Saturday, 12/28/19

Dinner with Jennie and David. Bread, plus I made an apple cake from King Arthur flour. It has a penuche frosting that reminds me of the one from my favorite banana cake. I think everyone liked it; I would almost consider increasing the recipe to make a taller cake, with a better ration of icing.

Friday, 12/27/19

I just didn't feel like making dinner, so we just ate leftovers from Christmas. It was fine. At least Carter and I had a fun trip to Northampton, with Bombay Royale for lunch.

Plus a trip to Starbucks

Thursday, 12/26/19

Donna & Walter and Dave &  Marge came up for the day. I had to work, but we went over for dinner (snacks and pizza). Still eating all those cookies and shrimp and whatnot.

Wednesday, 12/25/19

Christmas! The usual suspects: cheese & crackers, little hotdogs, meatballs, cookies, chips & dip, shrimp cocktail....It was a pleasant get-together, if a little short. Nice to see Maggie and her family (especially since there will be a new Dowd this summer!!).

 No dinner, just snacking.

Tuesday, 12/24/19

Trying out a new tradition---Dad, Zac, Corrina, Carter, Jason and I went to Goten for dinner. A ot of other people apparently had the same idea, so I was glad I made reservations. It was fun and good! The only downside is that long tables (and half of us being old and hard of hearing) make conversation difficult. Corrina and I even tried pretty drinks. Merry Christmas to us!

Monday, 12/23/19

Still have a cold, still no dinner plan....I found some empanadas in the freezer and four lonely sweet potatoes in the drawer, and threw together a little sauce with garlic, sour cream and cilantro. Voila! Empanadas and roasted sweet potatoes for dinner. Not bad, considering.

Sunday, 12/22/19

I am in the throes of a cold and just really didn't plan anything for the week, so Jason made us a couple of pizzas. He always tries to put on too many toppings, but they were delicious nevertheless.

Saturday, 12/21/19

Busy day!  Crap day in the morning, Jennie and David in the evening. Plus I have a cold and have basically lost my voice.  It was basically all cookies (I made cinnamon swirl cookies, minus the frosting), although Corrina and I made a giant batch of only somewhat successful Chex Mix.  It could have baked longer, but we were running out of time. We should also have used more butter and spices. Still pretty good but we can do better!
So Jason brought bread and we brought the cookies to Jennie and David's. There were some tasty ones! Carter was glad to see the return of the chocolate peppermint thumbprints.

Friday, 12/20/19

They had these smallish hams at Aldi a couple of weeks ago, so we decided to try our hand at ham (I never cooked one before). Well obviously it turns out to be the easiest thing ever. I wasn't looking forward to it, but this was quite good! Sometimes ham feels gross and bouncy to me, but this had a nice texture and flavor. We had oven roasted potatoes (I really wanted scalloped, but Jason asked for roasted. Oh well)  and sauteed zucchini with it. If I see another one of those little guys, I am going to buy it.

Thursday, 12/19/19

Free lunch day at Umass! So Jason and I weren't hungry, anyway. Plus I had a get-together in North Amherst, so I snacked there. Carter apparently had mac & cheese and Jason hasdcheese puffs. At least I ate some kale salad! I brought maple-nutmeg cookies (from SK) but there were a lot left over. Women.

Wednesday, 12/18/19

As I was putting dinner together, I happened to look through the blog to see if I had made any notes the last time I made this pasta. Ominously, it mentioned that Carter hated it. Oops.
Anyway, I made pasta with sweet potatoes, spinach, sauteed onions, goat cheese and brown butter. Carter sat down and told me it smelled putrid, so that didn't bode well. But he ate it and said "it wasn't the worst", so I guess that's good enough. I liked it, though! Jason added a little Frank's Red Hot to his and that was a good idea----the vinegary spice cuts through the richness.

Tuesday, 12/1719

Jason night, so no surprises: hamburgers and tater tots. He is still experimenting with cooking burgers in the Instant Pot for some reason, but at least this batch was pretty good. I made a bowl of green beans with butter, garlic and soy sauce to go with it.

Monday, 12/16/19

Just nachos. Not even fancy ones. Sad.

Sunday, 12/15/19

Unusual Sunday night dinner with Jennie and David. Bread (of course), and I made a pie from the latest Cook's Illustrated book (The Perfect Pie). Eggnog pie was so good! The whipped cream was also interesting, since it had brown sugar, sour cream and bourbon. I will definitely male this pie again---the only fault was my own, in that I didn't blind bake the crust quite long enough. But everyone really liked it. I can't resist a cream pie.

