Tuesday, 8/29/17

Carter's dream finally came true: Dinner at UMass.  I think he had pizza and burgers. Why even bother? I tried the sushi, stir fry, pho, spring rolls and a salad (yes, I was enormously full after). The only letdown was dessert, but I did have some soft serve (the second of the day) with Butterfingers which was pretty good.

Monday, 8/28/17

The chicken casserole was quite immense, so we had leftovers, along with a tomato salad.

Sunday, 8/27/17

Occasionally I see a casserole recipe that I just have to try. This one was from Homesick Texan, and included chicken (I poached a few breasts), roasted cherry tomatoes, onions and hot peppers, pepperjack cheese and noodles. I used shells instead of the called for spaghetti and threw in some sauteed kale to make it a one dish meal. I could not stop eating this, picking at it long after dinner was over. I realize that is is just a variation of the green chile macaroni and cheese that I love, so it is unsurprising that I went for this.

Saturday, 8/26/17

Carter helped me make dessert for Jennie and David's: an apple cake with a brown sugar glaze that he didn't even try. Too bad , because it was delicious, especially with the maple whipped cream I made (against Jason's advice). Everyone seemed to really like it, so I may have finally found my apple cake. The only thing I changed was adding some bourbon to the glaze.
And Jason made an exemplary onion bread.

Friday, 8/25/17

Still working on the freezer: some who knows how old frozen fish from Trader Joe's. The label had partly come off so I don't even know what it was. Pollock, maybe? Anyway, I didn't do it any favors by WAY overcooking it. This was the toughest piece of fish ever. I have had salt cod that was more tender. I made a delicious fresh tomato salsa to go on top, but it didn't help at all. Luckily, we had a loaf of bread with bacon and onions from Jason, and some roasted cauliflower (served with some of the spicy fish sauce sauce again). Even Jason didn't like the fish (although he ate more that I did). I gave Carter some fish sticks instead.

Thursday, 8/24/17

Corrina and I spent the day (and night) in North Adams, having fun adventures. We tried Public for dinner and really enjoyed it. We shared: fancy chicken fingers with fancy sauces, a really lovely cheese board with blueberry chutney, tomato jam and housemade pickles, fried chick peas, and a tomato-mozzarella salad that had tomatoes that were so good that they stole the thunder from the mozz. The only low point was dessert: an OK but not exciting chocolate chip cookie ice cream sandwich for Deem, and a very dry citrus cake for me. But overall really tasty and fun. Happy birthday to us!

Wednesday, 8/23/17

Dinner in Whately! My mom made asian style chicken tacos reminiscent of some we tried from a food truck, but of course hers were better. Plus corn (on and off the cob) and watermelon. AND she picked up a nice chocolate cake for the Corrina/Lace birthday combo.

Tuesday, 8/22/17

Unexpected dinner with Jennie and David. Jason made a bread, I made a flan. Nothing new or novel.

Monday, 8/21/17

Leftover eggplant parm from the freezer (still delicious), zucchini gratin  (still gloopy), and Jason made a loaf of bread. Pretty quick for a work night.

Sunday, 8/20/17

Little meatloaves (straight from the SK cookbook; just punched up the glaze with some hot pepper and subbed soy sauce in for Worcestershire. Oh, and used half pork, half beef), rice, corn off-the-cob and a zucchini gratin that was a little gloopy. The meatloaf was really tender and delicious, and by making several small ones they cook up fairly quickly. The boys will enjoy the leftovers.

Saturday, 8/19/17

Jason made pita bread, and I made some hummus ( I used canned chickpeas and painstakingly peeled them all. Annoying but does make a nice smooth hummus) and roasted boneless chicken thighs with red onion (ersatz shawarma). Served with tomatoes and cucumbers for make-your-own sandwiches.

Friday, 8/18/17

Dinner at my parent's (swiss steak and egg noodles with tomato sauce. So good) ; we brought dinner rolls and an enormous lemon poundcake/bundt. This behemoth took 3 sticks of butter, 6 eggs, sour cream AND cream cheese (I hope Jason never reads this). I thought the texture was perfect and it had a nice lemon flavor, but I think it was one of those times where I was the biggest fan.
notes:
I used an optional simple syrup on the cake (lemon/orange flavored) and would do so again
the glaze was a little thin (but tasty) and I should have poured it on while it was still on a cooling rack

Thursday, 8/17/17

Jason made pizzas, so that was awesome. I would like to go on record as saying that provolone on pizza is the best. I was going to make a salad but said to hell with it.

Wednesday, 8/16/17

Burgers on the grill (it had been a long time), a very plain salad for Carter and me; beet greens for Jason and a tasty potato dish with scallions, cheese and bacon (small potatoes sliced thin, layered with the scallions and a sharp cheddar). It was supposed to be grilled in foil but given the precarious state of our grill I used a cast iron pan in the oven instead. Worked great and how could those ingredients NOT be delicious?

We have a perfectly good brand new grill sitting in the basement. What are we waiting for??

Tuesday, 8/15/17

Carter was off to Saratoga Springs; Jason and I finished off some random things: a couple of tamales from the freezer, the rest of the tortilla, an ersatz guacamole.

