Friday Food: A Custard Hat Trick

Friday 

Short version: T-bone steaks, rice, green salad with ranch dressing

Long version: The steaks from the most recent cow we got are perfect. Perfect thickness--I got 2-inch steaks last time and that was too thick, but this time I went with 1.5 inches--perfect size, perfect marbling. So good.

I forgot I still had some ranch dressing in the refrigerator that was actually made with the last of the fresh dill that had been hanging out in a jar of water for weeks. Which means I can make fresh dill last until almost Christmas. 

I find these sorts of things fun, yes.

Saturday

Short version: Pizza, carrot sticks

Long version: Anything interesting about this pizza? Not particularly. I used a bag of roasted tomato sauce for the sauce on them, which is always a good idea. One of them had diced leftover steak on it, so that was pretty fancy.

And I had just enough ranch dressing left for the one child who likes it with his pizza. So long, dill. See you next year.

An old photo of exuberant green beans, just for auld lang syne.

Sunday

Short version: Bull enchilada casserole, baked custard

Long version: Soldiering on using the bull, even though our new, shiny beef is much more appealing. I had a bag of prepared bull in the freezer. "Prepared" means it was pressure-cooked until tender and then food-processed to shred it up. Even then, it can't be used in anything where you're going to get a big mouthful of it. It's just too chewy.

Enchiladas are a good use for it, because the meat is a thin layer. And enchilada casserole is way less trouble than actual enchiladas.

A. always likes more sauce than I do, so this time I indulged him and used an entire quart jar of pureed tomatoes to make the sauce (onion, cumin, garlic powder, chile powder, green chile, vinegar) for a 15"x10" pan of casserole. Some of the sauce went in with the bull meat and a can of black beans, and then I layered sauce, meat, corn tortillas, more sauce, cheese, etc. 

Everyone likes this, and I really should make casseroles more often. They feel like a lot of work to put together, but it can be done ahead, and making a big one is almost no more time than making a smaller one. And then there are leftovers. Which you know will be featured later on a work day. 

Any casserole recommendations for me? I have about two hundred pounds of ground beef to work with.

I did not overbake the custard. Yay for me!

Monday

Short version: Leftover enchilada casserole, cookies

Long version: I found a container of snack cookies I had forgotten were in the small freezer over the refrigerator, so I took those out and the kids had a couple after dinner. Because why not? Every Monday is improved by cookies.

A. had leftover steak and rice, to make sure there was enough of the casserole for the kids. And because he likes steak.

Tuesday

Short version: Shepherd's pie, maple custard

Long version: Cubby had been sick and not eating much since Thursday. No stomach troubles, just a limited appetite and a bad sore throat. I was trying to make relatively soft things he could eat. Shepherd's pie worked.

As did the custard. This custard is much different than the baked custard I usually make. It only has four ingredients--milk, maple syrup, whole eggs, and salt--and is a much thinner, softer custard because there's no cream or extra egg yolks. I don't think it's as good, but it's certainly much easier to make. And I didn't overbake this one, either. 

Wednesday

Short version: Baby shower food, leftover shepherd's pie

Long version: Poppy and Jack stayed at school with me for a baby shower. There we had smoked beef sandwiches, coleslaw, fruit kebabs, pigs in a blanket, and an impressive variety of tiny cupcakes.

The three at home had the leftover shepherd's pie. Also some of the cupcakes we brought home with us.

Thursday

Short version: Birthday Frito pie, pumpkin custard with whipped cream

Long version: Happy birthday to A.! I didn't actually ask him what he wanted for his birthday dinner, since I was somewhat limited by the fact that I was at Cubby's basketball game with all the kids and we all got home around 6 p.m.

I knew I wouldn't be there to make dinner in the evening, so I made chili in the morning so we could have dinner ready ten minutes after I walked in the door. Not the most elegant of birthday dinners, but tasty.

The pumpkin custard was a double recipe of the filling for this pumpkin pie recipe, baked in a 13"x9" Pyrex. I used our own pureed squash, of course, and it was very good. Very rich too, what with the six eggs and almost three cups of cream in it.

Custard is sort of hard to festively decorate, but it will at least hold birthday candles.

A. was obviously not turning six years old, I just put a row of candles for each digit.

With the pumpkin custard, I was officially three for three in not overbaking my custards. A notable feat for me, indeed.

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

The Tradition Carries On in Song

For the eleventh year in a row, we must sing to the birthday boy. 

That's A., in case you didn't know. And the song we always sing is one I write every year to the tune of "The Candyman Can." I call mine "The Woodchuck Man Can." 

The previous ten versions start here, and if you really want to, you can click your way through the past decade of songs. It might take awhile. That's a lot of songs.

Okay! Here we go!

Who can drive a schoolbus

Through the snow and ice?

Who can build a wall so my garden will look nice?

