Monday, 7/28/25

 Too hot to cook (even on the porch) so we just had leftover bread, toasted, and a salad. I made the salad all fancy with feta, cherries and beets.

Sunday, 7/27/25

 Sweet and sour eggplant with crispy garlic chips, from the NYT. I didn't have Japanese eggplant but regular old globe worked fine. Super delicious just as written; served over basmati rice. My only thing is that I should have been more careful getting the garlic chips more uniformly thin (they were worth the effort!).

Saturday, 7/26/26

 A recipe from "Weekday Vegetarians get Simple" that looked good as I was flipping through it at work. Can't resist "brown butter orzo with zucchini". This was similar to a SK pasta dish in that it called for cooking shredded zucchini for a while; the brown butter certainly added a lot of delicious flavor. I think I could have even doubled the zucchini, though. It also would have been nice with a little crunch, like toasted panko or nuts. Than Jason and I ate a whole thing of Ben and Jerry's.

Friday, 7/25/25

 We had some leftover skirt steak from dinner at Vespa last week that I had thrown in the freezer; used that and whatever other odds and ends we had laying around (carrots, cucumbers, egg) to make gimbap. We are getting better at rolling them! They could have used something pickled, like daikon, but it was still a pretty quick and good dinner.

Thursday, 7/24/25

 Still going at the rangoons and sausage dumplings from the freezer. The farther away we get from the making of them, the more delicious they are. 

Wednesday, 7/23/25

 I don't know why I wanted deviled eggs for dinner....maybe because eggs are almost a reasonable price again? Anyhow, had that with leftover toasted bread, cheese, and the last of the pickled yellow squash. The oven is off-limits again.

Tuesday, 7/22/25

 I was looking forward to a white bean, fresh mozzarella and roasted red pepper salad for dinner, so it was disappointing that it was somehow less than the sum of its parts. After cooking my own white beans (25 minutes in the Instant Pot is too much! Try 20 next time), roasting my own peppers and getting fresh basil from the farm I was expecting something more delicious. The ever so slightly mushy beans probably didn't help. I added cucumbers and cherry tomatoes for a little more crunch. It still needed doctoring up (chili crisp helped a little). The last of the pita bread to go with it.

Monday, 7/21/25

 Jason proclaimed it "Cool Enough to Run the Oven Day"! So I made roasted haddock with brown butter and almonds (well, cashews because that is what I had) from the NYT. I am always nervous about cooking fish but this was delicious! How could it not be, what with the brown butter, lemon and scallions? Served with ditalini with a whole bag of spinach tossed in; I topped that with more lemon, parm and some of the brown butter mixture. I made a giant mess but it was worth it.

Sunday, 7/20/25

 Quiet night at home; tofu (dredged in cornstarch and pan-fried) with broccoli and summer squash, with peanut sauce and rice. I had some quibbles: the broccoli was a little underdone, summer squash doesn't really add anything (but at least I used it up), and I felt the peanut sauce lacked something but I couldn't figure out what. But altogether it wasn't bad (and I left the more fun dinners for later in the week).

Saturday, 7/19/25

 Dinner at Vespa with Donna, Deb, Carter and Corrina. what a treat! Highlights were the appetizers (a corn custard that they called a torta, and grilled shrimp with Calabrian chile), risotto, and the lemon posset brulee for dessert. My pasta (pan seared with garlic, shallot, sundried tomato, artichoke heart, spinach and a Calabrian butter cream sauce) was good if not particularly creamy or chili-y. The skirt steak were a bit tough but overall a good meal and a great evening. We will miss those aunts....

Friday, 7/18/25

 After working a full week for what feels like the first time in a while, it was fun to head to Whately with too much pizza (who's laughing now, Jodi?) for dinner with the aunties and Corrina, Zac, Ramona and Carter. Plus some wine, salad and fruit; who could ask for anything else?

Thursday, 7/17/25

 Grilled cheese on Jason bread, and more of the various pickled things alongside. Good but somehow very rich.

Wednesday, 7/16/25

 Hash browns with kale, lots of onions, and smoked cheddar. A nice easy one dish meal to make in the electric skillet, and no leftovers. And pretty quick since I precooked the potatoes in the Instant Pot earlier in the week.

Tuesday, 7/15/25

 Burgers on the grill; I dolled up the beef with egg, soy sauce, Sriracha and panko (sort of meatloaf vibes) and Jason did the cooking. The cheese wasn't strictly necessary, but I have no regrets. Cucumber  pickles and pickled yellow squash on the side

Monday, 7/14/25

 I was tired from our first day open in the temporary library space, but rallied enough to make pupusas for dinner, with Jason's help. I used a mixture of mozzarella, provolone and chopped up pickled jalapenos for the filling, and decided that salsa counted as a side dish and a vegetable.

Sunday, 7/13/25

 Sort of last minute invitation to Jay and Jodi's for pizza to celebrate Beverly's birthday. We brought some rum-raisin ice cream (a favorite of Beverly's that no one else would touch). Jodi somehow ordered 5 family sized pizzas...we did our best but there were lots of leftovers.

Saturday, 7/12/25

 For once Jason deemed it too hot to cook pizza! So we took the ingredients we were going to use (goat cheese, onions, and cherry tomatoes) and made it into a pasta with linguine instead. I think the pizza would have been better but it was fine.

Friday, 7/11/25

 Dinner with Jay and Jodi. Jason made bread, I made some cucumber salad, and we all helped to make pasta with bok choy and cherry tomatoes. Nice way to end the work week.

Thursday, 7/10/25

 We finished off the leftover potato tacos, clearing another thing from the freezer. Only somewhat successful in the air fryer but not bad. Also had a salad with greens from the farm and some sketchy dressing I found in the back of the fridge.

Wednesday, 7/9/25

 We are working on the freezer this week, so tonight was some crab rangoon and whatever it is that we called the sausage filled ones (mini fried calzones, maybe?). The beauty of these as leftovers is that they are just as good reheated in the air fryer, and without all the hard work of the first day. Downright relaxing. We also finished up the eggplant salad.

Tuesday, 7/8/25

 Corn fritters (from the Paula Deen recipe, usual modifications). These never disappoint. We had also had some quick cucumber pickles and an eggplant-red pepper salad (an attempt to recreate a delicious salad from a nearby Russian grocery store; I don't know if I succeeded but it was good).

Monday, 7/7/25

 It would be a lie to say that tonight's dinner was from the NYT, because really I just used used the words "tofu with asparagus and black bean sauce" as an inspiration. Did have tofu and asparagus, but I also added ginger, garlic, and some broccoli and snap peas that Jason had brought home from the farm. I also didn't use Chinese fermented black beans, instead using up some of our Korean black bean paste. The recipe also called for baked tofu, but I just cubed up regular and sauteed it.I was surprised at how good it was. I didn't feel like cooking and wasn't psyched for tofu, but it was worth it.

