Friday Food: Pie for Breakfast

Friday 

Short version: Beef stir-fry, rice

Long version: Nah.

Saturday

Short version: Meatloaf, baked potatoes, baked fennel, green salad

Long version: I remembered to add extra fat to the meatloaf (this time some lard rendered off the pork roast I had made a few days before), and it was good. Yay me!

The fennel also had extra fat in it, inadvertently. I got the fennel in my Misfits Market delivery, and the children immediately claimed the stalks. They like to eat it like celery. That leaves me with just the bulb, which I sliced and baked in the oven with cream and butter. I did it the day before when I was baking bread, and then re-heated it with the meatloaf. 

Unfortunately, whether because of the rest and re-heating, or because of our fake "cream" with all its additives, the end result tasted good but was very greasy. Like all the milk solids had been absorbed by the fennel and the oil had rendered out. Kind of strange, but tasty. I do love fennel.

Sunday

Short version: Pot roast with potatoes and carrots, garlic bread, pureed squash, peach/blueberry pie with vanilla ice cream

Long version: I had just a little ice cream left from the week before, so Cubby and I made the pie to go with it. We used frozen blueberries and peaches, because that's what I had. They have to be thawed and drained, lest they make the pie all soggy, and the resulting juice made a nice little treat. There was just a bit, which meantI didn't share it.

I had just emptied the small jug I use for maple syrup, so I shook some warm water in there to get the last bit of syrup out and then put that in the juice.

Delicious.

The pie crust came out perfectly. Unfortunately, frozen peaches are nowhere near as flavorful as fresh peaches. The filling was a bit bland. I put a little more sugar on it, and that helped. 

And yes, I did allow the children to have the leftover pie for breakfast the next morning with heavy cream. Healthier than Pop-Tarts, anyway, and it made for a good start to the school week.

Monday

Short version: Spaghetti for the kids, leftover meatloaf for the adults, frozen peas

Long version: I had made marinara sauce on Saturday, knowing I would need something easy after work on Monday. I used that sauce for the spaghetti, along with some pressure-canned bull meat that I broke down further with my handy-dandy immersion blender, and some Latino cheese (our local Parmesan substitute). 

The children loved it, and wished I had made more. Why I only made half the box of spaghetti is a question yet to be answered. You'd think I would have learned by now that there really isn't any such thing as too much pasta.

Tuesday

Short version: Breakfast sausage patties, lentils, leftover rice, green salad with ranch dressing

Long version: I had made some lentil soup over the weekend. I love lentil soup, but the children were only lukewarm on the soup by itself. The lentils make a good side dish with sausage, though, so I scooped out the lentils from the broth for them, and ate the soup myself.

Wednesday

Short version: Extremely sloppy joes, carrot sticks with ranch dip

Long version: This was a long day. I had a meeting after work, so the children stayed at school with me, and we all didn't get home until almost 5:45 p.m. We typically eat between 5 and 5:30, so this was a very late night for us.

Given the time constraints, I decided to go with the path of least resistance, which meant dumping barbecue sauce in with the rest of the blended canned bull meat, then adding shredded cheese and heating it all up together. 

This mixture looked an awful lot like canned dog food, but its unaesthetic appearance is not so not noticeable when it's between two slices of bread. It was quite wet and sloppy, though, for sure.

Thursday

Short version: Ground beef taco meat, homemade flour tortillas, homemade refried beans

Long version: I redeemed myself from the day before's lackluster meal with a Mexican feast. I didn't have any particular reason for making all of this on a random Thursday, other than I actually went to the effort to make the tortillas (using this recipe), so I figured I might as well do the other stuff.

Most frequently when I say the kids have "tacos," what I mean is storebought corn tortillas heated with cheese and whatever meat I've made with taco spices. That's it. Maybe salsa and sour cream if they're lucky. But this time, thanks to my produce delivery the day before, I had lettuce AND tomatoes. 

On REALLY special taco nights, we have avocados, too, but even this is pretty exciting for us.

I did use a can of secondary commodities black beans this time to make the refried beans, instead of my own home-canned pinto beans, but even canned beans are good when made into refried beans. Recipe coming soon to a Tuesday Tips near you.

