Thursday, 6/27/19

Drove to the nearest city, Moncton, for lunch. As cities go, it's pretty tiny, plus it was pouring, so not much sightseeing. But we did find a good place for poutine! So we stopped in, had some, went across the street to a Tim Horton's for a donut palate cleanser, and then BACK to Ed's for another round of poutine. Embarrassing, but true.  Jason tried two kinds of meat: smoked meat, which he knew he liked, and donair, which is a regional specialty. Carter and I had regular, with the addition of extra curds the second time around.

Not surprisingly, Jason and I weren't hungry for dinner. Carter had some leftover spaghetti with meat sauce (and we ate a little of it), I was worried that we wouldn't find much poutine in this part of Canada, but this was a win!

Wednesday, 6/26/19

Hiking in the Fundy National Park in the morning, games, a movie and grilled cheese and salad for dinner.  It's very pretty here but also quite remote.

Tuesday, 6/25/19

Beautiful day for checking out the Hopewell Rocks nearby; then in the evening Carter and I went on a kayak trip in the Bay. The weather was unusually calm (nice for us!) and it was fun paddling around the rocks and shore. Then back home for spaghetti with meat sauce and a salad. I was extremely envious of the beautiful Le Creuset pot I made the sauce in (although there was no difference in the taste!).

Monday, 6/24/19

Finally made it to Hopewell after a very long drive (well, for us; we aren't drive all day kind of people) near the White Mountains and through the Maine woods. Our rental is very lovely (much, much nicer than our house) and the kitchen is very well stocked.

Sink view of the Bay of Fundy

So we made....nachos. Expensive Canadian nachos, since the grocery prices were quite shocking. Still, they hit the spot at the end of a long day!

Pricey Canadian nachos!

Sunday, 6/23/19

Stopped off in Bangor on our way to New Brunswick. Jason and I checked out downtown but it was utterly dead on a Sunday evening (except for weed stores). Carter requested KFC, and somehow we ended up all having that. Not the romantic dinner for two that I had hoped for, but not so bad.

Happy child

Saturday, 6/21/19

Webster Lake was STILL windy, but Carter, Laurie and I bravely kayaked anyway. Settled in with grilled asparagus, risotto, chicken, and rhubarb margaritas. Another lovely evening (although Carter was a little picky about eating chicken thighs. Fussy). Hooray for Laurie!

Friday, 6/21/19

First night of vacation! We spent it at Webster Lake, at our friend Laurie's cabin. She made quiche and salad, we brought pita, hummus and two kinds of cookies (World Peace and caramel blondies from DL). It was windy as hell, but a beautiful evening:

Thursday, 6/20/19

SULA is now two consecutive nights. Oh boy! We just had leftover rice and chicken. I ate mine in the car but it was still pretty good. The game went on and on and on and on....

Jason had to sub in in his jeans and boots 

Wednesday, 6/19/19

First night of SULA; fortunately I got off work eary and had time to make dinner. I was going to make a chicken stirfry with rice, but Carter wanted tacos (and we had some leftover shells), so I made a sort of Mexican rice and panfried the chicken instead. He loved it! A dinner victory. We also had some broccoli. And the Ultimate went well, too.

Tuesday, 6/18/19

Jason made us a couple of pizzas---cheese for Carter, pepperoni, mushrooms and provolone for us. I was starving and happy to come home to dinner in progress.

Monday, 6/17/19

Dinner at my dad's, with Thor, too! We repurposed some of the leftovers from the weekend into salads, Jason made a loaf of bread (my favorite, with onions and sesame seeds), and had a couple of Blue Aprons---a spicy gnocchi that we have had at Jen and John's, plus grilled cheese with peaches and mustard (we supplemented with some more grilled cheese) and a slightly lame butter lettuce salad with too many radishes. I made a tiny batch of snickerdoodles for my dad (they were only OK. Kind of dry).

Sunday, 6/16/19

Another social day--bagels and coffee for brunch at my dad's before everyone headed out (we picked up some local strawberries). Then home to rest for a while before dinner with Jennie and David. I just made a flan, and Jason made bread. Then home to collapse.

We could not have done it without my aunts!

Saturday, 6/15/19

My mom's memorial. Amazing catered spread done by her friend Peter---smoked salmon, spicy shrimp, pulled pork on biscuits, these cool canapes with prosciutto, beets, goat cheese and sweet potatoes, frittata and maybe more that I missed. We rounded it out by bringing vegetables, cheese and crackers, chips and dessert (I was gratified that my banana cake with penuche frosting went fast. My caramel-butterscotch blondies were a little underdone but tasty. I didn't want to audition any new recipes!). The gathering was nice; people said lovely things and seemed to enjoy themselves. Tears and laughter, as expected!
Dinner was leftovers back at my dad's, plus some pizza. Another long day, but it's so nice to see everyone.

Maggie made a beautiful poster; this is just a small part

Friday, 6/14/19

Headed over to Whately late morning to start getting ready for the weekend. All the amazing aunties came and brought stuff for sandwiches, cheese, crackers, chips, salsa, and of course booze. Long day, but we got everything accomplished.

This is ostensibly to help me remember the name of the wine.

Thursday, 6/13/19

We had accumulated quite a bit of leftover bread, so grilled cheese, tomato/cucumber salad, and deviled eggs. A Carter favorite (even though this batch of eggs wasn't my best).

Wednesday, 6/12/19

Chicken cutlet sandwiches, with provolone and sauteed broccoli rabe, on grinder rolls. I thought this was a great combo, but didn't actually even need the bread. I am always up for a chicken cutlet. Plus we had some potato chips.

