Day 20 - Fish Tacos and Slow Cooker Black Refried Beans

How am I feeling?  Actually not bad, I feel like we have figured it out a bit.
What am I watching?  Governor Cuomo's daily briefing; "Don't F... with Cats" (see below), "The Night Manager (Amazon Prime)
What am I reading?   Gabrielle Hamilton's Autobiography

Weekends are now hard.  At least during the week, we have some sort of structure...albeit a bit like the movie, "Groundhog Day," but it is a structure.  Jamie and I get up around 7:15, dress in an "at home business attire" - which typically consists of an old college sweatshirt and if we are feeling really productive - a pair of jeans...if not, sweatpants.  Jamie heads to the kitchen to make his morning coffee.  I open the front door, open the curtains in my office, which used to be the dining room, login to my computer, quickly scan my email and then make a very small breakfast.

Cate signs into school around 8 am (I know this because I check each morning), goes back to sleep and is usually up by 9-9:30.  She may or may not have  a live class or classes but most days, she spends about 3-4 hours completing school work.  While most schools are struggling with online learning and are perhaps offering just enrichment, she still pulls a full classload and grades are still taken.  Some days, she may finish all of her work in the morning; other days she stretches it out over the course of the day and then on some, she also completes work ahead of time.

We eat a light lunch together then back to our respective rooms to work or not to work.  Cate and I take a walk in the neighborhood around 2pm.  I have to admit, this is really nice.  I told her today how much I enjoyed the walks and asked her why she decided to participate (as I know she hates to walk/hike, etc).  Her response?  "Well, at this point in time, I realized that losing 45 minutes a day wasn't going to kill me."  Ok, honest and I will take that.  Jamie works until 3 or 4 and then heads to his new basement gym to either get on the treadmill or lift weights.  Come to think of it, Cate and I are supposed to get weight training lessons from him.

A kir at 5:30, because that is just bloody civilized although I am now down to my last bottle of Cassis and the State Stores are no longer open.  Dinner preparations begin and this is where we have begun to evolve.  I keep a list of all of our major food  items and prepare a weekly menu list for dinner.  We review the menu and each of us pick out a dinner to prepare.  Some nights, we all have an item or two to prepare; some nights, two of us watch the cook...making smart ass comments but making sure the table is set, etc.

It started with our slider competition last week.  Each person had to pick one slider to make and we would vote on the best.  Winner got to dictate a show to watch together as a family.  Jamie made a buffalo chicken slider; I made a standard Pittsburgh fish slider but Cate....well, she sauteed onions and mushrooms in truffle oil, grilled slider hamburgers, topped with provolone, the onion/mushroom mixture and then a small piece of bacon.  Hence, why we had to watch, "Don't F.... with Cats."  And hence, why breakfast and lunch have to be minimal.

So now, instead of showing you really bad pictures of the food I am making, I thought that since I am getting most of these recipes from the Internet, I would give you the links and you can see their beautiful pictures.

Last night's menu:  

Baja Style Fish Tacos - Marcela Valladolid from Food Network

Slow Cooker Refried Black Beans - Themagicalslowercooker.com

Changes made:  We substituted cod for the fish and flour tortillas for the corn ones and it was perfect.  Totally forgot about the tomatillo salsa but that did not seem to matter as we used Herdez Guacamole Salsa.

The refried black beans were the best we have ever made....really simple, straightforward recipe.

Stay healthy and safe!