12/29/15

A bastardized version of Ottolenghi's baked minted rice.  The store was out of mint and pomegranate, so I just used parsley and pomegranate molasses. It was still really good (and beautiful, although I didn't manage to get a picture), and I really liked the method of steaming the rice in the oven. I will definitely make it again, although I fear pomegranate season may have passed me by. We also had kielbasa (an unlikely companion, but some people in the house seem to need a lot of large chunks of protein at each meal) and a salad.

12/28/15

Lentil soup and another batch of the amazing dinner rolls from CI. I could eat an entire batch of them in one sitting, and that is not an exaggeration. The lentil soup was from the Times and called for red lentils, tomato paste and lemon. Quick and tasty, plus made good leftovers for lunches.

These could be Jason's new signature item.

12/27/15

Quiet dinner at home for the first time in a while. Just turkey sandwiches with hummus and sweet & sour onions (plus chips). Quick and satisfying.

12/26/15

Dinner at Ginger Garden with my parents, Deem and Kevin. I ate everything in sight (including, but not limited to: scallion pancakes, sushi, dumplings, Gen. Tso's chicken).

12/25/15

Brunch in Whately (so so so much food). I wish I could be there now eating more of it. We brought homemade onion dip (I just winged it and was happy with the results) and samosas (didn't seem too popular). Ate a lot of cheese and cookies and chips and meatballs and candy and shrimp. it is a wonder we were able to eat dinner with Jennie and David, but we persevered. Brought a chocolate cream pie (from CI) with a peppermint Jo-Jo crust. Rich.

And of course, a lovely loaf of bread that was DEVOURED

12/24/15

Christmas Eve dinner with my folks. Wonderful roasted pork, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole (yay!!) and turnips and on and on....
Jason made dinner rolls from a recipe I found at Cook's Illustrated. He grudgingly followed the recipe and they were amazing! So light and delicious. I hope I can convince him to make them again. I made a cake from SK, gingerbread with a mascarpone frosting. The cake was really moist yet fluffy, and the frosting was good, too. Next time I might add a bit of maple to the filling.

12/23/15

I had the day off, so I had time to roast a chicken (just OK. I put garlic, lemon and rosemary under the skin, but you wouldn't know it by the taste), and potato pancakes that turned out really well. I will always add baking powder from now on! Plus cabbage sauteed with onion, hot pepper, and caraway.

12/22/15

We went to a party at co-housing, so no dinner to speak of.

12/21/15

Spicy ginger pork and noodles. I made this a few months ago and liked it just as much this time. I forgot the bok choy so used broccoli, and used regular spaghetti instead of rice noodles. Easy and flavorful and everyone liked it.

12/20/15

Chili and some of the leftover flatbread crackers from Craft Day. I used the crockpot (which I have never done for chili before) and it turned out really well. and almost no leftovers which can be a good thing.

12/19/15

Crap Day at Jen's. We made many cookies (mine were rosemary shortbread and espresso shortbread), flatbreads (more like crackers but delicious nonetheless) and various chocolate bark. SO much baking. Jason made us all a delicious pizza and Laurie S. added margaritas.

Snapshots from "The Longest Day of the Year"

12/18/15

Dinner with Jennie and David. We brought bread and an almond-lemon cake from the NYT. The batter is made partly with almond meal, and you plop lemon curd into it before baking, then top with slivered almonds and sugar and bake. I used chopped almonds instead and they added a lovely crunch. Served it with whipped cream and some of the leftover lemon curd (an excellent recipe in and of itself). Will make again.

12/17/15

North African meatballs (from the NYT). Lots of ingredients, but since I had all the spices on hand, this wasn't difficult (especially once I sacrificed the coffee grinder to the cause of spice grinding). The meatballs were very tender and flavorful, and the sauce was better once it was all combined than it was on its own (although I added a tiny bit of sugar). Served with couscous w/ cinnamon, toasted buttered almonds, raisins and parsley. I wouldn't change anything about this recipe.

And also there was zucchini. Unremarkable.

