November & December Food Stuff

Coffee & Tea

After one too many shitty iced coffees at Dunkin, we are officially broken up. Once fall hit they started being really cheap with their flavored swirls by not adding the standard amount (I watched them being prepared and the baristas would not push the pump down fully) while simultaneously charging extra for additional swirls (even though you wouldn’t need them if they gave you the correct amount to begin with)!

I gave Starbucks a go, but their coffee was lackluster as well. Is it so hard to get a decent peppermint mocha iced coffee? Apparently so!

Fed up, I bought some ingredients to make my own drinks at home.

I could do without Starbuck’s peppermint mocha coffee because it’s just meh. The peppermint tea is better, and it’s actually good with the creamer added, which I typically do not do with teas. The peppermint mocha creamer is ok too, but honestly, it turns out a regular vanilla creamer just tastes better overall. I found one at Jewel that is lactose free:

What I love so much about it is that I don’t need to add any sugar to my drink because the creamer makes it sweet enough.

Candy

Did you know that Skittles recently announced that they are going back to their standard flavor for the green Skittle? It’s about time! Green apple just never made sense with the other flavors, but lime certainly did. I spent a lot of time trying to find a store that was carrying the new/old flavor and finally found them at Menards of all places!

Skittles

I don’t know what they were thinking, or why it took them seven years to wise up, but I’m happy that now there’s only one flavor of Skittles I hate – grape.

I was excited to find this peppermint bark at Costco, but seeing as how I’m the only one who eats it, there’s just way too much and I won’t be getting it again.

Kirkland peppermint bark

Cakes & Cookies

I love Pepperidge Farm milano’s but damn, their peppermint slices are not it. Maybe I just don’t like peppermint as much as I thought I do, hmmm.

Their amaretto hot cocoa flavor rocks, however.

Pepperidge Farm Milanos

I was lucky enough to snag the very last bag at Target.

We also snagged a cookie tray from Costco for a pending Christmas celebration that never happened and I am not loving the flavors, which are powdered brownie walnut, lemon shortbread, iced ginger molasses, coconut almond chocolate, and holiday candy cookie.

Costco holiday cookies

We will not be getting those again.

I decided to try the infamous Little Debbie Christmas cakes and oh boy, they are good! Even better if you freeze them.

Little Debbie Christmas tree cakes

Other

The single greatest food item we found, however, is this cranberry jalapeno dip we came across at Costco.

Cranberry Jalapeno Dip

The flavor combo didn’t sound good, but it only took one bite for us to realize how wrong we were. Wow, it is so good we easily ate through the entire tub in less than a month. Sadly, it’s not being stocked anymore, so it must be a seasonal item. I checked the manufacturer’s website and they have a lot of dip flavors but this one in particular is only available at Costco, so I guess I will be dreaming about it until next November.

Advent Calendars: Just Say No

I cannot believe how disappointed I was back in November that I couldn’t go to Aldi on their advent calendar release day (because Joe had my car due to his accident). I really wanted the cheese, coffee, and chocolate calendars.

When Joe got home from work we took a trip to Aldi but the only calendar left was the cheese one.

Aldi cheese advent calendar

I asked an employee and he said they were a one and done thing and no more advent calendars would be available.

He was incorrect, however, because a week later I was getting groceries and they had a bunch of chocolate calendars so I snagged the $10 one since the flavors on the back sounded more appealing than the more expensive version.

Aldi chocolate calendar

Unfortunately, both calendars ended up being disappointing and I lost interest in them about 10 days in. Turns out I really resent HAVING to eat cheese or a random chocolate every day.

I removed all the cheeses and put them in a container in the fridge where they sit today. I occasionally eat one with lunch. As for the chocolate one – we split a few pieces today and will do so with the rest over the next week to get through them.

I’ve learned my lesson and won’t be pursuing any advent calendars next year which will save money and calories. Turns out it’s much more fun watching other people open them on YouTube.

October Happenings (including Halloween)

Sunday (10/10) we headed to St. Charles for their annual Scarecrow Festival. When we arrived at Lincoln Park there were no scarecrows to be found! We drove around the area but there wasn’t nearly as much as in year’s past, no doubt due to the pandemic so we drove to the other side of the river to Pottawatomie Park where they put up tents for the craft fair.

