Friday Food: On the Road Again

We left Blackrock Monday and arrived home yesterday. I am so very, very tired. And overjoyed to be home again.

Friday

Short version: Beach hamburgers, potato chips, grilled corn on the cob, raw sugar snap peas

Long version: How many nights can we have dinner on the beach? ALL OF THEM.

Saturday

Short version: Spaghetti with pesto

Long version: Well, all nights except for this one. This was Charlie's birthday, and he had said he wanted to have dinner on the beach. But in the afternoon A. took the boys on a gully hike with his friend Jodi* and Jodi's three kids, and when they got back around 3 p.m., the children descended like locusts upon the kitchen. They ate an entire chicken the MiL had brought home from a chicken barbecue, then they ate five leftover hamburgers, then they moved on to spoonfuls of peanut butter.

Jodi and his crew didn't leave until after 6 p.m., at which point I decided it would be better to just have everyone eat their pasta with pesto--always Charlie's request for his birthday dinner--up at the house and then go down to the beach. I didn't bother cooking the pork chops that I had taken out, figuring they got enough protein in their post-hike feeding frenzy.

Sunday

Short version: Beach pork chops, potato chunks, sauteed zucchini/garlic scapes/tomatoes, raw broccoli and sugar snap peas with ranch dressing

Long version: Last beach cookout. I cooked both the pork chops I had taken out for the day before and another package, figuring that way I would have extra to freeze for one night on our trip. The potatoes were boiled and I put them in a foil packet with butter, salt, and pepper to keep warm on the fire grate.

This was my last chance to cook the zucchini I had bought at the farmers market the day after we arrived. I found a small bag of forgotten garlic scapes and added some random grape tomatoes to the two things. It was really nice to have a cooked vegetable for once. Raw vegetables are kind of the order of the day at the beach.

Monday

Short version: Tuna or ham sandwiches, french fries

Long version: We left Blackrock at 6 a.m. and stopped for the day at a Motel 6 in Englewood, Ohio, at around 6 p.m. We were planning on camping, but it was too stormy. This was a really low-end Motel 6, and the rooms didn't have microwaves. Thus, sandwiches.

We got the french fries at McDonald's. There was one just behind the motel, and we took the kids there to burn some energy in the play area. We thought it would only be polite to buy something, so we got some fries. I used to love McDonald's fries. Apparently, I no longer do. They tasted like chemicals. The children didn't have this problem and were delighted to eat the french fries.

Tuesday

Short version: Pork chops

Long version: Yes, just pork chops. We drove longer than we wanted to and once again, it was too stormy to camp. By the time we got into a hotel room at the Quality Inn in Pacific, Missouri, it was after 7 p.m. No one was particularly hungry, thanks to all the snacks I was handing out in an attempt to pacify the troops during our long drive.

I had brought up some tortillas to the room, too, but forgot the cheese and was just too tired to go back down to the car to get it. So our balanced meal began and ended with pork chops. These were the ones A. cooked on the grill the night before we left Blackrock, and they were very good.

The kids didn't care that there were only pork chops for dinner, because this hotel had a pool. The very first they've ever stayed in with such a fancy amenity. They were extremely excited.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: I encourage cultivating low standards in children. It makes it so easy to impress them.

Wednesday

Short version: Leftover pork chops, hot dogs, tortillas and cheese, mini cucumbers and carrots, marshmallows

Long version: Another desperation stop in a random place, this time at a small lake in Kansas. It wasn't technically a camping place, but camping was allowed near the graveled areas and there were some fire pits, so we called it good enough and stayed there.

The place was entirely lacking in any amenities, including a grate over the fire ring. The boys roasted their hot dogs and marshmallows on sticks, A. and I ate the leftover pork chops cold, and I made a stack of tortillas and cheese inside some aluminum foil that we propped up on a rock near the fire. The cheese got mostly melted.

Cooking al fresco makes it sound fancy, right? The cooler/table makes it extra fancy.

And then, because it was so hot, A. spread out all the pads and blankets and things right out in the open, eschewing tents in favor of grabbing all the breeze we could get.

