Friday Food: A Surprisingly Large Freezer

Friday 

Short version: Toasted bean burritos, raw bell peppers and radishes, oatmeal-raisin cookies

Long version: A. and the eldest were gone and Poppy wanted to help me make dinner, so we made it easy on ourselves by using flour tortillas, cheese, and the cooked pinto beans in the refrigerator to make toasted bean burritos. She needed a little help flipping the burritos in the pan so everything wouldn't all fall out, but otherwise, she did it all. Including cutting up the vegetables.

Saturday 

Short version: Pizza elk, pasta with pesto, garlic bread, still-frozen green beans

Long version: I had found a bag of elk labeled "very thin rump steaks" in the freezer. We've been grinding the elk, because it was pretty tough, but these were thin enough that I thought I could cook them as is. I marinated them first with olive oil and vinegar. Then I browned them, and then simmered them in a sauce of red wine, canned tomatoes, and frozen pesto. I also cooked some sliced onions and the other half of the bell pepper in there, and then added asadero cheese to the top to melt at the end. That's why I call it pizza elk.

The pasta used the very last of last year's pesto. My basil plants in the bathroom are still tiny. I don't know why they haven't grown very well in there this year. I guess I'll just have to put them outside and hope they get a move on, because we need more pesto.

Two children's plates, and my salad.

Sunday

Short version: Lamb loin, leftover rice or pasta, pureed calabaza or green beans, brownies

Long version: This was a really old bag of lamb loin. It was labeled 10/23, so I figured it was past time to use it up. I marinated it in vinegar, salt, and garlic powder, then seared it, sliced it and put it back in the pan, and used the last of the tomato sauce from the night before--all the meat had been eaten--to make a sauce for it. It was very good.

I still have half a dozen quart bags of pureed calabaza in the freezer, so I'm working my way through those before we have more giant calabaza again this fall.

Poppy had asked for the brownies, so I told her she could make them. I was in the kitchen with her and guided her, but she mostly did it herself. She's very much into her kitchen phase. All the boys were the same around this age, but I'm hoping she'll actually continue wanting to cook, unlike the boys.

Monday

Short version: Oven chicken, pasta, grapes, canned plums

Long version: I was in town until almost dinnertime, and while at the store, I bought chicken--both thighs and drumsticks--and grapes, among other things. I was pretty tired when I got home, but I had to separate and freeze the big packages of chicken anyway, so I just threw some in a pan with a bunch of salt, paprika, garlic powder, and a little maple syrup and baked it at 400 degrees until it was done, then shoved it under the broiler to get a little crispy.

The pasta was some plain pasta from the whole pound I had cooked for the pesto. It was too much pasta for the amount of pesto I had, and I had set some pasta aside plain. I just heated that up with butter, cream cheese, salt, and garlic powder for the children.

I didn't feel like bothering with preparing a vegetable, which is why I just put out the grapes I had gotten at the store.

Good enough.

The plums were an impulse purchase. The MiL had been telling us that her mother used to buy canned plums, and both A. and I said we had never seen them. And then, I turned into the canned fruit and vegetable aisle at the grocery store in search of tomatoes, and right there in front of me were cans of plums. Store-brand, no less. Of course I had to get a can to try.

They were quite small, and whole, with the pits still in them.

Beware the pits.

As soon as A. took a bite, he said he must have had them as a child, because the taste was familiar to him. I liked them, as did one child. The rest weren't much into them, so I think we'll stick with canned peaches, which every member of the family loves.

Also this day, I had a new freezer delivered. I had ordered one from our local (100 miles away) store that will actually deliver here. They didn't have bigger chest freezers in stock, so they ordered one for me. A. measured the old one and I intended to get one about that size. I got one that was slightly bigger. Or so I thought. Turns out a couple of cubic feet is quite a lot bigger.

That's a big freezer.

There wasn't any too much space, though, when I transferred everything from the smaller freezer.

I feel so fancy having a freezer with all these sliding bins and a light.

Tuesday

Short version: Leftovers, canned beef stew, cottage cheese and peaches

Long version: I was gone at dinnertime. The children got themselves a dinner of leftover chicken drumsticks and pasta. 

A. had the stew, which was a can we had gotten from excess commodities. He used to eat this sort of stew when he was a bachelor, so he's fine with it. No one else will eat it.

And when I got home, I had cottage cheese and the last of a jar of home-canned peaches that had been in the refrigerator.

Wednesday

Short version: Ram chili, gingersnaps

Long version: I had cooked a couple of bags of ram stew meat and steaks the day before, just by simmering them to get the meat off the bones. I used that meat, plus the resulting broth, to make the chili. This also pleasingly disposed of the half can of crushed tomatoes and the quart of cooked pinto beans in the refrigerator, plus pureed calabaza from the freezer, one cube of pureed green chile, one cube of pureed red chile, and spices.