We parked in the lot by their community center and pool. There was plenty of parking since the festival hadn’t officially started yet. We didn’t end up staying long because there wasn’t much to see. Even the amount of craft booths was less than in previous years.

They did, however, surprise us with a new pavilion and area you can play cornhole near the miniature golf spot.

It looks really nice! I’ll have to keep it in mind for next summer when we’re looking for something to do.

Thursday (10/21) the kids came over for dinner. K had been talking about missing my spaghetti and meatballs so I made it for the first time in probably years at this point. E works two jobs so Thursday is his only day off. I put together a Halloween basket for them using these fake books I found at Dollar Tree.

I was happy they liked them so much! They only stayed a couple of hours since E was so tired. We sent them home with leftovers, cookies, fruit and veggies, along with the rest of my IZZE bottled cherry lime. They were getting close to expiration and I haven’t been drinking them much. I really prefer how it tastes in cans and now they are offering a 24-pack of them at Amazon I plan to order soon.

Saturday (10/23) We visited Sonny Acres and boy was it busy! The parking lot was packed when we arrived just before 11 am. They open at 10 but their kitchen doesn’t open until 11 am and I assumed that’s where they would be serving the hot apple cider I wanted to try. Turns out they have a special booth for it, and they were just bringing it out when we got there.

There’s second booth down by the kids’ rides where they have it too, so I will try to remember that for next year since it was way less busy than the main booth.

They have some of the best apple cider donuts around, but man do they keep raising the prices! A single donut will cost you $2.50 and they do get cheaper the more you buy but they are still very costly! The hot apple cider was just ok and it was annoying how the bees followed me around trying to get at it.

We enjoyed people-watching for awhile but there’s not too much to do if you don’t have young kids to take on rides.

The rides themselves are more plentiful than back when we’d take the kids there, and they even added a trampoline-like attraction that the kids would have loved. I read that the haunted hayride is $20 per person now which is kinda crazy. It used to be $10. I have mixed feelings about this. The new owners have definitely put more money into the place which is nice because the previous owners were ready to close the place down, but it’s so crowded and expensive it’s probably not as enjoyable to visit like it used to be.

Halloween (Sunday 10/31) was pretty interesting this year because we actually got trick-or-treaters, twelve in fact, which is the most we’ve had for well over a decade now. I’m glad I made up treat bags at Joe’s request even though I was certain no one would come. I’m happy to have been wrong, although with Wookie Crankypants in the mix, it was a bit frustrating as she does not like visitors to HER home.

Hello Fresh

Saturday (9/25) we received our first Hello Fresh box (was supposed to be Sunday but it came early). We decided to give it a try since T-Mobile Tuesday had a deal to get two weeks (3 meals) for $17 each.

1st week recipes from Hello Fresh

We were rather disappointed with two meals from our second week, but I knew of that risk when I purposely chose dishes that had flavor combinations we don’t typically eat.

The regular price for 3 meals is $65 so we cancelled after those two weeks. You only get enough food for a single meal for two people so it’s not very cost-effective, although I could see the appeal if you’re a busy professional who wants a home cooked meal without the hassle of grocery shopping. All the dishes do take about twice as long to prepare than the recipe cards state, though, so they aren’t necessarily a quick meal, and you’re left with a lot of dishes. They’re healthier than take-out, however.

Internet Issues, Barn Owls & Pool Parties

Friday (9/17) we woke up and our internet was down. I don’t know if I wrote about it, but a few months ago after our Comcast contract expired, and they wouldn’t give us another deal, we switched our internet service to T-Mobile. It worked pretty well, although not quite as fast, but for $50 per month (no added taxes or fees), we figured it was worth trying out.

When Joe called T-Mobile they really couldn’t do much to help other than offer to send out a new device, aka trashcan (nicknamed as such by the T-Mobile internet community on Reddit). T-Mobile Trash Can

The problem? They estimated it would be a week. Unacceptable! Joe warned them that he’d be cancelling if it took that long and they called his bluff, so he immediately contacted Comcast and sure enough, we were able to get 200 MBS for $50/month for the next 12 months, so we signed up. We have our own router and modem so it was all done online, although Joe did have to chat with someone for them to do something on the account to get it to actually work, but we were up within a half hour.

A manager at T-Mobile called around that time to say they were expediting the device but Joe explained we were cancelling and not to bother. T-Mobile ended up giving us a $25 credit for our trouble anyway, and I guess they couldn’t stop the shipment because UPS is saying we’re getting something from them today. I guess we’ll have two devices to send back to them now.

