Friday, 12/29/17

Ever since Thanksgiving, Jason has been wanting more stuffing (I don't like it and have never made it). I have had the ingredients for a couple of weeks and  thought that if I am going to make stuffing, why not cook an entire Thanksgiving meal? Not sure what the logic behind that sentiment was, but what the heck. I have never actually roasted a turkey, but I got a smallish one and spatchcocked it and roasted it on high and that seemed to work fine. We also had the stuffing, of course (I tasted it and it wasn't too gross. If you put enough gravy on it), Carter's favorite jellied cranberry sauce right from the can, roasted butternut squash, gravy, and latkes. My mashed potatoes are never very good and my potato pancakes are so why not? We all agreed that latkes should replace mashed potatoes in the traditional Thanksgiving meal. Finally, there was a sweet potato pie for dessert. That recipe came from Patti Labelle of all people, and it was SO GOOD. I am never going back to pumpkin. The only change I made to the recipe was baking the sweet potatoes instead of boiling, and adding a pinch of salt.

It is good to know that I could make Thanksgiving if the need arose

Thursday, 12/28/17

Used up one last loaf of challah bread from the freezer to make french toast. Plus another round of the roasted broccoli (what can I say, I like it), bacon for Carter and cottage cheese for me and Jason. I don't know why Jason thinks cottage cheese is the right thing to eat with french toast, but who am I to judge? I keep mine pretty separate.

Wednesday, 12/27/17

I knew I was going to cook chicken for dinner, but it took me a long time to decide what I was going to do with it. Don't know how I settled on chicken parmesan but it was really good. I didn't think my family could make the switch from eggplant to chicken, but they were brave. Served with cauliflower that I gave the broccoli treatment (roasted with garlic, topped with lemon and parm), and some of the many leftover dinner rolls that Jason made.

Tuesday, 12/26/17

We had a surfeit of bagels, so it was bagels and cream cheese for dinner. Plus some really good roasted broccoli (how often do you say that?) with garlic, lemon zest and parmesan. Not quite leftovers, not quite cooking....

Monday, 12/25/17

Snowy walk

White Christmas! No dinner, because we ate all day in Whately: started the day with brunch. Bacon, frittata, kielbasa,cornbread and my contribution,  cinnamon rolls . They are from the NYT and basically perfect, if I do say so myself. I mostly made them on Sunday and them put them into the fridge. They were slow to do their second rise in the morning, but Jason's idea of putting them in a cool oven and then turning on the heat did the job.
Then snacks: LOTS of cheese (including queso fundito style from Kevin that was awesome), meatballs, little hot dogs in bbq sauce, shrimp, and chips. More cookies and candy. The cheese crackers I made for stockings are spicy and good (and I can't remember where  found the recipe), but the penuche got too warm and sort of melted a bit. Oh well, it still tasted fine. Lots of games and eggnog for a fun day.

Silly children

Lots of cheese (not even all of it)

Fancy cheese crackers

Sunday, 12/24/17

Christmas Eve dinner in Whately: roasted potatoes, brussels sprouts with bacon, roast pork AND roast beef. The roast beef in particular was super delicious (as was the gravy). Corrina and I had made gingerbread cookies (from Sweet) and peanut butter balls on Friday, so we brought those. There was also fudge, more cookies, and homemade marshmallows (made by my mom and really perfect. I need to get her recipe because these were beautiful) in 3 flavors. I can't decide between the maple and the mint. A festive holiday meal!
I almost forgot: also delicious buttery dinner rolls from Jason.

Saturday, 12/23/17

I am sad to say it was back to leftovers. But now the spaghetti pie and the sausage are all gone so maybe someday in the future I will cook another meal. Not for the next couple of nights, however....

Friday, 12/22/17

Leftovers were on the docket AGAIN before we were saved by a dinner invitation from Jen and John. So they provided a Blue Apron pork tostada (excellent, as always, but only a snack for so many people), we made about a thousand potato pancakes, and Corrina and Zac brought kielbasa to round out the meal. A feast! Especially with some fresh chocolate chip cookies from Jason to finish the meal. I (mostly) used the recipe from Smitten Kitchen for the latkes, although I more than quadrupled it and so I eyeballed all the ingredients. She calls for potato starch instead of flour, so I used up a bunch of something in our pantry that I suspect is potato starch but there is no label. Anyway, it did the trick. Out of 3 large trays there were only 6 left so I call that a success.

Thursday, 12/21/17

Leftovers AGAIN. It is getting me down. But there is still pizza, soup and spaghetti pie in the house. And two kinds of cake.

Wednesday, 12/20/17

Leftovers,even though it was only Wednesday.

