Friday Food: Fishies

Friday 

Short version: A collard salad with leftover pulled pork--and cake--at home, sausages and potatoes at camp

Long version: A. was still gone with the three younger children this night. They were camping, and they cooked the sausages I had sent with them--jalapeno/cheddar and plain smoked beef--on a grate over their fire. They also had potatoes leftover from the meal I had packed for them the night before. The potatoes were in foil so they could be reheated on the fire, too.

The son home with me wasn't feeling well and didn't eat. I manhandled some collards and made a salad with those, the last of the leftover pulled pork, pickled onions, and feta cheese.

I made cake because I had a very small sour cream cake from some leftover batter I had made last time I made that cake. It had been in the freezer since then. It wasn't enough for the whole family, so I figured I would make it for the cake-loving eldest. I used some of the rhubarb I had cut the day before, along with strawberry jam, to layer in the middle of the two pieces I had cut, and then whipped cream over all that.

This is actually the whole cake, although it looks like a half.

He ate it the next day for breakfast. Surprisingly, this sort of cake holds up well in the refrigerator.

Saturday

Short version: Some cottage pie, more collard salad, chocolate chip cookies

Long version: I made a big cottage pie in my 15"x 10" Pyrex dish in the morning when it was cool, not knowing if the rest of the family would be home that night or would camp another night. 

A tip for making a really big pan of this: The mashed potatoes don't spread super well without pulling up the meat underneath, so it's best to make evenly spaced dollops of potato to spread shorter distances, instead of glopping it all in the middle and trying to get it to the edges. 

They ended up coming home, although only two kids were hungry. They had some of the cottage pie. I typically would serve it the next day, but I was presented with many fish instead, which needed to be used pronto. So the rest of the cottage pie stayed in the refrigerator as just extra food all week. The boys loved this. They could just scoop out some to re-heat for lunch or whatever anytime. They'd probably be very happy if I made a casserole in that pan every week. But I probably won't.

I used the rest of the large quantity of ground beef I had taken out to make just some browned ground beef with barbecue sauce, sort of like sloppy joe meat. I put some of that in with my collards, in addition to pickled radishes I had made that day in the jar the pickled onions had been in. I re-used the pickling liquid.

Saturday

Short version: Broiled trout, garlic toast, frozen corn, Mexican wedding cookies

Long version: A. and the children had amazingly good luck fishing their last morning in Colorado. They brought home eight trout.

That's a lot of fish.

Trout don't need to be scaled, which makes them much easier to clean than most fish. A. showed the three fisher-children how to clean them, using one as an example, and then they did the rest.

When your kids can clean fish for you, you really feel like you've arrived as a parent. At least, I think A. did. I don't clean fish at all.

Anyway. I broiled them with a butter/garlic/parsley/lemon juice mixture inside, and then served them with some mayonnaise mixed with lemon juice.

Since the broiler was on anyway, I broiled some garlic bread in there first, which kept warm in the oven as the fish were being broiled.

Dinner.

I had made the Mexican wedding cookies the day before while the oven was on to bake the cottage pie. My family LOOOOOVES these cookies. As cookies go, they're pretty wholesome. There's almost as much nuts as flour, and WAY less sugar than typical cookies. They're sort of involved to make, but much appreciated.

Monday

Short version: Trout patties, rice, Holy's cabbage or raw sauerkraut, leftover cookies

Long version: I had three whole trout left, plus some on children's plates. I used these to make patties the same way I make tuna patties--bread crumbs, egg, mayonnaise, mustard, lots of parsley instead of dill--but these take way longer because of the bones.

Trout are very bony. I of course pulled the flesh off the bones the night before when I was cleaning up after dinner, but then I spent at least half an hour more this night picking through the meat to get out dozens more tiny bones. It was truly a labor of love. I don't even eat fish. The bones were small enough that I wasn't worried about anyone actually choking. They're just unpleasant in the mouth.

They still found a few, because it's impossible to find them all, but I did pretty well.

I pulled the last bag of Holy's cabbage from last summer out of the freezer--I didn't have enough cabbage to make it this year, alas--and then gave the children who aren't into cooked cabbage some of the raw sauerkraut from the jar I keep in the refrigerator.

There were enough Mexican wedding cookies for everyone to have two for dessert. And there was much rejoicing.

Tuesday

Short version: Baked pasta, frozen green peas

Long version: I had taken a container of meat sauce out of the freezer several days prior and then never used it. It needed to be used. It wouldn't have been enough for everyone just over spaghetti, but in a casserole with pasta, pureed calabaza, and grated asadero cheese, it was more than enough.

I actually baked this in the morning when it was cool. At dinnertime, it looked too dry, though, as it had absorbed all the liquid while it sat. So I poured over more sauce made of a small can of tomato sauce, cream, red wine, and more spices, and then kind of chopped that in there and baked it.

It probably needed even more sauce, but it was very popular.

I added some grated Parmesan on top, too. It seemed like the right thing to do.

Wednesday

Short version: A smorgasbord of leftovers, and ice cream

Long version: I had a lot of different leftovers on hand. So I just set them all out and let everyone make their own plates to heat in the microwave.

A non-leftover rotisserie chicken purchased at Walmart this day, cottage pie, rice, one trout patty, sloppy Joe meat, pasta, sauerkraut, and Holy's cabbage.

The children helped me unload the car when I got home from Walmart, so of course they knew I bought ice cream. They saw no need to wait to eat the ice cream. I couldn't think of any reason not to eat it. Thus, ice cream.

Thursday

Short version: Pizzas, carrot sticks with ranch dip, watermelon

Long version: I made one half-sheet-pan pizza with sliced garlic and pepperoni, and a quarter-sheet-pan pizza that was just cheese.

Watermelons are always a crapshoot. This was a really good one. Yay.

Refrigerator check:

Watermelon always crowds the refrigerator.

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