Friday Food: Many Potatoes

Friday 

Short version: Spanish tortilla

Long version: I ended up with fifty pounds of potatoes from excess commodities to add to the twenty pounds A. had bought literally the day before we got those. So! Let's use some potatoes! 

It was just me and the younger two children this night. Both of them love Spanish tortilla, so that is what I made. I used bacon and tomatoes in it, plus some already-cooked onion and shredded cheddar. An easy meal before the last-minute scramble to get costumes on before trick-or-treating.

Saturday

Short version: Pork, peas, and rice skillet

Long version: Still just the three of us. I had put some cooked pork chops in the freezer a few weeks prior during one those rare periods when I had too many leftovers and we weren't going to be getting through all of them before they went bad. In such situations, I take a look to see what will freeze and defrost the best. This time, that was cooked pork chops. 

I took these out and trimmed and diced all the pork, then used the pork with leftover rice, pickled onions, and frozen peas to make a skillet meal. In this case, I just fried all of that in a bunch of butter, not even bothering to add any spices except salt and pepper. 

The three little bowls.

Sunday

Short version: Meatloaf, baked potatoes, tomato salad, chocolate ice cream

Long version: Everyone was home. Thus, a full meal. 

I made the meatloaf with both ground beef and breakfast sausage, because that is what I had. 

Did anyone need more dessert after the post-Halloween candy glut? No. But it was Sunday. And I did have a bit of chocolate ice cream left in the freezer. 

Monday

Short version: Leftovers, pickles

Long version: I had another ridiculous Monday afternoon of driving hither and yon, with the added complication that I had to go to an pep rally at school at 2:30 that was partially in honor of one of my sons. This meant I was gone from 2:15-5:45. Before I left, I microwaved a few more potatoes to add to the leftover baked potatoes, then chopped those and fried them. I chopped the leftover meatloaf before I left, and then when I got home, I just re-heated the potatoes with the meatloaf in the skillet. In a lot of butter, which is the best way to re-heat leftovers.

There was also leftover Spanish tortilla, which I also fried in butter to re-heat. 

It was far from gourmet, but everyone was fed.

Tuesday

Short version: Tuna mac, tomato and cucumber salad

Long version: I was at First Communion class this night, so before I left, I made a casserole of essentially macaroni and cheese, with a can of tuna added. I used Parmesan, cheddar, and a Mexican cheese that was pretty much exactly like fresh mozzarella, but way cheaper. A very cosmopolitan mac and cheese.

Every time I use fresh tomatoes now, I hear the drumbeat that heralds the end of fresh tomatoes for the year. 

Too dramatic?

Wednesday

Short version: Lamb ribs, chicken slop, mashed potatoes, green peas

Long version: I'm mining the depths of the freezer now as we get to the less-desirable meats that I've been avoiding. Among those is lamb ribs.

A. gave me a recipe for a Carolina barbecue sauce--heavy on the vinegar--that he thought would work well as a marinade for the lamb ribs. I marinated them for a few hours, then cooked them on low heat a few more hour, still in the marinade. I'm told they turned out well. I don't really eat them.

For the rest of the family that doesn't appreciate lamb ribs, I used the meat from a chicken I found at the bottom of the freezer. This was one of ours, a hen that had been getting bullied so badly by the others that we had to remove her from the flock. She was pretty old, which means long cooking. I basically made stock, then pulled off the meat and used that plus some of the stock, garlic, some dried thyme the MiL sent me, cornstarch, and milk to make chicken in gravy. 

The MiL used to make something like this after Thanksgiving with leftover turkey and gravy served over mashed potatoes. She called it turkey slop. This is the chicken version.

Thursday

Short version: Leftovers

Long version: I had a very short time in between the children getting home from school and the time I needed to leave with Poppy for the volleyball game she was cheering at. There was enough time to feed children before we left. Two of them had the rest of the tuna mac, to which I added the last bit of chicken and gravy. The other two had mashed potatoes and cheese, plus fried eggs. They all had leftover peas.

A. had lamb ribs, mashed potatoes, and peas.

Refrigerator check:

Can you tell I don't bother to clean or organize this before taking the weekly photo? I'm all about being real. And I am lazy.

