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.

Wednesday, 11/28/18

Biscuits with hamsteaks & red pepper jelly, plus a salad. The biscuit recipe came from here:  https://sallysbakingaddiction.com/flaky-buttermilk-biscuits/. They were super successful, and I am not sure if it is the recipe, the fact that I actually had butter milk on hand, baking them in a cast iron skillet, or dumb luck. But they were flaky, rose well, and tasted great. I don't love ham, but with the jelly (and on a biscuit) it was fine. I also made another romaine salad, figuring we would know by know if we had e coli. This time I tried to make it a little more interesting (the last one I made was kind of blah), so I added some dried cranberries, grated pecorino, and chick peas. Much better!

Tuesday, 11/27/18

Jason made pizza for dinner, but held himself back and only made two modest sized ones. One Sicilian with cheese, one with pepperoni, mushrooms, onions and peppers.
I also made a quick coffee cake in the morning (from my book, Classic Home Desserts). Irushed it with too cold butter, so my crumb topping wasn't it's best, but the cake itself was delicious. I was worried that I wouldn't be able to use up a half gallon of buttermilk, but I keep finding uses for it.

Monday, 11/26/18

Chicken cutlets with panko, to please Carter, and quinoa with mushrooms, garlic, spinach, lemon and olive oil, to assuage my slight nutritional guilt. Bonus: the leftover quinoa makes excellent work day lunch leftovers.

Sunday, 11/25/18

Dinner at home, just the three of us! David sent me home with his turkey carcass, so I had some shredded turkey and a lot of stock. I made a creamy turkey dish with mushrooms, broccoli, white wine and some cream, and served it all over egg noodles. I had originally planned on soup, but I think this was a more popular choice.

Saturday, 11/24/18

Mike, Kristen and Mercer came for dinner. Kristen and I made a whole lot of pork dumpling: some were what she called a "nurse's hat" shape (they looked a bit like tortellini to me)----Jason fried those. Then, with a different shaped wrapper we did the more traditional pleated half moon that we pan fried/steamed. Kristen was the boss of the filling: it had pork, cabbage, carrots, ginger, garlic, soy, rice vinegar and maybe sesame oil?) Fun project, tasty, and leftovers to boot! We also had bread (Jason) and cheese (Michael), and Mercer played happily with carter's old Cars cars. Overly chocolate-y fudge for dessert (Carter and I made a double batch using a recipe that called for marshmallows, evaporated milk and 1.5 pounds of chocolate! Will stick to Pop's recipe next time).

Friday, 11/23/18

Nachos for lunch, Whately Inn with my parents and Kevin's family for dinner. It was nice to see everyone; my chicken was good, as was Jason's steak. Most of Carter's steak came home, but we can always figure out what to do with the leftovers.

Thursday, 11/22/18

Happy Thanksgiving! We had two engagements: late lunch at Jay and Jodi's house with Jason's whole family. Jason made a loaf of bread, I made squash. Whatever. My heart wasn't in it. Actually, it wasn't even squash, it was sweet potatoes because that's what I had in the fridge. They were fine. Jay grills his turkey, and I must say that produced a fine bird. Carter and I sorely felt the lack of mashed potatoes and gravy.

Carter modeling the bread, his cool new hat from Aunt Yoni, and the beautiful basket that Aunt Margie made for us

At Jennie and David's later, we gamely ate another meal. Jason made another loaf of bread, I made a pumpkin pie (at Jennie's request). It was good but not terribly exciting. Maybe I just don't like pumpkin pie that much anymore?

Wednesday, 11/21/18

Dinner with Jen and John and Laurie. Jason made pizza, I baked the rest of a batch of coconut/brown butter cookies I had in the freezer (from Smitten Kitchen, I believe). I don't know what I did differently, or if freezing was somehow beneficial, but these were tastier than I remembered. Even coconut-averse Jen liked them.

Tuesday, 11/20/18

I had planned to make a Caesar salad, but was too lazy. So I made a lame salad with romaine, carrots, beets and red pepper. The only exciting part was that just today the CDC strongly warned us not to eat romaine because of an e coli outbreak. I actually wasn't sure if we should take the chance. We'll see!

I also made deviled eggs (with Frank's Redhot for a Buffalo wing take) and some cheese straws from SK.

Monday, 11/19/18

A curried potato and carrot soup, with chickpeas. I just made this up as I went along. Used up some coconut milk., lots of ginger and garlic and onions. Jason made us a nice loaf of bread to go with it and there you go, quick dinner.

Sunday, 11/18/18

Broccoli pasta from SK, which I have made so many times I don't need the recipe anymore. I decided that that would be enough dinner. After all, it is mostly broccoli.
It must not have been quite enough because I had to feed Carter a tamale later.

Saturday, 11/17/18

Our usual Saturday evening plans got cancelled, so we have a late and large lunch with Jason's parents at Bombay Royale.  So for dinner we just had eclairs, because I had already started making them. Healthy!

Friday, 11/16/18

ANOTHER recipe from the second Cravings book, pork and glass noodles. I didn't, as it turned out, have all the ingredients (no celery leaves or tomatoes), so mine was less salad-y that hers and more noodle-y, but the flavors were the same (a spicy garlic-lime dressing was key). I used baby bok choi and mushrooms instead. Another good meal, if not as popular as the fish cakes or chicken sandwiches.

Thursday, 11/15/18

Exam night for Jason, Big Y for me and Carter. Sushi, chicken tenders, some sald bar stuff and Doritos. No pretense at good nutrition. The boneless wings were a little dry and disappointing, the sushi as pretty good, and I don't know how they make those marinated white beans but I love them. We tried to watch "Halloween", but surprisingly, found it boring. I was so scared by it when I was his age! Probably because I watched it with a bunch of other 13 year old girls and not my mom....

