Friday Family Fun: Send In the Substitutes

This week's Friday Family Fun featured the MiL and Rafael, who stood in for me and Poppy on an adventure into the canyon.

A. had called Rafael to see if he needed help harvesting the rest of his vegetables before the hard freeze that's supposed to hit on Sunday night. The result was everyone but me and Poppy going to Rafael's ranch in the canyon. Including the MiL, who arrived on Thursday night from Tucson for a few days.

Poppy and I didn't go because there was some concern that the road would have too much water on it from recent rains and there might be some hiking necessary if anyone got stuck. For this reason, Rafael drove his truck and A. followed in our Honda. Rafael almost got stuck in mud at one point, but everyone made it out in the end.

Anyway. I wasn't there, obviously, but the MiL kindly took some pictures for me.

There are, of course, cows on the ranch.

There are chickens, too, but I don't have a picture of them.

Because I am well-accustomed to what adventures with A. are like (that is, long and remote), I made sure to quickly throw together some picnic food for him to bring with him for the boys. Cheese, crackers, and nuts and raisins go a long way in making for a fun day without whiny kids.

No picnic tables to be seen. Squatting picnics are common for us.

Rafael gave A. one of his precious calabazas, too. Not a calabacita, which are the immature ones eaten like zucchini, but the mature calabaza. Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of it before A. brought it to our new house for curing, but it is indeed quite large. About the size of a volleyball. Also kind of warty. Apparently, we can cook it like a winter squash after it's cured. 

I'll let you know what it tastes like when I do. Stay tuned for that excitement.

The whole trip was about five hours. Poppy and I had lots of time to bond while they were exploring the ranch. This week we'll go back to our regularly scheduled Family Fun with Mommy and Baby, but I can't say I was disappointed to have half a day in a quiet house with just a baby for company.

Friday Food: Finny's Sauce Is Here Again

Wanna see what we ate this week? Oh good! Because I'm gonna show you.

Friday

Short version: Pizza, green salad

Long version: The MiL arrived Thursday night with a bag of tomatoes. Less than twelve hours later, I put several of them on a pan with a head of garlic and made Finny's sauce.

I almost went a whole year without making a batch of this. Horrors.

In addition to being The Best Tomato Sauce Ever for pasta and meatballs, it is also The Best Pizza Sauce Ever. And I already had the sourdough going for pizza on Friday. So serendipitous.

I made one pizza with chorizo and onions; the other was just cheese. Both were delicious.

Saturday

Short version: Floor-picnic grilled Italian sausages, bread and butter, carrots with curry dip, tomato and asadero salad

Long version: See this post.

Sunday

Short version: Pollo e coniglio cacciatore, spaghetti, steamed carrots and broccoli, sauteed zucchini and garlic

Long version: When we went up to the new house on Friday with the MiL, Cubby asked to bring his .22 for target practice. A. told him he could, and when A. was setting up a target by the woodpile for Cubby, a rabbit ran out.

Unlucky rabbit.

And so I had a rabbit to cook. Rabbit is best when it's stewed for awhile, and I didn't have time to do that on Friday or Saturday. Sunday was the day.

I thought it would be appropriate to make cacciatore--which means "hunter" in Italian--with it. Plus, I had some of Finny's sauce left over for pasta.

My master plan is for A. to teach the kids how to hunt, then I can teach them how to cook, and they can take care of everything. I'm trying to work myself out of a job, you see. Thus, I had Cubby help me make the coniglio cacciatore. (We filled the rest of the pan with pollo--chicken--because one cottontail does not feed six people.)

His hands were not actually moving so fast that they blurred while he was chopping. I just have a 

crappy phone camera.

I didn't actually follow a recipe. Do I ever? Instead we just browned the meat, cooked onions, garlic, and diced tomatoes, added dry vermouth, chicken stock, and a few spoonfuls of Finny's sauce, then put the meat back in to simmer until it was tender. The rabbit didn't get particularly tender, but the kids didn't care. They enjoy tearing resistant meat off the bone.

Of course, since Cubby was helping me in the kitchen, Charlie and Jack must do likewise. Charlie peeled two carrots for me.

With Poppy's help, obviously.

Jack helped me slice zucchini. I don't have a photo of that, as my hands were busy trying to keep him from slicing off the tip of his finger.

Monday

Short version: Bunless cheeseburgers, leftover rice or bread and butter, tomatoes and mayonnaise, sauteed mushrooms and onions, sick-boy soup

Long version: Cubby came home early from school with a general malaise that manifested in a headache and upset stomach. He was feeling better by dinnertime and told me he was hungry. So I made him some soup with chicken stock and leftover chicken, cooked carrots, and rice.

