Tag Archives: food

Returning To A Birthday Tradition (or A Rare Meal Out)

Posted on August 17, 2021 | Comments Off on Returning To A Birthday Tradition (or A Rare Meal Out)

I’ve had my birthday tradition of eating at Truxton’s with my birthday twin for a long time now. I say every year how much I love having this tradition of going to dinner with Joanna because we always set aside this time for each other each year. We don’t necessarily get to hang out as much as we’d like to over the year, but this time is sacred and we will always make sure we find a way to have this dinner.

Even last year when things were so unclear with the pandemic, we made it happen. We might have had a picnic instead of what we were used to and we were both being so cautious and careful about everything we did, but we still had our dinner. And at that point last year, I was seeing so few people that any real face-to-face time was special to me.

So even though things have taken a turn for the slightly worse with the pandemic recently, we knew we would still have our birthday dinner. We didn’t decide until the day of what the final plan would be. For me, I really did want to eat there if possible, but I wasn’t sure how Joanna would feel about it. But since they had tables outside that were set pretty far apart from each other, we agreed that eating there would be nice and safe enough.

We ended up arriving at the restaurant within about a minute of each other, and since there was nobody sitting outside at the time, we were able to be seated quickly. Since the pandemic, I’ve rarely gone to eat at a restaurant. I’ve gotten take out and delivery, but this dinner was only the 3rd time since March of 2020 that I have sat down at a restaurant and had a meal. Even if this wasn’t our birthday dinner, that alone would have made this feel so special.

Even though we have been going to Truxton’s for a long time, we always still see what is on the menu in case there are new things. And I’m not sure if they changed things earlier but last year it was a limited menu or if these were more recent changes, but there were so many new items on the menu this time!

We pretty much always get monkey bread to start and then share a dessert, plus we each get our own entrees. But this time, there was a new burrata grilled cheese sandwich that sounded so good to both of us! So we decided we’d get 2 sandwich meals and then each take half. So we got the grilled cheese and the turkey avocado club (which is a sandwich that I have gotten before and really like).

And I’m glad we split the sandwiches because the grilled cheese was so good but so rich! I never could have the entire thing myself!

Besides enjoying a nice dinner out and having a good meal, of course I loved getting to catch up with Joanna too. Both of us haven’t had a ton going on because of how we are being careful, but there is always something to update each other on. I was filling her in on some random dating stories that happened recently and she was telling me about a trip she was going to go on soon. Despite all the craziness going on in the world around us, this dinner was a nice sense of normalcy that I feel I don’t get to have that often. And while I can’t escape thinking about everything happening in the world, it was so nice to have just a bit of time to focus on something else that is more positive.

And yes, it was almost a free meal. The completely free meal isn’t really an option for us, but that’s ok. It ended up being about $5 each after our discount and we each left $20 (so our server got a $30 tip). The meal was beyond worth the $20 each!

And considering that our last 2 traditions (our birthday last year and cheesecake around the new year) had to be done in an unusual way, getting to have this almost normal dinner tradition was really one of those things that made me hopeful and grateful that more normal things might be coming soon.

I have no clue if by the end of this year or the beginning of next year things will be normal enough for us to have our cheesecake dinner the way we are used to. Worst case, we find another way to do it like we did the last time. But at least for our birthday dinner, we did get to return to an almost normal way of us celebrating.

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A Return To Wood & Vine (or Feeling Even More Like Things Are Normal)

Posted on May 6, 2021 | Comments Off on A Return To Wood & Vine (or Feeling Even More Like Things Are Normal)

There are so many things that I haven’t been able to do for the past year. Sometimes it’s because I didn’t feel safe doing them and sometimes it’s because the place was closed or there was no way to get there. But recently, things are starting to slowly open up and I am feeling a bit safer about going out and not being just in my own little bubble at home. And one of the things that I haven’t really been able to do in the past year was to go out to dinner at a restaurant.

I’ve gotten takeout and delivery from restaurants, but I haven’t been going to restaurants to eat there. I know so many places have outdoor seating and have even been able to expand their seating to fit more people, it’s just something I haven’t done. But when I got an email from the manager at Wood & Vine that they were going to reopen, I knew I had to make a reservation to eat there!

Wood & Vine had been closed since things shut down. Even though they have a great patio space, they decided to stay closed until they knew that they could make it safe for both the guests and the staff. I really did respect that choice. If they had opened before I felt safe to go back, I would have supported them by buying a gift certificate or getting take out if they had offered it. But the timing worked out perfectly for me being fully vaccinated and their new opening date. So of course, I was going to go!

