Tuesday, 1/28//25

 First, I will say that the freezer really is looking a little better. Also, the eggplant I fried up back in August was as good as new. We heated them up in the oven with some provolone and tomato sauce and they were nice and crunchy. Yet another salad.

Monday, 1/27/25

 Next from the freezer: corn fritters. We re-heated them in the air fryer (worked great) and served them with lentil-tomato soup from the NYT that I made over the weekend. The fritters were good, but I was here for the soup, which was very rich and creamy. Does Jason know there was butter and cream in there? Time will tell.

Sunday, 1/26/25

 Welcome to Freezer Week! Up first: bagels. These were only OK. I question my choice to put Swiss  on instead of cream cheese; my logic was that they were rye bagels? Anyway, we also had a nice big salad and some of the leftover cookies from the weekend.

Saturday, 1/25/24

 Dinner with Jen, John and Laurie: Laurie brought back some fancy Parmesan and olive oil from Italy, Jason made bread, Jen made potato-leek soup and I made brownies (SK "favorite brownies" with a dash of instant coffee. Very fudgy, which I like). So a true group effort. Then we played Monikers by the fire, so another delightful evening.

Friday, 1/24/25

 Dinner with Jay, Jodi, Beverly and Joel and Carter.  Take out from Omi Omy, which wouldn't have been our first choice, but it was  B&J's anniversary and they like it. My pho was nowhere near as good as Miss Saigon, but Jason and Carter enjoyed their rice bowls and who am I to complain about dinner on someone else's dime? I made another batch of fluffernutter cookies, but I used my usual SK recipe and just added mini marshmallows. Perfect.

Thursday, 1/23/25

 Ramona day! And pizza night. Jason is working on his Greek style crust. I don't think he is quite there yet, but our classic pepperoni pizza was still satisfying. I don't know what they do at Frontier to make theirs so good...maybe we need to lurk near the kitchen and watch.

Wednesday, 1/22/25

 Big salad (I guess we don't know how to read the room, since it was -7 degrees this morning) with a citrus-shallot vinaigrette (I was excited about this dressing, from Ali Stafford, but it was only fine) and rye croutons. In truth, we only had salad because we had a loaf of extra bread  in the freezer that needed to go, and so I made a giant batch of croutons, ergo: salad. It was a good salad, anyway, if not exactly cozy.

Tuesday, 1/21/25

 Just Thanksgiving leftovers. I don't even think we bothered with the chicken.

Monday, 1/20/25

 Dinner with Jen and John....Jason made bread (of course) and I did the Blue Apron honors: chicken with a kind of gochujang sauce? , rice, roasted broccoli.  I played fast and loose with the instructions, but it was good nonetheless. Cocktails, TV, fireplace, stroopwafels. What more do you need?

Sunday, 1/19/25

 Roasted cauliflower with nuoc cham (NYT), plus basmati rice and some sauteed salmon. The cauliflower was supposed to be sliced into "steaks" but that just seems gimmicky to me, so I chopped it instead.  We added all the recommended toppings: jalapenos, cilantro, peanuts and red onions. The salmon (admittedly cheap-ass Aldi) was not great. I don't love salmon in the first place, I may not have cooked it well, and it wasn't exactly the finest specimen to begin with. But the cauliflower was great; tart, spicy, sweet and crunchy. My favorite kind of meal. 

Then we went to game night with friends---it was my turn to make dessert so I tried out fluffernutter cookies from Joy the Baker, They seemed popular! I used mini marshmallows instead of whole (I didn't feel like doing the whole enrobing the marshmallow in cookie dough thing) and I thing it was a better choice, as the exposed marshmallows puff up and caramelize in a delightful way. I had a few issues: the first batch didn't spread at all and had a weird texture, so for subsequent batches I flattened them (with the traditional fork pattern) and upped the oven temperature to 375. Jason and I agreed that it might be worth just adding marshmallows to my usual Smitten Kitchen peanut butter cookie recipe instead. But people seemed to like them so that's good!

Saturday, 1/18/25

 Happy Thanksgiving! Nothing new here: green bean casserole (SK sauce, French's onions, frozen green beans), mashed potatoes, gravy, whipped butternut squash, doctored up box of stuffing, Jason's (excellent) dinner rolls, pecan pie (also SK) and a re-heated rotisserie chicken. My only misstep was using whole pecans in the pie instead of chopped. The whole pecans were just too big and crunchy somehow. Carter was very happy to have one of his favorite meals; he stuck around and we watched a silly movie so altogether a very nice evening.

Friday, 1/17/25

 Dinner with Jay and Jodi; Jason made corn tortillas for black bean tacos, and I threw together some fresh salsa at Jay's request. We also brought a flan that I knew Jodi wouldn't eat but Jay and Jason demolished.

Thursday, 1/16/25

 This accidentally ended up being a very ground meat heavy week; Jason's pizza vision was a sort of potsticker situation. So we sauteed cabbage, a lonely zucchini, garlic, ginger and ground pork for the topping, and added just enough mozzarella to sort of hold it all together. Actually quite good! We added a bit of ponzu and sriracha at the table. Another weird pizza success.

