Friday Food: It's a Birthday

Today is Cubby's 12th birthday. He does not wish his handsome visage to be featured here, and so I will instead post a picture of a plane the birthday boy made for his sister out of cardboard and Tinker Toys.

Named, amusingly The Predatory Princess. Her call sign is the Red Yam.

And now, food.

Friday

Short version: Breakfast sausage patties, baked beans, fresh bread, carrot sticks, frozen vegetables

Long version: The MiL sent me a recipe that's supposed to make baked beans like Grandma Brown's baked beans. We used to drive past the Grandma Brown's factory in Mexico, New York on our way from far northern New York to Blackrock.

Anyway. I tried the recipe. I was a bit short of brown sugar, so I used the last of my small bottle of maple syrup. I think it was a bit too sweet, because I just put what was left in the bottle rather than measuring carefully, but they were still pretty good.

Not, of course, JUST like Grandma Browns, which my children were quick to mention.

I got my Misfits Market delivery this day. Thanks to the weather, it was two days late and frozen absolutely solid.

Those are some seriously cool cucumbers.

They refunded the cost of the whole order and gave me a $10 credit, as well. So now I can tell you that they do have good customer service.

And of course, I did use all that frozen stuff. The children sampled all of it, still frozen, and discovered that they actually really like frozen cucumber slices.

Saturday

Short version: Spaghetti and meatballs, baked fennel, frozen peas

Long version: I was very, very tempted to punk out with something easy like taco meat with the ground beef I had taken out to thaw, but I overcame my lazy impulses and made meatballs instead. 

I figured I might as well, since I had roasted the frozen cherry tomatoes the day before with a head of garlic while I was baking bread and made the spaghetti sauce. If there is sauce, there should be meatballs.

They were really good. Virtue is indeed its own reward.

Sunday

Short version: Pork and sauerkraut, mashed potatoes, green beans, chocolate pudding

Long version: I really, really love sauerkraut with pork. A. does, too, and sauerkraut is the only form of cabbage he can eat in any quantity, so that works out.

Definitely humble food of the most delicious sort. (Photo bombing by Pretty Sparkles the Unicorn.)

I always make a double recipe of chocolate pudding, and we always eat it all. We're a double recipe kind of family, I guess.

Monday

Short version: Chicken tacos

Long version: Poppy had wistfully remarked the day before that she wished we could have chicken. I have several roosters in the freezer at the moment, along with a few bags of chicken pulled from bones after stock-making that I had labeled "chicken for soup."

Except instead of soup, I made tacos with a couple of the bags of soup chicken by simply frying the chicken with spices and salsa. Much more popular than soup would have been, no doubt. 

Tuesday

Short version: Barbecue bull, rice, coleslaw

Long version: Two jars of pressure-canned bull meat further broken down with the immersion blender, then fried with additional tallow (because it has no fat of its own), and then I added barbecue sauce and grated cheese. Serviceable.

I hadn't made coleslaw in awhile. It sure is good. I was actually reminded of it by Poppy's friend, who came to stay with us during the day while her mom was at work and was asking all about the cabbage seeds in the bathroom and what I do with them.

The woodstove picnic the girls had later in the day did not include coleslaw.

Wednesday

Short version: A plethora of leftovers, tomato salad

Long version: Let's see. A. and I had fried pork and sauerkraut, and leftover rice. Plus coleslaw and tomato salad.

Cubby had the last serving of lamb stew with some extra bull meat added.

The rest had chicken tacos.

The tomato salad was made with the cherry tomatoes I got with my Misfits Market order, which were lacking in flavor, as all winter tomatoes are. Salt, pepper, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and garlic powder helped, but they were still winter tomatoes. Boo.

Thursday

Short version: Bull and potato skillet, more chicken tacos, green beans, raw radishes

Long version: I made a skillet of sliced microwaved potatoes plus the rest of the bull meat, and spices and cheese. Then I gave the children a choice between that or more chicken tacos. Half the family had the tacos and half had the skillet food, which worked out well.

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

T.T.: A Makeshift Jar Brush

I spend a lot of time washing out jars. A lot of my food storage is in canning jars, and I always wash out and re-use old peanut butter jars, jam jars, etc. 

This is pretty easy with wide-mouth jars. I have small hands and can get my hand right in to wash the bottom.

