Thursday, 2/27/25

 A return to our pizza roots with goat cheese, caramelized onions and walnuts. As good as ever.

Wednesday, 2/26/25

 The NYT has been giving me some good vegetarian suggestions lately, and tonight's lentils diavolo were perhaps my favorite lentil preparation ever. Garlic, smoked paprika, tomato paste, jalapenos and crushed red pepper form the base, then just simmer water and red lentils. So flavorful! I served them with orzo and feta (as was suggested by people in the comments) and I thought they were great.

Tuesday, 2/25/25

 Another recipe from the Times; featuring cabbage roasted with a gochujang sauce. I added  some cubed tofu and served with rice to round things out, and Jason and I thought it was delicious. Monir changes: I was running low on gochujang and added a bit of miso, used brown instead of white sugar, and never did get to "crispy". We were too hungry. Maybe on a non work night we could be more patient.

Monday, 2/24/25

 A broccoli and quinoa soup (more like a gruel) from the NYT. I think I put in too much broccoli and quinoa, which meant I had to add more water, which in turn diluted the flavor of the coconut milk. Still pretty good, and pretty with all the turmeric. But either up the coconut milk or lower everything else. For a treat, JAson made us a batch of dinner rolls to go with it.

Sunday, 2/23/25

 Carter was supposed to have a tournament last weekend, but it got snowed out. It was re-scheduled for today, so I took the day off, packed up some sandwiches, chips and the last few oatmeal cookies and we headed to Williamstown. We stopped at the Clark on the way and got some culture (since the tournament didn't start until 4:30!!!). Sandwiches, for the record, were turkey and Swiss for Jason, and spinach, feta and vegetables (OK, leftover salad) for me. It was a fun, if late, day but COLD! Who has an evening outdoor tournament in northern Massachusetts in February? A bunch of college boys, I guess.

I assume he got the disc

Saturday, 2/22/25

 Dinner at Jay and Jodi's; we had planned on vegetarian chili, and I commandeered the stove when we got there. Maybe I made it a bit too spicy for some people? We had it with cheese, some leftover rice they had, plus Carter brought tortilla chips. Jason made bread and I made a small batch of oatmeal cookies (from SK). Then we all played cards; I had no idea that Carter liked card games so much.

Friday, 2/21/25

 Pizza night, one day late. I wasn't feeling super innovative, but mushrooms, onions and sun-dried tomatoes with a red sauce was very nice. 

Thursday, 2/20/25

 A surprise invitation from Jason's parents for Miss Saigon at Jay and Jodi's meant that we scrapped our pizza plans and had Vietnamese instead. My rice noodles with chicken was good, but Jodi's egg noodles looked better.

Wednesday, 2/19/25

 Ground pork with ginger and noodles (loosely from the NYT). I didn't have bok choy, so in went yellow bell pepper, mushrooms and peas. I also didn't have any hot peppers, so chili crisp instead. More of a concept than a recipe at this point but delicious nonetheless.

Tuesday, 2/18/25

 Orzo with feta and spinach, from the NYT. Pros: since this was all made in one pan, it was very easy. Cons: it tasted good but not amazing. I added mushrooms and cherry tomatoes and I don't think they really added anything. This was supposed to be reminiscent of  spanakopita, which it turns out is what I really wanted, but nobody wants to play around with phyllo on a work night.

Monday, 2/17/25

 Turkey and Swiss sandwiches, at Jason's request. I was only meh, but extra mustard and pickled peppers helped, plus it was certainly quick and easy.

Sunday, 2/16/25

 A Sunday off meant I had time for a cooking project; I settled on samosas since I have been craving Indian food. I used an old recipe from Saveur, and made tamarind and cilantro chutney from "Made in India" (they both turned out really well this time, The trick for good cilantro chutney is twice as must cilantro as you would think). I also made some lentils from the book; we only had green lentils which aren't as pretty as red, but tasted just as good. A bag of spinach added at the end to round out the meal, plus basmati rice. Nice way to spend a truly gross afternoon, weather-wise.

Saturday, 2/15/25

 We had a fun afternoon of games and snacks with the kids, so dinner was just some leftover hummus and pita with a spinach salad. I would have preferred something cozier, but Jason was afraid of leftovers. Oh well; it was a good salad at least.

Friday, 2/14/25

 Dinner with Jay and Jodi: chana dal (as executed by Jay and Jason who may or may not have been drinking) with quinoa, sesame-wheat bread, cinnamon toast popcorn (on the edge of burnt: remember that the 10 minutes suggested cooking time is about 4 minutes too long!). Got home just ahead of yet more snow,

Thursday, 2/13/25

 While the freezer is certainly looking a lot better, we still had a bunch of ground beef (thanks to a series of very good sales). So was born the taco pizza. Ground beef with diced tomatoes, green chilis and the secret ingredient: store-bought taco seasoning. Plus pepper jack and pickled jalapenos. Not as heavy as I feared, and tasty in that cheap Mexican restaurant way. Filling enough that we have lots of leftovers, though.

Wednesday, 2/12/25

 A repeat of roasted cauliflower with nuoc chom (from the NYT), served over basmati rice. Lots of nice flavors (jalapeno, scallions, peanuts, cilantro), plus feels very virtuous.

Tuesday, 2/11/25

 We still had some cheese sauce left from last week's nachos, so Jason requested tater tots for dinner. Totchos?  Faux-tine? Actually a better use for the cheese sauce, in my opinion. Plus a nice spinach salad, for health.

