it's fall, y'all.

apologies for the silence on this front. i keep meaning to post something but, y'know, life. my bad. still here, though. tired and thriving, or tired and trying to thrive, or something like that. 

i made my first chili of the season last week and will be making these wings for dinner tonight. it's cool enough for me to have the oven on without feeling like i'm gonna pass out from heat exhaustion, which is nice. roasted some potatoes the other day and didn't even break a sweat while the oven was at 425 degrees. love that for me.

that chili was delicious, btw. i made it in the crockpot and i am absolutely gonna make it again at some point. 

hope y'all are doing well or at least hanging in there as best as you can. 

hi.

i'm still here. tired, but still here. overwhelmed, but still here. fewer rights than ever, but still here. uncertain as fuck, but still here. exhausted, but still here. fed the fuck up with *gestures vaguely* everything, but still here. thankful for the people and things that keep me going, and still here. 

try to hang in there, y'all. we're all we've got. love y'all. mean it. 💜

recipe reviews: braised country-style pork ribs with chipotle and slow cooker mustard herb chicken and creamy orzo

a hit and a...not a hit this time around.

this week's entree (note: login/subscription may be required) was a hit. bone-in country style ribs were on sale, and it was easy enough to pick up a couple of red onions, orange juice, and whatever seasonings i didn't already have on hand. skipped the cilantro and pomegranate seeds. used harold's '83 honey ale for the beer because i had a few cans of it in the fridge and also because i am absolutely totally biased towards this beer. not sorry. oh, and in my world, 2 tablespoons of minced garlic came out to about 3-4 cloves of garlic, and i think i used maybe 1/3 cup of beer. this has some kick (thanks, chipotle pepper and cayenne!) but it wasn't overpowering imo. 

last week's entree? not so much. i tried the slow cooker version and cooked the chicken on high. used black box pinot grigio because it's a boxed wine i'd actually drink (and i finished the rest of it a couple of days after i made this dish). dried thyme and dried sage, chicken broth instead of apple cider b/c i already had chicken broth, unsalted butter instead of salted, and heavy cream instead of coconut milk.

the chicken was fine. the orzo? yeah...no. i added 20-30 minutes to the original 20-30 minutes of cook time because the orzo was more crunchy than al dente when i first checked it. i wound up freezing some of the chicken to use later and picked out some of the broccoli and orzo for lunches. good thing i'd made these mustard/apple butter pork chops (note: login/subscription may be required) for easter dinner so i could use those leftovers later in the week. those pork chops, though? i had bone-in chops and added 10-15 minutes to the cook time and they were delicious. would absolutely make those again. 

oh, and if you're new here from my twitter bio or if you haven't visited in a while, this is basically what i post about these days. one of these days/weeks/months/years/decades, i'll try to get my shit together enough to discuss other topics rattling around in my brain. maybe. possibly. who knows? the world's still on fire and there's still a whole entire pandizzle happening. just do what you can and i'll do the same, mmmkay? 💜

recipe review: honey-garlic chicken

this happened primarily because i had everything on hand already. well, everything except the toasted sesame seeds. i'd bought scallions for another recipe and of course forgot to use them here. oops. made this in the crockpot on high for 3 hours. if/when i make it again, i'll adjust the cooking time to 2.5 hours, give/take 15 minutes. the chicken was just dry enough to annoy me but still flavorful. i don't remember how much garlic i used, though. the recipe calls for 4 cloves of garlic so let's assume i used at least 4 and probably 5-6. this is a good recipe for when you don't have the spoons to chop all of the things or do other labor-intensive prep. sometimes you just need a mix and dump kind of thing that you can have for dinner and then repurpose into lunch with leftover veggies, which is exactly what i did. 

recipe reviews: sheet-pan chicken with zucchini and basil and marinated charred green beans

i was out of town for work for a few days last week and had taken a couple of days off before that, so i hadn't bought groceries in a couple weeks. i had fun just pulling stuff together from whatever i had on hand for a couple of days, but by the time the work week ended, i was ready to get back into meal prep mode.

these marinated charred green beans are one of my new favorite veggies. the roasted broccoli on the florian's bar menu is another new fave, but i haven't figured out if/how i'm going to recreate that yet. i used my grill pan and cooked the green beans in two batches. i didn't grab any fresh herbs while i was grocery shopping, so i used a teaspoon of dried oregano instead. also used 2 cloves of garlic because why not? they were great yesterday with dinner while still slightly warm, but were also delicious tonight at room temperature. the recipe note suggests adding them to a green salad and i'm actually making salads for lunch later this week, so i might try that out as well. 