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

T.T.: Reduce, Reduce, Reduce

I make a lot of stock. I have spent years making a lot of stock. This is what happens when you raise animals and butcher them: There are lots of bones, and therefore, lots of stock.

The big problem with stock, however, is that it takes up a lot of space. If you freeze it, you end up with big quantities of stock in the freezer. If you pressure-can it (my preference), you end up with dozens of jars of stock.

It's just a lot of real estate for meat-water, you know?

Given my continous making of stock, and therefore continous problem with storage of stock, you'd think it wouldn't have taken me literally years to realize that because stock is mostly water, I could reduce the water significantly and make a stock concentrate that would then take up significantly less space.

Years! But better late than never, I guess.

So now whenever I make stock, I continue simmering the stock after I've strained out the solids. I do this for however long it takes to reduce the stock by half, usually at least a few more hours. That way, I only have seven quarts to can or freeze, instead of fourteen.

Stock reducing after pressure cooking the roosters and straining the liquid out . . .

Until it fits in my 8-quart pot, at which point I have just about enough for a pressure-canner load of 7 quart jars.

This makes a very, very concentrated stock. And it is delicious. The water can be added back when you drink it or cook with it if you want, but really, the stock is so much better when it's left pretty strong.

And that's it! Reduce your stock, both for space-saving purposes and much better flavor. 

(Still can't believe it took me so long to think of this.)

Snapshots: Little Squirrels

My friend received a giant bag of pecans in the shell, third- or fourth-hand from someone's tree. She wisely concluded that there was no way she was going to be cracking all those shells to extract the pecans, and asked if I would like some. 

Sure! We have a nutcracker, and I have four little squirrels who enjoy nuts. 

The great benefit of nuts in the shell is that it's not just a snack, it's an event. 

Plus, it's a handy indicator of if a child is truly hungry, or just whiny. Because they'll only spend all that time cracking nuts if they really need the calories.

Of course, you can see that cracking nuts makes an incredible mess. But that's all part of the entertainment! Because then they have to spend some time cleaning up.

And in this way, a snack can stretch over a half-hour time period.

I noticed the other day that A. and I had both happened to leave our current books on the table together. The contrast was so amusing that I took a picture for you.

Bet you can guess which is A.'s and which is mine.

A. and I very, very rarely read the same book. Although those particular books are a bit misleading, as he is more likely to have the non-fiction book and I to have the fiction.

And now, walk photos.

The sun is always spectacular as it crests the horizon to the east . . .

But I appreciate the subtle tiers of more-muted color to the west just as much.

There you have it! My life, snapshotted.

Friday Food: Chili, Chili, and . . . Chili

Friday

Short version: Not chicken fried steak, boiled potatoes, green salad

Long version: I keep forgetting that the packages labeled "Top round" are actually tenderized steaks of the round. I was actually planning on making chicken-fried steak with these, which both Cubby and A. love, but I was almost out of milk. And what is chicken-fried steak without the milky gravy? Not worth making, is what.

So instead I just cut them into strips and fried them in bacon grease with spices. Still good, but not chicken-fried steak.

Saturday

Short version: Barbecue meatballs, mashed potatoes, carrot sticks with curry dip, curried cauliflower

Long version: I forgot to add extra tallow to the meatballs, so they were a bit dry. Boo. Grass-fed beef is just a lot leaner than I prefer for ground beef.

Anyway.

I got one small cauliflower from my Misfits Market produce box, which is what I used to make curried cauliflower (steamed cauliflower, sweet curry powder fried in coconut oil, salt, cream). Cubby is the only other person in the family who likes it besides me, so there's always plenty.

In somewhat related news, I finally replaced the ancient, and now shredded, potholders the MiL bought at her church craft fair at least a decade ago. 

I won't tell you how long I used them in this condition.

Sunday

Short version: Beef pot roast, rice, pureed calabaza, golden beets, cucumber with ranch dip, ice cream with maple syrup or chocolate milkshakes

Long version: I bet you can guess that I got the golden beets from Misfits Market. I roasted them along with the pot roast, then peeled and sliced them and added some butter, vinegar, maple syrup, and salt, in an approximation of Harvard Beets. So good.

