Snapshots: From the Germy Trenches

This week's cascading illnesses of a cold plus a really nasty stomach bug going through the family have meant a lot of this:

A blanket nest on the floor with a vomit bowl.

Switchel jello. I have made so much jello this week.

But also this:

I spent most of Friday morning dealing with the entirely-too-numerous (and HUGE) carrots.

About 55 pounds pounds of them, actually, now mostly in the freezer, blanched, unblanched, and grated. Plus a couple of quarts of pickled carrots.

Also this week, I finally had my one BLT of the season.

So good.

And I stopped in at church to get some much-needed peace.

All is calm. 

There you have it! My life, snapshotted.

Friday Food: So Many Carrots

Friday 

Short version: Birthday sausage, oven fries, corn on the cob, green salad with vinaigrette, chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting, vanilla ice cream

Long version: This was the birthday girl's requested dinner. My sister got the corn on the cob for me before she came to visit, which was good, since I was not near a grocery store in the week leading up to the birthday.

I ran out of fresh eggs earlier in the week. Good thing I had some in lime still.

Situations like this are exactly why I preserve eggs in lime.

I completely forgot to take the cake layers out of the pans before they cooled, and then they . . . really did not want to come out. Crumbs everywhere. 

My sister had the good idea to make cake pops out of the crumbs and a bit of frosting. We used those to decorate the cake, along with M&Ms and colored sugar. I mostly covered up the thrashed cake with the frosting, but it was definitely one of my uglier cakes.

Colorful, though, which is just how the birthday girl likes it.

Saturday

Short version: Pork tacos in homemade corn tortillas, pinto beans, rice pudding

Long version: I had a lot of the pork left from the giant roast I cooked on Friday. I cooked the bone-in piece more with some liquid so I could pull it off the bone, then fried it with taco spices. 

It's been some time since I've made tortillas. Mostly because they heat the kitchen up unbelievably and are thus not something I want to be cooking in the summer.

Rice pudding because I had the oven on to cook the pork. And also to make roasted tomato sauce, although it was not so much roasted as just baked, since the oven was on at a lower heat. Still good, though.

Sunday

Short version: Meatballs, pasta with pesto, green salad with vinaigrette, chocolate-covered frozen bananas, marshmallows with chocolate

Long version: The tomato sauce I had made the day before went on the meatballs. 

I wasn't planning on making a Sunday dessert, since we had had dessert the previous two days. However, I had some of the chocolate shell left from my sister making the cake pops. And I had several elderly bananas that I had frozen in chunks.

I used to make chocolate-covered banana pieces somewhat frequently, especially in the summer, but I hadn't done it in awhile. So I did. And then I let the kids finish the last of the chocolate shell with the marshmallows, just so it wouldn't be hanging around.

Monday

Short version: Lots of leftovers

Long version: One child had pasta with pesto and the last three meatballs. 

One child was sick and just had some of the soup I had made on Sunday with the leftover sausage, mostly to be my work lunches, but it came in handy as a cold descended upon us.

The other two children had the last of the pork in corn tortillas with cheese. Not homemade tortillas. It was a work day.

A. had the last two slices of roast pork, and I microwaved and fried a potato for him, too.

Tuesday

Short version: Leg of lamb; roasted potatoes, onions, and carrots; cucumbers with salt and vinegar; lemon jello; oatmeal chocolate chip cookies

Long version: Only if you raise and butcher your own sheep will you just casually pull out a leg of lamb to roast on a random Tuesday. I just coated it in olive oil and spices and put it in the oven at high heat until it was done.

Meat 'n' veg.

The vegetables went in after the meat had been in for awhile. I should have put them in earlier, because I did have to cover them with foil for the last ten minutes or so while the meat rested, to make sure they were soft enough.

I made the jello for a sick child. And the cookies for everyone else.

Wednesday

Short version: Pork burritos or scrambled eggs and pasta with pesto, corn on the cob, tomato/cucumber salad, cookies

Long version: I had frozen the rest of the taco-spiced pork for a future meal. That didn't turn out to be very far in the future, as I was kinda stumped on dinner for after work and ended up just pulling that bag of pork out of the freezer in the morning.

I did toast the kids' burritos in a pan, which I feel is very ambitious of me for a workday. Especially as I was starting to feel the first symptoms of the family cold.

The child who had stayed home from school with said cold said his throat hurt too much for toasted burritos. So for him, I scrambled eggs and added that to the last of the pasta with pesto. I ended up eating that, too.

Corn on the cob brought by my sister. The dressing on the tomato and cucumber salad was actually made by Poppy. She will occasionally go out into the garden and gather things to make me a salad. She did that this past weekend--green beans, tomatoes, basil, and parsley--and then made ranch dressing for it. Her ranch dressing included sour cream and milk, dill and mayonnaise, but no garlic powder. It was pretty good, actually. Good enough that I saved the extra and actually used it.

