Friday Food: The Bull is Done

Friday 

Short version: Bull enchilada casserole, kohlrabi

Long version: I did it. Just over four years after we butchered our neighbors' bull, I have finally finished all the meat from it. The reason it was so challenging is because it was so lean and tough. It needed a lot of processing to be edible, and had to be used in the right preparations.

But I finally finished it. YAY, ME.

The kohlrabi was one my sister got at her farmers market in Colorado and brought to us. It is HUGE.

Paring knife for scale.

When I showed it to the kids and told them is was a kohlrabi, one of them replied matter-of-factly, "No, it's not." Like, OBVIOUSLY, you're punking us, Mom. 

They all thought it was a cabbage. It is actually the size of a cabbage. But it is definitely kohlrabi. A very good kohlrabi, too. Thanks, sis!

Saturday

Short version: Tuna/salmon patties, garlic bread, pickles, pumpkin roulade

Long version: I had been planning on having leftovers for dinner, but those all got eaten at lunch, so opening cans it is. Two big cans of tuna, one of salmon, made into many patties.

I had made the garlic bread when I was baking bread the day before, figuring I'd find some use for it. And this was it.

I made the pumpkin roulade--also known as a pumpkin roll--just because I had been meaning to try one for like two years, after one of the teachers at school mentioned it's her favorite cake. I had never heard of it before she said that, but I do make a chocolate roulade every Christmas, so the idea of a pumpkin one was intriguing. Lord knows, I have enough squash on hand at all times.

That teacher has now taught three of my children--Poppy is currently in her class--and her birthday was Friday, so I figured I could make it and give some to her at church.

I used Ina Garten's recipe, and I actually doubled it and made two. I had to substitute cream cheese, sour cream, and more whipping cream for the filling, plus I had no candied ginger, so I just left it out. 

I thought it was too sweet. Almost everyone in the family loved it, though. The only abstainer was the one child who doesn't like pumpkin desserts of any kind.

Making two of these was incredibly messy, mostly because of the powdered sugar.

Powdered-sugar-coated towels, waiting for the cake part.

I didn't cut these very cleanly, and the lighting is terrible, but there it is.

I gave half of one to the teacher and we ate the other half of that one this night.

Sunday

Short version: Pork ribs, butter-swim biscuits, maquechoux, roasted carrots, the other pumpkin roulade

Long version: We had a guest with us for dinner this night, so I put a bit more effort in than I typically do. Serving pork ribs--a notoriously messy meal with my children--was maybe not the wisest choice on a night when we were joined by someone coming to our home for the first time, but she's a very sweet lady who likes kids, so it was fine. And the children were very careful.

I tried something new with the biscuits, in an effort to avoid the continual passing around of butter at the table. I used this odd recipe for buttermilk biscuits (except I used yogurt in them, instead) that have no butter in the actual dough, and instead are baked in a pan with a ton of butter melted in it. They were very good, although the texture was much different than my standard baking powder biscuits. More dense, almost like cake. Everyone liked them, although some declared allegiance to the lighter biscuits.

Also, after some discussion about the name, which I thought was very nice, the children somehow decided they should be called "butter-bloat biscuits." I do not think they have a future in marketing.

I haven't made maquechoux in years, but I did have some peppers and tomatoes from the garden still, and some frozen corn. It's not quite as good with frozen corn, but still delicious. Although the combination of the fatty ribs, butter-bloat biscuits, and the stick of butter in the maquechoux made for a very heavy meal.

The carrots at least were just roasted in olive oil. I used some of the blanched and frozen carrots, which worked, but they take a really long time to brown. I guess because of the liquid that comes out after thawing. I should dry them off more thoroughly.

The second pumpkin roulade for dessert.

Monday

Short version: Daddy burgers, leftover maquechoux and carrots, rice pudding

Long version: The last time A. went hunting with one of the boys, he bought ground beef, American cheese, bacon, ketchup, and white bread, and made bacon cheeseburgers every night for them to eat while they were camping. He wanted to re-create that at home for the other children, so he bought all the same stuff and made them at home.

Very exciting for the children to have a giant sandwich for dinner. 

I had made the rice pudding the day before while cooking the ribs, just because when the oven is on that long, I always try to cook more than one thing. And it was a nice treat for the basketball player, who started practices this day and loves rice pudding more than anyone else.

Tuesday

Short version: Leftover ribs, chicken drumsticks, rice, carrots, rice pudding or jello

Long version: I went to Walmart this day, and I had been planning on getting a rotisserie chicken, as I usually do mostly so I can eat the drumsticks on my long drive home.

Except they didn't have any. Boo. So I didn't have anything to eat on the way home, and I had to buy raw drumsticks to cook for dinner.

The children had the drumsticks--and roasted and coated in this barbecue sauce--and A. and I had the ribs, because we don't much care for drumsticks.

There was just a little bit of rice pudding left, and also some of the lemon jello I had made for a sick kid.

