Wednesday, 3/30/16

Oh my, such a good dinner at my mom's. Burgers with caramelized onions and hot pepper jelly, twice baked potatoes, and tomato-mozzarella salad. I totally over-ate and I don't regret it. We brought penuche, which seems like a small offering, but it is one of my mom's favorites.

Tuesday, 3/29/16

A simple dinner that was much appreciated (especially by Carter; it is one of his favorites). Cheese, apples, deviled eggs, and dinner rolls (yay dinner rolls by Jason!). We put away a scandalous number of rolls.

Monday, 3/28/16

Pizza a la Jason. One cheese for Carter (although I gave it longing glances), and one with red pepper, onion, mushrooms, feta and cherry peppers. Nice thick, chewy crust and I love the salty little hits of feta.

Sunday, 3/28/16

Tomato soup (adapted from a Martha Stewart recipe) and grilled swiss on rye. The grilled cheese was, of course, wonderful. The soup was a little too spicy. Why are some jalapenos so much hotter than others?

Saturday, 3/26/16

Dinner with Jennie and David: key lime bars from Cook's Illustrated. I have made these several times and they are always good. The recipe insists on fresh lime juice, a smug directive that I ignored. It also calls for animal crackers in the crust; I have used gingersnaps and graham crackers to good effect; this time I used Bordeaux cookies which was lovely. I also made italian ricotta cookies (from the NYT), although I don't know why: the reviews were mixed, and I don't even really like cake-y cookies. I think I wanted to use up some ricotta? Ironically, I ended up having to buy ricotta for the purpose of making these. Luckily, I actually like then quite a bit (even though I accidentally added some mint extract instead of vanilla, for a slightly weird taste).  We'll see how they fare at home, since there are quite a few left

Friday, 3/25/16

I made the broccoli rabe lasagna from the NYT again, following my own recommendations to use milk instead of 1/2 and 1/2 in the bechamel and adding more rabe. Now I am changing my mind and thinking that the richer bechamel is a better complement to the bitter greens. Still good, though. Dessert was a lemon angel cake from the NYT. I made a few changes---didn't bother with their cake recipe since I know mine works well (just added lemon extract instead of almond). I omitted the preserved lemon juice because I had a lot of regular lemon juice on hand (left from another recipe), and we ate the lemon curd/whipped cream filling on the side, instead of filling and frosting the cake. I thought it would hold up better that way. Anyway, it was a really nice, lemony dessert, and I will make it again; I like the fact that that lemon curd recipe calls for whole eggs.

note: Jason said the greens were too bitter.

Thursday, 3/24/16

Another Thursday of leftovers. Nothing to report.

Wednesday, 3/23/16

Dinner with my mom and dad (soup, salad, bread);  we brought sugared shortbread from the NYT. These were super-easy, since you melt the butter and bake them as bars. Surprisingly nice texture. A good, plain cookie.

Tuesday, 3/22/16

Lentils, cauliflower and paratha, all from Made in India. The dal was rich, but I thought it could have had more flavor. It benefited from a little lemon. The roasted cauliflower was tasty but pretty standard: no need for the recipe. The parathas I thought had a really pleasant, wheat-y flavor, they weren't quite flaky, but still good. I think it would be worth continued experimentation with Indian breads.

Monday, 3/21/16

Grilled chicken with lemongrass and rice noodles (among lots of other things) from Bird in the Hand. Marinated chicken breast with brown sugar, lime, lemongrass, ginger and garlic; grilled and served over rice noodles with carrots and cucumber, with a dressing with toasted, pounded rice, more lime, brown sugar and fish sauce. Nice bright flavors and quick to serve, with some work in the morning.

Sunday, 3/20/16

Spaghetti with meatballs, sauteed broccoli rabe. Easy and good.

