Friday Food: Fair Photos!

This was a crazy week, with the county fair, me at work most of the week, Cubby at football practice most days, and way too much heat. But everyone was fed.

Friday 

Short version: Leftover beef goulash with egg noodles, frozen peas

Long version: Not much to report, except that egg noodles are much better than eggless pasta. In my opinion, anyway.

Saturday

Short version: Fair food, and PBJ

Long version: This was our big day at the County Fair. 

This day of the fair starts with a parade at which much candy is thrown. Thus, the bags.

The line-up for the National Anthem before the kids' rodeo.

At which Cubby the Cowboy rode a steer. Calvin did, too, but he didn't have the hat and boots.

All the excitement isn't over until around 6 p.m., so we got the kids dinner at the 4-H concession stand. The only thing available was a hot dog meal that came with either chips or a full-size candy bar. So that's what they all got, and they all chose the candy bar.

Calvin was the only one who didn't want a hot dog. He came home and had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. 

I was so hot and tired, all I ate was some cottage cheese.

Sunday

Short version: Sausage in tomato/cream sauce, leftover noodles, Blue Ribbon carrots, raw green beans

Long version: Breakfast sausage fried in small patties, to which I added some pizza sauce I had made and then some heavy cream. 

We brought home the three carrots that A. entered into the fair, for which he got a first-place ribbon. They were pretty bendy and wrinkled after sitting out in the exhibition hall for three days, but I certainly wasn't going to throw them out. So I roasted them. They were delicious.

Monday

Short version: Pizza, leftover goulash, carrot sticks

Long version: I went back to work this day for a full day of teacher in-service stuff, so I prepped all of this ahead of time. I made the pizza dough and pre-baked it the day before when I was baking bread, plus made pizza sauce. So when I got home, all I had to do was top the dough with the sauce and my handy pre-shredded asadero from the freezer--plus the two leftover sausage patties diced up to top the smaller pizza--and bake it about fifteen minutes.

A. and I had the goulash. It wasn't as good as the pizza. But then, very few things are.

Tuesday

Short version: Hamburgers, leftover pizza, steamed broccoli

Long version: Cubby started playing football this week, with the first two days of practices from 6 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.

That's a LOT of calories burned. 

I knew he would be coming home starving (once he had recovered from all the running in the heat--the heat this week was the reason the practices started so early), and I was at work all day so I wouldn't be here to feed him when he got home.

So I had A. buy some ground beef when he was at the store and I made pre-made hamburger patties to keep in the freezer that A. could cook for Cubby when he got home.

There were some of those left, so I made those for dinner.

Our neighbor is bringing a steer to the butcher for us next week and I will be sooooo happy to have not-store ground beef again.

These were on display on Main Street during the county parade. They are real, and kind of terrifying.

Wednesday

Short version: Cafeteria food, omelets, ice cream

Long version: There was a bunch of lasagna, corn, and garlic bread left from the teachers' provided lunch at school after this in-service day that the cook asked us to take home. And I was very happy to do so, because that meant I didn't have to cook for the kids.

I had a little ice cream left, which I promised the kids they could have if they behaved themselves at school for the whole four hours A. and I both had to be in a required CPR/First Aid training. They did--mostly thanks to a couple of teachers who already had the certification and kept them occupied--so they got the ice cream.

Thursday

Short version: Meat and potatoes, cucumbers with salt and vinegar

Long version: Diced potatoes boiled in the juices from a jar of bull meat, then I added the meat, plus garlic powder, salt, pepper, and paprika.

Cucumbers from the garden. Finally.

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

Remote Living, Part 13: Trash Talk

Just a quick one today, with two questions.  Because "Let no questions be left unanswered" is my motto.

What do you do with garbage if you have no garbage pick-up?

As with so many things here, we do it ourselves. 

The villages have what are called transfer stations. These are places with really big dumpsters where locals bring their trash, and then the trash is trucked out eventually.

We go about every other Friday and bring a few bags of trash to the transfer station about ten miles away. And when I say "we," I mean "A. and Poppy." Poppy LOVES going to get rid of trash. The stop at the small store in the village for a treat that she usually manages to charm out of Daddy might have something to do with it.

Edited to add: The comment from Linda reminded me that I should have said I do burn cardboard and paper in a burn barrel. Burn barrels are, uh, barrels. Made of metal, so they won't melt while you're burning things.

What about recycling?

Unfortunately, that does not exist here. As far as I'm aware, the closest recycling center is a two-hour drive. So we don't recycle.

Edited to add because man, I was tired when I wrote this and forgot stuff: Except! All food waste is taken care of either by the chickens, the dogs, or the compost pile. I consider that recycling. The chickens recycle the scraps into eggs, the compost recycles it into garden fertilizer, and the dogs . . . okay, the dogs don't really recycle it. They just eat it. But they keep the coyotes away, so they're worth a few scraps.

Let's end with a photo, shall we?

We may not have garbage pick-up, but we can ride a horse anytime we want. Trade-offs.

T.T.: DIY Shredded Cheese

There are many foods that I don't buy. Bread. Yogurt. Pasta sauce. And shredded cheese.

Let's talk about that last one, shall we?

