Showing posts with label Food. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Food. Show all posts

Thursday, June 19, 2025

Life Comes Before Blogging

Life is tough. Life is choices. Life is busy. Life is what you make of it. Life is beautiful.

I have posted a few times this year how busy June through August was going to be and so far, it has proven to be as busy as I have thought.

When life becomes busy it means pushing other things aside and those things become a "if you have time" kind of thing.

Blogging is one of those.

And up to this point I haven't had a minute to think about blogging...or even cards.

Let's recap some of the stuff I have been up to.

*prepared a cup of coffee for this post*

In one of my posts before I pre-drafted some, I mentioned chaperoning an 8th grade trip to Boston and I did so and had a blast.

We left about 8 o'clock in the morning of Wednesday June 4th and beat the mad rush to get a Red Sox/Angels afternoon game. It's roughly a three-to-four-hour trip from the school.
 
We arrived just in time for the first inning to begin which we saw some early fireworks in the first inning when the Angels put up four runs then in the bottom of the inning the Red Sox stormed back with five of their own.


The top of the 2nd had the Angels putting up three more on the board before the game went quiet for a few innings.


By the ninth inning, we were watching a nine all tie. As a Yankees fan, I knew who I was rooting on in the 9th. However, it didn't quite go the way I wanted.

As Ceddanne Rafaela curled a game winning two-run home run around the Pesky Pole in the bottom of the ninth for a 11-9 win after the Angels led four different times in the game.

I will say it was an exciting game for sure, just not the outcome I had hoped. I have been to Fenway now three times and all three times the Red Sox have won. I may be their good luck magnet.

After that, we walked to the Prudential Center to check out the view and the mall.

Despite my fear of heights, I went to the top. But will admit, I didn't look down or around as we went up in the elevator.

It was pretty cool to see the city like that and when you are up there, you don't really realize how far up you are.

Until you take the elevator back down to the mall.
After the walking, before I could even imagine hitting a mall, I needed some coffee....of course. So, I went to this fancy coffee shop, not knowing that a Dunkin (I had a free one I could have used) and a Starbucks existed in the mall, and I overpaid for a not-so-great $8 large cup of drip coffee decaf.

At least my supper at Descendant Detroit Style pizza made up for that.

It may have been $15 for this slice of pizza, but let me tell you, it was probably the best slice I have ever had. And that says a lot, I have had a lot of pizza in my lifetime.

After shopping, I didn't buy anything,
We headed back to the hotel via subway.

Then woke up the next day to breakfast which I couldn't eat. I am not sure if it was the previous day of heat or what, but I felt like I was going to hurl. I actually had to toss all of this in the trash. (insert cry emoji)

But we hit the fresh air, and I felt like myself again despite it being 96 degrees outside.


And we found ourselves at the Museum Of Science. I hadn't been since I was in 6th grade but remember how much fun it was.

Saw my first 4D movie as well.

Which involved interactions from the seating such as being poked in the back when a hummingbird appeared, being sprayed at when in the ocean and bubbles appearing and feeling like something was crawling on you when bugs showed up. I had a blast and the motion sickness didn't kick in.

For lunch, despite how I felt that morning, I took a risk with a piece of Kielbasa and covered it with mustard, peppers and onions, it was amazing.

After that, we headed to the aquarium.

It was a blast there as well, not sure why my photos didn't upload.

After there, we found ourselves at Legal Seafoods. I don't do seafood, so a grilled chicken sandwich did me in. My sister-in-law also made an appearance while there since she lives minutes from it.

The evening didn't end there as we had one more stop....
To one of the most popular pastry shops in Boston.

I can see why after eating this Whoopie Pie the next day. DA BOMB.

The following day, we headed back, and the class got to stop to Olive Garden where I haven't been in 20+ years since there isn't one close by. I think closest is a couple hours away.
I don't like soup, but this Minestrone was soooooooooooo good.

As good as my chicken alfredo.

After this trip, it was just the beginning of things to come. I got home, got prepped for an 8th grade graduation, a high school graduation, family visiting from all over including my parents and that one actually included cards and tonight I am headed to a college graduation.

On top of that, I mowed the lawn twice, need to do more weed whacking and this all-in 80+ degree sunny muggy heat. This is why fall is my favorite time of year besides Christmas.

And this is only June of my summer.
I have also been taking care of this guy. Someone must have dropped him off and he found his way here. He is really friendly and loves attention, so I am trying to find him a home but been feeding him in the meantime. I have too many cats already inside to add another. I believe my Niece is interested.

And while family was visiting, we surprised my sister-in-law with a night out for her 40th birthday.

Had some great eats there as well. This was pulled pork mac and cheese.

