Saturday, 12/27/25

 Another very low-key day. Jason helped me make scallion dinner rolls (from the NYT, sort of scallion pancake inspired?). He was too cocky and I was too cautious, but they turned out well anyway, if a little less flavorful than I was picturing. The oven unexpectedly broke (after working all day!) so we had to cook them in the toaster oven which was less than ideal. Also had a spinach salad with lots of nice vegetables, including a couple of roasted sweet potatoes rescued from near death in the crisper. Added some deviled eggs to round things off...a slightly strange collection but very nice. Except for the darn oven.

Friday, 12/26/25

 After all the Christmas excitement, Jason and I had a pretty quiet day, eating up some leftover Chinese for dinner. We did head to Treehouse Brewery for lunch (squeaking in the last pizza of the year just in time). One of my favorite pizzas of the year, even if it was a little pricey and the brewery was packed with little children and hipsters.

Thursday, 12/25/25

 Merry Christmas! Fun snacks and games in Whately in the morning (although playing adult games is a bit harder now that Ramona is bigger); then we all had dinner with Jen and John and Eve. Jason and I got there early to help and schmooze. Macaroni and cheese, butternut squash soup, and hot cocoa cake with marshmallow frosting. J & J normally go to LI for Christmas, so this was a nice treat. And I got to spend almost the whole day with all the kids which is my idea of a good time. Note to me and Corrina: the Harry and David basket we bought ourselves was good, but the same amount spent at Trader Joe's is probably better. But the chips and dip is always spot-on.

 

Wednesday, 12/24/25

 Christmas Eve at my dad and Liz's with the kids. A bit chaotic, perhaps. I suggested Chinese and then had no idea how to successfully implement the idea. In a panic I ordered it at around 1 (I had heard horror stories about how crazy Ginger Garden gets, and they had turned off time-specific online ordering) only to find that it was ready by 1:30. Oh well, that's what the microwave is for. I think next year we should get a damn pizza.

Tuesday, 12/23/25

 A bastardized version of tteokbokki, sort of a hybrid with buldak? Anyway, rice cakes and zucchini in a spicy sauce, covered in superfluous cheese. My only regret is that it doesn't reheat well.

Monday, 12/22/25

 Broccoli and tofu, quinoa instead of rice for excitement. dependably good and honestly I feel very virtuous serving it.

Sunday, 12/21/25

 Quick dinner of pita and fried eggplant (both from the freezer) with feta, radishes, roasted tomatoes, tahini-yogurt sauce and pepperoncini, to make sort-of sandwiches. Unexpectedly delicious, the way that meals that are sort of thrown together from various things often are. Game night with cookies after, but we were so tired by 9 that is was a pretty early night.

Saturday, 12/20/25

 Crap Day in the morning (just cookies this year, no actual crafts). My batch of brown butter shortbread is great, although I really should have doubled it. I also made an adequate if enormous batch of Chex mix. We brought cookies to Jodi's for dinner. Tofu and vegetable stir-fry, which seemed decadently wholesome after an afternoon of snacking. Jason also made a loaf of sesame-wheat and this time he was happy with the results.

Friday, 12/19/24

 A night at home dropped into this very busy weekend. We made potstickers (filling from "Asian Dumplings" and rice, using up a half head of cabbage and a some other little bits of vegetable. Very good and froze a pan for another night.

Thursday, 12/18/25

 Snacks with Jennie and David, whom we hadn't seen in a bit. So basically cheese, bread, and olives for dinner (note: this is not a complaint). Jason is still fretting over his bread; he is convinced that using Pillsbury flour is messing him up. Admittedly, it did turn out a little differently, but fine.

Wednesday, 12/17/25

 Finally a pizza night, after a fairly long hiatus. Jason experimented with making it on a shallow cast iron pan that we use for dosas; so the crust behaved a little differently but it wasn't a deep dish. Provolone, pepperoni and (not quite enough) pepperoncinis. The crust was crispier than normal, and overall I think we liked it.