I have never in my life purchased shredded cheese. There are a couple of reasons for this. 

One is that it has added ingredients that are meant to keep it from molding and sticking together. While these ingredients are not necessarily harmful, I also don't really need them in my cheese.

The other is that shredded cheese costs a lot more. And we eat a LOT of cheese, so the price difference would make a very big difference in how much I spend at the grocery store.

I get that it's convenient, though, which is why I am here to make home-shredded cheese just as convenient!

Okay, no. You do still have to do the shredding, so it's not just as convenient as buying those little flat bags of pre-shredded cheese, but it's more convenient than having a block of cheese in the refrigerator mocking you for not having shredded it.

Does your cheese not do that? Weird.

Anyway.

Tip one: If you have it, use a food processor. Mine has a shredding disc that goes on top of the turning thingie, so I can feed small blocks of cheese down the tube and the machine shreds it for me. 

If you don't have a food processor, you're stuck with a grater. Box graters are sturdier and work better for grating a lot of cheese at once, in my opinion.

Once the cheese is grated, it's on to step two: Store it flat in the freezer.

If you only have a small amount, you can put it in a quart-size zip-top freezer bag. I usually use a gallon-size bag, because I'm dealing with a lot of cheese. Either way, after it's in the bag, distribute the cheese evenly in the bag so the bag is flat.

You require a visual? So happy to oblige!

Look! Flat cheese! (This is asadero cheese.)

The reason this is crucial is that you want to be able to remove just some of the cheese when you need it. Even we, prodigious cheese-eaters that we are, do not use a gallon of shredded cheese at a time. And if I were to freeze it in a big lump, I couldn't easily remove just part of it. It's not as if you can quick-defrost in the microwave, since cheese has that tendency to, well, melt.

If it's flat, though, you can just whack the flat bag of cheese on the edge of the counter to break it up a bit and remove what you want. 

It's fun. Releases aggression, you know.

You can also freeze the shredded cheese in a flat layer on a parchment-paper-lined baking sheet and then transfer it to the bag, but I try to avoid extra steps like that whenever possible.

So! Next time you're at the store and find a good price on block cheese, just take it home and shred it yourself, store it flat in the freezer, and pat yourself on the back for your thrifty ways every time you take your very own shredded cheese out of the freezer.

Monday Bouquets: County Fair Flowers

It was County Fair Weekend!

That's a big deal here. 

There were many things I could have entered for judging--for me, that would be mostly baked goods or canned things--but in th end, I brought flowers.

I did the initial arranging outside as the sun was coming up. Dramatic, no?

I added a couple more things to it when I got it inside. 

It basically got a Participation ribbon, which is fine. I wasn't all that pleased with how this one came out, and there were several very nice arrangements there.

Since my usual Fancy Vase (ahem) was at the fair over the weekend, I used my Less Fancy Vase to put some sunflowers on the table.

Topo Chico and sunflowers: A perfect match.

I actually didn't have anything on the table for a whole half day, a fact that was noted by Poppy, who informed me I needed some flowers. She's in for a rude shock this winter. 

Snapshots: All Roads Lead To Butter

There is no way to get to our county without driving some pretty rough roads. Paved, but bumpy. The highway department knows this, and wants to alert drivers to this fact before they venture into the great emptiness.

Can confirm.

Once my mom brought me some heavy cream when she came to visit, and by the time she got here, it had been agitated enough in the cooler that it was almost butter.

A road AND a churn! Now that's efficiency.

I forget what prompted this next photo. Other than persistent hamminess.

If the camera is out, she will want it to be taking a picture of her.

A campout in the kitchen.

We're at the height of roadside sunflower season right now. Both in terms of their actual height, and their quantity. (That's the moon up there setting.)

This last picture immediately makes me let a deep breath out and relax. Because it is what I see when I come out of Poppy's room after putting her to bed. It means my day is done. (Well, assuming she actually goes to sleep and doesn't require more tucking in or water or other classic toddler sleep-delaying tactics.)

Ahhhh.

And there you have it! My life, snapshotted.

Friday Food: Four Food Photos

Friday 

Short version: Mystery meat, bread and butter, frozen peas

Long version: I pulled out two bags of red meat from the freezer that were labeled "neck roast." The question is: The bull's neck, or the ram's neck?

If it was from the ram, it would get tender in a reasonable amount of time. If it was the bull, it would, um, not. So I decided to play it safe and pressure cook it. That way, it would cook in a reasonable amount of time no matter what it was.

I cooked it with onion, garlic, and some of the leftover pasta sauce. Then, at dinnertime, I fried it in the tallow rendered while it was cooking and added the rest of the pasta sauce, plus some asadero cheese.

It came out well, and A. positively identified it as sheep meat.

I really need to start labeling meat more specifically.

Saturday

Short version: Tacos, raw green beans, pinto beans. collard greens

Long version: I didn't have quite enough of the ram meat left for everyone, so I added a can of commodities beef we got from someone.

Canned meat seems sketchy, but the ingredients are literally just the meat and salt. So it's just like the meat I pressure can. 

Well, the texture is a little different--shreddier--but that's probably because that meat wasn't from a mature bull.

