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.