Saturday, 12/28/24

 We stayed home almost all day, enjoying having no plans. To celebrate, I made potato pancakes for lunch; they were the best ones I have ever made. Not sure why---the extra squeezing of the potatoes? Hand shredding? Using the electric skillet? Anyway, they were perfect. Yogurt subbed in nicely for sour cream. Dinner was cauliflower shawarma (NYT), that I made essentially as written; served with tomatoes, cucumbers, feta, cilantro, a drizzle of pomegranate molasses, and Jason's homemade pita. This recipe is so easy for so much reward, and feels quite virtuous to boot.

Friday, 12/27/24

 Holiday Farm Party; Jason of course got to make bread and I didn't get to make anything 😒😒.  The highlights were Prosecco, key lime pie, and meatballs, in my opinion. Last year there was roast beef; I guess no one was feeling that flush this year.

Thursday, 12/26/24

 We had some random leftovers that Jay and Jodi pressed upon us (they were going on vacation); pasta that was fine if a little bland. Jason made some garlic bread and I made yet another Caesar salad (once you already have the dressing the rest is simple). Finally polished off the apple pizza, which still tasted good although it was a bit soggy.

Wednesday, 12/25/24

 Merry Christmas! Carter came over in the morning for crumpets and then he and I took a nice long walk. A quiet afternoon and then dinner with Papa and Liz. Brisket (so good that I think I had fourths?), latkes, salad, and bread from Jason. I was really glad that we were able to get together...a small group but a cheerful one! And we still have our delayed plans to look forward to.

I was glad that Carter liked his sweater

Tuesday, 12/24/24

 Our Christmas plans all got delayed (baby with RVS, dad with a pressure sore), so Carter came over and we had just had pasta with meat sauce and a Caesar salad. We watched a little TV together and had an early night. Pleasant if not terribly festive. Jason made chocolate chip cookies that were tasty albeit a little flat.

Monday, 12/23/24

 Dinner with Jay and Jodi. We offered to make potato pancakes so I spent the majority of the evening at the stove (all my clothes had to go into the laundry and I had to wash my hair before bed!). Jason thought it would be helpful to shred the potatoes beforehand, but I think it made them too wet. Still, a fried potato is almost always pretty good. J & J had brought back baked goods that one of Jay's cousins in LI made and they were outstanding. I don't even like stollen, but it was delicious. Plus Mexican wedding cookies, caramels, stroopwafels and other treats. What a talented baker!

Sunday, 12/22/24

 I am determined to make that spaghetti verde recipe work! This time I roasted the jalapeno, thinking it would tame the heat. I suspected we were in trouble since I roasted all the peppers on Saturday afternoon and my hands were still burning at bedtime...

Well, another incredibly spicy meal later and I am back to the drawing board. My next thought is to ditch the jalapeno altogether and add a can of green chilis to bump up the flavor. Not sure if I can talk Jason into another attempt, though. It was so spicy!

Saturday, 12/21/24

 Dinner at Jen and John's with some of Jen's family who were in town for the holidays, plus Laurie and her sister.John made chili (he makes really good chili), Jason made bread, and I brought some brown butter shortbread from SK. It is an update of one of her older recipes, now in bar form instead of slice and bake (apparently a lot of people had problems with that recipe but mine always worked fine). Anyhow, same great taste although since they were on the thick side I think a 9x9 pan would have been better than the 8x8 called for. There were also lots of other cookies and treats, and we scored a giant mug filled with candy that Eve didn't want.

Friday, 12/20/24

 We had a dinner cancellation, so we stayed in and played video games and ate Cheez-its. Caesar salad and pears for dinner.

Thursday, 12/18/24

 Snacks and wine with Jennie and David (Jason made bread, of course). The snacks were substantial enough to be called dinner. It was nice to see them again after a fairly long time. We got home on the early side and had some of our apple pizza.

Wednesday, 12/18/24

  I honestly can't remember but Jason thinks we just had bread and cheese and he's probably right.

Tuesday, 12/17/24

We had all this sliced cheese in the freezer that we bought on sale; Jason thought we could use some of it for grinders. In a case of the tail wagging the dog, it meant that we then had to purchase rolls and turkey, but that's OK. The sandwiches were fine but  I really loved the reprisal of the Caesar salad. 

Monday, 12/16/24

 Poor man's soup and some bread that Jason made to bring to Jay and Jodi's that turned out to be unnecessary. Love to come home to dinner already made, especially such a nice cozy one on a cold day. We also made our own little apple pizza, since there was leftover dough from Sunday and some sketchy looking apples in the crisper.

Sunday, 12/15/24

 Pizza at Jay and Jodi's with all boys in attendance. The  best one was, I think, the deep dish. It helped that we hadn't made it in a while. Apple "pizza" for dessert, plus an excellent butterscotch pie that Zack and sam made (it was from the NYT so I saved the recipe).  Always fun to have the nephews there!

