Thursday, 7/28/16

A repeat of a pasta that I tried back in April; I didn't have the called-for Calabrian chile paste then but I do now. Also had tomatoes, parm and lemon zest, plus I threw in a bit of leftover ricotta. Only pretty good. It was a bit too salty, and I think my tomatoes were just so-so. Served with corn and chicken-chipotle sausage.

Wednesday, 7/27/16

Picnic dinner and a concert behind the Whately Library with my folks. All we brought was brownies (a new recipe from the Times that was no real improvement on my regular recipe. No need to repeat it), but my Mom made a lovely pesto chicken and pasta salad, plus pretzels, grapes, pickles and crackers. We enjoyed the view and some cowboy music.

Tuesday, 7/26/16

Penultimate night of SULA....Carter had a friend come over after and Jason made a quick pizza for everyone. Basic and tasty. It was kind of nice to have a pizza with no leftovers for once.

Monday, 7/25/16

I have been enjoying reading "A Super Upsetting Cookbook About Sandwiches", and finally got around to making one of the creations tonight. This sandwich involved a few sub-recipes: avocado-ricotta (and a sub-sub recipe, making the ricotta), fried shallots, spicy cucumber pickles, but the assembly was quick. Jason made a loaf of bread and we melted good cheddar on the slices, and then topped each slice with the ricotta, pickles and shallots. I loved the flavor combination, Carter said it was "fine". I would make it again, but maybe just pick up some fried shallots from Mom's. Will use the pickle brine for other stuff, though. And the avocado-ricotta mixture was really lush and creamy.

Even with a new phone, this does not do justice. I need to read up on food photography.

Sunday, 7/24/16

A repeat of the fried chicken tenders, at the request (demand?) of Jason and Carter. I was worried they wouldn't be as good, because I'm really just winging the brine, but they both seemed happy. There was also salad, and some croutons that I found too crunchy. Oh, and watermelon.

Saturday, 7/23/16

Slow cooker pulled pork tacos, with homemade flour tortillas and a corn-avocado salsa, plus some corn off-the-cob. Making pork shoulder in the slow cooker is remarkably easy and delicious, and produces plenty of leftovers. An all-around win.

Friday, 7/22/16

Dinner at Jennie and David's: Jason brought his latest bread iteration (now with flax!) and I made a pie of my own invention: Nilla wafer crust, pastry cream and lots of fresh (uncooked) blueberries. it was pretty good! But I wish I could have put even more blueberries on top.

Thursday, 7/21/16

Fun dinner with Jen, John and Dave. Tried a new pasta from SK: corn, bacon and parmesan. I added more corn and more bacon to the recipe; I wish I had added more scallions and basil, too. Still, it was very flavorful (and rich). I also made a blueberry cake and I am sad? proud? ashamed? to say that we ate the whole thing. Then again, there really wasn't that much pasta to go around.

Wednesday, 7/20/16

Another great meal from my mom (sorry we were late, Mom!). Pork tenderloin with fresh apricots, roasted potatoes and a spinach salad with pistachios and a very sprightly vinaigrette. Carter said he wasn't hungry but had thirds on the potatoes, and Jason and I pretty much devoured everything. I made toffee squares (NYT). Kind of like a chocolate chip cookie shortbread baked in a skillet? I would omit the chocolate chips next time (maybe add some pecans, though) and bake it in my bigger skillet so that they are thinner.
I didn't get any pictures of that amazing meal, but it was so good that I had to take a walk when I got home:

Tuesday, 7/19/16

This madness of cooking dinner after SULA must end. we didn't eat until 9pm! Sure, it was delicious pasta, but we were so hungry/tired by then that anything probably would have done the job. Still, if was a very good dish. Zucchini-ricotta pasta from the NYT that I apparently made about a year ago. That time I made a few changes, but I stuck pretty closely to the recipe this time and think it was better. The recipe uses a lot of basil that gives it a nice, creamy pesto flavor. Would probably also be good with other green vegetables. Didn't bother with any side dishes because it was so late.

Monday, 7/18/16

Tried a new tofu cooking method, from Leite's Culinaria. I marinated slices of tofu all day in a mixture of honey, soy, ginger, garlic , jalapeno and some sambal oelek. Then semi-braised them in the marinade in my new ceramic pan. I liked the chewy texture and the sweet-spiciness, but Jason said nothing was going to be as good as the chicken from the night before. Can't decide if that is annoying or flattering? We also had rice and roasted broccoli.  Carter said the tofu was "good". I liked it but would make more marinade next time, and cut the slices a little thinner.

Turns out Jason isn't much better at these pictures than I am. Maybe our kitchen isn't photogenic?

Sunday, 7/17/16

 Simple (albeit messy dinner): fried chicken tenders, salad, flaxseed bread (from Jason). The bread was really nice; the seeds were a nutty-tasting addition. The chicken turned out particularly well. I brined it all day, and then used a method I saw on Serious Eats to bread them: I seasoned my flour with lots of cayenne and black pepper (plus a little MSG) and then mixed in a little bit of the brine into the flour  to create a sort of shaggy texture. This cooked up into crunchy and flavorful chicken. Carter and Jason seemed to really love it.

Saturday, 7/16/16

Summertime dinner! Our first corn purchase was highly successful and there were no leftovers. We also had a (so-so) tomato, bread and cheese, and another blueberry crisp for dessert.