If only Comcast had given us a better rate months ago, we would have stayed with them.

I feel like T-Mobile needs to do more work on their device/service before it’s a viable alternative to cable internet. Just like with their failed T-Vision streaming cable service, which they never invested in because the user interface sucked, they are rolling stuff out that is inferior to their competitors and consumers are paying the price in frustration. It could just be a coincidence, or Apple TV being particular, but we could never watch Ted Lasso on Fridays (the night new episodes are released) under T-Mobile because halfway through an episode it would lock up and crash the Roku. We tried it Friday on Comcast and had no such issues. I think it’s still partly Apple, since none of the other streaming services ever give us issues, but it’s also T-Mobile for being too slow as well. Perhaps in a few years it will be different. I hope so, since there are a lot of rural customers who would benefit from 5G internet and we personally do not like giving our money to Comcast.

Saturday (9/18) we decided to check out the local plant nursery’s open house. Not before stopping at White Castle for breakfast, however. I got a sausage slider, but also wanted to try the chicken and waffles slider based on the description on their website:

White Castle - Expectation

Imagine my surprise/disappointment when what I got was this:

White Castle - Reality

So of course I had to go online and air my grievance with them. We’ll see whether they reply back.

White Castle Feedback 20210920 - 2

(I contacted Meijer well over a month ago to complain about the quality of their broccoli and cheese stuffed chicken (the broccoli is really hard/sharp recently) and they never bothered to acknowledge it, so hopefully White Castle is more responsive).

Barn Owl (the nursery) wasn’t too crowded when we first arrived, so we ate our breakfast in the car and then took a look around. They had a whole building of just bird houses and bird food! I ended up getting this cute hummingbird palm feeder.

Hummingbird Palm Feeder

I doubt I’ll get any birds to feed directly from my hand this year, but maybe next year when I’m planning on putting everything up in April. As it stands now, we’re already seeing fewer visitors to the feeder as they start their migration south. *sad*

They had live owls on display which was really cool!

Yesterday (9/19) we decided to check out the community garage sale at the nearby park. They also had a car show and craft fair going on at the same time so we figured there would be a lot to see. Not so much. Joe wasn’t very thrilled with the cars, there were hardly any craft booths, and only a few garage sale booths. With the amount of cars parked in the area you would have thought more was going on than there was. Oktoberfest in a tent further back is going on right now too, but that doesn’t open until noon and we were there just after 10 am. Needless to say, we were back at home by 10:30.

At one of the booths the owner trapped me in an impromptu demonstration of her product and forced me to take a business card. I can appreciate people wanting to sell their creations, but I really think they should ask you first. I didn’t want to be rude by walking away, so it was very uncomfortable, not to mention a waste of her time since I wasn’t interested.

A good thing came of our little excursion, though! On our way back to the car we ran into our friend D who was walking over (she lives a few blocks away from the park) to check things out and she invited us to come over for a swim later. I enthusiastically agreed knowing it was due to be very hot that day and I have been wanting to go swimming one more time before it gets too cold to do so. We went home to do some light cleaning, ran to the store to grab some snacks to bring over, and took a shower. After getting everything packed up and ready to go I went to use the bathroom and BAM, the time of the month said “SUPRISE, I’M HERE!” It couldn’t have waited just a few more hours, right?

We still had fun hanging out with our friend, but I was only able to deep my feet into the pool. She made us some cheeseburgers and we lounged on her awesome patio furniture under a big tent away from the blazing sun. It really made a difference since my weather app said it was 85 and felt like 95 yet we were very comfortable.

We interrupt this entry to display pics of our friend’s two dogs who love getting pets, particularly the all brown one.

Dog 1

Dog 2

D’s ex, a guy we used to all go to Bingo with back when they were dating, hit her up later on since he was also at the nearby park, and she invited him to stop by, so we ended our afternoon chatting with him before taking off around 6 pm so we could walk Wookie before sunset.

Speaking of, she was so unbelievably excited when we go home she was literally vibrating and panting a lot. She’s been fine being left alone for hours but this was perhaps just a bit too long for her liking (5 hours). Usually she’ll sleep when we’re gone which is what she did most of the time since I checked in our her once in awhile via the cameras. About an hour before we came home I noticed her pacing around the house, however.