The ability to make Spontaneous Soup is a small talent, but very useful.

Tuesday

Short version: Pork chops, mashed potatoes, roasted squash/celeriac/onions, tomato/cucumber/feta salad

Long version: Man, that was some good feta. It's made at the cheese factory where I got all that cheddar cheese a couple of weeks ago. I will definitely be getting more of that next time I'm there.

The MiL brought me the celeriac and squash. She grew the celeriac herself. The squash looked like butternut, but the skin was much darker, so I don't know exactly what it was. Cubby actually liked it, though. Cubby and Charlie have historically been very anti-squash, though I continue to give them some to try every fall. Victory.

I also gave each boy a piece of celeriac to try. Both Cubby and Charlie asked for more. That's more than a victory; that's a miracle. Guess I'll have to grow celeriac next year.

Wednesday

Short version: Scrambled eggs, rice, collard greens, raw mini bell peppers and grape tomatoes

Long version: This was not at all my plan for dinner. I had planned on making a beef stir fry. I had the beef marinating and everything. Unfortunately, my hand and arm were so sore after all my sanding, cleaning, and painting at the new house--and I was so tired--that I just didn't have the physical ability to do all that chopping. I didn't have the mental fortitude either.

In such cases, scrambled eggs save the day.

The collard greens were from our very own garden.

It's looking much more impressive than the last time I showed it to you. Three cheers for A.

I just cooked them in olive oil with a lot of garlic. And I cooked them for at least half an hour until they were soft, because I do not enjoy tough greens. They were delicious.

I don't habitually buy mini anything, but the mini bell peppers were the only non-green ones at the tiny grocery store. And I don't do green peppers. The kids were very pleased with them.

Thursday

Short version: Delayed stir fry, random hamburgers, leftover rice, leftover mashed potatoes

Long version: Stir fry really takes far too long, what with all the chopping and separate cooking of the individual components and all. It sure is good, though.

This time I used a piece of the fajita beef, marinated in soy sauce, vinegar, ginger, and garlic powder and sliced very thin. The vegetables were onions, carrots, broccoli, and bell peppers, and I used the same marinade with some cornstarch added to make the sauce.

I had a little meat left that wouldn't fit in the pan when I made hamburgers two days previously, so I fried those for Charlie, who does not enjoy stir fry.

There was some leftover rice, and some leftover potatoes, but not enough of either for everyone, so A. and Charlie had potatoes and the rest of us had rice. Stir fry with mashed potatoes is a little odd, but A. didn't seem to mind. More filling probably than the rice, anyway.

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

Trailer Improvement

Hey, you know what a one-year-old thinks is hilarious? The sound of sandpaper on a wall. I know this because Poppy has been accompanying me to the new house while her brothers are at school, and watching my attempts to make it less ugly.

"Less ugly" is my design aesthetic, incidentally. Somehow I doubt I'm going to score my own show on HGTV (is that the right one? I don't have a TV so I have no idea) with all my careful improvements to our added-on-to trailer.

On the upside, this is the best house for an impatient person like me to be working on. It was so bad to start with, anything I do will make it look better. Also, I don't care if my children totally destroy it, which they probably will. Sort of the same idea of driving an old beater car so you don't care if someone sideswipes you.

So far I've gotten the walls in the living room spackled, the spackle sanded, and the walls wiped down in preparation for painting. Poppy assisted me in these jobs by trying to stick her fingers in the exposed electrical outlets, pulling the step stool down on herself while I was getting a clean cloth, and breaking my sunglasses.

I got most of the living room ceiling painted today during one of her naps. It was this nasty dark brown that could best be described as "excrement colored." It really needed painting. After I did all I could while she was crawling around, I came home to drop her off * before going back to the new house to paint the ceiling, because there are some things you just don't do with a baby present. Painting a ceiling is definitely one of them.

A. has to do the rest of the ceiling for me, because I couldn't reach. And then I can paint the walls.

This one is not invited for that, either.

It's slow going getting anything done working around a baby and three other kids, but I'm getting there.

* Obviously, A. was home. I didn't just leave the baby sleeping and then drive ten miles away.

Friday (and Saturday!) Family Fun: Now With More Family

The MiL arrived Thursday night for a visit (she made the drive from New York in TWO DAYS--that's some serious driving), so she was here for this week's Friday Family Fun.

