Friday Food: Beef, Beef, Pork

Friday

Short version: Italian sliders, pasta with pesto, sauteed summer squash, green beans

Long version: "Italian sliders" is what I call tiny hamburgers that are seasoned like meatballs (garlic, oregano, basil), but don't have any eggs or breadcrumbs in them.

I stole some of the pesto and grated Parmesan for the squash, and it was pretty much just as good as the pasta. The children do not agree.

Saturday

Short version: Customized food.

Long version: A., Charlie, and I ate the leftover sliders; Jack and Poppy ate the rest of the hotdogs; Cubby ate the last two spicy chicken fillets we got from Ray. All the children ate the leftover pasta. A. ate the rest of the leftover rice. A. and I both ate some roasted peppers and onions I made when I was baking bread earlier in the day.

Just as complicated as it sounds, yes.

Sunday

Short version: Brisket, bread and butter, sauteed green beans, sauteed cabbage/carrots/onions, vanilla ice cream with a choice of chocolate shell or baked apples

Long version: The brisket went in before we went to church--with only salt, pepper, chopped onion, apple cider vinegar, and water--and cooked from 7 a.m. to noon. I sliced it and warmed it with barbecue sauce at dinnertime.

At the same time I was cooking the brisket, I baked some sweet potatoes and a loaf of zucchini bread, with a few extra zucchini muffins. Except I forgot to put in the butter I had melted in the microwave.

Yes. I forgot to put in the butter. Such a classic "Kristin following a recipe" moment. (This recipe, to be specific.)

I was going to give the loaf of zucchini bread to Rafael, because he supplied the zucchini I used to make it and he always drops pretty obvious hints about zucchini bread whenever he gives us zucchini. I tasted one of the muffins, and they were amazingly good considering that a major ingredient was left out, but they definitely didn't have that nice zucchini bread texture. So I decided to keep this butter-less loaf and make another one for Rafael that has fat in it.

I'm nice like that.

It's nice to know that you can actually make zucchini bread completely fat-free should you run out of oil or something. Not that I'm ever without some source of fat, but anything's possible.

Monday

Short version: Lamb ribs, fried plantain, rice, cucumber slices

Long version: This is the very last of the lamb we butchered in April. A. was in the charge of the ribs, as always. And as always, he marinated them in vinegar and a ton of garlic, then grilled them.

The plantain was a new one for us. A. had it with a breakfast meal he got at a restaurant a couple of months ago and really liked it, so when we saw them in the city a couple of weeks ago, I bought one. I looked up various recipes for fried plantain, and then just kind of . . . fried it.

It looked like a slightly more yellow banana, and tasted pretty much like that, too.

I used a cast-iron skillet, as I always do, and coconut oil. Nothing else but salt. Some recipes actually tell you to coat the slices in sugar, but mine was so ripe that it already tasted almost like a banana, so I didn't use any sugar.

They browned well, and were nice and crispy, but only A. and Poppy liked it. Oh well. It was fun to try something different.

Tuesday

Short version: Ribeye steaks, fried bread, sauteed mushrooms and green beans

Long version: This must not have been a very satisfying dinner, because everyone came back to the kitchen about thirty minutes later for thick slices of bread with butter and jelly.

Or maybe they just really like bread with jelly. Can't really blame them for that one.

Wednesday

Short version: Stir-fry with peanut butter sauce, rice, Otter Pops

Long version: This was Jack's first day of school--the preschool starts almost a month later than the other students--so I made his favorite dinner, using chunks I cut off a big pork sirloin roast, plus onion, carrots, bell pepper, mushrooms, and green beans.

The Otter Pops came from Miss Amelia. Apparently people just keep Otter Pops on hand around here on the off chance a kid might come along and require some luridly colored frozen sugar. I know this because this is the third time my children have been handed these unexpectedly. They don't mind.

Thursday

Short version: Barbecue meatballs, garlic bread, frozen peas

Long version: It seems stupid to be serving frozen peas when we have all these green beans coming out of the garden, but Charlie requested them, so I did.

It was really too hot to be broiling and baking meatballs and bread, but I did it anyway. And I have no regrets.

Neither did Super Poppy.

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

A Day of Labor

Big day around the ole New Mexico homestead yesterday, where we celebrated the triumphs of the labor force by . . . laboring.

A. worked on the stone wall that he'll be building for the next, oh, decade.

He asks us to imagine the whole property surrounded by a white stone wall in the Mediterranean style. It's a nice vision.

