Monday, 7/26/21

 Impromptu dinner in town with my dad and our old friend Ellen. Turns out a lot of places are closed on Monday (duh). We ended up at Fresh Side Cafe, which was super crowded since it was nearly the only game in town. This did not improve their already slow service. For some reason, poor Jason's dinner took something like 15 minutes longer than everyone else's. Plus we were sitting outside, and while I was comfortable, I could see that he was getting hot. So even though the food was actually pretty good, I would give the experience a C at best. Lesson learned: don't try to take Jason out two days in a row.

Sunday, 7/25/21

 Late lunch at the BBQ place in Millers meant that Jason and I weren't hungry for dinner. I made Carter some pasta with butter, parm, and broccoli, and he seemed grateful to get any home cooking at all. Poor kid.

Saturday, 7/24/21

 Dinner with Jennie and David. Used up the last of the mini marshmallows on one final S'More Pie. Jason debuted his lemon-rosemary bread.

Friday, 7/24/21

 I was planning to take cheesy Korean rice cakes and vegetable pancakes, but got lazy and skipped the pancakes. The good news: used up al the rice cakes. The bad: even with some kimchi, it's not a particularly balanced dinner (for all it's tastiness).

Thursday, 7/22/21

 I made (apparently for the third time) an orzo/spinach cauliflower salad from Cravings. Carter declined to try it, even though according to my notes, he had eaten it willingly enough a couple of years ago. His loss. I didn't have any dried cherries, but fresh cherries made a nice alternative. I also wish I had consulted my notes, because the first time I made it I thought the vinaigrette was a little too sweet and a little too bland. That once again proved true, but a little sriracha and a pinch of MSG took care of it. I should just write that right into the cookbook. Nice quick summer dinner.

Wednesday, 7/21/21

 Leftovers,. Then I made a rhubarb snacking cake (from SK), since Jason brought me home some late-season rhubarb from his volunteer farming gig. Tastier than I remembered.

Tuesday, 7/20/21

 The second of the meals I prepped over the weekend: Persian celery and chicken stew, from "Bottom of the Pot". I also made a cucumber-tomato-feta salad to go with it (and basmati rice). Carter looked at his and asked; have we had this before? I assured him that we had, and that he liked it. He ate a bite (surprised voice) "This is really good!". Duh. It is really good, though. Who knew an entire bunch of celery was just what chicken needed?

Monday, 7/19/21

 Ate the corn chowder I made on Sunday. I just used a random recipe I found online since I was mostly just checking for Instant Pot timing. I put the cobs in there while is was pressure cooking and I think it really added to the corn-y flavor. A loaf of Jason's raisin-walnut bread to round out the meal.

Sunday, 7/18/21

 Pizza at Jason's parents. Way too much pizza. I made another S'More pie from the NYT.  I took my own advice and used a little less graham crackers in the crust and it was perfect. Everyone (even Carter!) liked it, but who wouldn't? Graham cracker crust, toasty marshmallows, creamy chocolate? 

I spent most of the morning cooking: prepping for my lunches, making a soup and a stew for later in the week, and helping Jason make a batch of kimchi. Won't know how any of it turned out for a few days!

Saturday, 7/17/21

 Dinner at Jennie and David's and absolutely nothing exciting from us: bread and flan.

Friday, 716/21

 Instant Pot chili that I had made the night before; unbeknownst to Jason and Carter, I used turkey instead of ground beef. They never noticed. It was too hot/we couldn't be bothered to make cornbread (even though it was just a box of Jiffy!), so we just toasted up some of the leftover bread from our endless supply. Somehow I convinced myself that the onions and celery in the chili counted as sufficient vegetables.

Thursday, 7/15/21

 It was hot and muggy, and we had coupons, so we picked up McDonald's for dinner. Not my first (or second, third or fourth) choice,  but I thought the boys would like it. Tried the spicy chicken sandwich and it wasn't bad, but the fries did not benefit from the trip home.

Wednesday, 7/14/21

 Stovetop macaroni and cheese, from Serious Eats, plus a salad for Jason and me. Carter was out playing Ultimate til all hours, so it wasn't looking as appetizing by the time he got home; luckily he was too hungry to care.  I also made a batch of rice pudding in the Instant Pot for dessert.

Tuesday, 7/13/21

 It was one of those rare days when I came home and really didn't feel like cooking. But the tofu was already sitting here, so cook I did. I roasted the tofu with soy sauce, sriracha and maple (Carter's favorite), and made soba noodles with peanut sauce, plus sauteed cabbage. We hadn't had peanut sauce in a while, so that was nice.

Monday, 7/12/21

 Leftover quiche. And wine. It was a long day of work.

Sunday, 7/11/21

 Jeff and Sue were able to come visit, somewhat last-minute. I had planned on making broccoli quiche; fortunately I had made an extra crust and just made two. Jason made bread, we picked up some corn, and I made a blueberry crisp (from Martha Stewart; I was looking for a recipe that used oats). Dinner was good, but Jason gets awfully agitated at having people over. He practically starts vacuuming under their feet. Not exactly relaxing.

