Monday, 7/30/18

Jason night: burgers and tots, plus I made a very simple salad with just lettuce, grated carrots and an ersatz Green Goddess dressing that I made up. Impossible to recreate, since it is whatever herbs I can get from the farm, plus random dairy and seasonings.

Sunday, 7/29/18

Stovetop green chile macaroni and cheese, adapted from Serious Eats. This was a very simplified version of one of my favorites. I usually put chicken in there, but didn't bother. Just added a can of green chiles, cilantro, and scallions. I also used a weird variety of cheeses,including some cheese sticks of dubious provenance. The end result was better than it sounds. Carter liked it, once I reminded him that he likes it . Jason and I dutifully ate some greens with ours. Those damn greens will never run out.

Saturday, 7/28/18

Made a real dinner, more or less. Tomato/mozzarella salad (one of Carter's favorites), fresh corn off the cob, homefries, and the last of the cheddar bread, toasted. I made another batch of caponata, too. It isn't quite as good as the previous batch,  maybe because I threw in a lot of random leftover vegetables, like carrots and yellow squash. Nice summery meal.

Friday, 7/27/18

Jason's next bread was equally successful: cheddar and black pepper. It turned out that you need to add a lot more cheese than he had been trying. We ate that with homemade blueberry jam and other stuff that I can't remember. I also made some blueberry crumb bars (from Martha Stewart) that were good but not quite was I was looking for. Still, it used up a lot of jam.

Thursday, 7/26/18

  Jason is experimenting with different additions to his bread, and tonight was raisin-walnut. I don't know why two ingredients that I don't like are so good together in a bread, but there you have it. We ate it along with some tuna (with olive oil, lemon and capers), plus some caponata that I made (on the fly; it turned out really well. We didn't have enough eggplants to do much else with), and a little leftover ricotta. Rushed dinner because we were off to SULA again.

Wednesday, 7/25/18

Lots of Chinese takeout in Whately with the family. Nobody's dinner was safe from me.

Tuesday, 7/24/18

SULA night; the other half of a lasagna that I froze a few weeks back. plus more of the dreaded greens. I am here to stand up for ground pork instead of beef in lasagna.

Monday, 7/23/18

Carter requested burgers for dinner, and he had VERY specific instructions for Jason: heat up the skillet, don't form the meat into patties, smash them down, flip, and add cheese. Apparently Carter has watched a lot of YouTube on the topic. Anyway, they were delicious! A real improvement, so Jason is going to do them this way from now on. We also had little tater tots (crowns?) and some of a gigantic batch of greens that I cooked over the weekend. Those greens are more of a chore than a delight, but they weren't bad with Frank's red hot sauce.

Sunday, 7/22/18

Dinner with Jen and John; we made deviled eggs, a loaf of bread, and a kielbasa, they supplied a Blue Apron. This one had chicken, peaches, bok choy and coconut milk. I admit, it wasn't my favorite one ever, but I was impressed that Carter cooked the whole thing himself! He loves to make those Blue Aprons. It makes me want to subscribe on his behalf. Jason also made some chocolate chip cookies while we were there.

Saturday, 7/21/18

Jennie and David, cake and bread.
Made the rum cake of a few weeks ago (from Food52), but used bourbon instead. Popular.

Friday, 7/20/18

Adapted a recipe from the NYT for pork with pork and ginger with noodles. I added some tofu to the mix, and had rice instead of noodles, and probably added more sriracha and hoisin (also used broccoli instead of bok choi). Everyone liked it just fine.

So many tiny bowls

NOODLES WITH GINGER, PORK AND BOK CHOY

 

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Prep time

10 mins

Cook time

35 mins

Total time

45 mins

 

Serves: 4

INGREDIENTS

• 1 lb baby bok choy (4 or 5 small heads)
• 1 ounce ginger root (1 fat 2-inch-thick knob)
• Kosher salt
• 8 ounces rice noodles, not too thin
• 2 tablespoons neutral oil
• 1 pound lean ground pork (or turkey)
• ¼ cup plus 1½ tablespoons soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
• 3 tablespoons hoisin
• ½ cup thinly sliced scallions
• 3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 1 fresh Thai or Jalapeño pepper, seeded if desired, thinly sliced
• 2 tablespoons toasted sesame seeds
• 1½ teaspoons sesame oil, more for drizzling
• Cilantro or torn basil, for serving
• Black vinegar, for serving
• Sriracha or other chili sauce, for serving

