Saturday, 1/30/16

Dinner with Jennie and David. Chocolate pudding from SK (no leftovers), and pretzel shortbread (F52) that did not live up to its potential. I didn't like baking them in muffin tins and wonder if there is another way; I may have overbaked them a little. Crumbled up they made an excellent topping for pudding, though. I might see if there is another recipe out there, since I still have pretzels.

Friday, 1/29/16

Sushi bowl and that is all. Well, not completely all:  I also made up some chili/honey-butter potato chips (SE) that were crispy, sticky and hard to stop eating. And there was a flan that was pretty much devoured.

No school=hike and obligatory selfie

Thursday, 1/28/16

Green chili and potato stew (from F52). I fiddled with this recipe a bit by adding chicken and hominy to round it out. Served with avocado, cilantro and green salsa. Some people may have put cheetohs in theirs.

Wednesday, 1/28/16

Dinner with my mom. Taco Rice (a modern Okinowan specialty); beans, beef, tomatoes, etc over rice. A tasty alternative to tacos and made lunches for Carter and Jason to boot!

Tuesday, 1/26/16

Chickpeas with sweet potatoes and coconut curry (I added chard to mine). Carter ate it without complaining, but I think that was because I let him watch TV during dinner. He had naan, I had bread. Makes good leftovers for lunch.

Monday, 1/25/16

Jason's famous hamburgers and french fries. For excitement, I topped my burger with a little grilled haloumi. Yum!

Sunday, 1/24/16

More clean out the freezer food, plus a nice loaf of Jason's bread. Trader Joe's chicken/vegetable potstickers, and toasted ravioli. Carter declared that the ravioli where just "mozzarella balls", but that is no cause for complaint.

Saturday, 1/23/16

Dinner with Jennie and David: bread, cheese crackers (SK), coconut cream pie (adapted from Classic Home Desserts and using a cookie crust). I must remember that the cheese crackers turn out better when made as cheese straws. They still taste good, but the texture suffers. The pie was delicious and I stealthily finished it when we got home. I also made a couple of loaves of cinnamon-raisin bread (NYT) that I haven't tried, but Carter seems to like it. It is quite easy to make if you are going to be home most of the day.

1/22/16

Family Relaxation Night. Jason made pizzas, including my favorite of salami, cherry peppers and provolone. I made some almond/chocolate thumbprint cookies (Food52). nice and not too sweet, but two separate batches of chocolate seized up. I will use a ganache filling next time. I also made a baklava from the NYT. According to Jason, it was inedible (too buttery and too sweet), but maybe it just needed to sit, because I had some the next morning and thought it was delicious. It is over half gone...

Thursday, 1/21/16

Dinner with my parents at Goten. I ate everything in sight. Carter thought the food was delicious, but wondered if we could get it without the tableside cooking!

Wednesday, 1/20/16

Carter and I had leftover carnitas. I made another batch of flour tortillas which I cannot recommend enough. We also watched TV during dinner since Jason wasn't home.

Tuesday, 1/19/16

In an effort to empty the freezer, we had some leftover eggplant parm. Carter declared that it was just as good as the first time, so that was nice. I also used up a half box of orzo, so I am feeling mighty virtuous.

Monday, 1/18/15

OK, so it wasn't dinner, but we had a wonderful brunch with my parents on Monday. Frittata, bacon, waffles, fruit salad....a feast! we brought monkey bread, which I thought was only so-so. I shouldn't have trusted a recipe that called brown sugar, butter and a scant 3T of heavy cream "caramel sauce". Jason and I agreed that it could probably have been improved, but I won't bother. Dinner was carnitas with my new favorite: homemade flour tortillas. Served with cotija, limes, avocado and some zucchini. even Carter loved it.

It looked so promising!

Sunday, 1/17/16

Lime-fish sauce marinated chicken (from NYT: popular over the summer and still incredibly tender and flavorful). I boil up the leftover marinade and swirl in a little butter for an impromptu sauce. I also made swiss chard pancakes from SK. A little dense---I considered adding a little baking powder and next time I will. Nice with some lemon and sour cream.

Saturday, 1/16/16

Dinner with Jennie and David: dinner rolls (for a little variety) and carrot cake with mascarpone frosting (from SK's gingerbread layer cake). The cake recipe was from Robicelli's---I thought it worked better as cupcakes, and maybe the carrots weren't as shredded as they could have been. But the mascarpone frosting is super smooth, creamy, and lovely. Maybe better than italian buttercream even. And much easier.

Friday, 1/15/16

Lazy dinner for Family Relaxation Night. Manchego-stuffed dates, wrapped in bacon; roasted carrot and avocado salad, and a stellar loaf of Jason's bread.