Wednesday, 11/14/18

Another Chrissy Teigen recipe, pulled chicken sandwiches. Boneless chicken thighs, braised in a quick barbecue sauce with chilis in adobo (spicy!). The only thing I changed was adding a little liquid smoke. Served on little brioche buns (Carter's favorite part, I think, although he was an overall fan). Carter had plain steamed broccoli, and Jason and I had broccoli roasted with garlic and lemon.  Another win for "Cravings 2".

Tuesday, 11/13/18

Finally made the twice postponed Thai fishcakes (from the new Chrissy Teigen book). Easy to put together mixture (I used haddock), with chilis, cilantro, cornstarch, garlic and lime. The mixture looked oddly runny after I pulled it out of the fridge, so I threw in a little panko as a binder. They fried up beautifully, and had a nice flavor. they are served with a spicy peanut sauce (which took some tinkering: I think my coconut milk wasn't rich enough, and at first it was too lime-y, but finally got it balanced). The side dish, riced cauliflower with lots of garlic, is also from the book. Delicious, and made an excellent lunch for the the next day.

Monday, 11/12/18

Work was very tiring today, so I didn't feel like cooking the dinner that I had planned (those poor fishcakes keep getting deferred), so we just had bean and cheese quesadillas and some roasted Delicata squash. Trying not to let the last of the Farm Share vegetables go to waste, but I haven't been super inventive about it.

Sunday, 11/11/18

Had lunch in Longmeadow, for real this time. Then we had only a little time before going to Jennie and David's house for dinner. Luckily, Jason had already made his (excellent) bread and I had already made a flan. No surprises, no complaints.

Saturday, 11/10/19

We THOUGHT we having lunch in Longmeadow for Jason's grandmother's 100th (!) birthday, but we somehow had the date wrong? So we trooped back home and had a late lunch (finally finished the split pea soup!) and consequently I didn't feel like cooking the dinner I had planned. So I cooked up some frozen ravioli and tomato sauce for Carter and I, and made a salad. Not innovative, but good.

Friday, 11/9/18

To start, we had some of these Parmesan cheese fondue things we bought (I am ashamed to say) in Canada. They were vacuum packed! they were fine! They are kind of like cheese souffle type things? Anyway, I served them with some tomato sauce and they were pretty good. We also had beef/zucchini meatballs with a tahini sauce plus  a cabbage slaw from a book called "Now and Then", by Julia Tershen, who I really like. These individually were really tasty and interesting: the zucchini made the meatballs nice and moist, and the slaw had fennel seeds and cumin seeds, which was very unusual. But they were somehow less than the sum of their parts. we also has rice, and everything was just fine. Not exactly disappointing, but not as good as I hoped. Maybe if I had panfried the meatballs instead of baking them?

Thursday, 11/8/18

Just leftovers. A week of cooking left us with a full fridge.

Wednesday, 11/7/18

I made a couple of dishes from a cookbook I brought home, "Fresh India" (from the author of "Made in India). One was supposed to be butter paneer masala, but I didn't get around to buying paneer, so I used chicken instead. And I didn't have peas, so in went a lot of spinach. And who has fenugreek leaves? So I played fast and loose with the recipe. It was still great. Carter was very excited about it, but in reality he was mostly enthused about the garlic butter naan I made. And who could blame him? Warm puffy bread dripping with garlic butter is hard to resist.

Tuesday, 11/6/18

Jason night. He gave us a break from hamburgers by making a few pizzas. One Sicilian, one with peppers, onions and pepperoni, and an experimental one with sesame seeds on the crust. They were all so, so good! Maybe because he made them in the oven instead of trying the grill? Anyway, really tasty meal. I think sesame crust pizza should be more of a thing.

Monday, 11/5/18

Meat, the gift that keeps on giving. Today I used up a ham hock from my mom to make split pea soup. I didn't have quire enough split peas so threw in some red lentils (worked fine). The problem was that we all are a little tepid about split pea soup. I was, however, very excited about the cheese bread that Jason made.  It was quite delicious.

Sunday, 11/4/18

Still working through the gift of meat from my mom. I made a big pan of baked ziti with Italian sausage and some kale. And that was dinner! I figured it had everything in there so didn't serve anything else. I love baked ziti almost and much as stuffed shells; Carter thought it was "fine".

Saturday, 11/3/18

Dinner at Jennie and David's...bread from Jason, S'Mores cupcakes (Smitten Kitchen) from me. I have made them a few times before and they are always good. Even Carter liked them and shocked me by eating two! I spent over an hour Saturday afternoon pondering cookbooks and websites, trying to think of the perfect new thing to bake, only to come back to a staple. Oh well.

Friday, 11/2/18

Dinner with Jen and John. We had a Blue Apron meal of black beans and rasted sweet potato tacos (Jen bought extra ingredients to bulk it up) , Jason made a loaf of bread, and I made a grasshopper pie (from a Gourmet cookbook I found on the sale shelf at the library). The pie was nice, although I don't think it's for everyone. I used the Oreo crust from Cook's Illustrated and that always comes out well, but I thought the pie could have been mintier. Also, I shouldn't have eaten a big piece when we got home...

Thursday, 11/1/18

Meatloaf (from the Smitten Kitchen cookbook), mashed new potatoes, and roasted acorn squash. The meatloaf comes courtesy of my mom, you gave us a LOT of meat. We are slowly working through it. This produced 3 little meatloaves; Jason and I liked it, but Carter was neutral. He was really only there for the potatoes.

Wednesday, 10/31/18

Roasted eggplant (sadly, I burned some), plus buckwheat noodles with ground pork, mushrooms and baby bok choy. I used the chicken-lettuce cups sauce ecipe from my Cravings cookbook, which is always delicious, so matter how I tweak it.

