2/28/16

Tacos with homemade tortillas, scrambled eggs, avocado, cabbage and assorted condiments. Carter was completely in love with this meal---mostly because of the tortillas. They really are a perfect vehicle for almost anything.

2/27/16

Dinner at Jen and John's. Brought the rest of the cake, plus a potato-leek soup (no recipe). We made various grilled cheese sandwiches and a good time was had by all.

2/26/16

Dinner with Jennie and David (I know, a Friday!). Bread plus a walnut cake with coffee icing (Nigella Lawson via NYT). I forgot some coffee in the cake batter (and slightly) overcooked the cake, but overall it was good. Maybe even better with a true buttercream, but you can't argue that American butter cream isn't easy.

2/25/16

Refrigerator was still groaning, another night of leftovers.

2/24/16

Spaghetti with meat sauce and garlic bread at my parent's. Heartily enjoyed by all, even Carter who claimed not to be hungry.

We brought a flan that I accidentally baked without its water bath. A little grainy, but still OK. Better than no flan at all, certainly.

Tuesday, 2/23/16

Gung bao (formerly kung pao) chicken , from the NYT (the Fuschia Dunlop version). I should have made it a little spicier, and Carter said he didn't like the peanuts, but otherwise a real winner. Being able to use the wok again on the new stove is great for stir-frying.

Monday, 2/23/16

Leftovers again. It didn't help.

Sunday, 2/21/16

Here is a guest post from Carter about tonight's dinner:

"Um, we had pork (right, pulled, is that what it is?), toasted buns, and then you put some of your special barbeque sauce that you made yourself on it, and the pork was really soft because you cooked it all day long. I liked the BBQ sauce flavors, and I also liked the bread. I would eat it again."

(Pulled pork from SE; it was supposed to happen in the oven, but the oven was booked so I tried the slow cooker. Success! The BBQ sauce is really good, and although there were a million ingredients, I had them all on hand.)

Saturday, 2/20/16

Jennie and David's: two cookie recipes from the Times: Chocolate-peppermint bars (sweet, but good), and maple-pecan shortbread squares (also sweet and rich, but in a good way, like little pecan pies). would make both of them again.

Friday, 2/19/15

Involtini from the NYT: thinly sliced eggplant wrapped around a filling with feta, nuts (called for pine nuts; walnuts worked fine), mint, parsley and raisins. Top this with tomato sauce and fresh mozzarella and bake. I thought the flavors were really, really good, but I would make a few crucial changes: peel the eggplant; make sure thicker slices get cooked all the way through before you wrap them, make a dryer tomato sauce as the whole thing was a bit runny. We also made a batch of homemade egg noodles that got completely devoured.

Thursday, 2/18/16

Marinated roasted tofu, sauteed cabbage, soba noodles with peanut sauce. The peanut sauce was from Trader Joe's and needed quite a bit of doctoring up. I would be better off making my own.

Wednesday, 2/17/16

Dinner in Whately; roasted pork loin, fingerling potatoes and spinach salad. we are getting too spoiled with these delicious meals! Brought a humble angel food cake (and used up all our egg whites).

Tuesday, 2/16/16

Another recipe from Genius Recipes; this one I did not think was very successful: seared chicken thighs with lemon. Slowly cook chicken thighs in a cast iron skillet until the skin is crispy; make a quick pan sauce with preserved lemon. We may have learned to like chicken thighs in our house, but bones are still a bridge too far. The rice pilaf was good and the steamed broccoli was steamed broccoli. Fortunately, the cinnamon rolls actually baked up OK after spending nearly 24 hours not rising.

Monday, 2/15/16

Leftover lasagna (and scrambled eggs for Little C.), because we had such an amazing brunch at my parents: sausage gravy, grits, fruit salad and a hash brown frittata. Carter (and Jason and I) really raved about the frittata. So good that I don't think I can replicate it. We brought a brown butter-pecan bundt, which was pleasant enough, I suppose. I was cranky about it because my attempt to make cinnamon rolls again didn't work out for the morning. I don't know whether it was because rising overnight in the fridge didn't work, or whether I killed the yeast with overly hot milk, but I woke up to a lump of completely unrisen dough. And not much happened to it all day on the counter. I rolled it out anyway and will see how they turn out (although I am not very optimistic).

