Friday Food: Experimental Dutch Pie

Friday 

Short version: Ram chops, leftover chicken, rice, green salad with vinaigrette

Long version: I had actually cooked these ram chops the day before when I had grilled pork chops and chicken, just because there was still a lot of heat still in the coals and I had the ram chops mostly thawed already. I only seasoned them with salt when they were on the grill, so to re-heat them, I put them in a skillet with barbecue sauce.

Saturday

Short version: Pizzas with ranch dip, apple crisp with cream

Long version: Bread baking day, on which I almost always steal some of the dough to make something else. This time, that something was two half-sheet-pan pizzas: one just cheese, one with pepperoni and pickled onions.

I had to leave just before the pizzas were ready to take out of the oven to pick up a child, so I left A. to take them out and serve them. This is why there was no vegetable.

I spent literally an hour and a half peeling, coring, and slicing apples to make two apples crisps and one pan of baked apples. I ended up with an actual blister on my right index finger from the paring knife*, but I figured I'm just working on developing my apple callous. A worthwhile callous to have.

The smaller crisp was for my friend who watched our three children when I was out of town and A. had to do something for work.

I over-processed the topping in the food processor, and I almost scorched them when I stuck them under the broiler at the end, but they were still delicious.

That much butter, sugar, and spices will cover a multitude of mistakes.

Sunday

Short version: Ground beef and bean burritos, cucumbers, cake

Long version: I had more ambitious plans for the ground beef I thawed--meatloaf, which is, yes, not all that ambitious--but then it was hot and I didn't want to run the oven. So instead I made the quick 'n' lazy burrito filling of beef+canned beans+salsa+spices.

The cake was actually the Bonnie Butter cake I entered into the fair. The judges only taste a very small bit, and then we pick it up at the end. I stuck in the freezer to use later, which I did this night by layering it with strawberry jam and whipped cream. This cake makes a superior shortcake, although I thought this combination was a little too sweet. It needed less sugar in the whipped cream, and probably something a bit more tart with the strawberries, like rhubarb. 

Monday

Short version: Chicken, corn bread, tomato salad, ice cream

Long version: I found frozen fancy organic, free-range chicken breasts on deep discount at the store awhile ago, so I bought several packages for the freezer. I used two of them this night. This is a lot of chicken. Ten pieces, to be precise.

I went to the effort of pounding them thinner with my rolling pin, figuring they would cook faster that way. They were all salted and seasoned with garlic powder and paprika before being browned in a skillet and then finished in the oven with barbecue sauce while the cornbread was baking.

Two seared, eight to go.

A few minutes into eating, A. asked me where I got the chicken. This always means there's something wrong with it. He told me it tasted strongly of bleach or detergent. One child agreed it tasted funny. The rest of us had no idea what he was talking about. I didn't taste anything off--except that I oversalted them--even when I tasted his piece.

He insisted that no one should eat it, though, so we didn't. I did not throw it out, however, instead waiting to see if any of us had a bad reaction to it. No one did, and A. later realized that he had used his nasal spray for allergies just before dinner, so that was probably interfering with his sense of taste.

I also added a bit too much milk to the cornbread, so it was too soft. Overall, not the most successful meal. That's the way it goes sometimes.

The tomato salad was really good, though. As was the ice cream I let everyone have as a reward for getting through the first day of school.

Tuesday

Short version: Re-combined leftovers, cheese quesadillas, radishes, big oatmeal-raisin cookies

Long version: There was a lot of the too-soft cornbread left, which I crumbled up and fried in lard before adding to it the rest of the taco meat, plus the rest of the grated cheese left from the burrito toppings. This looked like it might not be enough for everyone, which is why I quickly made a couple of quesadillas with flour tortillas.

Another of my very photogenic offerings.

I made the cookies for the younger children's school snacks. When I make oatmeal-raisin cookies, I always make at least one really big cookie for everyone. A. remembers these from his childhood, and for some reason, even those who are not fans of raisin cookies will eat them in a giant form. I make them about the size of hamburger patties when I form them. They spread when they bake, so they end up being very large cookies, indeed.

Wednesday

Short version: More leftovers

Long version: I'm not even working, and here I am serving leftovers like I'm coming home from a long day. Mostly that's because I do not waste food, so yes, leftovers will still feature in my kitchen even if I have the time to make something new every day.

This time a couple of people had the leftover taco meat+cornbread, to which I added some of the rice I had made, and everyone else had the leftover chicken, plus some rice.

