Sunday, 8/29/21

 Simple birthday dinner request: bowls from Joy Poke Bowl that we just ate at home. They were so delicious, but since everyone was busy (Carter starts school tomorrow) is wasn't what you would call a pleasant family dinner. Still, that is some damn good poke.

Saturday, 8/28/21

For a combined birthday treat, Corrina and I went to Great Wolf Lodge and rode ALL the waterslides.  We knew better than to rely on the food options onsite, so stopped at store beforehand and picked up goat cheese, crackers, hummus, grapes and fancy cookies. Super fun day with my best girl.

Hard cider and HGTV...what more do I need?

Friday, 8/27/21

 Our plans for dinner with Jennie and David were cancelled, so Jason and I sat around, watched TV, had a drink and a lot of Cheez-Its and just had leftover grinders for dinner. Since this is what we secretly wanted to do all along, it was great.

Thursday, 8/26/21

 Grinders (rolls courtesy of Jason) with turkey, provolone, tomatoes, and Calabrian chili paste.  Aside from me underestimating the spice level, these were quite good. Even Carter complimented the rolls, probably not realizing that his dad had made them. Also chips.

Wednesday, 8/25/21

 Half-assed Salade Nicoise: hard-boiled eggs, tuna, tomatoes, green beans, boiled potatoes, served with green goddess dressing (I just bought it at Trader Joe's). I thought it was a good choice for a super-hot day (I cooked the potatoes and eggs the night before); Carter wasn't impressed.

Tuesday, 8/24/21

 Tofu rice bowls from "Simply Julia", a cookbook I brought home. Quick cucumber pickles, a very easy peanut sauce, rice with sesame seeds/oil, and tofu crumbles sautéed until crispy, with soy sauce, sambal oelek and a little fish sauce. I thought this was great---my love of assemble to order meals has been documented. It also made terrific lunch leftovers.

Monday, 8/23/21

 The deferred ricotta gnocchi! I decided to try an actual recipe this time (from Missy Robbins via TASTE). Well, it turned out to be too cheffy; semolina flour? 00 flour? Basket-hung ricotta? The nail in the coffin was "chill for an hour".

None of that happened. But it was still pretty good! I don't know if they were any lighter than usual, but they tasted fine, even if dinner took forever. Just served from fresh tomatoes alongside.

Sunday, 8/21/21

 Another dinner at the Watson-Stevens', another deferred dinner (ricotta gnocchi). We just mooched completely off their excellent dinner of veggie burritos. I really owe them a decent meal.

Saturday, 8/20/21

Dinner with Jennie and David: cheddar-jalapeno bread (delicious) from Jason; apple crisp from me. We picked the apples from UMass; I used the crisp recipe from the NYT rhubarb crisp recipe and the apple filling from Sally's Baking Addiction. The crisp was perfect, the apples were a tiny bit too sweet and mushy. I 'll make another batch this week and  adjust accordingly.

Friday, 8/20/21

 Jason and I had planned a quiet night in, but an invitation from Jodi meant that we ended up going over there, with our homemade bread and some peanut butter. Yes, we were planning PB & J for dinner. I had a craving, but I just don't love store-bought sandwich bread. So Jason was kind enough to make a couple of loaves. This resulted in an excellent PB & J, for sure. It was fun seeing Jason's siblings, but I secretly wanted to be home watching TV.

Thursday, 8/19/21

 Dinner at Jay and Jodi's with the whole family. Lots of pizza; nothing else. Sheesh. I would have made some brownies or something had I known. Not even any pineapple! Still fun, though.

Wednesday, 8/18/21

 Mike was up visiting and came for dinner. I knew if there was anyone in our circle who could handle chicken buldak, it would be him. I think he liked it? Served just with rice and kimchi. I didn't have time to prepare anything else, so it's lucky that Mike brought some Ben and Jerry's that we polished off for dessert.

Tuesday, 8/17/21

 Tried out a new recipe from the NYT for a pork and rice noodle salad with a lime dressing. The salad part didn't appeal, so I left out the lettuce and bean sprouts (which I don't like anyway), so it was really just noodles. I didn't have any orange juice, so skipped that, too. Otherwise more or less as written: ground pork sautéed with ginger and garlic, plus wide rice noodles tossed with lots of scallions, cucumbers and cherry tomatoes. It lacked a little something, but a bit of soy sauce and some sriracha did the trick. A lot of fresh herbs meant a lot of chopping, but I think it was worth it.

Monday, 8/16/21

 I was tired from a weekend of socializing, plus working all day. So I was happy enough to come home and have frozen pizza from Aldi. Plus some tomatoes for balance.

Sunday, 8/15/21

Super fun day with Jen and John: picnic lunch at the river (tom-mozz, Jason bread, prosciutto, the leftover blondies, chips). Then Art in the Orchard, then burgers and corn for dinner. Perfect summer day. Carter even biked over to join us for dinner.

Appreciating Art

Saturday, 8/14/21

 Dinner with Jennie and David: bread from Jason, blondies (David Lebowitz butterscotch-caramel) from me. I thought they turned out really well; I was out of regular milk chocolate, but I had a small bar of chocolate with Nutella that I chopped up and put in, along with a handful of butterscotch chips that I am trying to use up.

Friday, 8/13/21

 Apparently the farm where Jason volunteers has a weekly potluck dinner, so we walked over with our loaf of bread. More fun than I expected (and good food); the wine no doubt helped. Don't know if we will go every week but it was pretty nice.

Thursday, 8/12/21

 Tomato-mozzarella salad ('tis the season), kielbasa, and orzo with a creamy sauce with leeks and parmesan. I was there for the orzo: it was like a super rich macaroni and cheese, honestly. And the boy loved it. Always a plus.

