There was a lot of bacon cooked at our family get-together in Colorado, and I saved all the grease. Which I put in an empty jar and brought home with me. This probably cemented my reputation as The Weird Relative, but I got more than a cup of bacon grease out of it, which is totally worth it. And which I used every day this week.
Friday
Short version: Ground bull burritos, green salad with vinaigrette
Long version: A pound of so of ground bull meat browned in bacon grease with half a can of black beans and spices and salsa. I was too lazy to even chop an onion or garlic, so I used the powders. It was still fine. And easy.
Saturday
Short version: Lamb, spaghetti with pesto, green salad with ranch dressing, cheesecake
Long version: This was the new 12-year-old's birthday dinner request. It's very lucky for him that pasta with pesto is his favorite and that his birthday happens to be right when there's enough basil in the garden to make pesto.
He had asked for any kind of lamb, so I took out a boned-out leg roast, browned it (in bacon grease!), sliced it, then cooked it the rest of the way in the pan with sliced shallots from the garden, and cream.
I used the recipe for New York-style cheesecake in my Yellow Farmhouse Cookbook, which was written by Christopher Kimball. That means it was basically a Cook's Illustrated recipe. I made the New York-style kind because then I didn't have to separate the eggs and beat the whites with cream of tartar.
That recipe was for a 10-inch springform pan, and I have a 9-inch pan, so I baked the extra batter in a disposable aluminum pan and gave it to our priest. I think I overbaked his, because it was smaller and I kind of forgot about it, but I'm pretty sure he'll still eat it. It's hard to completely ruin a cheesecake.
Sunday
Short version: Chicken and pesto, leftover spaghetti with pesto, fried potato, carrot sticks with ranch dip
Long version: One child had requested chicken, and the cheapest option for that was bone-in breasts. I had three of them in the package, so I poached those in the morning while it was still cool. At dinnertime, I just pulled the meat off, chopped it up, fried it in a lot of bacon grease, and added the rest of the pesto.
And then it still seemed dry, because chicken breast is, so I added some olive oil. And more bacon grease.
The potato was for A., because he doesn't eat pasta. I just microwaved it, chopped it, and fried it in . . . yup, bacon grease.
Monday
Short version: Fancy bean and cheese quesadillas, kohlrabi sticks, canned peaches with or without cottage cheese
Long version: When I make quesadillas for lunch, they are typically just cheese, sometimes beans. But for these, I used the rest of the blue corn tortillas my sister had sent home with us, some of the monterey jack cheese (a kind I never buy) also from the Colorado trip, the rest of a partial can of refried beans that had been in the refrigerator for awhile, garlic powder, and sliced jalapenos for those who like spice.
So I guess it was the garlic powder and jalapenos that made these fancy? Sure. And the blue corn tortillas.
Wednesday
Short version: Barbecue bull sandwiches, roasted potatoes, coleslaw, rhubarb pudding with cream
Long version: I took out a bag of pressure-cooked bull meat to thaw and then processed it further with my immersion blender before heating it with barbecue sauce. I realize when we sat down to eat that I missed an opportunity to add bacon grease to the meat. The bull meat is so lean, it can always use extra fat, and the bacon grease would have been good for that. It was tasty anyway, though.
I was baking bread anyway, so I made some buns, too. Potatoes roasted while the oven was on for the bread. I did put bacon grease on them.
I made the coleslaw with the very last cabbages from the garden, which were very small.
I hadn't yet made rhubarb pudding this summer. I thought the rhubarb was done for the year, but two plants staged a comeback, so I had enough to make this pudding. Two thumbs up.
Thursday
Short version: Hamburger steaks with gravy, boiled potatoes, corn on the cob, coleslaw, watermelon
Long version: This meal was much larger than I was anticipating, and all because I went to a city in the morning. In that city was a truck selling watermelons, corn, and cherries, all of which I got. I also got a big 10-pound roll of ground beef at the store.
Originally I thought I would make meatballs, but I didn't want to roll all those individual meatballs. So instead I made essentially really thick hamburgers, which I browned and then cooked in onions and some of the chicken stock from cooking the chicken breasts a few days previously. I thickened it with milk and cornstarch. This was something like Salisbury steaks, I guess, but those are more like meatloaf, with breadcrumbs and all. So I guess these were just hamburger steaks.
I suppose I should have fried them in bacon grease, but I also had some rendered beef fat in the refrigerator that had been there awhile, so I used that instead.
The watermelon was a big--like 30 pounds--seeded one, and it was only just okay. Not bad, but not as sweet as I was hoping. Boo.
Refrigerator check:
On a road trip this week, so my meals were whatever the hosts were serving. Some delicious Chinese beef and broccoli at my daughter's, New York style pizza at my in-laws , and lots of bread products. Homeward bound today, so crackers, m&m's, and diet soda FTW! I also have some sandwiches from my mother-in-law, and yogurt for the kids to try and balance their diet.
ReplyDeleteI passed a few miles by your old town in way-up state NY on my travels. Beautiful, but oh my, the heat and humidity!
Enjoy the week!
Friday-salmon, sourdough biscuits, green beans from the garden
ReplyDeleteSaturday-chicken salad, more green beans
Sunday-leftover mini pizzas from camping, salad
Monday-hot dogs, also leftover from camping, potato chips, grape tomatoes and cucumbers
Tuesday-chicken fried steak, noodles, coleslaw
Wednesday-barbecued pork on buns, coleslaw
Thursday-zucchini with pasta and feta cheese
mbmom11: Safe travels home!
ReplyDeleteKit: I meant to ask you last week: You go camping more than anyone I know (perhaps "know" should be in quotes as I don't actuall know you :-)), and I was wondering if you have a camper or something that inspires you to go so frequently.
we have a pop-up camper ever since the awful year when it rained every day and we had to spend the evenings sitting in the car playing Uno until it was bedtime and we could all squash into the tent. Now we can sit in the pop-up when it rains and may I never have to play Uno again. Also, we camp in campgrounds, not just back in the woods (which we did before we had kids), which means there are bathrooms and running water, picnic tables and all kinds of luxuries. I don't want you to think we rough it too much.
DeleteLast Friday I made a very big fish pie with the flesh of a large baked lake trout, using Jamie Oliver's recipe, at least pretty much. I ate it all week, and will finish it off later today. Wednesday night I had a special community college dinner to attend, and for a change I had specified sea bass in stead of my usual steak. So that made it 7 for 7 fish dinners. MIL
ReplyDeleteBulging frig !
ReplyDeleteKit: Okay, so you really just like to camp, then. I don't like to camp even in campgrounds, so you're not going to get any judgement from me about it. :-)
ReplyDelete