Friday Food: Daily Asparagus

I don't list it every day, but we are indeed eating asparagus every day. Sometimes it's just a few spears cooked in the microwave for my salad. Often it's a bunch of spears that go into whatever pan is on the stove or in the oven already. It's great. I love asparagus season.

Friday 

Short version: Lamb curry, rice

Long version: I had one whole lamb steak left from a couple of nights before. That's not enough for everybody, unless I make it into something else. Like curry.

So that is what I did. The potatoes, carrots, and split peas in the curry stretch the meat nicely. Also, it used up the last couple cups of chicken stock that had been hanging out in the refrigerator.

Saturday

Short version: Bull Big Macs, oven fries, almost-peas

Long version: A. and I (mostly A.) spent a couple of hours grinding bull meat in the morning. So I used some of that ground meat to make cheeseburgers. I was also baking bread that day, so I made some hamburger buns with some of the dough. And I figured since I had already done all of that, I might as well make Big Mac sauce.

This was the day I dumped peas all over my oven. This happened just as I was serving up dinner, which meant I didn't bother with a vegetable for everyone else. They were supposed to have the peas. I counted the lettuce on their hamburgers as a vegetable and let it go at that. Because that's kind of where I'm at mentally these days.

Sunday

Shortt version: Fish sandwiches, baked beans, carrot sticks, chocolate ice cream

Long version: This whole meal came about because I had more of the Big Mac sauce to use, and it works well as a tartar sauce.

I had another box of whole breaded fish fillets in the freezer that I had bought during Lent, so I used those to make fish sandwiches. I also had a container of baked beans in the freezer, and that seemed to go along with the sandwiches.

I took a picture for you. Because why not?

Monday

Short version: Leftover curry and rice, egg salad sandwiches, storebrand corn chips, raw radishes, yogurt with strawberry jam

Long version: I had read before about adding hardboiled eggs to curry sauce, and since there wasn't a lot of lamb left in the curry, A. tried that. He said it was really good, so that's handy to know.

I had hardboiled a bunch of eggs the day before, which make it easy to add them to the curry and also make egg salad for sandwiches. Because there wasn't enough curry for everyone. So a couple of kids had the sandwiches instead.

And then everyone had some of the Walmart version of Fritos.

And THEN, they all yogurt.

After that the feeding frenzy abated.

Tuesday

Short version: Lamb steaks, bread and butter, frozen peas

Long version: I had a slightly more ambitious plan than this for dinner, but then I was driving to pick up a kid when I should have been cooking, so I had to do something faster. The steaks were already marinating and just needed to be fried.

Earlier in the day I had made sugar cookies for the last First Communion class, to sort of look like a host (the communion bread). I don't have a piping bag, though, and the icing crosses were . . . well, let's be kind and say free-style.

Clearly homemade. And also delicious.

Wednesday

Short version: Plan B fried rice, apples and peanut butter

Long version: I knew I wouldn't have a lot of time to make dinner this night, as I would be at the last First Communion class. I was very proud of myself for making rice with beef stock in the morning and dicing up the leftover lamb steaks. The plan was to add the meat to the last of the curry, plus some more peas, the rest of the beef stock, and some instant potato flakes to thicken it, and serve that over the rice.

I did not share my plan with A., however, and he ate all of the lamb and some of the rice for lunch.

So! Plan B! Which, as it so often does, involved eggs.

It would have been fastest to just scramble eggs and heat up the rice with butter, but instead I cooked some diced onion and frozen peas with the rice and eggs to make a meatless fried rice. This meant a meal that took more like 30 minutes instead of 10 minutes, but it was good.

Those who were still hungry had the apples and peanut butter after dinner.

Thursday

Short version: Lamb steaks, mashed potatoes, asparagus, cucumbers with salt and vinegar

Long version: Yet another bag of lamb steaks, yet again marinated and just fried. With asparagus in the pan.

A frequent sight on the stove these days.

Everyone likes this way of preparing the lamb, and it's easy, so I'm sticking with it. Heaven knows I could use something easy at this time of year (end-of-school-year time, that is).

A. went to the store yesterday, which is why we had cucumbers. And that reminds me that I need to plant my cucumber seeds anytime now, so we can have cucumbers without having to drive 180 miles.

Refrigerator check:

Clearly a post-grocery-shopping refrigerator. With plenty of tortillas, much to Walmart lady's dismay, I'm sure.

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

Garden Time

I've been very lax about garden photos this year. Maybe I don't want to jinx it, since last year was the worst year I have ever had in my gardening life, and was also the year I documented it every week.

Things look pretty good so far, though, so I'll just have to hope we don't have any insect explosions or significant weather events that destroy everything.

Let's tour the garden, shall we? Starting out the back door . . .

Down the steps A. made for me, and there's the asparagus back there by the fence behind the clothesline.

Along that fencing on the left of the photo is a row of sugar snap peas, and to the left are three rhubarb plants.

The next bed has more rhubarb, three raspberries, and one tiny strawberry plant that you can barely see on the left.

Over the low stone wall is the garlic and shallots. Plus the apricot tree, which survived the hail last year but isn't going to fruit this year.

Recently planted cabbages and a few tomatoes, still in their milk jug greenhouses. In that sunken tub are green onions protected by a milk jug, and a lot of dill.

This box has a few lettuce plants and some self-seeded calendula.

Lots more cabbages and kohlrabi. There's a row of turnips in there, too, I think. The beets, carrots, and parsnips have not yet appeared.

Radishes, spinach, and something I forget.

Green beans in that trench that haven't come up yet, which are right next to . . .

The peach tree that has weensy little peaches on it, yay!

And the bulb garden, which at the moment only has decorative alliums blooming, with the asiatic lilies still to come.

Still to plant are the rest of the many tomatoes, basil, squash, and cucumbers. Then to water, weed, and pray it doesn't all get flattened by hail.

Snapshots: Shearing Day!

First, of course, are the shearing photos:

 

Our shearer has been shearing sheep for literally fifty years, and we thank God quite sincerely for every year he's able to continue. It's an incredibly skilled job, and well worth paying for.

Let's see what else . . .

I made bread pudding last week on a school day, in the hopes of enticing the one child who never eats breakfast to eat something before his state testing.

I failed. He did not eat. But I did get to enjoy how puffy bread pudding gets in the oven.

It always sinks again, but it's fun while it lasts.

I had an unfortunate spilling of peas right in the oven while I was removing another pan.

Ugh.

At least nothing was in there but water and peas, so I didn't have to clean butter or something off the oven.

I swept the peas right into the crack there and let them fall to the floor.

Sigh.

From there they were pretty easy to sweep up, but it was still annoying.

There you have it! My life, snapshotted.