My friend Dani came with me since she and I were usually there together before a show at the Pantages. The theater isn’t open yet (right now, it’s looking like they will be back in October), but I was excited to have a nice dinner out at a restaurant I love and making that the main event of the evening.

While Wood & Vine was closed, they did some renovations on the restaurant. We were seated on the patio and they did a beautiful job making it look amazing! And even though it meant they had to reduce the number of seats available, they really made sure that the tables were at least 6 feet apart to keep everyone safe.

We made our reservation for right after they opened since neither of us mind eating on the earlier side. Plus, we knew we were in for a great meal and didn’t want to feel rushed.

The menu has changed a bit since they closed. There were still a lot of favorites that we recognized, but there were some delicious-sounding new things too. And they currently have a welcome back special that includes a drink, fish tacos, short ribs, and dessert. While the special sounded great, Dani and I decided to pick a few things out from the menu.

We ended up getting more food than we ordered because the manager sent some things over to us! We had ordered the fried ricotta, spinach and artichoke dip, short ribs, and scallops. And we were also sent over the fish tacos and 3 different desserts! We were so spoiled!

Everything was delicious. Even just writing about it now is making me crave the food again! I wish I was a better writer so I could describe the food better. But it was perfectly cooked and with the perfect spices to make each bite so full of flavor. And all the desserts were so luxurious. The butterscotch is something we’ve had many times before and it was just as good as I remembered it. And the mousse and poundcake were so chocolately. I was so full after dinner, but it was beyond worth it.

And it wasn’t just the food that was amazing. You could tell how happy all the staff is to be back. I know that people were ready to get back to work, but you can tell that they are happy that things are safer now than if they had opened up sooner. And knowing how happy they are made me feel much better about going to dinner. If I go out to dinner any time soon, I think I might try to make it at Wood & Vine even though it’s not super close to me. I love being able to support a restaurant that really does care about its customers and staff.

And of course, throughout dinner we got to chat with the manager, Wally. Getting to catch up with him was amazing and he was telling us all about the renovations to the space and the changes to the menu. You could tell how proud he was that the restaurant was open again. And while we were there, we could see that all the customers were just as excited to be there for dinner as we were.

Wood & Vine has been a regular part of my routine for so long, and it was wonderful to be able to have that back in my life too.

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Still Doing More Planning (or Yet Another Almost Repeat Challenge)

Posted on May 4, 2021 | Comments Off on Still Doing More Planning (or Yet Another Almost Repeat Challenge)

Maybe it’s because I’ve been doing monthly challenges for so long or maybe it’s because the pandemic almost feels like a restart, but I’ve been doing a lot of repeat challenges lately. I’m ok with repeating them because it’s clear that I still have work to do on a previous challenge. And it seems like each time I do a repeat challenge, there is a little bit that is different from any other time I challenged myself to do it.

In April, I had a challenge that was similar to past ones. My challenge was to figure out what my real free time was each day. Because I had been working on scheduling things, I started to feel like I wasn’t having free time in my day even though I knew it was in my schedule. So I focused even more on making my schedule clear to me and easy to access so I could tell when I could step away from work things for the day.

I wasn’t sure exactly how I was going to accomplish this, but I actually found a tool at the beginning of April that has been a huge game-changer for me. It’s a little calendar app called Itsycal. It syncs with different calendars you might have and adds a little calendar with a daily schedule breakdown to your computer toolbar. I know that I could just open up the calendar app on any of my devices to see what my schedule is that day, but having it so easy to access has been great for me. I review it several times a day to make sure that I’m planning ahead for my day. I’m able to see when I’m done with scheduled work each day very clearly. And even though I do have things that I have to do each day that are not on my calendar, it still is so helpful to see all the things that have to be done at a certain time.

I do still need to work on feeling like I can step away from my computer when I know I’m done with work. But I’m getting better about being very clear about what I have to do and what I can wait to do if I’m feeling like I need a break.

And just like I’ve been doing a lot, this month my monthly challenge is another one that I’m bringing back from the past. I’ve had a lot of different monthly challenges about meal planning and cooking. I have gotten better about cooking because of the pandemic and that is something I am proud of. But meal planning is still something that overwhelms me a bit. The idea of planning for every day in a week at once is a lot. But I recently saw something online that inspired me to try meal planning in a different way.