Sunday, 7/6/25

 We had a pretty big lunch at Priya with Jason's parents, so while we were delighted to get a spontaneous dinner invite from Jen and John, we weren't exactly hungry. But we rallied and ate hamburgers, hotdogs, potato salad and tomatoes and mozzarella (they had a lot of picnic stuff left over). All we brought were some cucumbers and flowers from the farm. No one is sad when you show up with flowers, though.

Saturday, 7/5/25

 A dinner that I was really looking forward to, that wasn't quite as good as I hoped. First, grilled chicken with tahini/honey and lemon was fine, but it took a lot of tinkering to get that tahini sauce tasting good. We just bought a new brand of tahini; maybe it's to blame (NYT). And a cherry and burrata salad from Sk that sounded so amazing that I splurged on cherries, burrata AND pistachios only to find it....fine. Not worth the expense. Maybe feta would have been better? Oh well.

Friday, 7/4/25

 Pizza night featuring pineapple, ham and fresh jalapenos. I admit I wasn't looking forward to it too much (I don't really like ham), but better than I expected. We had a nice fresh pineapple and I think that makes a difference.

Thursday, 7/3/25

 Dinner with Jay and Jodi. We made fresh pasta as a group project, and I think it turned out well. Zack made a simple tomato sauce, and we have toasted walnut, fresh mozz, cherry tomatoes and Calabrian chili pasta as garnishes. Jason thought it would be too laborious, but it went quickly with 5 workers spreading the pasta it to dry a bit.

Wednesday, 7.2.25

 A white bean and feta salad with pickled celery (from Ali Slagle via the NYT) that I had high hopes for, but I just felt it was a little lacking. Lacking what, I don't know. But it was another good dinner for a hot evening, with pita that Jason made on the grill.

Tuesday, 7/1/25

 I made a giant chicken, artichoke and spinach stew over the weekend; so much that I convinced Jason that we should have Carter for dinner. It was nice to see him, and the stew (which I have made before, from the NYT) was nice. We served it with egg noodles; I thought rice would have been a better choice but who is complaining, really, about eating egg noodles.

Monday, 6/30/25

 We drove Beverly down to Bradley to pick up Joel, and stopped for dinner near the airport at a place called Tunxis Grill. My pizza was meh at best (thin little cardboard crust), but Jason enjoyed his burger very much, and the eggplant fries appetizer was really good. Home annoyingly late.

Sunday, 6/29/25

 I don't know why I wanted to make ceviche, after never making it before, but something cold and tart sounded good. I used frozen tuna from Aldi, which worked well although it turned a revolting pale pink. Lots of cucumbers, cherry tomatoes and avocados, and so much lime juice that I broke my juicer. I used a recipe from the NYT, but obviously it's mostly a matter of taste. I really liked it! I don't think Jason did quite as much, but he of course ate it up anyway. Not as filling as sushi bowl, but the plantain chips were a great touch.

Saturday, 6/28/25

 Somehow had two evening engagements? The first was a reunion of guys from Jason's old Frisbee team, so Jason dutifully baked a couple loaves of bread and off we went. It was pleasant enough (I did know several people), but we couldn't stay long because we had dinner with Jen and John as well. For the record, Jason had a hotdog and he and I both had some potato salad and a bean salad. 

At J&J's we had cocktails, bread, cheese and olives on the porch since it was such a nice evening, then I tackled the two Blue Aprons: pork loin with a fig glaze, green beans (the beans were pretty sad looking) and corn cakes, and skirt steak with a shallot-mustard cream sauce, roasted carrots and mashed potatoes. The sides (except the beans) were all great, but I may have slightly overcooked the steak. I had made another strawberry spoon cake (which was better than my first one; I followed the directions better and was careful not to bake it too long). Funnily, Jen had made one a few days earlier; they claimed mine was better but then again, I doubled the berries. Fun but very late night.

Friday, 6/27/25

 Dinner with Jay and Jodi and Carter; Jason thoughtfully made pita and hummus instead of crusty bread, for my benefit.  Plus we had a little Caprese salad and some stir-fried bok choy with rice. Instead of doing much to the bok choy, we just put all the condiments on the table and had DIY.

Thursday, 6/26/25

 Snacks with Jennie and David in lieu of dinner. I felt like an idiot eating only the inside of the bread, but Jason was happy enough to eat my crusts. Was still a little peckish when we got home, so I had some yogurt with maple syrup, which is my new favorite.

Wednesday, 6/25/25

 Burgers and asparagus soup, which was a slightly odd combination. Jason was so excited to have burgers since for some reason it has been a long time. I made soup figuring it would be easier to eat (I ate the burger by cutting it into tiny little bites).  

Tuesday, 6/24/25

 How many times have I made green chili macaroni and cheese? And why do I still have to look up the recipe? Anyhow, I did skip the chicken this time, and made the usual modifications: swapped cotija for the American, and doubled the pasta. Since it is so dang hot, we did the whole thing in the pressure cooker on the porch. For future reference: 1 minute is plenty of time for little pasta like small shells. Maybe even zero minutes.  I did not make my own salsa verde this time around. Don't care. Although one of these days I will do the whole poach the chicken, make the salsa routine, but not until farm tomatillos come in.

Monday, 6/23/35

 Dental surgery in the morning (note to self: find out what was in that IV. Very relaxing!), so I was glad that I made a batch of chana dal (Made in India; just added spinach) on Sunday. It will be a challenge not have overly hot food and beverages for a couple of weeks!

Sunday, 6/22/25

 I made a salad from the NYT, but I took so many liberties with it. My "Corn Salad with Halloumi" contained no corn, used a facsimile of halloumi from Aldi, used lime instead of vinegar in the dressing, and added cherry tomatoes and radishes. Also skipped cilantro because we didn't have any. But I felt like it was true to the concept, anyway. I kept the cucumber, mint and mango (although I had to use frozen because the ones in the market were shitty). It was very good and refreshing! It also called for pita chips but I skipped that too and didn't miss them.

Saturday, 6/21/25

 Pizza night....Jason was scared because it was so hot out, but he bravely made it anyway (double standard!). Italian sausage, yellow bell pepper, tomato sauce, ricotta and mozzarella. It was nice, but ricotta never brings much to the party, even though I think it will.

Friday, 6/20/25

 Filled up on the hotel breakfast, and then went to Mass MoCA. By then Jason was looking a little twitchy so we took our leave and headed home. What  a fun trip! I really hope we make it a new tradition (although I also enjoyed camping). We showed up empty handed for dinner with Jay and Jodi; Zack made delicious tortellini with pesto and Calabrian chilis and a salad (Jason's parents brought rugelach but I didn't try any so I can't say how they were).  We were tired so headed home on the early side and off to bed.

