Friday Food: Still Tomatoes, Hooray!

Friday 

Short version: Tuna/rice/cheese skillet, eggs for me

Long version: I had extra cheese sauce still from when I made the cheesy potatoes a few days previously, and a bunch of already-cooked rice, so I made a skillet meal with those, plus a can of tuna, onion, mayonnaise, and green peas. Sort of like tuna-noodle casserole, but in a skillet and with rice.

It was very pale and creamy. Not much to look at, but it tasted pretty good. Everyone liked it.

And to continue my inadvertent "Fridays are for eggs" theme, I had a couple of fried eggs with leftover calabacita vegetables.

Saturday

Short version: Green chili hamburger soup, garlic bread

Long version: Still working my way through the roasted green chilis we froze last fall so I can start using the multiple bags given to me by Miss Amelia. It was only about 80 degrees this day, so I could get away with soup. And I used one of the multiple containers of frozen sheep stock that's been in the freezer since we butchered the wether in the spring, so that was nice.

I don't know what it is about those roasted chilis, but they make anything with meat waaaay better than you would think. Are they like mushrooms? Is there an element of umami there? Has anyone studied this? I would legitimately like to know.

Sunday

Short version: Pasta with chicken for the kids, vegetables with chicken for the adults, chocolate pudding

Long version: It was another day over 90 degrees, so I cooked the chicken--fully frozen legs, just simmered in salted water until I could pull the meat off--intending to make chicken salad. But when I pulled the chicken out of the pot to begin shredding it, the meat was still warm. And I had a bowl of tomatoes on the counter. And a head of already-roasted garlic in the refrigerator. And basil in the garden. And already-shredded asadero in the freezer.

So I made a pasta sauce instead and put the chicken in that.

The box of pasta I cooked for the kids were these tiny elbow shapes, and let me tell you, with those small shapes, there is a LOT of pasta packed into a pretty small box. I had way more pasta in the pot than I was expecting, and not enough chicken and sauce. So to the pasta I also added a couple of cubes of garlic scape pesto, some butter, and a little half and half.

A. and I had our chicken with sauteed calabacita/onion/tomato/garlic. Is it getting old? Never.

The pudding was actually two packets of instant chocolate pudding that was in a box of food given to us by the guy who runs the tiny store in the village. One of the elderly residents of the village gave it to him because that person couldn't use it all. He's a single guy, so he passed it along to us. This happens literally almost every week now. If it takes a village to raise (and feed) a child, we are in the right place.

Anyway. I forgot all about the pudding, but Cubby didn't. As soon as we got home from church, he announced that he would make Sunday dessert. After perusing cookbooks, and hearing Jack's announcement that he was tired of cookies (say what?), Cubby decided to make the pudding. Being instant, it literally took two minutes to mix and put in the refrigerator. 

I admit I was a bit skeptical of it, but it was really pretty good. The texture was thinner than homemade, but the taste was more chocolate-y than I was expecting. And it sure was convenient. Especially because I didn't have to stand at the stove stirring pudding for 45 minutes.

Monday

Short version: Chicken patty sandwiches and raw tomatoes for the kids, leftover green chili soup for the adults, watermelon

Long version: Yup, there's those convenient and slightly unwholesome chicken patties again. What can I say? It was a work day. I was tired.

The watermelon was one of our Moon and Stars ones. It was good. Not great, but pretty good.

Small, but mighty.

Tuesday

Short version: Bunless cheeseburgers, roasted potatoes, green salad with ranch dressing

Long version: These were more of the par-cooked and frozen roasted potatoes that I just finished roasting from frozen for about twenty minutes in the oven.

The salad was very satisfying. The lettuce, tomatoes, and carrots in it all came from the garden, as did the dried dill weed in the ranch dressing. Cubby's lettuce was appreciated by all.

