Friday Food: Stuffed Grape Leaves

Friday 

Short version: Omelets, strawberries

Long version: I was not feeling well at dinnertime, so I turned the kitchen over to A. Fortuitously, my friend had dropped off several dozen eggs the day before, so there were plenty for A. to make omelets, which he likes to do.

I think these had onion, ham, and cheese in them. 

I had been to the store this day. Strawberries were on sale, so the children had those instead of a vegetable. This was no hardship for them.

Saturday

Short version: Hamburgers, oven fries, roasted asparagus, cucumbers with salt and vinegar, gingersnaps

Long version: I asked all the children if they had any requests from the grocery store, and one child asked me to get ground beef. The big rolls of ground beef--called, disgustingly, chubs--were on sale, so I got one of those. And then I used some of it this night to make hamburgers.

I have not cooked with store ground beef in . . . well, I'm not sure. A couple of years, maybe. It was alarming how much the meat shrunk in the pan. Also surprising how soft it was. We're accustomed to more chew to our beef now, I guess.

I can't wait until we have a whole cow in our freezers again.

I made the gingersnaps per a child's request (no pepper in mine, though). Now that the cookies aren't being used as a school snack, I don't worry so much about getting protein into them. So I can make purely dessert cookies. Gingersnaps qualify.

Sunday

Short version: Dolmades, lamb steaks, random potatoes, tzatziki, pots de creme

Long version: A. was pruning his grape vines and came in with a bunch of leaves. "We can make stuffed grape leaves!" he said enthusiastically.

There was, of course, not so much a "we" making them, as a "me," but that's what happens when you present something like fresh grape leaves to me.

I used this recipe as a guideline, except (always) I didn't have the mint for the filling, and I didn't have enough grape leaves to line the bottom of the pot before steaming. Nor did I have tomato slices to layer in the bottom of the pot. So instead, I used the trimmings from taking the stems off the leaves, as well as the green part from some new garlic A. had dug up that day. In place of the tomato slices, I used slices of potato.

Good enough.

Filling and rolling the (blanched) grape leaves was challenging, because the variety of grape that A. had trimmed had leaves that did not look like the grape leaves in the recipe I used. Mine had more lobes on them, and thus, were not as wide.

I believe these are from the Cartegena variety, which is relatively rare and thus not used to make mass quantities of jarred grape leaves for commercial sale.

I sort of pieced together what I had, overlapping as necessary, and ended up with fourteen small dolmades*.

Not the prettiest rolling job, but the best I could do with what I had.

I used some lamb stock from the freezer to boil/steam these. I was supposed to cook them until the liquid had been absorbed all the way, but that never happened. Probably because the pot wasn't full. That worked out, though, because I had a lot of the filling left, so I just cooked that in the remainder of the liquid.

So how were the dolmades?

Certainly not the prettiest food.

They were okay. I thought they were sort of bland and mushy, but A., who has actually eaten them before, loved them. He informed me that they must be drizzled with olive oil before being eaten, so I guess that helps? I don't know. They didn't seem worth it to me, but they made him happy.

Everyone was happy with the pots de creme, which I hadn't made in awhile.

Oh, and those potato slices I lined the pot with came in handy to fill out dinner a little. The kids ate them with their lamb, slightly smashed with butter.

Monday

Short version: Unstuffed dolmades filling, raw cabbage, cookies

Long version: This was the filling I had cooked in the remaining lamb stock. I was informed by one child that it needed more meat in it, but everyone ate it without complaint.

The cabbage was the first one from the garden, yay! The kids like it raw, so I just whacked some chunks off it and put it on their plates.

I made the cookies mostly for A., who took one kid on a fishing and camping trip with a friend. I made chocolate chip/peanut butter cookies for them, so they'd have some sort of snack on hand. Good for breakfast or whatever. The kids at home were pleased to have some, too.

Tuesday

Short version: Spanish dolma rice, leftovers, grape tomatoes

Long version: Only three kids were eating, because one was sick with a bad sore throat. I had enough of the dolmades filling left, but thought maybe three nights in a row might be a little much. So I switched it up a bit by cooking a bit more ground beef for it, adding salsa and taco spices to change the flavor, and finishing it up with grated cheddar cheese. Ta da! Spanish dolma rice.