The robe gang

Thursday, 6/19/25

 After a really lovely day (hiking on Mt. Greylock, poolside Big Y lunch, trip to the Clark, drinks at The Airport Rooms) we walked over to Public for dinner. We shared a cheese plate (only married by cheap-ass bread), a burger, fish and chips and a campanelli with peas, asparagus and ricotta (my favorite). The Airport Rooms is a little restaurant attached to Tourists, and was charmingly dilapidated. I wish I had taken a picture. Then we watched some of a lousy movie and hit the hot tub one last time.

Wednesday, 6/18/25

 Porches! We had a two part picnic dinner; part one out by the pool was chips and dip, plus french fries, Philly cheese steak and chicken tenders from a little place by Mass MoCA. I wouldn't call it amazing, but I'm pretty much always here for a chicken tender. Then we had cheese and bread and blondies back in the room. The two bedroom suite is awesome. Quite a step up from camping!

Tuesday, 6/17/25

 Pasta with artichoke hearts and lots of charred scallions. Jason was only meh (but I thought the flavors were great). If I made it again, I would do the scallions on a pan on the grill, as it was very messy in the Dutch oven. I would also chop them smaller..

Monday, 6/16/25

 Tofu and broccoli with lemon-miso sauce, from the NYT. I only had red miso, which wasn't really the flavor profile I was looking for, so if I made this again I would skip it unless I had white miso on hand. I just steamed the broccoli instead of sauteing it, but otherwise followed the recipe pretty closely. The key was being patient enough to let the tofu get nice and crispy....and painstakingly flipping every little cube. This was a good addition to the tofu-broccoli-rice repertoire.

Sunday, 6/15/25

 Corrina, Ramona and I had a nice visit with my dad and a trip to Look Park, and then I came home and Jason and I made millions of wontons. Some were classic crab Rangoon, some were an invention with ricotta, Italian sausage and peppers, and some were sweet, with a ricotta filling. I made some duck sauce for the rangoons (cobbled from a couple of sources but pick one with apricot jam) and that was maybe my favorite part? And once again I failed to strain the ricotta so it wanted to leak out of the wrappers. This was all very time consuming, but tasty and we froze lots of leftovers. So next time it will be as easy as throwing them into the air fryer. I doubled Saturday's strawberry spoon cake, so we had some of #2 for dessert.

Saturday, 6/14/25

 Hot pot at Jay and Jodi's, with all the boys in attendance. Since we had two pots going this mine, we made one spicy and it was very, very, spicy. I regretted adding chili crisp to mine. Still fun and tasty, though! I brought a strawberry spoon cake (from the NYT) for dessert and it all got eaten which is a good sign, I guess. In my mind not quite as good as rhubarb spoon cake, but I was also careless while making it and made a couple of small errors. Worth making again, at any rate.

Friday, 6/13/25

 Friday night pizza! We went old school with mushrooms, pepperoni, banana peppers and bell peppers. It sounded like a lot, but wasn't overly heavy. 

Thursday, 6/12/25

 Snacks for dinner with David. Jason made bread (but I didn't have time to make anything). So I pretty much had cheese for dinner but who is complaining? A nice treat was that Kalyani was there, who we literally hadn't seen in years.

Wednesday, 6/11/25

How could I resist something called "butter-soy chicken with asparagus"? It sounded so inviting! Basically a stir-fry with velveted chicken breast, asparagus, mushrooms and peppers. As written, the recipe (from the NYT) was a little lame, I thought. 5 spears of asparagus? 6 mushrooms? Who writes that? I upped all the vegetables and added garlic, as a lot of commenters noted that it was fairly bland. This reminded me of the kind of Chinese food you order when you are a kid, but it was pleasant enough.

Tuesday, 6/10/25

 Mujadara, which could be described as the Lebanese version of Egyptian koshari. They both feature lentils, rice, lots of fried onions and cumin. This recipe didn't call for pasta, but it would have been good, too. I think I should have done almost twice as many onions, but overall this was very good. We served it with plain yogurt which was a surprisingly good addition. Bonus: used up a lingering half bag of brown lentils. My only other note is to use basmati rice next time, for more flavor.

Monday, 6/9/25

 Another round of kimbap; not many changes except that we bought some pickled radish from Mom's, and used spinach instead of cucumber this time. Mostly you just taste the beef. They turned out well, even though Jason is still making his too big and unwieldy. Might be a fun dinner to do with Jay and Jodi some night?

Sunday, 6/8/25

 A long day of cleaning out the apartment for Zac and Corrina, so just nachos, with some leftover taco meat. I say "just" but of course we scarfed them all down. I am counting fresh jalapenos and tomatoes as our vegetables.

Saturday, 6/7/25

 Dinner with Jodi, Zack and Carter. We made bread and rhubarb spoon cake. Then Zack and I made an enormous veg stir-fry with cabbage, baby bok choy, broccoli and onions, all over soba noodles. A tasty collaboration. I was happy to see the cake get completely demolished (I admit, it was my best version to date).

Friday, 6/6/25

 Somehow even though it was still hot we were allowed to make pizza? Who am I to question. A taco pizza with ground beef, diced tomatoes and cheddar, plus some broken up tortilla chips on top, just to be festive. Predictably a little greasy and heavy but super delish.

Thursday, 6/5/25

 Another hot night, so more sandwiches. Nothing overly thrilling (salami, provolone, banana peppers, lettuce, sun-dried tomatoes), but good, quick and most importantly to Jason, didn't heat up the kitchen. I could not tell you what, if anything, we had with them.

Wednesday, 6/4/25

 Grilled cheese sandwiches (outdoors, of course. Fortunately the electric skillet really shines in this job), plus maybe some fruit? We had a really nice pineapple. Jason's slightly holey bread let cheese seep through here and there and form lovely crunchy cheese spots. I put some banana peppers in mine and regret nothing.

Tuesday, 6/3/25

 A reprise of cabbage salad with grilled chicken; this time I made extra dressing and used that to marinate the chicken. We had it with some leftover pita and some random yogurt-tahini sauce I had made. The salad is spicy, crunchy and makes excellent lunch leftovers.

Monday, 6/2/25

 Leftover jjajangmyeon (still not great; gochujang helped) and leftover kimbap which would have been terrific if we had remember to take it out of the refrigerator earlier; the rice was unpleasantly cold and hard (careful microwaving helped a bit).

Sunday. 6/1/25

 We were finally home long enough to make kimbap, which Jason has been wanting to do for a while. We used: seasoned ground beef, carrots, some leftover cucumbers, egg, and pickled radish from Mom's. Our rolling technique wasn't the best, but. the taste was great! It really is surprisingly different from sushi. The flavor profile is decidedly Korean.  We will definitely make this again soon.

Jason told me to take a picture so here is a sucky picture

Saturday, 5/31/25

 Long day going down to Bridgeport to see my dad in the hospital, then potluck farm dinner (Jason jumped on bread before I could even open my mouth to propose anything). Fun evening with the farm folk and some tasty dishes.  My only regret is not eating more dessert (a creme caramel and a chiffon cake).

