Friday Food: Vacation Cooking and Unrelated Photos

I don't stop making food when I leave home--penalty of having a big family that inconsiderately just keeps on eating even when we're not home--but I definitely make different kinds of food. As you will see. You will also see that our normal "dessert only on Sundays" tradition goes completely out the window when we're at Blackrock. It's strawberry season. I have no regrets.

Friday

Short version: Italian sausage, fried peppers and onions, garlic toasts, steamed broccoli, the MiL's cider cake

Long version: Do you know how excited I was to come to New York and finally get real Italian sausage? So excited that when the MiL asked me for a list of things she could stock up on before we came, I put Italian sausage in all caps with "HOORAY!" after it.

It was just as good as I remembered.

I made the garlic toasts with some bread the MiL had made that didn't rise very well. Sliced thin, covered in olive oil and garlic powder, and broiled, they were good. Would have been better if Poppy hadn't started wailing and demanding to be picked up at a crucial moment, thereby rendering some of the pieces more charred than toasted, but they were still edible.

The cider cake is a sweet bread-y thing--kind of like pound cake, but not as rich--with candied fruit in it that the MiL makes. I don't know if it's the cider in it or what, but it magically lasts for literally months with no refrigeration. It's a very old recipe she got many years ago, and all the children except for Charlie love it. He objects to the candied fruit, I think.

Saturday

Short version: Scrambled eggs, ham, sauteed garlic scapes, boiled potatoes, sliced tomato, cider cake

Long version: I had some ham I had purchased for our trip to make sandwiches at lunch that needed to be used up. It was pretty cheap ham, more thickly cut than I like for sandwiches and definitely wet, as all store ham is, but it was all that was available at the tiny grocery store near our house. Luckily, even store ham can be made delicious by frying in butter. This dries it out and also makes for a nice brown crust from the butter.

The MiL is just harvesting her scapes now--from garlic A. planted a couple of years ago--so we got to extend our scape season. I am pleased by this.

I got to put both fancy butter and very fancy French sea salt on the potatoes, because the MiL has such things. Fun.

Sunday

Short version: Beach hot dogs, raw cauliflower, bread and butter pickles, s'mores

Long version: I didn't even bring plates down to the beach for this meal. What's a hot dog bun for if not to be a plate substitute?

I bought the cauliflower at the farmers market in the village on Saturday. I love having access to a farmers market again.

The bread and butter pickles were a jar from the cellar that the MiL said she made several years ago. Bread and butter pickles are excellent with hot dogs, and excellent for a beach picnic.

Monday

Short version: Beach sandwiches, leftovers, strawberries and rhubarb with cream

Long version: I had not planned on a beach-friendly (read: easily transportable) dinner, but the weather was good and I knew it would be not good starting Tuesday, so we decided to take advantage and stay down on the beach after the kids' afternoon swim.

I collected leftover pulled pork and coleslaw, bread, salami, cheese, and bread and butter pickles. The children had sandwiches and coleslaw, A. ate the pork, and the MiL and I just sort of grazed. We had the fruit and cream after we got back up to the house and man, it's so nice to be back here right at strawberry time. Few things are better than strawberries and real cream. Not even whipped, either. Just heavy cream poured right over the sweetened fruit. Yuuuuuum.

Unrelated photo of the cabbage and beets I harvested from our garden before we left home:

Fingers crossed the whole time we're gone that everything in the garden isn't dead when we get home.

Tuesday

Short version: Beach meats, fish, potatoes, cherries, grape tomatoes, Cubby's special strawberry/rhubarb pie

Long version: Another day, another beach cook-out. I had been in the city this day and almost got some fish at the grocery store as a treat for Cubby, but the shrimp that were on sale were sold out and everything else was hideously expensive, so I didn't. Then I got home and A. decided it was a good day to take the boys fishing.

We all went down to our beach. A. and the boys fished from the neighbor's small dock and it looked like a fishing show. They just kept yanking fish out of the water. Mostly average-sized perch, but there was one bass so enormous--the MiL estimated about three pounds--that A. had to walk it along the edge of the dock until he got to the shore so he could catch it with his hands, because it would have broken the line.

So we had fish after all, and they were free.

I should have a photo, but I don't.

