Friday, 11/21/25

 Dental surgery in the morning (followed by a long map) meant that dinner was just (nice, soft) saag paneer and some ice cream. Happily, the leftovers were even tastier.

Thursday, 11/20/25

 Saag planner with feta, from Priya Krishna. I should have bumped up all the spices, but it was still quite nice. I figured cheese + two bags of spinach + rice = plenty of dinner, so that's all we had.

Wednesday, 11/19/25

 Quinoa bowls with broccoli, boiled eggs and lemon-tahini dressing. More or less from the NYT; they called for farro which I didn't have on hand, and their recipe for the dressing was overly complicated (also: double it!). I also added some sliced mini bell peppers (and forgot the sesame seeds). Tasty and versatile and who doesn't feel virtuous eating quinoa and broccoli?

Tuesday, 11/18/25

 Rice and pinto beans for a quick dinner (I made the beans the night before in the Instant Pot; while 20 minutes has been right in the past, I thought they were a touch overcooked this time and would do a few minutes less, and add a little more liquid). Cheese, avocados, two salsas, and some quickly sautéed zucchini to round things off.

Monday, 11/17/25

 Just leftovers. I was surprised at how well the kale pasta reheated.

Sunday, 11/16/25

 Eggplant parm pizza, with some frozen fried eggplant from the freezer. Very heavy and filling. Jason was a little disappointed as he felt he should have used more sauce (he was probably right). I think some pepperoncini peppers would have brightened the whole thing up, but Aldi has been out for months.

Saturday, 11/15/25

 Dinner with Jodi; Jason made bread (duh) and I made pretzel cookies from "Smitten Kitchen Every Day'. They are supposed be a sandwich cookie with a caramel filling, but were good just plain. In fact Jodi really loved them (big win for me!). She is a known pretzel lover, so I was hopeful that she would go for them. Dinner was a pasta with what we scrounged up: onions, a can of white beans, garlic, spinach and some leftover pesto. Actually not bad at all.

Friday, 11/14/25

 Happy Birthday dad! We celebrated with pizza and cake at Liz's, luckily Zac, Corrina and Ramona were able to come too. Then we had to rush off for game night (where more dessert awaited; we could only manage very tiny servings of really good brownies).

Thursday, 11/13/25

 Kale Caesar pasta salad, from the NYT. It's supposed to be served cold, but we had it warm. A little salty and garlicky but hard to stop eating at the same time. Jason had some leftover chicken, too.

Wednesday, 11/12/25

 Chicken curry with sweet potatoes and coconut, from the NYT. I have made this several times over the years. I like the sweetness of the coconut with the spiciness of the red curry paste. Good to use up some of our copious supply of sweet potatoes and leftover rotisserie chicken. Basmati rice.

Tuesday, 11/11/25

 Midweek day off meant Jason and I had time for a Year of Pizza excursion to Hardwick House of Pizza (not worth a return trip), and to make tofu with roasted cabbage and chili-lime sauce for dinner. The good: the sauce was the perfect blend of tart, sweet and spicy, and the cabbage and tofu roasted up nicely. The so-so: I served this with rice noodles and they just didn't integrate so it was annoying to eat. So next time use rice instead. This was a recipe from the NYT; it called for Brussels sprouts but cabbage worked fine; I also made extra sauce after reading the comments and was glad to have done so. I also made an apple fritter cake from King Arthur Flour that was excellent, although I overcooked it a tiny bit (the recipe says 60 minutes; check at 50).

Monday, 11/10/25

 I had bookmarked this recipe for a poblano-potato soup that I was excited to try because it was inspired by spaghetti verde, which I have tried to make 3 times and been stymied by its spiciness each time. So we had to go to three stores to find poblanos  and I finally made it and it's...fine. I am realizing that I don't think I really like pureed potato soups, and that I should have strained this because I really don't like little bits of pepper skin and cilantro in my soup. I am not sure where I found the recipe but it doesn't matter because I think I will just go back to the spaghetti verde drawing board.  On the brighter side, Jason made some nice crumpets to go along with it (weird but good accompaniment). 

Sunday, 11/9/25

 Finally got around to pizza night. A nice cozy pan pizza with pepperoni and provolone. I don't want to put it back into regular rotation but it's nice that we aren't sick of it anymore.

Saturday, 11/8/25

 Of course you don't need a recipe for baked potatoes with broccoli, so I was more inspired by the latest SK recipe, and happy to have someone else tell me the ideal time and temperature. We also had some rotisserie chicken, gravy, sour cream and cheddar, so it was a hefty meal. Damned if those potatoes weren't cooked perfectly, though.

Friday, 11/7/25

 Dinner with Jodi and Zack; sesame-wheat from Jason, SK pumpkin bread from me. Very oddly, Jodi made macaroni and cheese (which she ate not a bite of); I think she was attempting to use up a lot of Velveeta that someone left at their place. Poor Lace; Jodi is the picky one but she found the one cheese I really do not like. Everyone else enjoyed it, though,and it's a wonder what a lot of hot sauce (Plus a heaping side of broccoli) will do.  Ironically Jodi loved the pumpkin bread and had several slices.

