Tuesday, 3/30/21

 A tried a new tofu dish from NYT. You bread tofu slices with sesame seeds and panko, shallow fry them and serve over spinach that has been sautéed with garlic, onion and soy sauce. Then you top with a spicy coconut-lime dressing.  I added ginger and pasta to the spinach, but otherwise made it as written. Jason and I liked it a lot,  Carter ate it without complaint (the fact that he had been playing Ultimate and riding his bike for the last few hours probably helped). I think the only thing I would do differently is marinate the tofu and maybe slice it thinner. The insides of the slices were predictably bland.

Monday, 3/29/21

 I humored Jason by letting him make rice and lentils in the rice cooker again, plus some butternut squash on the side. This is a VERY plain meal, so one has to add stuff at the table (soy sauce and chili crisp for me). It is perfectly serviceable, cheap and healthy, plus he delights in it so. Not how I would do it, but then, I have been off my game lately anyway.

Sunday, 3/28/21

 I had plans for zucchini fritters and sesame-coated feta with honey, but I was oddly lethargic as dinner approached. So I just served french bread pizza (using up the last of some sauce and Jason's most recent bread) and a lame salad. It wasn't my best work but Jason should have acted more enthusiastic about the fritters when I mentioned it.

Saturday, 3/27/21

 Dinner with Jen and John: Jason made a batch of soft pretzels (a charming departure from the usual loaf of bread), and I just made cupcakes (from a box; the people have spoken) with a chocolate frosting from SK. However, I don't get credit since we forgot them at home!!! Jason jumped in and make chocolate chip cookies, but I was pretty irritated with myself. The dinner was a Blue Apron that was so tasty that Jason even asked me to re-create it at home: a fairly simple pasta with roasted cauliflower, capers, lemon and bread crumbs. Look for it in a kitchen nearby soon!

Friday, 3/26/21

 Jason made us a couple of pizzas (plain cheese for me, pepper, onion and pepperoni for him), so it was nice to come home to an almost prepared dinner. We realized (after all these years) that one doesn't have to prepare so much pizza every time, so the leftovers were manageable. Who knew you didn't have to make four pizzas at a whack?? Anyway, they were good.

Thursday, 3/25/21

 Popovers, at Carter's request. For a change of pace, I made gravy to go with them (a quick brown onion gravy) which I, of course, loved. There was also Manchego cheese and another salad. The romaine is finally gone!

Wednesday, 3/23/21

 Potato knishes (from Smitten Kitchen), plus kielbasa for the boys and a Caesar salad. The knishes turned out well (I made the dough and filling, Jason assembled), but I really just wanted to eat Caesar salad (bonus: making croutons used up a lot of our endless supply of bread). All of this took much longer than I anticipated, so even though I had the day off, it was after 6:30 before we sat down to dinner.

Tuesday, 3/23/21

 I was missing going to sugar shacks, but I remembered that I have the recipe for the Finnish pancakes from Davenport's, and while it isn't the same, it was still good. I realized that I haven't made a Finnish pancake in forever. Carter didn't even know what it was and poked at it suspiciously. Served with breakfast links and banana, it was a sweet dinner.

Monday, 3/22/21

 the good news is that the freezer is looking really good. The bad news is that my sesame-crusted fish with ginger butter sauce was only meh. The filets were still a little frozen, and didn't sear so much as simmer. Also had pilaf (good) and broccoli (boring). Not a meal anyone needs to repeat.

Sunday, 3/21/21

I finally faced the giant package of leftover ham in the freezer. Made biscuits (Sally's Baking addiction, as usual) and a quick glaze (from some random website: it has mustard, brown sugar an cloves; I punched it up with sriracha, cider vinegar, extra mustard and some maple syrup and finally got it to taste more or less how I wanted). I liked the ham better than I remembered, luckily. Also made a salad that was at least somewhat appealing this time. Added pep peppers, roasted sweet potatoes, some pepperoncini and a little provolone. It looked very pretty and I course I forgot to take a picture.