Fish caught on one's own beach--more or less--should also be cooked on one's own beach. I formed and brought down some hamburgers to cook with the fish, along with some potatoes I cooked in the microwave, then sliced and put in foil with butter to heat up on the fire. A.'s sister arrived this day and she brought more hamburgers and some sausage, so we ended up with quite a feast.

The pie was one that Cubby made with the MiL. He had expressed to me a few weeks ago that he wished to learn how to make pie. I told him I was delegating that one to The Pie Master--i.e. Grandma. I don't think he's ready to make a pie on his own quite yet, but it's a start. And it was delicious pie.

Wednesday

Short version: Watermelon, ice cream, leftovers, green salad

Long version: The MiL planned to take the boys to a baseball game this evening, and requested that they be fed before they went so they wouldn't want too many treats. I had planned on making various items of real food, but then the boys ended up eating half of the watermelon A.'s sister was cutting up right before dinner and some of the leftover sausage and hamburgers A. was eating, so that and the ice cream the MiL got them later was their dinner.

Balanced eating, summer-style.

Unrelated photo of Little Sister and the Big Brothers:

Not sure what's happening here or why I took this, but there they all are.

Thursday

Short version: Patriotic potluck with a side of CRAZY FIREWORKS

Long version: The MiL's sister decided at the last minute to have a Fourth of July gathering, which featured a LOT of delicious food brought by all the attendees--I mostly chose to eat various kinds of pasta and potato salad, although there were also many kinds of barbecued meats to choose from--and the most impressive display of fireworks ever seen at a private residence.

A.'s cousin's husband is a sound and light engineer who has a great love of fireworks, and it was he who set it all up. It took him literally seven hours. There were spreadsheets involved and the fireworks themselves lasted at least half an hour. It was insane and awesome. They boys were beside themselves with excitement. Poppy was initially excited, but then she realized it was like three hours past her bedtime and time to turn into a pumpkin.

And THEN, she woke up at 5:30 this morning after going to bed at 10:30 p.m. Total party foul, Poppy. But all part of the fun of summertime.

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

An Update with Fake Photos

Due to a stupid technical thing that I won't even go into, the photos on my phone are not on my computer at the moment. I thought about just painting some word pictures for you, but decided that some old pictures that I awkwardly relate to our current activities would be better. Sounds fun, right?

Here we go!

The drive was not too bad, in that there were no unnecessary delays or really bad weather or illness or anything else that can so easily turn a not-so-bad trip into a REALLY BAD TRIP. I didn't even have to break out the ancient Game Boy.

Poppy even slept really well in the tent with me the two nights we were camping:

She wore her zip-up footie pajamas when she was actually sleeping in the real tent, and thus was the only one of us to not get extraordinarily itchy bug bites all under her clothes when we were camping in Missouri. Footie p.j.'s should be required gear for summer camping in the south.

We arrived just in time for garlic scape/strawberry/mulberry season (they always get ripe at the same time), so there's been a lot of berry eating going on.

Just like this, only with a lot more red stains.

It's been a remarkably wet spring and summer here at Blackrock, but we've had mostly good weather since we got here. This means lots of beach time.

No matter how sunny it is here, however, the light never has this white glare that we get in New Mexico.

Unfortunately, I am finding it much more difficult this year to take children to the beach, because now Poppy is very much a walking, active child who wants to be right out in the water, preferably right out where her brothers are. This is a big change from last year when she couldn't even crawl and was thus always safely stationary on the beach.

So I have to spend the whole time we're down there in the water holding her hand to keep her from going in over her head. Jack still can't swim, Charlie is not a strong swimmer, and I genuinely worry about what would happen if one of them needed my help while I was holding on to Poppy. I would have to just throw her up on the beach and hope for the best, which is . . . no, thanks.

For this reason, I told A. that I need a second adult with me when we go to the beach. So beach time is family time now.

That's okay with me, though, and it does mean that with everyone down there, there's no reason not to have a beach picnic for dinner every night. The children approve.

I made a conscience effort to do this because I saw that our forecast is calling for much more rain this week. In fact, it's raining now.

I'm going to the Not Quite As Small City today for my big thrift store excursion*, so I won't be here to entertain the children. I'm sure A. will have no trouble, and at least with the rain, he has a good excuse to not go down to the beach.

