Friday Food: Frozen Egg Product, Yum

Friday

Short version: Chicken and vegetable soup, omelets, crepe cake

Long version: While I was pulling everything out of the big freezer in preparation for defrosting and cleaning it, I found a carton of Egg Product.

Goodie's Frozen Egg Product, to be specific.

This was an extra commodities thing. I can't remember how long I'd had it, but certainly long enough that it was well past time it was used.

I tested it first by cooking a bit of it plain in a pan, to see if I needed to disguise it in baking. It was unpleasantly grainy looking when I put it in the pan, but after it was cooked, it was just like, well, scrambled eggs. Since that is pretty much what it is.

So I used some of it this night to make omelets. Those also had cheddar cheese and ham (from the freezer) in them.

I had made the soup with the leftover chicken thighs and bones, simmered to make stock and then I used the meat, too, of course. Also in the soup was some of the calabaza I had cooked and pureed this day.

 A gallon of it went into the freezer first.

The soup also had finely chopped collard greens, carrots, potatoes, tomato paste, frozen peas, and frozen corn.

Everyone got a bowl of soup and some of the big omelet I made. A slightly random combination, but it worked.

The crepe cake was the last two crepes in the refrigerator, layered with sweetened whipped cream and homemade strawberry jam. 

Saturday

Short version: Spanish tortilla, concessions food

Long version: I left the house at 12:45 p.m. with the basketball player for his game and didn't get home until almost 9 p.m. That's because Poppy was cheering for the varsity games, which were after our basketball player's games. I made a Spanish tortilla with the rest of the Egg Product, plus potatoes, ham, salsa, and cheese, before I left. Those at home had that. The children who came to the games with me bought various things at the concession stand. I think two had nachos and one had a smothered burrito.

I brought the rest of the chicken and vegetable soup in my Thermos and had that in between games. Plus some of the Spanish tortilla when I got home.

Sunday

Short version: Cottage pie, baked fruit dessert

Long version: Standard cottage pie, with the addition of some of the pureed calabaza and finely chopped collard greens that have been so handy to have in the refrigerator.

To make the dessert, I used one quart jar of canned pears and one of canned apple slices. I didn't add any extra sugar to that, just cinnamon and cloves. The topping was oats, brown sugar, flour, butter, walnuts, spices, and some oatmeal I had made the day before and oversalted. This made a topping that wasn't exactly crisp, but it was tasty. 

Dinner and dessert in pans.

I pretty much made that dessert just to use up that oversalted oatmeal in a palatable manner, which it did. Yay, me.

Monday

Short version: Sausage patties, pinto beans, chicken-y rice, collard greens or raw bell peppers

Long version: I used the Great Value sausage to make the patties. The pinto beans had just already-cooked onion, the last of some roasted garlic I had in the freezer, a little bit of chicken stock, and tomato paste in them. I didn't even have to chop anything to make them, which was handy.

The rest of the chicken stock was used to cook the rice.

Dinner on the stove.

This was the meal we ate by candlelight, because it was Candlemas. There was nothing particularly liturgically significant about the foods, but the candlelight was fun.

Tuesday

Short version: Leftover cottage pie

Long version: I got home from First Communion class with Poppy, microwaved the leftover cottage pie, and that was it.

Wednesday

Short version: Pork, leftover rice, leftover beans, leftover collards, frozen corn

Long version: Another of the big pork shoulders, plus a bunch of leftovers. And frozen corn for the children.

Very brown.

Thursday

Short version: Burritos. etc. at home; Frito pie, etc. on the road

Long version: I went to an away basketball game in the afternoon. I left a mixture of pork, leftover beans, salsa, and spices for the ones at home to make burritos.

Before I went to the game, I went to the grocery store. In an attempt to get something relatively healthy that would tide me over until I got home, I bought an individual cup of Greek yogurt.

I assumed all Greek yogurt is full-fat. This was not. It was actually non-fat. Boo.

It was okay, but it would have been better with the fat.

When I got home, everyone was eating ice cream. I made myself some eggs. The basketball player wanted one, too, so I made him one. And then his brother wanted one, so I gave him one of mine. And then they each had a piece of bread with butter, too.

Refrigerator check:

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

A Day for Candles

I have talked a lot about my candles this winter. They have also featured quite frequently in photos here. I've gotten a lot of enjoyment out of those candles I've made from the stubs of blessed candles collected at church.

So imagine my delight when I discovered that yesterday was a day all about candles!

Specifically, it was Candlemas. I had no idea about this until A. and I showed up for daily Mass* in the village and we were handed candles for a procession before Mass started and told it was the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord.

Okay . . .

I had to look this up. Turns out, this feast is always forty days after Christmas and it commemorates, as the name says, when Jesus was presented at the temple by Mary and Joseph, as was the custom for Jewish boys at the time. When that happened, Simeon, a man also at the temple that day, called Jesus "a revealing light to the Gentiles."

And that is where Candlemas comes from. It's all about light. In some countries, it's the end of the entire Christmas season. It's also a day when priests would bless candles. 

I didn't bring any candles to be blessed, since I didn't even know what day it was. But I already have blessed candles in my house, thanks to the ones I made. So I decided it would be fun to have a candlelit dinner to celebrate Candlemas.

The children were very enthused about this. They thought we should turn off every single light in the house so it really would just be the candles illuminating the table.

A., however, really dislikes dim light at the table. The idea of eating by just candlelight was not really to his taste. I compromised by leaving lights on in the living room and kitchen and just having candlelight in the dining room.

And then I had double the candles for the bookcase in the living room.

I'm not sure I'm going to remember this every February 2, but it was fun this year, anyway.

* It's not actually daily, because we only have one priest to cover a lot of churches. So the "daily" Mass is only Monday and Wednesday mornings.

More Rime

I woke up yesterday morning before the sun, as always, and as I was putting my very curly hair into a bun, I thought, "Huh, my hair seems poofier than normal."

That would be because we were in the middle of a frozen cloud. Again. 

I got great amusement out of the fact that my hair is a barometer for humidity.

That cloud stayed around almost all day, unusually, which meant a rather gloomy day. Good thing I have so many candles to burn in the living room now!

See how the top half-inch of that candle is lighter than the majority? I did that on accident when I melted purple wax but didn't have quite enough to fill the molds, so I put some more white candles stubs in with the remaining purple wax to melt and then poured that on top of the wax already in the molds. By the time I got the lighter wax in there, the darker wax had solidified enough to make layers.

I don't know that I care enough to do it on purpose, but it was kind of neat. 

I go to bed as soon as I read books/pray/etc. with the kids at 8 p.m. They stay up to read until 8:30. This means that I go to sleep before my children. The other morning, I woke up to find that they had apparently been throwing the furniture around while I was in bed.

Come on, now.

That folding table is right next to the spot where the one boy typically reads with his feet up. I guess he just knocked it over, and all the books on top of it, on accident with his foot. Which, okay, but the question of why he didn't pick it up was the obvious one, and the one I put to him when he got up in the morning.

No satisfying answer was forthcoming, but he did pick it all up in the morning.

Incidentally, here's the backstory to that cheap wooden folding table. In 2002, I moved to New York with A. I left my job at the Arizona State Senate when I moved, and my co-workers there gave me a gift card to Bed, Bath, and Beyond as a going-away gift. I used that gift card to buy that table, which was our telephone table and one of the very few pieces of furniture in our first apartment for a long time. 

That makes that table 24 years old. It's lasted longer than the actual store it came from, because I think Bed, Bath, and Beyond closed all its stores a few years ago.

There you have it! My life, snapshotted.