|
Post by The Sensational She-Hulk on Apr 15, 2024 10:03:36 GMT -5
You're more than welcome to join us for Mr. BFF's birthday party on Saturday evening! It will involve real food that is delicious, in part because I am bringing something. I don't know what that thing is yet because it will depend on how my work week goes, but I can make sure it has a little cat hair for you two so you don't get too homesick. HAHAHAHAHA! It's that attention to detail that makes you such a great host! Totally serious, though! BFF told me to invite anyone. You'll at least get a better food experience, because we like food. A lot.
|
|
Baron von Costume
TI Forumite
Like an iron maiden made of pillows... the punishment is decadence!
Posts: 4,659
|
Post by Baron von Costume on Apr 15, 2024 10:09:10 GMT -5
in other food news my parents' 50th wedding anniversary is coming up, I'm helping plan a party and my Mother keeps sending me links to essentially funeral sandwiches to the point where one of the caterers is literally called "funeral foods." I asked her if she thought she was tempting fate.
I'm not against getting a couple trays of pinwheel sandwiches but I have plans to batch make a few appetizers over the next month to freeze and bring out some hot things as well (the little club we've rented has a small kitchen to use.)
|
|
LazBro
Prolific Poster
Posts: 10,018
|
Post by LazBro on Apr 15, 2024 10:09:15 GMT -5
Tuesday: I recently impulse-bought a sampler pack of mustards from a place in New Mexico -- there are five flavors ranging from green chile to, like, garlic-pecan or something like that. Hugs said she wants to try them on grilled sausages, and we are having nice weather the next couple of days, so let's do it! I'll make a pasta salad to go with it. I love taste test nights! It's a meal concept I wish I could think of ways to execute more often.
|
|
|
Post by Floyd D Barber on Apr 15, 2024 12:28:43 GMT -5
I am getting ready to rebuild two of our BBQ grills. I was able to buy replacement burners, grease screens*, grill racks, knobs, ignitors, and a thermometer, for almost nothing at an auction a while back. We have one stainless steel propane grill and one charcoal and propane combo in black steel to rebuild.
*I have no idea what the correct name for some of this stuff is, but we have it.
|
|
LazBro
Prolific Poster
Posts: 10,018
|
Post by LazBro on Apr 17, 2024 14:53:17 GMT -5
Hell of a meal. I made the gyro. I made the hummus. I made the flatbread. I made the pickled onions. I ... uh, cooked the rice. Wish I had a better picture. The feta doesn't read well against the rice.
|
|
|
Post by Liz n Dick on Apr 18, 2024 10:01:58 GMT -5
LazBro, that looks spectacular!
|
|
LazBro
Prolific Poster
Posts: 10,018
|
Post by LazBro on Apr 18, 2024 10:29:36 GMT -5
Once more into the whatever: Tuesday: Excited for this one. I made Chef John's gyro meat recipe on Sunday. Because few home cooks have vertical rotisseries, in Chef John's version you make the gyro mix, bake it, cool it completely (ideally fridged overnight), then slice and fry it up in a pan. Since it's basically a very simple but highly seasoned meatloaf, I decided to nudge it just that little bit more and cooked mine on the smoker, which has the added benefit of keeping the cooking of this exceedingly aromatic meat outside. I will likewise finish the cook outside on my flattop. I'm also going to make my World's Best Hummus, cooked off the beans for those yesterday, and my favorite naan-like flatbread recipe. And I think I have some pickled red onions already, so yeah, all in a tremendous amount of work, and I can't wait. Will serve myself as either a wrap or a plate, undecided, with feta, kalamata olives, fresh tomatoes, and all that other stuff I said. Rice. I'm interested to hear how this is, especially smoked, sounds like something I want to try. I highly recommend this recipe, Baron von Costume . Smoking it or no I don't think made a huge difference, but it tasted exactly - and I mean exactly - like the gyro at my favorite place here in DFW. I think my picture makes it look a little dry, but it really wasn't, and of course the methodology means getting nice crispy brown bits on both sides. Loads of flavor. Only thing I would do differently next time is cut slightly thicker slices before griddling. That would make a better "bite" I think. Very happy to have 3 more portions waiting for me in the freezer now. The recipe again: www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRodQr0lVww