confession: i'd forgotten all about the basil in this sheet-pan chicken with zucchini and basil (note: login or subscription may be required) until i looked at the recipe again while writing this. oops. skipped the lemon too. my bad. in my defense, i was hungry by the time i got around to cooking yesterday and barely waited for the chicken and veggies to cool before i dove in. i made this with all chicken drumsticks, used dried oregano since i already had it out, used 3 cloves of garlic, and skipped the coriander. i had an extra onion from making short ribs in the crock pot on saturday, so i chopped that and added it to the zucchini/yellow squash. no regrets. i'll probably have more of this for dinner tomorrow so maybe i'll remember the lemon and basil then? doubtful, but it could happen, right? right. 

recipe review: ground beef & sweet potato skillet

last week was something the fuck else, and this week is shaping up to be more of the same. trying to keep myself upright is exhausting sometimes, which is probably why i spent a good chunk of my vacation day yesterday in bed. 

but also it's weeks like last week and this week that make me grateful for meal prep. whatever time i can carve out to make sure i have something ready to eat during the week without having to think about it and without having to decide on what to order for dinner and feel bad about spending money when there's plenty of food in the house. 

i'd spotted this recipe recently and remembered that i had ground turkey in the freezer, so that could be substituted for the ground beef. honestly i had everything on hand except the carrots, sweet potatoes, and brussels sprouts. like, there's nothing about this combination that i don't love. so glad adult me decided to revisit brussels sprouts. i used 2 sweet potatoes and maybe a half-dozen carrots? i think there were 3-4 cloves of garlic, give/take one or two; i was finishing a bulb of garlic and why wouldn't i add more garlic? i may try freezing some of this to see how it plays out later. would make again. 

recipe reviews: fast bolognese; broccoli, cheddar, and brown rice cakes; and tex-mex pork

i had some dried rigatoni that i needed to do something with, and the thought of just buying a jar of pasta sauce wasn't really appealing to me while i was trying to decide on meals for this week. i love that this bolognese recipe is labeled "fast" even though it simmers for 90 minutes after most of the ingredients have been added. i used 7 carrots instead of 6 since that's how many i wound up buying. me being me, i used 15 cloves of garlic. i couldn't get ground sirloin and used ground beef instead, and i wish i'd skimmed some of the fat off after browning the meat. i have some in the freezer that i'll use for baked potatoes and maybe some other pasta dish whenever the mood strikes. it could probably stand a little more salt, but i've been eating this with the aforementioned rigatoni and sprinkled with cheese and it was fine for me. 

i made these rice cakes so i could have them for breakfast this week. i used full-fat cheese because that's my preference. i'm sure if i had the patience to chop my broccoli and onion into even pieces, the finished product would've been more visually appealing, but the flavor's there and that's all that matters right now. i've been eating them along with some breakfast sausage and i'd make them again, possibly with some sort of chopped and cooked meat (bacon? bacon sausage? pancetta? crumbled sausage?). 

the tex-mex pork was meant as an alternate dinner option if/when i grew tired of the pasta, but i brought the wrong type of salsa and the texture was all wrong. i ate some of it over rice topped with sour cream since i had sour cream in the fridge already, but i wound up using the rest of the pork in my lunch salads. it tastes fine, but i want to try it again with a chunkier salsa. might also try it with salsa negra - the texture probably won't be right, but it's salsa negra and i don't think i'll care as much. 

recipe review: braised collard greens with pepperoncini

recipe: add pepperoncini to greens

me: adds giardiniera to greens

no, really. i absolutely used giardiniera for these greens instead of buying pepperoncini b/c in my opinion, giardiniera can be viewed as a form of pepperoncini. i didn't add any additional minced garlic, but i did add garlic powder and giardiniera seasoning, along with salt and pepper. i was shopping at a different jewel this week and there was no pancetta to be found, so i chopped 3 slices of bacon and used that instead. also used a teaspoon of dried thyme instead of fresh. i think i had more than 2 pounds of collards and they just barely fit into my 4-quart crockpot, but they'd already started cooking down within the 1st hour of cooking time so it worked. make sure you taste and adjust for seasoning after you add the giardiniera or pepperoncini at the end. 

this will be my side dish to go with the ribs i made yesterday. i am the excite, lol.