She went with A. and the boys to see the swimming hole in the canyon while Poppy was taking a morning nap, but I was home with Poppy so I don't have any photos of that.

And then we all went up to our new house, where she got to see the hideous paneling in real life. And then she got to see me start to tear it off the walls. However, there were three boys "helping" me and a baby crawling around underfoot, so I don't have any photos of that, either.

In fact, the only photo I have is a boring one of everyone sitting around our house:

Family Fun in the living room.

But today! I have SO MANY pictures from today. The MiL left this morning to drive to Tucson to see A.'s brother and his family--she's stopping here again for a few days on her way back to New York--and right after she left, Cubby asked A. if they could go camping.

A. was amenable to the idea, but then he checked the forecast. It was calling for thunderstorms in the morning. The boys were crestfallen, so I suggested maybe they could camp up at the new house. I meant inside the house, but A. said he would set up the tent near the house. 

So in the afternoon, we all went up to the new house. I finished removing all the paneling from the living room walls:

Well, except that little bit on the back wall there. It was glued on or something.

Then I pulled out the excessive number of nails that were all over the walls. Jack helped me:

Or maybe he was playing ninja. Hard to say.

It was too late to start spackling the nail holes, because I had to take over with the baby so A. could start the fire to grill our dinner.

There's an outdoor fire thing at our house that was built by one of the previous owners. It appears to be for possibly roasting meat. You know if we had any lambs, A. would be all over that, but he had to make do with sausages*.

I took over the fire so A. could set up the tent. He put it right in our front yard area, because that was the flattest place.

Poppy approved.

The road is actually only about twenty feet from where he set up the tent, but considering this is what you see from our house . . .

And there are no houses for about fifty miles down that road, I don't think they have to worry about being disturbed by the traffic. There isn't any. Unless a cow gets out from the pasture across the road.

It was actually pretty cold and windy, so we had our dinner inside on the dining room floor:

Poppy thought it was the greatest thing ever that everyone was sitting down at her level and she wasn't restrained in any way. She spent the whole time crawling around, trying to steal sausages and spilling cups of water. She's never had so much fun at dinner.

Shortly thereafter, I took Poppy home and put her to bed. And now here I sit, alone in a silent house with nothing to do but go to bed myself. It's definitely not quiet and restful for A. right now, but at least he's a shoo-in for Father of the Year. 

* They were Italian sausages, transported all the way across the country for me* by the MiL. It seems like a silly thing to do, but man, those sausages were SO GOOD, and I am SO HAPPY she brought them.

** She also brought me squashes, tomatoes, celeriac, and two different varieties of apples. This is why we get along so well.

Friday Food: Proprietary Zucchini

Hey look! It's our food in exhaustive (exhausting?) detail!

Friday

Short version: Tacos, pickled carrot and cucumber ribbons

Long version: Yes, tacos again. I had a plan to make meatballs, but we were gone a lot longer than I anticipated, and taco meat is quicker.

This time I had two pounds of ground beef and one pound of ground turkey. I've never bought ground turkey before, but it was a quarter the cost of the beef, so I figured I could try mixing the two. I couldn't tell the turkey was in there after everything was cooked, but dude. Raw ground turkey is GUH-ROSS. I don't think I can buy it again just because of the revolting task of squeezing it out of the wrapping.

Saturday

Short version: A Michaelmas feast of roast chicken, carrots, corn on the cob, rice, and devil's food cake

Long version: I grew up Catholic, and had no clue about the story of St. Michael. But I do now, because St. Michael is one of A.'s favorite saints. I must admit that the St. Michael prayer is pretty rad.

A. wanted to celebrate Michaelmas, which fell on Saturday this year. So I looked up some traditional Michaelmas foods. People get reeeally into their food traditions on saints' days. I was not that motivated (when am I ever?). The chicken was the closest I could get to the traditional goose. The traditional carrots were no problem. I made them "fancy" with butter and maple syrup.

But the cake was the best part.

See, St. Michael is most well-known for battling the devil and casting him into Hell. So apparently a lot of people make a devil's food cake and then stab it with cocktail swords.

Well! I know some boys who are ALL ABOUT stabbing anything with pretend swords. Sounds like a plan to me.

A devil's food cake is just a kind of chocolate cake. I used this recipe for a coconut flour cake, so everyone could eat it. I added a few tablespoons of leftover coffee to the wet ingredients, but I should have added some yogurt or something too. It was a bit dry. It also could have used more sugar, which is not something I often say about recipes, so I sifted some powdered sugar on top. This was a popular decision with the boys, who stabbed and consumed their cake with great enthusiasm.

