Saturday, 12/28/19

Dinner with Jennie and David. Bread, plus I made an apple cake from King Arthur flour. It has a penuche frosting that reminds me of the one from my favorite banana cake. I think everyone liked it; I would almost consider increasing the recipe to make a taller cake, with a better ration of icing.

Friday, 12/27/19

I just didn't feel like making dinner, so we just ate leftovers from Christmas. It was fine. At least Carter and I had a fun trip to Northampton, with Bombay Royale for lunch.

Plus a trip to Starbucks

Thursday, 12/26/19

Donna & Walter and Dave &  Marge came up for the day. I had to work, but we went over for dinner (snacks and pizza). Still eating all those cookies and shrimp and whatnot.

Wednesday, 12/25/19

Christmas! The usual suspects: cheese & crackers, little hotdogs, meatballs, cookies, chips & dip, shrimp cocktail....It was a pleasant get-together, if a little short. Nice to see Maggie and her family (especially since there will be a new Dowd this summer!!).

 No dinner, just snacking.

Tuesday, 12/24/19

Trying out a new tradition---Dad, Zac, Corrina, Carter, Jason and I went to Goten for dinner. A ot of other people apparently had the same idea, so I was glad I made reservations. It was fun and good! The only downside is that long tables (and half of us being old and hard of hearing) make conversation difficult. Corrina and I even tried pretty drinks. Merry Christmas to us!

Monday, 12/23/19

Still have a cold, still no dinner plan....I found some empanadas in the freezer and four lonely sweet potatoes in the drawer, and threw together a little sauce with garlic, sour cream and cilantro. Voila! Empanadas and roasted sweet potatoes for dinner. Not bad, considering.

Sunday, 12/22/19

I am in the throes of a cold and just really didn't plan anything for the week, so Jason made us a couple of pizzas. He always tries to put on too many toppings, but they were delicious nevertheless.

Saturday, 12/21/19

Busy day!  Crap day in the morning, Jennie and David in the evening. Plus I have a cold and have basically lost my voice.  It was basically all cookies (I made cinnamon swirl cookies, minus the frosting), although Corrina and I made a giant batch of only somewhat successful Chex Mix.  It could have baked longer, but we were running out of time. We should also have used more butter and spices. Still pretty good but we can do better!
So Jason brought bread and we brought the cookies to Jennie and David's. There were some tasty ones! Carter was glad to see the return of the chocolate peppermint thumbprints.

Friday, 12/20/19

They had these smallish hams at Aldi a couple of weeks ago, so we decided to try our hand at ham (I never cooked one before). Well obviously it turns out to be the easiest thing ever. I wasn't looking forward to it, but this was quite good! Sometimes ham feels gross and bouncy to me, but this had a nice texture and flavor. We had oven roasted potatoes (I really wanted scalloped, but Jason asked for roasted. Oh well)  and sauteed zucchini with it. If I see another one of those little guys, I am going to buy it.

Thursday, 12/19/19

Free lunch day at Umass! So Jason and I weren't hungry, anyway. Plus I had a get-together in North Amherst, so I snacked there. Carter apparently had mac & cheese and Jason hasdcheese puffs. At least I ate some kale salad! I brought maple-nutmeg cookies (from SK) but there were a lot left over. Women.

Wednesday, 12/18/19

As I was putting dinner together, I happened to look through the blog to see if I had made any notes the last time I made this pasta. Ominously, it mentioned that Carter hated it. Oops.
Anyway, I made pasta with sweet potatoes, spinach, sauteed onions, goat cheese and brown butter. Carter sat down and told me it smelled putrid, so that didn't bode well. But he ate it and said "it wasn't the worst", so I guess that's good enough. I liked it, though! Jason added a little Frank's Red Hot to his and that was a good idea----the vinegary spice cuts through the richness.

Tuesday, 12/1719

Jason night, so no surprises: hamburgers and tater tots. He is still experimenting with cooking burgers in the Instant Pot for some reason, but at least this batch was pretty good. I made a bowl of green beans with butter, garlic and soy sauce to go with it.

Monday, 12/16/19

Just nachos. Not even fancy ones. Sad.

Sunday, 12/15/19

Unusual Sunday night dinner with Jennie and David. Bread (of course), and I made a pie from the latest Cook's Illustrated book (The Perfect Pie). Eggnog pie was so good! The whipped cream was also interesting, since it had brown sugar, sour cream and bourbon. I will definitely male this pie again---the only fault was my own, in that I didn't blind bake the crust quite long enough. But everyone really liked it. I can't resist a cream pie.

Bad lighting

Saturday, 12/14/19

we had a late-ish lunch with my dad at Wildwood BBQ. Really good! We have talked about trying it for a while, and we all agreed we would definitely return (although perhaps in warmer weather as it was a little chilly in there). Jason and I split a combo plate with pulled pork, brisket, black beans, pickles and macaroni and cheese. The meats were excellent.

Dinner at Jen and John's: Jason made bread, I made a lemon layer cake since it is John's favorite and his birthday just passed. Used a box white cake, lemon curd (from Sally's; the best part but could have been firmer---the layers slid around a bit), and cooked flour frosting from Serious Eats that I added a little lemon extract to. Overall it was fine, but Carter thought my sprinkles looked tacky. He is wrong.
Dinner was two Blue Aprons---yet another (spicy!) shakshuka, and chicken in a mustardy sauce with collard greens and rice. Carter couldn't handle the shakshuka and scrambled himself a couple of eggs.

Friday, 12/13/19

I wanted to make Korean fire chicken, but Jason whined that I had promised at some point to make Popeye's style fried chicken, so I (not gracefully) made that instead. I also cooked up some broccoli and made a batch of biscuits (from Sally's Baking Addiction). I forgot the folding step and they were still great. Maybe because she uses so much baking powder? For dessert I made a batch of Instant Pot. rice pudding that I adapted from a Melissa Clark recipe:

• 2/3 cup Arborio or other short-grain white rice
• 3 cups whole milk
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest
• Pinch of kosher salt
• 1/2 vanilla bean, halved lengthwise
• 3/4 cup heavy cream
• 2 egg yolks
• 1/2 cup raisins (optional)
• Ground cinnamon, for serving (optional)
• Whipped cream, for serving (optional)

Directions

1. In the pressure cooker pot, stir together the rice, milk, sugar, cinnamon stick, lemon zest, and salt. Use the tip of a paring knife to scrape the vanilla seeds out of the pod into the pot and add the vanilla bean, too.

2. Lock the lid into place and cook on high pressure for 4 minutes. Let the pressure release naturally for 10 minutes, then manually release the remaining pressure.

3. Remove and discard the cinnamon stick and vanilla bean.

4. In a small bowl, whisk together the cream and yolks. Whisk into the rice, continuing to stir until thickened, 2 to 4 minutes. The residual heat of the rice will cook the yolks. Stir in the raisins (if using).

5. Spoon the pudding into serving bowls, then cover with plastic wrap and chill for at least 4 hours. The pudding will thicken as it cools. Serve with a sprinkle of ground cinnamon and whipped cream, if desired.

I doubled it (messy), omitted the lemon, cinnamon stick and vanilla bean, and dialed back the egg yolks and cream slightly. Really good.

Thursday, 12/12/19

The last of the turkey went into fried rice, with peas, broccoli and usual stuff. Also finished up the Aldi mini wontons. Why are they so good? Is it their diminutive size? I bought another bag, in case it is just one of their passing fancies.

Wednesday, 12/11/19

Time to get serious with those leftovers. Turkey noodle soup (really delicious, if I do say so myself), plus leftover pita and hummus, green beans and squash. Almost there!

Tuesday, 12/10/19

Jason made a batch of pita bread during the day, so I came home and made hummus and deviled eggs. Also had some leftover butternut squash. The leftovers are still lurking.

Monday, 12/9/19

It was time to face the music, leftover-wise. So we just had Thanksgiving all over again. Still pretty darn good.

Sunday, 12/8/19

Hot Chocolate Run!Corrina and Zac ran, but the boys and I volunteered. It was so, so cold, but fun. Some of us went to lunch at the Northampton Brewery after; Corrina and I split nachos and chicken tenders (and ordered the same kind of hard ginger cider. So embarrassing). Spent a quiet evening at home warming up and eating the leftover nachos.

