In Case You Were Wondering . . .

This is what it looks like when you forget to put the sourdough starter in your sourdough bread:

You should, of course, replaced "you" and "your" with "I" and "my."

The worst part is that I realized something was off when I got to the stage where I was supposed to take starter out of the rising dough and put it back into the refrigerator.  There was quite a lot of starter in the jar I was meant to be re-filling and I thought, "Huh. I must not have taken very much out to start with," and continued stupidly on. Despite the fact that nothing was rising. I went all the way to actually baking the bread. I was tipping it out of the pans before I realized that I probably hadn't ever actually put the starter in.

Not my finest moment.

So now I have four heavy, doughy bricks of "bread" to use. 

You didn't think I would THROW IT AWAY, did you? Perish the thought.

I read that they could be used for croutons. Or bread crumbs. Or cracker-ish things, if brushed thinly and re-baked with some oil.

And of course, I will start a new batch of bread tomorrow. With starter in it.

Mr. Green Thumb Grows Garlic

If you've been reading here for a long (loooong) time, you may remember when Cubby took it upon himself to plant his own garden. He found and planted peas. He watered them. He spread compost on them. He weeded them. He ate them.

He was five years old. It was pretty impressive.

This past fall, when A. was in the throes of his massive garlic planting, Cubby decided he wanted to plant some garlic, too. So he took a head of garlic and planted it in a completely random spot near the propane tank. The area had not been prepped for planting. We had no idea how well garlic would grow here. But he planted them. He watered them. He weeded them. And this week, he dug up his garlic.

They are huge.

He carefully spread them out so I could get a good picture of their hugeness, which unfortunately doesn't really show too well when they're spread out like that.

They really are some impressive heads of garlic. Bigger than most I've ever grown, for sure. 

He's going to enter one of the biggest heads into the county fair in the vegetable division. And then he's going to plant all those cloves again, so that next year, he can have forty heads of garlic instead of seven.

Maybe next year I should just put him in charge of the whole garden.

Oh, and did you happen to note the boys grappling in the background of Cubby's garlic spread there? That would be Charlie holding on to Jack so he wouldn't get into the picture and get any of the credit for the garlic. This photo shows the scene even better.

A literal snapshot of my life. 

Good Call, A.

Yesterday we went to a . . . town, let's call it (smaller than a city, bigger than a village) so Poppy could get her 18-month vaccinations.

We also went to the lake beach there and had a very summer-vacation kind of day for the kids. I forgot my phone, though, so I didn't get any photos and anyway, that's not the point of this post.

We stopped at the gas station on our way out of town and A. decided to go in to get some liquor. We were out, and this is the closest place to get any. When he got back to the car, he had a box of wine for him and a bottle of Tanqueray for me.

The Tanqueray was very unexpected. We do not generally buy top-shelf liquor. I mean, we don't buy total swill, either, just usually something more mid-range than Tanqueray.

When I expressed my surprise at the Very Fancy Gin Purchase, he said, "Well, they only had two kinds of gin: Tanqueray and Crystal Palace, which you've probably never heard of unless you live under a bridge."

Right. Thanks for the Tanqueray, A.

(Though I must admit to a bit of curiosity as to what Crystal Palace gin tastes like. I'm imagining rubbing alcohol.)

Friday Food: A Week of Eggs and Pasta

We don't usually have pasta regularly, but we sure did this week. The children approved.

Friday

Short version: Scrambled eggs, pasta, sauteed garlic scapes, green salad

Long version: We were on our way to the post office this morning when a neighbor (neighbor in the loose sense--they live about four miles away) I've met only once stopped me and asked if I could use some eggs. She has 16 laying hens and it's just her and her husband at their house. She said she had seven dozen eggs in her refrigerator and really needed to get some out of there. I told her I would be happy to take some.

She brought me four dozen. A. was at that very moment in the larger town with a shopping list that included three dozen eggs. So then I ended up with seven dozen eggs in my refrigerator. We're more able to handle that than an elderly couple living alone, though. I started by making scrambled eggs.

The eggs I got from our neighbor are quite obviously from free-range hens. The difference in color compared to store eggs is quite startling.