* "So, Kristin, what did you do on your vacation?" "I went to a thrift store to buy soap dishes and a coffee mug." Just like Club Med.

Friday Food: Road Trippin'

We spent most of this week either preparing to leave for New York, or driving to New York. Nonetheless, there was food. Always.

Friday

Short version: Tacos

Long version: I made taco meat mostly so I could make a double batch and mix half of it with rice and cheese for a casserole to heat up on our trip.

I did not make the tortillas this time, which of course made me feel just the tiniest bit guilty. I knew starting to make my own tortillas would have a bad effect.

Saturday

Short version: T-bone steaks, sauteed mushrooms, pasta, green salad

Long version:  A meal to finish up the mushrooms and lettuce, as well as the last of the cream cheese in the pasta.

Sunday

Short version: Leftover steak, scrambled eggs with chives, rice, frozen green beans

Long version: Continuing the theme of using stuff up. After making this meal, all that was left in the refrigerator were condiments and the stuff that was going in the cooler in the morning.

Plus an empty toilet paper roll in front of it. Naturally.

Monday

Short version: Pork chunks, dinner rolls, coleslaw

Long version: We left home at 5 a.m. and stopped for the day at Osage Hills State Park in Oklahoma about 12 hours later. All the food I had prepared ahead of time was fully cooked, frozen, and able to be re-heated in either a microwave or on a camp fire. This night, it was the latter.

The pork was country-style ribs I had cooked in the oven with a spice rub until I could pull them apart. I just put them in some aluminum foil and stuck it on the grate over our fire.

I used the very last of our eight cabbages to make the coleslaw. The other six were given away to neighbors. I also used the very last of the yogurt to make the dressing. Well, the last except for the jar I saved to bring cross-country with me in the cooler so I could make yogurt while we're in New York and thus not lose my starter.

Oh yes. A yogurt starter is that important.

Tuesday

Short version: Taco meat/rice/cheese casserole, raw grape tomatoes

Long version: Oklahoma to the Mark Twain National Forest in Missouri. I had put this casserole in the disposable casserole pan we got Miss Rebecca's green chile casserole in, so I just set the whole pan right on the coals of the fire to heat up. It tasted kind of bland still, and all I had with me to season anything were mustard and ketchup, so I put some of both in there and called it hamburger casserole. It was fine.

Wednesday

Short version: Bunless hamburgers, tortillas and cheese

Long version: Missouri to Cincinnati, Ohio. We stayed at a comparatively luxurious Red Roof Inn this night (hellooooo, hot shower, my beloved), so I heated these things up in the microwave in our room.

We all ate quite a lot of raw vegetables in the van throughout the trip--carrots, bell peppers, celery, cucumbers--so I didn't worry about serving more with dinner.

Thursday

Short version: Pulled pork, potato salad, coleslaw

Long version: Cincinnati to Blackrock, and when we rolled up the driveway at 7 p.m., the wonderful MiL had dinner waiting for us. I was extremely pleased to not be digging around in coolers for food.

And now, let the Summer Beach Eating commence.

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

Old-school Screen Time

T minus 33 hours until we leave for our roadtrip. (Give or take thirty minutes.) I have, of course, been prepping food for over a week now, because I once again intend to cross the country without needing to stop at a restaurant.

I started gathering children's clothing today, as well, and I got the van all cleaned out in anticipation of stuffing it full of crap once again.

Ah, but what crap will I stuff in it to entertain the children during the 28 hours we will be driving?

That, I'm afraid, was not so carefully considered this time around.

I did buy some new books for Cubby, because he is lucky enough to be able to read in a moving car without getting sick. Charlie is not so lucky.

I found some activity books and sticker books we already had on hand that may work for a short amount of time to keep Jack and Charlie distracted.

I found some board books for Poppy, and I'll throw in some random toys.

But my ace in the hole, my extra-special secret weapon is a twenty-year-old Game Boy.

The boys don't know I have this. I actually don't know why I do still have it. It was given to me by my parents when I went away to college twenty years ago--I think--and in the intervening years it has apparently moved with me to the many places I've lived since. I do not know why, because I definitely have a tendency to chuck anything that I consider extraneous. An electronic game that I haven't played in 15 years definitely qualifies, and yet, there it is in my closet.

