Friday Food: It's Lovely Rice Pudding for Dinner Again*

Friday 

Short version: Leftovers

Long version: I used leftover taco meat/beans to make quesadillas for the kids. I don't usually do this, because frying anything individually is a huge pain with four children, but Cubby was gone at a track meet, so I only had three children. Slightly less of a pain. But only slightly.

A. and I had leftover steak, and the last of a giant container of green beans and potatoes the school cook had sent home with me. They were surprisingly good.

Saturday

Short version: Pot roast, bread and butter, asparagus, watermelon radish, rice pudding

Long version: The extra commodities stuff is really getting out of control. We got a big box dropped off at our house by the lady who delivers it; a big box from Miss Amelia of the stuff she didn't want; and TWO boxes from Rafael of his extra things. Which is how I ended up with four pounds of cheap white rice and eight more pounds of raisins (in addition to the literal case I already had). So I decided to make rice pudding, since I had the oven on anyway for the pot roast, and it takes four hours to cook a double recipe.

I used the MiL's recipe, which was the one her father used to make on the farm for her and her five siblings. It calls for half a gallon of milk, which unfortunately doesn't come with commodities. Well, except for fat-free dried milk, and there's no way I'm making rice pudding from that.

I didn't have quite enough sugar, so I added some maple syrup, but that made it too sweet. I fixed this by cooking some rhubarb plain in the microwave so anyone who wanted to could stir that in to their rice pudding to cut the sweetness. Only A. tried it, and he really liked it.

The children didn't seem to think it was too sweet. But then, their tastebuds are significantly less sensitive to that particular taste.

I have one child who hates cooked raisins, so I leave one side raisin-less for him.

Sunday

Short version: Chicken and split pea curry, rice, green beans, rhubarb custard pie with whipped cream

Long version: I had two more rooster carcasses in the freezer, so I put those in the pressure cooker to make stock and have some cooked chicken. The problem I always have with pressure-cooking chickens, though, is that it definitely makes the best stock, but the meat gets sort of stringy.

In any case, I used that meat plus a container of curried split peas from the freezer, plus some sour cream, to make curried chicken. I should have used the other container of split peas in the freezer, though, because the chicken wasn't seasoned enough.

Well, I didn't think so, but everyone else still had two servings, so I guess it was okay.

Cubby chose the dessert. He wanted to make a pie with the rhubarb I had harvested the day before, so he made the crust using the MiL's recipe and I made the filling using this recipe (except with a teaspoon of cornstarch instead of flour). 

I was sort of ambivalent about the pie in the end. But then, I'm not a pie person, and the three pie people in our house really liked it. Particularly A., who said it was one of the best pies he's ever had.

Given the number of pies he's eaten over his life, most of them prepared by the MiL and her family, who are very accomplished pie bakers, that's a great compliment.

The two children who do not like pie had a graham cracker with whipped cream on it for dessert.

Monday

Short version: Leftovers

Long version: The children all chose leftover curried chicken and rice for their dinners, which they ate along with watermelon radish on the side.

A. and I ate leftover pot roast, his with rice, mine in a salad.

Yup, it was a workday. You can always tell.

Completely unrelated sunrise photo of the steers across the road.

Tuesday

Short version: Male stew, garlic bread, rice pudding

Long version: When A. went to the store the day before, he got the four gallons of milk I requested, but the only ones he could find had a use-by date of Thursday. I knew we would not use four gallons of milk in six days (if they're not opened, they're usually fine for a few days after the use-by date), so I decided to make more rice pudding. This was a good day for it, as it was 35 degrees and windy when we got up, so the house could use the heat from the oven.

This time I used my big 15"x10" Pyrex and made a quadruple batch. That used almost a full gallon of milk. The Pyrex was completely full, and therefore sort of tricky to put in the oven and stir without spilling it. I used quite a bit less sugar this time, and it was better. And the boys were VERY EXCITED by the great quantity of rice pudding they found when they got home from school.