Three neighbor eggs; three store eggs. I bet you can tell which is which.

This is actually the second harvest of garlic scapes from A.'s extra-large garlic planting. My favorite way to cook them is to chop them into short lengths and saute them in olive oil with nothing else but salt. I usually cover them, too, to get them pretty soft, and then I let them brown just a bit. The result tastes kind of like those very garlicky green beans you sometimes get at Chinese buffets, but better.

The pasta just had butter, salt, pepper, Parmesan cheese, and a little garlic powder. The pasta with the scapes and the eggs was a surprisingly excellent combination.

Saturday

Short version: Beef stir-fry, rice

Long version: I used cube steak for this, which I cut into chunks and marinated in soy sauce, vinegar, oil, garlic powder, ginger, and a little sugar. Then I made the stir-fry with various vegetables and a sauce made of the same ingredients as the marinade, plus peanut butter.

I really love stir-fry.

Sunday

Short version: Cubby's special oven-fried chicken, mashed potatoes, green salad, maple custard

Long version: The MiL gave Cubby a cookbook, which he is enthused about using. Unfortunately, many of the recipes call for ingredients we don't usually have on hand, and of course, it's not so easy for us to get ingredients. However, I did ask A. to get some cornflakes for the recipe for oven-fried chicken. Despite the fact that buying cornflakes to coat chicken is not something I would normally endorse.

It's not my cookbook, though, and Cubby thought that it looked like a good recipe. It was a bit involved, with a buttermilk marinade--we used yogurt instead--and coating with the crushed cornflakes. Crushing the cornflakes was Cubby's favorite part.

The enormous rolling pin my dad made me was maybe overkill, but Cubby sure enjoyed it.

It was tasty chicken, and everyone liked it.

Cubby also made mashed potatoes and a green salad with shaved carrot ribbons and a mustard vinaigrette. He did not use his cookbook for those, however. It didn't have a recipe for mashed potatoes, but I managed to instruct him in how to make them anyway.

 I made the custard, mostly to use more eggs. Six more eggs down.

Monday

Short version: Lamb, pasta with pesto, roasted bell pepper/onion/broccoli, green salad

Long version: The recipe for Cubby's chicken called for a ton of marinade. It used up an entire quart jar of yogurt, and there was a lot left of the marinade after we did the chicken. It seemed a terrible waste to throw it away, so I left it in the refrigerator and used it to marinate a package of lamb the next day. Then I just baked the lamb in the oven while the vegetables were roasting and finished it under the broiler to get browned. It was very tasty.

The pesto was a garlic scape pesto. It also had some of the beet green thinnings and some lamb's quarters along with the olive oil, walnuts, and Parmesan cheese. The children were very excited to have pesto again, even though without basil I don't think it's much of a pesto. It was very good, though.

Also this day I received a shipment of the maple syrup I order by the gallon from Vermont, and this is what the jug looked like when it arrived:

The postal service must have dropped it from a speeding truck and run it over to make this happen.

The entire gallon leaked out and all over the box the jug was in, as well as in the additional packaging the USPS enclosed the original box in to get it to me along with their apology for the state it arrived in. It was a horrific mess.

The maple syrup company is sending me another gallon. They asked me to send a photo of the damaged jug so they could submit a claim to the USPS, and they remarked that they have never seen such extensive damage to one of their jugs in shipping. Lucky me.

Tuesday

Short version: Sirloin steaks with pesto, roasted potatoes (both white and sweet), frozen green beans

Long version: Leftover garlic scape pasta is excellent with steak. Unsurprisingly.

I was going to make another salad, but the night before as Charlie was finishing his salad, he remarked quite calmly, "I don't really prefer salad with my dinner."

Since he stated this preference without complaining in the slightest, I rewarded him by not serving salad again. Funny how my ears work so much better when the voice I'm hearing isn't whining.

Unrelated baby photo:

Cubby picked this outfit for Poppy. Adorable as the floral shorts are, they are totally impractical for our rocky, sticker-y terrain. Poor girl's knees took a hit, for sure.

