooked until tender, shredded, then broiled with mustard and maple syrup. 

Do I make this every time we have company? Yes. And everyone likes it. Or if they don't, they're too polite to tell me.

I also pretty much always make rice pudding when I have the oven on that long for the pork. It's getting warmer, and the days of slow-cooking in the oven are going to end soon, so we should all enjoy rice pudding while we can.

Monday

Short version: Sausage, leftover chowder, leftover rice, leftover cornbread, green peas, chocolate ice cream

Long version: We had quite a lot of the fish chowder left, which about half the family ate. They also had sausage if they wanted it--I cooked andouille and plain smoked--and then a choice of rice or cornbread. Or both.

Tuesday

Short version: Traveling food, tortillas with pork and cheese

Long version: This was the day we went to Chimayo, so we were traveling all day. I brought all the leftover sausage, cheese, bread, mustard, a small jar of peanut butter, a quart bag full of carrot sticks, raisins, apples, oranges, and two sleeves of crackers. 

The kids wanted to eat at the Mexican restaurant right across the plaza from the church, so we did that. That was at around 3 p.m. I thought maybe this very late lunch/early dinner would prevent the usual voracious consumption of any and all food in the car on the way home. It did not. By the time we got home, the only thing left was half the jar of peanut butter. And they were still all complaining of being hungry.

So when we got home at 7:30 p.m., I microwaved corn tortillas with corn, leftover pork, and salsa to feed the hordes.

Wednesday

Short version: Pork tacos with homemade tortillas, chili beans, pureed squash

Long version: There was quite a lot of pork left, so I made corn tortillas and fried the rest of pork with spices for a filling. I had one bag of chili beans in the freezer, which I pulled out to thaw. While I was doing that, I saw the bag of pureed squash that was also in the freezer and also took that out, because the MiL, who was still here, likes squash a lot.

Thursday

Short version: Bull Big Macs, oven fries, squash

Long version: A. ground twelve pounds of yet more bull meat on Monday. I used some of it to make cheeseburgers this night. 

The only challenge with using the big griddle pan is that there's no lid to melt the cheese. Which is why I use an inverted skillet.

A. had asked if it would be possible to make the same kind of sauce that Mcdonald's uses on Big Macs.

Why, yes. And here's the recipe I followed. I didn't have any pickle relish, so I just diced up some dill pickles. I also used the optional ketchup, because I thought it tasted right that way. Not that I'm a great authority on McDonald's. I haven't had a Big Mac in probably twenty years.

I was also making bread this day, so I made hamburger buns as well. The only thing missing for an authentic Big Mac experience was tomato slices. Well, and the fact that they weren't gross because I used good meat, cheese, buns, and toppings.

Refrigerator check!

Lotta empty space in there.

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