I got the world's worst photo of St. Cubby vanquishing his devil's food cake.

Corn on the cob has nothing to do with St. Michael. I just had a bunch of ears I got in the city on Wednesday that I needed to cook.

This provided Poppy the opportunity to clutch a chicken bone in one hand and piece of corn in the other. It was a good night.

Sunday

Short version: Tacos with leftover meat, black beans, sauteed zucchini and onion, pan-fried sweet potatoes

Long version: It's very rare that I have enough taco meat left over for a whole other meal, but I guess everyone was too full from the late afternoon birthday party food to eat as much as they normally would. Works for me--I didn't have to cook it all again.

Well, I cooked the zucchini and sweet potatoes, but the beans came from a can and somehow it doesn't seem like real cooking if I don't have to cook meat.

Oh! And this zucchini didn't come from Rafael; it was my very own! The former owner of our new house had two zucchini plants in the yard, so our purchase price included vegetables. He didn't try to charge extra for them either. So generous.

Monday

Short version: Beef with mushrooms and onions, bread and butter, corn on the cob, fried cabbage/carrots/onions, tomatoes with mayonnaise, cucumbers

Long version: The beef was this very thin and extremely long cut that was just labeled "fajitas beef." After looking it up, I think it was a skirt steak. I also think it should have been marinated, but I didn't have time by the time we got home from shopping and I got everything put away. Next time.

My cowgirl boots* and the wide-open road. I'm trying to embrace being an official resident of New Mexico.

I obviously didn't use the meat to make fajitas, because we had just had tacos. So instead I just seared the seasoned meat (lots of salt, pepper, and garlic powder) on both sides, took it out, cooked mushrooms and onions in the pan while the meat rested, then cut the meat thin across the grain and added it back to the pan with the mushrooms.

I introduced the boys to my childhood tradition of buttering corn on the cob with buttered bread. They thought it was great fun to slide their hot corn along the buttered bread, and I thought it was great that I didn't have to butter the corn for them. Everyone wins.

Tuesday

Short version: Pork shoulder, porky rice, creamy cucumber salad, leftover zucchini, baked apples

Long version: I made the pork shoulder in the morning, because it was actually way too hot to have the oven on all day. But I already had the pork shoulder out and it had to be cooked. Thus, morning cooking. The early cooking allowed me to pour off the liquid and refrigerate it before dinner so I could separate the very gelatinous juices from the rendered fat.

I used the fat to fry chunks of the pork with lots of garlic, and I used the juices to cook the rice. This kind of thriftiness satisfies me on a deep level.

I accidentally put too much sugar in the sour cream dressing for the cucumbers, which pretty much ruined it. That salad relies entirely on getting the balance of acid/salt/sugar right, and I did not get it right. Everyone ate it, except Cubby, who complained that it didn't taste right and he didn't want to eat it. I had to agree with his assessment, so I didn't make him.

I made a big casserole of baked apples in the morning with the pork, with yet more apples from Mr. Billy the Apple Man. I can never remember his real last name, so we just call him Billy the Apple Man.

Baked apples for me, if you don't recall the time many months ago I explained this (and there's no reason you should), is basically pie filling without a crust. Apple slices with sugar (brown and white), maple syrup, lots of cinnamon, and a touch of salt and apple cider vinegar. These apples don't break down at all, so the slices are still very much intact instead of kind of mushy and saucy, but it's still delicious.

Charlie was particularly pleased to have baked apples and cream for dessert. It's rare for Charlie to admit to being pleased about anything, so this is noteworthy.

Wednesday

Short version: Scrambled eggs, fried potatoes, leftover black beans, tomato with mayonnaise, green salad

Long version: Um. I fried the potatoes in some of the rendered lard from the previous day's pork roast. That's all I got.

Oh no, wait! I have exciting egg news! Jack's preschool teacher has chickens, and I am now buying eggs from her. She only has a couple dozen a week, which means I still have to buy some at the store, but two dozen home-raised eggs brought right to the school every week for me is a pretty awesome deal. I don't know what I'm going to do when we move and the boys are taking the bus. Somehow I doubt I can trust them to get a carton of eggs home with no breakage.

Thursday

Short version: Pulled pork sandwiches with the leftover pork, leftover rice, raw cucumbers and carrots

Long version: The boys ate sandwiches, A. and I ate pork and rice; and the week is over. Amen.