I spent some time in the morning peeling and slicing apples to dry out in the sun--specifically, on the hood of the Honda, which is where I put the trays--and Cubby decided he wanted to lay in his own personal stash for winter.

I tried to tell him that HE didn't have to be up on the hood for the car to do his prep, but I guess he favors economy of motion.

Charlie "found" (drew) a treasure map and dug for buried treasure.

Alas, either the map was a dud or someone got to the treasure before he did.

Jack dug the Erie Canal in the sand filling A.'s trailer.

And Poppy got in his way. We all have our roles to play, and that is the role of the little sister.

In addition to my usual work:

Which almost always includes laundry in varying amounts.

I sanded and painted a dresser.

This dresser came from the house we bought next door. It's an old, cheap dresser, but free, and I thought it would be nice to replace the small, also cheap pseudo-dresser I got on Amazon for Charlie and Jack's room that doesn't actually have enough room in it for all their clothes.

The "new" dresser had some kind of incredibly ugly pale yellow varnish on it that I could not look at every day for the next twenty years, so I decided to paint it. First I sanded it, though, because the varnish was extremely slick and I didn't think the paint would adhere well.

I used A.'s power sander. First time I'd done that. Did not like. I am not a fan of power tools. Too loud and they vibrate so much.

Anyway. I sanded, then I painted.

Drawers in progress.

I painted it the same pale blue color that the outside of our house is painted, because Dale left behind almost a full gallon of the paint, and the curtains in that bedroom are blue, too. Yes, I used exterior paint for a piece of furniture, which I'm sure is not recommended, but hey, it's what I had. And maybe it will hold up better to the abuse that will no doubt occur in a room full of boys.

I even unscrewed the nasty-looking pulls from the drawers and painted them with some gold spray paint I already had on hand.

I was pretty proud of the egg-carton stabilizer idea.

And then one of the puppies--Jasper, and I suspect it's always going to be Jasper--apparently decided to inspect my work. I know this because I came outside about half an hour later and found that he had blue paint on one ear, one leg (the opposite side from the ear, even!), and his tail.

Despite the puppy interference, I'm pleased with how it came out.

Fancy (fake) gold pulls and all.

It wasn't a restful holiday, but it was very productive.

Just Another Day with the Crazies

This morning, Charlie came outside looking like this:

Some explanation was required.

Me: "What does your hat say? Oh, Ghost Busters.* Have you ever even seen Ghostbusters?"

Charlie: "No, but I heard the song at school before."

Me: "So what made you think of the Ghostbusters?"

Charlie: "Well, I busted Cubby over the head. This is my highest caliber weapon."

Right. Got it.

Shortly before that, I made them all come outside for a photo. My dad had requested that I have them pose by a birthday sign for his aunt, who is deaf, homebound, and turning 90 years old. So I made what is possibly the worst birthday banner ever and shoved my four kids plus the puppies in front of it. 

I took 25 pictures. In some of them Cubby's giant head is blocking half the banner. In others, Cubby looks as if he's throttling one of the puppies. In another, Jack is scowling because I didn't let him hold a puppy. But this one was pretty good.

Further establishing my complete lack of Pinterest credentials.

The best part of this, though, was when I was telling the kids about Aunt Teresa, I told them that my dad used to go stay at her cabin in northern Wisconsin, which had no indoor bathroom. "And that," said Charlie, "is probably why she's lived so long."

You heard it here first: The Fountain of Youth can be found in an outhouse.

* It actually said Gost Busters, but close enough.

Friday Food: Yes, There's a Puppy Picture

Shall we get right to the puppy picture? Yes? Okay. Here's Jasper.

His side-eye is very impressive.

Now, on to the food.

Friday

Short version: Pork, garlic bread, roasted bell pepper/onion/green bean

Long version: Hot again in the afternoon, and also we took a family trip to a ranch below the mesa that meant we were gone until almost dinnertime. That's why I cooked the pork in the morning before we left, as well as got the bread done and in the refrigerator. The roasted stuff was done with the bread I baked in the morning before we left.

Saturday

Short version: Leftover goulash, mashed potatoes with cheese, carrot sticks

Long version: A. was gone all day and didn't get home until after 8 p.m., so everyone got leftovers AND LIKED IT.

Just kidding. They did actually like it, because what's not to like about mashed potatoes and cheese?

Incidentally, every time we have this, Cubby remarks that this was my favorite food to eat when I was pregnant with him--true--and that's why he likes it so much. I'm not convinced of the correlation, but that boy can certainly put away mashed potatoes like a champ.

