Friday Food: A Visitor and a Shearing

Friday 

Short version: Fish patties, mashed potatoes, frozen green peas

Long version: I still have several cans of salmon from the excess commodities, although when I made fish cakes with it, we found them to be softer and not quite as tasty as the tuna patties I customarily make. So I mixed the two kinds of canned fish, using two cans of tuna and one can of salmon. This worked well, and will likely be how I will use the rest of the salmon.

On several days this week, I cooked, pureed, and froze the remaining calabazas that were starting to go south. I have discovered that the easiest way to cook these giant squash is to cut them in half, scoop out the seeds, and put the halves in my huge pressure cooker with a bit of water. I bring it up to pressure, turn it off, and by the time the pressure comes down to zero, it's done.

All done!

This works much better than the oven, because I can't fit more than one half of these big squash into my oven at a time. Plus, it takes way longer in the oven and I have to monitor the water level in the cooking pan frequently.

Saturday

Short version: Beef stir-fry, rice

Long version: I had two sirloin steaks left from the package I had thawed for Thursday's dinner, so I sliced them thin and used them to make stir-fry with onion, carrot, broccoli, frozen green beans, and half a bag of frozen stir-fry vegetables.

The great benefit of the bag of stir-fry vegetables is that is has the baby corn cobs and water chestnuts in it, both of which are favorites of my children. I think they each got a single one of each, but at least they got something exciting.

Yes, tiny corn and water chestnuts are exciting. Low standards, remember?

Sunday

Short version: Pork ribs, leftover mashed potatoes and rice, Holy's cabbage, roasted parsnips, baked peaches and cream

Long version: The MiL got the parsnips at Trader Joe's in Albuquerque before she drove here. I haven't had parsnips in years, but coincidentally bought some seeds to grow them this year. So I was interested to see which of my children will eat them.

Unsurprisingly, there was an even split on the appreciation of parsnips, as is so often the case. However, I love roasted parsnips, so I'll just eat the ones not eaten by the two parsnip avoiders.

The MiL also brought us real cream from Trader Joe's. We can't get real cream anywhere we shop--only the ultra-pasteurized whipping cream with all the stabilizers and junk--so this was very exciting. I decided the best way to enjoy the real cream was poured over sweetened fruit. So I baked two gallon bags of Nick's peaches with maple syrup, sugar, cinnamon, and cloves. 

A very popular dessert, especially with the cream.

Monday

Short version: Green chile cheeseburgers (with buns!), green salad with vinaigrette, leftover baked peaches and cream

Long version: The MiL is a big fan of green chiles. This was her last night with us, so I decided to make something with green chile. I already had dough going for bread, so I used some of that to make buns and made cheeseburgers that could be topped with chopped roasted green chiles.

Not everyone chose to have the green chile, but everyone enjoyed having a bun with their burger.

Funny story: I had also made chocolate chip/walnut cookies earlier in the day, per Poppy's request. I took the big bag of sugar out of the cabinet and put it next to the bowl with the melted butter in it. The bag of sugar was still in the grocery store bag, which came home in the back of A.'s truck, which is very frequently used to haul hay.

This is why when I opened the bag of sugar, small bits of hay came off the outside plastic bag and ended up on top of the melted butter.

Welcome to my life.

I scooped the hay out, and figured any bits I missed would just mean some extra fiber in the cookies.

Tuesday

Short version: Quesadillas, leftovers

Long version: Shearing day! Yay!

We ate a late lunch of sloppy joes after shearing was done, and then A. left around 4:30 p.m. to get the boys to an altar server training and judo. A couple of the children wanted to eat before that, so I made them bean and cheese quesadillas. The others had leftover hamburgers and rice when they got home around 7:30 p.m.

Shearing photo!

Giant pile of puffy wool. This is from one sheep. They have very impressive fleeces.

Wednesday

Short version: Cubby's spaghetti and potatoes, chicken with pesto, green salad with vinaigrette

Long version: At 4 p.m., there were children whining about being hungry, children making themselves tortillas and peanut butter while asking when dinner would be, and I was not yet ready to make dinner. So I said, with some irritation, "If you want it now, go ahead and make dinner."

So Cubby did.

He decided to make spaghetti--with a jar of roasted tomato puree, a few cubes of frozen pesto, oregano, and butter--and potatoes fried in oil.

I did note that would be two starches in one meal. He did not care. And honestly, neither did I, since A. doesn't eat pasta and would be happy to have the potatoes.

