Wednesday, 2/24/21

 Got the jump on St. Patrick's Day with corned beef and cabbage. This year we used the Instant Pot, which is faster but still not what I would call quick: about two hours. Jason started it and then I did the vegetables when I got home (note: 6 minutes was about 2 minutes too long). I liked the flavors, but don't love the fattiness of corned beef. But I can handle it once a year (when it goes on sale at Aldi!).

Tuesday, 2/23/21

 Quick weeknight dinner of pasta with broccoli, chicken, garlic and lemon. Even saved a step by cooking the broccoli with the shells; how is that for efficient? Another thumbs up from Carter. 

Monday, 2/22/21

For some reason, the freezer is full of ground beef. Carter doesn't love meatloaf, I didn't want spaghetti, we just had burgers, tater tot casserole feels too decadent....

Anyway, even though I had never had it, I thought Salisbury steak sounded good. I looked at recipe from Pioneer Woman, and then pretty much improvised. Seasoned the beef, made it into cute little patties, and then made an onion/beef gravy (I'll add mushrooms next time). Hers used cornstarch, but I went with a roux and some red wine. Served with plain white rice and peas. I wish I had taken a picture, because honestly it looked just like a TV dinner. But who cares? Carter loved it, and I love gravy. A winner!

Sunday, 2/21/21

 Even though Jason wasn't particularly enthused about it, I made Korean vegetable pancakes (pajeon). Used a recipe from the Times: I didn't have any potato starch or rice flour, but cornstarch worked fine. You ca use any vegetables, so I used a mix of peppers, carrots, zucchini and spinach. You add chopped kimchi and an egg and that's it. More like a latke than a pancake, and I should have added more salt, but overall, successful. There was a bag of dumplings in the freezer, so I cooked those, too. I was pleased that they cooked up very nicely from freezing. I think my dumpling pinching skills are improving.

Saturday, 2/20/21

 I didn't know what to make for dinner (in a bit of a slump), so at the last minute I threw together some stovetop macaroni and cheese used the recipe from SE). Served that with some peas (on the side since everyone freaks out if you dare put them directly in), with a lot of fun toppings: salsa verde, fried onions (the kind from a can), chili crisp....Dessert was hamantaschen, using the same recipe from Bon Appetit I usually use, plus our own lekvar. I got nervous reading the poor reviews from Bon Appetit (people had a lot of trouble with the dough) even though I have made this several times. But I went ahead anyway, and of course they were fine. In fact, one of our best batches.

Friday, 2/19/21

 Jason wanted to make lentils and rice in the rice cooker, plus plain butternut squash. I was too tired to stop him. It was pretty good, especially with some chili crisp on it. I don't think the kitchen power struggle will ever end.

Thursday, 2/18/21

 Just leftovers. We need another fridge just for leftovers, and maybe another one yet just for condiments.

Wednesday, 2/17/21

 Jason made burgers and tots, plus we had some leftover salad. One exciting change was that we served the burgers (more like sliders, really), on little Hawaiian buns. It made a difference! Anyway, not my all time favorite dinner, but it was nice not cooking.

Tuesday, 2/16/21

Burrito bowls: doctored up black beans from a can, Mexican rice, condiments (cheese, avocado, peppers, lime, etc). My favorite meal is one that can be customized! Still working on the sugar cookies.

Monday, 2/15/21

 Spaghetti and meatballs (I accidentally put too much crushed red pepper in the sauce. Sorry, Carter), salad, garlic bread. Nice to have the day off so it wasn't a mad rush.

Sunday, 2/14/21

 Carter got home early and surprised us in the act of eating cheesy cauliflower toasts. Funny, he declined to have any! His loss: these are the maybe the finest way to eat cauliflower. Recipe from the NYT:  roasted cauliflower, mixed with ricotta, gruyere, crushed red pepper and a little nutmeg (I also added lemon zest, as the mixture needed a little acid). Spread on toast (Jason made bread) and broiled....so good. I also made a small batch of spicy tomato soup (made from memory from a Martha Stewart recipe). Dessert was sugar cookies from Sally's Baking Addiction that would have been better had I not chilled the dough too much (they didn't spread as much as I would have liked). And fun fact: sprinkles can go bad! Glad I didn't put them on the whole batch.

Saturday, 2/13/21

 Another Carter non-favorite: spicy chicken buldak (recipe from Maanchi blog). So spicy! So funky! So delicious! I had meant to also made a nice healthy vegetable to go with it, but I just wanted to eat spicy chicken, rice cakes and melty mozzarella. So we did.

