Sunday, 3/29/20

I have been meaning to make an Instant Pot kidney bean curry for weeks, but it was the first thing to go whenever something else came up. I finally made it tonight (from a NYT recipe), and was basically pleased with it. Made a couple of changes: the recipe called for cooking the beans in a little bowl set over your tomato-rice mixture, but the reviews indicated that it was fine to just dump them in, so I did; I omitted the cayenne altogether, and I used canned tomatoes instead of fresh. On the advice of other reviews, I also added cilantro at the end, and some cumin seeds sizzled in butter. anyway....it was good! The cooking time of 30 minutes, however, was not enough and I would make it 45. We had this with basmati rice and cabbage sauteed with onions and mustard seeds. A nice pantry dish.

Saturday, 3/28/20

I tried to make a mean that Carter would really like. It mostly worked: buttermilk biscuits were a big hit, especially with raspberry jam and gruyere, my deviled eggs were good, but my experimental sauteed kale salad with green tahini dressing was unloved (even by me). The kale is just so damn chewy, and the whole thing tasted flat. I added cherry tomatoes and feta to the called-for citrus. Don't know if it helped or hurt.

It looked deceptively pretty

Friday, 3/27/20

Another night of leftovers, trying to keep the fridge relatively sane. We did have a fun "Zoom Happy Hour"  with friends. It was nice to talk to other people (but a little overstimulating, too!). I made a batch of brown butter, halvah, walnut and chocolate chunk cookies that were pretty successful (if kind of a lot of work, chopping, toasting, browning....than again, what else do I have going on?).

Thursday, 3/26/20

The Instant Pot saved my ass again, since Carter's and my hike took longer than expected. First we had to drive all the way up to Warwick, then we took a wrong turn somewhere on the way down, so our route was somewhat longer than planned. Still, great views that I didn't really manage to capture well:

To be fair, being on top of that fire tower was making my stomach feel funny

Anyway, I made tomato sauce with a mixture of hot and sweet Italian sausage. Cooked for 50 minutes, then let it saute a bit to thicken up. Served over linguine, with a warmed up loaf of Jason bread (from maybe a week ago? Still fine) and some broccoli.

Wednesday, 2/25/20

We had a lot of corn tortillas (Aldi, why do you only sell such a big bag?) and Jason requested that I made an enchilada casserole thing. I looked at a few recipes and winged it, adding lots of cheese, a can of pinto beans (black beans would have been better), spinach, onions and garlic. I made a half-ass enchilada sauce, and threw the whole mess in the oven. Carter and I were very underwhelmed. Jason claims that he loves it, which is good cause there is a lot leftover. I just don't like those soggy tortillas, and my sauce wasn't really very tasty. I honestly think store bought would have been better, but I wasn't about to go out and get some. But hey, the tortillas got used up!

Tuesday, 2/24/20

I was planning to make tofu with noodles and Chinese greens (which I did), but hadn't really decided exactly how. So I made the Cravings sauce, cubed the (previously frozen and squeezed dry) tofu, tossed it with cornstarch, flour and a tiny bit of sugar, and sauteed it up in the wok. Then I added garlic, ginger, mushrooms, the blanched greens and that tasty, tasty sauce. Really delicious. For dessert I made an angel food cake, and impulsively tinted it pink:

Monday, 2/23/20

Since all normal routines are out the window, tonight was Jason night. He made his semi-famous baked french toast (using up a loaf of challah from the freezer), plus bacon and bananas. I thought it could have used a little more of the butter/brown sugar layer, but still very good. And the freezer is s l o w l y
emptying out.

Sunday, 3/22/20

Carter and I took a very nice hike at Northfield Mountain in the afternoon, and then I came home and commenced to cooking Indian food. Chicken korma, basmati rice, roasted cauliflower and onion pakora. I saved the pakora recipe, but it is really pretty simple: add a little cornstarch and chickpea flour to sliced onions until you have a batter, then shallow fry. I added cilantro, zucchini and spinach to this batch, then sprinkled them with pakora masala. Everyone really liked them, and I'm finally using up some of my overly large bag of chickpea flour. The only misstep was that I still keep
forgetting how potent my current batch of cayenne is, and keep making everything a little too spicy for Carter. Sorry, kid!