Thursday, 1/14/16

Chicken curry from "Indian Cooking for Everyone". This was a good recipe, but I made what I consider two mistakes: the canned tomatoes I used were too firm, and there were too many of them. Unappetizing. Also, I think chicken on the bone would be more tender and flavorful. Next time.
We also had TJ's naan (Carter's favorite) and roasted cauliflower. I was going to do the roast a whole head of cauliflower thing, but that takes too long. I did use the sauce suggested in the NYT, sort of a romesco, with anchovies, garlic, almonds and parsley. Good, if too heavy on the anchovies.

Wednesday, 1/13/16

Delicious meatballs and pasta at my Mom's. I am pretty sure (OK, positive) that I had thirds. We brought a gingerbread bundt (from Gramercy Tavern via SK). Dark, spicy, moist and good with the leftover sticky toffee sauce.

Tuesday, 1/12/16

Mostly uninteresting meal: broccoli for health, kielbasa sauteed with onions as a favor to Jason and carter. The new thing I tried was a potato cake from the NYT. Mash boiled potatoes with garlic and parsley, coat in cornmeal and saute. I thought these were only OK, and if I had a craving for potato pancakes again, I would make latkes.

Monday, 1/11/16

Not much to say about burritos and guacamole. I say it is for Carter, but in truth, what is not to like about a fast, tasty and customizable meal?

Sunday, 1/10/16

Beef stew, loosely based on a recipe from Smitten Kitchen (also, I used the slow cooker and that was very successful). I was out of beef stock, so I just omitted it and you couldn't really tell. We also had egg noodles and a salad. Carter said it was a very good salad, but I think he was just being polite.

Saturday, 1/9/16

Dinner with Jennie and David.  bread, of course, and sticky toffee pudding. I used Bittman's recipe from the NYT, and thought it was good but inferior to the last one I made. The toffee sauce was too creamy, and not brown-sugary enough, and the large pan (9x13) struck me as a poor choice. I am going to try to figure out what recipe I used last time and use that instead next time.

Friday, 1/8/16

I went a bit overboard, maybe compensating for a light week of cooking? Scallion pancakes (crunchy and flaky; dough needed a bit of salt) from SE, cucumber salad from Lucky Peach cookbook (fine, but I don't think going forward I need a recipe for that), scallion-soy meatballs from SK (I used ground chicken instead of turkey, and baked them. The meatballs are really good, but the glaze could use a little tweaking. Needed a bit of acid). While all this was happening (and it was a MESS!), I was also making a chocolate babka, using Smitten's revised recipe. I would make this again, but start a day in advance and maybe try baking it at a lower temperature. Also, I added chocolate chips to one loaf and think I would do that again. Still, not bad for a first effort.
A couple of things I am noting about the new stove: it has a hot spot in the middle that is overbrowning things a bit, and something about the range (or perhaps just my flamboyant cooking style?) is causing the smoke alarm to go off constantly. Might have to tone down some of that power.

Thursday, 1/7/16

Since I went to Trivia Night at the library, Carter and Jason had frozen pizza at home and I ate a sad desk salad. AND we lost at trivia.

Wednesday, 1/6/15

After a long and fruitless afternoon of sofa shopping, we were glad to go eat some comforting chili at my mom's. Plus about a pound of guacamole. Thanks, mom!

Tuesday, 1/5/16

Inspired by Roxanne, I shallow fried my tofu instead of stir frying it. This produced delicious cubes of crispy tofu and a terrible mess. Also had baby bok choy and rice. This was actually better than it sounds (thanks to hoisin sauce and sambal oelek).

Monday, 1/4/16

I was intrigued after reading a long article in Serious Eats about making spaghetti carbonara. I have always shied away from the recipe because the eggs just sounded gross. Well, it wasn't gross, but neither was it overly exciting. Maybe pancetta isn't flavorful enough? It was pleasant (and a little tricky to execute to avoid scrambling the eggs). Probably won't bother again.
Also, those rice crackers I tried to make? Awful. Really awful.

Sunday, 1/3/16

Yes, it was nachos for dinner.

Saturday, 1/2/16

Dinner at Jennie and David's; no new recipes (Jason made bread, and I reprised the hazelnut cake from CI). I did TRY to make rice crackers, but they were pretty awful. I will try another recipe, but these are curiously bland. Oh well, Jason will eat them.

Friday 1/1/16

Welcome to a new year of cooking! I have reverted to adding the day of the week because it helps me keep track better. We had dinner at Jen and John's; Jason made chocolate chip cookies in situ, and I made macaroni and cheese (from Martha Stewart). Nothing ground-breaking, but always pretty good.

Thursday, 12/31/15

Spent New Years Eve in Westford with Jeff and Sue. We made pizza and I brought chewy brown sugar cookies (from SE). I will be making them again (with no changes, except maybe brown the butter?).

Wednesday, 12/30/15

Simple pasta with tomato sauce (with hot and sweet italian sausage). I used the crockpot so this was a fast dinner (and reliable).