Sunday, 1/29/17

I made eggplant parmesan at Carter's request, but I am afraid it wasn't my best effort. i blame two things: breading the eggplant in the morning, and the actual eggplants themselves which didn't seem as fresh as I would have like. They were basically fine, I guess. Jason made a really nice loaf of bread and I sauteed up some green beans with garlic and almonds, but nobody ate them. Well, Carter ate about 7 because I made him.

Saturday, 1/28/17

Dinner with Jennie and David. Bread, of course, with some sesame seeds that were largely unnoticeable. I made pizzelles (of course). Just plain vanilla, and they are so easy and so tasty! Jason was the designated baker, and that was very helpful. I also made a batch of very dark caramel ice cream (from David Lebovitz's website) that was super soft and just on the edge of bitter. Nice with the pizzelles. we'll be making them again, probably this very week.

Friday 1/27/17

Dinner with Jen and John and I am stealing another Blue Apron recipe: chicken breasts with a spicy african peanut sauce. turns out the Blue Apron website has very thorough recipes so I will be making that spice blend for sure. Jason brought a loaf of bread (devoured) and I made a banana cake from Food52 for the third time. I am very irritated that I have made this twice before and didn't address any questions I had for myself, like, what did I use instead of pastry flour (this time I used mostly cake with a bit of AP)?  Did I ignore "sour milk" and just add some vinegar to regular milk (yes)? About how much powdered sugar did the frosting use (I still have no idea, but found it useful to let the frosting sit and cool a bit, as that helped it firm up and use less powdered sugar)? Despite these questions, the cake turned out well. Oddly, the first time I made it, Jason commented that the frosting was great, but the second time, he claimed he wouldn't eat it with frosting, so I made a sheet cake and frosted half. This time I just went for it and he ate it and didn't mention it at all. Weird.

Thursday, 1/26/17

At Jason's request we had another round of red lentils and rice. Pretty similar to the reent batch. I think the cauliflower was even the same. So not much to add.

Wednesday, 1/25/17

Dinner with my Mom at Bub's, so that was nice. She gave me a pizzelle iron, so stay tuned!

Tuesday, 1/24/16

Got a little ambitious with lots of different things happening and barely room on the stove. Mahi-mahi with with sesame crust and ginger-soy sauce (NYT). Nice, but I would maybe not put the sauce on top because the sesame seeds didn't stay crunchy? Easy, though, and good flavors. Ramen scallion pancakes (from Lucky Peach) that I have made before but don't seem to have written about. Anyway, I doubled the ramen and these are like the love child between latkes and ramen noodles. Carter  loves them. Finally, with all that sauteeing going on, something had to suffer and it was the zucchini-red pepper stir fry. It was....fine. Not a super quick meal, and the stove was a mess. But well liked.

Monday, 1/23/16

Big batch of tortilla soup, with avocado, cotija cheese, lime and cilantro for sides. I cooked up a whole chicken the day before (as a plus I used up a freezer bag full of vegetable scraps for the stock and felt like a virtuous homemaker), so it came together pretty quickly. No recipe (although I think I will add a bit more masa flour to the broth next time).

Sunday, 1/22/17

Used up the last loaf of challah to make french toast for dinner. Plus a ham steak for the boys, and apple and banana. For vitamins.

Saturday, 1/21/17

Dinner with Jennie and David---bread and a coconut cream pie. Used the recipe from American Home Desserts (with the changes as written in the margins). I was in quite a rush so I was glad it turned out at well as it did.

Friday, 1/20/17

Impromptu night at the Porches! Cheese, crackers, salad and cookies in the room. Lots of hot tub.

Thursday, 1/19/17

Carter was off having Chinese with his cousins, so Jason and I sat at home eating leftovers.