Thursday

Short version: Lamb curry, rice, cookies, switchel jello

Long version: The leg roast from Tuesday had quite a bit of meat left on it, and just like with the pork roast, the best way to get it off is to simmer it in liquid. I had plans to cook some split peas to add to the curry to thicken it and bulk it up, but then I felt pretty rotten with the cold, so I just put the lamb bone in a pot with some tomatoes and onion ends and simmered that until I could easily get the meat off. Then I chopped all the meat and heated it with already-cooked diced onion from the freezer, frozen peas, the rest of the lamb, onions, and carrots from the roast, some more tomatoes, curry powder, garlic powder, and heavy cream. 

I also cooked the rice in some of the lamb broth from cooking the lamb bone more.

The most recently ill child came down not with a cold, but with a wicked stomach bug. This child is also the one who loves switchel, so I decided to make him some jello with switchel instead of the lemonade I typically use. It worked very well, and he appreciated having that when he finally felt able to put something besides water in his stomach.

Of note this week in food: I stopped by church on Tuesday and saw outside our parish hall a big bin with dozens of bags of giant carrots.

So many carrots.

There were more carrots in that bin than there are people in the village. So of course I brought a bunch home.

So many carrots in my kitchen.

My plan to blanch and freeze a bunch of them got derailed by my cold, which is why my refrigerator looks like this:

Literal trash bags of carrots.

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

Halloween Spirit

My sister just left yesterday after her annual trip to see us for Poppy's birthday. It's a very convenient time for her to come, because it's just before Halloween, and my sister loves Halloween.

She always brings some decorations with her and helps the children put them up.

These lights are little bats and ghosts.

Ghost light close-up.

She also always helps them with their costumes.

I am not a good costume person, so her help is much appreciated. This year, she helped one son sew a robe so he can be an Arab.

It turned out very well, especially considering he started with just a torn sheet. Still to come: A traditional sword (made from cardboard, thankfully).

I appreciate the spirit she brings to the house for Halloween because, while I have many good qualities, I cannot count enthusiasm for decorations and costumes among them.

How about you? Are you a decorating-for-holidays sort of person, or nah?

Snapshots: Just Captions

Happy cosmos peeking through the fence.

And on the table with the breakfast candles.

Poppy decided to wear her tutu under her dress one day, to create a petticoat effect.

Cocoa and fried Spanish omelet for breakfast.

And the vast New Mexico sky at the football field.

There you have it! My life, snapshotted.

Friday Food: Someone Turns Seven Today

This little seamstress here. Happy birthday to Poppy.

Friday 

Short version: Chicken Spanish rice

Long version: I made this skillet meal with leftover rice and left it at home for A. to feed the boys before he brought them to the football game. I was already at the volleyball game with the cheerleader all afternoon. She had a hot dog from the concession stand for dinner.

I ate a salad before I left, and then beef jerky and pistachios during the football game.

It did not pour rain during the game this time, but I was still very grateful that the mercy rule took effect for us at halftime (if one team is more than 50 points ahead at halftime, the game is over) so we could go home. Football takes foreeeeever, and 8 p.m. was quite late enough for me, thank you.

Saturday

Short version: Spaghetti and meatballs, individual garlic bread

Long version: I had some roasted tomato sauce in the refrigerator I had made earlier in the week, so pasta seemed like a good option. Poppy wanted to help me make the meatballs, which is why they ended up being much smaller than the ones I made myself.

Wee meatballs.

A. was hunting and camping with the two younger boys, so I let the two children at home make their own garlic bread. They get to choose what spices they want in it and knead those in. Always fun.

You may notice there were no vegetables on that plate. I counted the tomatoes. 

Sunday

Short version: Lamb ribs, baked potatoes, baked beans, tomato/cucumber/feta salad, cookies, rice pudding

Long version: We have several bags of lamb ribs in the freezer that have been there for almost a year for the very good reason that I really dislike cooking them--so fatty and awkward to fit in a pan, to say nothing of trying to cut them apart--and also don't want to eat them.

The boys all like them, though, so I cooked some. I just covered them in foil and baked them for a long time. That's why I also made the baked potatoes and the rice pudding. I hadn't been planning on serving the rice pudding, but then the hunters came home and were very hungry even after eating dinner and cookies, so they had the rice pudding, too.

Monday

Short version: Pork chunks in milk gravy, last of the baked beans, garlic bread, cucumbers

Long version: Yes, I am making these pork chunks a lot. They're fast to cook, which is much appreciated after work.

Tuesday

Short version: Chicken fajitas, pinto beans

Long version: I have only one pepper plant in the garden, but it has been producing quite a few peppers. They look like hot peppers, but they have no heat to them and are pretty much just bell peppers. So I used those, onion, and three big chicken breasts to make fajitas. I even marinated the chicken. 

I was very proud of my forethought, yes. And they were very good fajitas. I did not, however, cook the vegetables and chicken together.

Because I have four children, that's why, and two of them didn't want the peppers and onions.

Wednesday

Short version: Bacon cheeseburger casserole, frozen peas, marshmallows with chocolate sauce

Long version: I made the casserole while I was in the kitchen the day before. I dislike doing this the day of, because I feel like I spend way too much time in the kitchen preparing two full meals. But I really like it the day we eat it, when all I have to do is stick it in the oven.

