Thursday, 1/30/20

Still trying to use up dried beans. Unfortunately, Jason cooked ALL the chickpeas, so even after making an enormous batch of hummus, we had at least a pint of chick peas leftover still (I froze them). So anyway, we had hummus and homemade pita for dinner, with another salad.

Wednesday, 1/29/20

I had to work late, so Jason made chicken nuggets, broccoli, and mashed potatoes for himself and Carter. Frankly, I didn't know he knew how to make mashed potatoes. I wonder how they were? Anyway, I just repurposed my lunch (farro and vegetables) into dinner.

Tuesday, 1/28/20

Jason night: french toast and bacon (he's a real health nut). I must say, I don't know where he found the recipe for baked french toast, but it is actually great. Mostly because the the brown-sugar layer on the bottom.

Monday, 1/27/20

Made a spicy mushroom and soba noodle dish from the NYT.  I couldn't believe how tasty it was, since the broth was just mushrooms, soy sauce and rice vinegar. I was planning to offer Carter something else, but he actually liked it, too. AND I used up the soba noodles (using things up: a recurring theme). There was also a salad.

Sunday, 1/2620

Minestrone (no recipe) and bread from Jason. I was trying to use up some of the dried beans we have accumulated, but then I overcooked them and had to used canned anyway. Oops. (Made bean dip out the overcooked white beans which tastes OK but looks kind of gross). Great way to use up a lot of vegetable bits we had hanging around.

Saturday, 1/25/20

Dinner with Jennie and David; bread from Jason, apple crisp from me. I just adapted the blueberry crisp recipe I use (from Food Network) and doubled the crisp. Good enough.

Friday, 1/24/20

I had been promising Carter that we would have cheese and crackers (not bread!) on night and it was finally time. We picked up some nice cheeses and a box of assorted crackers. I also served some apple slices and a salad. Dessert was a banana cream pie from "Pastry Love". I liked the pate sucre crust, and the pastry cream was excellent! It called for a layer of caramel sauce on the bottom; I had some on hand and just served it on the side. I also skipped the chocolate curls and didn't miss them. Would have been better had we found riper bananas, but still quite delicious.

Thursday, 1/23/20

Just leftovers

Wednesday, 1/22/20

Chick pea biryani in the Instant Pot (from the Ministry of Curry, where I think I also got the recipe for the chicken biryani), plus some roasted cauliflower. Not quite as delicious as the chicken variation, but everyone still ate it up happily enough. I felt like it could have used a tamarind chutney or something to perk it up.

Tuesday, 1/21/20

After a very long day of work, I was happy to come home to pizza from Jason. One with spinach & feta (my new favorite), the other with sausage and mushrooms.

Monday, 1/20/20

Early dinner at my dad's. Bread from Jason, SK chocolate pudding from me, and a Blue Apron with kale, collard greens, tilapia, shrimp and an orange sauce. Good, thanks to Corrina's advice to add some butter to the greens.

Sunday, 1/19/20

Carter was off at his grandparents, so I made Korean vegetable pancakes for Jason and I. And nothing else. The recipe is from the Times, and can use any number of vegetables (I used zucchini, carrots, scallions, cabbage and mushrooms). Good if a little damp. I should have followed the suggestions in the comments and precooked the zucchini to get out more of the liquid. In any event, we ate the whole batch. Is this what life will be like when Carter goes to college?

Saturday, 1/18/20

Love a two night stay at the Porches. Big breakfast in the new improved breakfast room:

Fancier cheese!

Jason and I took a little ride over to Williamburg, checked out the Williams College art museum and strolled around the campus; more hot tubbing,; generally very relaxing. I walked over to the nearby Big Y and grabbed sushi for dinner since it was cold and snowy and eating in sounded good.

After the second glass of Scotch

Friday, 1/17/20

Porches!! Before we left I made some Italian cold cut grinders, cut up some a couple of apples, and grabbed some cool Indian chips and that was dinner. Lots of hot tub. It was super super cold out there!

Carter in his element

Thursday, 1/16/20

Leftover pizza for Carter, leftover chili for me and Jason. Going away for the weekend and trying to empty the fridge.
Not sure if I like Cincinnati chili enough to put it into regular rotation.

Wednesday, 1/15/20

I made a standby for dinner, SK's pasta with broccoli pesto, but it wasn't my best batch. I added some leftover ricotta, and I think it made it too gloppy. Plus, I usually use short pasta, but used up a box of regular spaghetti and didn't lile it as much. And moreover, didn't use enough pasta to sauce, so it was too much. We still ate it up though. Since there was cheese, pasta and broccoli, I figured that constituted a whole meal and didn't bother with anything else.

Tuesday, 1/14/20

Jason night---he made a couple of pizzas (one with feta and spinach, one with some leftover  chicken cutlets from the freezer + ricotta). I sauntered in late to eat, having gone out for a drink at Vespa with Jennie after work. Good pizza, though!

Monday, 1/13/20

I have been seeing recipes for Cincinnati chili popping up in various places, so I thought I would give it a try. Very meaty and unusually spiced (allspice, cloves, cinnamon and cumin), plus a different approach: no sauteeing or browning: you just dump everything in and simmer (I used the Instatn Pot). I thought it was good, but it turned out to be one of the few things Carter really didn't like. I think he was experiencing cognitive dissonance: it didn't look or taste like  our usual version of chili, plus you eat it over spaghetti (with cheddar and chopped onions for garnish). So I would call this only a partial success.

Sunday, 1/12/20

Dinner with Jennie and David. Third night out in a row, so I was getting a bit tired. Jason made bread, of course (with a few dates and sesame. I love it), and I just made a flan since I had to work all day.