|
|
LazBro
Prolific Poster
Posts: 10,018
|
Post by LazBro on Apr 22, 2024 8:35:35 GMT -5
This week we embark on a journey of wills and mental violence. I'm changing the game: I will NOT make separate meals. I will cook what I want to cook, and they can eat, not eat, or feed themselves. I will not intentionally alienate anyone, and I will still make their favorites, which I'll eat too on those nights, but no more "bites and nugs", no more grilled cheeses unless it's grilled cheese night, no more hodgepodge meals of slapped together side dishes served with rice. We've got fruits, we've got veggies, we've got sandwich bread, we've got peanut butter and jelly, we've got cheese, we've got applesauce, we've got cereal, we've got oatmeal, and I'm happy to stock whatever other ready to go foods they want. I'm done. For my mental health, and honestly, for their own good, I'm taking dinner back. The past several years have proved that I can't feed them, so I will teach them to feed themselves.
Sunday: Nashville hot pork belly tacos with southwest sauteed veggies. I smoked a quarter pork belly on Saturday, cooled it completely overnight, then diced it up and fried it on the griddle for tacos. Served mine with Nashville (too) hot sauce that I made myself, along with a quick griddle fry of zuchinni, bell pepper, and corn. Wish I'd had some edamame or lime beans on hand to throw in there to make a southwest succotash. Fabulous tacos, but as always I overdid it on the heat of the sauce. I was burnin' up.
Monday: Crispy chicken with sticky rice and cabbage salad.
Tuesday: Garlic butter pork bites with stir-fried cabbage and veggies. Despite the fact that I've been cooking barbecue for well over a decade on my ceramic smoker, it wasn't until I got my pellet grill a few years ago that I started to get into "the lifestyle." And by this I don't mean wearing all their stupid merch, though my Traeger did come with a hat. I mean immersing myself in the traditions, methodologies, and recipes of the culture. Everyone has heard or brisket and pulled pork, but only when you really get into the hobby do you learn about smoke tubes and "the snake method" or how to cook "armadillo eggs", "shotgun shells", and any number of "fatties". By the way, these are all just different versions of barbecue wrapped in bacon and smoked. When I got my griddle, it was the same thing. Everybody knows the big 4 of griddle cookery: smash burgers, cheesesteaks, hibachi dinner / fried rice, and full American breakfast. Every griddle channel will have multiple videos on all of these. But then you look deeper, and you find a lot of other meal concepts that pop up again and again in the griddle world.
One of those is steak or pork bites. Honestly it's like a non-Asian version of hibachi night. Cube up either steak or pork (loin or chops usually), griddle hot and fast, and finish in an herbaceous garlic butter sauce. Serve with rice and, as long as the griddle's on, your choice of stir-fried veggies. Could easily replicate this recipe in a pan on the stove. Simple, straightforward, high-protein cooking.
Wednesday: Spaghetti and meatballs. Bread.
Thursday: ? ? ? (I'll probably pull something out of the freezer).
Friday: Pizza.
|
|
|
Post by The Sensational She-Hulk on Apr 22, 2024 9:39:23 GMT -5
My dad's birthday is this Saturday, so in our usual tradition, we celebrated the Sunday before (last night). I made individual beef Wellingtons with bearnaise sauce and we just did a side salad with endive and tomatoes and Greek vinaigrette. This side proved to be a wise choice, because although the Wellingtons were not huge, they were still quite rich. Dad was thrilled, particularly because I used reconstituted dried morels (with a good splash of sherry added) for the duxelles, and morels generally improve anything they're in.