A. tried the chicken again to see if it really was the allergy spray, and we all watched avidly as he took a bite. "Tastes like chicken," he said. Alrighty then.

I had one my collard salads that repel the rest of my family so much:

With chicken, tomatoes, feta, and apple.

Thursday

Short version: Barbecue meatballs, mashed potatoes, green salad with ranch dressing, Dutch apple pie with whipped cream

Long version: I have never made a Dutch apple pie before. It's an apple pie with a pie crust on the bottom, and a kind of streusel on the top. Half my family loves pie and half loves crisp, so I thought this might be a good compromise. I kind of used this recipe, except I didn't use the pie crust recipe and I didn't measure anything for the apple filling.

I baked the meatballs in the morning while the pie was baking.

Dinner and dessert.

I should have made the potatoes earlier and just re-heated them at dinner time as well, so I wasn't boiling a big pot of potatoes and water when it was already hot in the kitchen, but I didn't. Oh well.

The pie was delicious. I liked it way better than regular apple pie. I don't often take the trouble to make pie because it is an investment of time, particularly apple pies that require all the peeling, coring, and slicing of apples. These apples needed to be cooked even longer than the hour the pie was baking--this is common with the varieties of apples we tend to get here, which are very firm and somewhat dry--so if I make it again, I'll par-cook the apples before making the filling.

It would have been better with ice cream, but the only ice cream I had on hand was mint chocolate chip. With apple pie? No, thank you.

Refrigerator check:

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

* I had done the same thing the previous two days as I worked on getting apple slices in the freezer, so it's really more like six hours of working with a paring knife that will raise a blister, I guess.

Kristin Homemaker

School started for everyone yesterday. The whole family got all loaded up on the school bus to begin their new year, A. driving and everyone else slumped in the seats, resigned to their fates. (My children do not like school.)

Except for me. I did not get on the school bus. I will not be getting on the school bus, because I quit my job there. 

Last week I had to fill out some forms that asked for my occupation. I wrote "homemaker."*

Of course, the maker of our home is what I have always been, it's just that I did that in addition to working at the school two days a week as an educational assistant (teacher's aide). 

But now, all I am doing is at home. So what am I doing now? Let me show you what I've done so far this morning!

Still doing tub laundry. Our washing machine is still in for repairs, waiting on a "control board," which sounds intense. Thank goodness it's still under warranty. The repair guy said maybe another week. I'm taking that as another two weeks.

Watering the garden and picking tomatoes, yay!

Softening butter in preparation for making oatmeal cookies for the younger children's snacks.

Later I have to go to the village for a bank visit. Maybe I'll finally get around to vacuuming my filthy floors.

But if I don't get around to it today, I have tomorrow. And the day after. 

I don't anticipate having a problem filling my time, and it's such a relief to have the time. Some might see this as a demotion, but I see it as a great increase in my quality of life, as well as my family's quality of life.

* I prefer this term to housewife. Housewife can just be a wife who sits around the house. Homemaker describes much better what I actually do. I really have made and continue to make our home, which requires skill and a lot of work.

Snapshots: Away and Home Again

Because the city I went to this past week is a hot one, the hotels there tend to have better rates in the summer. That is why I reserved a room at a much nicer hotel than I would usually stay at.

It had a particularly spectacular pool, which we could see from our window.

This hutch made me laugh. If they were trying to cultivate an intellectual environment by having books on it, they should have put more than one on each shelf.

Every room had a Keurig coffee machine, so I made my coffee when I got up early and then took it out to the lounge area to drink so as not to disturb the sleeping son. Well, any more than I did running a coffee machine five feet from his bed.

This hotel had actual ceramic coffee mugs, which I enjoyed very much.

I did try to read one of those books that were on the hutch--I no longer remember the title or author, but it was something about a very witty high-society private eye in Palm Beach--but one chapter was enough for me. It was pretty bad.

We stopped to see a friend on our way home the next night and stayed in a small town. Our lodgings there were a rather eccentric sort of bed and breakfast that A. has stayed in before. To get to our room, we had to climb a very steep and very curvy iron staircase outside.

Definitely not ADA compliant.

Our room was quite spacious and nice, although it's very clear from the decorative choices that an older man runs this place.

Lots of red curtains, and very unfortunate polyester bedding.

My coffee the next morning was courtesy of the bakery that's just a block away.

It's a Mexican bakery, so I also got an empanada de manzana--an apple turnover--for the boy who was still sleeping.

My walk back to the lodge took me on a street right next to the acequias that make this place so green.