This person had created weekly meal plans to pick from each week. They designed a full 7-day meal plan (their plan may have just been dinners, which is probably what I’d do too) and added it to their collection. Yes, it’s a lot more work upfront than regular meal planning, but after they created all these different weeks it was easy from then on. When they were getting ready to grocery shop for the next week, they picked one of the weekly plans they already created. Other people commented saying they had 6 or 8 weeks planned out and they just rotated from one week to the next so they didn’t even have to think which week to use.

It might still be overwhelming to create weekly meal plans, but I do like the idea of having them ready to go when I’m done with that initial work. I don’t know if I’m going to create enough at first to just rotate through them without needing to make more, but that is a nice goal to have in mind.

So my challenge this month is to at least get started on creating weekly meal plans. I want to see what I can pull together that will make grocery shopping easier and that will allow me to plan a bit more in advance. I don’t feel like I have to be super strict if I create these plans because I do want to have some room to get delivery food or go out to eat with a friend. But to me, the goal of a meal plan isn’t to be perfect but to have a plan in mind. I don’t want to be looking into my fridge or freezer with no clue on what I want to have for dinner.

Hopefully, I can take advantage of some of my newfound free time and get at least a few weeks planned out and maybe start implementing this idea!

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Cooking My First Thanksgiving Dinner (or Having More Success Than Expected)

Posted on December 2, 2020 | Comments Off on Cooking My First Thanksgiving Dinner (or Having More Success Than Expected)

I got to have a little taste of Thanksgiving with some of the food my parents brought me when they came to see me a few weeks ago. I had missed an early Thanksgiving dinner with my family, and I was really grateful for the leftovers they had for me. But that was a few weeks ago and I wanted to have something special on Thanksgiving Day.

I’ve always been with my family. It’s our big gathering each year and the food is part of the tradition. And while I like almost everything that my family makes (except cranberry sauce in both the homemade and can forms), I knew that if I wanted to make some Thanksgiving food myself that I wasn’t going to make most of it. I had to decide what was most important to me and then go from there. So I thought about what I like and what seemed easiest to do in my little kitchen. And I decided I would do sweet potatoes, green beans, and something with turkey.

I wasn’t expecting to find a lot of turkey options at the store. First, by the time I was shopping, it was close to Thanksgiving. And second, I didn’t want something huge. I was hoping I could find a turkey breast or half turkey breast. But if I couldn’t find that, I knew I could find turkey meatballs and thought that would work too.

But to my surprise, when I went to the store, there was 1 half turkey breast left! So I grabbed it without thinking too much about how to prepare it. I figured it would only require the basics that I knew I had at home, and I could always go to the store again to get spices if I really needed them. Once I got all my groceries home, then I started to figure out how to make them.

The sweet potatoes and green beans were pretty easy. I baked the sweet potatoes the day before and prepared the base (everything but the pecans and marshmallows) and put it in the fridge. And I knew I would do the green beans the day of and it only required me to steam the beans and cook some bacon and onions. But for the turkey, I did a lot of research and found some pretty basic roasting recipes. So I combined those ideas and used that.

Preparing the turkey started the night before. I did a dry brine with salt, pepper, sugar, and garlic powder; and I let it sit uncovered on a platter in my fridge overnight. That was easy enough to do and I tried to stay confident that I could cook it without screwing it up. But I also kept in mind that I was only cooking for myself so if I did screw it up, I could eat a microwave burrito or something.

On Thanksgiving Day, I didn’t have to start anything until a few hours before I wanted to eat. I took the turkey out of the fridge and started to heat up my oven. I put some carrots and onions on a sheet tray to be like a little rack to hold the turkey up. And I added some olive oil to brown the skin. Then into the oven it went and I set a timer to check on it about 45 minutes later (I based the time on what it said online). 45 minutes later, it wasn’t at temperature yet so I let it keep cooking. And I started to get the sides together. I knew I wanted the sweet potatoes to go in while the turkey was resting. And I started to cook the bacon and onions since that would take time.

I was optimistic that I would be done around the same time for everything, but it didn’t work that way. I was pretty off with the timing, but this was the first time I had cooked anything like this. But it was all done at a decent time and I think that I did a pretty good job with my first Thanksgiving meal.

