Sunday, 6/27/21

 We had a busy afternoon in Whately (lunch at Tom's, helping my dad with some household chores), and it was damn hot, so I made cold cut grinders, chips and dip for dinner.  Nothing special.

Saturday, 6/26/21

 Dinner with Jennie and David (third night out in a row yikes): bread from Jason, Smitten strawberry cake from me. I want to make it again with local strawberries and more of them, but it was still pretty good. I was glad no one asked the provenance of the berries, since it would have been deeply embarrassing to admit that they were from Aldi.

Friday, 6/25/21

 Jason's parents had us over (presumably for Jason's birthday) ; they ordered from Omi Omy, a little Vietnamese restaurant. I tried the pho, Carter had a bahn mi and Jason had a noodle bowl; we were all underwhelmed. We tried to suggest somewhere else, but to no avail. They also bought a Costco chocolate cake (as we suspected they would), so we didn't even bring a dessert.

Thursday, 6/24/21

 Went to Laurie's for cocktails and snacks that served as dinner. Jason made a loaf of bread, and Laurie had a ton of treats from Trader Joe's (the best of which were little buffalo chicken triangle things that were genuinely spicy. I picked up a box for home). Beautiful evening to sit out on Laurie's porch with drinks and friends.

Wednesday, 6/23/21

 Jason kindly made us a few pizzas, and since he never reads this, I have some issues:  the plain cheese stuck to the pan something fierce and was quite a mess; the onions on the goat cheese/onion were not cooked long enough to be considered caramelized (and tasted a little onion-y); I don't love the thick pepperoni that was on the eggplant, and the taco was delicious but the crust should be thicker to accommodate that heavy topping. If you are reading this: love you Jason! Thanks for cooking!

Tuesday, 6/22/21

 For some reason I thought it was going to be another hot day, so I planned all grilled foods which I had to stand out in the drizzle tending to. Oops. So: kielbasa, halloumi, zucchini with lemon-garlic-mint butter, and another round of pita bread. The halloumi was tricky since it wanted to drip down through the grate, but I scooped it all up in time. I was thrilled to see halloumi at Aldi, since it is usually so damn expensive. If they still have it I am buying all the rest. Salty cheese that you can grill so it gets warm and squeaky? Heaven!

Monday, 6/21/21

 Butter chicken (from Ministry of Curry; didn't have garam masala, so improvised that; was out of coconut milk so used a little heavy cream; added spinach for a veg), plus Jason made pita bread. It's a good thing he did, since we forgot to make rice. I had also intended some roasted cauliflower, but Jason deemed it too hot to turn on the oven. So it's a good thing we have a grill and an Instant Pot, I guess.

Sunday, 6/20/21

 Unexpected dinner at Jay & Jodi's: pizza and cheesecake. We didn't bring anything except Carter, but I guess that's something?

Saturday, 6/19/21

 Dinner with J & D: bread from Jason, rhubarb galette from me (from SK). I was worried that the filling would be too tart, but it was fine. The real problem was Jason's raisin walnut bread: it was so delicious with the sharp cheddar they had that I ate way too much and felt gross.

Friday, 6/18/21

 Reprise of salt and pepper pork with rice cakes. Added broccoli for vegetable, probably tinkered with the sauce a bit (adding a bit of brown sugar and gochujang). Excellent! Love those chewy rice cakes.

Thursday, 6/15/21

Grilled chicken (dry), potatoes (bland) and pineapple (bright spot!). I resolved to use the grill for everything (although I did par-cook the potatoes). It's nice standing out there on a summer evening. The pineapples were the best part---a substandard specimen transformed with heat and a quick brown sugar-soy sauce-sriracha glaze. I don't know if the chicken was overcooked or if the marinade was at fault, but it was only OK.  On a whim after dinner I made an angel food cake. Something I learned: you really need to let an angel cake get good and cool. The texture suffers and it tastes overly eggy when you are impatient and eat it a little warm.

Wednesday, 6/15/21

 Tofu, broccoli, rice. Made a quick version of good old Cravings sauce and used some to marinate the tofu all day, so that helped a bit, flavorwise. I also put in some mushrooms, chopped so fine that Carter failed to notice them. Ordinary old kind of meal for 3 Charles. 

Tuesday, 6/15/21

 A lovely salad for dinner, with some of Jason's cheddar jalapeno bread. Tuna, hard boiled eggs, olives, feta, cherry tomatoes, chick peas....I thought it was excellent. Carter was NOT impressed. It's all stuff he likes, so I don't know why he doesn't like salad. Oh well, I won't serve it to the poor little child again.

Monday, 6/14/21

 Eggplant parm, which for some reason we hadn't had in a while (maybe because all that breading is annoying?), plus I sauteed the leftover polenta. Doing both at once was actually  good because it meant I was too busy to rush the polenta and it developed a nice crunch. So dinner was late, messy and delicious.

Sunday, 6/13/21

 In the morning we had a graduation brunch at Jay and Jodi's for their oldest, Zack. I made a coffee cake (usual recipe from Richard Sax that never fails). Then later in the afternoon we went to Whately to hang out with my dad and Corrina. We made nachos for an early dinner/late lunch and played a little cribbage. Jason and I came home and polished off the two custards that I had stowed in the fridge.