recipe review: turkey tacos

i'd had a taco craving (like, more than usual) for a while, and when it came time to figure out my meal prep for this week, i decided i should make tacos so i could have them more than once in a week and not feel as guilty. i knew i had ground turkey in the freezer b/c i almost always have ground turkey in the freezer, so i wanted to try something that didn't involve buying a packet of seasonings from the store. i'm not above that, mind you, but i wanted something different. enter these tacos. of course i added more garlic because i'm me and that's how i roll. i was quite happy with my taco tuesday yesterday and am planning on taco thursday tomorrow b/c alliteration. also b/c snow and i'd rather not order delivery.

recipe review: sheet-pan sausages and brussels sprouts with honey mustard

i actually made this the same night i made the turkey meatballs i posted about the other day, but i didn't taste them right away and then i kept forgetting to post about them until now. it's been that kind of week. 

the potatoes could've used a bit more salt, and of course i added garlic powder b/c i'm me and that's how i roll. skipped the mustard seeds and almonds/walnuts and, if i make this again, i'll probably use a combination of honey mustard and dijon mustard and/or increase the amount of dijon. i used red potatoes but i'd be interested in trying yukon golds and maybe subbing broccoli for the sprouts. 

recipe review: turkey meatballs with sweet soy dipping sauce

the title is a bit misleading because i didn't make the dipping sauce for these meatballs. my rationale was that i have plenty of condiments and sauces in the fridge already, plus i really just wanted to have the meatballs on hand as a protein option for meals this week. i used about a tablespoon of dried cilantro instead of fresh, and added 3 cloves of minced garlic because there were 3 cloves left on the bulb. i think i used closer to a 1/2 cup of green onion, which was fine by me. i got 25 meatballs out of the mixture and baked them for about 23-25 minutes, but i probably could've pulled them at the 20-21 minute mark and been fine. 

i'm making risotto later that i'll probably pair with the meatballs for lunch at some point this week, depending on how the risotto turns out. i have veggies prepped already so there are options. 

recipe reviews/merry new year?

it's 2022. if you're reading this, you survived 2021 and i'm proud of you.

last year was...something. my life being the way it is, i closed out 2021 in quarantine due to a positive covid-19 rapid test result. both pcr tests and 2-3 subsequent rapid tests came back negative, so i honestly don't know if i actually have/had covid or if it was a sinus infection or a cold or something else with symptoms similar to covid. luckily i didn't have any major plans; i was supposed to go out tonight to hang out with some former co-workers, but that was easy enough to nope out of. today was the first day since wednesday that i didn't wake up with a headache or sinus pressure, but my throat is still kinda scratchy in that "post-nasal drip irritating the back of your throat" way. yay for being fully vaccinated and boosted. yay for having a job that lets me work remotely. yay for having health insurance and access to medical care and testing kits. yay for living alone for making it easier to limit my exposure to other people. yay for symptoms being mild enough to keep me out of the hospitals b/c y'all know i don't like hospitals and i'd be more than ok with staying out of them, especially right now. 

before quarantine, i was planning on spending nye at home with a friend. i got home from grocery shopping, tested positive, and realized that i could and should still cook since i already had all the ingredients and also b/c i had energy to do so.

i considered making this proscuitto and sage croissant stuffing for thanksgiving, but decided to wait for nye. this was good! i'm going to incorporate some of the cheese and some of the proscuitto into the vegetable/croissant mixture next time, instead of piling everything on top. i'm going to try to freeze some of the leftovers to see how that works.

y'all know i try to get some sort of greens and black eyed peas going for january 1. this chorizo and black bean stew with collards recipe appealed b/c i already had chorizo and pork tenderloin in the freezer, and i'd substitute a can of black eyed peas for the black beans. i doubled the garlic b/c of course i did, used a whole pound of chorizo b/c why not, 1/2 a red onion instead of a white one b/c i forgot to buy a white onion and i wasn't going to break quarantine to go buy one or ask someone to deliver a single onion, and 1 1/2 cups of vegetable broth instead of water. oh, and i sauteed the collards first and then added them to the pot with the pork tenderloin and broth. shouts to jewel for actually having some decent looking collards available when i shopped. this was also good and i could see myself making it again. i actually made it on nye and had it for dinner last night, so i'm sure the flavors having more time to meld together helped. 

may this year be good to us in all the ways we need it to be. 

recipe reviews/so, that was christmas

it's the day after christmas and a week and some change after my birthday. hooray! i was really burnt out by the time my birthday break came around, so it was probably for the best that i didn't go overboard with plans. especially since, y'know, there's still a whole entire pandizzle happening. 