I had bought vanilla ice cream at the tiny store in the village for Sunday dessert. It was Cubby's turn to choose, so I asked him what he wanted me to do with it. He wanted a milkshake, but everyone else wanted plain ice cream. I was loathe to use my big blender to make just one milkshake, but then I remembered the smoothie cup that came with the immersion blender the MiL gave me for Christmas.

I used that to make a chocolate milkshake for Cubby (okay, and me too) with the ice cream, milk, and cocoa powder, and he was very happy. I was happy I could just put the top of the immersion blender in the dishwasher instead of washing multiple parts of a blender by hand. The others were happy with their ice cream and maple syrup. 

Happiness everywhere.

Monday

Short version: Ground beef chili, cafeteria quesadillas, failed oatmeal-raisin cookies

Long version: We went to our friends' house for lunch last week, where we had chili and cornbread. The chili was a ground beef and bean version that my children declared the best chili in the world. I usually make chili with stew meat, but I always preferred it with ground beef myself, so I used the rest of the ground beef I took out for the meatballs to make chili with pinto beans on Sunday. 

That worked well, as I was only home for about an hour in between getting home from work and going back to the school to bring Cubby for an event. I heated up the chicken and cheese quesadillas left over from the school lunch and the kids dipped those in their chili. 

They told me the chili wasn't as good as my friend's chili. She buys some kind of chili seasoning mix that I obviously didn't have, so I guess that was why.

Anyway.

The cookies were also given to me by the school cook. She had made a batch in which the butter was too warm, which results in the cookies spreading out and getting very crispy. They were still tasty, though, and my children had no problem eating them.

I didn't serve a vegetable, because I was very tired and rushed. I figured the tomatoes in the chili and the raisins in the cookies would have to suffice.

Tuesday

Short version: Chili mac, green salad

Long version: Two boxes of too-salty Annie's macaroni and cheese, but only one of the cheese packets, plus some of the chili. And there's dinner for the children. All of them except Poppy liked this. She proclaimed it "too cheesy." I suspect she doesn't really like the taste of the powdered cheese. Can't blame her there.

A. had chili and rice.

I had a salad with leftover barbecue meatballs in it.

Wednesday

Short version: Soft tacos, turkey-rice soup, frozen peas

Long version: Corn tortillas+cheese+chili=soft tacos. That's what the three younger children had. A. had some of the chili and more rice.

The rest of the rice I added to another container of the post-Thanksgiving turkey soup I pulled from the freezer, along with peas. Cubby and I had that.

When there are leftovers to be eaten and not enough to go around, the best strategy is to divide and conquer.

Thursday

Short version: Pork, sauerkraut, leftover mashed potatoes, various leftover vegetables, very disappointing caramelized pineapple

Long version: Oh, the pineapple. Sigh.

I bought the pineapple from Misfits Market, mostly for Calvin, who loves pineapple. However, when the pineapple arrived, it was very, very green. Like, not a hint of yellow on it anywhere.

I did not think this boded well for its tastiness, but I left it on the counter for a few days to see what would happen.

What happened was that it got a bit soft around the stem and at the base, but still no yellow.

I cut it up anyway, figuring if it was soft, it would next start to rot. And it was just as dry and tasteless as I feared.

In an attempt to salvage it, I cut it into wedges and caramelized them in brown and white sugar and butter. I let them get a little bit brown, and they looked pretty good.

As we all know, however, appearances can be deceiving.

There was still no discernible pineapple flavor when I tasted a piece, so I added some maple syrup over the top.

Still disappointing. Only about half the family ate theirs. 

So much for that pineapple. In fairness, it was the only item of produce I got in that order that was substandard.

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

T.T.: A Tip for Tipsy Candles

Why do candles never fit properly in candle holders? The bottom of the candle is always too narrow, leaving too much room in the holder around its base, which results in this:

Not a good look.

Luckily for me--and now for you--the MiL taught me a trick years ago to fix the leaning candle problem.

First you need a very small piece of paper towel.

About like this. The exact size isn't important.

Fold it over and over to make a narrow strip.

Like so.

Then you wrap it around the very bottom of the candle base . . .