Ate the best empanadas of my entire life yesterday for lunch. We ordered more to go for dessert. I actually just heated up mine (coconut cream) in the oven for breakfast, and it was still god-tier even a day later.
I have leftover pho for dinner, which makes me very happy. I ordered it on Friday night after a particularly long and difficult week at work, and it's chilly today.
|
|
|
Post by Powerthirteen on Apr 22, 2024 10:03:28 GMT -5
Last week I made a point of churning through some recipes I had bookmarked and then failed to get around to. The absolute champion of the bunch was Molly Baz's recipe for Pickled Pepper Pork Piccata, which as the name indicates is like piccata except you use pork chops instead of veal or chicken, and you use a shitload of pickled peppers (I used pepperoncini) for the acidic element of the sauce. Also there are toasted walnuts involved. Huge flavours, massive deliciousness, 11/10 would eat again.
|
|
|
Post by Pedantic Editor Type on Apr 22, 2024 10:11:29 GMT -5
Best of luck, LazBro! I RAN OUT of cayenne pepper which is practically unheard of for me, I didn't realize how low I was. Sunday: Nashville hot chicken that was not....that hot, lol. Monday: Chicken tacos, chips, salad Tuesday: Street cart chicken and rice, naan Wednesday: Fiocetti, garlic bread, salad Thursday: Enchilada soup
|
|
Baron von Costume
TI Forumite
Like an iron maiden made of pillows... the punishment is decadence!
Posts: 4,659
|
Post by Baron von Costume on Apr 22, 2024 10:14:45 GMT -5
Ended up smoking a brisket for my parents birthday as it was on sale this week and I've not done one in a couple years. Turned out absolutely perfect and paired with a hot german potato salad and baked some za'atar focaccia.
Heck of a meal but way too many leftovers even giving them 2/3 of it.
|
|
LazBro
Prolific Poster
Posts: 10,018
|
Post by LazBro on Apr 23, 2024 9:07:44 GMT -5
It will surprise no one here to learn that my kids did not really understand the assignment and immediately started planning every night's worth of meals they planned on cooking as if I would not be offering anything at all. Like they checked out of regular dinner immediately and completely.
|
|
|
Post by Liz n Dick on Apr 23, 2024 10:00:27 GMT -5
LazBro, I'm very excited for you casting off the shackles of picky children! I'm excited to see how this goes as the novelty of having to plan their own bland meals starts to wear off; I mean, surely at some point they'll find the idea of eating something that's already made a lot more appealing than having to take care of themselves, right? Or is that just decades of my own adulting (meal planning again?!?) talking?
|
|
|
Post by Pedantic Editor Type on Apr 23, 2024 10:01:51 GMT -5
It will surprise no one here to learn that my kids did not really understand the assignment and immediately started planning every night's worth of meals they planned on cooking as if I would not be offering anything at all. Like they checked out of regular dinner immediately and completely. Am I understanding correctly that your goal was to have them eat whatever you're making, and instead they're planning their own meals? I mean, it sounds like a win either way.
|
|
|
Post by Liz n Dick on Apr 23, 2024 10:10:07 GMT -5
As for meal planning (again?!?) at stately Dick N Hisses Manor, this week we will be eating:
Last night: We had chicken-leek pasties, in no small part because they make a superior leftovers lunch to have as a nice treat after returning to work after a nice long weekend.
Tonight: Speaking of generating leftovers, American Chop Suey! Possibly the last instance of it before fall? It's a real "cold-weather/cozy cooking" kind of meal in my book.
Wednesday: I've got some gnocchi from the fresh pasta place in the freezer, and some of their pink sauce; Wednesdays are now our "working out with our former trainer/now workout buddy" evenings, so I like to have something simple to make when my arms are all rubbery from too much musculations. This week my training buddy is bailing on us, but I'll still go with simple.
Thursday: I had something planned but can't remember it now. This is very helpful.
