Month: March 2023

daily recap · what we ate

Day 1094: Ribs

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I feel like I eat a lot of ugly food but don’t notice it until I’m trying to remember to take a picture for this.

Today for lunch I had leftover Singapore noodles and Matt had leftover chicken salad. Snacks were “lemon plums” but they had turned purple and cosmic crisp apples (mine with marshmallow peanut butter).

We honestly didn’t do much today! I got a migraine at 4 am and neither of us got much sleep so we mostly read and napped a little in the afternoon.

For dinner we heated up the ribs we got yesterday at Jake’s (I swear they are better the day after you buy them) and Matt made corn muffins, barbecue sauce and a ton of steamed broccoli.

Finding a (yarn) spinning class has been an ongoing battle since literally September when I bought my wheel. Today I checked the schedule of a fiber arts center about 90 minutes away and they actually had one slot in a one day class in April. I signed up. I really don’t want I can figure this out on my own through trial and error and every class I sign up for is either canceled, I’m ghosted or they bizarrely refuse to teach me the wheel and insist I do drop spindle.

Now I have to decide if I want to spend the night before and/or after the class. It’s 9-5 in the middle of the week so that would be a long day! Doable but I’d be hitting rush hour on both sides and the class is in the middle of nowhere between two cities. Matt says I should just book a hotel but honestly, I’m a little nervous this will be canceled too! The hotels are really expensive for being in very undesirable locations.

After dinner we did a double feature of Pump Up the Volume and Empire Records. I had never seen Pump Up The Volume before. It was kind of depressing to hear how bleak they thought it was in 1990 and we seem to be in a worse place now. We had watched Times Square in the fall but I almost wish we had made it a triple feature.

daily recap · what we ate

Day 1093: Pit Beef & Keema Shepard’s Pie

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Matt took off today so we could go to the orchid show at the fairgrounds. It was at the home and garden show and $5 Friday which was a fair price for admission to a small not too exciting home and garden show! Matt did buy a new hat but the big draw was the orchids which are only here for the weekend.

All the local orchid societies from southern PA to northern VA were there and some orchid vendors. We bought a couple dendrobiums. We are debating doing the IKEA furniture trick to make a little greenhouse cabinet.

On our way home we picked up sandwiches at Jake’s Grill, pit beef for me and pit turkey for Matt. We also got an order of their great ribs to have for dinner tomorrow.

We had horseradish at home so we made our own tiger sauce.

The beef was so tender! Matt was a little jealous. Their turkey is so good too though. I wish they were closer!

We read and took a nap. The dogs were practically herding us upstairs. I think when we leave they don’t sleep at all. Neither of us has slept well lately so it was welcome! It’s so easy to nap on rainy days.

For dinner Matt made keema-inspired Shepard’s Pie with lamb from Lidl. I was pleased with the lamb and the pie was not pretty but really good! So cozy yet nice and spiced.

We finished You and started the next project from the knitting book. It took a long time for Matt to catch up to me for the last project!

daily recap · what we ate

Day 1092: “Cold” Slaw

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I felt better today and made chicken salad (recipe for upcoming book) so we had that for lunch with some chips. I had bought rolls for it on Monday but they were moldy! They were sell by yesterday but still.

I’m trying to find new book to get into. Some came in from the library (digitally) but they weren’t great. I had a good run the last week!

We found that Dottie responds to whistles so I’ve been using a wooden train whistle to call her in and it’s really cute/funny.

Today is our “Friday” because Matt took tomorrow off so we could have a long weekend. Instead of cooking, we got a chicken/fries/cornbread combo from the local sub shop and I made “cold slaw” as a side (also for the new book). It’s like coleslaw but with some other veggies in it in addition to cabbage.

My King Arthur flour order arrived! It’s mainly for recipe development but I’m sure I’ll have some flour leftover for fun too. It’s amazing how little flour I got for over a hundred dollars.

I’m excited about this book because it’s all food that’s easy to make into a meal. The last book (coming out in the fall) was celebration food which was good but you can’t have doughnuts for dinner every night!

We watched You after dinner to avoid spoilers. Joe’s hallucinating again, isn’t he??

daily recap · repurposing leftovers · what we ate

Day 1091: Take-out

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I really didn’t feel great today! I had a migraine yesterday and really felt the after effects.

I managed to heat up some leftover smoked eggplant and eggplant ravioli (from Lidl) for lunch but I didn’t finish it.

I was going to spend the day testing recipes (I even prepped yesterday!) but don’t feel up to it.

Matt ended up picking up Singapore noodles for dinner. More lemon “pie”.

We watched some Holding on Acorn.

daily recap · repurposing leftovers · what we ate

Day 1089: Shrimp + Brussels Sprouts

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I had a blood test early in the morning (a little low on iron) so I went to that and then stopped at Lidl on my way home. I still don’t love Lidl’s meats but they sell Perdue chicken and I wanted to try their corned beef which was on sale. Their beef has been good. I also got some ground lamb which was on sale. I always feel like I need to get the more unusual things so they will keep stocking them!