The restaurant was on a lake, and I spotted this once it started to get dark and we were leaving.
A lit up cross on the opposite side. I think it was a sign from God letting me know everything is going to be okay during this busy time.

I am hoping to do more posts soon. I have some fun things to share, not too many as my mail days have been dwindled to about nothing, where are you Oren with my weekly trades??!

Hope everyone has been good and been keeping those coffee refills going. I will be back with new posts soon.

Life comes before blogging.

*takes a sip*

*Coffee Card Blogger Out*

Tuesday, May 14, 2024

Food

 
Most of my mornings start off with a cup of coffee and a bagel. 

*takes a sip, then a bite*

Sometimes that bagel is lightly buttered or sometimes it has a slight layer of veggie cream cheese or jalapeƱo cream cheese. It all depends on what's in the fridge at the time, well except the butter. I leave my butter out on the counter as it's easier to spread. Always have, always will. But I see know some people who don't and say it's bad to do so. We will see, I have eaten countertop butter since I was a kid, still kicking.

I thought today for a post since I haven't gotten a lot of cards coming in, I would show off some food creations I have made recently. I mean, who doesn't like to look at food.

Or eat it.

*takes another bite of bagel or two, then a sip...gulp*

The last month or so I have been experimenting with some new food in my lunch and supper menus. It gets so boring beings stuck on the same meals, so I wanted to expand my palate.

I have chosen a few of my favorite ones to show off below.

I have been looking for a good buffalo sauce recipe and finally found one. The tough part always is which chicken to use. I have tried chicken from the meat case before and breading it myself, but it never quite hit. However, these Tyson Crispy Chicken Strips worked great in the air fryer. I then mixed together the ingredients for the buffalo sauce (buffalo sauce, butter, sugar, Tobasco, dijon mustard) and covered them once they were nice and crispy.

I think they tasted amazing. This is actually a picture of my wife's plate of them. I don't do ranch or any dipping sauce. I am that way with everything, including fries. I like mine as is with lightly salted.

Next up, I mocked a local restaurants pizza. There cost was $25 for this. My cost was much less, and I stretched it out for a few meals. This pizza has a handmade crust, red onions, BBQ sauced base, Pineapple (yes it belongs on pizza), cheese and pulled pork which I made myself.

 
Which is good because it came in handy when I made my homemade mac and cheese and used the rest of the pulled pork to cover it. I am very resourceful and don't waste anything. When the budget is tight, you do what you can. Except I didn't use Ramen to make the mac and cheese. I won't go that far down yet.

Hope you enjoyed the food gallery today.

I promise the next post will be more card related I mean unless you want more food. Hope you all have terrific Tuesday.

*Coffee Card Food Blogger Out*

Friday, September 22, 2023

Happy Meal Again

*just came back from running an errand from town but had to grab some lunch on the way back, quick stop, McD's. short on cash equals one thing, a Happy Meal*

*checks out box to see what toy is hiding and reads Pokemon pack included, sweet*

*takes a sip of coffee which was drink of choice to go with the Happy Meal, gets ready for new post*


Back again for the second year in a row is the McDonald's Pokemon Happy Meal promotion. Last year McDonald's helped celebrate 25 years of Pokemon by including packs of cards in their Happy Meals and it has returned.

The only difference this year is that the promotion isn't celebrating another year and there is a smaller 15 card checklist instead of the 50 from last year but still all the fun.

I am not a Pokemon collector myself so I am not going to buy 20 Happy Meals to collect the set, but finding cards with food regardless is a win. You can tell I am not a collector of them when I can't pronounce half of the names.

The limited-time Happy Meal promotion started on September 12, 2023, and will run until October 16 so plenty of time for you to grab a meal and open a pack.

*takes another sip, McDonalds coffee definitely isn't great as it is very watered down. hope the meal is better*

*continues on with watered down coffee and today's post*

I thought I would begin by showing off the box first before I dig into the pack.



I won't bother showing the food, mostly because I finished it before I had a chance to take pictures and I am sure you have seen the food before.

But, what about the pack, well, box that the pack and other fun surprises comes within.

Inside of the box, comes,

A sticker and a cardboard spinner toy for the PokĆ©mon Match Battle game. 

  
And the pack of cards. The cards are inserted at random with each pack of four cards containing one with the McDonald's holofoil pattern. 

  
My pack actually lacked the parallel. Disappointing since I wanted to see one.

Oh well.

In the end, I got some lunch, some cards and some coffee.

 
and it left me feeling like this.

*takes a sip before finishing up today's post*

I would love to see McDonald's expand more on this, let's get some sport card Happy Meals. Maybe one for each sports season. Get kids more into the hobby and less flippers/money hungry people. Just more people who are hungry for collecting...and some for nuggies.

Hope you have a great Friday!

*Coffee Card Blogger Out*