Saturday, 3/20/21

 Jason made us a loaf of bread, and I made a pasta from the NYT with chickpeas, lemon, parsley and parmesan. After reading through some of the on-line comments, I went heavier on all the flavors (shallots, rosemary, garlic and crushed red pepper). A fair amount of chopping for such a simple seeming dish, but tasty and satisfying. Roasted asparagus to go with it. I also made another batch of cinnamon rolls since Jason likes them so much.

Friday, 3/19/21

 Jason and I collaborated on popovers, which we ate with cheese and some leftover prune filling. I think I also made a salad, but it was clearly unmemorable.

Thursday, 3/18/21

 I had been planning to make some kind of meatballs, but by the time the evening rolled around, I was uninspired and tired, so I just took the ground turkey and stir-fried it with broccoli and Cravings sauce. Served over rice, it was a perfectly nice dinner, although two pounds of ground turkey made a LOT. I did muster up the energy to make cupcakes from a mix with plain old American buttercream. Naturally, everyone loved them which made me a little grumpy but what can you do. Some people have no palate.

Wednesday, 3/17/21

 Ravioli, tomato sauce, leftover bread and a pathetic salad. I accidentally bought romaine two weeks in a row and we really need to start going through it. Anyway, Carter loves ravioli so no leftovers (which is a bonus).

Tuesday, 3/16/21

 Leftovers of the mushrooms and tomato/feat; a fresh loaf of bread from Jason, and macaroni and cheese for His Carterness. Still a lot of leftovers left over.

Monday, 3/15/21

 Sheet pan tofu and green beans, with a chili crisp marinade. In retrospect, I should have doubled the marinate, soaked the tofu in it for longer, and used fresh green beans (the frozen ones I had were a touch soggy, but basically fine). Served over rice and was good except on the dry side. No complaints.

Sunday, 3/14/21

 Two repeats, both from Smitten Kitchen: tomatoes roasted with feta and chickpeas, plus Stuffed Mushroom casserole. I was dismayed to realize that the latter called for cream cheese, which I neglected to but, but some leftover ricotta filled in nicely. That plus some leftover (slightly inferior) bread made an unorthodox dinner.

Here is the tomato-feta, prior to cooking

Saturday, 3/13/21

 Dinner with Jen and John....Blue Apron skirt steak, mashed potatoes and brussels sprouts. I made a batch of cinnamon rolls (devoured even though Jen was skeptical of them as a dessert). But the big news was that a friend of theirs dropped off a loaf of homemade sourdough bread and it was amazing. Really beautiful and now Jason needs to up his bread game. I brought home a little, and I almost felt sorry for Jason when Carter couldn't stop raving about it. Almost.

Friday, 3/12/21

 For some reason, I didn't really have a firm dinner plan (tired from another long work week?), so we scrounged around the fridge and found, hiding in the back, the leftover potatoes and vegetables from the corned beef. Added some rice, and Voila, a tasty if weird dinner. Ate some cheese to add some protein.

Thursday, 3/11/21

 Chili (15 minutes in the Instant Pot) and cornbread (Jiffy Mix FTW) and that was it. I put a lot of carrots and some zucchini into the chili, so I could count that as our vegetable, too. Nothing groundbreaking, but good, easy, and used up a couple of oddly sized packages of ground beef I had loitering in the freezer.

Wednesday, 3/10/21

 Chicken cutlets with a lemon-caper sauce, mashed potatoes, and a half-hearted salad, that only Jason bothered to eat (Carter had broccoli, I just ignored it in favor of sneaking more bites of chicken). I am just glad Jason didn't see me slipping more and more butter in to the sauce to get the consistency right. He is on a real campaign to make us use leftover bacon fat for everything. I am not on board.

Tuesday, 3/9/21

 Leftovers; another meatball grinder for the kid, pasta for me and Jason. At least tonight I cooked up some broccoli to go with it. Dessert was butterscotch pudding from Cook's Illustrated. I only had a bit since it was still chilling, but good if a little salty (not the fault of the recipe; I used table salt instead of my usual kosher salt). I needn't have bothered with their fussy method to avoid tempering the eggs. What is so scary about tempering eggs?

