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.