Tuesday, 5/28/24

 Yes, still sucking up to my son: regular old beef and bean burritos. He was very appreciative (and can easily put away three nowadays).

Monday, 5/27/24

In order to suck up to Carter I made butter chicken in the Instant Pot, adding a bunch of spinach at the end. Used the Ministry of Curry recipe since I happened to have coconut milk on hand. I added extra spices and a bit of cream but otherwise pretty much as written. No complaints (except my minor one: I meant to tell Jason to use basmati rice but I forgot and so we had regular. My own fault).

Sunday, 5/26/24

 Reprise of cauliflower shawarma from the NYT. Of course Jason was scared to use the stove so I tried cooking the cauliflower on the grill instead. It was actually pretty successful; got nice and charred in spots but retained some crunch. I wouldn't be adverse to doing it that way again (although the oven is way easier). Served with homemade pita, feta, cucumbers, cherry tomatoes and lightly pickled red onions. I am not sure why this is so good but it is AND makes great leftovers for my lunch.

Saturday, 5/25/24

 Delayed pizza night---cheese for Carter, mushroom, jalapeno and pepperoni for me (we had red sauce to use up so I will try to  be more inventive next week). Ice cream and rhubarb compote for dessert.

Friday, 5/24/24

Dinner with Jen and John; Jason made pita and hummus; I made another rhubarb spoon cake. Dinner was pasta with ricotta and asparagus. I just riffed on the general idea and I think it turned out pretty well! In case Jen ever asks again: I blanched the asparagus and put it in a bowl with lots of lemon zest; cooked onions to nice and sweet, added ricotta and lemon juice; tossed everything with pappardelle and some pasta water. Pinch of red pepper flakes (Jen probably doesn't even know she has red pepper flakes). Pretty good if I do say so myself!

Thursday, 5/23/24

 Another healthful and well-balanced meal of DIY nachos. Just in the microwave, no less (it was pretty hot out so of course we couldn't use the stove). I didn't even have broccoli and just pretended that cherry tomatoes were enough of a vegetable.

Wednesday, 5/22/24

 Sushi bowl, with all the usual components.  I seared the tuna steak and think it is the best choice.

Tuesday, 5/21/24

 I had intended to make a spinach salad, but it just seemed like too much work (Jason brought home a TON of spinach last week. Instead I made chili crisp Alfredo and all that spinach just disappeared into the sauce. It was pretty tasty AND now that big bag of spinach isn't there mocking me anymore.

Monday, 5/20/24

 A nice wholesome meal of tater tots, gravy and cheese. For the record, I also ate some broccoli.

Sunday, 5/19/24

 Jason and I picked up a rotisserie chicken during our travels over the weekend, so we had that for dinner with mashed potatoes, broccoli and gravy. It was pretty good (although I thought that the potatoes cooked in the Instant Pot came out a bit watery) but kind of a pain to get everything done, especially with Jason hovering over me to ensure that I didn't get the kitchen too hot or dirty. Ice cream with rhubarb compote for dessert.

Saturday, 5/18/24

 Dinner at Jay and Jodi's with Jason's parents. They brought chicken and burgers, Jodi made a salad and we brought a double batch of the rhubarb spoon cake. I was pleased that people seemed to like it. I just doubled everything and made it in 9x13 baking pan.

Friday, 5/17/24

 Jason for some reason wanted me to take a picture of the pizza. Of course it's a terrible photo but here it is anyway:

A coworker was kind enough to give me ramps from her yard, so I found a recipe for ramp pizza. Just cheese (Parm and mozz), the ramps and some scallions. But it packed so much flavor! Really tasty and who knows if we will ever have enough ramps to make it again.

Thursday, 5/16/24

 Jason somehow talked Carter into one last meal at the dining hall. We are going to miss this perk next year when Carter isn't on campus so I guess it is good we went. I had sushi, pho, and some nachos that were only OK. Adios, Worcester!

