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.

11/28/15

A lot of cooking! Michael and Kristen came for lunch. Green chili macaroni and cheese (my old standby) and Genius chocolate mousse. I over-whipped it AGAIN. I will get the timing right! Even over-whipped, it is chocolatey and rich. It was fun to see baby Mercer and I am always glad of a reason to eat macaroni and cheese.
Then my parents came to dinner! Bo ssam, round 3. This time I think I cooked it perfectly and salted it a bit less. We have tons of leftovers but I think everyone enjoyed it. Dessert was maple pudding (chomeur), from Food52. The first time I made this, I did them in individual ramekins, which I think worked a bit better, as they absorbed more sauce.

porky goodness

11/27/15

Dinner at Jennie and David's. We brought samosas and tamarind chutney (both from Saveur website). The filling I thought could have been a little more flavorful, but they seemed like a success. Also made another pecan pie; although I was out of the golden syrup called for and subbed in maple syrup and dark corn syrup instead. Jason proclaimed it even better than the previous one so I think I will stick with that variation.

11/26/15

Thanksgiving. We brought a yellow cake made (from Martha Stewart): it was a little heavy, but I think I didn't beat the butter and sugar long enough. I did like the flavor, though. The chocolate frosting was the milk and flour slurry kind. I like it because it isn't too sweet and is easier to make than real buttercream. Also made a pecan pie (SK) that I thought was absolutely delicious. It was a fun gathering at Jay and Jodi's house (Jay smoked the turkey out on the grill and it was great).

11/25/15

Pizza made by Jason (onion, peppers feta and pepperoni-mushroom). Good, and even better re-heated.

11/24/15

repeat of pasta with lemon, bacon, parmesan and nuts. Not quite as good as the first time (not enough lemon; I forgot to cook the bacon on the stovetop), but pretty tasty. Also, it was a joy to wash the dishes:

It won't stay this pretty forever.

11/23/15

Dinner at Jason's parents with his siblings (Bertucci's pizza; always a hit with me). Rumor has it that we will have a sink by the end of the day.

11/22/15

Used up some leftover eggplant in the freezer to make eggplant parm grinders. More cheese next time! Otherwise fine.

11/21/15

dinner with Jennie and David---delicious bread, a lemon-lime pudding (from the NYT) that I am sure I have made before, and rosemary shortbread (also NYT). The custards were tart and satiny (as the recipe said they would be), and the shortbread was not-too-rosemaryish and good with the custard. My butter was a bit too warm so they could have been a little sandier.

11/20/15

Carter's pick of the week, chicken shwarma and naan. Served with cucumbers, the last of the zhug, and a quick sauce made of yogurt, tahini, lemon and sriracha. Still messy, still delicious.

11/19/15

Carter and I had a quiet, simple dinner at home while Jason was off giving an exam. Spinach/cheese ravioli (store bought) and tomato sauce. We both loved it.

11/18/15

Dinner in Whately, where we continued to reap the rewards of turkey dinner---turkey pot pie, plus green beans and almonds. I brought some caramel blondies from David Lebowitz: regular blondies are topped with shards of caramelized sugar that melt into the batter and form little chewy pockets of caramel. One of my favorite blondie recipes yet. I ran out of milk chocolate and threw in some white chocolate. The only thing I might do differently is maybe sprinkle a tiny bit of salt on top.

11/17/15

Given the choice between going out and staying in, Carter chose home. That is because we had his favorite, burritos. And they were pretty good.

11/16/15

So, the sink and countertops we expected today will not actually arrive until next Monday. So with a heavy heart I prepared turkey sandwiches (with hummus, meunster cheese, and sweet and sour onions). The onion jam is a great condiment but I would rather have a sink.

11/15/15

Birthday dinner for my dad: early Thanksgiving! I think the Stevens/Stokes household consumed several cups of gravy. Looking forward to being able to repay some of my parents' hospitality soon.