This was the day Cubby made a cardboard submarine and tried it out in a big hole they dug and filled with water.

Of course, Cubby had Charlie do the actual testing, because what if something goes wrong? That's what little brothers are for, right?

Sunday

Short version: Rebellious tuna salad sandwiches, vegetables with ranch dip, ice cream with chocolate shell

Long version: I had taken out three pounds of ground beef. Then it was almost a hundred degrees outside and already 84 degrees in my kitchen and I was like, "NOPE" on adding more heat to the house.

No one complained because there was ice cream. The chocolate shell--quarter cup chocolate chips melted in the microwave with a teaspoon of coconut oil--was the "homemade" part of our traditional homemade Sunday dessert.

Monday

Short version: More rebellion in the form of various leftovers, plus watermelon

Long version: Although it wasn't quite as hot outside this day, it was 86 degrees in the kitchen and I once again refused to actually cook. We had plenty of food on hand, anyway, so it wasn't like anyone was deprived.

Cubby had a salami and cream cheese sandwich; Charlie had two corn tortillas with cheese; Poppy and Jack had tuna salad sandwiches; and they all had vegetables with ranch dip.

A. had leftover goulash, corn tortillas with cheese, and some tuna salad.

I had a lettuce-less salad (the second round of lettuce plantings isn't big enough to eat yet, alas) with cucumber, tomatoes, carrots, salami, avocado, and ranch dressing, and it was exactly what I felt like eating. Yay.

Tuesday

Short version: Bunless hamburgers, roasted sweet and white potatoes, sauteed mushrooms and onions, green beans, raw cabbage

Long version: Finally a day on which it didn't feel like the sixth circle of Hell in my kitchen. So I finally cooked a normal dinner. Nothing fancy, but it was such a relief to cook without sweating.

It's the little things in life.

Wednesday

Short version: Beef pot roast, baked sweet potato, rice, cucumbers with ranch dip

Long version: Still not too hot for cooking, although I wished I had been able to do the pot roast in the morning instead of the afternoon. I wasn't home in the morning to cook it, though, so afternoon it was. It was getting a wee bit warm in the kitchen by dinnertime. But still below 80 degrees, so it wasn't unbearable.

Thursday

Short version: Hot dogs, leftover rice, sauteed summer squash with garlic, raw green beans with ranch dip

Long version: Aaaand, we're back to 82 degrees in the kitchen. That's why I bought some hot dogs when I was at a store in the morning and made the rest of dinner out of leftovers. Including leftover beef for me and a leftover hamburger for Charlie, because neither of us like hot dogs.

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

The Dynamic Duo

The puppies have arrived.

Made themselves right at home with their new pack mates, too.

Before conking out, that is.

Their names are Jasper and Odin.

Jasper is the bigger, more energetic one.

Fluffier, too.

Odin was the runt of this litter, and is the puppy with only one eye. Hence the name. Well, he has the other eye, but it's completely non-functional.

It's also white and kind of weird looking if you see it up close, but it doesn't seem to bother him in the slightest.

Both dogs are alert and playful (when they're not sleeping, that is) and seem quite well-socialized with people already. Good thing, considering the number of people in our household.

A. and I are already making plans for who needs to get up when to take them out in the middle of the night.

Let the good times roll.

The Serpent in the Garden

Jack had a very scary encounter with a snake last night. Scary because this snake was not small; it was not a harmless garter snake; and it was not hiding quietly in the green beans.

Last night after dinner, A. and Jack went outside to continue work on a stone wall A. is building adjoining the patio. Jack ran out first onto the patio and stepped right over a rattlesnake. On the patio. Eight feet from the door. Directly in the path we always take to go into the back pasture.

Holy shit.

The snake was probably there because the sky had clouded over and it was seeking the warmth of the stones that had absorbed the sun's heat. It didn't rattle or, thank God, strike as Jack ran over it, though it did coil up.

A. was right behind Jack, saw the snake just as Jack ran over it, and yelled out that there was a rattlesnake and GET AWAY. Jack veered right off into the driveway and ran a safe distance away. The snake had still not moved.

It was a pretty big rattlesnake--about two feet long--so A., rather than use a hoe or a shovel or anything that required him to get within a handle's length of the snake, got his gun and shot it in the head.

All of the other children of course joined in at this point in the proceedings to observe the snake and hear all the details of the encounter. Charlie, being Charlie, requested the rattle. A. got out the hatchet to cut off the rattle, but took the precaution first of cleanly cutting off the head and throwing it over the fence.

