Friday Food: Starring Leftovers and Apricot Jam

Friday 

Short version: Spanish tortilla, cucumbers with ranch dip, leftover chocolate pudding

Long version: Meatless Fridays continue, this time with a Spanish tortilla minus the bacon I usually add. And since the one child who dislikes bell peppers wasn't home for dinner, I could add some of the bell peppers that came with the salad my friend gave us. I don't much care for bell peppers in salad, but I like them in Spanish tortilla.

Saturday

Short version: Asian-ish pork butt, porky rice, still-frozen green beans

Long version: I cooked a pork butt this day, but instead of broiling it with barbecue kind of spices or maple syrup and mustard, as I usually do, I instead used brown sugar, soy sauce, and ginger to season it after I had pulled it apart for broiling.

This was very good, and very popular with the family.

I cooked the rice in the juices from cooking the pork butt. 

The green beans were the ones from the garden I froze in the summer. They have a very unpleasant sort of sharp taste, and I think it's because I was lazy and didn't blanch them this year. There's a similar flavor in the carrots I didn't blanch and then froze, so I think I've learned my lesson with blanching. Most people say it's to maintain the texture; I think it makes them taste better. So I will blanch from now on. Amen.

Sunday

Short version: Frito pie, jam tarts

Long version: I made some chili with ground ram, and then I used that to make Frito pie for dinner. Except, of course, with the Walmart store-brand chips, so it was really Crunchy Corn Chip Pie.

The tarts I made with the one pie crust that was in the freezer. I just rolled it out, cut out circles with the top of a wide-mouth jar, put strawberry jam in half and apricot jam in the other half, then crimped them closed and baked.

I inevitably overfill them and have to remove some of the jam.

These were very well-received. Most of the family preferred the apricot ones slightly, but no one refused the strawberry ones, either.

Monday

Short version: Custom beverages, pork and potato skillet, buttered toast

Long version: I came home from work to one child who had an upset stomach, one who had a bad throat, and one who had had a brutal track practice. The bad throat got creamy tea. The bad stomach got switchel. The worn-out trackster got maple milk (just milk with maple syrup).

And then I microwaved some potatoes, chopped them up, and fried them with leftover pork butt, spices, and grated cheddar for the few who were actually eating.

Dinner is served.

The bad stomach started to feel better after dinner and requested toast. And so, of course, his siblings also requested toast. So they all got some toast with butter. We'll call that dessert.

Tuesday

Short version: Jambalaya revisited

Long version: When I made jambalaya for Fat Tuesday, I had enough ingredients to make a double batch. So I made it all except adding the rice, and froze half of the sausage and chicken mixture. That's what I took out of the freezer for dinner this day, along with a container of chicken stock and chicken meat, because the jambalaya mixture didn't have enough stock in it to cook the rice.

I just added the stock to the sausage and chicken and cooked the rice in it. Easy dinner. Also very tasty.

Wednesday

Short version: Leftover ram chili, yogurt with apricot jam

Long version: There was quite a lot of chili left, so those who were eating had it just as chili in a bowl.

I had a salad with some of the leftover pork in it. I didn't have much lettuce washed and didn't want to bother washing more, so my salad was one small lettuce leaf, the pork, some feta cheese, and quite a lot of pickled onions and radishes, with the pickling juice as the dressing. Thanks to the radishes, it was a very pink salad.

I was very hungry, so I ate this as I was getting everyone else's dinner ready. Then I sat down at the table with my dessert/second course, which was a rye cracker with cream cheese and apricot jam. 

Everyone else had yogurt with apricot jam for their dessert/second course. I can never make too much apricot jam in the summer.

Thursday

Short version: Leftover jambalaya or chili, cornbread

Long version: A. got the last of the ram chili. The children who were eating--only two, as one was sick and one was gone-- had the jambalaya. I made the cornbread as a consolation prize for serving leftovers for the fourth night in a row.

Also, the one child who was recovering from his stomach upset could eat the cornbread.

I had another salad, with pretty much the same ingredients as the night before. Except this time I added some pickled beets, which made it extra pink.

My new salad color palette, apparently.

Refrigerator check:

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