Saturday, 7/10/21

 Dinner with Jen and John: Jason made pretzels, I made a S'Mores Pie (from the NYT). I used the graham cracker crust recipe from Sally's Baking Addiction but feel it needs more butter, or less crumbs. I also skipped making my own marshmallow topping and used mini marshmallows instead (which worked fine was so much easier).  We made a couple of Blue Aprons: one chicken with farro and the other one with chicken and rice, more Vietnamese-style. Both delicious.

Friday, 7/9/21

 Dinner with Jennie and David: Jason made a bread (of course), and I made a vanilla "custard" from Smitten Kitchen, served with some leftover caramel sauce. I disagree with her definition of custard; this was really just pastry cream. Oh well, I didn't have time to bake custard anyway and this was OK. Not amazing.

Thursday, 7/8/21

 Just leftovers of pita, hummus, etc. I did made Carter some World Peace cookies, though.

Wednesday, 7/7/21

 Jason made pita, we had some store-bought hummus, and I made curried chicken salad with the leftover chicken (from Monday's soup). More zucchini for the adults, applesauce for Carter. Carter's dislike of zucchini runs deep and wide, although if you make it into a fritter he will begrudgingly eat it. I don't remember my mother ever cooking it, so I guess I was at least neutral?

Tuesday, 7/5/21

 Ravioli and sauce, as a favor for Carter. Although I love ravioli; it's no hardship. Jason and I had the marinated, grilled zucchini with ours.

Monday, 7/5/21

 Spend a lot of the day on little cooking projects: grilled some zucchini for a marinated zucchini dish, made a couple of pie crusts, made a chicken soup (in the IP; worked very well. Just chicken, vegetables and 25 minutes high pressure), cooked up sweet potatoes and beets for my lunch, made a chicken stock and started a cold brew coffee for workday treats. And maybe a few other things, who knows.

The chicken soup was pretty good; I made a batch of noodles to go with it, from a recipe that came to us from our friend John's mother. They remind me a bit of the dumplings my MIL used to make, but mine suffered from being rolled out a little too thick, so they were quite chewy (but in sort of a pleasant way?) There is a LOT of soup leftover which is a problem since Jason will not eat soup left to his own devices.

Sunday, 7/4/21

 I celebrated the 4th in the best possible way: by going to the re-opened buffet at Priya! Indian buffet is perhaps one of the things I missed most during the pandemic. So of course, we stuffed ourselves and didn't need any dinner. So I made Carter a grilled cheese, and cooked up the fresh corn that we picked up in Whately. Jason didn't believe that it was really local corn, but the corn field right next to the farm stand convinced him. It was sweet and crispy but not super-flavorful. It was all the dinner we needed.

Saturday, 7/3/21

 Dinner with Jennie and David. Raisin-walnut bread from Jason, a giant banana pudding from me. The pudding recipe is from Ina Garten and it is really more like a trifle. I should have started it the day before, because I ran into some problems. Part of the base really needed a lot of chilling (time which I did not have), and so when I added it to the whipped cream it refused to whip and deflated. I did not have the time or ingredients to re-group, so I just carried on. She called for regular gingersnaps, but I went with the superior Trader Joe's triple gingersnaps. Also, 6 bananas? I used four. She is definitely a "more is more" kind of cook (I also skipped the additional whipped cream on top, and substituted bourbon for rum). The overnight rest did not happen. Luckily, the final product was delicious! Kind of like a banana tiramisu? I would make it again, for sure. Starting on the previous day.

Friday, 7/2/21

 Black beans in the Instant Pot, a box of some kind of yellow rice from Aldi, very plain nachos, and condiments. So kind of like a rice bowl with nachos on the side? We may have also had vanilla-caramel milkshakes, but it might also have been Thursday. Neither Jason nor I can remember.

Made way too many black beans.

Thursday, 7/1/21

 Jason made burgers on the grill (sliders on Hawaiian buns for Jason and Carter, just a patty for me. Those Hawaiian buns are too sweet). Fine. Served with chips and dip, coleslaw for Jason, peas for me and Carter.

Wednesday, 6/30/21

 Grilled tuna steaks, rice, and sushi bowl style condiments. I missed the surimi and mango that I usually have, but it was still quick and popular.

Tuesday, 6/29/21

 I asked Jason to make his Instant Pot fettucini alfredo, but then I commandeered the whole project. Looking back through my notes, I saw that he had doubled the pasta and that I had felt it was too dry and too clumpy. So I used 1 1/2 the amount of pasta called for, and switched it to shells, which I thought would cook up more nicely. Perfection! It was really creamy and flavorful, as you would expect something with a full cup each of cream and grated parmesan to be. Lots of broccoli on the side, which really provides a necessary counterpoint to the richness.

No leftovers.

Monday, 6/28/21

 Another hot day, so I did some grilling: smoked bratwurst (I am not a fan but the boys seemed to like it), halloumi (Aldi did have more!) and bread. Jason was very suspicious of the grilled bread but it was great and he was forced to admit it. We also had a salad (peas for Carter). Loving that halloumi.