Saturday, October 27, 2018

Sunday Stealing on Saturday night


1.       Just got these questions from Sunday Stealing and she stole the questions from Sleepy Rambles. It is Saturday night – not Sunday but I’m answering now.

2.       What is on your mind right now?It is 8:46 p.m. and I’m wondering how early I can actually go to bed. There has been something else on my mind today. My hubby is out of town and I’ve spent 98% of the day by myself. I’ve been somewhat productive but not as productive as I should have been. I’ve also been sort of lonely which is a rare thing for me. Mark has always hunted and worked at the farm and been away from home on the weekends and it doesn’t usually bother me but I’ve actually been lonely this weekend. I went to two craft shows alone. I’ve hung out with the cat on the screen porch.

3.       Do you know anyone who has attended Harvard University? I don’t think I know anyone but I have walked around parts of the campus!
  
4.       How many books are in the room you’re in?My kindle is sitting right beside me and it is LOADED with books. My Bible is on the table beside me and there are at least 10 other books in this room.
5.       Do you save at least 15 percent of your income? My husband is the saver and I’m the spender. I’m not sure if we save 15% or not but I put money in savings every pay period and so does he. I tend to take the money I save out to pay bills or make a larger purchase.
 
6.       When was the last time you had a rainy day spent at home? We had a rainy day this week and I was at work but I daydreamed about being at home curled up in a chair with hot chocolate and my kindle!

7.       When was the last time you stayed home from school/work? My hubby had a stomach bug two weekends ago and we didn’t go to church on that Sunday morning. Even though I’m not a “paid” employee on Sunday, I sort of feel like it is a workday.

8.       Do you write “yes” or “no” answers to surveys or do you explain more? Yes – hahahaha! Heck no, I have to explain on most things and my explanations are way toooooo long.

9.       Is there any type of medicine you can’t take? For what reason? I can’t take Codeine or synthetic Codeine – it makes me throw up. I also don’t take prescription pain meds well – same thing – makes me sick.

10.   Do you have a favorite pair of pajamas? What do they look like? I sleep in oversized t-shirts (now more of a sleep shirt)– a habit started back when I was in my teens.

11.   Would you rather have potato or chicken noodle soup if you had to? Potato unless it is “Butch’s Chicken Noodle Soup” – it is really yummy!

12.   Do you believe that when a person appears in your dreams, that person wants to see you? I don’t think so.

13.   When’s the last time you saw your mom? I’m 60 and my mom died when I was 14 or 15 so it has been a long long long time since I’ve seen her.

14.   What is one food you could eat for a month, straight, and not get sick of? French fries

15.   Have you ever spray painted something about your love somewhere? I don’t think so.
16.   Do you live in a town where basically everyone knows everyone else?  No, I live in a fairly large suburban area BUT I work and attend church in a smaller community and I feel like everyone in Homewood knows everyone else (probably not true but it sometimes seems that way)

Friday, October 19, 2018

Review of Katie's Plates

Happy Friday!! Several weeks ago, I wanted to take dinner to some friends of ours who were recovering from surgeries. There was NO way that I had time to cook and deliver food that week but the desire to do so was so strong on my heart. I googled "prepared meals delivered" and found a local site that sounded very promising. The name of the business is Katie's Plates.

I asked my friend to be totally honest with me after the delivery and she said the food was really good. Fast forward a couple of weeks and a co-worker was having a difficult time and I ordered a meal for her family of four. She said it was good but that some of it was cold and the sweet potato fries were limp.

I reached out to Katie and asked if she would provide a free meal for me and my husband and I would blog about it. She actually sent me an email and code for not one but TWO free meals! Before I tell you about the food, let me tell you about Katie and her husband. They are still newlyweds - they've only been married a little over a year. Katie started the business when she was just 23 years old!! She met her future husband in 2015 and they married in 2017. You can read all about them and even see their pictures on their website but my favorite part is the fun facts (I love good fun facts to know and tell!):

1. Katie has two Vizslas - Hungarian dogs! The dogs, Coco and Wrigley, even assist with deliveries sometime!
2. Katie grew up showing horses - that is so cool! She is passionate about horses, cooking, and knitting.
3. Katie is a huge Mississippi State fan.

