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.

Tuesday, 11/28/17

A repeat of the butternut squash soup from Thanksgiving. The only difference is that I added some sriracha and strained it for extra smoothness (it worked). We also had a lovely loaf of onion-caraway bread and deviled eggs.

Monday, 11/27/17

Another Thanksgiving that couldn't be beat in Whately. Seriously, my mom makes the BEST Thanksgiving. Turkey, mashed potatoes (Carter said they were the best he had ever had and he is quite the mashed potato aficionado),  gravy, stuffing, squash...A real feast. I brought green bean casserole (recipe straight off the onion can; Corrina and I love it and we don't care what anyone says) and a squash pie that was needlessly complicated but delicious. It was from Bravetart and it starts with roasting your own butternut squash (OK, not actually hard), making your own sweetened condensed milk (again, really pretty easy) and her so called easy pie crust. The crust was good, very flaky, although it still shrunk a bit during the blind baking (note: my butter was colder than what she called for,so it may have been my fault). The filling was really spicy and good. Everyone liked it so I guess it was worth it. It's good to know that I could make condensed milk in an emergency.

Sunday, 11/26/17

Carter was hanging out with his sister; Jason and I just ate up some leftovers. Nothing exciting, but the flan is now gone.

Saturday, 11/25/17

No dinner! Well, Carter ate a hot dog. We had a late and filling lunch in Whately with the family (enchiladas, chili, guacamole and our contribution: TWO flans). I kind of can't believe we busted into the second flan, but Jason can really put it away. A treat to see the aunts and uncles again.

Friday, 11/24/17

Kristen, Mike and little Mercer came for dinner. We had ground pork with lettuce cups (AGAIN), from Cravings. As usual, the lettuce cups didn't work out and we just ate it over rice. Also had roasted cauliflower that I tossed with parsley and a little manchego cheese. Yum. For dessert I made Dream Bars that were a little underdone but still delicious. Mercer enjoyed everything which was gratifying. It isn't every day that a three year old eats my food with such gusto.
My only quibble was that I thought the pork could have been more flavorful. I probably would have added more sriracha if company wasn't coming.

Thursday, 11/23/17

Thanksgiving! We went to Jen and John's.  Jason made a couple of loaves of bread (that came out perfectly, BTW), I made cinnamon swirl cookies, Carter dj'ed. We had also been to their house the day before to help with making soup, cranberry sauce, and tomato-saffron jam (a condiment for the grilled flank steak, my favorite dish).  Al the usual suspects: mashed potatoes, stuffing, green beans, brussels sprouts, etc..And lots of pie and good company.

Butternut soup with spiced pecans

The table awaiting food

Wednesday, 11/22/17

Grilled chicken sandwiches (I marinated the chicken with lemon, garlic and rosemary) with provolone and red onion relish, plus coleslaw for Jason and roasted potatoes (from SE). The potatoes really did what they claimed they would do: they were crispy and flavorful outside, soft and fluffy inside. Go Kenji! I ate leftover green beans since I hate coleslaw, even if it is lovely to look at with purple cabbage.

Tuesday, 11/21/17

Marinated roasted tofu, green beans with ginger and garlic, plus rice noodle cake. I realized that I didn't have the actual recipe for the noodle cake, but I just recreated it from memory and it was good. I bet it would be good with regular old noodles, too.

Monday, 11/20/17

Beef stew and addictively good biscuits in Whately. Brought a a spice cake (from Stella Parks) with penuche frosting (from Food52). I thought the spice cake was a little dry but that frosting is always a winner. I subbed in sour cream for the buttermilk (that she was adamant about) so it could have been my fault.

Sunday, 11/19/17

Jason asked for french toast again, since we still have a whole challah in the freezer. So we had that with sausage links and (incongruous) broccoli. Must remember that the nonstick pan does a better job than the cast iron.

Saturday, 11/18/17

Dinner with Jennie and David. Bread from Jason, a coconut cream pie (from Classic American Home Desserts) with a Maria cookie crust. Nice but somehow I thought it needed a little more sugar. Maybe because I use unsweetened coconut?

Friday, 11/17/17

I guess Carter and Jason sat home and ate frozen pizza and french fries. I, however was off partying at a fabulous wedding, eating sliders, endless delicious appetizers, tilapia and ice cream sundaes.
And then a pretzel around midnight.

During a break from dancing

Thursday, 11/16/17

Jason was exam proctoring, so Carter and I ate leftovers and watched Youtube videos. Like heathens.

Wednesday, 11/15/17

I had originally intended to make gung bao chicken, but realized I didn't have the celery or red peppers. It probably wouldn't have mattered, but I went with black pepper chicken instead. I usually make black pepper tofu, but this was a delicious variation. I did cut back the butter a little (but not too much), and added a lot of raw spinach at the end. I also threw some peanuts on top. So, so good. It takes a fair amount of prep but comes together quickly.

Lots of tiny bowls

Tuesday, 11/14/17

I honestly did not know what to make for dinner. Unusual.
So, I asked Jason to make pizza and he kindly made two delicious pies, AND used up some of the sausage and tomato sauce. We also had some sweet potato that I dowsed with sriracha and something called Golden Mountain seasoning, which it a little like soy sauce and I think Thai?

Monday, 11/13/17

Dinner in Whately---it was my dad's birthday (well, almost); we brought lots of chinese food and had some cheesecake for dessert. Happy Birthday, Dad!

Sunday, 11/12/17

I made a big batch of tomato sauce with Italian sausage in the slow cooker before work. We had that with spaghetti and kale that I sauteed with spaghetti squash (I I had already baked it) and broiled with some provolone.
The sauce was good but the sausage was quite spicy.

Saturday, 11/11/17

Dinner with Jennie and David: bread (with poppyseeds AND onions), plus a repeat of the pretzel cookies and the brownies.