Saturday, 12/14/24

 Does serving a Caesar salad with an ungodly number of mozzarella sticks make it a healthy meal? Does it help if the mozzarella sticks are homemade and cooked in the air fryer? Who cares; it was a great dinner although breading those cheese sticks is a big PITA. The to the Chasan-Tabor's for games and a lemon tart that Lisa made and the six of us demolished.

Friday, 12/13/24

 Town Holiday party, so I had chicken tenders and tater tots while Jason ate the leftover tofu. I also did not win a door prize, so I would not call the evening a total success. The chicken was pretty good, though. 

Thursday, 12/12/24

 A new pizza: goat cheese, mushrooms, artichoke hearts and bit of mozzarella. Excellent combo...I love a non tomato sauce pizza.

Wednesday, 12/11/24

 I tasked Jason with making dinner (since it wasn't one I was very excited about anyway) so he dutifully roasted up tofu and brussels sprouts for us. I had recommended tossing them with maple, soy and sriracha, which he did, but he could have had a heavier hand in my opinion. Served with rice and some chili crisp vinaigrette, this was fine.

Tuesday, 12/10/24

 I was (predicably) drawn to a recipe from the NYT for spaghetti verde with roasted poblanos. After reading the comments and some other variations of the recipe, I changed a few things: pureed the sauce, added a jalapeno, and topped with feta cheese. This was delicious and surprisingly spicy. You just never know how hot your peppers are going to be, I guess. Jason and I sniffled our way though. Would make again with maybe only a half jalapeno (the one I used was quite large and apparently robust).

Monday, 12/9/24

 It was Jason's idea to have cheesy tots for dinner, but it wasn't like he had to twist my arm. To be fair, we also ate a lot of roasted broccoli with it.

Sunday, 12/8/24

 HCR! We had a fun time just being walkers and spectators. The Brewery had a long wait, so we went to Progression Brewery instead; Corrina and I agreed that it was actually better (less crowded, better nachos). Even Carter was in good spirits. Ramona enjoyed herself as always.

When I got home I made some broccoli soup (as I somehow bought too much broccoli last week). I had a small bowl for dinner because lunch was late and large.

Saturday, 12/7/24

 Dinner with Jay, Jodi and Sam. Sam had just gotten his wisdom teeth out, so we made carrot soup onsite, and Jason made pita bread. I attempted to make chocolate pudding (usual SK recipe) but for the first time ever it didn't set up. Tasted fine but I couldn't get past the texture. I think it happened because for the first time ever I heeded the instructions not to let it boil. That's what I get for messing with a winning formula.

Friday, 12/6/24

Dinner at Jen and John's; Jason made a rye bread, and I baked a batch of SK Blondies in situ (they were great, BTW). The Blue Apron du jour had chicken, couscous, dates, and carrots with a romesco sauce. Delicious as usual. 

Thursday, 12/5/24

 Pizza night. One of my favorites, BBQ chicken, with smoked cheddar and red onion.  I just roasted some chicken thighs and that worked out fine.

Wednesday, 12/4/24

 Just leftovers.  Thought I would never finish the pumpkin curry (and indeed, I admit a little bit ended up in the compost).

Tuesday, 12/3/24

 A version of a pasta dish that Jason used to make for me long ago: onions, ricotta and walnuts. I made a few tweaks: added spinach an a couple of spoonful's of chili crisp. I also toasted the walnuts separately and tossed them on top. The onions were not cooked long enough so they retained some crunch which I really do not care for, but the flavors were good. It was my fault for telling Jason that they didn't need to be caramelized.

Monday, 12/2/24

 A recipe for 'pumpkin chick pea curry" from the NYT that sounded a little weird, but got lots of good reviews, so why not. I already had a can of pumpkin on hand anyway. It was good, but I don't think the pumpkin brought much except body to the dish. With all the ginger, garlic and spices, it tasted like your standard issue curry.  No complaints; probably won't repeat.

Sunday, 12/1/24

 One of the two soups I made on Saturday, turkey noodle. I accidentally cooked my turkey stock for a very long time, so it was certainly very flavorful (despite the skimpy amount of bones). It was filling enough so that we didn't have anything else.

Saturday, 11/30/24

 I promised Jason we wouldn't have to see anyone all today, except for strangers at the grocery store. Dinner was tteokgalbi, which was like Korean burgers. Seasoned round beef with soy sauce, scallions, ginger, garlic, mirin and some gochujang. You sear them and then cover, so they release all those juices and are sort of steamed. Served over rice, with another batch of marinated cucumbers. I really liked these, especially since I don't like a bun anyway. Not sure if they are very authentic, since the recipe came from The Washington Post, but I'll take it.