A. had the last lamb steak and the leftover potatoes from their camping hobo pack of potatoes and hamburger patties.

The child with the sore throat had some egg salad and potatoes with cheese.

I had a salad, on which I used the last of the tzatziki sauce as a dressing. That works well.

Wednesday

Short version: Lamb roast, whipped potatoes, cucumbers, roasted asparagus and garlic, baked custard

Long version: This was a boned-out leg roast that I, well, roasted. Roasting actually works better with the bone in, but it cooks a lot faster without the bone and is much easier to carve. Trade-offs.

I prefer to mash potatoes with my handheld masher, but the child with the sore throat prefers them whipped with the mixer. So I did that for him. I had baked them in the oven while I was roasting the lamb, which enabled me to make a lot more potatoes without the space constraint of a pot to boil them in.

These were some seriously large potatoes, and they made a lot of whipped potatoes.

Meat thermometer for scale, I guess.

I also made the baked custard for the sick child, although of course everyone else had to have some, too.

Thursday

Short version: Fish patties, leftover whipped potatoes, raw produce

Long version: One can of tuna, one can of salmon, everyone is happy. I decided on this last-minute after we got home in the afternoon from a trek to the dentist. I had thought I would get something at the grocery store for a quick dinner, but we got home earlier than I thought.

Refrigerator check:

Definitely a post-grocery-store refrigerator.

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

* I didn't know if it was dolmas or dolmades, so I looked it up. It appears that dolmades is the plural version of dolmas in Greek, so there you go.

Book Talk: New Authors, Yay!

Summer is upon us, and that means that my children and I need books. Reading is a large part of our entertainment, and we have a lot more time for it now.

I think I've mentioned this before, but the nearest libraries to us are 90 miles one way. We go to different cities for different things, so we can't reliably check out and return books to the same one on our infrequent errand runs. And it's usually A. who does those errand runs, so the rest of us wouldn't have a chance to get to the library anyway.

Our only local options are the once-a-month bookmobile and a books by mail program. Neither of these have a great selection of books. At least, not that we want to read.

So, I buy books. Not the cheapest option, even buying used, but thems the breaks.

This is why when I find an author that we like, I buy multiple books by that author. It's a nice feeling to buy a book knowing we're going to like it, rather than just crossing my fingers.

Recently, I have found two authors we like. This is exciting. And I'm going to share them with you. Of course.

There they are.

Okay, I must admit that the Katherine Center books are really just for me. Not that no one else is allowed to read them, but they are most definitely books written for women.

Katherine Center was recommended on a book-related blog I read, and so I looked up her books. As I always do, I read the sample on the Amazon listing to see what the writing was like. Ninety percent of the time, that sample is enough for me to know if it's not worth my time.

This was. I read it in one day. They are somewhat fluffy books, but not stupid. I suppose I like my story lines to be relatively unchallenging, but the writing to be at least somewhat intelligent. Also, I like happy endings.

These books check those boxes for me. There's a few curse words, but nothing too inappropriate otherwise, and she is very good at creating real, sympathetic characters. All of the main characters have some pretty major challenges, but nothing that makes me so sad I can't read them. I have that problem with some other books. If it's too heavy, I just can't.

I've read two of her books so far and bought, um, five more.

It's a long summer, okay?

Next! Howard Frank Mosher. I do not remember how I stumbled upon this author, but I originally bought one of his books for the older boys. The author grew up in Vermont's Northeast Kingdom--which is on the Canadian border, like we used to be--and as far as I can tell sets his books exclusively there. They are essentially character sketches of the sort of people who live in that remote place, as well as an ode to a vanished way of life.

Although I bought the first book for the boys, I read it, too. All of us liked it so much I bought a few more. They are funny, and touching, and very, very real. They remind me a lot of Richard Russo, who writes novels about small-town upstate New York and pretty much nails the people.

This is rarer than you might think, as most authors seem to be urban and that is reflected in their books.

So those are my two most recent discoveries and recommendations.

Tell me: What are you reading right now? Anything you'd recommend?

Memorial Day 2024

Please take your moment to remember.

Snapshots: An Unfortunate Name

A. decided to buy some bread at the store so I wouldn't have to bake all the bread the locusts are consuming now that they're home all the time. It was a very kind thought, and three out of the four children have been enjoying the novelty of bread that's already been sliced*. The name of the bread, however . . .

