Friday Food: An Ambitious Week

Friday 

Short version: Re-fried Spanish tortilla, football food

Long version: I had quite a lot of Spanish tortilla left from the night before. A. ate a late lunch when he was in town, so he wasn't hungry for dinner, which meant there was enough for the children. To re-heat it, I chunked it up and fried it in butter. 

And then we went to the football game, where all three children with me went to the concession stand with their own money and bought either Frito pie, a cheeseburger, or nachos.

Saturday

Short version: A middle eastern feast, plus upside down pear gingerbread cake with whipped cream

Long version: It all started with the chickpeas. I had cooked a bag of dried chickpeas a few days previously on a day when it was chilly and the house needed the heat from simmering something for awhile. So I had these cooked chickpeas. I also had about a pound and a half of ground beef in the refrigerator.

My first thought was to make a sort of gyro filling with these two things, which would mean I needed pita bread. So I started the sourdough for that in the morning, using a recipe for naan bread. But didn't I say I needed pita bread? Yup, but I made naan bread instead. Such are the inconsistencies in my American kitchen.

The bubbles are fun.

I changed my mind about putting the the chickpeas in with the meat and instead made hummus with them. I had the children skin them for me, and I definitely did not regret making the hummus. I love hummus, and it was so good in the gyro (ish) with the meat.

To the meat I just added some pureed tomatoes I had in the refrigerator, along with any seasonings that seemed right--garlic and onion powder, thyme, oregano, cumin--and chicken stock.

Options for toppings included thinly sliced cucumber, tomato, pickled onions, and a yogurt sauce that was just yogurt, bottled lemon juice, garlic, and salt. Plus the hummus, of course.

Same idea as tacos, just different flavors.

Also similar to tacos, the more you put on it, the better it is.

This was so good. So, so good.

I took Cindi's advice to try this recipe for an upside down pear gingerbread cake. This is a slightly involved cake, what with the pears to prepare, then the caramel for the pears, and then the cake itself, but it was much better than the previous pear upside down cake I tried. Much less sweet and more spicy. It also came out of the pan better.

I notice none of the photos of these sorts of cakes on actual recipe sites show the whole cake, just small pieces. I suspect everyone's upside down cakes are a mess in reality.

I should have baked it about five minutes longer to fully cook the center, but A. loved this, as did the two boys who were home. Poppy wasn't such a fan. I liked it more than that first overly sweet one, but I have concluded I'm just not into cooked fruit on my cakes.

Sunday

Short version: Pizzas, green salad with ranch dressing, leftover cake

Long version: The weather has cooled and we're not running any heat yet, which means that my kitchen is usually somewhere around 65 degrees. This makes for some very slow bread dough rising. So much so that I have to periodically turn my oven on for a few minutes to heat a bit and then put the rising dough in the turned off oven so it will actually rise fast enough to be used for pizza. Which is what I did this day.

One pizza had pepperoni. The other was just cheese.

I stuck the leftover upside down cake in the oven with the pizza, covered with foil, to bake the raw center more. Those who didn't care for the cake had the chocolate peanut butter cookies I had made for this week's school snack.

Monday

Short version: Chicken parmesan, pasta with pesto, green salad with vinaigrette, stabby cake with ice cream

Long version: I had one last package of chicken breasts in the freezer. Last time I thawed chicken breast, I had meant to make chicken parmesan, but then I found I was out of Parmesan cheese. I figured I'd better make it with this last package of chicken breasts, so that is what I did. I did cut the breasts horizontally, though I didn't pound them.

The whole dipping and frying process is quite enough bother without pounding the raw chicken.

The end result was awfully good, though.

This was the Feast of the Archangels, among whom St. Michael is our household favorite. For several years now, I have made a devil's food cake and the children have stabbed it after reciting the St. Michael prayer. 

It's fun. And delicious.

Tuesday

Short version: Re-combined pasta, leftover pizza, cucumbers with salt and vinegar, pear sauce

Long version: After a few days in a row of intensive cooking, I was ready for break. So I pretty much just used leftovers for this meal. I chopped up the few pieces of chicken that were left over and added them to the leftover pasta with pesto, plus some plain pasta I had cooked the day before and not mixed with the pesto. To make it saucier, I added a small can of tomato sauce, a bunch of butter, and some garlic powder.