It wasn’t a ton of food, but it was still a lot and it lasted me for several meals. And it came out pretty great. There were a few things I would change if I made this again. The turkey was juicy, but a little salty so I think I needed to use a little less salt in my dry brine. And I forgot to add an acid to the beans, which I think they really could have used. But everything was still really delicious and tasted like Thanksgiving to me! I didn’t make gravy since I didn’t think I needed it. And I didn’t, but I still missed it. Same with stuffing. I missed it but I wasn’t going to make a ton of stuffing just for me.

It was weird eating Thanksgiving food alone, but I’m hopeful that this will be the only year I have to do that. I missed my family and all the stuff we usually do together, but at least I got some food that reminded me of Thanksgiving so I didn’t feel like I skipped the holiday completely. And I did have some family time over Thanksgiving weekend. But I’ll be writing about that tomorrow!

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Gaining A Little Control In My Kitchen (or Continuing To Repeat Monthly Challenges)

Posted on November 4, 2020 | Comments Off on Gaining A Little Control In My Kitchen (or Continuing To Repeat Monthly Challenges)

For October, I challenged myself to find more simple recipes to have as easy meals I can make with little effort. I know that cooking for myself doesn’t have to be an elaborate production, but it’s felt like that for quite a while. And I know that in order to be more on top of my health, I need to be cooking for myself more often. I can’t just rely on delivery food and frozen dinners. But it’s been a struggle for me for so long.

I don’t know if I will say I was totally successful last month, but I think I made some really big steps forward. I wanted to have a few more easy recipes that I knew I could turn to, and I don’t know if I got as many as I would like. But I did add a few more that only require a little shopping. For example, I found a good chicken recipe that only really takes some chicken, the healthy type of cream of chicken soup, cream cheese, and Italian seasoning. While these are not things I normally have in my house, they are easy to get ingredients. And to put this meal together, it only takes about 15 minutes in my pressure cooker. The recipe says to serve it on pasta, but I had it with some broccoli mixed in and ate it by itself. It almost felt like a deconstructed pot pie.

I’ve also realized that it’s ok to use some frozen ingredients along with a little cooking to make a nice meal. My friend Tara sent me a super easy recipe. All it took was some frozen pepper pasta from Trader Joes and pancetta. Make the pasta as directed and cook up the pancetta and it’s almost like a pasta carbonara. I made this and added some peas to it (although I know I added too many peas) and it was really good! I don’t know if I’d use the pepper pasta again because it was a little too peppery, but it was still very tasty!

And even though my goal was to cook more, I also tried to find ways to make cooking easier or to find shortcuts. I know it’s super easy to boil water for pasta, but when I’m just cooking for me it takes a long time for the water to boil (sometimes I’m waiting over 10 minutes and it’s still not simmering). Pasta isn’t the healthiest thing to eat, but sometimes it’s the easiest thing and it’s healthier than ordering delivery food. So when I saw this microwave pasta cooker, I ordered it. I know that I don’t need it, but it’s nice to know I can make pasta super fast and without getting a giant pot dirty. And I know that it says you can cook other things in it as well, so I’m going to explore those options too.

While I didn’t get as many recipes added to my list of things I can pull together with minimal effort, I’m happy with the steps I did take and how much more comfortable I am with just looking around my kitchen and finding things I can pull together to make a simple meal.

And for November, I’m doing something I’ve already challenged myself to do in the past. I’m participating in NaNoWriMo again. But this time, I’m not working on my book that I’ve been working on the past few years. That book is pretty much done. I know that technically it might never feel done, but I feel very happy with where it is. I do have another chapter or two that I want to write with lessons about dating during a pandemic, but it’s not something I feel like I need to work on this year. This time, I’m working on a completely new book.

This time, the book I’m working on is fiction. It is also about online dating, but it’s a completely made-up story. I don’t want to share too much about it since I don’t have it outlined yet and it’s still just ideas, but it’s almost like a mystery/suspense book that has online dating as a way to move the story forward. I’ve had this idea in my head almost since I started writing the first book, but it’s only been a few notes that I’ve saved. Now, I’m trying to flesh out the idea and actually get some things written down.

This time, writing a book is different from the last book. I don’t have the entire story in my head. I don’t have real things that happened to me that I’m writing down. I’m making it all up and I don’t have much done at all. So I don’t know if I’m going to get to 50,000 words this time, but I’m going to try. But the main goal I have with NaNoWriMo is that I want to get a full outline done for this book. I do want to get as much written as I can, but I also know that there may be a time this month where I’m stuck and don’t know how to write the next chapter. So I’m lowering my goal a bit. But it would be nice if I surprise myself and am able to write almost a full first draft by the end of the month!