The chicken was my addition. We got two roosters from our neighbor that we had butchered this day. I had cooked them in the pressure cooker to make stock, and then I used some of the shredded meat for dinner,  mixed with pesto and butter.

I also contributed the salad. 

Obviously, we need to do some work on the idea of a balanced meal, but at least I didn't make all of it.

Thursday

Short version: Chicken slop, mashed potatoes, green salad with vinaigrette

Long version: That same rooster meat, plus the stock, plus cornstarch, onion, powder, garlic powder, and bit of rosemary to make essentially chicken in gravy. Slop sounds so much more fun, though.

When I told the boys what we were having for dinner, they all said, "Slop? Like what they eat in prison?"

Yes, children. I'm giving you prison food tonight. Eat up.

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

Growing Food: Planting Seeds

It's getting warmer. The mornings are no longer frigid. The days are getting longer.

And that means it's time to start planting. Whee!

Where we are (Zone 6), the last frost date is technically early in May, although I know the older people here always assumed a frost was possible until the end of May. 

In any case, the last frost date for wherever you are is obviously very important if you're going to grow anything outside. No point in planting something delicate like basil if it's going to sprout and get killed two weeks later by a frost.

But there are several non-delicate things that can be started outdoors pretty early. For us, that was the lettuce, radishes, and carrots we planted this past Saturday.

Because we live in a relatively dry place with quite light soil, we prepare our garden beds differently than many people do. Certainly differently than we did when we lived in New York. It took us a few years to figure out how to grow things here. But we've pretty much got it now, and it comes down to this: Water, and lots of it.

We plant all of our seeds and plants in cells or trenches with built-up sides so these areas can be flooded. If we can't flood the area to the point where there is standing water, the plants just don't get enough water. 

Also, we have to be careful to give shade to plants that are prone to bolting, because our sun is just too strong. Most of the spring vegetables fall in this category, so we planted the lettuce and radishes on the north side of A.'s stone wall so they would be shaded part of the day.

It looked like this.

See the berm of soil on all sides? That will hold in the water.

Obviously, the cells can't be flooded until the plants sprout and grow a bit, so until then, I water them with a rain attachment on our hose. But when they're big enough, I just drop the hose in there and run it until that whole thing is flooded with at least an inch of water. If it doesn't rain (and lately, it just hasn't been raining), I have to do that every other day.

In a couple of weeks. I'll show you what it looks like when I plant out young plants, rather than seeds. Get excited!

Snapshots: Planting Has Begun

We had some late sleety stuff on Tuesday that resulted in quite a bit of heavy frost on everything Wednesday morning. I was particularly amused by this bale of hay that looked just like a giant Frosted Shredded Wheat cube.

I'll leave this to the sheep for breakfast, however.

The MiL arrived for a visit right after all that mess on Tuesday, bringing with her two bouquets of flowers for me. 

The big one on the left is what both of them looked like when she bought them.

I separated, trimmed, and re-arranged both bouquets, ending up with one for the table, one for the living room, and a tiny one for Poppy's room.

Of course I chose only pink and purple for her tiny vase. She was thrilled.

So lovely to have colorful flowers in the house again.

It may be awhile before I have wildflowers for the table again, but spring is definitely coming. We spent some time outside yesterday putting the very first seeds in the ground: Lettuce, radishes, and carrots.

Will I be talking about that in much more detail on Tuesday? But of course. In the meantime, here's Poppy watering garlic for me.

Nothing more fun than spraying water around.

While we were doing that, the boys were claiming the garden for the U.S.A.

The yellow school bus in the background makes it extra patriotic.

There you have it! My life, snapshotted.

Friday Food: Some Failures

Friday

Short version: Tuna melts, carrot sticks, gritty fudge

Long version: The only children home with me were Cubby and Poppy, as A. had taken the other two to a judo tournament. The children at home implored me to make tuna melts for dinner. I was happy to oblige with such an easy dinner.

I had a salad with fried eggs and pecans in it.

I made the fudge because I had half a can of evaporated milk left from making the pralines. I've never made fudge before, and I don't have a candy thermometer, and I also didn't have the chocolate chips called for in the recipe I used. I substituted cocoa powder and butter. I don't know if it was that, or my lack of thermometer (and expertise), but it turned out very gritty. Tasted okay, but the texture was not creamy.

The kids ate it anyway, of course.

Saturday

Short version: Ground beef and bean chili, cornbread, improvised chocolate cookies

Our monthly Saturday Mass was this day, and that means we don't get home until about 5 p.m. I made the chili ahead of time, obviously.

