It was a fairly busy day, at least by my metrics (which doesn't take much, LOL). We left the house at noon to go get our grocery order. Arrived about 45 minutes later and our order was ready a couple minutes after we got there. We were pulling out at 1pm and then went to the other grocery store. I got some dinner rolls for Christmas dinner. Grabbed a couple more loaves of bread and a loaf of white bread. Got dh's tortilla chips (to which he says, as I'm putting the bags in the truck "I'm getting kind of tired of those" and to which I reply "you heard me say I was going in here for tortilla chips because Walmart was out of stock!" Men!) Decided to get one more gallon of milk and ended up putting that in the freezer.
I also picked up some organic peanut butter to try (with my daily apples and peanut butter). It will be a little to get used to. I have literally eaten Jif peanut butter my whole life. I'm used to the thickness and sweetness, but I managed to gt it stirred up some (still very runny!) and on my plate with my apple slices and it was a fine combination. Maybe keeping it in the fridge would help? At least it's much healthier. Organic peanuts and a bit of sea salt. No added sugar and seed oils and no mono and diglycerides.
By then it was 1:30 and dh suggested stopping at Wendys. I said sure (we had eaten lunch at home around 11:30) but the drive thru line was packed. I said maybe McDonald's isn't so busy. It was, but he pulled in to the gas station next door to fill up and as we were pulling out McD's line was almost gone, so he pulled in. I ordered a chicken sandwich. Worst sandwich ever! Flat dry bun and nothing on it but the chicken (kind of dry too) and 3 pickles. $7 - a complete waste of money. I've never ordered one before, so I assumed it was like Wendy's, which has mayo, lettuce, tomatos and pickles. The cute kid at the drive thru window looked like he was 12 years old. DH says you don't look old enough to be working, the kid proudly said "I'm 14!" Learned something new - I didn't know kids could get a job that young here. Where we lived before you had to be 16 and even then many places (retail and food) wouldn't hire 16 year olds.
I took a nap after we got home and I got the groceries all put away. When I got up dh was out in the shop, and I figured he'd want dinner a little later, since he basically had 2 lunches. I made the Christmas shortbread cookies. They are so easy and so good. He came in and was like "what? no chocolate chip cookies?" So, I got out some more butter to let soften and made his cookies around 7pm.
They turned out the worst ever! OMG! Flat as always, but on both cookie sheets (I have 2 different kinds) they overcooked on the edges of the cookies and the middles weren't done. I gave up and put the rest of the dough in the fridge. He'd rather just eat the dough anyway.
Today I will make the "Christmas crack" or Toffee crackers or whatever names they go by. Then I will get them packaged up to give to the 2 neighbors and leave a few for me (dh will be eating his dough, LOL) to munch on. He might give the toffee crackers, that have the mini m&m's on them a try. He can't resist m&m's. Then once he decides "oh, these are good, I'll have to make another batch for us, LOL.
Next weekend, I'll probably make some more of the shortbread cookies and maybe some of the sugar cookies. I might skip making those, though. If we have the shortbread, some of the toffee crackers, plus I am making a pumpkin pie for Christmas, that's plenty for the 4 of us.
I also bough some pork chops to make something for dinner. DH suggested it (because a friend suggested it to him, if I had suggested it he would say no). I said you told me early on in our marriage you didn't like pork chops so I never buy/make them.....anyway, I remember a recipe my mom used to make us for dinner - kind of a casserole type dish with rice, cream of mushroom soup and pork chops, but I can't remember how she made it or what all ingredients she used. I'll have to see if I can find something similar online to make. Porkchops and applesauce. If you are my age you will get the reference ;)
Oh, I get the reference!
ReplyDeleteWith my chocolate chip cookies, I no longer soften the butter, and I add an extra 1/4 cup flour. I also use Guittard chips.I think I mistakenly told you Ghirardelli)chocolate chips. Finally, I make them smaller and rounder, and bake at 375 degrees Fahrenheit for 11 minutes. The past two batches I have made worked after what seemed like YEARS of getting flat chocolate chips cookies to the point that I had given up baking them. I am wondering if the Nestles and Hershey’s chips have, in the past years changed the recipe and upped the oil content in their chips, and that’s why the cookies have failed? I feel like their chocolate just tastes more “waxy” lately. I do know that American chocolate cannot compare to European chocolate, and that American chocolate has ingredients banned in some European countries. I suppose after Christmas I could try a batch of chocolate chips cookies using a cut up bar of high quality, bittersweet baking chocolate and report back to you!
I made “Campbell’s One Dish Chicken and Rice Bake” last week which sounds similar to the recipe you are looking for…I am sure you could just as easily use pork chops. And no judgment from the foodies , please, for using cream of soups! If your husband likes stuffing, another of my husband’s favorite is the baked stuffed pork chops on the Stovetop website. I limit cooking that recipe, however, to maybe once or twice/year as that stuffing is painfully high in sodium. We do enjoy it, though.
And you’re like me. I am hard pressed to head into town especially between Thanksgiving and New Year’s. It’s why we say Costco takes “3 hours and $300.” If I am making the trek there, I am going to make sure I don’t need to return any time soon!
(Meg B.)
Deleteif he decides pork chops are an ok meal, I'll then figure out other ways to make them w/o the cream of soup. Baby steps, LOL. The recipe with stuffing sounds good too. We typically only have the Stove top about 3 or 4 times a year, but it is good. Dh asked if we needed to stop at Costco and I said oh, hell no. See that completely packed parking lot?!
Deletemean to add: I just only the other day heard the name Guittard for chocolate chips. I think a batch made with them and European butter might be worth a try to see if there's any difference/improvement
Delete