The pear sauce was some I made last week and that needed to be eaten or frozen. Thus ends 2025 pears. It was a good year for them.

Wednesday

Short version: Scrambled eggs, baked beans, cornbread, apple crisp with vanilla ice cream

Long version: If you've been noticing a lot less meat in my menus, that's because we're waiting on getting a whole cow for our freezer when our neighbor ships her cattle, probably this month. I can't bring myself to buy a lot of store meat, so that's why there have been a lot more meals with beans, cheese, or eggs replacing some or all of the meat.

Luckily, an acquaintance got a bunch of new hens this year and is currently drowning in eggs. She was very happy when I asked if I could buy five dozen a week from her. I am also happy, because her house is on my way to the village, so it's easy for me to stop by and get them. She only asked me for $4/dozen, so now we have a lot of eggs on hand. Some of which I scrambled for dinner this night.

I had cooked pinto beans the day before, just because it was chilly in the house and simmering anything on the stove for a few hours warms the kitchen up a bit. I had just cooked them plain with a ham bone. I used them this day to make baked beans that were not actually baked at all since I cooked them entirely on the stove.

The apple crisp used the last of the fresh apples, thus ending the 2025 apples, too. I did can and freeze a lot for them, though, so it's really just the end of the fresh apples.

Just enough apples for the crisp, and just enough peelings and cores to make another batch of apple vinegar. 

This is the second batch of vinegar I've made, so that's about a gallon of vinegar total this fall. It's not acidic enough for canning or whatever, but it's good for cooking with. I put some in the apple crisp, as a matter of fact.

Thursday

Short version: Macaroni and cheese for a crowd, leftover baked beans, carrot sticks with ranch dip, cookies

Long version: I had some bags of chicken bones/carcasses in the freezer I wanted to get rid of, so I simmered those in the morning and pulled all the meat off in preparation for making chicken tomato corn chowder. My plan was to serve this with biscuits.

Plans changed in the afternoon when I learned I would be feeding two extra children. Also, A. and eldest were going hunting immediately upon getting home. All of these people needed to eat immediately upon entering our house so that I could get all children to flag football practice at 5:30 p.m. and the hunters could eat and bolt.

I did not have enough soup for this. I also did not feel soup was the best plan when feeding a bunch of young kids. Especially young kids who would be hyped up and rushing.

That's why I made a quadruple recipe of this macaroni and cheese, instead. I also heated up the baked beans from the night before and set out carrot sticks and ranch dip. I let everyone serve themselves so they would only take what they might eat.

I made a quick batch of chocolate chip cookies, too. And then in the end, A. had to drive a longer bus route than he had anticipated, so there was no hunting. And one of the anticipated guest children wasn't feeling well and didn't come, so I ended up with only one extra child. 

Anyway. There was lots of food.

Refrigerator check: 

Yes, my deli drawer slider is broken AGAIN. This will be the fifth time I have replaced it in seven years. That flimsy piece of plastic is just no match for the heavy use it endures in our house.

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

Again with the Painting

 Almost exactly two years ago, I painted the children's bathroom. I was very proud of myself for getting it done, and also happy that I could cross one more room off my list of rooms that need painting.

Except then I had to do it again.

After A.'s spectacular bathroom renovation in there that included entirely replacing the sub-floor and then putting Moroccan-style blue and white stick-on tiles over that, the walls looked . . . wrong. The white on the tiles was so bright that it made the yellow-y white of the walls look dingy. There were also a few spots around the bathtub especially that had gotten roughed up from the tub installation with deep scratches and peeling paint.

And then there was the bright yellow on the cabinets, which was a little much with the floor color and pattern.

Much as I hated to do it, the whole bathroom really needed to be painted again. 

When I investigated our cans of paint in the shop, I found that I really didn't have any usable paint left. Accordingly, the next time I was at Walmart, I bought some paint. This being a New Mexico Walmart, I did not have it in me to try to pick out a paint color to be mixed and then hunt down an employee to mix it for me. Instead, I took a look at the limited pre-mixed color options and went with the lightest blue available.

This was still not as light as I wanted it to be, even after I mixed in a whole quart of white paint I had. I forged ahead anyway. The end result is very blue. 