The collard greens have definitely been an unsung hero in the garden this year. They volunteered, and while every other plant is bolting in the heat or getting eaten by various species of caterpillar or grasshopper, they keep soldiering on.

I need to remember to use more of the jars of pinto beans I pressure canned some time ago. I still have at least 12 pint jars left, and plenty more dried beans in the pantry.

Sunday

Short version: Roast chicken, roasted potatoes and onions, roasted garlic, green salad with ranch dressing, pots de creme

Long version: Poppy always goes with A. to feed the chickens. When one of the meat chickens pecked her in his zeal to get at the food she was carrying, she declared "Off with his head!"

Maybe not those exact words, but she was of the opinion that he was ready for the oven. A. was happy to oblige. He did the actual killing, as well as the scalding (dunking it in hot water--makes it easier to get the feathers out) and singeing (with fire, to get the little hair-like feathers off), but Poppy and Jack did most of the plucking, and Cubby did the gutting.

A.'s ultimate goal is to turn the entire butchering process over to the children.

Anyway.

I cooked it with butter, garlic, lemon, and rosemary. Once again, it was a very big chicken.

Very tasty, too.

We dug the potatoes earlier in the day. Not as large as some potatoes we've grown in the past, but certainly a good return on the dozen or so potatoes we put in the ground last fall.

Also tasty.

The salad was mostly beet greens, with a token amount of lettuce and spinach from the small plants I currently have in the garden. Summer-planting greens really does not work here. Too hot and dry.

Cubby chose the pots de creme. That is far and away the most-requested dessert since I've started letting them choose.

Monday

Short version: Chicken and vegetable curry, rice, garlic bread

Long version: Pretty basic curry with leftover chicken, onion, carrots, and peas, with the interesting addition of green tomatoes. I had several green tomatoes on the counter that had come off the plants while Poppy and I were hunting for caterpillars (the pest situation this year is OFF THE CHARTS--post coming soon). They were green enough that there was no possibility they would turn red on the counter, so I chopped them all up and threw them in the curry. They cooked right down and were unnoticeable in the finished product.

Before they cooked down, though, they looked very pretty:

I just love colorful vegetables.

Tuesday

Short version: Leftovers

Long version: For the kids, I made chicken and gravy with the last of the leftover chicken and the juices, plus cornstarch and milk. I added some peas to that, too, and put it over leftover rice for them.

A. and I had the last of the ram/beef taco meat fried with leftover collard greens and some onion I had roasted with the chicken.

And then we all had cherries, because I had an appointment in the Outside World this day, and never miss an opportunity to take advantage of the all-too-fleeting season in which cherries are available at the store. These were particularly good ones, too.

Wednesday

Short version: Scrambled eggs, pinto beans, quesadillas, raw green beans, collard greens

Long version: A. had scrambled eggs with feta, plus some leftover collard greens.

The children had the eggs, beans, and cheese quesadillas I made with the very exciting flour tortillas purchased at the grocery store.

Flour tortillas are a rare treat (their ingredient list is a bit alarming), so that made a meal of scrambled eggs a bit more acceptable to the children. They also had the raw green beans.

I had a salad, with this exciting addition:

The first of what I hope will be many. If I can fend off the many, many insects bent on tomato destruction this year.

Thursday

Short version: Beef goulash with sauerkraut and carrots, mashed potatoes, carrot sticks with ranch dip, vanilla ice cream with chocolate shell

Long version: I actually made the goulash the day before, when it was cool and cloudy. The sauerkraut was some I had made from a store cabbage awhile ago. There wasn't enough of it to can, so I just put a couple of bags in the freezer.

The kids got ice cream because I needed to bribe them so I could cut the boys' hair. You may recall bribery was my most important tip about cutting boys' hair. Ice cream is an excellent bribe.

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

Remote Living: Gifted Animals

As you might have gathered from my "Vitals" column over there on the right, we have a lot of animals. And many of them were given to us.

Most of our chickens were given to us by neighbors.

Our meat rabbits were given to us by a neighbor.

Samson was given to us by a teacher at the school.

And now, from another teacher, we have . . .

Everyone, meet Bill.

Bill is a Welsh mountain pony. I think of ponies as stocky, furry little things, but Bill really just looks like a miniature horse. He belongs to the teacher's son, who used him for his very young daughter a few years ago.

We weren't sure how much training Bill had. Turns out, almost none.

He may have been fine for leading a little child around a few years ago, but it's clear that whatever training he had then has been forgotten. It took A. fifteen minutes to catch him in the smaller paddock just to get a halter on him. It seems a safe bet that he's been running around in a pasture for the past few years with no contact with a halter, much less a saddle.

Luckily, he seems to have a very good temperament, which will help. Because A. is going to have to train him. And Cubby is going to have to ride him during the training. Bill is too small to carry A. around, so Cubby is our most experienced rider Bill can comfortably carry.

Cubby and Calvin are happy to have a more lively horse to ride, because geriatric Samson pretty much tops out now at walking a quarter mile to the post office with Poppy on his back. He's a great first horse for a small child, but the older children are ready for more of a challenge.

And I think Bill is just the pony for the job.