Friday Food: Pumpkins, Chilis, and Other Fun Things

Friday

Short version: Pork tacos, pinto beans, pickled carrot ribbons

Long version: I never make tacos from pork, but I had the awkward bone-in part of the sirloin roast left from when I cut some off to make stir-fry, and there's really no way to get the meat off that sort of bone cleanly except by cooking it long enough that the meat pulls off. So I did that with some tomato juice and taco spices.

I made the pinto beans because I am currently experiencing a glut of dried pinto beans. It not being long-cooking bean weather, I haven't been making them much. I still have a couple of pounds from the bulk bin that I bought several months ago. Then A. came home with a 25-pound bag of them when he was at the store a month or so ago. And THEN, our neighbor came by selling pinto beans and chilis as a fundraiser for the high school, and of course we bought some. Beans, I mean, not chilis, because I cannot handle New Mexican chilis.

Anyway, the point is that I have a ton of dried pinto beans on hand that I need to start working on, so I cooked some. I used Miss Amelia's trick of cooking a Russet potato with the beans to make them extra-creamy and they were very good.

The carrot ribbons were just, uh, carrot ribbons--made with my vegetable peeler--that I pickled for a few hours in salt and vinegar. I like to have something crunchy to top tacos with, and I didn't have any lettuce or cabbage on hand. The slight sweetness of the carrots was particularly good with the pork.

Saturday

Short version: Bunless cheeseburgers, biscuits, hardtack, frozen peas

Long version: Cubby informed me early this day that he knew how to make biscuits and told me that all I needed was flour and water.

Oh, really? Are we talking about edible biscuits here?

Turns out he had been reading a book about the Revolutionary War * that gave instructions for making hardtack. The book says right off that "They have nothing to recommend them other than a long self life," but Cubby really wanted to try it.

So he made hardtack--with my help--by mixing together flour and water and kneading it for ten minutes until it was stretchy, then poking holes in the top with a fork and baking it. That's it. Not even salt. I baked them about ten minutes longer than recommended, and they still weren't as hard as they should have been, but everyone was hungry and I didn't want to wait longer for them.

All the boys ate a hardtack biscuit, Cubby remarking that he could eat a few of them, but I noticed that after that one, he stuck to the baking powder biscuits that I had made. With salt, butter, and milk in them.

Charlie, however, ate another hardtack biscuit. I think he mostly liked dunking it in his milk. They had asked me how the soldiers ate them if they were supposed to be as hard as a rock, and I said they usually soaked them in water or coffee first. So then, of course, everyone was dropping hardtack in their cups of milk. Whatever.

Sunday

Short version: Beef pot roast, baked potatoes, roasted pumpkin and apples, cucumbers with salt and vinegar, peanut butter cookies

Long version: A couple of hours before dinner, I was (silently) lamenting the fact that I had nothing for a vegetable except more frozen peas. So I decided the time had come to start harvesting the pumpkin patch.

The pumpkin patch consists of the entirely too exuberant volunteer squash plants that have taken over the backyard under my clothesline. There are several different kinds of squash out there, though we have no idea what any of them are. Some look like small pumpkins, some look like orange spaghetti squash, some look . . . weird.

Anyway. The small pumpkins started growing first and have fairly hard skins already, so I harvested one and cooked it. Half of it I cut into cubes to roast with some of the tart green apples from the tree at our new (abandoned) house next door. The other half I just put cut-side down in a casserole dish and cooked it in the oven until it was soft.

I had no idea if the pumpkin would be at all tasty, but it wasn't bad. Kind of bland. I particularly liked it with the apples, actually, so I'll have to do that again.

The cucumbers came from Rafael, who stopped by about an hour before dinner with a bag of cucumbers and summer squash for us. Better than a CSA.

The peanut butter cookies were from Cubby's cookbook, and are useful because they contain no flour. They are nothing more than sugar, peanut butter, eggs, and M&Ms. Cubby mostly made them.

And looks rather surprised to be doing so.

Monday

Short version: Pork ribs, rice, mashed pumpkin

Long version: These country-style pork ribs were really hard to cook because they were so varied in size. A couple of them were at least two inches thick, some of the others were barely half an inch. I got them all done in the end, even if it was kind of in stages.

The children were not pleased when they sat down to a tablespoon of mashed pumpkin each. Even with plenty of butter and maple syrup mashed in, Charlie treated us to a masterful dramatic performance of Death By Pumpkin and finally managed to eat the whole two bites. As he was clearing his plate, he scowled at me and said, "Don't ever serve me squash again, or it will kill me."

Right.

Tuesday

Short version: Meatballs with marinara sauce, pasta, roasted summer squash/bell pepper/onion, frozen peas

Long version: This would have been a wonderful meal to welcome my parents when they arrived for their short visit, if I had had enough tomatoes. I started making everything in the morning and found I only had one can of tomatoes left. So I mostly used that to bake the meatballs, and the pasta had only a token amount of sauce in it. There was plenty of butter and Parmesan cheese, though, so it was all good, if a bit dry.

Wednesday

Short version: Chicken tacos with roasted green chilis, homemade corn tortillas, pinto beans, Mexican slaw, blueberry pie and vanilla ice cream

Long version: It's chili season in New Mexico! My dad took advantage of this fact to buy me some green chilis when they drove through Hatch, New Mexico on their way to our house. Hatch is famous for its chilis. They even have a chili festival every September.

So my dad asked if I wanted some chilis, and I was all, "Hell yes! Maybe ten pounds?"

Do you know how many chilis are in a ten-pound bag? A shitload of chilis. Dozens and dozens. My dad hauled in this huge bag, and I was all, "THERE IS NO WAY THAT IS TEN POUNDS OF CHILIS."

It was actually twelve pounds, but still.

So my dad and I charred a few over the burners of my propane stove, then pulled off the charred skins. I removed most of the seeds to make them milder. He left his in, to make them hotter, and they were very good.

I think he's going to be taking some chilis home with him, though, because seriously. That is a LOT of chilis.

It's been awhile since I've made tortillas, mostly because of the heat. But I had to do it this day, because when my parents came, my dad brought the tortilla press he made for me.

Load it up with a ball of masa, aaand . . .

Press!

It was fun. And efficient. I made enough tortillas for the eight of us that I even had one left over, for the first time ever. So of course, I ate it as I was cleaning up the kitchen. I mean, wouldn't you?

When my parents are visiting, we can have dessert on a day other than Sunday. The pie was another of the Village Pie Maker pies provided at the place my parents stay when they visit us. Those really are good pies.

Thursday

Short version: Restaurant food

Long version: My parents wanted to buy us dinner at the (only) restaurant in the village, so we mostly all had hamburgers, corn dogs, and french fries. And we took it to go to eat at the place my parents stay in the village, because dining in house with my four children is not my idea of a good time. Much better to go eat outside on a patio where they can spill milk and drip ketchup without raising my blood pressure.

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

Bad News for Our Cream Consumption

As everyone knows, having one's coffee the correct way is a very serious matter. A. and I both put cream in our coffee. Given the amount of coffee we drink--which is a lot, thanks to the two puppies + four children situation we are currently in--that means we use a lot of cream.

Luckily for us, the tiny grocery store ten miles away carries cream.

Unluckily for us, I just found out that the tiny grocery store ten miles away will be closing at the end of December. This means we will be sixty miles away from cream, produce, and, well, pretty much everything else.*

Serious, serious bummer.

* Barring a last-minute sale to a new owner, that is. However, considering that the business has been for sale for over a year with no buyers, I'm not counting on that.

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.