There are no windows in this bathroom, so the color is kind of hard to see. It's definitely blue, though.

I had wanted to paint the middle of the cabinets white for contrast, but I used my white paint to tone down the blue. So blue on blue it is.

I am not a huge fan of blue in general, and I am far from a professional painter, but this certainly does look much better than it did.

My next challenge is going to be painting the awful faux marble sink and countertop with white tub finishing paint, due to be delivered on Friday.

Yuck.

And then I will do the same thing--sink and all--in our bathroom, which A. just finished working on. At least that one I procrastinated so much on painting that I haven't done it recently.

In a couple of weeks*, we'll have two freshly-painted fancy bathrooms. And then I won't paint anything for a long time. I hope.

* I have to go get more paint for our bathroom. This time I'm going to get a gallon of white and just tint it a little with the blue paint I have left. I really don't want our bathroom to be quite so blue.

Snapshots: Time Marches On

Almost exactly 12 years ago, I posted a photo of t-shirts on my laundry line. The t-shirts belonged to A. and the older two boys. I only had the two boys then--they were three and one-and I said that it was hard to believe those little boys would grow to need a shirt as big as their dad's.

Well . . .

From the left: A.'s shirt, then eldest's, and then middle and youngest boys'.

Friday was the homecoming football game and dance.

Nice night for football.

The game was over around 9 p.m. I had promised Poppy we would stay for at least some of the dance, so we ended up not getting home until 10 p.m. Way past our bedtimes, but it was fun.

I scrounged up some flowers for the altar, but it's definitely getting harder.

The remaining sunflowers are mostly quite small.

The flowers for the table are easier to find because they don't have to be so large and tall.

Dainty.

There you have it! My life, snapshotted.

Friday Food: A Lot of Desserts

Friday 

Short version: Breakfast sausage patties, leftover beans and rice, leftover green salad with ranch dressing

Long version: This was my sickest day with the household cold. I had some pinto beans and rice left from the night before, but not enough for the four who were eating (another child was also sick). So I used one of the 12-ounce tubes of breakfast sausage I got on sale a few weeks ago to make sausage patties to go with the beans and rice. This was not as much sausage as the boys wanted to eat, but it was as much as I cooked. 

I did manage to sit at the table with them and eat some beans and rice before giving up and crawling into bed, leaving A. to do the dishes.

That sure was some run-on sentence. Oh well. I'm leaving it.

Saturday

Short version: Green chile hamburger stew, chicharron burritos, butterscotch pudding

Long version: This is the stew/soup I learned to make after our neighbor Ms. Amelia gave it to us a few times. It's ground beef, pureed roasted green chile, onions, garlic, potatoes, and carrots. I always add green peas if I have them, too, and usually something creamy. This time sour cream.

This batch was extra good because I used some of the rooster stock in it, which makes everything better.

Not everyone loves soup, and there wasn't a ton of it, so I also used the last of the cooked pinto beans and chicharrones to make burritos again.

The one boy who was sick this day and had a sore throat really loves butterscotch pudding, so I made a double batch using this recipe*. I thought it was okay. About half the family loved it. The other half, like me, prefer chocolate. Never is there 6/6 agreement on these things.

Sunday

Short version: Meatloaf, roasted potatoes, raw green beans, tomato slices with mayonnaise, Poppy's brownies

Long version: I only used about a third of the thawed ground beef the day before in the stew, so I used the rest of it this day. I had been planning on making spaghetti and meatballs, but I didn't get around to cooking and pureeing any tomatoes. And I had two baking pans from making cookies earlier in the day that could be used again without washing.

So instead, I made meatloaf on one pan, and roasted potatoes on another.

A. had the tomatoes. The children had the raw green beans.

I wasn't too enthused about baking a dessert, but Poppy wanted to make her fair brownies again, so she did that and they baked while I was baking the cookies.

We need to expand her repertoire a bit, but it's very nice having another contributor in the kitchen.

Monday

Short version: Leftover green chile stew, grilled cheese sandwiches, pear sauce with cream

Long version: It was pretty warm this day, and this was not really a warm-day meal, but I had the leftover stew that I wanted to use up, so here we are. There wasn't enough for everyone to have a lot, which is why I also made the grilled cheese sandwiches.