They had eggs 18/$3.45 which is the cheapest I’ve seen in a long time. I need a lot of eggs for the new book we are are writing so that was a coup.

I was tempted by the bulbs but I resisted.

Matt cut up the leftover chicken and made a super basic fried rice with the leftover rice and some eggs for lunch.

For dinner I sautéd some Brussels sprouts, bacon, onion, za’atar and shrimp and had it with smoked eggplant w/tahini and flat bread from Lidl. Not too exciting but it was fine. I also had some leftover taramasalata.

I got some reading and work done and we watched some Selena + Chef, Matt was too tired to watch Perry Mason which is back after like three years.

daily recap · what we ate

Day 1087: Taramasalata

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Matt had to return some shoes at DSW so he also ran to Target and picked up some food from the Greek casual place. We both got steak pita wraps and avgolemeno soup and as a special treat he got me some taramasalata. I love that so much and hardly any place has it. It was a special and I have a lot leftover.

Lunch was massive and I barely wanted to eat dinner but Matt grilled some peri peri chicken thighs he dry rubbed yesterday and marinated today and he served it with some homemade spiced saffron rice and bagged salad. There should be enough rice and chicken left for lunch tomorrow. He roasted eggplants on the coals after he pulled off the chicken so we have that for another meal.

Really didn’t do much today! Watched Will Trent which is surprisingly good and DI Ray which was bad and in need of a rewrite. Took a nap. Read a book. Matt took the dogs for a walk before dinner—it was really warm here.

Tomorrow I have a super early blood test and then I think I might stop at Lidl, I need some ingredients for the new book I think they might have.

daily recap · what we ate

Day 1086: Spaghetti & Meatballs!

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Dottie got us up at like 6 but we were able to coax her back to sleep after she and the other two had breakfast and then we slept into until 9. Not bad!

Matt made us breakfast sandwiches (bacon, egg, cheese on toast) and then we really didn’t have lunch. I had to film a segment about apples and peanut butter for a client so we had an apple / peanut butter snack (finally broke into the marshmallow peanut butter we got on vacation from the all peanut butter bakery/store) and then I had a few goldfish later on.

I spent the afternoon trying to catch up with my reading! Finished one book and knocked out a memoir.

Matt made a massive amount of meatballs with ground fennel and leftover parsley and a sauce with fennel and tomatoes for dinner.

We had game night. We tried the game Three Sisters but the directions were all out of order and it really wasn’t that fun. Why do so many games have such poorly written instructions? We gave up and moved on to 90s Trivial Pursuit which cute. We had picked it up at the thrift store for $4 so worth it. Some of the questions were kind of snarky!

daily recap · what we ate

Day 1085: Steak Night!

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Another dreary day!

The beagle-dogs were bonkers all day. Getting into things, silently wrestling with each other. They played in our yard for awhile but it was too gross and cold for a big walk or for them to stay out very long. I can’t wait for warmer weather!

Matt got us some sandwiches for lunch—some times we are too much of an ingredient house and if we don’t have leftovers lunch is tricky. There is only so many times I can have canned soup or tuna.

For dinner Matt made wild rice pilaf, broccolini and steak. My blood results came back perfect except for being a little low on iron so I need to get back to making an effort to eat iron rich foods again.

Watched Daisy Jones. Kind of corny but a change from the usual mysteries.

A weird loom I found on eBay arrived after 2 week journey around the country. I’m not sure what exactly it is or how to use it! I think it’s to make rag rugs.

daily recap · what we ate

Day 1084: Grilled Cheese

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Today was supposed to be my spinning lesson so I had cleared the whole day which left me at loose ends.

I really want to get a weaving project going but I can’t decide what. My goal for late winter/spring had been to do a bunch of little projects to practice warping and weaving quickly for taking my small floor loom to the MAFA conference in June and the ikat workshop in May but the workshop was canceled and I’m not going to the conference so I kind stalled out. I need some inspiration. Matt got me some kits for Christmas but they are for the rigid heddle, not the floor loom and my big rigid heddle is already warped with something else. Maybe I should just finish that?

Honestly, I didn’t do much today. I worked a little on a client project but mostly I tried to get through some of my library books. My new Kindle arrived but I’m waiting to charge it up. I like how they come preset up now. I am skeptical I will like it as much as my Oasis but we will see.

For lunch I heated up the leftover beef from Monday (the third meal we’ve had with it!) and added it to a grilled sandwich with beef, red onion, horseradish and cheddar. It was really good! A little heavy but good.

For dinner we had sautéd zucchini with red pepper flakes and anchovies tossed with refrigerated tortellini from Lidl. Not bad and a super cheap meal, I think it must have cost maybe $7 for enough for both of us. We even had a tiny bit leftover.

Thursday is Pokerface night and it was a good one! Matt also had his piano lesson.