Friday Food: Taking the Show on the Road

Friday 

Short version: Elk spaghetti, steamed broccoli and carrots

Long version: I had taken two bags of elk stew meat out of the freezer, but it didn't thaw very quickly. Instead of trying to hurry it along, I just cut some of it off--still partially frozen--and then diced it up and browned it, adding a chunk of caramalized onions from the freezer, roasted tomato puree I had made in the morning, two cubes of pesto from the freezer, and garlic powder. 

Most of this went over spaghetti for the children. A. had his with a piece of bread.

Saturday

Short version: Elk stew, garlic bread

Long version: The rest of the meat made into stew. Elk meat (and almost all wild meat) needs added fat. I didn't have any rendered beef tallow left, but I did have some suet (the unrendered beef fat) out to grind with bull meat. So I sliced some of that up and rendered it in the pot before I added the meat pieces to brown.

I'm not sure what it says about me that I render tallow before making stew.

And then my brain apparently short-circuited, because I actually added the carrots and potatoes (and onion, garlic, pureed tomatoes, Worcestershire and soy sauce)  to the pot as soon as the meat was done browning.

Elk meat takes like three hours to get tender. By which point the vegetables would have been mush. So I had to pull all the solids out and then pick out the meat to put it back in.

Post-picking.

And then, when I did add the vegetables back in, I decided there wasn't nearly enough, so I added three more potatoes and two more carrots.

This wasn't my most organized attempt at stew-making, is what I'm saying.

It all worked out. The stew was good.

I had made the garlic bread the day before and just warmed it up in the microwave for dinner.

Sunday

Short version: Bull 'n' bean enchilada casserole, steamed carrots and broccoli, chocolate pudding with cream

Long version: Since we have thirty more pounds of three-year-old bull meat in the freezer, I thought maybe I should continue working through the prepared (pressure-canned and food-processed) bull that was already in my freezer.

Also, I hadn't made the enchilada casserole in awhile, and it's always popular as long as we haven't had it recently.

Alsoalso, I had all that tomato puree in the refrigerator from roasting tomatoes a few days prior, which meant it was easy to make the enchilada sauce.

I made the pudding because one child had a bad sore throat. That seems to be a feature of our fall this year.

Anyway, I used this recipe for the pudding, except I didn't have quite enough cornstarch. I did, however, have a single egg yolk that had been languishing in the refrigerator since I made spiced nuts last week. So I finally got to use the egg yolk up, which was very satisfying.

Monday

Short version: Leftovers

Long version: Same casserole, different night. It's a Monday!

Random photo break:

Crazy sunrise. In real life, it was an apocalyptic red color, but that sort of thing rarely comes through in photos. At least, not with my terrible phone camera.

Tuesday

Short version: Elk steaks, chicken-y rice, frozen green peas

Long version: I mostly made the rice (cooked in chicken stock) for the child with an iffy stomach, but it was appreciated by everyone else, too.

Wednesday

Short version: Mexican-ish skillet food

Long version: I realized in the morning while I was getting breakfast for the children that this was a First Communion class night, which meant I wouldn't be getting home until 5:30 p.m. and would need something very fast for dinner.

Luckily, there were still a couple of uncooked elk steaks in the refrigerator, so I cut those up small and put them in a marinade. Then, when I got home, I fried those, added some canned pinto beans, leftover rice, frozen cooked onion, salsa, and shredded cheddar, and called it good.

It was pretty good, actually.

Thursday

Short version: Chicken soup at home, chicken sandwiches on the road, chocolate chip-oatmeal bar cookies

Long version: I had one package of giant chicken breasts in the freezer and one child who wasn't feeling well. The chicken went in the stock pot (still completely frozen), where I poached it until I could pull the meat off. I used the poaching liquid and some of the chicken--and other things, of course--to make a chicken and rice soup.

Some of the poached chicken I sliced, seasoned with some mustard vinaigrette and salt, and used for sandwiches along with some bacon left over from breakfast. I made these because we have a new basketball player in our house, and he had a tournament game an hour away. I had the younger two with me at the game, so I made the sandwiches and brought them along in my insulated lunch bag so as to avoid the concession food.

I do not like spending twenty dollars for hot dogs and Frito pie.

The younger children ate their sandwiches during the game. The basketball player ate his in the car on the way home. They all ate the bar cookies in the car, too. Everyone enjoyed their dinner, and no money was spent.

Much better than hot dogs.

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

Growing Food: It's Garlic Time!

Did you know that garlic is actually planted in the fall? It is! And we did it! Let's talk about that, shall we?

First, I have to tell you that El Rey de Ajo has been dethroned. Due to many events of an unfortunate nature--most recently a filthy thieving (literal) rat that carried away every single bit of A.'s garlic seed stock--we didn't have any of our own garlic to re-plant this year. So I bought some, and we're going to start over.

