Friday Food: Catch-As-Catch-Can Cooking

Friday 

Short version: Tuna melts, cucumber with salt and vinegar

Long version: The children actually had the tuna melts. A. and I had a skillet tuna melt, which was just the tuna salad that was in the sandwiches, but with chopped green beans and cheese added. Surprisingly good.

Saturday

Short version: Breakfast sausage patties, pigs' foot chile, rice, raw cabbage

Long version: I didn't have quite enough sausage for everyone, so A. and Cubby had the pigs' foot chile I pulled out of the freezer. I had a salad with some leftover taco meat.

Sunday

Short version: Ram lap and mince, baked potatoes, pureed calabaza, cucumbers and carrots with ranch dip, pots de creme

Long version: I've had the piece of ram lap hanging around since we butchered the first ram, um, almost two years ago. I'm never too quick to cook the lap (it's from the breast) as it's a very fatty cut with not much meat on it. That's why I also cooked the pound of so of meat from the last ram we butchered that the children had helpfully cut into very small pieces for me.

I marinated both kinds of meat in olive oil, vinegar, garlic powder, and salt, then baked the lap covered at low heat for a few hours. I used some of the fat rendered from that to fry the bits of meat, to which I only added a bit more salt.

Both came out well, although only A. and Cubby appreciate the lap.

Monday

Short version: Chicken fried rice

Long version: I purposely made extra rice a few days earlier for this meal, which also featured the chicken I pulled off the carcass I made stock with over the weekend, as well as a piece of cooked chicken breast meat I found randomly in the little freezer. And the last of the onion the MiL cooked while she was here.

Sauteed chopped green beans, chopped broccoli, and green peas, the onions, then the rice, then the diced chicken, then the eggs scrambled in there, and then soy sauce, ginger, vinegar, and garlic powder.

A very large and full skillet of fried rice, which makes for tricky stirring.

I have no idea how to make fried rice, by the way. But since my children have never eaten it before, they have no basis for comparison and they think this is great. They ate every bit.

Tuesday

Short version: Food on the fly

Long version: I got a call in the morning asking if I could sub for a teacher, so I wasn't home to cook. I thought I had made a workable plan while I was riding the bus home, but I forgot we were out of milk and my plan would not work without milk.

So! Plan-Whatever-I-Find it is!

What I found was about a cup of leftover taco meat, another cup or so of leftover rice, and some pinto beans. With those, plus salsa and grated cheese, I made a skillet meal for the children. Three of them also had a tortilla with cheese. Raw cabbage for a vegetable.

There was one serving of the lamb mince left, which I heated up for A. with some feta cheese. I also microwaved a potato for him, and one for Cubby, who is running track right now and is extra hungry when he gets home from school.

For myself, I made two fried eggs and some pinto beans, which I ate with a corn tortilla and cheese. A. and I also had some pureed calabaza from the freezer.

And then the children topped it all off with a slice of bread and cream cheese each. 

This was my off week for a Misfits Market delivery. Good thing, because I came home this day to find we had gotten another delivery of excess commodities food from the lady who runs the program. And what did we get this time?

The handy sticker on the side of the box will tell you!

We also got a bigger box with non-perishable things in it, including the coveted canned peaches. Since we were also the recipients of eight pounds of cottage cheese from the school cafeteria (it wasn't even opened, but was expired, so it couldn't be used at school), A. has been very happily eating cottage cheese and canned peaches after dinner.

It took a couple of days for the children to notice this post-dinner treat, but when they did, they of course asked for some, too. I thought there was only one can of peaches, which A. had eaten by the time the kids noticed, but we had a happy surprise on Thursday. Stay tuned!

Wednesday

Short version: Fried pork and potatoes, sauerkraut, calabaza, cucumber

Long version: Another work day, but I had a better plan this time. Two cans of commodities pork fried in chicken fat with two diced microwaved potatoes, with onion powder and paprika. 

A. and I had ours with the half jar of sauerkraut still in the refrigerator. We also had the calabaza. The cucumber was for the children.

Thursday

Short version: Barbecue pot roast, rice, pinto beans, roasted carrots, raw fennel, canned peaches

Long version: I made a chuck roast in the morning, sliced it, and heated it with barbecue sauce at dinnertime. 

Exciting? No. But certainly more effort than I made for most of the dinners this week.

I had just canned another batch of pinto beans the previous weekend, and one of the pint jars didn't seal satisfactorily. I wasn't sure there would be enough meat to go around in this meal, so I also heated up some of the beans with butter and vinegar, because Cubby particularly loves beans and rice. 

Turns out Jack was a big fan too, which is convenient since I still have about fifteen pounds of dried pinto beans in the pantry, and then got another two bags of them in the commodities box. We will be eating more beans in the future.

I found another can of peaches when I was actually putting away everything in the commodities box--I didn't get it all put away until I was off work this day--and I saved it for the children. They were very happy with this. Small joys.