Thursday, 11/6/25

 Roasted sweet potatoes with kale and buttery peanuts, from "I Dream of Dinner". Jason made a loaf of cranberry-walnut bread that added to the overall autumnal feel. I believe we also had a some cheddar for a little protein. I don't remember if this was the night that we made these Avalanche cookies ? Anyhow, rice krispies, peanut butter, mini marshmallows and white chocolate makes for a very quick if very very very sweet dessert.

Wednesday, 11/5/25

 A coworker kindly gave me a jar of homemade salsa, so I decided to make nachos to highlight the spicy goodness. Usual suspects: beans, cheese, jalapenos, tomatoes, plus a little cotija (which adds a surprising amount of flavor)grated on top. Always a pleasure.

Tuesday, 11/4/25

 OK, this butternut squash pasta with bacon, parm and onions  (NYT) was totally delicious, but takes too damn long for a weeknight. I even chopped the squash the day before. I think the recommended 375 was too low; I would try 425 when I make it again (and I will!). I think some peas or kale would be good in there, too.

Monday, 11/3/25

 Leftover chili, plus chili cheese toast (NYT).  Did I need a recipe for cheese toast? Not really, but it provided the inspiration to add green chilis and garlic, to very good effect.

Sunday, 11/2/25

 Finally got around to home pizza night; a fairly simple spinach-feta. I asked Jason to put sesame seeds on the crust, which was a nice addition. He had wanted to make it a double crust pie, but I cruelly shut that down. Too heavy! Particularly good pizza this time around, though.

Saturday, 11/1/25

 Had a fun afternoon with Jen hitting up some of the venues of Cider Days, plus eating an entirely unnecessary baked potato at Potato Fest (also popcorn, an apple, and of course cider). Dinner was a Blue Apron with cauliflower, red peppers and paneer; I made molasses cookies from my aunt Maggie's recipe, but made two significant errors: I forgot that my cayenne is actually the much milder gochugaru, so they lacked the spiciness that I like, and I somehow grabbed dark Karo instead of molasses, oops. The good news is that they are perfectly nice spice cookies, just not what I was wanting. 

Friday, 10/31/25

 Dinner with Jodi. Jason of course made a loaf of bread; I made kettle corn from a recipe in the NYT. I burnt it a little bit, but the recipe was good and I will probably try again since it's easy and Jodi liked popcorn. We had no real dinner plan, so we made pasta with cabbage and onions (pretty good!) plus some roasted broccoli. Another wild Halloween.

Thursday, 10/30/25

 Quinoa bowls, with pan-fried tofu, broccoli, a scallion sauce, a gochujang sauce, pickled onions and pickled Korean turnips. My favorite kind of dinner is one everyone can personalize. However, it is always more prep than you would think.

Wednesday, 10/29/25

 Pupusas, with pickled onions and salsa verde, plus some roasted cabbage. A bit of a project for a weeknight, but Jason helped to fill them. The skillet fit them all (barely) and does a good job, although it is getting a bit cold and dark for this outside cooking nonsense.

Tuesday, 10/28/25

 One of my weekend cooking chores was an inexplicably large batch of chili on the pressure cooker (I mostly followed a recipe from the NYT to get the timing right, but it's chili....do what you like). I added a lot of carrots and zucchini to make it more vegetable-y, and Jason made a Jiffy cornbread to go along with it. I would have used a smaller pan, and added some cheese and green chiles, but I was trying not to micromanage such a simple task. That Jiffy mix is pretty reliably good no matter what.

Monday, 10/27/25

 I finally got around to grilling up all the eggplant that Jason brought home, and used it to make a salad with cherry tomatoes, feta, and red peppers. We had that with pita and more cookies.

Sunday, 10/26/25

 Dinner with Jason's parents; we brought bread and (yet another)  carrot cake, to use up the frosting. Beverly made pumpkin soup and Jodi brought salad, though it was obvious that Zack made the salad (that is to say, it was delicious). I am going to miss that kid when he goes off to Nepal. Carter was also there, but he didn't bring diddly.

Saturday, 10/25/25

We had a little adventure in the early afternoon, driving up to Mt. Pisgah in NH for a hike. It was a lovely fall day and a nice drive. We only got a tiny bit lost.

Dinner was onion-goat cheese pizza and a giant chopped salad with provolone, artichoke hearts, cherry tomatoes, pepperoni, peppers ad cucumbers. More cookies for desert.

 

Friday, 10/24/25

 I spent the morning cooking for the week, and making another batch of pecan-brown butter cookies ( I made them a little smaller this time and don't regret it).We had Ramona for the evening; she and Jason had hotdogs, and Jason and I also had broccoli soup (no real recipe anymore, just onions, broccoli, carrots, and little half and half and cheddar at the end), leftover bread and some brie. Ramona also enjoyed cherry tomatoes (I like the red ones, grandma! No yellow!) and grapes. Lots of stories and puzzles.

