Friday Photos- Ole and Bless the USA

A look back at the week, Monday thru Friday, through photos-

I had plans for not one but TWO social interactions. Only one happened; one got pushed back to next week. 

We were supposed to have gotten together with friends last weekend. They had to cancel due to a work obligation. Donnie suggested that we get together during the week (whaaaat?) since it didn’t work out over the weekend. Donnie suggested Taco Tuesday at our house. On Tuesday. Of course with the eponymous Taco Tuesday lazy susan serving (literally and figuratively) as the piece d’ resistance of our ersatz Mexican meal.

I spent most of Tuesday preparing the meal and cleaning the house thoroughly in anticipation of dinner guests. I didn’t expect our guests to scrutinize the baseboards for dust and pesky corners for detritus (as normal sweeping jobs sometimes preclude fastidiousness in the corners and crevices of the house); nonetheless, having guests over seemed as good a reason as any to do a thorough job.  In addition to our friends coming over, both girls’ boyfriends were available and willing to come to dinner. Why, it was turning into a proper little dinner party. Bueno!

One of my favorite meat dishes for a Mexican themed meal is this Chipotle chicken copy cat recipe so I made a big batch of this.

I always use chicken breasts (Chipotle uses thighs) and I bake the chicken rather than grill it like they do at Chipotle. Using chipotle peppers does lend the chicken that distinct Chipotle chicken taste. I made the marinade late in the morning and had the chicken immersed in the viscous (I do not add as much water as the recipe calls for so the marinade is quite thick) marinade for hours.

Alyssa really likes the corn salsa at Chipotle so I decided to try to replicate that. I had never attempted a corn salsa copy cat recipe but found one online that looked pretty easy. The recipe called for a jalapeno pepper which I hadn't picked up at Aldi when I was there on Monday. I remembered that I had seen a small jalapeno pepper in the garden on Monday. I hoped that by Tuesday afternoon, it would have grown a lot and been more the size of the peppers that are for sale at grocery stores. When I went to the garden on Tuesday afternoon to look at the plant, the jalapeno pepper had not grown much. I picked it nonetheless and hoped that it would taste like a regular pepper- there would just be less of it. Sadly, upon washing, cutting up, and trying a piece of the pepper, it tasted bitter not spicy. Rats! I wouldn’t be able to use it. Fortunately, in the comment section of the recipe, someone claimed to have worked at Chipotle and said that jalapeno peppers are not even used in the salsa; rather, green chile peppers are used. I had canned green chile peppers so I made it with those. I also added some of the juice from the canned chipotle peppers to give it (hopefully!) a chipotle flavor. Everyone liked the salsa quite a bit. I will make it again. I got the recipe from here.

I also made cilantro lime rice and two desserts- a brownie cookie and Oreo truffles. The truffles are a bit of a pain to make but they are scrumptiously rich and good. Online recipes for these are numerous- I used this one from Sally’s Baking Addiction. Sally says to not use chocolate chip as the chocolate that gets melted and into which the Oreo balls are dipped. Here to say that you can use chocolate chips! Well, at least chocolate chunks. I used a package of chocolate chunks that I’d picked up at Aldi on Monday.

Speaking of Aldi on Monday- Abby and I picked up some winners! The total came to $170- has to be one of the highest amounts that I have spent there but I got a lot for that amount. The cashier was a man which is fine but unusual and then at the end, he asked if I needed my receipt or not. I was flummoxed because I had never been asked that; I said I didn't need it (which was true) but later I wish I had it when I tried to remember some of the prices that I’d paid for items. I stocked up on cheese for my cheese drawer!! Aldi doesn’t do traditional sales but they do have occasional small mark downs and cheese blocks were marked down. I think were $1.85. I bought a bunch.

Got some items for Tuesday’s meal that deserve a shout out. I bought a different salsa- I normally don’t buy organic over regular but in the regular, the only style was mild. Mama ain’t eatin’ mild nothin’ so I had to go up a tier in price and spring for organic...The salsa was soooo good! I feel like I’ve had Aldi’s salsa con queso but it must not have been in a long time. It was really good- I don´t remember liking it that much. Finally, these tortilla chips- I wish I’d purchase a box load! I know that I had never had them before. I don’t remember seeing this exact kind/ brand in the store before. The chips are thick and just so good. Highly recommend for a Taco Tuesday event or any time.

{I accidentally deleted a picture of the queso. I think it was just the normal Aldi house brand.}

Speaking of Taco Tuesday and our event at the house, I was faced with a hostessing crisis (of sorts!). I had placed some of our July 4th decor up and everything looked so festive in the red, white and blue primary colors. Our everyday dishes are plain white, and I found some red plastic bowls that would be ideal if our guests wanted to make a burrito bowl instead of a taco. The red of the bowls against the white of the plates would further enhance the red, white and blue color scheme going on in the kitchen. BUT... my formal china pattern is called JUNE and what month are we in but JUNE... and I sort of felt like I should use the formal china. However, I decided to go with the white and the red.

Dinner was a success on every level- even had leftovers and gotta love having clean baseboards for a little while as well...

Later in the week, another bittersweet end of an era occurred. I did not see this one coming. Alyssa received her last report card in the mail along with her entire high school transcript. We looked it over (her overall HS GPA ended up being really high :)), talked about high school a little bit and then while holding the pages in her hand, she asked me, "Should I put these papers in the drawer?" The Drawer was a drawer in the kitchen that housed all of the kids' school papers for the duration of a school year. For some years, it was two drawers. Examples of papers that would go in the drawer would be beginning of year letter from a child's teacher, any particularly good assignment, grade, or notice of outstanding something or other related to school, information about upcoming field trips events- things like that went into The Drawer. At some point during the summer, I would sort through the items in The Drawer(s). Some items would get pitched and some would go into a child's individual plastic bin of saved childhood mementos. A new school year would start along with a mostly empty drawer and the whole process began all over again. This year, The Drawer contained almost all college related material- from exhortations to attend a particular college, to dates to save, to maps of colleges, etc. 

When Alyssa asked me about The Drawer, I thought about it for a second and replied that she could place her report card and transcripts directly into her bin of items to save (I assume she wanted to save her transcript and last report card- she did) rather than put the papers first in The Drawer. And with that, there really is no need for The Drawer. Alyssa will still get college papers in the mail but everything important also arrives via email to her and to us. We are officially past the point of needing to hold on to papery type school items. Kinda sad but I do get the use of a drawer back :). 

Photos from the week:

My first ever jalapeno from the garden- It was a shame to lose it by picking it when it was not ripe. 

It was also kind of a shame to not use my June china as mentioned above. 

Since our kitchen table expands to seat ten people, I decided we’d eat our meal with guests in the kitchen which already had some red, white and blue touches and just went from there...

One of these drawers was The Drawer. 

What is likely the last batch of school related items that was in The Drawer. Had to take a picture of the pile to memorialize the event ;).