Wednesday nights usually require a little extra rushing. I typically get home from the gym around 8:15 and my husband gets home from work shortly thereafter. We are starting to get hangry by this point and dinner still must be made. So, either a little planning ahead or quick options are key. I got a couple of things ready to go before I left… pots and pans ready to go, water and salt in the pot for the red lentil pasta, and frozen shrimp defrosting.
I headed home after class as usual and as I put my blinker on to turn down my block I looked up to notice the street light was out. I drove past a house or two and it suddenly became clear that the block was pitch black and had lost power. It is so eerie when that happens! After thinking Bell must have been pissed she was alone in the dark, I immediately registered that dinner was going to be rough as we have an electric stove.
I got in and lit some candles. Naturally, wouldn’t you know it, I grabbed two flashlights and both went dim. Our emergency preparedness sure needs some TLC! But between the LED candles and real candles we had a little light. I got Bell’s cold food ready and put some hot water in it as a substitute for heating it up. I put an LED candle on the floor and she ate her dinner by candlelight.
My husband came home and naturally I thought- oh well let’s go get pizza! He was intent on figuring something out we had on hand. What else to do but cheese and crackers served with some Trader Joe’s Roasted Garlic and Onion Jam and tomatoes from the garden sprinkled with Trader Joe’s Everything But the Bagel Sesame Seasoning
Have you gotten on this band wagon?? You can put this stuff on anything! It was popping up all over my Instagram feed. If you haven’t tried it yet, I strongly suggest you go out and get some!
Dinner wasn’t as healthy as we had intended for a Wednesday night, but we enjoyed our time together.
And, well, cheese and crackers make for a lot of Cheers! What am I talking about?? We are big on “cheersing”. We cheers our drinks of course, we cheers with family and friends, we cheers to a special holiday, person, or event, we cheers to share good food and drink. We are what you might call excessive Cheers-ers though. I can’t quite remember specifically how it started, but several years back we just started cheersing (A.K.A bumping) everything- our food as well as our drinks. So, we have an oyster, we cheers our oysters, we have a chip, we cheers our chips, whatever it is …you get the idea. We even had a bartender comment one time that he had been bartending for over 20 years and never saw people cheers their burgers before! Not sure if our friends find it endearing or annoying, but it is “our thing”. It is our little way to acknowledge, savor, and appreciate our time together.
So, last night, when things were fun, but maybe not exactly as we had planned, we cheersed each new cracker concoction and tomato topper like we always do. And we enjoyed our time together in the dark.
Cheers!