Wednesday, 9/28/16

Dinner with my mom. More re-purposed leftovers: grilled pork sandwiches, revamped mac & cheese with hamburgers, and leftover brownies.

Tuesday, 9/27/16

Jason made us our own personal loaf of bread; we had that along with some tapenade made from olives left over from the rehearsal dinner (the meal that keeps on giving), fruit, goat cheese and deviled eggs.

Monday, 9/26/16

More soup! Cream of broccoli soup that could have been creamier, but had a nice flavor. I also took some of the leftover chicken from the rehearsal dinner, heated it up with barbeque sauce, and made little chicken sandwiches with red onion.

Sunday, 9/25/16

Repeat of a curried tomato soup from the NYT, plus grilled cheese. I guess I was sad that I didn't get any of the tomato soup shooters at the wedding? Anyway, it was a great soup, especially with a little leftover cauliflower and rice thrown in.

Saturday, 9/24/16

No cooking again! But of course we were at a wedding so that is an excuse.

Friday, 9/23/16

No cooking; BJ and Bernadette's rehearsal dinner. Lots of tasty food courtesy of my Mom and Maggie; I brought brownies and caramel blondies (David Liebowitz and I am so glad I found that recipe again!)

Thursday, 9/22/16

Zac and Corrina were here for dinner. Chicken korma (another Carter request), rice, roasted cauliflower and the last of the homemade naan. Had to improvise with chicken thighs, as the boneless breast I thought I had in the freezer was a figment of my imagination. Still turned out well, and there were no leftovers, so I take that as a good sign.

Wednesday, 9/21/16

Leftover green chili. That is all.

Tuesday, 9/20/16

Ravioli with tomato sauce, at Carter's request. It's one of my favorites, too. Many a birthday request of mine was ravioli and angel food cake.  We also had a little plain broccoli.

Monday, 9/19/16

Green chile pork stew with hominy, adapted from a couple of recipes and my own preferences. I roasted together poblanos, jalapenos, tomatillos and garlic; seared the pork shoulder and then threw it all in the slow cooker, with a finish of chopped cilantro and some zucchini. The pork was perfectly done and I love hominy in there, for both the flavor and the pleasantly chewy texture. We also finished up the corn fritters.

Sunday, 9/17/16

Jason made some lovely pizzas for us. My favorite had salami AND pepperoni, hot peppers, mushrooms and provolone. Yum!

Saturday, 9/17/16

Jennie and David's. Bread and a rum cake (from King Arthur flour website). I was hesitant about this one, since it called for vanilla pudding mix (and 1 box of mix isn't quite enough for the recipe! How stupid is that! I just made do). I also don't like recipes that don't have you cream the butter; I find that the butter never fully mixes into the batter (and indeed, I could see butter bubbling out as it cooked). The finished product is very moist, dense and rum-y. If I made it again, I would cream the butter and sugar before adding other ingredients. Good flavor, though.
I also mixed up a little goat cheese with honey and jalapenos, because I had read a glowing review of a version that is sold at Trader Joe's. When I found that our TJ's doesn't have it, I realized that how hard could it be? And it was delicious.

Friday, 9/16/16

I was feeling slightly ambitious, so instead of sushi bowl,  I went for full on sushi rolls (avocado and tuna, nothing too wild). My rolling skills are not stellar, but they held together enough and we ate them all up. It was a light-ish dinner, but I had also made another pecan pie, so no one went away hungry.

Thursday, 9/15/16

A late dinner, since we stopped by the Amherst Block Party (everyone in town was there and I would have liked to linger, but homework and dinner were beckoning). I had planned on making chicken korma, but since my Mom had just made curry I adapted Ottolenghi's black pepper tofu instead, making it with chicken breast. It was spicy and delicious. Although the amount of butter is a bit shocking; even I dial it back a bit.

Wednesday, 9/14/16

Dinner with my parents; my mom made some lovely chicken curry and we brought the plum torte from the NYT (thanks to a co-worker's overly ambitious plum tree). Turns out I have made it at least twice before, and no wonder. It comes together very easily and keeps well. The plums were pleasingly tart against the sweet cake.