Friday, 11/10/17

Dinner at Jen and John's. Jen made a rice, butternut squash and parmesan dish with spiced pecans (delicious), Laurie brought a baked brie, and I made some cookies: brownies (from Bravetart) with mint frosting (the cooked flour kind) and Pretzel Linzers with Salted Caramel from the new Smitten Kitchen book. Amazing. They would be great plain, with the caramel or with ganache. I will be putting these into my regular cookie rotation. The brownies are nice, as are most brownies.
Also, Jason made a big loaf of bread. It was a group effort.

Thursday, 11/9/17

I had the day off, and Jason and I had a big lunch at Bombay Royale, so I just fixed Carter a couple of burritos for dinner. Then I proceeded to cook all the vegetables that were languishing in our fridge:

Oh, and some brownies. Spoilers

I roasted the cauliflower and the spaghetti squash, boiled the beets, sauteed finely chopped brussels sprouts with onions, bacon fat and pepitas, sauteed spinach with garlic and hot peppers, and baked a couple of sweet potatoes. Then I didn't even have dinner. Considering another trip to our farm share is in the offing, it was good to get it all done.

Wednesday, 11/8/17

I tried a recipe from the Milk Street cookbook for Japanese style fried chicken. Seemed harmless enough: marinate boneless chicken thighs with ginger, soy, etc..., dredge with corn starch and fry. For some reason, Carter and I really didn't like it. I think it was partly the texture of the chicken thighs. I like them in other uses, but for fried chicken I prefer boneless breasts. I don't care what people say. We also had some of the leftover cauliflower puree and pork buns (from Mom's House freezer). They were my favorite part of dinner, frankly.
I think I am just biased against all things Christopher Kimball.

Tuesday, 11/7/17

When asked what he wanted for dinner this week, Carter requested "regular old burritos", meaning store bought flour tortillas, beans, beef and cheese. I let him down a little by using whole pinto beans instead of refried, but he said it was still good. My favorite part was "guacamole" that I made by mixing the avocados in the food processor with cilantro, a little sour cream and sriracha. I love the chunky texture of guacamole, but this was smooth and creamy, and a pleasant change.

Monday, 11/6/17

Dinner in Whately! We brought bread and a pumpkin pie (I used the David Liebowitz version, sans the marshmallow topping. I kind of wish I had made the topping. Next time). The pie was good except for a stupid shrinking pie shell. My mom made a Thanksgiving dinner that couldn't be beat. It was all there: turkey, stuffing, gravy, potatoes, squash. Just no green bean casserole, now that I think about it. I'll have to make my own.

Sunday, 11/5/17

Jason had been wanting french toast, and since we all woke up extra early (thanks, time change), there was time to make a couple of loaves of challah before work. Added some bacon for protein and this very colorful salad (with a lemon-tahini dressing) to round out all the sugar/fat richness:

That purple daikon is SPICY

Saturday, 11/4/17

Dinner with Jennie and David. Bread, the leftover cookies, and a chocolate pudding. I tried a new recipe from Saveur that was very rich and dense. Not sure why I didn't use my usual recipe from Smitten Kitchen. I think I wanted something darker to offset the sweet cookies. I'll stick to the easier standard recipe.

Friday, 11/3/17

Jason claimed there were too many leftovers and that I shouldn't make dinner. I agreed with the condition that I could make a dessert, at least. After much poring through cookbooks and blogs, I decided to just go with sugar cookies with frosting. Comfort food? I used the same Martha Stewart recipe I always used, but they are only meh. Didn't stop me from eating several. I think they turn out better if the dough has more time to sit and chill.

Thursday, 11/2/17

Regular old chili, done in the slow cooker. Plus some roasted spaghetti squash, and corn chip, queso fresco, lime and hot peppers for garnish.
It sounds boring, but it was a good end-of-the week dinner.

Wednesday, 11/1/17

Another recipe from the new SK cookbook: Meatballs marsala with buttered egg noodles. I changed only a few things: added mushrooms, and used ground turkey instead of chicken. Plus I didn't have any chives so I chopped up scallions extra small. We had roasted spaghetti squash on the side. The meatballs were a nice change from chicken breasts, which can sometimes dry out. I would make these again, but maybe omit the cream and add butter? In any event, universally liked.

Tuesday, 10/31/17

Dinner with my mom and dad. Chicken in a nice sauce, a wild rice blend, broccoli and carrot. For some reason the carrots were especially delicious. Lots of butter? Anyway, it was all great. I brought  coconut/oat/chocolate chunk bars from the new Smitten Kitchen cookbook. Easy to put together, easy to eat; a shortbread layer, done in the food processor, then a filling with melted butter, brown sugar, oats and coconut The filling is quite adaptable and I could have added nuts, chopped candy bars, etc.

Monday, 10/30/17

Finally got around to making chana dal (from Made in India), with fried onions and garlic. I knew Jason would approve, but I was pleased that Carter liked it, too. Served with sauteed spinach (leftover broccoli for Carter since he isn't a fan of cooked spinach) and rice.
Made in India has yet to let me down.

Sunday, 10/29/17

I was simply too tired to make dinner. We had nachos again, plus some leftover vegetables and grilled cheese (to use up a loaf of bread).
Cheesalicious.

Saturday, 10/28/17

We went to a Bar Mitzvah in eastern Mass, and I felt like I spent most of the day eating, from the bagels and smoked salmon after the service, to the hors d'oeuvres,cheese and crackers, late lunch, cake and candy at the party, to pizza and cannoli at Jeff and Sue's house later. Fell in to the hotel bed afterward.

Friday, 10/27/17

Dinner with Jen and John. Lots of homemade pizza (all kinds of tasty combinations), lots of wine, and these sad excuses for S'More's cupcakes:

I am a little ashamed to say I served them anyway. We just picked off the burnt parts. Pathetic.