Tuesday, 10/30/18

Jason night, so burgers and tots again (we are mercifully out of both), plus I made a salad (largely ignored except for by me, which is too bad because it was great).

Monday, 10/29/18

Lentils and rice, plus cabbage sauteed with onions and mustard seeds. I sauteed the lentils with onion, garlic, and ginger, then cooked them in water plus coconut milk. Finished with some sriracha, lime and cilantro, they were creamy and delicious. And vegan by accident!

Sunday, 10/28/18

Jason wanted pancakes, so I graciously allowed him to make some. They were fine.

Saturday, 10/27/18

Dinner with Jennie and David, plus their friends Guy and Elizabeth. We brought bread (with onions), plus a sweet potato pie (from the Patti Labelle recipe in my recipes) that was fine. Elizabeth made these really tasty little savory meringues with togarashi (spicy!), plus they broughy goat cheese and chive crackers AND manchego and homemade quince paste. I felt very outdone (in a good way, since I got to eat all that tasty stuff).

Friday, 10/26/18

Judy's retirement party at Amy's house. I made a large batch of macaroni and cheese (from Martha Stewart via Smitten Kitchen) using up a bunch of different cheeses. The only thing I changed was using panko instead of tiny cubes of bread for the topping. Yum! People seemed to like it.

Thursday, 10/25/18

Jason was giving an exam, so Carter and I walked over to Big Y and had dinner there. Festive! We shared some boneless chicken fingers, a sushi roll and some chips.

Wednesday, 10/24/18

Tofu (marinated and then roasted), plus noodles with spinach, mushrooms and broccoli. Lots of ginger, garlic and onion...nothing out of the ordinary.

Tuesday, 10/23/18

Jason: cheeseburgers and tots. I also made some brussels sprouts but they were nothing to write home about.

Monday, 10/22/18

Tortilla soup, made with leftover chicken and stock from the weekend's roasted chicken. No recipe, just soup. Garnished with queso fresco, avocado, lime and cilantro.

Sunday, 10/21/18

A repeat of Carter's Hobbit dinner from Friday, without the deviled eggs this time, but with the addition of some peanuts, pickled daikon and an apple. I took some liberties. I hope JRR Tolkien wouldn't have minded but I bet he would.

Saturday, 10/120/18

Dinner with Jennie and David----bread, of course, and two kinds of cookies, both from Smitten Kitchen, both repeats. Pretzel Linzers, which I like quite a bit, but they are a lot of work, and super rich. Maybe not worth it. The other one was a brown butter coconut cookie. Nice, but also a bit of a pain what with the browning and chilling of the butter. They are written as a drop cookie, but I did them as a slice and bake. Worked fine.

Mine never look like the picture.

Friday, 10/19/18

Carter's request: Hobbit dinner. Scones from King Arthur website (really good), plus a roasted chicken (from Big Y. Honestly, they are better than my own, easier and perhaps even cheaper), bread, cheeses, pickles, deviled eggs and jam. I am pleased to report that it was a big hit. Sadly, no dwarves came in to clean up the kitchen.

Thursday, 10/18/18

Just leftovers: finished the beef stew and the zucchini, still a few egg rolls lurking in there.

Wednesday, 10/17/18

Potato gnocchi, which are just as easy as ricotta if you have the time to bake the potatoes. They were nice  enough with some leftover tomato sauce, if maybe a little gluey (I used a recipe from the second SK cookbook). Also had roasted butternut squash 'cause tis the season.

Tuesday, 10/16/18

Jason might: cheeseburgers and fried. No one can accuse him of being unpredictable, dinner-wise. But who can argue with actual deep fried french fries? It would take a stronger woman than I . I made a quick spinach salad with carrot-ginger-miso dressing to try to balance it out.
I was so excited on Sunday when Carter raved about my pulled pork sliders, but tonight he said THIS was the best meal. Fickle child.

Monday, 10/15/18

The slow cooker got a second day of work: beef stew. Jason made a giant Yorkshire pudding and I roasted some cute little squashes (that ended up tasting just like butternut squash). I shamelessly pandered to Carter by pureeing the squash with maple syrup and butter. I can't deny that it is good that way.

Sunday, 10/14/18

Pulled pork (onions, bourbon, a little liquid smoke and a little Frank's Redhot) in the slow cooker,served on toasted mini brioche rolls. Plus some slightly dull brussels sprouts. The pork sliders were a hit! Carter RAVED about them, and it's true, those little rolls were great with the pork. Always gratifying when the kid likes dinner.

I put some Romano on my little sprouts to liven them up

Saturday, 10/13/18

Dinner with Jennie and David. Bread from Jason and I made an apple cake with brown sugar frosting. I apparently made an apple cake about a year ago that I loved and claimed was my favorite....and didn't mention what recipe it was!! I am so irritated with past Lace. I looked through my recipes and this one seemed closest to the description and it is in fact quite good. Lots of apples, quick to put together and a sweet penuche tasting frosting. Even if this isn't the recipe, at least it is a winner!

Friday, 10/12/18

Two appetizers for dinner: a reprisal of baked zucchini/cheddar fritters (these are so good and easy compared to frying. But there is so much cheese that I don't think you save any calories. Don't care). A deep discount on egg roll wrappers at the grocery store inspired the other component (egg rolls, duh). Improvised a filling with cabbage, tofu, carrots, mushrooms, aromatics and Jason deep fried them for us. They are good but I was hoping they would taste more like the ones you get in a Chinese restaurant.
I also kindly made Jason a sausage-egg sandwich on an English muffin, because he has been envious of Carter's breakfast.

Thursday, 10/11/18

Jason made pizza (on the grill again) which we scarfed down in order to go to Carter's Open House. The best pizza was an off the cuff one he made: very thin, topped with garlic, Romano, black pepper and butter/olive oil. It was the BEST and I tried to be very encouraging about it.