Saturday, 3/21/20

Leftovers for dinner, since it would be all too easy to keep cooking and cooking. I finished all the scalloped potatoes (sorry not sorry) and Jason finished the corned beef, so that's something. I was allowed to make a dessert at least, but I listened to Jason's flawed logic of making something that Carter would like. So I made peanut butter swirl brownies from Smitten Kitchen that are perfectly fine, but I was looking for something more like a project. And of course, Carter is only mildly interested in eating them anyway.

Friday, 3/20/20

Trying to empty the freezer, so I finally cooked up a brisket. I didn't really think about it until 2 or 3, so it is a good thing that it worked so well in the Instant Pot. I just used a random recipe I found on the internet, but the gist is 90 minutes at high pressure, take out the meat, throw in carrots and potatoes (I cooked the cabbage separately) and cook for a few more minutes. Worked fine! Although I cooked too many vegetables. May have to limit ourselves to leftovers for the next few days.

Thursday, 3/19/20

Jason wanted to make popovers, so I made some minestrone style soup to go with them. Used up some spinach and some bits of pasta, so that was good. No recipe (which is too bad, because Carter liked it. He had politely requested a break from my go-to soup, tomato).
The popovers were good, except Jason didn't grease the tins enough and they stuck a bit. He was going nuts trying to get them out.

Wednesday, 3/18/20

We still have quite a bit of leftover ham, despite serving this to Carter (at his request):

Spoiler: he did like them

I really wanted scalloped potatoes (even though Jason was stubbornly opposed. You make way too much one single time and he never forgets) and once we finally found potatoes,  I remembered my aunt Maggie telling me that she makes hers with a bechamel sauce. I found a recipe (Spruce Eats) and tinkered with it a little---added onions and scallions, plus cheese. Perfect! I always love the idea of scalloped potatoes, but don't love it when the sauce breaks (plus my Martha Stewart recipe called for two cups of cream!). You don't even have to layer these---just gently mix the potatoes in with the sauce.

Anyway....we had this with leftover ham and peas. Classic, right?

Tuesday, 3/17/20

Jason night: burgers, fries, and broccoli. I take credit for the success of this meal, since I made the broccoli AND was in charge of the fries. I kept a sharp eye on those fries (our last batch overcooked, and they were NOT good). Glad to know that cooking degree is being put to such good use (honestly though, they were really good).

Monday, 3/16/20

Last day of work for a while....the library was closed and returns were light, so I had to actually shelve. It was a weird day. Welcome to social distancing.
We were running a bread surplus (again) so grilled cheese and salad for dinner. The addition of dates to the bread made for really good grilled cheese. Bonus: we are down to one loaf! Jason and I will have to rein in our baking desires for a while, with no one else to eat the extra.

Sunday, 3/15/20

Fish cakes (from the NYT) that  for once I remembered needed to be started in the morning, plus green beans and some popovers (Judie's was giving them away so I brought a couple home). The fish cakes are delicious (especially with a little sauce made from sour cream, cilantro and garlic), although they tended to fall apart a bit in the pan. The popovers are probably better fresh from the oven, as it turns out, but hey, free popovers.

Saturday, 3/14/20

Our dinner plans fell through, so Jason and I ate his bread (warm and delicious!) at lunchtime. Then I made Serious Eats stovetop macaroni and cheese for dinner, along with some leftover ham and some steamed broccoli. Corrina was our special guest, so that was exciting. I have a feeling that damn ham is going to be in our lives for a while. Croquettes? Ham salad (ugh)?

Friday, 3/13/20

We had a big ham from Aldi (too much ham, honestly), plus grilled asparagus and buttermilk biscuits (from Sally's Baking Addiction. The Best). The ham was fine, the asparagus was fine. I just really wanted to eat all the biscuits. And since I bought buttermilk, I am sure there will be another batch soon.

Thursday, 3/12/20

True leftovers: we ate up most of the calzones from Tuesday. I also used up some bread to make croutons, and we had a Caesar salad. The refrigerator is definitely improving.

Wednesday, 3/11/20

We had so many leftovers; I tried to make a meal from them and only somewhat succeeded. I made a curried chicken salad from some grilled chicken, and served that with the pita chips. Then I made zucchini-onion pakora (unfortunately, I don't remember where I found the recipe, but they were pretty simple and very good). Luckily, the pakora recipe was of a modest size, so I didn't create any new leftovers, except for a batch of date-tamarind chutney.

Tuesday, 3/10/20

So, at least Jason produced a real meal tonight, and a pretty good one. Little calzones with spinach, ricotta, broccoli and sausage. They were really good! Carter said they were better than the previous batch, and we were like "What previous batch?". He said a few months ago....and he was right. Darn kids and their good memories.