Thursday, 10/26/17

No Jason, so here was dinner:

Nachos and Youtube!

Wednesday, 10/25/17

Carter was home late, so I made extra spicy noodles for Jason and myself. They are called "Midnight noodles" (from Fuschia Dunlop; I found the recipe online) and had lots of chili oil and black vinegar. I tossed in some broccoli, and served it with tempura style tofu. Quite spicy and funky.

Tuesday, 10/24/17

Mixed results for dinner. My cream of celeriac soup is too thick and gloopy. Carter complained and I secretly agreed. Fried green tomatoes were basically successful ( I served them with a dip made with a spicy cilantro pesto mixed with sour cream and yogurt), and Jason's bread was great. I had made another apple skillet pie in the morning (adding extra apples this time); that was a hit. I don't know why it feels easier than a regular pie, but it does.

Monday, 10/23/17

Another great meal at my mom's: lasagna, salad, breadsticks. I made a batch of caramel-butterscotch blondies (from David Lebowitz), knowing that Corrina, my mom and I love blondies. They are good, too; there are chunks of milk chocolate, but not too much, and the shards of caramelized sugar on top melt into crunchy-chewy bits.

Sunday, 10/22/17

I had intended a dinner of chana dal, but the leftovers were just too much. We used up some pork, all the tortillas, and the meatballs and the remnants of a loaf of bread. Plus I was able to do one of my favorite chores: moving leftovers into smaller containers. It gives me so much joy.

Saturday, 10/21/17

Dinner with Jennie and David. Jason made a loaf of bread, adding in a bunch of scallions leftover from scallion pancakes. The bread was good, but the scallion flavor was faint, at best. Made a recipe recommended by my mom for a skillet apple pie. You melt butter and brown sugar in a cast iron skillet, lay a pie dough on top, add your apples and another pie crust and bake. Somehow the butter/sugar bakes up into a sweet crunchy bottom crust. It was delicious and Carter had requested that I make another. It was also a great way to use up some overly tart apples from co-housing.

Friday, 10/20/17

It was a pan Asian dinner: scallion pancakes, Korean spinach, Vietnamese caramel chicken. The scallion pancakes were from Serious Eats, and though it seems like I have had success with them in the past, these weren't great. The scallions kept leaking out and they were a little doughy. The spinach is from the Maanchi website and I have made it before. Carter HATED it but Jason and I thought it was delicious. No amount a Popeye references could get him to eat more than a few bites. The caramel chicken was from Into the Vietnamese Kitchen . This seemed like it couldn't work: you put diced boneless chicken thighs, a dark dark caramel, fish sauce and ginger into a pot, bring to a boil, and cook just like that. I was sure the chicken would be stringy and hard, but it was nice and juicy. I ought to have made rice to serve it over, and I would like a little more spice, but we all liked it. After making recipes from several books, I must say that Andrea Nguyen is an excellent recipe writer.

Thursday, 10/18/17

Spaghetti with meatballs and cheesy garlic bread (Jason made a loaf of bread). Doesn't that sound good? It was.

Wednesday, 10/18/17

Dinner with the folks at Frontier. I made some snickerdoodles from Bravetart: the texture is perfect (thick,chewy, crispy edges), the flavor is cinnamony and slightly suggestive of the coconut oil she has you use instead of  shortening, but...
Without cream of tartar they just weren't what we think of as snickerdoodles. Maybe we should just call then cinnamon cookies.

Tuesday, 10/17/17

The Great Leftoverpalooza is now over, so I made a big batch of slow cooker pork with salsa verde, some homemade flour tortillas, and roasted some little half moons of delicata squash (with sriracha, maple and olive oil). Along with a little cabbage and queso fresco, this was our version of Taco Tuesday. Using the slow cooker meant that my pork was more like pulled pork and less like carnitas, but it was much easier on a weekday.

Monday, 10/16/17

Carter was studying for a big math test, so dinner at home. The last of the leftovers! potato-sausage casserole from a few weeks ago, plus a very simple salad and the last scraps of a loaf of bread that Jason made. The casserole reheated well and the satisfaction I get from looking at a roomy freezer cannot be underestimated. Now if I could just find something to do with all the condiments, dips, and sauces I make/acquire.

Sunday, 10/15/17

Stayed home sick all day. The only efforts I made all day were throwing together some rice pudding for Jason and Carter, and making dinner. I tried a second recipe from "Asian Tofu", her version of mapo tofu. I didn't use much schezuan pepper because Carter doesn't like it, but didn't hold back on the chili flakes or fermented chili paste. This version used ground beef, and was really delicious and different from my usual stir fries. I threw in some spinach and served it over rice and I think everyone liked it.

Saturday,10/14/17

Dinner with Jennie and David: bread with caraway from Jason, a pumpkin bundt (from the NYT) from me. The cake was just a glorified pumpkin bread,. I used up some brown sugar-bourbon glaze on about a third of it, and made the maple-brown butter glaze (which was what I was really craving more than the cake itself) for the rest. The maple glaze and the toasted pepitas on top are really the draw. And a bundt cake is nice and quick to put together.

Friday, 10/13/17

Took a break (sort of) from the leftovers to make a rendition of a dish I have loved at The Slanted Door, in San Francisco. Well, my shaking beef was actually chicken breast instead of filet mignon, and it sat on a bed of spinach instead of watercress. It was nothing like the dish I love, but it was still good. Certainly cheaper. We also finished up the potstickers and had various dips: the spicy fish sauce sauce, a spicy soy-lemon, and a salt, pepper and lime for the chicken.

Thursday, 10/12/17

The mysterious dumplings turned out to be......samosas! I was glad I had Jason test one out in the toaster oven. I baked them up and served them with some salsa verde. We also had a salad with the roasted eggplant and squash, plus tomatoes and beets. Oh, and Jason made bacon-onion bread that was probably superfluous but who cares because: bacon onion bread!