The heads of seed garlic I bought ended up giving us about three dozen cloves to plant. That's a very small planting for us, but the nice thing about garlic is that each of those cloves will produce an entire head of garlic next year. That means that every year, garlic at least quadruples itself.

A., as always, did all the shovel work for our planting.

Well, this is actually the hoeing part, which he also did.

It had been some time since this bed had gotten a good application of manure, so he also added layers of horse manure to each row. He put it both underneath the garlic cloves before they were covered, and then on top of the whole bed.

The garlic was much more obvious in real life than it is in the photo.

We also had a dozen shallots that I think A. brought home from the MiL's garden. We planted those, too. And then we covered up the whole deal with cattle panels, because the dogs and chickens just love freshly dug soil and would almost certainly dig all of that bed up without some kind of deterrent there.

One nice thing about gardening here is that the ground never really freezes. At least, not in the sunny parts of the garden. The sun is too strong and the soil is so light and dry that it just can't really freeze hard. This means that we can plant all winter if we want to.

We might put in some potatoes next. We never get very many to harvest from our potato plantings, but they're fun to grow anyway.

Snapshots: Just a Few

I was at school all last week, subbing on my days off for a sick teacher. When I was in her classroom on Tuesday, I noticed she had this cube that had different sayings on each side. The one on Tuesday was "But first coffee." (I know, the lack of punctuation bothered me, too.) 

When I was there again on Thursday, I saw that the cube had been moved and this side was now facing me:

Preach it, cube. (And still lacking punctuation. Annoying.)

That very night, the tiny cheerleaders were cheering at our last home volleyball game of the season. Each of them presented her parents with a flower as a token of appreciation for our support this year. I myself feel very accomplished that I have learned how to get the giant hairbow on a ponytail without it being upside down or crooked.

Anyway.

My table had been looking sort of bleak without any floral options outside, so I was happy to have this very nice, very bright, pink carnation to put there. I even changed out the candle stubs to proper long candles in celebration.

Fancy.

And last, I thought I was almost through all the bull meat from the animal we helped our neighbors butcher, um, three years ago. Until the neighbor lady sent A. home with her last remaining box of bull meat.

It's like that game hot potato, but with meat.

Anyway again.

We have concluded that the best way to deal with the bull meat is to grind it, so that's what we did. Poppy wanted to help me label the freezer bags.

Kinda looks like "grand bull," which is not the best descriptor, but is pretty funny.

There you have it! My life, (minimally) snapshotted.

Friday Food: With Unrelated Photos

Friday 

Short version: Pizza, green salad with ranch dressing

Long version: One cheese pizza, one with bell pepper and pepperoni. And apparently, every member of my family now likes to dip their pizza in ranch dressing. Which means I now must always make ranch dressing when I make pizza.

They must have picked this up from the children at school, because this is not something A. and I have ever done.

Saturday

Short version: Leftovers, raw broccoli

Long version: A. was hunting with one of the boys. The remaining children had leftover tuna/salmon patties and mashed potatoes. Ditto the broccoli.

I had a salad.

Random photo break!

The flowers outside the front door of the church, before the freeze.

Sunday

Short version: Elk steaks, rice, raw cucumbers, chocolate pudding pops

Long version: Those elk steaks really are good. It probably helps that I marinate them before cooking, which is not something I do with beef steaks.

I hadn't made the chocolate pudding pops in awhile. I use this recipe, except I increase the cocoa powder by a tablespoon, slightly decreased the sugar, and used a bit of cream in place of some milk. They are very good.

We only have four popsicle molds, so A. asked to have his as just pudding. It is also good that way, which is good to know.

Monday

Short version: Various sausages, leftover starches, raw and sauteed sugar snap peas

Long version: I had andouille sausage, boudin sausage, and some random smoked pork and beef sausage for those of us (me) who can't handle the spicy sausage. The boudin is the crowd favorite, and that's what gets eaten first.

There were both leftover rice and leftover mashed potatoes, which were distributed according to preference.

I had a lot of the sugar snap peas left from the bag I bought for the elementary Halloween party. The children prefer theirs raw. The adults prefer them cooked. Everyone was accomodated.

Tuesday

Short version: Elk stir-fry, rice

Long version: I got a call at 5:30 a.m. asking if I could sub for a sick teacher. Luckily, I had some uncooked elk steak in the refrigerator. I sliced that thin in the morning and put it in a marinade. When I got home, I used broccoli, the last of the mini bell peppers I had also bought for the school party, some already cooked onion, frozen peas, and the elk to make a stir-fry. Very tasty it was, too.

Oh look, an unrelated food photo!

Orange-yolked home egg on the left, yellow-yolked store egg on the right.