I got more pears from the lady who runs the coffee shop in the village and made a half gallon of pear sauce with them for the continuing sore throats in the house. Pear sauce isn't as good as applesauce--a much smoother texture and less flavor. It's good with lots of cinnamon and nutmeg in it, plus a bit of lemon juice to give a more balanced flavor. It gets eaten with enthusiasm, anyway.

Tuesday

Short version: Frozen rotisserie chickens, quick sliced potatoes, apple slices

Long version: I went into the town with the Walmart to pick up my washing machine (yay!) and saw randomly in the meat section that they had discounted frozen rotisserie chickens. Presumably they freeze the ones that don't sell fresh the day before and then sell them frozen the next day for half price. Two cooked chickens for six dollars? YUP.

I brought those home and re-heated them in the oven for dinner. This is the most convenient, most prepared food I think I have ever purchased. It was nice for a change.

I was going to make mashed potatoes, but then I decided instead to use the pan that was still on the stove from making the sandwiches the night before. It just had butter in it, so I didn't wash it, figuring I could use it again. To the bit of butter in the pan, I added some chicken fat I had frozen, and I used that to cook thinly sliced potatoes until they were mostly soft, and then I put them in the oven with the re-heating chicken to get browned.

I had put out carrot sticks and ranch dressing before dinner, so at dinner I just cut up some of the green apples the kids had picked from the tree at our abandoned house next door. These apples are only good for eating fresh or drying--they don't soften at all when cooked--so I figured I'd better start serving them fresh or I'll never get through them. Any fruit that's already cut up will go much faster than unprepared fruit.

Wednesday

Short version: Chicken and chickpea curry, rice, apple crisp with cream

Long version: I made stock with the two chicken carcasses and then, as I always do, painstakingly picked off all the meat from the bones. This always seems that it's not worth the time, but it is. I got a couple of cups of meat from that, and then I supplemented it with dried chickpeas I cooked separately in the morning. Plus some of the chicken stock, a few finely chopped collard greens, a few green beans from the garden, and, of course, onion, garlic, and curry powder. Also sour cream and cornstarch at the end.

The fact that the two main ingredients both start with "chick" made me think I should name this something like "chick-chick curry" or "chicky curry." But no. Too lame.

I made the crisp almost entirely in the microwave, which works surprisingly well when you don't want to have the oven on for 45 minutes. First I microwaved the apple slices with the sugar and spices for about ten minutes in an oven-safe casserole dish, covered with plastic wrap. When they were soft, I topped them with the oats, flour, etc., and microwaved it another five minutes to cook the topping before shoving the whole thing under the broiler for just a few minutes to get brown and crispy.

Thursday

Short version: Spanish tortilla, leftover curry and rice, crispy rice treats

Long version: I was gone just before the end of school and then had to leave an hour later for flag football practice. I needed something I could make ahead and serve quickly. I had a lot of eggs on hand, so I made a Spanish tortilla. Some people chose to have the leftover curry and rice, too.

I had made the crispy rice treats to bring in to school for the staff when I went in for a meeting. I brought enough home that everyone could have one for dessert, too. 

Refrigerator check:

Full up. And blurry.

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

* I used the optional cream (of course), and I only had light brown sugar, so I added a bit of molasses, too. There was just enough molasses that the pudding tasted very faintly of it, which my children approved of. They love molasses.

Can It Be?

Yesterday when I was in the middle of my third load of bathtub laundry, I took a break to call the appliance repair place yet again. 

Actually after I had hung up the second load and while the third load was soaking.

I didn't have any hope they would actually be able to tell me when my washing machine might be fixed, but I thought I should once again remind them that they still have it.

Imagine my surprise when the lady went to "go check," and returned to the phone to tell me it was done and ready to be picked up.

She also said "they" had been calling me and she guessed no one had picked up, but I know that wasn't true.

No matter. I CAN PICK UP MY WASHING MACHINE TODAY! 

Rejoice with me.

Two months of washing clothes in my bathtub with occasional trips to far-away laundromats is far, far too long.

The machine in question when it was new.

Is there anything you're excited about today?

Snapshots: A Stone Mason's Bathroom

A. decided that instead of putting a bathtub in our small bathroom, he would build a shower stall. And of course, being a stone mason, he's building it out of masonry materials.