Wednesday, 10/11/17

From the freezer: lasagna! But to pep things up, we also had delicata squash roasted with maple and sriracha, plus some roasted eggplant. Tomorrow I am going to try out the mysterious dumpling shaped things. Not sure what they are. Pierogies? Empanadas? We'll see.

Tuesday, 10/10/17

It's going to be a boring week here, since I am determined to clear leftovers out of the freezer. Tonight we had some pot-stickers and a eggplant-ricotta pasta dish. I remembered not loving the pasta, but maybe I had just gotten sick of it, because I thought it was really good. We also finished a box of Aldi fried cheese curds. I was sad to see them go.

Monday, 10/9/17

Dinner in Whately. Linguine with meat sauce, green beans, and a loaf of bread from Jason. A real crowd pleaser.

I made cornflake crunch cookies from MilkBar. I made these several years ago, so knew I wanted to leave out the chocolate chips, and that they really need time to chill before baking. I still loove the flavors (especially the way some of the mini marshmallows get gooey and others caramelize a bit), but they spread too damn much. Even though the recipe calls for creaming the butter and sugar for a long long time, I think it might work better with a more standard technique.

Sunday, 10/8/17

Spicy Korean chicken (chicken buldak), reprised from about a year ago. The diced chicken is mixed with a spicy sauce with ginger, garlic, soy, corn syrup and hot pepper paste, then cooked in a skillet, then mixed with Korean rice cake and mozzarella cheese (!) and broiled. The flavors are so, so good. The disappointment was that I overcooked the rice cakes and they were inedibly hard and chewy. I hope they soften up a little in the fridge. Served with a simple steamed (but fancy looking) romanesco broccoli:

Saturday, 10/7/17

Dinner with Jennie and David. Jason's bread, and a Boston Cream Pie (from Bravetart). One of the cake layers didn't bake long enough and then had to go back into the oven, which may have dried it out a bit, but overall it was a solid if not amazing recipe. I broke the ganache a little which detracted from the looks, but not the taste.

Friday, 10/6/17

Tempura style tofu with a spicy soy dipping sauce (from Asian Tofu), plus a stir-fry with baby bok choy and the leftover sweet potato noodles. The tofu was terrific---nice and crunchy on the outside and soft inside. I would cut the pieces smaller next time, even though it would be more of a pain. The stir-fry was only meh, and too spicy for Carter. It was kind of watery. Homemade Snickers for dessert. The good and bad news is that they taste just like Snickers', albeit with a higher ratio of (excellent) nougat. The other good news is that I finally worked up the courage to temper chocolate and it went nearly perfectly. The recipe is from Bravetart; I have been happy with the things I have tried from there so far.

Thursday, 10/5/17

Jason was off giving a final, so Carter and I fended for ourselves with a tomato-mozzarella salad, plus a loaf of bread that Jason made earleir. I had a broccoli melt and JAson just had bread and butter. Odd combo, but not unpleasing.

Wednesday, 10/4/17

Made japchae for I think the third time? I knew if was time consuming so when I got home at 4:15 I immediately started chopping away. It's nothing tricky, though: a quick brown sugar/soy/sesame oil marinade for the beef, cook the noodles, and individually saute all the vegetables (onions, scallions, spinach, carrots, peppers, garlic) . Season with more soy, sesame seeds and sugar (plus I added sriracha cause we all like it).
Carter looked down at his bowl and said "I don't like this. I don't like these noodles". Well, I found that I had made this almost exactly a year ago and back then, he liked it, and especially the noodles. So he ate it and admitted that it was delicious. Reason enough to keep a blog.

Tuesday, 10/3/17

Just a leftover night. It made for some strange bedfellows: potstickers, pizza and some broccoli. Still, it is nice to be able to open the fridge without fear again.

Monday, 10/2/17

Pulled pork, pinto beans, coleslaw, pickles and hush puppies, courtesy of my mom. All predictably delicious. Carter even mentioned how good the coleslaw was on the ride home.
I brought nutterbutter style cookies, from the Bravetart cookbook. I thought the cookies were too crunchy, but then I remembered that actual Nutterbutters are pretty crunchy. They are fairly simple and quite nice (if you like peanut butter). I am looking forward to trying our something more complex from the book, as soon as I have time and ambition.

Sunday, 10/1/17

Jason made pizzas for us: one with jalapenos, pepperoni and provolone (this was so good that it was very difficult not to eat more and more of it), and a new variety with leftover pork, barbecue sauce, red onions and gouda (I didn't tell him that this is very similar to one at Bob & Timmy's in Providence. I wasted to boost his morale). The second pie was also great, but I will never get tired of pepperoni and provolone.

Saturday, 9/30/17

Jason wanted to make potstickers, so we did. We filled them with a mixture of pork, cabbage and mushrooms; the big surprise was how good Carter is at folding dumplings. Faster and better than his parents. We also had zucchini fritters (an odd accompaniment, but I like them) and some fried cheese curds from Aldi as an appetizer. I bought two boxes, knowing they would soon disappear from the shelves, and I wish I had bought more. They are remarkably tasty and who knows if Aldi will ever have them again?
I forgot that I made rice pudding on Friday. Followed the same recipe as last week, but added more rice and less cream. I may have also cooked it longer. The result was thicker and more set, as I was expecting, but a little too firm. Carter and I both like it a little softer and creamier. Next time I'll try to hit the middle somehow.

Friday, 9/28/17

A glut of ingredients in the refrigerator prompted me to make up a casserole. So, the Cauliflower, New Potato, Italian Sausage and Leftover Broccoli Casserole was born. Pretty tasty, although my cheese sauce could have been a little cheesier. We also had a tomato and mozzarella salad. I am going to be very sad when the tomato bounty from our farm share is over.