Tuesday, 6/11/19

Since I was making a galette dough on Saturday, I made two, and used the other to make a cheddar-broccoli galette from Serious Eats. I thought it was excellent, although no one else seemed to care one way or the other. The only thing I would change is a sharper cheese. We also had an overly vinegary romaine salad. Jason took a picture for me, since he was the one who finished baking it:

Monday, 6/10/19

Dinner in Whately: two Blue Aprons. One was a burger with goat cheese, a spicy-sweet jalapeno relish, and mustard, plus roasted carrots. The other was sauteed tilapia over bok choy and rice. Both very delicious. We could have eaten a LOT more burger, though. I brought an angel food for dessert, to atone for the heavy carrot cake. No leftovers to speak of.

Sunday, 6/9/19

We all trooped down to Stamford to visit Jason's Bubbe and some other relatives. We only brought chocolate chip cookies (A point of contention, as I don't care if I ever see another one. To me, they are not a special cookie that you bring somewhere, but since it was Jason's family I didn't fight too hard). Jason's aunt made blintzes and eggplant parm, and there was a salad with falafel and pizza, so we didn't starve (I wasn't really worried, but Bubbe isn't known for her cooking). It was basically fine, and we were grateful to Jason's dad for driving.

Saturday, 6/8/19

Dinner at Jennie and David's; Jason wasn't happy with his bread, but my apple galette was nice. I used  (and screwed up: forgot to add the sour cream) pastry dough recipe from SK galettes, but just winged it with the filling. In retrospect, I should have done a double layer of apples, and maybe sweetened them a bit more. I used granny smith's, which were fairly dry and tart. I served it with whipped cream and SK's salted butter caramel---I think that was key. Would have been a bit blah otherwise. I might make another one soon with the dough done correctly and more apples.

Friday, 6/7/19

We somehow ended up with a jar of tomato sauce, and Carter requested that with spaghetti for dinner. It was fine, but I still prefer to make my own. But luckily, there was also garlic bread and zucchini fritters (from the Julia Turshen recipe). Those came out beautifully and made up for substandard jarred sauce (Carter and I have agreed to disagree on this point. I suspect that he prefers the sweeter and smoother qualities).

Thursday, 6/6/19

I needed to use up a lot of leftover cooked pinto beans, so I made a curry with them, with roasted cauliflower and rice. Sadly, I forgot the cauliflower was in the oven, so while it didn't burn, per se, it did get very shriveled and toasty. And the curry was no great shakes (I promised Carter he wouldn't have to eat it again). The only upside to this meal was not wasting all those beans.

Wednesday, 6/5/19

Giant chopped salad with romaine, cherry tomatoes, provolone, pepperoni, chick peas, and cherry peppers. Carter said my dressings are too tart, and he is probably correct. Nonetheless, he  ate it (and Jason and I liked it). We also had some leftover Jason bread, toasted with cheese.

Tuesday, 6/4/19

Carter had his end of the year Ultimate banquet, so we just had some quick leftover chili, roasted asparagus, and leftover cornbread and biscuits. The chili aged really well; I may use ground turkey on purpose next time.
Here is one more gratuitous picture of Carter:

Monday, 6/3/19

Two fun Blue Aprons at my dad's: popcorn chicken with togarashi seasoning, rice and a cabbage slaw, and paneer tacos with onions and poblanos,  plus a different cabbage slaw. I felt silly making too different slaws, but they were both tasty in their own way. The popcorn chicken was very popular (and delicious). Tried to pawn off more carrot cake. Still have a ton left.

Sunday, 6/2/19

LOOONG day of Ultimate. We somehow spent all day at Carter's tournament (even making an emergency run to Stop and Shop for some lunch), and then picked up Wendy's for Carter again (we felt sorry for him since he got crashed into and got the breath knocked out of him and hurt his back. But now we are out of Wendy's coupons so he'll just have to eat my cooking). Jason and I had leftover eggplant parm from the freezer. Since it had a vegetable (two if you count tomato sauce), cheese, and breading, we decided to call it a meal.

Saturday, 6/1/19

Jennie and David's: bread and cake. I made a carrot cake and a cooked flour frosting, for from Stella Parks via Serious eats. I was not too happy with the cake: too big! Too dense! The recipe from Robicelli's cupcake book is much better. So heavy...the frosting was good but no better than the one I normally use. Sometimes I think Stella Parks just isn't the baker for me. She is so exacting in many ways, and I don't think the finished product is always worth it. In any event I really should have cut the recipe in half.

Friday, 5/31/19

Jason and I had a very busy day--drove up to Norwich and had lunch with Yoni and Stephen; stopped at King Arthur Flour (and the Brattleboro Aldi for rose) and barely made it to the fields on time to pick up Carter from practice. We treated him to dinner at Wendy's, and I just had a glass of the rose and a little leftover chili for dinner. I think Jason finished up some frozen pizza from Carter's lunch.

Thursday, 5/30/19

Chili, with the ground turkey I meant to use last week, plus Jason made a pack of Jiffy corn bread. You really can't beat that Jiffy mix! The chili was quite good (and I snuck in carrots and zucchini).

Wednesday, 5/29/19

I had intended to make sushi bowl, but sadly, my sushi rice looked a littly buggy, and I couldn't get any decent avocados anyway, so we had fried rice and seared tuna instead. Still very tasty, and the fried rice used up a lot of vegetable odds and ends. No leftovers is a plus.