Brick on the outside, concrete over that*. Obviously, this is not finished yet.

Given that this is far from our forever home, he's using this as an opportunity to experiment a little bit. I don't know what it will look like when it's done, but it sure will be sturdy.

Poppy spent much of the morning helping me yesterday, mostly in the kitchen, but she also took down the laundry for me.

The laundry in this case being entirely handkerchiefs. We have a lot of snotty noses in the house at the moment. And yes, I washed those in the bathtub because I still don't have my washing machine back.

Poppy was the first to go down with the cold. She had a sore throat, so she consulted The Doctor's Book of Home Remedies for help and decided to try the salt water gargling. She duly made her salt water in a pint jar, and then helpfully labeled it so no one would try to drink it and get a nasty surprise.

I did explain that the word is gargle with an "a," but she liked gurgle better. They're both pretty funny if you think about them.

I had some new flowers this week.

Cosmos and calendula.

Not my favorite altar arrangement ever, but my choices are getting pretty limited. Pretty soon there won't be any flowers to make anything for the altar.

And last, a pretty sunset.

There you have it! My life, snapshotted.

* Because the entire damaged floor had to be pulled up and replaced, he took the opportunity to put extra supports in this space in anticipation of the extraordinary weight. Otherwise the whole thing would probably fall through the trailer floor.

Friday Food: Chicharrones

Friday

Short version: Italian sausages and onions, roasted potatoes, tomato salad

Long version: Last time I was at Walmart, I found two kinds of Italian sausage I hadn't seen before, both Walmart store brands. Not Great Value, though. I think it's Marketside. One was the usual mild Italian sausage in links, the other was links with Parmesan and mozzarella in them. Italian sausage is the only kind everyone in my family will eat without complaint, so I'm always on the lookout for it. I bought both to try.

Lots of sausage.

Verdict: Everyone approved of the plain ones. The cheese ones didn't have enough cheese and also had that unfortunate smooth hot dog texture that so many sausages have. Of course there were only two packages of the plain ones, so I couldn't get a lot, but I'll keep looking for it now that I know it's an option. 

A Dad plate.

Saturday

Short version: Pork shoulder, cornbread, cucumber pickles, rice pudding

Long version: I was at a birthday party for Poppy's best friend in the afternoon, but before I left, I cooked a pork shoulder for awhile in the oven, along with the rice pudding. That just left the cornbread to make when I got home.

Sunday

Short version: Pork tacos with homemade corn tortillas, refried black beans, pear crisp with vanilla ice cream

Long version: The pork had needed another hour or so in the oven to get really tender, so I stuck it back in while I was baking cookies, just so I could easily get the rest of the meat off the bone. That's what I used for the tacos.

I hadn't made tortillas in awhile because they heat up the kitchen a lot, but it was cool enough to do it without too much discomfort. Poppy actually did all the pressing of the tortillas for me while I took care of cooking them. This made it much easier. 

I still make refried beans the way I learned from a very old Rick Bayless PBS program about twenty years ago: lard, garlic, a whole can of black beans (or two), smash thoroughly with a potato masher and simmer--stirring and scraping the pan regularly--until thick. Yum.

While I was considering what to do with the many ripe pears in a box by the woodstove, it occurred to me that I had never heard of a pear pie. I mentioned this to A., who has extensive experience with eating pies, and had also never heard of it. His thought was that pears aren't acidic enough to make good pies. 

This seemed reasonable, but I still wanted to experiment with the pears. I wasn't in the mood to make a pie crust, so I made a crisp instead. 

A 9"x13" crisp will use up a lot of fruit.

It was good, but not as good as an apple crisp. Because it didn't have as much flavor due to the lack of acidity, as A. correctly theorized.

Monday

Short version: Sausage pizza grilled cheese, carrot slaw, applesauce with cream

Long version: I had several links of sausage left, but not enough for everyone to have plain. I also had just a bit of pizza sauce left that needed to be used, and I almost always have grated asadero cheese in the freezer.

So, I used all those things to make grilled sandwiches.

Mid-assembly, pre-cheese. There was another one on the cutting board.

Four of the five family members were highly enthusiastic about this. The one who wasn't ate it, even if not as enthusiastically.