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

The Big Bathroom Reveal

If you've been with us here for the past several months, you'll know that A. and I have been battling to renovate both of the bathrooms in our trailer for awhile now. The trailer is from 1972, and we're pretty sure the bathrooms are original to it. There were leaks. The floors were spongy. The tubs were cracked. The sinks were rusting.

It was ugly. It took forever. But we finally finished.

I don't have a lot of before photos, as it turns out. There's this one that shows the lovely avocado-green plastic tub surround. 

Cute baby, hideous tub.

And this one showcasing the faux-marble vanity top that had yellowed over time.

Lovely.

Those were both in the children's bathroom, which is also the guest bathroom. A. demolished the entire thing while we were in Colorado this summer, right down to ripping up the floors. The only thing he left was the vanity, as it was built into walls on three sides.

He replaced the bathtub with a deep soaking tub, even pouring concrete for its base. And then he put in an external shower system of copper he ordered directly from Morocco. He put in a new toilet. He put down a new floor of plywood and then covered it with Moroccan-patterned vinyl tiles. 

And then I painted. I painted the walls and the cabinets blue, and eventually, I got around to painting the sink and counter with a two-part epoxy paint that was tricky and drippy and time-consuming and absolutely REEKED.

Even with a mask, even with every door and window in the house open, it was overwhelming.

I even used some bronze-colored spray paint on the light fixtures, outlet plates, and cabinet pulls.

Upside-down egg cartons work very well for holding the pulls stable.

And finally, FINALLY, it is done.

Hard to get a picture of the whole bathroom, but this is most of it.

I have even fewer photos for the adults' bathroom. It had the same green tub, same faux-marble counter, same disintegrating floor, with the addition of some water damage on the ceiling from a long-ago leak.

The only photo I have is of the sink before I painted it.

And now it is done.

A. removed the tub, but decided instead of putting another tub in there, he would build a shower stall. He did this out of brick and concrete.

In progress.

And almost done. He still wants to find something to put over the painted walls.

A. did an incredible amount of work on all of this, most of it things he had never done before. The end result is very satisfying, though.

It was worth it, but we're very glad it's done.

Snapshots: First Freeze, Halloween, Etc.

We had our first freeze on Tuesday night, so I spent Monday gathering all the tomatoes and the last of the basil. That was pretty much all that was left in the garden.

The turning-color tomatoes, and basil.

The all-green and all-red tomatoes.

I gathered the last cosmos on Monday, too.

And a couple of very small sunflowers.

I was asked to sub for a sick teacher on Wednesday, and was very amused by this student's note left on the classroom refrigerator by the previous day's sub for the teacher:

This is not a note any of my sons would ever or will ever write.

Poppy wore these bows on Thursday that my sister gave her years ago:

Very holiday-specific bows.

I spent some time on Friday cleaning out the van for its annual duty as the Trick-or-Treat Party Van.

With the back two rows of seats out, there's plenty of room for hyped-up children.

Our first stop was in our own almost-ghost-village at Ms. Amelia's house. She always wants to see our children's costumes, and she always gets candy for them. They are the only trick-or-treaters she sees.

Pippi Longstocking and a Green Bay Packer on their way to the first candy of the night.

We ended up with thirteen kids in the back of the van and four adults in the actual seats for the trick-or-treating in the bigger village. Some of the parents followed in their own vehicles, but all the kids want to be in the van. I mean, who wouldn't want to be riding around with all their friends in a giant van, eating candy? 

I only drove them when the houses were too far apart to walk. There was plenty of walking, too, though.

Running around in the dark with friends is even better than cramming into the back of the van.

The only restaurant in the village is owned by the grandparents of three of the children that came with us. The restaurant wasn't open, but they asked us to come back to the restaurant when we were finished trick-or-treating, because they had a bunch of candy there, too. So we went back there, where they handed out water and soda and all the children investigated their bags, playing with the balloons one lady had given them.

It was a nice end to the night. We all appreciated warming up after our cold trek. It was only in the forties outside.

Pretty good haul this year.

By which I mean: Mostly chocolate.

There you have it! My life, snapshotted.