Thursday, 9/28/17

Pulled pork (slow cooker; bourbon, onions, liquid smoke and sriracha) sandwiches with lettuce and pickled red onions), plus some french fries. No time for anything else as we were off to Carter's Open House.

Wednesday, 9/27/17

A podcast I listen to (The Level Teaspoon) convinced me that I needed to make fried rice noodles, Vietnamese sate sauce and stir-fry. The sate sauce didn't quite live up to the hype, mostly because I think my ground dried shrimp were too assertive. Even after cutting the amount called for in half, Carter still remarked that it smelled like cat food (I couldn't really disagree). Plus getting the lemongrass ground up was quite a process. But anyway, the fried noodle cake was amazing (and not difficult in a low, nonstick pan), and the stir-fry (chicken, garlic, ginger, dark and light soy, sesame oil and bok choy) was a good foil. The sauce soaks into the noodles, making it simultaneously crunchy and chewy in a way that was hard to stop eating. All recipes from The Pho Cookbook. I am thinking of doubling down on Vietnamese for a week or so.

Tuesday, 9/26/17

Used up some fried eggplant in the freezer to make grinders. Topped with provolone instead of mozzarella, they were really tasty. I also steamed some broccoli and topped it with lemon, red pepper flakes and some asiago. Carter says he might like eggplant grinders better than regular old eggplant parm.

Monday, 9/25/17

Dinner in Whately; Jason made a loaf of bread (that got completely demolished), I lazily brought leftover cake and pizzelles. Turns out the pizzelles are really good with the cake glaze.

But the highlight was sausage, chicken and shrimp gumbo.My mom makes the best gumbo. I don't care what anyone else says.

Sunday, 9/24/17

Reprise of quesadillas; I actually did manage to put together a salad this time (albeit not a very interesting one). We also had a nice salsa verde from farm share tomatillos and peppers.

Saturday, 9/23/17

Dinner with Jennie and David: bread (of course), rice pudding (from my recipe book) and pizzelles. I was worried that they didn't like rice pudding but it was a big success. I do think that it warrants adding a bit more rice to the recipe though, since it is a little liquid-y.

Friday, 9/22/17

Dinner with Jen and John: John grilled chicken thighs with peaches and red onions; we brought a loaf of bread and this years apple cake, plus I made a big batch of corn fritters there. Loosely used a Paula Deen recipe, using fresh instead of canned corn and regular cornmeal instead of self rising. Then we all peered at the moon through John's giant new telescope.

Thursday, 9/21/17

Chana masala (from Made in India), plus rice and roasted cauliflower with the last of the spicy fish sauce sauce. Not super quick, but very satisfying.

Wednesday, 9/20/17

Quesadillas with poached chicken and guacamole. I meant to also make a salad, but...

Tuesday, 9/19/17

Picked up a couple of pizzas from Bertucci's on a whim. Jason complained so much that we won't be doing that again (although for what it's worth i like the pizza).

Monday, 9/18/17

Dinner in Whately. Tacos and flan. Ate too much and I don't regret it.

Sunday, 9/17/17

Leftovers. Said goodbye to chili, bread and lasagna.

Saturday, 9/16/17

Jennie and David's: Jason made bread (with caraway seeds) and I made a cake. The white cake recipe was from Cook's Illustrated, and though I tried to mess it up with wrong temperature ingredients, it was lovely. Cooked flour frosting and a coconut pastry cream filling. Each component troubled me a little (lumpy filling, curdled looking batter, hot kitchen...) but the finished product was much better than the sum of its parts. Everyone really liked it. Even Jason said it was better than a cake mix which I think is a compliment??

Friday, 9/15/17

One enormous lasagna. Homemade pasta sheets,fresh spinach and Italian sausage. I wanted just plain cheese and sauce, but gave into Jason's desire for additions. They were actually wonderful, although I am always dismayed at how small a bag of spinach ends up being once cooked.
Even Carter liked it and he isn't usually a fan.

Thursday, 9/14/17

Marinated, roasted tofu, with a stir fry of broccoli, baby bok choy and noodles. Very popular.

Wednesday, 9/13/17

Dinner with my parents. Butter chicken that was so rich and delicious...everyone loved it. Carter also have a LOT of naan. He honestly prefers the store bought and I kind of don't blame him. They are so soft and fluffy.
Speaking of soft and fluffy, I made an angel food cake. It was a perfectly nice angel food cake and used up frozen egg whites from the freezer.

Tuesday, 9/12/17

We somehow all ended up eating at different times tonight, but we all had the same thing: potato-leek soup and a loaf of bread from Jason. I added peas to my soup; Jason loved it (he said), and Carter ate it uncomplainingly while doing his math homework. Well, he wasn't complaining about the soup, anyway.
It was good to use up a bunch of farm share produce, although it seemed a little sad to use those adorable little purple potatoes in such a pedestrian way.

Monday, 9/11/17

Regular old chili, made in the crockpot. It was great to have dinner ready right when I got home, and I must say the chili turned out really well. Served with broccoli sauteed with garlic and hot peppers, plus Fritos for crunch.

Sunday, 9/10/17

Ground turkey lettuce wraps from Cravings. Sort of. The recipe calls for ground chicken, I usually use pork and this time I used turkey. It doesn't matter----the sauce would make sawdust appealing. And our lettuce leaves were too small/inflexible to do any wrapping so we just ate it with rice and lettuce on the side. Delicious (again).

Saturday, 9/9/17

Dinner with Jennie and David: onion bread from Jason, malted vanilla ice cream with chocolate covered pretzels from me. I got the idea from a podcast I listen to (the Level Teaspoon) and she made it sound so good that I had to make it right away. Standard ice cream base; the only tricky/annoying part was hand dipping all those tiny pretzel pieces. Yes, I know you can buy chocolate covered pretzels. These were better, dammit!
This ice cream was AWESOME. I love the malt flavor, and the addition of corn syrup to the base made it super smooth and creamy.  Jason and I polished off the leftovers when we got home.