Saturday, 12/7/19

Lunch in Whately: I made 3 kinds of cookies: peanut butter with chocolate chips (SK), rum-glazed gingerbread tiles (from Sweet---I saved the recipe in the NYT app), and coconut meringues (from The Craft of Baking). Carter liked the gingerbread but requests more w/o the glaze. The meringue was slightly overbaked but pretty good. Jason made a loaf of bread, and I put together a Blue Apron with roasted carrots and brussels sprouts, sauteed chicken breasts with a tamarind-soy glaze, and rice. Really liked the glaze.

A study in brown

Dinner was at Jennie and David's---we brought more bread and more of the cookies. Jason thought it was too many cookies but sometimes I just need to bake! Besides, as Corrina and I noted, you can eat more of them when there is a variety.

Friday, 12/6/19

Home Thanksgiving!

-Turkey (dry-brined recipe from SK. Turned out nice and moist)
-Butternut squash (sauteed with red onions, sraracha, maple, and black pepper
-Green bean casserole (recipe right from the can of fried onions)
-Mashed potatoes (Success! I slowly added hot milk, and used my electric mixer. The closest I have come to recreating my mom's)
-Stuffing (I used Jason's Bubbe's recipe, at his request. Left out water chestnuts, prunes and apricots as we didn't have any, but did put in diced prunes. Jason and Carter liked it)
-Dinner rolls (Jason made them from a Cook's Illustrated recipe. Awesome.)
-Gravy (Come on, that and the rolls were really my whole motivation. Used pan drippings and some Trader Joe's turkey broth. )
-Cranberry jelly right from the can, at Carter's request
-Pecan pie (also SK. I didn't love it on day one, but I was awfully full. Liked it better on day 2)

Overall, success! Carter requested more traditional sweet potatoes next time, but overall very delicious.

Here is a bad picture:

A lot of food for 3 people

Thursday, 12/5/19

Used leftover meatballs and tomato sauce to make meatball grinders for dinner. Served with some leftover zucchini crisps and some potato chips. A little soggy (the grinders, not the chips), but good.

Wednesday, 12/4/19

Sushi bowl! I just used regular rice (I'm out of sushi rice) but did mix it with the rice vinegar and sugar. Topped with avocado, cucumber, seared tuna, furikaki, and toasted nori. So good! I also picked up some pork wontons from Aldi that were surprisingly delicious (actually, probably better than the dumplings we make). They were on the small size, which made them easy for cooking and popping in your mouth. Might have to stock up on those. Served with a simple soy sauce/ginger/garlic dipping sauce. Popular dinner.

Monday, 12/2/19

Snow day! So naturally I baked up a couple of chocolate babkas (from Smitten). Once again I forgot that she recommends starting the dough the night before, but since I had all day to mess with it, it worked out fine. For dinner I made spaghetti and meatballs, plus zucchini-parm crisps (SK again) that I made for the second time even though they are a major pain in the ass. The zucchini is sliced so thin and all that breading....The only positive note is that at least they are oven baked and not fried.

This may have been the only day all year that I didn't leave the house at all!

Beautiful babka!

Sunday, 12/1/19

The first snow of the season! So it was nice to come home to broccoli-cheddar soup that I made in the IP. I sort of followed a recipe from the Times, but streamlined it a bit. Skipped making a roux and it was fine. Jason made us some pita bread, and Carter and I had made a batch of hummus the day before, so that was dinner. I have made better broccoli soup, but there were no complaints.

Saturday, 11/30/19

Beef empanadas (from the NYT) that I really should have started much earlier in the day. Nothing too tricky, but there were cooling steps that I hadn't fully thought through. But they baked up very nicely! Jason really liked them; I thought they could have used a little bit more spice and olives. I also threw a head of cauliflower into the food processor, and sauteed that rubble up with garlic, scallions, spinach, peas, parm and a little cream. Delicious! Better than roasting it, in fact. I'll definitely make cauliflower that way again.

Friday, 11/29/19

Dinner with Jennie and David. They were a bit subdued, having been sick for a couple of weeks. They had ordered a pre-made whole Thanksgiving dinner from UMass, which was actually pretty good. There was even mashed potatoes and gravy for Carter! Jason made bread, and I made pumpkin pie (from David Lebowitz). Early night, which was nice.

Thursday, 11/28/19

Thanksgiving #1 at Jay and Jodi's house. We brought bread and pita (Jason), and a chocolate cream pie from me, via Cook's Illustrated. Still no sign of green bean casserole OR mashed potatoes OR gravy. What is it with these people? Still, it was pretty nice seeing everyone.

Mercer, the cutest cousin

After that, we stopped by Jen and John's for dessert. So, so many pies. I brought  the same chocolate tart (from Craft of Baking) that I made last week and it was fine. There must gave been 7 or 8 pies there.The best one was a chocolate graham cracker number from the Pie Bar.
Then home because I was so tired.

Wednesday, 11/27/19

Michael, Kristen and Mercer came for dinner---Jason made pizzas (including my favorite, salami, pepperoncini and provolone), and I made an angel cake and some caramel sauce (usual SK recipe). I thought angel cake would be nice and light, considering all the pies and Thanksgiving foods coming up. Indeed, we ate it all. Always fun to see Mercer---he is very cute and charming.

Tuesday, 11/26/19

Chicken parmesan, a spinach salad, and garlic bread (bread ends were really accruing in the fridge). Good, if messy.

Monday, 11/25/19

Chili in the IP,  from the Melissa Clark cookbook (Comfort in an Instant). Really basic recipe (I added some carrots, a little cocoa powder and a pinch of cinnamon), but the Instant Pot really did a good job. Jason made us a batch of Jiffy mix cornbread, and I served the chili with some avocado, lime, and spicy cheese from Aldi.

Sunday, 11/24/19

We just had leftover pork, plus zucchini fritters (awesome), with a sour cream-garlic sauce. Jason also made a loaf of bread, and we got to enjoy it still a little warm. Delicious!

Saturday, 11/23/19

Dinner with Jen and John. Laurie wanted to make the dinner (coq au vin), so I made a chocolate dessert at Jen's request. I trotted out an old favorite, chocolate tart (from The Craft of Baking). It's pretty simple: a chocolate sable dough crust and a rich chocolate filling) but people love it. Served with whipped cream and a caramel sauce (from SK). Jason thought the caramel would be extraneous, but he was wrong.

Friday, 11/22/19

I had a giant pork should from BJ's, so I decided to bo ssam it up. Cooked all day long. It was fine, but I am beginning to prefer the slow cooker (or Instant Pot) method, as it is moister. I also tried my hand at making brioche buns to go with it. I used a recipe from King Arthur that had stellar reviews, but mine were only OK. They looked, smelled and tasted good, but the texture wasn't fluffy enough, and they sort of crumbled when exposed to the pork. Oh well. They were were good the next day, toasted with butter.

Thursday, 11/21/19

Crumbled tofu got the Chrissie Teigen treatment; it wasn't quite as tasty as ground pork, but the flavors and textures worked just fine. I added broccoli  (and remembered the mushrooms) and we had it over rice. The endlessly adaptable chicken lettuce cups (that didn't have chicken or lettuce this time ) abide.

Wednesday, 11/20/19

Bread (from Jason) was amassing, so we had grilled cheeses and some leftover black bean soup from the freezer, plus some green beans. Nothing much to be said about that.

Tuesday, 11/19/19

Jason night. No surprises: burgers and acorn squash, both made in the IP. Tater tots (he hasn't figured out to out those in the IP yet. The squash turns out well, but Carter and I are begging for regular old grilled burgers again. These were dry and somewhat unappealing. But he is on a mission!

Monday, 11/18/19

Dinner in Whately: two Blue Aprons, one a baked cod with roasted honeycup squash (loved the squash), the other chicken cutlets and a "Pizzeria style" salad, which just meant it had olives and some oregano in the dressing. A nice concept, but my (similar) chopped salad is more fun. Provolone and pepperoncini make a difference! Jason made some really nice bread, and I duplicated the Smitten oat bars from Friday. A hit.

Sunday, 11/17/19

Another Instant Pot recipe from Melissa Clark. I am beginning to think I don't love this book. This was a curry with potato, peas, and cauliflower. There was nothing wrong with it, is just wasn't exciting. I think a little tamarind chutney would have done wonders (but we are out). Jason made some pita bread to go with it. LOTS of leftovers.

Saturday, 11/16/19

We had no dinner plans, so I convinced Jason (eventually) to go to Priya for lunch. Since lunch was so big, we didn't really have dinner. I had some Flamin' Hot Cheetos and a piece of cake (shameful); I made Carter a grilled cheese and some apples.

