Tuesday, 5/28/19

For some reason Jason got it into his head that he wanted to do this eating challenge at Friendly's.  He thought Carter would enjoy it? Anyway, one triple bacon cheeseburger, french fries, and a ridiculous milkshake (with an entire brownie, 4 Reese's peanut butter cups, bunch of M&Ms and 4 pretzel rods) later, we was (mostly) victorious. The people at Friendly's didn't really seem to care and I think he would have gotten the t-shirt regardless. The milkshake nearly did him in.

Before

What did Carter and I have, you ask? I had a cup of tomato soup (meh) and Carter had some hot chocolate. We managed to finish but no one gave us anything.

After

Monday, 5/28/19

Dinner (and cupboard cleaning/organizing)) at my dad's. The funny thing was that we cooked two Blue Aprons---the exact same ones we cooked the night before at Jen's. Then I served the leftover Boston Cream Pie, so it was a complete (and delicious!) repeat. Welcome back, pork chops and chicken curry.

Decisions, decisions

Sunday, 5/27/19

Dinner with Jen and Gus. Two Blue aprons, both delicious: one was a vadouvan chicken curry with fried rice and poblano peppers (Carter really liked this one), the other was pork chops with barley, sweet peppers, cherry tomatoes and a tomatillo salsa.Two winners. Jason made a loaf of bread with onion and sesame (one of my favorites) that turned out beautifully, and I made a Boston Cream Pie. I used a yellow cake mix, the pastry cream recipe from my notebook, and the glaze from a Cook's Illustrated BCP recipe. I know it was lazy of me to use the mix, but it worked really well!  Jen particularly liked it.

Did I mention we also had lovely rum/mint/strawberry cocktails? 

Saturday, 5/25/19

Jennie and David's: bread from Jason, another round of the Cook's Illustrated butterscotch pudding from me. Not sure if it's me or the recipe (or my execution thereof), but I am not enjoying it so much anymore. Oh well, other people seemed to like it. I could use a break.

Friday 5/24/19

Ginger scallion meatballs turned into Finnish meatballs when I realized that I was out of ginger and soy sauce. Good, if very, very rich. I used a recipe from the NYT, even though I had only about a pound of ground turkey instead of a pound each of beef and pork. worked fine, although the mix was a little wet and needed extra panko. Served over Israeli cous cous, with green beans with scallions and garlic.

Thursday, 5/23/19

I had a post work  date, so Jason and Carter had tofu and pasta with (jarred) sauce without me. I wasn't sorry to miss it, although the tofu (squished, marinated and roasted) is pretty good. I just came home and finished the lentil soup.

Tuesday, 5/21/19

Yet another variation of the chicken/lettuce cups (sans lettuce) from Cravings. This time I accidentally used ground beef (worked just fine), and threw in one sad leftover zucchini, mushrooms, and chinese broccoli. This time we served it over rice. Basically, once you have her sauce together (hoisin, thai chili sauce, garlic, ginger, sriracha, soy, etc) the rest of the recipe is quite flexible.

Monday, 5/20/19

Curried tomato-lentil soup, plus buttermilk biscuits (from Sally's Baking Addiction). Jason and I threw some roasted cauliflower into our soup.. Carter was there for the biscuits and I don't blame him. This recipe is really quite perfect.

Sunday, 5/19/19

I went out for drinks and snacks (brussels sprouts, a little bit of nachos) with the Sunday crew to celebrate the end of the season. Jason and Carter had bread and I don't know what else. Leftovers, probably. Jason is still fiddling with the bread.

Saturday, 5/18/19

Dinner at Jennie and David's: bread from Jason (of course; he is trying new methods and not happy with them so far), plus rhubarb cobbler from me (using rhubarb from J & D's garden). The cobbler is from Pioneer Woman, and I had a tiny bit more rhubarb than she called for, and I doubled the topping and baked it in a 9x13 glass baking dish. Served it with hard sauce a la Grandma Delano. But I bet she never added a jot of bourbon to hers! Anyway, it was delicious.