Wednesday, 1/15/25

 A dish I had been wanting to make for a while finally came together..."mapo ragu" from the NYT. Ground pork with gochujang and rice cakes; a little like my beloved chicken buldak but not as spicy. The recipe called for kale or chard, but spinach worked fine (although it doesn't add much, flavor-wise). Very delicious and pretty easy to throw together.

aperitif with some of the giant batch of Chex mix I made

Tuesday, 1/14/25

 Just more chili (it was a VERY big batch).

Monday, 1/13/25

 Chili (I made an enormous batch over the weekend, with enough carrots and zucchini to pass it off as a complete meal) and Jiffy cornbread. Quick and cozy.

Sunday, 1/12/25

 I persist in trying to make this spaghetti verde, despite nearly failing twice. This time I eliminated the jalapeno altogether, and added a little can of green chilis to bump up the flavor. It was still quite spicy! But getting closer. I should probably give up, but in my imagination it is creamy and tangy, like a pasta version of chilis rellenos. I don't know how many times Jason will indulge me, though.

Saturday, 1/11/25

 We got to have Ramona for the evening, so we hauled her off to Jen and John's to eat bread and butter while her parents went out. Dinner was bread (duh) and a Blue Apron of pork chops with gochujang, carrots and rice. I tried to make SK's blondies, but I was in too much of a hurry and added the white and dark chocolate chips while the batter was still too hot. They sort of melted in and made a new kind of dessert, I guess. Since no one else knew what I was aiming for, it was fine. The cooked carrots with the Blue Apron (just sauteed with ginger, honey and butter) were so tasty that I wondered why I rarely make cooked carrots at home.

Friday, 1/10/25

 Dinner with Jay and Jodi: Jason made sesame bread and I made a double batch of cinnamon toast popcorn (from the NYT). We made a vegetable stir-fry with tofu and quinoa (so healthy!) and then proceeded to eat all the popcorn.

Thursday, 1/9/25

 A repeat, with updates: cream cheese, jalapeno, scallions. Now with furikake and surimi, to. Plus pickled ginger at the table. I also meant to get avocado to make this a true California roll inspired pizza. I liked this pretty well (the crust was great), but I thought it was maybe a little too much cream cheese. Still, pretty fun and the picked ginger really brightened things up.

Wednesday, 1/8/25

Jason just didn't feel like having our planned eggplant parm (it was just leftover in the freezer, so no big deal to postpone) so we had another broccoli-spinach salad and I made some pita chips, which was like an ersatz fattoush . Bonus: enough was leftover for a future lunch.

Tuesday, 1/7/25

 Big salad with roasted broccoli, spinach, cucumber, feta and avocado (with the dressing recipe I stole from Zac and saved in my email). We also toasted up some leftover raisin-walnut bread and had that with smoked cheddar. Not exactly the coziest meal on this very cold day, but fresh and tasty.

Monday, 1/6/25

 Tofu that I marinated in chili crisp vinaigrette and roasted with cabbage and onion. Served over rice with a quick tahini-hoisin sauce. I wasn't particularly enthused to eat this meal, but it was actually pretty darn good. It also feels wholesome to be eating more vegetables again.

Sunday, 1/5/25

 I was struggling to remember what we had, as it was so unmemorable....just grinders with rolls and turkey that we had thrown in the freezer. Fine.

Saturday, 1/4/25

 Dinner at Jay and Jodi's with Beverly and Joel, too. B made vegetarian chili, Jason made a couple of loaves of bread, and Zack made a delicious salad with arugula, feta, pomegranate and red onion (I found the recipe online because I liked the dressing so much). He and Ina also made some matcha-sesame shortbread cookies that turned out really well, although they are not much to look at. We missed Sam, who is off in Korea, but Carter deigned to attend, and I think he enjoyed himself.

Friday, 1/3/25

 Well, it was supposed to be our delayed Goten dinner, but my dad and Ramona were sick again! A plot? Anyway, we will keep trying! So instead we ordered a pizza and had Carter over. Not quite as fun but not a total loss.

Thursday, 1/2/25

 Pizza night featuring ricotta, hot Italian sausage, roasted red peppers, a little mozzarella and artichoke hearts. We forgot the provolone but I don't think it needed it. Another white pizza success.

Wednesday, 1/1/25

 Happy New year! We had our delayed Christmas celebration with Zac and Corrina. Cheese and crackers, chips and dip, pigs in blankets and lots of sweets. Played many fun games and generally had the best time.

"I want to jump, Carter!"

Tuesday, 12/31/24

 Went to a games party at Diane and Ellen's so just snacking for dinner. That always makes me feel both too full and curiously unsatisfied...Anyway, we had a lot of fun and actually stayed out past midnight!

Monday, 12/30/24

 Sushi bowl with the usual ingredients plus a couple of new ones to mix it up: some crunchy pickled Chinese radish from Mom's house (tasty!), some pickled ginger, and ponzu sauce. I always feel bad when we have sushi bowl without Carter. I should teach him how to make it himself.

Sunday, 12/29/24

 Dinner with Jen and John. Jason made raisin-walnut bread, and I prepared three Blue Aprons (and made a giant mess). Some kind of Mexican sauteed pork with roasted carrots, served  over rice; a green curry noodle soup (a little too sweet but good), and skirt steak with rice and baby bok choy. It's a fun challenge to keep all those recipes going at once. Dessert was helping them finish all the various leftover holiday treats (spoiler: we hardly made a dent).