Snapshots: Thanksgiving and Beyond

This girl decided to dress up for Thanksgiving. She dressed her doll up, too.

She also made placemats for everyone. These were made and laminated at school.

And she got up and secretly made this Thanksgiving banner first thing. She has a passion for decor.

I apparently took this photo of my dinner and A.'s and forgot to put it in the Friday food post. So here you go: Salad and sloppy joes.

I went to pick up the traveler from the airport Friday and sat in front of this giant illuminated snowflake for an hour. It kind of gave me a headache after awhile.

I wasn't overly enthused about the art above me, either.

And last, a pack of dogs being fed in the living room.

There you have it! My life, snapshotted.

Friday Food: Starting with Sandwiches

Friday 

Short version: Chicken salad sandwiches, corn chips, pickles, cookies

Long version: A. went to the basketball player's game in the afternoon. They started the long drive home around 5:30 p.m. I knew the basketball player would be hungry and not want to wait until they got home at 7 p.m., so I used the rest of the previous night's rotisserie chicken to make chicken salad. I sent one sandwich, along with a banana and some chocolate chip cookies, in the truck with A.

I had enough chicken salad to make sandwiches for the two children at home with me. They had the store-brand Fritos with those, plus some cucumber pickles. I had a salad.

Saturday

Short version: Sloppy joes, more corn chips, raw kohlrabi

Long version: The basketball player had another game this day--it was a tournament--and the team had cheeseburgers and french fries afterwards. 

That had been my plan for dinner, since I had baked bread this day and made some buns. However, to avoid repetition, I used the buns and ground beef to make sloppy joes instead. This also has the effect of stretching the meat, as less meat is needed for sloppy joes than for hamburger patties.

I didn't make the oven fries I was planning on, either. I could claim it's because I didn't want to repeat the after-game french fries, but really, I just didn't feel like it. Store-brand chips it is!

Sunday

Short version: Pork chunks in milk gravy, pinto beans and rice, carrots and sauerkraut, ice cream and cookies

Long version: I really do not much enjoy store-bought pork, and yet, here we are. Another pork loin, cut into chunks, seared, and then I made the gravy for it with milk, cornstarch, and some thyme and garlic powder.

I took out a quart of pinto beans cooked with ham to serve along with the leftover rice, since there wasn't an overabundance of the pork.

Incidentally, my family always puts butter and just a few drops of balsamic vinegar on top of beans. This is what my growing-up family always did with our New Year's Day black-eyed peas when I was growing up, and it's just as good with other beans. It makes a sort of sauce for them.

I used some of the blanched and frozen carrots for a vegetable, sauteed with some of the sauerkraut from the refrigerator and cooked diced onions from the freezer. 

I had enough cookies and cream ice cream for everyone to have some. They doubled down on the cookies by eating it with a chocolate chip cookie from the cookie jar.

Monday

Short version: Sausage and beans, leftover rice, cornbread, kohlrabi appetizer

Long version: I wanted to finish up the giant kohlrabi my sister brought us, so I cut up the rest of it and handed out slices to everyone while I was cooking dinner. This was their vegetable for dinner. Even if it wasn't on their plates, it counts.

I had quite a bit of the pinto beans and ham left, but not quite enough to make a full meal for everyone, so I also cooked one package of smoked beef sausage.

There wasn't quite enough rice left, either, which is why I made the cornbread. 

I had a salad with the last of the sloppy joe meat in it. It also had some of the still-ripening tomatoes from the box on the floor and pickled beets. It always makes me happy to eat something from the garden, especially when the garden itself is actually done.

What I ate. 

What everyone else ate. Significantly less colorful.

Tuesday

Short version: Lamb chops, boiled potatoes

Long version: We had two ram lambs this year that we kept to put in the freezer when it got cold enough to butcher. The time has come, and we butchered one the lambs this day. A. cut most of it into chops and steaks with his reciprocating saw, and I left some of them out of the freezer for dinner this night.

The basketball player had a home game at 5 p.m., and the younger two children wanted to go with me to it. This is why I made a pot of boiled potatoes--with just butter, salt, and pepper--before we left. So when we got home at 6:30 p.m., all I had to do was re-heat the potatoes and fry the lamb chops.