Friday: Pancakes!
|
|
LazBro
Prolific Poster
Posts: 10,018
|
Post by LazBro on Apr 23, 2024 10:25:36 GMT -5
It will surprise no one here to learn that my kids did not really understand the assignment and immediately started planning every night's worth of meals they planned on cooking as if I would not be offering anything at all. Like they checked out of regular dinner immediately and completely. Am I understanding correctly that your goal was to have them eat whatever you're making, and instead they're planning their own meals? I mean, it sounds like a win either way. The plan was to have them keep it simple, without exactly forcing the issue. So like, "This is what is for dinner. This IS dinner, and you will be served it. If you don't want any, you're welcome to make yourself a sandwich or a bowl of cereal or something." So they're not explicitly forbidden from cooking, because of course not, it's a skill everyone should have, but my intention (my hope) was that their replacement dinners would simple and cold. I don't want to be cooking dinner while she's also making nachos and he's making a grilled cheese (just two ideas they floated).
I was more struck (not surprised, just struck) by the humor of them immediately going, effectively, "Oh, okay well we're obviously not going to eat what you make, so what should we make for ourselves now that we're allowed to?"
|
|
|
Post by liebkartoffel on Apr 23, 2024 10:30:27 GMT -5
This week we embark on a journey of wills and mental violence. I'm changing the game: I will NOT make separate meals. I will cook what I want to cook, and they can eat, not eat, or feed themselves. I will not intentionally alienate anyone, and I will still make their favorites, which I'll eat too on those nights, but no more "bites and nugs", no more grilled cheeses unless it's grilled cheese night, no more hodgepodge meals of slapped together side dishes served with rice. We've got fruits, we've got veggies, we've got sandwich bread, we've got peanut butter and jelly, we've got cheese, we've got applesauce, we've got cereal, we've got oatmeal, and I'm happy to stock whatever other ready to go foods they want. I'm done. For my mental health, and honestly, for their own good, I'm taking dinner back. The past several years have proved that I can't feed them, so I will teach them to feed themselves. For what's it worth, that's how I was raised. I got to provide input during meal planning, but come dinnertime my parents made what they made and I was free to make myself a peanut butter sandwich if I didn't like it. I'm sure I bitched and moaned plenty, and they'd make concessions like cutting onions and mushrooms out of recipes, but for the most part they held the line and things worked out fine and no one went hungry.
|
|
|
Post by Pedantic Editor Type on Apr 23, 2024 10:36:01 GMT -5
Am I understanding correctly that your goal was to have them eat whatever you're making, and instead they're planning their own meals? I mean, it sounds like a win either way. The plan was to have them keep it simple, without exactly forcing the issue. So like, "This is what is for dinner. This IS dinner, and you will be served it. If you don't want any, you're welcome to make yourself a sandwich or a bowl of cereal or something." So they're not explicitly forbidden from cooking, because of course not, it's a skill everyone should have, but my intention (my hope) was that their replacement dinners would simple and cold. I don't want to be cooking dinner while she's also making nachos and he's making a grilled cheese (just two ideas they floated).
I was more struck (not surprised, just struck) by the humor of them immediately going, effectively, "Oh, okay well we're obviously not going to eat what you make, so what should we make for ourselves now that we're allowed to?" It is pretty funny. Maybe one night a week you can designate as "cook something hot for yourself" and the other nights it's "eat this or have a bowl of cereal"? just a thought. At least they're self-sufficient enough to be ABLE to make their own food!
|
|
|
Post by Floyd D Barber on Apr 23, 2024 12:08:13 GMT -5
It will surprise no one here to learn that my kids did not really understand the assignment and immediately started planning every night's worth of meals they planned on cooking as if I would not be offering anything at all. Like they checked out of regular dinner immediately and completely. Is this a problem or is it an opportunity?
|
|
LazBro
Prolific Poster
Posts: 10,018
|
Post by LazBro on Apr 23, 2024 12:31:35 GMT -5
It will surprise no one here to learn that my kids did not really understand the assignment and immediately started planning every night's worth of meals they planned on cooking as if I would not be offering anything at all. Like they checked out of regular dinner immediately and completely. Is this a problem or is it an opportunity? Time will tell.
