9/29/15

Another standby, spaghetti and meatballs. Plus matchstick zucchini sauteed with almonds.

9/28/15

I had to make amends for the macaroni and cheese, so we had chicken marsala, rice pilaf and broccoli. Very uncontroversial (and one of the first meals I learned to make, long ago).

9/27/15

Disastrous macaroni and cheese experiment from the NYT. The reviews were so mixed, I should have been wary. It was: grainy, not noodle-y enough and bland. And gloppy. Carter practically refused to eat it until I made his into nachos:

A slight improvement.

Have I lost my cooking skills? Anyway, next time I will stick to the Martha Stewart recipe.

9/26/15

Dinner with Jennie and David. Jason tried a new, longer rising variation of his bread. Delicious! I think I am the only one who liked my banana cake. even I admit that I really was in it for the penuche frosting (F52), which I will make for another cake sometime.

9/25/15

Hamburgers and french fries, at Jason's request (demand?). Since i was stymied in my dinner making, I made some desserts instead. I had a cookie cookbook from the library and tried coffee crisps and butterscotch shortbread. Both were semi-failures. The coffee crisp dough was super loose, like a batter; I added some more flour and was rewarded with cakey cookies (not a fan).  The butterscotch shortbread was just too gooey. I think it needed more of a shortbread layer.
The coffee cookies taste good, especially with the coffee glaze, so it might be worth trying them again.

9/24/15

Quick dinner, since I had a retirement party to attend. Quesadillas with leftover chicken. Simple and popular.

9/23/15

Dinner at Ginger Garden with my parents and Carter (thanks, Mom and Dad!). After two visits, I love their fresher, less gloppy approach, but I could use more spice. Maybe I need to be more convincing when I say I want it spicy?

9/22/15

A lazy meal of rice and tofu with a Trader Joe's masala sauce. I could barely be bothered to put peas in there. Just OK (remember that the TJ thai curry sauces are better than the masala).

9/21/15

A day at home meant I had a little too much time on my hands for cooking:

Labneh with mint and red pepper, baba ghanouj (both recipes from Lebanese Home Cooking), hummus (I used the cooking method from Bon Appetit; it worked beautifully but I inadvertently made about a quart. Seriously), flatbreads, za'atar, zhug and potato borek (those I bought from Maple Farms and they are delicious! I love that store).

A quasi Middle Eastern feast!

9/20/15

Tortilla soup, with roasted poblanos, avocado, queso fresco,cilantro, lime and (of course) tortillas. I improvised my own recipe., starting with a whole chicken. Tasty and fun to personalize at the table.

9/19/15

Dinner with J & D. bread and eclairs. I cobbled the eclair recipe from several sources: Food52 for the pate choux (still not crispy enough, despite several new tips and techniques!), Bakepedia for the pastry cream (did 1.5 times their recipe and subbed in some half and half for the milk), and Martha Stewart for a coffee-maple glaze. The glaze was a nice switch from chocolate, but didn't have a strong maple taste.

9/18/15

Jason made pizza (cheese, pepperoni, mushrooms, peppers and onions, in various configurations).

Photo Credit: Carter S.

I made a date cake from a Lebanese cookbook I brought home. I reminded me of a sticky toffee pudding, and of prune cake from Pioneer woman. It turned out beautifully despite my attempts to mess it up through careless recipe reading. I can't wait to cook some more from the book.

9/17/15

Chicken Pie church supper in Whately. The chicken pie is always good, but I admit that I was disappointed that there were no green beans.

9/16/15

I made a batch of kushari, thriftily using up a half box of pasta, some of the giant container of lentils I have, and some leftover rice from the night before. It was more pasta-y than usual, and I think that was an improvement. More onions would have been nice, because you can never have too many fried onions.

I also experimented with cookie press cookies, using a recipe from Williams-Sonoma. It makes a nice plain butter cookie (I added almond extract), but I still need to practice more with the cookie press.

9/15/15

Carter and I actually went out to dinner. We ordered way too much chinese food and had a nice time.

9/14/15

Inspired by a cookbook about restaurant family meals, I made a (simplified) version of Thomas Keller's skirt steak with scallions. I skipped the roasted garlic (who has time to peel a whole head of garlic, let alone 3? I don't have interns) and the garlic-sweet chili sauce (which did sound good. Maybe next time, with a bit more planning). The roasted scallions really made the dish; we also had potatoes roasted on the grill and baked acorn squash. Turns out even Carter will eat acorn squash if you put maple syrup on it.

Not getting any better with the photography...

