Wednesday, 4/26/17

Dinner with my parents and my mom pulled off quite a trick: she changed my mind AND my dad's mind about lamb. It was delicious. But there was flank steak as a back up, along with some roasted potatoes that I MUST get the recipe for (Jason has noted that my mother has a much defter hand with the potato than I do), corn and broccoli. I didn't bring anything but will atone next week with cookies.

Tuesday, 4/25/17

Another slight variation on roasted tofu, from Food52. You toss the cubes with soy, sesame oil, cornstarch and panko, while also roasted mushrooms on another pan. The tofu was good, if unevenly crunchy, but the mushrooms were amazing. Some were crispy and some were just a little toasty, but they were so flavorful that I couldn't stop munching on them. They would be good on any number of things (and these are just regular button mushrooms). Alongside we had asparagus sauteed with garlic, scallions and jalapeno. A nice change. Oh, and plain red quinoa.

Monday, 4/24/17

It was decided that some leftover pork in the fridge had to be eaten RIGHT AWAY. So we had pork sandwiches on brioche rolls with bbq sauce, plus some sauteed kale.

Sunday, 4/23/17

Lentils and rice, with coriander, fenugreek and cumin, plus zucchini fritters (yes, again. I can't get enough of them and they make excellent lunches for work).

Saturday, 4/22/17

So, there is a restaurant in Brooklyn that I have been wanting to try called "Butter & Scotch". It turns out they have a cookbook so I checked it out. It also turns out that New York Magazine calls the birthday cake from Butter & Scotch ( a bakery/cocktail bar) the best in the city. So of course since the recipe was in the book, I had to make it.
Well, several pounds of butter later..it was fine. The first problem I ran into was that this was so much damn batter it overflowed the three cake pans. Seeing how much cake this was, I froze one layer and just went with a two layer cake. I reduced the frosting accordingly, but it was still a ton. The frosting is curiously bland (probably partly my fault because we are basically out of vanilla), and the cake is very moist but almost unpleasantly so. This was such an enormous cake that I can't imagine how I would have transported the bigger version. I think adding some flavoring agent like almond extract or Kahlua to the frosting would have made a nice difference.
Oh, and Jason made an excellent loaf of bread. And I am going to go to that restaurant and try the cake and see where I went wrong.

Friday, 4/21/17

Adapted the chicken lettuce wraps from Cravings into a noodle dish. Plus I roasted some pretty purple cauliflower (note to Jason: it was the same price as regular cauliflower). No leftovers, which I think speaks for itself.

Thursday, 4/20/17

Chicken pie dinner at the Whately Congregational. We didn't win any raffle prizes, but I somehow ate three pieces of cake? Then back to my parent's  house to play one of Carter's new games which was super fun.

Wednesday, 4/19/17

Happy Birthday Carter! As per his request, Popeye's style fried chicken breasts, plus french fries and broccoli. He originally wanted mashed potatoes, but since my mom made them on Monday, we knew mine would suffer in comparison.

Tuesday, 4/18/17

I cooked dinner for what seemed like the first time in forever. Potato leek soup that looked a little gross but actually tasted great (probably the bacon fat?) plus bagels and cream cheese (big sale at Bruegger's). No one is ever going to eat that damn cake.

Monday, 4/17/18

We had lunch at my parents that was so good (ham, mashed potatoes, asparagus, sweet potato and peas) and so ample that we didn't bother with dinner---just had leftover bread, cheese and deviled eggs.
I did at least make a dessert, although I fear that it's fate is the compost since nobody ate much. Why did I make a flourless chocolate cake when I don't even really like it? I think the picture lured me in. It was a Nigella Larson recipe from the NYT, and though my cake looked just like the picture, I didn't love it. Oh well.

Sunday, 4/16/17

Dinner with Jen and John on a beautiful spring day. Jason made a couple of loaves of bread, and we cooked up another Blue Apron meal (catfish and udon noodles. Carter enjoys working on them and all the meals have been really tasty). I didn't make anything, since I thought Jen had bought a pie (she didn't. oops). All I did was pick up some cheese at Trader Joe's and then eat most of it myself.

Saturday, 4/15/17

Dinner with Jennie and David: Jason's bread, and I made two old favorites, both from SK: maple-nutmeg cookies (painstakingly rolled out into a myriad of shapes) and chocolate pudding. Pretty good considering I didn't even have a dessert plan in place until about 2:30.

Friday, 4/14/17

In advance of Carter's birthday, we spent the night at The Great Wolf Lodge and Waterpark. Quite a spot. Take-out pizza, chips and candy. Viva America!

Thursday, 4/13/17

Jason was giving an exam, so you know what that means: leftovers and watching TV.

Wednesday, 4/12/17

Tonight I stretched it a tiny bit by calling hamburgers sandwiches. I think it is reasonable to do so. Served with roasted asparagus (skinny skinny spears, lots of big salt, olive oil. I couldn't stop eating them right off the pan), and tater tot poutine, which is really all I wanted to eat (although the burgers were really good. Big Y beef FTW). I had bought some lackluster cheese curds from Big Y, so I made a quick brown gravy (from Serious Eats) and voila: tot poutine. Ridiculous and I dare say better than french fries.

Tuesday, 4/11/17

Jason made us a loaf of bread, so tonight's sandwiches were grilled cheese. Grilled cheeses? Anyway, another quick meal.

Monday, 4/10/17

Sandwich number two: various cold cuts with various toppings, plus a salad of roasted cauliflower with avocado and chick peas in a tahini dressing. Actually, I didn't have any chick peas and used hominy instead. This lent an unpleasantly strong corn-y taste in my opinion. I was trying to produce a recipe that I read about on line, but all I had was a list of ingredients (and not even quantities) so have no idea if I came close.