i realized that i hadn't really decided on a meal prep strategy for the week between my birthday and christmas, so i decided to make potatoes, sausage, and green beans in the crockpot. yeah, it's super basic and yeah, i added more garlic and used my last package of roasted garlic turkey smoked sausage, but it got the job done.

this roast chicken with onion gravy was one of the mains for christmas dinner. the gravy took a bit longer to emulsify to my liking and i actually wound up using a cornstarch slurry to bring it together, but it tasted great, especially since i added about 3-4 cloves of garlic to the onion/broth mixture and used black garlic salt to season the chicken. i'm sure the omission of garlic in the original recipe was just some sort of oversight, lol.

hope y'all are hanging in there. can't believe 2022 is around the corner. trying not to get my hopes up too much about the new year so maybe i can be pleasantly surprised when things go well? yeah, i don't really believe that either. 

recipe review: mustard and maple crispy pork belly/so long, november

today is november 30. even though i've been celebrating my birthday for almost 2 weeks now, part of me still can't believe that november's over. not sure where the time went this month, but here we are. 

anyway, i made this pork belly recipe for thanksgiving. i don't like turkey enough to make a whole one or even a turkey breast b/c what's the point? plus i knew between hanging with bff on friday and dinner with quasi-landlord on saturday, i'd have more than enough turkey to last me for a while. hell, there's turkey in my freezer as i type this. 

the pork belly was a hit, although the skin was definitely on the salty side. i might cut back and/or use kosher salt or a different type of sea salt next time around. for the mustard, i used some stone-ground mustard along with this prosciutto mustard. no regrets there. oh, and i used bourbon barrel-aged maple syrup because that's what i have in the fridge right now. no regrets there either. 

i also find it hilarious how people get worked up about the shelf life of thanksgiving leftovers as if meal prepping for a week (or at least a few days at a time) isn't a thing. bless their hearts. 

recipe review: curried chicken sauté

i'm sure i've tried other recipes since my last review and just forgotten to post about them. or maybe i've been relying on old standbys? or both? i dunno. life is still (always?) bonkers and i'm glad i remember to feed myself.

i had some chicken breasts in the freezer and wanted something relatively easy to make as part of my meal prep. this recipe for curried chicken sauté caught my eye while i was going through my binders of recipes, so i decided to give it a try. i used one red bell pepper and one orange bell pepper, because even at 99 cents each, the individual peppers were cheaper than buying a package of pre-sliced peppers. i added garlic powder b/c why not? i should've sliced the chicken into smaller pieces so it'd be easier to eat, but it's still good and i'd make it again. 

an observation of sorts

i went to check my mail earlier and, as i was closing my door, realized that i still have an occasional habit of looking at the door to make sure nothing's taped to it. y'know, like an eviction notice. never mind that i was actually home when i got served with eviction papers. never mind that it's been 10 years since said eviction. never mind that i've been current, if not a month ahead, on rent since i moved back on my own in 2017. there's still a part of me that checks. that worries. that wonders if and when the other shoe is gonna drop.

a running joke i've had with my therapist is that those of us who were more accustomed to dealing with anxiety/depression/grief/etc. before the pandizzle seemed to be slightly better equipped to deal with...gestures vaguely...all of this. there's some truth to that, i think. we've already developed coping mechanisms (no comment on whether or not those mechanisms are healthy) and ways to get ourselves through our day-to-day. this is just one more thing.

and yet...

i didn't sign up for one more thing. there are definitely days when i wonder if all the struggle and heartbreak and exhaustion were/are worth it. i'm tired of being tired. tired of waiting to see what the next disaster is gonna be. tired of putting in so much effort for what feels like such a small return. i found a post i wrote on my fundraising blog back in 2011 that referenced "playing superwoman when i can't even afford the cape" and holy shit past me was on to something there. i might be able to financially afford the cape now, but the mental/spiritual/emotional aspect? no thanks. hard pass. 

anyway, i say all that to say that as secure as i should be feeling these days, there's still a part of me that wonders if and when it's all gonna come crashing down. i don't necessarily like feeling this way, but the way the world's going these days, it still feels like a valid concern. 🙃

recipe review: cabbage roll casserole

i saw this cabbage roll casserole on instagram, probably earlier in the week or at some point last week, and decided to make it for meal prep. i like stuffed cabbage but i don't like making stuffed cabbage, so this definitely appealed to me. 

i used ground turkey b/c i had some in the freezer. there were 4 cloves of garlic left on a head of garlic i had, so i used all of them and then added garlic powder to the cabbage mixture. i bought "regular" tomato sauce instead of no-salt-added, and used a cup each of chicken broth and beef broth; since i was using turkey instead of beef, i figured it'd help boost the flavor a bit. the head of cabbage i bought was on the small side (~1 1/4 pounds before i cored and chopped it), which didn't yield as much cabbage as i probably needed but it still worked. 