Monday, 3/9/20

Repeat from a couple of weeks ago---Smitten Kitchen baked chickpeas with pita crisps and a cucumber-tomato salad. The only things I did differently (besides doing most of the work in the morning) were adding more chickpeas, more pitas, and putting a little pakora masala in the sauce. So good.

Sunday, 3/8/20

I grilled chicken that I  marinated in a spicy yogurt, and made a fancy pilaf with barberries and toasted almonds, plus sauteed cabbage and a few vegetable skewers (zucchini, onions, cherry tomatoes) that I also grilled. Well, the chicken was a little dry (more acid?) and the rice was curiously bland, so I guess my favorite part was the grilled cherry tomatoes. Oh well, it wasn't bad, just underwhelming.

Saturday, 3/7/20

Dinner with Jennie and David....pita bread from Jason, a coffee cake from me (I brought home a book called "I Love Cake"). I knew it was more of a breakfast-type cake, but it looked so good. Turns out the cake portion of my regular recipe (from Richard Sax) has a better cake, but this had a LOT of crumb topping, which was nice. Maybe too much.

Friday, 3/7/20

In exchange for serving leftovers for dinner, I was at least permitted to make a dessert today. We had a container of mascarpone hiding in the fridge, so obviously tiramisu. I made a batch of ladyfingers from Serious Eats that were mainly successful (I really should have beat the eggs longer; the finished product wasn't as tall and airy as I would have liked. But Jason was staring daggers at me for how long the Kitchen-Aid had been running), and used a recipe from who knows were for the rest (it's in my email). My sabayon wasn't quite as thick as I would have liked, and there weren't quite enough ladyfingers, but overall still pretty damn good (and the leftovers were fine).

Thursday, 3/5/20

Jason was giving an exam, so Carter and I slunk over to the Hangar for dinner. Yes, we had chicken wings, french fries with gravy and macaroni and cheese for dinner.  The atmosphere is not the best, but Carter was happy with the food, so pretty much worth it.

Wednesday, 3/4/20

Had a weird split shift at work, so came home midday and threw together a baked pasta dish with shells, ground pork, spinach, peppers and onions, and of course, mozzarella. Made the meat sauce in the Instant Pot (15 minutes, high pressure) and I was pretty pleased with it. The pork adds a lot of flavor, and Carter, who isn't a fan of lasagna type foods, said it wasn't bad.

Tuesday, 3/3/20

Jason night, and I guess if he just wants to serve Saltines, peanut butter, tuna fish and cheese for dinner that is his prerogative.

Monday, 3/2/20

Tried a new tofu dish from "Vietnamese Cooking Every Day" that was different mainly for the pomegranate molasses in the sauce. Otherwise typical prep with onions, garlic, sweet peppers, soy sauce and brown sugar. I served it with rice and sauteed chinese greens and would call it a success.

Sunday, 3/1/20

Jason and I had dinner with friends up in Shutesbury. They are very fancy (I always feel like a rube) and we had cheese and crackers to start, lamb stew, salad and another salad-y thing with pomegranate seeds, mint and barley. Delicious. Jason made bread and I brought eclairs (some kind of mixed message meant that Elizabeth had also made a lemon tart, so that was embarrassing).

Saturday, 2/29/20

David was feeling unwell, so our usual Saturday date got canceled. So I made a quick batch of broccoli-cheddar soup, and we ate the bread and eclairs we would have brought. Jason ate 3 eclairs, which I thought was pretty impressive. And then the three of us actually sat down and watched a whole movie (Knives Out)! So that was fun.

Friday, 2/28/20

Dinner with Jen and John. They have a new meal kit service (Dinnerly), so we made chicken enchiladas (more portions, but not quite as tasty/varied as Blue Apron), plus Jason brought some bread, and Jen made  burgers as an add on. A week ago or so, a recipe for something called "Cinnamon Meringue Pie" appeared in my newsfeed. I was intrigued! I found the recipe online, and since it came from a reputable baker (Erin McDowell) I decided to give it a try. This is a weird pie. The base is kind of like a sugar pie, with sugar, flour, cream and lots of cinnamon. No eggs, no butter. The topping is a shitload of cinnamon-y meringue (do NOT make this if you don't like cinnamon). It was odd but also sort of delicious.

Torching courtesy of Jason

Also, I bought some creme de violette and John made us Aviations!