Friday Food: Welcome to 2021

Friday

Short version: Pork chunks, black-eyed peas, rice, beet greens, leftover peas, seltzer

Long version: Happy New Year! Now, as you know if you've been reading here for longer than a year, I always, and I mean ALWAYS, make pork, greens, and black-eyed peas for New Year's Day dinner. How else can I ensure our health, wealth, and happiness in the coming year?

I have to admit that this year's effort was a bit lame. I forgot to put dried black-eyed peas on the list for A., so I didn't have a big pot of peas like I usually would. Luckily, I did have a can of black-eyed peas that came to us from the commodities program via a neighbor. So we did have at least some happiness.

I also didn't have very much in the way of greens, thanks to the brutal cold and wretched rabbits that have attacked the collard greens out in the garden. I did have some beet greens, though, so I made those.

The pork was some random cut I pulled out of the freezer and chunked up before frying with paprika and garlic powder.

And the seltzer was for our festive toast to the new year. I made it even more festive by putting a slice of actual lemon in each glass, AND by giving the children actual glasses with handles (which are actually jars that a Texas company sells jam in).

For my seltzer, I used a beer stein that my parents got for me in Germany years ago. I don't drink beer, so this seemed like a better use for it. The children were fascinated by it, though honestly I find it heavy and awkward. You can't see in the photo below, but it has one of those pewter covers on the top, and that just gets in the way.

Still! It was festive!

Prost!

Saturday

Short version: Bull meat, leftover rice, green salad, exciting artichoke appetizer

Long version: I had some more pork chunks from the day before that I had cut up, but it wasn't quite enough and I knew everyone would be very hungry after a long hike we took to see an ancient combine harvester that was abandoned a hundred years ago in the middle of nowhere.

There are actually quite a few farm machines from long ago in the middle of the range here, because this area used to be used for dry-land wheat farming. Back when it actually rained, that is, before the Dust Bowl.

Anyway, I took out one of those half gallon jars of pressure canned bull meat instead. I thought one of those jars would be enough for two meals.

How foolishly optimistic of me. Half a gallon of meat is ONE meal for us.

The artichoke was one that A. bought in Taos for me. I love artichokes and haven't had one in years. Pretty much everything I have ever seen in the food world about preparing artichokes involves trimming the leaves with shears. My mother never did that, so I don't, either. Anyway, half the fun is scraping the leaves with your teeth.

Just ask my children. I shared the artichoke with them. They've never had one, so I had to demonstrate the proper technique for removing the leaves, dipping them in the olive oil and vinegar mixture (also what my mother always did), and teeth scraping.

They loved it. Of course.

Sunday

Short version: Roasted chicken, carrots, and potatoes; roasted onions and tomatoes; green peas; vanilla ice cream with maple syrup

Long version: This was a really large meal that came out well, but I feel like there's not too much to say about it.

Oh! EXCEPT! (I always have something to say, right?)

Those roasted tomatoes? Those were the VERY LAST fresh tomatoes from the garden. The ones that were harvested way back in October. "Fresh" was pretty relative by this point, because they had gotten kind of wrinkly and mummifed, but they were delicious roasted.

Only six more months until we have fresh tomatoes again. (Sigh.)

Monday

Short version: Pork with sauerkraut and onions, chicken with curry dip, rice, carrot sticks, sauteed green beans

Long version: I really needed to cook those pork pieces I had cut up on Friday, but it still wasn't quite enough for dinner for all six of us.

How lucky one of our hens drowned in the horse water!

Yeah, not really. She was just starting to lay. Boo.

Despite the bummer of losing a laying hen, we certainly weren't going to let her go to waste. So A. hung her overnight and then prepped her in the afternoon for me. 

This hen was not all that large, but she was incredibly fat. I guess because she had been eating grain all winter and hadn't starting depleting her reserves by laying yet. This was the first time I've ever had a home chicken with enough fat on it to render, but that's what I did.

I ended up with about a cup of rendered chicken fat, which, FYI, is a startingly bright yellow. 

The actual chicken I boiled, except I didn't get it in the water until mid-afternoon, so by dinnertime it was still very tough. The breast was okay, though, so I cut that off for the children and gave them some dip for that while I continued to boil the rest of the carcass.

And then we had the pork, cooked with a jar of rinsed sauerkraut and some sliced onions. It was a bit dry, so I added some butter, too. Yum.

Tuesday

Short version: Bunless cheeseburgers, fried onions, mashed potatoes, green salad with ranch dressing

Long version: I took out another of those enormous rolls of ground beef from the freezer and made the whole thing into hamburger patties. We ate some this night, and then I froze about 25 more. 

I guess that's one good thing about those awkward quantities of meat: It forces me to prep ahead.

Wednesday

Short version: Breakfast sausage patties, pasta with pesto, frozen green peas

Long version: Epiphany! Otherwise known as Presents: Take Two.

The small but mighty tree, still standing proud.

The pasta with pesto was our celebratory food. It has nothing to do with the Three Kings, but my children sure like it. 

I haven't managed to grow enough basil here to make pesto an everyday food in the winter, but it's good to have for special occasions.

