Friday Food: Elk

Friday 

Short version: Elk steaks, mashed potatoes, green salad with vinaigrette

Long version: A. took the youngest son elk hunting the previous week. Son successfully shot a cow (female) elk, and A. managed to pack out around a hundred pounds of it. Because of the crazy hilly terrain, he could only do one trip with the meat, but he still got a lot.

We left it in the cooler, covered with ice, for four days and cut it all up this day. I kept some of the steaks we cut from the tenderloin for dinner this day.

And they were tough. 

Boooooo.

I guess it needed to be aged a lot longer. It tasted really good, though. So I think most of this elk is going to be ground into hamburger meat. Which is what I actually prefer to have on hand anyway.

Saturday

Short version: Chicken taco soup, garlic bread, canned peaches and cottage cheese

Long version: I had a container of chicken stock and meat from the bones I had cooked down earlier in the week. I also had some pureed roasted tomatoes in the refrigerator, so I used those, a can of kidney beans, a can of black beans, some frozen corn, spices, sour cream, and some leftover rice to make a very tasty soup.

I even remembered to use some of the lambs quarters I dried, um, two years ago and have yet to use up.

The soup hater was very displeased with this meal, but he was somewhat mollified by the canned peaches. They were store peaches, which are still pretty good as long as they're the ones in heavy syrup.

Sunday

Short version: Braised elk steaks, carrots, rice, cucumbers with salt and vinegar, apple and rhubarb crisp with vanilla ice cream

Long version: This time I made the steaks more like grillades, cooking them in a tomato sauce for a long time. Still kinda chewy and dry. Definitely needs to be ground.

I threw in the rest of a bag of frozen blanched carrots in there with the meat, too.

This is halfway through serving, which is why there are only a few small pieces of meat.

I had five green apples left from a bag I got at the store. I used those, plus frozen rhubarb and the juice left from the two cans of peaches and extra sugar to make the crisp.

The topping got partially submerged because of the very juicy rhubarb.

Still delicious, though, even if not entirely crisp.

Monday

Short version: Spanish rice

Long version: One of those meals in which I dump a bunch of things in a skillet. This time it was some ground beef that I browned, to which I added leftover rice, the last of the pureed tomatoes that had been in the refrigerator, the last of some cheese sauce I had made over the weekend for a macaroni and cheese lunch, more grated cheddar cheese, taco spices, and frozen corn.

Definitely not fancy, but it gets everyone fed.

Tuesday

Short version: Sausage, chicken-y rice, various leftovers, grape tomatoes

Long version: The day I had made the trek to the dentist with one kid. I bought some smoked sausage at the store, which half the family ate along with rice I had cooked in chicken stock.

One kid had a sore throat and had the last of the chicken taco soup. One had the last of the Spanish rice. One had an iffy stomach and just had some of the rice. 

Wednesday

Short version: Beef and bean burritos, beans and rice, radishes

Long version: I had taken out a container of pinto beans cooked with ham to thaw. I had also taken from the little freezer a bag of random beef that I think I pulled off soup bones when I had made stock awhile ago. So all I did was simmer the beef pieces with some of the beans and their liquid, and then season it further with spices and salsa. That's what went in the burritos.

Some people also had the plain beans over rice.

Thursday

Short version: Pork chunks, biscuits, green salad with vinaigrette, crispy rice treats

Long version: Some of those pork loin chunks, fried and then I used the excess liquid from the beans on them. The beans had been cooked with onion, tomato, garlic, and ham, so they were pretty flavorful and the liquid made a good sauce for the pork when it had cooked down a bit.

The biscuits were just my standard baking powder ones. Everyone ate them with butter and strawberry jam.

I made the crispy rice treats as a thank you for the guy who gives us permission to cut our Christmas tree on his ranch every year. We're going this weekend, and his wife had mentioned awhile ago that he loves my crispy rice treats. So I made a half batch of them, set some aside for him, and used the rest for dessert after dinner.