Wednesday, 1/18/17

I don't know why I wanted to make meatloaf, but I did. I pored over the web to find a recipe that looked good, only to end up using my Smitten Kitchen cookbook.  I only made a couple of changes: used half pork instead of all beef, and played around with the glaze, making it spicier. As usual, I lacked the courage of my convictions when making mashed potatoes and there was probably not enough butter or milk in them. Don't know why I am so unafraid of butter except when it comes to mashed potatoes? I also wanted to make zucchini gratin again but in the interest of ease and calories, I just sauteed onions and zucchini together and topped it with some buttery panko and a little parmesan. It was good if overly salty.
Finally, Jason has been dreaming about the brownie brittle we tried at my mom's, so I looked though many, many versions and made this: https://www.babble.com/best-recipes/copycat-brownie-brittle/.
These are very quick to put together and very chocolately. We ate more than was seemly. I put toasted pecans and chopped dark chocolate on top but I can see trying a bunch of variations.

Tuesday, 1/17/17

I had been dreaming of a sicilian style pepperoni pizza from Serious Eats, and Jason graciously executed it for me. Thick, focaccia-like crust, spicy pepperoni, lots of cheese. Really good although I should have sliced more pepperoni (note to self: you always need more pepperoni than you think!). There was another nice pie with everything (onions, bacon, hamburger, mushrooms, olives, etc...), but I was really there for the pepperoni.

Monday, 1/16/17

We were all weary from a day of shopping at IKEA, but I promised Carter chicken korma, and by golly we had it. And it was great! Also roasted some cauliflower (unremarkable) and made some soft flour tortillas in lieu of the more time consuming naan. So dinner was late but tasty.

Sunday, 1/15/17

Impromptu dinner with Jen and John. They had another Blue Apron meal (chicken cutlets with roasted fennel, potatoes and a lemon-butter garlic sauce plus some olives. I took a few liberties with the instructions, which made John nervous, but they were delicious). Jason made a loaf of bread (devoured) and I made a batch of broccoli soup with wild rice. We liked it, but my target audience (Carter) found it disappointing. Maybe it wasn't creamy enough for him? Maybe he would like Campbell's? My quest for school lunches will have to keep on.

Saturday, 1/14/17

Dinner with Jennie and David. Jason's bread was excellent as always; I made a couple more Dorie's cookies:  a butterscotch-pecan shortbread (the dough was outstanding and would be good as a dessert as is) and Biarritz cookies, which were thin and crispy, made with whipped egg whites and almond flour. These I made into sandwich cookies with a dulce de leche filling (from David Lebowitz; would have worked better if I hadn't left it cooking while I went to the gym as it formed a crispy skin on top. I stirred it in and it tasted fine but the texture was a little off-putting. Must remember to stay and monitor it next time!).
The cookie verdict from Jason was that the shortbreads grew on him and we both liked the Biarritz. Still not wowed by any of the recipes which, given the book's glowing reviews, makes me wonder if I am being too fussy or just doing a bad job baking?

Friday, 1/13/17

I tried to recreate another one of Jen and John's Blue Apron meals but it turned out I didn't actually take a picture of the recipe like I thought I did. I did take a picture of the wine I liked but that was no help.
So, I improvised the pasta with lemon, breadcrumbs, olives and ricotta. It could have used more ricotta and a bit more lemon, but the panko bread crumbs sauteed in butter with garlic were stellar. They were good on a number of other dishes, too.
I feel like there was a side dish but can't remember what it was...

Thursday, 1/12/16

At Jason's request we had simple red lentils and rice, plus I made some green beans with ginger. Cheap, satisfying and easy. I am not sure they were as good as David's, but they were not too shabby.

Wednesday, 1/11/17

Dinner with my parents---french toast, bacon and sausage (I could NOT stop eating the sausage). I made some goat cheese and chive (they actually had rosemary, not chives) from the Dorie cookbook and I once again found myself underwhelmed. Nobody had much to say about them, in fact. But a good dinner anyway!

Tuesday, 1/10/17

I knew we would be having tofu, chinese broccoli, and noodles for dinner, but didn't really have a plan until I was walking home from work. I had nearly everything on hand for black pepper tofu, so that is what we had (I didn't have any ginger but it didn't really affect the final dish). Threw in some regular broccoli for Carter. I also realized that I actually own the cookbook that this recipe is in (Plenty); maybe I should be using some more recipes from it?