Wednesday, 10/10/18

I took advantage of having roasted a chicken to make stock and used the leftovers to make a chicken-coconut soup. Basically, ginger, garlic, lemongrass (annoying to chop and didn't add much), coconut milk, and fish sauce. I had to tinker a bit to get the flavors right, but I thought it was delicious. I served it over noodles, and have sauteed kale alongside. I personally just threw the kale into mine and that was also good. The recipe wasn't from anyplace in particular---I just looked at a bunch of recipes to get the general idea.

Tuesday, 10/9/18

It was Jen's birthday, so she and John had some people over for dinner. John made chili, Jason made a bread, there was cheese, guacamole, etc. I wished I had thought to make another cake. There was no dessert!!! I blame myself.

Monday, 10/8/18

I took advantage of the day off and made japchae, which can be time consuming. This is, I think, the 4th time I've made it? So no surprises, but very good. I double almost everything; this time I used a small flatiron steak, sliced very thin.

Sunday, 10/7/18

Dinner with Jen and John. We made two Blue Apron meals, a chicken/brown rice bowl with a carrot-cabbage slaw, and salmon with labneh and dates of a bed of farro with zucchini and carrots. Carter made the salmon all by himself and it was great! I love that making these Blue Apron meals is fun for him AND makes him want to try new flavors.

Dinner by Carter

For dessert, Jason and I staged a cake-off: he has been pestering the hell out of me because he thinks we should use boxed cake mixes instead of homemade. In a moment of beaten down weakness, I agreed to a taste test. So he baked a yellow cake mix, I made one from SK, and we combined them into one big cake and covered it with frosting. My usual cooked flour recipe gave me trouble, probably because my butter got too warm and because we were nearly tripling the recipe. Anyway, I finally got it to cooperate and here we are. Slightly less ugly than my last cake but only slightly:

At least I had enough frosting for the whole border this time

I am deeply saddened to report that Jen and John preferred the mix! It was a blind taste test, and they didn't know that one side was a mix, only that we were using two different recipes. Jen liked it because it tasted like a boxed cake mix and how can you argue with that?? Jason will never let me forget this, but I still prefer cakes from scratch. 

Saturday, 10/6/18

Rare Saturday night at home. I roasted a chicken, with the idea of soup later in the week. Very basic: just spatchcocked it and rubbed with oil, salt and pepper. High heat, since I was also baking potatoes. Good if unremarkable. Also threw together gravy with the drippings. To round out the meal we had butternut squash sauteed with red onions and seasoned with maple syrup and lots of black pepper. Sweet/savory for the win. I even made us a home dessert: pumpkin pie (using the recipe from David Lebowitz). Reliably good if not wildly exciting. Carter's favorite part of dinner was the baked potatoes with cheese, sour cream and butter (duh).

Friday, 10/5/18

Impromptu dinner at Tom's, thanks to my dad. Turns out they have really good burgers! My only regret is that we didn't get more fries (and maybe a coffee milkshake for Carter; I tasted Dad's and it was really good. Lots of coffee flavor). Thanks Don for the invite!

Thursday, 10/4/18

While Jason was giving an exam, Carter and I had chicken wings from the Hangar while watching TV and drinking soda. Anarchy!

Wednesday, 10/3/18

 Classic Lace meal, circa 1986? If anyone came to our house for dinner anytime in the late 80's you would probably get rice pilaf (that I had to call my mom for the recipe for every time), broccoli and chicken piccata. I kow know how to make the rice, and it was chicken francese this time, but other than that...
I still like this meal, and so did Carter and Jason.
I also messed around with a recipe for candy corn popcorn. I had tried some from Trader Joe's and it was so good that I hoped it was reproducible. The recipe I found isn't quite that good, but it was tasty enough, quick and cheap. Just candy corn, melted with a little brown sugar and butter, tossed with popcorn. It certainly looks festive:

Tuesday, 10/2/18

Jason night: burgers and sweet potato fries. Turns out everyone here loves burgers but not so much sweet potato fries. At least not these ones from Aldi, baked. I prefer the kind with the spicy coating so I guess we are back to tater tots.

Monday, 10/1/18

Hits and misses....I made a batch of chili that turned out fine (I never knew that Jason's family never ate chili when he was growing up. I wonder why not?), Jason made a very nice loaf of bread with sesame seeds (that we ate with avoocado), and roasted acorn squash. I was in a hurry, so the squash wasn't as done as I would have liked. But, thanks to the butter and maple syrup, Carter actually liked it. Squash season is much less fun than zucchini season.

Sunday, 9/30/18

Simple dinner: ravioli (not homemade) with tomato sauce, sauteed spinach. I felt like it wasn't my best sauce and I'm not sure why. Too thick, and too much basil? Anyway, we all like ravioli. I remember when I was a kid,  it could be hard to find frozen ravioli in the grocery store. Hard to imagine it as an exotic item.

Saturday, 9/29/18

Dinner with Jennie and David. Jason's bread this week featured cheese and black pepper; I thought it was great. I made a lemon meringue pie, using a recipe from Martha Stewart. Very easy and good! Everyone seemed to really like it. The only trouble I had was rolling out the pie crust, but that is typical.

Friday, 9/28/18

A co-worker retired, so Jason and I went to her party at the High Horse. Nachos and a cocktail for dinner. I don't recommend it. Carter stayed home and had a frozen pizza (well, we cooked it, of course).

Thursday, 9/27/18

Some leftovers (macaroni and cheese), plus some Aldi sausage (maple-bourbon; I didn't like it, but luckily Jason did) and some sauteed cabbage. Nothing exciting.

