Friday, 12/28/18

Thought about making more pork buns, since I still had filling, but we were unable to commit to buying a bamboo steamer. It also seemed easier to turn the leftover pork into a stir-fry with ginger, garlic, scallions and Chinese broccoli. Really good; the pork added an interesting flavor and it was super quick to make.

Thursday, 12/27/17

More grilled cheese, since we had a lot of leftover bread, plus a Caesar salad. Carter was not impressed by this meal: didn't care for smoked cheese in his sandwich, and disapproved of my use of leftover cheese crackers (a recipe from Bon Appetit for pimiento cheese crackers. They were fine but I'll stick to my SK cheese straws, thanks) in lieu of croutons in the salad. Sorry, kid! The grownups liked it.

Wednesday, 12/26/18

Dinner with Jen and John. Jason made a couple of loaves of bread, I made tomato soup, and so we had grilled cheese and soup for dinner. Leftover Christmas cookies for dessert.

Tuesday, 12/25/18

Quiet Christmas Day; the highlight was visiting with my parents and going for a hike (plus playing video games) with Corrina and Zac. Dinner was stupid: the mozzarella that I didn't get around to frying yesterday (good, of course), plus  steamed pork buns that I thought would be a fun project for a day off (from a lovely book that Kristen sent us---"Dumplings", by Andrea Nguyen). Sadly, I got started a little too late in the day, so they weren't done until after 7. And, I didn't really think through the idea that we don't have a good method for steaming. We did some in a colander on the stove and that worked well, and tried rigging up something in the oven for the rest. Sadly, those didn't really steam, but baked instead. The flavor was fine but the texture wasn't what I was hoping for. I want to try again! I still have some of the roasted pork left (an easy enough production, but one that left our sheet pans looking like a war zone and gave the smoke detector fits) and the dough comes together quickly....Maybe Friday we'll pick up a steamer and go for another round.

Filling pork buns

Monday, 12/24/18

Everyone got to pick something they wanted for a festive Christmas Eve dinner. Carer wanted Popeye's style fried chicken, Jason asked for stuffed mushrooms, and I wanted fried mozzarella, but bumped it since we also had a Caesar salad and homemade fettuccine (from SE, as usual; we just tossed it with butter, salt and pepper and Romano). I think everyone was happy! It didn't feel particularly Christmassy, but it was a tasty dinner.

Drying pasta

Sunday, 12/23/18

Leftovers, because they were building up again.

Saturday, 12/22/18

Crap Day, so lots of cookies (of varying levels of tastiness) that we brought to Jennie and David's for dinner. My favorites were Jen's chocolate chunk shortbread (which I have made a couple of times) and some chocolate thumbprints with peppermint Hershey's kisses (I'll have to find that recipe).  My stupid coconut cookies spread too much and pissed me off. The problem with working with brown butter is getting the water level right.

Friday, 12/21/18

Inspired by the fact that we have way too much salsa in the house, I improvised a kind of chicken parm with salsa and jack cheese. Served with sauteed zucchini and an ersatz spanish rice. It was not bad! And it used up at least one jar of salsa.

Thursday, 12/20/18

Jason and I had a giant lunch at the dining hall, so we just snacked a little for dinner and gave Carter leftover pizza.

Wednesday, 12/19/18

Chana masala, with rice and roasted cauliflower. One of those dinners that is easy and good, but there isn't much to say about it. I also made a coffee cake (from Classic Home Desserts), still trying to use up buttermilk.

Tuesday, 12/18/18

I couldn't avoid dumplings forever. We still had a bag in the freezer from when Kristen and Michael were here, so I pan steamed them and served them with some (overcooked broccoli). Glad I watched Kristen's cooking technique.

Monday, 12/17/18

We were supposed to have dumplings, but I just wasn't feeling it, so Jason kindly stepped in and made a couple of pizzas. So that was great.

Sunday, 12/16/18

Dinner with Jennie and David, since we were busy Saturday. Jason made bread, I made caramel blondies (from David Lebowitz). I am glad I made them a day early, as they really come into their own after sitting. It's a recipe I have made several times before so I knew what to expect.

Saturday, 12/15/18

Early Christmas get-together at my parents with everybody (ALL the Dowds, Neymans and Lindas) except for poor Corrina and Zac, who had to work. All the usual suspects, food-wise: little hotdogs, cheese and crackers, chips,deviled eggs, cookies, shrimp cocktail, wings from the Hangar (Carter's favorite, obviously). My brother made stuffed shells and I made a ridiculously large cheesecake (from Smitten; I stuck very close to her recipe). I had never made a cheesecake before and I thought it turned out pretty well.It didn't crack, which I guess can be a problem, so there is that. Maggie's molasses cookies are still the best.

Carter enjoying a rare Coke

So we were basically too full for dinner but did snack a little.