Acequias are systems of water channels that were brought to New Mexico via the Spanish, who in turn learned the methods from the Moors. They are a very old method of irrigation here, and are (obviously) still used.

The drive home was a few hundred miles of this.

New Mexico really is a startlingly rural state.

Waiting for me at home were the many apples A. picked from Rafael's tree the day before I left.

Five gallons of apple slices in the freezer so far. Next up, canning.

Of course I must share with you this week's flowers.

This was actually last week's altar arrangement. All the flowers were pulled from my fair entry.

Straight sunflowers on the table.

A. brought me some down-the-hill flowers mid-week. It was almost bedtime when he got home, so I just stuck them in a jar on the table until I could get to them the next day.

Very dramatic, but a wee bit large for a table we eat at.

A more practical table arrangement.

Later supplemented by some flowers A. found in the pasture while he was chaperoning a horse ride.

And last, this week's altar arrangement, waiting for the altar.

A flower tower.

There you have it! My life, snapshotted.

Friday Food: Raising Cane's On the Road

Friday 

Short version: Repurposed leftovers, cucumber

Long version: Second day of the county fair and also the second day of a nasty heat wave, which meant little motivation to get in the kitchen for me. Luckily, we had enough of the leftover ground beef/bean/rice skillet from the day before to use as burrito filling. So that is what I did. 

I even turned on a burner to make toasted burritos, which I thought was very brave of me. Ahem.

Saturday

Short version: Half-hearted pasta

Long version: Last day of the fair, and another hot one. This is always a long day, and I always bring a cooler of drinks and snacks for the long day sitting at the fair grounds. In the morning, I had made pasta using a quart of meat sauce I found in the freezer, plus grated asadero from the freezer.

I actually used the pasta pot at first to make pudding and then yogurt, because I had almost a gallon of milk to be used promptly.

First . . .

Second . . .

Third.

And all that before 7:30 a.m.

No one was very hungry when we got home, thanks to all the snacks and the heat, but some of them ate a little pasta before we left for the dance.

Sunday

Short version: Re-sauced pasta, green salad with vinaigrette, chocolate pudding with cream

Long version: The previous day's pasta really needed more sauce. There was a lot of it left, so I made more sauce for it using an entire 28-ounce can of crushed tomatoes, a couple cloves of garlic, the few collard greens and the parsley I brought home from my fair entries (blended in), and cream. 

Much better.

Monday

Short version: Fried bean tacos at home, Raising Cane's chicken on the road

Long version: I left this day to drive to a not-close city with one son, leaving A. with the other three children. He made his special tacos for them, which involves canned refried beans and cheese in corn tortillas that are then fried in lard.

The son with me was very happy to see a Raising Cane's chicken restaurant near our hotel. I had never been there, or even heard of it, but it was pretty good. 

Tuesday

Short version: French toast at home, sushi and curry on the road

Long version: French toast is another of A.'s specialties, so that is what they had at home. Son and I stopped for the night in a small town to visit a friend and we went to a Thai restaurant somewhat nearby that had some sushi rolls. 

I do not eat sushi, so I got curry. I've never ordered curry in New Mexico, but I should have predicted it would be way too hot for me. Can it be otherwise in this Land of Chile? I ate some of it mixed with a lot of rice, but it definitely burned.

I also got a glass of red wine, but only because they didn't have any white wine.

Wednesday

Short version: Hamburger steaks with milk gravy, rice, tomato salad, ice cream

Long version: We returned from our trip around 1 p.m., after having stopped at the grocery store on the way, of course. There I had purchased one of those 10-pound rolls of ground beef, which is what I used to make the hamburger steaks. These are just highly seasoned ground beef in large, thick patties. I made gravy for them with cornstarch and milk.

I was most excited about the tomato salad. I came home to find quite a lot of ripe tomatoes, and I had just purchased asadero cheese--my mozzarella substitute--at the store. Those, along with basil from the garden, thinly sliced onion, and a vinaigrette, comprised the salad.

So good.

I also got the ice cream at the store. 

Thursday

Short version: Grilled pork chops and chicken, grilled bread, corn on the cob, ice cream

Long version: Yet another thing I bought at the store was starter fluid so I could finally use up the charcoal without building an actual fire. It was very hot this day--95 degrees--and it seemed like a good day to grill. I had only one package of sirloin pork chops, so I also took out a package of chicken breasts. These were way too big, however, and would have taken forever on the grill. Which is why I cut them in half both lengthwise and crosswise. 

I marinated both kinds of meat in a mustard vinaigrette. Marinating helps a lot with relatively bland meat like this. But I still served it with barbecue sauce.

