Well, looking back at the photos, my first full week back was definitely more of a let someone else cook kind of week. There were taquitos from my favorite bar and grill. They are now doing taquitos every Thursday, which almost makes up for not just putting them back on the regular menu.
There was the Philly cheesesteak incident. I call it an incident because I got the great idea to pick up sandwiches for the next night because I was out with a friend and figured “why not?”. They had a vegetarian version, so I got that for the kiddo. Apparently, that vegetarian sausage is terrible. I didn’t personally try it, but the hubby did. And the kid ate maybe two bites of that sandwich. Luckily, I was smart enough to serve them with roasted veggies, which she loves.
I did break out the smoker for the first time this year. I smoked a nice pork shoulder. I used a rub I found online which is sweeter than I would normally do, but it was fantastic. The sugar creates such a bark, that I almost think the sweet is worth it. And I started it at like 5am, so it was done to a very nice pullable point.
I did try out a new recipe from NYT, creamy pasta with chickpeas. It was pretty good and I sauteed some shrimp in butter and garlic which were great on top of it! I’m really getting the shrimp down. I’ll be honest, I hadn’t cooked them that much prior to discovering Biloxi Shrimp Company. Now, I’m experimenting with all sorts of ways.
We end this week with more of the “let someone else cook” mode. My husband had picked up some pizza puffs. It turns out that the original pizza puffs were created here in Chicago and are a very specific company. I ate something gross we called pizza puff as a kid, but this is nothing like it. So anyway, we tried baking instead of deep frying them. I’ll be honest, this was less about healthy and more about I didn’t want to drain the oil I have on the stovetop, which is used on vegetarian food, and swap it for the oil used for meats. They are not as good baked. There’s just no arguing that point.
We went out to our favorite bar and grill for dinner as a family this week. Yes, my week started and ended at the same neighborhood restaurant. It was nice out and my husband really wanted to eat on the patio. The food was great as always and we just love the people there. But we really have stop eating bar food multiple times a week! But I’ve included a picture below of some of the food I can’t take credit for this week.
Foodie's Delimma 