Snapshots: I'm Late!

Apologies to anyone who was wondering why I didn't post this early this morning, but here we go!

I found exactly two sunflowers this week.

One for the table.

One for the bookcase.

This has been such a sad year for wildflowers. Next year has to be better.

A. dug some leeks for me yesterday, and we discovered that with the greens attached, they're almost exactly as tall as Poppy.

She is 4 feet, 5 inches, with means these leeks are at least 4 feet tall. Fun.

Fall in New Mexico means green chile roasting season. Stores that sell big boxes of the chiles have roasters outside so you can get them roasted before bringing them home. I saw the roasters set up for the first time last week when I was in town.

It was too early for them to be operation, apparently, but there they are. The chiles go in that big drum, which rotates as a propane flame roasts them from the side. Then they're put in a plastic bag to steam, which makes it easier to pull off the charred skin of the chiles.

I didn't buy any chiles this time, but I probably will when I go to town next. I'm out of green chile puree for the freezer, and it is a tasty addition to many things.

And . . . I guess that's it. I'm late and brief today, apparently.

There you have it! My life, snapshotted.

Friday Food: My Refrigerator Is Way Full

Friday 

Short version: Breakfast burritos, grape tomatoes

Long version: A long day at the county fair means I don't want to cook a lot for dinner. I just microwaved a few potatoes until they were soft, then fried them in a pan, in which I also scrambled eggs and added salsa and grated cheddar cheese. This filling went into flour tortillas heated up on a propane burner.

The addition of potatoes to breakfast burritos is key, by the way. It makes the texture better, and also makes them more filling.

Saturday

Short version: Gyro rice, pickles

Long version: The longest day of the fair, and also the day we eat in between the rodeo and the dance. Everyone is always very tired this day, including me, which is why I make it as easy on myself as possible to provide dinner.

I had a quart container of the gyro-spiced ground beef in the freezer, as well as a quart of chicken broth in the refrigerator. In the morning I made rice with the chicken stock, and then at dinnertime, I just mixed in the ground beef to that, heated it all, and added feta cheese.

Surprisingly good. The feta helps a lot.

Sunday

Short version: Grilled steaks, leftover rice, grand champion leeks, coleslaw, grand champion gingerbread with whipped cream

Long version: I built this whole meal around the leeks that I had entered into the fair. They were the grand champions in the agricultural products division, so obviously they were special.

I sliced them and fried them in butter before adding the juices from the chicken I had cooked the previous week and simmering them until they were completely soft. Then I added cream. Stewing them this way is the best method for cooking leeks, in my opinion.

They don't look like much, but they sure do taste great.

The leeks were perfect with the steaks, which A. grilled for me.

The coleslaw ended up being more involved than I had anticipated. I typically use pickled onions in it, but I was out of those and had to make some. I was also still out of mayonnaise, so I used the last of my canola oil to make some of that, too. Annoying.

The gingerbread was Poppy's prize-winning fair entry. She was very proud of it, as well she should be.

Monday

Short version: Hamburger steaks with milk gravy, leeks, mashed potatoes, leftover coleslaw

Long version: I think what I typically make is more like a hamburger steak than Salisbury steak, given that I don't use any binders. I think? I don't know. Basically giant hamburger patties with gravy. Always popular, in any case.

I used some of the leftover leeks in the gravy. An excellent addition.

Gravy everywhere.

Tuesday

Short version: Leftover meat, fried bread, carrot sticks

Long version: I had enough leftover steak and hamburger steaks to parcel out, and almost enough mashed potatoes. Two people had fried bread instead of potatoes.

Wednesday

Short version: Omelets, fried potatoes, cherries

Long version: I had to drive this day to town to buy a new washing machine.

BOOO.

Our commercial Maytag only lasted four years. After last year's miserably long period of tub laundry and laundromats while I waited months for it to get fixed, I decided it wasn't worth doing that again.

