Friday
Short version: Spanish tortilla
Long version: I still had excessive quantities of eggs on hand--I think 7 dozen?--and Spanish tortilla takes care of almost two dozen at once. This one had finely chopped collard greens, bell peppers, onions, salsa, and grated cheddar cheese, along with the potatoes, of course.
I made this also because I could make it ahead of time and we were going to town in the afternoon for appointments at both the post office (for passports) and the MVD. As I was cooking the Spanish tortilla in the morning, BOTH appointments were canceled.
Nice to have dinner made already, anyway.
Saturday
Short version: Grilled chicken, Italian sausage, pasta with pesto, grilled leeks, green salad with herb dressing, peaches and cream
Long version: This meal got a lot more elaborate than I had anticipated, mostly because it was the Feast of the Assumption. I like to look up what foods were traditionally made for different feasts. Apparently, for the Assumption, the emphasis is on herbs and other garden produce. Makes sense, since this is the time of year that the garden is most productive. There's even a tradition in some places of people bringing herbs to Mass to be blessed.
I missed my chance for that, but I did use as many things from the garden as I could in the one meal. Because that's my idea of fun.
Poppy and I counted seven things from the garden in our food: garlic and basil in the pesto, leeks (I tried grilling these for the first time and they were a little tough even with par-cooking, so I think I'll stick to stewing), carrots and collards in the salad, parsley and green onion in the salad dressing.
Even though I didn't get my herbs blessed before cooking with them, we did have our priest over for dinner, so he blessed the food before we ate. That works, too.
I didn't grow the peaches, but the ones I got from the produce bus in town earlier in the week were perfectly ripe for this night's dessert.
Can't be miserly with the sugar for peaches and cream.
Sunday
Short version: Leftover ham, Spanish tortilla, tomato and cucumber salad, ice cream
Long version: Although the Spanish tortilla I had made was good, they're always better with some kind of meat in them. I hadn't put meat in because it was for a Friday meal*, but I did still have quite a bit of ham left. So I just fried that separately and everyone had some ham with their leftover Spanish tortilla. An excellent combination.
I used the salad dressing from the night before for the (store-bought) tomatoes and cucumbers. I had made the dressing in the food processor after making the pesto, figuring the remains of the pesto in the bowl would just add to the flavor of the dressing. So I put in mayonnaise, apple cider vinegar, and olive oil to emulsify, and then added in parsley and green onion to chop up a bit in there. It was a very good dressing.
Monday
Short version: Barbecue meatballs, mashed potatoes, green salad with herb dressing, cookies
Long version: First day of school, and we were off to the races with a meeting for all athletes and their parents in the evening. We have a football player this year, so he went from school to practice to the meeting.
My friend who has both a football player and a volleyball player and is a teacher was staying at school to work until the meeting. Her daughter, who is Poppy's best friend, was going to be hanging around with her. I suggested that maybe she could just come to our house after school so the girls could play until the meeting was over, rather than being bored at school. This meant she had dinner with us.
Since she was eating with us and our house is on the way from our school to the school the meeting was at (twenty miles away; we have a co-op athletic arrangement with the only other school in our county so we have enough athletes to field teams), I asked my friend if she'd like to eat with us too before the meeting.
And so we had two guests with us for dinner.
This is how scheduling goes during the school year. So long, lazy days of summer.
I also made extra effort for the first-day-of-school breakfast. The children had requested muffins and bacon. I don't typically make muffins--too much work for first thing in the morning--but I did. I made coconut muffins using
this recipe, to use the rest of the coconut I bought for
Poppy's First Communion cake. They were very good, and popular with the children, but nothing could make up for the fact that they had to get on the school bus.
Pity breakfast. Sorry, kids.
Tuesday
Short version: Barbecue chicken and beans, chicken-y rice, carrot sticks, ice cream
Long version: I had three chicken thighs left, plus the bones from dinner on Saturday. I used all of that to make chicken stock, then stripped the meat and combined it with a can of pinto beans, already-cooked onions, and ketchup and barbecue sauce. That was served over rice cooked in the chicken stock and butter.
Low effort, but fine.
Wednesday
Short version: Ham and potato casserole, sauerkraut, ice cream
Long version: I still had a ham bone in the refrigerator, along with a few kind of gnarly slices from the end of the ham. I cooked these with a pot of pinto beans until they were soft. Then I took them out of the beans and used them in the casserole.
The casserole was just chopped cooked potatoes, ham, the rest of the chicken fat that's been in the refrigerator awhile, a bunch of butter (more fat and salt than seems reasonable is the secret to good potatoes), already-cooked onions, and grated cheddar cheese.
It would have been better to put the sauerkraut in the casserole, but some of my kids prefer sauerkraut uncooked, so I cooked some in the microwave and left some raw and served it on the side.
Thursday
Short version: Grilled steaks, leftover pasta and pesto, leftover mashed potatoes, green salad with ranch dressing
Long version: I had quite a lot of leftover starches, all of which would go well with pretty plain meat. Thus, steak.
Refrigerator check:
Okay, your turn! What'd you eat this week?
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