I mean, I'm a permanent sad boy about this, because I don't like eating all that much. What brings me joy is COOKING for others, which I've failed at completely, but I'm hoping to at least get to a place where they're not also mad all the time.
|
|
|
Post by pantsgoblin on Apr 24, 2024 11:25:23 GMT -5
Is this a problem or is it an opportunity? Time will tell.
I mean, I'm a permanent sad boy about this, because I don't like eating all that much. What brings me joy is COOKING for others, which I've failed at completely, but I'm hoping to at least get to a place where they're not also mad all the time.
Preemptive apology if this is a presumptive or annoying question, but have you considered using your skills as part of a charity where you could cook for the needy? Like assisted living, hospitals, etc.?
|
|
|
Post by Floyd D Barber on Apr 25, 2024 12:12:41 GMT -5
One of our area grocery stores has a really good buffet and that's where I am having lunch today. It's all basic Midwestern comfort food, and I know I'm eating "whatever was about to expire" but it's really tasty. Today that are featuring fried chicken, which is not greasy and is really good, the only restaurant meatloaf I actually like, and shepherds pie. I really like it, but every time I take a bite I hear E.B. telling Richardson "Bury that offal in the shepherd's pie". Life is good.
|
|
|
Post by Liz n Dick on Apr 25, 2024 14:46:50 GMT -5
My easiest, go-to work-from-home lunch is either scrambled eggs (when I don't have time) or frittata (when I can get my "making lunch" shit together with time to bake something). This week saw the open of the season of the King of Frittatas: ham & asparagus. Grabbed a big ol' hunk of ham at the store on Tuesday knowing that yesterday's farm box was going to have the first asparagus bunch of spring... and it was as delicious as I hoped! I'm so excited to have my pee smell weird for the next few weeks as I try to suck the marrow from asparagus season!
|
|
LazBro
Prolific Poster
Posts: 10,018
|
Post by LazBro on Apr 29, 2024 7:53:24 GMT -5
Made the Hawaiian chicken again last night. More practice, but also just because I wanted it. Gosh it rules so hard. Also hit up the Asian market over the weekend and managed to find some banana leaves. My future kalua pork is coming together.
Monday: Burgers or hot dogs. Last week I made grilled cheeses, and for myself I put together a quick mix of shredded cheddar and swiss. Great for a grilled cheese/melt situation, but not great for a lot of other shredded cheese applications. Swiss just doesn't come to mind when thinking nachos, enchiladas, tacos, etc. But avocado and swiss on a burger, though, is a favorite combination of mine. So, I'll be having avocado-swiss smash burgers, with a little cheddar along for the ride. I've also got some hot dogs on hand, so if either of the kids would rather have a hot dog, I'll fire that up too. The griddle will be on, what's really the difference? Beyond that, they're on their own. That's what's on the hot menu today.
Tuesday: Some kind of pasta night with salad. Maybe sausage and peppers...? I would love to not buy anything, but I'm not sure I have any pasta-adjacent foodstuffs in the freezer. I'll have to check. Oh wait, I have that shrimp from wildfork, and some really good garlic, so maybe like a shrimp scampi pasta. Hmmm....
Wednesday: The pork loins were on super sale again, so let's do pork loin roasted on the smoker with Thanksgiving dressing and something green. Green beans maybe. Wednesday is our night with no evening extracurriculars, so what's a few more dishes.
Thursday: ? ? ? (Try as I might, I just can't seem to make a plan all this way out. Thursday gets orphaned most weeks. I hit the store on Wednesday.)
Friday: Waffles, bacon, fruit.
|
|
|
Post by Pedantic Editor Type on Apr 29, 2024 8:25:20 GMT -5
Again we try to feed ourselves for another week.
