We Have the Meats!

Last Thursday afternoon Kevin sent me this picture of a red car in our parking lot:

Then he explained that he had watched the woman driving it pull into the basically empty lot, choose her parking space, pull into it crooked, back out again, and retry.

He says it took her three tries to fix her park job (naturally opening her door each time to peer out and visually assess her position relative to the lines) before she was finally satisfied.

Then I understand that she finally exited her vehicle and lumbered over to the far door on the left. Even though she has a handicapped plate.

Then on Friday he sent me this picture of the sunrise:

I see the sunrise every day on my way into work, but most days he'll go back to sleep for a bit after I leave. So he doesn't always get to see it :)

Later that afternoon when he went out to get some books he'd been waiting for in the mail, he sent me this pic:

When I got home later we whipped up some popcorn chicken and French fries for dinner and then got started on a batch of Kevin's chili for his cousin Pete's chili cookoff the next evening!

The first order of business was to decide whether or not to use the farm-fresh beef and sausage Aunt Jill and Uncle Terry had given us.

As Kevin put it,

I don't know: It's kind of... too good to share, and too good NOT to share!

We finally decided to share with everyone else. And as I stood there cooking probably seven pounds of ground beef and sausage, Kevin and I had a field day satirizing the vibrant colorings contrasted with meat from the grocery store:

But anyway, THIS is what real meat looks like (with some onion thrown in):

Then it was time to add the beans, the tomatoes, and Kevin's 500 herbs and spices, and throw everything in the Instant Pot for a few hours :)

Saturday evening Kevin and I headed over to Pete and Alissa's. (Riley decided to stay home instead of sitting around with a bunch of little kids all evening, and we didn't blame her).

We got stuck in the aftermath of a bad accident at York Rd and Almshouse and showed up 15 minutes later than we'd planned:

But we were still the second ones to get our slow cooker set up out of what I think were eventually six contestants.

And I guess our chili was a hit, because we got a number of compliments and there was barely any left by the end of the evening :)

Kevin and I tried a couple shots of mint chocolate chip whiskey, which was amazing! And Taylor texted me to let me know that things are going great for her up in Connecticut.

Taylor and I talked on the phone later that night, and she said that most days she earns more than she was making in a full week at the Dollar Store. And sometimes she earns double that in a day, if she gets enough in tips.

On Sunday, Kevin, Riley, and I headed over to Catherine and Ron's for a steak dinner with the porterhouses and the T-bones Jill and Terry sent home with us!

Kevin snapped this picture on the highway because "it finally looks like winter":

I made mashed potatoes and heated up some corn, Catherine made broccoli, and Ron grilled the steaks:

Everything on the table was from Kevin's aunt and uncle's farm except the broccoli. And everything was DELICIOUS!

Tuesday night our neighbor Lillian knocked on our door and gave us a bag of six pasteles, which looked like gourmet hot pockets neatly wrapped up with little strings.

She explained that they're a popular Puerto Rican food that people eat around the holidays, and they're stuffed with chicken, olives, and mashed plantain wrapped in a banana leaf.

We thanked her profusely and promised to let her know what we thought when we got around to trying them.

Then after she left, Kevin looked at me trepidatiously:

We already had dinner on the table that evening, and Kevin had nachos lined up for Wednesday night:

And an entire second tray for lunches the rest of the week:

But on Thursday evening, we decided to give the pasteles a try.

I boiled them as instructed. And then we cut the strings, unwrapped them, peeled off the leaf, and added some ketchup and rice.

I couldn't really get into them, but Riley said she enjoyed them and Kevin did too once he added some cayenne and a liberal dusting of chili powder.

He also spent the entire meal trying to get me to text Lillian, "Hey, we tried those baby food hot pockets and they were pretty awesome."

And that pretty much concludes our week of More Meat than Arby's.

But we're all out of the real stuff, so I guess it's back to Bill Gates's magic paste and Klaus Schwab's bug blend now.

You know, to combat climate change.

Because it's not like there's anything nakedly illogical about a bunch of billionaire supervillains flying around on their private jets to lecture the rest of us about our carbon footprint and tell us that our consumption of meat is killing the planet.