Wednesday, 10/30/19

Dinner in Whately: two Blue Aprons (a sort of butter chicken with delicata squash and steak with mashed potatoes and roasted carrots. Fine, but the steak was pretty chewy). Jason made bread, and I brought from Gooey Oat Bars  from SK that have also been going into Carter's lunch.

Tuesday, 10/29/19

Jason's turn for dinner. I admit that I wasn't super excited for kielbasa, but I forgot that it was the good kind from the Polish market, so it was better than I expected. Plus acorn squash and a Yorkshire pudding. So, actually pretty good. Sorry to doubt you, Jason.

Monday, 10/28/19

Tomato soup with curry spices and coconut in the IP (about 10 minutes on high pressure), with some wild rice thrown in. Carter didn't adore the wild rice, but I thought it added a pleasant chewiness. Jason made us a nice loaf of bread, and I put out some leftover cooked sweet potato (leftover from making a pie) but didn't eat any because SO BLAND. But the soup was great. Better than stupid old black bean soup.

Sunday, 10/27/19

  Black bean soup in the Instant Pot (fine. I never actually love black bean soup so I am not sure why I continue to make it. It's cheap?). I was really there for the biscuits (from Sally's Baking Addiction). I didn't even have actual buttermilk on hand this time and they were still excellent. I think it is the combination of lots of baking powder and cooking them in a cast iron skillet (that I melt butter in beforehand). Can you just have biscuits for dinner?

Saturday, 10/26/19

Dinner with Jennie and David. Pita from Jason, a substandard sweet potato pie from me. The crust was excellent, but the filling was too dense. I used the Patti LaBelle recipe that I have used successfully a couple of times before, but I think I made a big mistake in letting the sweet potatoes cool overnight before making the filling. It wasn't as smooth or creamy as I would have liked. Oh well.

Friday, 10/25/19

Home and making a proper Lace dinner. Fresh egg noodles (from Serious Eats); I make the dough and Jason rolls it out, so that works out. Plus sauteed chicken breasts with mushrooms and a creamy lemon sauce, and broccoli rabe (for greens and necessary bitterness).  All my favorite stuff, so no wonder I liked it.

Thursday, 10/24/19

Leaving day....never fun. I ran out to a local cafe for coffee and (only decent) croissants, and then steeled myself to take the bus to the train to the plane to the Lyft home. Except for about 45 minute delay (sitting on the tarmac), everything went smoothly. I grabbed an egg/avocado/cheese torta from an airport Frontera which was really quite delicious. Maybe my favorite thing from Rick Bayliss so far, which is somewhat silly.
Then home to leftover pizza and a few chocolates from my precious box of See's Candies. Good to be back.

Wednesday, 10/23/19

Poor Jessica was not feeling well, so we lounged about and ate the rest of the bagels. After a while I left her to her bed, and took a walk around the neighborhood, and picked up a little lunch from a place called Kaathi's which was kind of like an Indian version of Chipotle, on a smaller scale, I had chicken tikka over rice and it was not too bad.
Luckily, we were still able to make our reservation for the Aviary, which I was really looking forward to. It did not disappoint! We had the 3 course cocktail and food pairing. Unfortunately, they don't have their menu online, so I have only vague descriptions. I started with a beautiful drink called I Got 99 Palomas, that had tequila, grapefruit, something lovely and red and little frozen ice ball thingies? That's a terrible description---they were like little slushies in the best way. It was delicious. Then they brought us our snacks: some kind of hush puppies with a whipped manchego (awesome), some colorful vegetable puff things that looked like giant pork rinds, a duck salad with glass noodles, truffled popcorn, tomato and crab tarts, and fried green tomatoes (the only thing we didn't love; the tomato slices were a little too thick). My next drink had two elements: sort of a gin flip, with a side of blueberry soda that could you mix in, or not. I never really did find out what my last drink was----it came in a cool two part glass and tasted very whiskey-y. Jessica's nonalcoholic drinks were very dramatic! One sort of distilled right there at the table (it was a little sweet, with chocolate and banana flavors), one was in their signature round serving glass that you sort of move around to get different flavors, and I don't recall the other one. I wish I had taken a picture of the menu!!! Anyway, it was very fun and made me a little sorry we didn't go to Alinea. Next time.
PS: Stopped at Jeni's ice cream on the way home---brown butter almond and vanilla in a waffle cup. After all, when is the next time I will get to eat Jeni's ice cream?