11/14/15

Usual dinner with J & D, usual bread from Jason.  I made my regular brownie recipe, and added mint topping (throw dinner mints on top, let them melt, spread. Voila). Perfectly baked for once and minty delicious.

11/13/15

The Kitchen Project is winding down, but since we still don't have counters or a sink, cooking remains challenging. So, making Finnish meatballs was maybe too ambitious and messy. But the results were good, so who cares about a utility sink full of dishes? I tweaked the recipe slightly this time by putting the meatballs in a large baking dish (instead of the called for dutch oven), adding the chicken broth, and baking them. This kept them from falling apart and worked well. We also had egg noodles and peas.

11/12/15

AMAZING dinner at my parents. Pasta and chicken with Marcella Hazan's tomato sauce, bread (courtesy of Jason)  and cauliflower roasted with figs and chorizo  (talk about upgrading your cauliflower!). I hope we are able to repay their kindness when our kitchen is done. Also, grilled cinnamon buns, which Carter is unexpectedly enamored of. But who could blame him?

11/11/15

Salad, cheese and crackers, deviled eggs (no messy, scary frying). A quick and tasty meal.

11/10/15

Chicken and broccoli stir-fry with scallions and noodles. We were so scared to fry in the kitchen that we put towels over the counters. Or where the counters will be, more accurately. I am liking keeping the scallions in bigger pieces, as they add more flavor.

11/9/15

Muffaletta sandwiches; I cheated slightly by buying the gardiniera instead of making my own (and it was quite spicy!)

There may also have been chips.

The cupboards look lovely but we aren't allowed to put anything in them. There are rumors of a countertop.

.

11/8/15

I took advantage of a special offer from Bertucci's to order out two party size pizzas. Dinner plus several lunches solved. I don't care if no one else in my family loves Bertucci's as much as I do.

11/7/15

Family Relaxation Night at home. Hamburgers, salad, tots. I will come out and say it: I think I like tots better than french fries. Or at least just as much. Carter requested two smaller (fast food style) burgers with ketchup and onions, which he devoured with astonishing speed.

11/6/15

Dinner with Jennie and David. I felt guilty for the store bought dessert last time, so I made the (flawless) chocolate pudding from SK. I did buy some Bordeaux cookies, but who doesn't love those? With the kitchen work happening, Jason has had to adjust the cooking time for his bread, which means we get to eat it still a bit warm. It's fabulous.

11/5/15

Used the crockpot to make spaghetti with meat sauce (well, just the sauce, of course), and I was very pleased with the results. I just want to remember to leave the lid off of the pot for the last hour or so next time. We also had vegetables, keeping scurvy away for a little longer. I am getting used to cooking on two floors. I could become a scullery maid in a wealthy British household if this library thing doesn't pan out.

11/4/15

Mom to the rescue again, with delicious soup (with german bread dumplings!), asparagus and cheese and crackers with chestnut honey. The kitchen is coming along, but is not what you would call operable.

11/3/15

Another meal at home; how novel! Quesadillas with beans and onions, plus I even managed to make some guacamole. This was much easier to prepare than the pasta, although washing the dishes is still a pain. I am brainstorming ideas for other easy to make meals. Probably a lot of sandwiches.

11/2/15

I decided that with proper planning, dinner could be made at home, so I made a batch of pasta with broccoli pesto, plus some chicken sausage sauteed with onions. Well, it can be done, but it wasn't easy: many, many trips up and down the stairs, dishes everywhere, trying to drain pasta in the bathroom sink, and food processing on top of the desk. As least the results were good! I think the boys appreciated it. I may even try again tomorrow.

What a mess!

11/1/15

Mom comes through again! Pulled pork banh mi, red beans and rice, delicata squash. And leftovers for Jason! We are very lucky.

10/31/15

Pizza and candy for dinner.

Quite a haul.

10/30/15

Dinner with Jennie and David; Jason determinedly made bread (which was great); I lazily bought ice cream and cookies from Trader Joe's.  I don't honestly think I could have made anything tastier.

