Friday Food: Hot Weather Food

It's been ninety degrees or above for most of the week. That is why leftovers have featured heavily this week. Because we do not have air conditioning, and I do not want to be cooking big meals when it's 85 degrees in my kitchen.

Friday

Short version: Shepherd's pie, raw produce

Long version: I had a lot of whipped potatoes left I had made a few days before, so I decided to use them to top a shepherd's pie. Of course, by the time I made the meat mixture for a 9"x13" pan, I needed more potatoes than I had. So I added instant potato flakes, along with a bunch more milk, butter, and sour cream, to bulk up the potatoes I already had.

That worked well.

Saturday

Short version: Leftovers, bread and butter

Long version: Some leftover shepherd's pie, some leftover lamb steak, plus bread and butter and more raw produce to finish it all off.

Sunday

Short version: Pork, baked beans, boiled potatoes, green salad with vinaigrette, strawberry/rhubarb pie with vanilla ice cream

Long version: We had guests with us for dinner this night, and I knew it was going to be 90 degrees in the afternoon. For that reason, I cooked everything ahead of time. I made the baked beans--using a couple of containers of cooked and frozen pinto beans--the pie, and some garlic bread the day before. I also cooked a pork shoulder in the morning.

And then an hour before the guests came I got a text that one of them is avoiding gluten.

Okay, that's a no on the garlic bread, then.

That's why I was boiling a pot of potatoes at four o'clock. So much for not heating the kitchen.

It wasn't too bad, actually. I also shredded and fried the pork in its own rendered fat on my big grill pan, but even still, it was only about 80 degrees inside when we sat down to eat. Bearable.

The pie had what is probably the last of this year's rhubarb in it. It was very good.

Slightly less ugly than my last lattice-topped pie, too. 

There is, obviously, gluten in that pie, but thankfully our guest doesn't actually have an allergy to gluten or anything, he just didn't want to eat too much of it. He couldn't resist trying the pie, though.

Who could, really?

Monday

Short version: Leftovers

Long version: A. had the last of the lamb steak and some of the leftover boiled potatoes. The children had leftover pork and potatoes fried together, plus some of the leftover carrot and kohlrabi sticks that I had set out as appetizers the night before.

Tuesday

Short version: Lamb chops, garlic bread, raw produce

Long version: This was the garlic bread we didn't have on Sunday. I just heated it up in the microwave to keep it soft. 

The raw produce we've been having has been either bell peppers, radishes, or cucumbers, depending on preferences and what needs to be used first.

We had hosted a tea party earlier this day for a couple of Poppy's friends, which of course featured scones.

It's not a tea party at our house without scones.

Wednesday

Short version: Pork sandwiches, leftover lamb chops and potatoes, raw produce

Long version: I had forgotten I had some pork left, which I discovered when I was pulling out the last of the potatoes for A. So I started slicing the pork, thinking I would fry it in the skillet on the stove to heat it up. But then the child in the kitchen with me remarked that it looked like it would be good for sandwiches.

Indeed it would. So that is what the children had. Some had it with barbecue sauce, one chose pickles and mayonnaise, another had mayonnaise, mustard, and lettuce. 

A. had the last of the lamb chops and potatoes.

Thursday

Short version: Hot dogs, coleslaw, coconut water

Long version: I had bought these hot dogs when we were in the city to go the dentist last week. I left them this day for A. to cook, because I was in a different city at a therapy appointment with a child. I also made the coleslaw in the morning.

And then I got home just after 6 p.m. to the children informing me they had not been fed, and A. countering that he asked several times if they wanted to eat and they kept saying no.

I guess they were just waiting for me. Touching.

So I fried the hot dogs and put them in buns.

The coconut water came from actual coconuts. Poppy had been asking me about coconuts, and I told her that we used to eat fresh coconuts when we lived in Hawaii. I promised her if I ever saw a fresh coconut, I would buy one for her. 

And then, there they were at the grocery store.

I bought two. A. drilled holes in them so we could drain out the coconut water, which the children drank. And then I completely failed to get the coconut flesh out. I had no memory of how we did this when I was seven years old, so I looked for tips online.

