Friday Food: Fiesta Time!

Friday 

Short version: More lamb steaks, last of the lamb curry and rice, bread and butter, asparagus, raw radishes

Long version: I still had a couple of lamb steaks that I hadn't cooked the day before, which was convenient, as I had to work this day. A couple of people finished off the very last of the lamb curry and rice from several days earlier. Everyone else had the bread and butter.

Random photo from our trip to the junkyard to get rid of the old Honda:

All roads from our house lead to very Western scenery.

Saturday

Short version: Brisket, mashed potatoes, green salad with vinaigrette, rice pudding

Long version: Last time A. went to the store, he bought an entire brisket.

Have you ever seen a whole brisket? They are comically large. Which meant I had PLENTY of meat on hand to cook for eight people, as my parents arrived for a very short visit this day.

I just cooked the brisket slowly in the morning with pureed tomatoes, vinegar, maple syrup, mustard, and green garlic.

It works better, I find, to cook the brisket ahead, cut it up, and let it sit in the cooking liquid before reheating. It's not dry that way.

Rice pudding because the oven was on for so long for the brisket.

Sunday

Short version: Margaritas, guacamole and chips, ground beef tacos/burritos, pinto beans, blueberry pie, ice cream

Long version: Cinco de Mayo AND First Communion day! So much to celebrate.

I made a pan of ground beef taco meat and then let everyone choose between tortilla chips, corn tortillas, and flour tortillas, plus all the toppings, to make their own Mexican meal.

Blueberry pie because the lady who owns the place my parents stay always leaves one for them. And ice cream by request of the First Communicant. We had chocolate, vanilla, and cookies and cream to choose from.

Monday

Short version: Leftover brisket, rice, frozen peas, fruit

Long version: It's an after-work meal! We had lots of fruit on hand--also from the place my parents stay, which is kind of like a bed and breakfast--so the kids could choose between bananas, grapes, oranges, or apples. A dizzying plethora, indeed.

Tuesday

Short version: Creamy garlic chicken and gravy, leftover rice, asparagus, cucumbers with salt and vinegar

Long version: A. and I drove to a city to bring the old Honda to a scrapyard, and we went to Walmart before we came home. I saw there were a few packages of chicken breasts on deep discount, so I bought them for something different.

I cut one package up into chunks, fried them in butter with a lot of chopped new garlic. The new garlic is the greens and young plants from a volunteer patch in the pasture.

Small, but pungent.

Then I made a gravy with cornstarch and some whipping cream I got from my parents that had apparently been severely shaken at some point and was on its way to butter.

I also remembered the exuberant parsley in the garden and grabbed a large handful of that to chop and add to the chicken.

A very popular meal. Very pretty, too.

Green and spring-y.

My kids love chicken, probably because we don't have it much.

Wednesday

Short version: Chips and guacamole, ground beef burritos

Long version: I had three avocados left from the two bags I had bought for Cinco de Mayo that were definitely ready to be used. So as soon as I got home from work, I mashed those into guacamole, and we all had some of that with chips before dinner.

Very satisfying. 

The burritos were just flour (or corn, for some) tortillas with the leftover bull taco meat and all the toppings. 

Thursday

Short version: Fiesta eggs, garlic bread, leftover peas

Long version: This was the big field trip day for the school. The elementary school went to a zoo, which was 280 miles roundtrip. The middle/high school went to a pool, which was 200 miles roundtrip. 

Field trips here are a significant endeavor.

The big kid got home in the late afternooon. The elementary kids didn't get home until about 5:30 p.m. That's when A. got home, too, since he was driving the bus to the zoo.

I wasn't sure who would have eaten when, or even when they would all be home, so I hadn't made anything ahead of time. When they all got home hungry, I made scrambled eggs with the last of the pinto beans in the refrigerator, salsa, and grated cheese.

Refrigerator check: 

We've been to the store twice in six days, so it's full. I suppose this is what normal people's refrigerators look like all the time?

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

A.P.D: The Theater

I was talking with a local friend of mine the other day about movies, and she mentioned that her youngest daughter--seven years old--had asked her if movie theaters are actually real. She had never been to one, you see, or even seen one. This made me realize that my youngest two had never been in a movie theater, either.

Partially this is a matter of distance, of course. The nearest (tiny) theater is 90 miles away. The nearest multi-plex is around 150 miles. One way.

I'd spend longer watching this than the movie.

Apart from the distance for us, though, I feel like there just aren't as many theaters as there used to be. I guess because everyone just streams movies at home now.

Going to the movies was a significant part of my teenage years. Tucson had a few options for second-run theaters where they played movies after they were out of the big theaters, so we could go see a movie for two dollars. My friend and I would sometimes see two back-to-back, and we went almost every weekend.

