Friday Food: ASPARAGUS YAY!

Friday 

Short version: Pintos and ham, rice, carrot sticks

Long version: I had the ham bone still in the refrigerator from making the spiral ham on Sunday, so I decided to use it to cook the last of the big bag of pinto beans I had bought some months ago. I made them pretty much just like black-eyed peas, and they were very good. Kind of soupy, but tasty.

Saturday

Short version: Early Chinese food, salami and yogurt later, peaches and pb&j before bed

Long version: This was the day we went to Santa Fe to pick up our new car. We went to lunch at a Chinese restaurant after we finished with the car, but it took us so long, that it was 2 p.m. before we even got to the restaurant. 

It was actually a pretty good restaurant. Our meals included cashew chicken, chicken with snow peas, sweet and sour chicken, shrimp with lobster sauce, and A. got Peking duck, which made him very happy.

Everyone ate a lot, but it was really too early for their last meal of the day. Two of the children went with me to the grocery store on the way home. They ate some deli salami in the car. The other two children got home earlier with A. They had some yogurt with strawberry jam when they got home.

And then when I got home at 7:30 p.m. and was frantically putting away groceries so we could all go to bed after our long day, they ask me, "So when's dinner, Mom?"

As if I was going to produce a full meal at that point. Their faith in me is touching. But no.

In the end, two kids split the last peanut butter and jelly sandwich I had brought with us for lunch, one had a big glass of milk, and one had some canned peaches.

Sunday

Short version: Pizzas, green salad with ranch dressing, strawberry-rhubarb pie with whipped cream

Long version: I made one half-sheet-pan pizza, and one smaller pizza. The bigger one had bacon on it. The smaller one was just cheese.

Big and little.

I didn't have enough rhubarb in the garden yet to make rhubarb pudding, but I did have enough for a pie when combined with strawberries. I mostly used this recipe, except (always) I only had two cups of rhubarb, so I made up the difference with more strawberries. And I used lemon juice instead of cinnamon, because cinnamon sounded weird to me. And I never use the pie crust instructions in recipes, instead using the MiL's recipe of two cups flour and one cup butter (or half cup butter and 1/3 cup lard). And I didn't do the egg wash.

This pie is so pretty.

Even with my ugly crust.

My crusts are always the proper texture and they taste perfect, but yeah, they're not pretty. I don't care enough to learn how to make them decorative, so that's that.

The pie was delicious, anyway.

Monday

Short version: Leftover pizza, leftover pinto beans, cucumbers, cookies and cream ice cream

Long version: All the kids got two pieces of pizza, which isn't enough for them, so then they all had some beans, too. A. had the rest of the rice with his beans. I had a salad.

The ice cream was Poppy's request. She was with me at the store, and she can read now, so she could see the flavor options. Cookies and cream is one of the few flavors Walmart offers in their store brand the full gallon. We always have to buy the full gallon, because our family will eat more than half a gallon in one sitting. Which we did this night.

Cookies and cream is apparently a favorite of my children. I never knew that, but now I do. So I guess we'll be buying it more often.

In case you were wondering, the Walmart brand ice cream is actually really good. Surprising, given that an entire gallon is about seven dollars, but true.

Tuesday

Short version: Lamb, roasted potatoes, raw radishes, pureed calabaza, roasted ASPARAGUS YAY!

Long version: The lamb was a bag of lamb steaks, which are just, well, steaks cut from the back leg. I marinated them for about an hour before dinner, then fried them to get them brown, and then stuck them in the oven with the roasting potatoes to cook more.

Steaks in a skillet, ready for the oven.

I had a little calabaza left in the bag I had taken out of the freezer for the chili I was also making this day, so A. and I finished it. And then, when I was looking idly out the kitchen window, I noticed that there were quite a lot of asparagus spears out there that needed to be cut.

Yay!

I just put them on the pan with the potatoes to roast, and just like that, asparagus season has begun.

Only one of the children will eat calabaza, and none of them like cooked asparagus, so they had the radishes. Their loss.

Wednesday

Short version: Frito pies

Long version: I had made chili the day before--using ground bull, the paprika sludge from dyeing Easter eggs, some of the green tomato salsa, and the rest of the pinto beans and ham--specifically to make Frito pies when we got home at dinnertime after First Communion class.

When I was at Walmart on Saturday, I noticed they had store-brand corn chips. I had never seen a store-brand version of Fritos, but I thought we could try them. They were almost exactly half the price of Fritos, so I bought two bags.

They were good. I couldn't tell a difference. Great Value wins again.

I guess I should call these Generic Corn Chip Pies, but that's a little clunky.

Thursday

Short version: Enchilada casserole, roasted asparagus, carrot sticks

Long version: Our shearer had called the night before to let us know he could come shear our sheep this day, and that he would be here around 11 a.m.

I knew that meant I would be spending most of my afternoon bagging up fleeces and otherwise helping. And that would mean I would be tired and in no mood to cook dinner at dinnertime.

That's why I made the casserole in the morning, so I could just shove it in the oven at 4:30 p.m. I used some pressure-cooked bull I had in the freezer (further broken down with my immersion blender), onions, salsa, and some of the leftover chili, plus corn tortillas, cheese, and extra sauce I made with tomato sauce and spices.

More asparagus, because it was there, and I could just put it in the skillet from cooking my breakfast eggs and slide it into the oven with the baking casserole. So easy. And tasty.

The children had the carrot sticks. 

Refrigerator check:

Lots of casserole left for dinner tomorrow. Also some bread pudding left from breakfast (on the bottom shelf), which will make for some happy children tomorrow morning.

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