Wednesday, 2/27/19

Dinner in Whately. TWO Blue Aprons! I took pity on Corrina and did most of the cooking. She was a super helpful sous chef. Burgers with smoked gouda (mixed into the patties) which were served with sauteed onions and a mayo/Worcestershire sauce, plus roasted carrots. The other one was fish topped with mustard and flavored panko and oven roasted. This one had thin sliced potatoes (topped with a little parm) and carrots, all also roasted. A very roasted dinner! No leftovers and all around tasty. I made a chocolate bundt cake from the Zingerman's cookbook. Not much to say about a chocolate bundt, but it was nice warmed up a bit and served with whipped cream.

Tuesday, 2/26/19

Jason night: pancakes, potato cakes, bacon, bananas. He doesn't really go in for the whole vegetable thing.

Monday, 2/25/19

Chicken sandwiches, chips and riced cauliflower. I rubbed the chicken with some leftover Blue Apron spices and pan roasted it, and made a red onion jam to go on the sandwiches. People had various customizations: romaine, cheese, mustard, mayo. The cauliflower was just sauteed with a lot of garlic, some butter and a little lemon.
Honestly, I was just looking for a vehicle for red onion jam.

Sunday, 2/24/19

Dinner with Jen and John...another Blue Apron! This was a real winner, and didn't involve anything tricky to source: chicken sauteed with red bell peppers, snap peas, soy sauce, sesame oil and sambal oelek, served over sauteed quinoa with a little egg scrambled in. We added extra chicken and some rice. So good! For dessert we brought the cookies I made on Saturday.

Saturday, 2/23/19

Dinner with Jennie and David. Jason made bread, and I made spicy ginger snaps and we collaborated on pizzelles.  The pizzelle recipe is the the one that came with the machine, with vanilla but no anise (I worry that it is a niche flavor. Too bad, because I love it). The gingersnap recipe is the one my aunt Maggie makes for Christmas every year. I finally thought to ask her for the recipe, and they are just what I was looking for! Chewy and full of spice. Here is the recipe:

Ingredients

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

3/4 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground ginger, or more to taste

1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper

8 tablespoons (1 stick) cool unsalted butter, cut into pieces

1/2 cup granulated sugar, plus extra for rolling

1 cup light brown sugar, packed

1/3 cup molasses (not blackstrap)

1/4 cup egg whites (from about 2 eggs)

1. Combine the flour, baking soda, and spices in a mixing bowl and set aside. Cream the butter until smooth and fluffy in a mixer fitted with a paddle attachment (or using a hand mixer). Add the sugars and mix. Add the molasses and mix. Add the egg whites in 2 batches, mixing to combine after each addition. Add the dry ingredients in three batches, mixing to combine after each addition.
2. Heat the oven to 350 degrees F. Spread a few tablespoons of granulated sugar on a small plate.
3. Roll the dough into 3/4-inch balls, then roll each ball in the sugar until lightly coated. Transfer to parchment lined cookie sheets, leaving 1-inch of space between the cookies. Bake until browned, 8 to 10 minutes. Let cool on wire racks and store in an airtight container.

Friday, 2/22/19

Dinner in Whately; another Blue Apron, with chicken, cabbage, and mashed sweet potatoes. Good, but not a super favorite. we brought bread (thanks Jason!) Trader Joe's Unexpected Cheddar, and another maple chess pie. Not quite as good as the first but certainly gone soon enough...

Thursday, 2/21/19

A hodgepodge of a meal: glorified  (frozen ) fish sticks with spicy cocktail sauce, chips and guacamole, broccoli sauteed with ginger, garlic and soy. It sounds dumb but it was pretty good.

Wednesday, 2/20/19

Pancakes, those potato patties (like you get at McDonald's) and bacon. Not what I would call the healthiest meal...
What can I say, the boys liked it.

Tuesday, 2/19/19

Mushroom soup that  I mostly used a recipe from Cravings for. It was deeply unattractive but not bad (improved on subsequent reheatings). With it we had the rest of the bread from Monday, and some spinach sauteed with garlic and crushed red pepper.

Monday, 2/18/19

bonus dinner with Jennie and David.  Jason made bread (of course), and I tried a new pie, Maple Chess, from Food52. So maple-y and good! Luckily I still had some buttermilk on hand, so this came together very quickly. It did need to bake a little longer than the recipe indicated. I am only slighlty ashamed to say that Jason and I finished it when we got home.

Sunday, 2/17/19

We descended on my dad with two Blue Apron meals from Zac and Corrina (Korean beef and rice, plus chicken tacos that we had with Jen and John a while ago. One of my favorites). Carter and Corrina did the honors:

Then we had some of the ample desserts hanging around. Brownies and ice cream for all!

Saturday, 2/16/19

Corrina brought home Frontier Pizza and a salad. She, my dad Maggie and I shared dinner. My mom quietly died soon after, with some of us who loved her best nearby. She was my most faithful reader and fan. Her sausage gravy, chili, mashed potatoes and pulled pork will always be better than mine.

Friday, 2/15/19

Spent a quiet day with my dad. We had various leftovers for dinner---fried rice, some chicken soup I had made for him, a few mozzarella sticks. Then we treated ourselves to brownies with ice cream and creme de menthe for dessert.

Thursday, 2/14/19

At Jason's request, another round of fried rice. I put leftover pulled pork and leftover roasted chicken in it;  they added nice little bits of flavor. Lots of broccoli, so it was a meal unto itself.