My options were freezing it or baking it. I was not going to be turning on my oven to 400 degrees, so I went with freezing and told the kids we'd have coconut for breakfast in the morning.

Refrigerator check:

You can tell I've been to the store a lot lately, can't you?

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

On Having Prey Instincts

When we moved to our house on the Canadian border in the far north of New York State, we were essentially living in the middle of a forest. It was quite possible to walk across the road from our house into the woods and not come to another road, habitation, or any other sign of civilization for many miles. 

It took me awhile after we moved there to figure out why I always went to the right when I went for a run: If I went to the left, I was hemmed in by forest on both sides of the road for miles. I felt like anything could come out of those woods--human or animal--and I really did not like that feeling. I couldn't see what might be there. 

So I always ran the other way, which meant I was going past our neighbor's dairy farm. Much more open. I could see.

I think it was A. who said I was reacting as a prey animal might. They always want to be somewhere where they can see danger approaching. It was funny to think of it like that, but I think he was right.

That's why I feel so comfortable here, I suppose. I can see for literally miles. Everything is open. There are very few trees. The land is mostly flat; the air is clear; the sun is almost always shining. Maximum visibility.

If there was a bear within five miles, I would see it.

I probably shouldn't analyze this too much, but ever since I realized that I react to my environment as a prey animal might, things make much more sense to me.

Do you like the wide-open spaces, or do you prefer to have trees around you?

Snapshots: Beneath These Western Skies

I had as sad coffee situation this week, since I use a French press to make my coffee and I broke the glass insert while I was washing it.

Boo.

I ordered another, but while I was waiting for it, I had this rather elaborate set-up with a jar, a funnel, a strainer, and a coffee filter.

Way too much to keep track of first thing in the morning.

Thankfully, my replacement glass thing arrived on Friday, so I only had to do all of that for a few mornings.

Speaking of things that work again . . .

My shiny new Honda has not only a working radio--the old Honda had no stereo component that still worked at all--but a functioning CD player.

I realize CDs are hopelessly outdated and everyone uses their phones or something now. I still have a lot of CDs, though, and haven't had anywhere to play them since the CD player in the van stopped working five years ago*.

But now I have a CD player, which is really, really nice on the very long drives I often have to take.

One of the CDs I've been listening to is Chris LeDoux's greatest hits. The last song on it--and my favorite--is "Western Skies."

I always appreciate the appropriateness of this song, as this is usually what I'm looking at as I drive:

Western skies, indeed.

This week's big entertainment was a rather elaborate ship game that included a sail with the name of the ship painted on it.

It's hard to see the name if the wind isn't right. It's The Dying Falcon.

I had to ask why they went with The Dying Falcon. Because there have been too many Flying ones, apparently. I guess that was in reference to The Flying Dutchmen? Who knows.

There you have it! My life, snapshotted.

* Well, it technically still works, it's just that one CD has been stuck in it all this time. Given our location, that means that our options for the last five years have been either the one radio station that comes in sometimes, or Billy Joel. That's a lot of repetitions of "We Didn't Start the Fire."

Friday Food: Stuffed Grape Leaves

Friday 

Short version: Omelets, strawberries

Long version: I was not feeling well at dinnertime, so I turned the kitchen over to A. Fortuitously, my friend had dropped off several dozen eggs the day before, so there were plenty for A. to make omelets, which he likes to do.

I think these had onion, ham, and cheese in them. 

I had been to the store this day. Strawberries were on sale, so the children had those instead of a vegetable. This was no hardship for them.

Saturday

Short version: Hamburgers, oven fries, roasted asparagus, cucumbers with salt and vinegar, gingersnaps

Long version: I asked all the children if they had any requests from the grocery store, and one child asked me to get ground beef. The big rolls of ground beef--called, disgustingly, chubs--were on sale, so I got one of those. And then I used some of it this night to make hamburgers.

I have not cooked with store ground beef in . . . well, I'm not sure. A couple of years, maybe. It was alarming how much the meat shrunk in the pan. Also surprising how soft it was. We're accustomed to more chew to our beef now, I guess.

I can't wait until we have a whole cow in our freezers again.

I made the gingersnaps per a child's request (no pepper in mine, though). Now that the cookies aren't being used as a school snack, I don't worry so much about getting protein into them. So I can make purely dessert cookies. Gingersnaps qualify.