Thursday, 10/23/25

 Homefries with kale and cheddar (scrambling to use up green peppers from the farm) and scrambled eggs. I would have been happy with just cheesy potatoes but I suppose a little extra protein couldn't hurt. I was too impatient for the potatoes to get at all crispy, but they were still great.

Wednesday, 10/22/25

 I made some hoisin chicken in the slow cooker (NYT) which honestly could not have been easier: boneless chicken thighs, hoisin sauce, a little soy sauce, garlic, vinegar and tomato paste. It just did its thing for a few hours and voila. We had the chicken shredded, with cabbage and corn tortillas. I would add more seasonings next time, but this was a very low effort/high reward dish.

Tuesday, 10/21/25

 Dinner with Jodi and Zack. Zack has invested in some nice teas, so Jodi wanted to plan a dinner around that. We ended up eating a lot of crumpets with  fruit, jam, cheese, and butter. I think Jason really has the hang of it now, as I didn't hear any swearing. The teas were very nice (for tea, that is): chai, green tea gen-matcha, and oolong). Zack was very exacting in his preparation, which was adorable. I won't be giving up coffee anytime soon, but I especially enjoyed the chai.

Monday, 10/20/25

 I spent the evening with my dad, as Liz was out of town; brought myself some African beef and peanut stew (from Food and Wine) and rice. It was good but I think I should have cooked the beef longer as it was just a little bit tough. I appreciate how full of vegetables (carrots, celery, sweet potatoes, eggplant) it is. My only regret is that it called for habanero pepper; I didn't have any and used jalapenos, only to have Jason bring home habaneros from the farm a day later. 

Sunday, 10/19/25

 Tofu, broccoli, noodles....it may seem lame to follow a recipe for this, but the version from the NYT turns out so well. Lots of broccoli, and I like the fact that you pretty much pan fry it, so it's a bit more flavorful. 

Saturday, 10/18/25

 Dinner with Jen and John after a busy day of a 5K with Corrina in the morning and then part of a UMass football game with Jen (we skipped a lot of the game as we were just there to see the marching band). Dinner was open-faced grilled cheese (so much easier and less messy) and tomato soup (a recipe from Martha Stewart that I can't find on her website anymore, but I get the gist of it, anyway). John said the carrot cake was too rich but Jen liked it. Home by 10, yay!

Friday, 10/17/25

 Jason has been obsessed with making focaccia, so we had sandwiches again. Used up the last of various deli meats and the roasted tomatoes. It was Game Night, and it was our turn to bring dessert; I made two carrots cakes (from Allison Robicelli via Taste) knowing that we had dinner plans for Saturday. The cake was good and easy (no add-ins!) and the cooked flour/cream cheese frosting turned out well but I will never truly love cream cheese frosting.

Thursday, 10/16/25

 Jason inexplicably made a loaf of cranberry walnut bread. So we had that with sharp cheddar and yet more eggplant. I am 78% eggplant at this point. The fridge is sad and bare.

Wednesday, 10/15/25

 Repeat of pita, hummus, eggplant salad and feta cheese. The good news: finally finished that giant batch of roasted eggplant salad! The bad news? Jason brought home 5 more *&#$@ eggplants.

Tuesday, 10/14/25

 Commence the week of leftovers. Pasta with the sausage/onion/peppers sauce, plus I threw some plain roasted eggplant into mine. More cookies.

Monday, 10/13/25

Since we had to curtail our vacation, we at least had a fun dinner. I made another batch of brown butter pecan cookies (added more pecans this time, and shaped them more carefully), and we got the ingredients for kimbap. There was one more Aldi steak in the freezer, so I marinated that (directions from Maangchi); we also had Korean pickled radish, egg, and carrots. These were our best effort yet! The steak was very flavorful and the radish provides the necessary bit of acid and sweetness. Plus I think we are getting better at rolling them.  Back to work tomorrow.

Sunnier times

Sunday, 10 /12/25

 Since a coastal storm was headed to the Cape, we decided to leave a day early...took a circuitous way home so we could stop at a Patel Brothers in Shrewsbury, only to find that this one didn't feature any prepared foods! So that was a big letdown. But Google took us home on pretty back roads the rest of the way, and it only drizzled a bit, so that was nice.

Dinner was pita bread, hummus, feta, eggplant salad, and some slow roasted tomatoes that we had made while on vacation (the house has a super well stocked kitchen). We had tried these tomatoes at a farm potluck a week or so ago, and I cornered the woman who brought them for her technique. So 8 hours in a 200 degree oven with a little olive oil and some salt turned our batch of so-so plum tomatoes into delicious little flavor bombs. I will do a bigger batch next year!

Saturday, 10/11//25

 Long walk through town after lunch. Chatham isn't really my scene, but it's cute. I had made pasta sauce with Italian sausage, peppers, tomatoes and  mushrooms back at home; we had that with some more salad for dinner. A lot of food prep went into this little vacation!