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

T.T.: All About Animal Fats

Well, maybe not ALL about animal fats. This isn't going to be a comprehensive study of every type of animal fat, but I thought it might be a little helpful to have a brief overview of the more-common types of animal fats, at least.

At this very moment in my refrigerator, I have four different types of rendered animal fat: sheep, cow, pig, and chicken.

"Rendered" is the word used when the fat has been processed. That is, it is not straight off the animal. Rendered fat has been heated so that the pure fat separates from any impurities. Most of the fats I have right now have been rendered by the simple expedient of skimming liquids in which fatty meat has been cooked. 

The chicken fat came from the stock I made a couple of days ago. The beef fat came from cooking a chuck roast. The pork fat was from a shoulder roast. 

Chicken fat is the softest of all these fats. At room temperature--around 70 degrees--it will be more or less liquid. I use chicken fat mostly for things like roasting potatoes or making stir-fry.

Pork fat, called lard when rendered, is the next softest. Lard is the animal fat traditionally most used for baking. Leaf lard (that is, the fat from around the kidneys) is especially prized for this, as it is almost flavorless. I don't usually have leaf lard, so I use pork fat for frying.

Beef fat, called tallow when rendered, is fairly hard. It can be used in baking--traditional mincemeat calls for tallow--but does impart a flavor of beef and needs to be shredded to be incorporated. I use it for frying meat. Anytime I need to brown stew meat or something, I use tallow. I also use it for french fries or roasted potatoes.

Last and hardest is sheep fat, also called tallow when rendered. Some of it is more strongly flavored than others, and I use it like beef tallow.

Okay, so actually it's ram tallow. I like to be specific.

The relative hardness of the fats is good to know, because the harder ones need to be melted to be used easily. 

Also, beef and sheep tallow are much harder to wash off of dishes. Particularly sheep tallow. If you make a meal that includes a lot of sheep fat, you'd better have plenty of dish soap and boiling water to get anything it touches clean.

Last, I will note that the only wild animal fats I've dealt with--most wild animals don't have much fat to start with--are venison and elk. Those are pretty much like beef fat.

It occurs to me that I definitely should have posted this for Fat Tuesday, but I didn't think of it. A great opportunity for humor missed. 

Oh well. Have a nice Tuesday, fat or not.

Monday Bouquets: Courtesy of the MiL

When the MiL came to visit a couple of weeks ago, she brought some flowers from the grocery store. Most of them are now kind of sad-looking, but I pulled out the few that still look good and stuck them in this cool little pitcher thing Cubby found somewhere on our property next door.

Looks like spring to me.

The MiL also went for a walk with Poppy while she was here and was instructed by Poppy to bring back some dead weeds, presumably in imitation of the arrangement of them I had in the middle of the table. The MiL brought back an impressive quantity, stuck them in a random jar, and put them on top of a bookcase.

I'm pretty sure she was only doing this under pressure by Poppy, and therefore didn't take a great deal of care in their presentation, but they looked so interesting there by the lamp that I left them there.

As long as my view of the clock isn't blocked, it's fine. I hate it when I can't read the clock.

Thanks for the beautification, MiL!

Snapshots: Yay, Spring!

In honor of the Vernal Equinox, I present to you . . .

Rhubarb!

Dutch iris!

Cabbages and kohlrabi starts planted outside! (Under milk jugs, because they need shelter from the sun and wind as much as from the cold here.)

And exploring lambs.

There you have it! My (spring) life, snapshotted.

Friday Food: Green Food

Let's kick this off with a fun Friday Food fact: I have now recorded our every dinner for FOUR STRAIGHT YEARS. I started doing this on March 2, 2018, and I have not missed one single Friday in that whole time.

I'm not sure if that's impressive or lame. Maybe both. 

Regardless, let's carry on, shall we?

Friday

Short version: Salmon patties, mashed potatoes, sauteed zucchini/tomato/onion with feta cheese

Long version: We got several cans of salmon from Miss Amelia some time ago, and I've been saving the last four cans for Lent, knowing I would need it for Friday meatless meals. I used all four cans to make 13 large salmon patties (salmon, eggs, breadcrumbs, mayonnaise, mustard, pepper, dill). 

Random stove shot:

Pretty vegetables, and a LOT of fish patties, woah.

The MiL brought the feta cheese (two packages!), and I was unreasonably excited about it. I love it in my salads, but it is also good in many other things. Including sauteed vegetables. Yum.

Saturday

Short version: Many leftovers, sauteed green beans, raw cabbage

Long version: My refrigerator was way too full, so, even though I had a guest, we had leftovers. I don't consider leftovers to be a hardship if the food was good to begin with.

So everyone had some combination of salmon patties, lamb, carnitas, rice, and mashed potatoes. A. finished his pigs' feet chile (except for the couple gallons I froze). And I could once again put something in the refrigerator without playing Tetris to make it fit.

The green beans were a last-minute save of a bag I got from Misfits Market a week and a half prior. They were way overdue for cooking, but I only had to give a few to the chickens. Yay me.

The adults ate the green beans. The kids ate raw cabbage.