Because I needed the oven to be on for four hours to bake the rice pudding, I took out a bag of ram stew meat and cooked that along with the pudding. Lamb, onion, green garlic puree, rooster stock, a can of spaghetti sauce (we get a lot of this from the excess commodities, so I often use it in place of plain tomatoes), carrots, and potatoes.

It was male stew because it was made from ram meat and rooster stock. The children thought this was funny.

Wednesday

Short version: Leftovers, bacon and eggs

Long version: There was some chicken curry, some rice, and some lasagna left from the cafeteria on Monday. I added bacon and eggs, bread and butter, and leftover rice pudding to fill it out for those who needed more food.

And that's how we eat on work days.

Thursday

Short version: Fried pork, spaghetti with pesto, fried potatoes, cucumber slices

Long version: Two cans of commodities pork fried with spices, spaghetti for the kids, a nuked potato fried with the pork for A., a salad for me, cucumber slices for everyone.

I had to work again, but I actually cooked. Three pans going on the stove and no leftovers in sight. Look at me go, like a real cook instead of a microwaver.

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

* Remember the books of poetry by A.A. Milne I recommended last week? Well, they include a poem entitled "Rice Pudding," and I took every opportunity to recite the last stanza whenever we were eating said pudding. It goes "What is the matter with Mary Jane? She's perfectly well and she hasn't a pain, and it's lovely rice pudding for dinner again! What is the matter with Mary Jane?" English nursery rice puddings must not have been as good as mine.

T.T.: Streamlined Snack Cookies

I freely admit that I spend more time in the kitchen than is probably reasonable. But all that time in the kitchen inevitably leads to certain efficiencies. I know my style of scratch cooking is time-intensive, but I see no need to slavishly follow recipes if it leads to unnecessary steps and more time.

Such was the case with this cookie recipe.

I developed it several months ago while searching for a cookie recipe that used more oats than flour. I am absolutely buried in oats thanks to the government commodities program and our generous neighbors. I think I have at least twenty pounds of oats on hand at all times. 

In addition to an oat-heavy recipe, I wanted one that would be acceptable for school snacks. I have Many Opinions on school snacks, all of which I will spare you. All I'll say is that I've completely sworn off any pre-packaged snacks for my kids at school.

But they still need to eat. And they need relatively healthy snacks that will last at least a week without refrigeration. 

Those snacks also need to be portable, not too messy to eat, and not annoying and time-consuming for me to make.

I've found cookies to be the best option for portability and longevity. So I needed a snack cookie that used lots of oats, was relatively healthy, lasted a long time in a classroom, could be transported easily, wouldn't fall apart, and wouldn't take too much of my time.

That's a lot to ask.

But I figured it out. These cookies have a bit of protein from peanut butter and walnuts, are sweetened minimally (but still acceptably--no need to be penitential about it) only with honey, and are mostly oats. They're as close to a "healthy" cookie as I could get while still being recognizably a cookie, and therefore fun to eat.

I actually started with this recipe I found online, but I've eliminated most of the steps and dirty dishes. It's just one big bowl, one measuring cup, one spoon, and one pan. It takes me exactly 15 minutes to mix the dough and get the cookies in the oven. With only 12 minutes of baking time (the entire batch fits on one pan, so it really is only 12 minutes), that's less than 30 minutes for a week's worth of school snacks for three kids (plus some extras for the kid at home).

Wait, I lied. There is one other small bowl for melting butter and so on. Still fewer dishes than the original recipe, and FAR fewer steps.

I also changed some of the ingredient amounts, so it's not really that recipe anymore. It's mine. And now it can be yours.