Friday, 5/17/19

Grilled cheese (to use up bread, plus a bucket of leftover mixed cheeses that Corrina gave me), plus broccoli roasted with garlic, lemon and red pepper flakes.

Thursday, 5/16/19

Tacos and burritos, plus guacamole. I had leftover grilled chicken from Carter's lunches this week, so I mixed that with some pureed tomatoes and leftover "Mexican spice blend" from a past Blue Apron. Carter was initially disappointed that there wasn't ground beef, but he rallied and scarfed down two burritos.

Wednesday, 5/15/19

Late dinner, as Carter had an away game.  Luckily, the eggplant parm, Jason-bread and zucchini was ready to go as soon as he got home. I sliced and breaded the zucchini, too (since it was looking a little wan) and I like it almost more than the eggplant. Carter was happy because they won and he loves eggplant parm.

Tuesday, 5/14/19

Leftover samosas and chicken, plus I actually did bother to roast the cauliflower this time. Just as tasty as it was back on Friday. Samosas: the gift that keeps on giving.

Monday, 5/13/19

Jason made pizza for himself and Carter, while Corrina took me out to a fancy Mother's Day dinner to Vespa, in Amherst. We shared a cheese and charcuterie platter (the best part), some chick pea fries, ricotta fritters, and cacio e pepe pasta, plus a a cannoli for dessert. everything was delicious, although I thought the truffle on the pasta actually detracted from the simple deliciousness of cacio e pepe. A lovely meal and lovely daughter!

Sunday, 5/12/19

Dinner with Jen, John and Laurie. We brought bread and a repeat of the Cook's Illustrated butterscotch pudding. John and Jason took over Blue Apron duty: one sort of chicken parm thing with orzo and zucchini, and one that had tortillas strips, more zucchini, eggs and black beans. Laurie made Mint Juleps (I still don't love bourbon) and chocolate covered strawberries.Pretty fancy for a Sunday night!

Saturday, 5/11/19

There was just SO MUCH stuff in the fridge. Leftover samosas for dinner.

Friday, 5/10/19

I spent the afternoon cooking Indian food, since I was unable to convince Jason to take us to Priya. I made samosas (from Saveur; I more than doubled the potatoes, cranked up their spices, and added pakora masala), tamarind-date chutney and coriander chutney (both from Made in India), and coriander chutney chicken (also from Made in India). The I made the samosas into samosa chaat, with the chutneys, chick peas, hot peppers, cilantro, lime, and an Indian snack blend (I couldn't find a smallish bag of plain sev). The samosas were a pain to fill, but it was my fault for letting the dough get too warm. They looked terrible but taste pretty good. I am sure they would have been even nicer had I fried them, but that just felt too daunting, so oven-baked it was. I had also been planning to make some cauliflower, but I had been cooking and cleaning for hours at this point, so to hell with nutrition. Delicious, and worth the time!

Thursday, 5/9/19

I was so excited to have nachos made with waffle fries, but I didn't love it. I think it was the waffle fries (they were only meh), and it would be more delicious with tots?

Wednesday, 5/8/19

Lentils and rice with broccoli. Since I added the broccoli to the pot, and used brown lentils, this was really not very appealing, visually. But, thanks to lots of garlic, ginger, scallions, turmeric and butter, it was delicious. Even Carter approved.

So nondescript

Tuesday, 5/7/18

Jason night, so burgers, potato patties and broccoli. Fine. I was still on the prowl for my ideal butterscotch pudding, and Cook's Illustrated had one that looked close. As I expected, it is really more caramelish than butterscotch, and more complex to make than other recipes. But in this case, it was worth it. So flavorful and smooth! It called for rum, but I used bourbon. Finally, the butterscotch pudding of my dreams!

Monday, 5/6/19

Dinner with the folks in Whately. The Blue Apron was quesadillas with chicken and a sour cream/tomatillo sauce, plus a carrot salad. We supplemented with extra tortillas and and cheese. The carrots needed work (kind of blah but we fixed it up with lemon and more salt), but the quesas were great. Ice cream for dessert.