The woodchuck man

The woodchuck man can

The woodchuck man can

'Cause he uses what he has and makes it work for him. 

Who can build a truck cage

To transport several lambs?

Who can fix the neighbor's chimney high above the rangeland?

The woodchuck man

The woodchuck man can

The woodchuck man can 

'Cause he uses what he has and makes it work for him.

Happy birthday to A., the most useful woodchuck I know.

Season's Greetings from the Wild West

I never did do a Snapshots post on Sunday, but since many of my photos were of Christmas decorations, let's start there.

The wreath truck-loving Jack made at the school crafting event last week.

Saying he made it is kind of stretch, as in actuality he just chose the things to put on the wreath and pointed where he wanted them, and then I attached them. Because I didn't want him wielding a hot glue gun.

Ditto Poppy and the jars she made into candle holders.

The three in the middle are her new ones, and the two on the outside are older ones her brothers made a couple of years ago.

The jars are painted with glue, then rolled in Epsom salts.

I shocked all the women present by admitting that this was the first time in my life I had ever used a hot glue gun. What can I say? I dislike crafting. And although this was a fun event, I still don't have any great desire to hot glue things.

Anyway!

Although we have several festive decorations up, we do not have our tree. As you may recall if you've read here for awhile, we cut a real tree from a friend's ranch every year. But, since we leave it up until Epiphany--12 days after Christmas Day--I don't want to get it too early. So we usually wait until pretty close to Christmas.

I guess Cubby thought that was too long to wait, so he decided to take matters into his own hands. He brought in one of the many (MANY) tumbleweeds that are choking the fences everywhere . . .

So. Many. Tumbleweeds.

Propped it in an industrial-sized pinto bean can with some rocks, and decorated it.

The other children all contributed an ornament as well.

And then, of course, we had to adapt the song for the occasion. The best I could come up with was kind of lame, but the children liked it.

O Christmas weed, 

O Christmas weed

You blew across the prairie

O Christmas weed, 

O Christmas weed

You blew across the prairie

We brought you in

Inside a can

To celebrate

God as man . . .

I was informed that this cannot take the place of a real tree, and we must still get one of those so there's enough room for the presents underneath, but until then, we have a Christmas weed.

If I may appropriate another carol . . . It's beginning to look a lot like a Western Christmas.

Farewell To a Good Old Horse

Sadly, today we had to say good-bye to Samson. 

He was the horse all our children learned to ride on. He was extraodinarily well-trained, and had a remarkably gentle and steady temperament. I trusted him with my children, even when they were toddlers, and he never hurt any of them.

                                        

However, he was very, very old. We don't know exactly how old, but he was probably in his mid-20s, which is notably old for a horse as large as he was.

He came to us because his old teeth were no longer up to rangeland grazing. He spent his final years with us eating hay and senior horse feed, taking the children on rides, sometimes herding sheep, and hanging around with Bill the pony.

A pretty good horse retirement. But it had to end sometime, and now it has.

So long, Samson. You will be missed.

Friday Food: Catch as Catch Can

Friday 

Short version: Pot roast, rice in chicken stock, coleslaw, pureed squash

Long version: I used the very last of the garden tomatoes in the pot roast.

Sayonara, my friends.

I also used the last two small cabbages from the fall garden in the coleslaw, leaving the squash as the only fresh produce left from this year's garden.

Saturday

Short version: Barbecue beef, garlic bread, rice, leftover coleslaw

Long version: Leftover pot roast became the barbecue beef. I had made the garlic bread earlier in the day when I was baking bread, but then it all got eaten in the late afternoon, so I actually served rice with dinner.

Sunday

Short version: Bunless cheeseburgers, oven fries, canned corn, blueberry muffin cake

Long version: The first of our new beef I tried was ground beef to make cheeseburgers. They were really good. This cow we got actually had some fat, so the ground beef isn't too lean. YAY.

I used saved chicken fat to make the oven fries and they, too, were very good. Fat is the secret to everything.

I'm still trying to use up the old Sysco blueberries in the freezer, so I made a double batch of these muffins in a Pyrex pan. Because it was meant to be a dessert, I made a glaze for it with powdered sugar and lemon juice, which not one child liked. And half of them announced they don't like the blueberries, either.

Okay, then. Guess I won't make that anymore.

Monday

Short version: Leftovers, bread and butter, peaches

Long version: Pot roast, hamburgers, baked beans from the freezer, supplemented with bread and butter and, after dinner, canned peaches.

Tuesday

Short version: Breakfast sausage patties, tomato soup, leftover french fries

Long version: Poppy and I went to the dentist this day, and then out to lunch afterwards.

At a very old, and very cool, Mexican restaurant.

I got tacos, which had the option of additional "burnt cheese" listed on the menu. I suspected this would be something like frico, and sure enough, the waitress told me they fry the cheese on the pan, then add the tortilla, and then the taco fillings before folding it all up. 