I mostly made the cornbread ahead of time, too, by mixing up the wet and dry ingredients separately, and then combining them when we got home. I used this recipe for the first time. It was okay, although a little gritty. I think it would have been better with half cornmeal and half masa (the finely ground nixtamalized cornmeal used for tortillas).

Anyway, it was convenient to have it all ready to go when we got home, and also convenient to have on hand when A. got home with the other two around 7 p.m.

The cookies were pretty much completely made up. I needed to fill the cookie jar, and still didn't have any chocolate chips. So I had the idea to melt the gritty fudge and use that to make chocolate cookies. I also added some peanut butter and walnuts.

They didn't come out particularly well. Sort of stodgy and with not enough chocolate flavor. So I melted more fudge and kind of frosted the top of the cookies with that, which helped.

Oddly, after sitting for a day in the cookie jar, the cookies were much improved and actually pretty good. They got more moist somehow. I don't know how that works, but I'm glad it did.

Salvage cookies.

Sunday

Short version: Pizzas, green salad with vinaigrette, supposedly-maple/mocha custard

Long version: One cheese pizza, one with bacon and onion. 

And now, the custard.

Cubby got me a book at a library discard sale that is a collection of recipes from the lady behind the Storey books (the ones that are all about raising animals and other homesteading kinds of things). He got it for me over a year ago, and I had never made any of the recipes in it. So I decided to try one.

It was a custard recipe that used maple syrup as the sweetener and main flavoring agent, with the addition of a small amount of cocoa powder and coffee. It looked interesting, so I made it.

When we tasted it, however, it was oddly flavorless. Definitely needed more sweet, and I think also a bit more salt. When I thought about it, though, I couldn't remember actually adding the maple syrup. 

Yeah. I forgot the maple syrup in a maple custard. 

I added syrup to everyone's bowls and stirred it in, which of course improved it quite a lot. Since it didn't actually have any sweetener in it at all to start with. 

Sigh.

Monday

Short version: Bunless hamburgers, leftover hot dogs, leftover pizza, bread and butter, frozen green beans

Long version: I had a few cooked hamburgers left from the ones I made the night before just for me, so I wouldn't have to eat pizza.* And then there was enough uncooked ground beef to make a few more hamburgers. In the pan with the cooking hamburgers, I also put in some of the hot dogs left from the school lunch. 

One kid wanted hot dogs, the rest wanted hamburgers. A. got both. Everyone got one slice of leftover pizza, and then bread and butter if they were still hungry.

Tuesday

Short version: Meatloaf, baked potatoes, roasted sweet potatoes, sauerkraut, raw cabbage

Long version: If I actually cook, it's because I'm not at work. Funny how that works. (Ha.)

The kids ate the raw cabbage, as is their preference. A. and I prefer it cooked, so we ate the sauerkraut. I still have at least half a dozen pints of sauerkraut. I just need to remember it's there.

Wednesday

Short version: Leftover meatloaf and hot dogs, fried potatoes, raw cabbage . . . again

Long version: Well, at least I cooked the potatoes even though it was a work day. I baked extra potatoes so I could use them this day. Which I did, by chopping them and frying them in butter and olive oil.

So energetic of me.

Want to see where I work?

The view from my desk. Although this is misleading, as my desk is just kind of stuck in a corner of a room that is used for a lot of other things, and I'm only at my desk for about half an hour out of the whole day. I move around a lot, which is nice, actually. I wouldn't want to stare at this all day.

Thursday

Short version: Steaks, rice, green salad with vinaigrette

Long version: I did work this day, too--subbing--but it was an early release day. Good thing, as the MiL arrived for a visit, and although I'm sure she wouldn't have made any disparaging comments about leftovers, it's not really the welcome dinner anyone hopes for. Steaks are better.

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

* Not that I don't want to eat pizza. It's just that I shouldn't.

Growing Food: The Nopes

I have grown quite a wide variety of different vegetables in gardens over the years. Although it's always fun to experiment, now, as an older and wiser (and more tired) gardener, I have less patience to devote to things that are a consistent challenge or that I just don't like that much. 

I'm going for maximum food for minimum effort, true, but I also have no interest in having bushels of kale on hand, even though it's easy to grow, prolific, and long-producing. I just don't like kale much. So I don't grow it. Along with these things . . .

Swiss chard--I feel about swiss chard the way I feel about kale: I should like it, but I don't.

Ground cherries--I got a free packet of these with a seed order years ago and finally tried them a couple of years ago. I really wasn't fond of the flavor. Off the list and out of the garden.