Friday, 10/10/25

 I demanded better waves, so we drove north to Nauset Beach, which was absolutely beautiful.  I imagine that it's super crowded in summer, but after walking a bit, we had the place to ourselves. Even saw a seal (but no sharks). Sandwiches for lunch, burgers, salad and chips for dinner. 

yes, I jumped into the ocean

Thursday, 10/9/25

 So pleased that we left early and had this whole beautiful day! Lunch at Pizza Shark, walk on the beach, focaccia sandwiches (salami, provolone, roasted red peppers, ham for Jason). I had made cookie dough at home, so we had fresh baked brown butter pecan cookies for dessert (from the NYT; Jason was a big fan).

Hardings Beach: lots of seaweed and discarded horseshoe crab shells

Wednesday, 10/8/25

 We unexpectedly left for the Cape early (woohoo!) so dinner was a couple of cheeseburgers on the road for Jason and some leftover pasta for me once we arrived. Still loving that green chutney pasta, though.

Tuesday, 10/7/25

 Another pasta from the  NYT; this one (in my opinion) more successful. Homemade cilantro chutney, butter, pasta and a little Parm. That's it. I loved it, but I am beginning to think Jason just doesn't love pasta as much as I do? Anyway, since I had made the chutney over the weekend, this came together quickly. Served with some grilled halloumi style cheese and  roasted broccoli. I had been looking forward to this dinner and was glad it didn't disappoint.

Monday, 10/6/25

 Sushi bowl (tuna, surimi, cucumbers, avocado, mango). I debuted a gochujang sauce for a little variety.

Sunday, 10/5/25

 Dinner with Jen and John: two Blue Aprons, one with sausage and broccoli, one with chicken, couscous and poblano peppers, Jason made bread and I made the Lazy Daisy cake from the NYT (note: don't line the pan with parchment as it makes it difficult to neatly cut).

Saturday, 10/4/25

 "Buttery Lemon Pasta with Almonds and Arugula"....it sounds almost magical. We even got fresh arugula from the farm! The results were fine.  Not worth all the butter, in my opinion. It wasn't bad, but I probably won't bother making it again (also did not reheat well).

Friday, 10/3/25

 Does a taco pizza really need Fritos on top? Strictly speaking, no, but it was a good addition nonetheless. I also added salsa verde to mine, which did a good job of brightening up an otherwise pretty rich pizza.

Thursday, 10/2/25

 Still working our way through a giant box of various meats from Aldi; tonight was these little bacon-wrapped top sirloin steaks (they tried to make them look like filet mignon but I wasn't fooled). I grilled those up, roasted potatoes with garlic and fresh rosemary, and cooked some enormous farm carrots.  I made the habanero-honey glaze from a few weeks ago for the carrots...it was a nice all-American meal.

Wednesday, 10/1/25

 Too tired to really cook, so we just had eggplant Parm from the freezer. We will be eating this batch until the end of time.

Tuesday, 9/30/25

 Tofu, broccoli and rice is a pretty typical dinner for us; tonight I actually followed a recipe from NYT and honestly, it was a little better that when I wing it (even though it was basically the same ingredients I use: soy sauce, garlic, ginger, sesame oil). Maybe it was the touch of brown sugar? Anyhow, I didn't mess with the recipe too much, although I added mushrooms, and substituted jalapeno pepper for ginger (which I was somehow out of). Really good.

Monday, 9/29/25

 We accidentally had an extra loaf of bread, so grilled cheese for dinner. Provolone, mozzarella, Calabrian hot chilis and tomato (for me). Potato chips on the side and didn't even pretend to have a vegetable.

Sunday, 9/28/25

 Dinner with Papa and Liz. Jason's cranberry-walnut bread was a big hit, again. I think it one of his most popular breads. Liz made a truly delicious African beef stew with lots of vegetables and peanut butter. It was so good I got the recipe. The woman has a way with beef.

Saturday, 9/27/25

 Jason's parents took us to Priya for lunch, so as usual we were too full for dinner. Earlier in the day I had made some very intriguing sounding cookies from the NYT: gochujang-caramel sugar cookies. Over 900 glowing reviews! How could I resist? The good news is that these tasted great. They aren't super spicy, but certainly have a kick. BUT mine turned out so so flat and chewy. Mistakes were made: I was out of parchment and did them on a greased cookie sheet, so that may have contributed. I also didn't preheat the oven long enough. I will definitely try again, maybe chilling the dough longer or trying a slice and bake method that some commenters recommended. Unfortunately, I can't think of too many of our friends who would be excited by a gochujang cookie. Maybe Zack and Sam.

Friday, 9/26/25

 Today was pizza for lunch day (Brattleboro House of Pizza. Really good Greek style, and cut in triangles!). So we had a somewhat light dinner of ravioli with some sauce I made out of our giant batch of roasted tomatoes.