Refrigerator check:

A lot of tortillas at the moment.

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

A Few Things of Note

It snowed last night. Only about an inch, but it will make my children happy. They, like all children, are really hoping we'll have snow on Christmas.

I have to drive one son to the dentist this morning. Although I'm not much looking forward to the 200 miles I will spend in the car today, it will give me the opportunity to buy the gifts two boys are supposed to have for their class gift exchanges. I was just given the suggested gift ideas yesterday, which means no time to get anything ordered online and delivered. My choices for gift-buying today are Tractor Supply, Dollar General, and the grocery store. I can work with that.

I went to our staff Christmas party last night and I brought this maple popcorn. Holy cow, is it good. 

I had to put the finished product out of sight on top of the refrigerator so I wouldn't keep grabbing a few pieces every time I walked by it.

I tripled the recipe, because six cups of popcorn doesn't really go that far*. I also added a full half teaspoon of salt, instead of a few pinches. The recipe as written will make something like caramel corn. If you add more salt to it, it makes something like kettle corn, which I like much better.

Using the dark maple syrup works so well for this. So much flavor.

It was, I must admit, a little bit of a pain. One of these days I should probably get a candy thermometer for things like this, so I'm not messing around with bowls of ice water to determine a "soft ball." Also, I decided halfway through that I didn't have nearly enough, so I was popping popcorn while making the syrup. Also also, I made so much, there was just a lot of bulk to be finding bowls and pans for.

Worth it, though. I would recommend it for any party you might be attending this season. It would also be very handy to make and put in little bags for any larger groups of people you might need gifts for, like neighbors or co-workers.

That's all my notes for today. Have a lovely day.

* It doesn't go far with my family, that is. A single recipe would have been adequate for my party contribution, but there was no way I was getting out of the house without leaving some of this for my family to eat while I was gone. They can eat a lot of popcorn. Especially popcorn liberally drizzled with maple syrup and butter.

Snapshots: Christmas Decorations, Etc.

I am very minimalist in my decorating, both because I don't have much storage for seasonal things and because I just don't enjoy doing that much rearranging in my home. 

But I did put out some things for Christmas.

In the living room.

Also in the living room.

The Wise Men can't be in the scene until Epiphany, according to my children, so they're hanging out with Mary, St. Michael, and St. Martin for now.

Poppy made the all-important Advent Chain to count down the days until Christmas.

I even have some outdoor lights this year.

That window faces the road that does get some traffic, and I've wanted to have outdoor Christmas lights since we moved here. I just love seeing other people's lights, and I wished we had some for other people to enjoy as they drive down our very dark dirt road. I was stymied by our lack of outlets, but this year I figured I could just run the cord through that window there into the living room. There's an outlet right under the window, which is not very tight, anyway.

I bought the white lights to replace my Time Change Lights, because half the strand I had up stopped working. I bought "warm white" lights at Walmart and THEY LIED. They were so far from warm. They were also LEDs, which meant they did that weird thing where they're sort of pulsing so fast you can't really see it happening, but it makes your eyes ache.

Those were not going up in my house.

They're perfect for outside the house, though! Nice and bright. I was very proud of myself for making the star shape with the white lights. One nice thing about having a decrepit trailer is that a few nails hammered in here or there on the siding is no big deal.

We haven't cut our tree yet. We'll probably do that next weekend.

This is all that's left of the box of ripening tomatoes on the floor:

Consolidated into a small bowl on the liquor cabinet. 

And last, I finally ordered some new house shoes. I don't wear slippers, instead wearing cheap zero-drop shoes when I'm at home. They're ugly, so I don't really go anywhere in them, but they are comfortable and easy to slip on and off if I need to.

I replace them about every 18 months. I always keep them a little too long, and by the time I finally replace them, they have little tears in them and are super gross and stained.

The one on the right was the same color as the one on the left when I bought it.

There you have it! My life, snapshotted.