Friday, 5/30/25

 Dinner with Jay and Jodi. Zack was home and made hot pot for everyone which was both very fun and delicious. We used a couple of types of tofu/soy products, taro, napa cabbage,  baby bok choy and some surimi, and each added our own condiments (soy sauce, hoisin, cilantro, garlic, chili crisp, etc).  We all really enjoyed it and I am impressed with Zack's cooking skills.  Jason made some of his garlicky flatbread; I was working so didn't have time to make anything.

Thursday, 5/29/25

 Pizza night with a repeat of the most excellent spinach and feta. For home I really like a no red sauce pizza; it really brings out the best in Jason's crust.

Wednesday, 5/28/25

 We had been wanting to make this noodle dish we are always seeing on our Korean shows, jjajangmyeon, and finally (sort of) got around to it. I was not happy with the execution at all: most recipes call for pork belly, but we inexplicably used tofu instead. Big mistake as it doesn't add any flavor at all. I knew Jason was wrong about this but he wouldn't budge. We also used spaghetti instead of real Korean wheat noodles (another battle I lost). The final straw was my own fault; I didn't let it simmer and reduce long enough. Since neither of us had ever actually tried this before (although I may have at UMass) I felt it wasn't fair make so many substitutions. ANYWAY, it was a little bland and a little sweet. Some chili crisp and more black bean paste helped, but I wasn't impressed. I think we should try again but following the recipe more closely (I used a combination from the NYT and from Maangchi). More rhubarb spoon cake for dessert so at least that was good.

Tuesday, 5/27/25

 Jason and I made a big batch of lasagne together on Monday afternoon, so that was dinner. We added mushrooms, spinach and spicy Italian sausage, plus used up a half jar of Rao's tomato sauce we had leftover (don't want to waste it at that price). I experimented with soaking the noodles for about a half hour instead of cooking them and it seemed to work fine. My only complaint was that I felt the whole thing wasn't saucy enough, and that I should have also added one more sausage. But Jason really liked it and it provided plenty of leftovers. 

Monday, 5/26/25

 Bueno y Sano at Jay and Jodi's courtesy of Jason's parents. Sadly, my order got left out (and I wouldn't have felt right sending Joel back out for it), but between a piece of Jay's quesadilla and some beans and rice, I was fine. Early night, which was good because that was many, many days of socializing. Very fun but a little tiring.

Sunday, 5/25/25

 Mother's Day for me, a couple of weeks late. Carter and I went hiking in the morning, and then he bought me a bubble tea and some potato chips. Then Corrina and I went to Bombay Royale for dinner. I love that baby, but it's a treat to spend time with my girl. We shared a Dosa as big as a toddler's arm, some naan and an order of samosas, only to find that we were too full to eat much dinner (paneer Tikka for me, chicken tikka masala for Deem) but that meant plenty of leftovers. We walked around town a little and got some mochi doughnuts for dessert...they have a fun, bouncy texture. 

Saturday, 5/24/25

 Dinner with Jen and John...a Blue Apron with farro and chicken, some roasted asparagus, plus salmon with a makeshift fruit salsa (I just used whatever was around: a slightly sad mango, red bell pepper, tangerine, lime and shallots). I was a little scared of cooking that giant piece of fish (I rarely cook salmon) but it turned out fine. Jason made bread (per usual), and I made a banana cake (from Food 52 but I used a chocolate frosting recipe from Sally's Baking Addiction that made in the food processor to make it less fluffy and more fudge-like). The Blue Apron was great as always, and I was pleasantly surprised by the fish.

As an aside, for this month's pizza destination we tried Village Pizza up in Greenfield and we agreed that it was one of our best choices yet. It was as good as Frontier; my only tiny quibble was that they cut the pie into squares and I really prefer triangles. But if I was up that way I would absolutely get pizza there again.

Friday, 5/23/25

 Dinner at Jay and Jodi's....we all made a stir-fry with cabbage and some chicken on the side, Jason made bread and I made cinnamon popcorn from the NYT. It was nice to have Carter there....we even played a little Up and Down the River which I of course lost.

Thursday, 5/22/25

 We went to David's for snacks and drinks (Jennie was out of town). Jason made a loaf of bread, and we ate enough cheese, hummus, nuts and olives to constitute dinner.

Wednesday, 5/21/25

 A cabbage and cucumber salad from the NYT that I augmented with leftover grilled chicken to boost it up a bit (an excellent choice if I do say so myself). We also had some leftover pita with a spicy tahini sauce that I had leftover from a weekday lunch project (warm carrot and barley salad from the NTY: make it again! Use more carrots!). The salad was pretty much a slaw with Vietnamese flavors but I am not complaining.

Tuesday, 5/20/25

 Dinner with Liz and Papa (pizza from Sibie's that Jason and I privately agreed was much better than we expected0 and I made a very simple salad from the freshest of mixed lettuces. Nice to catch up.

Monday, 5/19/25

 Over the weekend I made borani-yeh-esfenaj, spinach and yogurt dip. it's really flavorful (don't skimp on browning the onions!) and delicious. Served with some pita bread that Jason made and some pickled cauliflower (a recipe that I found at Serious Eats that I don't love enough to repeat). Great recipe for all the influx of farm spinach!

Sunday, 5/18/25

 Variation of chopped salad, very loosely adapted from SK. Subtracted salami, added grilled chicken; skipped onions, added roasted red peppers. We had a superfluous loaf of bread that we toasted to round things out for a quick dinner. Hooray for farm lettuce!

Saturday. 5/17/25

 A new recipe from the NYT for crispy coconut rice with tofu. The preparation wasn't what I expected: you mix cold cooked rice with coconut flakes, Thai curry paste (I used red but would have liked green), scallions and soy sauce, then cook the whole shebang. I cut back on the coconut since I only had sweetened and didn't want it overly sweet, and I ought to have been more patient with the cooking to achieve true crispiness, but overall we liked it. Topped with jalapeno slices, herbs and some cashews.

Friday, 5/16/25

 Dinner at Laurie's with Jen and John. It was a beautiful spring evening, so we sat on her porch and had pita (Jason), hummus, grilled chicken and meatballs and some other little snacks. I made another rhubarb spoon cake (tis the season) against Jason's wishes, but it got eaten all up. Don't worry, little Jason. We can always make more.

Thursday, 5/15/25

 Pizza night! Farm spinach, garlic, feta and mozzarella. Jason and I both thought this was great, even though we didn't like the last spinach pie that we made. I think it was the cream sauce last time, so that's good to remember

Wednesday, 5/14/25

 Another day, another salad (greens are in at the farm). This time with some frozen mozzarella sticks in the air-fryer with some of that spicy Rao's. 