Thursday, 9/25/25

 Dinner with Jodi and Zack. Jason made bread (good) and chocolate cookies (flat). Zack had put together all the ingredients for soft tacos, so that was fun.

Wednesday, 9/24/25

 I brought home a book called "Soju Party", and while we did not in fact have any soju, I did make a giant tray of nachos with beef, kimchi and (the tastiest part) a scallion gremolata. Very salty, very filling and I thought delicious. Jason liked it, but not as much as I did. Go figure.

Tuesday, 9/23/25

 A tofu dish from the NYT billed as "I Can't Believe it's Not Chicken". unusually, you grate the tofu and sauté with scallions, garlic and a pretty standard sauce (soy sauce, black vinegar, sesame oil). I added some Japanese eggplant to round it out and it did not positively impact what was already a deeply unattractive dish. I was very skeptical, but it was remarkably good! I had to add a little dark soy because I only had half the black vinegar called for, and I also added a splash of ponzu sauce for the acid, but didn't really change anything else. We had it over rice and would for sure make it again, looks be damned. For dessert we had s'mores, because Jason wanted to burn some brush ahead of the rain.

Monday, 9/22/25

 We decided just to have leftover pizza for dinner, since I never have time to come home for lunch lately (the leftover pizza used to be our Sunday lunch tradition). Could have used a few more minutes in the oven but good nonetheless.

Sunday, 9/21/25

 Jason made a focaccia, and we had feta-roasted tomato sandwiches for dinner. The farm has so many tomatoes that we slow roasted a bunch of them over the weekend.. Not very attractive, but flavorful. For dessert I had made a rice pudding in the Instant Pot (a recipe from the NYT that I don't precisely follow, but the timing and proportions are useful).

Saturday, 9/20/25

 Dinner with Jen, John and Laurie. Jen did the shopping (except for a few things from our fridge that I was secretly delighted to use up) and I made a chicken and artichoke dish from the NYT. I wish I had time to let it cook longer, but I didn't want to keep everyone waiting. Laurie made some kind of apple-bourbon cocktail (not really my thing but it's what she likes, I guess). For dessert I had made a large apple crisp (recipe from Sally's Baking Addiction, apples from the Chasan-Taber's trees) and it turned out beautifully, nice and crunchy. It was almost to cool to sit on the porch, but we bundled up and persisted.

Friday, 9/19/25

 Pizza night. Jason had a vision of pizza with potatoes, caramelized onions, sour cream and chives, and it actually turned out very well. I talked him out of putting the sour cream on the dough before cooking, guessing that is would just melt (and that seems gross to me). We just added it to our individual slices instead. Much better than last week's lackluster margherita. It was game night, as well, and I am sad to report that Lisa's apple pie is much better than mine.

Thursday, 9/18/25

 Dinner with Jennie and David; bread, cheeses, tomatoes, nuts. Had a nice time visiting with them and came home and polished off the apple fritters.

Wednesday, 9/17/25

 Over the weekend I chopped up an eggplant and threw it in the Dutch oven along with a lot of garlic and the rest of the cherry tomatoes that were in the fridge, looking a little sad. Cooked it down to a tasty but unattractive sludge; we tossed this with pasta shells and cubes of feta for a quick and tasty dinner. Good warm or cold.

Tuesday, 9/16/25

 Since we bought the giant crazy box of meat from Aldi, I needed a recipe to use up pork chops. Enter Pork Chops with Carrot and Habanero-Honey Glaze. Well, jalapeno honey, anyway. This was pretty good, but I wish I had made more carrots and more glaze, and brined the pork chops (they were a little too tough for me). Good flavors and I would make this again, possibly with chicken.

Monday, 9/15/25

 Leftover pizza, as the fridge is too full to add anything else. I put some pickled peppers on mine to good effect.

Sunday, 9/14/25

 Another farm dinner; smaller group but good food. Ate some potato salad, more eggplant, basbousa and a really good tomato-mozzarella salad. The tomatoes were slow roasted in some way, and I wish I had cornered whoever brought them and demanded the recipe. Jason made pita to go with some kofta that his farm pal Iman made.

Saturday, 9/13/25

 In a moment of weakness, I agreed to bread and fry all the eggplants Jason brought home. Panko and flour were everywhere, he was out on the porch frying for seemingly hours...I think in total I breaded 75 slices of eggplant? Ridiculous. And we ate maybe 7? I guess it will be worth it to have them in the freezer in the coming months. I also made apple fritters (a Serious Eats recipe that was probably needlessly complex) with a little maple glaze. Delicious but lacking in crunch. I would try another recipe but we still have a bunch of those leftover, too. And who knows when we will be able to even look at the deep fryer again.

Friday, 9/12/25

 Pizza night, but our Margherita pizza with grilled eggplant was only...fine. Not sure why. Maybe it is because Jason only reluctantly uses fresh mozzarella on a pizza and his resentment seeps into the dough? Personally, I thought it needed more tomatoes. He is afraid of a soggy pizza; he's not wrong but that is kind of how a Neapolitan pie turns out.