Mushrooms--I actually really wish I could grow mushrooms, but it's way too dry here. I just don't have the perseverance necessary to keep an inoculated log damp in this climate. I can barely keep the drought-hardy plants watered.

This sun is no friend to mushrooms.

Broccoli--I do love broccoli from the garden. I do NOT love the cabbage worms that are inevitably in the broccoli from the garden. Even soaking in salt water won't get them all. They hide in the florets so well you don't see them until they're floating in the steaming water. Gross. After one too many meals featuring worms, I gave up. Actually, the breaking point was probably the time A. found a cabbage worm in his broccoli, and, to the delight of our toddler sons at the time, ate it.* Kind of ruined garden broccoli for me.

Onions--I never succeeded in getting onions of any reasonable size from the garden. And there are few things more irritating than having to peel and chop a dozen tiny onions just to have enough for a recipe. Give me those baseball-sized store onions every time. Although I am going to try some green onions this year. I like them in my salads, and they're stupid expensive (and perishable) to buy.

Celery--I never grew this myself, but I remember the MiL growing it a couple of years, and it was always much greener, tougher, and more bitter than store celery. I suspect the issue was lack of water. Since that issue is much more of a problem here than New York, I'm not even going to attempt celery in my High Plains garden.

Of course, the great thing about growing a garden is that you can grow whatever you want (and have the patience for). So while I think it's worth it to devote a bed to space-hogging kohlrabi and will persevere with watering beets, you might think those are a total waste of space and time.

So tell me, my fellow gardeners! What vegetables have you banished from your garden, and why?

* And then remarked drolly, "The worm tasted better than the broccoli." Such a card, that A.

Snapshots: Let's See . . .

A whole bunch of random shots this week. 

Cubby invented a game using the money from our old Game of Life. There were countries and revolutions and invasions and it all sounded very complicated and aggressive. But they all played it for hours, so I guess it was a hit. 

Oh, and the GIANT box in the background of this photo was a spaceship Cubby made. Unrelated to the game, but also very popular this day.

Popular with the children, anyway. Not so popular with me, as it made it somewhat difficult to get to my chair in the far corner of the room.

Cubby also finished the knife that I showed you on his birthday.

Styled after a Mexican fighting knife, which was in turn based on a Bowie knife. And if you know what any of that means, you would love it at my house.

How about something less combative now? Yes. 

Let's check in on the famous windmill.

Standing tall at sunrise.

We are at the dead, dry, brown part of the year when I start to really yearn for any hint of color on my morning walks. Unfortunately, we're still a few months out from any wildflowers, so all I got is dead sunflower heads.

They do glow nicely in the light from the rising sun, at least.

And last, back to combat! 

A. took the two younger boys to the state judo championships in Colorado this weekend. It was their very first tournament. They both fought well, and, more importantly to me, didn't get injured.

I was home with the other two children, so I don't have any photos of the battle at the Colorado dojo (as A. kept calling it), so here's one of their judo gis drying on the line.

Getting these washed and dried takes considerable planning, because they're incredibly thick and take forever to dry, even on a sunny day.

There you have it! My life, snapshotted.

Friday Food: Pralines for Fat Tuesday

Friday 

Short version: Ribeye steak, bread and butter, Holy's cabbage, raw cabbage, sauteed green beans, peanut butter cookies

Long version: Although I much prefer the butter-saturated sweetness and softness of Holy's cabbage, my children mostly prefer cabbage raw. So much so, in fact, that they asked for seconds on the raw cabbage after they finished their dinners.

I obliged, and they munched on that while watching the final battle scene in the epic movie El Cid with their father. 

It was pretty funny.

Peanut butter cookies courtesy of Calvin's snow-day assignments. We didn't go to school Thursday due to the weather, but the kids hadn't brought their computers home. So their teachers sent them assignments that could be done without their actual books, and one of those for Calvin was to make something in line with their food science unit, to be presented on Monday.

Well, if that isn't an assignment tailor-made for making and bringing in cookies for a presentation, I don't know what is.

He chose peanut butter cookies, so we made these. He documented the whole thing with photos, including one of all the ingredients.

He's a food blogger in the making.

The funnest part of this recipe is gently squishing the cookies right after they come out the oven. 

Saturday

Short version: Steak, bunless hamburgers, mashed potatoes, pureed calabaza, still-frozen green beans, sick-boy rice

Long version: I had one ribeye steak left, which I cooked for A. I also had one 2-pound package of ground beef thawed. I made that into seven hamburgers for the children and me. They had the frozen green beans. A. and I had the calabaza (from the freezer).