It broke Tuesday. I was in the van less than 24 hours later to buy another. This time I got a Speed Queen. Any bets on how long that will last?

Anyway. I went to Walmart while I was in town. I had planned to buy a rotisserie chicken for dinner. They didn't have any.

Sigh.

I hadn't taken any meat out to thaw, but I did still have large quantities of eggs. Eight dozen, to be exact. Certainly enough for omelets.

I cooked a package of bacon and put some of that in the omelets, along with cheese. In the one for A. and eldest, I also put in the last bit of an onion and some diced tomatoes.

I also microwaved a few potatoes and chopped those to fry them in bacon fat and butter.

Not pretty, but tasty. As usual.

I didn't feel like bothering with a vegetable. But I had bought cherries at the produce truck--actually an old school bus, because this is New Mexico--in town.

Fruit is the new vegetables. Or something.

Thursday

Short version: Ham, mashed potatoes, corn on the cob, bread and butter, watermelon

Long version: I can't remember if it was A. or I who bought a whole ham awhile ago, but we have certainly not had any weather that has inspired me to turn on the oven and bake it. 

However! 

The ham was fully cooked, so I just cut some thick steaks off it and pan-fried them. This made the unpleasantly pink and wet ham much better.

Needs browning.

I got the corn on the cob from the produce bus, too, as well as the watermelon. It was a really good watermelon.

Refrigerator check:

The chaos that results from four gallons of milk, 2/3 of a giant watermelon, and half a ham. Don't worry. It will clear out quickly.

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

Magic in the Air*

Another county fair has come and gone, and we have covered ourselves in glory once again.

Or at least got some ribbons.

Lemme show you!

The first day of the fair is just a day for entering the projects in the community building and dropping off animals for showing. We don't show animals, so for us, it's just bringing in our projects.

This year, that was gingerbread, a purse, and a watercolor painting from Poppy. 

Please enjoy these awkwardly-cropped photos that got rid of the names of our county and the children.

She actually sewed this just randomly for her best friend (by hand, with no pattern or anything), and then when she needed a fair project, I suggested she enter it before giving it to her friend.

And her watercolor.

As you can see, her gingerbread won grand champion in the child's baking category. She was very proud of this, particularly because my buckeye brownies only got first place, not grand champion.

Not-champion brownies.

It was kind of funny that the judges' notes on Poppy's gingerbread included the comment that it had a strong molasses flavor and she might consider substituting some honey for the molasses. We do not agree with this. It's supposed to have a strong molasses flavor. But to be fair, it's also supposed to be eaten with whipped cream, which we could not give the judges, so that affects the flavor, too.

Anyway.

I also always enter whatever I can get from the garden. This year, that was leeks, carrots, and garlic.

All prettied up for judging.

The leeks won grand champion in the agricultural products category.

I also always enter something canned. This year, the only thing I had was some rhubarb jam. I brought it, but it was literally the only thing entered in the canned goods category, so they didn't bother judging it.

(I should probably note here that our county is very small, which means our county fair is very small. Like, VERY small. I think there were only a dozen entries total this year in baked goods, and only a few people entered vegetables.)

One boy chiseled a cross into stone.

This didn't really place, but I feel like that's because the judges have no idea how difficult this is to do.

And another boy did a collage from "Fur, Fish, Game" magazine.

Featuring many dead animals, because that's what the magazine is about.

A. entered a watercolor flower, too, which got first place.

So! Very successful, yay us, etc.

The second day of the fair is most of the animal showing. We don't show animals, but many of the children's friends do, so we always go to watch them manhandle goats and steers in the ring. I didn't take any photos of that this year, though.

The third and final day of the fair is my kids' favorite. It starts with the parade. This year, the older two kids were on the FFA float, so it was only the younger two picking up candy. There was a lot of candy this year, thanks to the many political candidates who were campaigning.

Never any chocolate, though, because it's way too hot at the parade and chocolate would just melt.