The carrot slaw was just shredded carrots with the coleslaw dressing I typically use, minus the celery seed. I found to my surprise when I was making the dressing that I was out of mayonnaise. This hardly ever happens, but there I was, with no mayonnaise. I only needed a tablespoon, though, so I just used sour cream instead. It was fine, if not quite as delicious as it would have been with the mayonnaise.*

The applesauce was the last of the jar in the refrigerator, which means we went through a gallon of applesauce in a week. Those seven quarts I canned really won't last that long.

Tuesday

Short version: Daddy burgers, tomato salad

Long version: I had taken out ground beef to thaw for hamburgers, as well as bacon. A. was going to town, and I gave him the option of buying American cheese and bread so he could make his preferred burgers. He makes these on hunting or camping trips over the fire with the kids. These involve frying the bacon, then frying thin beef patties, then adding American cheese and sort of basting the patties with the bacon grease. They are served preferentially on Sara Lee Butter Bread and are served with nothing more than ketchup.

They are very popular with the children. And with me, as I dislike frying hamburgers.

Wednesday

Short version: Pork chops with gravy, mashed potatoes, frozen corn

Long version: Nothing too exciting here, except the gravy was really good because I had both the liquid left from cooking the pork roast AND homemade rooster stock. And cream. Yum. 

I feel like this could have been taken in 1985.

I also used those things, plus some of the potatoes, a piece of bacon, and some of the pickled onions in the refrigerator, to make a pureed potato soup for Poppy. She has had a cold and her throat hurt. 

Soup in progress.

Lucky for her, I have at least a decade of experience making soup with whatever I find in my kitchen, thanks to her eldest brother and his demand of soup whenever he was sick. Having an immersion blender really helps, too. (Thanks, MiL!)

Thursday

Short version: Burritos with beans and chicharrones, green salad with ranch dressing, ice cream

Long version: Chicharrones are pork rinds. That is, the skin. The ones you might have seen in bags in the chip section of the store are deep-fried. The ones we used were just fried pieces of the skin. They're softer, and A. assures me that is what Mexican restaurants use to make chicharron burritos. I'm gonna take his word for that, since he eats them and I never have.

When I made the pork roast this week, I pulled off the thick layer of skin and fat in preparation for shredding the meat. A. wandered into the kitchen just then and asked me what I was going to do with the skin. I told him I was going to give it to the dogs. He was scandalized by this, and immediately started slicing it into pieces and frying it in lard. 

He told me he would make bean burritos with the resulting chicharrones. But then he was busy just before dinner working on our bathroom, and I certainly did not want to interrupt that. So I made the burritos. I had simmered pinto beans most of the morning, mostly to add some needed heat to the house. I pureed those with cheese, and then I spread this mixture in the toasted tortillas before adding the chicharrones.

For the sick girl who still had a sore throat, I made rice in chicken stock and she ate some of that with beans. She's also why we had the ice cream. 

Right before I was about to make dinner, I got a surprise text that the first flag football practice was in half an hour. The youngest boy was signed up, but I somehow didn't get put on the group messaging thing until just then, so it was a mad rush to get him out the door and to the practice. I just fed three kids and me, and then A. came back from the drop-off and ate, and I went back to the football field for the pick-up. And then I fed the football player when he got home. 

It's a whirlwind life we lead.

Refrigerator check:

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

* I considered making mayonnaise, since I have a lot of eggs, but I didn't have any neutral oils, so that wouldn't have worked.

Never Have I Ever

We used to play a game sometimes when I was younger called "Never Have I Ever." The idea was to come up with things that were common, but that you had never done. I think of this game sometimes when I'm reading about other people's lives online and realize how odd my own life is in comparison.

For instance, never have I ever . . .

Ordered groceries online. I suppose it would be possible for me to do this at the Walmart I go to. I see the shoppers racing around in there with their giant racks, and I think they'll even load them into the car for you. I just have never done it. Given the amount of complaining I see online about grocery substitutions or subpar produce choices, it is not something I will ever choose to do as long as I am able to shop for myself.

Even if I did order groceries online, I would still have to sort everything and load the coolers to transport it 100 miles home.