When Cubby returned around 7 p.m. from an overnight FFA trip*, I learned he had been sick the whole time and was still feeling pretty bad. So I made him some rice with chicken stock, because he hadn't eaten all day but wasn't sure he could stomach anything else. Bummer. The rice helped, though.

Sunday

Short version: Bacon-cheeseburger casserole, green salad with ranch dressing, baked peaches and cream

Long version: I had made the original version of this totally improvised casserole some years ago. Even with my own description, I didn't exactly re-create it, but it was still eaten with enjoyment.

I didn't actually eat the casserole, instead saving a small bowl of the meat before I added everything else to it. I put that meat in my own salad, along with roasted carrots, diced pickled beets, and a vinaigrette. The salad for everyone else just had shredded carrots and ranch dressing in theirs.

Very often what my dinner looks like.

The peaches were a bag of peach halves--thanks, Nick!--with the skins still on, plus the very last of some frozen peaches I bought from Sysco, uh, maybe three years ago? Past time to use those up, for sure. And their flavor definitely needed the boost from Nick's peaches.

Frozen peaches will lose their skins very readily when they thaw. Just like tomatoes, the skins will slip right off. So that's what I did. To the peaches, I added the remainder of the powdered sugar/milk dip I used for the Valentine's Oreos, a bit of honey water left from rinsing out the empty honey jar, maple syrup, cinnamon, and a pinch each of ginger and cloves. I baked that for around an hour, let it cool a bit, and served it with heavy cream poured right over it in the bowls.

It was really good. Some of the children thought it was even better than baked apples, which is high praise indeed.

Monday

Short version: Leftover fried rice

Long version: I had made this fried rice for lunch the day before with leftover rice, leftover hamburgers, onion, cabbage, carrots, and a can of commodities green beans.

It was not the most popular dinner I have ever served my children, but they ate it anyway.

Tuesday

Short version: Fat Tuesday grillades, rice, pureed calabaza, carrot sticks, pralines

Long version: I realized sometime in the morning that it was actually Fat Tuesday which, as a granddaughter of New Orleans, it is my duty to observe. Absent copious alcoholic drinks and over-the-top parades, my only option for celebrating is in my kitchen.

So I took out a couple of packages of cube steaks to make grillades. I don't typically keep grits in my kitchen, so we had it with rice.

And then . . . pralines. 

I have never before made pralines. I'm not a big consumer of candy, so I'm not very motivated to make it. For this reason, I do not have a candy thermometer. It is, of course, possible to make candy without a thermometer, it's just a little more nerve-wracking.

However.

Because of a sewage issue at school, we were doing a virtual day of school. Getting my sons through virtual schooling is always a challenge, and I find bribery to be very helpful in encouraging productivity. So I told them that if they finished all their work, I would make pralines.

They did, so I did.

I used this recipe, plus a couple of supplemental websites that both told me and showed me how to figure out "soft ball" stage without a thermometer. They turned out very well. I think I nailed the texture, which is very much like maple candy. Tastes a lot like maple candy, as well.

Definitely not a photogenic dessert, but very tasty.

Calabaza and carrot sticks are not at all traditional in New Orleans, but then, I don't live in New Orleans, and I had calabaza and carrots on hand. So there you go.

Wednesday

Short version: Leftover fish sticks, rice, raw cabbage

Long version: We got home around 6 p.m. from Ash Wednesday Mass, so a fast dinner was called for. Luckily, the school cook had given me all the fish sticks left from the school lunch. I couldn't believe how excited my children were to have leftover fish sticks for dinner. Apparently, they're fish-stick deprived.

I had some leftover mashed potatoes with cheese, because I'm not excited about fish sticks ever.

Thursday

Short version: Spaghetti with meat sauce, leftovers, cottage cheese

Long version: I was at school all day, subbing for another teacher, and I didn't really know what I was going to make for dinner even when I managed to haul myself out of my chair at 5 p.m. to go into the kitchen.

There was enough of the cheeseburger casserole for A. to have that, so he did. I found a container of meat sauce in the freezer and quickly thawed that so the kids could have that over spaghetti.

I had the cottage cheese, with lots of pepper and a couple of rye crisps.

Everyone fed. The end.

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

* He went to the state finals for the speech competition, and ended up getting 4th place for his speech on the uses of horses in agriculture. Yay, Cubby!