The Grand Total Was . . .

For that small basket of nine things at the grocery store, I spent $56.37. Yikes.

I wasn't at a fancy grocery store. I did, however, buy a few name-brand things--Skippy peanut butter, Riesens, and Nutrigrain bars--which I rarely do. Also, jerky is expensive even if it is store-brand.

Mostly, I think it's because I was buying packaged snacks. Another thing I rarely do. 

Which is why I bake way more than I would like to.

So I guess I'll just carry on with my low-snack, store-brand shopping style, lest I bankrupt us with Nutrigrain bars and candy.

Friday Food: Monster Pizza and Other Vacation Food

Friday 

Short version: Monster pizza, soda

Long version: I left in the morning with all four children to drive to my sister's house in Colorado. A. stayed home to take care of things here. It took us 9 hours to get there, and we arrived just before my sister got off work. She walked in the door, and then immediately out again so we could go get pizza.

She took us to a local place that makes 28-inch pizzas. I can't visualize measurements like that. In case you can't, either, here's a visual for you.

 It was so big it took up almost the whole table.

We brought home I think six pieces, which were all eaten as a snack the next afternoon.

I got each of the children a soda, which I never do. And I let them refill their cups at the fountain if they wanted to. That's even more unheard-of for me. Yay, vacation. 

Saturday

Short version: Tamales, coleslaw, cupcakes, cake, jello

Long version: There's a place near my sister's work that makes good tamales, so she bought a bunch there for us to have this night. Some were red chile and pork, some were green chile and chicken. 

The coleslaw was just cabbage and carrots with a vinegar dressing. Perfect with the tamales.

My sister had a lot of leftover cupcakes and cake from her birthday the week before. She was tired of eating cake. The children were not. They were happy to help her get rid of the various cakes around. She also had some random blue raspberry jello left from something a friend of hers had made, and a couple of kids had that. With whipped cream on top. Yay, vacation, again.

Sunday

Short version: Carnitas burritos, leftover coleslaw, ice cream

Long version: My sister put a pork shoulder in the Crockpot in the morning to make carnitas, which were delicious. The kids had them in flour tortillas. The ladies had them in salads.

In pretty salad bowls my dad made.

My sister bought a half gallon of cookies and cream ice cream for dessert. I think she was surprised it was all eaten in one night. Honestly, I bet some of my kids could have eaten more. Our family can put away a lot of ice cream.

I went to the grocery store this day to get another gallon of milk plus some things for our drive home. This is everything I bought.

It all fit in the top small part of the little basket thing.

It included a jar of Skippy peanut butter, a small jar of store-brand strawberry jam, one loaf of store-brand bread, one gallon of store-brand whole milk, one bag of store-brand potato chips, one bag of store-brand beef jerky, one box of 12 Nutrigrain bars, two small bags of Riesens, and a one-pound block of store-brand cheddar cheese. Can you guess how much those nine things cost?*

Monday

Short version: Leftovers, Girl Scout cookies

Long version: There were lots of tamales and pork left, so we had more of those. Just as good the second time.

My sister had just a few Girl Scout cookies left from a party that she wanted used up. There were just enough for everyone to have one Thin Mint and one Samoa each. My children were extremely excited about this. It's the first time they've ever had Girl Scout cookies, poor things.

Tuesday

Short version: Sauteed chicken thighs, rice, cabbage

Long version: I stopped at a grocery store a couple of hours from home on our way back to buy milk. I also wanted to get something quick-cooking for dinner. I ended up getting a package of boneless chicken thighs, which were not as quick-cooking as I had anticipated--and also quite expensive at $20 for the four-pound package I needed--but were definitely delicious. I just sauteed them in butter and olive oil with lots of salt, pepper, garlic powder, and paprika.

I had two garden cabbages in the refrigerator, so I sliced some of that and put it right in the pan with the chicken to take advantage of all the grease and spices in there. Good call.