Friday, 11/15/19

Dinner with Jen and John: bread from Jason (we turned it into cheese bread), a Blue Apron (roasted chickpeas mixed with zucchini and red peppers, with salmon. The only takeaway idea is roasting the chickpeas----they were my favorite part), and I made gooey oat bars from the second Smitten Kitchen book. This time I put in milk and dark chocolate chunks and mini marshmallows. I think it is safe to say that they were a big hit.

Thursday, 11/14/19

Jason was giving an exam; Carter and I just ate leftovers and looked at our respective screens.

Wednesday, 11/13/19

Another Instant Pot recipe from "Comfort in an Instant". This one was for a pasta alla Amitriciana. It was fine. For many many years I have been trying to recreate the pasta amitriciana I had in Italy, and it has never worked. Maybe I need to buy actual giancule? Or just go back to Sienna? Anyway, this didn't lend itself particularly well to the IP (AND I got another stupid burn alert)but it was OK.

Tuesday, 11/12/19

Pizza from Jason. One with cheese, the other with spinach, onions, pepperoni and feta. A little salty but still good.

Monday, 11/11/19

Since we all had the day off, we had lunch in Whately instead of dinner. We had a Blue Apron Italian wedding soup that was delicious...I want to steal the recipe so here it goes:
10 oz Ground Pork
6 oz Ditali Pasta
6 oz Carrots
2 cloves Garlic
1 bunch Kale
2 Scallions
1 bunch Rosemary
2 Tbsps Chicken Demi-Glace
¼ cup Grated Parmesan Cheese
2 Tbsps Red Wine Vinegar
2 Tbsps Tomato Paste
1 Tbsp Italian Seasoning (Whole Dried Basil, Sage, Oregano, Savory, Rosemary, Thyme & Marjoram)

Mix the rosemary, chopped garlic & sliced scallions

Make the meatballs (pork, cheese S & P), saute them up, saute carrots in the same pot, and garlic and kale. Add the garlic mixture, tomato pasta, stock and water. Add a little vinegar and serve over the ditalini with a little olive oil and parm

I brought some cookies from Bon Appetit that they had the nerve to call Snickerdoodles. Snickerdoodles they were not, but they are tasty. A brown butter/sugar cookie with chopped up Skor bars, rolled in cornflakes and then in cinnamon sugar. A delicious misnomer.

Sunday, 11/10/19

I brought home a new cookbook from Melissa Clark, "Comfort in an Instant". So many things looked good, but my first recipe was a mixed success. Probably not the fault of the recipe---it was a Cuban chicken and rice dish and I probably should have deglazed the bottom better. Got the dreaded burn notice. Bit it still turned out pretty well and I'll be more careful next time. I think the chopped green olives were my (and Jason's) favorite part; otherwise it was a pretty standard mix of chicken thighs, peppers, onions, garlic and tomato paste.

Saturday, 11/9/19

Dinner with Jennie and David. Jason made bread and I made a spice cake from Sally's Baking Addiction, meant to use up all the leftover cream cheese frosting. It did, and was delicious to boot.

We also had brunch in Longmeadow for Florence's birthday. I was asked to made a noodle kugel, so I did. I don't know if I overcooked it or what, but I was not a fan. I don't think Smitten Kitchen was to blame, I think I just don't like sweet kugel.

Friday, 11/8/19

It was a Smitten Kitchen meal. Macaroni and cheese (her interpretation of a Martha Stewart recipe). I used panko instead of chopped up bread, and a wild combination of leftover cheeses, including a block of delicious cheddar with Hatch chiles (from Aldi). Need to get some more of that before they run out.
We also had cauliflower fritters with feta and pomegranate. I added some chopped parsley and cilantro, but otherwise no changes. I love Friday afternoons when I have the time for cooking projects!

Thursday, 11/7/19

Jason night---hamburgers and tots. I like the concept of burgers sort of steamed in the Instant Pot, but mine was a little overdone. It's a work in progress. At least he didn't try cooking the tots in there?
Also a small amount of leftover cabbage, as a nod to vegetables.

Wednesday, 11/6/19

Tried a new tofu dish from Bon Appetit. Shallow fried slices of tofu, then added a sauce with soy, sriracha, honey and rice vinegar to the pan to make a sauce. Then you add a little tahini and some soba noodles and voila. There were also cucumbers quick picked in ginger and vinegar. Plus I  sauteed some cabbage with garlic, ginger, and spicy chili crisp. The tofu turned out nice and crispy---You just dry it off and pan fry it. I think the only thing I would change is rinsing the soba, as it was a bit gloppy. And make even more sauce.

Tuesday, 11/5/19

Dinner in Whately. Two Blue Aprons (one a pasta with sausage and kale, the other spicy burgers with roasted potatoes), both good! Plus my dad had one of his meals (salmon with cold sesame noodles), I brought the leftover pumpkin cake, and Jason made a really good loaf of bread.

Monday, 11/4/19

I somehow forgot to plan anything for dinner. So, I cooked up some white beans  (with garlic and onion) in the Instant Pot, and Jason and I had salads with white beans, tuna, lemon and romaine. Very atypical, but good! We had some leftover bread alongside, and Carter had macaroni and cheese. Although he would have eaten the salad, I think.

Sunday, 11/3/19

I used the Instant Pot in the morning to make pork for carnitas, and we had them with tortillas, lime-y onions, salsa and avocado for dinner. I wish I had had more pork, as there were no leftovers. I also made a little salad with romaine and leftover dressing from the time-consuming green beans.

Saturday, 11/2/19

Dinner with Jen, Gus and Laurie. Jason made bread (he wan't happy with it; he keeps tinkering), and I made a pumpkin cake with brown butter-cream cheese frosting (from Sally's Baking Addiction, a very reliable source). Jen had two Blue Aprons---one a shakshuka repeat, and the other a sauteed cod with squash and cabbage with a kind of cilantro sauce. Not my favorites, but maybe I have just not done a good job cooking them. Perhaps Laurie's bourbon-cider cocktails didn't help?
Anyway, the cake was essentially pumpkin bread with frosting. Nothing wrong with that (and it used the whole can of pumpkin puree; recipes that only use part irritate me) ! I don't normally love cream cheese frosting but it was nice and creamy and not overly tangy. I would make both again, for sure. I have enough leftover frosting to maybe make a spice cake next weekend.

Friday, 11/1/19

    Spent the afternoon tinkering in the kitchen. We had fish cakes (from the NYT). As usual, I didn't feel like boiling a potato so I used potato flakes; plus for once I actually remembered to make the mixture a few hours ahead. I found that it didn't want to cohere as much as I might like, but they still fried up nicely. Served them with sour cream mixed with chipotle and lime. We also had roasted potatoes (from Serious Eats; as I did the last couple of times, I tossed them with olive oil, rosemary and garlic after roasting. Jason loves these). AND I tried to recreate the delicious green beans I had in Chicago at The Girl & the Goat. They weren't quite as good (I should have cooked them in the wok at a higher heat), and it felt like a lot of steps, but they were pretty tasty (they make excellent cold leftovers).
Finally, I threw together flan. Never fails and we ate way too much of it.

Thursday, 10/31/19

Burritos with beef and beans, ostensibly as a favor to Carter. But honestly, it's a meal the whole family can get behind. Nothing fancy.

Wednesday, 10/30/19

Dinner in Whately: two Blue Aprons (a sort of butter chicken with delicata squash and steak with mashed potatoes and roasted carrots. Fine, but the steak was pretty chewy). Jason made bread, and I brought from Gooey Oat Bars  from SK that have also been going into Carter's lunch.

Tuesday, 10/29/19

Jason's turn for dinner. I admit that I wasn't super excited for kielbasa, but I forgot that it was the good kind from the Polish market, so it was better than I expected. Plus acorn squash and a Yorkshire pudding. So, actually pretty good. Sorry to doubt you, Jason.

Monday, 10/28/19

Tomato soup with curry spices and coconut in the IP (about 10 minutes on high pressure), with some wild rice thrown in. Carter didn't adore the wild rice, but I thought it added a pleasant chewiness. Jason made us a nice loaf of bread, and I put out some leftover cooked sweet potato (leftover from making a pie) but didn't eat any because SO BLAND. But the soup was great. Better than stupid old black bean soup.

Sunday, 10/27/19

  Black bean soup in the Instant Pot (fine. I never actually love black bean soup so I am not sure why I continue to make it. It's cheap?). I was really there for the biscuits (from Sally's Baking Addiction). I didn't even have actual buttermilk on hand this time and they were still excellent. I think it is the combination of lots of baking powder and cooking them in a cast iron skillet (that I melt butter in beforehand). Can you just have biscuits for dinner?