the dried dill seemed like a lot at first: it's not overpowering, but i might dial it back a bit the next time i make it. it's entirely possible that i will never make traditional stuffed cabbage again now. i'd like to try it with ground beef, and if i ever manage to get more chicken chorizo from whole foods, i'd definitely try it with this.

recipe review: skillet potatoes and zucchini

i've been thinking a lot about self-care lately. sounds indulgent, i know, given the current (ongoing?) state of the world, but i also know i have to try to take care of myself before i can be of any help to others. sometimes that means going to bed early to read a book before i fall asleep. sometimes it means vegging out on the couch. recently, though, it's meant making sure i'm somewhat prepared for the work week so i'm not scrambling for meal ideas. 

i wasn't really committed to meal prepping for this week. i knew i'd be going out for or ordering dinner at least 2-3 nights, so i didn't feel any urgency in having full dinner options handy. for times like this, i've learned it's better for me to at least have part of a dinner ready to go so i could figure out the rest on the fly if i needed to. this time, i decided to have a vegetable/side dish on hand. 

the skillet potatoes and zucchini (first recipe on the list) jumped out at me when i first read about it in food & wine last week. why have i never considered adding zucchini to what is essentially a hash? i used a couple of russet potatoes that i wound up boiling for too long, so they came out more tender than they probably needed to be for this recipe. i used a small white onion and added a 1/2 teaspoon of garlic powder because clearly the lack of garlic in the original recipe was a mistake. i'd make this again, maybe with refrigerated hash browns or diced potatoes (bonus if they include onions). also thinking about making a variation of potatoes with chorizo and adding zucchini somehow, or using yellow squash. 

recipe review: slow-cooker honey-orange chicken drumsticks

i dunno how the weather is wherever you may be reading this, but here in chicago? it's hot. like, 80-90 degrees for days on end hot. i am not a fan of hot weather and i don't have central air, so i have to be a bit more strategic when it comes to meal prep because i don't want to turn on the oven or even stand at the stove for longer than i absolutely have to. thank black jesus for the crockpot. off i went to my recipe files, looking for potential slow cooker recipes that could incorporate either something i had in the freezer or something i could add to my weekly shopping list. 

turns out i had some chicken legs in the freezer, so i only needed a couple other things to make this recipe work. i also have a bottle of this honey-ginger white balsamic vinegar, so i used half of the rice vinegar called for in the recipe and substituted this for the other half. i think i used 4 garlic cloves instead of 3, used about a teaspoon of dried ginger instead of fresh, and skipped the cilantro and sesame seeds altogether. 

the sauce probably could've reduced down a bit more, and i think either the chicken or the sauce could've used some salt, but otherwise i think this could make a repeat appearance, maybe with some chicken thighs. 

recipe review: overnight breakfast potatoes with sausage

i've been on a somewhat savory breakfast kick lately. i say "somewhat" b/c i've been making bootleg chocolate croissants (crescent roll dough + chocolate chips = voila!) as a breakfast option, but that's usually paired with bacon or sausage, depending on how my meal prep went.

late last week, i realized that i'd made a grocery list and sorta kinda mapped out what my food situation was going to look like for the next few days between meal prep and delivery, but didn't have anything on deck for breakfast. i did a quick search on my laptop for breakfast recipes, this one popped up, and i was intrigued. i remembered that i had about a pound of bulk chorizo in the freezer, and also remembered how much i love a friend's potatoes and chorizo dish, so i figured i'd give this a try.

i used the aforementioned pound of bulk chorizo and about 2 pounds of red potatoes that i scrubbed and cut into eighths. also added 3 cloves of minced garlic with the yellow onion b/c no one should be surprised by my use of garlic at this point. 

here's what i did:

• sprayed the slow cooker insert with cooking spray
• added the potatoes, sliced onion, and minced garlic
• added the 1st tbsp of olive oil, seasoned the mixture with cuban island spice, mixed, added the 2nd tbsp of olive oil and more spice blend, mixed again
• broke the chorizo into smaller pieces/chunks, added it to the crockpot, mixed and seasoned again
• cooked on low for 6.5 hours

i'd add a bit of salt to the potatoes along with the spice blend - i took it easy b/c i didn't want to overdo it and i didn't know how salty the chorizo would be. otherwise delicious. will probably make again with other breakfast sausage type items.