Wednesday, 5/15/24

 Grilled cheese with a lot of spinach. I liked this conceptually (Jason brought home so much spinach from the farm) but in reality they were awfully spinachy. But at least now we have plenty of iron.

Tuesday, 5/14/24

 Chicken with garlic, ginger and  mint, from the NYT. Marinated and then pan-fried (I used the electric skillet, which worked well as it has a lid). This was as flavorful as promised (the only thing I changed was adding jalapeno to the marinade instead of chili powder) if maybe not quite as tender (but that could be user error). Served with plain rice and leftover zucchini fritters, which reheated beautifully in the air fryer.

Monday, 5/13/24

 SK broccoli pesto pasta which was great except I misjudged how much pasta to use and it was a whole lotta sauce. So much that Jason cooked up another half pound or so and added it (and then the proportions were good). I should remember that however much broccoli it is that we get from Aldo requites a full pound, not the measly half in the recipe. Anyhow, it was not my night because I was simultaneously making dessert (rhubarb spoon cake, from "The Lost Kitchen") and was dismayed to see, after sliding the cake into the oven, the half cup of sugar I had neglected to add. So I sprinkled about half of it on the top and hoped for the best. Fortunately, it was still wonderful! It's my new rhubarb dessert of the summer, in fact.

Ingredients

For the Cake
• 8 Tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled, plus more for the pan
• 1 cup all-purpose flour, plus more for the pan
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup whole milk
• 1/4 cup sour cream
• Turbinado sugar, optional
• Rhubarb Compote (see below)
• Whipped Cream or Ice Cream for serving
Rhubarb Compote
• 3 cups chopped rhubarb (3/4 inch pieces, about 2/3 pounds)
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
• 2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
• 2 teaspoons cornstarch

Instructions

1. Begin by preparing the Rhubarb Compote. In a medium heavy-bottomed saucepan, combine the rhubarb, sugar, lemon zest, lemon juice, and cornstarch. Bring to a simmer over medium heat, stirring constantly until the rhubarb becomes tender and sauce-like, about 5-10 minutes. Remove from the heat and allow to cool to room temperature. This will keep in the fridge for up to a week.
2. For the Cake. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Coat a 10-inch ovenproof skillet, preferably cast iron, with butter and flour, shaking out any excess flour.
3. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, sugar and salt. In a large bowl, whisk together the egg, vanilla, milk, sour cream and cooled, melted butter. Gently stir the wet ingredients into the dry until just incorporated (you don't want to beat the batter).
4. Pour about two-thirds of the rhubarb compote into the greased skillet and spread evenly. Pour the cake batter over it, spread evenly, then dollop the remaining compote over the top. Use a small knife to swirl together the batter and compote. Sprinkle with a little bit of turbinado sugar if you have it.
5. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean, about 25 minutes.
6. Serve the cake directly from the skillet with some whipped cream or ice cream.

Sunday, 5/12/24

 We were babysitting Ramona so that Corrina and Zac could go out for Mother's Day-----we all went to the dining hall with Carter (which was a great idea). Ramona enjoyed pasta, pizza and carrot cake; I particularly liked the chicken pho. I hope Carter is enjoying his last few days of that good and plentiful UMass food.

Saturday, 5/11/24

Dinner at Jay & Jodi's; we brought bread and a small batch of caramel matzoh crunch. There was lentils and rice that was very good but Jason and I had had a late lunch at Priya so we weren't super hungry.

Friday, 5/10/24

Pizza night...I was out of ideas, so we just had sauce, mozzarella, a little provolone, parm blend and mushrooms. Far more delicious than the sum of it's parts. we picked up some vanilla ice cream for dessert and had it with the leftover fruit sauce from the blintzes. 

Thursday, 5/9/24

 A sort of potato-cauliflower "curry", with actually curry powder, chickpeas and spinach. It ended up a little spicy but with a good flavor. Since we had leftover pita and there were potatoes in there already, I skipped rice. Why I made so damn much of it I do not know.

