Before and after.
But man are they filling!! The kids even got into sharing them—we cut each one into four so we can all try every one! (This is a special treat. They aren’t local… but we picked them up locally through DwellSocial.)
After the boys did their Matrix we wanted to try one, too. The only thing we found that we really all agree on was Cherry vodka and pop. So you can see our 7×4 matrix below. Probably half of them were beyond awful so we had just the tiniest sip and dumped them. One vodka was definitely the best (Oma’s) and one was the worst (Effen).
We have been loving Hello Fresh so we thought we’d try a bit cheaper alternative. It would have been perfectly fine had we started with that one and not Hello Fresh. We are really spoiled by all the ingredients for all the meals being separated into bags…because when we opened this box and saw a completely jumbled mess of food Tom and I looked at each other like WHAAAAAT IS THIIIIIIS?!
So we had to split it all up and bag it so we could just grab a bag and go. It wasn’t hard but…like I said, we were spoiled.
The good thing about having snow on the deck? Extra freezer space. The bad thing? Out of sight, out of mind. Whoops! (We let it defrost in the fridge and it was perfectly delicious the following night!)
Oliver Blueberry Moscato – didn’t taste like blueberry at all but was very yummy
One of the YouTube channels Tom watches is called How to Drink with a non-professional home bartender that likes to “make drinks and drink them!” He’s funny and we enjoy listening to his reviews.
One recent episode was called This episode tried to kill me where he did a Manhattan Matrix…with like 42 different versions to try (6 vermouths by 7 Bourbons)! The boys decided to try it with 3 vermouths and 3 Bourbons…
Both looking up the recipe that was used because neither could remember and they wanted to do it exactly right.
Don’t worry—they did not drink all of all the trials. It was mostly small sips of each one. They also rated them all 1-9.
When you get stuck with the bottom half of the everything bagel that has no flavoring on it…
We went over to Anna and David’s for Christmas Day dinner. And another batch of Dave’s amazing Trinidadian rum punch.
Daaaaamn. I guess I do like rum. Merry Christmas!
We did a Frontera pickup today from Dwell Social. It’s a bit more prep than just dining at a restaurant, but we didn’t have to drive to Chicago, so it’s a win. This photo is missing most of the main courses but trust me, it was all there.
Short Rib Enchiladas
Six homemade heirloom corn tortillas, each wrapped around braised Creekstone Farms beef short rib, roasted local gold potatoes, tomato-guajillo chile sauce, Samuel’s artisan Jack cheese. Served with black beans and chocolate-pecan pie bars for dessert.
Tacos al Carbon
Wood-grilled Creekstone skirt steak and Gunthorp Farms chicken breast along with everything you need to make fabulous tacos: guacamole, roasted poblano rajas, black beans, classic Gulf-style rice, grilled knob onions, shishito peppers, two salsas and handmade tortillas with heirloom corn from Oaxaca, Mexico. Finish off with Mexican vanilla flan for a sweet ending.
Guacamole and Chips
Mashed Michoacán avocados, local Mighty Vine tomato, serrano chile, cilantro, lime. House-made tortillas chips served with red three chile salsa & green roasted tomatillo salsa.
Queso Fundido
Samuel’s artisanal Jack cheese, garlicky roasted peppers, and homemade chorizo served with heirloom corn tortillas.
BAR SÓTANO CRISPY TLAYUDA (TOSTADA) STARTERS
Six crispy Oaxacan tlayudas (rustic tostadas) with 2 toppings:
The kids get a Lego advent calendar. We get good chocolate. (And cheese!)
A totally inferior substitute to be sure. I will never cheap out again.
Friendship means Thanksgiving dinner plate leftovers delivery at 10:30pm because we had deep dish pizza today. (And we had had a game night with a bunch of us!)
We were going to have dinner with Anna and David but Covid kinda put a stop to that…and since the kids don’t really like any typical Thanksgiving fare, we opted against all the work and Tom made pizza (and I made mozzarella bread balls)! It was yummy!
Aaaaaand what would Thanksgiving be without…a chocolate martini…?!
I’m not a huge acorn squash fan so I figure butter, brown sugar, maple syrup, and walnuts oughta fix it.
Caramel Apple and Strawberries and Cream jello shots.
I might have also scooted around the neighborhood tonight delivering testers. Katie and Owen came with me—I needed Katie to carry the shots in her bike basket. And she liked announcing “jello delivery” at each house.
And then a friend wrote a poem about me. LOL
Plot twist! #lifehacks #winning
Today’s menu? Butternut squash soup!
