Good Beer, Bad Beer: Fly on the Wall

Welcome to a monthly Fly on the Wall group post. Today 4 bloggers are inviting you to catch a glimpse of what you’d see if you were a fly on the wall in our homes. Come on in and buzz around my house. At the end of my post you’ll find links to this month’s other participants’ posts.

Father's Day is Sunday. Again.

We are still, other than for essentials, staying home. Father's Day was going to be interesting between not having PurDude here and Hubs' restricted diet, but I intended to make it a good one. Since he was craving burgers, I decided to try making him a turkey burger (watch for the recipe coming up soon) and my Smoky Slaw. I even came up with a dessert recipe that, if it worked out, he could eat. 

I talked with both boys to be sure they'd check in with their dad and was ready to celebrate Father's Day as best we could. Which we did. It was a success.

Two days later, I looked at my calendar and my mouth fell open. Father's Day wasn't last week, it's this week.

Coincidentally, that could solve the mystery of why I wasn't seeing Father's Day posts all over FB last week.

I had made a new recipe, a cocktail. It was actually kind of strong, but I was confident that I wasn't suffering any effects so I went ahead and made a second new recipe I had planned for that day.

I got the second recipe, fish, cooked, photographed, edited and into the blog draft. I was pretty proud of myself, I'd gotten a lot done.

The next day I went into the draft to look at the fish recipe. It was my Almond Coated Honey Mustard Pollock. Good thing I checked, I'd written up the recipe calling it "Almost Coated Honey Mustard Pollock". Yup, that cocktail didn't affect me at all.

All while we we've been staying in our homes, I check in with PurDude daily. I need to know how he's doing, but on one particular day I had to tell him that his dad had done his taxes and he owed quite a lot to one of the states (because he moved, he had to file federal and two states) but I was going to pay that one for him.

Originally I had encouraged him to go for walks, because Boulder being in the foothills, there are gorgeous views everywhere and trails very near his house. But, as I said last month, when I started hearing about a number of instances of mountain lions being seen in and around Boulder, I stopped.

Me: It's gotten really warm out, I love being able to go out on the deck and sit in the sun.
PurDude: Too bad you can't go out and do anything. It's nice out here too.
Me: Stay away from those mountain lions.
PurDude: Maybe. I'll let you know if they eat me.
Me: Well then let me know before I mail out that huge check for your taxes.

When Hubs' gallbladder acted up, I cut all red meat out of our diet. I didn't think I was missing it at all. Until I was texting with PurDude about the connections I make through blogging:

Me: Really, I just love the people I get to meat.
PurDude: Meat?
Me: I think I need a burger . . .

I have beer in the fridge in the kitchen that I use for cooking and baking (I don't drink beer, don't like it). At the time, it was Sam Adams. Hubs has beer in the fridge in the basement that he drinks so I can keep mine for recipes. His, at the moment, is Heineken.

I was going to try a new recipe using a beer, but I was worried because mine had been around a while.

Me: I think I need to get rid of the 2 beers left in the fridge, it's been there for a few months.
Hubs: I can try it and see, if it's not OK, I'll bring you a Heineken.

Hubs tries the beer. Says not to use it, but takes it down to the man cave and drinks it. OK, I'm suspicious.

He comes back up with a Heineken, puts it in the fridge, takes the other Sam Adams, opens it and takes it down to the man cave. 

I think the guy just scammed me. Traded my last 2 beers for one of his. That's what happened, right? 

Maple Oatmeal Beer Bread

Another day stuck in, another cocktail. In an effort to get more fruits into Hubs, I made us a big batch of smoothies. Because of the aforementioned "stuck in" thing, I decided to add some Jim Beam Apple to mine.

Hubs: This smoothie is really good.
Me: I know, mine's really good too.
Hubs: Isn't yours the same as mine?
Me: No, I added some Jim Beam Apple to mine. And BTW, cooking dinner may be interesting tonight.
Hubs: How many shots of bourbon did you put in yours?
Me: IDK, I just filled up the rest of the glass, that's how you're supposed to do it, right?
Hubs (walking away mumbling under his breath): Wonder what nearby restaurants are doing take out.
Me (thinking to myself): Well if that's all it takes to get out of making dinner, we're having smoothies every day.

As I said, I needed a burger so I decided to make them for dinner. I'd made Hubs a Grilled Chickpea Burger (which he loved, yay!) because I still wasn't giving him red meats, and College Boy and I were having sirloin burgers. I'd made a fruit salad, but was looking for something to replace the french fries or onion rings I'd normally serve. 

Me: I wonder if I can do something with these frozen shredded potatoes.
Hubs: What would you normally do?
Me: Either fry them, which I can't do for you, or I use them in my Hot and Spicy Potato Casserole but they have cheese and sour cream, you can't have that either.
Hubs: Oh.
Me: I wonder if I can figure out a way to mix them with ingredients that won't add fat and bake them.
Hubs: That sounds good, like just mix them with water.
Me: Water?
Hubs: Well, I don't cook.
Me: And clearly you never should.

Towards the end of last month I was reading an article about a ski area, not too far from PurDude that was going to begin to open. I texted him immediately.

Me: Did you hear that Arapahoe is opening tomorrow? They're only letting a limited number of people in so you have to have a reservation, wear a face mask at all times, and social distance.
My Nephew in Boston: Hi Aunty Karen, was this maybe meant for PurDude? Arapahoe is a little far for me.

Yeah, I sent that PM to the wrong person.

Somewhere there's a marketing exec who's clearly overly stressed.

I play Sudoku on my ipad pretty much every day. There's a daily game offered, they pick the level, usually from "medium" to "expert" and I challenge myself to play it each morning.

Because I have the free version of the app, there is a daily 30 second ad for another game app that I sit through before I get credit for winning the game. Each day I watch the little commercial which shows how to play the game they're advertising, then it ends with an enticement, like "you'll be addicted" or "great brain exercise" or "meet the challenge". 

I was watching one of these ads, when, there at the end, was the coup de gras, the closer, the one statement that they were sure would sell me: "best toilet game ever".

I'm going to leave you with a laugh. Saw this on twitter and all I could think was "you just can't fix stupid."

'Til next month, friends.

Now click on the links below for a peek into some other homes:

Never Ever Give Up Hope  
Menopausal Mother 
Spatulas on Parade 

Maple Oatmeal Beer Bread

                                                                       ©www.BakingInATornado.com

Printable Recipe

Ingredients:
2 1/4 cups flour
2/3 cup quick oats
3 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup maple syrup
1/3 cup canola oil
1 (12 oz) bottle of beer (be sure not to use a more bitter beer, lagers are less bitter)

Directions:
*Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease a 9 X 5 loaf pan.
*In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, oats, baking powder and salt.
*In a small bowl, mix in the maple syrup and oil.
*Whisk the maple syrup mixture and the beer into the large bowl.
*Pour evenly into the prepared pan and bake for 30 - 40 minutes or until the center of the top springs back to the touch. 
*Cool in the pan for 10 minutes before running a knife around the edges and removing to cool completely.