Wednesday

Short version: Beef and bean burritos, kohlrabi, peaches and cottage cheese

Long version: I saved about a pound of ground beef on Monday for dinner Wednesday, just combining it with cooked pinto beans from the freezer to make burrito meat. This made juuuust enough meat for everyone to have burritos. And some people who were still hungry had the cottage cheese and (store) canned peaches for a second course.

Thursday

Short version: Battered fish fillets, roasted potatoes, green salad with vinaigrette, cookies

Long version: We had a taste-test this night between the store-brand Food Club fillets and the fancy Gorton's fillets. 

The contenders.

I didn't tell everyone which was which. Three people liked the Gorton's fillets. Two liked the store-brand fillets. And the people who liked the Gorton's ones better said it was just because they weren't as crispy. So maybe they just needed to bake longer. 

I guess I'll be buying the store-brand ones from now on.

I didn't vote, because I didn't eat any. I don't like fish much.

Refrigerator check:

Quite full.

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

The End of an Era

Okay, that's an awfully portentous title for what is actually not that big of an announcement: I'm going to buy a clothes dryer.

Some of you may not have been aware that I don't have one, but I don't. I haven't had one for about four years now. This is absolutely doable in New Mexico, where it's sunny and dry almost all year. Even in the winter, the sun is strong enough to dry clothing on the line during the more-limited daylight hours.

Easy line drying in the summer.

Except not always. 

Several times a year, we have weather that makes it very difficult to get clothing dry outside for a week or so. Sometimes that's because of rain. Sometimes that's because of snow or ice. There is also the incredible wind in the spring, which can be strong enough to actually rip the clothing where the clothes pins hold it to the line. 

An example of a winter clothesline.

I spend a lot of time thinking about the best days to hang clothes outside. Should I hang them on the pasture clothesline, which is more exposed to sun and wind, or the backyard clothesline, which is surrounded by a board fence for protection from the wind, but where the woodsmoke drifts in the winter? Also if I have to work that day, can I get them hung up before I leave for work, or should I leave them for A. to hang when he gets back from the bus run? And if I leave them for him, will they have enough time to dry or will I end up having to hang them around the woodstove to get all the way dry overnight? Which clothes are the ones I should wash first? Who's out of pants? Who has a uniform that has to be dry by a certain day?

It was all starting to contribute too much to my mental load, which feels kind of heavy most days anyway at this stage of my life.

So, one day while I was sitting at work, looking at the weather forecast and thinking about all these things, I decided that the time had come to buy a clothes dryer and silence this continual mental plotting.

This will most certainly not be the end of my line-drying our clothing. I will still line-dry most of the time, even in the winter. But it's a nice thought that when there is literally two feet of snow on the ground, I will not have to put on my snow boots and dig a path to the clothesline to hang laundry.

Luxury, indeed.

Snapshots: So Much Snow

First we had a brief little blizzard on Monday afternoon that only dropped a couple of inches. Enough for a very pretty sunrise while I was on my way back from dropping off the eldest kid at his church confirmation class.

Sparkly.

The big storm started Wednesday night. The wind was howling all night, which meant some impressive sculpted drifts. I woke up to this on Thursday morning.

The autumn window decorations my sister brought us seem out of place in this scene.

It kept snowing and snowing, for two days. Because we knew this storm was coming, our school was online Thursday and Friday*. One boy's teacher told them they could build a snowman for extra credit.

Done.

The snow finally stopped around 2 p.m. on Friday. It's hard to say exactly how much we got, because of all the drifting, but at least a foot. It was heavy, wet snow, too. All of our vehicles were snowed in in the driveway. There was a funeral scheduled at church on Saturday morning, for which I was supposed to be taking care of the church, so I started digging out the Honda.

I shoveled for half an hour or so before calling on my crew to take over.

Many hands make light work, right?

Well, maybe not light exactly, but lighter.

A. came out at the end to finish shoveling out to the road. It hadn't been plowed, but a couple of trucks had been down it already, so there were some tracks to follow. 

Tracks in the morning light. You'd better not try this in a low-clearance vehicle, however. That ridge in the middle was at least a foot high.

And if you want to go the other way out of our gate, too bad.

Saturday morning featured a lovely sunrise as the sun rose in a clear sky over the snowy pastures.

Wintery.

Also frozen water troughs that needed to be broken out.

I used a shovel (and wore A.'s boots).

The sheep will eat snow, but they wanted their hay.

A. actually drove me to the pavement on the main road--only about a quarter mile--which was completely cleared, just to make sure I didn't get stuck. Then he walked home and I brought one of the boys with me to church for the funeral. He was altar server, and also helped me shovel out the church.

Thankfully, the village plow guy had mostly plowed the front of the church clear, so we just had to do a little shoveling in the front. Then I shoveled a path from the sacristy around to the front door of the church, so our priest could process down the aisle.

I made it only one shovel-width, so they had to be careful not to go off the path.

Despite the wintery weather, it is still autumn.

Pumpkin and apricot leaves in the snow.

There you have it! My (extra-snowy) life, snapshotted.

* We don't typically have school on Fridays, but we had to make up for Election Day, which the state of New Mexico this year required be a day off for every school in the state.