The last movie I saw in the theater was Maverick, with A. in Tucson. It was fun, and I still love going to the movies. Even if I feel like there are very few movies worth paying to see anymore.

So tell me: When was the last time you went to a movie theater? What did you see?

Feliz Cinco de Mayo!

Big day today. Not only is it Cinco de Mayo, it's First Communion day for our latest second-grader. This means we've got the suit laid out on a chair, and the ingredients for margaritas awaiting us for tonight.

In the meantime, here are some photos I took this week.

I picked up the living room thoroughly yesterday morning, planning on vacuuming when everyone was awake. Then the children that were awake decided to play "Tunnels" and . . .

That's a raincheck on the vacuuming, then.

Our wretched state education department* required us to add more instructional hours this year. Mostly that meant an extra fifteen minutes per day, but we did have to add a couple of Fridays to our usual four-day weeks. One of those Fridays was this week.

In an effort to make Friday school slightly less unpleasant, we spent about an hour in the village park across the street planting shrubs and flowers in the newly-renovated veteran's memorial area.

Trying to organize 30 children to plant about 15 shrubs with only two shovels was complete chaos, but it was fun, and we got it done.

Some of the newly-planted shrubs. I stayed behind to water them in, because I was not about to hand a hose over to that group of children.

I stayed so that the children and their teachers could go eat ice cream sandwiches in the cafeteria. This was very popular, though I'm not sure it entirely made up for being at school on a Friday.

One thing you can always count on here is a good wind to blow the flags out picturesquely.

Stars and Stripes, and the Zia symbol of perfect friendship among united cultures. Or at least, that's what the New Mexico state flag pledge says. This is the only place I've lived where we say a state pledge along with the national Pledge of Allegiance every day at school.

The sun spotlighted the alliums and apricot leaves in the middle of the table very nicely as it was setting last night.

Lit.

There you have it! My life, snapshotted.

*They are trying to force all schools to go to a five-day week. This overreach is so unpopular that more than half the school districts in the state--even the ones that don't have four-day weeks--have sued them. So we'll see what happens there.

Friday Food: Daily Asparagus

I don't list it every day, but we are indeed eating asparagus every day. Sometimes it's just a few spears cooked in the microwave for my salad. Often it's a bunch of spears that go into whatever pan is on the stove or in the oven already. It's great. I love asparagus season.

Friday 

Short version: Lamb curry, rice

Long version: I had one whole lamb steak left from a couple of nights before. That's not enough for everybody, unless I make it into something else. Like curry.

So that is what I did. The potatoes, carrots, and split peas in the curry stretch the meat nicely. Also, it used up the last couple cups of chicken stock that had been hanging out in the refrigerator.

Saturday

Short version: Bull Big Macs, oven fries, almost-peas

Long version: A. and I (mostly A.) spent a couple of hours grinding bull meat in the morning. So I used some of that ground meat to make cheeseburgers. I was also baking bread that day, so I made some hamburger buns with some of the dough. And I figured since I had already done all of that, I might as well make Big Mac sauce.

This was the day I dumped peas all over my oven. This happened just as I was serving up dinner, which meant I didn't bother with a vegetable for everyone else. They were supposed to have the peas. I counted the lettuce on their hamburgers as a vegetable and let it go at that. Because that's kind of where I'm at mentally these days.

Sunday

Shortt version: Fish sandwiches, baked beans, carrot sticks, chocolate ice cream

Long version: This whole meal came about because I had more of the Big Mac sauce to use, and it works well as a tartar sauce.

I had another box of whole breaded fish fillets in the freezer that I had bought during Lent, so I used those to make fish sandwiches. I also had a container of baked beans in the freezer, and that seemed to go along with the sandwiches.

I took a picture for you. Because why not?

Monday

Short version: Leftover curry and rice, egg salad sandwiches, storebrand corn chips, raw radishes, yogurt with strawberry jam

Long version: I had read before about adding hardboiled eggs to curry sauce, and since there wasn't a lot of lamb left in the curry, A. tried that. He said it was really good, so that's handy to know.

I had hardboiled a bunch of eggs the day before, which make it easy to add them to the curry and also make egg salad for sandwiches. Because there wasn't enough curry for everyone. So a couple of kids had the sandwiches instead.

And then everyone had some of the Walmart version of Fritos.

And THEN, they all yogurt.

After that the feeding frenzy abated.

Tuesday

Short version: Lamb steaks, bread and butter, frozen peas

Long version: I had a slightly more ambitious plan than this for dinner, but then I was driving to pick up a kid when I should have been cooking, so I had to do something faster. The steaks were already marinating and just needed to be fried.

Earlier in the day I had made sugar cookies for the last First Communion class, to sort of look like a host (the communion bread). I don't have a piping bag, though, and the icing crosses were . . . well, let's be kind and say free-style.