Snack Cookies (makes about 30 small cookies)

Ingredients

1 cup flour (can be all-purpose, white whole wheat, or a combination--the more white flour, the more it will have a dessert cookie texture)

2 cups oats (old-fashioned or quick, but NOT instant)

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 heaping teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon salt (use a bit more if using unsalted butter)

1/2 cup nut pieces (I use walnuts)

3/4 cup raisins or chocolate chips (or a combination)

8 tablespoons butter (I use salted because that's all I buy)

1/3-1/2 cup honey (more honey means more like a dessert cookie)

1/2 cup peanut butter 

1 egg

1 tsp. vanilla

Method

1) Combine oats, flour, baking powder, cinnamon, salt, nuts (I break the pieces up smaller in my hands as I'm adding them, because I can't be bothered to dirty a knife and cutting board to chop them), and raisins/chocolate chips in a big bowl and mix all together.

2) Melt butter, honey, and peanut butter all together in a small bowl in microwave (or a pot on the stove) and add to the dry ingredients. 

3) Slightly beat the egg in that same bowl the butter, etc. was in (always reduce dishes!) and add it to the big bowl, along with the vanilla.

4) Mix all together thoroughly with a sturdy spoon. It will be quite dense and sticky. You can put it in the freezer for 15 minutes or so if you want to get it a little less goopy. I usually don't bother, though.

5) For each cookie, scoop out about a tablespoon with a spoon and drop it onto an ungreased, unlined pan.  These don't spread, so you can put them very close together, which is why you can bake the whole batch on only one pan. If you've chilled the dough, you can roll it into balls and smoosh them slightly flat on top to make neater cookies with a more uniform shape. 

6) Bake at 325 degrees for about 12 minutes in the top half of your oven (if they're in the bottom half, they'll brown too much on the bottom before they're done). These will not brown much on top, so check the bottom of one to see if they're done. When the bottoms are a medium brown, take them out. They will be a bit crumbly right out the oven, so either leave them on the pan to cool for a few minutes, or just be careful when transferring to a cooling rack.

Although I give specific ingredients and amounts, I must admit to playing fast and loose with measurements when I make them. I do measure the oats and flour, but the rest of it I usually just eyeball. You can also use different nuts, or different chopped dried fruit or M&Ms . . . it's extremely forgiving. 

When I'm feeling indulgent, I'll use 1/2 cup raisins and 1/4 chocolate chips, rather than all raisins.

Unlike most cookies, these are actually better after they have been stored for a day or so, rather than freshly baked. They soften up a little bit and are less crumbly after being in a jar for awhile. 

Incredibly, they will last at least three whole weeks in a jar in a classroom snack box with very little deterioration in texture or flavor. I only know that because I have one kid who has a tendency to forget about snacks from previous weeks that didn't get eaten. So when I've found, say, a few cookies in a jar in his snack box that contain chocolate chips, and I know I last made the cookies with chocolate chips almost a month ago . . .

Well, they just last a really long time. I would never have kept them that long on purpose, but I did try those particular aged cookies myself, and they were fine. You can also freeze them with no problems.

My boys will eat two a day for the four days of school, and eight of these cookies fit just right in a wide-mouth pint jar.

In case you were wondering, I've never had a jar break in a backpack or at school. Canning jars are very sturdy.

So there you go. Zero-waste, relatively healthy cookies that don't take hours to make. My small but important contribution to parents everywhere.

Bonus school snack tip: The best savory snack I've found so far is popcorn. Just don't overdo the butter, or it'll get soggy in the jar.

Snapshots: This and That

Cubby turned The Predatory Princess into a pick-up truck, which he then conveniently left smack in the middle of the hallway.

Bill the Pony has been getting a lot of attention lately as the older boys have been working on training him, but I still appreciate good old Samson and his steadiness. So does Jack.

Pony training in the paddock.

It's rhubarb and asparagus season, hooray!

The children's latest game is setting up their dinosaur toys in various tableaus of carnage. This one was my favorite.

There you have it! My life, snapshotted.

Book Talk: Classic Elementary Fiction

As I mentioned last week, "elementary fiction" is a giant category, so this is another sub-category of it. 