Friday, 2/12/21

 Carter's first night back at work; Jason and I celebrated by having adult beverages, snacks and leftovers.

Thursday, 2/11/21

 Pizza at Jason's parents; Jason made chocolate chip cookies to bring. Not a lot to say about that.

Wednesday, 2/10/21

 Tortellini soup, to use up last week's chicken broth. Nothing exciting, just with celery, carrots, onions and spinach. Jason made us a loaf of bread to go with it. It was fine, but my chicken stock wasn't the most flavorful. I don't know if I didn't use enough bones, or if the Instant Pot is to blame or what.

Tuesday, 2/9/21

 Jason made pita bread, I made a salad, and we had various dips to go with it....hummus, a jalapeno-artichoke dip (both from Aldi), the leftover guacamole and some of the leftover chicken tinga. Made for a fun variety.

Monday, 2/8/21

 I am slightly ashamed to say that we had frozen pizzas for dinner. I mean, the buffalo chicken stuffed crust from Aldi is tasty, but still. What can I say, I was tired.

Sunday, 2/7/21

 Another snowy day was making me twitchy. I made a batch of cinnamon scones from SK in the morning, and Jason and I made some pizzelles in the afternoon. Dinner was a dish making the rounds on TikTok (!), although the version I made was adapted by Smitten. You roast a nice big piece of feta with cherry tomatoes, garlic, and plenty of olive oil. Then you are supposed to mix it with pasta, but I took the advice from Deb and instead added canned chickpeas to the roasting pan, skipped the pasta, and ate the whole thing with bread (I toasted some from a loaf Jason made earlier in the week). I love roasted feta, and could happily have doubled it. Would like to try this again in the summer with decent cherry tomatoes, as mine were predictably sad. Still very nice! I didn't even try to feed this to the child; just gave him leftover noodles with pork.

Saturday, 2/6/21

 We still had a lot of leftover chicken from tacos, so nachos seemed like a good plan. Added chopped tomatoes (for health), and made a "guacamole" from Serious Eats that has you mix avocados, cilantro, lime and sour cream in a food processor. This wasn't a light meal (and perhaps ill-conceived after pizza for lunch?)  but it was, of course, delicious.

Friday, 2/5/21

 Ground pork with noodles and green beans, adapted from a Smitten recipe (that was actually in Bon Appetit, not the blog). The original called for asparagus, but that was obviously not happening. The real key to this dish is the generous addition of chili crisp; it's spicy, but also super flavorful.

Thursday, 2/4/21

By this time, food was really piling up in the old refrigerator. So leftovers it was.

Wednesday, 2/3/21

 Didn't know what to do with the tofu I pulled out, so I decided to make fried rice with tofu and broccoli. This meant it was a one dish meal, appreciated on a weeknight. Nothing revolutionary in there.

Tuesday, 2/2/21

 Poor man's soup (that Jason claimed he had never had before. An easily disproved lie. Also, he kept forgetting the name and called it dumb-assed soup. actually, I think my mom would have appreciated that). It was good except for I forgot potatoes. But it did use up bits of frozen peas, corn and broccoli, which is the point. Leftover bread, and the leftover mushroom casserole (still so good, even reheated. Must make again!).

Monday, 2/1/21

 I was glad to have already made most of dinner on this snowy day. Chicken tinga, from Food52; I threw it in the Instant Pot (15 minutes, natural release), and added canned chilies in adobo in lieu of the dried ones called for (plus I threw in a couple of poblanos. Poor Jason, all those peppers cooking isn't great for his asthma. I always forget since it doesn't affect me). Made tacos with homemade corn tortillas, avocado, queso fresco, sauteed zucchini, and jalapenos. Lots of leftovers. 

Sunday, 1/31/21

 Spent the afternoon cooking and prepping for the week, making one giant mess after another. Served the boys the last of the kielbasa, plus baked potatoes, cabbage, and a "stuffed mushroom casserole" from SK. I had been wanting to try that casserole for a while, and it didn't disappoint. The only change I made was to add shallots; I used gruyere for the cheese. Honestly, that was really the only thing I wanted to eat for dinner (although I did eat the cabbage and baked potatoes. Reminder for myself: I don't like baked potatoes as much as I think I do). 

Saturday, 1/30/21

 Mostly leftovers (plus a salad), and I think we finally got them down to a reasonable level. Since I didn't get to cook dinner, Jason graciously allowed me to make a dessert. Since I had a pie crust in the freezer, I just went with a pecan pie, from the Smitten Kitchen recipe I usually use. As always, I used maple syrup in place of golden syrup.