I’m excited to see what I can get done with writing this month. I think it will be a really good thing for me to do for so many reasons. This idea has been in my head for too long and it’s time for me to get it out in words. Also, this will be a good way to spend time each day. I need to work on being more productive and this will give me something to do every day.

I can’t wait to share with you all how it goes and I hope I have exciting news about how my writing goes by the time I write my update on this challenge!

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Trying To Use Some Shortcuts (or I Don’t Have To Feel Bad About This)

Posted on October 14, 2020 | Comments Off on Trying To Use Some Shortcuts (or I Don’t Have To Feel Bad About This)

I wrote about how I want to get things more on track for my monthly challenge this month. A big part of that is getting my food back on track because I know I haven’t been doing that great lately. I’m not doing as bad as I could, but that’s not an excuse to start working on it again.

Part of getting my food on track is working on cooking more. I know I need to do this. I’ve known for years that I need to do this. But it’s always been something really hard for me to do. I don’t know why it’s been a struggle, but I do know that part of it is because I have always felt like cooking was a big production or had to be something that felt fancy or extravagant. Maybe this is because when I lived in an apartment between my freshman and sophomore years of college cooking was a big production. I was in an apartment with 3 roommates (they were all about to be seniors in college and one of the girls just wasn’t staying in LA for the summer) and none of us cooked that much. And when we did, it was like we had a little dinner party for all of us. I remember cooking a few times and making really nice meals that took me a long time to prepare. So maybe since that was my first experience cooking for myself, I got into that mindset that cooking means fancy.

But I know that it doesn’t have to be like that. I’m working on finding things that are basic that I can make but still taste good. Especially things that don’t necessarily require recipes because then it’s more likely that it will just be stuff I already have in my house. But I’ve also started to think more about what I keep in my house and what can make cooking easier. And I know that some of these shortcuts are pretty lazy, but if it’s what gets me to cook, I should be ok with it.

One lazy shortcut I’ve been using is having frozen veggies that steam in the bag they are in. I know I could buy the veggies fresh, cut them up, and steam them in the microwave or on the stove and it’s would be cheaper. But I also know that I won’t necessarily do that. So having easy frozen veggies helps. For example, the other night I made a turkey burger (just the patty and that was frozen too). I microwaved from frozen broccoli and then made a brown butter and lemon sauce for the veggies (this is how my mom usually makes broccoli and I love it). I know it’s a healthy and easy meal that I can make but for a long time, I felt guilty that I just didn’t buy some fresh broccoli to steam. But I am working on getting over that guilt.

I also found a shortcut to try to make breakfasts. I found these little cups that have cheese and veggies in them and you just add an egg or two and microwave them. It’s not an omelet, but more like a scramble with different things in it. I know I could buy those veggies and cheese, prepare them, and make this from scratch at home; but again, I don’t know if I’d do that. And while this isn’t the cheapest way to do it, it’s not too horrible and I think the expense is worth it. Especially if I don’t get delivery food as often because that will save me money.

So I’ve started to think about those meal kits you can get. I’ve never used them, but maybe this is the shortcut I need in order to get cooking more. I have to look into them more, but I know for some of them they have 2 servings in each meal, so that’s not too bad. And if I did that once or twice a week, that’s a lot of meals that I would be cooking. I know it’s not exactly cooking from scratch, but it’s better than delivery food or microwave meals.

For a long time, I’ve thought about cooking as an all or nothing thing. If I wasn’t making it all from scratch, I might as well not bother. But I’m working on accepting the idea that it doesn’t have to be that way and hopefully I can find a solution that will help me cook more. And whether or not that includes using shortcuts, cooking is what I know I need to do more.

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Getting Back On Track (or Another Continuation Of A Monthly Challenge)

Posted on October 1, 2020 | Comments Off on Getting Back On Track (or Another Continuation Of A Monthly Challenge)

For September, I challenged myself to get back on track. I’ve done a lot of variations of this challenge since the pandemic started. It’s been hard to get back to good habits when my world is not the way I’m used to. It’s hard to have a schedule when you don’t have things to schedule around. I tried to find a way to get things to feel a bit more stable, but I kept struggling.

And just like every other attempt at this challenge, I feel like I made some progress but I didn’t fully succeed. But I do feel like I made more moves forward than I have before, and that’s something I’m proud of. I think it did help that I had 3 things that I really focused on and I had some clear ideas of what I wanted to do. I focused on my sleep, my workouts, and my food.

