Week 38 - Earth, Wind, and Fire

The Week 38 theme, Earth, Wind, and Fire, completely threw me for a loop. I understood the choice based on the time of year when the challenge fell (September), but what would I make for earth, wind, and fire? I could see picking one of the elements, but all three? Was it meant to be about the '70s? Since everything is very open to interpretation, it could really be any of those, but I decided to go with the elements. Unfortunately, trying to conceive of a dish from scratch to cover all of the elements was difficult, as I was not feeling very creative at the time, so I ended up just taking something I was already going to make and fitting it into the challenge. I did that a lot in 2017, which was part of what led me to stop doing the challenge back then, but this time, it felt less like I was doing that as a chore to finish the challenges and more that I just had no clue what else to make for this particular one (if that makes sense).

So, for Earth, Wind, and Fire, I made BBQ cheddar baked chicken with a side of three bean salad. Earth for the vegetables and the beans which grow out of the earth, wind for the side effect of beans and maybe also for the chicken (because they have wings? Is that too much of a stretch?), and fire because the chicken was made in an oven. I followed the Budget Bytes recipes for both the chicken and the salad, although I used cilantro in the salad so I wouldn't have to buy both parsley and cilantro for the week. Both were great, and I definitely want to make that salad more.

Hatch Chile Cheddar Popcorn

Remember when I said I was going to try to catch up on all the outstanding posts when I was sick? Yeah, me too. That didn't happen. But hopefully, with less than 4 months until the end of the year (how is that so soon?!), I can pick up the pace a little bit.

First up, this hatch chile cheddar seasoned popcorn from Trader Joe's. The ingredients list there had nothing surprising - just popcorn, sunflower oil, cheddar, and spices that included green bell pepper powder, hatch chile pepper powder, onion powder, and garlic powder.

Overall, we thought it was fine. Tasted a little bit like cheddar, a very light hint of spice, but the flavors weren't very strong (and not because I was getting over being sick). We've definitely had better hatch chile products from Trader Joe's (like the mac and cheese), so it was just okay for us.

Buy again? Not for us.