Thursday

Short version: Pork, leftover rice, baked onions, mashed squash, green salad with ranch dressing

Long version: I don't know what this pork was. Another random thing I cut off something larger. It was pretty lean, so I'm guessing a loin. In any case, I cooked it in the oven for several hours until it was tender. It didn't make enough fat to fry it in, though, so I used some of the rendered chicken fat to fry it carnitas-style.

The onions were sliced and baked at the same time as the pork, as was the squash. Only one squash left to cook! And a LOT of bags of cooked squash in the freezer.

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

Tuesday Tips: File Away for Next Year

This one is for my fellow parents out there. It's a tip for Christmas, which means it won't do you much good this year, but maybe it will be helpful next year.

So! Let's talk about presents. 

If your children are anything like mine, they are the recipients of many gifts from generous family members. The packages pile up in the weeks before Christmas and when you sort through them, you realize there are a LOT of presents for each child. 

This is a good problem to have, but I do consider it a problem. And the reason I consider it a problem is because the more presents kids have, the more they want. Christmas morning becomes a sprint to see who can open their gifts the fastest, with a constant stream of "Are there any more for me?" while the presents they've already opened get tossed aside with hardly a glance in their quest for moremoremore.

The beginnings of Christmas madness.

It's highly unappealing, and not really the Christmas atmosphere I'm going for.

So, my solution to this is to not give them all their gifts on Christmas.

One year in northern New York we did a New Year's Day Christmas at home after spending Christmas Day with the MiL and her family. That was great, because by the time New Year's came around, the kids were ready to appreciate new things.

This year, I saw someone mention online that their children actually open the majority of their gifts on Epiphany, and I was like, "Dingdingding! We have a winner!"

Epiphany is also known as Three Kings Day. It's the Twelfth Day of Christmas (as in the famous song of the twelve days), and it is a celebration of both Jesus' baptism and the Magi's visit to the newborn Jesus in Bethlehem with their well-known gifts.

I mean, it's the day that Jesus got his gifts! How appropriate.

So I set aside a couple of presents for each kid for Epiphany. They know they will get something on Epiphany, which makes them excited all over again, rather than let down that all the excitement is over.

You could also do some gifts on Christmas Eve and the rest on Christmas Day, but I think a longer period in between is better.

However you split it up, it will lessen the chaos on the actual day of Christmas and hopefully result in kids that appreciate what they get a little more. 

One caveat here: This should not become an expectation that you or family members will buy more gifts for the additional gift-opening day. That kind of defeats the point. It's just an opportunity to split up what you already have and spread out the fun.

Sunday Snapshots: Now With More Animals and Plants

 

Jockeying for the hay.

These are our neighbor's cows that are overwintering in the pasture across the road. You know that line in "Away in a Manger," "The cattle are lowing, the baby awakes"? I know why the baby awakes. Because lowing cattle are SO LOUD. And I know this because that's what these cows do first thing in the morning when they see anyone come out of our house to feed our animals. It's really annoying.

Little girl, big country.

Wokkit da wittle baby wettuces!

And some sad-looking collards and sprouting broccoli plants.

And some arugula from last summer that is apparently indestructible.

Friday Food: Plan B for Christmas

Happiest of new years to everyone! Let's kick this new year off right: with food.

Friday

Short version: Very merry spaghetti and meatballs, sauteed mushrooms and onions, green salad with ranch dressing, apple pie with vanilla ice cream

Long version: This was not my plan for Christmas dinner. My plan was to make tamales and chocolate roulade, like I did last year.

But I found myself absolutely dreading spending that much time in the kitchen. I was just burned out on cooking, I guess.

So, I didn't.

Instead I made spaghetti and meatballs. I was planning on that for my birthday dinner, but made it for Christmas dinner instead. I had three pounds of fancy Wagyu ground beef my mother brought us in October that I've been saving for this very meal.

Yes, I do plan ahead that much.

It was a very simple meal, because the sauce was already made. All I had to do was make the meatballs in the morning, pull out a couple of bags of Finny's sauce from the freezer, and put it all together at dinnertime. 

We had the mushrooms because many years ago, small Cubby declared that he didn't like mushrooms, except on Christmas. And so now we have mushrooms every Christmas, and every child eats a piece. Actually, Charlie is the only one who doesn't like them now, but even he screws up his face and eats his traditional Christmas mushroom piece.

As traditions go, it's a pretty weird one, but I never claimed we were normal.

Charlie's expression notwithstanding, the children were pleased with their non-traditional Christmas feast.

The pie was made the day before, with the extra pie crust we froze at Thanksgiving and some apples from Miss Amelia that were past their prime for fresh eating.

Saturday

Short version: Ground beef tacos, cucumbers with ranch dressing

Long version: A. and Cubby left for their elk hunting trip this morning, and I gave the remaining kids some of the frozen taco meat heated up in corn tortillas with cheese. Still not feeling motivated to cook.

Sunday

Short version: Leftover spaghetti and meatballs, miniature carrots, garden meatball skillet for me, hot chocolate and bizcochitos

Long version: The only cooking I did for this meal was for me. As it was my birthday, I treated myself to a bunch of preserved garden produce--shredded calabacita, green beans, and Finny's sauce from the freezer--all sauteed with some mushrooms, onions, and meatballs with asadero cheese. It was delicious.