Wednesday

Short version: Italian sliders with fried tomatoes, leftover pasta with chicken for the kids, mashed squash

Long version: I saved just enough of the ground beef from Tuesday to make a few sliders. A. and I ate most of those, while the kids went for the pasta. Of course.

Thursday

Short version: Pork chops, garlic bread, roasted tomatoes and garlic, raw carrots and green beans

Long version: Miss Amelia gave us a pork loin roast, which I cut into chops. My last batch of yogurt turned out very thin--don't know why; the next batch was normal--and I had about a cup of that left. So I used it to make a marinade with salt, pepper, garlic powder, and paprika. Then I just fried the pork at dinnertime. It came out pretty well.

Oh, and here's a photo of A.'s garlic before he harvested it.

With some feral children just for fun. Someone give that girl a haircut. Oh wait. Someone did.

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

The Fourth First

The First Haircut is a classic example of what happens the more children a person has. Let me offer my own children for illustration.

Cubby the Firstborn's first haircut was at an actual salon. He wore a little cape with colorful frogs on it; I took a picture; and I paid ten dollars for the experience.

Charlie the Second Born's first haircut was in the bathtub when I noticed his hair when wet was entirely too long. No cape, no photos of the event, although I did get a couple of photos of his hair after it was done.

I have no recollection whatsoever of Jack the Third Born's first haircut. Definitely no photos, no post, not even any memory of it.

Then there's Poppy the Fourth Born's first haircut. I have a picture of it, but only because it happened in our kitchen and because A. was her stylist.

His services are very reasonably priced.

The only reason she got a haircut is because she demanded it after watching A. cut my hair.

I asked him to do this because my hair had gotten really kind of ridiculously long. I usually get it cut about every six months. Last year, that was when we were in New York in the summer, and thus only ten miles from a salon, and when I took my solo trip to a small city overnight in January, and thus had time to myself in close proximity to a salon.

I am not now, however, in close proximity to a salon, nor do I wish to drive 90 miles to get to one. So I asked A. if he could cut my hair.

Now. My hair is long, which is forgiving of, um, slightly irregular haircuts and mistakes, but it is also very curly. The curls are the tricky part. I always ask for layers. So this wasn't a snip straight across the bottom I was asking for.

However, A. is a handy guy who enjoys new challenges, so he did some YouTube research and announced himself ready. 

He collected his supplies--a comb, my sewing scissors, and two hair ties--asked me to wet and comb out my hair, and then had me sit in a kitchen chair with my head hanging down, as you see Poppy doing in the above photo.

He had decided it would be best to use the methods for self-cutting curly hair, but to do it for me. This involves combing all the hair over the hanging head and putting it in a ponytail before trimming, then sectioning some off in another ponytail and trimming again for the layering. 

There was a third ponytail for a third layer, but it would have made my hair in front too short to pull back, which is a key concern for me. So he just did the two.

It came out well. Poppy's came out even better. A. was very pleased with his handiwork, as he should be, and I am very pleased that I no longer have to try to find a way to drive a hundred miles and pay 30 dollars for a haircut.

So now I cut the boys' hair, A. cuts the girls', and we all live happily ever after. 

The End.

Mr. Green Thumb Strikes Again

 

Master Cubby

(Not at all chubby)

How does your garden grow?

With lettuce heads,

And snowpea beds,

And everything all in a row.

A few weeks ago, when A. and I were planting peas, carrots (successful), sprouting broccoli, and collard greens (not so much), Cubby asked if he could have some seeds for a fall garden.

A. showed him where he could plant, I gave him lettuce, snowpea, and cabbage seeds, and he dug out some trenches and made himself a garden.

I suggested to him today that perhaps he needed to thin his lettuce and gave him a bowl for the thinnings. This is what he brought in:

Boom.

If a green thumb is real, then Cubby has it. On both hands. 

Not that this is totally unexpected. I mean, he did start successfully solo gardening when he was five years old. And he was the reserve champion for vegetables at the county fair last year.