The next exciting thing is the rodeo. Before the riding events, which my children do not participate in, they have a couple of fun activities for any kid. This includes goat dressing, which is catching a goat and getting a t-shirt over its head. Also the calf scramble. This is in a large pen where all the kids go and they release several calves in with them. The calves have money rubber-banded to their tails. The kids chase the calves and pull the money off their tails. This is actually really hard, and somewhat perilous, as the calves have been known to kick, or to turn and run down their pursuers. I've never seen anyone get really hurt doing it, though, even the littlest kids.

The dance at night is the last fair event. I always take any kids that want to go. We only stay a couple of hours, because we have church early the next morning. They always get a live band, which I particularly appreciate. Everyone knows how to two-step, so everyone, from little kids to elderly people, dances. Parents dance with their children, brothers dance with their sisters. It's fun.

It takes place in the same pavilion the livestock are shown in. Properly cleaned up, of course.

And that was it for this year's fair! It's always a very tiring three days, but they are some of my kids' favorite days of the year and they're already looking forward to next year's fair.

* Lyrics from this Chris LeDoux song, which we always have to listen to as we drive to the county fair.

Snapshots: An American Life

 I have some pictures from the county fair, but I think I'll save those for Tuesday. Here's what else we were up to this week.

A sunrise football practice for our new football player. Good thing I wake up stupid early every morning.

Poppy helped me make some sauerkraut this week. I didn't grow any cabbages this year, so I just bought a few organic ones at Walmart and used those.

An American boy with the American flag.

A bit moodier, this one.

A. was gone all week in New York, leaving the rest of us as shepherds. The complete lack of rain has meant that there is no grass left in the pastures, so we've been letting the sheep out in the evening to graze the roadsides. They mostly will come back on their own before sundown, but they needed a little help a couple of days.

I prefer to do my sheep herding from the car.

A new lamb was born while A. was gone, bringing our lamb count this year to seven: four girls and three boys.

Young lambs sleep so heavily they look dead, which is always concerning.

Slightly older lambs, more alert.

And last, say hi to the horses.

There you have it! My life, snapshotted.

Friday Food: Fair Brownies

Friday

Short version: Deviled eggs, pizzas with ranch dip, green salad with vinaigrette, nectarine and rhubarb crisp with butter pecan ice cream

Long version: I made one cheese pizza and one with vegetables. The vegetables this time were tomatoes, pickled onions, bell peppers, collard greens, and pickled artichoke hearts.

So pretty before the cheese goes on.

I made the deviled eggs before dinner, which is when I realized I was almost out of mayonnaise. So annoying given that I had just been at the store the day before.

I didn't have enough mayonnaise for the deviled eggs, and there was also the ranch dip that my family all expects now when we have pizza.

I did have some canola oil, and certainly plenty of eggs.

So Poppy and I used my immersion blender to make mayonnaise.

It was very easy. Not quite as thick as storebought, but certainly tasty and good in what we used it for.

We got several dozen white-fleshed nectarines from commodities that needed to be used promptly. I used most of them in the crisp, which also featured some of the rhubarb jam I made last month. These nectarines didn't have as much depth of flavor as an acidic peach or something, but the crisp was fine. And I learned it's not necessary to peel nectarines before baking with them, which is good to know.

Saturday

Short version: Beef and bean burritos, leftover coleslaw

Long version: This ended up being an unexpectedly busy day with a lot of driving, culminating in taking the younger two kids to the school for an open gym. We didn't get home until 5:30 p.m., at which point I used some of the ground beef I had defrosted, plus a can of pinto beans and salsa, to make some very fast burritos with flour tortillas.

Sunday

Short version: Cheesy sloppy joes, carrots and ranch dip, ice cream choice

Long version: I had enough ground beef that I hadn't cooked to make sloppy Joe meat, which I did by simply browning it and adding onion powder, barbecue sauce, ketchup, and water. I also added the last bit of the commodities american cheese. That's actually a pretty good addition. It makes it slightly creamy and holds the meat together a little bit.

