Hunh, just noticed I missed yesterday.  Ah well, the world still turns. 

Last night we fried up some homemade bean burritos and a salad, and the beans were not from a can.  I've never minded canned refried beans in the slightest, but how is it that once you've tasted freshly made anything it's hard to go back?  Now that's happened to us with burritos.

--deep voice-- Previously in our kitchen, we enjoyed a little penne with spinach and sun-dried tomatoes.  Many kids just picked out the tomatoes, but that was fine for the one daughter who adores them and just stole everyone's pile of pickings.  Oh, and more canned beets on the side.  I'm valiantly chugging through that food storage, I can't wait to see the nice low grocery bill this month.

I've been trying to start on another topical post, but am having trouble picking a subject, there are so many good ones.  Work/grit is at the top of my list, but there's also exercise, money, or just fun kitchen gadgetry.  If the one or two of you have any particular preferences, I'd be glad to oblige!

Instead of our usual sourdough pancakes, last night we had pumpkin pancakes for the second time.  And we happened to have some whipped cream on hand, so I'm surprised there were any left over at all.  (Though we upped the recipe, so that helped.)

I have a wonderful Native American cookbook that is due back at the library soon, and so this week we're having a Native feast in order to try out a bunch of recipes.  I'll try to remember to take pictures.  

Pizza, this time with the works. 

Of course, we also had pepperoni, sauce and cheese.  I also made a focaccia with caramelized onions and fresh Romas that got a little overcooked and so isn't pictured.

Earlier this week, I made a big batch of granola, which NEVER goes as far as I think it ought to.  I swear, we could eat the whole roasting pan-ful in one sitting.

Quiche, a "crustless" Bisquick type that I thought would be easier for the large quantities I needed.  Of course, first I also needed to look up the recipe for homemade Bisquick, but I've done that before and it's a snap.  We ate some of the quiche and sent the rest with S. for a breakfast potluck at work this morning.  We also ate canned beets, since there are still innumerable cans of those in the basement.

The epitome of good food and food storage items overlapping, at least for our family: our classic Caldo Verde (except, true to form, I add beans to mine) made entirely, entirely from stuff I desperately needed to rotate.  And except for the sausage, all of it could be items kept indefinitely in my storage.
I used instant mashed potato flakes, dried onions, dry beans, jarred garlic, and an old old can of Glory brand southern collard greens that I've never known quite what to do with.  It really was perfect!  It thrilled me to think that we could eat this well even in dire straits.  (I know, I need better thrills.)

CALDO VERDE -- PORTUGUESE GREEN SOUP (My siblings and I nicknamed it Lawnmower Soup)
 
1 c. red or white beans
7 c. water
2 tsp. crushed garlic
1 T. dried onions
½ bunch collards, tough stems removed (or kale or spinach), sliced thinlly chiffonade-style
½-1 lb. kielbasa or chorizo, sliced and browned
1 c. potato flakes (or 1 medium potato, cubed, added at the beginning with the garlic, etc.)
Salt, pepper
 
Place beans in crock pot with water to cover, soak overnight.  Next day drain and rinse, add 7 c. water, garlic, onions, and some salt, cook on high 3 hours, low 8 hours, or till tender.  Add collards, potato flakes, and sausage including drippings.  Cook another 30 minutes, adjust seasonings and serve.  (Alternatively, kale will need to cook for an hour or two, spinach only 10 minutes or so, if using those as greens.)

Salmon burgers (pickles, tomato slices, lettuce, the works) and some really excellent glazed carrots.

Using up more stagnant leftovers.  This time, I think I've truly found the last baggie of frozen Thanksgiving turkey chunks...and, I've determined that amazingly fresh and delicious butternut squash does need to be blanched before freezing, because it's awful now.  And I know it was perfect when I put it in last fall.

So, to be more specific, we had Asian chicken salad, butternut squash (which I tasted and sadly threw out), and yummy sauteed baby portobellos.  Then Sage was in charge of refreshments for Family Home Evening, and spoiled us with a Hawaiian Cobbler of the type that usually gets made in camping Dutch ovens, sweet and fruity and cake-mix-y as all-get-out.  

Weekend report -- we didn't have pizza, we had some friends over and went with that theme of cleaning out overlooked food, which was quite surprisingly fun for a potluck.  The other mom brought the rest of a box of mini candy canes, and we offered some year-or-two-old microwave caramel popcorn, both of which were very popular.  And I dug out three remaining hot dogs that have been hiding in my freezer, portioned them out into 12 pieces, and made octodogs like I've been meaning to forever.  We also made sure there were a few fruits and vegetables out there for health's sake, but it was really an enjoyable, quirky meal with friends.  Followed by all the kids dancing in our new black lights and a game of Balderdash.  Pretty awesome.

Lentil soup cooked with a lamb bone (not too much, it's a strong flavor), canned beets, and cream biscuits.
I only 'discovered' these biscuits a year or so ago, though they've apparently been sitting there in my good ol' Fannie Farmer cookbook since I got married.  But, as smitten kitchen says of them, you'll wonder where they've been your whole life.   My recipe has an extra teaspoon of sugar compared to the recipe in the link, and I find a pastry brush less messy for the melted butter, and mine says to just cut them in squares which is beautifully simple and different from my usual -- but really, it's going to be divine no matter how you cut it (ha).  And SOOOOO easy to make.  You'll never buy Pillsbury Grands again!  Though, you may gain a few pounds over time...