Friday, 12/14/18

I have two kinds of tomato sauce---one quick, just garlic, basil, salt and crushed tomatoes, and one slow, that adds some tomato pasta (and in this case, sausage), then spends the day in the crockpot. We had the latter for dinner, along with spaghetti and some leftover (and unloved) green beans. I am such a sucker for the way the sausage gets so tender done this way.

Thursday, 12/13/18

Still tired from John's party, so I just came home and made quesadillas with leftover grilled chicken. Then I managed to burn some cookies. They were just the kind of sugar cookies that you buy in a tube and slice (I have a soft spot for them)! But I think I sliced them too thin. How someone messes this up is beyond me.

Wednesday, 12/12/18

Party at Jen and John's for John's 50th. Jason brought a couple of loaves of bread, and they had a couple of huge pots of chicken soup. It was fun, but the school night thing was tough!

Tuesday, 12/11/18

Jason's night for dinner. He chose pancakes (with bananas for some of us) and salami. What a weirdo. Although I admit that his idea of pan roasting the salami until it was crispy was inspired: it was like spicy little crunchy slim jims, almost. It was a busy day at work, so I was happy just to come home to dinner.

Monday, 12/10/18

Overly ambitious Monday night dinner: potato pancakes, grilled chicken and green beans, sauteed with onions and butter. I was running back and forth like crazy. The latkes turned out well, the chicken (just marinated chicken breasts) was fine, and the green beans were a little overcooked. I don't like them when they are hard and squeaky; I guess I overcompensated.

Sunday, 12/9/18

Oven roasted tofu, and noodles with cabbage and bok choy, I seasoned the noodles with the lettuce wrap sauce from Cravings . I wasn't super excited about this meal, but it was pretty good.

Saturday, 12/8/18

No dinner in North Amherst, but Jason made us bread anyway; we also had cheese, olives, peppers, salami and some cheddar-zucchini fritters (they didn't turn out as well as last time; I think the ratio of cheese to zucchini skewed to heavily toward cheese). Plus we had some chips and homemade onion dip. MORE rice pudding for dessert.

Friday, 12/7/18

Made a meatball soup that I made last year (http://www.foodrepublic.com/recipes/beef-meatball-soup-couscous/) that was very good, albeit too spicy. I keep forgetting how spicy my cayenne is and putting too much into things. Anyway, Jason and I liked it, it used up the last of the turkey stock and all those tiny meatballs were cute:

63 little meatballs

We didn't really have anything else, but I did make a batch of molasses cookies from Rosy Levy via Serious Eats.  I'm the only one in the house who really loves molasses cookies, but that's OK because it isn't a very big batch. They turned out as chewy/crispy and pretty as the recipe promised, but I thought they could use more spice.

Thursday, 12/6/18

Used up some things from the overflowing freezer: some leftover fried eggplant that I didn't even know was in there, and a bag of spinach-cheese ravioli. This meant that dinner was quick and everyone liked it AND there were vegetables. Win!

Wednesday, 12/5/18

I had planned on making a turkey and wild rice soup from leftover turkey and stock, but decided to go with more of a casserole instead: turkey, wild rice, broccoli, carrots, onions and turkey veloute, with those fried onions from a can on top. Probably more popular with Jason and slightly less with Carter. Very midwestern, but good nonetheless.  Oh, and  more buttermilk biscuits! Same recipe from Sally's Baking Addiction. Perfect.

Tuesday, 12/4/18

Jason made bread and cheese for his night. Walnut-raisin bread, to be exact. I love it (why? I don't like raisins or walnuts!).  He was prepared to serve only that, but I made us a salad, too. The salad was nothing special, but the bread and cheese were great.

Monday, 12/3/18

Leftovers, but sort of repurposed. Leftover meatloaf from the freezer, the last of the mashed potatoes and gravy, plus broccoli. It was the most all-american looking meal ever.  That meatloaf was not bad, even frozen and reheated.

Sunday, 12/2/18

Hot Chocolate Run in the morning, late lunch at the Northampton Brewery. So we just had leftovers for dinner (Carter tells me that Thanksgiving dinner is even better after a few days).

Before Carter got soaking wet and cold

Saturday, 12/1/18

Dinner with Jennie and David:  Jason experimented with fennel seed/onion bread (delicious) and I made rice pudding (the same recipe I always use, from Bon Appetit).  I forgot the butter but I really don't think it mattered.

Friday, 11/30/18

Thanksgiving, the revenge. Jason got stuffing how he wanted it, I got green bean casserole and Carter got all the mashed potatoes, gravy, and canned cranberry sauce he could want. Plus Jason made dinner rolls and we had a pecan pie. The only flaw was that I somehow started a little late, but dinner was still on the table by 6:30:

One happy customer

The pecan pie was from SK, and I attempted to dry brine the turkey, although I should have started a few days earlier. The green bean casserole recipe was straight from the back of the can of onions. Next time I'll double the gravy, and start the turkey process earlier.

Thursday, 11/29/18

Just leftovers. Readying the fridge for a lot of cooking on Friday.