I don't know the actual definition of "classic," but since I now hear songs from my childhood on classic rock stations, I'm gonna go with anything published before I was born in 1979. 

These were some of the most fun books to share with my sons, since many were books I had read myself and loved. One of the lesser known pleasures of parenthood is sharing things with your children that were special to you when you were a child. And for a reader, those things are often books. Like so . . 

The Little House books by Laura Ingalls Wilder--Without question, the most beloved of my childhood favorites. I let Cubby have my old set of them when he was about nine years old, and he's read them all many times already. Jack is getting into them now, too, although I have to read them to him still. One woman's opinion: The best of these is Farmer Boy (so much delicious-sounding food!), and the worst is The First Four Years.

Caddie Woodlawn by Carol Ryrie Brink--Often compared to the Little House books, which I suppose is inevitable given that the main character is a young girl living in a frontier community.

The Children Who Stayed Alone by Bonnie Bess Worline--Yet another pioneer story about children, this one set on the plains. I clearly had a fascination for this genre as a child. This one has a brother and sister as the main characters.

Sign of the Beaver by Elizabeth George Speare--And yes, another pioneer story, this one about a boy who is left alone and befriends a boy from the local native tribe. This author wrote several great books, but they'll appear on later lists for older kids.

Charlotte's Web by E.B. White--I have some mixed feelings about this book, just because anthropomorphizing animals is not a great idea for kids like mine who will be eating animals they know. But the appeal of the book is undeniable. It's funny and sweet, well-written, and an excellent read-aloud.

The Black Stallion by Walter Farley--I actually never read this book as a child, but my boys loved it. As has every other child I know who has read it. I know an unusually large number of children who have horses, which may have something to do with it, but the story in the book is just a good one, regardless of whether you're a horse person or not.

Bill says black stallions are overrated, and why hasn't anyone written a book about a buckskin pony yet?

Pooh's Library by A. A. Milne--This four-book set includes Winnie the Pooh, The House at Pooh Corner, When We Were Very Young, and Now We Are Six. The first two are the stories on which the classic movie are based. The last two are collections of poetry. I actually like the poetry better than the stories. The poems are just so spot-on in their depiction of the experience of childhood. They're funny, and well-written, and very fun to read aloud. 

The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling--Speaking of classic books made into Disney movies . . . My kids love this book. The book includes more than just the familiar story of Mowgli, the boy raised by wolves. There's one about a white seal, another about an elephant, and, my favorite, "Rikki Tikki Tavi," about a mongoose who saves a family from a pair of cobras.

The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin--Oh man, this is SUCH a great book. It's a mystery. The characters have to solve a puzzle, and the one who figures it out gets a big fortune. The main character is a precocious 13-year-old girl. The characters are just so well done, and the book is fantastically well-plotted. It's just fun to read, and almost impossible to guess the ending.

My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George--An enduringly popular book for good reason: What kid doesn't dream about running away and living alone? There are a couple of sequels, which are entertaining, but not as good as this one.

Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell--A sort of female equivalent of My Side of the Mountain. It's about a 12-year-old girl who is stranded on an island and has to survive alone.

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett--This author wrote a few books I really liked as a kid, but I find most of them to be somewhat off-puttingly sentimental now. The Secret Garden is less so, and much her best book, in large part because Mary Lennox is so refreshingly stubborn. And, of course, there's Dickon, who is one of the greatest children's fiction characters of all time.

My own secret garden, cleverly hidden inside milk jugs.

Great Illustrated Classics, various titles--I suppose a real purist would insist on a kid waiting until he's old enough to read Dickens in the original versions, but honestly, most people never will. I certainly never did. However, this series of books offers a way for kids to enjoy the stories and characters of great classic literature without wading through 18-century language and verbosity. This is a really good option for books like The Swiss Family Robinson that have awesome stories for kids, but are really difficult for a modern young reader to wade through.

I think this list is long enough, so I'm going to leave it here and probably continue it next week.