I mostly made this casserole because A. brought home a bunch of the boiled potatoes I had sent camping with him. So I used those--plus a few extra I microwaved--ground beef, onions, ketchup, mustard, a few diced dill pickles, the last of the American cheese A. had bought, some grated cheddar cheese, and the remnants of a couple of cups of milk unfinished by children.

It ended up being very good.

Not very pretty, though.

I gave the children a marshmallow each, dipped in the chocolate syrup I make. The reason I did this is because one child was daunted by the amount of math homework he had to do, so I figured he could use some extra energy. And we were out of cookies.

Thursday

Short version: Pork, cornbread, tomato/cucumber/feta salad

Long version: This was a GIANT pork shoulder butt roast. It was so big I had to use my biggest Pyrex to get it in the oven, which I dislike because then I have to use aluminum foil to cover it. And then I have to throw the aluminum foil away.

I prefer using a dish with its own washable lid, is what I'm saying.

Anyway. This pork roast is not the kind with tons of fat that gets very tender, so even though I did cook it for a long time, I still ended up slicing it and then heating up the slices in the pan juices, enhanced with mustard and maple syrup.

My sister arrived for a visit this day. She brought many fun things from her local farmers market, including the lemon cucumbers and tomatoes I used in the salad.

Refrigerator check:

The Persian melon on the top shelf came from the farmers market, too.

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

Green Beans to Soup Beans

Despite the very spotty germination on my Kentucky Wonder green bean plants that resulted in exactly nine plants growing to maturity this year, I have actually been harvesting green beans. I have two gallon-sized bags of green beans in the freezer right now, thus ensuring my favorite green beans+bacon+onions for Thanksgiving dinner.

Of course, given the fact that I never did put up fencing for the plants to climb, I also have a lot of beans that get lost in the jungle and grow too much before I harvest them. This makes them tough and starchy. Not what I want to a green bean to be.

But it IS what I want a soup bean to be.

Green bean on the right, soup bean on the left.

"Soup beans" are what I call those green beans that over-mature on the plant before I find them. Some of those over-mature ones I leave to dry out, and then I save them to plant for next year. But most of them, I freeze as soup beans. 

It takes me a few days to harvest enough beans to bother with, but when I do have enough, I go through them and separate them into green beans and soup beans based on their size. All of them get the stem ends snapped off. The green beans are frozen whole. The soup beans are chopped into short lengths before being frozen.

Like so.

And then I have a bag of bean pieces ready to just throw right into soup when I make it.

Soup beans in soup.

I have about a quart of soup beans in the freezer right now, and I'll just keep adding to it as long as the plants are still producing beans and I keep missing them until they're too big.

Snapshots: Spirit Time

As the daylight hours grow ever shorter, the candles on the table have reappeared.

Before-school breakfast candles.

I do have new taper candles, but they're not 100% beeswax. The children love the smell of the real beeswax candle stub that's still in the candle holder, so I continue to burn it for them. It apparently gives them the strength to face the school day, and who am I to deny them that?

This past week was a spirit week at school for homecoming at the school we play sports with. I don't usually have enough spirit to really enjoy spirit weeks, but I was pretty proud of Poppy's hair for crazy hair day on Monday.

Pigtails on the sides, plus a bun on top surrounded by cosmos. 

The flowers made it to after lunch before wilting and starting to fall off, which is pretty good for a seven-year-old running around at recess and so on.

Later in the week on the day for our school colors, the cheerleaders were instructed to wear their giant sparkly hair bows.

Spirited cheerleader at breakfast (with the strengthening candles burning, you'll notice).

And then they cheered at the homecoming volleyball game.

A bevy of bows.

In non-homecoming news, I wrote a thank-you note to the girls at school who gave us the apple butter a couple of weeks ago, and they responded by giving me another jar of apple butter. Sometimes virtue really is its own reward.

The apple butter is good on regular old sourdough bread, but I suspected it would be even better on this slightly sweet oat quick bread, so I made a couple of loaves of that.

And so it was. If you have apple butter around, I encourage you to try it.

I was at the store on Tuesday, and some random guy passing my cart glanced in and said, "Whoa, that's a big ground beef."

I guess. I was thinking I should have bought two. My sense of scale is way off with food anymore. He did not remark on the two giant bags of Crispy Rice cereal, however.

While I was in that city, I stopped to go in a very old church there that I had never seen. It took me a second to figure this out when I walked in.

Clearly marked, but how to access the holy water?

After a second of examination, I deduced that I needed to put my finger underneath the wooden box to activate the holy water, which then dripped onto my finger. I can see the practicality of this obvious COVID-holdover, but I did feel a bit like I was in a public bathroom waiting on an automatic soap dispenser.

I found a few more sunflowers on my run the other day.

Along with some white cosmos from the garden and some of what my kids call "cotton grass."

I still don't see a freeze in our forecast, so it's possible I may be able to find sunflowers for a little while yet. They're certainly getting more scarce, though.

There you have it! My life, snapshotted.