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

* The boots--and a hat that I never wear--are from my two summers in college working at a dude ranch in Colorado almost twenty years ago now. Thanks for buying them for me, Mom! They've certainly held up. I am very far from a cowgirl, however, so I feel kind of like a tool wearing them, but I do anyway sometimes.

A Man of Inaction

This morning there was an apple core in my shower. I didn't find this as strange as you might think, given the fact that I have a crawling baby who delights in absconding to the shower stall and also enjoys gnawing on apples. So I was pretty sure how it got in there.

What I did find a little perplexing was the fact that A. had taken a shower in there right before me. Did he not see it? (This sounds impossible, but I have learned that nothing is impossible when it comes to items in plain sight that have been completely overlooked by my husband or children.) Or did he see it and just not take it out of the shower?

So when I got out of the shower, I asked him, "Did you not see the apple core in the shower? Or did you see it and just leave it in there?"

"I saw it," he said. "But I was so sleepy that I sort of forgot about it immediately and failed to take action."

That's all. I just thought the whole thing was really funny.

The Grocery Run--With Pictures!

One of the things I was hesitant about when A. proposed moving to our current location was the grocery situation. Food is obviously very important to me--for evidence, please see the 674 posts under the "fun with food" label on this very blog, good Lord--and procuring it is a large part of my job as Mess Officer for this crazy army of four small people and two large people.

We eat a lot. I cook a lot. Thus, I have to shop a lot. But where? And how?

Here's the grocery sitch in our empty corner of America:

There is a micro store in the village where I can usually get a gallon of milk, a dozen eggs, and some cheese. Usually. Sometimes he's out. But I consider myself VERY lucky that that store is there at all.

Twenty miles away is a very small grocery store that carries most of the basics, though the produce and meat are very limited. But I can always get milk and eggs there.

Fifty miles away is a slightly larger grocery store with slightly more produce, but not much more meat.

Seventy-five miles away is a "normal" grocery store in a very small city that carries everything that I would usually buy.

This means going for a real shopping expedition is 150 miles roundtrip and only happens about once a month. I supplement with the limited selection twenty miles away as necessary.

So how does the major grocery run work? Well! Let me show you!

This morning at 8:15 a.m., A. said we should go to the very small city for groceries, supplies for painting*, and a trip to the library (yes, the closest library is 75 miles away).

I packed an insulated cooler with food for Poppy, who was the only child not at school, and water bottles for everyone.

Road food: Applesauce and yogurt, cheese, crackers, raisins, and a cup of water for Poppy.

A. took the bag of ice out of the freezer and put it in the two coolers, which went in the back of the Honda.

And then we drove.

A view that could have inspired Tom Petty's Into the Great Wide Open.

And drove and drove, until we arrived in the very small city.

First we went to the cheese store, where I bought ten pounds of sharp cheddar (for $2.99 a pound!!! I will convey my excitement with far too many exclamation points!!!!!!!) and put it in one of the coolers.

Then to the library.

Crawling baby's clothes revealed the absolutely filthy state of the carpet in the library. Gross.

Then to the hardware store, and then, finally to the grocery store.

Looking at this photo I am just now remembering that I forgot to get broccoli. Damn.

That was only one of our carts. A. was pushing the meat cart, in which we had the, um, meat. I didn't want to pile raw meat on top of all that other stuff, you see. I'm sure the Food Safety Administration would approve.

Forty-five minutes and four hundred dollars later, we rolled our carts out to the car.

Poppy got to sit in the meat cart on the way out, just for a change of scenery.

I then spent about ten minutes sorting the groceries, putting all the meat in the biggest cooler, and all the dairy in the small cooler. I always wish I had room for my lettuce, so it doesn't wilt slightly, but I never do.

Luckily, the giant package of t.p. doesn't have to be kept cool.

And then we drove home. Drivedrivedrivedrive . . .

When we got home, I dealt with the irritated baby while A. hauled everything inside for me. Then I spent about 45 minutes putting away groceries, which included breaking down large packages of meat into smaller portions. This time, that included a whole brisket that A. bought. That one took awhile, even though it wasn't the first time I'd done it.

From the time we left to the time I had everything put away and cleaned up was almost exactly seven hours. And I was exhausted. 

Luckily, I only have to do this once a month.

There! I'm sure you all found that thrilling. And now back to our regularly scheduled programming. (Whatever that is.)

* Best discovery of the week: The hideous paneling in our new house is only held on by very small nails every few feet that can be pulled out with a good tug, and underneath is just the wall. Apparently, it was just "decorative." Ahem. So now I just have to yank it off, caulk in the holes, and paint the wall. Hooray.