Friday, 4/25/25

 Pizza night, slightly delayed. Spinach in a cream sauce with garlic, lemon  and parmesan, plus a little feta, a little mozz and some cherry tomatoes. The cherry tomatoes were a last minute addition, but they added a welcome hit of both acid and sweetness (the creamy spinach is quite rich). The spinach was the first farm crop of the season! I also made a dessert for the first time in a while! microwave sticky toffee puddings from the NYT. It makes just one serving, but I doubled it; had the advantage of using up a handful of dates and some heavy cream. I think I maybe should have cooked them a few seconds less (I don't often make cake in the microwave) but they were nice, especially with the sauce.

Thursday, 4/24/25

Red pozole; I cobbled together the recipe from a couple of sources and just used only two kinds of dried peppers (buying a third variety for just one dish was a bridge too far for Jason). Served with avocado, feta, lime and fresh jalapenos. Very good, although I wish I had strained the sauce as recommended. It wasn't too noticeable, but there were tiny bits of pepper skin in there.

 

Wednesday, 4/23/25

 Used the leftover bread from yesterday to make grilled cheese sandwiches. Jason added kimchi to his, but I just used pickled jalapenos on mine for a hit of spice and acid. The electric skillet does a great job with grilled cheese, partly because since it is out there on the porch I am more likely to forget about it a bit and let it cook low and slow. Roasted broccoli on the side.

Tuesday, 4/22/25

 A looong day at work, so  I was happy that I had made a batch of lentil-tomato soup (from the NYT) already. Jason made a loaf of bread for us, so another quick and satisfying dinner.

Monday, 4/21/25

 We were supposed to have homefries on Friday, but they got pushed back to today. Luckily, I had already done all the prep, so it was quick enough to put together. I added a lot of kale but wished I had added even more. We didn't have any bacon, but I did use bacon fat (which Jason appreciated). I had also made two kinds of coleslaw over the weekend---regular for Jason and sort of Vietnamese inspired for me. So we did have vegetables, too.

Sunday, 4/20/25

 Since the library was closed, we were able to accept Jen's invitation to go to IKEA, which is always fun (plus a stop at Shake Shack; delicious!). Dinner was a Blue Apron with panko-cheddar topped chicken (better than it sounded with so much cheese), roasted broccoli and garlic bread. Jason whipped up a batch of chocolate chip cookies, too. A fun, if long, day.

Saturday, 4/19/25

 Happy Birthday Carter! We had our long-planned Big Lebowski watch party with Jay and Jodi. Somehow we made too many White Russians (and it turned out that Carter wasn't a fan) and didn't order enough pizza. So we just ordered more pizza and have so much damn liquor left over. Superfluous Easter candy for dessert.

 don't normally mention lunch, but I made something from "I Dream of Dinner: that I liked so much I don't want to forget.  Roasted sweet potatoes (so simple: just cut in half, brushed with olive oil and roasted cut side down) with buttery sauteed kale and nuts (I used cashews because that what we had). You season the kale with a little crushed red pepper and lime juice and garlic at the end. Granted, it is a fair amount of butter, but it was so good! It is hard to imagine that kale and sweet potatoes could be possibly the best thing I ate all week, but it might be.

Friday, 4/18/25

 Our plans for homefries with kale were scuttled when we had to take my dad to the ER (luckily nothing serious and he was able to head back home, but it took FOREVER). Instead we sent Jason out for provisions at Bog Y. Tuna grinder for the guys and California roll for me. Less than ideal but what can you do.

Thursday, 4/17/25

 Deep dish pizza with Italian sausage. This was very tasty, but Jason is still tweaking it a bit; the insides are a tiny bit underdone still.

Wednesday, 4/16/25

 Leftover soup (slightly better after cooking it some more) and the last of the pita. 

Tuesday, 4/15/25

 Another recipe from "I Dream of Dinner": broccoli with cheddar and dates. It's a salad, I guess? Saute dates and then broccoli, toss with cubes of sharp cheddar and almonds, and then season with sherry vinegar. I only made a couple of changes because I didn't have the ingredients, but cashews and cider vinegar stood in nicely. I served it with quinoa to make it into a whole meal. Jason was dubious, but honestly this was great. The sweetness of the dates, the good cheddar (Cabot extra sharp) and the crushed red peppers all worked well together. This would also a make a great batch of weekday lunches for me.

Monday, 4/14/25

Weeknight favorite, sushi bowl. I had a couple of nice mangos, my avocado was miraculously ripe on the right day, and I tried a new sauce out (gochujang tarted up with sesame oil, maple syrup and rice vinegar). I also quick-pickled some cucumbers. This, along with seared tuna steaks made for a very tasty meal with the bonus of no leftovers.

Sunday, 4/13/25

 A fun dish from the NYT: gochujang buttered noodles. To make this a full meal, I added the rest of a bag of spinach plus a block of tofu that I had frozen (so it had that fun chewy texture). I would definitely make this again, and keep the tofu. The spinach didn't bring anything to the table except maybe iron but that's a good thing I guess. A keeper!