We definitely got the breeze, but it was the night after a full moon, with zero clouds. I'll allow you to guess how much sleep we all got. There were also some raccoon sightings in the night. I will not be sleeping under the stars again unless it is under extreme duress.

Thursday

Short version: Scrambled eggs, rice, green salad

Long version: Because Ricky Raccoon was kind enough to wake me up at 4:30 in the morning, we were on the road by 5:15 a.m. Unfortunately, vacation food and general upheaval caught up with three of the four children and we stopped at least a dozen times for bathroom emergencies.

Due to these delicate digestive issues, we made a special stop to buy eggs before we got home. Safest food for unhappy tummies. That, and white rice. No more treats for you, kids.

Upon arriving home at 3:30 p.m., A. and I both went directly to the gardens to see what might have survived our month-long absence. Surprisingly, almost everything. Thus I was able to cut lettuce for a salad, and this made me very happy. Not that I wasn't already deliriously happy to be home again, but that was just the healthy lettuce-icing on the homecoming cake.

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

Seven . . . and I Owe Him a Photo

(Photo placeholder until I'm home again to post one)

Happy birthday to

the one and only Charlie

Friday Food: With Photos!

All photos courtesy of the MiL. There will be many photos posted here when I get home--get excited--but for now, this is all I got.

Friday

Short version: Bunless hamburgers, fried potatoes, curried cauliflower, grape tomatoes

Long version: The potatoes and cauliflower were from a couple of nights before when no one ate a real dinner because of too much watermelon and a baseball game. The food was already cooked, so I recycled them for this dinner with the addition of the hamburgers.

Saturday

Short version: Bacon, bread and peanut butter, baby carrots, tortilla chips, cider cake

Long version: I had planned on bacon and eggs, but just as I was finishing the bacon, the power went out. Thus, the bacon was accompanied by non-perishable foods that required no further cooking.

I didn't eat, because after I got everyone fed and had Poppy in bed, I left the house by myself and went to a party. Shocking, I know.

There was food at the party, but I was so busy talking to people that I didn't eat there, either. It turns out many people are curious about our current life in the back of beyond. So I had some tortilla chips after I got home. Healthy.

Sunday

Short version: Beach meats, corn on the cob, the MiL's cornbread, baby carrots, cherries, s'mores

Long version: A.'s sister grilled the corn on the cob on the beach, along with a rack of ribs. I threw on a boneless sirloin steak and some hot dogs. This happens a lot on the beach: various meats are cooked on the fire grate and accompanied by whatever is easy to pack in a bag and transport to the beach. But this time the MiL made and transported fresh cornbread with butter and honey, which definitely elevates a beach picnic.

Also this day, A. launched the boat he made with Cubby the few days before:

Why? Because Cubby wanted to build a boat. And because A. likes to build boats.

Monday

Short version: Happy beach pork chops, Julia's potato salad, baby carrots

Long version: The MiL just got one of her brother's pigs butchered, so we had real pork chops. I was so happy. They were so good. Especially since they were cooked over an open fire. Delicious.

Julia's potato salad is made with what amounts to a mustard vinaigrette (along with dry Vermouth and diced shallot) instead of a mayonnaise-based one. I wanted to make a traditional potato salad with mayonnaise and hard-boiled egg and all, but I couldn't find any dill pickles. There can be no traditional potato salad without diced dill pickles, and I will hear no dissenting opinions on this subject.

Tuesday

Short version: Beach Italian sausage and hot dogs, tortilla chips, garlic scape twigs, cucumber slices, grape tomatoes, Grandma's bread and butter pickles, watermelon

Long version: Cubby harvested the scapes from the MiL's garden for me, but they were really too mature for eating. They should be cut when they're still curly. These had straightened out already, which meant they were hard and woody. Some were okay, and I cooked them all anyway and brought them down to the beach. They were all eaten, although many were chewed for the flavor, then spit out and thrown into the weeds. Kind of like sunflower seeds. Perfect beach food.

Have I expressed my views on seedless watermelon yet? Ah yes, I have indeed. This watermelon was purchased by A.'s sister, and it was okay for a seedless watermelon, but it was still a seedless watermelon and as such, inferior. Unfortunately, I have not seen a single real watermelon for sale this year, with one very notable exception: the biggest watermelon in the world, for sale at the unforgettable Boomland in Missouri. When we stopped there to use the bathroom and get ice on our way to New York, I saw the biggest watermelon I have ever seen in my life. It was literally the size of Poppy.

