This past weekend was my ideal weekend. It was the right mix of productive and lazy. I also barely used my phone this weekend, and it was so NICE. Felt good to unplug. On Friday, I finished work right at 5 pm and got to go get a bike ride in before getting burgers for dinner with Jake on a restaurant patio near the water. Dinner was followed by a short walk near the water and a Zoom call with Jake’s family. On Saturday, we woke up early and went hiking at the Greenwich Audubon Center, where we saw many different types of birds. There were supposedly otters there, but I did not see any. I was definitely disappointed, but only by the lack of otters. The nature preserve itself was gorgeous, especially with the foliage!
Afterwards, we thought we had the original idea of going to an outdoor brewery to get tacos and beer, but given the sunny, warm weather in November when it’s been in the 30/40s the last couple of weeks, coupled with people out celebrating that election uncertainty was over, the place was packed! We aborted mission and went and got some Mexican food (had to satisfy the taco craving!) outside at a place near the water. Surprisingly, the Mexican food up here is actually pretty good! Just not quite as good (or as well-priced!) as the options in Houston.
After that, we went grocery shopping at Trader Joe’s, where I was failed. I feel like Trader Joe’s never has everything on my list. I love the place for their frozen food and fun pantry items, but sometimes I wish they could just have basic things like a 28-oz can of diced tomatoes! Or kosher salt. What gives!? (Full disclosure: I LOVE Trader Joe’s. We’re just not on good terms today, but things will bounce back soon. My co-worker just sent me a list of truffle items I must try from there…)
After our grocery run, we turned in for the night. Yes, it was only 5:30 p.m. and we had put on pajama pants and decided we would be ordering something that delivers. Earlier at lunch, I had proposed we try Half Baked Harvest’s new recipe for molten chocolate crackle pie. Oh my! So delicious! So chocolatey! I have many process pictures I took while we made it and listened to Christmas music. I know I’m ahead of myself with the holidays. We made the crust from scratch in the food processor, and the filling was super super easy. This pie will be making the cut for the family Thanksgiving this year, unless we change our minds! My mom seemed intrigued by it, and her birthday falls on turkey day this year! We enjoyed slices of the pie with vanilla ice cream while watching “Hocus Pocus,” which I had never seen! Such a sweet ending.
Sunday had much more of a lazy start. I slept till noon, which is wild for me. I really am much more of a morning person. I blame the two (2!!!!) fire alarms that went off in our building on Saturday night at 1:30 a.m. and the even more ungodly hour of 4 a.m. It was definitely rough haha. But thankfully, they were false alarms and no one got hurt (except for our peaceful weekend sleep). We ate omelettes at home and then went on a walk at a park on the coast nearby. Afterwards, we went to another grocery stores to grab the few things we missed the day before. Then we got to do the least fun but necessary part of the weekend: cleaning! It definitely goes faster with two people, but it’s such a drag. And since we’re always home, things just get dirty so fast!
I got to Zoom with my family and then carried on with the Half Baked Harvest train and made her creamy coconut chicken meatball and noodle curry, except I used ground turkey because that’s what we had laying around in the freezer! It was a good fall recipe, but definitely a bit involved with making the meatballs and searing them. I’m not well versed in cooking meat, so always a bit of a challenge when I pick a recipe with meat that’s more than just popping it in and setting a timer!
Work has been a little slow, but I’m enjoying the slow times before things get busy in January with everyone filing year-end financials. I hope you all had a nice weekend! And an early happy birthday to my brother, Zach! We are a family full of fall birthdays – except for you, dad!
Happy Monday! Enjoy your week xo.
More pretty scenery and great looking food!
My vote is still with that chocolate pie!