Wednesday

Short version: Brisket, mashed potatoes, sauteed cabbage and carrots, still-frozen green beans, cherries

Long version: I thawed the entire brisket A. brought home awhile ago. I had frozen it whole, so I cooked the whole thing, cut into three pieces.

This is 14.5 pounds of meat.

I put garlic powder, salt, pepper, paprika, vinegar, canned diced tomatoes and maple syrup on them, plus water, and cooked them for several hours.

A lot of fat rendered off or was pulled off for the dogs, but I probably ended up with at least ten pounds of meat. Some of it we ate this night, in a sauce with the liquid from cooking, plus ketchup, mustard, and some more spices.

For the cabbage and carrots, I used the unwashed pan from cooking the chicken the night before. It had a lot of highly spiced grease still in it, so I used that to saute the last quarter of a cabbage, plus some shredded carrots I had put in the freezer last fall. The green beans were for those children who do not enjoy cabbage cooked.

Dinner on the stove.

The cherries were ones my sister had sent home with us, because they were starting to get wrinkly and she correctly knew they would get eaten faster in our house with six people than in hers with just her.

Thursday

Short version: Ram steaks, curried split peas, leftover rice or mashed potatoes, collard greens, cherries

Long version: I found a bag of just two big ram steaks in the freezer that I pulled out and marinated before frying and making a sauce with red wine and soured cream.

I didn't think that would be enough for everyone, so I also took out a bag of cooked split peas I found in there. Those I cooked with onion, a diced garlic scape, curry powder, chicken broth, and, at the end, some soured cream I ALSO found in the freezer. Many good freezer things.

The collards are about the only thing the grasshoppers aren't eating into oblivion. They are HUGE. I used only three leaves, and it made enough for at least four people. I used some already-cooked onion and canned tomatoes that had been in the refrigerator, too.

We finished the cherries this night. Mission accomplished.

Refrigerator check:

Still haven't fixed the deli drawer. The part is on the way, though.

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

* I'm not including the Time magazine about cats or the bottle of Prosecco I got as gifts for my sister.

I Learned Something

I have discovered that the store version of Fritos are pretty much always good. The chips with more kinds of flavorings--like Doritos or Cheetos--are generally not as good in the generic version. Fritos are very basic, though. They only have three ingredients. How can you screw up corn, corn oil, and salt?

Well, you can do it if you pretty much leave out the salt.

I did not even know this was a thing, although I had noted that the corn chips I bought awhile ago said "salted" on the bag. I thought that was weird, because of COURSE they're salted. When are they not?

I found out last time I bought some. These were labeled "original," and they had so little salt it was almost impossible to taste it.

Can you imagine Fritos without salt? It was very strange. And not really appreciated.

 

Original=pretty much not salted.

Luckily, they're greasy enough that I could just shake salt into the bag and it would stick to the chips, so they were salvageable. But now I know to look for salted corn chips, not original, if I want them to taste like actual Fritos.

And now you do, too, I guess. 

Snapshots: First Canning

I canned sauerkraut and pickled beets this week.

A pleasing color contrast.

This part of my run is lined on both sides with blooming clover, which has the sweetest, slightly spicy scent.

And here's one with Jasper, just to give equal billing to both dogs.

I'm not harvesting the asparagus anymore, but here's an old photo of it I took just because I loved the contrast of the bright-green asparagus on the bright-red Pyrex top I threw it on to cool down before I put it on my salad.

Both the rose and the asiatic lilies are blooming, which makes for a very pink table centerpiece.

A former teacher at our school invited all the children to go up with him in his small plane this past week. The airport he flies out of is 100 miles from our house. He goes flying at first light, so as to avoid the almost-constant wind. This meant that we left our house at 3:50 a.m. to get there in time for his 5:30 a.m. flight.

Despite the unpleasantly early wake-up and long drive, the kids had a very good time.

Small plane in dawn's early light.

There you have it! My life, snapshotted.