Friday Food: I Have Feta, Yay!

Friday 

Short version: Bull and potato skillet, carrot sticks, watermelon

Long version: I had some more processed bull meat in the refrigerator, so I fried that in the rest of some rendered beef tallow that had been in there awhile, then added the leftover boiled potatoes from the night before, along with a bunch more fat in the form of bacon grease and butter. Both potatoes and that very lean bull meat will absorb astonishing quantities of fat. I think I added at least half a cup of fat in the end, and it wasn't greasy at all.

I also added some already-cooked onion from the refrigerator, garlic powder, paprika, salt, and grated cheddar cheese. 

Not pretty, but tasty.

Saturday

Short version: Chili, cornbread, popsicles, early carrots, later cookie bars

Long version: I made chili mostly because I had several cups of chicken broth in the refrigerator from cooking the chicken breasts a few days earlier. I needed to either freeze that or use it. So I used it. In chili.

Also in the chili was ground bull meat, a quart jar of pressure-canned pinto beans, the last bag of pureed calabaza that had been in the freezer since 2022, a can of crushed tomatoes, the last pint jar of green-tomato salsa from last year, a whole diced onion, a few cloves of garlic, a bit of apple cider vinegar cumin, paprika, and chile powder.

It was really too warm to be simmering chili for a few hours, but I did that in the morning, and it was very good chili.

It was definitely too warm in the afternoon to be baking cornbread, but I did it anyway. Since I had the oven on anyway, I also made some oatmeal chocolate chip cookie bars. They baked at the same time, and also used the same dishes the cornbread had (bowl, Pyrex measuring cup, spatula), so it made me feel a little better about heating the kitchen more.

We had popsicles only because I had made smoothies for lunch, and there was some left over. So I just poured the extra into the popsicle molds and froze it. They were a bit more icy than the ones I usually make with heavy cream, but they were still eaten.

The children ate the carrot sticks with some curry dip while I was making dinner, and the cookie bars at around 6 p.m. because we ate dinner at about 4:30 p.m., which is early even for us.

Sunday

Short version: Meatloaf, baked potatoes, half corn on the cob, cucumber and tomato salad, brownie sundaes

Long version: I just used some of the store ground beef for the meatloaf. We hadn't had it in awhile, and it was cool enough to run the oven to bake it.

I only had two ears of corn left, which meant only half an ear for each child. Much grumbling about this.

A. and I had the cucumber and tomato salad, featuring tomatoes from the garden of the guy who runs the tiny store in the village, a small shallot from our garden, and feta cheese. It was so good. I really love feta cheese.

A.'s plate, just because I'm sure you needed a visual of meatloaf.

We had been at our parish picnic in the afternoon, so I hadn't made a dessert when I started making dinner. That's why I made the brownies.  They are very fast to mix up, could bake with everything else in the oven, and turn plain old ice cream into a Sunday dessert. Especially with the addition of the chocolate syrup I always have in the refrigerator.

Monday

Short version: Pizzas, kohlrabi sticks, ranch dip

Long version: Still cool, so I baked bread and then used some dough for pizzas--one cheese, one pepperoni.

I had found a few bags of roasted tomato sauce still in the freezer from last year, and I used one of those as the pizza sauce. It really makes them so much better. Hurry up, this year's tomatoes.

The kohlrabi was the very last one from the garden, which caused some sadness among the children. They do love kohlrabi.

Tuesday

Short version: Leftover pizza, Frito pie, carrot sticks

Long version: With one child at work and one at a sleepover, there were only two children to feed. They had the leftover pizza, heated in a cast-iron skillet so it wouldn't be wet and gross.

A. had leftover chili in Frito pie. And I just had leftover chili.

Wednesday

Short version: Roast lamb, potatoes, tomato and cucumber salad, hummus, yogurt sauce, vanilla ice cream with a choice of toppings

Long version: We had guests with us this night, which is why we had such a large meal on a random Wednesday. I had one boned leg roast and one not-boned . . . something. It was labeled roast, but it might have been a front leg? I don't know. I had A. bone that one for me too, just to make sure I would have enough meat.

I used this spice mixture again, except I again didn't use as much garlic and lemon juice, and I had to substitute thyme for the oregano, but it was still very good.

Poppy helped me skin the chickpeas (for very smooth hummus), and I really appreciated her help, because these were dry chickpeas I had cooked myself, and they definitely did not pop out of the skins as easily as the canned ones. They taste way better than the canned chickpeas, though, I am forced to admit, and they made some delicious hummus.