Tuesday, 10/22/19

We had picked up some bagels and cream cheese from a cute shop nearby (Chicago Bagel Authority) on Monday afternoon, so had breakfast in the apartment. They were nothing special, but sitting overnight probably didn't help. Lunch was at Frontera Grill: guacamole, a tuna ceviche with tomato, jicama, avocado and cilatnro, and more queso fundito. All fine. Why is the queso fundito from La Veracruzana so much better? It must be the variety of cheese they use? Anyway, the tortillas were certainly very good. Jessica had a Caesar salad with skirt steak, and I had chicken mole enchiladas (very dark and intense). This was a good meal, but I guess I was expecting something many steps above my local Mexican restaurants. No real complaints, though.
Dinner was at a place called Boka, which I had heard many good things about. Bonus: it was only a few blocks from the apartment. I started with a very fancy cocktail that I had to google all the ingredients for when I got home, but the upshot was that it tasted like a gin and tonic (Nouvelle Regime tanqueray gin, genmaicha, cocchi americano, dolin blanc, black lime). Jessica's non-alcoholic drink was prettier and tastier. We ordered the tasting menu, and I am not going to be able to remember everything, but I'll do my best. The amuse was a couple of oysters with lemon oil and something else, plus a little sushi shaped thing that had carrot tartare and I don't know what else? But it was delicious. I couldn't really hear everything the staff was saying. Started with "Shima Aji Crudo* • grape, turnip, yuzu, fermented onion" (although mine didn't have the fish for some reason? Jessica kindly shared hers with me). This was extremely delicious and my favorite course, I think. Then came "Shima Aji Crudo* • grape, turnip, yuzu, fermented onion" which was quite nice.  Jessica didn't love the  smoked scallops in "Kabocha Agnolotti • chanterelle, toasted yeast, smoked scallop', but it was nice enough. Then there was lobster sitting in a sea urchin foam. Eh. Then a olive-oil poached cod with I don't even know what. All I know was that this was our third soft creamy dish and I was getting a little bored of it. Then we had duck breast with huckleberries and some little blob of something. I didn't catch what.  Two desserts: a chocolate sorbet over a chocolate mousse with more huckleberries, and "Concord Grape, anise hyssop, yogurt, buckwheat " which was another sorbet, and very lovely.
Overall, we liked it, but we weren't overwhelmed. I think we wish we had ordered off the menu, but oh well.  Still a nice fancy evening.

Monday, 10/21/19

Lazy morning (I actually slept the latest!), and then an early-ish lunch at Little Goat. The highlight were the french fries with hoisin mayo and pickled peppers that I ordered for the table. Celeste had another veggie burger, and Jessica had french toast with fried chicken tenders, fried egg, and strawberries. It was a lot. I had a sandwich with heirloom tomato, cheddar, blueberry jam, bacon gouda bread, pickled fresnos and some shredded cabbage or lettuce, I'm not sure which. Plus bacon.  Also a lot going on but basically I liked it.

We dropped Celeste off at the train station and took a two hour walking tour of "Historic Treasures of Chicago's Golden Age". We saw a lot, but the docent walked super fast, and our feet were killing us by the end. We limped home, picking up some snacks (spicy salt and vinegar chips!) along the way since our dinner reservation wasn't until 9:15.

Dinner was at The Girl and the Goat, so back to Randolph Street...We had:


-sautéed green beans, fish sauce vinaigrette. cashews
-roasted cauliflower, pickled peppers . pine nuts . mint
-seared scallops, sunflower . chili-lime . pistachio
-crispy beef short ribs, salted caramel . pickle relish
-amarillo tasty focaccia. huacatay mayo . tomatillo pico
-pb&j: sponge cake . grape sherbet . peanut butter brittle & fluff
-caramel corn & malt balls: vanilla malt ice cream . popcorn caramel . chocolate magic shell

