Monday, May 2 – Sunday, May 9, 2022
The Week in Cinco De Mayo: Cinco de Mayo isn’t high on my list of “must celebrate”* but, if nothing else, I try to take advantage of the inevitably timed sale prices on Mexican food ingredients to cook some Tex Mex at home. This week I made cheese enchiladas with a chili gravy. The dish came together quickly, or would have, but I ran into a cheese crisis**…the one crisis you don’t want to have when making cheese enchiladas.
Once I solved that crisis, the second dish I made was what Mary Sue Milliken and Susan Feniger call Drunken Chicken and what I call Tequila Sunrise chicken. Sauteed chicken is nested in a sauce made with pureed roasted chili peppers and orange juice, chorizo, and tequila. The dish is a pleasant green and it tastes great.
By Thursday, though, actual Cinco de Mayo, I had hit a brick wall on consuming Mexican flavors.
*Even though Cinco de Mayo isn’t on the “must celebrate” list, I still was cranky that my part-time job scheduled me that night. They also scheduled me on another low-level holiday, St. Patrick’s day. That’s just cruel. LOL!
**I pulled out a block of cheese that expired in August of 2020! I know for a fact that my cheese drawer has been empty numerous times over the past year and I cannot figure out the deal with the very old cheese. By the way, it didn’t smell bad, it looked funny. So, mid-cheese-enchilada prep, I turned off the preheating oven, covered up what I could, and I walked to the grocery. Everything was fine. Just a little more drawn out.
The Week in Rain: Friends from out of town were in for a wedding this weekend and I met them for dinner at Moerlein House, one of my go-to spots. On the walk back, a squall of rain blew in. I had time to duck by a building to pull out my umbrella, and quickly assess my situation. That assessment came down to this question: Should I continue my walk home, or should I slip into the nearest bar for a drink until this blows over?
The drink won! (No surprise!) I drank a nice tempranillo wine while the storm blew by. Very civilized.
The Week in Leadership: As I continue my fun summer job selling concessions at the Reds stadium, it seems they like my work ethic. They asked if I wanted to be a Team Leader. I was like, I don’t even want to know what that is, I don’t want to work harder. This is supposed to be fun work, not work work.
The Week in…You Gotta Hit the Button: While I was ruminating on my slow-ish week and trying to pad this post, I meandered away and forgot to click “publish.” After further review, I’m okay with my slow week. And I’m just gonna hit the button…
Nothing Ever Happens on My Street 