Thursday, 4/25/19

I was not home for dinner---Carter and Jason has burgers, potato patties and fruit. I was helping out at a library thing, and had wine and hors d'ouevres for dinner. Could be worse.

A lull in the action

Wednesday, 4/24/19

Last little bit from "Bottom of the Pot"---potato kookoo, which was really like a Persian latke. You boil potatoes and then grate them up, add a ton of eggs and shallow fry them. So tasty, especially with the spicy yogurt accompaniment. We also had homemade pita (thanks Jason!), hummus (no recipe) and the ubiquitous  tomato/cucumber salad (with feta). Another popular dinner.

Tuesday, 4/23/19

To use up some of the leftover bread from Monday we had grilled cheeses (sharp cheddar, tomato and whole grain mustard), plus some chips and salsa and more roasted broccoli.

Monday, 4/22/19

Dinner in Whately. Jason brought bread (there were a lot of leftovers so maybe he should skip a week or mix it up a bit); Two Blue Aprons, candy for dessert. The BA's were kind of hit and miss: one was a Chicago style deep dish pizza that I thought didn't lend itself to the Blue Apron thing that well. The taste was good, but the crust was barely meh. The beef sandwiches were delicious, though. If only I had left the peppers off for poor Corrina. Next time. There were roasted potatoes and roasted broccoli on the side.

Sunday, 4/21/19

Old fashioned spaghetti with meat sauce, garlic bread, roasted brussels sprouts. Everybody is happy.

Saturday, 4/20/19

Dinner with Jennie and David. Bread from Jason, a sugar pie (from Fearless Baker) from me. The recipe intrigues me because the filling is just milk, flour, cream and sugar (brown and white). No eggs, no cornstarch, just the flour to thicken it. It results in the most creamy, smooth filling. Next time I might try the maple variation, and remember that mine took almost 3 times as long to cook as the recipe claimed. Also, the bottom crust was a little thick but that was probably my poor rolling skills.

Friday, 4/19/19

Happy Birthday Carter!  He had his traditional crepes for breakfast, and we went to the Roost for lunch:

Dinner was with Jen, John and Laurie. we brought bread, pita, homemade hummus, and (SK) chocolate pudding. There was also a modified Blue Apron with chicken stirfry and rice. I just winged it with the hummus, but even Laurie liked it. I think she was impressed that I took the time to peel the chickpeas.

Thursday, 4/18/19

I took the day off from work and we went to visit Jeff and sue for the day. We brought a couple of loaves of bread, and Jeff made eggplant parm for dinner. So Carter was happy!

Wednesday, 4/17/19

Tonight's Persian dinner: Loobia Polo. This made a GIANT pot of rice with green beans and chicken, flavored with turmeric, onions and cinnamon. It was a meal in itself (I also threw in some sad looking spinach and a little leftover zucchini), but I also made yet another cucumber/tomato salad. I am going to miss this Persian food when the cookbook goes back.

Tuesday, 4/16/19

Jason night: another french toast thing, plus sausage and bananas. No one could accuse him of being too experimental.

Monday, 4/15/19

Dinner in Whately. Tonight's Blue Apron featured breakfast tacos. I just supplemented with extra eggs, tortillas, cheese and potatoes.  This one was easy to put together and tasty as usual. I should have brought over my leftover guacamole in retrospect.

Sunday, 4/14/19

The Persian dish with the funnest name: Kookoo Kadoo. It's a bit like a frittata, in this case with lots of grated zucchini and summer squash. The flavors in Persian cooking are so different than what I am used to that is really fun. In this, barberries, orange zest, cinnamon and nutmeg were a surprising combination. Even Carter ate it uncomplainingly. Served with the usual cucumber salad and fresh pita. Oh, and I made another eggplant dip, this one with tomato and pomegranate molasses.

It really does look a lot like the picture, poor lighting notwithstanding

Saturday, 4/13/19

Jennie and David's. Bread from Jason, Smitten Kitchen's chocolate cake roll from me. It cracked terribly while rolling, but was still workable. I don't know why I made this---I don't really like flourless chocolate cakes. Anyway, the Kahlua whipped cream was good.

Friday, 4/12/19

I was sad to have to serve leftovers on a Friday, but that is the price you pay for cooking so much and then taking your son out for dinner the day before. Sadly, there are still a lot of leftovers.

Thursday, 4/11/19

While Jason was giving an exam,  Carter and I skulked over to the Hangar and had chicken wings, nachos, and macaroni and cheese. Gross, perhaps, but so tasty. Plus Carter was very appreciative.