Sunday

Short version: Dolmades, lamb steaks, random potatoes, tzatziki, pots de creme

Long version: A. was pruning his grape vines and came in with a bunch of leaves. "We can make stuffed grape leaves!" he said enthusiastically.

There was, of course, not so much a "we" making them, as a "me," but that's what happens when you present something like fresh grape leaves to me.

I used this recipe as a guideline, except (always) I didn't have the mint for the filling, and I didn't have enough grape leaves to line the bottom of the pot before steaming. Nor did I have tomato slices to layer in the bottom of the pot. So instead, I used the trimmings from taking the stems off the leaves, as well as the green part from some new garlic A. had dug up that day. In place of the tomato slices, I used slices of potato.

Good enough.

Filling and rolling the (blanched) grape leaves was challenging, because the variety of grape that A. had trimmed had leaves that did not look like the grape leaves in the recipe I used. Mine had more lobes on them, and thus, were not as wide.

I believe these are from the Cartegena variety, which is relatively rare and thus not used to make mass quantities of jarred grape leaves for commercial sale.

I sort of pieced together what I had, overlapping as necessary, and ended up with fourteen small dolmades*.

Not the prettiest rolling job, but the best I could do with what I had.

I used some lamb stock from the freezer to boil/steam these. I was supposed to cook them until the liquid had been absorbed all the way, but that never happened. Probably because the pot wasn't full. That worked out, though, because I had a lot of the filling left, so I just cooked that in the remainder of the liquid.

So how were the dolmades?

Certainly not the prettiest food.

They were okay. I thought they were sort of bland and mushy, but A., who has actually eaten them before, loved them. He informed me that they must be drizzled with olive oil before being eaten, so I guess that helps? I don't know. They didn't seem worth it to me, but they made him happy.

Everyone was happy with the pots de creme, which I hadn't made in awhile.

Oh, and those potato slices I lined the pot with came in handy to fill out dinner a little. The kids ate them with their lamb, slightly smashed with butter.

Monday

Short version: Unstuffed dolmades filling, raw cabbage, cookies

Long version: This was the filling I had cooked in the remaining lamb stock. I was informed by one child that it needed more meat in it, but everyone ate it without complaint.

The cabbage was the first one from the garden, yay! The kids like it raw, so I just whacked some chunks off it and put it on their plates.

I made the cookies mostly for A., who took one kid on a fishing and camping trip with a friend. I made chocolate chip/peanut butter cookies for them, so they'd have some sort of snack on hand. Good for breakfast or whatever. The kids at home were pleased to have some, too.

Tuesday

Short version: Spanish dolma rice, leftovers, grape tomatoes

Long version: Only three kids were eating, because one was sick with a bad sore throat. I had enough of the dolmades filling left, but thought maybe three nights in a row might be a little much. So I switched it up a bit by cooking a bit more ground beef for it, adding salsa and taco spices to change the flavor, and finishing it up with grated cheddar cheese. Ta da! Spanish dolma rice.

A. had the last lamb steak and the leftover potatoes from their camping hobo pack of potatoes and hamburger patties.

The child with the sore throat had some egg salad and potatoes with cheese.

I had a salad, on which I used the last of the tzatziki sauce as a dressing. That works well.

Wednesday

Short version: Lamb roast, whipped potatoes, cucumbers, roasted asparagus and garlic, baked custard

Long version: This was a boned-out leg roast that I, well, roasted. Roasting actually works better with the bone in, but it cooks a lot faster without the bone and is much easier to carve. Trade-offs.

I prefer to mash potatoes with my handheld masher, but the child with the sore throat prefers them whipped with the mixer. So I did that for him. I had baked them in the oven while I was roasting the lamb, which enabled me to make a lot more potatoes without the space constraint of a pot to boil them in.

These were some seriously large potatoes, and they made a lot of whipped potatoes.

Meat thermometer for scale, I guess.

I also made the baked custard for the sick child, although of course everyone else had to have some, too.