10/29/15

Dinner at the High Horse in advance of the Amherst Trivia Bee. Great burgers; fries could have been a bit hotter.

10/28/15

Yay for mothers who cook you a wonderful dinner. Chicken soup, cabbage-carrot-shrimp salad, dates stuffed with sausage and manchego, then wrapped in bacon(!!!!). I will be making those dates when my kitchen returns. And for dessert grilled cinnamon buns. Sadly, Carter took a liking to those so I had to share.

10/27/15

I ordered takeout.

10/26/15

Green-chili and chicken stew with white beans, from Homesick Texan. Good, after some flavor tweaking (more cilantro, more salt, lime juice). This was a meal by itself, so we just had some chips with it. May be the last decent meal for a little while since this happened this morning:

Goodbye wallpaper! Jason won't miss my whining about you!

10/25/15

There is not much to say about eggplant parm except the whole family loves it, which is good because I made a LOT.

10/24/15

Bubbe's 90th birthday in Stamford. Delicious Italian food; long day of travel.

10/23/15

Dinner at Jen and John's: return of the bo ssam! I did it completely by the book this time, and the results were much better. I started with about an 8 pound, bone-in pork shoulder, dry-brined it overnight, and roasted it for about 7 hours. I also made the accompaniments (ginger-scallion sauce and a spicy chili sauce), and they were so worth it. I will definitely make this again

10/22/15

Pasta with tomato sauce and sausage (tried out the slow cooker, which worked well), plus Jason made a loaf of bread. It was all great, but I was distracted by my various baking projects: TKOs, round two: better cookie, but I completely overbeat the ganache and broke it; cider donuts (why bother? Go to Atkins) and croissants.  I started them Wednesday night, laminated them on Thursday and baked them Friday morning (half cheese, half chocolate).  They taste pretty good, but aren't as flaky as I could hope. Maybe another round of folding next time? It would be fairly easy to make these over a weekend.

Shaping them was not my strong point.

10/21/15

Take-out from Mom's House, which was a little bittersweet, since it was good and cheap, but they are discontinuing take-out there. I will have to perfect my own tofu and eggplant.

10/20/15

Black bean soup, roasted acorn squash, more naan. The beans in the soup were slightly underdone, but otherwise all was good.

10/19/15

Roasted chicken schwarma, from the NYT. I felt very brave making this with boneless chicken thighs, which I was pretty sure I don't like. Followed the recipe exactly, and served the chicken with Trader Joe's naan (I'll make my own on a non-work day), cucumbers, some zhug, a yogurt-tahini sauce, scallions and jalapenos. This was a VERY big success. It turns out that I do like chicken thighs, and Carter loved it. He said it was the best thing I ever made! I mean, he really raved about it. It was gratifying.

10/18/15

Roasted tofu, rice, broccoli. I topped the tofu with sauteed ginger, garlic and scallions, and provided sriracha and soy sauce at the table.
(Nobody seemed particularly excited by this dinner, but it was quick).

10/17/15

Dinner with Jennie and David; bread, ice cream and leek fritters. OK, the ice cream itself (butterscotch with brownies) was good, but the recipe for brownies in the cookbook (Van Leeuwen Artisan Ice Cream. Also the source of the chocolate ice cream of a couple of weeks ago) was terrible. It was fine mixed into the ice cream, but almost inedible alone. I was doing a bunch of things at the time, so maybe I screwed up? The leek fritters are always good, except that I didn't clean my cilantro well enough so I detected some grit in some of them. Served them with a spicy sour cream thrown together from various sources.

10/16/15

A flurry of cooking. Dinner was chicken breasts with tomato, capers and white wine, from the NYT. Good but not incredible. I threw in some spinach so I wouldn't have to make another vegetable, and served it with leftover plain spaghetti. I also made a shoo-Fly pie, from "First Prize Pies". It is very nice, except that it calls for a sort of crumble to be sprinkled on top, which is just flour, sugar and spices. It really doesn't add anything to the pie. If I make it again, I will rub in a little cold butter to make it into an actual crumble. I kept looking at the recipe to see if I was missing something.