And I did not buy it. I was tired and rushed and frazzled and I didn't want to deal with a giant 30-pound (at least) watermelon in an already-chaotic vehicle. I regretted this as soon as we drove away. I still regret it, and if we go back the same way, you bet your dupa that I'm stopping and buying the dang watermelon.

Cubby and Charlie had a riding lesson this day:

Charlie likes trotting, apparently.

Even Jack got to ride around with someone leading the horse:

Totally made his day.

Wednesday

Short version: Pulled pork, potato chips, cucumber slices, s'mores

Long version: I had asked A. to buy a picnic pork shoulder for me to make pulled pork for our return trip to New Mexico (trying hard not to think about that too much yet). I don't know why, but it is very, very hard to find large pork roasts for pulled pork in New Mexico. It's not hard here.

I put the pork shoulder in the MiL's Crockpot in the morning and put the Crockpot out in the shop so it would be out of the way. This turned out to be an excellent idea because it got to over 90 degrees in the afternoon and it was no day to be heating up a kitchen or standing out in the hot sun over a fire on the beach. The pork was definitely done by 2 p.m., at which point I shredded the pork and added it back to the Crockpot with my favorite (New-York-state-specific) barbecue sauce and left it on warm.

I had gone to get my hair cut at 3:45 p.m., because the nearest place for me to get it cut at home is an hour away, so the last time I had it cut was when we were in Tucson for Thanksgiving. I went to the nearby grocery store before that to get hamburger buns and potato chips, so when I got home, all I had to do was put the crock part of the Crockpot in a bag and haul it down to the beach with the rest of the stuff.

And I think I have enough left over to freeze and bring on our upcoming road trip. Bonus.

Thursday

Short version: Taco skillet dip and tortilla chips

Long version: There were like twenty people on the beach this afternoon--eight of them young children--and someone cooked a bunch of hot dogs and sausages around 2 p.m. My children of course ate some of these, so I thought maybe I could get away with just tortillas and cheese or something after I brought them up to the house for the night. This was a relief, because it was brutally muggy and quite hot and I really did not want to cook the hamburgers I had planned on making.

However.

At 4 p.m. when I came up to the house to get my evening cocktail--gin is pretty much mandatory for me to get through an evening on the beach with any sort of enjoyment--Jack told me he wanted to come with me because he was hungry. I figured if he was, other people would be, so when we got up to the house, I very quickly browned some of the ground beef I had out for hamburgers, added a can of rinsed black beans, some salsa, and some shredded pepper jack cheese and brought the whole hot skillet down to the beach (wrapped in a towel) with a bag of tortilla chips to scoop it with.

This was the first day that my children did not consume a single fruit or vegetable all day. Unless you count the salsa in the meat. I think this means we're reaching vacation saturation.

We leave Monday to start our drive back to New Mexico. We might take it a little slower and spend an extra night on the road to see some more things on the way, so we might not get home until Friday. In that case, no Friday Food for you. I'm sure you'll survive.

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

Friday Food: Vacation Cooking and Unrelated Photos

I don't stop making food when I leave home--penalty of having a big family that inconsiderately just keeps on eating even when we're not home--but I definitely make different kinds of food. As you will see. You will also see that our normal "dessert only on Sundays" tradition goes completely out the window when we're at Blackrock. It's strawberry season. I have no regrets.

Friday

Short version: Italian sausage, fried peppers and onions, garlic toasts, steamed broccoli, the MiL's cider cake

Long version: Do you know how excited I was to come to New York and finally get real Italian sausage? So excited that when the MiL asked me for a list of things she could stock up on before we came, I put Italian sausage in all caps with "HOORAY!" after it.

It was just as good as I remembered.

I made the garlic toasts with some bread the MiL had made that didn't rise very well. Sliced thin, covered in olive oil and garlic powder, and broiled, they were good. Would have been better if Poppy hadn't started wailing and demanding to be picked up at a crucial moment, thereby rendering some of the pieces more charred than toasted, but they were still edible.