Saturday, 10/26/19

Dinner with Jennie and David. Pita from Jason, a substandard sweet potato pie from me. The crust was excellent, but the filling was too dense. I used the Patti LaBelle recipe that I have used successfully a couple of times before, but I think I made a big mistake in letting the sweet potatoes cool overnight before making the filling. It wasn't as smooth or creamy as I would have liked. Oh well.

Friday, 10/25/19

Home and making a proper Lace dinner. Fresh egg noodles (from Serious Eats); I make the dough and Jason rolls it out, so that works out. Plus sauteed chicken breasts with mushrooms and a creamy lemon sauce, and broccoli rabe (for greens and necessary bitterness).  All my favorite stuff, so no wonder I liked it.

Thursday, 10/24/19

Leaving day....never fun. I ran out to a local cafe for coffee and (only decent) croissants, and then steeled myself to take the bus to the train to the plane to the Lyft home. Except for about 45 minute delay (sitting on the tarmac), everything went smoothly. I grabbed an egg/avocado/cheese torta from an airport Frontera which was really quite delicious. Maybe my favorite thing from Rick Bayliss so far, which is somewhat silly.
Then home to leftover pizza and a few chocolates from my precious box of See's Candies. Good to be back.

Wednesday, 10/23/19

Poor Jessica was not feeling well, so we lounged about and ate the rest of the bagels. After a while I left her to her bed, and took a walk around the neighborhood, and picked up a little lunch from a place called Kaathi's which was kind of like an Indian version of Chipotle, on a smaller scale, I had chicken tikka over rice and it was not too bad.
Luckily, we were still able to make our reservation for the Aviary, which I was really looking forward to. It did not disappoint! We had the 3 course cocktail and food pairing. Unfortunately, they don't have their menu online, so I have only vague descriptions. I started with a beautiful drink called I Got 99 Palomas, that had tequila, grapefruit, something lovely and red and little frozen ice ball thingies? That's a terrible description---they were like little slushies in the best way. It was delicious. Then they brought us our snacks: some kind of hush puppies with a whipped manchego (awesome), some colorful vegetable puff things that looked like giant pork rinds, a duck salad with glass noodles, truffled popcorn, tomato and crab tarts, and fried green tomatoes (the only thing we didn't love; the tomato slices were a little too thick). My next drink had two elements: sort of a gin flip, with a side of blueberry soda that could you mix in, or not. I never really did find out what my last drink was----it came in a cool two part glass and tasted very whiskey-y. Jessica's nonalcoholic drinks were very dramatic! One sort of distilled right there at the table (it was a little sweet, with chocolate and banana flavors), one was in their signature round serving glass that you sort of move around to get different flavors, and I don't recall the other one. I wish I had taken a picture of the menu!!! Anyway, it was very fun and made me a little sorry we didn't go to Alinea. Next time.
PS: Stopped at Jeni's ice cream on the way home---brown butter almond and vanilla in a waffle cup. After all, when is the next time I will get to eat Jeni's ice cream?

Tuesday, 10/22/19

We had picked up some bagels and cream cheese from a cute shop nearby (Chicago Bagel Authority) on Monday afternoon, so had breakfast in the apartment. They were nothing special, but sitting overnight probably didn't help. Lunch was at Frontera Grill: guacamole, a tuna ceviche with tomato, jicama, avocado and cilatnro, and more queso fundito. All fine. Why is the queso fundito from La Veracruzana so much better? It must be the variety of cheese they use? Anyway, the tortillas were certainly very good. Jessica had a Caesar salad with skirt steak, and I had chicken mole enchiladas (very dark and intense). This was a good meal, but I guess I was expecting something many steps above my local Mexican restaurants. No real complaints, though.
Dinner was at a place called Boka, which I had heard many good things about. Bonus: it was only a few blocks from the apartment. I started with a very fancy cocktail that I had to google all the ingredients for when I got home, but the upshot was that it tasted like a gin and tonic (Nouvelle Regime tanqueray gin, genmaicha, cocchi americano, dolin blanc, black lime). Jessica's non-alcoholic drink was prettier and tastier. We ordered the tasting menu, and I am not going to be able to remember everything, but I'll do my best. The amuse was a couple of oysters with lemon oil and something else, plus a little sushi shaped thing that had carrot tartare and I don't know what else? But it was delicious. I couldn't really hear everything the staff was saying. Started with "Shima Aji Crudo* • grape, turnip, yuzu, fermented onion" (although mine didn't have the fish for some reason? Jessica kindly shared hers with me). This was extremely delicious and my favorite course, I think. Then came "Shima Aji Crudo* • grape, turnip, yuzu, fermented onion" which was quite nice.  Jessica didn't love the  smoked scallops in "Kabocha Agnolotti • chanterelle, toasted yeast, smoked scallop', but it was nice enough. Then there was lobster sitting in a sea urchin foam. Eh. Then a olive-oil poached cod with I don't even know what. All I know was that this was our third soft creamy dish and I was getting a little bored of it. Then we had duck breast with huckleberries and some little blob of something. I didn't catch what.  Two desserts: a chocolate sorbet over a chocolate mousse with more huckleberries, and "Concord Grape, anise hyssop, yogurt, buckwheat " which was another sorbet, and very lovely.
Overall, we liked it, but we weren't overwhelmed. I think we wish we had ordered off the menu, but oh well.  Still a nice fancy evening.

Monday, 10/21/19

Lazy morning (I actually slept the latest!), and then an early-ish lunch at Little Goat. The highlight were the french fries with hoisin mayo and pickled peppers that I ordered for the table. Celeste had another veggie burger, and Jessica had french toast with fried chicken tenders, fried egg, and strawberries. It was a lot. I had a sandwich with heirloom tomato, cheddar, blueberry jam, bacon gouda bread, pickled fresnos and some shredded cabbage or lettuce, I'm not sure which. Plus bacon.  Also a lot going on but basically I liked it.

We dropped Celeste off at the train station and took a two hour walking tour of "Historic Treasures of Chicago's Golden Age". We saw a lot, but the docent walked super fast, and our feet were killing us by the end. We limped home, picking up some snacks (spicy salt and vinegar chips!) along the way since our dinner reservation wasn't until 9:15.

Dinner was at The Girl and the Goat, so back to Randolph Street...We had:


-sautéed green beans, fish sauce vinaigrette. cashews
-roasted cauliflower, pickled peppers . pine nuts . mint
-seared scallops, sunflower . chili-lime . pistachio
-crispy beef short ribs, salted caramel . pickle relish
-amarillo tasty focaccia. huacatay mayo . tomatillo pico
-pb&j: sponge cake . grape sherbet . peanut butter brittle & fluff
-caramel corn & malt balls: vanilla malt ice cream . popcorn caramel . chocolate magic shell

We once again were seated right at the kitchen counter (which is actually quieter than the main part of the room, so that's nice!), so we got to watch the desserts being made all night. So it is a shame that they were too, too sweet. I finished mine out of politeness, but it was tough! The individual components (especially the little sponge cakes) were good, but maybe too much all together. The green beans were the real highlight, and I also really liked the focaccia. Overall, a fun experience.

roasted cauliflower

pickled peppers . pine nuts . mint

fish sauce vinaigrette . cashew\\

fish sauce vinaigrette . cashew

Sunday, 10/20/19

When we all finally woke up (and had lots of coffee), we walked a few blocks over to a place called The Blue Door Farmstand for breakfast. I was delighted to discover that you could have fried cheese curds! For breakfast! Of course I had to have that, with some fruit salad so I wouldn't feel too bad about my choices. They were delicious, with some pickled peppers and a buttermilk ranch. Jessica had eggs Benedict on a black pepper biscuit, and Celeste had some kind of vegetable burger. My only regret was the $4.50 chai latte.

Breakfast cheese!

Celeste and I took a walk and let Jessica rest a bit before our next outing, another architectural boat tour. It was a bit chilly and foggy, but still beautiful and informative. Even if I hadn't forgotten a lot from last time, different docents give a different spin on things. This one was particularly interesting. No real lunch, but Jessica and I split some very so-so potato pancakes and a genuinely bad chickpea and avocado salad from a little stand on the Riverwalk. I really don't know how someone could make chickpeas, greens and avocado taste blander by adding a olive oil and lemon? Ugh.