10/15/15

Crocker Farm Open House from 6-8 necessitated picking up a pizza on the way home, and watching the Great British Baking show.

10/14/15

Dinner at my mom's (delicious soup). We brought some oreo cookies a la Thomas Keller. Nice: a bit salty and the filling could have been a bit firmer but basically successful.

10/13/15

Carter's choice: burritos. Added guacamole and some leftover squash for crunch/nutrients.

10/12/15

Pasta with lemon, bacon and pine nuts, from the NYT. You toss pasta with parsley, butter, parmesan and lemon juice and zest, then serve bacon and pine nuts (I used walnuts) at the table to add in. I also added some sauteed summer squash (but peas would have been good, too). I thought this tasted perfect, and hope I can replicate it! Just lemony enough, and the bacon and nuts added a nice crunch.

Jason's picture. Not much better than mine.

10/11/15

Staggered off the Megabus and heated up a couple of Trader Joe's tamales (and ate a few of my precious stock of See's chocolates). Thank you Jessica for an awesome weekend getaway!

Day and night views from the hotel

10/10/15

Lower East Side restaurant crawl: we started the night at Empellon; we sat at the bar and had pistachio guacamole (as good as I remembered) and 7 salsas (too diverse to recall, but the green one was delicious and the spiciest one was really quite spicy). We also had some queso (meh) and a hot dog taco that we don't know why we ordered. I guess I thought that it was such a dumb idea that it must actually be delicious. If I could do that meal over again, I would skip the taco and queso and get the crab and mango instead. Then we headed over to Motorino for Neapolitan pizza. There was a projected hour wait, so we walked a few blocks over to Milk Bar for dessert. The line was quite long but moved quickly, and as we ordered, we got a call that our table was ready. So we shoved our cookies and Crack Pie into our bags and headed back to Motorino. It was tiny and very very crowded in there! We shared a tomato-burrata salad (fine) and a margherita pie. The pizza was nice, but not as good as Keste, we agreed. I had originally thought we might try Momofuku Noodle Bar, too, but we were too full, so we grabbed a cab back uptown. How was Milk Bar? Sadly, I found the cookies to be merely sweet. The Crack Pie was very, very sweet. Oddly, I found my version of the cornflake cookies to be better. Maybe these desserts skew younger?
I will get to Momofuku someday, I swear!

ps The TKO cookies from Bouchon are, by contrast, sweet, and a little bitter and absolutely delicious.

10/9/15

In NYC with Jessica. We started the evening with drinks and snacks (truffle-parmesan popcorn and crudites) in the hotel's fancy lounge area. Then we headed down to Union Square Cafe for a last meal in their current location. We shared scallop crudo (just OK) and a burrata with greens and these delicious garlic croutons. Then we shared a pasta with broccoli rabe and cod (sounds odd but I think it was our favorite dish of the night). Jessica had a steak with marrow mashed potatoes: the meatiest, richest mashed potatoes I have ever tried. I had swordfish with a fava puree, and this surprisingly wonderful quinoa salad with olivata and cherry tomatoes. I could have eaten a bowl of that alone. Cheese and dessert (chocolate cake) turned out to be superfluous. I hope the new USC location is just as good.

10/8/15

Grilled chicken marinated in labneh, onions and garlic, plus rice, roasted caulflower and more zhug. The chicken was from "My Lebanese Kitchen" and had a really nice tangy, onion-y flavor. Although it was tricky grilling it in the the near darkness of the porch.

10/7/15

Pizza with my folks (yay!). I brought a nutmeg cake which was a bit dry. I am afraid I may have overcooked it.