Tuesday, 5/13/25

 It was weird coming back to work anyway, but only being open for two more days made it extra jarring. Luckily, dinner was quick and easy: a salad and ravioli with Rao's sauce (my mother's day request). I didn't realize we had bought arrabiata sauce, so it was spicier than expected., but tasty nevertheless.

Monday, 5/12/25

 Woke up with the "last day of vacation" gloom. I rallied by going out for more pastries from Daily Provisions (the crullers! Better than a donut any day). Jessica enjoyed her egg sandwich on an everything croissant although she said the cream cheese made it a bit messy. We stayed in the fancy apartment until the last minute, stowed our luggage and headed out to Union Square to walk around and have lunch. We finally got around to sushi at a place called Sugarfish (apparently it's a small chain and Jessica had been to the one in LA). While I can't say that the service or atmosphere blew me away, the sushi was impeccable. We each had:

The Nozawa Trust Me

Edamame

Tuna Sashimi – ponzu and chives

Albacore Sushi – ponzu and chives, 2-pc

Salmon Sushi – toasted sesame, 2-pc

Toro Hand Roll

Japanese Yellowtail* Sushi – lemon, 2-pc

Chutoro Sushi, 2-pc

Sea Bass Sushi – yuzu ponzu, 1-pc

New Zealand Sea Bream* Sushi – citrus salt, 1-pc

Blue & Dungeness Crab Hand Roll

Plus we shared a special appetizer of three kinds of fatty tuna (amazing). The only thing I didn't love was the final crab roll but overall it was a terrific last meal.  We stopped at a little fancy Italian place for chocolates to bring home and gelato for me. Also stopped at a Danish bakery for some cardamom buns for the train/plane. We then headed to MoMA and did I mention we got into all the museums free because of Jessica's job? What a cool perk! It was my favorite museum and I wish we had had more time/energy but I enjoyed what we did see. 

By now Jessica needed to head to the airport so I decided to take off too. We both bravely used the subway which was....challenging, what with our heavy bags (which I had to carry up and down several flights of stairs). I nearly got on the wrong subway and had to dash away, making for a very abrupt goodbye. But in the end we all made it home. 

Takeaways: paying more for a nicer place is worth it, I should bring my running clothes (and 5 fewer shirts and one less pair of shoes), and maybe every meal doesn't need to be quite so fancy? By the end of the week I felt a little gross. I was glad we ate in at least one night. Overall we did a lot of fun things and ate a lot of good food.

just a block from the apartment had great views of the Chrysler Building

Sunday, 5/11/25

Last full day in the city! For some reason, we decided to walk over to Sarabeth's, an immensely popular brunch spot. Sure, why not go there on Mother's Day. Jessica had eggs, bacon and toast, and even though there was avocado toast on the menu, I had a quinoa bowl (with smoked salmon, cherry tomatoes, avocado and pickled onions) and a side of homefries.   I honestly wasn't expecting much since the place seems so touristy, but I was pleasantly surprised. Even the coffee was really good. We were there early enough to beat most of the crowds, at least.

Lunch in the East Village at Momofuku Noodle Bar. We split a yuzu tuna hand roll that was incredibly delicious; I had ginger scallion noodles and Jessica had a pork belly bun. I asked for no pickled shiitakes and think the acid was therefore lacking. We then waited in a line (!) at Veneiro's for some pastries and scooted back uptown. My little fruit tart was good as I remember, thankfully. Then dashed back downtown for a tour at the Tenement Museum that concluded with pickles. I stuck around and bought a few more. God knows why.

For dinner we decided to stay local and give Stretch Pizza another shot, with mixed results. The warm cauliflower salad with hazelnut romesco was great, the meatball sliders were fine (although I swear I could make a meatball that was just as good) and while I enjoyed our NY style pizza, I thought it was overcooked and too crunchy on the edges. A week in New York and a pizza tour to boot and I honestly didn't have a truly great pizza (although  the one at Table 87 was pretty close).  Came home and ate some more pastries and watched some TV. My tiramisu was very nice but Jessica's lemon cake was better.

Saturday, 5/10/25

 I popped out early to get us some bagels from a nearby place (Bagels and Schmear. Good, if not as chewy as I like) and some coffee from a cute little spot called 787 Coffee. My coquito coffee was interesting. Glad I went for half sweet and I was left wondering what gave it an odd texture, but the place was so cute and earnest that I forgive them. Lunch was our Brooklyn Pizza tour. I was initially a bit disappointed that the guide wasn't Scott, but Amy was actually great. The first place, Dellarocco's, served Neapolitan. It's one of my favorite styles, but I only give this iteration a B. The second place, Table 87, was sort of a hybrid coal fired situation. I really liked the pizza, especially with the pickled hot peppers that were served on the side. Finally, we walked over to Carroll Gardens to an old school place called Famous Pizza and Calzone. We tried both a granny slice and a Sicilian. Honestly, both were way too hard and crunchy for me but I was hungry and polished them both off. What I have learned from these tours is that it is more about seeing different styles and learning than it is getting the best slices of your life. I would go back to that Table 87 in an instant, though.

For dinner I picked up take-out from a local dosa place. I don't know if it was because it was sitting in a carry out box, but they were so soggy. These flavors were good but honestly it was a little underwhelming. I wish I had come to the Madras Dosa Company instead. For dessert we finished up the delicious giant cake from The View. It was nice to hang out and have an early night.

Friday, 5/9/25

 The morning started off on a not great note, walking down to Daily Provisions in the pouring rain, only to find that it is a teeny weeny place and there were no tables to be had. Since they had packed our food to go anyway, we just brought it home which was honestly pretty nice. Shockingly, I had avocado toast (my only tiny criticism is I would have enjoyed more of the pickled peppers) and Jessica had a breakfast sandwich. Today was our Met day....we were dismayed to arrive there (again in the pouring rain) to find it so crowded that we had to wait in a long line to even get inside! You could hardly even move around the more popular galleries, let alone see anything. At least we got to see the Sargent show. It's a good thing that Jessica's job got us in for free, because we bailed pretty quickly. I am sad to report that lunch was stupid expensive and not great. We should have known, but the little Parisienne bakery made everything look so pretty! My pasta salad was fine, but Jessica's Caesar was not good. And our macarons had a nice texture but weirdly lacked flavor. So altogether not a great outing.