Wednesday, 9/26/18

I had been wanting to make macaroni and cheese, and was casting about for a new version. Found one at Serious Eats that is pretty straightforward, but unbelievably cheesy. I didn't even use all the cheese the recipe called for (I ran out!) and it was so rich. I liked it (especially picking crusty end bits right from the pan), but wish I had had sharper cheddar. At least the mildness meant that Carter liked it. We also had some roasted squash (maybe buttercup? It looked a little like oversized acorn squash, but the end product was a little drier) and then I had to take a brisk walk.

Tuesday, 9/25/18

Jason night, but it was NOT pizza! Instead we had cheeseburgers and tater tots (another Jason classic). I made a salad because lord knows no one else would. I must admit that the cheeseburgers were great (even though, or perhaps because, he used up my good cheddar).

Monday, 9/24/18

This was a night for powering through some farm share vegetables. So I roasted new potatoes (with cayenne and paprika), made a salad, and also roasted some delicata squash (sliced and tossed with oil, maple syrup and sriracha). Plus we had grilled chicken that I sort of brined/marinated (brinated?) with more sriracha and lemon. Fine if not super exciting.

Sunday,9/23/18

I peeked into a new cookbook at work (Now & Again, by Julia Turshen) and was intrigued by a recipe for eggplant with pork and ginger. Very simple: roasted eggplant cubes, tossed into ground pork sauteed with ginger and soy sauce. I threw in some garlic and scallions as well, and served it all over noodles. This was easy and delicious, although it prompted Carter to say that he doesn't like eggplant. Oh well.

Saturday, 9/22/18

Dinner with Jennie and David. Onion bread from Jason, white cake with white frosting from me. Used a white cake recipe from King Arthur flour that I would call basically successful. still just a little dense. I used my same old cooked flour frosting and felt that both could have used a little more flavor. Bump up the almond extract, perhaps. Of use Jason's idea of a jam layer in the middle (although in this case, I just made a sheet cake. A very. ugly. sheetcake).

This is why I don't work in a bakery

Friday, 9/21/18

Corrina came over for dinner, which was nice. We had ricotta gnocchi, with Marcella Hazan's tomato sauce, plus a new recipe for zucchini fritters. A real keeper! They benefited from lots of cheddar cheese, and were oven baked, which was a real plus (I will NOT be bothering to fry them ever again). The first batch browned a little too much, but I was impressed with their crispiness. Actually better than pan frying. The gnocchi could have used a bit more flour, but tasted good.
Dessert was a pint of Ben & Jerry's that I am ashamed to say we demolished. I wish I could blame Corrina, but she only had a bite or two....

Thursday, 9/20/18

I had planned to make a kidney bean curry from Made In India, but realized I only had one can of kidney beans. oops. So instead it was chana masala, which turned out very well. I pureed the tomatoes (instead of just crushing them), so the texture was a little thicker, and substituted pakora masala for the garam masala. Throw in some peas, serve over rice, and done.

Wednesday, 9/19/18

I made a lovely looking batch of deviled eggs (thanks to my new pastry tip and eggs from my friend Jill), Jason made a loaf of bread---- all we needed was cheese, butter, some overly spicy pickles I made, and a plate of tomatoes. I am going to miss all these beautiful tomatoes when the farm share is over.

Tuesday, 9/18/18

It was Jason night, so do I even have to mention that is was pizza? Again? Two with provolone, mushrooms, hot peppers and pepperoni, one plain cheese for Carter. Good, but I still think they could be thinner. And this time he erred on the side of undercooked (perhaps deliberately, since His Carterness complains bitterly about burnt spots). After dinner I made a batch of flapjacks, a British oat cookie bar. I have made these before, from a Bon Appetit recipe, but when I saw that Smitten Kitchen had a recipe up and that it called for only Golden Syrup, oats, brown sugar and butter, I decided to try her version. Maple syrup stood in nicely for the Golden Syrup, and since I had only old fashioned oats (not the quick that the recipe calls for) I threw them in the food processor for a moment as per the recipe suggestion. They came out a little too well; I couldn't stop stealing pieces from the pan.

Monday, 9/17/18

Good old fashioned American style tacos and burritos. Refried beans, hamburger, guacamole, cheese, etc. This is good to serve to your son when he has gamely eaten Korean tofu tacos.

Sunday, 9/16/18

A weird potpourri of leftovers: some noodles, topped with the chicken mixture; sauteed Swiss chard that had been languishing for a week in the crisper. Plus everyone had a slice of pizza. But mission accomplished! No more leftovers to speak of----just lots and lots of condiments.

Saturday, 9/15/18

Dinner with Jennie and David. Jason made bread (onion), and I made a chocolate pudding from a cookbook I brought home called "Baked Elements". The pudding was very chocolaty and flavored with bourbon, and it had a layer of spiced graham crackers and was supposed to be finished with a toasted marshmallow topping, but I was feeling uncharacteristically lazy (and pressed for time) and just made a bourbon laced whipped cream instead. This was perhaps the most intense chocolate pudding I have ever made. Almost too much; I think the chocolate in the recipe could be cut back a couple of ounces. And more graham crackers could be nice AND I would like to try the marshmallow next time. Also (rambling), it was very easy to make---just mix and heat everything. No tempering the egg yolks or anything.

Friday, 9/14/18

Jason was longing to make Yorkshire pudding again, so we planned a meal around that. I made, essentially, Chicken A la King (with mushrooms, leeks and broccoli). Secretly I am always wanting to eat chicken in a creamy sauce. I only hold back for the sake of the rest of the family. We also had a tomato-mozzarella salad (since the days for that are numbered) and of course the Yorkshire pudding. Dessert was a sour cream pound cake that I made from Serious Eats. Very good even if I did slightly overcook it. I like it plain, but a rum or lemon glaze would really put it over the top. Maybe I should channel Jason and just keep making them.