Wednesday, 2/13/19

Carter and I made a version of Blue Apron meal that we had at Jen and John's a few weeks ago. Roasted chicken breasts (with a smoky spice blend that I did my best to reproduce) with a sauce of butter, orange and jalapenos, plus mashed potatoes and roasted cauliflower (standing in for the called for red cabbage). Carter did a great job! I got all the ingredients out for him and he did a lot of the chopping and mixing. Ours wasn't quite as good as the original, but it was quite nice.

The cook and his creations

Tuesday, 2/12/19

Carter and Jason had leftover pork sandwiches; I had dinner in Whately with my dad. We had quiche and lima beans, plus ice cream with creme de menthe for dessert. Fancy!

Monday, 2/11/19

Pulled pork sandwiches with sauteed broccoli rabe and provolone cheese. The pork was super easy---mixed up garlic, honey and spices, and threw them into the slow cooker with a big old piece of pork. No searing! No mess! I'll definitely use that recipe again. That plus some chips = dinner.

Sunday, 2/10/19

Jason made us a nice loaf of bread with onions, and I made spaghetti with sausage in the slow cooker. I also sauteed up a big bunch of broccoli rabe. Its bitterness played off nicely against the slightly sweet sauce.

Saturday, 2/9/19

Dinner with Jennie and David. Bread and chocolate chip cookies from Jason, flan from me. Nothing new.

Friday, 2/8/19

I had planned on making a cheese souffle for dinner, but when my Aunt Maggie mentioned nachos, well....And then Jason wanted to make a Yorkshire pudding. So we had lentil soup, Yorkshire pudding, and nachos. Not as highbrow as a cheese souffle, that's for sure. and honestly, all I wanted was the nachos. Sometimes you just need a lot of melty cheese. I also made a batch of maple glazed cookies that gave me a lot of trouble. The first batch wanted to burn (I think the oven was still too hot from dinner), and then the maple topping overcooked and was far too sticky and brittle. Very frustrating. I glazed them anyway and sealed them up, hoping the moisture from the cookies will soften the glaze. Time will tell.
Oh, and the lentil soup of fine. Not thrilling.

Thursday, 2/7/19

Jason has been hinting (nagging?) for more fried rice. It was easy enough to oblige him. We had a small amount of tofu, and some leftover grilled chicken, and a bag of spinach, so I threw all that in and called it a complete meal. I never know how it will turn out, but it had a nice flavor. I added extra sriracha to mine.

Wednesday, 2/6/19

I made chicken satay with peanut sauce, from Cravings. My only complaint was that the peanut sauce was too sweet, and I would completely eliminate the brown sugar next time.The coconut marinade for the chicken is good, though.  Jason made rice, and I made a sort of cucumber salad with avocados. It tasted OK, but the avocados give it and unattractive sort of gloopy look.

Tuesday, 2/5/19

Spent the day in Whately. Jason made a loaf of bread for me, and that plus leftover tomato soup was a tasty dinner for my dad and me.

Monday, 2/4/19

Tomato curry soup with coconut and chick peas. I think I made this just a few weeks ago? But I really like it and almost always have the ingredients on hand. We also had broccoli (roasted for the adults, steamed for Carter), and Jason made pita bread, which was universally acclaimed.

Sunday, 2/3/19

One of Carter's favorites: burritos with beef and beans. Nothing novel---guacamole, pepperjack cheese, salsa, etc but he ate three! Oh to be a teenage boy.

Saturday, 2/2/19

Dinner with Jennie and David: a new bread from Jason! Feta and sund-dried tomato. A success! I made a key lime pie from "Rose's Baking Basics" that turned out well (very lime-y). The only sorrow was that I also tried her recipe for cornstarch stabilized whipped cream, and somehow grabbed baking soda instead of cornstarch.... When I whipped it up I was bewildered by the awful, salty metallic flavor! Jason and I attempted to doctor it up with additional cream, sugar and lemon juice, but it was only serviceable in the end. Oh well, I still think I'll try the method again. With actual cornstarch.

Friday, 2/1/19

Dinner with Jen and John: two Blue Aprons (roasted chicken with a brown butter/orange sauce, plus mashed potatoes and sauteed red cabbage, and a sort of ramen with spicy beef and sesame)The chicken was so good that I took the recipe card. Jason made a loaf of onion-caraway bread and I made a cake from Cook's Country, Blum's Hazelnut cake. I made this a few years ago and never forgot the interesting frosting, with a secret ingredient: Fluff. It is a touch sweet, but easy and fluffy. This time I used almond meal instead of grinding hazelnuts and that worked great. Jen was put out because she says she doesn't like nuts in her desserts, but of course she loved it. Silly Jen. The only thing I would change is adding some kind of flavoring to the frosting---the recipe called for Frangelico, but any sweet liqueur would do.

Thursday, 1/31/19

I had after work plans (how novel!), so Jason and Carter had a frozen pizza, and I came home and ate leftovers.

Wednesday, 1/30/19

I thought I was going to make tomato soup for dinner, but a recipe for roasted buffalo cauliflower from Bon Appetit caught my eye. So I made that (only OK. They claimed it would be crispy but it WAS NOT), plus some guacamole (thank you, Superbowl, for making avocados so cheap), salsa, carrots and hummus. So pretty much snacks for dinner.

Tuesday, 1/29/19

Pizza from Jason----cheese for Carter, onion, salami, mushroom and hot pepper for the adults.