Nourishing

This is the fourth time I've started to write this post.  Every time I sat down to write, there was a flood of thoughts, but too many to be coherent and shareable.  I've been thinking about nourishing, both in the context of food (of course) and spiritually, as a counterpart to flourishing.


Certainly, if my desire to flourish means that I want to grow and develop, to have some kind of back-and-forth relationship with the world around me in which I take knowledge and experiences and create something of worth with them to give the world, certainly that desire would extend to those I love most.  For my children, my husband, I'm constantly on the lookout for ways that they can flourish, ways that I can make space for their growth, provide the building blocks, impart ideas.


To take a self-help phrase, I want to change the idea of a circle of influence into a circle of flourishing.  I like to talk about birth and birth stories, because they are the real beginning of nurturing; as a mother, I am so essential, the person of absolutely central importance in providing the food, love, and care, the physical and spiritual components that each child needs. And yet, they come with eternal spirits already in them and divine destinies, and they take those raw inputs that I provide and make themselves out of them, even from the womb. It's both frustrating and fascinating, as I realize that each child was self-determined from the moment they were conceived, that unless something serious gets in their way, they have their own momentum and trajectory. In fact, not only that, but they come with a creative purpose to fulfill, a need to flourish.


And it's my job to provide that space so they can meet that need.


I know families that fall on both ends of the organizational spectrum, with ballet and karate and soccer constantly on the calendar, or days filled with unschooling and taking apart whatever household furniture or appliances interest them and rebuilding them into crazy robots and forts. I'm in the middle, but I do prize consistency and quantifiable progression for myself, and so that probably characterizes our household most. We hold regular Family Home Evenings, and I have one regular day a week that I go to the library, one that I do laundry, one that we work on cleaning and chores, one set aside for a family movie night or games, errands, etc. You get the idea. Some of these things appear to only affect me, but the more organized I can be, the better I can be prepared to serve and interact with my kids. I try to remember to be flexible too, but that's a more conscious effort for me. I'm especially lucky that my husband's approach to flourishing -- and nourishing -- balances mine out so well, he's much more likely to want to take risks, try new things, and explore.


So, the main activities in our house revolve around a few core focuses: religion, music, nature, work, and books. These are the areas I feel are most essential for us in a long-term, line-upon-line kind of way. I probably will have to break out and post about each of them at some point, but they form a real central identity for each of us to come to and draw from in our own development and pursuits. We don't hit them all every day, but they make regular appearances in our lives, and because of that, we tend to be better at noticing opportunities that relate to those core focuses. They make nice little clusters of experience as we overlap them and as our individual personalities interact. Family scripture study, piano practice, father/son trombone duets, hiking and camping, weeding and growing a garden, reading poetry to our kids as they fall asleep -- these are all wonderful thing I'm grateful we've made time for. And, of course, good food!! We have one or two sit-down meals as a family every day, which holds it all together.


One particular influence behind this post has been the book Daughters in My Kingdom, which I recently finished reading. I know I'll go back to it again and again because of its inspiring stories of women nurturing and nourishing both individually and in communities. I'd like to end with a quote: 


“Nurture is a rich word. It means to train, to teach, to educate, to foster development, to promote growth, and to nourish or feed...Nurturing requires organization, patience, love, and work.” I can't flourish myself and fulfill my own divine mission without also doing these things, and doing them well.

Baked potatoes (canned chili beans on top this time, tut tut to me), and a salad with some cucumber, grated carrot, hardboiled egg, and French's fried onions.  The salad was a rummage-through-the-fridge affair, but it was one of our best in recent weeks, so we'll repeat it.

A good ol' casserole, with rice, mushrooms, green beans, and pork chops on top.  Also a big can of yams that was languishing unloved in the food storage.  (Look for that theme through the next stretch of Lent, as I try to creatively rotate through some of those less-wanted items.)

Shrimp pasta primavera.  Not only that, but I happened upon some actual wild-caught shrimp in a clearance bin at the grocery store yesterday!  I've been looking for months but everything, everywhere is always farmed from Thailand which is exactly what I don't want.  I even once had an entertaining exchange in the seafood aisle of Costco with a guy who was just as frustrated as I was -- it was unexpected and wonderful to know I wasn't alone.

Saturday morning, as I was lying in bed trying to find the willpower to get up and feed the savages, one of my kids came in and asked if we "had" to have muffins "again".  Hmph.  Not the way to get me out of bed, to say the least.  So my valiant husband fielded both the complaint and the cooking, making chocolate chip oatmeal muffins with two little helpers, one at each elbow.  It was delicious, and sweet to watch.  He did the dishes, too.  Extra-yummy.

And, I have been trying to corral my thoughts for another in-depth post, so hopefully that will come together soon.  Look for it later this week.

Carrot soup, whole wheat walnut baguettes.

Tuna melts and a green salad with my own garden-grown pickled beets and other random leftover veggies.

Sweet and sour pork.  Also "Romeo and Juliet", which is guava paste sliced up with fresh cheese, courtesy of the romantic hubby.

Pasta with pesto, canned beets, carrot chips.  I'd like to get better at the carrot chips so they don't take so long and cook unpredictably, but this is only the second time I've made them and they're so delicious I think I'll keep trying.

You probably know my weekend routine by now.  Pizza, leftovers, Sunday pancakes.  But I did also make date-nut muffins on Saturday morning, one of Scott's favorites, and apparently I chopped the dates finely enough that the kids didn't resist.  Those muffins disappeared.  Yay!

Tuna Nicoise salad.  No leftovers.