Two Emergencies and Weekend Odds and Ends

This is the odds and ends post for the weekend (and a couple days before) . I have a couple more in the works more with specific focuses.

One of moms of a pre-schooler on my husband's bus gave him these beautiful peaches.  Her husband works at a peach orchard. I LOVE peaches, but they are my produce nemesis - either they never fully ripen or they spoil about 8 seconds after they become perfectly ripe. These were perfect from the get go.

Perfect next to my favorite breakfast hash.

Perfect in peach salsa (made by my husband - the self-proclaimed salsa king) on grilled chicken tacos.

I am sad that peach season is almost wrapped up. I wonder if there is ANY chance of one more peach delivery...  I don't think apples are going to make a great salsa, but I am excited they are next in season.

Tuesday night I started getting a toothache. By it was more pain than not.  For breakfast I grabbed this frozen breakfast bowl. I could have made something very similar (or better), but my mouth hurt and I just didn't feel like making the effort. Fortunately, this breakfast bowl was pretty tasty and 300 or so calories is right in my preferred breakfast zone.

I finally called the dentist when I got to work. They worked me in before the office opened at 1 p.m. We really love our dentist.  I, however, did not love to hear that I needed a root canal. In fact,  I have always been anxious about dental work - trying to make a decision (about treatment and the expense) by myself when I just wanted the pain to stop was overwhelming.  Root canals have always sounded super scary to me. Turns out it wasn't awful - other than all the numbing shots, the full body shakes from the anesthetic, almost closing my mouth on the drill (dentist said it would have ruined both of our weekends), being told I have horse teeth (normal teeth 18mm long - mine 25mm) and the budget busting bill.  The truth is, I am a big baby and may not ever be able to show my face at the dentist's office again.

I stopped at the store on the way home from the dentist and stocked up on ALL the soft foods. At one point while driving (actually at a stop light) I took a big swig of water, which fell right out of my still numb mouth and down my entire front and lap...oops. Good thing the pharmacy has a drive thru.  When the pharmacist was giving me my prescription instructions, she was careful to tell me I had to take each of them with food. There were three - each with the same instructions - one pill every 6 hours with food. I was laughing by the time she finished. That is a LOT of food. Yes, I do realize I could take them at the same time with the same food, but at this point I was a bit punchy :)  I finally got home made myself some scrambled eggs and settled in the recliner to wait pathetically for my husband to get home from work and take over my care. 

Friday morning, my mouth felt pretty good and off to work I went.  Then this happened...a flat tire. My car has lower profile tires, so there was no dramatic noise of flopping tires. Suddenly my tire pressure registered zero. I was closed to a gas station, so I pulled in aired it up. When I saw it was holding pretty steady I hurried back to our mechanic near my house.  He quickly found this screw.

Apparently when the universe decides you need exercise, you get a flat tire.  Since my husband was at work, I left my car at the shop and walked the few blocks home. 

Thankfully, they were quick to repair my tire and it only cost $16 - so much better than Thursday's emergency. I may or may not have bought these on my way to work. I would never have known about them had one of my friend's not posted it on Facebook. Just so you know they weren't bad, but I am not running back for them any time soon. Not to mention, they bring bad tire luck :)

Back to enjoying my peaches on oatmeal and a side of prescriptions.

Saturday afternoon my sweet husband drove my mom and I to the international store I mentioned a couple of weeks ago. I needed a particular item for an upcoming recipe (which I made this weekend and will feature in another post).  My mom and I are very similar in our love for new foods and international cuisine. I am especially thankful my husband stumbled across some good interviews while he waited in the car - we had plenty of time to browse the whole store.

Check out these gigantic jackfruit - apparently they can grow to 40 pounds! 

My mom bought a couple pieces they had packaged up. I am not the biggest fan of exotic fruits...jackfruit included, but at least I tried. (Not my picture below)

Photo from Domestic Urbanite

The pepper section if one of my favorite areas of the store.

Many, many items I don't even know what to begin to do with...give me time. There a couple new things I picked up that you will see later this week.

I didn't buy any of this jam, but look at those flavors. I didn't even notice the upside down label until writing this post.

 I am not an ale fan, but I was intrigued by these pies. I do love a good pot pie :)

I picked up these shrimp potstickers.  I made my own dipping sauce with soy sauce, ginger, garlic, rice vinegar and sesame oil. I could eat myself sick on potstickers...so good. On my to-do list is to make my own potstickers to freeze.

I picked up some herbs - way more variety and cheaper than regular grocery stores. I bought Thai basil for lettuce wraps or summer rolls, tarragon for chicken salad and dill for potato salad (or pretty much anything- I l like it in scrambled eggs).

 Peppers - Fresno and Poblano, plus a new one for me - Cubanelle.

 Baby bok choy. Watch for it in a stir fry.

I also picked up more mushrooms and snow peas to make more of those delicious stir frys.

This pita bread is quite thin. I plan to use it for some yummy lunch wraps - chicken salad, hummus and veggies...

A few snacky items I picked up to taste. The cookies/crackers were good, as I expected. The corn puffs (Philippines) were good at first but I tired of them quickly. They really did have a sweet corn taste. The pickled onion chips(British brand made in India) tasted exactly like pickled onions, until the after taste :(

I am not gonna lie - the Crunchie bar was my favorite. I grew up in Canada and though I don't specifically remember Crunchie bar - I loved sponge toffee, which is the base of this candy. I have made it since moving back to the States, but it has been awhile. Perhaps I will put it on the Christmas treat list.

I found these chicken thighs on sale at Aldi for 69 cents a pound. I left some skin, but trimmed off a bunch of the the excess skin.

I was always very nervous about cooking bone-in chicken on the grill, until I discovered this brining technique from Tyler Florence. It is super simple, great flavor and I have managed to cook it perfectly every time. The recipe is for BBQ chicken, but I just do the brine part like he says and then my own thing for BBQ or grill as is. Simply mix the brine ingredients together - crush the garlic and I roll the thyme in my hand a little to get the herby oils going.

 Brining liquid.

Pour over the chicken in a Ziplock bag and refrigerate - two hours is recommended, but Tyler says even 15 minutes is worth doing.

 I am serious, it comes out perfect every time. The thigh on the left has been brushed with Korean gochujang sauce. My husband ate the plain ones with his peach salsa - he was a happy man.

I am throwing this tip in here because I don't want it to get lost in the cooking post (although I will probably repeat it). I boiled a couple chicken breasts for a recipe and for chicken salad I am making for lunches this week. I might have shared this before, but it bears repeating. If you need to shred chicken and have a stand mixer this is for you. Cook the chicken, throw it in the mixing bowl and mix with the paddle beater on medium speed.

I promise you, in less than a minute (maybe 30 seconds) you will have this. It's like magic....but real. You never need to shred with forks again. 

There you have it - the miscellaneous of the past few days. I look forward to sharing more of my weekend in the next couple days.

I hope you had a great weekend and make the most of the coming week.