Please ignore my very un-manicured hands and the boo-boo on my nail.

And press the candle into your holder, making sure the paper towel strip is well down in the bottom so it doesn't show.

Ta da! A nicely straight and sober candle.

This might work with a very small piece of cloth, too, but the paper towel works well because it's so thin and smooshable (yes, it's a word now), so you can really jam it down into the candleholder and make it invisible. And no more leaning candles burning unevenly and dripping wax all over.

Thanks for the tip, MiL.

Snapshots: Roosters, Epiphany, and Home Remedies

I don't seem to have a lot of photos from this week, so many of these are from awhile ago.

Like this one, of our rooster, Little Man, expressing his dominance over the crowd of doomed roosters we got a bit over a week ago.

Little Man has seen a LOT of other roosters come and go. He alone remains. 

All of us were sick over Christmas break. Poppy had a cough that was troubling her for a couple of days, so I set up a steam tent for her.

It did help a bit, and it also made her hair curl nicely.

Epiphany was the last hurrah for the Christmas tree. I had set aside a present for each child from the ones that came from family, and each child got two truffles, too.

It's Christmas Lite.

And last, the traditional Morning Walk Photos.

Clouds to reflect the rising sun make for the best sunrises.

There you have it! My life, snapshotted.

Friday Food: Health, Wealth, Happiness, Harmony, and Joy

Friday 

Short version: Oven-fried rooster, baked potatoes, frozen green peas

Long version: The roosters we got last week were young ones, and we were able to hang them to age and further tenderize. So I figured they would be okay baked rather than stewed.

I spent about an hour prepping these roosters for cooking. The easiest way to do this is to separate the legs at the hip joint, which allows for cutting the legs off without splintering bone. Then I cut off the breast meat from the bone and froze that separately. The rest of the carcasses went into the pressure-cooker to make stock.

I used the legs to make the oven-fried chicken. Again I separated the joint to cut through, this time at what would be the knee, so I had separate drumsticks and thighs. (It takes a lot of strength to separate joints on a home-raised chicken, by the way.) To further tenderize the pieces, I marinated them in yogurt and spices all day, then shook them in a bag with corn flour and spices and baked them at about 400 degrees on butter-coated pans until they were done. 

They still weren't as tender as store-chicken--which is, frankly, not so much tender as mushy--but certainly easy enough to pull off the bone and chew. Any home-raised animal will require teeth to eat. As it should be.

Saturday

Short version: New Year's Day pork, greens, and black-eyed peas, plus rice, and hot chocolate with candy canes or marshmallows

Long version: Our last celebratory holiday meal is always my family's traditional New Year's Day meal. A.'s family has their chocolate cake, pots de creme, and molasses cookies. My family has pork, greens, and black-eyed peas to ensure our health, wealth, and happiness in the coming year.

This year's pork was a chunk of pork butt, baked in my enameled cast-iron Dutch oven until it was tender and crispy from frying in its own fat. Yum.

Greens were collard greens from last summer's garden, blanched and frozen, then chopped and cooked with bacon grease and onion.

Black-eyed peas are made with a roux, in which are cooked the onion, garlic, bell pepper, and celery. This is cooked with the peas in chicken (or, in this case, rooster) stock, along with some ham I diced and threw in there, bay leaves, and some kind of tomato product. This time I just used one of those cans of "low sodium pasta sauce" we get from secondary commodities.

The combination of all the things--pork, rice, greens, black-eyed peas--is always so good. 

The New Year's Day stove.

Children, by the way, love the idea that each food represents something. We all agreed that since I make rice with this meal every time, it also needed to stand for something in the coming year. We decided on harmony. Sounds good with the others, anyway: Health, wealth, happiness, and harmony.

I didn't really make a dessert, so I made hot chocolate after dinner--1.5 parts sugar to 1 part cocoa powder, dash of salt, heated with a bit of water to make a paste, then add the milk and heat through--and let the kids choose either a candy cane from the Christmas tree to stir it with, or two marshmallows. About an even split in their choices. Good thing, since we didn't actually have enough candy canes left for everyone to have one.

The cocoa, by the way, was assigned to represent joy in the coming year. Seems about right.