10/6/15

Made what Serious Eats deemed "The Best Carne Asada". I can't speak to that, although it was pretty good, especially the red chile salsa. I think it may have been a little better with skirt steak, but flank steak was all the store had. Served with roasted delicata squash and black beans. I think the marinade and presentation would be just as good with chicken.

That squash is just looming.

10/5/15

French toast, cottage cheese and bacon again, at Carter's request. At least we didn't have to make the challah this time.

10/4/15

Roasted tofu, rice, broccoli.

10/3/15

Dinner with Jennie and David: chocolate ice cream and angel food cake. Fine.  I only made chocolate ice cream because someone returning an ice cream cookbook swore it was the best ever. I will try some other recipes from the book, because it isn't chocolate ice cream's fault that I prefer vanilla. Also, it is really best straight out of the ice cream maker.

10/2/15

I finally had some some free time in which to cook, so I made: sweet and sour baked eggplant with pressed ricotta (from Frankies Spuntino), marinated mushrooms, antipasti and an apple pie. Jason contributed bread to this tasty meal.

10/1/15

Amazing meal at Ibiza with my parents. I can't remember every dish, but we had patatas bravas (crispy, spicy and delicious), tuna crudo, cheeses and fig paste, calamari (which I actually liked!), tiny little steak sandwiches, pulled pork and more. Hope we can go back again.

9/30/15

Since Carter and I were dining alone, we (scandalously) watched TV during dinner. Cream of pea soup, some leftover boreks, naan and hummus.

preppy pea soup

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.

8/30/15

We had a such a large and delicious lunch that we skipped dinner. Well, we ate a little cake, but that was it.

8/29/15

Diner with Jennie and David, so a loaf of bread and a cake. A toasted marshmallow and salted caramel ice cream cake, to be exact. I liked the flavors (there was also a graham cracker crust), but I don't see why you couldn't just have a bowl of ice cream.

8/28/15

An indulgent dinner: fried mozzarella, watermelon, fresh tomatoes. I think fried mozzarella would be one of the things I would request for a last meal. I also made a brown sugar angel food cake (from Martha Stewart). The good news is that it used up a LOT of egg whites; the bad news is that Jason and I prefer regular old angel cake. Still, it wasn't bad.

Thanks, Jen!

8/27/15

Dinner at Jen and John's. Jason made pizza, and tried some exciting new combinations: ricotta with zucchini, and bbq chicken with red onions (a la Bob and Timmy's). Both were really good. I had a slice of the ricotta with sliced tomatoes for breakfast and it held up really well.

8/26/15

Dinner in Whately---another great meal (flank steak, roasted potatoes, panzanella, corn). We brought bread and another plum cake, which I like more than I expected to, given that I don't usually like fruits in cakes. Maybe I actually do?

8/25/15

Burritos: unexciting, but tasty and popular.

8/24/15

Spicy ginger pork with rice noodles, from the Times. Saute ground pork with ginger, scallions, garlic, soy and rice vinegar, toss in baby bok choy. then finish with a little sesame oil, toasted sesame seeds, and black vinegar. I followed the  recipe exactly and was really pleased with the results. In fact, we all liked it, so this one I will make again.

8/23/15

Mezze-style dinner: tiny savory pancakes with peas, scallions and serrano chiles; smoky eggplant dip and deviled eggs (plus some naan from Trader Joe's). The pancakes I thought were a little too thin and would bump up the flour next time; I wouldn't change a thing about the eggplant (although I added a bit of sumac). Both recipes were from the NYT. Overall a fun and not too tricky dinner.

Carter wanted me to show his dinner.

8/22/15

Dinner with Jennie and David. We brought  a plum torte from NYT. Really easy, really good. I didn't have italian prune plums so I used small yellow ones, and I subbed in some brown sugar for white. This would probably be good with any number of fruits.

8/21/15

Family Relaxation Night, so I made a family favorite, eggplant parmesan. Beloved and devoured by all. To mix it up a bit with the ubiquitous zucchini, I added leeks and sun-dried tomatoes.

