We had Ramona all day, which was awesome! Got my free sundae from Herrell's and even let her have some of the whipped cream. Dinner with the family at Mi Tierra, which sadly was only OK. My chili relleno seemed like it had been prepared some time ago. But it was better than no chili relleno and a really fun time.
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| Yes, I took the baby to AutoZone for my birthday |
Burgers, tots, broccoli. I overcooked the burgers just a smidge. Still getting used to the giant new grill.
Dinner with Jen and John. Jason's bread turned out beyond flat; I have seen taller frisbees. He had to make another loaf on the fly and was incredibly cranky. He thinks he had maybe cut back too much on the yeast. I made another cake (just box yellow cake this time which was at least better). We made Ruebens (yuck), BLTs and a grilled cheese for me. A fun and tasty evening, but it was a work night so we were home pretty early.
Kevin had us over for a little potluck for Corrina's birthday. He made almost everything: salad, grilled chicken, watermelon and corn; Jason made bread (he was disappointed with its flatness but it was well received anyway). I made an Aldi chocolate box cake (honestly, very very blah) with white icing. At least the icing was pretty good and I give credit to the Cabot butter instead of our usual cheap stuff. Anyway, it was a very nice afternoon by the lake and we were still too full for dinner.
Pizza night! I convinced Jason to try one that he was a little skeptical about: pepperoni, crushed red pepper, and a drizzle of honey at the table. He was surprised to find it so delicious (I wasn't)
Rice and beans: rice in the rice cooker with a little Goya packet, smoky black beans from the NYT (with chilis in adobo instead of smoked paprika). I made this a little too spicy, but not inedibly so. Served with avocado, tomatoes and salsa.
Finally, a dinner I could get excited about. Jason made a loaf of very good bread, and we had open faced sandwiches with grilled provolone and tomatoes. Truly delicious. I just made a regular grilled cheese for Carter. Since Jason made the bread and brought home the tomato (and planted it, for all I know) I give him most of the credit.
Another night, another somewhat lackluster meal. I made alfredo in the Instant Pot, knowing Carter would like it. It was fine. Served with broccoli (it's a rut I can't seem to break out of) that was a little too crunchy. Except for not heating up the kitchen, I am not sure what making the pasta this way accomplishes. I don't even think it is any faster.
Grilled chicken, grilled potatoes (par-cooked, and then wrapped in foil with onions and rosemary; could have used more time), and some vegetable that I am forgetting. Pickles and tomatoes, probably. I was too lazy to make a proper marinade and used a bottle of teriyaki I found in the back of the fridge. The taste was OK but it gave the chicken a strange bouncy texture. I blame the pineapple juice in the marinade. Overall somewhat disappointing.
Jason's parents took us to Bombay Royale for lunch, so we weren't really hungry for dinner. So we just had some tomatoes and corn off-the-cob. The corn was our first of the season and maybe only since it's so pricey this year. Tough summer for farmers.
Since we still had a half bag of chickpeas and many pickled things, I made another batch of falafel. Jason has perfected the frying and I like a meal that has lots of condiments. We froze the leftovers, though so as not to overdo it, The NYT recipe works well with a couple of minor adjustments: use a lot more fresh herbs and spices; grind the chickpeas separately and in batches (I should have bought a bigger food processor) and be sure to pack the mix tightly when frying.
Another deep dish pizza with eggplant. This one wasn't quite as doughy as the previous week, and the flavors are good. I think I am still more in the mood for thinner crust, though.
Leftover falafels, with all the various toppings. It was a good batch, and now our fridge is nearly leftover-free.
"Spiced rice with vermicelli" (well, spaghetti), served with the leftover chicken and various pickled condiments. My timing making this in the Instant Pot wasn't perfect, and in adding more time we got the dreaded burn notice. However, if came out fine, not actually burnt. Honestly, except for the chicken I am a bit lukewarm on these recipes so far. Not sure if it is my execution or what.
Falafel (from the Times: extra herbs and spices, otherwise as written). Served with pita, pickled turnips, tahini-yogurt sauce, cucumbers and tomatoes. Jason did a good job frying them up. For dessert we (in a very nearly unprecedented move) went over to Big Y and bought a cake. Aren't we fancy!
Another meal from Arabiyya: meatballs and sauce. I wish I had served these with rice instead of spaghetti as Carter and I both suffered from cognitive dissonance: it looked like spaghetti and meatballs, but tasted like cumin, cinnamon and cloves. The meatballs were also not as tender as I would have liked (no binders, maybe that's why). Anyway, not bad but not my favorite.