Sunday, 5/5/19

I had been planning to make slow cooker Thai meatballs from Serious Eats, but I kept putting it off and not wanting to (so complicated!), so I bailed and made a new recipe from Smitten Kitchen that used a lot of the same ingredients. Braised ginger Meatballs in Coconut Broth were amazing! I used chicken instead of pork, and pureed the broth with the aromatics (rather than skimming them out). It was so flavorful, and easy to make in the morning before work. Jason made some rice, and I threw in a bunch of spinach, so that was a complete meal. I really loved the coconutty, tart flavor.

Saturday, 5/4/19

Dinner with Jennie and David. Bread from Jason, butterscotch pudding from me. I am still searching for my ideal butterscotch pudding, and this one, from Sally's Baking Addiction, wasn't it. It was good, but I want a deeper flavor. Maybe I should be thinking about caramel puddings instead.

Friday, 5/3/19

Carter was away at a team dinner, so it was just me and Jason. I made an enormous chopped salad, loosely based on one from smitten Kitchen. Lots of tomatoes, chick peas, pepperoni, fresh mozzarella...
It wasn't really all that healthy but it seemed like it was. Is this what life will be like when Carter goes to college? Salads for dinner?

Thursday, 5/2/19

We had so much leftover scalloped potatoes that it was leftovers for dinner.

Wednesday, 5/1/19

Well, for the first time my beloved Cravings let me down. She said that if you were only going to make one dish from the book, it should be the scalloped potatoes. And it sounds good: a giant batch of potatoes with bechamel, ham, and bacon. Problem one: five pounds is a LOT. I should have halved the recipe (also, for the first time ever I sliced myself with the mandoline. Can't blame the recipe for that). The bechamel was way too thick, even after I added a lot more milk. It took about a month too cook, and was kind of underseasoned. True, I omitted the ham and the garlic salt (I don't like garlic in cream sauces), but...
Anyway, it is only OK and there is so much leftover. I'll try again at some point. We also had some kielbasa and some green beans cooked with garlic and diced tomatoes.

Tuesday, 4/30/19

Jason made a couple of tasty pizzas. Cheese for Carter, spinach, pepperoni and  mushrooms for us. i was worried it would be gloppy, but no, it was great. Also, I didn't cook it so that was a plus.

Monday, 4/29/19

Dinner in Whately: the Blue Apron du jour was grilled cheese with apples and whole grain mustard. That was easy enough to supplement with Jason's bread and some extra cheese.  Devoured! There was also a roasted broccoli thing I didn't love (may and raisins, ugh). We brought some brownies  (Jason made a mix) so ice cream and brownies for dessert.

Sunday, 4/28/19

An old standby that we hadn't had in a while: tofu with noodles and greens (in this case, chinese broccoli). It turned out well, if not spectacular.

Saturday, 4/27/19

Dinner with Jennie and David. Jason made bread, and I made coconut tres leche bars, from "Fearless Baker". These were NOT GOOD.  The filling all seeped under the crust, and also turned out a little broken. And they were too sweet. AND they used only partial cans of three kinds of milk (sweetened condensed, evaporated and coconut). The next day I found online that other people had had the same issues. I am so disappointed because it sounds delicious! Not worth trying again, though.

Friday, 4/26/19

Macaroni and cheese, from SK. I didn't change anything except that I used panko bread crumbs instead of torn up bread. I love it, I just wish it re-heated better. Mushrooms and spinach as a side dish. Jason also had the idea of diced tomatoes on the side, which I only did to humor him. Then I was surprised to find that it was a tasty addition.
 I also made a second sugar pie from Fearless Baker for dessert, using a Maria cookie crust and dialing back the nutmeg a bit. I still thought the crust didn't work super well; maybe this would be better just as a custard? Jason loved it just because he loves Maria cookies.