Wednesday

Short version: Customized bacon and scrambled eggs, green salad

Long version: I made the bacon and eggs and then let everyone choose how they wanted to eat it. Charlie and Jack went with corn tortillas for breakfast tacos--Jack with cheese, Charlie without--and A. and Cubby chose Sunday sandwiches. Sunday sandwiches were a tradition of A.'s childhood. If he went to church, the MIL would make him a sandwich of bacon, egg, and cheese. A. said that since we go to church every Sunday, we're allowed to have Sunday sandwiches during the week.

Poppy had a tortilla and cheese and some eggs. She didn't get to choose. I chose the least-messy option for her. Sucks being one sometimes.

Thursday

Short version: Bunless cheeseburgers, baked potatoes, roasted sweet potatoes/bell pepper/onion, green salad

Long version: In deference to Charlie's stated aversion to salad, I've been giving him mostly the tomatoes from the salad. And in deference to Jack's dislike of baked potatoes (seriously--WHO dislikes baked potatoes?), he had sweet potatoes.

So I started this week with seven dozen eggs, and I currently have two and a half dozen left. We went through a lot of eggs this week.

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

Future EMTs

This morning while we were outside, Poppy climbed to the top of the fence and before I could reach her to pull her down, fell backwards. It was a fairly bad fall, about four feet, and would have been much worse had she landed on the log that was just behind her or the hoe that was a couple of feet away.

All of the boys were in the vicinity when it happened--though none, unfortunately, thought to get her down before she fell, apparently. They immediately started running around shrieking that Poppy needed a hospital and then dashed into the house to set one up.

By the time I got inside a few minutes later with a completely calm and uninjured Poppy, her hospital bed was waiting for her and she graciously submitted to the tender ministrations of her brothers.

First they tucked her in securely.

It wouldn't do for the patient to catch a chill.

They all clustered around to minister to her.

She made herself appropriately pathetic for this.

They brought her her water bottle and fed her peanuts.

Peanuts are best for rapid convalescence, obviously.

They decided she needed to be transported to a different hospital and put her on the stretcher to go to the couch.

Amazingly, she thought this was fun.

Shortly after her transfer to the couch hospital she made a full recovery and resumed her typical role as target in all their chasing games. But it was a nice, caring interlude while it lasted.

Friday Food: Making It Up As I Go

Friday

Short version: Beef bourguignon, bread and butter, frozen peas

Long version: Finally used the stew meat that had been sitting in the refrigerator for three days. Very unusually, we had some red wine on hand, so I decided to make beef bourguignon using a recipe in a cookbook I bought many years ago by Julia Child and Jacques Pepin called Jacques and Julia Cooking at Home. And when I say I used the recipe, I mean I quickly looked at it to see which ingredients they used and in what order. And then used what I had and took it from there.

One thing I did not change was the entire head of garlic included with the simmering meat. One thing I did change? Straining the vegetables out of the meat. We ate it all, and it was all delicious. Hard to go wrong with an entire bottle of wine and a whole head of garlic.

Saturday

Short version: Bunless cheeseburgers, rice, green salad

Long version: We have entered into a very happy season for me: Perpetual Lettuce Season. There is a large bag of washed and dried homegrown lettuce in the refrigerator at all times now, which makes having a vegetable for dinner much easier.

This is actually my lunch salad. Those are also much easier with the large bag of prepped lettuce always on hand. Hooray.

Sunday

Short version: Lamb, bread and butter, carrots

Long version: I was sick most of this day, but I still had to bake the bread I had started the day before. Sourdough bread dough has no mercy. I had taken out a package of lamb the day before to thaw, so A. made a marinade for that with some of his green garlic a few hours before dinner, then fried it on the griddle pan. Slices of fresh bread with butter, raw carrots, and everyone's fed even if Mom spent the day hiding in bed.

We win.

Monday

Short version: Catfish, sirloin steaks, rice, frozen green beans

Long version: A. took the boys fishing with Rafael at this fishing spot we'd been to before. Despite many bites, Cubby was the only one who caught anything. He got a medium-sized catfish, which A. filleted and I fried in bacon grease. Cubby loves fish but rarely gets it in our land-locked rural home, so this was a great treat for him.