Wednesday, 4/10/19

Another round from my Persian cookbook; this one was a real success. Khoresh gheymeh is a meat and yellow split pea stew; I used chuck and lentils. The thing that made it taste so unusual and delicious was dried limes---I was afraid it would be too tart, but if just added this amazing flavor. We had this with more pita and more tomato-cucumber salad. I would definitely make this again.

Tuesday, 4/9/19

Jason night: two pizzas, one plain, one with bacon, onions , mushrooms and jalapenos. A good combination! I contributed a spinach salad with grapes, cherry tomatoes, pecans and feta. I believe Carter ate one leaf.

Monday, 4/8/19

We brought Frontier Pizza to my dad's house and demolished it.

Sunday, 4/7/19

   Second major recipe from 'The Bottom of the Pot": fesenjen, a braised chicken with pomegranate/walnut sauce. I was excited about this one, because I had it at a freinds house years ago and loved it. I believe I have tried to make it before, but this recipe seemed both doable and like what I remembered. Sadly, no one really loved it; I think I like it the best, but the pomegranate molasses lends a very sour/tart flavor that Carter did not care for one bit. The accompanying pita bread (thanks Jason!) was gread, as was the tomato cucumber salad. The chicken with celery was definitely more popular.

Saturday, 4/6/19

Jennie and David's: bread (one of my favorite Jason varieties: sesame seeds, onion and garlic on top, a little wheat flour in the mix), and I made an ice cream pie from a book called "The Fearless Baker". It was vanilla ice cream and dulce de leche. It was supposed to have a chocolate cookie crust, but I thought Speculoos would be better. I didn't make my own ice cream, but I did use the recipe for dulce de leche, since it just look a lot of milk and time, both of which I had. everyone loved it! I wish I had been more careful mixing the ingredients and freezing the pie, because it looked sort of sloppy,  but the taste was great. Glad I didn't do the chocolate crust. So no picture.

Friday, 4/5/19

I finally had a chance to do some cooking from a Persian cookbook I brought home called "Bottom of the Pot". We had Kashki Bademjan, a roasted eggplant dip with yogurt (I confess, I used sour cream. It was still good), a chicken and celery stew (koresh karafs) and Jason made pita bread .  I drizzled the eggplant with a little olive oil, pomegranate molasses and feta. Outstanding! But the stew was the real surprise. You use an entire head of celery (so much chopping), onion, garlic, turmeric plus lots of fresh parsley and mint. It wasn't much while it was cooking, but after sitting melding for a while, it was so good. I can't put my finger on it----but all that celery made it juicy and fresh tasty. I couldn't stop taking extra bites. For dessert I made a big batch of regular old rice pudding (my usual recipe from our recipe book). The boys liked i.

Thursday, 4/4/19

Pasta with tomato sauce, garlic bread to use up some Jason bread from Monday, roasted zucchini, and kielbasa sauteed with onions. Pretty good for a night when I had nothing planned!

Wednesday, 4/3/19

Broccoli and cheddar soup, from SK. I followed the recipe fairly faithfully, maybe cutting down the cheese a bit. I also made another batch of buttermilk biscuits---delicious with some red pepper jelly.
Well received.

Tuesday, 4/2/19

Jason night: cheeseburgers and potatoes patties. I think I also put out some leftover green beans but nobody was interested.

Monday, 4/1/19

The Blue Apron du jour was Nashville hot chicken (well, ish), with kale and sweet potatoes. Corrina had extra chicken that we added, and I brought brussels sprouts to fill out the meal. The chicken, with its sauce of calabrian chili paste and hot sauce, was delicious, but frying it was problematic: we didn't have quite enough flour and buttermilk for breading, the pieces stuck to the pan, and took forever for them to cook through. Corrina had the idea that next time we should cut them into smaller pieces, and she is right. That, and more oil. But as I said, tasty. Even my dad liked the brussels sprouts (just roasted in a hot oven with olive oil, salt and pepper).
Jason made a beautiful loaf of bread, and I made another angel cake. Miracle of miracles: we are out of egg whites!

Sunday, 3/31/19

I had to use up a lot of subpar leftover homemade sausage (too dry), so I made sausage biscuits and gravy. The gravy wasn't bad, considering, but of course would have been better with regular old breakfast sausage (Maggie says you have to use Jimmy Dean). The biscuits, from Sally's Baking Addiction, were terrific. It really is worth it to buy buttermilk---and it keeps forever. For a vegetable there was a corn/poblano/black bean blend from Aldi that sounded good but wasn't.