Wednesday, 9/28/22

 Bagels with cream cheese, fresh chives and smoked salmon, plus some corn that Jason brought home. We have no idea where it came from, but it was actually really good. Mystery corn...

Tuesday, 9/27/22

 Another new dish! I feel like I am finally getting out of a slump...the cooler weather helps.

Pepperoni-garlic pasta, from the NYT. Sautéed up what seemed like an absurd amount of pepperoni, along with garlic (and in my case, half a bag of spinach) and tomato paste; seasoned with crushed red pepper, lemon zest and fennel seed, finished with parm. This was so flavorful! And the fennel gave it an interesting sweetness. With a pound of pasta, it didn't seem like too much pepperoni at all. The spinach got lost in there---I could have used a whole bag--but overall very satisfactory. Would absolutely make again.

And I almost forgot---Jason pulled out the air fryer and made us some sweet potato fries for an appetizer.

Monday, 9/26/22

 Farro bowls with roasted mushrooms and halloumi, from the NYT. This didn't seem like a recipe one had to follow super strictly, so I added a bunch of spinach to the farro, and served it with salsa verde instead of the olive yogurt, and added some avocado. One of my favorite kinds of meals. 

For dessert I baked the cookie dough I made Saturday (maple-brown sugar with pecans). While Sally said these were some of the best cookies she had ever made, Jason and I were not blown away. They were fine, and the maple glaze was good, but I myself have made many a better cookie. It didn't stop us from eating a lot of them, though.

Sunday, 9/25/22

 When I got home from work Jason was merrily frying up the falafel; unfortunately, the first batch or so completely disintegrated (I had a bad feeling that I should have food-processed it longer), but the rest turned out fine. And the fried crumbs actually made a better topping for the salad (cucumber, cherry tomatoes, the picked turnip and carrots). But now I am back to having leftover falafel in the freezer.

Saturday, 9/24/22

 I spent the morning doing a lot of prep for dinner (marinating a pork tenderloin and making the lime dressing for it) and doing various cooking projects:

-Made a big batch of hot pepper jelly (a bit runny as my pectin somehow went bad?)

-Pickled some turnips

-Made falafel mix for tomorrow's dinner

-Made the tahini dressing (see above)

-Grilled and froze eggplants for later use

-Made a cookie dough (Maple-Pecan from Sally's Baking Addiction) for dessert later in the week

And maybe something else I can't remember. Happily puttered around until after 1, at which point we decided to go for a walk AND go to Costco. Unsurprisingly, this was too ambitious a plan. especially since Costco didn't have what we needed and we ended up going to BJ's, too. So we didn't get home until about 6...I threw the pork into the oven as quickly as I could and prepped the rest of dinner. It was supposed to be served over cellophane noodles but I just went with rice; I also just used whatever vegetables I wanted (carrots, yellow pepper, cherry tomatoes, cucumbers and purple cabbage) and so essentially we had rice bowls. The pork loin was the unexpected star...the recipe was from SK and if I ever find myself in possession of another tenderloin I would make it again. The hoisin marinade added a lot of flavor and it wasn't at all dry like I feared it would be.

Friday, 9/23/22

 Dinner with Jen and John....bread from Jason, Smore's cups from me. A recipe I made a lot last summer (from Dinner than Dessert). I noted at the time that there were too many graham crackers but not how much to cut out. Annoying Past Lace! Anyhow, I cut it by a third and still felt it was too much, as the crumbs just fell apart when they were removed from the muffin pans. I am kind of over this dessert but feel compelled to make it again, if only to use up the marshmallows and graham crackers and get the darn proportions right.

Anyhow, dinner was a Blue Apron with skirt steak, mashed potatoes and roasted carrots. Always so good, those Blue Aprons.

Thursday, 9/22/22

 Pan Pizza.... now on Thursday!

Wednesday, 9/21/22

 Leftover pizza, just in time for a new pizza tomorrow night.

Tuesday, 9/20/22

 Bagels and cream cheese. I really have nothing to say about this except for it used up a couple of bagels?Plus at least I made a salad.

Monday, 9/19/22

 Used up some falafel from the freezer and made falafel salad with a tahini dressing, tomatoes, pickled cucumbers, feta and avocado. Quite good! Almost better than a falafel wrap, in fact.

Sunday, 9/18/22

 Eggplant involtini, from Smitten Kitchen (no changes), plus a loaf of bread from Jason. So good! I made it a couple of days earlier, and it held up beautifully. I think I almost like it better than stuffed shells (well, maybe not). And it is good to have yet another eggplant dish in the mix! For dessert I made a mochi butter cake; I had long been fascinated by this---the name sounds so good! However, it is only OK. Since I have never actually tried it, I don't know if  the problem is with my rendition, or the recipe in general. In any event, VERY bouncy. Not gross, just not super-appealing.

Saturday, 9/17/22

 Birthday/Block party for our neighbor Mary. Jason made his flatbread (despite my protests that I should be allowed to make something for once. Admittedly, people like it). Lots of fun food and music, plus a good chance to talk to neighbors I don't usually see.                                                                                                                                

Friday, 9/16/22

 Dinner with Jason's parents at Jodi's. They brought kimchi pancakes which were surprisingly good. Jodi made a salad and we brought a flan, which was well-recieved. A pleasant evening.