Saturday, 1/11/20

Unusual night...dinner with Jay and Jodi and their friends Sue and Elliot. They made lasagna and salad and cookies and it was really fun! I frlt useless without making a dessert....Jason did bring a (superfluous but good) loaf of bread, and I picked up a 6 pack of hard cider.  I think it was a success!

Friday, 1/10/20

Dinner with Jen and John. John proposed sloppy joe's (and bought all the ingredients), and we happily agreed! We actually made two batches: one with just taco seasoning (I bumped it up a little with some extra spices), on burger buns. The other was a homemade version of the traditional, with peppers, onions, Worcestershire, ketchup, etc... These went on fancier toasted brioche buns. Both tasty (in a sort of guilty pleasure way)! Jen also made us a nice salad; Jason brought extraneous bread, and I made brownies  and bought some vanilla ice cream for sundaes (along with leftover caramel sauce). All washed down with a couple of very, very good cocktails from John.

Thursday, 1/9/20

Loaded homefries, with spinach, chopped tomatoes, black beans and cheese. I figured that that covered it, nutritionally speaking, so I didn't make anything else. The boys ate it happily enough, but I think I am the only one that thinks of homefries as a treat. Guess that it the advantage of being the main cook.

Wednesday, 1/8/20

Finally got around to making fire chicken from Maangchi. Still wonderful! I served it over rice, with some broccoli on the side. I only wish I had not used shredded mozzarella, but it was all I had. Salty, spicy, and cheesy...yum. I knew this dish was a not a Carter favorite, so I made him some macaroni and cheese. Thanks, Annie's.

Tuesday, 1/7/20

Jason night. He planned on french toast to use up one of out little challah breads (plus bacon).  I admit that I wasn't excited, but it turned out really well! He used a recipe that called for butter, brown sugar and cinnamon to be melted together in a baking dish, top with slices of bread and the milk-egg mixture, soaked overnight and then baked. The buttery, sugary bottom was excellent and made syrup unnecessary. Go Jason, for finding a good recipe and following it!

Monday, 1/6/20

Used up some leftover tomato sauce, and finished a couple of partial boxes of pasta. We also had leftover bread, plus I made a salad. But my favorite thing was a recipe from the NYT for fried feta with lemon. You slice up some feta, coat it with sesame seeds and cornstarch, and saute in butter (I also added a a bit of olive oil). Top with a little crushed red pepper and some lemon juice....so good. Carter said it was "too flavorful", but I thought it was delicious on a piece of toast, tossed into the salad, or just plain. I have never met a variation of fried cheese that I didn't like.

Sunday, 1/5/20

Carter favorite, burritos with beans and beef, plus some guacamole. Of course it is always delicious.

Saturday, 1/4/20

Dinner at Laurie's, with Jen and John. Jason made a fun new bread with dates and goat cheese, Laurie had cheese and crackers, chicken satay, pigs in blankets, and mini tater tots (so cute!). So that was a lot of fun. I made an angel food cake and a batch of SK caramel sauce with a shot of bourbon. Gotta stay on top of that egg white situation!

Friday, 1/3/20

Dinner with Jennie and David.  SK challah from Jason and me (we make 4 small loaves instead of the usual 2 giant ones), plus I made a dessert from my latest cookbook, Pastry Love. It was a butterscotch pudding parfait, with ginger-molasses cookie crumbs and a whipped cream-creme faiche topping. I substituted the brown sugar/sour cream whipped cream (with a shot of bourbon) from Cook's Illustrated because I never have creme fraiche laying around. I thought the pudding was fine; it used a stick of butter which seemed excessive. And of course the cookie crumbs got soggy. Also, making (merely serviceable) cookies just to make crumbs was a pain. I think Trader Joe's triple ginger cookies, or speculoos would work even better. Anyway, it was predictably rich but STILL not the butterscotch pudding of my dreams.

Thursday, 1/2/20

 Perfectly fine meal of baked tofu, sauteed green beans (with garlic, soy sauce, and ginger) and rice.

Wednesday, 1/1/20

This New Year brought to you by: cheese. We had lunch with my Dad, Corrina and Zac at La Veracruzana---I had chile rellenos and Jason had queso fundito so that was basically all cheese, and then for dinner I made a batch of macaroni and cheese. I used a recipe from the NTY for a southern style baked m & c that called for milk and eggs, but no roux or breadcrumbs. It did remind me of the kind you get at southern buffets. The reviews at the Times were very mixed, but it seemed to me that the biggest problem people had came from not cooking it long enough (indeed, the 20 minutes suggested was ridiculous; it took 45). My batch came out nicely, but Carter prefers the kind with breadcrumbs, and Jason and like the stovetop kind with chicken and green chilis. We also had some broccoli, which helped to cut through the richness.

Tuesday, 12/31/19

Having to work until 5:30 didn't make it feel like a particularly festive New Year's Eve. But I did put together  a festive dinner: fried mozzarella, zucchini fritters, and some of the delicious Aldi potstickers. Maybe not the healthiest meal, but fun and tasty. Then Jason and I stopped by our neighbor Mary's for a while (which was surprisingly fun).

Monday, 12/30/19

Grilled cheeses, to use up all the bread we have hanging around. I had mine open-faced, with a layer of sauteed spinach, Jason added pesto to his and Carter stayed basic. I also made a batch of curried tomato  soup in the Instant Pot (10 minutes at high pressure). Classic combo.

Sunday, 12/29/19

Jason decided that he needed to make cinnamon-raisin bagels, so that's what we had. When I (rather tartly) asked if he had planned anything else, he vaguely said something about a salad. I pointed out (perhaps even more tartly) that we didn't have salad ingredients on hand, so he produced some carrot sticks from the fridge. The bagels aren't bad, though.