Friday Food: Chutney!

Friday 

Short version: Poppy's Frito Pie, car salad and sushi rolls

Long version: I was gone at dinnertime, driving to the airport to pick up the traveler. Poppy was unhappy that she wasn't coming with me, so I assigned her to make dinner as a way of distraction. There was leftover chili for Frito pie, so it was really just microwaving, chopping, and gathering things together.

I wrote out everything she needed to do and put all the necessary items together in the refrigerator.

A recipe of sorts.

She took this very seriously. I asked A. how Poppy's Frito pie was, and he said, "Great. It was just like when you make it."

Too bad he didn't take a picture of everything all laid out. He was very impressed, though.

Meanwhile, on the road, I got myself a chef's salad at the grocery store and ate it on my lap in the car while I was sitting in the parking lot.

Unbeatable ambiance.

For the traveler, I got some spicy sushi rolls at the store and some chocolate milk, which he ate out of his lap in the car as we were driving home.

Saturday

Short version: Creamy duck soup, garlic bread, peanut butter cookies

Long version: Turkey soup is pretty ubiquitous in most households after Thanksgiving. This was the duck version, made with the carcass from our Thanksgiving duck. I added some cream, too, which always makes soups better.

I had made the garlic bread a few days previously when I was baking bread, with no particular plan in mind for it. It was perfect to go with the soup, though.

As were the peanut butter cookies.

Sunday

Short version: Pork loin chops, Thanksgiving leftovers, cheater's chocolate fondue

Long version: I used the rest of the duck gravy on the pork chops, and then everyone got some stuffing, corn, and cranberry sauce. All of these things go with pork just as well as with poultry.

A. was gone elk hunting with the youngest son, so for the three children at home, I just melted chocolate chips and coconut oil in little bowls and let them choose from graham crackers, marshmallows, or peanut butter cookies to dip in it. One chose the graham crackers. The other two went with marshmallows.

Monday

Short version: Hardboiled eggs and toast, duck soup and toast, pork, cherry tomatoes

Long version: We were kind of all over the place for dinner this night. I didn't get home from work until 5 p.m., and at that point, only two children were home with me. One of them had been sick. I had several hardboiled eggs on hand, so for those two children, I heated up mashed hardboiled eggs with lots of butter, and they had those with toast.

I had two boneless pork chops still, so I fried those. One was for me, and I had it with pickled carrot ribbons. The other was for the basketball player. For him, I microwaved a potato, which I then chopped and fried with his pork chop. He had the tomatoes, too.

The (successful!) hunters returned around 7 p.m. They hadn't eaten dinner yet, so for them, I heated up bowls of the duck soup. And then they had toast with strawberry jam.

Tuesday

Short version: Roasted chicken leg pieces, baked potatoes, green salad with vinaigrette

Long version: One package of chicken leg quarters is four drumsticks and four thighs. This is not quite enough for my family. Two packages is (I'm sure you figured this out) eight of each. This is too much for my family. However, I figured too much was better than not quite enough, so I cooked the entire two packages. 

All I did was salt them for an hour or so--this seems to help a lot with grocery store chicken flavor and texture, though I'm not sure why--and then heavily season them with paprika and garlic powder before roasting them at 400 degrees with some butter in the pans. 

They took WAY longer than I thought they would. Mostly the thighs, which were very big and took over an hour to be done. Tasty, though.

Look! Food on a plate!

This was the eldest child's plate, I believe.

Wednesday

Short version: Toasted beef and bean burritos, carrot sticks

Long version: A. had purchased some ground beef at the store to cook while he was hunting, but since they got their elk on the third day and didn't have to stay to hunt the entire five days, he brought some home. He said it probably needed to be cooked right away, so I actually cooked it on Tuesday. I just made it into taco meat with beans, salsa, and spices, and put it in the refrigerator to make the toasted burritos this day.

A good after-work dinner.

The carrot sticks were from the other big carrot I dug out of the garden last week. Garden carrots are way better than grocery store carrots. No surprise.

Thursday

Short version: Chicken and split pea curry, rice, chutney hooray!

Long version: I used the leftover chicken to make this curry, along with the stock I had made from the chicken bones, carrots and green beans from the freezer, a few of the tomatoes from the box on the floor, the leftover baked potatoes, cooked green split peas, and cream.

The really exciting part of this was that I finally had chutney to put on the curry. The chutney is supposed to age for six months before being eaten, but I like to live dangerously, so we ate it after only three weeks. It was delicious. But will presumably be more delicious in five months.

Refrigerator check:

Many random jars. As is typical for my refrigerator.

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

Awe-Inspiring Abundance

It's good for me to sometimes leave my very limited remote bubble here and enter the outside world, if only to realize how odd my life is in the grander American scheme. This was really highlighted by my trip to a grocery store in suburban Albuquerque last Friday.

I went to Albuquerque to pick up the traveling kid from the airport. Because his flight was coming in on the later side and we had to drive so far back home, I did not want to stop on the way home at the grocery store. We wouldn't have gotten home until 11 p.m. So instead I went to the store before picking him up. 

The grocery store I went to was just a Smith's, but it was in what is quite clearly a major area of commerce for the Albuquerque suburbs. In fact, I entered the heart of American consumerism. My exit off the freeway brought me to a road lined with every store and restaurant I've heard of or read about, but never actually shop at. Like Chick-fil-A. And Target.

I realize these are not uncommon for most of you. But they are for me.

Thankfully, this was a big road with good traffic flow, so although it was busy (keep in mind, this was Black Friday), I made it to the grocery store without too much delay.

And there I was taken aback by the experience of sheer opulence that is American grocery shopping.

This store was as big as the entire Walmart I typically shop at, except instead of half the store being things like storage containers and camping equipment, it was all just . . . food. There was SO MUCH. So many options, so many displays, so many perishable things that I never see.

I just stood there in the produce section for a minute, staring around me in awe. 

They had a fancy cheese section! And a seafood counter! I mean, I couldn't buy anything from it because whatever I bought was going to be a sitting in a cooler for six hours and that seemed like a bad idea for fish, but still. It was there. I do not ever shop anywhere that has a seafood counter.

When you drive roads like this regularly, the nearest seafood counter will be a couple hundred miles away.

In the end, I didn't buy too much. A few of the fancy cheeses and some multi-color "snacking tomatoes" were about the extent of the indulgence for me, but it was fun to visit the Other America for a little while before returning to my little bubble.

Snapshots: Thanksgiving and Beyond

This girl decided to dress up for Thanksgiving. She dressed her doll up, too.

She also made placemats for everyone. These were made and laminated at school.

And she got up and secretly made this Thanksgiving banner first thing. She has a passion for decor.

I apparently took this photo of my dinner and A.'s and forgot to put it in the Friday food post. So here you go: Salad and sloppy joes.

I went to pick up the traveler from the airport Friday and sat in front of this giant illuminated snowflake for an hour. It kind of gave me a headache after awhile.

I wasn't overly enthused about the art above me, either.

And last, a pack of dogs being fed in the living room.

There you have it! My life, snapshotted.