I had made the gingersnaps the day before. They're a crowd favorite.

Thursday

Short version: Scrambled eggs, bacon, fried potatoes, grape tomatoes, peaches and cottage cheese

Long version: I had a large quantity of eggs on hand, thanks to getting them from a couple of different people, so that's what we had for dinner. The fried potatoes are what differentiates it from just breakfast. I guess.

Refrigerator check:

Still a lot of eggs in there.

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

Taming the Wildflowers

When we first moved here seven years ago, I was surprised at the variety of wildflowers I was seeing every year. 

I am still surprised. That's because the varieties are actually different every year.  

We have highly variable rainfall here. About the only constant is that we don't get very much of it. Our average is only around 18 inches a year. When we get it is the question. We don't really have a very reliable wet season, but we can get a heavy storm at any time. And when that rain comes determines which flowers bloom.

This year, we've had huge amounts of some wildflowers I've seen only rarely in other years. As soon as I am able, I always want to put wildflowers on my table. The flowers that have been available to me thus far are small, kind of weedy looking ones. I haven't had any larger ones yet to serve as the anchor flowers in the arrangements I like to make.

These smaller flowers are very pretty, but arranging them into something that doesn't look like literally a bunch of weeds has required some different techniques. And I'm going to show you how I do it. Whee!

The first thing to note is that I always gather way more plant material than I think I'll need. One reason I do that is because when working with smaller flowers, many of them must be grouped together to make a larger grouping of color in the arrangements. I need a dozen of the small flowers rather than one or two large flowers.

Also, these plants have a high ratio of greenery to flowers. It's this greenery that makes these plants look weedy, so much of it is going to be discarded.

This whole big pile will turn into just two smaller arrangements.

After I gather a large pile of plants, I start stripping and trimming them. I'm trying to keep the stems as long as possible, but get rid of all the excess leaves, spent flower stalks, etc. This will leave me with only the flower at the top of the stem. I'll use my fingers to strip the stem if it won't break as I do it, but sometimes I have to snip with scissors.

I do this outside, because there's a lot of plant material to be thrown out. It's easier when I can just throw it on the ground as I work.

Then I bring the stripped and sorted flowers inside to my sink, where I cut them shorter as needed and arrange them in my vase or jar. I still use something as a background screen--in this case, the yellow clover--and then I bunch the smaller flowers together to serve as my anchors.

All those flowers I gathered ended up making two small arrangements.

Yesterday I had one rose on my Mother's Day rose bush that was open. I have learned that there's no point in leaving these on the bush. They get whipped by the wind, dried out and beaten up so quickly that it's better to bring them inside so I can enjoy them for a few days. Knowing I had one big flower to serve as my anchor flower, I kept an eye out on my morning run for plants with complementary colors.

What I started with.

I stripped all the lower leaves and then snipped off the undeveloped flower buds at the top.

What I brought inside.

The final arrangement.

Dealing with these weedier flowers takes more time and care than just putting a few sunflowers in a vase, but the end result is very satisfying. And I love having unlimited flowers to decorate my home with. I currently have five arrangements of flowers in various places around the house. Too many? No such thing.

Snapshots: First, Poppy

One day I asked Poppy if she would like to organize the mess of pens and pencils we have in jars. Of course she did. Then she spent another hour or so checking all the markers in the art box to see which were dried out.

Something none of my sons have ever expressed interest in.

Then she helped me chop rhubarb for the strawberry/rhubarb crisp.

For a day or so, Poppy had a pet fly she had trapped between the window and the screen in the dining room. She gave it water in a pistachio shell and crumbs from her toast, but despite her tender care, the fly died, as flies are wont to do. I suggested she bury it outside. This was the grave.

A proper Christian burial.

Another day, she made herself a reading nest on the floor.

A perfect place to read Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle.

Eldest son continues to work on his old truck. There was a custom-made steel bumper on another old truck at our neighbor's house that A. wanted to get--with permission, of course--to put on son's truck. I went up there with him to remove it.

Now that's a serious bumper.

Sheep at sunrise.

I had an unfortunate episode when I was making oatmeal that resulted in my deciding that perhaps the top of the refrigerator is not the best storage spot for the quick oats.

Good day for the chickens, though.

And last, A. and Poppy chose a very pretty vase for me at an antique store that they gave to me for my birthday. It's quite tall, and also pale blue, and most of the flowers I've had have not been tall enough or the right color for that vase. So I hadn't used it yet.

However, many of the wildflowers our friends brought to tea were quite tall, and several of the varieties were purple. Perfect for my birthday vase, which is now on the big bookcase in the living room.

So pretty.

There you have it! My life, snapshotted.