Sunday: We ate out all weekend including Sunday breakfast with a friend, so I had a lot of leftovers and just re-made those - my breakfast was three ridiculously huge breakfast tacos stuffed with scrambled eggs, carnitas, cheese, etc. So I had a ton of filling left.
Monday: Barbecue chicken sandwiches, onion rings
Tuesday: taco flatbread, salad
Wednesday: fiochetti, garlic bread, salad
Thursday: Mexican lasagna
and Friday afternoon I'm doing a quick 24-hour trip to my mom's, because my dad will be in town for a memorial service, my brother's birthday is this week and so forth so.... not really excited about that.
|
|
|
Post by Liz n Dick on Apr 29, 2024 8:28:27 GMT -5
It is now the dreaded stretch between the end of my winter CSA box and the start of the regular-season ones. HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO FEED MYSELF WITHOUT A FARM BOX TELLING ME WHAT TO COOK? (Okay, for the record I do have a year-round farm box that is still humming along. But this time of year I mainly get salad greens, sprouts, and rice from them. Nice to have, but hardly dictating my meal planning for me!)
Monday: I do have a bunch of asparagus from the rice/sprouts farm box, and I'm giddy with excitement to make a creamy spring pasta for Boomer and me tonight. I might actually use a recipe, trying out the asparagus/pea pasta that was highlighted in the NYT Cooking email this past weekend. (I'd link to the recipe, but basically everything you need to know is in the name. It's asparagus, peas, lemon, mint, and cream. With pasta.) I'll make a lot, and have leftovers for my lunches, too! Which means that Hugs can have the remainder of the chili leftovers I made yesterday, so now my week of lunch preparation is over!
Tuesday: From the triumph of a meal I'm excited to make on Monday to... uhh... maybe we'll have... food? I kind of like the idea of doing a big salad for dinner; we've got some "use it or lose it" potatoes on the brink of sprouting, some nice little head lettuces (and sprouts!), I can bread up some chicken breast, and make a lovely vinaigrette from any of the ten billion fancy vinegars I've accumulated (I went a little overboard trying stuff out after my last Lindera Farms quarterly vinegar club shipment). The only problem with that is that it's a lot of steps, a lot of sprawl in the kitchen, and I tend to be really low-ebb on Tuesdays. We'll see.
Wednesday: I don't know! Stop asking me questions I can't answer!
Thursday: The mustard taste test I ended up not doing whichever week it was -- last week? The week before? The weather's supposed to be great this week, the deck is starting to get decorated with flowerpots, the backyard is getting leafy and green -- time to open grilling season! We'll grill some brats and fresh garlic sausages, I'll make an easy pasta salad, and we'll sample mustards!
Friday: Chili-topped baked potatoes.
|
|
|
Post by Liz n Dick on Apr 30, 2024 7:57:59 GMT -5
CSA farm drama!
You may recall that several years ago now my beloved CSA farm pulled up stakes. I'd been a member with them for 19 years at the time, since just a few weeks after Hugs and I had moved back to this neck of the woods. The entirety of my independent adult life! But I'd added a second CSA membership in the early days of the pandemic, when I saw a sign for home-delivery boxes from another nearby farm; that was back when we were all worried about grocery supply chain, so I was signing up for any delivery service I could find. They were a funky little oddball farm, and made a nice supplement to my primary CSA -- they seemed to grow a lot of specialty greens and fun stuff I didn't get from the bigger farm. Asian greens I'd never heard of! A wide assortment of sweet baking pumpkins! They had unique farming practices that meant their spring crops didn't struggle with rainy weather the way my big farm's did, so that filled a hole! Their big-ticket CSA crops were only so-so (the peppers and tomatoes and whatnot), though, so when my first farm closed and I made these guys my primary one it was disappointing. And then they even stopped growing all the weirdo stuff and just did all the basics, not extremely well. Sigh.
