Friday Food: Leftovers Everywhere

Friday 

Short version: Enchilada casserole, carrot sticks

Long version: This was made with ground beef and beans, plus corn tortillas, cheese, and enchilada sauce. Basic, but tasty. And a good way to make a lot of food with not a lot of ground beef.

Saturday

Short version: Birthday chicken, fried bread, corn, pecan pie with whipped cream

Long version: This was Poppy's request for her birthday dinner. She wanted chicken drumsticks. I had leg quarters, which I separated into thighs and drumsticks. We had just finished a jar of pickles, so I marinated the chicken in the juice from that jar, and then roasted it with paprika and garlic powder.

Fried bread is just what it sounds like: Bread fried in butter. 

Poppy asked for corn on the cob, but I hadn't been to the store recently enough for that, so I had to make frozen corn instead.

This pecan pie. I made a Classic Kristin Kitchen Mistake and added a tablespoon of vinegar to it instead of a teaspoon. And then I had to add more sugar to offset the vinegar, which made the pie sweeter than usual. Some of the family members liked it this way; some did not.

Sunday

Short version: Cottage pie, carrot slaw, pickles, apple crisp with whipped cream

Long version: We had two additional young men eating with us this night, so I needed to make something that would feed a lot of people. Specifically, a lot of boys, both old and young. Cottage pie does that nicely.

I didn't have any corn left, which I typically use with peas for the vegetable part of the cottage pie. So instead I used some cooked collards and shredded carrot I had in the freezer. They were small enough that the children didn't notice them in there.

The only other vegetable I had on hand was carrots, which I shredded and made a slaw out of with some diced onions. The dressing had a little more mayonnaise than I add to regular coleslaw and a bit more sugar. No celery seed, either.

One of our guests doesn't eat gluten, which is why I used two bags of frozen apple slices to make an apple crisp. The topping was mostly oats and nuts, which was fine, but the apples needed to be pre-cooked before being baked with the topping. They were a bit crunchy.

Monday

Short version: More chicken, leftover rice, pasta, frozen peas, tomato salad

Long version: I had so much chicken marinated that I couldn't fit it all on the pan on Saturday. I had left the extra chicken uncooked in the marinade and baked it this night with some barbecue sauce. I put this to bake in the oven just before I left to pick up Poppy at cheer practice. 

I didn't have enough leftover rice for everyone, so I made some pasta when I got home with just cream cheese, butter, and garlic powder.

Tuesday

Short version: Eclectic leftovers, carrot sticks

Long version: I had four chicken drumsticks left, which I chopped and added to the leftover pasta along with some roasted garlic I had in the freezer, a few tomatoes, and some of the grated asadero cheese from the freezer.

There was also leftover enchilada casserole, and then we had a couple of small catfish fillets from the one A. caught on Saturday that I just panfried with salt, pepper, and lemon juice.

Mexican, Italian, and American. Truly, we are a melting pot.

Wednesday

Short version: Leftover cottage pie

Long version: I was subbing this day, for the first time this year, so it was definitely a night for leftovers. I had made a whole other cottage pie in an 8"x8" pan that I re-heated in the oven, as well as a little left from the big one we had on Sunday.

I did not serve a separate vegetable. There were peas AND collards AND carrots in the meat mixture! That's three different vegetables. Good enough.

Thursday

Short version: Outside pizza, salad with vinaigrette

Long version: My sister and her friend arrived this day for a short visit. They drove from Oklahoma in her friend's camper and stopped in the nearest town--90 miles away--to buy pizza for dinner. They got three large pizzas at Pizza Hut, and also came with things to make a salad.

Refrigerator check:

Always lots of milk on Thursdays. Thanks, Sysco.

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

A Canyon Birthday Adventure

Poppy's birthday happened to fall on a Saturday this year, which meant we could celebrate on the day itself in a more satisfying way than happens when the birthday falls on a school day. Especially since, miracle of miracles, there was nothing else going on that day.

Poppy loves to hike. We asked her if she would like us all to go hiking as a family in our (relatively) nearby impressive canyon.

She was of course enthused about the idea, so I packed a picnic lunch, A. packed a fishing pole and bait, we both packed the two dogs into Adventure Van, and away we went.

We hit a bit of a snag at the very beginning of our hike, which requires us to go across the river. The point at which we cross typically has many rocks above water for a dry crossing. This time, there was no way to get across without getting wet. No way for me, anyway. I took one look at this situation and said out loud to A. "I am going to fall in this water."

Well, the boys found one spot a bit further downstream where they jumped about three feet from one rock to another, downward-sloping rock. They tried to convince me that I could do this. I, however, have no delusions about my complete inability to jump even short distances, so I declined.

A. and Poppy crossed at our usual spot by removing their shoes, rolling up their jeans, and wading across. A. offered to carry me across, but I didn't want to consider what a bad scene it would be if he fell while I was on his back, so I declined this, too.

I took off my shoes and waded. And sure enough, I was the only one to fall. Much to my family's amusement. 