No vegetable. I meant to throw some pickles on the plates, but it ended up being so chaotic, I just forgot. One child was not feeling well and wanted to take a bath. I was so hungry by the time we got home that I just heated up a bowl of the sausage and vegetable soup I had made earlier in the day and ate that while I was cooking the lamb chops. So by the time I actually got food on plates for the three who were actually sitting down to eat, the pickles were forgotten.

Oh well. Everyone survived. And the lamb chops were very well received.

Wednesday

Short version: Chili, cheese quesadillas, carrot sticks, ice cream

Long version: I was doing some Thanksgiving prep this day--pumpkin pie, cranberry sauce, extra bread for stuffing--so I made the chili in the morning just so I wouldn't have to make anything later when I was tired.

I had thought all summer that I had one parsnip that had actually germinated and was growing really well. My plan was to harvest it, along with the one carrot in the garden (I have difficulties with root vegetables), and roast it for Thanksgiving dinner.

Imagine my surprise when I dug up the parsnip and it was . . .

A carrot. But a big carrot!

I cut up the biggest one into carrot sticks before dinner. It was a very good carrot. But it was not a parsnip.

We had just a bit of ice cream left, which I let the kids have because one of them had a bad sore throat. Curses.

Thursday

Short version: Not turkey! But all the other stuff.

Long version: I don't much care for turkey. Neither does A. That's why I bought a duck for Thanksgiving dinner, instead. Our eldest was gone this year on Thanksgiving, and he's our staunch traditionalist when it comes to Thanksgiving foods, so I figured I could get away with it.

The other children were somewhat wary of the duck, but in the end, they all loved it. Especially the heart, which I had cooked with some other giblets for the dogs. The kids asked to try the heart after I had fried it and then told me it was their favorite part.

Okay.

I used a recipe the MiL gave me for cooking the duck that involved low cooking for four hours. Except it was done after two hours, and A. asked me to stop cooking it at that point. I suspect the further cooking would have rendered out more fat and made the skin extra crispy, but he assured me he wanted it more fatty, so I took it out.

This meant I had to rush to get everything else out two hours earlier than I had planned to eat. Luckily, I have some experience in the kitchen and didn't find this too daunting.

The "everything else" was mashed potatoes, sourdough stuffing, cranberry sauce, sauteed green beans with bacon and shallots, frozen corn with butter, and duck gravy.

I realized when I started to make the stuffing--thankfully ahead of time--that I had forgotten to buy celery for it. And then I found I didn't have any sage. Sigh.  I used celery seed and thyme instead. It was fine.

There was definitely something weird about the green beans. They tasted . . . strange. They were my own green beans, blanched and frozen this summer, so I have no idea why they tasted kind of off. Maybe something in the pan? I don't know, but I was kind of bummed about it.

All in all, not my most impressive showing.

Everyone else enjoyed it, though.

One child doesn't care for pumpkin desserts, so in addition to the pie, I made chocolate-covered peanut butter balls at his request. We ate so early that we had those for dessert right after the meal, and then had the pumpkin pie later as more of our dinner.

And just because it's fun for me to think about, and I wish to share the fun with all of you, these are the things from the garden that were in our holiday meal, either via the freezer or still fresh: garlic, shallots, green beans, squash for the pie, and thyme.

Refrigerator check:

Post-Thanksgiving cramming.

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

Always Thankful

I used to always post a photo of my children on Thanksgiving Day, because they are always what I'm most thankful for.

I don't post photos of them anymore, or even write about them directly. That is because most of them asked me not to. But that doesn't mean I'm not thankful for them. I am. Always. I just have to post different photos now.

This sunrise from yesterday is a good one. I am also thankful for the New Mexico sky.

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you. I hope your day is filled with whatever makes you thankful.

Girls' Day Out

I mentioned already that the eldest son, Poppy, and I stayed in a hotel near the Albuquerque airport on Wednesday night. There was no reason for Poppy to come except that she doesn't like it when I go anywhere without her, especially overnight. And she does like to travel. 