But regular mouth jars? Nope. My hand is not getting in there.

There are dedicated jar brushes for this very problem, but I don't have one. They're big, and plastic, and I don't want to have to store one.

So when I have a jar that needs to be scrubbed inside and I can't get my hand in, this is what I do:

That's a nylon scrubby that I stuff into the jar with some soapy water. Then I use a long-handled utensil of some kind to scrub it around the inside of the jar. 

The jar in the photo is a smaller jar, so I just used a big fork. For bigger jars, I use the handle of my spatula to reach the bottom.

It's still not as easy as scrubbing out a jar in which I can actually fit my hand, and probably not as convenient as using an actual jar brush, but it will eventually get the jars clean. 

One less kitchen item to buy, one less to clean, one less to throw away when it gets gross. Works for me.

Snapshots: Weights and Winter

We had to go into the school weight room to conduct a science fair experiment, and A. took the opportunity to teach Cubby proper lifting form for various exercises so he'll be more prepared for football next year.

My children are still a little young right now, but I predict our family will be making a LOT of use of this room in the coming years.

That little outing was a good way to get out of the house. There hasn't been a lot of getting actually outside lately, since it looks like this and is just as cold as it looks.

Cold with wind. The worst. The dogs don't care, though.

We are definitely deep into hay-feeding season, which means I get hay bits down my shirt every morning when I bring the sheep their flakes of hay. Itchy.

They're always waiting for it by the fence, which makes it very easy to count them and make sure none are hiding somewhere with a newborn lamb. None yet.

Despite the frigid temperatures--or maybe because of them--I was inspired to start the year's garden.

Cabbage and kohlrabi coming right up (in about six months).

And last, some frozen walk photos:

Morning light in the remains of last year's garden (that's a dill plant).

A wintery windmill just before sunrise.

And the old schoolhouse framed in the muted colors of winter.

There you have it! My life, snapshotted.

Friday Food: Leftovers Every Day

Friday 

Short version: Pot roast, gravy, egg noodles, raw carrots, leftover steamed carrots and broccoli

Long version: The pot roast gravy was made with cornstarch and milk (and the meat juices, of course), and it was good, but cornstarch just doesn't make as thick and nice a gravy as flour does.

Every child had a raw carrot before dinner, because they just couldn't wait to eat something. Carrots work.

Saturday

Short version: Leftover white chicken chile or barbecue beef sandwiches, green salad, frozen peaches and peas

Long version: I made bread in the afternoon, which meant the main course of dinner was really just a complement to fresh bread. So some had the barbecue beef (leftover pot roast simmered with barbecue sauce) and some had the chile, but all had the bread.

The children had the frozen peaches and peas while I was making dinner and they were whining about being hungry. I invited them to browse among the frozen produce in the small freezer, and half had frozen peaches while the other half had frozen peas.

Remember when I suggested front-loading produce to get kids to eat more of it? As you can see, I really do practice what I preach on this one.

Sunday

Short version: Bunless cheeseburgers, pasta with pesto, green beans, leftover broccoli, crispy rice treats

Long version: I still have quite a few cubes of frozen pesto in the freezer from the summer, for the simple reason that I have a hoarding mentality about it and hate to actually start using it. Which is, of course, crazy.

Anyway. I used some, and it was good. As were the green beans, which were also garden produce frozen at the height of summer.

It's always fun to have garden food in the deadest of winter.

Monday

Short version: Pot roast tacos

Long version: Since I had the oven on anyway, I cooked two chuck roasts on Saturday. The one I didn't use that night I sliced and saved for this after-work meal. All I did with the meat was fry it with cumin, chile powder, and salsa. Tasty, and very quick.

Tuesday

Short version: Scrambled eggs with cheese, leftover taco meat, bread and butter, carrot sticks with curry dip

Long version: We ended up going to the school basketball game unexpectedly, which meant I wasn't home to make dinner. So, when we got home at 6 p.m. with four starving kids, it was scrambled eggs to the rescue!

Those who don't really like scrambled eggs had the meat.

Wednesday

Short version: Lamb gyros with homemade sourdough pita bread, hummus, yogurt sauce, green salad

Long version: I go along making boring old hamburgers and random leftovers into meals and then . . . I do this. 