It ended up turning into a curry soup (which tasted a lot like Massaman Curry) and it was delicious. Neither kid liked it.
I’ve forgotten to mention that I now have an electric scooter. It came about quite suddenly around our anniversary. We were at a friend’s house a ways away in the neighborhood and were joking about how it was a little too far to walk to easily and Tom mentioned I should get this scooter that he saw on a deal group. Everyone joked about how awesome that would be so I bought it as an anniversary present!
I will say the first time on it was super scary as I’ve never really even tried one of the kids’ manual scooters, but turns out it’s pretty fun.
Anyhoo, it makes it very convenient to bop down to a neighbor’s house for a quick drink.
I think this is half what we had the first time we did this. Maybe next time if we halve it again…
And I need help.
Up until today, they had been in a completely different cupboard because this one housed mixing bowls, measuring cups, strainers, etc…which I loved, but I hated that it was impossible to see and easily reach most of my spices (kinda far away in a corner).
Now I’ve discovered that a lot of them fit in the drawer—which means I can see them—but they obviously don’t all fit. (Tom still has a full shelf of his BBQ and meat seasonings.)
So what do I put in the white pull out sheves? Mixes like chili and chip dip and buttermilk dressing? I thought maybe basics like salts and peppers and garlics but I feel like I want quicker access to those via the drawer. Tom has too many to fit in there. I could use the space for a lazy susan I have with my oils, vinegars, and other big glass bottles…but then I can’t use the white shelves anywhere else (they have to be low).
This will all be moot eventually (maybe next year?) when Tom puts in pull out shelving specific for spices. But in the meantime I need a working solution.
Side problem: how to organize within an area? I kinda do alphabetical even though I know it’s best to keep like spices together…but having the Costco-sized spices throws that off.
and I put him to work juicing limes (testing Lindsay’s juicer).
this is the amount of limes in the sink.
The night started innocent enough. Lindsay said she was out relaxing in her back yard while the kids played and whoever wanted to come down was welcome. Tom was napping and the kids were out and about so I left a note and drove down. Shortly after u arrived, Angela and Ryan showed up (with their two littles) as they were out on a walk.
The margaritas were flowing and I texted Tom that he needed to come with the kids. It took some convincing because he was tired. But I assured him he really did need to show up because the dads were there and this was going to be a good opportunity to meet them all and just hang out and get to know them. So he came. Other neighbors and kids showed up and we ended up ordering pizza!
We even sent Owen home on his Segway to get some fruit from our fridge. He got to feel responsible and we got the fruit so it was win-win.
The littles even did sparklers before we left!
When you’re making dinner with hubby…
…and a new friend texts they’re making margaritas and says “be ready…” and then your doorbell rings 10 minutes later!
I then sent Lindsay home with some of Tom’s Hopsy beer.
It’s just missing a homemade dill pickle.
More Adventures in Moving, Dinner Edition:
So today we moved the refrigerators around. Our fridge from the house went to the new house garage. The rental fridge came back in from the garage. So this necessitated a bunch of coolers and rearranging of food and trying to decide what to keep here and what to take over to the new house. I have done this MANY times, but today…well.
So it comes time for dinner and I had found a package of what I thought was taco meat. I mean, I even tasted it and my tired brain thought it was taco meat. It was Italian sausage. So then I dug through the freezer and found enchilada mix–perfect for nachos! Except it turned out to be potato soup (I didn’t take off the last label).
Not to be deterred I went back to the freezer and found ANOTHER package of meat that looked like ground beef – but it wasn’t my writing but I couldn’t really make it out… Yeah, more Italian sausage.
I GIVE UP. So we were gonna have Italian sausage nachos.
Except guess what? I had NONE of my other ingredients! No green onions (missing), no mexican cheese (missing), no guacamole (missing), no salsa (missing). WHAAAAAAT?????? I knew I had all that stuff which is why I picked nachos to start with! But by this time we were all starving so it was just meat and cheddar cheese nachos.
And guess what? Miss Picky Eater herself said they were the best ever! WHAAAAAT?!
And then while we were eating…we were discussing all the missing foods and how I swear I didn’t unpack them at the other house…and we discovered there was one cooler that got pushed aside in the other room. So now we have a full fridge.
What shall tomorrow bring?
and emptying the fridge and pantry—necessity is the mother of invention. Crackers, cheese spread, and balsamic onions. It’s delicious. I might also have soup going on the stove with the last of the baby potatoes and some leftover sauteed onions.
And after some hard work, having our first drink! From one of the three (!) beverage fridges in the wet bar. CHEERS!
