Finally felt ready to make the chicken, broccoli and pasta. Did an "Alfredo" in the Instant pot, which worked well (although I still had to cook the broccoli separately). This is undeniably tasty, but also feels like something a somewhat picky child would enjoy. I feel like we, as empty nesters, should be eating more daring flavors!
I also made another baclava and it is fabulous.
We had this fancy Aldi pizza up in the freezer for a while, so we decided to forgo the usual pizza night and had that instead. I remembered liking the pepperoni and hot honey with a pretzel crust before, but either my memory was faulty, or this one was not as good? Either way, not our best pizza night. I didn't even enjoy our pre-dinner snacks because those beer potato chips are kind of nasty. Thanks a lot, Aldi!
I was planning to do something with chicken, broccoli and pasta, but for some reason it didn't appeal. So instead (at Jason's suggestion) I cooked some of the chicken with a little Goya seasoning and made nachos instead. With a salad, it was a pretty satisfying meal. Plus guacamole because I forgot I had avocados.
Another meal from "I Dream of Dinner", this one not quite as successful. Doesn't "green beans and farro with gochujang butter" sound good? It did to me; then as I was reading it I thought the execution was weird...but I followed the recipe anyway. I would not have cooked the green beans and farro together; I wouldn't have added the vinegar/gochujang mix at the beginning, and I would not have called it "gochujang butter" when in fact thet were separate components added at different times. Anyway, it was fine (but better as leftovers with the addition of feta and some pickled red onions).
Jessica and I met some of her old friends at the Northampton Brewery. All we had was some nachos but we weren't super hungry anyway. Then we went by the house and had some bread and pie. I demoed caramel making but Jessica still seemed dubious about her chances of success.
Dinner at Blue Heron!
In honor of Jessica visiting, Jason made pizza (while Jessica and I snacked on chips and sipped Aviations). Then apple pie for dessert (it was only fine. A little dry and the crust wasn't too crispy after a day in the fridge).
Carter graciously allowed us to come eat at the Dining Hall. He had not yet tried Berkshire (it's the farthest from his dorm) and was pleasantly surprised at how good it is. I ate:
Sushi
Some pasta and meatballs
A little artichoke salad
Potato Curry
Butter chicken (excellent)
Mini samosas
Some oatmilk soft serve with Butterfingers
and some kind of chewy oat bars that were delicious. Reminiscent of British flapjacks.
Then we just rolled on home.
Just regular old stuffed shells, with a spinach-ricotta filling. Tasted good, but I wished I had used some tomato paste in my sauce to make it thicker/richer tasting. And now we have tons of leftovers again. Maybe I should start figuring out how to cook for two.
Another meal from "I Dream of Dinner"; another rice dish, this time with lots of spinach and herbs in it (I used chard and sorrel, since that's what we had), with broiled feta. There was supposed to be quick picked radishes, but I didn't have any so I did red onions instead and it was a good choice. The fancy feta I picked up was really worth it. This feels very adaptable and I wouldn't need to look at the recipe next time.
Still going on the baklava but we are making an embarrassingly large dent in it.
We are swimming in eggs, so I made a big batch of egg salad for Jason and a few deviled eggs for myself. We had that with some grilled eggplant (from the weekend), leftover bread and ham (for Jason, anyway). Still have three dozen eggs, though. Nothing like not feeding a teenage boy every day to reduce egg consumption.
I brought home a cookbook called "I Dream of Dinner (So you don't have to) and was immediately inspired to make several things, including, oddly enough, this recipe for tempeh and rice. I don't like tempeh as a rule, but her description was so alluring that I decided to give it a try. You sear tempeh (I added a bunch of chard) and make a quick sauce with maple syrup, turmeric, rice vinegar and pepper. Served over rice. While I still don't love the texture of tempeh this was pretty good! Carter was home getting some math help and he was grateful that he didn't have to eat it.
When I asked Jason to find something for me in the freezer a few days ago, he reported that there was a "big piece of meat with some some of seasoning packet" back there. I guessed that it was a corned beef brisket that I had forgotten about, told him to throw it in the fridge, and planned accordingly. Well, when I looked this morning, it was NOT a brisket; it was the last of an enormous ham still hanging around up there. So, change of plans. Ham and macaroni and cheese. The mac & cheese was the Martha Stewart recipe and it makes so, so much. Even after freezing a third, we had tons of leftovers (I threw a couple of heads of broccoli in there, which made it even bigger). Jason felt compelled to comment on how it is made; I hate it when he watches me cook and this is why. Anyway, it is delicious, especially with the broccoli (I can take or leave ham).