Tuesday, 12/19/17

Made a Spaghetti Pie from Smitten Kitchen. Lots of pecorino romano and black pepper. Turns out  kind of like a frittata? I didn't want to take a chance with a leaking springform pan, so I baked it in a baking dish. Not as dramatic, but worked fine. I also didn't have fontina cheese so I used provolone and mozzarella instead. I thought it was delicious, Jason seemed fine, Carter HATED it. Two big misses in a week! He said he hated my stupid hipster food. Thanks, boy. I think it was the pecorino? It is a little pungent. Guess I won't put this one into regular rotation.
We also had spinach with garlic and red pepper flakes. Didn't even try that on Carter.

Monday,12/18/17

Dinner in Whately (spaghetts, green beans AND peas), bread from Jason, plus my Mom made butterscotch pudding (she wasn't happy with it but it was good). I made a banana cake with rum caramel from Sweet. I liked it except that the almond meal in it was a little too noticeable. Normally it doesn't add that much texture so maybe I just got a chunky batch? I can always throw it in the food processor next time.

Sunday, 12/17/18

  Dinner with Jennie and David (on a Sunday!). a plain, albeit delicious bread from Jason, a chocolate cake from Sweet from me. The cake looked beautiful under its layer of ganache, but I thought it was maybe a little dry? I also think I could have added a little more sugar to the mascarpone/cinnamon/espresso cream that was served alongside. Maybe the problem is that I don't actually love chocolate cake.

Saturday, 12/16/17

Crap Day! We made chocolate bark, sugared chocolate covered almonds, spiced nuts, toffee and caramels. I made the caramels in the morning at my own house (bad form?), and they were a little too soft, making them tricky to cut and wrap. It was a lot of fun, but way too much snacking and drinking all day. I regret the second (third?) glass of eggnog after the pizza.

We are frantically separating hot, sugary almonds before they solidify into a sharp single mass.

Friday, 12/15/17

Town Holiday Party: I didn't win any prizes and the food was OK but not great. The desserts in particular were blah. I wonder who catered? Anyway, it was moderately fun but I think Jason and Carter had a better time at home with homemade pizzas and a movie.
One thing about the party: eating such lousy stuffed mushrooms has put me in the mood to make my own.

Thursday, 12/14/17

Thursdays will be for leftovers until further notice. It doesn't feel like I am cooking too much, but we always seem to have a lot around. So I polished off the green bean casserole and Jason killed the unloved-by-Carter pasta.

Wednesday, 12/13/17

Tortilla soup that took longer than I anticipated (and was somewhat messy, between frying all the corn chips and poaching a whole chicken and whatnot). I had intended to make some sauteed spinach to go with it, but I just couldn't be bothered. With avocado, queso fresco, cilantro and limes.

Tuesday, 12/12/17

Penne with a sauce of caramelized onions, ricotta, a little goat cheese and toasted walnuts. Jason made a version of it for me when we first met. He and l like it, but Carter HATED it. He rarely complains about dinner this much (he told me all my food was stupid) so I guess I won't be serving this to everyone again. I remember that Corrina never liked it either, so maybe it is an adult taste?
Plain broccoli alongside.

Monday, 12/11/17

Dinner in Whately. Nachos with pulled pork, cheeseburger chowder, salad, bread (from Jason). As usual, I had seconds and maybe thirds of everything. Jason also made chocolate chip cookies, and some without chocolate chips. Corrina, my mother and I were especially enamored of those chipless ones. I made a caramel budino that was a. not flavorful enough and b. a little lumpy. The lumpiness is my own fault for being too lazy to strain the mixture. I remember liking the pudding the last time I made it, but that time I also made the maple-mascarpone cream and the chex streusel. Those probably covered up any deficits in the pudding itself. Still searching for a perfect caramel or butterscotch pudding, I guess.

Sunday, 12/10/17

I made up a slow cooker lentil dish, with tomatoes and coconut milk and lots of toasted spices (plus ginger and garlic). Rich and delicious, but I underestimated how long it would take to cook them. So we were sitting around waiting which always makes for crankiness.  We had rice and sauteed cabbage (more ginger and garlic, hot peppers, turmeric) alongside. Carter had categorically refused to eat lentils for dinner, but he surprised me (and himself) by liking them quite a bit. It is hard not to like creamy coconutty things.

Saturday, 12/09/17

I felt like I let Jennie and David down with so hyper crunchy cookies (and blah peanut butter) last week so i tried to make it up with two new varieties. Success, I think! Another batch of the brown butter financiers, plus some ginger-molasses cookies from Sweet. I was dubious about this cookbook, but I should have known that an Ottolenghi book would work well. The cookies were soft and flavorful, with a nice butter-rum glaze. Planning another batch for Christmas. Maybe even up the spices a little more.