With olive oil, za'atar, and paprika on top.

I made quite a bit, but most of it was eaten before dinner with tortilla chips as everyone sat around talking.

I had one of my own cucumbers to put in the salad--which also had feta in it, yum--so that was exciting.

I eschewed making a real dessert, instead pulling out the gallon of vanilla ice cream and setting out chocolate syrup, maple syrup, and apricot puree for everyone to choose their own topping. I made the chocolate syrup and apricot puree, so I'm calling it a homemade dessert.

Five of the seven people chose chocolate syrup. In case you were curious. 

Thursday

Short version: Lamb and potatoes, frozen green peas

Long version: There was enough leftover lamb and potatoes to fry it all together in a skillet for another meal, so that is what I did.

Refrigerator check:

Feta front and center.

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

How I Cut a Watermelon

What, that title didn't grab you right out of the gate? 

Anyway.

Whenever I go to the grocery store in the summer, there are two things I notice about the watermelons there: One is that they are always seedless. And two is that they are small.

I don't buy those watermelons. I buy the watermelons from the pick-up truck on the side of the road. These typically weigh 30 pounds and are bigger than a dog.

It requires some strategy to cut up a fruit that large. And this is how I do it.

First, I have to note that I can't cut watermelons on my cutting boards. The reason for that is that I most frequently cut onions and garlic on my cutting boards, which are wood. So they retain the faint smell of those pungent alliums, and if I cut watermelon on them (or pineapple), I can always taste just a bit of that onion/garlic flavor.

Unpleasant.

So cutting boards are out for cutting watermelon.

Luckily, I have the original 1970s yellow plastic countertops in my trailer kitchen, which I can and do cut on without any worry about messing them up. 

So I put my giant watermelon directly on the counter, grab my carving knife, and start cutting circles off the end.

Watermelon circle with carving knife.

Forgot to mention the kitchen towel on the counter. This is crucial to avoid a flood of watermelon juice dripping off the counter and onto the floor. I don't cut on the towel itself, but I leave it under the cut watermelon to absorb the juice.

The big circle gets put flat on a plate, which is where I cut it into triangles.

Or sometimes chunks for later, as you can see in the bowl on the right.

The reason I cut chunks for later is that the watermelons are so big I can't store them easily in my refrigerator if I don't cut off about a quarter of them when I first cut into them. I simply put the watermelon cut side down on that same plate and slide it into the refrigerator. If we don't eat enough to make the watermelon short enough to fit on a refrigerator shelf on its plate, I cut more off and cut it into chunks into a bowl until the watermelon will fit.

And I guess that's it. That's how I deal with giant, seeded watermelons. That was about as exciting as the title promised, huh?

Do you buy watermelons? How do you prepare them?

Snapshots: The Earplugs Endure

My sister very kindly gave us a few rugs she didn't have any use for after she moved, including this one that I finally got into the boys' room. 

Poppy was organizing school supplies. At her own request, I might add. This girl is something else.

Getting that rug down required cleaning that room, which was definitely a daunting task. There's a reason it took four months to get the rug in there. After an hour's diligent effort, however, the room was clean and the rug was down.

Literally three hours later . . .

Nothing gold can stay, as Robert Frost reminded us.

Longtime readers will remember the popularity of earplugs in our house as people stand-ins for toy games. You can see in the above photo that even now, seven years later, they are still just as popular as they ever were.

Here you can see sailor earplugs on the armada.

We had some very strong winds ahead of a thunderstorm that inspired our resident girl to make herself some wings so she could attempt flying.

Feathers courtesy of a dove the dogs obligingly brought to the doorstep.

I made her promise not to jump off of anything too high. She came back in after her attempt to report that first the wings did nothing, and then the tape holding them on came off in the strong wind. She was of the opinion that glue would work better.

We currently have the horses in a pasture in the middle of our ghost village, so they're not just hanging by the house eating hay we have to buy. When I went up to fill their water, I saw that Bill the Pony had a chunk of cholla cactus in his mane. Obviously, that needed to be cut out.

I requested the assistance of the one boy who can always catch Bill. Actually the only boy who can ever catch him.

Junior Pony Whisperer.

It only took three tries to get the halter on, which is pretty good for Bill. And then we found that he had somehow gotten the cholla out himself. How, I do not know, but I was pleased I didn't have to be using scissors two inches from his ear. I fear that would not have gone well.

There you have it! My life, snapshotted.