Honestly, all afternoon a part of me wanted to cancel tonight's dinner at The View, the latest (rotating!) Danny Meyers restaurant on the 48th floor of a Marriott in Times Square (sorry, Jessica). After some harrowing moments walking through Times Square and shooting up the very fast elevator, we were seated right by the window which was very cool. Times Square is much better appreciated from there. A highlight was the seeded cheese straws they brought out with the drinks (why I got a raspberry vodka cocktail I don't know. Nice enough but sweeeeet). Jessica won this meal: her iceberg wedge salad with lardons and Bleu cheese was much tastier than I would have expected; my hearts of palm with citrus was almost too light and refreshing, somehow? We also shared some oysters which had a lovely, puncht mignonette. My bass with green and white asparagus and lemon beurre blanc was nicely cooked, but the sauce was curiously flavorless. Jessica's swordfish was a little dry, but the sauce (a salsa verde) was really, really good. My butterscotch pudding with graham cracker crumbs was wicked sweet, but I didn't care because the flavors were great. And Jessica got a piece of chocolate cake that was so bit it was literally three pieces of cake. We brought most of it home which will make a great snack later. I almost forgot that a highlight was the seeded cheese straws they brought out with the drinks (why I got a raspberry vodka cocktail I don't know. Nice enough but sweeeeet). This place hasn't been open long so I feel like it still needs some polish, but the food was still way better than you would expect, given the setting. I would love to go back sometime but can't do that to poor Jessica.

It was hard to get good pictures through the window

Thursday, 5/8/25

 Breakfast was just coffee in the apartment and the lemon poppyseed cake we got as a parting gift at Gramercy. They were lovely so so damn buttery. Maybe even two buttery and I don't say that lightly. We had a 1:45 appointment with an architectural boat tour, so we had an early lunch at a nearby pizza place called Stretch. It's kind of a funny story: we were watching Top Chef and Wylie Dufresne was a guest judge; I got to wondering was he was up to now only to discover that he had a pizza place only about a block from the apartment. We had walked by several times and had no idea. Overall it was really good, but I think we could have made better choices. My mozzarella sticks were nice and crunchy, although the pesto flavor wasn't necessary; Jessica's salad with carrot, sunflower seeds and tomato dressing was sort of dull at best. The pizza was really good, especially the crust, but I didn't love our topping choice (shallots, three way: too sweet). BUT no notes on the maple soft serve with a pretzel dip and salted caramel. Also, Wylie Dufresne was actually there!

Then over to Chelsea Piers for the tour: you completely circumnavigate the island in a reproduction of a 1920's yacht. It was nice because you could sit inside in comfort and still get great views. It was incredibly cool seeing the whole island from that perspective and I would absolutely do it again.  Didn't get any good pictures, of course

For dinner we made a bit of a last minute choice to try Empellon Midtown. We had loved the downtown location both times we tried it (hot dog taco notwithstanding but that's our own fault), and we had been planning to go there years ago on our canceled trip. It got a lot of buzz all those years ago, and we had a couple of good dishes, but overall I didn't love it. The service was only OK, it was crazy loud, and while a couple of dishes wowed us (the cabbage salad with toasted fava bean dressing was impossible to stop eating, the guacamole with  7 salsas is still fun) a couple (Jessica's gloppy overly sweet milk chocolate tres leches cake, hit or miss shishito peppers) were meh. Did try the famous "Avocado, Lime Raspado, Eucalyptus Yogurt" which looks so much like an avocado that it's a bit jarring (it's really a kind of lime  mousse and quite refreshing and delicious). I think I would stick to one of the more casual downtown locations. Or maybe it was just an off night.

One time Instagram darling

Wednesday, 5/7/25

 For breakfast we walked to a cute little cafe nearby, Black Star Coffee: I (inexplicably) ordered a chai latte and it was a bit too sweet. Jessica had breakfast sandwich and I went with the avocado toast (be prepared to see these decisions again). The toast was good but too avocado-y and a bit messy.  We had planned a trip to the Met but they are closed on Wednesdays, which I didn't discover until we had gotten off the subway. So we pivoted to a walk across the park and a stop at the New York Historical Society that had an exhibit I wanted to see.  Then we headed over to the Whitney and took a lunch break there. Jessica had a salad with green goddess and avocado; I went with a  chicken salad with cabbage and farro. It was not bad, but waaay too much chicken and not enough farro or cabbage. The desserts looked nice but we were seated thisclose to an annoying couple so we just went back in for more art. Then we walked along the High Line for a bit, as it was a truly gorgeous day.

Dinner was the Big Event,  the tasting menu at the Gramercy Tavern.

We started with ta couple of exceptional cocktails (Aviation for Jessica and a Corpse Reviver #2 for me) and the optional cheese and crackers (Tete de moine and something whose name I didn't catch but it was vaguely goat cheese-like); loved the little pickles and the American ham (as good as prosciutto)

I had citrus cured char with broccolini, Meyer lemon and radish and Jessica had roasted white sweet potato with yogurt, sesame and honey (the winner).

Then we both had:

Sweet pea agnoletti with snap peas, black pepper and spring onions

Roasted asparagus with nettles, potatoes and Jura wine sauce (the best dish of the evening; I could have eaten three of these)

Roasted sirloin with cauliflower, radicchio and pickled shallot (I was just excited to be eating a steak)

Dessert was a caramelized banana custard tart with butterscotch and the crunchiest, tastiest candied walnuts. Plus a tasty little lemon truffle. Beautiful room, great service. AND only a few blocks from the apartment. I feel like the last time we were there we had a lot more courses, plus I had the wine pairing which I am glad I didn't do again. Too much wine! 

Tuesday, 5/6/25

 New York! I forgot to bring bus snacks (and refused to pay for anything at the station out of pure stubbornness) so I was starving by the time we dropped off our bags at the Airbnb (which is incredibly nice, with the fanciest toilet I have ever seen). We walked across the street to a place called Upland which was fancier than I expected but really good. We started with burrata with asparagus and grilled bread; I had pasta al limone which was so lemony and buttery (two of my favorite attributes). I could have eaten twice as much of it. Jessica had a Caesar salad with salmon. I ordered a peanut butter cookie for dessert and there were actually two and they were enormous and filled with peanut butter cream; we couldn't finish them and brought them home (spoiler: they did not survive the day). We walked around a bit near Union Square until we could check in, and then just rested and watched TV for a while. Dinner was at a nearby Italian place called Scarpetta (also fancier than I expected, but no one looked askance at our jeans) and very pretty. I started with a yellowtail crudo, and Jessica had some really nice scallops with maybe an asparagus puree? We both went with pasta (cacio e pepe ravioli with charred leek, brown butter and sage for me; mezzaluna with peas, ricotta, lemon and bottarga for Jessica). Both were excellent and while the portions weren't huge, we were somehow too full for dessert. A nice first day and I am feeling very good about our apartment choice.

Monday, 5/5/25

 One pot broccoli pasta, from I Dream of Dinner. I swear I made this a few months ago, but can't find any record of it. I used some cute pasta shape from Trader Joe's instead of spaghetti, but otherwise pretty much as written.  The anchovy gives it a nice background flavor, but it definitely needed parm at the table. That woman sure isn't afraid of butter!

Sunday, 5/4/25

 Another go at crispy rice salad, from Ali Slagle via the NYT. This time I did have the lime for the dressing, and halloumi, and some nice fresh greens from the farm. I even gave the rice a nice long time to get crunchy. It's a nice salad! It's really hard not to like something with fried halloumi in it. We just served it with some toasted leftover bread.