Thursday, 9/11/25

 Dinner with Jodi and the boys.  Jason made a couple of quick loaves of bread and we employed one panini press and two waffle irons to make many, many grilled cheeses. Had various condiments: pesto, tomatoes, pickled peppers. Messy but good.

Wednesday, 9/10/25

 Since the farm tomatoes are so plentiful, we did a reprise of the NYT tomato-dumpling salad. Nice ripe tomatoes bring it to another level, and Jason always appreciated a meal with no leftovers.

Tuesday, 9/9/25

 Beef fried rice, from the NYT. One doesn't actually need a recipe, but I was interested in their technique of velveting the beef. Worked really well, as the meat was tender and pretty flavorful. Pretty standard, otherwise (peas, onions, peppers, egg). Finished the apple cake.

Monday, 9/8/25

 Dinner with Jay and the boys (minus Carter); Jason made cranberry-walnut bread, and I made an apple cake (apple bundt with brown sugar glaze) from Sally's Baking Addiction that I may have made before. People really liked it. Dinner was a tofu and vegetable stir-fry, plus a surprise entree: smoked duck! Jay must have picked it up at Pekarski's and Zack warmed it up in the oven with lots of fresh herbs. I have never been served duck at someone's house before! I don't love it, honestly, but in smoked form it was quite delicious.

Sunday, 9/7/25

 A pasta from the NYT, featuring cherry tomatoes (super plentiful at the farm right now), turmeric, garlic and feta cheese. Oh, and quite a bit of butter. Pretty quick and very good. Jason was feeling experimental and made an olive focaccia that I was dubious about, but it was great, actually.

Saturday, 9/6/25

 Dinner with Jen and john 9plus Carter as a bonus). One deep dish pizza, and one of their big sheet pans with half goat cheese/onion and half margarita. Their oven gave Jason trouble as usual, so he was disappointed with the margarita (it was a bit soggy, but tasted so good). I made an apple pie using a pie dough recipe from Dory Greenspan (nothing innovative but it did turn out really well) and a filling from Sally's Baking Addiction. I always forget what a pain it is to make apple pie; especially since we used apples from a friend's trees that were a bit misshapen, sometimes small, and slow going to peel and slice. It is a damn good pie, though.

Friday, 9/5/25

 Farm Dinner in South Amherst. Jason made bread yet again, but there were only a couple of scraps left so it went over well, at least. Potluck meant lots of fun things, using a lot of the farm produce (a couple of great eggplant dishes, some pico de gallo, egg tarts, pulled chicken sliders and who knows what else). 

Thursday, 9/4/25

 A recipe from the NYT that could not be easier: chick peas, coconut milk and cauliflower  get unceremoniously dumped into the slow cooker with some lemon peel and turmeric and left alone for hours. And yet. I asked Jason to check on it for me, and he assured me that the chick peas were done. They were, but also all the liquid had evaporated, laving an unpleasant looking sort of sludge. I guess I thought it was obvious that it was supposed to be a stew, but maybe not? After stomping around in a snit for a little while, I just served it forth anyway over basmati rice. It actually tasted great, and I just added some water to the leftovers and voila. Would absolutely make again, with more water (and supervision). The lemon peel added a lot of flavor.

Wednesday, 9/3/25

 Corn chowder and some leftover cranberry-walnut bread, plus tomatoes and watermelon. The chowder is good, even though the corn is somehow almost too sweet? No real complaints, though.

Tuesday, 9/2/25

 Angel hair pasta with pesto and tomatoes, a Jason request. Ugh, even though I tried to follow a recipe, I was not happy with my pesto. I blame the late season, straggly basil. I also had trouble getting said pesto to cozy up to the noodles. It wasn't terrible, but I am always left feeling that store bought pesto is actually better. Finished up an SK strawberry cake that I had made earlier in the week (with truly subpar strawberries but it doesn't seem to matter much).

Monday, 9/1/25

 I had to work in the morning, than we decided to go for a hike to try out Jason's new trekking poles (mostly successful, although he is still pretty shaky on rocky terrain). Then we decided to go to Chicopee to get gas and olive oil, then we realized we had forgotten to get a watermelon from the farm....we didn't get home til after 6 and dinner still had to be made. I tried another eggplant dish from the NYT  (gochujang glazed with fried scallions and scallion oil). I overcooked the eggplant to it just sort of fell apart, and I thought it was a bit too oily, but those things were my own fault. The flavors were good, though, and Jason liked it. I would just be more careful next time. Also had rice and tomatoes on the side.

Sunday, 8/31/25

 Dinner with Jason's parents, plus Jodi, Sam, Zack and Carter. Jason made many many pizzas (the margarita seemed to be the favorite) and Beverly made chocolate crinkle cookies. It wasn't as fun as being at Jay and Jodi's but it was OK.