I think the steak would also be good with flank or hangar steak, and easier to roll up.

9/13/15

French toast and cottage cheese (not mixed), at Jason's request. We made a couple of loaves of challah just to make them into french toast, and served it with cottage cheese and bacon. Carter thought it was "delicious!". I thought it was a nice vehicle for syrup and cookie butter.

9/12/15

Jennie and David's: bread and caramel budino with maple-mascarpone whipped cream and chex streusel (from the NYT). So good! The whipped cream may have been extraneous but it is delicious on its own. The only thing I would change is cooking the chex a tiny bit less.

9/11/15

Fancy chicken verde nachos from SE. I know they are a production, and I know I have made them twice already, but I love them so! I toyed with the idea of using the components to make enchiladas instead, but didn't want to take any chances. Maybe next time.

9/10/15

Kung pao chicken from the NYT. I followed the recipe pretty closely, and the results were good. I will definitely make this again, but cut the chicken into smaller pieces and use more scallions. The szechuan peppercorns were not Carter's favorite part, so I am glad I used a bit less than the recipe called for. Served with rice and broccoli.

9/9/15

Dinner with my parents; fan favorites burgers and fries, plus corn and tomatoes. I almost feel like I will have had enough corn this summer. To complete the all-american theme I made an apple pie (with apples from the apple tree we didn't know we had). It was nice enough, but a tad overcooked so the apples were too mushy.

Jason thought an outdoor shot would be more artistic

9/8/15

Pasta with uncooked tomato sauce (from SK). Toss raw tomatoes with red wine vinegar, garlic, salt and crushed red pepper, top with grated ricotta salata. So fresh and tasty! Also had some grilled vegetables with fresh mozzarella.

9/7/15

Since it was so hot out, I decided to use 3 burners and the oven, so we could really appreciate autumn when it arrives. Spring rolls and korean meatballs. I found the recipe at Food52 and followed it exactly as written except for using ground chicken instead of beef. Pork would have been good, too. They were a little spicy and funky and good; I forgot to make the dipping sauce for the spring rolls but we had hoisin and sweet chili sauce on hand so it was OK.

Not very photogenic picture of meatballs.

I have concluded that I really can't resist a meatball.

9/6/15

Summer-y dinner: corn fritters and panzanella with tomatoes, cucumbers, fresh mozzarella and some leftover Jason bread. I still haven't come across the ideal corn fritter recipe; these were too loose and got soggy quickly. I am picturing something more like a hush puppy, maybe? The bread salad was nice, though.

9/5/15

Dinner with Jennie and David. Delicious loaf of bread from Jason, trifle from me. The unloved angel food cake was given new life with strawberries, pastry cream and whipped cream. I had never made a trifle before and now I am contemplating all the variations I could make....

Thanks for the bowl, Mom!

9/4/15

Family relaxation night: nachos and chocolate-peanut butter squares. That is all.

9/3/15

A pasta of my own invention, using up a bunch of ingredients hanging around--italian sausage, shallots and onions, zucchini, a giant yellow tomato and some ricotta cheese. It looked awful (the yellow tomato cooking down and mixing with the ricotta was very unappetizing), but tasted pretty good.

It looked better before the ricotta

We also had bread from a french loaf that Jason is experimenting with and it was very, very good.

9/2/15

A dinner that did not involve frying! Seared tuna steaks with sesame seeds and black pepper, rice, avocado-cucumber salad. A delicious dinner for a hot evening.

9/1/15

Another Genius recipe: black pepper tofu. This was delicious! But kind of a production: dredge tofu cubes in cornstarch and shallow-fry them, make a sauce with shallots, ginger, garlic, two kinds of soy sauce (technically 3, but I didn't have sweet soy so just added a bit of extra sugar), brown sugar and butter. And cracked black pepper, of course. I omitted the chiles, because I forgot to buy them, and played with the proportions of the other ingredients a bit. Served it with spaghetti and broccoli. I love that sort of crunchy-chewy texture, and the sauce was really flavorful. The recipe is here:  http://www.saveur.com/article/Recipes/Plenty-Ottolenghi-Black-Pepper-Tofu

Figures that it is an Ottolenghi recipe, what with all those ingredients.

8/31/15

Panko-crusted chicken (Carter's request), mashed new potatoes, corn, and tomatoes. I made the cream gravy from SE again, omitting the garlic and being more careful with the salt. Much better. The potatoes were just a vehicle for gravy, and the corn and tomatoes were a little mealy. I guess we will go back to our regular farm stand.