When I realized I was facing a roundtrip distance of approximately 2,500 miles with four bored children, I pulled out the ancient Game Boy, put in new batteries, and flipped the power switch.

To my astonishment, it turned on.

The only game I have for it is Tetris, and it's a small, old, black-and-white video game system that would look hopelessly primitive to children accustomed to modern gaming systems.

Luckily, those are not my children. The only video games they have ever played have been on the computer at school. They're not picky. I confidently expect incredulity at their great good fortune when I get desperate and pull out the screen on our drive.

I don't expect it will keep any of them but Cubby entertained for very long, but even an hour would be helpful. We'll see, I guess.

And if that fails, there's always the rhyming game.

Any other suggestions for non-electronic car games? I could use all the help I can get.

Friday Food: Nothin' But Beef

Friday

Short version: Bunless hamburgers, bread and butter, coleslaw

Long version: A. cooked the hamburgers on the grill, which is always the best way to cook meat.

I made the coleslaw from one of our own cabbages. We had eight seedlings that I planted out on St. Patrick's Day, and all eight of them need to be harvested before we leave for a month. The first one I made into coleslaw. I'll be giving several away, and the rest will just have to wait in the refrigerator until we get back and I can make sauerkraut or something.

Saturday

Short version: Cube steak in barbecue sauce, leftover rice, leftover coleslaw

Long version: I had thought I might make stir-fry with the cube steak, but then I, um, didn't. Instead I cut the cube steak into chunks and dumped some leftover mustard vinaigrette on it to marinate. Then I browned it, added some diced onion, some barbecue sauce and the last of a bottle of ketchup shaken with water. Simple, but tasty. Especially with the leftover coleslaw.

Sunday

Short version: A Father's Day Feast of T-bone steak, oven fries, roasted garlic, asparagus

Long version: A. told me that for Father's Day, he wanted to work on the roof of the new house. So that's what he did.

This roof is much less dangerous than the terrifying roof at Blackrock, so Cubby could help. 

I find it amusing that the special part of this meal wasn't the steak--which we have at least once a week--but the rest of it. A. loves french fries, which this time were just oven fries with beef tallow and olive oil.

I roasted three heads of A.'s garlic that had gotten damaged with the shovel while he was digging them up. Two of them were eaten at that one meal. A. loves roasted garlic even more than french fries.

I do not generally buy asparagus at a store, because I am only too aware of how inferior it is to "real" asparagus from a garden. But the tiny store near us had some that didn't look too terrible, and it is one of A.'s favorite vegetables, so I bought it. I just steamed it and put butter and salt on it.

Monday

Short version: Bunless hamburgers, rice, frozen green beans

Long version: I was supposed to make spaghetti and meatballs with Cubby this day. He's been asking to make it for about two weeks, and I finally told him we would definitely do it on Monday. He went so far as to write it on the calendar for me so I wouldn't forget.

And then I got sick Sunday night and was definitely operating at less than 100% all day Monday.

I took out the ground beef, but I couldn't bring myself to go through the many steps involved in making meatballs. Particularly with an assistant. So I had to disappoint the budding chef and make hamburgers instead.

Tuesday

Short version: Spaghetti and meatballs, roasted sweet potato/bell pepper/onion/broccoli

Long version: There was a reason I had told Cubby we would make spaghetti and meatballs on Monday: Because it was relatively cool that day. It was not cool on Tuesday. But a promise is a promise, and spaghetti and meatballs there must be. The kitchen was over 80 degrees by the time I finished all the broiling, baking, and boiling necessary to make spaghetti and meatballs.

They were really good, though, as always. And a bonus to having Cubby help me make them* was after we had been through all the steps, he said, "Meatballs are complicated." Yeah, they kind of are, even with my simplified method. And that, son, is why I don't make them more often. Maybe now he'll stop bugging me to make them so much.

One day he will learn that most people use jarred sauce for pasta and possibly even frozen meatballs, but I can hope that his taste buds will be so accustomed to homemade food that it will be worth it to him to make the effort. Given the fact that he told me nobody's meatballs are as good as mine (as well he should--mothers expect nothing less) and that the prepared meatballs they used to serve at his old school cafeteria in New York looked gross, I think he's well on his way.