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Trim bok choy and separate dark green tops from white stems; leave tops whole and thinly slice stems. Peel the ginger and finely chop half of it. Slice remaining ginger into thin matchsticks.
2. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add noodles and cook according to package instructions (usually 5 minutes or so). Drain and run under cool water; drain again. Set aside.
3. Heat 1 tablespoon peanut oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add pork and cook, breaking up with a fork, until lightly browned and cooked through, about 10 minutes. Season with 1½ tablespoons soy sauce and ½ tablespoon rice wine vinegar. Use a slotted spoon to transfer meat to a bowl.
4. Add remaining 1 tablespoon oil to skillet. Stir in half the scallions, the chopped ginger, the garlic and the chile. Cook until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add bok choy stems and cook until almost tender, about 2 minutes. Toss in leaves and return pork to skillet.
5. Add the noodles, remaining ¼ cup soy sauce, hoisin and 1½ tablespoons rice vinegar into the pan. Stir together and cook until just warmed through.
6. Transfer to a large bowl and toss with remaining scallions, sesame seeds, sesame oil and herbs.
7. In a small bowl, combine ginger matchsticks with just enough black vinegar to cover. Serve ginger mixture alongside noodles as a garnish.

Thursday 7/19/18

A rare treat! Dinner at the Blue Heron with Corrina and my mom. We stuck to small plates:

Bacon Wrapped Blue Cheese Dates
North Country Smokehouse Bacon, Arugula, Saba

Housemade Potato Chips
Caramelized Onion Dip, Red Pepper Blue Cheese Dip

Honey Garlic Chili Shrimp
Buttered Jumbo Shrimp, Honey Garlic Chili Sauce, Soy, Grilled Bread

Yellow Fin Tuna, Watermelon, Feta Cheese, Shaved Radish, White Soy, Lime, EVOO, Jalapeño, Kalamata Olives, Micro Greens

Fried Cauliflower
Salsa Verde, Ricotta Salata

We ate every morsel

Dessert was a blueberry crisp, and some caramel/espresso ice cream. Everything was excellent; I particularly loved the tuna crudo and the sauce soaked bread from the shrimp. Very fun evening.

I believe the boys had more pizza.

Wednesday, 7/18/18

I almost cooked dinner! Blintzes from the freezer . An experiment shows that cooking the blintzes on an oiled tray on the oven works just as well as doing them on the stovetop. Just remember to flip them partway. These were good with a lot of homemade blueberry jam I made this week (we went overboard on blueberry picking, as usual).  All that farmshare zucchini was looking sad, so I also made my beloved zucchini fritters, with a garlic/pesto/sour cream sauce. AND a couple more loaves of zucchini bread.

Tuesday, 7/17/18

Tuesday=SULA=leftover pizza at 8:30 at night. Would have been fine if I hadn't heated it up too much.

Monday, 7/16/18

Impromptu pizza night with my folks. Didn't have time to make any dessert, so that felt very awkward...but it was great seeing everyone.

Sunday, 7/15/18

Dinner with Jennie and David (on a Sunday!). Jennie got an enormous Atkins cake for her birthday, so we didn't bring dessert. Jason made a loaf of bread and I made a zucchini galette from Smitten Kitchen. My only (tiny) complaint was that I should have used a little more zucchini.

Obligatory bad photo

Saturday, 7/14/18

No Jennie and David, so we had a very busy day, including a trip to IKEA. By the time we got home and assembled our new desk, it was super late and we just ate various leftovers. I did get Swedish meatballs AND Dairy Queen in the afternoon, though.

Friday, 7/13/18

Jason made us a couple of pizzas: pepperoni/cheese for Carter, plus one with pesto, mushrooms, tomato and provolone for us.

Thursday, 7/12/18

I made a batch of tomato-lentil soup before work, and we had that along with a loaf of bread from Jason. The soup was my own mix: red lentils, a can of tomatoes, a can of coconut milk, coriander, curry and a little cayenne. I pureed it in our new, terrifyingly powerful blender. That thing scares me a little (but the soup is good and didn't even make too many leftovers).

Wednesday, 7/11/18

I really liked the flavors of soba with chicken and miso butter a few weeks ago, but not the texture or execution. So I improvised: poached chicken breasts in some chicken stock, cooked and cooled the soba, reduced the poaching liquid and whisked in the miso butter, and tossed it all together (with some sauteed chard and a few sliced cucumbers). Much less viscous, and refreshing on a hot evening. It benefited from a  little sambal oelek, too.

