Here were are, into the first week of May! Another week of social distancing is behind us and for many of us that means another week of mostly home cooking is in the books.
I am really enjoying sharing these posts with you about what 
I have also enjoyed seeing what you have been eating. In addition to being fantastic bloggers, there are some amazing cooks here on Hive. Check out some of 
A week ago today, my wife and I had quite a bit of running to do. I had to do some tech work for a client about a half hour away and we also needed to stop at our school district to pick up some items. On top of that we needed to hit a couple meat markets and I needed to troubleshoot a network issue at one of our elementary schools.
The morning of running around prompted us to order some take-out for lunch. I have been craving chicken wings for something like six months now so I opted for the bourbon bbq flavored wings from one of our favorite bars. My wife got a chicken bacon ranch wrap and we got an order of cheesy bread to share. It was not as healthy as we have been eating, but it was delicious none-the-less.
I really want to learn a process for smoking wings on my Weber Kettle. With all of the cooking and grilling we have been doing during the quarantine, this is probably the ideal time to perfect a method.
A long time ago when I was trying out the whole "weight watchers" thing, they had a frozen meal that was a spicy Thai peanut dish with chicken. My wife recently found a pretty good replica for that meal. We used spaghetti noodles instead of rice noodles, but the sauce she made with peanut butter, sriracha, garlic, and some other goodies is pretty spot on.
I just realized the next day we had another pasta dish. When we first met,
The dish above is one of my absolute favorites though. We call it cheeseburger mac and it basically consists of macaroni noodles, ground chicken, tomatoes, onions, and some other spices along with cream cheese and a homemade cheese sauce. I add pickled hot pepper rings to mine to give it a little extra kick. We use our big cast iron dutch oven to make this and there is usually very little of it left by the time we hit the end of the meal. It is just fantastic!
This is an Italian bubble up bake that we made. You basically take a tube of the store bought biscuits and cut them up into chunks. Mix it with whatever you want (cheese, mushrooms, chicken meatballs, pasta sauce), and bake the whole thing off. We have made Mexican, Buffalo, BBQ, and Italian versions of this dish.
After having several "heavy" meals through the week, we decided to just go with a large Cobb salad the next night. Bacon, lettuce, hard boiled eggs, hickory smoked chicken, cucumbers, peppers,etc. It was fantastic and very filling!
the next night we went with homemade nachos. I decided to use a small plate for this meal because I feel nachos are one of the most susceptible dishes to "scope creep". If you use a big plate, you will fill the whole plate and before you know it, you have a mountain of nachos you have to conquer. Starting out small is the key and going back for seconds only when necessary is the best bet. This small plate was more than enough for me!
The weather had been pretty rainy for most of the week, so when things cleared up, I felt obligated to throw some brats on the grill. I actually over cooked them just a hair, but they were still pretty fantastic. We paired them with taco salad which is probably my most favorite kind of salad. If not closely tied with potato salad...
Finally, because I know this is getting crazy long, last night we had chicken sloppy joes along with coleslaw and brussels sprouts. We typically do them "open faced" style so we can get as much meat and slaw as possible. It was another completely filling meal. I was totally stuffed by the end of it.
I know I usually throw in a whiskey picture for you, but sadly, I didn't pick up any new bottles this week. I am still working on the three of four different ones that I have up in my cupboard. Maybe next week I will have something new to share.
As always, I look forward to seeing what you have been eating either in the comments or in your own post using the #eatingthroughcovid tag.
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