Wednesday, 8/11/21

 Carter was at SULA in the hot hot sun, so Jason and I ate our solitary nachos. Nothing revolutionary but I was looking forward to them all day.

Tuesday, 8/10/21

 Open face sandwiches with griddled provolone and beautiful fresh tomatoes. it's the kind of thing you can only make when the tomatoes are at their peak, so thanks to Jason for bringing some home from the farm. Jason and I had the rest of the grilled eggplant; Carter had some corn off the cob. How summery is that? 

Monday, 8/9/21

 Just spaghetti and meatballs (I made the meatballs and sauce on Sunday). Jason and I had grilled eggplant with ours; Carter had boring broccoli. The meatballs were a touch salty but no complaints.

Sunday, 8/9/21

 Chicken korma, cabbage sautéed with onions, rice, leftover pita. Nice to have the time to cook a slightly more complex dinner (and we all like it, which is a plus).

Saturday, 8/7/21

 Jennie and David: Jason is still working on his corn/dill bread. I just made SK's chocolate pudding because we were out fruitlessly shopping for new glasses all day. A good dessert to have in your back pocket.

Friday, 8/6/21

 I used Carter's absence as an excuse to make a  dish I knew he wouldn't like: a zucchini-butter pasta from Smitten. So easy, since it is just grated zucchini sautéed in a lot of butter with garlic, crushed red pepper and Parm. Deliciously rich. Probably could have used some kind of side dish but I was too lazy since it was a Friday evening.

Thursday, 8/5/21

 I tried out a salad from the NYT because it had the words "grilled halloumi" in it (and we have been buying up all the available stock from Aldi). The components were good: the halloumi, corn (which they wanted you to roast in this complicated fashion but I just used raw), mango and a smoky vinaigrette. However, I found it a touch bland---I think the dressing needed more oomph. Also grilled some kielbasa and Jason made pita bread. Might make the salad again with something other than mango....maybe fresh peaches and/or avocados. I also made another rhubarb cobbler but didn't sweeten the rhubarb enough. The resulting product was VERY tart and too runny. Sad since there was so much of it.

Wednesday, 8/4/21

 Dinner in Whately! Two Blue Aprons (spicy oriechette with pork sausage, cherry tomatoes,& corn; chicken with rice, green beans and a creamy cilantro sauce), both delicious. Jason brought a loaf of bread, Corrina picked up an angel cake from Atkins, and dad had ice cream (of course). Nice to see everyone (except Carter who was at Ultimate. He just had leftover rice and beans).

Tuesday, 8/3/21

 Picked up a pizza from Big Y, and I made a beet salad to go with it. The pizza is only meh, but it was on sale....

Monday, 8/2/21

 Carter was at the movies, so Jason and I just ate tofu, broccoli and noodles all by ourselves. I also threw in a head of chard that had been languishing in the fridge. The tofu I marinated in soy sauce/maple syrup/sriracha all day. Pretty good, although it didn't hold it's shape

Sunday, 8/1/21

 Simple dinner of  "smoky, cheesy black beans" (from the NYT), plus yellow rice from a box and some roasted sweet potato wedges. Can't resist the word cheesy in a recipe....I only made a half batch cause our fridge was so stuffed; I also added some minced chilis in adobo.

Saturday, 7/31/21

 Jennie and David: Jason made an experimental loaf with corn and dill (odd but not bad), I made a rhubarb crisp from the NYT. A couple of changes: the amount of rhubarb called for needed double the sugar they used (and a larger pan), plus I took the suggestion of a couple of commenters and melted the butter for the crisp topping instead of trying to mix the ingredients in a food processor (ridiculous). Also made half again as much topping as directed, and doubled the oats and omitted the nuts. It was still pretty tart (nothing some whipped cream couldn't tame), but the crisp was excellent. I'll make it again as long as Jason's farm keeps producing rhubarb. It's a nice change from cobbler.

Friday, 7/30/21

 The good news about all that frying last night was that tonight we had leftovers: just as good (maybe even a little better in the case of the zucchini), none of the work. Frying night redeemed.

Thursday, 7/29/21

 Another ill-considered dinner, time-wise. Making popcorn chicken, corn fritters, and onion rings plus fried zucchini all in one night after work was too ambitious. The rationale behind it was that once you have the fryer out, you might as well make good use of it; but in practical terms it is slow going and everything is ready at a different time. I think we could have been happy with just the corn fritters; I use a recipe from Paula Dean that I adapt by adding some baking powder (self-rising cornmeal....sure, Paula), using fresh corn instead of canned and a lot more of it. They really turn out beautifully. The zucchini and onions were fine, but the chicken I found disappointing. I wish I had breaded it in flour rather than using a batter. Wasn't bad, just a little soggy and blah. 

All in all, not worth the giant mess and late dinner.

Wednesday, 7/28/21

 Dinner with Carter in mind. Then he went off to play Ultimate and ended up not getting home until after 10. Luckily, he was perfectly happy to eat warmed up Salisbury steak, mashed potatoes, onion gravy and broccoli. The beef and gravy were my favorite parts; the mashed potatoes were a tad lumpy. It was my first time cooking them in the Instant Pot and while I don't think they were undercooked, maybe they were. No one but me complained.

Take that, Swanson

Tuesday, 7/27/21

 Bread (Jason), cheese, deviled eggs, and a salad I made up with shaved fennel, cherries, parmesan, lemon and olive oil. I am always casting around for things to do with fennel, and this was pretty good. The cherries were a weird but delicious addition.