Tuesday, 8/30/16

One of Carter's favorite meals for the last night of summer vacation: eggplant parm, plus spaghetti. Luckily, it is a favorite for me and Jason, too.

Monday, 8/29/16

Big breakfast at the Inn meant light lunch of fried mushrooms and an ice cream sundae. Then for dinner we had a picnic from home: bread and cheese, pasta-chicken salad with pesto, spicy pickles, and a chick pea, feta and cucumber salad. Plus leftover cake.

Coffee milkshake and hot fudge/peanut butter sundae!

I finally got to see the Natural Bridge Park

Sunday, 8/28/16

After an enormous lunch at Bombay Royale, we headed up to the Porches for a couple of nights. So we weren't really hungry for dinner, but we shared a perfectly acceptable pizza (from Christo's; maybe we should try Village Pizza next time? The crust at Christo's was really a weak point).

The pool loving boys.

Saturday, 8/27/16

First, one of the best lunches of the summer! Tomato and mozzarella salad, and (FINALLY), corn fritters just the way I envisioned them. I adapted a Paula Deen recipe (really, Paula, who north of the Mason-Dixon has self rising corn meal?? Besides my mom, apparently): lowered the sugar and butter a bit, and added a teaspoon of baking powder. They were crunchy and corn-y, almost like a hush puppy. Perfect!

Dinner was Chinese take-out at my parents, along with bialys and a S'Mores Cake (from SK). Both were a bit of a day-long project. I used the bialy recipe from Hot Bread Kitchen: I should have added a bit more flour, and oiled the plastic wrap (the sticking after rising #2 was brutal). They were good, but....I was hoping for something chewier? Might try again, though, because they were pretty easy, if time consuming. The cake was just right, though. My only complaint is that 7 Minute Icing really doesn't hold up and deflates on the
cake. Good flavors, though, and the texture of the cake is nice and light and moist.

Friday, 8/26/16

Spaghetti with a quick raw tomato sauce (I threw chopped tomatoes into the food processer, drained some of the liquid, and let it sit for a while with red wine vinegar, garlic, olive oil and a little basil and rosemary). Jason also had some sausage, but I thought the pasta was filling enough.

Thursday, 8/25/16

Repeat of the Smitten Kitchen zucchini focaccia, plus a tomato-mozzarella salad. The focaccia was a tiny bit soggy on the bottom, plus I should have oiled the pan a bit more, but the flavors are amazing. I used sharp cheddar instead of gruyere, and it was just as good. Heated up for lunch the next day was even better, as the bottom got nice and crispy. I wouldn't have thought that the breadcrumbs on top were needed, but they really do add a lovely crunch.

Wednesday, 8/24/16

Dinner with my parents (korean grilled beef, rice, kim chee and corn and green beans, all wonderful of course). I am a little embarrassed to admit that I brought brownies from a mix. But it was a fancy mix! And they really are quite good. First the pancakes, now this. So lazy.

Tuesday, 8/23/16

Good old american style crunchy tacos, with beans, hamburger, cheese and sour cream. I love making my own tortillas, salsa and carnitas, but you can't beat these for speed and tastiness.

Monday, 8/22/16

Roasted tofu (some of the leftovers made it into my salad the next day), spicy cabbage and onions, rice. Still loving the rice cooker.

Sunday 8/21/16

Dinner with Jennie and David. Bread (of course), butterscotch budino (from Nancy Silverton; not flavorful enough), oatmeal cookies (SK) that are super-tasty. Sad fact about the cookies: I had made the dough to bring on vacation and then forgot. We were sadly dessert deficient.

Saturday, 8/20/16

First night home, Jason made pancakes and bacon. A couple of fun facts: boxed pancake mix is delicious (but only the kind where you add eggs and oil), and really brown bananas are excellent in pancakes: they caramelize and their mushiness isn't noticeable. It was nice to be in our own kitchen again (although the rest of the house isn't up to our vacation home standards).

Friday, 8/19/16

Sad last-night-of-vacation leftovers. I did drag Jason and Carter out to see the sunset and check out low tide, so the evening was still pleasant.

Thursday, 8/18/16

Dinner in Newburyport with Jen, John and Gus.  It was at a place called the Poynt; all the adult food was great (fish and chips, polenta with goat cheese, fried chicken, poke, beet salad), but the boys did not love their pizza. Walked around downtown for a little while, checking out the classic car show and the scene. We were all super sad to see our guests go. Lunch, by the way, was more tomato-mozz and nachos and beer.

Reminded me simultaneously of my Dad and Harold and Maude

Wednesday, 8/17/16

The fabulous Freyingers came out for a visit, so we had a raucous dinner with hamburgers, corn, tomato-mozzarella salad, tater tots and peach shortcake for dessert. We also managed to catch the sunset and the full moon. What a night!

Tuesday, 8/16/16

Another winner from the freezer: pierogies, plus cabbage and onions, and grilled sausage.

Monday 8/15/15

In a repeat of last year's vacation, we had blintzes. They had been languishing in our freezer, waiting to re-appear at the beach.

We must have had something else. Salad, maybe?

Sunday, 8/14/16

Sandwiches for lunch, spaghetti with meat sauce, bread and leftover salad for dinner. This was remarkably easy, since the sauce and bread were made back at home.

Saturday, 8/13/16

First night of vacation, at last. We had marinated grilled chicken (my favorite Melissa Clark fish sauce/lime recipe), rice and salad, plus some cookies. The kitchen here is remarkably well furnished in some ways: good knives, good pans, a silpat, but then oddly lacking: almost no bowls at all (serving, eating or mixing), no pot holders? No complaints, though!

OK, this isn't diner, but I am setting the scene.