Tuesday, 12/16/25

 Carter had a few swipes left on his meal plan, so treated us to dinner at the dining hall. I tried to not go crazy and limited myself to a sushi roll, some paneer with two little samosas, and a salad. Plus a quite good ginger cookie. They aren't the country's best college dining for nothing.

Monday, 12/15/25

 Pasta with broccoli, from two different recipes from the NYT. Took the basic premise from one I have made before, but since I didn't have the called-for anchovies, I added "pepperoni bread crumbs" from a different dish to add some flavor. Delicious if you aren't afraid of mushy broccoli.

Sunday, 12/14/25

 Dinner at Jason's parents (two kinds of soup, pumpkin and cauliflower...not bad). Jason experimented with adding more gluten to his usual bread recipe and was not happy with the results. I made another apple fritter cake from King Arthur (minding my own notes to cook it for less time); I skipped their glaze and made my own by adding cream, a little maple syrup and bourbon to the apple cooking liquid and cooking it down. I like but do not love this cake; I think it's the texture of the cake itself. The apples and the glaze are the best part.

Saturday, 12/13/25

 Gimbap with beef (the last steak from our crazy Aldi box of meat), spinach, cucumber, avocado, egg and pickled turnip. I can't say that I am getting much better at wrapping them...I would be an utter failure as a devoted Korean mama.

Friday, 12/12/25

 Potato pancakes, scrambled eggs, and roasted carrots. Notes:

-If you insist on frying on the porch in this weather, don't come crying to me when it takes forever and your potato mixture freezes

-We accidently let our potatoes get sort of sad and dessicated, but this worked to our advantage, as there was a lot less moisture to squeeze out

-I normally hand grate, but the shredding blade in the food processor actually worked better (and no bloody knuckles!)

-The eggs were totally superfluous but the carrots were welcome

They turned out nice and crunchy, although we learned the hard way that the last thing we had used our frying oil for was apple fritters, so everything was a little redolent of cinnamon. Could have been worse (and we let that oil go).

Thursday, 12/11/25

 Dinner with Jodi and the boys. "Not quite as hot" pot, with tofu, lotus root, taro (the sleeper favorite! It softens into a pleasant potato-like texture while soaking up a lot of flavor), Napa cabbage and baby bok choy. I made mine a little too spicy and salty, but it was still fun and tasty. Jason made chocolate chip cookies; he is working on making them less flat and had some success.

Wednesday, 12/10/25

 Sushi bowl with the usual stuff: tuna, surimi, avocado, mango, etc. No surprises but always good.

Tuesday, 12/9/25

 We are still working our way through a lot of various kinds of bread, so we just had leftover cranberry-walnut, toasted, with goat cheese and cheddar. I didn't provide much in the way of vegetables, but we did have oven-dried tomatoes and cherry tomatoes. The oven dried tomatoes are a time-consuming (up to 8 hours at 200 degrees) but miraculous way to make the most of pallid off-season romas.

Monday, 12/8/25

 I came home grouchy because I wasn't excited about dinner (leftover knish, kielbasa and cabbage) and moreover Jason hadn't even started it (to be fair, I had not asked him to)! So I grumpily threw everything on a sheetpan and was pleasantly surprised at how nicely the cabbage cooks up when interspersed with slices of kielbasa. Better than expected.

Sunday, 12/7/25

Lunch at the Brewery post-HCR meant that we weren't super hungry; plus I had a lot of leftover nachos and a couple of chicken tenders. So I re-assembled the nachos (and improved them, if I do say so myself)  and we had those for dinner. Nice day for a run and everyone had fun (and met their running goals!) 

Running siblings!

Saturday, 12/6/25

 For some reason I didn't have enough meals queued up for the week, so I made a big batch of chana dal (and used up an entire bag of less than perky spinach) with basmati rice. I am always pleased and surprised at how well this turns out; the flavors are just so satisfying. I cooked the dal in the Instant Pot for 12 minutes with a 15 minute release.