Clearly homemade. And also delicious.

Wednesday

Short version: Plan B fried rice, apples and peanut butter

Long version: I knew I wouldn't have a lot of time to make dinner this night, as I would be at the last First Communion class. I was very proud of myself for making rice with beef stock in the morning and dicing up the leftover lamb steaks. The plan was to add the meat to the last of the curry, plus some more peas, the rest of the beef stock, and some instant potato flakes to thicken it, and serve that over the rice.

I did not share my plan with A., however, and he ate all of the lamb and some of the rice for lunch.

So! Plan B! Which, as it so often does, involved eggs.

It would have been fastest to just scramble eggs and heat up the rice with butter, but instead I cooked some diced onion and frozen peas with the rice and eggs to make a meatless fried rice. This meant a meal that took more like 30 minutes instead of 10 minutes, but it was good.

Those who were still hungry had the apples and peanut butter after dinner.

Thursday

Short version: Lamb steaks, mashed potatoes, asparagus, cucumbers with salt and vinegar

Long version: Yet another bag of lamb steaks, yet again marinated and just fried. With asparagus in the pan.

A frequent sight on the stove these days.

Everyone likes this way of preparing the lamb, and it's easy, so I'm sticking with it. Heaven knows I could use something easy at this time of year (end-of-school-year time, that is).

A. went to the store yesterday, which is why we had cucumbers. And that reminds me that I need to plant my cucumber seeds anytime now, so we can have cucumbers without having to drive 180 miles.

Refrigerator check:

Clearly a post-grocery-shopping refrigerator. With plenty of tortillas, much to Walmart lady's dismay, I'm sure.

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

Garden Time

I've been very lax about garden photos this year. Maybe I don't want to jinx it, since last year was the worst year I have ever had in my gardening life, and was also the year I documented it every week.

Things look pretty good so far, though, so I'll just have to hope we don't have any insect explosions or significant weather events that destroy everything.

Let's tour the garden, shall we? Starting out the back door . . .

Down the steps A. made for me, and there's the asparagus back there by the fence behind the clothesline.

Along that fencing on the left of the photo is a row of sugar snap peas, and to the left are three rhubarb plants.

The next bed has more rhubarb, three raspberries, and one tiny strawberry plant that you can barely see on the left.

Over the low stone wall is the garlic and shallots. Plus the apricot tree, which survived the hail last year but isn't going to fruit this year.

Recently planted cabbages and a few tomatoes, still in their milk jug greenhouses. In that sunken tub are green onions protected by a milk jug, and a lot of dill.

This box has a few lettuce plants and some self-seeded calendula.

Lots more cabbages and kohlrabi. There's a row of turnips in there, too, I think. The beets, carrots, and parsnips have not yet appeared.

Radishes, spinach, and something I forget.

Green beans in that trench that haven't come up yet, which are right next to . . .

The peach tree that has weensy little peaches on it, yay!

And the bulb garden, which at the moment only has decorative alliums blooming, with the asiatic lilies still to come.

Still to plant are the rest of the many tomatoes, basil, squash, and cucumbers. Then to water, weed, and pray it doesn't all get flattened by hail.

Snapshots: Shearing Day!

First, of course, are the shearing photos:

 

Our shearer has been shearing sheep for literally fifty years, and we thank God quite sincerely for every year he's able to continue. It's an incredibly skilled job, and well worth paying for.

Let's see what else . . .

I made bread pudding last week on a school day, in the hopes of enticing the one child who never eats breakfast to eat something before his state testing.

I failed. He did not eat. But I did get to enjoy how puffy bread pudding gets in the oven.

It always sinks again, but it's fun while it lasts.

I had an unfortunate spilling of peas right in the oven while I was removing another pan.

Ugh.

At least nothing was in there but water and peas, so I didn't have to clean butter or something off the oven.

I swept the peas right into the crack there and let them fall to the floor.

Sigh.

From there they were pretty easy to sweep up, but it was still annoying.

There you have it! My life, snapshotted.

Friday Food: ASPARAGUS YAY!

Friday 

Short version: Pintos and ham, rice, carrot sticks

Long version: I had the ham bone still in the refrigerator from making the spiral ham on Sunday, so I decided to use it to cook the last of the big bag of pinto beans I had bought some months ago. I made them pretty much just like black-eyed peas, and they were very good. Kind of soupy, but tasty.

Saturday

Short version: Early Chinese food, salami and yogurt later, peaches and pb&j before bed

Long version: This was the day we went to Santa Fe to pick up our new car. We went to lunch at a Chinese restaurant after we finished with the car, but it took us so long, that it was 2 p.m. before we even got to the restaurant. 

It was actually a pretty good restaurant. Our meals included cashew chicken, chicken with snow peas, sweet and sour chicken, shrimp with lobster sauce, and A. got Peking duck, which made him very happy.