Thursday, 9/13/18

Leftovers (which means pizza). That is all.

Wednesday, 9/12/18

A new recipe from Serious Eats, Korean inspired crispy tofu tacos. When I looked at this recipe, I couldn't remember why I had saved it. It didn't actually sound that appealing; probably the words "crispy tofu" lured me. Anyway, it was cabbage and carrots, tossed with lemon, plus quick pickled cucumbers with sugar and rice vinegar, then crumpled tofu, sauteed with ginger and garlic. The tofu was then seasoned with brown sugar, soy sauce and gochujang. It was delicious! Surprisingly so. I was worried that Carter wouldn't like it, but he ate two, so success.

And it was pretty

Tuesday, 9/11/18

Jason night. He is still working on pizza on the grill. One with pepperoni, one with eggplant, peppers and onions. They came out really well, but Carter and I thought they were a little too thick. Jason says he will work on in. Expect more pizza soon, since when he is in this mindset he can't let go.

Monday, 9/10/18

We had waffles, sausage and watermelon for dinner. I use a yeasted waffle recipe from SK that I let sit and brood all day. They are thin, crispy and a little tangy, but it feels like a decadent dinner. I didn't like the breakfast sausage, but no one else complained.

Sunday, 9/9/18

A co-worker has been recommending another recipe from one of my favorite cookbooks (Cravings), drunken noodles, so I gave it a shot. Only a couple of little changes: I used pork instead of chicken (and wouldn't next time), and hoisin instead of oyster sauce (because I didn't have any), and wheat noodles instead of rice (just because I screwed up). OK, that sounds like a lot of changes. It is very tasty: sweet and salty, and the wide fresh noodles were pleasantly slippery. We all liked it and I would make it again (but using less chicken stock, which was also my mistake because i just wanted to use up an awkward amount I had in the fridge).

Saturday, 9/8/18

Dinner with Jennie and David. Jason made bread, and I made an angel food cake, with caramel whipped cream on the side, using up a bunch of egg whites and some leftover caramel in one fell swoop. Sadly, there was no leftover cake, but those egg whiles build up pretty quickly.

Friday, 9/7/18

I had only a vague plan, to do something Indian inspired with chickpeas. I completely forgot to soak the chickpeas, however. Luckily we have plenty of cans. So I made chickpea korma, plus a cauliflower dish from Made in India (roasted with cumin seed, cayenne and turmeric, then tossed with lemon juice. Very nice, but the recipe called for blanching the cauliflower, which I overdid a bit. I would skip it altogether) and rice. Jason and I liked it a lot, but Carter prefers the chicken version. Fair enough (but this is easier and cheaper!)

Thursday, 9/6/18

Jason made us a loaf of bread, and I made an ersatz shakshuka, to use up some eggs and a glut of cherry tomatoes.  I sauteed them, along with some onions, garlic, and the leftover grilled vegetables from Wednesday. Carter was only meh on the vegetables, but even he liked dipping the bread into the sauce. My only regret was that I didn't have any feta to add.

Wednesday, 9/5/17

Grilled chicken breast that I had marinated/brined before going to work (with garlic, sambal oelek and lemon), grilled vegetables (zucchini, onions, peppers) and an attempt at cacio e pepe. Well, the chicken was good---flavorful and not dry, the vegetables were nice (I dressed them with garlic, olive oil and red wine vinegar), but the pasta....It wasn't my first stab at cacio e pepe, and if memory serves, the last time had the same result: clumpy, stringy bits of cheese that in no way resembled a sauce. I thought that if anyone could make it work for me, it was Smitten Kitchen! I will have to assume that it was my technique. I was so mad I threw a towel on the floor. I want to try again, but used up all the parmesan. Oh well, it didn't taste too bad.

Tuesday, 9/4/18

Jason night: cheeseburgers with tater tots (OK, actually little tater crowns. even crunchier!). Plus I quickly threw together another tomato-mozzarella salad. Strike while the iron is hot.The new version of burgers is a big hit.

Monday, 9/3/18

We had a big lunch in Whately, so dinner was just bread, cheese, and a tomato mozzarella salad. I don't think the refrigerator will ever be even partly empty.

Sunday, 9/2/18

Leftovers again. That was a lot of pizza for three people.

Saturday. 9/1/18

Dinner with Jennie and David: Jason made raisin/walnut bread (I basically forced him to, but it was excellent and everyone liked it), and I made an old standby, chocolate cream pie from Cook's Illustrated. It came out perfect, if I do say so myself. I don't deviate from the recipe one bit.

The sprinkles are my own touch

Friday, 8/31/18

Jason made us 3 pizzas---he was in a an experimental frame of mind. One had stuffed crust (nice, but it certainly didn't look like a Pizza Hut pizza. Probably just as well), one had leftover fried eggplant and red peppers (my favorite), and one had just cheese, but he tried cooking it on the grill. Mixed success: the dough stuck as he was putting it one the grill, so it was wonky looking and uneven, but it did end up with a nice crust. He is determined to try again, but he'll have to wait since there is even MORE food in the fridge now.
Also, we had  a salad.

Thursday, 8/30/18

We had to eat leftovers. Barely made a dent.

Wednesday, 8/29/18

Biggest, most ridiculous dinner ever (on top of a day that already featured a giant Frappucino, a penuche sundae and chiles rellenos): fried mozzarella, a loaf of Jason bread with two kinds of fancy cheese AND fancy butter, a plate of fresh tomatoes, eggplant parmesan and vanilla ice cream with salted caramel sauce. Plus Corrina brought a bottle of prosecco. This was all very decadent and very HOT. All that frying had me sweating like crazy and had Jason hot and cranky. We could easily cut out one or more elements of the meal, but it was fun and delicious. Certainly had the Carter seal of approval!

Speaking of Carter, happy first day of high
school!