We once again were seated right at the kitchen counter (which is actually quieter than the main part of the room, so that's nice!), so we got to watch the desserts being made all night. So it is a shame that they were too, too sweet. I finished mine out of politeness, but it was tough! The individual components (especially the little sponge cakes) were good, but maybe too much all together. The green beans were the real highlight, and I also really liked the focaccia. Overall, a fun experience.

roasted cauliflower

pickled peppers . pine nuts . mint

fish sauce vinaigrette . cashew\\

fish sauce vinaigrette . cashew

Sunday, 10/20/19

When we all finally woke up (and had lots of coffee), we walked a few blocks over to a place called The Blue Door Farmstand for breakfast. I was delighted to discover that you could have fried cheese curds! For breakfast! Of course I had to have that, with some fruit salad so I wouldn't feel too bad about my choices. They were delicious, with some pickled peppers and a buttermilk ranch. Jessica had eggs Benedict on a black pepper biscuit, and Celeste had some kind of vegetable burger. My only regret was the $4.50 chai latte.

Breakfast cheese!

Celeste and I took a walk and let Jessica rest a bit before our next outing, another architectural boat tour. It was a bit chilly and foggy, but still beautiful and informative. Even if I hadn't forgotten a lot from last time, different docents give a different spin on things. This one was particularly interesting. No real lunch, but Jessica and I split some very so-so potato pancakes and a genuinely bad chickpea and avocado salad from a little stand on the Riverwalk. I really don't know how someone could make chickpeas, greens and avocado taste blander by adding a olive oil and lemon? Ugh.

By the time the tour was over, it was nearly dinner time, so we walked over to Eataly, browsed around, and had dinner at one of the restaurants there. It turned out to be a pretty good choice. We shared a plate of fresh mozzarella with pistachio pesto, Jessica had lemon-ricotta ravioli with cacio e pepe sauce, Celeste had squash ravioli with lemon and sage, and I had a bucatini with butter, anchovies and garlic breadcrumbs. Jessica and I also split a truly unnecessary order of meatballs. We picked up some sweets to bring home for later, but my little tiramisu was nothing special.

Dinner cheese!

Saturday, 10/19/19

Of course I woke up at 5:30 local time and had to bide my time until Jessica got up. Luckily, the apartment is quite large so I could sit and drink coffee without disturbing her. The Le Pain Quotidien (only a few blocks away!) for breakfast. Fried egg with avocado and crispy shallots was only OK, but the breads and cookie butter were the real point anyway. Then we headed into town to meet Celeste at the train. A place in the neighborhood called Taco Joint for lunch. We shared some excellent guacamole and a queso fundito (too many pepper strips); I had some tortilla soup (good taste; oddly creamy) and a chicken/pineapple taco (excellent!). Jessica also had one of those tacos, and she and Celeste had spicy cauliflower tacos too.

We walked around and explored the neighborhood a bit. I bought some caramel popcorn (when in Chicago....it was from a place called Berco's and it was great. Very buttery).  We took an Uber back into the city for out Pizza Tour. Ugh.....there was some kind of parade happening and we were 45 minutes late!! So stressful. Luckily, the first pizza place (Exchequer) was our least favorite (tavern style thin crust pizza with that cracker-y crust). Celeste and I tossed back our Moscow Mules and off to the next stop. Cafe Serio (in Lakeville) has Neapolitan style (we went there on our last tour) and is was my hands down favorite. Our pie had sausage, hot red peppers and honey....so good. The second Moscow Mule went down pretty easy as well. Then back in the van to downtown to a deep dish place called LaBriola for another tavern style slice with pepperoni. It was a better example of the style, but still not my favorite. AND we had sausage deep dish, but I was seriously flagging at this point and only ate about half. Then they had the audacity to serve donuts, but I only nibbled it. Sorry, Stan's donuts, you just aren't that great.
Got home after midnight and crashed.

Friday, 10/18/19

Chicago! I finally made it to our apartment (after a mishap with a wrong bus) and explored the neighborhood a bit before Jessica got in. Very swanky! The airbnb looks like it came straight from IKEA (in a good way).
When J. got in we headed out on foot for a bit, before calling a lyft to take us to a sushi place I had read up on, called Juno. It was some of the best sushi I have ever had! We tried lots of things, including several kinds of tuna (I don't think I had ever had o-toro before and it was amazing), some oysters, nigiri (scallop was a standout), a roll with tuna and king crab, shrimp cocktail with a wasabi emulsion, charred corn, a selection of sashimi...everything was so good that we kept ordering more. I wish I was a food writer so I could describe it better.

