Hi, everyone. It’s finally warming up here - we had to break out the sunscreen for soccer yesterday! We were all up early yesterday for a trip to the airport, without luggage - we completed our Global Entry interviews and my confirmation came through before we even made it back to the car. DS went to the movies with friends so DH and I had an impromptu date night of Thai food, ice cream, and Ted Lasso.
Sun: spaghetti and meatballs - trying the recipe in Smitten Kitchen Keepers - and salad
Mon: turkey cutlets and a cherry tomato cobbler from Bittman’s How to Cook Everything Fast (HTCEF)
Tues: sheet pan chicken fajitas (The Dinner Plan) - the Siete grain-free almond flour tortillas I impulse-bought at Costco are really good replacements for flour tortillas!
Weds: “Brazilian black beans” aka Fast Feijoada from HTCEF, and “Brazilian cheese bread” aka pao de queijo from the Bob’s Red Mill website - the buns are cooked in a muffin tin so should be big enough for burgers…
Saturday - classic spring feats. Asparagus to start. Roast beef sirloin, roast spuds, veg, gravy, Yorkshire salad. Rhubarb fool
Sunday - Eastern Meditteranean mezze, much of it ready made from the supermarket. Plus Imam Bayeldi (recipe from Yasmin Khan’s “Ripe Figs”)
Monday - leftover roast beef, salad, spuds of some sort
Tuesday - lemon sole fillets, Jersey Royal spuds, veg.
Wednesday - out. Upmarket tasting menu place in the city - we’re taking Nephew #1 as a treat. It’s the restaurant where Mr Rolls first met Mr Royce, in 1904.
Two adults in Western Massachusetts
Actuals from last week were
Thursday a friend gave me a quart of Panera mac and cheese. Panera a local chain and very well liked but we weren’t fans of the mac and cheese, very soupy and mildly cheesy. I added brocolli crowns and italian sausage for a save.
Friday middle school tacos for cinco de mayo
Saturday sausage stuffed zucchini and corn toasties. Bagged salad.
Sunday Mama Cosi Rising crust four cheese frozen pizza from Aldi garnished with sauteed veg and the rest of the Italian sausage. Bagged salad.
Monday barbeque chicken breast, brown rice and more salad but not bagged!
Tuesday pork meatballs with grits and swisschard.
Wednesday fried fish, cod, and potato for me, tbd DH
Thursday leftovers
Friday is cheeseburger and caesar salad night
With all the hoopla I would have liked to have had Coronation Chicken and a Pimms Cup for lunch and a Mint Julep and a Hot Brown for dinner Saturday.
With all the hoopla I would have liked to have had Coronation Chicken and a Pimms Cup for lunch and a Mint Julep and a Hot Brown for dinner Saturday.
Ginny, I hope you can get at least a Pimms Cup and a Mint julep a few days late! If we lived closer to each other, I’d get the ingredients and bring them to you!
I was considering getting it when I was traveling internationally a lot about 6 years ago, but then my job changed and I traveled less, and then Covid… The big impetus for doing it now is a trip to London later this year, but more urgently, DS will “age out” of sliding through TSA PreCheck on our memberships when he turns 13 in July, so he needs his own!
I liked it better than he did but I have to say yes as we don’t have TJ or another inexpensive vender.
Lots of pricey artisan pizza in the area but usually too designer for DH.
I get my fix by the slice from the pricey butcher.
Thank you for this link. I immediately made a batch and a half, sending some to school for my kid’s teachers, after you posted. They are easy and good.
If you haven’t already done so, don’t neglect applying for Mobile Passport (free and Logan accepts it). If the Global Entry line is too long (it never has been in our experience) you can hop over to the Mobile Passport line.
I used melted butter and oil. I wondered about maybe substituting buttermilk for the yogurt (way cheaper and I like finding ways to use it), but I didn’t want to experiment on the teachers are on my first to go.
The sun came out this morning! It has been downpour after downpour since Friday morning (4 days worth). Prior to that it was 4 days of 80’s +. Too soggy to work the garden, maybe pruning is on the docket today. Calliope hummers showing up! I’m thinking of lemon grilled chicken thighs, smashed l.o. gold taters and l.o. jicama and pepper slaw tonight. Maybe tagliateIle with Canlis’ style scampi sauce and a simple romaine salad tomorrow? I have spareribs planned for later in the week, so I will rub them down today. Gotta do something with the l.o. stewed chuck ‘enchilada/taco’ meat from Friday. Nachos!
Breakfast for the week: yogurt with berry compote and granola, toast, maybe some oatmeal with peanut butter. Tea with plenty of honey and milk.
Lunches this week are simple simple. Salads and sandwiches and charcuterie plates.
Yesterday was a dinner salad; romaine hearts and arugula base with cucumber, tomato, canned corn, pickled red onion, chicken apple sausage, and the crumbled dregs of a bag of tortilla chips. Had some sliced and grilled baguette on the side.
Today was burgers and fries from the old school drive thru spot, with a chocolate soft serve cone to round it out.
Tomorrow will be something with chicken breast, potatoes, and a side salad with all the leftover salad fixings.
Thursday sounds like a good time to get some random stuff out of the freezer. Likely Trader Joe’s veggie masala burger for me and chicken nuggets for my husband, some roasted potatoes and sheet pan roasted veggies.
Friday is dinner with the family!
I’ll be on my own for Saturday dinner so I’m guessing it will be popcorn and/or cereal and pecking around snacks and cheese eaten while standing directly in front of the fridge.
Sunday will be going out for dinner with a friend, either all you can eat hot pot or a new Thai place.
If everyone in your party is 12 years or older, U.S. citizens can now use the e-gates at Heathrow; this saves a lot of time. Pre-pandemic, I had waited as long as an hour in Heathrow immigration; now it is very quick.
I’ve had Global Entry for a long time (more than 10 years … I’ve renewed twice) and it really speeds things up. However, they’ve switched the machines from fingerprints to facial recognition and I had some difficulty lining my face up properly with the camera to get it to recognize me :). It took multiple attempts.