Monday, 1/9/17

I finally got around to making the broccoli subs from A Super Upsetting Cookbook About Sandwiches.  I didn't fry my own shallots this time around (good old French's fried onions did very nicely) and I subbed in easier-to-procure feta for ricotta salata. These were so good! The pickled lychees were sour, sweet and weird and each bite was full of interesting flavors. Carter bailed after half a sandwich ("too many flavors, Mom"; I think it was the lychees), but I ate all mine up and had leftovers in a bowl for breakfast. Maybe we'll try another sandwich this weekend when I have time to prepare the endless sub-recipes called for.
We are having a stealth vegetarian week, not entirely by design.

What the heck happened to this picture?

Sunday, 1/8/17

Laurie very kindly invited us to dinner and it was a fun night with margaritas, chili and cornbread (plus a fireplace and soft cats...). we brought good old flan, plus a batch of linzer cookies. People seemed to like them, but I was disappointed by how soft they got after a day. I liked them better fresh and crispy, what what did I expect? Still, they were fun to make, if a little tricky.
In the morning I had a work brunch---brought parmesan-rosemary shortbread from Dorie's Cookies. I was not terribly excited on first taste, but they kind of grow on you. I will add a bit more salt next time. The texture was amazing. Too bad Jason doesn't like shortbread but my co-workers did.

Saturday, 1/7/17

Jennie and David's: bread and a cake from the NYT: strawberry cassata. I made a few changes to the recipe after reading the comments: made more syrup for soaking the layers and more ricotta filling. I also baked it in a sheet pan and then cut it into fourths to create the layers (honestly, there was no way I was going to be able to slice 4 layers out of one round cake). So much easier and the rectangular shape looked very pretty. I only wish I had had some more strawberries. I'll make this again when the season arrives.

Friday, 1/6/17

I went out to a little gathering of friends from the gym (brought SK cheese straws, my go to party snack. People liked them). Carter and Jason stayed home and had poutine and watched the Maltese Falcon.

Thursday, 1/5/17

The fridge is getting ridiculous, so we had leftovers. Jason also made us a loaf of bread that was really the star of the evening.

Wednesday, 1/4/17

Burritos with beef and black beans, guacamole, cauliflower. Two out of three people said they would prefer refried beans, but neither of them were doing the cooking, so....

Tuesday, 1/3/17

Another round of japchae. This time I used chicken instead of steak (maybe not quite as good), doubled some of the vegetables and prepped a LOT in the morning. It went much faster. I agree with myself from before that some sriracha was a welcome addition. I meant to make ramen scallion pancakes again but forgot. Perhaps I will teach Carter to make those another night since he liked them so much.

Monday, 1/2/16

Carter was fascinated by the Blue Apron concept so I told him I would re-create the idea with him. So I prepped up some of the ingredients for spaghetti and meatballs and talked him through the process. He did really well! He enjoys: using the garlic press and the blender, cracking eggs and sauteing things. Not as big a fan of mixing the meatball mixture by hand (Mom! It's raw and cold! How do you do this every day!). He was great at forming the meatballs and I think he was pretty impressed with his results. While all that was happening I made another zucchini gratin because I think it is zucchini's highest calling.

Carter's handiwork!

I have to restrain myself from eating this whole dish

Sunday, 1/1/17

Unexpected dinner invitation from Jen and John meant tabling our spaghetti and meatballs. Jason brought the dinner rolls that he was working on, and he made some chocolate chip cookies once we arrived. I didn't make anything, but I did cook (assemble? No, there was actually cooking involved) their Blue Apron meal: pasta with roasted fennel, olives, bread crumbs and lemon. It was very nice and I am going to steal the idea.
We also finished up the coquito that I made earlier in the week. I'll be making that again someday (with white rum, I think).

Saturday, 12/31/16

New Years Eve dinner with Jennie and David. We were busy most of the day, so I made a flan on Friday and everyone loves flan. Jason valiantly made a bread under very challenging circumstances (started it in a hotel room, punched it down in the parking lot of Priya...) and it turned out great.
In bed by 9:30, revelers that we are.