Thursday, 8/11/16

Couscous, turkey/scallion meatballs, broccoli. The meatball recipe (light and flavorful) is from the NYT;  the only change I made was to add a bit of panko. The glaze with it needed a little tinkering (as I noted last time I made these). It wasn't quick, but it was quite good.

Friday, 8/12/16

Dinner with Jennie and David: Jason made bread, I made flan. It was a particularly nice flan, if I do say so myself.

Wednesday, 8/10/16

No Carter for dinner. Jason and I did a ton of grocery shopping, then he made pizza for dinner:

Tuesday, 8/9/16

Another dinner success! Home fries that were basically just potato nachos (from the NYT), deviled eggs, and some grapes. Carter's quote: "these potatoes are so effing good". That is enough of an endorsement for me. Although maybe the fact that dinner wasn't served until 7 pm was a factor?

Overexposed, and the grapes look awful in that bowl.

Monday, 8/8/16

Made chicken korma and spicy cauliflower, both from my trusty recipe binder. The chicken is pretty easy, but time consuming (especially picking out the 4 whole cloves and 9 cardamom pods before I serve it, so no one will bite into them), so I was gratified by how much Carter enjoyed it. The cauliflower was meant to be made in a skillet, but for the sake of convenience, I oven roasted it (with jalapenos, raw rice, cumin and garam masala).  No pictures because it was more tasty than attractive.

Sunday, 8/7/16

Tristan's birthday party meant dinner at his house. Michael repeated the bo ssam from last summer, and it was once again outstanding. There was also the option of pulled pork sandwiches with BBQ sauce and a vegetable slaw. I tried that too, to be polite. In fact, I was so polite that I had thirds. We brought a salad, which was fine, but in Homer Simpson's immortal words: "You don't make friends with salad". Even if you put chick peas on it.

Saturday, 8/6/16

Dessert fail at Jennie and David's. Despite my careful, careful mixing, my poundcake turned out dry. So embarrassing. The strawberry whipped cream (from SE) that so intrigued me (process freeze dried fruit with sugar, add cream for a dense, fruity whipped cream with a better shelf life) was no better than fine. Disappointing.

Friday, 8/5/16

Carter was at a friends for dinner, so it was just Jason and me home for zucchini focaccia/pizza (from SK). This was so, so good. The dough was incredibly easy; the only hard part is remembering to start it the previous day. Grated zucchini is tossed with gruyere (although I bet a sharp cheddar would also be good) and baked right on top of the dough, along with some crushed red pepper and breadcrumbs. It was also filling enough to be a whole meal. You could add a salad, but honestly, that is a lot of zucchini right there.

Before

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After

Thursday, 8/4/16

Another iteration of pasta with corn and bacon (NYT). This version had you puree most of the corn kernels, making a nice creamy sauce. The bacon was my own addition, but why not? It was like a pasta version of corn chowder. The only thing I would change is more scallions, maybe.

Wednesday, 8/3/16

Dinner in Whately (an enormous stir-fry, plus sesame noodles! And my mom bravely ate some tofu). As always, a treat for all of the Stevens/Stokes'.  I tried to make some chinese style almond cookies, and only partially succeeded. They tasted basically fine, but I was hoping for crunchier and almond-ier. I would try another recipe that didn't use almond flour (and up the almond extract).

Tuesday, 8/2/16

Last night of SULA! I got up this morning and made pan bagnat sandwiches, with tuna, olive vinaigrette, tomatoes and hard boiled eggs. They were then ready to go before Ultimate, so no coming home and cooking at 8pm. The sandwiches were fine, although I thought they needed more flavor. Maybe more dressing, and something spicy, too. Still, nice to have dinner made already.

Post-season ice cream

Monday, 8/1/16

We left Jennie and David's with some marinated steak tips that no one felt comfortable cooking, so I sliced them up and stir-fried them with green peppers, bamboo shoots, water chestnuts and ginger, then made a quick sauce (soy, sesame oil, srirachi, lemon). Served over rice (I love our new rice cooker) and also with a salad made from grilled zucchini, cherry tomatoes and a roasted red pepper dressing. The salad looked absolutely lovely but it was half-eaten and less appetizing by the time I thought to take a picture. Also, it would be MUCH better with good tomatoes. The stir-fry was inauthentic and enjoyable.

Sunday, 7/31/16

Spent the better part of the afternoon cooking and prepping for the week. Grilled a bunch of vegetables and made a vinaigrette with some of them (from Food52)---saved the rest for lunches; roasted red peppers and made a dressing for Monday's vegetable, slow roasted a big old rack of pork ribs. Luckily, it was a cool day as this meant about 6 hours in a low oven.
Served the ribs with homemade BBQ sauce, cheddar-scallion mashed potatoes, and a salad with the grilled vegetable vinaigrette. I had some complaints: I didn't care for the spice rub on the ribs; the potatoes were TOO cheesy, and I just wasn't loving the salad. Maybe I just craved some complete other dinner?

Saturday, 7/30/16

So, the cake. It was a 9 layer butterscotch cake(from Leite's Culinaria). Yes, you actually bake 9 individual slender layers of cake, and pour a little, rum-tinged butterscotch sauce in between every layer. I think it goes without saying that mine did not really resemble the lovely discrete layers in the photo, but it was delicious nonetheless. Not sure it wouldn't be easier to just make three cakes and split them? Or wait until a cooler day to bake so much cake, at least,
Jason also made a lovely loaf of flax seed bread, and I made some spinach dip that seemed to go over well.

Friday, 7/29/16

Carter requested french toast for dinner, and since I had no other ideas, that is what we did. I spent most of the evening concocting a cake for Jennie and David's, so Jason helped out with the french toasting and sausage-ing. I also made an Indian style rice pudding out of some leftover rice. It turned out pretty well, although I wouldn't choose brown rice.