Monday, 2/10/25

 The many glowing reviews of "creamy beans with greens" at the NYT finally convinced me to try it. White beans, cooked with cream, tomato pasta and sun-dried tomatoes, topped with greens that were seasoned with lemon, panko bread crumbs and parmesan. I cooked my own white beans, which was more cost-effective, but sadly they were fairly overdone. I didn't have arugula, but spinach did the trick just fine. This was pretty good!  Better, perhaps, with more toothsome beans, but certainly worth repeating. Maybe with a bit more sun-dried tomatoes, too.

Sunday, 2/9/25

 When we made dinner plans with Jen and John in order to try out French Blonde cocktails (delicious, by the way), I forgot it was the Super Bowl. So, for the first time ever, Jason and I watched the Super Bowl! It wasn't as boring as I feared but it was a very late night. Jen had the brilliants idea of Frito Pie for dinner and it was a big hit. I brought the rest of the cupcakes and Jason, of course: more bread. 

Saturday, 2/8/25

 Dinner with Jay and Jodi; we all made a big stir-fry and Jason brought bread. I made cupcakes (Walmart cake mix? Genuinely pretty good) with a chocolate buttercream. I was tired of fighting with frosting, so I made a simple American buttercream (from Sally's Baking Addiction). Normally I find it overly sweet and blah, but the addition of cocoa powder added plenty bitterness and flavor. So a pretty good amount of award for very low effort.

Friday, 2/7/25

 The long awaited trip to Goten! Merry Christmas! I think we all had fun? Ramona certainly enjoyed it, and I wish I had a picture of her trying to catch a shrimp, which was the cutest thing ever. As a reminder to myself: just get chicken. Don't bother with the steak.

Thursday, 2/6/25

 Pizza night, with a new twist: potato, cream sauce, bacon, caramelized onions and gruyere. My goal was to use up potatoes and cream, and this was a very delicious way to do so. Unfortunately, it was too filling to eat much. We also had a spinach salad with a Caesar dressing that was a nice counterpoint. Since it was a snow day, I wanted to do some baking. I decided on a flapjacks recipe from SK (I made them a few years ago and remember liking) them. The good news is that they are chewy and delicious, but the bad news is that they take all of ten minutes to make, which didn't exactly satisfy the baking itch.

Wednesday, 2/5/25

 Jason went to Jennie's retirement party at UMass, so Carter and I finally used my Christmas gift card to Vespa (thanks, Corrina!). We started with focaccia and a goat milk cheese (excellent, especially all the fun pickled accoutrements); Carter had braised beef, with broccolini and polenta, and I had chicken piccata. The poor kid was pretty full, but he rallied enough to eat some Panna Cotta with raspberry coulis (he loved it). I enjoyed my tiramisu, as well. I think this is one of the few times Carter and I have had dinner together (except for Bertucci's when he was little), and it was a lot of fun.

Tuesday, 2/4/25

 A pasta dish that Jason and I were both looking forward to, from the Smitten Kitchen Keepers book. A lot of butter, a lot of garlic, and a lot of spinach. Jason was excited because it uses angel hair, which I normally don't reach for and he particularly likes.. The recipe calls for roasting the garlic, but I didn't have the time and just rough chopped it and slowly cooked it in butter before throwing everything in the blender. We also had some hot Italian sausage on the side (but I cut mine up and threw it in the pasta to good effect). So good!

Monday, 2/3/25

 I wasn't really sure what I was going to do with tofu and cabbage, so we just roasted it, and served it over rice with a kind of soy-sauce/wasabi vinaigrette thingie that I concocted. The tofu was a little bland , but the rice and cabbage soaked up the sauce really nicely. Insomnia Cookies delivered us more cookies accident, so that was dessert. We keep telling them that they have the wrong address, but this is our 4th batch. If only we got to pick the cookies ourselves. Of course, we would never spend $30 on a dozen cookies (they assure us that the intended recipients do get their cookies).

Sunday, 2/2/25

Chicken noodle soup, virtuously made from the leftover chicken, the chicken stock made from said chicken, surplus of celery, mushrooms that I forgot to do something with, and extra cooked spaghetti. Honestly, some of the best chicken soup I have made, especially with the dinner rolls that Jason provided (and it wasn't even Thanksgiving!) .

Saturday, 2/1/25

 Nachos for dinner (still going at the freezer: this was for the frozen refried beans). I got fancy and made a cheese sauce, but I can't say it was an improvement over just melted cheese. Also made a sort of rough guacamole with cherry tomatoes; kind of like guac meets salsa. Ice cream (yes, another freezer item) for dessert.

Friday, 1/31/25

 Waffles with Jay and Jodi. That didn't feel like a proper meal to me (although they were good waffles! and I was glad someone else was using up precious eggs), but I didn't know what a good thing to bring might be. In the end, I made a cucumber salad with soy sauce, ginger, sesame oil and chili crisp. Everyone seemed to like it, even Carter. 

Thursday, 1/30/25

 After work snacks and drinks with Jennie and David. Did I mention that they have really upped their cheese game? Really nice goat cheese and gruyere. Jason was happy with his bread and I was happy to be drinking decent red wine, eating pistachios and relaxing at the end of my work week.

Wednesday, 1/29/25

 Early pizza this week, since we have Thursday plans. Chicken buldak seemed like a natural fit for pizza, since it is saucy and already includes plenty of  mozzarella. I mostly followed the recipe from Maanchi, just adding a bit of tomato sauce and using up chicken from Thanksgiving. Spicy! It's a pretty good pizza but I think I prefer it in its original form.