Tuesday, 8/28/18

Scrambled eggs, tossed salad, homefries. We put some leftover gravy and cheese curds on the potatoes, for a poutine-like vibe. Tried and failed to use up salsa verde and gravy.

Monday, 8/27/18

Our farm share had chinese eggplant this week, so I decided to try and recreate tofu and eggplant, one of my favorite dishes from Chinese restaurants. Unfortunately, this meant a lot of frying over a hot wok. The end result was good, but not awesome, plus I had to take a shower after all that frying.

Sunday, 8/26/18

Dinner at Jen and John's. Carter whipped up the Blue Apron meal (burgers with gouda and quick pickled radishes, plus sweet potato fries; delicious), Jason made a loaf of bread and some chocolate chip cookies, and Jen made a tomato-mozzarella salad.

Saturday, 8/25/18

We had a late and large lunch at Priya and then checked into the new hotel nearby that I have been curious about. Jason and I didn't need dinner, but Carter got hungry again so he and I went to the nearby McDonald's for a burger and fries. I just ate some leftover cake in bed.

Friday, 8/24/18

Dinner with Jennie and David; Jason made a truly beautiful loaf of olive bread. Over the summer he has been making his bread all in one day (instead of overnight) since it is so hot. This one was perfectly  domed and pretty. My picture doesn't really show it:

I made a spice cake from Food52 that I made a few years ago. As I was eating it, I realized that the "caramel" icing is the same as the penuche icing from my favorite banana cake. The cake itself is a little dense, but I sort of love it.

Thursday, 8/23/18

Leftovers, mostly spaghetti and meatballs. How quickly I managed to fill up the fridge again!

Wednesday, 8/22/18

Dinner in Whately, and what a dinner: ribs, chicken, salad, macaroni and cheese, and a loaf of Jason bread. We brought pizzelles (the recipe from the maker, to which I added some spices), plus creme caramel (from Classic Home Desserts). Only OK, I thought. Maybe I am just won over to flan now.

Tuesday, 8/21/18

Jason was inspired by Montreal bagels, both eating them and watching them being made. So he made a batch today, very successfully! I made some gazpacho to go with it. It was fine, but I have never really loved cold soup. I was there for the bagels, especially just plain. The recipe traditionally does not call for salt, but I am glad Jason added some.

Their odd shapes are part of their charm

Monday, 8/20/18

Spaghetti with meatballs and tomato sauce, a favorite for Carter and me. I decided while I was at work that I would also make "zucchini-parmesan" crisps to go with it (from SK). This ended up being more of a production than I had planned on. So much dredging! I kind of rushed through it, so all the zucchini slices weren't as coated as I would have liked. Also, I think it would have helped to grind up the panko bread crumbs a little. They were a success, though: a little bit like tiny eggplant parms that you didn't have to fry (the oven baking worked surprisingly well).

Sunday, 8/19/18

I was planning to make chicken korma, but a giant batch of salsa verde that I made (and didn't love) was glaring at me from the fridge. So I marinated the chicken in that, and grilled it along with skewered onion, cherry tomatoes and red pepper. Unfortunately, it wasn't a great marinade, because I thought the chicken was a little dry. We also had corn-off-the-cob and Jason made us some pita bread. Pretty good summer meal. I love grilled cherry tomatoes for their concentrated juiciness.

Saturday, 8/18/18

Jason made us a delicious loaf of cheddar/black pepper bread. You can't imagine how good it smells right out of the oven. To go with it we had a tomato-mozzarella salad, AKA one of my most favorite foods. The only thing lacking was corn.

Friday, 8/17/18

We tried our hand at making poutine, since we had brought back some cheese curds from Canada.  The good news: the fries and gravy were excellent. The not so good:  after riding around the Northeast with us for about a week, the curds were not so fresh and squeaky, just sort of meh. Jason doesn't believe me, but when it comes to curds, freshness is all. Oh well, still pretty good. Plus another beautiful Farm Share salad.

Thursday, 8/16/18

Home! Stopped for lunch (and 50 lb bag of bread flour) at King Arthur:

Carter samples a sugar cookie

Jason made us buy a frozen pizza before we left, so we had that. I was only there for the salad, though:

We were starting to worry about getting scurvy

It was a lot of fun, and we ate a lot of cool things, but of course it is good to be home, where we don't have to pack up all our worldly goods every day or two. Carter and I loved our lobster roll (Jason couldn't get past the price tag), we all love poutine, and Jason enjoyed the variety (especially at the Adonis Market).

How we all felt

Wednesday, 8/15/18

Made it to our last stop, Jason's aunt and uncle's house in Thetford, VT. They kindly put us up for the night, AND provided a nice, home cooked meal of pesto and gazpacho. It felt so wholesome after a week of donuts, poutine and chips.

Tuesday, 8/14/18

Giant breakfast at the hotel, and then we took a ferry across Lake Champlain to Burlington. Our Airbnb host kindly let us check in early, so we situated Carter with a snack and the internet and Jason I explored town a bit. We had dinner at a Vietnamese restaurant nearby (Pho Hong). I had pho, Carter had a fried rice dish, and Jason had some amazing dish with rice noodles, pork, and chopped up fried spring rolls. All delicious.

I don't know what this was called, and it's a terrible picture, but was so good.