Saturday, 8/30/25

 Jason experimented with a new bread (walnut and cranberry; not really very different from walnut raisin but still good); we had that with cheese and tomatoes. Gotta eat those farm tomatoes during this brief golden time. Then we met up with Jeff and Sue for ice cream since they were in town helping Asa move. My blueberry soft serve was so big it made me a little grumpy but Jason lied hi  graham cracker flavor. It was a beautiful night, though, and it was nice hanging out with  J & S.

Friday, 8/29/25

 Took the day off for my birthday; we picked up Ramona from daycare and dragged her all around (and got her chocolate ice cream with sprinkles because: grandma). Dinner was North Village Smokehouse with the children. Sitting outside was nice and it was basically good, but all the fried components were a little underdone (the leftovers were great in the air fryer, though). Fried cheese, a through line of Lace birthdays.

Thursday, 8/28/25

 Leftover macaroni and cheese, and the last of a corn and black bean salad I had been eating for lunch (from the NYT; definitely worth repeating).

Wednesday, 8/27/25

 Green chili macaroni and cheese (from Serious Eats; 12 ounces of pasta instead of 8 but could use even more; skipped the chicken) with homemade salsa verde and tomatoes from the farm. I followed a salsa recipe from Rick Bayless and honestly it is much better than my usual efforts. Nice that there is such a good tomatillos harvest this year.

Tuesday, 8/26/25

Birthday dinner at Pap and Liz's for all the birthday girls. Pizza, salad, mozzarella sticks, and, best of all, a confetti cake from Atkins! Very delicious and Ramona was certainly delighted by her present from Bubbe:

Monday, 8/25/25

 We had Jodi over for tofu, coconut rice with peas, a meager little kale salad (to use up the last of the kale), and animal crackers (Jason's odd request). Jason was very anxiety ridden at having company, but it's just his own sister!

Sunday, 8/24/25

 Nice hike (and my favorite soft serve!) with Jason and Carter in the afternoon, then dinner with Jen and John.  I made a half-assed pesto (they have no blender or food processor; the immersion blender was basically useless), plus the flatbread Jason forgot to bring Saturday, and some nice tomatoes and so-so corn. It was a lovely night to sit on their porch and catch up.

Saturday, 8/23/24

 We celebrated Ramona's birthday at the lake, with pizza, corn, salads and cake. Jason made his little flatbread (which I thought was superfluous anyway; I should have made a cake) but realized upon approaching Kevin's that he had forgotten it. Oh well, there was plenty to eat but I felt bad arriving empty handed. It was a nice day and Ramona really enjoyed it, I think.

Friday, 8/22/25

 I had intended to make a sort of spring rolls inspired salad with steak, but since we needed to go to the Asian grocery store anyway, I decided to pick up wrappers and have actual spring rolls, Rice noodles, grilled steak, cabbage, nuoc chom, and a peanut sauce. Good but very messy (at least mine were). 

Thursday, 8/21/25

 Pizza night, with a not super exciting combo of mushrooms, onions and banana peppers. It reheated well.

Wednesday, 8/20/25

 Happy Birthday Corrina! Jason, she and I had lunch at Bombay Royale and then did a little walking around Historic Deerfield. Dinner was tomato/dumpling chili crisp salad from the NYT. Not too heavy, a little odd, and surprisingly good. The electric skillet is perfect for cooking the potstickers.

Tuesday, 8/19/25

 I wasn't in the mood to produce dinner, so Jason made burgers and french fries. My contribution was slicing up some cherry tomatoes to go with it. These burgers we got from Aldi aren't the best but the wedge cut fries are good.

Monday, 8/18/25

 Finally got around to making a version of tteokkbokki (it kept getting bumped), with a side of eggplant sauteed with garlic. It wasn't authentic, but it was tasty. Served with some Korean melon that one of Jason's farm pals grew.

Sunday, 8/17/25

It was Jason's turn to pick a pizza place to try, but through a series of blunders (not our fault! Restaurants should update their websites when they are going to be closed!) we ended up at his third choice and not until at least 1pm. Luckily, Bella Roma was quite good, but by then we were so hungry that we ate an entire large cheese pizza and quite a few french fries. So no dinner, except some popcorn and a no-churn ice cream I made from the NYT. It was just really just whipped cream with dulce de  leche folded in, so it is very, very rich. I of course loved it, but it was too much for Jason.

Saturday, 8/16/25

 Farm dinner; Jason made bread but it was a potluck with tons of sandwiches so it was a bit redundant. Highlights were salsa verde from farm ingredients, an olive focaccia and Atkins sheet cake. It was outdoors and we all had to huddle in the shed during an unexpected rain, but that was nice, too.

A rainbow so faint that you can't really see it

Friday, 8/15/25

 Dinner with Jay and Jodi...stir fry with eggplant and Napa cabbage, pita and hummus from Jason, and grilled chicken. Actually nice enough to sit out on the deck.