Saturday, 6/12/21

 Dinner with Jennie and David: Jason made bread (sesame/fennel) and I made caramel pots de creme (from Classic American Home Desserts). I had intended to make chocolate pudding only to discover that I was out of dark chocolate. It was kind of fortuitous because these were more delicious, and since today was my Mom's birthday, it was kind of bittersweet to make one of her favorite desserts.  I could have taken the caramel even a little darker, but I didn't want to scare anyone. Another lesson is that custards are nearly always better than puddings.

Friday, 6/11/21

 After a full day of work followed by grocery shopping, I was too tired for anything but a glass of wine, some potato chips and leftovers.

Thursday, 6/10/21

 I had intended to recreate the asparagus tart that Jen and I made at Laurie's last weekend. My asparagus was prepped, the filling mixed, and I had remembered to pull my puff pastry out of the freezer the day before when tragedy struck! Who knew that frozen puff pastry could go off? I mean, it had been up there for a while, but...I guess time got away from me. So instead I turned it into a pasta by sauteeing the asparagus (and throwing in some mushrooms for good measure) and adding the ricotta/gruyere mixture to it. I missed the buttery crunch of the puff pastry, but I think Jason was just as happy with this version. I guess the lesson is don't hoard your puff pastry.

Wednesday, 6/9/21

 Jason threw some lentils and rice into the rice cooker, which was good as it didn't heat up the kitchen, but didn't know he was not going to season it AT ALL. It was aggressively bland. I threw on a bunch of salsa verde, which helped. He claims that by keeping it neutral people can flavor them however they want, but come on, no salt? What are we, sad hippies? Also in the interest of keeping it cool, I grilled cauliflower. It wasn't terrible, but it didn't add much to the dish either, even with the  additions of lime juice, za'atar and sriracha. So: a meal that was serviceable

Tuesday, 6/8/21

 Chicken , mushrooms and broccoli in a creamy sauce, served over polenta. I really should have started the polenta sooner (how was I to remember it takes nearly an hour?), and Carter would barely touch it, but overall still good. Since I was out of marsala, I kept tinkering with the sauce to get the flavor I wanted (some lemon, maybe a little fish sauce? more black pepper. A few drops of soy sauce. How about a squirt of sriracha?) and was finally happy with the results.

Monday, 6/7/21

 At Jason's request, I made sausage & egg sandwiches on English muffins. I don't know why I dislike this meal so much, but at least there were homefries to go with it. Honestly, I should just have had the homefries. Then I made another batch of rhubarb cobbler, but I wasn't super happy with the results. Maybe I usually macerate the rhubarb longer, or maybe it didn't bake long enough, but the rhubarb was still a little too crunchy and tart. Oh well, hard sauce covers a lot of defects.

Sunday, 6/6/21

 Nice to get home and just have leftover pizza that Jason made. It was a treat to get away, especially on such a hot weekend, but of course it's always good to get home, too.

Saturday, 6/5/21

 After a day doing things I don't normally do (going to tag sales and sitting around on a dock, for instance), we had a lovely dinner of grilled chicken and pineapple, a sort of Asian inspired cabbage salad with uncooked ramen noodles, and a chocolate birthday cake (from me). My favorite thing was the asparagus tart that Jen and I made for an appetizer. From Smitten and absolutely delicious. We used a store bought puff pastry instead of making a pie crust, and I have no regrets. It was wonderful and I am making it for home later in the week.

The cake was just a mix, with chocolate frosting from Smitten. I tried to frost it nicely and it didn't look too bad!

Friday, 6/4/21

 Weekend at the lake house commenced with margaritas, Mexican take-out (chili rellenos for me, of course) and games. It was a beautiful night to be sitting out on the porch.

Thursday, 6/3/21

 Burrito bowls, with Mexican rice (which did not turn out so well. Kind of mushy and the bottom burned a bit. I think the next time I will start it on the stove and then throw the whole shebang into the rice cooker), black beans, roasted sweet potatoes, avocado, etc

Jason and I thought they were delicious, but Carter said that the sweet potatoes "ruined the whole dish". He bravely managed to eat it anyway.

Wednesday, 6/2/21

 Went to Jennie and David's for our first inside dinner! Back to my old tricks of eating too much bread, cheese and garlic. Jason brought bread, I made another rhubarb cobbler, which is fitting since the rhubarb came from their garden. The Pioneer Woman recipe serves me well, but I think I should add more rhubarb next time.

Tuesday, 6/1/21

 We had a LOT of pizza left over from lunch in Whately (we got a family size from Big Y. Not great but there is plenty of it). So pizza and watermelon for dinner. We doctored up the pizza with onions and peppers, plus salami. It helped but that is not an awesome pizza.

Monday, 5/31/21

Dinner with Jen and John: Jason made two(!) loaves of bread, so we made grilled cheese. Jen made a salad with goat cheese and strawberries, and I made a batch of rhubarb cobbler.  Nice spring dinner.