Wednesday, 5/8/24

 Grilled cheese and salad. An extravagant four types of cheese made these extra tasty. It also helped that I cut my bread very thinly and some of the cheese melted out and made even more delicious cheesy crust n the outside. I might have enjoyed this even more had I not also been trying to make dinner for the next evening so I was taking bites here and there like a savage.

Tuesday, 5/7/24

 Zucchini fritters (more inspired by than adapted from SK; I just added flour and eggs until the batter looked right) with a a sour cream/chiles in adobo sauce and fresh pita. I added smoked cheddar to the batter; you couldn't really detect it but maybe it was just subtle? Jason did them in the deep fryer which was very successful. Less greasy than pan frying. I also simultaneously made a rhubarb custard pie that took about a month to bake but we finally had some at around 8:30....I used up the last of the animal crackers to make the crust and think I prefer a regular pastry crust after all. But the animal cracker crust would be good with something else, like a coconut cream pie.

Monday, 5/6/24

 I knew that when I lazily didn't do any dinner prep when I was home for lunch that it meant eating later, and I was right. Thanks, lunchtime Lace. Anyway, a kind of spring roll salad, with carrots, cukes, cherry tomatoes, ground pork sautéed with garlic and ginger and a couple of sauces (peanut and a kind of sweet chili thing). So we didn't finish until almost 7. Oh well.

Sunday, 5/5/24

 I wanted to make a recipe for minted baked rice from Ottolenghi, but instead just used it as a flavor inspiration. I mixed cooked basmati with the rest of some salsa verde I had made, and baked it with slices of feta on top. Served with a little tomato-cucumber salad with mint and lemon, and drizzled some pomegranate syrup on top. This was a perfect way to use up the salsa, and absolutely delicious to boot. The only thing I would change is to add more feta.

Saturday, 5/4/24

 Frisbee tournament all day; luckily it was at UMass and the weather was very cooperative. Carter was happy with his playing, and we were happy to have blintzes all ready to fry up for dinner.

Friday, 5/3/24

 Last minute dinner with Jen and John, so we threw the blintzes we had spent the afternoon making into the fridge. Luckily, I had also just made a rhubarb custard pie (from The Spruce Eats; I made an animal cracker crust instead of regular pastry---a little odd but not bad)) so we brought that and some quickly tossed off garlic flatbreads. Jen had some excellent cheeses and we made a pasta with spinach and asparagus. Fun night, but stayed out too late.

Thursday, 5/2/24

 Early pizza night; we decided to do a reprise of the prosciutto/cream sauce/ caramelized onion and spinach while it was still fresh in our minds. I think it's one of Jason's all time favorites. I kind of can't believe we never made it before since it's a pretty common combination.

Wednesday, 5/1/24

 Ravioli and tomato sauce (just Aldi frozen ravioli but good nonetheless) plus an ersatz Caesar salad. Frozen ravioli wasn't always easy to find when I was a kid, so I am grateful that I can eat it any time now.

Tuesday, 4/30/24

 Some time back I bought some top round on sale and thought it would be good for beef stroganoff. I don't know whether it was because I just winged it, or if my particular bowl suffered from an excess of crappy Aldi green peas, but it wasn't my favorite. It tasted good in the pot, but with the peas and noodles it was all a bit meh. I wonder how my mom made it? I know she used ground beef but otherwise I was just guessing. Anyhow, it wasn't bad. Except for those stupid peas.

Monday, 4/29/24

 Cheesy pinto beans with salsa verde, loosely based on a recipe from the NYT. Pinto beans in the pressure cooker, some homemade salsa verde (it was heavy on the parsley and light on cilantro but a nice green flavor), diced zucchini and lots of pepperjack. We ate it with tortilla chips but rice would also have been good.