Friday, 9/8/17

Burgers that I doctored up with all kinds of things (onion flakes, garlic salt, soy sauce and some liquid aminos that I had samples of), french fries, kale. Also some fried cheese curds from Aldi that are actually rather good. The burgers tasted like little meatloaves which was kind of weird. It doesn't matter, though, since I will never be able to replicate them.
Also, these:

Thursday, 9/7/17

I made a big batch of fried rice, using some pork from the freezer and little leftover poached chicken. Talk about a fast dinner. One thing I love about having a gas stove again is that I am able to use my wok, which gave the rice a nice crisp finish.

Wednesday, 9/6/17

Made one of Carter's favorite meals, chicken korma. He said it was "the bomb". Jason contributed pita/naan, and I also sauteed some spinach with chilies, garlic and lemon, from Made in India. It was nice to have the time to make a slightly more complex dinner. Also, I love Made in India.

Tuesday, 9/5/17

Pasta with corn, bacon, cherry tomatoes and (don't tell Carter) a couple of summer squash. Based loosely on a recipe from SK that I made last summer. Nice easy dinner and it was good to use up that squash. It really benefited from a little sriracha at the table, though.

Monday, 9/4/17

Dinner with my parents. Pork loin with a creamy apple sauce, peas, roasted potatoes,the most delicious beans and bread from Jason (with caraway seeds. Tasted a little rye-ish). I brought Oreo style cookies from Dorie's cookies which were fine but overshadowed by oatmeal cream sandwich cookies from my mom.

Sunday, 8/3/17

I made sausage gravy and biscuits again, knowing I wouldn't really like it. I didn't. But Jason and Carter did, so that was fine. I didn't even make my own biscuits! Heresy. At least we made our own sausage. Also had a salad.

Saturday, 9/2/17

Dinner with Jennie and David. Bread, of course. I decided that an apple pie wasn't annoying enough to make, so I would make 14 hand pies instead. The crust was fiddly (many chilling steps), you have to cut the apples up teeny-tiny, and I am awful at rolling out dough, so this seemed like a fool's errand. Also, the crust was so buttery that it oozed out of the crust while baking. However, none of this was enough to mess up SK's recipe (hers called for peaches), and they were super flaky and delicious. I would even make them again. The only changes I made to her recipe were adding a bit more sugar (half of it brown) and some cinnamon and nutmeg.

Friday, 9/1/17

Dinner with Jen and Gus, to console Jen since her weekend plans got messed up. We made a tomato-cheddar pie (good crust, good flavors, soggy),  Jason made bread, Jen made a peach cobbler. Then Jason practiced picking everyone up and we watched Wayne's World 2.

Yes, he is picking up Jen, Gus and Carter

Thursday, 8/31/17

Request from Carter---crunchy tacos with beef and beans. There is not much to say about this beloved and fast dinner.

Wednesday, 8/30/17

Dinner in Whately (steak, salad and a very very good corn casserole); Jason made bread and I repeated the apple cake. I skipped the bourbon in the glaze this time. This is probably my favorite apple cake (and I have made a few over the years).
Also: first day of school for Carter.

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.

Sunday, 7/30/17

Dinner with Jennie and David. Jason made bread, and I made two kinds of cookies: a no-bake chocolate w/ caramel and rice krispies (called star crunch; apparently a replica of a Little Debbie cookie), plus some lemon sugar cookies from Dorie's cookie book. The star crunch gave me trouble; the first time I undercooked the caramel so they wouldn't firm up. The result was tasty, but also a little too sweet. So I tried again, adding more rice krispies and subbing in a little dark chocolate for milk, and found them not quite pliable enough. All in all I don't think these are worth bothering with again. The "no-bake" aspect isn't much of a draw when the caramel temps are so fussy.
The lemon cookies, on the other hand, are nearly perfect. The are crisp on the edges and soft within, as promised. Personally I would add a little more lemon zest, and I somehow forgot the salt, but I will definitely make these again: easy and delicious.

Saturday, 7/29/17

We rode our bikes to Northampton and had an enormous lunch at Bombay Royale, so no real dinner. We just had snacks and watched a movie.

Friday, 7/28/17

I had been promising Carter burritos all week, so we finally had them. My favorite part was a salsa verde made from the meager amount of tomatillos I was able to get from our farm share this week.

Thursday, 7/27/17

Another Ultimate night, another dinner eaten standing at the counter. At least I had the foresight to make a batch of (very meaty) meat sauce, so Jason made a fantastic loaf of onion/bacon bread, sauteed up some zucchini and cooked the spaghetti, and voila. Dinner. Here he is at the field:

Wednesday, 7/26/17

Dinner in Whately: my mom made all the things: 3 (!) kinds of potato salad, corn (on and off the cob), shrimp cocktail, hamburgers...All we brought was yet another blueberry crisp.

Tuesday, 7/25/17

Jason made blueberry pancakes and bacon for himself and Carter. I scarfed down a couple when i got home (delicious), plus a couple of pieces of cheese and off to Ultimate.

Monday, 7/24/17

Jason claimed (inaccurately) that  we had too many leftovers and I shouldn't cook anything else. We cobbled together a meal and I made a small batch of no-bake chocolate cookies from Serious Eats (basically? fudge.). I have made them from another recipe before and think I liked these a bit more. I wonder how rice krispies would be in place of the oatmeal?

Sunday, 7/23/17

More cooking, hooray! Chicken marsala, cous-cous and a salad. I toasted the (israeli style) cous-cous before cooking it, and then tossed it with butter and parm. Good thing to remember: apparently pasta that has been toasted cooks faster. The chicken was, as Carter said, "a classic" and the salad was a salad (albeit a lovely local ingredients one). I made a lemon-tahini dressing that was kind of like having hummus on your salad but that isn't such a bad thing.