Dessert was the baklava I make yesterday and it is really good. I saved the recipe to my NYT account and would definitely make it again. The only change I made was to add a tiny bit of rosewater to the syrup.
Dinner with Jay and Jodi (pasta and sauce, salad). Jason made bread, and I made a double batch of cinnamon crunch popcorn from the NYT, since I knew Jodi would like it. I also spent some time in the afternoon grilling eggplant and making a giant baklava.
Thursday=Pan Pizza. The big shake-up was that we daringly added some wild mushrooms that Jason's farm pals had foraged (and assured us were not poison even though they strongly resembled a poisonous variety). Spoiler: they were not poisonous! And very tasty, to boot. The were called brick caps and it was almost a shame to waste them on a pizza. Now Jason seems very gung-ho about mushroom foraging, which could certainly add some excitement to dinner.
Cabbage soup from Monday, which was nice, but all I really wanted was the dinner rolls that Jason made at my request. They really are the best.
I looked into the fridge, saw all those leftovers (pizza, rice and beans, pasta) and jettisoned the planned macaroni and cheese. So it was a leftover buffet.
Used the day off to make (NYT) cinnamon rolls (good even though I forogt the egg in the dough), make a pot of cabbage soup, grill a bunch of eggplant and make a batch of coleslaw for Jason. Oh, plus a big batch of pasta with broccoli rabe for our lunch. Dinner was rice and beans (black beans in the Instant Pot), burrito bowl style. Plenty of avocado, salsa verde, tomatoes and cheese.
Pizza and cake with Jason's family at Jay and Jodi's. Carter even graced us with his presence! Pre-gaming was (as usual) the key to a successful evening.
Biy Y was having a sale on burgers from their butcher, so we splurged on a couple of giant ones. I roasted some regular and sweet potatoes from the farm, and also grilled some eggplant. I tossed the eggplant with crushed red pepper, garlic, olive oil and red wine vinegar and it is quite nice. Might be the last of the season but who knows?
Farm dinner....no lobster this time but there was lasagna and it was pretty great. Maybe better than lobster. Jason made a loaf of bread and there were lots of good salads and appetizers.
Pizza night! So that I wouldn't forget/get too lazy, I made a salad in the morning. So there was that.
I took the undesirable leftover chicken, stripped it of its bacon, chopped it up, and turned it into a creamy sauce with a lot of green beans to serve over rice. Then I crisped up the bacon and served it on the side. Much better! I am a sucker for any creamy chicken dish, though.
Cauliflower toasts from the NYT with a loaf of bread that Jason made for us. I realized too late that I had neither the mascarpone nor ricotta that the recipe called for; luckily I had a log of goat cheese that stepped in and worked nicely. Skipped the nutmeg, added diced jalapenos. This doesn't seem like a lot of dinner, but it was terribly rich.
Hamburgers, which we haven't had in forever, plus tots and a salad. Obviously, we put cheese on the tots because we are living dangerously.
Roasted tofu and green beans with chili crisp, from the NYT. I didn't bother to pan roast the green beans; I just sauteed them with ginger and a little soy sauce. It's weird cooking for just Jason and me: we only needed one block of tofu and a cup of rice. I also took my own suggestion and marinated the tofu longer and with more marinade. Jason made chocolate cookies for dessert.
i tried to repeat a chicken dish from "Dinner, then Dessert" that I remembered liking (chicken wrapped in bacon with jalapeno slices, then roasted) but it was not entirely successful. The chicken was quite dry and would really have benefitted from a brine or marinade. Oh well, bacon and jalapenos taste good and maybe I can salvage it in another application. We also had Serious Eats roasted potatoes (this was actually part of my problem: two dishes that needed the oven at two different temperatures. Poor planning). Plus another salad (hooray for the return of lettuce at Jason's farm).
Sadly, we had to eat leftover pizza from LAST week, because it was just languishing too long. So not very exciting, although at least I made a salad this time. That made me feel a little better about myself.
Pizza night, plus Jason made a sheet cake and I frosted it with some leftover icing from last time. As Jason pointed out, we are like a couple of 7 year olds at a birthday party, eating pizza and cake every week. Just with bourbon instead of Sprite.