I knew she was coming with us, so I purposely chose a hotel that had an indoor pool. That and proximity to the airport were pretty much the only criteria for my selection.

Of course we went swimming the night we arrived at the hotel.

I definitely did not choose to have a "pool view" room. Why on earth would anyone want to overlook--and overhear--an echoey pool?

I did not actually swim this night, to be honest. I'm not much of a water person, and the idea of having to take a shower before bed was unappealing. So I just sat there on a deck chair and monitored the fun.

Mom the lifeguard.

I had warned Poppy that coming with us would mean getting up very early and sitting at the airport for awhile, and that part would not be fun. She accepted this and was in fact very patient with our 5 a.m. wake-up and two hours checking in, going through security, and sitting at the gate until the plane left.

We left Poppy's stuffed dog, Jillian, to guard the hotel room while we were gone. She takes her job very seriously.

It's been several years since I've had the opportunity to watch a plane actually pull away from the gate, since the days of going to the gate to say good-bye or meet arrivals is now over.

But after that, it was Fun Girl Time!

The first thing we did when we got back to the hotel around 8 a.m. was eat breakfast. It was one of those buffets featuring many bread products and cereals, but this one thankfully also had scrambled eggs and ham, plus one of those ubiquitous waffle makers that you fill with the tiny cups of batter and flip over.

Poppy had a bowl of Froot Loops, some scrambled eggs and ham, a waffle, and some apple juice. This is the most I have ever seen her eat at breakfast.

After that, it was back to the pool. I do not think this pool room was heated. The water was actually steaming when we got there, even though it wasn't particularly warm water. Thankfully, there was also a functioning hot tub.

Poppy got in the hot tub first. 

This thing had some seriously intense bubbles. A bit too aggressive for me.

I got in the pool first, knowing that once I got in the hot water, I was never going to bring myself to get back in the cold pool. We spent a little bit of time working on Poppy's dog paddling and water treading before I declared myself done with the chill and gratefully switched to the hot tub. The pool had a shallow part that Poppy could stay in to play around, and I was only about two feet away in the hot tub, so I could keep an eye on her.

I did get tired of even the hot tub before she was ready to go, so I sat on a deck chair--covered in two towels because it was freezing in there after I had gotten wet--while she played happily in the hot tub.

I did have to eventually cut her fun short, however, as we had a long drive and a stop for groceries ahead of us.

After going back to the room to shower and change, we stopped by the breakfast buffet one more time as they were packing it up so I could get another cup of coffee and Poppy could get a bagel with cream cheese. 

We took these in the car with us. As we were leaving Albuquerque and she was munching her bagel, "Eye of the Tiger" came on the radio. Poppy exclaimed, "Hey, this is 'Eye of the Tiger'! I love this song!"

Then she said, "This is so great, Mom."

I asked her if she meant the song or her bagel.

"Both. I love music and I love bagels."

So easy to please, this girl.

After she finished eating, she settled herself with Charlotte's Web. Before she started reading, though, she said casually, "If you see a spa, you should stop. Since we don't have any brothers with us."

I was kind of surprised by this and asked her what we would do at a spa, wondering how she knew about spas at all. They're not places I frequent.

"Pedicures and stuff."

Oh, right. I forgot about that Fancy Nancy book. Obviously, she didn't.

In the end, we did not stop at a spa, instead stopping at Walmart to buy groceries on our way home. 

So maybe it wasn't a typical girls' day out, but Poppy sure enjoyed herself. And so did I.

Snapshots: Wood Heat and Seasonal Decorations

The basketball player had a tournament in the town where our firewood supplier is, so A. brought his truck when he went to one game. This allowed him to pick up another load of firewood without making a special trip of 160 miles.

That's a lot of wood.

I am so glad this place exists. Anyone who has ever dealt with firewood sellers knows that it's usually sorta shady guys operating out of their houses, with no help and usually an unreliable supply of wood.

This place is a proper wood yard. They have piles of wood all the time, different kinds at different prices (this is cedar), and guys to load it for you. It's so great to just call them up on a Wednesday, arrange to buy a cord and a half of wood to be picked up at 3 p.m. on Friday, and show up to have it loaded.

