Friday Food Stories

I still have not figured out the issue with my website causing yesterday’s error, but thankfully, I have a back door into my admin area through my hosting company. I already spent too much time trying to debug it, so I guess I’ll live with it for now.

Anyway, yesterday really was a good day. I try to recognize them when I have them because it’s too easy to focus on the negative. Like the weather right now. What in the world is going on?! I mean, I guess April isn’t historically the most fantastic weather month here in Maryland, but it feels like winter will not let go. I’m so tired of chilly, windy runs.

Speaking of, my streak is going strong at 403 days. Lately, I’ve been just running my minimum of a mile, but I hope to start to increase my distance as the weather breaks, and the college needs less of my time.

What I wanted to blog about yesterday was our family dinner. I love telling stories through food, or is it I love telling food stories?

Regardless, it’s fun for me for whatever reason. Cooking has been a consistent creative outlet for me for years now, and it’s what I turn to when I just want to lose myself in something.

Yesterday I made one of our favorite family dinners, chicken Burritos.

The whole family loves this dinner even though we each eat it our own way.

First, the morning of burrito night, I marinate boneless chicken thighs in a puree I make out of a can of chipotle peppers and lime juice.

I let them sit in there all day. Then we grill!

While the chicken is cooking, I make rice and peppers and onions.

The rice is just your run-of-mill Basmati. Once done, I stir in a touch of coconut oil, salt, and, if I have them, some chopped scallions.

The peppers and onion are a mix of whatever peppers and onions I happen to have. Yesterday we used poblano with a bit of bell pepper mixed in and a sweet onion. I also add some salt, pepper, and dried oregano.

When everything is ready, we lay it all out and let everyone make what they want.

I went with a burrito salad this week, The 10-Year-Old likes to use crunchy taco shells, and The Teen and Husband use those giant burrito shells.

We usually also make some kind of salsa, but we were out of tomatoes, and I was just lazy to get any more creative.

Notice the drinks. The husband persuaded me to make coconut margaritas—his favorite.

I tried to get him to throw the finger at the camera, but he wasn’t game. For those that know what I’m talking about, I’ll capture it soon. I promise. I miss photo journaling our days.

Anyway, I’m super proud of this drink. I came up with it last summer when I was on my cocktail kick mid-quarantine.

Mason Jar Coconut Margaritas

Using a 32-Ounce Mason Jar, add…

• 8oz tequila
• 4oz lime juice
• 4oz triple sec
• 4oz coconut rum
• Coconut Cream to taste (~2oz – a squirt or two)

Shake and serve over ice.

We made another batch tonight to go with another family favorite—Coconut Shrimp.

This is the easiest recipe ever. The marinade is just lime juice, coconut rum, and salt. If I have real limes, I add all the zest as well, but I forgot to pick some up this week at the store.

Let the shrimp marinate in the rum-lime mixture for a few hours, and then cook any way you like. I’ve done them on a cookie sheet in the oven and in a skillet with some coconut oil, but today I decided the grill was the way to go.

We served them with the leftover rice from yesterday and snow peas.

My new approach to dinner management is to make at least one or two things we carry over to another day. For example, yesterday, I purposefully made extra rice, knowing we needed it tonight. Last week I made a double batch of mashed potatoes to eat them across two meals as well. It’s a really simple thing to do that’s been making dinner much easier to prepare. It does, however, require you to plan ahead a bit more, which is something I’ve been getting us to do as a family for my sanity.

Okay, I got to go. I’m writing this a little early because we are about to watch the Falcon and Winter Soldier finale with The Teen. Then I’m going to make The Husband watch Labyrinth because he confessed to me he’s never seen it after we noticed it available on HBO Max.

I was shocked because it’s one of my favorite childhood movies, and I can’t believe after being together as long as we have that, I didn’t know he’s never seen it. Movie watching is a huge part of our relationship too, so I need to remedy this.

A few weeks ago he was shocked to know I never fully watched Dances with Wolves, so we had to re-watch that one too. We also just finished Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Which was quite interesting. Afterward, we decided it would be fun to start going through Turner Classic Movies for other older films we haven’t seen yet. Any recommendations? We are specifically looking for things from before our time, like the 50s, 60s, and 70s. We’re both mid-70s babies.

Okay, I’m off to make popcorn. Hope you have a great night!