For my sleep, I’m not quite back to my regular sleep schedule. But I’m getting closer. I am still staying up a bit later than I would like to, especially when I know I could sleep in if I wanted to the next day. I’m really trying to get back to my regular schedule where I don’t sleep in. There’s really nothing happening now that I need to stay up for. I just don’t go to bed on time. I’ve been getting much better at getting in bed before midnight (I want to get it closer to being in bed by 11:30 or maybe a little earlier). And while I do read in bed before I go to sleep, as long as I’m in bed by that time I usually do ok with my sleep. I had occasional nights where I was up until 1 or 2, and I felt really miserable the next day. I think that I just need to keep working toward going to bed earlier and I’ll be back to my schedule soon.

My workouts also are feeling a bit more on track. I’m having setbacks and my bad weeks are really tough on me. But having weights really has helped me feel like my workouts are closer to what I used to do when I went to the classes in person. I’m feeling sore, which is a good feeling to me (I still can’t believe I like feeling sore) and I know that I’m getting some of my strength back. I’ve been lucky that I haven’t struggled to keep up with my workout schedule because that would have been really hard to fix. But having half-ass workouts has been a bit of a struggle too and I feel much better about how my workouts are going after this past month.

Getting my food back on track was harder for me. This is something that is so hard for me even in normal times. But doing it during a pandemic when I’ve had so many setbacks is even harder. But I still had some good things happen. I’ve been more mindful of what I already have when I make my grocery list. I try to limit how often I get groceries delivered. I’ve tried to not order in as much from different restaurants because I know I always have something I could eat at home when I do that (it just might not be as tasty or what I’m craving).

And getting my food back on track fits in with my challenge for this month. I want to work on finding some more easy and lazy recipes this month. By easy and lazy recipes, I mean things I can put together with almost no effort and with things that I either usually have in my house or have ingredients that are easy to get. I don’t have a lot of these recipes right now in my life. I would say making a turkey burger or veggie burger and steaming veggies is one of them. Another is roasting some potatoes and onions and then putting an egg on top of it (sometimes I add cheese too). Those are super easy for me to make and I don’t have to think too much about it when I’m making them. I also have minimal clean up when I make them.

I know having more recipes like those will help me continue to make progress with getting my food back on track. I don’t think I will ever be someone who wants to cook every night (although that is a challenge I’m considering), but I’d love to cook from scratch a majority of the time. If I eat a frozen dinner once or twice a week and have things I made the other nights, I would consider that a huge step forward. But in order for me to have that happen, I know I need to find more lazy recipes. That’s the only way I can see that idea sustainable.

Hopefully, I’ll find some great recipes that I will want to make over and over again. And if I don’t, I’m still hoping that this challenge makes me cook more and gets me to a better place with my food. The only way I see myself failing this challenge is to not try. And I know that is possible, but I’m really hoping I don’t allow myself to do that.

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Trying A New Recipe (or I Forgot How Nice It Is To Bake From Scratch)

Posted on September 25, 2020 | Comments Off on Trying A New Recipe (or I Forgot How Nice It Is To Bake From Scratch)

I’ve said so many times that I need to get into cooking more often. Especially now, I don’t have an excuse not to. I’m home all the time. I don’t have much to do. Yes, it’s not super easy to get all the ingredients I might need, but that’s not that big of an issue. I should be cooking more often for both my physical and financial health.

I’m slowly getting better at doing that. I’m not great, but I’m trying. I’m not cooking every day or every meal, but I’m cooking more often than before. I still don’t love that I don’t have people to cook for. I’m trying to remember to either cut recipes in half or to freeze portions since I don’t want days of leftovers. But I still get more joy out of cooking when I know someone else will be enjoying it.

Fortunately, this week I had an opportunity to make something for others to enjoy. I got to see my family yesterday (after another full 2-week quarantine) and I’ll write more about that next week. We were going to have dinner together, and I asked my mom if there was anything I could make or help with. She didn’t need my help, but I offered to make something for dessert. Since she didn’t have a dessert planned, she said I could make something. So I decided to make Bon Appetit’s Best Chocolate Chip Cookies.

I know there is a lot of controversy with Bon Appetit right now, but this recipe was something I saved a while ago and really wanted to try. I don’t plan on seeking out any recipes from their site until their diversity is improved and pay discrimination is fixed. So this was a one-off until things are better for their employees.