Sunday, 2/14/16

The biggest, heaviest batch of lasagne ever. With hot italian sausage, mushrooms, spinach and a little zucchini.  Jason and I liked it, but Carter remains unmoved by the charms of lasagne. Too bad, as there is a lot left.

Saturday, 2/13/16

Dinner with Jennie and David: bread, hamentaschen (from Bon Appetit; pronounced superior to his old family recipe by Jason, and made with apricot and blackberry preserves). I also made a roasted tomato sauce? dip? puree? that was only so-so (if I want to roast tomatoes again I will use the recipe from SK, not this one from the Times) and a whipped feta that was delicious (also from the Times). I forgot to bring the batch of coffee ice cream that I made, and now I fear it will languish here.

Friday, 2/12/16

Fish and chips, plus a zucchini gratin from Genius Recipes. The gratin was really delicious the first night (and surprisingly un-rich; a little milk and a sprinkling of cheese), but doesn't reheat very well.

Thursday, 2/11/16

The refrigerator was getting dangerously full, so leftover (in various configurations). Stay tuned for the lasagne that was planned.

Wednesday, 2/10/16

Dinner at my parent's! Soup with tiny little meatballs and some mozzarella in carrozza. Yum! I only wish I could have eaten more...

We brought Dorie Greenspan's chocolate cookies and they did turn out pretty darn well.

Tuesday, 2/9/16

Coconut rice with peas, plus lentils flavored with mustard seeds, garlic, lemon and jalapeno. Plus, as a special treat for Carter, some wings from down the street. The lentils were particularly flavorful.

Monday, 2/8/16

Chicken tinga, from F52 . I made only a couple of adjustments: threw in some poblanos, omitted ancho peppers and oregano. We made this into tacos, with (still more) homemade tortillas, avocado, cilantro, onion and cotija cheese. The chicken was really easy to make: cut up a whole chicken, add peppers, garlic and onions and simmer. You shred the cooked chicken and puree the rest to make the sauce. The only thing I would change would be to add salt during the cooking process.

Sunday, 2/7/16

Pasta amatriciana, from the NYT. I didn't feel like seeking out giancule,  but pancetta made a good substitute. I don't think I will ever produce results like I remember from Italy, but this was still delicious, with zucchini and mushrooms alongside.

Different lighting, maybe?

Saturday, 2/6/16

Cooking disaster day for me. I made a cake and frosting, both from the Bakepedia website. The white cake may have been OK, if I didn't underbake one of the layers, and then drop it as I was flipping it out of the pan, and then try to scoop out the raw bits and re-bake the rest.... The salted-caramel buttercream tasted wonderful, but broke 3 times (and ultimately stayed broke, as I ran out of time). And then to finish this off, the compromised cake layer broke apart not long after assembly and slid off, creating a big, cake-y mess.
Also, my experiment with curried deviled eggs was not widely admired. At least Jason's bread was nice.

Friday, 2/5/16

Snow day, so I had time to make blueberry muffins (SK) and cinnamon rolls (NYT). The cinnamon rolls came with us to Jen and John's, and people seemed to like them. John made fish and steak, and we had guacamole, mango-black bean salsa, and homemade tortillas. All delicious.
I will definitely make the cinnamon rolls again---they were everything I hoped the monkey bread would be.

Thursday, 2/4/16

Shakshuka and Jason's homemade bread. used the recipe from the NYT, and it was good although I overcooked the eggs a little bit.

Wednesday. 2/3/16

Dinner with my parents (we brought the usual recipe of brownies. Nothing exciting, always tasty). My mother, on the other hand, made a wonderful pasta with tortellini, peppers, pork and chicken. Yes, I had thirds.

Tuesday, 2/2/16

Penne with broccoli and chicken meatballs (from Food52).  I remember liking this a lot more the first time I made it. This time I think it could have used some lemon and/or white wine; plus the meatballs were a little too fennel-y. Still very good, though.

Monday, 2/1/16

Repeat of tofu with black pepper; this time I served it with rice and chinese broccoli. Being able to use the wok again made this a little less messy, which was nice. Great flavors and the frying the tofu lends a nice chewiness.

Sunday, 1/31/16

Third appearance (at least) of Very Complicated Chicken Nachos (from SE). I spread the steps out over a couple of days so it came together pretty quickly. So good--tangy, spicy and rich with the avocado salsa. I also threw together another batch of chocolate pudding, because why not?

I don't know what happened in this picture, but they were actually pretty attractive.