By the time the tour was over, it was nearly dinner time, so we walked over to Eataly, browsed around, and had dinner at one of the restaurants there. It turned out to be a pretty good choice. We shared a plate of fresh mozzarella with pistachio pesto, Jessica had lemon-ricotta ravioli with cacio e pepe sauce, Celeste had squash ravioli with lemon and sage, and I had a bucatini with butter, anchovies and garlic breadcrumbs. Jessica and I also split a truly unnecessary order of meatballs. We picked up some sweets to bring home for later, but my little tiramisu was nothing special.

Dinner cheese!

Saturday, 10/19/19

Of course I woke up at 5:30 local time and had to bide my time until Jessica got up. Luckily, the apartment is quite large so I could sit and drink coffee without disturbing her. The Le Pain Quotidien (only a few blocks away!) for breakfast. Fried egg with avocado and crispy shallots was only OK, but the breads and cookie butter were the real point anyway. Then we headed into town to meet Celeste at the train. A place in the neighborhood called Taco Joint for lunch. We shared some excellent guacamole and a queso fundito (too many pepper strips); I had some tortilla soup (good taste; oddly creamy) and a chicken/pineapple taco (excellent!). Jessica also had one of those tacos, and she and Celeste had spicy cauliflower tacos too.

We walked around and explored the neighborhood a bit. I bought some caramel popcorn (when in Chicago....it was from a place called Berco's and it was great. Very buttery).  We took an Uber back into the city for out Pizza Tour. Ugh.....there was some kind of parade happening and we were 45 minutes late!! So stressful. Luckily, the first pizza place (Exchequer) was our least favorite (tavern style thin crust pizza with that cracker-y crust). Celeste and I tossed back our Moscow Mules and off to the next stop. Cafe Serio (in Lakeville) has Neapolitan style (we went there on our last tour) and is was my hands down favorite. Our pie had sausage, hot red peppers and honey....so good. The second Moscow Mule went down pretty easy as well. Then back in the van to downtown to a deep dish place called LaBriola for another tavern style slice with pepperoni. It was a better example of the style, but still not my favorite. AND we had sausage deep dish, but I was seriously flagging at this point and only ate about half. Then they had the audacity to serve donuts, but I only nibbled it. Sorry, Stan's donuts, you just aren't that great.
Got home after midnight and crashed.

Friday, 10/18/19

Chicago! I finally made it to our apartment (after a mishap with a wrong bus) and explored the neighborhood a bit before Jessica got in. Very swanky! The airbnb looks like it came straight from IKEA (in a good way).
When J. got in we headed out on foot for a bit, before calling a lyft to take us to a sushi place I had read up on, called Juno. It was some of the best sushi I have ever had! We tried lots of things, including several kinds of tuna (I don't think I had ever had o-toro before and it was amazing), some oysters, nigiri (scallop was a standout), a roll with tuna and king crab, shrimp cocktail with a wasabi emulsion, charred corn, a selection of sashimi...everything was so good that we kept ordering more. I wish I was a food writer so I could describe it better.

The nice thing about sushi for dinner is that it leaves you with room for dessert, and it so happens that there is a Jeni's ice cream right near the apartment! I had salty caramel (duh) and gooey butter cake in a waffle cone, and Jessica had the gooey butter cake and coffee. The flavors were strong and delicious. I am worried about how close it is.

Typically bad picture of charred corn

Thursday, 10/17/19

While Jason gave an exam, Carter and I walked down to Big Y and picked out a ridiculous dinner:  some macaroni and cheese, a sushi roll, chicken wings, mozzarella sticks and some marinated mushrooms and while beans. It wasn't the most balanced meal, but I think Carter enjoyed it.

Wednesday, 10/16/19

I knew I was going to make tofu, and I knew I had a bag of noodles from the Asian market, but everything else was up for grabs. So I marinated the tofu with sriracha, maple, and soy, then broiled it (delicious), and made a sauce with coconut milk, lemon, a little fish & soy sauces and some spicy chili crisp for the noodles (bouncy sweet potato noodles which are fun). Sauteed with garlic, scallions and leftover broccoli. Everyone liked it!

Tuesday, 10/15/19

Leftover calzone, plus (slightly overcooked) broccoli. Too tired from a long day at work for much else.

Monday, 10/14/19

Lunch in Whately---bread, a key lime pie (recipe from my binder, plus graham cracker crust from Sally's Baking Addiction. It could have used a little more butter), another Blue Apron (more pork, this time with delicata squash and apples. tastier than I thought it would be). Another nice fall day, so we took all the dogs for a walk.
Then Jason insisted on making calzones for dinner (and bagels, and he was doing some Umass stuff so he was nearly hysterical). Somehow I ended up making all the fillings, plus shaping and cooking them. So much for it being Jason's night to cook. we had two kinds with meat (sausage and pepperoni), but I liked the spinach-ricotta ones the best).

Sunday, 10/13/19

Dinner with Jen and John---bread from Jason, SK S'Mores cupcakes from me (delicious; I used 1.5 of the frosting recipe and found that to work well), a couple of Blue Aprons (a pork with some kind of poblano sauce and a tilapia with zucchini. Both fine).  The three day weekend fun continues!

Saturday, 10/12/19

Jason , Jen and I went up to the Ashfield Fall Festival---the drive through the hill towns in peak season was so beautiful (plus I got a fried dough with maple cream). Then we had dinner with Jason's parents at the Korean place on route 9. Unremarkable (though they love it. Maybe we just didn't order the right things).

Friday, 10/11/19

Chopped salad with dressing from SK, plus garlic bread and spaghetti with sausage. I made the sauce in the Instant Pot; didn't really follow a recipe, but did add a cup or so of red wine, since tomato things seem to need more liquid to avoid burning. It did have the desired result of nice tender sausage, but needed extra tomato paste at the end to thicken it up. I think the slow cooker works a little better for tomato sauce; maybe I'll try that function on the IP sometime.

Thursday, 10/10/19

Jason made us a loaf of bread, and I made potato soup in the Instant Pot. No real recipe, just onions, potatoes, carrots....a little bacon fat for flavor. It takes about 8 minutes in the IP. I threw in some spinach to round it out, plus we had some fancy Gruyere from Aldi. Jason seemed surprised to like it (soup isn't his favorite).

Wednesday, 10/9/19

I tried another Instant Pot version of butter chicken, from Archana Mundhe. This was quite superior to the Madhut Jaffrey version. The name is a bit of a misnomer, since she uses mostly coconut cream, not butter (although I added a bit of butter and cream at the end). really easy; I used boneless chicken breasts, left in pretty large pieces that I then cut up and added back to the sauce after it was done. Delicious! Served over basmati rice along with some leftover pita, plus zucchini that I sauteed with onions and some pakora chat.

Tuesday, 10/8/19

Carter had an extra night of Ultimate, so dinner at home. I made some green chili macaroni and cheese (from Serious Eats), using up various kinds of cheese. we had that, plus some leftover pulled pork and steamed broccoli. I think I am coming to prefer stovetop mac & cheese to oven baked:  it comes together quickly and reheats a little better.

Monday, 10/7/19

Pulled pork sandwiches, green beans (sauteed with ginger, garlic & soy sauce), and salt & vinegar chips. Did the pulled pork in the Instant Pot, but I felt 60 minutes wasn't quite long enough. The pork wasn't as tender as I might have liked (but it was fine). Maybe add ten more minutes next time?

Sunday, 10/6/19

Dinner was a Jason production: blueberry pancakes and bacon. I have nothing to add to that.

Saturday, 10/5/19

Dinner with Jennie and David: another batch of pita from Jason, and a Boozy Rum Cake (from Flour) for me. The chiffon cake was nice and light, but I made a couple of minor errors that kept it from greatness: I didn't read the pastry cream instructions carefully enough, and added the cream with the milk instead of whipping it and folding it into the cooled pastry cream, plus I didn't have quite enough orange juice and zest, which meant it didn't really have a ton of flavor (except for rum). I did add a little orange extract, but should have put in more. Plus, I didn't love the rum whipped cream as a frosting---too rummy, and I could detect the cornstarch in an unpleasant way. Still, it is surprisingly light for a 4 layer cake and certainly looks pretty! And I am a fan of the chiffon cake. Maybe with a different frosting, and/or some coconut.

Friday, 10/4/19

Dinner with Jen, John and Laurie. Jason made pita, I made hummus and curried tomato soup (a little bit too spicy), and John bought bread and cheese that I made into grilled cheese. Laurie brought a tasty salad, and I made Canadian butter tarts (from the NYT; I gave in and paid for the Cooking subscription). These weren't overly difficult---rolling out the crust and fitting it into muffin tins was the hardest part. The filling is just brown sugar, maple syrup an egg and a little butter. I might make a little bit more filling next time as I thought they could have been filled a bit more.They were so tasty! No leftovers.

