Snapshots: The Spring Setback

We always have to have at least one snowstorm after it starts to feel like spring. That was yesterday.

 

Don't worry; the bulbs will be okay.

We only got a few inches, and we can always use the moisture, so that's fine.

I had just the week before received the new snow boots I ordered to replace my very old ones with a broken zipper.

I didn't know if I would even need to wear them until next winter, but I did.

One of the little girls who rides our bus turned seven last week, and I was given the care of her cupcakes on the bus ride to school. Her mom was very clever and made a number seven out of them.

Cute, but Poppy said there was way too much frosting on them.

I myself care much more about the taste of food than the appearance, which is why my "charcuterie tray" looks like this:

Tasty, but not aesthetic. Pretty much my motto.

And speaking of functional! I discovered something very handy when I made the pecan pie for Fat Tuesday. I prefer to chop the pecans for the pie, which makes for a more homogenous filling that is also easier to cut. Chopping nuts with a knife on a cutting board is annoying, though, because they're always falling off the cutting board. And then I have to wash a cutting board and knife.

However, the pecans can be put in a bowl--I used the bowl I had made the pie crust in--and chopped with the pastry cutter. That I had also used to make the pie crust.

Fewer dishes, and nicely contained.

My very tall eldest son had told me he could no longer easily move his arms in the altar server clothing at church. The biggest cassock (the under-robe part of the outfit) there was also about five inches too short for his six-foot height. So I bought him a new cassock. And it was very large and long.

This was the only place high enough to hang the thing.

It was a bit unnerving having this giant black garment swinging in our kitchen for a couple of days until we brought it to church. It fits well, though, and he's happy to be able to move his arms freely again when he's serving.

There you have it! My life, snapshotted.

Friday Food: Lent Begins

Friday 

Short version: Tuna melt sandwiches, roasted potatoes, green salad with vinaigrette

Long version: One of the track boys came home after the first week of track practice informing me his coach instructed them to rest and eat a lot over the weekend. Accordingly, I asked the trackster what he would like to eat.

This is what he wanted.

Seems like a good carb-heavy choice for all those calories burned.

I just had the salad with some of the tuna salad in it, because I have not been running track. My slow jogs around our semi-ghost town don't count.

Saturday

Short version: Ram 'n' bean burritos, or pasta

Long version: This was the day A. and I were grinding ram meat, as well as some more elk meat. I had also made some chili beans mostly to have on hand for Lent, since they're meatless. And I had made some red chile puree from dried chiles A. had brought home.

I pull the stems off the dried chiles, shake out the seeds, soak them in hot water for awhile, then puree them.

Given all of this, it seemed logical to combine these things into a burrito filling, So that is what I did. Then I took the younger two to the district finals basketball game for Poppy to cheer one last time. While we were gone, the oldest child made pasta for him and his younger brother, using some of the same meat and beans.

Sunday

Short version: Ram curry, rice, King Cake or chocolate-peanut butter cookies

Long version: I used some more of the ground ram to make curry. Although aging the meat helps a lot with the taste, it does still taste a bit muttony, as this was an almost two year old ram. So it's best with things like chile or curry.

I used some already-cooked split peas in the curry, too, to thicken it. The resulting dish was very unaesthetic, but everyone liked it.

My mother sent us the King Cake. 

From Haydel's bakery, of course.

We ate it this night instead of saving it for Fat Tuesday because there are always leftovers. And what can you do with leftover King Cake on Ash Wednesday? Stare at it forlornly, that's what. But this way, the kids got to have the leftovers for their breakfast on Monday morning, which is small consolation for having to go to school, but does at least start the week on a delicious--and sugary--note.

Monday

Short version: Leftover curry and rice, Snow's clam chowder, garlic bread, cucumber, cookies

Long version: There was enough curry left for A. and one of the children. One child wasn't eating. The remaining two children had the clam chowder.

I had an egg sandwich using a slice of garlic bread. Very good it was, too.