Sunday

Short version: Improved mac and cheese, leftovers, crispy rice treats

Long version: I still have a bunch of boxes of Annie's mac and cheese that we found far too salty when made according to the directions.

So I didn't use the directions.

I used two boxes of the macaroni, but only one of the cheese powder packets. I did add some of the butter called for, but no milk. Then I added some of that canned pasta sauce, then some garlic powder, and some water to thin it out. Last a bunch of finely chopped chicken pulled off the bones after making rooster stock, and frozen green peas.

The children ate this very happily. Cubby also had a couple of leftover oven-fried rooster drumsticks, because he can never get enough chicken.

For A. and me, I fried leftover pork and greens together, then added a bit of the black-eyed peas as a sort of sauce. A. ate this with rice and the last piece of oven-fried chicken.

I almost didn't make a dessert--because what is December but a month of continous dessert?--but I did decide to stick with our traditional schedule so that I can firmly declare that yes, children, you will get your dessert on Sundays, but no other days from now on.

I decided on the crispy rice treats myself. Because when in doubt, go with crispy rice treats. No one ever thinks to ask for them when it's their turn to choose, but everyone likes to eat them.

Monday

Short version: Bunless cheeseburgers, personal bread, peppers and onions, squash, frozen peas

Long version: When we were at a store a couple of weeks ago, one of the children--while wistfully eying a loaf of store-bread in a bag--told me next time we came, he would bring some money so he could buy a whole loaf of bread to eat.

Which is why I promised to bake bread when we started our week of Zoom schooling after Christmas break, with the express purpose of each child getting their very own loaf of bread. They were SO EXCITED about this.

Low standards coming to my rescue yet again.

I did tell them that the bread is supposed to be a supplement to their actual food, not their sole source of nutrition for two days or whatever. So they all had a piece of their own bread with their dinner, and then, if they finished their dinners, they could have more.

The boys all had one more piece and declared themselves full. Poppy didn't even want a second piece. 

Tuesday

Short version: Beef and potato skillet, frozen peas

Long version: The rest of the uncooked ground beef from the day before, plus diced potatoes, the rest of the tomato sauce, chile powder, garlic powder, cumin, and cheese. 

Unrelated-photo break!

This girl's Rainbow Brite snow apparel is a far cry from her brothers' black boots and blue mittens.

Wednesday

Short version: The Best Ham In The World, egg noodles, cucumber spears

Long version: "What kind of ham is this?" A. asked after a bite. And then, after I said it was just the grocery store ham he had bought last month, "What did you do to it?"

Guess I'd better write it down, huh? I used the juice from a can of pineapple I had given the kids earlier in the day--it was just juice, no sugar--maple syrup, and dijon-style mustard, poured it over the bone in ham, and baked it a couple of hours. 

That was it. I didn't measure anything, but I don't think it matters. Everyone loved this. Everyone had seconds. Some had thirds.

The kids also had seconds or thirds on the egg noodles--butter, cream cheese, pepper, garlic powder--and cleaned up the entire spread of food that I had thought would make leftovers.

Okay.

While they went into raptures over their ham and noodles, I was in a state of quiet bliss over my salad. And why is that? Because I found out that Misfits Market delivers to me*. To me! In the middle of literal nowhere! And what did they deliver? The produce I ordered, which included lettuce, beets (with greens!), cucumbers, and radishes (among other things), all of which went into my salad along with ham and cheese.

I cannot even TELL you how excited I am that a box of produce shows up at my gate. This is a big deal for me. A. called it "life-changing," and that isn't even an exaggeration.

Thursday

Short version: Fajita meat, rice, raw radishes, squash

Long version:  I took out fajita meat, and then realized I didn't have enough tortillas.

Whoops.

Of course, I could have made tortillas, but instead I took the lazy option and made rice. I mean, I'm sure everyone would have appreciated home-made tortillas, but they all ate the rice. So.

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

* Yes, I will be doing a whole post on this soon, but in the meantime, if you want to try it, I can give you a referral code that will mean $15 off for you, and more vegetables for me. Fun. Should you feel inspired, you can click here on the blue text to order and it will automatically apply the referral code to get you the discount. I think.