Saturday, 5/3/25

Pride in the morning (Jason made bread before I could even open my mouth to suggest an idea).  It was a fairly early day, so we were home for dinner, which was just various leftovers.

Friday, 5/2/25

A nice healthy meal of tots with gravy and cheese. For once we were patient enough to let the tots get good and crispy, so they were extra tasty.  I also a made a cucumber salad with chili crisp vinaigrette which was a good counterpart. For dessert I made a rhubarb spoon cake with the first of the farm rhubarb. Even better than I remembered. It was nice to have a homemade dessert again but maybe three pieces was two too many.

Thursday, 5/1/25

 BBQ chicken pizza with smoked Gouda and red onions. Jason was worried that he had made it too cheesy, but it was great. You see this combo out and about; I first tried it in Providence at a place called Bob & Timmy's, but I don't know if that was the original place or not.

Wednesday, 4/30/25

 The good news about the giant zucchini and carrot frying event was that it produced a lot of leftovers that re-heated really well in the air fryer. We also had cheesy pinto beans with green chilis and plantain chips. Tasty and so much quicker.

Tuesday, 4/29/25

 My only dinner plan was loaded oven-roasted potatoes from the NYT (I ignored some of their instructions; I par-cooked the potato wedges, and cooked them on the same sheetpan as the bacon instead of washing that pan and then using oil. Whose big idea was that?) and zucchini in some form. Well, Jason requested tempura style fried zucchini and I felt like I had to say yes. So of course dinner took forever. We did a couple of carrots while we were at it, and I was forced to admit they were really good. I used this recipe for the batter:, and it provided just the right amount of coating:

https://www.food.com/recipe/fried-zucchini-batter-131300

As a special time-consuming surprise, Jason also wanted to make poori, which was only partially started by the time I got home. Sigh. It was a late dinner. The potatoes were good, as you would expect crispy roasted potatoes with bacon, cheese and sour cream to be.

Monday, 4/28/25

 Tostadas with chicken tinga, avocado, queso fresco and jalapenos. I think the recipe for the tinga was kind of from Serious Eats and maybe a little from other sources? In any event, I used a whole chicken and some of the leftover dried chilis from the pozole. Tostadas was a tasty but very messy choice. Easier than making our own tortillas, though. Roasted carrots on the side.

Sunday, 4/27/25

 In a dinner that sounds suspiciously like last nights, we had noodles and tofu, but this time with mushrooms and asparagus. The noodle recipe was from the NYT and featured lots of garlic and hoisin sauce; I added shredded tofu and vegetables to round it out and kind of wish I hadn't. I think the noodles would have been tastier on their own. Next time. They made good leftovers for lunch, though.

Saturday, 4/26/25

 Dinner with Jay and Jodi. They had just gotten back from Minnesota, so it was another on-the-fly pantry dinner. So we ended up with noodles with kale and tofu, plus roasted cabbage. It wasn't bad, although as usual I could have used a lot more kale. Jason also made a loaf of bread.

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.

Saturday, 3/29/25

 It turned out to be a cold and rainy day, so I was glad to stay in for the most part and do some cooking projects. Dinner was a recipe from the NYT that was more of an inspiration: potato tacos. I added some chipotles to the potato filling, and swapped in queso fresco for the cheddar. I also ignored their salsa recipe in favor of quick-pickling some red onions, jalapenos and radishes. We made our own corn tortillas, but have gotten pretty efficient at that. You fill the tacos and then pan fry them (Jason insisted on doing that step on the skillet, so he is the one who had to stand outside in the cold). These were so good! The method was the real star, and any number of fillings would be good. We should definitely make these again.

Friday, 3/28/25

 Jay and Jodi's for.....pizza! Jason made many kinds, but my favorite had cream cheese, scallions, jalapenos and furikake. Dessert pizza with Nutella and strawberries was good.

Thursday, 3/27/25

 Deep dish pizza with sausage, peppers and onions, and ricotta. Not the lightest pizza we have ever made, and Jason was never truly convinced that it was fully cooked in the middle. I think I am looking forward to a no sauce pizza next week, although this was very nice.

Wednesday, 3/26/25

 Fish and chips, at Jason's request. The rest of our fish filets in the oven, french fries in the air fryer, and a cucumber-radish salad on the side. This was fine if not my favorite. I think I would rather have a tater tot over a french fry (at home, anyway). More reliable.

Tuesday, 3/25/25

 We bought corned beef when if was on sale last week, and I cooked it up with potatoes and carrots over the weekend. For once it wasn't overly salty (I remembered to rinse the meat well) and the dutch oven worked perfectly. I also roasted some cabbage to go with it, but we were in a hurry so I think it could have used more time. The oddest thing was that I made a small batch of brown gravy....from a packet. I was reading some food newsletter and the guy was praising them, and I have to admit it was good, in that very industrial, nostalgic way. I bet it would be perfect on poutine, My brisket is always a bit stringy, but I am just there for the potatoes anyway.

Monday, 3/24/25

 Took the day off to play with Ramona and Corrina. It was gross out, so we ending up exploring the Holyoke Mall which was pretty fun. Dinner was rice with spinach and broiled feta (from I Dream of Dinner) which I have apparently made at least 4 times now. I can't resist broiled feta, I guess.  As delicious as I remembered.

Sunday, 3/23/25

 Another dinner out? Why yes! I couldn't say no to Jen and John. Bread from Jason, blondies from me (SK; browned the butter and sprinkled with coarse salt). Blue Apron with chicken with a cherry-dijon sauce and roasted potatoes and carrots. A little wine, a little Top Chef.

Saturday, 3/22/25

 Dinner #2 with Jay and Jodi. This time Jason made pita and hummus and I made cinnamon popcorn. Then we all worked a little on an orzo dish with spinach and feta that Jodi got from Zack. It all seemed remarkably familiar and I realized that I made the same dish (from the NYT) about a month ago. I was only meh on my version but this one was somehow better. 

Friday, 3/21/25

 Somewhat surprise invitation from Jason's parents for dinner at Miss Saigon (#60 for our whole family, with various proteins and udon noodles for me. Good but needed more spice). I made a "Lazy-Daisy" cake from the NYT and people really liked it! It's a bit like a sponge cake, with a topping made from brown sugar, butter and coconut that you pour on once the cake is baked and then broil until nice and toasty.  Jason of course wanted to know why we can't make it with cake mix instead and I suppose we could but it was so easy anyway. A pretty good pay-off for not much work.

Thursday, 3/20/25

 A pizza that SOUNDED good: chicken, pesto, roasted red peppers and sun-dried tomatoes. And it wasn't bad by any means; I don't think our pesto was the best ever, and who knows how long it has been in the freezer. So we liked it but it wasn't one that we couldn't stop eating.