Friday, 12/8/17

We are on a mission to use up a bunch of cream cheese in the fridge. Jason made a loaf of onion bread (he added a little dried onion to punch up the flavor. It made for a nice onion-y flavor), and we had cream cheese with it instead of butter. We also had salad of carrots roasted with cumin seeds and crushed red pepper, tossed with avocado and lemon juice. Also made dates stuffed with manchego cheese, wrapped in bacon. A little too sweet, so some sriracha was in order.

Thursday, 12/7/17

Boring Thursday leftovers again. The green chili macaroni and cheese is sadly gone. To cheer myself up I made a batch of brown butter financiers (from David Lebovitz's website).  I don't have financier pans (duh), so made them in a cupcake pan, a little less than half full. It worked well and I somehow managed to eat only one. They are like a chewy cake/cookie cross and quite nice.

Wednesday, 12/6/17

Even though I said I like green bean casserole just as it is, I couldn't resist tinkering a little. I think frozen green beans work just fine, and I actually love the fried onions from a can (no homemade onion rings will even be that crispy. I don't care what devil's handiwork gets them that way), but I had to admit that the canned soup is the weak link. So I made a version from Alton Brown with fresh mushrooms, chicken stock and milk, and ignored his onion recipe. I only added a splash of white wine and some dried onion to boost the flavor a bit. We also had baked fish sticks (from the NYT) with cocktail sauce and some oven baked french fries. We all agree that tater tots are fine for the oven, but it is worth hauling out the fryer for french fries. Maybe tots are inherently greasier to begin with? The fish is nice and crunchy, with a garlic-panko crust, and for once I didn't overcook them.

Tuesday, 12/5/17

I tried to re-create a roasted cauliflower, spinach, feta and orzo dish from Cravings, without having the actual recipe on hand. I came pretty close; just forgot the red onions and dried cherries (which I didn't have anyway).Still came out well and Carter didn't even complain (notice?) that he was eating spinach. We also had some smoked brats, but I skipped those and concentrated on the orzo.

Monday, 12/4/17

Dinner in Whately. And what a dinner! When I saw that my mom was making grilled cheese sandwiches with donuts instead of bread, I was first intrigued, then delighted, then greedy for more. She used glazed donuts and mozzarella cheese. Garnished with some sriracha, they were sweet, spicy, gooey and irresistible! Along with some homemade tomato soup, pickles, and potato chips, this was maybe one of Carter's favorite ever meals. And maybe mine, too.
All we did was bring some of the leftover peanut butter cookies, which is very lame. And superfluous to boot.

Sunday, 12/3/17

Hot Chocolate Run! Then a late lunch at the Brewery, so no one was really hungry. No dinner, although I did eat a couple of slices of cheese and drink a glass of wine.

Stupid Post-run Picture

Saturday, 12/2/17

Dinner with Jennie and David: bread, plus a couple of kinds of cookies. A waffle style cookie from Dorie Greenspan that I have made before with apparent success, but this time they are almost inedibly crunchy. Jason likes them, though. I wonder if I messed up the recipe? The batter was awfully greasy when they were being made (with the pizzelle maker). I also made peanut butter cookies from Bravetart. They were fine. Peanut butter cookies are pretty much always fine. You grind up honey roasted peanuts for this recipe, which did not seem to make any difference. I'l stick with my SK recipe. Maybe I don't actually need the Bravetart book?

Friday, 12/1/17

Looking back, I see that I make green chili-chicken macaroni and cheese about once a year, in late November/early December.  This year was no exception. Given how much I love it, it is a wonder it doesn't turn up more often. Then again, it is a slight pain, with all the chicken poaching and special ingredients and whatnot. Once all that is done, it does come together very quickly since it isn't baked. The last of the farm share sweet potatoes on the side, which made a very nice counterpoint.

Thursday 11/30/17

Jason pouted when I suggested cooking dinner, so we just had leftovers.See yesterday for details as it was the same damn thing.

Wednesday, 11/29/17

I somehow managed to make 5 meatloaves, since i had more ground pork and beef in the freezer than I thought.  We barely made a dent. I used the recipe from the Smitten Kitchen cookbook but had to make some changes, due to lack of ingredients (and forethought?). No tomato paste, so I purees and cooked down a canned of plum tomatoes. That worked fine but gave the glaze a chunkier texture. I never have Worcestershire sauce on hand, so I used a little soy sauce and some liquid aminos I had hanging around; I put a little too much mustard in the meat mixture so I dialed it back on the glaze. There were no complaints and now we have a couple of meatloaves in the freezer. I also made scalloped potatoes, using a Martha Stewart recipe I found online. Mostly followed her recipe exactly, using Manchego because that is what we had. The only trouble I had was my own fault for not noticing how long the cooking time was. Over an hour? Yikes. Carter said they were delicious. Plain broccoli on the side.