Thursday, 8/14/25

 Will we ever run out of crab rangoons and little calzones? Not yet! Well, actually, we finally finished the rangoon, but there is still another serving of the mini calzones. My biggest takeaway from that project is it is worth the tedium of making so many at once, since they heat up well in the air fryer, and that I hope I can remember how I made that dipping sauce (apricot jam, ginger, garlic, pepper flakes and ?). If we had anything else, I don't remember what it was.

Wednesday, 8/13/25

 Leftover pasta with sausage, and a pared down kale Caesar with the leftover dressing. 

Tuesday, 8/12/25

 Another salad, this one from the NYT. I don't know why I wanted to make a kale Caesar pasta salad, hen I could plainly see that the dressing contained a full cup of mayo (yuck). But nevertheless...

Anyway, I cut the mayo down to maybe a quarter cup? and added olive oil. This was actually really good, what with all the parm and garlicky, lemony breadcrumbs. As a dinner, it was a little light; some grilled chicken or fish or something would be a good add on. But eating a half a bag of kale has to count for something.

Monday, 8/11/25

 I made the latest recipe from SK, a salad with grilled chicken, avocado, charred corn and a cilantro-lime dressing. This was SO good. I wish I knew of a way to remind myself to make it again! The only changes I made were: I used chicken breasts instead of thighs (because that's what I had), and I marinated them in the dressing. I also cut the corn off the cob first and just threw it in a hot pan. Don't skip the Fritos.

https://smittenkitchen.com/2025/08/grilled-chicken-salad-with-cilantro-lime-dressing/

Sunday, 8/10/25

 Priya for lunch=not hungry for dinner. We just sat around, ate Pringles and watched TV. So wholesome.

Saturday, 8/9/25

 Jason was inspired by a sale on Italian sausages at Big Y; so I threw those into the slow cooker with an onion, two cans of tomatoes and some butter (a la Marcella Hazan's famous tomato sauce recipe) and just let it cook all afternoon. Served with pasta, some leftover salad and bread sticks from the freezer. The only thing that wasn't great were the bread sticks, but what can you expect from packages of breadsticks that they throw to you at a parade? Nice easy dinner.

Friday, 8/8/25

 Pizza with ground beef that I cooked with a sort of Korean sauce with gochujang, soy sauce, garlic, ginger and  a little brown sugar. Topped that off with mozzarella, scallions and sesame seeds. A little heavy but good! The only change I would make is to add the scallions and sesame after cooking next time.

Thursday, 8/7/25

 Snacks at Jennie and David's; Jason made bread and between one thing and another it was enough to constitute dinner. 

Wednesday, 8/6/25

 More salad, bread and cheese. This time it was a spinach salad with a curry-yogurt dressing, loosely adapted from the NYT. I was only meh on the dressing, but it was fine. Really just here for the triple-creme cheese.

Tuesday, 8/5/25

 Big salad, raisin-walnut bread and delice de bourgogne cheese from Trader Joe's. The extra creamy cheese was perfect with the bread.

Monday, 8/4/25

 We went back to Jay and Jodi's to help them finish all the pasta salad (spoiler: we succeeded!). Jason made pizza and Jay grilled up some sausage to round things out. Then for dessert we made tiny tiny s'mores with mini marshmallows, chocolate chips and Teddy Bear Grahams using candles. Silly and cute.

Sunday, 8/3/25

 Dinner with Jen and John....Blue Apron with steak, broccoli and mashed potatoes; we augmented with some cauliflower from the farm. Jason made a rye bread and I made another Instant Pot cheesecake. The only thing I don't like about it is the soggy crust. Seems like you could just skip it altogether (we used Nilla wafers instead of graham rackers this time because we are wild).

Saturday, 8/2/25

 Made the sweet and sour eggplant from the NYT again while it was fresh in our mind and farm eggplants were in good supply. Jason thinks we could skip the fried garlic chips and I tend to agree. It would certainly streamline things.

Friday, 8/1/25

 Dinner with Jay and Jodi-----bread from Jason and no bake chocolate oat cookies (NYT) from me. The cookies couldn't be easier: just melt together butter, peanut butter, oats and cocoa. A bit sweet but certainly tasty. And did I mention no bake? For dinner we all collaborated on a giant pasta salad with sun-dried tomatoes, artichoke hearts, roasted chickpeas, bell peppers, feta and a bunch of herbs from the garden.

Thursday, 7/31/25

 Used the rest of the chicken to make the standard BBQ chicken pizza with red onions and smoked cheddar. Always a good one.

Wednesday, 7/30/25

 We had Carter over for burritos. I used some of the rotisserie chicken I bought over the weekend and added tinga sauce from the freezer. Then it was just the usual accouterments and some guacamole.

Tuesday, 7/29/25

 Pepperoni potato salad, from the NYT. I skipped sage and thyme (didn't miss them) and used scallions instead of shallots. Let's face it, this was all about potatoes and pepperoni and I thought it was delicious. I feel like we had something else with this, but I can't remember what. I guess it didn't make an impression. Maybe some rotisserie chicken?

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!