Thursday, 9/15/22

 In an exciting twist we had Pan Pizza Night on a Thursday! Jason was worried because we were low on pepperoni; it was still great. Another night where I really should have added a salad, though.

Wednesday, 9/14/22

 Another round of eggplant grinders; this time I added some peperoncines at Jason's suggestion. That, plus a little more sauce made these a little better than the last round. Still, glad to be done for now.

Tuesday, 9/13/22

 Grilled cheese sandwiches with tomatoes; working on a loaf of bread. We are making very little headway in the freezer/fridge reduction plan, somehow.

Monday, 9/12/22

 Another treat that we bought at the Simple Gifts store was a big container of fancy local yogurt and a bag of (similarly fancy & local) granola. So that was our weird dinner (with chips and homemade salsa as an appetizer). It's the same yogurt and granola they serve at the Porches, so it was bittersweet....

Sunday, 9/11/22

 Pulled  a loaf of Jason's bread out of the freezer and had that with the remaining cheese from our picnic. I also made a couple of deviled eggs for myself and egg salad for Jason. As a last minute addition I threw together a pot of curried carrot soup in the Instant Pot before I went to work. The carrot situation was almost as dire as the freezer situation so I was glad to use up a bunch. For dessert Jason made a box mix sheet cake and I made a plain American buttercream for it (thank you, Sally's Baking Addiction for the proportions).  It turned out fine....now Jason can eat sheet cake without ponying up $15 at the store.

Anyway, it was a pretty good dinner, what with all that cheese.

Saturday, 9/10/22

 Jason and I finally used my Simple Gifts gift card---we splurged on lots of fancy cheese and went and had ourselves a picnic. It was a lovely day for it.

Somewhere in Belchertown

For dinner, more freezer items: used some leftover already fried eggplant to make grinders. I was also happy to use up a few red peppers in the fridge that were starting to look a little sketchy. Served with tortilla chips because I had made two batches of salsas (one green, one red) because we also had too many tomatoes. Will it all ever end???

Friday, 9/9/22

 Pizza, with a french fry appetizer. We were suckered into buying a bag of beer-battered frozen fries at Aldi. They were fine, but the beer batter aspect didn't really come through. Pizza was great as always.

Thursday, 9/8/22

 Commencing the freezer cleanout. It isn't exactly zipping along, as Jason made a couple of dozen bagel for some reason. Anyway, reheated egg rolls for dinner. Meh. Jason is right that we should have used some pork and more cabbage and omitted the rice noodles in the filling. We also had some spaghetti squash that Jason cooked in the Instant Pot for me. I served it with butter and parm with was fine but an odd choice to go with the egg rolls.

Wednesday, 9/7/22

 Just leftovers. And more tomatoes.

Tuesday, 9/6/22

 A reprise of salt and pepper pork with rice cakes, only moderately successful. I subbed in ground beef, and while it didn't make a huge difference, ground pork would have been better. Plus I was in a hurry and also working on a dessert, so my stir-frying was a little haphazard. Oh well, chili crisp and extra soy sauce covers a multitude of sins.

But the dessert was good! An "Amish Friendship Bread" from Cook's Country that had been rejiggered enough so that it really just a cinnamon quick bread. Think zucchini bread without all those dumb vegetables. Dusting the pan and the top of the loaf with cinnamon sugar really added a nice crunch. Putting this one in the files!

Monday, 9/5/22

 Finally had time (and a cool enough day) to do some cooking! I made a stuffed eggplant dish, courtesy of auntie Donna. I took a couple of liberties, of course: I was unexpectedly out of black olives, so omitted them. I did add a jalapeno because we have so many, and I was too lazy to actually stuff the eggplants so I just baked the whole thing in a casserole dish. This was SO TASTY! I don't know if it was the nice fresh eggplants and tomatoes, or just my heavy hand with the parmesan, but I really loved it. We served it with a little bit of rice, but bread would be good, too. Always good to have another eggplant recipe in your arsenal.

Sunday, 9/4/22

 Spent the day with Gus and Jen at IKEA (Shake Shack for lunch!!). We kept it simple for dinner: some frozen mini samosas from the freezer that I forgot to cook on my birthday, plus a tomato-feta salad. Our project over the next couple of months is to start using up all that random frozen stuff up there.

Saturday, 9/3/22

 We ended up having a very late lunch with my dad and Liz (Black Cow Burger Bar in Turners. Great food! Will definitely return and hope that they aren't so short staffed next time). So Jason made our deferred pan pizza, but it was all we could do to each eat a slice and then lumber off to bed in a stupor. It was no fault of the pizza, though.

Friday, 9/2/22

 Dinner with Jen. Jason made a loaf of rye, and I made a batch of Smitten chocolate pudding. I wasn't too thrilled with it...Nestle's chocolate chips just don't cut it for me. Snob!

Dinner was a Blue Apron with roasted tofu and curried vegetables. Tasty as always.

Thursday, 9/1/22

So, this happened:

How is he so tall??

I didn't expect the house to feel so weird and empty when we got home! Jason and just ate some leftover bread and caponata. Start of a new era, I guess. Spaghetti pie every night? It's the only thing I can think of off the top of my head that the boy truly hates.

 

Wednesday, 8/31/22

I had a meeting after work, so had tepid pizza (but free! NO complaints here!) there. I guess Carter and Jason just fended for themselves.