Everyone ate a lot, but it was really too early for their last meal of the day. Two of the children went with me to the grocery store on the way home. They ate some deli salami in the car. The other two children got home earlier with A. They had some yogurt with strawberry jam when they got home.

And then when I got home at 7:30 p.m. and was frantically putting away groceries so we could all go to bed after our long day, they ask me, "So when's dinner, Mom?"

As if I was going to produce a full meal at that point. Their faith in me is touching. But no.

In the end, two kids split the last peanut butter and jelly sandwich I had brought with us for lunch, one had a big glass of milk, and one had some canned peaches.

Sunday

Short version: Pizzas, green salad with ranch dressing, strawberry-rhubarb pie with whipped cream

Long version: I made one half-sheet-pan pizza, and one smaller pizza. The bigger one had bacon on it. The smaller one was just cheese.

Big and little.

I didn't have enough rhubarb in the garden yet to make rhubarb pudding, but I did have enough for a pie when combined with strawberries. I mostly used this recipe, except (always) I only had two cups of rhubarb, so I made up the difference with more strawberries. And I used lemon juice instead of cinnamon, because cinnamon sounded weird to me. And I never use the pie crust instructions in recipes, instead using the MiL's recipe of two cups flour and one cup butter (or half cup butter and 1/3 cup lard). And I didn't do the egg wash.

This pie is so pretty.

Even with my ugly crust.

My crusts are always the proper texture and they taste perfect, but yeah, they're not pretty. I don't care enough to learn how to make them decorative, so that's that.

The pie was delicious, anyway.

Monday

Short version: Leftover pizza, leftover pinto beans, cucumbers, cookies and cream ice cream

Long version: All the kids got two pieces of pizza, which isn't enough for them, so then they all had some beans, too. A. had the rest of the rice with his beans. I had a salad.

The ice cream was Poppy's request. She was with me at the store, and she can read now, so she could see the flavor options. Cookies and cream is one of the few flavors Walmart offers in their store brand the full gallon. We always have to buy the full gallon, because our family will eat more than half a gallon in one sitting. Which we did this night.

Cookies and cream is apparently a favorite of my children. I never knew that, but now I do. So I guess we'll be buying it more often.

In case you were wondering, the Walmart brand ice cream is actually really good. Surprising, given that an entire gallon is about seven dollars, but true.

Tuesday

Short version: Lamb, roasted potatoes, raw radishes, pureed calabaza, roasted ASPARAGUS YAY!

Long version: The lamb was a bag of lamb steaks, which are just, well, steaks cut from the back leg. I marinated them for about an hour before dinner, then fried them to get them brown, and then stuck them in the oven with the roasting potatoes to cook more.

Steaks in a skillet, ready for the oven.

I had a little calabaza left in the bag I had taken out of the freezer for the chili I was also making this day, so A. and I finished it. And then, when I was looking idly out the kitchen window, I noticed that there were quite a lot of asparagus spears out there that needed to be cut.

Yay!

I just put them on the pan with the potatoes to roast, and just like that, asparagus season has begun.

Only one of the children will eat calabaza, and none of them like cooked asparagus, so they had the radishes. Their loss.

Wednesday

Short version: Frito pies

Long version: I had made chili the day before--using ground bull, the paprika sludge from dyeing Easter eggs, some of the green tomato salsa, and the rest of the pinto beans and ham--specifically to make Frito pies when we got home at dinnertime after First Communion class.

When I was at Walmart on Saturday, I noticed they had store-brand corn chips. I had never seen a store-brand version of Fritos, but I thought we could try them. They were almost exactly half the price of Fritos, so I bought two bags.

They were good. I couldn't tell a difference. Great Value wins again.

I guess I should call these Generic Corn Chip Pies, but that's a little clunky.

Thursday

Short version: Enchilada casserole, roasted asparagus, carrot sticks

Long version: Our shearer had called the night before to let us know he could come shear our sheep this day, and that he would be here around 11 a.m.

I knew that meant I would be spending most of my afternoon bagging up fleeces and otherwise helping. And that would mean I would be tired and in no mood to cook dinner at dinnertime.

That's why I made the casserole in the morning, so I could just shove it in the oven at 4:30 p.m. I used some pressure-cooked bull I had in the freezer (further broken down with my immersion blender), onions, salsa, and some of the leftover chili, plus corn tortillas, cheese, and extra sauce I made with tomato sauce and spices.

More asparagus, because it was there, and I could just put it in the skillet from cooking my breakfast eggs and slide it into the oven with the baking casserole. So easy. And tasty.

The children had the carrot sticks. 

Refrigerator check:

Lots of casserole left for dinner tomorrow. Also some bread pudding left from breakfast (on the bottom shelf), which will make for some happy children tomorrow morning.

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