Hmmm.

I had to look this up to see how this unfortunate name ended up associated with bread. I thought maybe it was something where the name predated the meaning of the word. In fact, the company is based in Mexico. So I guess it just doesn't translate well across cultures.

It has provided substantial amusement for those of us who know what the word means in America, however.

Let's see what else I have . . .

A funny radish.

This week's roadside-flower arrangement.

And Adventure Van pulling a trailer-load of sheep to the auction.

A. sold all five of the lambs born early this year, plus two yearlings born last year. That leaves us with two ram lambs that were born just about a month ago--they'll go in the freezer this fall--the ram, and seven ewes. This substantial reduction to the flock will make it much easier to manage them. We didn't have enough pasture for that many sheep, and prices are pretty high right now, so A. got enough to pay for quite a bit of hay.

There you have it! My life, snapshotted.

* The one who isn't enjoying it thinks store bread is gross and refuses to eat any bread but mine. I must admit to being secretly gratified about this.

Friday Food: Fish, Fowl, and Neither

Friday 

Short version: Barbecue bull sandwiches, roasted potatoes, carrot sticks with curry dip

Long version: This entire meal came about because I was making bread and decided to use some of the dough to make buns. Then I needed something to put in the buns. So I used some of the pressure-cooked bull meat--further broken down with my immersion blender--mixed with barbecue sauce.

I still have a couple of bottles of Dinosaur BBQ's Sensuous Slathering Sauce (worst name, best sauce) that should last me until A. gets to New York again to get me some more.

And then I needed something to bulk this meal up a bit, so potatoes.

Carrot sticks just because they're easy and everyone eats them. Ditto the curry dip.

The curry dip is literally just mayonnaise and sweet yellow curry powder, and is delicious with the potatoes, too.

The littlest eater's meal, on a plate that was A.'s brother's almost forty years ago.

Saturday

Short version: Tamales

Long version: My sister brought a few packages of pork tamales with her when she came to visit. Store-bought tamales are always too spicy for me and Poppy (which is the whole reason I started making my own), but we can eat them with a lot of sour cream. And everyone else was very happy with them. Thanks, sis!

Sunday

Short version: Elk in tomato gravy, mashed potatoes, green salad with vinaigrette, ice cream

Long version: I excavated one last bag of elk stew meat from the bottom of one of the chest freezers. It's too hot for actual stew, but I still needed to stew the meat to make it tender. So I cut it up a little smaller, browned it in beef tallow, and simmered it for awhile with the last of a container of beef stock that need to be used, the last tablespoon of tomato paste left from making the shepherd's pies, a whole diced onion, a few new garlic plants that had been hanging out in the refrigerator, and a lot of parsley. When the meat was tender, I added the last of the whipping cream that had been shaken so much it was almost butter.

Very tasty. And satisfying to use up all those random things.

I served it over mashed potatoes for those who like to mix their food. And next to the mashed potatoes for those who don't.

Monday

Short version: Lotta leftovers, cucumbers, cookies

Long version: Two kids had the elk and mashed potatoes. One had crepes left over from the after-church second breakfast. One had a barbecue bull sandwich. A. had barbecue bull and mashed potatoes.

I would typically have had a salad with some of the bull meat in it, but I was starting to feel the effects of the cold that had been going around the family since Friday. Salads are just no fun to eat with a sore throat. So instead, I had some of the elk and mashed potatoes, too. Comfort food.

Tuesday

Short version: Fish, rice, raw produce, bread and butter

Long version: A. bought some whiting fillets last time we were at the store, and he cooked those this night. He baked them in a sauce of olive oil, garlic, and lemon juice. The sauce was tasty, although the fish got a bit mushy in spots.

I am told that the sauce was particularly good on the rice.

The children helped themselves to the bread and butter after dinner. I guess that was dessert.

Wednesday

Short version: Chicken stir-fry, rice

Long version: I had broccoli and bell peppers that really needed to be used, so I took out a package of chicken breasts to make stir-fry. It also had asparagus and lamb's quarter from the garden, and onion, carrot, and garlic not from the garden.

I did not take a picture of the stir-fry this time. How unusual for me.

