Friday Food: I Got Root Beer in My Food

Friday

Short version: Bunless cheeseburgers, garlic bread, carrot and celery sticks with ranch dressing

Long version: I don't know why I'm so lazy about making ranch dressing. It takes like two minutes and makes the children happy.

A. spent some time during Poppy's nap helping the boys put together these wooden cars from a kit Cubby got for Christmas two years ago.

Promptness is obviously my first concern.

It took 30 minutes to glue the cars together, another 30 minutes for the boys to paint them, and about two minutes for the cars to get broken while the boys were playing with them. Par for the course.

Saturday

Short version: Homemade corn tortillas with fried eggs or refried beans, more carrot and celery sticks with ranch

Long version: The pinto beans Miss Amelia makes are much, much softer than mine. I mean, I cook mine until they're soft, but because Miss Amelia just keeps the pot simmering on her wood-fueled cookstove all day, hers are already broken down and thus, perfect for refried beans.

All I did was cook a minced garlic clove in oil, then add the beans with some salt and mash them with my potato masher until they were mostly smooth and thickened. They were way better than you would think mashed beans could be. Yum.

Sunday

Short version: Potatoes with cheese sauce and bacon bits, frozen green peas, annoying microwave cakes

Long version: Erma Bombeck used to joke that in her house growing up, gravy was considered a beverage. Well, in my house growing up, cheese sauce might be considered a beverage, too. We ate a LOT of cheese sauce--on rice, on vegetables, mixed with potatoes . . .

Cheese sauce was one of the first things I learned to make, and despite the fact that I make it maybe once a year now, I still remember the proportions.

I used a bit of some low-fat, low-sodium American cheese (yeah, yum) (but not really) that Rafael had given us, and the rest was sharp cheddar.

The cakes were Cubby's idea. I was totally going to punk out on the Sunday dessert and just give them some of the candy left from Valentine's Day, but then at like 3:30 p.m., Cubby asked if he could make cookies or something from his cookbook.

I told him sure, but only if he could make them all by himself AND clean it all up.

First he said, "Maybe I'll just make cupcakes." HA HA. "Just" cupcakes. Cupcakes are a pain in the ass. I don't even make cupcakes except under duress. Try again, Cubby.

So then he found a recipe for Fudgy Mug Cakes or something. You know those kind you make in the microwave? They're easy! They're fast! I have made them myself!

Yeah, the one I made hadn't been developed by the entirely-too-fussy people at America's Test Kitchen. Two bowls, many ingredients, five overflowing mugs, and twenty minutes later, I concluded it would have been easier to just make an entire chocolate cake. Would have tasted better, too.

The children enjoyed theirs, though, and Cubby did trick me into making a dessert, because there was no way he was doing all that by himself.

Charlie and Poppy both woke up early and spent some time making Poppy soup:

Needs more salt.

Monday

Short version: Stir-fry, rice, scrambled eggs with bacon bits and cream cheese

Long version: I've started buying those bags of frozen stir-fry vegetables. Mostly I buy them for back-up vegetables when all the fresh vegetables are gone and there is no trip to the Outside World imminent. They don't taste as good as fresh vegetables, obviously, but they work for their intended purpose.

This is the first time I've actually used them for stir-fry, however, and I must admit it made the whole process incredibly easy.

I used the mix that has green beans, broccoli, carrots, bell pepper, onion, and water chestnuts in it, to which I added some peas. All I did was cook those in a pan with oil, add two leftover hamburger patties that I diced up, and then some soy sauce, vinegar, ginger, and peanut butter. It was delicious and so fast I could make it after work. Yay frozen vegetables.

The eggs were for A., because there wasn't quite enough stir-fry for everyone. And for Charlie, who doesn't like stir-fry.

Tuesday

Short version: Root beer pulled pork, mashed potatoes, green salad

Long version: And here's the root beer.

Charlie came home with a two-liter bottle of root beer from the school pep rally a couple of weeks ago. I wish he hadn't--why is the school handing out large containers of concentrated sugar to kids who definitely do NOT need more energy?--but I couldn't just throw it away. It was his, after all.

I did let the kids have a bit of it (only Charlie and Cubby actually drank it, though), and then I decided I should try to find another use for it. Like cooking it with a pork picnic shoulder.

I should not have bothered. The root beer flavor was very there on the outside of the pork, and I've learned that I do not care for root beer flavor except in actual root beer.

I shredded the pork, mixed it with some mustard, and browned it under the broiler, so it wasn't inedible or anything, but I will definitely not be repeating root beer with pork.

Wednesday

Short version: Leftovers

Long version: The combination of work, 4-H, and an Ash Wednesday Mass resulted in the whole family getting home after 6 p.m. All I could do was heat up leftovers in the microwave and throw them on the table as quickly as possible so Poppy could get to bed and her brothers could get to their homework.

The children ate leftover potatoes and cheese with green peas. I ate some leftover refried beans with sweet potatoes and cheese.