Tuesday, 9/13/16

Jason was off tutoring, so Carter and I had planned to go out, but the little guy wasn't feeling good so we stayed in and had leftovers (me) and ramen (boy).Then we sat around eating Pringles and watching youtube.

Monday, 9/12/16

Vegetarian chili (I just made up the recipe and it was OK, but not great. I threw in some dried chiles that made it almost too smoky), plus some more corn fritters. I used the same Paula Deen recipe, but made them more like pancake shapes this time, since I didn't feel like deep frying. Just as good, and easier. I enjoyed mine with maple and sriracha, but they would also be good with salsa or guacamole or any other number of things. Who would have thought that Paula Deen was the answer to my corn fritter prayers?

Sunday, 9/11/16

A daring dinner: Koran cheese buldak (recipe here: http://www.maangchi.com/recipe/buldak). Chicken breasts are diced up and mixed with a spicy mixture of Korean chili paste, crushed red pepper, ginger, garlic and a little soy and corn syrup (honey would also have been good). Saute it up and top with fried Korean rice cake and a LOT of mozzarella, then broil it. It was not as hot as I feared: I cut back on the chili and won't next time. It was rich, sort of funky and hard to stop eating. Carter wasn't sure if he liked it or not, but finished his. Plain steamed broccoli was a good counterpoint.

Saturday, 9/10/16

Dinner with Jennie and David: I made a pecan pie from SK and it was lovely (crispy crust; nice ratio of nuts to filling, not overly sweet). The only change I made in the recipe was to sub in maple syrup for the Lyle's Golden syrup. Served it with some maple whipped cream. Jason has requested a repeat for this week.

Friday, 9/9/16

Homemade pasta (SE), and a very heavy sauce made from eggplant and tomatoes, plus a little ricotta. I didn't love the sauce with the noodles, but Jason liked it. There were a few too many pieces of eggplant that weren't cooked enough for me.

Thursday, 9/8/16

Yeasted waffles, bacon, tomato-mozz salad (with grilled zucchini! So that is like a whole different dish, right?). The waffle recipe is at SK, and it was good as always. A very thin batter, and the waffles are also quite flat, but they are crispy and tasty, even plain.

Wednesday, 9/7/16

Dinner at my parents (Wings). Brought a flan. Who doesn't like a flan? Maybe my dad.

Tuesday, 9/6/16

Jason's night to cook: burgers and french fries. I contributed (another) tomato-mozzarella salad.

Monday. 9/5/16

Happy Labor Day! I took advantage of the day off to make ribs again (saved the recipe @ NYT); they turned out better this time; I liked the spice rub and the meat was super-tender. I also made baked beans (only meh. I fear I wasn't heavy handed enough with the sweeteners). Plus, a tomato-mozzarella salad.

Sunday, 9/4/16

Chicken curry, cauliflower fritters (a blend of two recipes; SK and one from Ottolenghi. I used SK's method and proportions, and Ottolenghi's seasoning), homemade naan (from Made in India). The curry was a little disappointing: I just winged it and I thought the meat was a little stringy and the flavors one dimensional. The fritters were wonderful, and the naan turned out really well. They were fairly simple to make; you just need time for rising. For dessert I made some caramel filled snickerdoodles (recipe saved to the NYT); I can't stop eating them even though I think they are only OK. Weird.

Saturday, 9/3/16

Carter was at a friend's, so Jason and I had a kind of makeshift dinner: guacamole, some spring rolls from the freezer (not my own, Aldi's. Not bad), bread and cheese. Sometimes that is our favorite kind of dinner.

Friday, 9/2/16

Dinner with Jennie and David. I made an apple bourbon cake (from the NYT). The cake has a nice texture, but needs a little more flavor. Maybe up the spices and make more glaze. I served it with a maple whipped cream. Hard to say if people liked it.

Thursday, 9/1/16

The refrigerator had an absurd amount of food in it, so it was leftovers all around. Barely made a dent.

Wednesday, 8/31/16

To celebrate Carter's first (successful!) day at middle school, we had his favorite fried chicken (I am seeing a fried theme for his favorites). We also had boiled new potatoes, broccoli and tomatoes. The chicken was great, everything else was fine.