Friday Food: The Pasta That Keeps on Giving

Happy Halloween! I'm taking Pippi Longstocking and a Green Bay Packer football player trick-or-treating tonight. Everyone else is traveling. I think we'll get plenty of candy, even with only two collecting.

Friday 

Short version: Pasta and meatballs, green salad with vinaigrette, chocolate pudding with cream

Long version: This was the only night my sister and her boyfriend were here that I actually cooked for them. I was going to make spaghetti and meatballs, except I found that I didn't have quite enough spaghetti. I didn't have quite enough of any pasta shape to use a single kind, actually, so I ended up using some penne and some large elbows. They cook at about the same rate.

This was also the day we went rappelling in the canyon.

This qualifies as Peak Color for this area.

We didn't get home until around 5 p.m. The only thing that was already ready was the pudding. I made the meatballs and sauce as quickly as I could, but the sauce still has to reduce. This meant we didn't sit down to eat until 6:45 p.m., which is shockingly late for us.

The sauce also made an unholy mess spattering all over my stove, which my sister very kindly cleaned up for me. This is one big reason I prefer to bake it all in the oven.

I made so much pasta that it reappeared all though the week, as you shall see.

Saturday

Short version: Halloween restaurant food

Long version: This was the night of the Halloween celebration in the village. I bought dinner for everyone at the restaurant that opens for this event. They had a buffet with hot dogs, Frito pie, and baked potatoes, plus, as always, a ton of desserts.

Sunday

Short version: Leftover pasta or tuna quesadillas, chocolate ice cream

Long version: I spent all afternoon at flag football games.

In what are apparently now my flag football shoes.

I didn't get home from this until after 5 p.m. at which point I just heated up the leftover pasta and left it at that.

Well, except A. asked if there was anything without wheat in it that he could have. He'd been eating a lot of bread and pasta and things, which is not something that agrees with him in large quantities. I found the last of some tuna salad I had made for lunch and heated that up in corn tortillas with cheese for him.

I had not made another dessert for Sunday, but we did have chocolate ice cream still, so that is what they had.

Monday

Short version: Guacamole and chips, then beans and sausage and lamb-y rice

Long version: I had a ridiculous afternoon of driving hither and yon. Our house is equidistant between two villages. It's ten miles from our house to each village, which means the villages themselves are 20 miles apart. I went from our house to the school in one village to pick up the confirmation kid, took him to the other village for confirmation class, went right back to the school in the first village to pick Poppy up from cheer practice, then stopped briefly at home to make the guacamole for everyone to eat while I was going back to the second village to pick up the confirmation kid.

I drove a total of 80 miles between the two villages in a span of one and a half hours. Good thing I made dinner ahead of time.

I had cooked a big pot of pinto beans in the morning. I used some of those, plus half a package of loose breakfast sausage, onion, garlic, and tomatoes, to make a saucy skillet of beans that then topped rice cooked in lamb stock.

I did not make a vegetable. I meant to put out grapes, but I forgot.

Tuesday

Short version: Pasta bake, grapes

Long version: I was gone yet again before dinner, this time with Poppy at her First Communion class. Luckily, there was leftover pasta. I had also made a little pesto the day before with the last of the garden basil, so I mixed that in with the leftover pasta, along with some grated asadero cheese, and had the eldest child put that in the oven for me to bake while I was at class with Poppy.

And I remembered the grapes this time.

For A., I scrambled some eggs and added some of the beans and sausage to that for him to have in corn tortillas and cheese.

Wednesday

Short version: Grilled cheese sandwiches, baked beans, green salad with vinaigrette

Long version: I was asked the day before if I could sub at school this day. Luckily, I had already made baked beans with some of the pot of pinto beans, which made for an easy and filling dinner with the addition of the grilled cheese sandwiches.

Thursday

Short version: Fried fish, leftover baked beans, leftover rice, tomato and cucumber salad

Long version: I had four pollock fillets that had been in the freezer for several months that I wanted to use. They would not have been enough on their own, but with the leftover baked beans and rice, it was enough. I just put them in an egg wash and then flour seasoned with Old Bay before pan frying them.

I harvested the tomatoes before the first freeze on Tuesday night, which means I now have quite a few tomatoes in the kitchen. Some of them went into a salad with cucumber, pickled onions, and more of the vinaigrette.

Of note: I finished the last bit of the pasta for lunch this day.

Refrigerator check:

This needs some organizing.

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