Monday, 3/8/21

 I found a bag of meatballs up the freezer; not sure when I made them or what kind they are...but it seemed like no matter what, they would make meatball grinders. They did, and I am sad to say that my good intentions to make a salad to go with them went out the window. Do the peppers and onions count?

Sunday, 3/7/21

 Already forgot to take a picture! Anyway, Jason and I had a pasta dish from the Smitten Kitchen cookbook, artichoke stuffed shells with ricotta sauce. I didn't have shells, so I just made it as a casserole, which was fine. Very rich. I should have made a half batch, as the fridge is filling up AGAIN. If it is only me and Jason, I really don't need to cook so much food. We also had some asparagus and Jason made a (superfluous but tasty) loaf of bread. He is tinkering again.

Saturday, 3/6/21

 Used the leftover Big Y fried to fish to make fish tacos. Jason made corn tortillas, and I assembled many condiments: avocado, cabbage, pickled jalapenos, queso fresco, salsa verde, black beans, limes...

A little rich, but overall a good use of fried fish. Not sure if I would bother batter-frying it up especially, though. Flan for dessert; Jason was so full he could only eat one serving!!

Trying to take more pictures to jog my memory:

Friday, 3/5/21

 Leftover pizza for me and Jason. Then I ate too many brownies, even though I didn't love them. The recipe is from "Dessert Person", and they were too dense and chocolatey for me. I am really looking for a recipe that mimics a good box mix: chewy but not too heavy, not cake-y....I know I have made brownies that are close, but can I remember which recipe? Of course not. I am always auditioning new ones. Maybe just buy the mix??

Thursday, 3/4/21

 Jason saw a recipe in the Washington Post for a bacon fried rice and requested it (he always claims he doesn't like bacon that much, but he is lying to himself). Nothing too unusual; I followed the recipe pretty closely but added broccoli to male it a one dish dinner. I was afraid the bacon would be soggy and gross, but it just got kind of mixed in and I didn't notice. Very flavorful.

Wednesday, 3/3/21

 Big Y was having a sale on their fish and chips dinner, so (oddly) we had take-out. Luckily we live close enough so that everything was still hot and crispy when we got home. The fish was fine, the fries were surprisingly good, and I didn't try the coleslaw. Over all a very good deal.

Tuesday, 3/2/21

 Jason made us pizza for dinner. Four varieties: plain cheese; fresh mozz; sausage, pepper & onion, and taco-style. I liked them all, but the fresh mozzarella was my favorite. Probably ate about two more slices than was strictly necessary (in my defense, they are small pizzas).

Monday, 3/1/21

 Sushi bowl! The usual ingredients: avocado, surimi, tuna, mango, cucumber, etc... No surprises, but everyone was happy.

Sunday, 2/29/21

 In a first, Jason and I went to McDonald's for dinner! Actually, I had Taco Bell and Jason had McDonald's (4 burgers and a large fry). He had not eaten there since he was a teenager, and decided that it was time to get over it. He liked it well enough, although 4 burgers was about two too many. My tacos were messy but good. Probably won't do that again for quite some time! Felt weird to sit and eat in the car without Carter (who was at work).

Saturday, 2/27/21

 Pasta with broccoli rabe and sweet Italian sausage. Good, but a little watery, which was disappointing. Luckily, I made a batch of macaroons (from David Lebovitz; always a success) to cheer us up afterword. Should have doubled the batch as we couldn't stop eating them.

Friday, 2/26/21

 Grilled cheese tteokbokki (again), since i had nearly half a bag of Korean rice cakes leftover. Such a weird and tasty dish. I think we did have some kind of vegetable with it, but I can't for the life of me remember what it was. 

Thursday, 2/25/21

 Dinner with Jason's parents (Bueno Y Sano). We brought oatmeal bars from Smitten Kitchen, with pecans thrown in since Beverly is such a nut fan. A little sweet, but good.