Thursday

Short version: Fish, lamb, leftover rice, frozen peas, peanut butter cups

Long version: There was quite a bit of the sauce left from the fish, and also two fillets still frozen, so I fried those fillets in butter--which fixed the mushiness issue--and used the sauce for that. 

That would definitely not have been enough for everyone, and everyone doesn't really like fish anyway, so I also took out some lamb steaks. I fried two of those in bacon grease.

Everyone had the frozen peas and rice.

The peanut butter cups were our countdown candy for this year, but I still had quite a few in the bag when school ended. So everyone got to have three of them instead of just one while we were on our way out to the bus in the morning. Because everything is better in the summer.

Refrigerator check:

I like it when there are lots of leftovers.

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

A Western Road Trip

I'm a little delayed posting this, but a couple of weeks ago, A. and I took the old Honda Pilot to the scrapyard.

It really was far enough gone that A. didn't want to try to sell it to anyone.

A. was a little leery of even driving it to the scrapyard, because that's 90 miles away. There was no other way to get it there, though, and I was very tired of having an extra car in the driveway, so A. aired up the tires and off we went.

For reasons of safety, we stayed off the freeway and instead went on the smaller roads. This way is slower, but extremely scenic.

It's open range for about 30 miles, which means . . .

A bull on the road. The bulls are much slower to get off the road than the cows or the calves. The bulls are not impressed by your vehicle and want you to know it.

Next, down into canyon country.

Then up onto the llano estacado.

Scrapyards are always interesting places, with colorful people working at them. This one was no exception. The office was small and crowded with items of interest that the guys working there wanted to save from the crusher.

Just kind of thrown up onto these random shelves.

I mean, who could part with those bronze storks, right? 

And then it was back into my shiny new Honda to go to Walmart and spend all the money we just got for the old Honda.

We took the freeway home. It was faster, but not as interesting.

Snapshots: Some Old, Some New

Since I publish the Snapshots posts early in the morning, I didn't have any photos from Mother's Day last Sunday.

It was very low-key, which is how I prefer my days to be. I didn't do any dishes or feed any children. That counts as a holiday for me.

In the afternoon, we had a little cheese party with the Brie and Parmesan left by my parents.

I put out the Brie first. I wasn't sure anyone but A. would eat it.

But then everyone tried it . . .

And it was gone within five minutes. So then I put out some Parmesan.

That disappeared even faster.

Buncha Cheeseheads in this house, for sure. Must be my dad the Wisconsin native's genetics.

Incidentally, do you like the fancy cheese plate? That's actually one of the saucers from my grandmother's china. My sister has the whole set, but never used the tea cups and saucers, so she asked if I would like them.

We do like our tea parties here, so now I have twelve fancy tea cups and saucers for our next party. And in the meantime, the saucers make lovely little plates for special-occasion cheese.

A. took the children on a horse ride on Mother's Day, and one of the children came running back to the house with a bunch of wildflowers for me that he found in the pastures.

Superior to Teleflora in every way.

And some slightly more recent photos . . .

One of the children got a giant plastic Slinky in his end-of-year classroom auction. This was so coveted by another child that she used some of her Christmas Amazon gift card to buy her own.

Slinkys (Slinkies?), of course, function best on stairs. Our house doesn't have more than two steps in any place. Nothing daunted, my children proceeded to set up their own Slinky steps.

Top bunk to Lincoln Log tin to drum to chair to step stool to floor.

We have spent a lot of time untangling the Slinkys (Slinkies?), but that's par for the course for this particular toy.

Our second-to-last day of school on Wednesday was our annual Field Day, with many track events. This includes a color run:

The elementary kids run and the middle/high school kids throw the color. I ran with a little four-year-old who honest-to-goodness ran an entire 3/4 of a mile around the track. Good thing I run regularly myself now, or I would never have been able to keep up with her.

 This year there was also a kite-flying contest.

We live in the perfect place for flying kites.

The last day of school includes an awards assembly, at which all my children got honor roll awards and other recognition. There is also always a staff vs. students basketball game, in which my oldest two boys played. I didn't get any photos of any of this, however, because the construction at our school means we have to do everything in the old gym, which has these really odd lights that make any photos look entirely green.

In real life it looks okay, but any photos look like they were taken under the sea or during an alien invasion. So weird.

Anyway.

There you have it! My life, snapshotted.