Bad lighting

Saturday, 12/14/19

we had a late-ish lunch with my dad at Wildwood BBQ. Really good! We have talked about trying it for a while, and we all agreed we would definitely return (although perhaps in warmer weather as it was a little chilly in there). Jason and I split a combo plate with pulled pork, brisket, black beans, pickles and macaroni and cheese. The meats were excellent.

Dinner at Jen and John's: Jason made bread, I made a lemon layer cake since it is John's favorite and his birthday just passed. Used a box white cake, lemon curd (from Sally's; the best part but could have been firmer---the layers slid around a bit), and cooked flour frosting from Serious Eats that I added a little lemon extract to. Overall it was fine, but Carter thought my sprinkles looked tacky. He is wrong.
Dinner was two Blue Aprons---yet another (spicy!) shakshuka, and chicken in a mustardy sauce with collard greens and rice. Carter couldn't handle the shakshuka and scrambled himself a couple of eggs.

Friday, 12/13/19

I wanted to make Korean fire chicken, but Jason whined that I had promised at some point to make Popeye's style fried chicken, so I (not gracefully) made that instead. I also cooked up some broccoli and made a batch of biscuits (from Sally's Baking Addiction). I forgot the folding step and they were still great. Maybe because she uses so much baking powder? For dessert I made a batch of Instant Pot. rice pudding that I adapted from a Melissa Clark recipe:

• 2/3 cup Arborio or other short-grain white rice
• 3 cups whole milk
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest
• Pinch of kosher salt
• 1/2 vanilla bean, halved lengthwise
• 3/4 cup heavy cream
• 2 egg yolks
• 1/2 cup raisins (optional)
• Ground cinnamon, for serving (optional)
• Whipped cream, for serving (optional)

Directions

1. In the pressure cooker pot, stir together the rice, milk, sugar, cinnamon stick, lemon zest, and salt. Use the tip of a paring knife to scrape the vanilla seeds out of the pod into the pot and add the vanilla bean, too.

2. Lock the lid into place and cook on high pressure for 4 minutes. Let the pressure release naturally for 10 minutes, then manually release the remaining pressure.

3. Remove and discard the cinnamon stick and vanilla bean.

4. In a small bowl, whisk together the cream and yolks. Whisk into the rice, continuing to stir until thickened, 2 to 4 minutes. The residual heat of the rice will cook the yolks. Stir in the raisins (if using).

5. Spoon the pudding into serving bowls, then cover with plastic wrap and chill for at least 4 hours. The pudding will thicken as it cools. Serve with a sprinkle of ground cinnamon and whipped cream, if desired.

I doubled it (messy), omitted the lemon, cinnamon stick and vanilla bean, and dialed back the egg yolks and cream slightly. Really good.

Thursday, 12/12/19

The last of the turkey went into fried rice, with peas, broccoli and usual stuff. Also finished up the Aldi mini wontons. Why are they so good? Is it their diminutive size? I bought another bag, in case it is just one of their passing fancies.

Wednesday, 12/11/19

Time to get serious with those leftovers. Turkey noodle soup (really delicious, if I do say so myself), plus leftover pita and hummus, green beans and squash. Almost there!

Tuesday, 12/10/19

Jason made a batch of pita bread during the day, so I came home and made hummus and deviled eggs. Also had some leftover butternut squash. The leftovers are still lurking.

Monday, 12/9/19

It was time to face the music, leftover-wise. So we just had Thanksgiving all over again. Still pretty darn good.

Sunday, 12/8/19

Hot Chocolate Run!Corrina and Zac ran, but the boys and I volunteered. It was so, so cold, but fun. Some of us went to lunch at the Northampton Brewery after; Corrina and I split nachos and chicken tenders (and ordered the same kind of hard ginger cider. So embarrassing). Spent a quiet evening at home warming up and eating the leftover nachos.

Saturday, 12/7/19

Lunch in Whately: I made 3 kinds of cookies: peanut butter with chocolate chips (SK), rum-glazed gingerbread tiles (from Sweet---I saved the recipe in the NYT app), and coconut meringues (from The Craft of Baking). Carter liked the gingerbread but requests more w/o the glaze. The meringue was slightly overbaked but pretty good. Jason made a loaf of bread, and I put together a Blue Apron with roasted carrots and brussels sprouts, sauteed chicken breasts with a tamarind-soy glaze, and rice. Really liked the glaze.

