having house guests

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Weekend Report, Snack Suggestion, Dinners This Week

I drafted this post earlier today, and it clocked in at a lean, mean 137 words. That’s… too few words, even though I don’t have a whole lot to say. 

I mean, the weekend with my friend was GREAT. It was just like no time had passed, and her children are delightful, and everyone had a great time together. Even though we had three whole extra people in our house, they were so easy. Also: I COOKED NOTHING. The only meals we ate at home were breakfasts. The only appliances I operated were the stick blender (smoothie), toaster (toast), and microwave (hot chocolate). My friend made eggs for herself and her kids, my kid and husband made their own breakfasts. The only time my oven was even on was during the afternoon when my kid and my friend’s younger kid had a cookie baking competition. During which my friend and I went for a leisurely four mile walk and returned to a completely clean kitchen and two kinds of cookies. We spent most of our time enjoying the gorgeous high-seventies weather at various outdoor spots. 

Let’s see. What else can I tell you? Oh! I recently visited a South Asian market with Carla. She and I wandered the aisles, loading our arms with things to buy. Sweets for her, hot sauce for me. My husband would have loved this place, so we picked out a few snacky things for him to try. It was so hard! The selection was enormous, and I have ZERO reference points for South Asian food brands, which made the choosing a little overwhelming. I told myself I couldn’t go wrong and grabbed things at random. 

My husband shared his snacks with me and two of them were So Good. I got this one because it came in an appealing green chutney flavor, and it was spicy and tangy and crunchy and I need more immediately. I got this one because it had a variety of shapes and textures, and because it said “sweet and spicy” on the package rather than simply “spicy.” It was, to be fair, more spicy than sweet, but it was so flavorful and crunchy and delicious. If you like spicy, flavorful, crunchy snacks, I highly recommend either of these. I could shovel bag after bag into my gob all day long. 

Okay, that’s all I’ve got for you, which means…

…it’s that special time again: time to frown perplexedly into the middle distance, trying vainly to remember what, if anything, I have ever prepared or eaten for dinner. 

Dinners for the Week of September 29-October 5

I am also in the mood to make fall-y muffins, so if I have some time I may whip up a batch of these.

What’s your favorite savory snack food? Do you have a South Asian grocery store near you? 

Growing up, my small rural hometown had no specialty groceries at all. Just two regular old American supermarkets. In fact, the only restaurants that served anything besides burgers, steak, or pizza were a couple of fast-food taco joints and a single Chinese restaurant. One of the things I love best about living near a mid-sized city is the variety of food options. It is so fun to be able to eat foods from all over the world without traveling more than an hour from my house, and to pop into a specialty grocery store whenever I want. 

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Dinners This Week

This week, we will have our second shot at having houseguests! My husband and I are also going on a mini-vacay for our anniversary, so I will not be cooking dinner for two consecutive nights. Woo hoo! 

Dinners for the Week of November 27-December 3

  • Taco Pizza: I have a craving for something that is the opposite of Thanksgiving food, and this is at the top of my list. The way I make taco pizza is to spread refried beans on a pizza crust, top with seasoned ground beef and cheddar cheese, and cook until melty. Then top as I would a taco. (Lettuce, onion, plenty of hot sauce.) YUM. Also, leftover taco pizza is delicious.
  • Seared Salmon with Red Pepper Aioli and Steamed Broccoli: We didn’t get to make this last week, so it’s back on the menu. 
  • Greek Salad: I think this salad will be a hit with my in laws. 
  • Sheet Pan Teriyaki Chicken and Veggies: This recipe calls for salmon, but I don’t think I can persuade my husband to eat salmon twice in a week.
  • Golden Cauliflower Chickpea Bowls: I can’t remember if I’ve ever made these before, but they sound so delicious. Probably I will make some chicken for my husband to eat with his.

If you made taco pizza, what would you put on it? 

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Control Enthusiasm, Dinners This Week

We have houseguests this week. I think it’s well established at this point that I am both an anxious host and a control enthusiast, and that doesn’t make for the easiest time when having guests.

My particular brand of control enthusiasm is particularly evident in the kitchen. I am weird about food. I am weird about germs. I am weird about lots of things, and I can control those things when it’s me cooking. But when it’s someone else in my kitchen, doing their own thing in their own way, I get very uncomfortable. So, while I know this makes sense to NO ONE but me, I cannot stand to have help in the kitchen, especially from one particular houseguest. This guest is a wonderful, loving, generous, and thoughtful person and I want you to know I understand this, and understand that I am being ridiculous. And yet I am incapable of change in this area. I have tried! This particular houseguest does things so differently from me – I find it excruciating. Unbearably uncomfortable. I feel so guilty typing this out. IT IS NOT LOGICAL. I know this. And yet. For instance, on a previous visit, this guest ended up (very kindly and thoughtfully) making dinner for the family one night. The anxiety I felt – and still feel, at the very memory! – was so intense that I cannot do it again. I cannot. And I don’t know how to convey to this person just how awful it makes me feel. I have tried, in varying levels of firmness, and it doesn’t seem to get through. (Either this person’s own anxiety at “being a good guest = making a meal” trumps the desire to respect the boundaries I try to set… or my boundary-setting just doesn’t register with this person… I don’t know.) 

Anyway. I am pre-anxious about making food for the houseguests because a) I don’t want to fend off (lovely! thoughtful!) advances to “help” and b) it is also complicated and slightly stressful to plan meals for these houseguests because they often have last minute changes in plans and c) we still have all of the normal evening activities that make dinnertime a challenge even for my immediate family. 

Dinners for the Week of June 19-26

  • Sheet Pan Tandoori Chicken and Cauliflower: Colleen mentioned that she made this recently, and I had forgotten just how much I enjoyed it the last time I made it, so I put it on the meal plan IMMEDIATELY. It is so good. I think it will be perfect for houseguests, too, because it’s fairly easy to prep in advance and easy to cook. 
  • Greek Chicken Chopped Salad: We did not in fact eat this last week, so I’m putting it back on the menu. 
  • Slow Cooker Chipotle Chicken Tacos: The slow cooker is my best friend when I want to prep a meal without interference from others. “Oh, sorry! It’s already in the slow cooker!” is a good excuse.
  • Soy-Ginger Pulled Pork with Tangy Sesame Slaw: Another slow cooker favorite! The only issue here is that I like to serve the pork/slaw on steamed bao buns, but I haven’t had great luck with steaming them myself. I wonder if I could buy some at a local restaurant???
  • Takeout/Leftovers/Out: Since, as I mentioned, these houseguests sometimes have other plans, I will not plan any more than four meals. We can get takeout if there’s a night where we don’t have dinner planned, or my husband and Carla and I can eat leftovers, or we can all go out to eat.  

Do you have any really weird kitchen/meal planning related issues? I am feeling SO ANXIOUS AND GUILTY about what an ungrateful control freak I am being. But please trust me when I tell you this is better than the anxiety and discomfort I feel if I relinquish control.