Hannah and Jacob love really, really strong coffee.  We ditched our Keurig a while back because it wasn’t unusual for them to drink 5 or more k-cups EACH.  So we went back to using a carafe and it’s been working great.  Jacob and I each fill up a Contigo travel mug, Hannah drinks the remainder of the pot during the day, and they will make a second pot after dinner.  Oh, and they still go to Starbuck’s every other day.  They love their coffee!

But yesterday the coffee was really strong.  I drank it anyway, because – well, it was cold outside.

I felt sick to my stomach and the thought of eating anything was not appealing at all.   I think it was just the super strong coffee??  Around 11 I felt a lot better, and ate this Weight Watcher protein bar – OMG, so good!  Tastes like a snickers to me, but with rice krispies.  3 points for “breakfast.”

I was on my own for walking, but it was really crappy outside.  I walked over to my favorite place The Chopping Block.  I needed to get some Malden sea salt for my steaks I am cooking for Cooking Club tonight.  Just like when I worked there, I touched everything.  A girl that worked there was like “can I help you?” Nope – I just like to touch all the things – thanks 😀

It started to really rain so I jumped into the State of Illinois building because I can use the underground pedway to get to my office.  I brought the leftovers from Hannah’s sesame chicken for lunch, just added some zucchini – she posted the recipe for both the sesame chicken and the egg foo young on her Instagram – you can find her and follow her at hannahfindinghealth there. 

I walked through the food court on the way back to my building and saw that City Rock Korean Kitchen had bone broth and I thought that would be a good accessory to my lunch – but it was actually the “soup of the day” which wasn’t bone broth.  For $3 I got bean sprout soup – sounds weird, but it was delicious.  I asked to add spinach to it, and while the broth was delicious, I didn’t actually eat any of the bean sprouts – they were a bit too wilty for me.

I had to work late so didn’t get off the train until 7:30 and went straight to The Fresh Market to buy filet mignon and shrimp for Cooking Club tonight.  I am making my version of surf and turf – I am going to be doing the filet in a cast iron skillet and then finishing it off in the oven, and instead of making hot shrimp scampi, I made shrimp cocktail to go over the top of the filet and then made a compound butter to drizzle over the top.  In my head it turns out good!

While I was at Fresh Market I picked up store bought pizza dough – new brand to me called Wewalka – apparently you can buy this at Walmart too – I also had about a dozen people message me that they make puff pastry too – so I’ll need to find that.  It was not bad!  I mean, I do like my homemade pizza better because of the nooks and crannies, but this was tasty – 1/4 of the pizza dough is only 4 points, so with my turkey pepperoni and lite mozzarella, 1/4 of the pizza was 6 points.

I first posted this shrimp cocktail recipe back in 2009!  The secret is to cook it to 165 degrees, and then let it sit for a minute before shocking it in an ice bath.  The shrimp is just so meaty when cooked this way and it doesn’t matter what size shrimp you use.

And there my friends is the best scampi butter – one stick of butter, 1 tablespoon lemon juice, 2 tablespoons minced garlic, 1/3 cup parsley, salt, pepper – just whirl in a food processor.  I used softened butter so it would whip together, then I let it firm up in the fridge last night.  This morning I put it in parchment paper into a log to slice up to go on top of the steak when it comes out of the oven.  

And yes, we did get another dusting of snow.  On April 19.  I have a feeling we are never going to have spring this year.  Makes me so sad!  But, it’s sunny out, so I’ve got that going for me.

Come back tomorrow for a recap of our Cooking Club – it’s the last one of the season!  Can’t believe in August it will be the beginning of our 4th year cooking together!

Happy Thursday my friends, midwest peeps – stay warm!  Make it a great day!