I still had mole sauce from our mole chicken a week ago, and so this time I defrosted and then roasted a couple of pork shoulder ribs to try and use more of it up and eat up the last of the Oaxacan refried beans. I also had great fun browsing and shopping Grocery Outlet, where I found Mexican rice and Elote corn in the frozen food section.

I enjoyed it because I love pig, and hubs ate it even if it was not his favorite meat that was sauced. Plus I've enough leftover for another meal this week. On the ceramics front, I've so much bisque ware from the kiln that I spent my Saturday morning and afternoon glazing pots. Fingers crossed that I'll love the new glazes I bought from Coyote. I'd been neglecting sewing and quilting, and so that became my Sunday plan with the Kansas City Chiefs playing the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the background. 

What sucks about Super Bowl Sunday during a pandemic is the lack of choices in snacks brought together by a potluck: spinach and artichoke dip and crostini or french onion clam dip and potato chips, nachos or queso fundido, pigs in a blanket, cheese and charcuterie platters, beer cheese and pretzel bites....only room for ONE when there's only two of you in a small household and your partner is not big into appetizers. And so I opted for buffalo chicken wings and celery with blue cheese ranch dressing, and instead of a beer, I made myself a Bloody Mary, my usual pickled salad in a glass. 

 

I love all kinds of hot sauce on my chicken wings, but I kept it simple this time with Frank's Red Hot and took out Louisiana sauce just in case. And Puppy Bowl was on my television screen:)

And an afternoon of sewing and walking the dog was soon followed by dinner while watching Kansas City lose to Tampa Bay. I sauteed cubes of chuck beef and chopped onions in garlic oil (leftover from my Pancit Palabok). Hubs had brought home a turnip given to us by Joe from Lebanon (Joe from Italy gave us broccoli rabe). I'd never cooked, nor tasted a turnip before. But I had heard it can sometimes be part of a beef and root vegetable stew. 

And so I chopped celery along with the turnip and pulled out carrots too for the stew.

I had sprinkled a couple of tablespoons of flour onto the frying beef to brown and add fond to which I then added leftover chicken and vegetable broth as well as a box of beef bone broth to boil down and thicken. I also added garlic powder as well as Old Bay and smoked paprika. Once the gravy was reduced to my liking, I added the vegetables knowing it would get more liquid and would again need to cook down the sauce as well as tenderize the vegetables. I also didn't discard the leafy top of the turnip, figuring it was like collard greens and could be added to the stew for the last few minutes of stewing.

And instead of putting a potato into the stew, I made it a mashed potato with lots of cream and butter as a less sharp counterpoint to the other root vegetables and to act as a vehicle for the gravy..

Both the hubs and I tasted the raw turnip and liked its mustardy flavor; he said he would add the vegetable to his garden next year. And I plan on figuring out other ways to cook it.