A study in brown

Dinner was at Jennie and David's---we brought more bread and more of the cookies. Jason thought it was too many cookies but sometimes I just need to bake! Besides, as Corrina and I noted, you can eat more of them when there is a variety.

Friday, 12/6/19

Home Thanksgiving!

-Turkey (dry-brined recipe from SK. Turned out nice and moist)
-Butternut squash (sauteed with red onions, sraracha, maple, and black pepper
-Green bean casserole (recipe right from the can of fried onions)
-Mashed potatoes (Success! I slowly added hot milk, and used my electric mixer. The closest I have come to recreating my mom's)
-Stuffing (I used Jason's Bubbe's recipe, at his request. Left out water chestnuts, prunes and apricots as we didn't have any, but did put in diced prunes. Jason and Carter liked it)
-Dinner rolls (Jason made them from a Cook's Illustrated recipe. Awesome.)
-Gravy (Come on, that and the rolls were really my whole motivation. Used pan drippings and some Trader Joe's turkey broth. )
-Cranberry jelly right from the can, at Carter's request
-Pecan pie (also SK. I didn't love it on day one, but I was awfully full. Liked it better on day 2)

Overall, success! Carter requested more traditional sweet potatoes next time, but overall very delicious.

Here is a bad picture:

A lot of food for 3 people

Thursday, 12/5/19

Used leftover meatballs and tomato sauce to make meatball grinders for dinner. Served with some leftover zucchini crisps and some potato chips. A little soggy (the grinders, not the chips), but good.

Wednesday, 12/4/19

Sushi bowl! I just used regular rice (I'm out of sushi rice) but did mix it with the rice vinegar and sugar. Topped with avocado, cucumber, seared tuna, furikaki, and toasted nori. So good! I also picked up some pork wontons from Aldi that were surprisingly delicious (actually, probably better than the dumplings we make). They were on the small size, which made them easy for cooking and popping in your mouth. Might have to stock up on those. Served with a simple soy sauce/ginger/garlic dipping sauce. Popular dinner.

Monday, 12/2/19

Snow day! So naturally I baked up a couple of chocolate babkas (from Smitten). Once again I forgot that she recommends starting the dough the night before, but since I had all day to mess with it, it worked out fine. For dinner I made spaghetti and meatballs, plus zucchini-parm crisps (SK again) that I made for the second time even though they are a major pain in the ass. The zucchini is sliced so thin and all that breading....The only positive note is that at least they are oven baked and not fried.

This may have been the only day all year that I didn't leave the house at all!

Beautiful babka!

Sunday, 12/1/19

The first snow of the season! So it was nice to come home to broccoli-cheddar soup that I made in the IP. I sort of followed a recipe from the Times, but streamlined it a bit. Skipped making a roux and it was fine. Jason made us some pita bread, and Carter and I had made a batch of hummus the day before, so that was dinner. I have made better broccoli soup, but there were no complaints.

Saturday, 11/30/19

Beef empanadas (from the NYT) that I really should have started much earlier in the day. Nothing too tricky, but there were cooling steps that I hadn't fully thought through. But they baked up very nicely! Jason really liked them; I thought they could have used a little bit more spice and olives. I also threw a head of cauliflower into the food processor, and sauteed that rubble up with garlic, scallions, spinach, peas, parm and a little cream. Delicious! Better than roasting it, in fact. I'll definitely make cauliflower that way again.

Friday, 11/29/19

Dinner with Jennie and David. They were a bit subdued, having been sick for a couple of weeks. They had ordered a pre-made whole Thanksgiving dinner from UMass, which was actually pretty good. There was even mashed potatoes and gravy for Carter! Jason made bread, and I made pumpkin pie (from David Lebowitz). Early night, which was nice.

Thursday, 11/28/19

Thanksgiving #1 at Jay and Jodi's house. We brought bread and pita (Jason), and a chocolate cream pie from me, via Cook's Illustrated. Still no sign of green bean casserole OR mashed potatoes OR gravy. What is it with these people? Still, it was pretty nice seeing everyone.

Mercer, the cutest cousin

After that, we stopped by Jen and John's for dessert. So, so many pies. I brought  the same chocolate tart (from Craft of Baking) that I made last week and it was fine. There must gave been 7 or 8 pies there.The best one was a chocolate graham cracker number from the Pie Bar.
Then home because I was so tired.