Did I get the corn at the store the day before? Why yes, I did.

I had made chocolate chip cookies in the morning before it got hot, but the older boys had their first day of classes this day and informed me they got cookies at lunch. So I offered them ice cream, instead, which they were happy to accept.

Refrigerator check:

Messy, because I just threw everything in when I got home on Wednesday and haven't organized it yet.

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

The View from the Bench

Right outside our porch door, we have a big wooden bench that A. made some years ago. If I can manage to sneak outside without anyone following me, I can enjoy some peace and the view from the bench*.

I particularly like sitting there as the sun is setting, or even after it has set. The light lingers almost an hour after sunset, because it's so flat here.

To the west (ish.)

And the other way.

There are some benefits to living a hundred miles from anywhere, and the bench is one of them.

* Not that I object to their company (usually), but anywhere my children are immediately becomes less peaceful.

Snapshots: Heading to the County Fair

I had a couple of errands in town that couldn't wait, and since I was going to the town with the (tiny) dinosaur museum that my two youngest children had been asking to visit again, I took them with me.

This is a giant ammonite. The green hand on the display indicates that you can touch it. The touchability of many of the displays is one reason my children like this museum.

Since my washing machine is still in being repaired--there were several machines waiting for repairs already, so I knew this was not going to be a fast turnaround--I took the opportunity to stop at the single laundromat in town to wash three baskets of clothing.

It was a surprisingly nice laundromat for what is admittedly often a kind of sketchy town.

The children were enthralled with the novelty of a laundromat, as they had never been in one before. I hadn't used one in years myself. We only used the washers, though, eschewing the dryers in favor of just bringing everything home wet and hanging it on the line at home.

We went to the grocery store, of course, before coming home, where the son with me was excited to see a kind of spicy Doritos he had tried before and liked. I told him he could buy them himself, and he did.

This is definitely not something I would ever bring home on my own.

We've been at the county fair for the past three days*. I always enter several things in the open class contests at the fair. Basically whatever I find in the garden, plus something baked and something canned. I don't grow or can anything specifically for the fair; I just enter whatever I have.

This year, that was cucumbers, tomatoes, collard greens, mint, parsley, carrots, green tomato chutney, currant jelly, and a Bonnie Butter cake.

I also had the idea for a very large wildflower arrangement that came to me while I was circling the village during my trudgery. I went out the morning the fair started and gathered all the likely-looking plants I found.

The raw materials.

The hot weather had finished off most of the more colorful flowers, so I was limited to white and yellow. Also, the liner in my container kept leaking and I had to keep taking everything out and re-lining the outer container with other things, which meant I rearranged it at least three times.

I was still pretty happy with how it turned out, though.

And it won Grand Champion in the Floriculture division.

One son won Grand Champion in the Arts and Crafts division with this chair he made.

He didn't even use a plan for it, instead just making it up out of his head and some two-by-fours.

Another son did a really cool stone shaping and chiseling project. It turned out very well, although they had some trouble figuring out how to categorize it. I think it ended up in the "carved sculpture" category. And of course, there were Poppy's brownies. Both of those things got first place ribbons, so our family was well-represented at the fair this year.

The last fair event is always the community dance on Saturday night. 

All ages, all two-stepping in the livestock pavilion.

There you have it! My life, snapshotted.

* And every time we go to the fairgrounds, I have to put this song on in the car.  

Friday Food: First Snickerdoodles

Friday 

Short version: Leftover meats, porky rice, pinto beans, raw tomatoes or leftover vegetables, almond cookies, fresh bread and butter

Long version: I had leftover grilled steak, barbecue ribs, and tuna patties that I apportioned out based on preference. 

It was fairly cool this day, so I had also decided to cook the half bag of pinto beans that had been in the pantry for awhile. To flavor the beans, I fried pickled onions and garlic in the lard that had rendered out of the ribs I had made the day before, and then simmered the beans with that for a bit. 

The rice was cooked in the liquid from the ribs.

The tomatoes were mostly from Poppy's plants in the garden. She generously shared with her brothers, and then A. and I had leftover sauerkraut, carrots, and peas.

The cookies I had made the day before, substituting finely ground almonds for some of the flour.

And bread and butter because I had baked bread in the afternoon and fresh bread is hard to resist.

Saturday

Short version: Green chile bacon cheeseburgers, roasted potatoes, peaches and cream

Long version: I had made hamburger buns the day before when I was baking bread. I made the bacon very last-minute when the rest of the meal was almost done, but it of course was the best part of the meal for my family.