I don’t bake that often, and I bake from scratch even less often. I have a few go-to desserts I know how to make, and I think only 2 of them are from scratch. The others are either box mixes that I like or box mixes that I modify into something different. Baking from scratch isn’t hard, it’s just not something I do. And I rarely bake just for me because I don’t want to have a ton of desserts in my house. But seeing my family gave me the perfect excuse to try this recipe.

I only had 1 small fail while making it. I sometimes do brown butter in the microwave, but this microwave is still new to me. So the butter exploded/popped and got all over the inside. I cleaned that up and then had enough butter to do it over, but this time I used my stove instead. Brown butter seems to make everything delicious, so I was happy it was in this recipe. It also made the combination of butter and sugar easier to mix. I didn’t need to use a hand mixer or wish I had a stand mixer. I was able to use a whisk and get it perfectly smooth.

The only other fail I might have had was in either rest time or oven temperature. I do have a thermometer I put in my oven to make sure it’s accurate. I thought it said the right temperature, but I’m not sure now. And the recipe mentions letting the dough rest if you feel like it needs it. I didn’t think I did, but after baking them I’m questioning it.

These cookies spread out so much when I baked them. I only put 6 on a full-sized baking sheet, and they still were touching! I know this isn’t the biggest problem when making cookies and I actually think it worked, but still. I tried one after they cooled down and they were really good! The edges were crisp and the center was gooey. I do wish I added more chocolate chips, but I was trying to follow the recipe perfectly and didn’t want to adjust anything. But when I make these again (because I know I will be making them again), I’ll just remember to add more.

I was proud that I made something new from scratch and that it wasn’t a failure like it could have been. And knowing that they were going to be enjoyed by my family made it so much better. I might have to find other things I can bake and drop off to my friends so I can test out more recipes and then not have to have a ton of leftovers in my house.

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A Socially Distant Picnic (or Still Having One Birthday Tradition)

Posted on August 18, 2020 | Comments Off on A Socially Distant Picnic (or Still Having One Birthday Tradition)

One of my favorite birthday traditions is getting my free (or almost free) birthday dinner with my birthday twin, Joanna. We’ve been doing this birthday dinner for a long time (I think it’s been 10 years since we started, but I’m not sure). It’s so much fun and something that both of us look forward to. We aren’t great about getting together to see each other that often due to our weird schedules and not living super close together, but this is one of the times we always make sure we make time to get together.

When the pandemic started, I didn’t think too much about our birthday dinner. Honestly, I really thought things would be back to normal by August. And as time went on, I got a bit distracted by everything else to think too much about the birthday dinner. And then I got the email from Truxton’s for their birthday club and I realized I needed to think about what to do. I knew inside the restaurant wasn’t open (nor would I be comfortable eating inside a restaurant). So I sent a message to Joanna to see what she thought.

Even though they did have outside seating and the tables were being moved far apart, neither of us felt ready to eat at a restaurant. Fortunately, Truxton’s does take-out too and we could use our birthday club discount for that! So last week, we placed an order for take-out (I ordered the appetizer and my meal and Joanna ordered her meal and the dessert) and we met up for our birthday meal! There is a park only a few blocks from the restaurant that had some shade and very few people, so we turned our dinner into a picnic!

We both had our own picnic blankets and Joanna found a plastic tablecloth we could put between the blankets. We were cautious to keep a distance between us since you can’t really keep a mask on while eating. But neither of us have really gone anywhere in a while, so that also helped us both feel safer seeing each other. We split the appetizer and dessert up with a knife and fork and each had our own plates (again, provided by Joanna). And we each had our own entrees and that was easy to eat out of the take-out container.

Yes, it was fun to have an almost free birthday dinner. I think we each paid around $5 and we each left a $10 tip (the meals would have been $25 without the discount). This is a tradition that brings us both so much joy. And it was nice to be outside for a while because I haven’t done that in a while. But the best part of this was getting to hang out with a friend.

I have seen people I know maybe 6 times since March. I’ve seen my family twice. I had 2 friends who did grocery runs for me when I couldn’t go. And I had my friend drop off hair color twice. I’ve seen friends on Zoom, but for in-person interactions, I believe those are the only 6 times I’ve seen people I know in 5 months. That’s not a lot. I am not used to feeling so alone and isolated from my friends. And I know some of this is due to my own fears because I could have met up with friends in a park before. But like I’ve said before, it’s hard to figure out the balance of what is safe and what is too much of a risk.