Wednesday

Short version: Chile-rice skillet

Long version: I was at First Communion class with the communicant right after school/work. We got home at 5:30 p.m. I had a container of chile in the freezer from the big batch I made for Halloween last week. That, plus the leftover rice, plus some shredded cheese, was dinner.

You may have noticed there was no separate vegetable. Good thing I add squash and tomatoes to my chile. It counts.

Thursday

Short version: Tortillas with cheese and refried beans, concessions food

Long version: This was a very complicated afternoon. I had to sub again, so I was at work all day. We had a post-surgical video call with the doctor at 4:30 p.m., which is pretty much right after we get home from school. But then the doctor was an hour late, so it finished up right as we had to leave for the volleyball game, at which Poppy was cheering.

While I was waiting for the doctor to call, I microwaved corn tortillas with cheese and refried beans. Fast, and relatively balanced. Except for the lack of vegetable. Again.

Three of the four children were at the volleyball game with A. and me. Said children brought some money so they could get food at the concession stand. I think they got nachos and hot dogs, but I'm not certain.

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

Growing Food: Post-Freeze Tomatoes

I suppose I should change the title of this to "Grown Food," as we are definitely in the past tense of anything growing in the garden. But I do still have that food grown in the garden in the house, mostly in the form of tomatoes.

Before the first hard freeze, I strip the tomato plants of all but the tiniest tomatoes and bring them in to ripen slowly in my kitchen.

I have read many tips on how to do this, ranging from wrapping them individually in newspaper to laying them out in single layers separated with cardboard to putting them in a paper bag with an apple to speed the ripening.

I do none of this. I put them all in a big wide box, dump the box in an out-of-the-way spot on my dining room floor, and let them do their thing. Every few days, I pick through the box and pull out the ones that are starting to get red. Those go in a big colander to finish ripening.

Green box and red colander. Christmas-y!

When the colander is full, that means it's time to roast the ripe ones. One colander equals two half-sheet pans of tomatoes. And when those are pureed, that's around four pints of pureed tomatoes. Those jars will fit in my larger cooking pot with water enough on top to water-bath can them. This is convenient, because then I don't have to haul out my big canner. 

Sometimes I'll add the garlic to roast on the pans and make a batch of roasted tomato sauce. That goes in the freezer, though.

So I just roast, puree, and freeze or can in these smaller increments until I don't have any tomatoes ripening anymore. 

I'm always surprised at how many of those totally green tomatoes will ripen. Most years, I don't end up with enough green tomatoes to do anything with. This year, given the slow start the plants had in ripening at all, I suspect I will have some. I made some green-tomato salsa already--not as good as red-tomato salsa, but it'll get used--and I got a recipe from the MiL for green-tomato mincemeat. I'll probably use any remaining green tomatoes for that.

But not until I'm sure that none of them are going to ripen. That probably won't be until around Thanksgiving, maybe later.

We shall see. But it's comforting to know that even in a bad year, the garden always provides some food.

 

Snapshots: Halloween and Beyond

Poppy's costume this year was the cutest. She dressed as her American Girl doll, with dress, shoes, and pants she already had. I bought a length of white ribbon and a lace collar for around her neck and . . .

Two American girls.

The Halloween decorations on the table lasted through Halloween morning and most of the dinner we had with friends before going trick-or-treating.

Morning breakfast table.

But then the jack-o'-lantern candles burned down too low and dribbled all the wax out the sides, and the actual jack-o'-lantern caved in, and that was it for Halloween.

Down to just plain old calendula and candles.

One of the little girls at school on Wednesday came down sick in the middle of the day. Her dad came to pick her up, and it was clear when he arrived that he had left work to come get her.

Except here, "left work" means he put his horse in his trailer and drove the whole rig to the school.

I am still alien enough to this Western world to be terribly amused by such things.

Speaking of school, I came in to work on Monday to find this in my desk chair.

This is obviously not my desk chair, but the bear is what was in my chair.

I was very confused by this, because not many people even go into my room. But I detected the wacky sense of humor our maintenance director is known for. When I asked him about it, he said they found it in a closet they were cleaning out in my building and left it for me.

That was also pretty amusing.

And last, we have a mechanic's pit at our house, built by one of the previous owners. It had this horrible sheet-metal cover on it that was rusting and full of sharp edges. We got rid of the cover, and decided that the actual pit--which is just outside our front door--would be much more appealing if it were full of flowers.

So we threw a bunch of branches on the bottom to start filling it in, then filled it with dirt (A. did this--very handy with the shovel, you know), placed a whole bunch of bulbs in there, then covered those with dirt, and then a layer of horse manure.

Bulbs before covering.

I put in Asiatic lilies, alliums, tulips, daffodils, and crocuses. I'm very excited to see everything come up next year. I just have to remember to water it, which should be pretty easy because it's only about twenty feet from the outside faucet.

There you have it! My life, snapshotted.