Thursday

Short version: Fish patties, leftover whipped potatoes, raw produce

Long version: One can of tuna, one can of salmon, everyone is happy. I decided on this last-minute after we got home in the afternoon from a trek to the dentist. I had thought I would get something at the grocery store for a quick dinner, but we got home earlier than I thought.

Refrigerator check:

Definitely a post-grocery-store refrigerator.

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

* I didn't know if it was dolmas or dolmades, so I looked it up. It appears that dolmades is the plural version of dolmas in Greek, so there you go.

Book Talk: New Authors, Yay!

Summer is upon us, and that means that my children and I need books. Reading is a large part of our entertainment, and we have a lot more time for it now.

I think I've mentioned this before, but the nearest libraries to us are 90 miles one way. We go to different cities for different things, so we can't reliably check out and return books to the same one on our infrequent errand runs. And it's usually A. who does those errand runs, so the rest of us wouldn't have a chance to get to the library anyway.

Our only local options are the once-a-month bookmobile and a books by mail program. Neither of these have a great selection of books. At least, not that we want to read.

So, I buy books. Not the cheapest option, even buying used, but thems the breaks.

This is why when I find an author that we like, I buy multiple books by that author. It's a nice feeling to buy a book knowing we're going to like it, rather than just crossing my fingers.

Recently, I have found two authors we like. This is exciting. And I'm going to share them with you. Of course.

There they are.

Okay, I must admit that the Katherine Center books are really just for me. Not that no one else is allowed to read them, but they are most definitely books written for women.

Katherine Center was recommended on a book-related blog I read, and so I looked up her books. As I always do, I read the sample on the Amazon listing to see what the writing was like. Ninety percent of the time, that sample is enough for me to know if it's not worth my time.

This was. I read it in one day. They are somewhat fluffy books, but not stupid. I suppose I like my story lines to be relatively unchallenging, but the writing to be at least somewhat intelligent. Also, I like happy endings.

These books check those boxes for me. There's a few curse words, but nothing too inappropriate otherwise, and she is very good at creating real, sympathetic characters. All of the main characters have some pretty major challenges, but nothing that makes me so sad I can't read them. I have that problem with some other books. If it's too heavy, I just can't.

I've read two of her books so far and bought, um, five more.

It's a long summer, okay?

Next! Howard Frank Mosher. I do not remember how I stumbled upon this author, but I originally bought one of his books for the older boys. The author grew up in Vermont's Northeast Kingdom--which is on the Canadian border, like we used to be--and as far as I can tell sets his books exclusively there. They are essentially character sketches of the sort of people who live in that remote place, as well as an ode to a vanished way of life.

Although I bought the first book for the boys, I read it, too. All of us liked it so much I bought a few more. They are funny, and touching, and very, very real. They remind me a lot of Richard Russo, who writes novels about small-town upstate New York and pretty much nails the people.

This is rarer than you might think, as most authors seem to be urban and that is reflected in their books.

So those are my two most recent discoveries and recommendations.

Tell me: What are you reading right now? Anything you'd recommend?

Memorial Day 2024

Please take your moment to remember.

Snapshots: An Unfortunate Name

A. decided to buy some bread at the store so I wouldn't have to bake all the bread the locusts are consuming now that they're home all the time. It was a very kind thought, and three out of the four children have been enjoying the novelty of bread that's already been sliced*. The name of the bread, however . . .

Hmmm.

I had to look this up to see how this unfortunate name ended up associated with bread. I thought maybe it was something where the name predated the meaning of the word. In fact, the company is based in Mexico. So I guess it just doesn't translate well across cultures.

It has provided substantial amusement for those of us who know what the word means in America, however.

Let's see what else I have . . .

A funny radish.

This week's roadside-flower arrangement.

And Adventure Van pulling a trailer-load of sheep to the auction.

A. sold all five of the lambs born early this year, plus two yearlings born last year. That leaves us with two ram lambs that were born just about a month ago--they'll go in the freezer this fall--the ram, and seven ewes. This substantial reduction to the flock will make it much easier to manage them. We didn't have enough pasture for that many sheep, and prices are pretty high right now, so A. got enough to pay for quite a bit of hay.

There you have it! My life, snapshotted.

* The one who isn't enjoying it thinks store bread is gross and refuses to eat any bread but mine. I must admit to being secretly gratified about this.