Tuesday

Short version: Jambalaya, butter-swim biscuits, green salad with vinaigrette, pecan pie with vanilla ice cream

Long version: Fat Tuesday! And that apparently now means jambalaya. I made that for the first time last year and it was so popular I thought I should make it again. It's a pretty easy meal, actually, and can be made ahead. I found andouille sausage at Walmart, of all places, so I had everything to make it.

Interestingly, in an advertisement that came with our King Cake, Haydel's had what they called "a traditional maple syrup pecan pie." I did not know maple syrup was traditional in pecan pie--seems odd, as maple trees for sure do not grow where pecans do--but it really is excellent. I use this recipe, but substitute dark maple syrup 1:1 for the golden syrup called for.

Haydel's sells theirs for like seventy dollars. I could literally make a dozen pies for that much money. And then I could sell the extra and finance my future pies for the coming year. 

Assuming, of course, that I don't bake them TWICE AS LONG as they're supposed to be baked. Which is, in fact, what I did this time when I got distracted by making the jambalaya and forgot the pie was in the oven.

Amazingly, it wasn't charred. The crust exposed on the top was very over-browned, so I cut that off. I started to scrape off the top, very browned, layer of the filling, but when I tasted some of it, it actually tasted good. Extra-caramelized and sort of candied. So we ate it anyway. 

It was definitely ugly, though.

The Ugly Cake is a staple in my house. Now we can add Ugly Pies to my list of specialties.

Wednesday

Short version: Spanish tortilla, leftover biscuits

Long version: I made the Spanish tortilla--no bacon--and we'd have a nearly instant meatless meal when we got home from our Ash Wednesday Mass around 6 p.m. All I had to do was heat it up for a few minutes in the microwave and we could sit down to eat. 

The leftover biscuits were a nice bonus.

Thursday

Short version: Hunter's pie, carrots and curry dip

Long version: Shepherd's pie, but with ground elk. And I added some pureed calabaza to the meat mixture, which has the effect of thickening it as well as adding more vegetal matter.

Potatoes are a vegetable, anyway, according to my family. Plus, it also had peas, corn, and calabaza in it.

And then there were the carrots. Poppy cut those up and made the curry dip before dinner while the hunter's pie was baking, so they were our appetizer.

Refrigerator check:

I have started ordering milk through the school Sysco delivery every week, so now we will always have milk on Thursdays. As long as we're in school, anyway.

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

Happy Fat Tuesday!

I have mentioned before--maaaaany times--that my mother is from New Orleans. Because of that, certain traditions from that city have always been a part of my life. Mostly food, since that is a big part of the culture of New Orleans.

Pork, greens, black-eyed peas for our health, wealth, and happiness on New Year's Day. Red beans and rice. Grillades and grits. King cake for Mardi Gras. 

This year's king cake, sent by my mother from Haydel's bakery and eaten by us for Sunday dessert. Warmed up with butter, of course.

And now, jambalaya, biscuits, and pecan pie for Fat Tuesday.

This was not something my mother made when I was growing up that I remember. Not on Fat Tuesday, at least. The jambalaya was something I made for the very first time last year, just because A. was remembering Popeye's jambalaya so fondly, and I was sure I would be able to make something at least as good.

This year, I'm adding the biscuits (these butter-swim biscuits) because they were very much like the greasy Popeye's biscuits that A. also loved. And the pecan pie because I now have a really good recipe for it that everyone in the family likes (except I use dark maple syrup instead of golden syrup.)

So I guess I've come up with my own tradition for Fat Tuesday. It's funny to think that these are the things my children will carry forward into their own lives--or not, we'll see--and consider just family tradition because it's what they remember from their childhoods. 

I have become the tradition maker instead of the recipient. An inevitable generational shift, I suppose.

So tell me: What family traditions have you inherited or started yourself?

P.S. I used this as our wake-up song this morning. After it was over, one boy announced, "I like that song. It has lots of food in it." Indeed.

Snapshots: Spring!

