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.