Used an Uber. The first time I ever heard of Uber was about ten years ago when my brother mentioned it. He was somewhat incredulous that I had no idea what an Uber was. We were sitting on the porch at Blackrock at the time, so I just waved my hand around and said something like, "You think that would exist out here?" I have still never lived anywhere where it might be an option.

Ubers don't drive these roads.

Paid for anything with my cell phone. Almost everyone at the state fair paid for things by waving their phone in front of those little boxes they hand out of the window. I don't have any apps for payment on my phone. 

Read a book on an electronic device. I read things on my laptop, but only short things. I have no interest in reading a full-length book on a screen. As you can tell by the numerous bookcases in my home.

One of many.

Bought a frozen pizza. I guess I have nothing against frozen pizzas in particular, except buying the number I would need for my family would take up a lot of space in the coolers I have to transport everything home in. Also, I never really think about buying frozen food at the grocery store. Except frozen strawberries and peas.

Frozen pizza would mean less space for cream, milk, and ice cream.

How about you? What have you never done that most people take for granted?

Snapshots: To the Fair and Beyond

Poppy finished her pinata for her friend's birthday, and A. actually brought home some candy for it when he returned from his overnight trip. That means I didn't have to use any of the good suggestions all y'all gave me (thank you!).  

This was apparently a very strong pinata and required some intense whacking to break. Maybe two layers would have been better than three.

Our trip the state fair was very exciting. 

Floppy-eared rabbit.

Sea lions.

An impressive candy store.

A roller coaster.

And of course, the reason we were there: livestock judging. I think it's funny they still use Scantron sheets for this.

I did manage some flowers this week. There are a few sunflowers on the dining room table, and for the altar tomorrow . . .

A bit moody, thanks to the rainstorm that darkened my living room when I was taking this photo.

There you have it! My life, snapshotted.

Friday Food: State Fair Food

Friday 

Short version: Roasted rooster with gravy, scalloped potatoes, green salad with vinaigrette, strawberry shortcake with cream

Long version: I had just been saying to the kids that no one had given us any unwanted roosters lately, and then out of the blue, I get a text from one of the other moms at school that they had a bunch of roosters they weren't going to get around to butchering, and would we like them?

YES.

We picked them up Thursday, and A. and I butchered them this day. We gave two back to the lady who gave them to us (fully prepared for the oven), and I cooked one of them this night. They looked pretty young, so I thought it would be okay to roast one. I did it at fairly low heat at first, which is why I made the scalloped potatoes, too. Also because I had some cream near its use-by date to use up.

Fancy Friday food.

I turned the heat up later to bake cream biscuits, also to use up cream and to use as a base for the strawberries I had gotten on sale at the store the day before. 

I used this recipe for the biscuits, and they did not rise at all. I always reduce the amount of leavener in my baked goods because of our altitude, so maybe that was it. Or maybe I didn't wait long enough for the oven to get from 325 degrees to 425 degrees, and the oven was too cool when they went in. Or was it the sugar I added to them, since they were for dessert purposes?

I don't know, but they definitely did not look like the biscuits in the recipe photos. They tasted good, though, and everyone was very happy with their strawberry shortcake.

Saturday

Short version: Personal pizzas, carrot sticks with ranch dip, mint chocolate chip ice cream

Long version: I was home with just the two younger children for dinner this day. Since I had bread dough on hand to make, um, bread, I thought it would be fun for them to use some of it to make their own pizzas. I am not willing to do personal pizzas for six people--too many individual pans to fit in the oven--but it's manageable for just two. Accordingly, I put some dough in a 12-inch skillet for the youngest boy and some in the 8-inch skillet for Poppy, and let them make their pizzas.

Both chose to put pepperoni on them, and the boy also put on some pickled onions.

I do wish I could make pizzas in cast-iron skillets like that all the time. They come out much crispier. However, with the quantities I have to make right now, I'll have to stick to the two half-sheet pans I currently use. Someday . . .

I let them have the last of the ice cream that's been hanging out in the freezer. It wasn't enough for everyone, which is why I hadn't offered it to everyone. It was enough for the two of them, though.

Sunday

Short version: Spaghetti with meat sauce, carrot sticks with ranch dip, messy pear upside-down cake

Long version: I found some tubes of loose Italian sausage on sale at the store last time I was there. This is the only kind of sausage everyone in my family likes, so I got some. That's what I used for the spaghetti sauce, which also had some of the roasted, pureed tomatoes I had made earlier in the week. Sauce made with garden tomatoes really is so much better.