Sunday

Short version: Meatballs, spaghetti, roasted peppers and onions, fried mushrooms, peanut butter balls

Long version: You may celebrate Pi Day. I apparently celebrate Ball Day. Meatballs, peanut butter balls, so many balls rolled, and all delicious.

(I will not be making any off-color jokes here about that. This is not that kind of place.)

Monday

Short version: More leftovers

Long version: Work day, leftover day! I did go to all the effort of heating up the leftover pork with sauerkraut and a chopped potato that I microwaved, so that was my sole concession to having a guest. 

Otherwise, it was leftover meatballs, leftover spaghetti (no sauce left, so I just heated it up with butter, salt, pepper, and garlic powder for the children), and various leftover vegetables.

I told the MiL I should have my hostess certification revoked for serving leftovers twice to a guest, but since no one has bothered to actually give me a certificate for hostessing, no one can take it away. So there.

Tuesday

Short version: Bare-bones tacos, still-frozen green beans

Long version: Two pounds of ground beef browned with some already-cooked onion the MiL made when she was making potato soup for feverish Cubby (she remembered that you should always just cook the onion), cumin, garlic powder, paprika, and green chile. Drop that into corn tortillas microwaved with cheese on them, and that's it. That's the taco.

I was not feeling ambitious, quite obviously.

Wednesday

Short version: Leftovers, rainbow carrot flight

Long version: Even less ambitious. A choice of the same basic tacos or leftover meatballs with bread and butter.

The only interesting part of this meal was the selection of carrots that arrived from Misfits Market this very day. Just for the novelty factor, I chose a bunch of "rainbow" carrots, which meant there were two each of orange, yellow, and purple carrots. I cut each carrot into pieces and allowed the children to do a taste-test of every color.

Verdict: Yellow was the clear loser. Purple and orange were more or less interchangeable.

Thursday

Short version: Leftovers+green food

Short version: Leftover meatballs and for A., some more of his pigs' foot chile that I froze. Because it was St. Patrick's Day, I also made pasta with pesto. Not Irish--at all--but green! And a tradition in our house.

I had to sub for a teacher, so I delegated green cookies to Cubby. He was home recuperating from the nasty fever that laid him out in the earlier part of the week. He was mostly recovered, just still a bit weak and needing rest, so he stayed home again and I gave him the cookie project.

The cookies were a kit my sister brought us for, um, Halloween. They're supposed to be "monster" cookies--green with eyeballs--but we never got around to making them for Halloween. And then I thought we could make green cookies for Christmas, but there was so many other treats around at Christmas that I never did it then, either.

But there is yet ANOTHER holiday for which green cookies are appropriate!

I removed the eyeballs, though. 

The cookies themselves were pretty good, although Cubby reported that the dough stuck to everything, and the green food dye got all over the place. It even turned the dishwater green when he did the dishes after baking the cookies. 

Not sorry I missed that, but he had fun with it, and the other kids of course enjoyed eating cookies.

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

T.T.: Physics in the Kitchen

Not that I know much about physics. I never actually took that particular science, since I pretty much stalled out at chemistry.

But! I do know this: If you have a big pot of something you need to cool down quickly, a sink of cold water is your friend.

Perhaps you all knew this already. If you did, disregard. 

But if you didn't, and you find yourself with, say, gallons of pigs' foot chile that is still just below boiling point but needs to be stored overnight without cracking a glass shelf in your refrigerator or raising the temperature of said refrigerator . . .

Hot pot, cold water.

Okay, so that example is most definitely specific to me, but the big pot of something hot to be cooled down quickly isn't. And a sink of cold water is the best way to cool it quickly. Something about heat transfer. 

Like I said, hazy on the physics details. But I do know it works.

A couple of further points: Do not do this if you have a very hot glass or ceramic dish, as the hot dish in cold water might crack. 

And last, to cool even faster, stir the stuff in the pot in the sink every once in awhile ,and also stir around the water in the sink itself to distribute the cooler water so it will be in contact with the pot.

And there's your tip for the day. Onward with Tuesday.

Snapshots: Tea and Fashion

Poppy's new favorite game is dressing up in my clothes.

"I'm a miniature Mom!" (With far more attitude than actual Mom, however.)

The MiL came for a week-long visit on Wednesday, which meant Cubby was moved into A.'s office to sleep, and I got my semi-annual opportunity to clean his room out enough to make an acceptable guest room.

As good as it's going to get.

Among the many, many things I put in boxes and put into the closet, I did find two things that served as a very nice decorative element on the dresser.

Just as pretty as flowers. (Which I don't have right now, anyway.)

The MiL made scones (with whipped cream AND strawberry preserves) and treated the children to a tea party on Friday afternoon.

Grandma tea parties are the best tea parties.

This was our Spring Break week, which means my walks have been on the later side in the morning.

A frosty windmill well after sunrise.

Sheep in the morning light.

And some illuminated sunflower seed heads against a moody sky.

There you have it! My life, snapshotted.