It's still pretty sloppy, though, as is right.

When I was at Walmart last week, they had not a single gallon or half-gallon container of their ice cream on the shelves. When I asked an employee about it, he said they were working on unloading the "mod" at that very moment--guessing the shipping container--and would have it on the shelves after that. I was already at the end of my shopping time and didn't want to wait around. There were several of the pints of Great Value ice cream, though. These are slightly more expensive, but they also have flavors in the pint size that aren't available in the bigger sizes. So I got two mint chip, two fudge tracks, two cookies and cream, and three butter pecan. 

The children thought it was great that they got to choose from so many options. Don't get used to it, kids. It's back to gallons of vanilla and neopolitan next time.

Monday

Short version: Spanish rice, cucumbers with ranch dip

Long version: One of my signature skillet meals, in which I mix leftover rice and leftover burrito filling with sour cream and cheese.

Not exciting, but serviceable.

Tuesday

Short version: Roasted chicken thighs, roasted potatoes, green salad with vinaigrette, fresh bread and butter

Long version: I made more effort this day, mostly because I had to bake bread anyway. While the oven was on, I roasted the chicken thighs I had marinated in yogurt and spices, plus the potatoes.

Food (and my foot).

And then everyone ate fresh bread before bed, because there is nothing better than fresh bread and butter.

Wednesday

Short version: Barbecue not-quite-meatballs, mashed potatoes, pickled radishes, ice cream

Long version: I meant to make meatballs with the ground beef I had thawed. In the summer, we usually have store bread on hand because the kids are home and making a lot of sandwiches and I don't want to have to bake bread every few days. If I have to buy bread at the store, I am not convinced that Sara Lee or whatever is really any better than the cheap store-brand bread, so we buy the cheap kinds.

I found a few pieces of that that had gotten to the bottom of the bread basket. They weren't moldy or anything, just slightly stale, so I used those in my meatball mixture.

I don't know if it was the different bread, or the extra egg I added, or what, but this made a very gloppy meat mixture that did not go into any sort of spherical shape. They were sort of a cross between a patty and a meatball, I guess, with a very soft texture.

Messy meatballs.

Thursday

Short version: Faked beans and beef; chicken-y rice; raw cucumbers, radishes, or bell peppers; buckeye brownies

Long version: There were enough of the not-meatballs left, plus the sauce, to flavor the quart container of cooked pinto beans I took out of the freezer. That was served over the rice, which I cooked in the chicken stock I had made with the bones left from the chicken thighs earlier in the week.

I had made buckeye brownies in the morning to enter into the county fair, the first day of which was this day. I used this recipe, except instead of making brownies from a mix, I made these. Despite the recipe's instruction to NOT use chocolate chips for the ganache layer, I did: half semi-sweet and half dark chocolate.

These were very, very rich. And very exciting to my children.

They looked kind of cool, too.

Refrigerator check:

Featuring the plate of food left by a child whose eyes were definitely bigger than his stomach. This particular child tends to eat right before bed, though, so it won't go to waste.

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

I Got a Comment

That title there was the catch phrase for a radio show that used to be on in the car in the mornings when I was being driven to I think preschool in Georgia. I have no memory of any more of the show, just that--I can hear the intonation precisely--"I got a comment."

Another thing I remember clearly from my childhood is Oreos. We almost always had them in our cookie jar, and I definitely have a comment about those. 

I do not think the Oreos now have as much of the creme filling in them. At all. In fact, I have children who prefer the "Double Stuf"* Oreos, and so I buy those fairly frequently. This has given me the opportunity to note that what are considered double now would have been a regular Oreo in my childhood.

I mean, take a look at this, an actual "Double Stuf" Oreo.

There's barely anything in the middle of this! 