Saturday 7/22/17

After a fun day hanging out with my parents and Zac and Corrina (Frostie, board games, pool), I was excited to come home and do some cooking for a change. I had wanted to make my favorite green chile-chicken macaroni and cheese, but didn't get hold of all the ingredients. So I made a faint copy of it with no chicken and no salsa verde, but used pepper jack and added cilantro. Not the same, but good (and Carter like it). I sauteed a bag of spinach that was on the edge and cooked up a bunch of broccoli; added to the macaroni they were a nice contrast to the richness.
I also made some pickles, cole slaw and another blueberry crisp. It felt good to spend the afternoon in the kitchen.

Friday, 7/21/17

Dinner with Jennie and David: Jason made bread (with scallion instead of onions this time; not a particularly strong flavor) and I made another blueberry crisp. I have the recipe memorized at this point and have made a couple of minor changes: a little more cornstarch in the berries, and a little less sugar. Almost no leftovers.

Thursday 7/20/17

This Ultimate two nights a week thing...
Came home and ate as much salad as I had time for (brought the rest to the fields), plus some tiny boiled new potatoes with more of the pesto-ish dip. I used yogurt instead of sour cream this time and may like it even better. I think Carter and Jason finished the lentils.

Wednesday, 7/19/17

Baby shower for a coworker meant that I left Carter and Jason to watch Logan and fend for themselves. It was a potluck, and since I know my coworkers I figured there would be  lots of healthy salad-y things (yup) and made another blueberry crisp. It was devoured.
Got home just as Logan wrapped up, so good timing.

Tuesday, 7/18/17

I gulped down the lentils and rice we made yesterday, plus some blueberry crisp, and headed out to Ultimate.

Monday, 7/17/17

When I got home, Carter requested onion rings for dinner, so we decided to add that to the lentils and rice that I had planned. Well, we also fried up a bunch of zucchini and some peppers, and never did eat the rice and lentils. I fear that Carter only had onion rings for dinner? I made a blueberry crisp, too, so at least he had some fruit. The crisp recipe is in the archives and is still easy and delicious.

Sunday, 7/16/17

Dinner with Jennie and David. Jennie had a lot of leftover birthday cake, so we brought bread, some fancy-ish cheese, and a dip made from my herb/radish & carrot top "pesto". Felt weird not making any dessert.

Saturday, 7/15/17

First night back and Carter had dinner plans. Jason and I finally got around to eating some calzone that we were supposed to eat on vacation, along with a tomato and fresh mozzarella salad.

Friday, 7/14/17

Last night of vacation, featuring much the same meal as the first night (although Carter opted for macaroni and cheese). Leftover grilled chicken stood in for the long-gone cold cuts. The last couple of cold rainy-ish days made for more dramatic surf, if less beachgoing.

Gloomy

Thursday, 7/13/17

More bread, cheese etc. We had frozen one of the loaves Jason made and it reheated beautifully.
I wish we had brought more dessert.

Wednesday, 7/12/17

Jason wanted pancakes. We had pancakes. My favorite combo is banana with cookie butter. We also had salad, I think.

Tuesday, 7/11/17

Marinated grilled chicken (simple garlic, lime and olive oil), boiled new potatoes with chives and parsley, plus zucchini sauteed with garlic and tomatoes. Nothing too fancy, since we packed pretty much every bite of food for the week.

Monday, 7/10/17

Dinner in town, thanks to the Freyinger's. We tried a place called Brick and Ash. The good: a nice Aviation, awesome poutine, avocado-yogurt dip. Pretty setting. The so-so: weird service, and it was hot in there. Still, a fun outing.

Cornhole got ugly

Sunday, 7/9/17

Jen, John and Gus joined us for a couple of days. Burgers, french fries, salad and brownies. We caught the sunset and the moonrise from the deck.

Saturday, 7/8/17

First night of vacation. Bread, cheese, a couple of dips made from our prodigious farm share, cured meats and pickles. The new place is remarkably well equipped and comfortable.

Not sure who looks sillier.

Friday, 7/7/17

Dinner with Jennie and David. Jason made a really nice loaf of bread with olives and thyme; since it was David's birthday I made a yellow cake (SK) with a chocolate frosting (the kind made with a milk slurry; so much easier than buttercream and nearly as smooth and delicious) that was exceedingly tall but I think everyone liked it.

Thursday, 7/6/17

Ultimate---who knows what Carter and Jason had. I wolfed down a sandwich of my own invention: leftover broccoli salad, provolone and a little radish/carrot top pesto dip on a bulkie roll. Surprisingly good, even though the roll was sub-par. The pesto is a good way to use up a ton of neglected farm share items.

Wednesday, 7/5/17

Carter was off gallivanting with his grandmother, so Jason and I, left to our own devices, made some batter and started fryin'. Started off innocently with zucchini. Then came onions, pickles and jalapenos. We also had some tortellini from Aldi but I did not love it. Jason tells me the leftover zucchini reheated well, but my heart was in the onion rings.

Tuesday, 7/4/17

Even though it was the 4th, Carter still had Ultimate. Luckily, I had the day off so we had time for a proper dinner: maple-sriracha tofu, rice and a broccoli salad from the NYT. Raw broccoli, marinated with red wine vinegar, garlic, olive oil and cumin seed. I punched it up with a little lemon and sesame seeds. It was a nice way to eat broccoli.

Monday, 73/17

At Jason's request, I made a batch of pesto. We had it with angel hair and some Italian sausage (probably a salad, too).

Sunday, 7/2/17

No real dinner, since we spent the afternoon at the Leverett pond (it was a lovely summer day and it was super fun . Carter got to do some kayaking). We brought bread and a dip made with the green sauce from Friday.