The nice thing about sushi for dinner is that it leaves you with room for dessert, and it so happens that there is a Jeni's ice cream right near the apartment! I had salty caramel (duh) and gooey butter cake in a waffle cone, and Jessica had the gooey butter cake and coffee. The flavors were strong and delicious. I am worried about how close it is.

Typically bad picture of charred corn

Thursday, 10/17/19

While Jason gave an exam, Carter and I walked down to Big Y and picked out a ridiculous dinner:  some macaroni and cheese, a sushi roll, chicken wings, mozzarella sticks and some marinated mushrooms and while beans. It wasn't the most balanced meal, but I think Carter enjoyed it.

Wednesday, 10/16/19

I knew I was going to make tofu, and I knew I had a bag of noodles from the Asian market, but everything else was up for grabs. So I marinated the tofu with sriracha, maple, and soy, then broiled it (delicious), and made a sauce with coconut milk, lemon, a little fish & soy sauces and some spicy chili crisp for the noodles (bouncy sweet potato noodles which are fun). Sauteed with garlic, scallions and leftover broccoli. Everyone liked it!

Tuesday, 10/15/19

Leftover calzone, plus (slightly overcooked) broccoli. Too tired from a long day at work for much else.

Monday, 10/14/19

Lunch in Whately---bread, a key lime pie (recipe from my binder, plus graham cracker crust from Sally's Baking Addiction. It could have used a little more butter), another Blue Apron (more pork, this time with delicata squash and apples. tastier than I thought it would be). Another nice fall day, so we took all the dogs for a walk.
Then Jason insisted on making calzones for dinner (and bagels, and he was doing some Umass stuff so he was nearly hysterical). Somehow I ended up making all the fillings, plus shaping and cooking them. So much for it being Jason's night to cook. we had two kinds with meat (sausage and pepperoni), but I liked the spinach-ricotta ones the best).

Sunday, 10/13/19

Dinner with Jen and John---bread from Jason, SK S'Mores cupcakes from me (delicious; I used 1.5 of the frosting recipe and found that to work well), a couple of Blue Aprons (a pork with some kind of poblano sauce and a tilapia with zucchini. Both fine).  The three day weekend fun continues!

Saturday, 10/12/19

Jason , Jen and I went up to the Ashfield Fall Festival---the drive through the hill towns in peak season was so beautiful (plus I got a fried dough with maple cream). Then we had dinner with Jason's parents at the Korean place on route 9. Unremarkable (though they love it. Maybe we just didn't order the right things).

Friday, 10/11/19

Chopped salad with dressing from SK, plus garlic bread and spaghetti with sausage. I made the sauce in the Instant Pot; didn't really follow a recipe, but did add a cup or so of red wine, since tomato things seem to need more liquid to avoid burning. It did have the desired result of nice tender sausage, but needed extra tomato paste at the end to thicken it up. I think the slow cooker works a little better for tomato sauce; maybe I'll try that function on the IP sometime.

Thursday, 10/10/19

Jason made us a loaf of bread, and I made potato soup in the Instant Pot. No real recipe, just onions, potatoes, carrots....a little bacon fat for flavor. It takes about 8 minutes in the IP. I threw in some spinach to round it out, plus we had some fancy Gruyere from Aldi. Jason seemed surprised to like it (soup isn't his favorite).

Wednesday, 10/9/19

I tried another Instant Pot version of butter chicken, from Archana Mundhe. This was quite superior to the Madhut Jaffrey version. The name is a bit of a misnomer, since she uses mostly coconut cream, not butter (although I added a bit of butter and cream at the end). really easy; I used boneless chicken breasts, left in pretty large pieces that I then cut up and added back to the sauce after it was done. Delicious! Served over basmati rice along with some leftover pita, plus zucchini that I sauteed with onions and some pakora chat.