Wednesday, 3/19/25

 We had a busy day, including a stop at Primo's for Year of Pizza: Not Good. So much for a hidden gem nearby. So I was glad to just come home and eat leftover cabbage soup, unglamorous as it was.

Tuesday, 3/18/25

 I made an enormous (is there any other kind?)  pot of gumbo over the weekend, and since it is one of Carter's favorites, he came over. Funny how much more you appreciate home cooking when you live on your own. NAyway, I can never remember quite how I do it, so Lace, here you go:

I use the proportions from Serious Eats (although I just make do with however much sausage I have on hand)

I made the roux on the stovetop  in the Dutch oven

I separately cooked the sausage, chicken and vegetables (in this case on the porch using the electric skillet...brr!)

Heated up some chicken stock and added it to the roux once it was nice and dark (I could have gone darker but the clock was ticking), then  added everything to the dutch oven.

This worked well in preventing the roux from separating; overall I thought it could have been a little thicker, but then I never add okra or file powder so that's on me? I used andouille this time but a nice dark kielbasa also works. Anyway, we all enjoyed it over rice with some scallions and Frank's Red Hot.

Monday, 3/17/25

 One of the two huge pots of food I prepared over the weekend, cabbage soup (no recipe, just onions, carrots and cabbage). Jason made us our very own bread, which we had with some leftover ricotta and honey. I thought the soup could have used a little something more...sausage? Potatoes? But it's not bad and there is certainly plenty of it.

Sunday, 3/16/25

 A repeat of lentils diavolo, served over cavatappi. I had forgotten that I added feta last time, but didn't miss it. This is so good, especially for the very small amount of work. My only note is to add more jalapenos if you really want it spicy. We also had some roasted cauliflower. I boldly threw it right in.

Saturday, 3/15/25

 We had enormous grinders from Jersey Mike's (thank you, BOGO coupon) for lunch....I ate only half and had the rest for dinner. Jason cleaned out a few various leftovers

Friday, 3/14/25

 Busy and fun day with Ramona, and pizza for dinner. Tomato sauce, ricotta, artichoke hearts, and roasted red peppers. A little soggy but great nonetheless.

Thursday, 3/13/25

 Dinner with Jay and Jodi (and Zack!). We did a reprise of spring rolls with tofu. Jason: bread. Me: dipping sauce which was good but I didn't make quite enough.

Wednesday, 3/12/25

 Biscuit topped chicken pot pie, from the NYT. In the end I just decided to serve the biscuits separately. And since the commentariat didn't seem fond of the biscuit recipe, I just used my usual from from Sally's Baking Addiction (which had the bonus of not needing an egg). This was good but not amazing: partly user error (I didn't thicken the sauce enough) and partly the recipe---I just didn't love the chicken thighs in this application. I would have preferred breasts or rotisserie chicken. But still, creamy chicken over a delicious biscuit can't be all bad. We also had a Caesar-ish salad, with tomatoes, cucumbers and roasted red peppers.

Tuesday, 3/11/25

Dinner with dad, Liz and the kids! We enjoyed some lasagna, salad and chocolate pie; Jason made bread and we brought some hamantaschen too. Nice to see everyone, even if Carter had to dash out early for practice.

Monday, 3/10/25

 I just wasn't feeling broccoli and tofu, but had to soldier on anyway. Made a batch of sauce from Cravings and just sauteed the tofu, added par-boiled broccoli and the sauce, and served it all over spaghetti noodles. I crowded the pan so the tofu didn't crisp up (should have roasted it) and it didn't look lovely, but it was fine. Not my best work but nothing a little chili crisp couldn't fix.

Sunday, 3/9/25

 Pinto beans (50 minutes in the Instant pot and 15 minutes natural release=perfect), rice with a Goya packet, plus pickled red onions, pepperjack, salsa verde and cherry tomatoes. We also made some corn tortillas but I should have been  patient and gotten more color on them. Still a very good dinner....somewhere between tacos and a rice bowl.

Saturday, 3/8/25

 Dinner with Jen and John....John made cocktails, Jen grocery shopped, Jason made bread and I made the resulting grilled cheese. We were too lazy to have anything more healthful than that. A reprise of the hamantaschen (we made SO MANY).

Friday, 3/7/25

Dinner with Jay and Jodi; spring rolls with tofu, cabbage and brown rice. Jason made a superfluous bread, and we also made a lot of hamantaschen (1.5x the Bon Appetit recipe, homemade prune filling and dulce de leche).  The cookies were a big hit, even with Jodi! Maybe it takes her back to childhood Purim celebrations?

Thursday, 3/6/25

 Pizza night, but I wasn't feeling too inventive. So pepperoni, mozz, provolone and sun-dried tomatoes it was. Pretty good; even better re-heated for lunch.

Wednesday, 3/5/25

 Quinoa bowls with roasted zucchini, mushrooms and tofu, with peanut sauce. We also had a side of enoki mushrooms. Jodi gave them to us since she didn't know what to do with them; it turns out I don't either so I marinated them with Ponzu sauce, rice vinegar and sesame oil. They don't have a super ot of flavor, but the texture was fun, almost like a pasta.

Tuesday, 3/4/25

Crispy rice salad with halloumi and ginger-lime vinaigrette, from the NYT. OK, so I did made some changes (out of necessity): I used spinach instead of mixed greens, lemon because I was out of limes, feta instead of halloumi, and added cherry tomatoes. The feta was nice and flavorful, but didn't really hold up to grilling the way halloumi does; the vinaigrette was a bit too tart and oniony, but the crispy rice was very nice and overall I really liked it. No leftovers! And very quick to put together since the rice is made in advance (and I made the vinaigrette when I was home for lunch).

Monday, 3/3/25

 I let Jason run wild with his dinner request of fish and chips (Aldi fish fillets in the oven; a bag of crinkle cuts in the deep fryer). The fish was actually pretty good with some cocktail sauce (and tartar sauce for Jason), the fries were fine, and the tomato-cucumber salad I made to balance things out was crunchy and refreshing. 

Sunday, 3/2/25

 I prepped some leftover white beans with salsa verde and zucchini when I was home for lunch, and Jason made rice, so that we had time to decompress with a snack and a drink when I got home from work. Then I just popped the beans under the broiler with some pepperjack and dinner was ready. Perfectly fine and I am glad to have used up another freezer item.

Saturday, 3/1/25

Another very cold day of watching Ultimate, although at least it was at UMass so we could pop home for lunch. We lost every game so that didn't help. Then off to my dad and Liz's to go over some various legal stuff and pizza for dinner. I think that is four days of pizza in a row, which is high even for us. 

Friday, 2/28/25

Dinner with Jodi (Jay is off in Mexico and to hell with him); we made a stir-fry with whatever was hanging around, and Jason made a loaf of sesame-wheat bread. 

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.

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.