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.

Friday Food: A Farewell Feast

Friday 

Short version: Omelet, leftover pasta and pesto, leftover baked beans and rice, carrot sticks

Long version: I divvied out the pasta and beans and rice depending on who likes what the most, and then A. made an omelet to fill everything in. He put parsley, feta cheese, and one last small garlic scape in it, and it was very good.

Saturday

Short version: Hamburger steaks with milk and onion gravy, more pasta and pesto, more rice, frozen corn, leftover cookies

Long version: We had exactly enough Mexican wedding cookies from the previous day's playdate for everyone to have two cookies. How satisfying.

Sunday

Short version: Leftovers in a skillet, cheater's fondue

Long version: A. and eldest were gone, and there was enough of the rice, chopped hamburger steaks, gravy, and corn to fry in a skillet for the three children at home. I had actually saved all of this in a bowl when I was putting away dinner the night before, thinking it would be enough for another meal. The middle son found it when he was investigating for lunch, and when I took it from him, saying it was for dinner, he expressed doubt that there would be enough food.

You doubt your mother, son? Behold, Mom Magic.

I chopped the hamburger steaks, added some more corn plus some milk to the skillet to re-heat everything, and then stirred in grated cheese.

Not only enough, but there were leftovers.

I had a salad with deli ham and provolone in it.

I hadn't made a Sunday dessert. In such times, melted chocolate chips and a bit of coconut oil to make a very fast fondue, with marshmallows for dipping, stand in for a homemade dessert. The kids actually love this, and were very happy to see it. There is something exciting about having your very own (small) bowl of melted chocolate.

And I didn't have to turn on the oven or the stove. Happiness all around.

Monday

Short version: Freezer cottage pie

Long version: This is not at all the sort of food that I want to be eating when it's 80 degrees in the kitchen, but I had a cottage pie in an 8"x8" pan I had frozen last time I made cottage pie. I hadn't used it yet because it wouldn't have been enough for the whole family. It was enough for the four of us at home, though, and it just needed to be heated up in the microwave.

Everyone was sweating while they were eating it, however. Definitely not a hot-weather dish.

Tuesday 

Short version: Baked beans and hamburger, rice, raw cabbage

Long version: I had thawed one two-pound package of ground beef, which isn't really enough for all of us unless I stretch it in some way. I did it this time by adding two cans of pinto beans and then all the things I use to make baked beans to make it all saucy. And then I served it over rice.

Wednesday

Short version: Leftovers, cookies

Long version: I stretched the ground beef so successfully that there was enough of it for the four people who were eating. Enough leftover rice, too.

The cookies were chocolate chip ones I made in the morning. I made straight chocolate chip cookies, with no peanut butter, oats, etc., and of course my children loved them. I don't make them like that much because those are 100% a dessert and I usually try to make cookies that are more like a snack, but every once in awhile they get lucky.

Thursday

Short version: Ground beef and lamb gyros on homemade sourdough pitas, collard green salad, no-bake cheesecake with strawberry-rhubarb sauce

Long version: This was our farewell dinner for our priest's youngest brother, who is going to college next month. He's eaten at our house many times since he started living here in October, but he couldn't choose what he wanted for his last meal with us. So I chose for him.

He can only eat sourdough bread, which is why I made the sourdough pitas. I would have made lamb roast for the gyros, but I'm out, so I used one bag of ground lamb and two packages of ground beef and then spiced it the same way I would a lamb roast (garlic, onion, thyme, cumin, paprika). I also made hummus and yogurt sauce (strained yogurt, lemon juice, garlic, salt, and pepper) and put out lettuce, tomato, pickled onions, and feta cheese for toppings.

I did the actual cooking for this--so the meat and pita bread--the day before. Mostly that was because I was taking the younger three children to the dentist (which takes half the day, given the 200-mile roundtrip drive), but also because I didn't want to have to cook in a hot afternoon kitchen. That sure was a good call. It was still 85 degrees when we sat down to eat, even though I didn't turn on the stove or oven at all.

I wouldn't typically make a collard salad of the sort that I typically eat for guests, but I know these two guests really like collard greens. I also know they like beets, so the salad was finely chopped and manhandled collards in a maple syrup vinaigrette with toasted pecans, pickled beets, pickled onions, and feta cheese. It was really good.

I used this recipe for the cheesecake and made some strawberry-rhubarb sauce for anyone who wanted it. Which was everyone but me, actually.

Refrigerator check:

Stuffed full.

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

Add Salt to Taste

As we look at a weather forecast that features high temperatures in the mid-90s,* I have excavated all the beer salt out of the back of the cabinet in preparation.

We even have one in a whimsical tiny beer bottle package.

We will need the beer salt to keep A. going when he's out working in the heat. He always does. He doesn't mind doing labor when it's in the 90s, but he does mind how awful he feels if he doesn't stay salted. Not just hydrated, but salted.

A couple of weeks ago when he was building a stone wall and weed-eating for a few days, he would consistently get to the afternoon feeling bad, lethargic and headache-y. He had been drinking plenty of water or lemonade, but was still dragging.

And then he realized it was because he didn't have enough salt.

He doesn't really eat when he's working like that, see, so he wasn't getting salt until dinnertime. As soon as he started adding salt to his lemonade, he was fine and could work all afternoon again.

Because he's putting it in lemonade, he prefers the lime beer salt. I don't know how much he puts in his glass, but enough that he can faintly taste it.

When eldest was working on a fencing crew--a notoriously physically-challenging job, and one he did routinely when it was around or over 100 degrees--his boss gave everyone beer salt on their breaks. They just ate it, which is also an option.

However its ingested, if you also need to work outside in high temperatures, make sure to drink enough, but also make sure to get some salt into you**. 

* I know this is not high for many of you, but it's pretty hot for us here. Even if it is a mostly dry heat. 

**This is, of course, already part of hydration drinks like Powerade, but we don't typically have those. Switchel works, too, but A. prefers the salted lemonade.

Snapshots: Double Cookies

I saw something bright red on the driveway that I couldn't identify, and I had to pick it up to examine it pretty closely before I could.

Can you tell what it is?*

The collard greens have recovered themselves sufficiently that I feel I can chance harvesting some for the salads that repel my family so thoroughly.

Featuring Very Pink pickled beets and radishes.

I've been putting off rendering any of the large quantity of suet I have in the freezer, even though I need the tallow for cooking. This requires very low heat, such as a Crockpot, which I don't have. I use my cast-iron Dutch oven, although I don't have a burner that gets quite low enough to keep it rendering without actually simmering. I thought I might put another skillet underneath to distribute some of the heat. A. suggested the griddle pan.

This worked very well. Smart man, that A.

The kids had some friends over on Friday. The little girls were of the opinion that we should have a tea party. I didn't really think summer weather is conducive to tea parties--especially given how much baking I typically do for tea parties--but I did make some cookies.

First Mexican wedding cookies, and then, since I had a bowl and pan dirty already and the oven at heat, I made some very fast chocolate chip/peanut butter cookies.

And last, flowers!

Last week's sunflower arrangements combined.

New table flowers.

And bookcase flowers.

There you have it! My life, snapshotted.

* It was the top of a red mini bell pepper. It looked so much like a flower, though.