I never liked the double ones because they had so much of the creme filling that it grossed me out. But now I prefer them, because the regular Oreos have hardly any.

I don't have a good memory for a lot of things, but I'm pretty sure I'm right about this one.

Anyone else want to weigh in? Have you noticed this?

* Wow, do I hate that single F.

Snapshots: Florals

First, we have definitely not a flower.

Ew.

A very large pumpkin spider spun a web right outside the kitchen window. Every once in awhile I turn towards that window and am startled by the GIANT SPIDER that has appeared at almost eye level. But it does catch a lot of flies, and I do not like flies, so I will tolerate the spider.

I'm taking over as mayordoma at church this month, which means I can finally align all the numbers on the hymn board.

I don't touch this when anyone else is in charge, even though it makes me twitchy to see all these numbers above or below lines, and the extra numbers on the bottom all over the place.

That's better.

I also took the opportunity to make a new arrangement of flowers for the altar. Last year I made wildflower arrangements every week for months. This year, it's all fake, all the time.

The pink and blue artificial flowers always look way too fake to me, so I mostly stick to yellow and white.

At home, I have the greenery and baby's breath from the flowers A. bought me for our anniversary, plus some ornamental sage and a plant that the MiL sent us that is blooming nicely.

Table.

Bookcase. Remind me what those plants were, MiL? (It's the darker purple.)

And last, I was looking to get a crucifix for my bedroom and decided to get one with a holy water font for our entryway, as well. I found the coolest one from an Etsy seller in France. It's a souvenir crucifix from Lourdes, from the 1940s.

They don't make souvenirs like this anymore.

There you have it! My life, snapshotted.

Friday Food: A Plethora of Eggs

Friday 

Short version: Refried bean Frito pie

Long version: I had a big can of black beans we got somewhere that I made into refried beans. I was going to make quesadillas with it, but then I remembered the Fritos (actually Food Club Crunchy Corn Chips, of course) I had bought the week before and used the refried beans to make Frito pie. 

Much more exciting. Kind of.

Saturday

Short version: Grilled steaks, tomato-y rice, green salad with ranch dressing, ice cream

Long version: I had a little bit of onion I had cooked earlier in the day, plus a little tomato sauce in the refrigerator, so I used those, plus butter and some Chicken Better Than Bouillon to make the rice, which was very popular.

Steaks are always popular as well, especially when I grill them. 

Children had picked out the ice cream at the store the week before. They chose mint chocolate chip and black cherry, two flavors I find very easy to refuse.

Sunday

Short version: Parish potluck food, and then leftovers

Long version: I brought German potato salad and crispy rice treats to the parish potluck. They provided hamburgers and hot dogs. It started at 1 p.m. and we were home by 3:30 p.m. This is too early for my family to have dinner, and most of them wanted to eat again around six. They had leftover steak and rice.

Monday

Short version: Leftover gyro beef and rice, cheese omelet, German potato salad, cabbage, cucumbers, ice cream

Long version: Most of the kids had the tomato-y rice and some of the gyro ground beef I had frozen the week before, just heated together in the microwave. 

I made a cheese omelet for A. and one of the kids, who also had leftover German potato salad.

Tuesday

Short version: Italian sausages, pesto bread, green salad with ranch dressing, canned peaches

Long version: The basil is doing pretty well this year, thankfully, and needed to be trimmed. I made pesto and froze most of it, spreading a little of it on the last of some buns I had made last time I baked bread.

This was the day we got commodities boxes at the post office. We got two, because they had an extra one. They included a few cans of peaches. The commodities peaches are the kind in just fruit juice. I buy the ones in heavy syrup when I buy peaches, but if they're free, I'm good with the pear juice.

We also keep getting individual bags of dried cranberries and raisins, which Poppy helped me dump out into glass jars for better storage.

Wednesday

Short version: Bunless hamburgers, leftover German potato salad, dill pickles

Long version: I made the hamburgers just because I was trying to come up with something to go with the potato salad so I could use it up.

