Friday Food: More Chicken than Usual

Friday 

Short version: Roasted chicken pieces, roasted potatoes, frozen corn

Long version: This was one package of separated chicken leg quarters and one of just chicken thighs. Two big packages of chicken is too much for one meal, but I can always find a use for the leftovers, so I just roasted them all.

I made the corn only because I was (still) too lazy to go out to the big freezers to get peas, and the corn was in the freezer over the refrigerator. This resulted in a lively discussion at dinner about vegetables, starches, and how to categorize foods. Some of my family maintains that potatoes are a vegetable--technically true--although I use them as a starch. 

I also noted that corn is about the starchiest "vegetable" there is, so really, there were two starches on their plates. Which of course made them all happy.

Saturday

Short version: Chicken corn chowder, cheese, pumpkin bread

Long version: My mom used to make a tomato corn chowder from her Southern Living cookbook that I loved. This soup was kind of based on that, in that it used lots of basil and sour cream. This version, however, also had chicken, because I had made stock with the bones of the previous night's chicken and had a little meat I had pulled off the bones.

Cheese 'n' chowder. Pleasingly alliterative.

It was a good soup, but I usually try to have something extra on nights when I've made soup from leftover bones. That's why I used the last bag of pureed squash in the freezer to make a double batch of pumpkin bread. Pumpkin bread works as a side to soup, but also it's a pseudo-dessert. I doubled this recipe, except I didn't do the sugar crust on top. That way it was less like a dessert.

Sunday

Short version: Elk burgers on homemade buns, baked beans, green salad with vinaigrette, cheater's chocolate fondue

Long version: I was baking bread this day, so I made some extra buns and then made the burgers because I had the buns. Cause and effect in the kitchen.

Baked beans--made with some pinto beans I took out of the freezer--instead of oven fries.

I was at a church event in the afternoon with Poppy, and I was very tired when I got home, so I kind of punked out on dessert. I just melted chocolate chips with a bit of coconut oil in the microwave and then offered either two marshmallows or peanut butter cookies to dip in it. They all chose the marshmallows.

Monday

Short version: Chicken salad sandwiches, leftover baked beans, carrot sticks

Long version: I had two elk burger patties left, and one bun, so one child got to have a double elk burger. Everyone else had the chicken salad.

Tuesday

Short version: Last-minute chicken slop, pork, mashed potatoes, frozen peas

Long version: I had the pan heated up with fat in it at 6 p.m. to cook the lamb steaks I had taken out to thaw . . . which is when I discovered I had taken out lamb stew meat. Whoops. That's not going to cook quickly. At least, not in an edible fashion.

Plan change!

Luckily, I had been to the store this day, and I got a rotisserie chicken there. So I pulled the meat off that and used the juices, plus thyme, garlic powder, cornstarch, and milk, to make gravy for it. That's the sloppy part.

I had also thawed a random small bag of pork stir-fry pieces, thinking I would use it for dinner the next day. I didn't think there would be enough chicken, however, so I also cooked the pork, just frying it in bacon fat with salt, pepper, garlic powder, and paprika.

I had already made the mashed potatoes, so I just microwaved the peas and ta da! Last-minute dinner in fifteen minutes.

I make magic in the kitchen, if nowhere else.

Wednesday

Short version: Assigned food, grapes

Long version: I had used the pork the night before that I was planning on for stir-fry this night. So I took out a container of lamb chili I froze last week when I had made a big batch. That was enough for A. and two kids, with cheese quesadillas.

One child had the last serving of baked beans, plus some leftover mashed potatoes and cheese.

The last child had the last of the chicken salad in a sandwich, plus some leftover mashed potatoes and cheese.

I had a salad with some of the chicken salad in it.

And everyone had the grapes, because assembling and plating all those different foods was enough work. I didn't feel like messing around with an extra vegetable. Serving a casserole or something is way easier.

Thursday

Short version: Lamb stew, bread and butter, pumpkin bread, ice cream

Long version: This was the lamb I had mistakenly thought was steaks. It was a shank, plus some very bony chops. I simmered those for awhile, pulled off the meat, and then used the resulting stock and meat to make a stew. I also used some calabaza to thicken it a bit, along with yogurt and cornstarch.

Ice cream to celebrate the weekend. And assuage the disappointment that inevitably comes with stew.

Refrigerator check:

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

Alien FFA Day

One of the unfortunate results of our school being under construction for two years now is that we have only one space big enough to gather together for assemblies and activities. It's the old gym. It's incredibly echo-y and loud, but also, it has the most unfortunate lights ever. They buzz and hurt your eyes, and for some reason, any photos taken in there turn out green.

But it's what we have to work with, and so we soldier on.

Last Wednesday was FFA Day. Our FFA chapter took the opportunity to present an Ag. in the Classroom activity for all the elementary kids. They all gathered together to talk about what FFA is and then they made some butter. They did this by giving each student a half-pint jar of heavy cream and telling them to shake it wildly.

Can you imagine the excitement for little kids? They have permission to spin around, jump up and down, shake and shimmy, and generally go wild AT SCHOOL! And then! There's butter! Which they got to choose mix-ins for--cinnamon/sugar, honey, chives, garlic powder, etc.--and eat on rolls.

Best afternoon ever. Even if it was green.

Seriously. What is up with this lighting?

Snapshots: Seasons

I'm too old to use the acronym LOL, but that is, in fact, what this valentine from one of the other teachers at school made me do.

It's funny because it's true; this is what teenage boys sound like.

We've been buying cedar wood from the firewood guy, which smells really good and also sometimes has some really cool patterns inside.

Mostly it's just a red heart, but this one was striped.

And I'm guessing this on the outside was from some sort of insect.

We had a very cold and icy day at school on Wednesday. All the trees were coated in rime. 

I particularly liked this one with each individually coated needle.

I think this drawing of a dinosaur was an inevitable consequence of being a girl with three big brothers.

Girly, but with fangs.

When I told her I liked the rainbow, she very seriously told me, "That's an arc, not a rainbow. It doesn't have the right colors* for a rainbow." 

Got it.

Speaking of colors! It's Mardi Gras season, and we have decorated accordingly.

Mardi Gras banner and birthday banner together.

There you have it! My life, snapshotted.

* I never had the sequence of the rainbow colors memorized until watching an episode of "The Cat in the Hat" on PBS like twelve years ago, from which I learned the rainbow song. Now I can never forget they go "red, orange, yellow, then green, followed by blue, indigo, and violet, that's the rainbow song for you!"