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?