Saturday, 3/19/16

Lunch with my parents, dinner with Jennie and David. We brought eclairs to both. The choux is getting  a little better; I don't think the actual recipe matters as much as the technique. I spooned the batter out instead of piping it, hoping for a smoother eclair. I think that helped; I also won't be afraid to bake them even a bit longer next time.

And for lunch we had the best tuna salad sandwiches ever.

Friday, 3/18/16

I wanted to do some cooking from "Made in India", so we had chili paneer, cilantro chutney chicken, and chapatis. I was also baking a cake while making all these things, so dinner was quite late. The paneer tasted pretty good, but I didn't make it spicy enough, and the next time I make paneer I won't press it quite so long. Also, I should have made this at the last minute, as it was tepid by the time we sat down. I loved the chicken; the cilantro chutney had a lot of interesting flavors and it great on its own. It called for unroasted, unsalted peanuts, which I didn't have, so I used a handful of salted and roasted, and the rest raw cashews. This will be my cilantro chutney recipe going forward.
The chapatis were only semi successful. As it was getting late, I used the mixer for the dough, which I think was a mistake. Made it too tough. They rolled out OK (although they weren't pretty and round, like the photo), but weren't as soft and tender as, say, our flour tortillas. But I'll try again!
Back to the cake: a spice cake with (so called) caramel icing (from Food52). Looks terrible, tastes wonderful. The crumb is very soft and moist and the cake is nice and spicy. Notes: make it in a bundt pan next time, not a tube pan. Even a little more spice would be good.

Thursday, 3/17/16

Leftovers again (I keep cooking too much). Not boring to eat, but boring to report.

Wednesday, 3/16/16

Spring rolls with marinated, roasted tofu (which was in itself delicious. I used the same old marinade; I wonder if tofu from Mom's house is superior? I also squished it for a long time. Maybe that helped). Carter politely ate one and requested macaroni and cheese. I liked them but fear they weren't too filling. Oh well, cookies and popcorn after dinner took care of that.

Tuesday, 3/15/16

Roasted chicken thighs with mustard, honey and garlic. from "A Bird in the Hand". The side recipes were blacks beans with peppers, onions and a little orange, plus an avocado salsa (with tomatoes, scallions, chilis and garlic; kind of a chunky guacamole). This ended up being a fair amount of work, although everything could be done while the chicken cooked. Carter was only in it for the flour tortillas; I was all about the avocados. This was a nice way to cook chicken thighs, although the recipes aren't necessarily required.

Monday, 3/14/16

Bulgogi, from Ruth Reichl's cookbook (My Cooking Year?). Overall a winner: good flavors, easy to prepare (even with all the condiments). And who knew Carter liked kim chee? The only think I think I would change it to cook the meat on the grill, as in the wok it didn't really brown up. Served with serrano, limes, cilantro, kim chee, sesame seeds and raw garlic (essential, I think). Any number of other things would taste good, too.

Sadly, we all appear pretty inept at wrapping our rice and beef into lettuce neatly.

Sunday, 3/13/16

Noodles with ginger and ground pork (from the NYT, a repeat). We liked it back in August, we liked it tonight. The only variation from the recipe was using chard instead of bok choy.

Saturday, 3/12/16

Dinner with Jennie and David. Just bread and a butterscotch cream pie which would have been better if I had been more careful about mixing in the flour and cornstarch. The flavors are good, though. I think I will just make it as pudding next time. It is bookmarked in my NYT recipes.

Friday, 3/11/16

I must say (with little modesty) that this was an amazing dinner. Jason made dinner rolls (from CI) that were so fluffy and light; I made fish cakes (adapted a little from NYT: skipped the potatoes and mayo) and a homemade paneer and mango salad with ginger dressing (from Vegetarian Indian Feasts). The salad had roasted peanuts, red onion, cherry tomatoes, a little chopped jalapeno and cilantro, as well. The flavors were wonderful and it looked beautiful.  For dessert we had madeleines (from a Dory Greenspan recipe; I wasn't too fussy about chilling the pans and I skipped the lemon zest), best eaten immediately. So I immediately ate quite a few. I was startled to find out that Jason had never heard of Proust.