I made the dill pickles with cucumbers the boys brought me from the lady they work for on Saturdays. She gave me lots of cucumbers last year, and remembered me again this year. Thank goodness, because the cucumbers that germinated got bitten off by a rat. We trapped the rat and I re-planted. And then ANOTHER plant that germinated got bitten off and we trapped ANOTHER rat.

Filthy things.

Anyway, I have two and a half plants left, and they aren't growing very well, so I was extremely happy to get some cucumbers. I immediately made two jars of refrigerator dill pickles and we ate some of them this night.

Thursday

Short version: Popeye's-style sandwiches, coleslaw

Long version: One of the boys had been asking wistfully if I could buy fried chicken to make Popeye's-style sandwiches, which involve fried chicken, mayonnaise, and pickles.

I was going to Walmart this day, so I promised I would get fried chicken. But then the Walmart only had chicken wings, which are not useful for sandwiches. I was planning on getting a rotisserie chicken instead, but then when I got to the place in the meat department where they sometimes have half-priced frozen rotisserie chickens, I found not only rotisserie chickens there, but also one bag of eight pieces of fried chicken.

Kismet.

So of course I bought that. I thawed/re-heated those in a cast iron skillet so the skin would be mostly crispy, and we had the sandwiches after all. 

I had made the coleslaw in the morning. Good thing, because I didn't get home until almost 5 p.m.

Refrigerator check:

I bought five dozen eggs and came home to find our neighbor had dropped off three dozen. And I still had two and a half dozen. So now we have a LOT of eggs.

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

And Here We Are

It's sometimes handy that I've been writing here for 18 (!) years. It allows me to read older posts and shake my head with amusement.

Like this one from 13 (!) years ago, in which I discussed how much food I was going to need to make when the boys were older.

At that time, the boys in question were only the older two children. I didn't yet know I would have two more. And I really didn't have any concept of how much food would be consumed in our house 13 years from that time. I mean, kind of, in the abstract, but in reality? It was literally unimaginable then.

I am currently in the phase with one boy where I ask him every morning how many eggs he wants for breakfast and he asks me in return, "Is there going to be anything besides eggs?"

This was a morning that also included peanut butter toast, hence only five eggs. 

If he was given all the food he could eat, he would literally eat two full breakfasts, two full lunches, and dinner. Plus dessert. Since I am not nice enough to be cooking all day long, however, he has to content himself with snacks in lieu of the extra breakfast and lunch. And with staging elaborate death by starvation scenes every day at 4 p.m. when he's trying to convince me he's not going to make it another hour to dinner.

And this is just the one child. His younger brother will be right there with him soon, I'm sure.

We're just gonna keep ramping this up until they start leaving, I guess. And then A. and I are going to eat nothing but beans and tortillas forever more.*

* That is obviously a joke, but I certainly will not be making so much bread, granola, yogurt, etc., to say nothing of the full meals.

Snapshots: Cheers to 23 Years

Today A. and I are celebrating 23 years of marriage.

On this day 23 years ago, A. imitated Napolean. I guess that makes me Josephine.

A. brought me flowers when he was returning from a midweek trip. As is my habit, I split the arrangement up into two different vases so I could enjoy them in both the dining room and the living room.

Table.

Bookcase.

The roses only lasted a few days, and then I removed them.

A rose-less table.

I got him a camping stove.

So romantic.

I saw this sticker on a car at the grocery store on Thursday. It seems appropriate for an anniversary.

Essential for a lasting marriage.

Our parish potluck is today, which actually works out nicely because I don't really have to make dinner. I'm contributing German potato salad and crispy rice treats. I hope someone else brings pasta salad. I do love pasta salad. I'm sure A. will eat many hot dogs and hamburgers. Happiness for everyone.

There you have it! Our anniversary life, snapshotted.