Friday Food: Car Crisp

Friday 

Short version: Tuna mac and cheese, carrot sticks

Long version: I just made macaroni and cheese and added a big can of tuna to it. The cheese sauce had some of the American cheese we got from commodities, some sharp cheddar, and, at the last minute when I thought it needed more flavor, some Parmesan.

Saturday

Short version: Lamb chops at home, girl dinner on the road

Long version: This was the day Poppy and I went to our last parish church. We went into town before Mass, about 30 miles from the church, to get milk. We got this at the dollar store, and while we were there, we happened to see something called Talenti gelato layers. It looked really good, and Poppy said she was hungry, so we shared it.

We ate the whole thing, and that was our dinner.

At home I left a bag of marinated lamb chops that A. fried. I think they ate them with bread and butter, but I'm not sure about that. I am sure that they had vanilla ice cream, though, because Dad is fun like that.

Sunday

Short version: Salisbury steaks with milk gravy, mashed potatoes, frozen corn or Holy's cabbage, rhubarb crisp with vanilla ice cream

Long version: I still have quite a few pucks of caramelized onions in the freezer, which are very handy for things like the gravy. I still have a couple of bags of Holy's cabbage in the freezer, too, which are likewise easy.

I feel like this is a very Brady Bunch kind of meal.

I didn't have any strawberries, so the crisp this time was just rhubarb. I used the same topping with nuts and oats that I used on the last strawberry-rhubarb crisp I had made, but got a couple of comments that it's not the best for the rhubarb crisp. Noted.

I made the crisp earlier in the day and wanted to re-heat it a bit before dinner. However, it was in a metal pan, which meant I couldn't put it in the microwave. And it was hot enough that I didn't want to run the oven just for that.

But it was also hot enough for . . .

A dashboard oven. I felt very clever.

Monday

Short version: Beans and rice, leftover vegetables, peanut butter cookies

Long version: I just mixed together the rest of the leftover rice that had been cooked in the ham/bean liquid, plus the remainder of the beans with a bunch of butter. This was a surprisingly popular meal.

Tuesday

Short version: Chicken and rice, green salad with vinaigrette, watermelon

Long version: I took out a bag of chicken leg quarters, three of which I simmered until I could pull the meat off. I used that and the resulting broth, plus a bunch of the frozen caramelized onions, to make the chicken and rice. This has thyme in it also, and every time I make it, someone invariably mentions that it tastes like Thanksgiving stuffing. Luckily, they all like stuffing.

A. brought the watermelon home from town the day before. It was, of course, a watermelon with seeds, and it was very good. Hooray for watermelon season.

Wednesday

Short version: Jalapeno sausage, leftover chicken and rice, porky rice, raw radishes or bell peppers

Long version: I mostly made the rice because I had liquid left from the last time I made a pork shoulder that I wanted to use up. It works very well for adding to the water for cooking rice.

The children who are not enthused about sausage or spice had the leftover chickena and rice.

Thursday

Short version: Cottage pie, green salad with ranch dressing, ice cream with chocolate sauce

Long version: I was informed by my children that they will always eat salad if it has lots of ranch dressing on it. I don't typically make ranch dressing because I am the main salad consumer and I prefer vinaigrettes, but I guess that's good to know.

Refrigerator check:

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

Mission Complete

Poppy and I have been going to all the far-flung churches in our very spread-out parish for the past year. She wanted to see all of them. Most of them are quite old, some are very beautiful, all of them only have Mass once a month.

This past Saturday, we went to the final church. It's not that far from our house--about thirty miles--but it's in quite a dramatic location.

After turning off the paved road.

It's an adobe structure that was sheathed in local cut stone.

This is the only church in our parish that is privately owned. It is also the oldest church in our parish. The family that owns the ranch takes care of it.

Some of the older owners of the ranch are buried right under the church. Their tombstones are under the statue of Jesus there in the center.

Poppy and I climbed up to the rear choir loft, from which we had a good view of the giant pieta at the entrance to church.

Most of the grave markers in the surrounding old cemetery were hand-carved sandstone.

It was a good thing we had time to look around the cemetery before Mass, because this was what was coming towards us as we were going in to Mass.

Dramatic.

The storm hit during the Gospel reading. It was mostly over by the time we left, thankfully, and the dirt road was still passable.

And that's it. Our tour of the parish churches is concluded. It was fun, but I appreciate only having to drive ten miles to our regular church.

Snapshots: Looks Like Summer

Now that summer has arrived with its warmer overnight temperatures, I have to put my bread dough in the refrigerator overnight. And then I have to warm it up in the morning.

Putting it on top of the electric kettle after I've boiled water for my coffee works nicely, if a little precariously.

I cleaned my car out very thoroughly after our roadtrip to Arizona, including wiping down the interior and vacuuming everything. Vacuuming necessitated pulling the front seats all the way forward so I could get at the floor in the backseat. I was amused at how far forward my Honda's seats will go.

This must just be for purposes of access.

We have started getting good rain and everything is greening up, but it was too late for most of the wildflowers. There are some now, though, and I've managed a few small arrangements.

Yellow clover, silver nightshade, and whatever those small pink and white flowers are.

A. has been feeding our friends' menagerie again this weekend, so he brought me some below-the-hill flowers, too.

Despite our early drought, a couple of the rhubarb plants have been growing nicely, and I got a very nice harvest of rhubarb from just those two plants yesterday.

With which I made a rhubarb crisp before freezing some.

There you have it! My life, snapshotted.