I had to try it. It was delicious, although I think the extra fried cheese was unnecessary. Especially because the corn tortillas were obviously homemade and didn't need anything to make them tasty.

So much food.

As can see, my tacos came with a pile of french fries, none of which I needed after eating three tacos wrapped in fried cheese. Poppy's chicken quesadilla also came with fries. We brought all the leftover fries home, and I re-heated them in a skillet for everyone else to enjoy.

I myself was so full from my lunch that I didn't eat again for 24 hours.

The tomato soup was a big pot Cubby had made over the weekend. Three of the four children will eat it, which is pretty good for a soup.

Wednesday

Short version: Bean and cheese quesadillas, leftover sausage, peaches and cottage cheese

Long version:  We didn't get home from Mass until 5:45 p.m., after a work day for me. Which is why I made quesadillas for the kids with flour tortillas, canned refried beans, and cheese. They were happy with this.

Also happy with the peaches and cottage cheese. These were my canned peaches, which are WAY better than commercial canned peaches. Unsurprisingly.

Thursday

Short version: Snacks, chowder, pasta

Long version: The family split for dinner this night. A. brought Calvin home from school and fed him before judo. He had pasta with meat sauce. I made it earlier in the day to use the rest of the ground beef from a couple of days earlier, and the last of the bag of roasted tomato sauce that had been hanging around for several days, along with just the pasta from two boxes of macaroni and cheese. This made something that looked very much like Hamburger Helper.

A. ate some salmon chowder I had made earlier in the day for Cubby, who was sick with a bad sore throat. He managed to eat some of the pasta, though.

Poppy, Jack, and I went to a holiday "make and take" event at school. We made different crafts--ornaments, wreaths, etc.--and ate finger foods, popcorn, and hot chocolate.

The finger foods: mini quiches, pigs in a blanket, and pizza rolls.

The two kids also ate some of the pasta when we got home.

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

This One Is Better

I was so pleased that several of you also know of and love "Still, Still, Still." Particularly that the anonymous someone with Austrian grandparents now knows the name of the song her grandparents used to sing. That's so great.

It's not a very well-known carol. The only reason I know it is because my mom and I had a tradition of going to my university's choir concert/dinner every December, and they always sang it there. 

As I mentioned yesterday, though, I find it very hard to find good performances of the Christmas songs I really like. I don't enjoy large choral arrangements, but it's difficult to find solo artists that sing carols traditionally. Especially the less well-known hymns.

But! I found a version of "Still, Still, Still" I like better than the a cappella version I posted yesterday. I really appreciate how the woman singing (Sarah Gregory) has a very pleasant voice but doesn't sound overtly trained. Sort of like if your friend with the really good voice was singing it in your living room.

And while we're on the subject! One of my other favorite Christmas hymns is "O Holy Night." Josh Groban has a good version, although his voice is, obviously, much more trained.

I guess although I appreciate professionals and their fantastic voices as instruments, I feel like Christmas carols should be accessible to anyone to sing. Hearing someone like Josh Groban sing is sort of intimidating for an average singer like myself.

As for the Christmas carol I most enjoy singing myself, that would be "Joy to the World," without question. It's so fun to sing, and really does sound, well, joyful. It's impossible to be down while singing this song.

How about you? What are your favorite Christmas songs? And do you have any recommendations for really good Christmas albums for me?

The Sound of Silence

When you look at this picture, what do you hear?

Nothing, right? It's just a picture! There's nothing to hear!

Except that's what I actually heard when I took this photo in that spot.

It's not usually silent on my morning walks. In the summer, there's a cacophony of birds and far more traffic on the paved road a half mile away. Any time of year, there's likely to be at least some wind whistling past my ears.

But in the winter, before the sun is even up, if there is no wind and no one happening to drive on that paved road while I'm walking, I can stop and hear the blissful sound of . . . silence.

I don't know if you've ever really heard silence before. It is certainly pretty much impossible in a man-made environment. It's not very common even in nature. The only times I've experienced true silence are in winter, often after a snowfall, when everything is muffled and the animals aren't moving around**.

But here, even when there isn't any snow, I can sometimes go out for a morning walk and stand still in perfect silence*.

Bliss. And the perfect counterbalance to a season that is, despite all the joy, a very loud one.

* What's funny is that perfect silence actually sounds a bit like faint ringing, I suppose because at such times it's actually possible to hear my own blood moving.

** Which reminds me of my favorite Christmas carol, an Austrian song called "Still, Still, Still." It's hard for me to find good versions of carols like this, because they tend to be sung by large choirs, which sounds beautiful but makes it hard to actually hear the words. Here's an a cappella version by a men's group in which you can hear the lyrics, although it's not my favorite version.