Friday, 12/5/25

 Dinner with Jen and John; John wanted to make the sliders from Thanksgiving (and I was not about to tell him we already had them this week). Jason adapted his dinner roll recipe for slider type buns (flavor and texture were perfect; the shape was a little awkward); we used bone-in chicken thighs this time which worked well but would have been even better if I had had more time to let them cook. Nobody was complaining, though. Another thing I changed was to sear the corn before mixing in the other ingredients and I think it was a good idea.

I made a batch of Key Lime Thumbprint cookies from Bon Appetit. Some of them flattened out a little too much (I think the dough was't mixed quite well enough), and the recipe called for flattening the cookies before baking, which I would not do again, but other than that they were really nice. I really like the texture and taste of the cookies themselves; a regular lime curd might have been a better filling choice (plus now we have an annoying amount of leftover sweetened condensed milk).

Thursday, 12/4/25

 Dinner with Jodi, Zack and Sam; the boys made soft tacos with black beans and sweet potatoes; I made a flan that was unfortunately a little overdone, but no one really noticed but me.

Wednesday,12/3/25

 A repeat of hari chutney pasta (from the NYT), with roasted broccoli on the side. I was worried that my chutney wasn't as good as the last batch I made, but the finished product was very good. I think the trick is two full bunches of cilantro.

Tuesday, 12/2/25

 We somehow had a little bit of leftover gravy lurking in the fridge, so we had Jason's favorite dinner, cheesy tots with gravy. I made some more nearly impenetrable kale salad to go with it. One of these two dishes was significantly tastier than the other.

Monday, 12/1/25

 Roasted cauliflower and tofu, served over basmati rice with nuac cham sauce. We garnished it with peanuts, cilantro, jalapenos, radish and fried onions. I think we are finally catching up on our vegetable deficit of last week!

Sunday, 11/30/25

 Tyler's chicken sliders were so tasty that I got the recipe: chicken thighs with chipotles in adobo, lime and honey, plus corn elote-style (lime, Tajin, sour cream, cilantro) on Hawaiian rolls. Tasted great, but my frozen corn was chewy and didn't add much, texture-wise. Roasted carrots to go alongside (also good with the Tajin seasoning).

Saturday, 11/29/25

 Bu today I honestly didn't want to talk to anyone and I am sure they didn't want to talk to me, either. So Jason and I had a quiet day at home with chores (trying in vain to fix the toaster oven for him, puttering around in the kitchen for me). We made potato knishes (SK) for dinner along with a kale salad (with a orange-sesame vinaigrette that I improvised). The kale salad had a nice flavor, but I don't think I lovingly massaged the leaves long enough because it was so damn chewy. It was exhausting to eat. Leftover pecan bars for dessert.

Me, trying to get some leverage on that damn kale

Friday, 11/28/25

 Another Thanksgiving dinner! Liz and Erika and Dumaine made a feast...another turkey, more mashed potatoes, bread from Jason. My favorite? A green salad from their friend Dorothy. Something about her dressing is so good. Many pies (my favorite being a pumpkin that was apparently made from a fresh pumpkin? It was so light and tasty). Another nice night and I was glad to get to see the other side of the family.

Thursday, 11/27/25

 Thanksgiving at Jodi's. Zack did an admirable job with the turkey; Jason made way too much pita, and I made maple-pecan bars (NYT; easier than pie) and gravy. Highlights were : macaroni and cheese from Kristen, mashed potatoes (at last!) from Big Sam's wife, Kelsey, and roasted delicata from Yoni. There was some scary looking broccoli and cauliflower that no one I know tried, and a kale salad that I ignored (but hold that thought). It was a nice day and I like the evening walk tradition.

Wednesday, 11/26/25

 Dinner with Jen and John and their family. A hodgepodge: Jen made butternut squash soup, Jason made bread, I whipped up some queso fundito when we got there, and then, at around 11pm (!!) Tyler made chicken sliders. Also, I made a brown-sugar cake. Needless to say, it was a late, late night. Lots of fun.