So getting to hang out with Joanna for about 2 hours was amazing! Of course, we had our usual catch-up discussion. And we talked about how we are both coping with things right now. But I think the random things we talked about made me the happiest. Having those everything and nothing conversations are things that you don’t always get with a virtual hangout. It did feel weird to be even 6 feet away from someone without a mask on, but it also was nice to have a moment where I could feel like it was my old life again.

We ended up hanging out in that park much longer than either of us expected. I think we both needed that time together. And we were saying how we hope that somehow things will work out so we can have our cheesecake outing this winter, but we have no idea about that. I can’t imagine when we can go to a restaurant again. But maybe we could do another take-out picnic?

I’m so glad that we found a way to keep our birthday tradition alive. I know it’s not the most important thing to do and it’s probably frivolous with everything else going on in the world. But it was nice to take a break from all the tough things I’ve been dealing with to have a moment of fun with a friend and some good food!

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Baby Steps With Cooking (or I’m Cautiously Optimistic)

Posted on May 22, 2020 | Comments Off on Baby Steps With Cooking (or I’m Cautiously Optimistic)

I wrote about how I have been doing a lot more cooking these days a little while ago. At least being forced to cook more often is one positive of the current situation. I know that I could have just done a lot of frozen dinners and delivery food, and I am proud that I didn’t do that. I have gotten some delivery food and I do get some frozen meals when I get groceries, but I don’t do it that often. And compared to before, I’m not getting delivery food as often (both to try to save money and for safety reasons). And since I don’t like to just have meals made of snack foods, I have been forcing myself to cook a few times a week.

Some of the cooking I’m doing has been stuff I probably couldn’t do during normal times. I have been cooking a nicer breakfast/brunch several days a week. If I had work, I couldn’t do that. But since I only work an hour, I can do my work and then make food after. The breakfasts that I cook aren’t anything fancy, but I have been making lots of egg dishes and it does feel special compared to what I normally eat in the morning. I haven’t gotten super creative with breakfasts since I’m usually cooking when I’m hungry, but the fact that I’m cooking that many mornings is a good change for me.

Since a lot of days I eat my first meal as brunch, I usually do brunch and then dinner (sometimes with a snack). And my dinners aren’t fancy either, but they are more creative than things I used to cook. There have been a lot of days that I cook pretty basic stuff, but it’s still more interesting than just a turkey burger and veggies (and there’s nothing wrong with that, but that’s a lot of what I used to make). For example, the other night I had a spice packet for fajitas. So that’s what I made. Cooking veggies and some chicken wasn’t too crazy, but it still was more than I probably would do before. And part of the reason why I might not have done it before was that I wasn’t doing a lot of planning.

I’ve tried meal planning several times. Sometimes it clicks with me for a little bit, but it has never really stuck. And I don’t know why that is. I’ve tried to do stricter meal planning with prepping everything one day a week so it’s all ready. I’ve tried writing out a menu and planning on when I’d eat leftovers. And I’ve tried so many ways in between those ideas. It just hasn’t worked for me. And I’ve tried to force it to work over and over again. And now, I’m realizing that maybe meal planning just isn’t going to be something I can accomplish. I’m not really meal planning right now, and I’m doing more cooking than ever. Even when you take out the breakfasts I’m making, I’m still cooking so much more.

Maybe I need to meal plan with the idea of what days will I cook, what days will I eat leftovers, and what days will I eat a frozen meal or get something from a restaurant (either going out or getting delivery). I need to feel comfortable with a few different recipes that I know I can make and don’t feel too crazy. There have been a few things I’ve been making over and over again and I feel comfortable making them without having to look at a recipe. And if I can build upon those things I already feel good about making, then I could have a lot of recipes that I could turn to when I need to cook.

I wish I could be able to do this when it’s easy to go to the grocery store to get ingredients. It’s not easy for me to decide what I want to eat a week or two in advance. I have been doing grocery delivery to get ingredients from time to time. But I also don’t want to end up spending a lot of extra money because I’m randomly buying groceries. At the same time, I don’t know how much I can change at one time. Maybe I should just be happy that I’m cooking more and not stress too much about the grocery delivery.

I’m still trying to stay hopeful that once life starts getting back to normal that I’ll be able to maintain at least some of my new cooking routine. I will probably still have another month or so before things start getting normal again, so that’s time to continue to build the habit. Eventually, a switch will have to flip for me and I just don’t know how that will happen. But this is another attempt at making cooking more routine for me and I can only hope that this is the way that it clicks in place for me.

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