The cider cake is a sweet bread-y thing--kind of like pound cake, but not as rich--with candied fruit in it that the MiL makes. I don't know if it's the cider in it or what, but it magically lasts for literally months with no refrigeration. It's a very old recipe she got many years ago, and all the children except for Charlie love it. He objects to the candied fruit, I think.

Saturday

Short version: Scrambled eggs, ham, sauteed garlic scapes, boiled potatoes, sliced tomato, cider cake

Long version: I had some ham I had purchased for our trip to make sandwiches at lunch that needed to be used up. It was pretty cheap ham, more thickly cut than I like for sandwiches and definitely wet, as all store ham is, but it was all that was available at the tiny grocery store near our house. Luckily, even store ham can be made delicious by frying in butter. This dries it out and also makes for a nice brown crust from the butter.

The MiL is just harvesting her scapes now--from garlic A. planted a couple of years ago--so we got to extend our scape season. I am pleased by this.

I got to put both fancy butter and very fancy French sea salt on the potatoes, because the MiL has such things. Fun.

Sunday

Short version: Beach hot dogs, raw cauliflower, bread and butter pickles, s'mores

Long version: I didn't even bring plates down to the beach for this meal. What's a hot dog bun for if not to be a plate substitute?

I bought the cauliflower at the farmers market in the village on Saturday. I love having access to a farmers market again.

The bread and butter pickles were a jar from the cellar that the MiL said she made several years ago. Bread and butter pickles are excellent with hot dogs, and excellent for a beach picnic.

Monday

Short version: Beach sandwiches, leftovers, strawberries and rhubarb with cream

Long version: I had not planned on a beach-friendly (read: easily transportable) dinner, but the weather was good and I knew it would be not good starting Tuesday, so we decided to take advantage and stay down on the beach after the kids' afternoon swim.

I collected leftover pulled pork and coleslaw, bread, salami, cheese, and bread and butter pickles. The children had sandwiches and coleslaw, A. ate the pork, and the MiL and I just sort of grazed. We had the fruit and cream after we got back up to the house and man, it's so nice to be back here right at strawberry time. Few things are better than strawberries and real cream. Not even whipped, either. Just heavy cream poured right over the sweetened fruit. Yuuuuuum.

Unrelated photo of the cabbage and beets I harvested from our garden before we left home:

Fingers crossed the whole time we're gone that everything in the garden isn't dead when we get home.

Tuesday

Short version: Beach meats, fish, potatoes, cherries, grape tomatoes, Cubby's special strawberry/rhubarb pie

Long version: Another day, another beach cook-out. I had been in the city this day and almost got some fish at the grocery store as a treat for Cubby, but the shrimp that were on sale were sold out and everything else was hideously expensive, so I didn't. Then I got home and A. decided it was a good day to take the boys fishing.

We all went down to our beach. A. and the boys fished from the neighbor's small dock and it looked like a fishing show. They just kept yanking fish out of the water. Mostly average-sized perch, but there was one bass so enormous--the MiL estimated about three pounds--that A. had to walk it along the edge of the dock until he got to the shore so he could catch it with his hands, because it would have broken the line.

So we had fish after all, and they were free.

I should have a photo, but I don't.

Fish caught on one's own beach--more or less--should also be cooked on one's own beach. I formed and brought down some hamburgers to cook with the fish, along with some potatoes I cooked in the microwave, then sliced and put in foil with butter to heat up on the fire. A.'s sister arrived this day and she brought more hamburgers and some sausage, so we ended up with quite a feast.

The pie was one that Cubby made with the MiL. He had expressed to me a few weeks ago that he wished to learn how to make pie. I told him I was delegating that one to The Pie Master--i.e. Grandma. I don't think he's ready to make a pie on his own quite yet, but it's a start. And it was delicious pie.

Wednesday

Short version: Watermelon, ice cream, leftovers, green salad

Long version: The MiL planned to take the boys to a baseball game this evening, and requested that they be fed before they went so they wouldn't want too many treats. I had planned on making various items of real food, but then the boys ended up eating half of the watermelon A.'s sister was cutting up right before dinner and some of the leftover sausage and hamburgers A. was eating, so that and the ice cream the MiL got them later was their dinner.