I really achieved that rustic look

Thursday, 10/3/19

Jason was giving an exam, and I had Carter's Open House to attend, so it was leftovers gulped down in a hurry.

Wednesday, 10/2/19

I made a recipe from a new Vietnamese cookbook from Andrea Nyugen  (Vietnamese Food Any Day) called "crispy caramelized pork crumbles'. You make a dark caramel (and add water so it stays liquid) to sauteed ground pork, along with fish sauce, onions and scallions. I also added a little sriracha and soy, added some broccoli and served it over rice. Thanks to the fish sauce, it was a little pungent while cooking, but is really quite delicious and easy. The caramel isn't overly sweet, just adds an interesting dark note. Everyone liked it, so hurray!

Tuesday, 10/1/19

I really was too tired to cook, so we met my dad and Corrina at Frontier Pizza. Nothing like sausage pizza, french fries and mozzarella sticks. Good thing I eat salad for lunch.

Monday, 9/30/19

I found a cute little chart at Bon Appetit (from Priya Krishna, who wrote Indianish) with instructions for all different dals in the Instant Pot. So handy! we had mung beans, so I cooked them with ginger, turmeric and coconut milk, and threw in a whole bag of baby lettuce at the end. Served over rice, with a little condiment made from toasted coconut flakes and mustard seeds (an idea stolen from a Melissa Clark recipe). I was feeling too tired to make dinner, but this came together quickly and seemed both healthy and tasty.
I saved the link, but here it is again: https://www.bonappetit.com/story/instant-pot-dal-formula

Sunday, 9/29/19

Repeat of a meatball soup from The Home Cook (by Alex Guarnaschelli). A few little changes: I used turkey instead of beef and ditalini instead of Israeli cous cous. Tiny little meatballs are fiddly to make, but overall it is pretty easy, since they poach in the broth. Everyone seemed to like it (again).

Saturday, 9/28/19

Jason made pita for Jennie and David's and I brought the orange shortbread and cookie-butter cookies from Friday night at my dad's. I was feeling lame about bringing cookies, but they went fast.

Friday, 9/27/19

Dinner in Whately: two fun Blue Aprons. One was tiny meatballs in  tomato sauce with capers, orzo, yellow peppers and shishito peppers, the other was a pretty straightforward pesto with zucchini and fettucine. Big hits.
I brought a couple of kinds of cookies, both new! One was an orange shortbread, from the cookbook Flour. It was actually meant to be rosemary shortbread, but I had bought an orange for a recipe that I didn't end up making (I'll get to you one day, Boozy Rum Cake! Even if you do require 14 eggs!). Nice and shortbready, albeit a little subtle on the orange flavor. The other was a Cookie Butter cookie, which I thought of while out running (and cracked myself up thinking about cookies being made into butter being made into cookies...). Sure enough, there are plenty of recipes out there, so I picked one at random.  A couple of minor things---she claimed the dough would be dry and crumbly (it wasn't, even after I added a bit more flour), I forgot to add some of the sugar (it was plenty sweet), and I didn't freeze the dough, as directed. Still great! Corrina and Carter liked them, so that's nice. I saved the recipe in case we ever end up with spare cookie butter.

Thursday, 9/26/19

By today, we had pizza, biryani, soup, bread , and homemade bagels all filling the fridge, so leftovers it was.

Wednesday, 9/25/19

Made a chicken biryani in the Instant Pot, using a recipe from a book called The Essential Indian Instant Pot. This was SO GOOD. The rice was perfectly cooked, the chicken was not dry, and the flavors really came together. One of my favorite IP recipes so far. The only thing I changed was using boneless chicken breasts instead of drumsticks. Served it with some roasted cauliflower. Couldn't stop eating.

Tuesday, 9/24/19

Jason made us a couple of pizzas (plain cheese for Carter, provolone-pepperoni & chicken, bbq and Swiss for the other) for dinner, and Corrina came over, so that was nice. Still eating the very rich brownies from the weekend.

Monday, 9/23/19

Jason made a loaf of raisin-walnut bread at my request, and I made a pot of broccoli-cheddar soup (from SK, made pretty much as written, except maybe I used more carrots), so it was a quick and delicious dinner. There is nothing like being at work knowing that dinner is basically made.

Sunday, 9/22/19

I let Jason make dinner, so you know it was one of only a handful of things....in this case, pancakes w/ bananas and bacon. AND he made me cook the pancakes! I know people love to have breakfast for dinner, but it isn't really my thing. But the pancakes were perfectly fine.

Saturday, 9/21/19

Dinner with Jennie and David: Jason made pita bread, which was the big excitement. I made brownies, and threw on some leftover chocolate frosting. Whatever. I feel like I haven't made a good dessert in forever. I blame Jason.

Friday, 9/20/19

A two part dinner: broccoli rabe lasagna for Jason and me, from a recipe from the NYT.  I also threw in a bit of leftover Chinese broccoli we had lingering in the fridge. Jason marveled at how complicated it was (bechamel, a pesto made from the greens, lemon ricotta)---I think he thinks lasagna is just a free for all---but he had to admit it is good. And honestly, it isn't that hard to assemble.

I knew it would be a non-starter with Carter, so I made a stovetop macaroni and cheese for him, with broccoli thrown in. He seemed to like it well enough, even though it wasn't the recipe I meant to use. Certainly very cheesy.

Thursday, 9/19/19

Jason dinner night: hamburgers and some new tot type things from Aldi. They were kind of like thick sliced potato chips? That you baked? Anyway, it was all fine.

Wednesday, 9/18/19

Poached chicken over rice with broccoli and a ginger-scallion sauce. Garnished with thin slices of cucumber and some cilantro.  Got the recipe (indirectly) from SK. It was nice, except for me not poaching the chicken gently enough, so it wasn't quite as tender as I would like.  I also should have made a bit more sauce. I had wanted to make a similar dish from the NYT archives, but it called for some jalapenos that I didn't have. Another time. Carter, surprisingly, was a big fan.

Tuesday, 9/16/19

A couple of Blue Aprons in Whately: one a pasta with ditalini, white beans, cherry tomatoes , capers and shrimp (it was supposed to have poblano pepper too, but apparently it went bad. It wasn't missed), finished with mascarpone. Everyone agreed that is was a slightly off combo, but good. Also a stromboli with a filling of cauliflower, ricotta, golden raisins, capers and fontina. Also a bit odd (the stupid cauliflower took forever to chop into tiny bits and saute into submission), pleasant enough. I think it would be fun to make our own some night. We reheated an extra loaf of Jason bread from the freezer, and I brought the rest of the oatmeal cookies from Saturday night (the iced ones from SK).

Monday, 9/16/19

Breakfast for dinner---Swiss and broccoli omelet for Carter, scrambled eggs with spinach, mushrooms and feta for Jason and I  (I was too lazy to make another omelet), plus homefries with some pepperjack and (overly spicy) salsa verde. it was good, except for poor Carter's disappointment about the homefries: he thought they were going to be french fries, cooked at home. Oops.

Sunday, 9/15/19

Chili in the Instant Pot. I didn't use a recipe, but just got some ideas for the timing (about 15 minutes at high pressure). Served it with Fritos and pepper jack cheese (yum). The Fritos add a nice sort of masa flavor. Also had broccoli (for health).

Saturday, 9/14/19

Dinner with Jennie and David. Jason made two loaves of bread today, and brought the taller, more tender one (in deference to some dental work for David). I made another round of iced oatmeal cookies from SK. They seem quite popular. I told Jason that icing on a cookie is a good thing.

Friday, 9/13/19

Dinner with Jen and Gus. Two Blue Aprons, both good but not my favorite ever. One had tilapiaover chick peas and tomatoes, and one was a taco with black enas and ground beef. Jason made bread, and I made a Milky Way Tart from Flour. It was so promising! Pate sucre, a layer of caramel, and a milk chocolate mousse. It looked so pretty:

Sadly, Something happened in the fridge, because it just all turned to glop when we tried to cut it. Tasty glop, too be sure, but disappointing! Maybe the caramel was too warm? Anyway, I won't try again right away. The heartbreak is too fresh.

Thursday, 9/12/19

Seared tuna steaks with sesame/black pepper crust, leftover potstickers from the freezer,  and a cucumber/avocado salad. I made a ginger-soy dip as an accompaniment. This was a very quick, sort of plain meal, but so delicious! I steamed the potstickers and they were better reheated than I expected.