So back to the food. There is a menu online each week and you can order one meal or two meals or five meals. You can order how many meals you need for the week! You can tweak your menu to be gluten free/paleo, etc.

For Monday night, we ordered the Asian Turkey Meatballs with Sesame Lime Dipping Sauce, Cauliflower Fried Rice, and Kung Pao Brussels Sprouts. If you didn't want paleo, you could have Jasmine Fried Rice. The website says the meals will be delivered between 4:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. and if you don't plan to be home to leave a cooler on your porch (remember that important fact). On Monday night, the delivery arrived at 5:20. The delivery person was polite. This is how the food arrived:
First of all, we did have to reheat per website instructions - food was not hot. This was not a problem -- just popped it into the oven while we exercised.

Let me tell you . . .my husband does not like cauliflower but he LOVED this cauliflower fried rice! The turkey meatballs were tasty. They were so tasty that I actually said to my husband, "why does my ground turkey never taste like this?" The Brussels Sprouts were really good, too! My husband's favorite part was the dipping sauce -- Sesame Lime to be exact. We had enough left over that my husband ate meatballs for lunch the next day so the portions were generous.

We had places to go and people to see every night this week so I had a hard time picking out another night. They don't deliver on the weekend so if you order food for Friday night or the weekend, it is delivered on Thursday night. We ordered Turkey Burgers with Cream Cheese and Pepper Jelly, Sweet Potato Fries, and a Tomato-Cucumber Salad with fresh Dill and a lemon vinaigrette.
 Remember me telling you to not forget that fact about the cooler? My husband went home at lunch and placed a cooler on our front porch. In my mind, I assumed that the cold cucumber salad would be in its own container and the burgers and fries (warm food) would be in a separate container. We picked a cooler that we thought would be big enough for those items.

Hubby placed a Styrofoam cooler much like this one on the covered front porch with a layer of ice in the bottom.
We went about the rest of our day and met friends for dinner.

At 5:56, the delivery person for Katie's Plates arrived (we have it on the camera). She rang the doorbell and waited a moment or two. She looked at the cooler (once again - on the camera) and then placed the food on TOP of the cooler. She did make sure the lid on the actual food container was secured.

Our next door neighbors saw the delivery and at 7:43 (almost two hours later), they walked over and picked up the food (from the top of the cooler) and took it home. We arrived home at 7:47 and my husband walked over to get the food.


The high yesterday was in the mid to upper 70's and our food sat outside for almost two hours. I am SO VERY SORRY to tell you that I wouldn't even let Mark taste it. I threw it in the trash. Mark had a VERY nasty stomach bug last weekend and I was so afraid that if either of us ate this, we would get sick. The cucumber salad with fresh dill smelled really good but because the salad had sat in the same pan with the warm food, it appeared to be wilted. The fries were soggy but I think with reheating in the oven, they would have crisped up. The turkey burgers were a nice sized portion. This could have been my dinner tonight and I'm disappointed. If the salad had been covered separately, the delivery person could have place that container in the bottom of the cooler. She could have slightly bent the outsides of the pan (aluminum bends easily) and slid the container into the cooler.

Lesson learned - do not have food delivered if you can't be at home to receive the delivery.

Now on to my thoughts -- YES, I would order from Katie's Plates again but only if I could be home within 30 minutes or so of delivery (unless it was really cold outside . . .but this is the south . . .and we don't have that much cold weather). YES, I would order and have it delivered to someone after surgery or after a new baby, etc. YES, I would order again because I love supporting LOCAL businesses. The dinner meals are about $32 for a couple and there is enough left overs for at least a lunch so basically, $32 for three meals -- DELIVERED to your door. I would recommend Katie's Plates to all of you and here is a link for you to use for 15% off your first delivery:
http://katiesplates.refr.cc/lisaelliott

If you order, I would love to hear about your experience! I think I'll be ordering again soon - just checked out next week's menus!!