I worked on a lot of little cooking projects over the weekend: pickled turnip, pickled cauliflower, made a big batch of bean salad for my lunches, prepped meatballs and sauce, and also made dinner: a sumac flavored chicken dish from a cookbook called Arabiyya (cooking from the Arab diaspora). I made a couple of changes to the recipe: chicken breasts instead of thighs (when did thighs get more expensive?), cooked the chicken in the skillet instead of the oven, and served with homemade pita instead of tortillas (I hadn't looked at the last paragraph and apparently these were meant to be folded up like a burrito and then lightly toasted. Oops). I went light on the pomegranate molasses, since Carter doesn't love it, so we just added more at the table. However, I stayed true to the flavors and the sumac and warm spices added an interesting new spin on chicken for us. I plan to cook a lot from this book this week; I can see that I will be going through a lot of onions.
It was Ramona's birthday party, so that meant a late lunch (pizza and cake, yay!). So no dinner for us (although Carter, of course, needed to eat again)
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| Frosting everywhere! |
A return to deep dish pizza. Jason wanted to re-create a topping he used to make a long time ago, where he cooked eggplant and tomato together. It's fairly heavy, so he thought the thicker-deep dish format would be good. He also added Italian sausage this time around. I liked the flavors, but we both agreed that it was a bit doughy. Not to worry, I am sure he will make it again next week.
I didn't feel like cooking the zucchini pasta I had planned, so I found some pierogis in the freezer and we had those and salad for dinner. Jason thought it would be an interesting experiment to cook them in the air fryer; I was a little dubious but what the heck. They came out more like little knishes but I would call it a success. It's also always nice to clear out the freezer a bit.
Ground pork with mushrooms, zucchini, yellow pepper and Cravings sauce, plus rice. I did a ton of prep before work so it came together quickly and was devoured. The skillet continues to work well, but now the mosquitos outside make it a toss-up about which is worse.
Eggplant parm grinders, which would have been quite good if the grinder rolls we picked up weren't so squishy and blah. Oh well, the eggplant was fine. Carter ate nearly three.
Sushi bowl with the usual suspects: tuna, surimi, mango, cucumber, etc. No surprises here.
I thought it would be great to use up some ricotta cheese by making gnocchi. I was wrong.
Firstly, it takes forever to bring a large pot of water to a boil on the hot plate; then it won't keep a boil while you add gnocchi.
Secondly, in our hot kitchen the %$#@! gnocchi were sticky and wouldn't hold their shape. Jason had to help me quickly roll them in flour again before I boiled them (now indoors; luckily it doesn't take long). They flopped around and looked terrible and some were too big and gooey in the middle and I was very, very irritated. It will be years before I make these again. I didn't even make a vegetable because I had had it.
(They didn't taste too bad, though)
Chopped salad (variation of a recipe from SK. My only complaint was that the dressing is aggressively garlicky, even though I didn't use as much as directed) and cheese sticks in the air fryer. We bought an enormous box of mozzarella sticks at BJ's and went through half of them (mostly thanks to Carter). i don't think we will buy them again, as it is worth it to make your own if you are craving mozzarella sticks.
Pizza night. We topped it with spinach, feta and cherry tomato and it was very successful. Jason was extremely pleased after last week's, which he felt was subpar.
Dinner at Jodi's. She made pasta with soy curls, roasted red peppers and sun-dried tomatoes. A little weird, but it worked. Jason made a loaf of bread, since for once it wasn't a million degrees out. He is also experimenting with an Egyptian dessert called basbousa: this first iteration was OK but needs some tinkering.
I did some cooking over the weekend, so I was glad to come home after an exceedingly tiring day at work to dinner basically already made. Potato-leek soup, marinated mushrooms, and caponata. I think I overcooked the eggplant in the caponata, but it's not bad. Jason was just happy to be eating oyster crackers.
Cold noodle salad with peanut sauce, from the NYT. Really just noodles with raw vegetables (in my case cucumbers, yellow pepper, Chinese cabbage and scallions). This would have been a great meal for one of the really hot days we had last week; I liked the flavors but it could have used some chicken or tofu or something to bulk it up.
Pesto pizza with tomatoes and provolone. Jason wasn't happy with it (I thought it was a little doughy but pretty good). He is chasing the memory of a really good pesto pizza he made earlier in the summer, but there is a good chance he was tipsy that night and that's why it was so good? Anyway, I enjoyed it.