Tuesday

Short version: Found-food skillet, leftover beef bourguignon, green salad

Long version: After A. made some beef jerky, I ended up with a couple of bones from the piece he had cut the meat from. So I made some stock, and when that was done, I pulled the remaining little bits of meat off the bones. To this I added the last bit of leftover lamb and green garlic diced up, three tomatoes languishing in a can in the refrigerator, onion, garlic, cumin, chili powder, leftover rice, some lamb's quarters Jack presented me with, and some cheddar cheese the children had abandoned during their afternoon snack because Poppy had dumped sand on it.

She wasn't sorry, either.

I rinsed the sandy cheese off and stuck it in the refrigerator, figuring I could find a use for it. I mean, I could have thrown it away, but it was like a cup of cheese! That's a lot of cheese! Cheese is expensive!

Anyway. I did find a use for it, and it turned out fine. The children ate the skillet stuff. A. and I ate the last of the beef bourguignon.

Wednesday

Short version: Green chili hamburger soup, bread and butter, cheese

Long version: I had all that beef stock on hand, so I made a variation on Miss Amelia's green chili soup. She uses onion, garlic, carrots, celery, ground beef, and potatoes in hers. Plus the green chili, of course. I was out of potatoes so I used rice instead, and I added in some of the beet greens I had thinned earlier in the day. It's really the green chili that makes it taste good, anyway, and I used the last of the frozen green chilies Miss Amelia gave me, so it was the same soup in spirit if not in fact.

The cheese had no unfortunate run-ins with sand and thus didn't need to be melted to be palatable.

I was going to make cornbread to go with dinner--and Cubby was going to help me--but we ran out of time and had bread and butter instead.

It's okay, though, because Cubby made blueberry muffins for breakfast this morning, so he got his kitchen time in.

Jack was happy to enjoy the fruits of Cubby's labors.

Thursday

Short version: Leftover green chili soup, homemade tortillas, pinto beans

Long version: Yup, still with the tortillas. Now that I've done it half a dozen times, I've mostly figured it out: 2 cups masa, 1.5 cups warm water, a sprinkling of salt. I press them with one of the metal pasta bowls the MiL gave me. I learned that it's much easier to use than a heavier skillet. I can grip it better, and also twist it a little while I'm pressing to make the tortillas thinner. Still not as easy as an actual tortilla press, but until I get the one my dad is making me, the bowl works fine.

I have also found that turning on the ceiling fan in the kitchen will keep the smoke detectors from going off. This was a very important discovery.

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

The Accidental Mason

Although masonry is something of a family institution for us at this point, it is not an activity that I have personally engaged in. Until now.

Rocks are something we have in great abundance here. Not only are there nice white limestone rocks in the ground at various spots on our property, but there are larger ones that just litter the roadsides. It looks as if when they spread the caliche on the roads here, they push aside the larger rocks in favor of smoothing out the smaller ones. Thus, every non-paved road is lined on either side with the rejected larger rocks. A. picks these up whenever he has his trailer out and brings them home.

So then we have free building material.

Now, I'm not going to start fussing around with mortar or Portland cement and all that stuff, but if I need a border for my newly-created flower bed so it doesn't get trampled by rampaging children? I have rocks.

We won't talk about the fact that the actual flowers didn't come up in the flower bed. Let's just focus on the nice border, shall we?

Or when A. plants some olive trees and doesn't want them to be trampled by those same rampaging children? More rocks.

No, we do not live in quite a warm enough climate for olives, but A. has a plan for protecting them in the winter. Fingers crossed.

Or when A. plants a row of tiny peach seedlings* that will definitely get trampled if not protected and could also use a little shelter from the relentless wind? Rocks to the rescue.

Please ignore the carpet of weeds, thank you.

I did all of those small enclosures myself, and I can see the appeal of stonework. It's very satisfying to fit all the pieces together. Kind of like a puzzle.

That said, my hands are definitely too weak--and my child-free time too limited--for any sort of large stone project. So I'll leave the chicken coop to A. and continue with my little protective rings. 

* At least, we think they're peach seedlings. A. planted about 90 unlabeled pots with various kinds of stone fruit pits, apple seeds, and who knows what else, so it's going to be a bit of a surprise. They're almost definitely a stone fruit, though.