Of course, it has to be unloaded by us at home, but that's what I have children for. Since this is a cord and a half instead of just one cord, I promised them hot cocoa AND cinnamon toast once it's done.

Good deal.

The only downside to having all that wood on hand is that it also means having a lot of ash on hand when it's burned.

Cleaning out the woodstove always makes a mess.

I suppose I could have the children do that, too, but I always do it in the mornings when the stove is cold and before anyone else wakes up. My gift to my family is cleaning out and lighting the woodstove every morning so it's hot when they all get up.

We have never had a nativity set in our house, which I decided to remedy this year. I found what looked like a nice set online and ordered it. I don't know why I was surprised when it came and the box had scripture passages on it about each of the pieces.

I mean, I guess most people who order this are at least somewhat religious, so this makes sense.

I haven't actually decorated for Christmas, since we have yet to have Thanksgiving. Which is why this past week's candlelit breakfast table looked like this:

Featuring the bobbly turkey given to me many years ago by my mother.

We started our Thanksgiving break this past Wednesday, so there won't be any need of candlelight to cheer up the dark early mornings in the coming week. Because everyone can sleep in. Yay.

There you have it! My life, snapshotted. 

Friday Food: Some Travel

Friday 

Short version: Pizzas, kohlrabi

Long version: I was baking bread anyway, so I used some dough to make two pizzas: one cheese, one pepperoni and pickled onion.

I must always make ranch dressing for pizza now, according to my children, so I cut up some of the giant kohlrabi to also dip in the ranch dressing.

Saturday

Short version: Barbecue meatballs, mashed potatoes, pureed calabaza, green salad with vinaigrette, brownie ice cream sundaes

Long version: We had two guests with us this night, which is why we had a baked dessert on a Saturday. I had considered making a custard, but that uses too many eggs for this time of year when the chickens aren't laying at all and I'm dependent on store-bought eggs.

No one seemed to mind having the brownie sundaes instead. I heated up some chocolate syrup for them, too, which is always good.

This was the first calabaza I've cooked this year. Actually the first since 2022, since we didn't get any to maturity last year, thanks to the hail. It was good. Our guests even liked it. Most people do, thankfully.

Sunday

Short version: Baked chicken, creamy pasta shells, kohlrabi, leftover brownies or cookies with ice cream

Long version: I separated a package of chicken leg quarters into thighs and drumsticks, four of each. These I salted heavily a couple of hours before cooking, then seasoned liberally with an Italian herb mix, garlic powder, and a little olive oil before baking until they were done.

I had some roasted tomato puree still in the refrigerator, which is what I used for the pasta shells, along with lots of butter, some cream, and more of the Italian herb mix and garlic powder.

Chicken and shells.

Chicken and shells and calabaza. On a plate.

There weren't quite enough brownies left for everyone to have one, but one child chose to have a chocolate chip cookie with her ice cream instead, so that worked out.

Monday

Short version: Baked potatoes, cookies, and hot chocolate at school; sandwiches and leftovers at home

Long version: I had forgotten we were supposed to stay after school for a Bingo for Games event (all the bingo prizes were board games or card games). In the end, only Poppy and I stayed. There were baked potatoes at the event, so we had that. A. made a sandwich for himself and the boy who went home sick with him. Another boy had eaten enough pizza on his FFA trip that he wasn't hungry for dinner. The last boy had leftover chicken and pasta when we got home.

Tuesday

Short version: Pork, baked potatoes, pureed sweet potatoes, cucumber with salt and vinegar, crispy rice treats

Long version: Big ole pork butt cooked until falling apart. Potatoes baked at the same time, both white and sweet.

Funny story about those sweet potatoes. I had bought sweet potatoes several weeks ago, and then I couldn't find them when I got home. I could have sworn they made it out to the car, but they just weren't anywhere. And then, this day when I was digging in the freezer and pulled out a bag with frozen stir-fry vegetables in it . . . there were the sweet potatoes. Frozen solid.

Then arises the question: What happens to sweet potatoes when they're frozen whole and raw?

Not much. I threw them in whole to bake while the pork was in, then scooped out the flesh and pureed it with butter. It was fine.