Wednesday, 9/11/19

Jason made pizza for us; plain cheese for Carter, plus one that was half chicken (leftover from our roasted chicken), bbq sauce, onions and a little swiss; and one half jalapenos, pepperoni and provolone. Both halves also had mozzarella. Good as always.

Tuesday, 9/10/19

Dinner in Whately. My dad was trying out a new meal service that featured boil-in bags (we tried a salmon, a shrimp and grits, and a chicken with quinoa).There were fine, not as tasty as Blue Apron, but certainly easy. Jason brought two loaves of bread, one an experiment featuring rice flour (a little gooey) and a regular loaf. I made some iced oatmeal cookies (from SK) that I liked quite a bit. I think they were a hit, since my dad requested a few for himself. Success!

Monday, 9/9/19

After Sunday night's long and frustrating dinner, I was glad that I had just planned chicken tacos for dinner. Leftover chicken that I reheated with tomatoes and green chilis, queso fresca, a black bean and pineapple salsa, and some chipotle sour cream.  Quick, tasty, everyone liked it! Jason and I had corn tortillas, but I gave Carter flour since we had them on hand and I know he prefers them.We also had some corn that I picked up from out little local stand, but it was chewy and we didn't even eat it. I hope we haven't had our last good corn of the season!

Sunday, 9/8/19

I picked up some Japanese eggplants from the local farm stand, and I really wanted to try making Chinese-restaurant style eggplant and tofu and garlic sauce with them. I googled the heck out of it, and found a Fuschia Dunlop recipe for the eggplant that looked promising (and required a trip to Mom's House for yet another Chinese condiment, chili and broad bean paste). Then I thought I would just add the tofu. In trying to get that chewy sort of texture for the tofu, I took some online advice and froze it. OI. Why didn't it occur to me that the tofu would freeze rock hard? I pulled it out just as I was starting dinner and found frozen chunks of tofu that I was somehow supposed to shallow fry. Oops. So anyway, Jason somehow managed to slice it up, and I figured we had nothing to lose, so I just threw it into the oil. It took a while, but did eventually fry up into nice brown pieces, crispy outside and chewy inside! Meanwhile I was also frying up the eggplant and assembling the sauce (and forgetting about the Chinese broccoli so that I had to hastily stir-fry it with some garlic and sesame oil. Meh at best).

ANYWAY, I finally got all that frying done and assembled everything. The smell and taste of the broad bean paste was very nice, but the finished dish was disappointing. My carefully fried pieces of eggplant just dissolved, much to my irritation. There wan't quite enough sauce, I didn't like the broccoli, Carter was decidedly lukewarm....A lot of trouble for a workday. The bright spot is that freezing the tofu really did work----just make sure you give it time to thaw! And next time, just get take-out.

Saturday, 9/7/19

Dinner with Jennie and David: bread and a blueberry buckle (from Alton Brown). The buckle had the advantage of using up a big bag of frozen blueberries from the freezer; I did mess it up slightly. I made the crumble topping and put it in the fridge, then forgot all about it and sprinkled big sugar all over the top of the buckle before baking. I had just put it in the oven when I remembered the crumble, so I threw that on top. I'm not sure if that was the culprit, but it took a long time to bake, and the top stayed a little goopy (the crumble didn't stay crumbly, either---it just sort of dissolved).  But it was still pretty good. Basically a coffee cake.

Friday, 9/6/19

I roasted a nice big chicken (with some carrots, onions and mushrooms), made potato pancakes, and reheated the brussels sprouts. I also made a quick gravy (to me, the real reason for roasting a chicken). I more or less followed a recipe from Ina Garten, stuffing the cavity with lemon and garlic (but no thyme sprigs because I a. didn't have any b. don't really like it). Came out fine, but I am not convinced that the lemon adds any flavor to speak of. For the potato pancakes, I had a vague recollection of a recipe that used instant potato flakes as a binding agent instead of flour. I get the concept, but I think flour does a better job.

Thursday, 9/5/19

I was planning on chicken for dinner, so I asked Carter if he had a preference. Surprisingly, he did! So, chicken parm, spaghetti and roasted brussels sprouts. He sniveled a little about the use of provolone ("Is this the cheese you normally use?") but ate everything up nonetheless.

Wednesday, 9/4/19

Corn chowder, tomato-mozzarella salad, and warmed up fougasse that Jason made earlier in the week. I didn't have a recipe for the chowder---just bacon, corn, potatoes and milk. Nice summer meal.

Tuesday, 9/3/19

Another exciting Instant Pot experiment.......burgers! We mixed dried onions, garlic and cheese into the patties, wrpaped them in foil and steamed them. I was expecting them to be a little more tender, but they were quite flavorful. Maybe cook for one minute less? I liked how melty the cheese got. Tater tots (what else?) and broccoli rounded out the meal. See, there was a vegetable!

Monday, 9/2/19

Dinner in Whately turned into lunch in Whately. Jason had to stay home to wait for the Comcast guy, but the rest of us picked up burgers and hot dogs from Tom's (well, I had half of an enormous meatball grinder). We supplemented with corn and some of the blondies from Sunday. Dinner was leftover meatball grinder for Jason and nachos for Carter and me. I swear we will eat vegetables soon.

Sunday, 9/1/19

We were supposed to go to the beach with Jen and Gus today, but the weather was uncooperative. So instead we went to IKEA. Not the same. We stopped for a picnic lunch on the way, with cheese and crackers, deviled eggs, chips, watermelon and blondies. I doubled the Fannie Farmer recipe, browned the butter and baked them in a 9x13 pan. A little underbaked, but good cold. For dinner we did something very unusual---Jason, Jen and I went to Joe's for dinner and left the boys at home! We gorged on meatballs, cheesy garlic bread and pizza while Carter and Gus bravely went to KFC. Hurray for kids who can look after themselves!

Saturday, 8/31/19

Dinner with Jennie and David---a regular bread from Jason and I made an apple pie, using a recipe from SK (and many pounds of apples). I made a little more pie dough that usual, and that made it easier to roll out (and Carter likes the scraps baked up with cinnamon sugar). This recipe has you slice the apples extra thin (so tedious!) and let them sit with the sugar and spices for a couple of hours to macerate. It is a super tall pie, and I was pleased that the crust didn't collapse down as the apples cooked. The only issue was related to my poor crimping skills. Next time I will be more vigilant.

Friday, 8/30/19

I tried to combine two different ideas for a pasta, one from Blue Apron and one from a Food Network recipe, and it was pretty good (but too spicy for Carter). Small shells, diced zucchini, cherry tomatoes, Calabrian chilis and ricotta. Came together very quickly (and went down pretty quickly). I also had some broccoli rabe on the side, as I figured Carter wouldn't like that. But then he didn't like it anyway, poor kid. I guess every night can't be lobster rolls. Jason made us a couple of fougasse-style breads as an accompaniment.

Thursday, 8/29/19

For my birthday I ate everything I could get my hands on: an enormous Frappucino for breakfast, a cider donut, chiles rellenos for lunch from La Veracruzana:

The wonderful feeling when you get your dining partner to order the other thing you wanted

Then a penuche sundae from Herrell's. I was getting pretty full at this point, but that didn't stop me from having a late day snack of Flaming Hot Cheetos and a glass of rose (a classic combination). The main event, dinner, was easy to prepare since it was basically ingredient-driven (unusual in our house): lobster rolls (in proper split top buns), lots of tomato-mozzarella salad and fresh corn. Carter had a lot of fun helping me break down the lobsters, but sadly, our two little guys only produced enough for two generous lobster rolls. Jason had to have leftovers instead (but I saved him a bite).

Ugly picture of beautiful tomatoes

For dessert I had planned a S'Mores cake, but it seemed so large and time consuming that I changed my mind and made something called a "Funfetti Sugar Cookie Cake" from Sally's Baking Addiction. This was much easier: a cross between a cookie and a cake (duh), with fancy bits of American buttercream.

Sprinkles!

By then I felt pretty damn stuffed, so I let Jason wash all the dishes while I just lay on the couch.

Wednesday, 8/28/19

A treat for Carter (after a long and tiring first full day of school): just regular old beef burritos and some guacamole. quick and good.

Tuesday, 8/27/19

I (unenthusiastically) made a batch of tofu stir-fry, with spinach, leftover broccoli, cabbage and noodles. it was fine. I think the Aldi tofu doesn't taste very good, but noodles with soy, ginger, garlic and vegetables are always tasty enough.