Maybe by the time he's fifteen he'll have a market garden and I can buy all my produce from him. I wouldn't be surprised.

Friday Food: It's Tomato and Green Bean Season!

 

Friday

Short version: Scrambled eggs with bacon and cheese, pinto beans, rice, green beans

Long version: Fridays are apparently for scrambled eggs now. But this time I had a couple of pieces of bacon to chop and cook first, and eggs cooked in bacon grease are definitely the best kind of eggs.

A. took all the kids except Charlie with him when he went to get hay. They all wanted to see the camels that live near the hay place. Charlie wanted to see the camels, too, but he wanted even more to stay at home and not have to go anywhere after finishing his first week of school.

I can sympathize.

So Charlie and I stayed home and made some brownies. He doesn't care much about cooking, and Cubby tends to commandeer all the patience I have to help a kid in the kitchen, so Charlie never cooks anything. I do want him to learn, too, though, so we made some brownies together. He got to have one, of course, but then I froze the rest for our Sunday dessert.

Saturday

Short version: Italian sliders, garlic bread, tomato salad

Long version: Another Saturday, another bread-baking day. And more garlic bread.

No one complained.

Sunday

Short version: Pork stir-fry, rice, brownies

Long version: I put a pork sirloin roast in the oven at 5:30 a.m. and left it there until about 10:30 a.m. Then I pulled it apart and used some of the chunks in the stir-fry, which also had onions, carrots, green beans, and banana peppers from the garden. I've never used slow-cooked pork in stir-fry before. It was good, although the texture was a little surprising. Softer than usual.

Monday

Short version: Loose meat sandwiches or pork and rice, tomato salad

Long version: I had just enough ground beef left from Saturday to cook with some onion and barbecue sauce when I got home from work so all the kids could have a sandwich. A. and I had some of the leftover pork fried, carnitas style. I had mine with leftover calabacita/tomato/onion/garlic, and it was really good.

I just love summer vegetables.

Tuesday

Short version: Breakfast sausage patties, potatoes and cheese sauce, raw green beans, sauteed calabacitas and tomatoes

Long version: The only reason I made the potatoes was because I really needed to finish up the rest of the box of Sysco potatoes. Some were starting to liquefy, which is really disgusting. I also had some Velveeta cheese that was in the one of the many boxes of foodstuffs given to us by neighbors, plus a gallon of milk that was at its "sell by" date. So I figured cheese sauce was called for.

I made the potatoes in the morning and put the casserole in the refrigerator. Then, at dinnertime, I just microwaved the casserole until it was hot and stuck it under the broiler to get it a bit brown on top. It's really better baked for 45 minutes or so, but that is not happening when it's still over 90 degrees every day.

I used half Velveeta and half cheddar, and as soon as he tasted it, Cubby said, "This isn't cheddar." No, not entirely.

They all ate it without further comment, though, so I guess it was okay. Velveeta is definitely a weird cheese product, though.

A. has our shared cell phone in the school bus now, so I haven't been taking any pictures. So, to avoid a completely photo-less post, here's an old one.

Cubby in the great emptiness on their elk scouting expedition.

Wednesday

Short version: Chicken patty sandwiches for the kids, leftover pork for the adults, raw tomatoes and green beans

Long version: The maintenance guy at school came to find me at work this day to ask if I wanted a dairy box and some chicken patties. 

The dairy box is a USDA program box that has a gallon of milk, a quart of half and half, two containers of cottage cheese, and a large container of sour cream. They're part of the commodities program here, which provides food to most of the elderly residents in our county. There were two extra boxes left at the school a few weeks ago, and the same guy happened to see us at the track after church that Sunday and asked us to take them so they wouldn't go to waste. 

OKAY.

So we got another of those boxes, and then this huge bag of chicken patties, complete with fake grill marks on the outside. I guess those were also part of the commodities delivery. I fried four of those for the kids in a pan with butter and they had them as sandwiches. They were all very happy with them. Perhaps not the most wholesome of foods, but a nice treat for them occasionally, and certainly convenient, as the patties cook from frozen.