12/16/15

Dinner in Whately, where I stuffed myself silly on homemade pierogies and hamburg gravy. We brought a cake from "Cook's Country" called Blum's hazelnut cake. This was really, really good and could, I thought, have been even better (I think I may need new baking powder). The frosting had Fluff as an ingredient which I was suspicious of, but although it was sweet, it wasn't overly so. And the texture was almost as good as a buttercream without the work. I think this would work equally well with almonds, and be cheaper.

12/15/15

Spicy tomato soup from Martha Stewart. Good flavor; could have used more body. We also have some Trader Joe's bacon-wrapped dates (surprisingly meh) and naan. And maybe some chips.

12/14/15

Volunteer Appreciation event for the Hot Chocolate Run, so Carter and I sailed in on Jason's coattails (polar bear tail?). Pizza and beer. Carter finally found something fun to do:

He was unimpressed with their "Plants vs. Zombies" skills

12/13/15

Chicken curry with coconut as cashews. Delicious and alliterative. From the NYT, made nearly as directed. The only changes were that I subbed in carrots for parsnips, and used ground instead of whole allspice. With this we had rice and roasted cauliflower. A little time-consuming but really good.

12/12/15

No cooking, as we went to a party (although Jason did bring a loaf of bread). Lots of fun, but stayed out late, late late.

12/11/15

Dinner with Jennie and David: bread, of course, and a new recipe for pumpkin pie (from David Lebovitz). The pumpkin filling is dark and delicious, and the marshmallow topping is also nice, but they didn't want to stay together. That hardly mattered, though.

12/10/15

It has been a rather lowbrow cooking week: fish sticks, chips and salad. Cocktail sauce makes everything good, and the virtuous feeling of slightly emptying the freezer also adds to the meal.

12/9/15

Dinner with my parents: pasta with Marcella Hazan's tomato sauce. So good I think I should make it again soon. Brought some brown-butter coconut cookies from SK. I don't know why I never made these before because they certainly meet all my cookie criteria: brown and toasty, crisp and chewy.

12/8/15

  We tried out the new oven with nachos (pulled pork nachos, to be exact). Also had a salad with the garlicy-est, anchovy-est dressing ever. Oven works great, nachos are always delicious.

12/7/15

I wasn't sure if we would have a working stove this week (but we do!!!), so dinner was salad, burgers (grilled) and fries (fried). Project kitchen is so, so close to completion...

12/6/15

After a late lunch at the Northampton Brewery nobody wanted too much dinner, so we had leftover pizza. But we did have a fun morning at the Hot Chocolate Run!

12/5/15

Dinner and Jen and John's. Jason made LOTS of pizza (including Jen's and my old favorite, goat cheese, pine nuts and caramelized onions) and I made more sugar cookies.

12/4/15

Dinner with Jennie and David. Bread and tiramisu. I just sent the recipe to myself because it is so, so good. The mascarpone mixture is particularly smooth and creamy. I used store bought ladyfingers from Aldi so this was also a very easy dish to prepare.

12/3/15

What Jason would call a very typical Lace meal: chicken cutlets with a lemon-butter sauce, orzo and broccoli. Nobody didn't like this.

12/2/15

Dinner in Whately, where we stuffed ourselves with tacos. Or at least I did. Made sugar cookies for dessert, using my new favorite recipe from Serious Eats.

12/1/15

Black bean and chorizo stew from NYT. I am still not sure whether I really like fresh Mexican chorizo. I think I prefer the Portuguese variety, but in any event this was a good weeknight dinner, especially garnished with avocado and lime juice.

11/30/15

I had been waiting until I had a working kitchen and a free afternoon to make a wild rice and broccoli casserole from SK. It was not worth the wait, but I think it could be tweaked: cut the broccoli a little smaller, use another grain (wild rice doesn't soak up any liquid to speak of), thicken the roux a little more, and let it sit longer before eating.  It tasted OK, but was pretty soupy and unappealing. More successfully, I made a coconut cream pie, using (more or less) the recipe from my Richard Sax cookbook. Changes: subbed in a can of coconut milk for some of the regular milk, used a Bordeaux cookie crust, and folded most of the coconut into the custard rather than sprinkling it on top. I feel like the Queen of Pie.

11/29/15

Tofu, noodles, chinese broccoli. Unremarkable. My favorite part was a new condiment: sambal oelek.