Monday, 8/26/19

Dinner in Whately--a Blue Apron with grilled chicken tacos, radishes and corn off the cob; plus a lot of leftovers from Sunday, PLUS Jason made another loaf of everything bread. Oh, and my dad had more corn. For once, we had too much food.

Sunday, 8/25/19

We had a BIG lunch with Maggie, Peter, BJ and Bernadette (a pan-birthday celebration). Maggie brought two kinds of chicken to be grilled, potato salad, deviled eggs, parmesan biscuits, AND a pasta salad. Wow! We brought corn and two nice so fun desserts: Jason made chocolate chip cookies and I made another Instant Pot cheesecake. I wasn't happy with our choices but oh well.

So for dinner we just had bread, butter and tomatoes.

Saturday, 8/24/19

Dinner with Jennie and David: Jason's big excitement was the new everything bagel seasoning we picked up at Aldi (another Trader Joe's copycat!) for his bread. I made a batch of coconut lime bars (from my recipe folder, via Cook's Illustrated). Always a winner.

Friday, 8/23/19

Jason and I made cabbage and pork potstickers, using a (slightly adapted) recipe from my dumpling cookbook. We experimented with pan frying and using the Instant Pot as a steamer. I thought the steamed ones were a bit rubbery, but certainly easier and neater than the pan frying! We served them with some rice and called it a meal.

Thursday, 8/22/19

Jason and I collaborated on Instant Pot fettucine alfredo, with a big side of broccoli. It is very delicious, but it really needs the broccoli so it isn't too rich. We also made a batch of oatmeal cookie ice cream sandwiches. I was leery (the cookies were awfully thick and chewy), but they are good! Next time I would make them with better ice cream, not the cheap Aldi stuff.

Wednesday, 8/21/19

We were feeling pretty cocky about our Instant Pot skills, so I went off-book to make a coconut-lentil soup. Once I looked up how long to cook the lentils (9 minutes!) the rest was pretty standard. I threw in a bunch of spinach at the end, Jason made a batch of pita, and I made some guacamole out of some disappointing avocados. I don't know why sometimes they go straight from too  hard to brown and yucky, but it is always so sad.
Here is another bad picture of  what was actually a somewhat pretty and colorful soup (and incidentally vegan):

Tuesday, 8/20/19

Happy Birthday to the best daughter! She shared her Blue Heron comped meal with me, which was awfully sweet. We each had our own tuna crudo  (after admitting that we DID NOT WANT TO SHARE):

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

I would dearly love to reproduce this. I wonder where you get white soy sauce??

Plus we shared a ribeye steak with rainbow carrots and whipped potatoes, fried cauliflower with Calabrian chile paste (it's everywhere lately!), french fries, and a tres leches cake with raspberries and nectarines. We had leftover fries and cauliflower, but my boys inhaled them when I got home.

The cocktail had gin, lemon and sparkling rose. Pretty (and lovely to drink)

Monday, 8/19/19

We celebrated Corrina's birthday a day early with an angel food cake, plus we gave her an (unexciting) rice cooker. Dinner was a Blue Apron: sauteed shrimp with poblanos, cherry peppers and corn, over little corn cakes, plus we made grilled cheeses to supplement. Maybe not the most festive birthday ever, but nice!

Sunday, 8/18/19

Another Instant Pot success: pulled pork. I didn't follow an actual IP recipe, just got an idea for how long to cook it. I just seared the pork shoulder, sauteed onions, added bourbon, salt, pepper and a little liquid smoke and set it for an hour. Not exactly "instant", but certainly faster than the slow cooker. and it was really good! Served it on brioche rolls, with fresh corn off the cob and macaroni and cheese. The mac&cheese was a variation of my favorite Serious Eats recipe, usually made with salsa verde and chicken. I did make a salsa verde (sans tomatillos, which I forgot. Still came out fine! I just grilled poblanos, onions and jalapenos and threw them in the blender with cilantro and lime), but skipped the chicken. I also forgot to buy canned green chilis, but a can of diced tomatoes and green chilis was a nice substitute. Carter was VERY dubious, but he actually liked it and had seconds! Cooking win. I do love traditional oven baked macaroni and cheese, but sometimes this stovetop variety is good, too.

Saturday, 8/17/19

Dinner with Jennie and David. Jason bread and the plum cake from the NYT. This cake is sort of miraculous, as it looks so unpromising going into the oven (and I generally don't love cooked fruit desserts). The plums soften and melt into the cake, which obliging rises nicely all around the fruit. Good with whipped cream.

Friday, 8/16/19

Summer dinner! Corn fritters (from Paula Dean; I used 4 ears of corn instead of canned, and added a teaspoon of baking soda because, self-rising cornmeal? Not north of the Mason-Dixon, lady), zucchini gratin (from an Ina Garten recipe---the only change is that I grate the zucchini and just use whatever cheese is on hand), plus tomato-mozzarella salad. I thought everything was great, but Carter said the fritters were too cornmeal-y (he didn't like the sandy texture) and Jason asked "Is it supposed to be this texture?" about the gratin (oh, and Carter simply pronounced it "disgusting". He only had kind words for the salad).  Here is an ugly picture:

Thursday, 8/15/19

Dinner with Jen and John--we had one Blue Apron, a Korean-inspired shakshouka with rice, plus we brought bread, Jen made a cucumber-tomato-corn salad, and Jason and I collaborated on some rice pudding. We used the Instant Pot again, and I (mostly) used a Melissa Clark recipe. It worked fine.

Wednesday, 8/14/19

We are trying to clean out the freezer a bit, so we had some eggplant parm with tomato sauce (left over the the giant Instant Pot taste test), a box of mozzarella sticks, and a salad. Plus Jason is working on fougasse.  I don't know if he achieved it, but it was very nice bread with a healthy dose of parmesan on top for extra tastiness.
This meal was NOT greater than the sum of its parts, but it was fine.

Tuesday, 8/13/19

Burgers and tots, after a long hiatus. Exactly what you would expect. I also made a salad with tomatoes, cucumbers and some fresh mozzarella. Honestly, that could have been my whole meal (but no one can deny that tots are tasty).

Monday, 8/12/19

Dinner in Whately---there were two Blue Aprons, so I was really hopping. One was a pork chop with peach salsa, broccoli and mashed potatoes (with pimiento and cheddar). The other was ditalini with zucchini and mascarpone, served with a scoop of ricotta mixed with calabrian chili paste (that was my favorite by far). I also brought some deviled eggs, and Jason made a (very good) loaf of bread. AND I made a batch of blondies, so we had a feast. At Corrina's request, I made my old Fanny Farmer recipe for the blondies, and I had forgotten how good (and easy ) they are. The only thing I changed in the recipe was browning the butter a bit.

Sunday, 8/11/19

Long drive back from New Jersey---Jason and Carter had turkey sandwiches for dinner, I just snacked on some nachos.

Saturday, 8/10/19

Stephen and Sarah's wedding, and Jason was actually there! Appetizers were the best part (especially the little samosas), but there was also very good chicken, rolls, and green beans. I actually forgot to try the cake, but hear it was good.

Friday, 8/9/19

Dinner with Jennie and David: onion bread from Jason, chocolate pudding (from SK, of course)  and whipped cream from me. Not exciting, but always gets finished.

Thursday, 8/8/19

Last night of SULA! Leftover pasta, then I stayed home and made Jason a batch of biscotti.

Wednesday, 8/7/19

Jason and collaborated on dinner: pasta in the instant pot with both hot Italian sausage and hamburger Easy, but I still prefer my meat sauce from the slow cooker. I like the way the sausage gets so soft and melds with the sauce. But, this was quick and doesn't heat up the kitchen...

Tuesday, 8/6/19

I actually made a whole dinner! Tofu sauteed in the sauce from Craving's chicken lettuce cups, served over rice along with some steamed broccoli. I have taken a lot of liberties with that recipe, but the sauce is always good. A nice wholesome meal that even included vegetables.

Monday, 8/5/19

Brought dinner to my dad, who was laid up with a small pressure sore. Just a Frontier Pizza. It was awesome. Then we raided his freezer for ice cream for dessert.

Sunday, 8/4/19

Dinner with Jennie and David, who are finally back from Spain. Jason made bread, of course (just plain---he had bread troubles this weekend but this one was nice). I made a crostada from the NYT. Melissa Clark's recipe used a homemade blackberry jam, but I just used some raspberry that I had on hand (Jason was greedy and wouldn't let me use the jam he made). It is very easy---a pate sucre crust, a layer of jam, and a crumb topping made from some of the reserved dough. I found it a bit sweet, but you could use any number of jams in there to good effect.