What would you add to this list of classic elementary fiction?

Friday Food: A Steak Discovery

Friday 

Short version: Chile, cornbread

Long version: I had about a pound of uncooked ground beef left from the day before's hamburgers and an opened can of black beans that needed to be used. Sounds like chile to me. 

This was not New Mexico chile. This was more basic, Americanized chile, but, if I may be so bold as to say it, I nailed it.

I made ground-beef-and-bean chile awhile ago after my kids had it and loved it at our friends' house. The problem with children is that the first version of anything they eat and like is the way it must be forever more. This is why it's so important to start them off with things like, say, natural peanut butter instead of the sugar+palm oil kind (I did not do this and still regret it) or homemade macaroni and cheese instead of boxed. For my children, their Platonic ideal of chile will always be the chile they had at their friends' house, and the one I made last time was not like that.

They admitted this most recent version was pretty close to that, though, and they all had two bowls. So now I must write it down so I can remember what was in it.

Ground beef, onions, bell pepper, green garlic, one can of black beans, one jar of pinto beans, the juice and half the tomatoes from a big can of whole tomatoes diced, a jar of beef stock, pureed calabaza, cumin, red chile pepper, paprika, salt.

The pureed calabaza is the secret ingredient here. Both because my kids didn't know it was in there (sneaky Mom), and also because it both slightly sweetened and thickened the chile. The ready-made spice mixture my friend uses has both brown sugar and molasses in it, as well as masa to thicken, so the calabaza replaced both those things.

I simmered it almost two hours so the flavors were completely melded, and also left the top off for the last 45 minutes or so of simmering to thicken it some more. This made a very mild chile. I put out minced raw onions and green chile paste for those who wanted to make it a bit--or a lot--spicier. As well as grated cheese, because everyone likes cheese on chile.

The cornbread was this recipe for corn muffins I always use, except I spread it out in a 13"x9" Pyrex because I loathe cleaning my muffin tin. Also, I use yogurt+milk instead of buttermilk. It makes a very different sort of cornbread due to the fact that it uses corn flour rather than meal, and an equal amount of buttermilk (or yogurt). The resulting cornbread is more like a tangy cake. But not sweet.

Saturday

Short version: Carnitas-style pork, mashed potatoes, sauteed zucchini/tomatoes/onion, raw tomatoes

Long version: This I mostly made ahead of time, because we were at church until 5 p.m. So the pork was cooked and just needed to be fried; the potatoes were peeled and in chunks in water, waiting to be boiled and mashed; and the zucchini was cooked. Dinner was on the table half an hour after we got home.

Sunday

Short version: Steaks, rice, asparagus, raw cabbage, custard

Long version: I finally cleared the meat freezer out enough on top that I could reach down to the boxes on the bottom. And one of them was a box of steaks. Steak bonanza ahoy!

Two T-bones and one large ribeye. With the asparagus from the garden, it made for a very high-quality meal.

Who needs a steakhouse when my whole house is a steakhouse? Or something.

I way overcooked the custard, because I put it in the oven and then the whole family went for a ride around our ghost village. 

The older boys have been working a lot with Bill the Pony, and he is now safe for even Poppy to ride. I was pretty impressed at how far Bill has come from his first bucking bronco ride with Cubby. The boys have done a great job with him.

By the time we got back, the custard was definitely in the grainy overcooked stage, but it still all got eaten. Custard's good like that.

Monday

Short version: Leftover pork, rice, cucumbers

Long version: We ended up being at a sort of unexpected church service until 7 p.m., after being at school all day, so I just heated up the pork with barbecue sauce, heated up the leftover rice with butter, cut up a cucumber, and called it good.

Tuesday

Short version: Breakfast sausage links, cafeteria rolls, green peas, pureed calabaza, asparagus, random chicken patties

Long version: I had to work again, and sausage links cook quickly. The rolls and chicken patties were cafeteria lunch leftovers. The rolls are homemade and incredibly good. The chicken patties not so much, but the kids still like them, and they all got eaten.