Saturday, 4/12/25

 Another long cold day of Ultimate (but they won all their games so spirits were high). I had made a pot of poor man's soup on Friday, anticipating that we would be cold and tired (we were). It was fine but I felt it should have cooked longer (Jason didn't notice; I put the leftover back on the stove for a while so I hope the next time we eat it it will be an improvement).

Friday, 4/11/25

 We had an Family Relaxation Night at home with chips and drinks, so just had leftover dal for dinner. damn, that is some seriously good dal and who knew one could get so excited about it?

Thursday, 4/10/25

 Back to the regularly scheduled pizza night, featuring so much cheese. There was also sun-dried tomatoes and caramelized onions, but no sauce. Very rich, but the flavor of the provolone really came through. Two pieces was almost too much.

Wednesday, 4/9/25

 Bagels (from the freezer) with tuna and cream cheese (not together, yuck), plus a little cucumber salad. Another thing gone from the freezer!

Tuesday, 4/8/25

 Jay gave us a giant bag of chana dal, so I scrapped my lentil soup idea and made the dal recipe from "Made in India" instead, only adding spinach to round things out. I don't know why, but this is one of the most satisfying dal recipes ever. It's finished with a drizzle of mustard seeds, chilis, and garlic sizzled in oil, and that gives it a kick and an almost buttery quality. And I really like the texture of chana dal, which holds its shape more than lentils. Anyway, I obviously really liked it! Served with rice and pitas that Jason made.

Monday, 4/7/25

 Some bagels from the freezer with tuna, cream cheese and cucumber salad. Not all mixed together---DIY. I also made a namoura from the NYT (only I had to use sour cream instead of yogurt. I don't think it had a negative impact) when I was home for lunch. I felt like Jason was missing home dessert.

Sunday, 4/6/25

 We finally got around to making our home pizza! Cream cheese, scallions, furikake, and jalapenos doesn't sound promising, but it is excellent. The toppings are a bit skimpy, so the crust browns up nicely and the flavor really comes through. I added some pickled ginger to mine and like the hint of sweetness.

Saturday, 4/5/25

 Dinner with Jen and John (more bread, the last of the chocolate chip cookies). The Blue Apron du jour was meatloaf with mashed potatoes and roasted cauliflower. They all turned out really well, although I should have listened to my heart and not put the sesame oil into the potatoes. It was bad, per se, but just butter, salt and pepper would have been better.

Friday, 4/4/25

 Went we got to Jay and Jodi's for dinner (bread and cookies in hand) we discovered a bunch of ingredients on the table and a challenge to make dinner from them. So Jason and Jay tackled making dosas from a batter that Zack had bought when he was home, and I made a curried black bean and corn filling. Jodi rounded things off with quinoa. I was dubious of the store bought dosa/black bean combo, but it was great! And super fun to invent dinner on the fly. Like a cooking show with beer.

Thursday, 4/3/25

 We went over to my Dad and Liz's to do some admin stuff (hooray for Jason for getting the new phone completely set up!) and Liz kindly made dinner (chicken cacciatore and salad. yum). Jason brought some chocolate chip cookies, too, so I guess he is the real hero of the day.

Wednesday, 4/2/25

 A dish from "I Dream of Dinner" with ground pork with green chilis, spinach, and crispy rice. This was still tasty ( I have made it a couple of times before), but subbing in Cubanelle peppers for poblanos lacked some flavor, I think. I also never got the rice crispy this time, perhaps because it was so damn cold on the porch? I lied it bought thought it needed more chilis and maybe more lime, too.

Tuesday, 4/1/25

 We were pretty excited to have nachos for dinner! Jason made kind of a black bean dip, I made a cherry tomato salsa and some guacamole, and we served everything on the side. This kept the chips relatively light and crispy and meant you could sort of personalize each chip.

Monday 3/31/25

 A tofu and broccoli recipe from Smitten Kitchen Keepers that was pretty ordinary (roast tofu and broccoli) except for the sesame-peanut pesto. The pesto is nice, if a bit salty. I don't think I need to make it again.

Sunday, 3/30/25

A soup from the NYT that I have made at least once before, that features little turkey meatballs with feta and oats. Odd but good. You finish it off with a bunch of spinach and simmer the broth with more oats, but that didn't appeal so we had egg noodles instead (I also baked the meatballs in a 375 oven instead of trying to fry them in the soup pot. No regrets there).   As I was making this over the weekend, it was only meh, but adding some lemon and letting it sit for a day or so really brought it up a bunch.

I also made a batch of cookies from the SK Keepers cookbook, just because the picture was so pretty....plus it uses  neither eggs not butter. Rosemary-olive oil shortbread with dark chocolate may have sounded crazy to Jason, but they are surprisingly good. Mine were light on rosemary, since out little plan is looking pretty bedraggled. and Jason admitted that he liked them.