Monday, 8/14/17

Dinner at Jen and Johns, with Zac and Corrina, too. We brought a blueberry crisp (last one of the season) and a loaf of bread. Jen made a tomato-mozzarella salad ans John grilled chicken thighs with red onions and peaches. Plus corn and gin and tonics on the porch.

Silly string antics

Sunday, 8/13/17

Started some pork shoulder in the slow cooker in the morning, and it was perfect by 3. I couldn't be bothered to look up the recipe in Serious Eats, so I just put in what I remembered: onions, bourbon, hot sauce and liquid smoke. It was so good! There wasn't a ton of liquid so a few pieces got a little browned and tasty. Served with corn and a raw summer squash salad with tomatoes and some of that spicy fish sauce sauce. Kind of annoying to slice squash with a vegetable peeler and I was wishing I had not thrown away my little mandolin.

Saturday, 8/12/17

No dinner plans meant I was free to spend the afternoon cooking, which I did, after a walk to our farm to cut some fresh herbs.
And these:

The real reason I get a farm share

But back to the dinner: I made another tortilla at Jason's request, plus a couple of recipes from a book my Mom loaned me (Six Seasons, by Joshua McFadden. I already love this cookbook). First was a grilled eggplant with tomatoes, torn croutons and fresh herbs. It was good, although I wish I had peeled the eggplant and not used quite so many croutons.  Plus a fried cauliflower with spicy fish sauce sauce. Personally, I think roasting the cauliflower would have been fine, but that sauce made it all worthwhile. Even Carter liked it. I am plotting other uses for the leftover sauce. Nice summer meal, that I then ruined by eating too much leftover PB cookie dough.

Friday, 8/11/17

Dinner in Whately.  My mom made a big pot of chicken and dumplings (it was excellent, no matter she says), plus a salad; we brought some bread and peanut butter cookies from SK. It is good to have my mom home---I know Carter was happy to see her.

Thursday, 8/10/17

Last night of Ultimate, last night of rushed standing-at-the-counter dinner. The aforementioned baked beans were actually better than I remembered, plus some bratwurst and homemade bread and butter.
Carter ran his butt off in Ultimate, poor kid.

Wednesday, 8/9/17

Brought my dad some pizza from Frontier, which was (I must admit) very self-serving. It was very, very good, though. And then my mom came home!

Tuesday, 8/8/17

Still trying to empty the freezer, so we finished up some calzone. Now if I can just force myself to re-visit those lackluster baked beans....

Monday, 8/7/17

I made a spanish tortilla (from SK), plus we had some sauteed chard. The tortilla was really good; would have been even better at room temperature. In fact, I think I will make another one this weekend, we all liked it so much. Finally getting the vegetable surplus under control.

Sunday, 8/6/17

Jason made blueberry pancakes, plus we had some sausage. Good, unremarkable.

Saturday, 8/5/17

Dinner at Jennie and David's: olive-chive bread (Jason and I agreed that it was a waste of chives, since their flavor vanished completely) and carrot cake cupcakes that would have been perfect if:
a. Our stupid oven didn't overcook everything. Resolved: only one tray at a time! They started burning after only about 14 minutes, even with rotating the pans. Why can't I get used to this oven??
b. I had used muffin papers. I think cupcakes make up more tender that way. And easier to clean up the pans.
The frosting, however, was everything I wanted. I made the magical flour slurry frosting, using maple sugar in place of white, and added some cinnamon. It whips up so nicely and had such a silky texture that I don't see myself bothering with finicky buttercream anymore.

Friday, 8/4/17

Finally did a little cooking, summertime edition. A new version of zucchini fritters, with corn and cheddar (from SE), tomato-mozzarella salad, some corn off the cob and sausage and peppers. The fritters were nice, albeit messy to fry up with all that corn. I don't think the cheddar really added anything. Our first corn purchase of the season was a smashing success, though.
The good thing about zucchini fritters is that Carter will happily eat them, even though he generally hates zucchini.

Thursday, 8/3/17

Leftovers again (pesto pizza). I hope someday to cook again. The refrigerator is now in pretty good shape but the freezer is bursting.

Wednesday, 8/2/17

Leftovers. Mostly bread and cheese.

Tuesday, 8/1/17

Jason made us a lovely summer-y pizza, with fresh pesto, tomatoes and provolone. I got home from work in time to actually sit down and wolf down a couple of slices before Ultimate. I also made ANOTHER blueberry crisp. I forgot to add sugar to the berries but it was still good. I am thinking that for some variety I will make a blueberry cobbler next time.

Monday, 7/31/17

The farm share had some beautiful little eggplants so we picked up a bunch for eggplant parm. I wanted them to be their best selves, so I didn't start cooking until I got home from work. Well, 90 minutes and one messy stove later, we finally sat down to eat. Turns out I made a lot more than I intended (plus I threw in a zucchini that was looking not so fresh). Three sheet pans worth, in fact. The upside is that they were light, crunchy and delicious. The bad news is I am doing a terrible job of cleaning out the fridge.

ps If you were wondering if Carter would notice if some of his eggplant was zucchini, the answer is, why yes he did. He was not amused.