Sunday, 4/9/17

I have deemed it sandwich week, and the first foray is roasted pork with caramelized onions, jalapenos and homemade aioli on brioche buns. Technically, the pork was marinated and slow cookered. It was a fair amount of work in the morning, but dinner certainly came together quickly.

Pretty sure everyone liked it. Note to self: there is no point in making mayonnaise by hand. Use the stupid food processor next time.

Saturday, 4/8/17

Dinner at Jennie and David's. Bread and cookies: a new recipe for macaroons (from Food52) which was very easy but I didn't think quite as good as my old David Lebovitz recipe, but might have been improved with a little more salt; plus some double chocolate cookies (NYT) that I think were slightly overdone. They weren't burnt or anything, but I was hoping for a chewier texture. I was underwhelmed by both.

Friday, 4/7/17

Jeff was here for dinner, so we kept it vegetarian. I (once again) made the zucchini pizza from SK (I don't think I am fooling Jason anymore by calling it focaccia), which turned out well, despite the dough not rising much. I also threw together a salad with mushrooms, a roasted yellow pepper, some leftover beets and chickpeas. it was good to get rid of a few more odds and ends.

I also made a Samoa Pie that I was worried would be way way too sweet, but surprisingly wasn't. Neither did it knock my socks off. Maybe it needed more caramel and/or sweetened condensed milk?
Anyway, it used up a jar of leftover caramel and one of fudge, so I am not complaining.

I had trouble with the artful drizzling

Thursday, 4/6/17

Fish tacos, more or less from the NYT. The fish might have been more delicious had it been deep-fried, but oven roasting them was certainly easier and felt more virtuous. They were actually more fish burritos, since I bought the wrong tortillas. As promised in the recipe, the pickled red onions were the real star. I would enjoy them more next time with smaller corn tortillas instead, I think.

Wednesday, 4/5/17

Another refrigerator logjam that resulted in leftovers. It doesn't actually do much to lessen the amount of food in there, but at least it keeps me from creating even more leftovers.

Tuesday, 4/4/17

A repeat of a poached chicken recipe from the NYT. You poach chicken breasts in a broth made with chilies, garlic and ginger, make a sauce with the more of the same (plus some fish sauce and lime) and some of the broth, and served over rice with another sauce with soy and brown sugar. We added basil, scallions, cucumbers and cilantro at the end. This was as good as I remembered. The two sauces combined are spicy, sweet, tart and delicious. Next time I will make the broth in the morning to save a little time.
I broke my own rule and served this with non-local asparagus that I roasted with big salt and olive oil. I have to admit that it was quite good---the spears were really skinny and got a little crispy at the end (Carter, it should be noted, did not care at all for the asparagus. His loss).

Monday, 4/3/17

Scrambled eggs with onions and a LOT of spinach. I thew the eggs and spinach into the blender and it was a green gloppy (but tasty) mess. I also pulled some biscuits out of the freezer. They were sort of dry and benefited from the honey butter I made for them. I wanted to reproduce the honey butter that my mom used to buy and this was close (from Alton Brown although it doesn't really need a recipe). The additions of cinnamon and vanilla were what I wouldn't have thought of, and I think they were key.

Sunday, 4/2/17

An old standby from Smitten Kitchen--pasta with broccoli sauce. I added some leftover ricotta and since it was so full of broccoli just called it a meal unto itself. I could eat it every week, but I am thinking about how it would be with asparagus?

Saturday, 4/1/17

A Saturday night at home: Jason made pizza (one with provolone and salami, my personal favorite, and one with bacon, spinach and pepperoni which I have not yet tried but looks good). I also made another batch of brownie brittle at Jason's request. I tried a different recipe and it got the thumbs up so I copied it below. Turns out Corrina and I are only meh on brownie brittle but that's OK.

Ingredients

• 4 Tbsp butter 1/2 stick
• 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips 
• 1/2 cup + 2 Tbsp sugar
• 3 Tbsp Dutch processed cocoa powder
• 2 egg whites
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 3/4 cup flour
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 2 Tbsp milk
• 1 Tbsp water

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 375F and line two cookie sheets with parchment paper.
2. In large, microwave safe bowl, combine butter and 1 cup of chocolate chips. Microwave for 30 seconds and stir well. Return to microwave and heat for 15 seconds at a time (stirring after every 15 seconds) until chocolate and butter are completely melted and combined.
3. Stir in cocoa powder and then sugar (mixture may be thick, that's OK).
4. Add egg whites and vanilla extract, stir well.
5. In separate, medium-sized bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, and salt.
6. Gradually stir flour mixture into butter mixture until completely combined.
7. Stir in milk and water until evenly combined.
8. Divide the batter between the two prepared cookie sheets, pouring half onto one sheet and half onto the other.
9. Use a spatula to spread the batter thin (think the thickness of a potato chip) and evenly (try to keep the edges even, otherwise they will be more likely to burn). Sprinkle each half with 2 Tbsp of the remaining chocolate chips.
10. Bake (it's best to bake the sheets one at a time) for 15-17 minutes. Keep a close eye on the brownie brittle so that the edges don't burn.

Friday, 3/31/17

Dinner with Jen and John (and Corrina!): Jason made a couple of loaves of bread, I brought the ubiquitous Wonder Bars. John and I whipped up two of their Blue Apron meals: burgers with shiitake mushrooms and sweet potato chips, plus chicken meatballs with pasta and kale. The kale was actually the star (was it the mascarpone? Probably), although the burgers were good too. We demolished the cookies.

Thursday, 3/30/17

Dinner with my parents, Corrina, Kevin and Sarena at the Ginger Garden.  Tastiness all around.