Saturday 7/1/17

Dinner with Jennie and David: bread with onions and caraway, banana cake with penuche frosting because the bananas were starting to take over the house.
The bad part about that cake is that I can't stop eating it.

Friday, 6/30/17

Spent the afternoon dealing with farm share vegetables. So we had salad with pickled kohlrabi, fresh mozzarella and tomato salad, a sort of pesto-chimichurri cross that used up some carrot and radish tops, and Jason kindly made a bread that I had asked for. It is called kubaneh, and while it was good, we decided to try a different recipe next time. It is kind of like a Middle Eastern Parker House roll?
Fun summery dinner.

Thursday, 6/29/17

Leftovers, with my dinner eaten standing at the counter because it was Ultimate. Not shaping up to be much of a cooking summer!

Wednesday, 6/28/17

My mom made pretty much all the foods. Chicken, ribs, antipasti, tomato-mozzarella salad, bread, potato salad, pasta salad. Seriously. So much great food and we just ate and ate. Then we ate all the chocolate chip (or chip-less) cookies Jason made. Then we played some games . And then we ate some ice cream.
I call that a fun evening.

Tuesday, 7/27/17

Ultimate. Carter had requested pulled pork sandwiches, so I made the recipe from Serious Eats, along with their recipe for barbecue sauce. I just threw the pork and onions into the slow cooker all day.
Carter and Jason had sandwiches and I ate mine in lettuce wraps (in a hurry, standing at the counter) which was a nice change.

Monday 6/26/17

Falafel again. I added a lot more herbs to the mix (thanks to the farm share), and Jason made some really nice, soft pita. Very nice, but they are missing some critical element I can't put my finger on. I think I will try some kind of pickled vegetable next time.

Sunday, 6/25/17

Dinner with Jen and John---Jason made so, so much pizza, we collectively put together a Blue Apron cous cous salad with labneh, arugula and halloumi (I am stealing the idea of toasting the cous cous before boiling), plus chocolate chip cookies.
Than we all fell asleep on the couch.

Saturday, 6/24/17

Went up to Brattleboro to meet Jeff and Sue. Pizza and soft serve so I call that a summertime win.

Friday, 6/23/17

Dinner with Jennie and David. Jason made a bread (with thyme from the farm), and I repeated a lemon- almond cake cake from the NYT. As per my notes, I added more lemon curd, but it may have been too much. It added sort of a gooey layer, which actually was kind of nice.

Thursday, 6/22/17

First night of Ultimate, so no time for a real dinner. Jason made us a batch of fry bread when we got home. It was fun to eat with various sweet and savory toppings. I served some carrot sticks alongside in a vain attempt to be healthy-ish.

Wednesday, 6/21/17

It was like being down at the shore in Whately! My mom made a kind of shrimp bake with corn, potatoes and two kinds of sausage. Delcious and fun to just throw the shrimp shells on the table (covered in newspaper, to be sure). I also love chorizo and ate more than was technically fair. Jason made a loaf of bread and I made a brown butter cake with strawberries (NYT) that I made sometime last summer. I am glad I repeated it, and glad I made a note not to cook the strawberries.

Tuesday, 6/20/17

Grilled chicken with a lime-fish sauce marinade, rice and salad; then we went to Jennie and David's for a multipart vanilla ice cream tasting. We brought a few brownies but it was all about the different vanillas. I don't remember which was which but one had a nice sort of coconutty flavor.

Monday, 6/19/17

Roasted tofu, pasta, broccoli. No comment.

Sunday, 6/18/17

We had some leftover refried beans so I was forced to make nachos for dinner. I was a sacrifice I was willing to make. Plus a salad. With the farm share started, salads will be frequently featured.
Strawberry pie with graham cracker crust for dessert. One of my favorite vehicles for all the beautiful farm share strawberries.

Saturday, 6/17/17

Last day in the city! Two breakfasts: a sort of savory danish from Sullivan Street bakery, and then a sad goodbye to Jessica and more substantial diner breakfast with my mom and Rod before getting back on the bus.
No lunch, bread and cheese for dinner. Back to the real world where people don't have champagne at lunch.

Not actually the view from the bus.

Friday, 6/16/17

Fancy breakfast at Bouchon. Almost worth it for the view of Columbus Circle (and the wifi). For lunch we went back to the Modern with my mom; I repeated the tuna and the dessert, and traded the polenta with morels for the gnocchi. My mom had a foie gras tart and a pistachio stuffed chicken (that looked really good) and Jessica tried roasted scallops. I won the dessert again, as the "Strawberry Romanoff Buffalo Mozzarella Cream and Root Beer Leaf Ice Cream" that Jessica  tried was oddly reminiscent of pizza, and my mom was only meh on the "Brown Butter Bread Pudding
Pineapple Compote and Lychee Sorbet".

Dinner at Union Square Cafe. The new space was really pretty, and we had a nice corner banquette on the second floor. I started with: Asparagus Tempura,Chili-Scallion Vinaigrette, White Bean Yogurt (excellent), Jessica had the fritto misto, my mom had Sushi del Chianti al modo di Panzano Hudson Valley Harvest Beef, Parmigiano Reggiano---it was a silly thing to call steak tartare, but it was super tasty. We split a bowl of pasta with calabrian chile, tomatoes and straciatella. Then an enormous roasted chicken for me (good, but I wished for more of the greens that were under it; olive oil poached halibut with peperonata for Jessica (the clear winner to me) and Frascatelli with Guanciale, Ramps, Black Pepper Cream for my mom. The pasta was more or less carbonara and it was rich and delicious.  We didn't even get dessert, but they brought out some chocolate cake for my mom's birthday. Happy Birthday, mom!

ps don't know how to change the font her.