Wednesday

Short version: Vaguely goulash-type soup, leftover spaghetti and meatballs, frozen vegetables

Long version: When I went freezer diving in the morning, I surfaced with a package of mystery beef. It was one of the things given to us by Ray, and it was the only thing not labeled. It looked pretty freezer burned, so I figured I'd better use it up.

It looked like some kind of bony roast, so I chunked it (still solidly frozen) into my enameled Dutch oven with some tomato juice, garlic powder, bay leaf, salt, and pepper and cooked it until the meat could be pulled off.

I still don't know where on the cow it came from--somewhere near the shoulder, maybe?--but it was a high ratio of bone to meat, so I only got about a cup of meat off it. I had some sour cream and a few potatoes I wanted to finish up before our trip, so I decided to make something like goulash with it.

To do that, I sauteed chopped onions in a skillet until soft, then added paprika to that, dumped all that in with the meat, added chopped carrots and potatoes, and simmered that until the vegetables were soft. I also put in some peas so I wouldn't have to serve a separate vegetable and finished it off with the sour cream. It was surprisingly good.

The children ate leftover spaghetti and meatballs and the frozen vegetables. Peas and green beans. Still frozen. They like them that way, and anyway, it was hot.

Perfect for basking, says Poppy Lizard.

Thursday

Short version: Beef stir-fry, rice

Long version: Apparently, stir-fry is now Jack's favorite food. He asked me wistfully a few days ago if I could make it again, because he loves it so much. What he really loves is the peanut butter in the sauce. That child would eat peanut butter three times a day if he could.

Actually, it occurs to me that yesterday he did eat peanut butter in some form for all three meals. Proof that sometimes dreams do come true.

Anyway.

I had a bunch of already-cooked vegetables to use up, and I figured the stir-fry would be a good way to do that, so I made it. Everyone was happy. Except Charlie. He doesn't really like stir-fry. Oh well. Five out of six is good enough.

We're leaving for Blackrock Monday and anticipate getting there Thursday, so it's possible I might manage my regularly scheduled Friday Food next week. But it's also possible I won't, and either way, I think the internet will go on.

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

* We did not use the recipe in his cookbook, because it was for turkey pesto meatballs. I have neither ground turkey nor pesto and will never purchase those items. I bought ground turkey once, and it was so disgusting I vowed never to do so again. As for pesto, that we only have when there is basil in the garden. Store pesto is not worth eating, in my opinion.

Dry Run

As I mentioned a few days ago, we are leaving for Blackrock soon. A week from today, as a matter of fact. We will be driving again, as the cost of six plane tickets is a bit staggering. With memories of our cross-country trip last summer still unfortunately clear in my mind, I suggested to A. that this time we should plan on camping instead of staying in motels.

This seems insane, I know. A. probably thought I had gone insane when I mentioned it, because my dislike of camping is deep-seated and well-known.

However.

We found it to be less than relaxing to stay in motel rooms with our feral children after they had been sitting in a car all day. We would get into our room and spend twenty minutes shouting at boys to stop screeching and jumping on beds before giving up on the idea of relaxing and bringing them outside to run around wherever we were.

I came to the conclusion that I would rather just be at a campsite where they could run around us and scream outdoors.

This is all good in theory*, but we have one big question mark in this equation: Poppy.

She has never been camping. The plan is for her to sleep in the smaller tent with me--leaving poor A. with the crazy boys in the big tent--but I have no idea how well this will work. Not only is she only accustomed to sleeping in her crib, she is not at all used to sleeping with other people. Even me.

Cubby set up their small tent in the enclosed porch the other day, so I've been encouraging Poppy to go into it and explore. She hasn't been too enthused, and certainly doesn't appear inclined to lie down and rest in it, but all I can do is cross my fingers and hope for the best.

Wish us luck.

 * I am not so delusional as to believe that camping with them will be relaxing either, but at least we won't be paying seventy dollars for the privilege of listening to them scream and run around in an enclosed space.

Garlic for Father's Day

El Rey de Ajo* dug up his garlic yesterday.

Not even the voracious gophers could eat all of this.

We'll be having roasted garlic with the traditional Father's Day steaks tonight. And every night for forever, possibly.

* This is Spanish for "The Garlic King." I'm gonna get this airbrushed on a custom license plate for A.'s vehicle one day.