8/20/15

Dinner with my parents. My mom made corn chowder with scallops. Incredibly delicious and a bit decadent. I made chocolate mousse on the fly; I used a less dark Trader Joe's chocolate that worked well and I thought I stopped whipping in time, but while my back was turned it seized up a bit! Not too much, though. Still soft enough but I guess this is a learning process.

8/19/15

Herbed meatballs and pasta (from NYT). We really liked these meatballs---I used ground beef, but chicken or turkey would work well, too. Really an amped up pesto with chives and parsley. I think the ony thing I would change anything, except to maybe make more. We also had a salad with sesame-soy vinaigrette.

8/18/15

I set out to make grilled flank steak sandwiches with roasted red peppers, but the flank steak was too expensive. So we had grilled chicken (a little too salty, unfortunately) on ciabatta with red onion jam, goat cheese and tomatoes. No one missed the steak. We also had corn off the cob and some silly reuben flavored potato chips.

8/17/15

Still not cooking. We had pizza in a nice air conditioned restaurant.

8/16/15

I have apparently given up cooking altogether, so we went to my parent's for dinner again.  It was a nice (relatively)quiet evening, with just Thor and Rod there. My mom once again proved who is boss in the mashed potato department, and I don't even bother making hamburger gravy myself. Why compete? We brought a pie from Food52 (kind of a key lime with a saltine crust). I liked it, but I don't see it going into regular rotation. My unusual dessert recipes should probably stay home (the spicy chocolate cookies I brought to Jennie and David's come to mind).

8/15/15

It was a beautiful day for the memorial service for Carol. An amazing lunch at the church (catered by my mom's friend Peter). Then everyone stuck around for leftovers and pizza at my parents. I think everyone had a great time right up until an epic thunderstorm.

We all agree that Carol would have loved it.

8/14/15

Dinner at my parents, with many Sluters and Sluter-adjacent people. Pasta, meatballs, sausage, grilled corn. We brought brownies (my usual recipe, but somehow inferior) and blondies (from Cook's Illustrated via Food52). I think I want to make the good old Fanny Farmer recipe again--I preferred the chewiness of that one. And I'll brown the butter....

8/13/15

Another night, another Genius recipe.  Pasta with eggplant (that you saute with garlic and sun-dried tomatoes). I subbed rosemary in for the basil, and added cherry tomatoes for a little acid. Carter didn't like it at all, Jason loved it, and I was in-between. I think I would have liked the eggplant to be even a but mushier, unappealing as that sounds. We also had leftover bread and goat cheese. It was too unattractive to photograph.

8/12/15

Tuna melts on rye, as per Jason's request (plus chips and tomatoes). These were more delicious than I expected, but ultimately not that filling. More chips next time?

I snuck kale into mine.

8/11/15

Another Genius recipe---ginger fried rice. I think "genius" may be overselling it, but it was pleasant enough. I am becoming more convinced that I need a rice cooker. My rice is never fluffy enough and is always a bit sticky. We also had grilled chicken (citrus-fish sauce marinade again) and zucchini. Carter declared the rice and chicken "tasty".

8/10/15

I looked deep into the fridge this morning and realized that no more food could come from this kitchen until some food went out. So, leftovers for dinner. The best part was that I melted down the chocolate mousse from Friday with a little bit of milk chocolate, and re-whipped it. SO MUCH BETTER. Now I see why it was a genius recipe.

8/9/15

Shrimp and grits from Food52. I admit that I did not completely follow their recipe (which defeats the point of Genius Recipes, I guess). Carter thought the idea of pureeing the shrimp was unappealing (and so did I), and I used polenta instead of grits. Carter and Jason seemed to like it, but personally I prefer my grits without shrimp. Sorry, Low County. Also had some so-so tomatoes.

 Carter wanted me to use his bowl as a model.