Thursday

Short version: Leftovers again, plus green salad

Long version: The kids had leftover pork with potatoes and cheese. I put my pork in the salad with some leftover peas and sweet potatoes. I might actually have to cook new food now.

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

Step on a Nail, Break Your Mother's Tail?

How's your tailbone, MiL? Intact? Because your son just stepped on a nail.

This isn't a huge deal--I mean, other than the significant pain to A. caused by a nail puncturing his foot--except for the fact that here in Extremely Rural America, the nearest tetanus shot is 60 miles away.

Boo.

A. needs one, though, because his last tetanus shot was 15 years ago when he tried to catch a falling pane of glass while fixing windows and sliced his hand to ribbons.

He knows trying to catch glass with his bare hands was not the brightest move he could have made. His instincts, however, are much faster than his thought processes.

Anyway.

There is actually a clinic just ten miles away that's open to see a nurse practitioner two days a week, and today was one of the the days it was open. Unfortunately, the nurse practitioner wasn't in yet and the receptionist didn't know if they had tetanus boosters, and the clinic 60 miles away definitely DID have it but were closing at 11 a.m., so . . . off A. went to drive two hours for a tetanus booster.

Luckily, the puncture was in the foot he doesn't use to drive, so he can still drive the school bus. Good thing, as there really isn't a substitute bus driver.

And, well, I guess that's it. Nails hurt (as if you didn't already know that) and it's important to keep your tetanus vaccinations up to date. If you're anything like A., that is.

It's Fat Tuesday! Let's Eat

I have mentioned before that I just can't get behind Shrove Tuesday pancakes as a great indulgence before Lent starts tomorrow on Ash Wednesday. I mean, sure, pancakes are delicious and all, but are they really the most indulgent meal to have before forty days of penance? We can eat pancakes during Lent. In fact, we probably will eat pancakes during Lent, on a Friday when we're not eating meat.

And so today, we will not be celebrating Shrove Tuesday with pancakes. We will be celebrating with a large chunk of fatty pork and mashed potatoes. Laissez bon temps rouler, as my people would say.

How about you? Do you have any good day-before-Ash-Wednesday traditions?

Friday Food: Turkey or Chicken?

Friday

Short version: Leftover sausage, potato cakes, green salad

Long version: The day before, I had made the children bacon sandwiches for breakfast, and they inexplicably did not really eat them. I have no idea why. I mean, BACON SANDWICHES, HELLO.

Anyway.

I cut up the remaining toasted bread, doused it with olive oil, salt, and garlic powder, and shoved it in the oven while it was on to cook some old pumpkins for the livestock. Result: croutons. Yum.

The remaining bacon was used in the potato cakes, which I made with leftover mashed potatoes, the diced bacon, a bit of flour, an egg, and some grated cheese. Half of the children loved them; half did not. A pretty standard reception to a new food.

Saturday

Short version: Elk bites, oven fries, frozen green peas, sauteed mushrooms and onions

Long version: "Elk bites" is chunks of elk marinated in olive oil, vinegar, salt, pepper, and garlic, then seared and served with ketchup for dipping. Boring, but serviceable.

Sunday

Short version: Roasted chicken, baked potatoes, carrots

Long version: I have a confession to make: I dislike whole chickens. I dislike cooking them; I dislike cutting them up; I even dislike eating them.

I buy them sometimes anyway, though, just as a break from red meat and because they're cheap.

So then I had this chicken to roast, and it was HUUGE. Like, Charlie came in the kitchen while I was prepping it and asked, "Is that a turkey?"

Nope, just an eight-pound chicken.

Yuck.

It was so big that I had to cut it up after a couple of hours in the oven just so it would actually get cooked in time for us to eat. I cut off the legs, then sliced the breast through in a few places without actually cutting it off.

I seasoned it with lemon and garlic inside, and melted butter and lemon on the outside (plus salt and pepper, of course), and then made a quick sauce with the pan juices, Dijon mustard, and heavy cream. It came out pretty well in the end. And we had quite a bit left over, because eight pounds, remember?

It was incredibly warm this day, so A. deputized the children to continue the stone wall he's building around the backyard garden.

Many (small) hands make (slightly) light (-er) work. Maybe.

Monday

Short version: Skillet of leftover chicken, leftover rice, leftover chicken sauce, and frozen peas

Long version: Surprisingly tasty, if not gourmet. Does the job for a work night, anyway.

Tuesday

Short version: Pizza elk, pasta with marinara, frozen green peas

Long version: Same old, same old. Another bag of elk down.

Some day I'm going to have fresh vegetables from the garden again. At the moment, most of the infant fresh vegetables are living in the children's bathroom in the upgraded grow box A. put together for me.

Same lights, but we switched out the busted laundry basket for a discarded drawer from the children's bunk bed. Roomier, and more aesthetically pleasing. My grandfather, who made that bunk bed and these drawers, would be pleased with the newest incarnation of his woodworking, I'm sure.