All the males in the family had their cheeseburgers with pureed green chile on top, along with raw onion. Poppy and I declined.

Sunday

Short version: Oven-fried chicken, biscuits, carrot sticks with curry dip, brownies with ice cream

Long version: I hadn't made oven-fried chicken in a very long time, but everyone likes it, so I did. It involves marinating the chicken--I used three breasts and a package of thighs--in yogurt and spices, then coating it in masa and spices before baking on a buttered sheet pan.

Because I had the oven on for that, I made biscuits too. They were just plain baking powder biscuits, and they weren't my best effort. The butter was a little warm when I made them. Oh well. They were still all eaten.

Chicken and biscuits.

Poppy made the brownies to practice one more time before she bakes some for the fair. Unfortunately, I was not paying close attention while she was putting them together and I was making dinner, and she read a half cup as one and a half cups. She hasn't gotten to fractions yet in school.

So they ended up more like a cake. Still eaten, though.

The chicken was kind of underseasoned, too, and didn't get as crispy as I would have liked. All in all, a slightly underwhelming meal that made far too many dishes. That's how it goes sometimes.

Monday

Short version: Pasta with chicken, pesto, and bacon; green salad with vinaigrette

Long version: The chicken breasts I had used the night before were huge, and also on the bone. I cut them off the bone and then cut them in half so they would cook in the same amount of time as the thighs. Half of the halves I cut into smaller chunks, though, and saved for this meal.

To the pasta--small elbows--I added bacon, the chicken, extra garlic, about a cup of pesto I managed to make from the small basil plants, heavy cream, Parmesan cheese, and balsamic vinegar.

Basil and tomatoes. The tomatoes went in the salad.

Tuesday

Short version: Ram chops, leftover rice or fried potatoes, radishes, snickerdoodles, bread and cheese

Long version: Oddly, the part of this meal that was most enthusiastically received was the leftover rice. This was the rice that I had cooked in pork juices. I added more butter to it, and on A.'s rice, the juices in the pan from cooking the chops. I guess three kinds of fat is the secret to good rice.

This was a potato plate. No triple-fat rice for him.

I have never in my life even eaten snickerdoodles--it's a cookie, in case you haven't, either--but have always meant to try making them. So I did.

They're an odd cookie. The cookie itself has shortbread ingredients, but with a leavener, so they come out cakey. Each cookie is rolled in cinnamon and sugar, which is the main flavoring.

About half the family loved them. I thought they were bland and boring, so I'm not too enthused about making them regularly, but maybe every once in awhile for those who were such fans.

The bread and cheese was for the boys who were roaming around after dinner complaining of still being hungry. A second course, I guess. 

Wednesday

Short version: Leftover pasta, scrambled eggs, Sunday sandwich, corn on the cob, cherries

Long version; Totally random meal. I had been planning on the pasta, because I went to town this day, which always saps my will to cook dinner. I had thought I would get a rotisserie chicken at the store to supplement the pasta, but the chickens at this store were the smallest I'd ever seen. They looked like quail. Definintely would not have been enough for all of us, and also a total rip-off.

So instead I cooked the last few pieces of bacon, plus a bunch of scrambled eggs. I used the eggs and bacon to make a Sunday sandwich for A., which is these two things with cheese, then toasted. The MiL used to make these for A. and his brother if they went to church.

A. goes to church every Sunday now, so he can have his Sunday sandwich early. 

The kids had the pasta and some eggs.

The corn was from the store. It was the first corn I had seen this season that didn't look very sad and dry. Kind of a starchy meal in the end, but everyone was happy to have corn.

Thursday

Short version: Pork/beans/rice skillet, blue-ribbon brownies

Long version: This was the first day of the county fair. The fair is always incredibly tiring, since it's always brutally hot and we spend hours there. I would typically prepare at least some part of dinner in the morning before we left, but this morning I was busy gathering wildflowers and arranging them to enter into the floriculture contest, and helping Poppy bake the brownies she entered, as well as the cake I entered. 

We got home at 3 p.m. I pulled a small bag of cooked pork shoulder from the freezer and made some rice. Then I fried the diced pork in bacon fat. To that I added frozen corn, a can of black beans, salsa, pureed red chile from the freezer, taco spices, grated cheddar cheese, and sour cream.

I counted the salsa and corn as our vegetables.

The brownies were the ones left from the pan Poppy baked. Before we left the fair, we saw that she got a first place ribbon on her brownies. They were very good brownies.

Refrigerator check:

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