8/8/15

Two dinners. The first was at a birthday party for a friend of Carter's.  This was bo ssam done right! In addition to being cooked longer, it was served with amazing accompaniments:

Sticky rice, scallion-ginger sauce, bo ssam sauce. I am definitely making this again. NYT has a recipe.

The next dinner was Jennie and Davids; we brought bread and brown sugar cake. I think we did a pretty good job eating twice.

8/7/15

Homemade fettucine, two ways: butter and parmesan, and tomato sauce with italian sausage (too salty). Plus summer squash---I have decided that I prefer my zucchini and squash cooked on the mushier side. I know, how retro.
Dessert was "one ingredient chocolate mousse" from Genius Recipes. This involves melting chocolate with water, then whipping over ice until it is mousse. Two notes: 70% chocolate is too bitter (maybe cut with milk chocolate next time?), and the line between not whipped enough and too whipped is very fine. You can re-melt and start again, but I didn't feel like it.

8/6/15

Tacos with a chorizo-potato filling, plus a salsa made from corn, avocado and tomato. I think I would have preferred corn tortillas to flour, but still good.

8/5/15

Take-out from Mom's House. Fast, cheap, tasty.

8/4/15

The last night of Ultimate, and the last night of dinner in the car. Muffaletta sandwiches were good but very messy. I don't think I would make them ahead of time again, even though the recipe calls for it. I don't care for disintegrated bread.

8/3/15

Bo Ssam, wrapped in lettuce leaves, with various condiments (hoisin, sweet chili sauce, chili-garlic stuff), plus some tomatoes. I made the version from Milkbar Life, and I was disappointed that it took more than twice as long to cook as the recipe said (and still wasn't completely tender). I looked at the actual Momofuku recipe online and found it to be much more complicated---I think that is the one I will use next time, as the pork was fine but not amazing. I hate to buy an expensive piece of meat like that and nearly ruin it. There were no complaints, however!

8/2/15

We had our first corn of the season and it was perfect:

Off the cob for the boys; I eat it the old-fashioned way

We also had burgers, french fries, and tomato-mozzarella salad, making this pretty much the quintessential summer meal.

8/1/15

And back to dinner: bread, brownies (the usual recipe), and a Tuscan Custard Rice Torte (from Food52). Nice, but I thought it could have used a little more flavor. Or brulee-ing the top would be good.

8/1/15

Special Lunch edition:
Burmese Tea Leaf Salad, courtesy of the best friend ever, Jessica:

Before

After

This was nearly as good at flying to San Francisco and having lunch at Mandalay (ha ha, of course it isn't!! But it was a rare and delicious treat). Thank you Jessica!!

7/31/15

We finished up July with homemade pizzas. Carter requested (and got) hamburger and pepperoni, I wanted caramelized onion and goat cheese. Both turned out terrific. I like the addition of cherry tomatoes to the goat cheese pie.

7/30/15

Tofu, that I dredged in flour + cornstarch and pan-fried. served with rice, plus a thai-style curry that  made with red curry paste, coconut milk, onion, garlic, ginger and zucchini.

7/29/15

Dinner with Jen and Gus. Corn and green chile & chicken macaroni and cheese. I know I have made it twice before, but I love it so. Turns out that green chile and cheese are two of my trigger ingredients. I wonder how it would be in an enchilada form?

Gus buys the ice cream

7/28/15

Another night of SULA: hot dogs and sauerkraut for Jason, grilled cheese for Carter. I made a pasta with beet greens, garlic, red pepper and anchovies:

I ate this in the car (again), which would have been OK except that the pasta could have used some salt and I didn't have any. Still, using up those beet greens made me feel virtuous.

7/27/15

Dinner with Jennie and David. We brought bread, another blueberry pie, and some aloo tikki w/ mint and tamarind chutneys (from "Indian for Everyone"). I have had better luck with the chutneys from Saveur. The fritters were nice; I think if I make them again I would dredge them in chick pea flour before frying.

Here is a picture to annoy Jason:

Rainbow over cohousing