The lettuce and arugula are still alive outside, if tiny. Hooray! And while they grow, there are frozen peas.

Wednesday

Short version: Chicken quesadillas for the children, soup for me, pinto beans and frozen green beans for all

Long version: Miss Amelia called on Tuesday to let us know she had some pinto beans for us. When A. went to get them, he returned with a box that contained two jars of beans, a package of flour tortillas, some slices of American cheese, a small container of honey, a stick of butter, and a single serving of soup.

Thanks to Miss Amelia's box, I was able to make very exciting flour tortilla quesadillas for the children. I never buy flour tortillas, so this was a big treat. I shredded the last of the leftover chicken and heated it with salsa and garlic powder before putting it in the tortillas with cheese--cheddar for Charlie, who does not like American cheese, and American cheese for the rest.

I think the soup was ham, chicken, and potato with green chili. I wasn't sure about the ingredients, but it sure did taste good. And it was very nice to come home from a challenging day of work and eat some soup that I did not have to make.

Thank you, Miss Amelia.

Thursday

Short version: Pan-fried elk steaks, leftover pasta, cabbage

Long version: I forgot I had already prepped some elk steaks from the piece of elk I was using for the pizza elk on Tuesday. Very efficient of me, but not very useful had I completely forgotten they were sitting in the refrigerator.

Anyway.

They were just pieces that I pounded thinner with the rolling pin, then seasoned with salt, pepper, and garlic powder, and paprika and fried. The children ate theirs with ketchup. I ate mine with barbecue sauce.

I didn't have any sauce for the leftover pasta, so I just heated it in the microwave with butter, cream cheese, garlic powder, and a little cream. Cream cheese with pasta is way better than it has any right to be.

I cooked most of the cabbage in a pan with onions and carrots. But Charlie and Jack ate their cabbage raw. Weirdos.

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

A Tender Moment

Poppy and I were having her required wake-up cuddle early (very early) one morning, when she spontaneously gave me a very sweet kiss on the cheek.

"Thank you," I said. "I like kisses."

A pause, then Poppy remarked, "I like candy."

Another pause. "Especially lollipops."

Duly noted, Poppy Oakley.

Further on the Fringe

About three years ago, I mostly stopped using laundry detergent when I washed our clothes. I noted at the time that this was hardly a mainstream approach to laundry, but I also noted that I didn't care. The word I used was "fringe."

And now the fringe continues to unravel, you might say.

About two months ago, our dryer broke. A. fixed it briefly before it broke for good. Instead of buying a new dryer right away, A. built a winter clothesline for me in the pasture, where the clothes get sun and wind. That is not the case with the clothesline in the fenced-in backyard, which is great during the windy season or in the summer, but not very useful in the winter. So the new clothesline does get clothes dry here in New Mexico even in the winter, except for on days when it's actually raining or snowing.

Yet another glamour shot of a clothesline on this blog. There can never be too many.

At about the same time, our washing machine ceased to actually clean our clothes, instead depositing visible dirt on clothes that hadn't really been that dirty to start with. It was clear there was significant filth in the innards of the machine somewhere.

Eventually, A. took the whole thing apart so we could clean it. He needed a special part to get the drum all the way apart, which we ordered.  But the part didn't come for almost a week, during which time both our broken dryer and pulled-apart washing machine were sitting out in front of our house on the patio. A lovely home decor statement right by our door.

During this period, we were doing laundry in the bathtub again.

A. did manage to get the whole washing machine back together again, and it worked for two loads before it refused to drain water out of the drum.

A. was so sick of dealing with laundry machines at this point that he declared he would rather do laundry in the bathtub indefinitely than buy another machine.

I disagreed. Strenuously. I told him I was willing to live without a dryer, but definitely not without a washing machine.

I found a place in a small city 90 miles away that sells refurbished appliances and called them to make sure they had some washing machines. It took another week of tub laundering before we were able to make it in to the city to buy a machine, but we did eventually.

They actually had sets of both washers and dryers, but I told A. not to bother getting the dryer. After two months without one, I realized I really don't need one here. I mean, sure, it's sometimes a pain to be rushing laundry out first thing to make sure it gets dry, and hanging clothes on the line when it's still below freezing is no fun, and sometimes the dirty clothes pile up a bit if we have a couple of days of inclement weather, but generally? Nope, don't need a dryer here.

So now in addition to not using laundry detergent, I don't use or even own a clothes dryer. Fringe, for sure. But still okay with it.

Feeling the Love

So how did Valentine's Day go down in our house? I instituted a strict Sugar Ban for the entire day because of the previous three days of sugar bingeing (birthday+two days of class parties).

And Cubby chased Charlie around trying to kiss him ("But Valentine's Day is all about love!") until Charlie collapsed on the floor screaming, "I hate Cubby! I hate kisses! I hate Valentine's Day! I HATE THE UNIVERSE!"

So, you know. Typical.