Asparagus from the garden again. The nice thing about asparagus season is that since you can only harvest it for about six weeks in the spring before you have to let the spears grow into mature plants, you never get sick of it. At least, I don't.

Wednesday

Short version: Beef and bean tacos, leftovers, radishes

Long version: The lady who delivers commodities dropped off a giant box of mostly pantry things this day (I am absolutely overrun with spaghetti and boxed macaroni and cheese now), which randomly included a pound of ground beef. It's been awhile since I had cooked store ground beef, and I forgot how . . . wet it is. 

I browned that meat (and poured off the excess liquid--gross) and then added a can of rinsed black beans, a little already-cooked onion, half a can of tomatoes sitting in the refrigerator, salsa, cumin, garlic powder, and chile powder. 

The kids had that. A. and I finished the steak, mine in a salad.

Thursday

Short version: Top sirloin steaks, spaghetti with pesto, leftover calabaza and cabbage, raw cucumber

Long version: Yes, we will be eating a lot more steak now that I've found that box. Also, warmer weather is coming, and steak is relatively quick-cooking so it doesn't heat the kitchen up so much.

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

T.T.: Powdered Pills

In my experience, a kid has to be around ten years old to really be able to successfully swallow a pill. I don't know why this is. Something about the fact that they can't chew it makes it seem impossible for them to swallow.

This is why children's medicine is always sold in liquid form, of course. But my kids have always hated children's medicine. And sometimes, we just don't have it. When we run out of things, we can't just run to the store to get them.

This is why I have more than once needed to give my kids a regular adult pill in a smaller quantity*. 

But then there's the swallowing issue. What to do?

I know! Because I learned from the MiL when Cubby was very small and needed a dose of Tylenol for a fever and we didn't have any in children's form.

What you do is, you cut your pill into half or quarters or whatever dosage you've figured is appropriate for the child, and then you powder it by crushing it with the flat bottom of a jar or glass.

Next, you scrape this powder into the jar or glass, and then add a spoonful of something like applesauce or yogurt. You want something that can be scooped up with a spoon. Because that's exactly what you're going to do. Mix the powder thoroughly into whatever food you chose, get all the mixture onto the spoon, and feed it to the child needing the medicine.

Done. 

I don't have a photo of a powdered pill. It wouldn't be a very interesting photo, anyway, so here's a much better photo of the surprise lamb A. found in the pasture Sunday afternoon.

No pills needed for this healthy little boy.

* Obviously, I am not a doctor, and I am not going to give advice on dosing even over-the-counter stuff. But it's pretty easy to find dosages for different medicines by weight online and figure it out from there based on the milligrams or whatever listed on the medicine's package.

Snapshots: Easter, Garlic, Bubbles, and Animals

Some fine randomness for you this week.

I hid the Easter eggs last week by the light of a setting full moon.

Dramatic, but definitely more Halloween than Easter.

First Breakfast on Easter was deviled eggs made from the retrieved eggs, but Second Breakfast was chocolate from the baskets found after church. 

My hands smell like garlic all the time now, as I am constantly harvesting and chopping the green garlic from the pasture.

The chains for the fan and light on Poppy's bedroom fixture broke off too short to be easily reachable, and I discovered it is possible to buy replacement chains with dragonflies and butterflies on the bottom. This makes me happy every time I use them. Poppy loves them, too.

 

Fun with dish soap and a piece of PVC pipe.

A bull at sunrise in some uncharacteristically dull light, thanks to the hellish winds that have been blowing dirt all over the place. Also smoke from various fires, which is very much Not Good (although not endangering our house at the moment).

Hungry sheep waiting for morning hay . . .

Which was not long in coming. Those two on the left are the smart ones who discovered a whole other flake that the others ignored in favor of fighting over the first one I threw over the fence.

There you have it! My life, snapshotted.