It was warm last week! It wasn't painful to be on recess duty at work!

Ahhhh.

Poppy got some new little claw clips for her hair as a gift, and then I had to figure out how to use them.

Not the most secure, but good enough for church.

My eldest child had been telling me, completely out of the blue, that Post Malone (he is a . . . singer? rapper? some kind of entertainer, anyway) had his own Oreos now. Okay.

And then what did I see when I was at Walmart on Tuesday?

This is not an appealing advertisement to me, but I guess I'm not the demographic, anyway.

A. decided he needs to get a new ram this year, so we had to get rid of the old one. We did this by putting it in the freezer, of course.

We now bring this big wood bench A. made right into the kitchen to do the more-brutal part of the butchering on. I do not want a reciprocating saw on my dining room table.

All that butchering made it hard for me to get out into the garden. I really wanted to plant some seeds, though, in anticipation of rain this week. I was just planning on planting spring things--lettuce, radishes, arugula--right in the beds we dug a month or so ago to separate out the crowded rhubarb plants.

So when Poppy came in the afternoon to announce she was bored, I handed her the seeds, showed her how to make some rows with a stick, and set her loose to plant the spring garden.

I stayed in the kitchen with the raw meat; she planted the seeds outside. She got the better end of this deal.

And speaking of spring and gardens . . .

Crocuses!

There you have it! My life, snapshotted.

Friday Food: More Chicken than Usual

Friday 

Short version: Roasted chicken pieces, roasted potatoes, frozen corn

Long version: This was one package of separated chicken leg quarters and one of just chicken thighs. Two big packages of chicken is too much for one meal, but I can always find a use for the leftovers, so I just roasted them all.

I made the corn only because I was (still) too lazy to go out to the big freezers to get peas, and the corn was in the freezer over the refrigerator. This resulted in a lively discussion at dinner about vegetables, starches, and how to categorize foods. Some of my family maintains that potatoes are a vegetable--technically true--although I use them as a starch. 

I also noted that corn is about the starchiest "vegetable" there is, so really, there were two starches on their plates. Which of course made them all happy.

Saturday

Short version: Chicken corn chowder, cheese, pumpkin bread

Long version: My mom used to make a tomato corn chowder from her Southern Living cookbook that I loved. This soup was kind of based on that, in that it used lots of basil and sour cream. This version, however, also had chicken, because I had made stock with the bones of the previous night's chicken and had a little meat I had pulled off the bones.

Cheese 'n' chowder. Pleasingly alliterative.

It was a good soup, but I usually try to have something extra on nights when I've made soup from leftover bones. That's why I used the last bag of pureed squash in the freezer to make a double batch of pumpkin bread. Pumpkin bread works as a side to soup, but also it's a pseudo-dessert. I doubled this recipe, except I didn't do the sugar crust on top. That way it was less like a dessert.

Sunday

Short version: Elk burgers on homemade buns, baked beans, green salad with vinaigrette, cheater's chocolate fondue

Long version: I was baking bread this day, so I made some extra buns and then made the burgers because I had the buns. Cause and effect in the kitchen.

Baked beans--made with some pinto beans I took out of the freezer--instead of oven fries.

I was at a church event in the afternoon with Poppy, and I was very tired when I got home, so I kind of punked out on dessert. I just melted chocolate chips with a bit of coconut oil in the microwave and then offered either two marshmallows or peanut butter cookies to dip in it. They all chose the marshmallows.

Monday

Short version: Chicken salad sandwiches, leftover baked beans, carrot sticks

Long version: I had two elk burger patties left, and one bun, so one child got to have a double elk burger. Everyone else had the chicken salad.

Tuesday

Short version: Last-minute chicken slop, pork, mashed potatoes, frozen peas

Long version: I had the pan heated up with fat in it at 6 p.m. to cook the lamb steaks I had taken out to thaw . . . which is when I discovered I had taken out lamb stew meat. Whoops. That's not going to cook quickly. At least, not in an edible fashion.