Thursday

Short version: Pot roast, rice or leftover cheesy potatoes, sauteed green beans and tomatoes, mashed squash

Long version: I put the beef pot roast in the oven in the morning. I like to cook pot roasts with something tomato-y, so I used a small can of generic low-sodium tomato soup that one of our neighbors gave us in a box of commodities food. It was low in flavor as well as sodium, so when I re-heated the meat for dinner, I added salt, along with a cube of the garlic scape pesto I had in the freezer. It turned out well.

The meat cooked for several hours, and while it was in there, I also cooked one of the big winter squash from a plant in the front that the horse had accidentally separated from the vine. I don't think it was quite done maturing, but it was okay.

I also stuck a head of garlic in the oven to roast, and used some of that with the green beans and tomatoes. Yum.

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

Masks Are the New Mittens

 

One of the most annoying things for me about winter weather is making sure all of my children have two mittens (or gloves) before we leave the house. So many hours of my life have been wasted searching backpacks, pockets, and cars, or throwing every hat and mitten out of the box by the door looking for a matched pair. Or at least a left and right of something, anything to cover hands.

I do this a lot less now that we don't live in the far north, and I am still grateful for it.

But now! Now each child needs a face covering every time we leave the house! And those face coverings are small masks that are liable to get left behind wherever they go. The boys are pretty good about hanging theirs up by the door or keeping them in their backpacks. If the masks make it home.

But Poppy . . . Poppy is the Bermuda Triangle of masks. Hers just disappear. Sometimes in the house, sometimes in the car, sometimes . . . I don't even know. 

Right now I have one for her on the bus, one in my purse, one presumably lost in the car, and one I think got lost in the house. I'm running out of masks for her and might eventually resort to duct taping her masks onto her ears so she can't just take them off and fling them any old where.

Just kidding. 

It is annoying, though.

The End of an Era

 Poppy has always had her own idea of when the appropriate time is to reach milestones. 

She quit nursing on her own cold-turkey when she was 14 months old.

She decided she was ready to use the toilet at around two years old, and three months later, we were done with diapers entirely.

She insisted I remove her booster seat from her chair at the table about a month ago. Her chin is now about level with the table unless she kneels on her chair, but she was done with that booster and there was to be no discussion about it.

And now, the crib has been retired.

Bunk bed ahoy.

That was the bed my brother made for his daughters when they were sharing a room. When they decided they wanted their own rooms, they each got a single bed and he asked us if we had any use for a bunk bed. We didn't at the time, but I knew we would need a bed for Poppy eventually, so A. brought it back with him from his trip to Tucson for Thanksgiving last year.

Then it sat in the barn for several months. But today, we hauled it out, hosed it off, and set it up. 

It was a little sad retiring the crib that has been in constant use since Cubby was born. That's more than a decade of putting babies in that old, hand-me-down crib with the cheesy lambs painted on the side that we got from my friend Alyssa.

But there's nothing but big kids in this house now, so out goes the crib and in goes the big bed.

Sniff.

Friday Food: Back to School

 

Friday

Short version: Scrambled eggs, rice, pinto beans, raw green beans and carrot thinnings

Long version: Oh look! A picture of quite unexciting food!

This is Jack's plate. The red stuff on his eggs is hot sauce, because he's a good New Mexican boy.

Saturday

Short version: Bunless hamburgers, garlic bread, fried mushrooms, roasted sweet potatoes/bell peppers/onion/Delicata squash

Long version: This was the first Delicata squash from the single plant that sprouted from the six seeds I planted. I put one piece on each of the children's plates, because they'd never had it before. None of the boys like squash, and they didn't like this, either. Poppy did, though. 

Sunday

Short version: Pork steaks, boiled potatoes, corn on the cob, chocolate chip cookies

Long version: Both the corn and the cookies were courtesy of Cubby. (That's some pleasingly inadvertent alliteration right there.)