Tuesday, 10/8/19

Carter had an extra night of Ultimate, so dinner at home. I made some green chili macaroni and cheese (from Serious Eats), using up various kinds of cheese. we had that, plus some leftover pulled pork and steamed broccoli. I think I am coming to prefer stovetop mac & cheese to oven baked:  it comes together quickly and reheats a little better.

Monday, 10/7/19

Pulled pork sandwiches, green beans (sauteed with ginger, garlic & soy sauce), and salt & vinegar chips. Did the pulled pork in the Instant Pot, but I felt 60 minutes wasn't quite long enough. The pork wasn't as tender as I might have liked (but it was fine). Maybe add ten more minutes next time?

Sunday, 10/6/19

Dinner was a Jason production: blueberry pancakes and bacon. I have nothing to add to that.

Saturday, 10/5/19

Dinner with Jennie and David: another batch of pita from Jason, and a Boozy Rum Cake (from Flour) for me. The chiffon cake was nice and light, but I made a couple of minor errors that kept it from greatness: I didn't read the pastry cream instructions carefully enough, and added the cream with the milk instead of whipping it and folding it into the cooled pastry cream, plus I didn't have quite enough orange juice and zest, which meant it didn't really have a ton of flavor (except for rum). I did add a little orange extract, but should have put in more. Plus, I didn't love the rum whipped cream as a frosting---too rummy, and I could detect the cornstarch in an unpleasant way. Still, it is surprisingly light for a 4 layer cake and certainly looks pretty! And I am a fan of the chiffon cake. Maybe with a different frosting, and/or some coconut.

Friday, 10/4/19

Dinner with Jen, John and Laurie. Jason made pita, I made hummus and curried tomato soup (a little bit too spicy), and John bought bread and cheese that I made into grilled cheese. Laurie brought a tasty salad, and I made Canadian butter tarts (from the NYT; I gave in and paid for the Cooking subscription). These weren't overly difficult---rolling out the crust and fitting it into muffin tins was the hardest part. The filling is just brown sugar, maple syrup an egg and a little butter. I might make a little bit more filling next time as I thought they could have been filled a bit more.They were so tasty! No leftovers.

I really achieved that rustic look

Thursday, 10/3/19

Jason was giving an exam, and I had Carter's Open House to attend, so it was leftovers gulped down in a hurry.

Wednesday, 10/2/19

I made a recipe from a new Vietnamese cookbook from Andrea Nyugen  (Vietnamese Food Any Day) called "crispy caramelized pork crumbles'. You make a dark caramel (and add water so it stays liquid) to sauteed ground pork, along with fish sauce, onions and scallions. I also added a little sriracha and soy, added some broccoli and served it over rice. Thanks to the fish sauce, it was a little pungent while cooking, but is really quite delicious and easy. The caramel isn't overly sweet, just adds an interesting dark note. Everyone liked it, so hurray!

Tuesday, 10/1/19

I really was too tired to cook, so we met my dad and Corrina at Frontier Pizza. Nothing like sausage pizza, french fries and mozzarella sticks. Good thing I eat salad for lunch.

Monday, 9/30/19

I found a cute little chart at Bon Appetit (from Priya Krishna, who wrote Indianish) with instructions for all different dals in the Instant Pot. So handy! we had mung beans, so I cooked them with ginger, turmeric and coconut milk, and threw in a whole bag of baby lettuce at the end. Served over rice, with a little condiment made from toasted coconut flakes and mustard seeds (an idea stolen from a Melissa Clark recipe). I was feeling too tired to make dinner, but this came together quickly and seemed both healthy and tasty.
I saved the link, but here it is again: https://www.bonappetit.com/story/instant-pot-dal-formula

Sunday, 9/29/19

Repeat of a meatball soup from The Home Cook (by Alex Guarnaschelli). A few little changes: I used turkey instead of beef and ditalini instead of Israeli cous cous. Tiny little meatballs are fiddly to make, but overall it is pretty easy, since they poach in the broth. Everyone seemed to like it (again).

Saturday, 9/28/19

Jason made pita for Jennie and David's and I brought the orange shortbread and cookie-butter cookies from Friday night at my dad's. I was feeling lame about bringing cookies, but they went fast.