Balanced eating, summer-style.

Unrelated photo of Little Sister and the Big Brothers:

Not sure what's happening here or why I took this, but there they all are.

Thursday

Short version: Patriotic potluck with a side of CRAZY FIREWORKS

Long version: The MiL's sister decided at the last minute to have a Fourth of July gathering, which featured a LOT of delicious food brought by all the attendees--I mostly chose to eat various kinds of pasta and potato salad, although there were also many kinds of barbecued meats to choose from--and the most impressive display of fireworks ever seen at a private residence.

A.'s cousin's husband is a sound and light engineer who has a great love of fireworks, and it was he who set it all up. It took him literally seven hours. There were spreadsheets involved and the fireworks themselves lasted at least half an hour. It was insane and awesome. They boys were beside themselves with excitement. Poppy was initially excited, but then she realized it was like three hours past her bedtime and time to turn into a pumpkin.

And THEN, she woke up at 5:30 this morning after going to bed at 10:30 p.m. Total party foul, Poppy. But all part of the fun of summertime.

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

An Update with Fake Photos

Due to a stupid technical thing that I won't even go into, the photos on my phone are not on my computer at the moment. I thought about just painting some word pictures for you, but decided that some old pictures that I awkwardly relate to our current activities would be better. Sounds fun, right?

Here we go!

The drive was not too bad, in that there were no unnecessary delays or really bad weather or illness or anything else that can so easily turn a not-so-bad trip into a REALLY BAD TRIP. I didn't even have to break out the ancient Game Boy.

Poppy even slept really well in the tent with me the two nights we were camping:

She wore her zip-up footie pajamas when she was actually sleeping in the real tent, and thus was the only one of us to not get extraordinarily itchy bug bites all under her clothes when we were camping in Missouri. Footie p.j.'s should be required gear for summer camping in the south.

We arrived just in time for garlic scape/strawberry/mulberry season (they always get ripe at the same time), so there's been a lot of berry eating going on.

Just like this, only with a lot more red stains.

It's been a remarkably wet spring and summer here at Blackrock, but we've had mostly good weather since we got here. This means lots of beach time.

No matter how sunny it is here, however, the light never has this white glare that we get in New Mexico.

Unfortunately, I am finding it much more difficult this year to take children to the beach, because now Poppy is very much a walking, active child who wants to be right out in the water, preferably right out where her brothers are. This is a big change from last year when she couldn't even crawl and was thus always safely stationary on the beach.

So I have to spend the whole time we're down there in the water holding her hand to keep her from going in over her head. Jack still can't swim, Charlie is not a strong swimmer, and I genuinely worry about what would happen if one of them needed my help while I was holding on to Poppy. I would have to just throw her up on the beach and hope for the best, which is . . . no, thanks.

For this reason, I told A. that I need a second adult with me when we go to the beach. So beach time is family time now.

That's okay with me, though, and it does mean that with everyone down there, there's no reason not to have a beach picnic for dinner every night. The children approve.

I made a conscience effort to do this because I saw that our forecast is calling for much more rain this week. In fact, it's raining now.

I'm going to the Not Quite As Small City today for my big thrift store excursion*, so I won't be here to entertain the children. I'm sure A. will have no trouble, and at least with the rain, he has a good excuse to not go down to the beach.

* "So, Kristin, what did you do on your vacation?" "I went to a thrift store to buy soap dishes and a coffee mug." Just like Club Med.

Friday Food: Road Trippin'

We spent most of this week either preparing to leave for New York, or driving to New York. Nonetheless, there was food. Always.

Friday

Short version: Tacos

Long version: I made taco meat mostly so I could make a double batch and mix half of it with rice and cheese for a casserole to heat up on our trip.

I did not make the tortillas this time, which of course made me feel just the tiniest bit guilty. I knew starting to make my own tortillas would have a bad effect.

Saturday

Short version: T-bone steaks, sauteed mushrooms, pasta, green salad

Long version:  A meal to finish up the mushrooms and lettuce, as well as the last of the cream cheese in the pasta.