The carrots were from the garden, too. We had a warm spell that thawed the ground pretty well, so I decided to try to dig up some of the fall-planted carrots that have been hanging out in the garden for last three months. They were pretty small--the biggest were only about the size of my pointer finger--but very sweet and good.

I felt no need to make yet another cake or sweet treat, given the quantity of baked goods that have been through my kitchen in the past couple of weeks. Instead, I made hot chocolate and we had that with the remainder of the bizcochito cookies our mail lady gave us. Yum.

Monday

Short version: Ground beef tacos, oyster stew, cucumber spears

Long version: A. and Cubby returned from their elk-hunting expedition without an elk, but with some oysters. They went right through Taos on their way home, so they stopped at the grocery store there, which is where they got the oysters.

I've never cooked oysters before, but A. shucked them for me and I made a very simple stew with them that was, honestly, mostly milk and cream. There was supposed to be about a pint of oysters in it, but since A. only got two pounds of oysters, most of which is the heavy shells, it ended up being about half a cup of oysters. 

A. and Cubby very much enjoyed their stew anyway, though, and even Charlie liked it pretty well.

Jack and Poppy weren't so into it. They had the tacos with some more of the meat from the freezer.

So handy, that meat.

Also handy is the pressure-canned bull meat. A. and Cubby brought a jar of that with them on their hunt and ate it the first night heated on their campfire with some rice and a lot of butter and cheese. They declared it delicious, although I suspect anything tastes delicious when you've been hiking in wet snow for five hours.

Does this look like fun to you? Sure doesn't to me, but that right there is a boy in his element.

Tuesday

Short version: Boneless lamb leg roast, roasted potatoes, green salad with ranch dressing

Long version: I just happened to grab the lamb roast first from the top of the freezer. I marinated it in some of the red wine A. had brought from Taos, along with olive oil, garlic, and salt, then roasted it along with the potatoes at high heat until it was done.

Wednesday

Short version: Leftover lamb, rice, taco meat with rice and cheese, green peas

Long version: Cubby and A. chose the leftover lamb, the rest of the children chose the leftover taco meat. For them, I heated it up with rice, cheese, and green peas right in one bowl, so they had to eat it all together.

One-bowl meals are very useful when feeding small children.

Photo break!

A rare cameo by Jack. (And the blue sky, which is, thankfully, not rare.)

Thursday

Short version: Beef and vegetable soup, garlic bread, cheese

Long version: This was my make-up birthday day, since A. was gone hunting on my actual birthday. He woke up early with me so as to be on hand to field the many and varied demands of children in the morning, and then took them with him to get hay 90 miles away, thereby guaranteeing me four hours of blissful solitude in the house.

Because it was supposed to be a day all about me (not that any day is really like that with little kids, but I was pretending), I decided to make soup for dinner. I love vegetable soup and cheese. 

It also had the benefit of using up the half a jar of bull meat A. brought back from their expedition, along with some of the juices from another jar of bull meat I had opened. And the last bit of sauce from the meatballs. And the last few cups of pheasant/rabbit stock.

Plus a bag of frozen calabacita that I threw in there, and then spent literally all of the meal listening to my children complain about.

There's a reason I don't usually make this for dinner.

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

Boo Boo Bandaging: A Toddler Drama in Pictures

 

I just love a happy ending, don't you?

Tuesday Tips: Just Cook the Onion

We're gonna keep this one short and to the point: When you are left with a part of a raw onion after using whatever you need for whatever recipe you're making, just go ahead and slice up the rest of the onion and cook it. 

It seems like a pain to get out another pan, I know, but it is always worth it. Because then you don't have part of a raw onion smelling up the refrigerator, and you have cooked onion ready to go for anything.

Would I, for example, cut part of an onion off for the small amount I might need for sauteed green beans? No. But I will use some of that already-cooked onion, and the green beans will taste a lot better with that addition. 

So cook those partial onions and thank yourself later.

That's all.

Unrelated Poppy photo, because why not.

Sunday Snapshots: Happy Birthday To Me! (Plus, Christmas Pictures)

 Today I turn 41 years old.

That's all. Let's move right on to the snapshots, shall we?

Scaling the walls of the sand pit down the road. Better than Disneyland. (Also, at the risk of being repetitive: Would you look at that SKY? In December! I will never get over it!)

This is what my refrigerator looked like last Monday, right before A. went to the grocery store. I decided to find the silver lining to this emptiness and take all the shelves out so I could actually take them apart and scrub everything down. This is the after picture, in case you couldn't tell.

A. was so impressed by this van he saw at a gas station that he took a picture of it. He said there were some dudes living out of it. I'm sure there's a story there, but I'm also sure I don't want to know it.

Christmas stocking excitement! (Those are socks Poppy is holding up.)

The aftermath of the present-opening storm.

Charlie immediately after opening everything.

Cubby and his haul.

And A. hiding in the corner, trying to drink some coffee before he had to engage with anyone. It was 5 a.m.

Not a single picture of the animals this week. I must remedy that this week.