Terrible picture of one of the best meals I have made in a while

Thursday, 3/1/0/16

Jason was off giving an exam, so Carter and I ate leftovers (for the common good).

Wednesday, 3/9/16

Dinner at Frontier Pizza.

Consumed a lot of cheese, Carter got bored.

Tuesday, 3/7/16

Chili (used the crockpot), guacamole and some leftover tortilla chips that I never thought we would see the end of. The chili used dried beans and some dried chilis. I don't know if it made any difference in the flavor, but it was nice enough. Carter complained about the zucchini I threw in, but I am quite certain that he couldn't actually taste it.

Monday, 3/7/16

Chicken sausage sauteed with onions, peppers and cherry tomatoes, plus egg noodles in a creamy lemon sauce from the NYT (to which I added shallots, crushed red pepper and copious amounts of peas). In retrospect, why did I need a recipe for a lemon cream sauce? I guess it just sounds so good. Anyway, it was good, but there is no need to consult a recipe.
we are still working our way through chocolate babka, chocolate wafer cookies, chocolate brownie cakes, and chocolate-buckwheat cake. And cinnamon squares, although I am the only one eating them. I decided that I don't care what anyone thinks, they are delicious.

3/6/16

Homemade chicken fingers with panko, rice pilaf, broccoli. Not very complicated, but widely appreciated.

3/5/16

Dinner with Jennie and David. Jason is still struggling with his bread, which has not been rising as well as it used to. We brought roasted peppers with fresh mozzarella (good flavor; the peppers were not as soft as I would like. Maybe the toaster oven is a better option than the open flame. Though slower). Also: cinnamon squares (from NYT), a soft sort of cinnamon shortbread with a glaze. These were a bit odd, and I think I am the only one who liked them. They might be better if they were baked a bit longer, cut into squares and then glazed? Also made "brownie cakelets" from SK. Little brownies baked in muffins tins. MUCH more popular (though I think they are a bit pedestrian. Boring chocolate lovers).
Speaking of chocolate, I also made a couple of babkas. I had wanted to try a recipe from Food and Wine, but was daunted by the need for Famous Wafers ($5.50 for a tiny box! I don't think so!).  After finding a recipe for them at SK, I decided to make these complicated, messy loaves. The upshot? They are good, but the directions from the SK babka are better and the end product just as good. Might re-use the filling recipe, though.

3/4/16

Semi-dismal dinner (Jason liked it but we don't count his opinion). Pupusas: bland, even though I upped the salt and used pepperjack instead of mozzarella. Carter actually ate his with ketchup (I couldn't fault him). They were also a bit gummy. Blah. I also wanted to make roasted carrots with avocado, but ran into several problems: I felt compelled to use an acorn squash that had been languishing in the fridge: I had no ripe avocados, and mixing carrots and squash failed as they cook at different rates. Too hard carrots and too soft squash, yum!
At least the tiramisu was good! Saving grace of the dinner.

3/3/16

Pizzapalooza! Jason made two pizzas (one hamburger, one half cheese and half barbeque pork), plus a couple of spinach ricotta calzones. Delicious, but a ton of food.

3/2/16

Dinner in Whately: beef tostadas: extra good, especially with the pickled red onions. I made a chocolate buckwheat cake (from David Lebowitz) that was only OK. It really needed the ice cream (whipped cream would work, too) to cut the chocolate.

3/1/16

I had chickpeas with feta, cucumbers, and jalapeno in leftover tortillas; Carter demurred and opted for frozen pizza. His loss (although I should have cooked the chick peas a little longer).

2/29/16

Yeasted waffles (SK), plus bacon and applesauce. The first batch was a flop because it turned out that my waffle iron was a little scorch-y on the inside, but the rest were good (especially with cookie butter). They aren't particularly fluffy,or sweet, but they are nice and crispy and almost a bit sour.