It should be noted that back in the early days the delivery driver was the actual farmer. He's a super-nice guy, and we'd chat every week when he dropped my box off. I got to know his wife through the email communications about farm business and sign-ups. They came to me for a testimonial review they could put on their new website when it launched. They're great people! But the problem with knowing your local farmer is that your local farmer knows you. A new farm eventually moved into the location where my beloved former CSA had been, and they offer a slightly different CSA model that seems really appealing. They're kind of more a co-op than a straight CSA, with the idea that they can pool together crops from a host of nearby smaller, specializing farms, so they can offer a wider array of better quality goods than if they were trying to grow all that same stuff themselves. I don't love that the farms aren't as immediately local as the classic "it's all grown right here, at this site!" model, but everything is still coming from central or south Jersey or just across the river in PA. I really, really, really wanted to join this new farm (and, in fact, just finished up their very impressive winter farm box subscription last week), but was stuck with my kinda crappy farm, because I'd re-upped last winter before realizing this new place was moving in. And more than being financially locked into this season, I felt really terrible quitting on Andrew and Catherine. They would notice! They'd probably reach out to personally remind me of sign-ups! I was going to be letting them down by switching to a different farm!
Then this morning came a (very weirdly timed) email: Andrew and Catherine are quitting farming. And handing over their membership to the other farm people. This is super-weird for them to be doing this close to the start of the season, but... whatever. I'm not sure exactly what the details of my switched membership will be (my current farm wasn't supposed to start until the end of May, but the new farm starts THIS WEEK), but it'll sort itself out. I'm genuinely really sorry for them that their business failed (they had some very frank financial details in the email announcement, and it's really depressing), but selfishly I'm really relieved I don't have to be one of the people who let them down. And now I get membership in the farm I've been itching to join basically since about 10 minutes after I'd committed to my now former farm last winter!
|
|
LazBro
Prolific Poster
Posts: 10,018
|
Post by LazBro on May 2, 2024 7:59:27 GMT -5
Week 2 report:
- I have not caved and made any separate meals. The closest I came was also making some simple buttered noodles on pasta nights, but that doesn't require any extra pans or much effort, so I'm fine doing that. My parents did that before I liked tomato sauce, so fine.
- This has held even on nights when I knew the meal, while delicious and not at all weird, likely wouldn't appeal to either of my kids. Meals such as pork bites, last night's roast pork loin, or burger/dog night.
- Neither kid has exercised their right to make themselves something simple and cold instead. On three nights now, my son has eaten literally nothing. Just sat at the table and waited.
- Instead they have started sneaking snacks into their rooms late at night. They're allowed to take snacks to school that they can eat during class, so we have an assortment of packaged snacks in the pantry that are easy to grab and go: mini-muffins, Kind bars, pop tarts, fruit gummi snacks, crackers. As the one who does all the shopping and manages the food budget, I'm pretty quick to notice when my new $15 twenty-pouch box of mini-muffins is empty after two days. That really stands out to me. I searched my daughter's room last night and found 10 empty mini-muffin bags under my daughter's pillow, all of which would have had to be eaten in one night. I also found my son coming up the stairs at 1:00am, many many hours past his bedtime, giving me a story about getting some water, a full cup of which was already in his room, and very obviously hiding something behind his back. This turned out to be an entire unopened sleeve of graham crackers.
|
|
|
Post by Pedantic Editor Type on May 2, 2024 9:02:27 GMT -5
I'm kind of fascinated by a new trend in my little suburb. My county is ~7% Muslim, and I would guess that's somewhat concentrated in my town, which has two mosques and a significant Asian population. One of the main business drags/state highways through our town has always had a number of Indian/Pakistani and Mediterranean restaurants, most of which are halal, and now ... coffee/tea shops are becoming a thing. There's now a second Adeni chai/coffee house opening two plots down from the first one that opened about two years ago, there's a bubble tea place across the street that serves chicken sandwiches, a "Muslims of the World" coffeehouse in our downtown...
I love it, but I'm wondering just how many coffee/chai shops this area can support!
|
|