Tuesday, 7/10/18

Jason was very excited about his dinner: he made pesto (less olive oil that I would have liked, but hey, it's how he likes it) and tossed it with angel hair, plus we had the re-heated fried chicken and vegetables. Good, if very filling.

Monday, 7/9/18

Cravings' chicken with lettuce cups, but without chicken (I use ground pork instead) and without lettuce (we just eat it over rice).  Threw in the leftover broccoli and voila! A complete meal that everyone likes.

Sunday, 7/8/18

No real dinner, because we snacked all day while hanging out at Lake Norwich with Jen and Gus. Carter went off for pizza and a movie with his grandparents---Jason and I  just had cheese and crackers and played our video game.

Saturday, 7/8/18

No Jennie and David! Corrina came for dinner, which was fun. I made ribs in the oven (used a recipe from Food52: rubbed them in a brown sugar-spice mix the night before, wrapped them in foil and baked on low for a few hours. I added a little liquid smoke because I like it); they were good if actually too tender. They just slid off the bone. We also had chips and homemade onion dip, plus some watermelon and some blondies. Very summer-y. I thought the blondie recipe (from The Perfect Cookie) could have used some punching up. Browning the butter would have helped. I think the ones from David Lebowitz are better.

Friday, 7/6/18

Friday=Fryday!

Popcorn chicken (should had read the recipe; turns out the chicken was supposed to sit in its little spice rub all day. Oops. I just brined it in a spicy etsatz buttermilk instead while I prepped everything else, then dredged it in spicy flour); crinkle cut french fries (from a bag of frozen fries; you can't beat them); sundry batter dipped vegetables (no real recipe for the batter; we used zucchini, mushrooms and a few onions). It was crazy filling, but that didn't stop me from making a small batch of cheater's chocolate mousse (melted chocolate folded into whipped cream and chilled. Shockingly delicious, especially when you just want an instant dessert.

Some people have a summer kitchen; we have a porch and a fryolater

Thursday, 7/5/18

Hot, hot day, so I made a tomato sauce with Italian sausage in the slow cooker. The tricky part? I put the cooker on the porch so as not to heat up the house. So it merrily cooked all day, producing a flavorful sauce with the most tender sausages. Served it over spaghetti, plain broccoli on the side.

Do your thing, little Crockpot

Wednesday, 7/4/18

Happy 4th! For a treat, we took Carter to lunch at the nearest Wayback Burger (in East Windsor, CT) and took a scenic drive home.  I have to admit, they are the best chain burgers around. I didn't have a bun this time, so the flavor of the beef and toppings had nowhere to hide.
Lunch was a little late, so we just snacked in the evening---nachos for Carter, a salad for me and Jason. OK, I admit I had some nachos too....

Tuesday, 7/3/18

Leftovers, Sula, nothing interesting.  STILL didn't finish the cauliflower and paneer.

Monday, 7/2/18

Too hot to cook, so we just had leftover cauliflower/paneer. Better than I remembered, but maybe I was just super hungry?

Sunday, 7/1/18

We had an enormous lunch at Bombay Royale, so Jason eschewed dinner altogether, I snacked on chips and rose, and Carter had a small salad and a grilled cheese around 8pm. That buffet is super filling.

Saturday, 6/30/18

Dinner with Jennie and david. Jason made another sesame seed topped bread, and I made the Strawberry Summer cake from SK (that Jen made for us last week). I wish I had taken pictures of both, because they both turned out beautifully. That was totally it for strawberries, though.

Friday, 6/29/18

A cauliflower and paneer curry, from Food52. Luckily, I glanced at the recipe before I left for work, since the sauce needed to simmer for an hour and the paneer takes a few hours to drain. So instead of a late dinner, it only took a few minuted to warm up and finish assembling when I got home. Carter was only meh on this (he doesn't love paneer, and it was pretty spicy). I liked it but didn't love it. Maybe had I used the terrifying amounts of cream and butter called for it would have been better? I just couldn't put two sticks of butter in that pot, though! Added some leftover beet greens and chopped baby kale to round out the meal, and Jason made rice. If I am going to bother making my own paneer, I think I would rather use it in a dish that lets it shine a bit more.

Thursday, 6/28/18

Another SULA night. I think we just had leftover pizza.