I also used the leftover chicken gravy in the spaghetti sauce. A surprisingly good addition.

The cake was a learning experience. I have never in my life made any sort of upside-down fruit cake, or even eaten one, but A. loves them. I had just a few pears that were ripe, so I found a simple-looking recipe online and made it.

As I was making it, I noted that between the caramel on the bottom of the pan and the sugar in the cake part, there was twice as much sugar as flour. Hmmm. I reduced the sugar in the caramel slightly, but it was, as I expected, extremely sweet. 

Also hilariously messy after I dumped it out of the pan.

The barely sweetened whipped cream I served it with helped, and Poppy and A. loved it, at least. Still, I think it would be much better with less sugar, more-tart fruit (and more of it), and maybe some spices. This didn't even have cinnamon or anything in it. Next time.

Monday

Short version: Chicken enchilada casserole, pickled radishes and cucumber, leftover cake, ice cream

Long version: I finally got around to making chicken stock with the rooster carcass this morning. From the bones, I pulled a couple of cups of meat. I added a can of black beans to this and used it to make a casserole with a sauce using the last of the pureed tomatoes in the refrigerator, frozen corn, corn tortillas, and cheese.

I had a half a bag of store radishes in the refrigerator that had been in there too long. I was going to just give everyone radish slices, but then I used the last of some pickled carrot ribbons--that in turn had been pickled in the same liquid used for onion slivers--and decided to use that pickling liquid one last time. I heated it up, then added the sliced radishes, and, at the last minute, a cucumber that had been sitting on the counter for a couple of days. I thought sure it would be bitter, but it miraculously wasn't. Into the pickling liquid it went with the radishes for five minutes or so while the casserole cooled a bit.

The people that liked it had leftover cake. The other two had the very last of the mint chocolate chip ice cream. Luckily, the ones who like mint chocolate chip ice cream did not like the cake, so it was easy to assign desserts.

Tuesday

Short version: Leftovers, frozen peas, cherries

Long version: I was in town this day and by the time I got all the laundry hung up that I had washed at the laundromat* and put the groceries away, I was not too enthused about cooking the ground beef I had thawed. Luckily, I had enough spaghetti and casserole to feed everyone, so that is what we had.

Wednesday

Short version: Salisbury steaks and gravy, mashed potatoes, tomato salad

Long version: And here's that ground beef I thawed and didn't use the day before. In Salisbury steak, which, when made at home and not in a cafeteria or in a microwave dinner, is actually good.

Cafeteria food made better.

Thursday

Short version: Fair food!

Long version: One of the boys was scheduled to participate this day in a livestock judging event at the New Mexico State Fair. His FFA teacher asked if I wanted to take him, or if she should see if one of the staff members from school could bring him. My first reaction was no thank you on driving 200 miles to the state fair. But then I considered: What if I let the younger two kids skip school and come with us? They've never been to a state fair before, and then it would be more like a fun trip rather than a boring slog for a competition.

So that is what we did. It was a loooong day. We got there are 10 a.m. and didn't leave until 6 p.m. No food can be brought into the fair, and of course, like all fairs, the cost of the food there is extortionate. 

We were very lucky that Thursdays happen to be the day of a promotion called "Graze Dayz," wherein most of the major food vendors offer one menu item for five dollars. This enabled me to get the kids their main meals of the day for a relatively reasonable cost. They each had a piece of cheese pizza for lunch, and then they split two bean and cheese burritos for dinner. I just ate whatever was left over. I was so hot and tired, I didn't even really want to eat much.

Portrait of an exhausted mom at the state fair, courtesy of Poppy.

They also finished off the beef jerky, apples, honey roasted peanuts, and Jolly Ranchers I had in the car during the three-hour drive home.

I think the two members of the family at home had cereal and applesauce for dinner, but I'm not sure about that.

Refrigerator check: 

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

* I have been assured that the control panel for my washing machine has been delivered to the repair place. Now it's just waiting on the repair guy to actually be there to put it in. I am hopeful that this is my last visit to the laundromat, although I'm not counting my washing machines until they're repaired. Or something.