Saturday, 12/4/21

 The return of Thanksgiving, my sort of annual tradition. Didn't mess with the menu much: green bean casserole (from SK, but French's onions all the way), sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, gravy, turkey (dry brined to limited success), canned cranberry sauce ,doctored up box stuffing (it is growing on me) and of course Jason's dinner rolls (always my favorite part). I had notes: the green beans were too mushy; I used too much milk in the mashed potatoes, and I thought the turkey was a bit dry. Carter and Jason were happy, though. Maybe letdown is inevitable after all the work?

Also a pecan pie (another SK recipe; as usual I used maple syrup instead of Golden Syrup or Karo) which was excellent.

That looks terrible

Friday, 12/3/21

 We had an exciting afternoon exploring Agawam and West Springfield, including a stop at a Russian grocery store. The prepared foods we picked up from there made up our dinner: a couple of blintzes (drier and sweeter than ours), a chicken burek (meh) and a eggplant-sweet pepper salad that was the surprise star. I could have eaten a giant bowl of it. Lots of other tempting looking salads there so I think we need to go back.

Thursday, 12/2/21

 Jason wanted to make churros for dinner for some reason. He is getting very pushy in his retirement. sadly, he had never seen or tasted one so they were like little strings of fried dough? He was VERY put out that I was unimpressed. I mean, whatever it was that he produced was fine, but it wasn't a churro. Anyway, I made a antipasto style salad to go with it, and we had some kielbasa. The good news was that he was also inspired to make yeast donuts, and those were quite good.

Wednesday, 12/1/21

 I glamorously went out for a drink after work, leaving Jason to make stovetop macaroni and cheese from my usual Serious Eats recipe. He couldn't resist tinkering, of course, adding some leftover ramen seasoning to part of it. It wasn't bad, and overall I think he succeeded! Leftover broccoli to go with it.

Tuesday, 11/30/21

 Family favorite sushi bowl. Surimi, cucumber, avocado, etc (didn't have any tuna but it was not a problem). Quick and delicious, if a little bowl intensive.

Monday, 11/29/21

 Smitten's baked chickpeas with pita chips, tahini-yogurt sauce and a little cucumber-tomato salad. I didn't actually bake the chickpeas; I just let them simmer on the stove while I prepped everything else. It was a little too cumin-y and salty, but the various condiments add a lot. carter ate it uncomplainingly even though he didn't love it last time (a fact I did not see fit to remind him of0.

Sunday, 11/28/21

 Fried rice with tofu, zucchini and broccoli 9plus fresh eggs from Jason's farm. They were too enormous to use for baking). I did most of the chopping before work but it was still a surprisingly time consuming meal. All that separate stir-frying. In the end, it was pretty good but needed more soy sauce.