Katya4me

Tonight was crispy wings in my new electric smoker. For my first time, I'm pretty happy with the result. More smoke next time and I need to rotate the racks, which I didn't do this time. Had the chicken with a bag of Trader Joe’s Mexican Style Roasted Corn with Cotija.

Last night we polished off the last of the honeydew-jalapeno shrub. We've got some little bottles of Bailey's and this weather is quite wet, so I may make myself an adult hot chocolate after work. This Mexican hot cocoa became my go-to recipe a few years ago and I just made a fresh batch last week.

Tonight was spaghetti and TJ Italian style meatballs with focaccia. The focaccia recipe has been my go to for a few years now as it's fast and consistently tasty.

Tonight was WashPost's Shrimp and White Bean Bruschetta which is basically exactly what it sounds like. I had some white beans left from the batch I cooked on Sunday, basil that was on it's last leg and I had made a loaf of bread on Tuesday. Super easy and definitely would make again.

Last night was unintentionally but deliciously vegan. First was not scalloped potatoes, but quartered potatoes in a fantastic sauce. The recipe called for small new potatoes, but I used thin skinned red potatoes. Once those were in the oven, I moved on to the BBQ tofu bites. You drain the tofu, tear it up into bits and then toss it with oil and a rub, then roast until crispy. I've done this recipe before and very much enjoy it. After dinner, we popped some popcorn sprinkled with Nanami Togarashi seasoning, but I think I prefer sate seasoning.

Whiskey sour for dinner tonight. 😋 We're not whiskey folks but we've got a couple of bottles hanging around, so I made a sour mix using Serious Eats recipe. Skipped the marachino cherry but it turned out well and now I've got lots in the fridge for another time.

I hope you like it. I found it at Total Wine, not sure which one offhand. I've been using the app Cider Expert to track what ciders I've tried and how I rated them. I've got about 30 listed there so far, so it's been very helpful.

We did spicy fried rice tonight. I had a ton of old rice that was lingering so I doubled the recipe. We had some leftover spicy tofu sofritos that I tossed in with the diced chicken thighs I used as the protein. I didn't have any more green onions, so tossed in half a red onion instead and added some chopped basil. Really good and plenty of leftovers 😋

Big Pippin Prickly Pear & Orange Blossom hard cider. We picked up a six pack over the winter and it's pretty tasty.

We continue to work on whittling away at the liquor cabinet. Tonight is a quarter can of coconut milk that I found in the fridge, 12 oz of pineapple juice, a glug of pina colada moonshine and ice before blending. My husband then added banana liqueur to his but I passed on that.

I like the way you think, and sure enough, I can get it at my local ABC store. However, after reading that article, not sure if that's such a good idea.

My hubby does not like the smell of coffee and it's my preferred source of caffeine. This is not a problem normally, as I have coffee at work. However, working from home, this does pose a bit of a dilemma. My solution has been 1 packet of Maxim's instant coffee with up to 1 teaspoon of Medaglia d'Oro® Espresso Instant Coffee and topped off with Trader Joe's Turmeric Ginger Coconut Beverage. I've been doing this for the past week and I've got to say while not perfect, it is working for giving me my morning fix.

Tonight, I opened the honeydew jalapeno shrub that has been hiding behind the Soda stream machine. Carbonated some water, did about 2 parts soda water to shrub and added some white rum. My husband had a sip and asked me to make him one so I'll call it a success.

I had about a cup of dry white beans that have been lingering so decided to cook them this afternoon. We had ground beef and empanada wrappers in the freezer so I made spicy beef and bean empanadas. Had three of them with a bit of sour cream and leftovers for tomorrow.

We did chicken yakisoba last night. The recipe wasn't bad but didn't do anything for either of us, so won't be making it again. Do have 3 more servings of it to eat later this week but we'll doctor those up as we eat them.

Tonight's drink. I'll call it a version of a Screwdriver.

Last weekend we totally stocked up on chicken (thighs and breasts) and then divided into labeled freezer bags the portions we planned to use in various recipes over the next 2 weeks. Last night was Thai chili sauce stir fry, so the chicken breasts came out of the freezer and into the wok. We had this over jasmine rice with some Thai basil leftover from another recipe.

I thought we needed a light-hearted thread to go with the home-cooking threads that are so active right now. I want this to be inclusive, so it can cover the over-abundance of kombucha that isn't being shared, or the lovely loose teas you don't normally get to indulge in at home. If you've got a killer sodastream combination, share it. The lunch thread discussion reminded me of a rum punch recipe that I hadn't made in a while. So, that's what we made to have with dinner last night. Voila! Tea in Frederick, MD makes a fantastic tea called The Frederick Blues which is a loose black tea infused with blueberry juice. It's really delicious and I've got a pot made up to enjoy as I telework.

We've used this recipe twice with our Cuisinart: https://www.thespruceeats.com/avocado-ice-cream-3957025 The first time, we stuck to the recipe exactly, the 2nd time, we had a lot of extra fruit so we tossed a banana and mango in with the avocados and towards the end of the freezing, stirred in some chopped grapes. I liked the texture better of the 2nd batch as it was firmer, but the banana flavor was too over powering for me. My husband happily devoured all of it.

We did sofritos over rice for dinner. Good pantry items recipe, but I think I'll add a can of beans next time as it just needed a little something more. We've been going through our cider stash so last night I had Swilled Dog's Caramel Apple and my husband had Blake's Mango Habanero.

Today was leftover chili. I've not tried the omelet recipe, but it does look good. Not necessarily recommended for a weekday lunch, but from the same blogger, I've very much enjoyed her rum punch.

Last night was Drunken Noodles with Original Sin's Black Widow Cider.

Last night's dinner was chili. https://www.feastingathome.com/white-bean-chili-with-jackfruit/ My husband thought it was a little too brothy for his taste and I can't argue with him. But it was super easy to make so may just keep that in mind for the future.

We went for a midday bicycle ride with a picnic lunch. Made tuna salad with some finely chopped basil included and had that on wheat bread with mandarins and dried mangoes.

We did a big steak salad tonight. It start out as this wrap recipe but we decided to cut up the lettuce, added a green bell pepper and cucumber and tossed it into 2 bowls for a very delicious dinner.