It all started with a boned leg of lamb (ram, actually) that I pulled out of the freezer. I cut the nicest part of that into strips and marinated them in olive oil, vinegar, garlic powder, and salt.

Then I made the pita bread. 

Then I made the yogurt sauce with plain yogurt, minced garlic, lemon juice, salt and pepper.

The hummus was the last of the double-batch I made some time ago. I had one more container of it in the freezer, and I figured this was the perfect time for it. (This was the day's leftover, I guess.)

Butter lettuce with vinaigrette (the dressing was also actually a leftover) and . . . well. I don't like to brag, but you would have wanted to eat this meal.

It would have been even better with the cucumbers and tomatoes that were supposed to come in my Misfits Market delivery this day, but given that it looked like this outside all day, I can't say I was surprised FedEx didn't make it to my house:

Luckily, we weren't relying on FedEx to deliver Samson's hay.

This may have been one of the most delicious meals to come out of my kitchen in some time, but it was also definitely one of the messiest.

No such thing as a spatter guard for a griddle pan.

Thursday

Short version: Lamb stew, bunless cheeseburgers, frozen peas

Long version: The gnarlier bits from the leg of lamb went into this stew, along with potatoes and carrots and peas. Half the family ate the stew, half ate the cheeseburgers I made with the remainder of the ground beef from a few days ago. The latter group also had some potatoes from the stew, and still-frozen peas.

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

T.T.: Oddly Wholesome Movies

This is kind of weird, but you know what's a really good group of movies for kids?

The Ernest movies. 

If you're old enough, you probably remember Ernest from the 1980s. I didn't even watch them, but even I knew who Ernest was. Apparently, they continued making the movies into the 1990s, and there are quite a few of them. Some of them are free on YouTube or Prime. 

I randomly put on Ernest Saves Christmas a few weeks ago for the kids, without much hope that they would all like it. I figured Cubby might, but I wasn't sure about the others. They almost never all like the same movies. That happens when there's an 8-year age span.

Imagine my surprise when all of them loved it. So the next time they got to watch a movie, I put on Ernest in the Army. They loved that even more.

I know they all liked it because every one of them came to tell me their favorite parts in great detail after the movies were over. 

They're kind of stupid movies, in the sense that the comedy is almost entirely physical. 

But! BUT!

It's not inappropriate comedy. It's not scatalogical; it's not mean; it's not snarky; it's not subtly sexual; it doesn't rely on bad language. It's just . . . falling down and throwing heavy pancakes as artillery and so on. It's slapstick, and it's fine for kids.

I find that frustratingly rare in entertainment, even in entertainment that's supposed to be for kids.

So! If you find yourself scrambling for truly family-friendly entertainment, you might try Ernest. I haven't watched all of them, so I can't really personally vouch for every single one, but the two we've watched so far have been hits.

Bonus movie tip: Every one of my children also likes The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, a.k.a., the original Pooh movie. That's another entirely wholesome movie for kids, though not free anywhere online as far as I know. It's funny without being at the expense of any of the characters. I don't know why movies like this can't be made anymore, but it's pretty unique.

Amateur Librarian Seeks . . .

Book recommendations. And here's why.

I was asked to put together a library for the middle and high school students at our school, and I'm pretty much starting from scratch. 

In addition, I'm adding to the existing small elementary library. 

This means I'm buying books. Lots of books. 

A. has suggested quite a few books, particularly for the older students. My older two children--who are prodigious readers themselves--have suggested quite a few books. I've ordered a few dozen books, and have about a hundred more on a list that I'm preparing to order.

But I still have room on that list for more, and I'm sure there are some really great books that I'm missing.

So! If you were in my position, what books do you think you would consider essential for a school library? Any ages, any genres, non-fiction, fiction, modern, classic . . . it's all fair game.

GO. (And thanks!)

Snapshots: Winter, Finally

We've gone through most of the calendar winter at 60 degrees with high winds. Boo. But now, it finally looks (and feels) like real winter.

Snow on the road.

Snow on the horse.

Snow on the sheep.

The only uncovered window in the living room faces east, which means the best light of the day in there is as soon as the sun comes up.

My early-rising habits ensure that I am always awake to see it.

That first light coming in through the window creates areas of light that look just like a Dutch painting.

Vermeer would have loved New Mexico.

There you have it! My life, snapshotted.