Sunday

Short version: Leftover steak, scrambled eggs with chives, rice, frozen green beans

Long version: Continuing the theme of using stuff up. After making this meal, all that was left in the refrigerator were condiments and the stuff that was going in the cooler in the morning.

Plus an empty toilet paper roll in front of it. Naturally.

Monday

Short version: Pork chunks, dinner rolls, coleslaw

Long version: We left home at 5 a.m. and stopped for the day at Osage Hills State Park in Oklahoma about 12 hours later. All the food I had prepared ahead of time was fully cooked, frozen, and able to be re-heated in either a microwave or on a camp fire. This night, it was the latter.

The pork was country-style ribs I had cooked in the oven with a spice rub until I could pull them apart. I just put them in some aluminum foil and stuck it on the grate over our fire.

I used the very last of our eight cabbages to make the coleslaw. The other six were given away to neighbors. I also used the very last of the yogurt to make the dressing. Well, the last except for the jar I saved to bring cross-country with me in the cooler so I could make yogurt while we're in New York and thus not lose my starter.

Oh yes. A yogurt starter is that important.

Tuesday

Short version: Taco meat/rice/cheese casserole, raw grape tomatoes

Long version: Oklahoma to the Mark Twain National Forest in Missouri. I had put this casserole in the disposable casserole pan we got Miss Rebecca's green chile casserole in, so I just set the whole pan right on the coals of the fire to heat up. It tasted kind of bland still, and all I had with me to season anything were mustard and ketchup, so I put some of both in there and called it hamburger casserole. It was fine.

Wednesday

Short version: Bunless hamburgers, tortillas and cheese

Long version: Missouri to Cincinnati, Ohio. We stayed at a comparatively luxurious Red Roof Inn this night (hellooooo, hot shower, my beloved), so I heated these things up in the microwave in our room.

We all ate quite a lot of raw vegetables in the van throughout the trip--carrots, bell peppers, celery, cucumbers--so I didn't worry about serving more with dinner.

Thursday

Short version: Pulled pork, potato salad, coleslaw

Long version: Cincinnati to Blackrock, and when we rolled up the driveway at 7 p.m., the wonderful MiL had dinner waiting for us. I was extremely pleased to not be digging around in coolers for food.

And now, let the Summer Beach Eating commence.

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

Old-school Screen Time

T minus 33 hours until we leave for our roadtrip. (Give or take thirty minutes.) I have, of course, been prepping food for over a week now, because I once again intend to cross the country without needing to stop at a restaurant.

I started gathering children's clothing today, as well, and I got the van all cleaned out in anticipation of stuffing it full of crap once again.

Ah, but what crap will I stuff in it to entertain the children during the 28 hours we will be driving?

That, I'm afraid, was not so carefully considered this time around.

I did buy some new books for Cubby, because he is lucky enough to be able to read in a moving car without getting sick. Charlie is not so lucky.

I found some activity books and sticker books we already had on hand that may work for a short amount of time to keep Jack and Charlie distracted.

I found some board books for Poppy, and I'll throw in some random toys.

But my ace in the hole, my extra-special secret weapon is a twenty-year-old Game Boy.

The boys don't know I have this. I actually don't know why I do still have it. It was given to me by my parents when I went away to college twenty years ago--I think--and in the intervening years it has apparently moved with me to the many places I've lived since. I do not know why, because I definitely have a tendency to chuck anything that I consider extraneous. An electronic game that I haven't played in 15 years definitely qualifies, and yet, there it is in my closet.

When I realized I was facing a roundtrip distance of approximately 2,500 miles with four bored children, I pulled out the ancient Game Boy, put in new batteries, and flipped the power switch.

To my astonishment, it turned on.

The only game I have for it is Tetris, and it's a small, old, black-and-white video game system that would look hopelessly primitive to children accustomed to modern gaming systems.

Luckily, those are not my children. The only video games they have ever played have been on the computer at school. They're not picky. I confidently expect incredulity at their great good fortune when I get desperate and pull out the screen on our drive.

I don't expect it will keep any of them but Cubby entertained for very long, but even an hour would be helpful. We'll see, I guess.

And if that fails, there's always the rhyming game.

Any other suggestions for non-electronic car games? I could use all the help I can get.