He went with A. to get firewood last week some distance away, and they stopped at a store on the way home. Cubby spied the sweet corn in the produce section and asked A. to get some. So he did, and the children were very happy.

Cubby was also responsible for the cookies. He wandered into the kitchen at 3:30 p.m. and announced that he would take care of our Sunday dessert. He wanted to make cookies, which was not something I would have done in an 84-degree kitchen, but that was his choice. Unfortunately, we didn't have enough butter in the refrigerator and I had to get some out of the freezer. So the only cookie recipe he could make was the one from his cookbook that calls for melting the butter.

Those are the best chocolate chip cookies anyway, so it was fine.

Random photo break! Another from the elk scouting trip last week. 

This one includes Odin the One-Eyed Guard Dog, who drove off something very large from the campsite overnight. A. didn't see whatever it was, but he heard it crashing as it fled from Odin, so he's guessing it was a bear. Elk aren't likely to visit a campsite, and those were the only two large animals in the area. Good dog, Odin.

Monday

Short version: Overnight brisket, rice, frozen green peas

Long version: This was our first day of school for the year. This year, given the new requirements for class size and so on, I'm acting as assistant for the Kindergarten/1st grade teacher and essentially working as a classroom teacher. I knew it would be exhausting the first day, and I would not be brimming with cooking energy by the time we all got home. That's why I cooked the brisket the night before in the oven and then just sliced it in the morning and stuck it back in the refrigerator.

When we got home, I heated the brisket with barbecue sauce, made rice, and nuked some peas.

Then I lay down in bed to rest "for a minute" and actually fell asleep for about half an hour at 6 p.m.

Good call on making that brisket ahead of time.

Tuesday

Short version: Chicken, mashed potatoes, tomato salad, roasted calabacita and onions

Long version: This chicken was a clearance package of lemon-pepper seasoned giant chicken legs. There were four of the legs, and there was no way all of them were fitting in the skillet I started browning them in. So then I had to transfer the browned chicken to a 400 degree oven. It was much too hot in the kitchen for that, and it took a lot longer to cook them than I anticipated. 

It was 6 p.m. before we sat down to eat. We usually eat at 5 p.m. But at least there was tomato salad.

It's always exciting to have the first tomato salad of the season. I didn't have any asadero cheese for it, which I prefer, but just the tomatoes and basil with balsamic vinegar and olive oil was delicious.

Wednesday

Short version: Various foods in various combinations

Long version: Another work day for me, and also a rather hot day. My kingdom for a Wendy's.

However. 

Absent any options for food made by someone else, I went with my original plan. That is, I made some taco meat with the leftover shredded chicken by just putting the chicken in a skillet with a couple of tablespoons of salsa, and some chili powder and cumin. Charlie, Jack, and Poppy ate that in corn tortillas with cheese. They also had some green beans.

Cubby had some of the chicken on its own, plus the rest of the leftover mashed potatoes and some green beans.

A. had leftover brisket, leftover rice, and some leftover peas.

I had a salad with some of the leftover brisket in it. And I managed to stay awake until 8:30 p.m., so, you know, progress.

Thursday

Short version: Italian sliders, pasta with pesto, sauteed calabacita and tomatoes with garlic, frozen peas

Long version: The sliders are those small hamburgers seasoned like meatballs. Poppy and I made the pesto in the morning while we were watering the gardens and harvesting things, which included the tomatoes.

A. took a photo of our harvest for you:

That round pink thing in the front is a watermelon that wasn't quite ripe. It was at least as good as your average seedless watermelon, but definitely not all the way ready. There are about five more still on the vines, however, so we have great hopes that this will be the year we grow our own delicious seeded watermelons.

A. wants everyone (where "everyone"= "my mom") to see that I am not lacking fresh vegetables. So there. You see. I have many, many vegetables.

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