Friday, 7/15/16

Dinner at Jennie and David's. Jason made bread (it turned out beautifully: we think King Arthur flour may be the secret) and I made blueberry crisp. I got the recipe from the Food Network, of all places, and I am going to write it out here (with the tweaks I made) because it turned out so well:

6 cups blueberries
1 T cornstarch
.25 c. sugar
lemon juice
pinch of salt

toss together and pour into casserole dish

1 cup quick oats
1 cup flour
.5 cup brown sugar (hefty)
.5 cup white sugar (scant)
.5 t cinnamon
nutmeg
stick butter
salt

Pour over berries and bake ~30 minutes at 375 degrees. Eat. I served it with whipped cream, but ice cream would be good and plain would also be fine. There were no leftovers.

Thursday, 7/14/16

Carter was out mini-golfing with his cousins, so it was just me and Jason for dinner. He made a really lovely loaf of bread, and so I had bread and cheese, he had my new creation: the grilled kim chee-se (patent pending) and we had some roasted vegetables for the sake of decorum.

Wednesday, 7/13/16

Pizza by Jason! He tried to re-create the Frontier Special (and succeeded):

He was pretty pleased with himself and we all enjoyed a tasty meal. There was also a cheese pizza for the purists.

Tuesday, 7/12/16

Late dinner after SULA. Carter was at a friend's, so it was just Jason and I eating nachos. Used up some of the leftover corn tortillas from the enchiladas, plus the leftover chicken. Tasty, if not exactly light.

Monday, 7/11/16

Dinner at my Mom and Dad's (so STILL no cooking)! My mom made us another feast: fried chicken, two kinds of beans, fresh corn off the cob, sweet potatoes and watermelon. I didn't have time to bake anything so I am really feeling like a slacker.

Sunday, 7/10/16

We stopped in Stamford on the way home from NJ, so there was Hope Pizza for dinner. Cheese for Carter and me, spinach/feta for Jason.
That is some damn fine pizza.

Saturday, 7/9/16

Spent the weekend in NJ, visiting Donna and company. So much fun! And what a meal: ribs, chicken, steak, corn, baked stuffed eggplant....And that was after appetizers! Including a spinach dip that I am absolutely going to make. I (lamely) forgot to make anything on Friday, but we did throw together some peanut butter/chocolate no-bake cookies that were only  OK.

Friday,7/8/16

Broke in the new rice cooker! Turns out you can't really make sushi rice without using actual sushi rice (Jason, I told you so), so we just had sushi bowl instead, with tuna, avocado and yellow pepper. Not as fun as rolls, still delicious. And the rice cooker did a great job.

Thursday, 7/7/16

A repeat dinner: ground pork and noodles with ginger from NYT. I made the recipe exactly as written except for using regular old spaghetti instead of rice noodles. We all liked it quite a bit, even though we gobbled down dinner in order to go to the pool.

Wednesday, 7/6/16

Chicken enchiladas, from the NYT. Well, I finally found another meal that Carter just doesn't like. He finished his, but asked me to never make them for him again. I thought they were OK, and fairly easy to put together with chicken that I had cooked the day before. I also subbed in a can of green enchilada sauce instead of making my own. Homemade would probably been better but there was no denying that this was faster. Also had zucchini and summer squash.

Tuesday, 7/5/16

Late dinner after SULA. We had eggs scrambled with scallions, ricotta and a little cheddar, plus Jason made a loaf of bread. There was also zucchini and summer squash, sauteed with garlic, yellow peppers and onion.

Monday, 7/4/15

Dinner with Jennie and David. We brought a strawberry chiffon cake (SK) that turned out particularly well:

Too tall for the cake carrier.

It was a beautiful summer evening:

Sunday, 7/3/16

Panini style sandwiches made in the waffle iron. I can't believe I waited this long to use the waffle iron this way! I have had it for probably over 20 years. Anyway, some had ham and swiss, and some had leftover homemade ricotta, kale, and roasted red peppers. They came out with beautiful golden crusts and nice melty cheese. Not surprisingly, there was also a salad.

Saturday, 7/2/16

Dinner at Jen and John's. We brought homemade ricotta that turned out particularly well (I didn't over-strain it); roasted red peppers and chick pea fries. The recipe for those came from the back of a local magazine and didn't really work for me. Maybe I shouldn't have doubled the recipe, but it seemed like way too much water and the mixture had to cook forever (I think that was why they were a bit salty). The subsequent fries were very difficult to fry and fragile. Tasty, though. Jen and John supplied bread and cheese (and booze). Dessert was ice cream sundaes with hot fudge and caramel sauces.

Food coma and American Ninja Warrior

Friday, 7/1/16

Carter had requested sloppy joes several weeks ago and I finally got around to making them. I (loosely) used a recipe from Pioneer Woman, but I should have omitted the brown sugar. Otherwise, they tasted pretty much like my (long ago) memory of a sloppy joe. We also had salad yet again, and Jason fried up some french fries.

Thursday, 6/30/16

I actually cooked dinner! Since Carter was out, I made a pasta with mushrooms, lemon, garlic and scallions, from Nigella Larsen. The mushrooms and garlic are thinly sliced and tossed with the lemon and olive oil and left to sit. This "cooks' the mushrooms a bit and then the whole is tossed with hot pasta and parmesan cheese. I didn't have the thyme that the recipe called for, but it was still nice and flavorful. I also served some grilled bratwurst and mustard. Strawberry pie for dessert.