Friday Food: 5/7 Elk

Friday

Short version: Sheep sliders, sausage, rice, carrot sticks

Long version: I was out of dog food, so I thawed some of the ground sheep that I found to have a strong taste for the dogs. But then I ended up using some of it for the people, too. At least the people who didn't seem to mind the taste of it. All I did with it was make it into tiny patties, brown those, then add some chopped tomatoes, za'atar, onion and garlic powder and cook that down to make a sauce.

The sausage was just one package of smoked beef sausage. Everyone who ate the sheep ended up having some sausage, too, so I guess the variety was appreciated.

Saturday

Short version: Elk and potato skillet, tomato salad, pineapple

Long version: This was a very last-minute meal. I had taken out a bag of ground elk that I thought was seasoned for chorizo, but it was just plain. Luckily, I had baked potatoes this day when the oven was on to bake a squash. So instead of having chorizo and scrambled eggs, I fried the ground elk with the potatoes and some cooked onion from the freezer, and then added paprika, chile powder, garlic powder, and a little shredded cheddar.

Could have used more cheese, but I didn't want to open a whole other package after I grated the last of the open one. Lazy.

The tomato salad used the very last basil from the garden that I had pulled out the day before in anticipation of a freeze.

And the pineapple came from the commodities lady. Some had it with cottage cheese, some had it plain.

Sunday

Short version: Elk stew, cheese, baked apples with cream

Long version: We ended up with a lot more stew meat than I prefer to have when we butchered the elk. That's because all the children wanted to help, and cutting up stew meat is much easier than cutting steaks or trimming stir-fry meat.

So, I made stew. I don't love stew, but this turned out well. I added some soy sauce and Worcestershire sauce to the liquid, along with about a cup of sauteed and pureed tomatoes and a bunch of parsley. That helped a lot with the flavor. 

The apples were also from commodities. They looked like the dreaded Red Delicious, and they were mealy. Adding maple syrup, sugar, and a bunch of cinnamon and cloves to them and baking them improved them quite a bit. As did drowning the resulting baked apples in heavy cream.

Monday

Short version: Leftover elk stew, cheese, cracker selection

Long version: The cracker selection was an effort to make the leftover stew somewhat more fun. It worked reasonably well. At least, everyone ate their stew. And their crackers.

Starting at the top, we had: Unpleasant (in my opinion) Wasa sesame-flavored flatbread crackers sent by mistake when I ordered the Wasa sourdough crispbread, which is the next one on the plate. Then there's store-brand club crackers, and store-brand Triscuits. 

Tuesday

Short version: Chili, cornbread, lotsa treats

Long version: Our school cook makes a cake--served with little ice cream cups--on the last day of every month to be the birthday cake for every kid who had a birthday that month. This is a very nice tradition, except on the last day of October. Which is Halloween. Which is not a day any kid needs any more sugar.

They had it anyway, however, in addition to all the treats at the elementary Halloween party. And all of this before the candy bonanza of trick-or-treating.

I signed up to bring vegetables and dip to the party. Because I was in the city for the post-surgical check-up last week, I was able to get fancy vegetables.

Fancy! And pretty. (Dip not pictured, but it was this, made with sour cream instead of yogurt.)

Poppy had cheer practice after school, which ends at 4:45. One of the cheer coaches is my friend, a teacher at the school, and the mother of my children's friends. So I invited their family to come for dinner and then go trick-or-treating with us in the village. To feed eleven people somewhat easily, I made a big pot of chili with ground elk and beans, plus a double recipe of this cornbread (except with half masa and half regular cornmeal) in my big Pyrex baking dish.

I was almost out of yogurt, and the cornbread recipe calls for a lot of buttermilk. I typically use yogurt in its place, but this time, I used mostly milk, to which I added the last half cup of yogurt I had, along with about half a cup of sour cream. I mixed this and let it stand on the counter for a few hours, figuring maybe the milk would sour a bit. It worked well, so that's good to know.

Wednesday

Short version: Tuesday redux

Long version: We had All Saint's Day Mass at 5 p.m., and I was Church Lady, so the kids and I just stayed in the village after school to go to Mass. We didn't get home until just after 6 p.m., but there was enough chili and cornbread for everyone. There were even enough of the toppings--grated cheese, diced red onion, sour cream--for everyone who wanted them.

Hooray for leftovers at the end of a long day. 

Thursday

Short version: Tuna/salmon patties, mashed potatoes, tomato salad

Long version: We needed a break from the elk. So should the combination tuna and salmon patties be called tumon patties? 

Sorry. I can't resist.

Anyway.

Two big cans of tuna and one of salmon, plus bread crumbs, mayonnaise, mustard, eggs, onion powder, and dill, then fried in olive oil and butter.

A. remarked that it was kind of funny to be having our summer tomato salads in late fall. I had been thinking the same thing, but we'll take them anytime we can get them.

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