They probably would have been mushy if I had tried to roast cubes of them or something, but no problem with the puree. Just in case you also find yourself with frozen sweet potatoes some day.

I had made the crispy rice treats as a "Happy Thanksgiving and very early Merry Christmas!" treat for my co-workers. I decided I just do not have the strength to bake bread for all 21 of the staff at school, along with all our neighbors. Every year I had to bake more bread, and it was just too much in an already too-busy month. So this year I gave them all a Thanksgiving treat instead. Crispy rice treats aren't as impressive as a loaf of bread, but they certainly are easier for me. And much appreciated before the avalanche of sugar that is Christmas arrives.

Wednesday

Short version: Fried pork tacos at home and leftover rice pudding at home, sandwiches and stuff on the road

Long version: I left in the afternoon to drive to Albuquerque. We sent the eldest child to New York to visit the MiL, and his flight left early enough on Thursday morning that we had to stay in a hotel on Wednesday night. Because Albuquerque is not really at all close to us.

Poppy wanted to come with us, so the three of us left at 3 p.m. Dinnertime fell while we were still driving, and I didn't want to take the time to stop along the way, so I used the leftover pork to make sandwiches and then threw a bunch of other things in the bag. This included store-brand Fritos, protein bars, beef sticks, grapes, and a few leftover crispy rice treats.

At home, A. used the leftover pork to make tacos for the other two boys. He does this by frying corn tortillas in lard, which makes them very popular with the children.

Daddy Tacos are the best tacos.

Thursday

Short version: Rotisserie chicken, rice, green salad with vinaigrette

Long version: Poppy and I stopped at Walmart on our way home. That's where I got the rotisserie chicken. I used the bit of chicken juice in the bottom of the bag, plus cream, garlic powder, salt and pepper, to make a sauce that I warmed the chicken in.

Nothing else fancy about this meal, which was exactly what I was going for after 24 hours of away-from-home food. And a lot of hours of driving.

The MiL sent me a picture of the chicken and dumplings she had made for the traveler when he finally made it to her house. So we know what he had for dinner, too. The MiL is committed to the world knowing our family's every dinner*, which of course I appreciate.

Refrigerator check: 

Quite obvious I've just been to a store.

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

* I got curious and checked to see how long I've been doing this every-Friday food report: There are 364 of these posts. Which means I have posted it every Friday--I've never missed one--for almost eight years now. That's . . . kind of crazy. But fun! For me, anyway.

Resistance Training

When I go to Walmart for my infrequent grocery shopping, I end up with a completely full cart every time. As I wheel it around the store, filling it with twenty-five pounds of flour, five gallons of milk, ten pounds of cheese, ten pounds of ground beef, and on and on, the cart gets progressively heavier and harder to manage.

By the time I reach the produce department at the end, the cart is so heavy and unwieldy that I can't even turn it without going around to the front and hauling it around to face the direction I need to go. It's also quite difficult to get going again from a full stop and requires some real effort to keep under control so I don't let it get away from me and mow down one of the many senior citizens that like to stop and chat next to the bananas.

This could be classified as a weapon.

Last time I was there and struggling with this behemoth, I was wondering--with some envy--why no one else seemed to be having to expend so much effort just to get around the store. There was a lady in front of me in one aisle whose cart was just as full as mine, but she was pushing it with only one hand. In contrast to me, with both hands on the handle and my legs and core fully engaged in shoving this great weight through the store.

And then I realized that her cart mostly had packaged things in it. Things like cookies, crackers, and bread.

Light things.

And what's in my cart? Meat, dairy, vegetables. Things with very high proportions of water weight. And in great quantity. I don't know how much the contents of my carts end up weighing, but it's got to be over a hundred pounds.

This is why by the time I do make it to produce, I just park the cart and leave it there while I take my purse with me to gather the last few things. I suppose it's possible someone might try to walk off with it, but none of it has been paid for yet. And whoever tried would probably injure themselves trying to make off with it. 

This Walmart actually has a pick-up option, so I suppose I could order everything online and then just sit in my car while it was loaded for me, but then how would I get my workout in?