Monday, 8/13/18

Headed out of Canada, but not wothout a stop at Tim Horton's. I was dubious, but their donuts really are very good. Made good time to our next destination  (beautiful Plattsburgh, NY), only to discover that the frisbee golf outing I had planned had to be scrapped because of excessive poison ivy. So we strolled around town a bit, and Carter and I shared a slice of pizza. Managed to get an early check in at the hotel. For a Comfort Inn, it is quite sprawling: the pool is more like a tiny theme park, with splashy areas and two surprisingly fast/fun waterslides. Then Jason and I ditched Carter in the room and went to the brewery on the premises (we had a coupon for a free drink) and sat at the bar and had a couple of beers. How grown up! Turns out I like Scotch ale:

Then we scooped up Carter and played a round of glow-in-the-dark minigolf (also in the hotel, along with bumper cars, a huge arcade, the aforementioned brewpub and a giant, full service gym). Dinner was bread and cheese, chips and salsa, and some cookies.  Trying to empty the giant cooler we have been lugging everywhere.

Sunday, 8/12/18

Walked ALL over Montreal, at least as much as you can see in 5 hours or so. Picked up bagels at a place called St. Viateur, an old school place known for their Montreal style bagels. The we stopped in at a place called Poutineville for (what else?) more poutine. Predictably tasty. Montreal is a much bigger city than I expected (of course, I didn't really do any research, so everything was a surprise to me). For dinner we had the bagels, plus leftover cheese and whatnot from the cool market around the corner. The only disappointment was their baklava, which was only meh. Carter does not love Montreal, or the apartment (well situated, bright and airy as promised, but a little run down) so it is just as well that it is a short stay. As in QC, there is lots of cool public art, though:

Hello, Leonard!

Saturday, 8/11/18

Headed out of QC to go see a waterfall Jason had read about. Carter was peeved that we didn't let him zipline across, but we had fun hiking and exploring.

Montmorency Falls

Then we stopped into a nearby Tim Horton's for donuts and coffee. I thought it would be just like Dunkin Donuts but they were far superior. My favorite was the Ancienne (old fashioned glazed).

Then off to Montreal. We stopped at a mall to look for a shirt for Carter and instead ended up having a snack. Yes, more poutine

Carter is now a true convert.

Finally made it to the new place, ensconced Carter with the internet, and Jason and I set out to explore to neighborhood and find dinner. Turns out it is a very cool location, with tons of Chinese, Korean, Japanese and Indian restaurants. We were totally overwhelmed until we wandered into store called Adonis. We had spotted a couple of these, but had no idea what they were. Turns out is a grocery store chain that specializes in Middle Eastern foods, both pre-made and tons of amazing ingredients. I was in heaven. Picked up some schwarma for Jason, an eggplant salad, pita, string cheese, sushi for Carter, and I really want to go back for some desserts. So much feta!

Friday, 8/10/18

We made Carter walk all over Quebec City today. Covered a lot of neighborhoods. We stopped and poutine for lunch again at the local spot (Top O Frites). I had an amazing caramel sundae from a place called  Chocolato. I tried and failed to take a picture, but it has all kinds of delicious caramel toppings on vanilla soft serve.
For dinner we picked up some very subpar falafel (but the tabbouleh was good). And then Jason impulsively (I know!) ran out for more poutine. This one had hamburger gravy, onions, hot peppers and little sausages. It was excellent.

St. Lawrence River from the Old Town

Thursday, 8/9/18

More of the same for dinner (surprise, surprise). Crackers instead of bread, grapes instead of pineapple.
Bur we did have poutine for lunch, which was awesome. I don't think Carter enjoyed it quite as much as he thought he would, but Jason and I thought it was delicious.

Top O Frites

Wednesday, 8/8/18

For our first night in Quebec City, we did try to eat out, but failed. So we stopped at a little market and picked up bread, cheese, pineapple, beer (and a root beer for Carter) sausage, and an exotic Canadian candy bar (basically a maple Snickers). Dinner in the apartment, which the boys prefer anyway. Carter particularly loved one of the cheeses, called La Madelaine. It was very creamy, akin to a mild brie.
The apartment is spacious and pretty, with an easy walk to shops and whatnot, but very warm.

Tuesday, 8/7/18

Busy day in Bar Harbor! Hiking and sightseeing in Acadia Park, mini golf (!) and for lunch, Carter's first lobster roll!

He LOVED it

We were tired after all that and just had a reprise of last night's dinner.

Monday, 8/6/18

Thanks to me, we took the long way from Portland to Bar Harbor. I wanted to see some seaside rock formations called the Giant Steps...didn't realize just how out of the way they were. Oh well. So we just made sandwiches, chips and pickles in the room. 

Luckily, motel #2 was a winner.

Sunday, 8/5/2108

Well, I screwed up our lunch order at Wayback Burgers so that we basically had almost twice as much hamburger as we meant to have. As a result, no one was really hungry for the rest of the day. So that meant that we didn't go out for the pizza I had planned on, or stop at Red's Dairy Barn for soft serve. Carter and I just ate some chips in the hotel. Lame.
But we did see this and it was the highlight of the day:

Saturday, 8/3/18

I made a zucchini gratin, trying to use up the zucchini, and then realized that it would create its own leftovers.....Oh well. It was still good (from Ina Garten. And no wonder it was good---I was out of milk and used cream + half and half instead. I also grate the zucchini instead of slicing it). Plus odd bits of cheese, bread and another salad.

Friday, 8/2/18

Jason made us another loaf of that delicious raisin/walnut bread, and we also had scrambled eggs and a salad. Oh, and some corn that I just cut off the cob and microwaved. It was so sweet that it was almost cloying. Still a lot of vegetables to use up before vacation.

Thursday, 8/1/18

Leftovers again.

Wednesday, 8/1/18

The first night of what will be several days of leftovers, preparing to clean out the fridge before our vacation. Instead, here is Carter inspecting some art:

Tuesday, 7/31/18

Lentils and rice, plus Jason made us some very delicious paratha (from Serious Eats). The lentils just had carrots, lots of ginger, garlic, tomatoes, and, as an afterthought, some heavy cream to smooth it all out. Oh, and then a spoonful of sambal oelek to liven it up. Good, but late (post SULA) dinner.

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.