And still, five minutes after its head was blown off, when A. went to cut off the rattle, the snake's body tried to strike A. WITHOUT ITS HEAD.

Freakiest thing ever.

Anyway.

Charlie got his rattle, no one got a snake bite, and Jack's guardian angel should get a promotion and a pay raise.

The end, and three cheers for a happy ending.

Friday Food: Early Morning Cookery

Friday

Short version: Beefy rice taco skillet, corn on the cob

Long version: We tagged along with A. when he went to a city to pick up a big copy job for work. This was the most exciting part of the trip for the children:

Italian sodas in the historic plaza, under the melancholy gaze of Nuestra Senora de los Dolores (Our Lady of Sorrows.) No sorrow from the kids about the Italian sodas. I hadn't had one in years, but they're just as good as I remembered.

We didn't get home until just after 6 p.m. with many groceries to be unloaded from the van and put away. I knew we were going to be gone until dinnertime, so in the morning I cut some chunks off a big sirloin roast I had taken out of the freezer for A. to make jerky, simmered the chunks with onion, garlic, tomato juice, cumin, and chili powder until they were tender, then put that in the refrigerator.

When I got home, I reheated the meat, added the rice left over from the night before, stirred in some grated cheddar cheese, and served it up.

This is the time of year that the roadside stand goes up in this city with produce from Colorado. I got peaches, corn on the cob, and a watermelon (with seeds, of course). The corn I shucked and wrapped in a wet towel to microwave it. This is a good trick to know when you don't have time to boil a big pot of water. Or don't want to heat your kitchen by boiling a big pot of water. The children were thrilled to have corn on the cob.

Saturday

Short version: Pulled pork sandwiches, cucumbers with vinegar and salt, watermelon

Long version: As is my habit these days, I cooked the pork in the morning, pulled it apart, and stuck it in the refrigerator to re-heat at dinnertime, with some barbecue sauce. Cubby was very happy. He tells me that pulled pork sandwiches are his favorite kind of sandwich. They are awfully good.

This was the watermelon we got at the roadside stand in the city, and it was the best watermelon we've had so far this summer.

Sunday

Short version: Leftover pulled pork sandwiches, carrot sticks, scrambled eggs with feta and chives, sauteed bell peppers and onions, peaches and cream

Long version: The children ate the sandwiches and carrot sticks, A. and I ate eggs and peppers and onions, and everyone except Jack ate the peaches and cream. He lost his dessert because of an unfortunate incident with a can of spray paint he was using as a weapon against his brothers. Luckily, he didn't actually manage to hit anyone, but he still had to punished.

The peaches, like the watermelon, were exceptionally good. Of course, pretty much all fruit is improved by peeling it and adding sugar and cream. But even completely unadorned, as I ate mine, the peaches were sweet and delicious. Way to go, Colorado.

Monday

Short version: Meatballs in marinara sauce, pasta, sauteed green beans

Long version: I made the meatballs and sauce in the morning (of course), but I only used a partial can of opened tomatoes in the refrigerator to make the sauce, so there was only enough for the meatballs.

The kids are the only ones eating the pasta, anyway and they're just as happy to have it with just butter, garlic powder, pepper, and Parmesan cheese, so it all worked out.

When I went out to pick the green beans, I was startled by the re-appearance of the resident green bean snake, who I hadn't seen in a few days and was hoping had re-located. I mean, I'm pretty sure it's a harmless snake, but even non-venomous snakes can bite. I keep a very wary eye on it and don't pick anything in its vicinity.

If this is some kind of viper rather than a garter snake, someone please tell me.

Tuesday

Short version: Flank steak, mashed potatoes, sauteed mushrooms and onions, alliterative vegetables

Long version: Hey look, a whole meal that I did not make in the morning! Which is why my kitchen was 85 degrees when we sat down to eat.

Anyway.

The children ate the two ears of corn I still had left--and every single child except Poppy complained that they were only getting half an ear--A. ate some cucumber, and I ate some fried cabbage. The vegetable letter of the day was apparently "c."

Wednesday

Short version: T-bone steaks, garlic bread, roasted bell pepper/onion/green beans, roasted garlic

Long version: A storm conveniently blew in just as I was cranking up the oven to cook the bread and vegetables, blessedly lowering the temperature in the house by several degrees. Hooray.

Thursday

Short version: Beef goulash with potatoes and carrots

Long version: Can you guess when I made this long-cooking meal? Lemme give you a hint: starts with an "a," ends with an "m," and has two periods.

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