I just fell back into a sitting position, and all that got wet was my bottom. I didn't get hurt or anything, so I continued on to the other side and spent the rest of the hike with a soaked seat. Good thing it was a warm day.

Also by the stream were some nasty burs that got stuck in the barefoot children's feet, as well as in the dogs' paws. But once we took care of that, we were all set to hike.

Birthday girl hiking. And some gnarly Russian thistle plants that lined the path.

This trail leads to a very nice shady spot under a cliff that only requires maybe a half mile walk. The river where A. wanted to fish was about a hundred yards further down the path. 

We stopped at the cliff in the shade to eat our lunch. This included Poppy's birthday taste test: Pringle flavors.

Cheddar, sour cream and onion, ranch, and pizza.

The pizza-flavored ones did taste surpisingly very like pizza, but it turns out this is somewhat disconcerting in a Pringle. These were not universally enjoyed. More popular were the ranch and sour cream and onion flavors. I personally liked the ranch best. Pringles are pretty tasteless in the original version, so the addition of flavors is a good one.

We had other food, too, of course.

Biscuits (made that morning because I was running low on bread), tuna salad, and not-pictured cookies and beef jerky.

A. left after lunch to fish. The children elected to stay and climb the cliff. It's one of their favorite things to do.

It looks much bigger in real life.

The older two boys made it all the way to the top there at the right. The younger two were about halfway when A. yelled "Fish on!" and they went scrambling down and away to the river to see the catfish A. caught.

The dogs stayed with me.

In the shade. Smart Jasper.*

The younger kids fished for awhile themselves before we decided it was time to head back. We of course had to cross the river again. I elected to keep my shoes on this time, and had no trouble at all. I guess I just can't balance well on rocks in bare feet.

The slippery algae didn't help, either.

The children, unsurprisingly, wanted to stay in the water for awhile.

And since we were about to go home, I didn't care if they got soaking wet. Which of course they did.

After a thorough soaking, they all piled their wet selves into the van and we headed home for a birthday dinner and presents.

It was a good day. We should do it more often.

* Amazingly, Jasper doesn't smell at all like skunk anymore. I guess maybe the dry climate keeps smells from lingering? I don't know, but I appreciate it.

Snapshots: Highly Domestic

For unknown reasons, I was apparently struck by the Fall Cleaning urge this week. When such an urge strikes, I take advantage.

Thus, I finally took all the haphazardly folded, unorganized, and perpetually falling linens off the high shelf in Poppy's bedroom closet, sorted them, and put them in these under-bed storage things I bought, um, two months ago.

They are now under one of the boys' beds, where they will definitely not fall down.

Later in the week, since I had cleaned out Poppy's closet and her floor was relatively clear, I decided to clean under her bed. She has a bunk bed with a bunch of under-bed storage bags, too, with extra clothing, blankets, etc., so I have to haul everything out to reach the back under there by the wall. She also has a very small, dark room, which makes it hard to work in there. 

I did it anyway, though. There were quite a few small things--socks, pajamas, toys, etc.--that had fallen through the sides of her bed around the walls that I couldn't quite reach with my hand. So I used a rake.

 A different kind of fall raking.

And then I had to commando-crawl all the way under the bed to reach with the vacuum attachment so I could get the thick layer of dust that had accumulated against the walls. 

A reminder of why I don't do this very often. It was no fun. But it's done now!

AND THEN.

Chaos in the living room.

My sister had an extra Oriental rug that she didn't need. She brought it with her when she moved from Florida to Colorado and delivered it to our house like two years ago. You can see that the closer rug in the above photo is totally worn out--that's why it looks sort of white--so the plan was to use my sister's rug to cover over the threadbare rug. 

However, on that side of the living room were a wooden bench, a computer desk, and two bookcases full of books. I was daunted by moving all of that, and so the rug has been sitting in A.'s office all this time, awaiting my inspiration.

On Thursday I had a rare day on which I was not doing laundry or cooking, and it was sort of rainy so I wasn't going outside. Thus, I seized the day.

Our living room is narrow and long, as you can see. And we have too many books, as you can also see by the books piled on the edge of the big bookcase to the left.

This took me about five hours. The new rug had a pretty big hole cut out of it in an awkward place. I knew this ahead of time, although I couldn't visualize exactly where it was on the rug until I had laid it out. In the end, I had to lay the rug horizontally across the room and put the bench against the same wall as the couch to cover the hole. This necessitated rearranging all the furniture in that half of the living room. I still can't decide if I like it better this way, but I'm going to live with it for awhile and see how I feel about it.

In any event, this allowed me to clean everything in the living room. Those bookcases literally never get moved, so it was particularly satisfying to clean behind and under where they had been.

Poppy turned eight years old yesterday, and on Friday we had a pre-birthday tea party with her friend who goes to a different school and has never been to our house. (We mostly see her at church or sporting events.)

Making place cards.

Tea for two. (And me. Mine was the third place set, but I didn't get a place card.)

And last, flowers!

Cosmos on the table.

Randomness on the bookcase.

And for the church altar . . .

I do believe these are the very last sunflowers of the year.

There you have it! My life, snapshotted.