Plan change!

Luckily, I had been to the store this day, and I got a rotisserie chicken there. So I pulled the meat off that and used the juices, plus thyme, garlic powder, cornstarch, and milk, to make gravy for it. That's the sloppy part.

I had also thawed a random small bag of pork stir-fry pieces, thinking I would use it for dinner the next day. I didn't think there would be enough chicken, however, so I also cooked the pork, just frying it in bacon fat with salt, pepper, garlic powder, and paprika.

I had already made the mashed potatoes, so I just microwaved the peas and ta da! Last-minute dinner in fifteen minutes.

I make magic in the kitchen, if nowhere else.

Wednesday

Short version: Assigned food, grapes

Long version: I had used the pork the night before that I was planning on for stir-fry this night. So I took out a container of lamb chili I froze last week when I had made a big batch. That was enough for A. and two kids, with cheese quesadillas.

One child had the last serving of baked beans, plus some leftover mashed potatoes and cheese.

The last child had the last of the chicken salad in a sandwich, plus some leftover mashed potatoes and cheese.

I had a salad with some of the chicken salad in it.

And everyone had the grapes, because assembling and plating all those different foods was enough work. I didn't feel like messing around with an extra vegetable. Serving a casserole or something is way easier.

Thursday

Short version: Lamb stew, bread and butter, pumpkin bread, ice cream

Long version: This was the lamb I had mistakenly thought was steaks. It was a shank, plus some very bony chops. I simmered those for awhile, pulled off the meat, and then used the resulting stock and meat to make a stew. I also used some calabaza to thicken it a bit, along with yogurt and cornstarch.

Ice cream to celebrate the weekend. And assuage the disappointment that inevitably comes with stew.

Refrigerator check:

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

Alien FFA Day

One of the unfortunate results of our school being under construction for two years now is that we have only one space big enough to gather together for assemblies and activities. It's the old gym. It's incredibly echo-y and loud, but also, it has the most unfortunate lights ever. They buzz and hurt your eyes, and for some reason, any photos taken in there turn out green.

But it's what we have to work with, and so we soldier on.

Last Wednesday was FFA Day. Our FFA chapter took the opportunity to present an Ag. in the Classroom activity for all the elementary kids. They all gathered together to talk about what FFA is and then they made some butter. They did this by giving each student a half-pint jar of heavy cream and telling them to shake it wildly.

Can you imagine the excitement for little kids? They have permission to spin around, jump up and down, shake and shimmy, and generally go wild AT SCHOOL! And then! There's butter! Which they got to choose mix-ins for--cinnamon/sugar, honey, chives, garlic powder, etc.--and eat on rolls.

Best afternoon ever. Even if it was green.

Seriously. What is up with this lighting?

Snapshots: Seasons

I'm too old to use the acronym LOL, but that is, in fact, what this valentine from one of the other teachers at school made me do.

It's funny because it's true; this is what teenage boys sound like.

We've been buying cedar wood from the firewood guy, which smells really good and also sometimes has some really cool patterns inside.

Mostly it's just a red heart, but this one was striped.

And I'm guessing this on the outside was from some sort of insect.

We had a very cold and icy day at school on Wednesday. All the trees were coated in rime. 

I particularly liked this one with each individually coated needle.

I think this drawing of a dinosaur was an inevitable consequence of being a girl with three big brothers.

Girly, but with fangs.

When I told her I liked the rainbow, she very seriously told me, "That's an arc, not a rainbow. It doesn't have the right colors* for a rainbow." 

Got it.

Speaking of colors! It's Mardi Gras season, and we have decorated accordingly.

Mardi Gras banner and birthday banner together.

There you have it! My life, snapshotted.

* I never had the sequence of the rainbow colors memorized until watching an episode of "The Cat in the Hat" on PBS like twelve years ago, from which I learned the rainbow song. Now I can never forget they go "red, orange, yellow, then green, followed by blue, indigo, and violet, that's the rainbow song for you!"