Wednesday, 9/28/22

 Bagels with cream cheese, fresh chives and smoked salmon, plus some corn that Jason brought home. We have no idea where it came from, but it was actually really good. Mystery corn...

Tuesday, 9/27/22

 Another new dish! I feel like I am finally getting out of a slump...the cooler weather helps.

Pepperoni-garlic pasta, from the NYT. Sautéed up what seemed like an absurd amount of pepperoni, along with garlic (and in my case, half a bag of spinach) and tomato paste; seasoned with crushed red pepper, lemon zest and fennel seed, finished with parm. This was so flavorful! And the fennel gave it an interesting sweetness. With a pound of pasta, it didn't seem like too much pepperoni at all. The spinach got lost in there---I could have used a whole bag--but overall very satisfactory. Would absolutely make again.

And I almost forgot---Jason pulled out the air fryer and made us some sweet potato fries for an appetizer.

Monday, 9/26/22

 Farro bowls with roasted mushrooms and halloumi, from the NYT. This didn't seem like a recipe one had to follow super strictly, so I added a bunch of spinach to the farro, and served it with salsa verde instead of the olive yogurt, and added some avocado. One of my favorite kinds of meals. 

For dessert I baked the cookie dough I made Saturday (maple-brown sugar with pecans). While Sally said these were some of the best cookies she had ever made, Jason and I were not blown away. They were fine, and the maple glaze was good, but I myself have made many a better cookie. It didn't stop us from eating a lot of them, though.

Sunday, 9/25/22

 When I got home from work Jason was merrily frying up the falafel; unfortunately, the first batch or so completely disintegrated (I had a bad feeling that I should have food-processed it longer), but the rest turned out fine. And the fried crumbs actually made a better topping for the salad (cucumber, cherry tomatoes, the picked turnip and carrots). But now I am back to having leftover falafel in the freezer.

Saturday, 9/24/22

 I spent the morning doing a lot of prep for dinner (marinating a pork tenderloin and making the lime dressing for it) and doing various cooking projects:

-Made a big batch of hot pepper jelly (a bit runny as my pectin somehow went bad?)

-Pickled some turnips

-Made falafel mix for tomorrow's dinner

-Made the tahini dressing (see above)

-Grilled and froze eggplants for later use

-Made a cookie dough (Maple-Pecan from Sally's Baking Addiction) for dessert later in the week

And maybe something else I can't remember. Happily puttered around until after 1, at which point we decided to go for a walk AND go to Costco. Unsurprisingly, this was too ambitious a plan. especially since Costco didn't have what we needed and we ended up going to BJ's, too. So we didn't get home until about 6...I threw the pork into the oven as quickly as I could and prepped the rest of dinner. It was supposed to be served over cellophane noodles but I just went with rice; I also just used whatever vegetables I wanted (carrots, yellow pepper, cherry tomatoes, cucumbers and purple cabbage) and so essentially we had rice bowls. The pork loin was the unexpected star...the recipe was from SK and if I ever find myself in possession of another tenderloin I would make it again. The hoisin marinade added a lot of flavor and it wasn't at all dry like I feared it would be.

Friday, 9/23/22

 Dinner with Jen and John....bread from Jason, Smore's cups from me. A recipe I made a lot last summer (from Dinner than Dessert). I noted at the time that there were too many graham crackers but not how much to cut out. Annoying Past Lace! Anyhow, I cut it by a third and still felt it was too much, as the crumbs just fell apart when they were removed from the muffin pans. I am kind of over this dessert but feel compelled to make it again, if only to use up the marshmallows and graham crackers and get the darn proportions right.

Anyhow, dinner was a Blue Apron with skirt steak, mashed potatoes and roasted carrots. Always so good, those Blue Aprons.

Thursday, 9/22/22

 Pan Pizza.... now on Thursday!