Thursday, 8/4/16

Another iteration of pasta with corn and bacon (NYT). This version had you puree most of the corn kernels, making a nice creamy sauce. The bacon was my own addition, but why not? It was like a pasta version of corn chowder. The only thing I would change is more scallions, maybe.

Wednesday, 8/3/16

Dinner in Whately (an enormous stir-fry, plus sesame noodles! And my mom bravely ate some tofu). As always, a treat for all of the Stevens/Stokes'.  I tried to make some chinese style almond cookies, and only partially succeeded. They tasted basically fine, but I was hoping for crunchier and almond-ier. I would try another recipe that didn't use almond flour (and up the almond extract).

Tuesday, 8/2/16

Last night of SULA! I got up this morning and made pan bagnat sandwiches, with tuna, olive vinaigrette, tomatoes and hard boiled eggs. They were then ready to go before Ultimate, so no coming home and cooking at 8pm. The sandwiches were fine, although I thought they needed more flavor. Maybe more dressing, and something spicy, too. Still, nice to have dinner made already.

Post-season ice cream

Monday, 8/1/16

We left Jennie and David's with some marinated steak tips that no one felt comfortable cooking, so I sliced them up and stir-fried them with green peppers, bamboo shoots, water chestnuts and ginger, then made a quick sauce (soy, sesame oil, srirachi, lemon). Served over rice (I love our new rice cooker) and also with a salad made from grilled zucchini, cherry tomatoes and a roasted red pepper dressing. The salad looked absolutely lovely but it was half-eaten and less appetizing by the time I thought to take a picture. Also, it would be MUCH better with good tomatoes. The stir-fry was inauthentic and enjoyable.

Sunday, 7/31/16

Spent the better part of the afternoon cooking and prepping for the week. Grilled a bunch of vegetables and made a vinaigrette with some of them (from Food52)---saved the rest for lunches; roasted red peppers and made a dressing for Monday's vegetable, slow roasted a big old rack of pork ribs. Luckily, it was a cool day as this meant about 6 hours in a low oven.
Served the ribs with homemade BBQ sauce, cheddar-scallion mashed potatoes, and a salad with the grilled vegetable vinaigrette. I had some complaints: I didn't care for the spice rub on the ribs; the potatoes were TOO cheesy, and I just wasn't loving the salad. Maybe I just craved some complete other dinner?

Saturday, 7/30/16

So, the cake. It was a 9 layer butterscotch cake(from Leite's Culinaria). Yes, you actually bake 9 individual slender layers of cake, and pour a little, rum-tinged butterscotch sauce in between every layer. I think it goes without saying that mine did not really resemble the lovely discrete layers in the photo, but it was delicious nonetheless. Not sure it wouldn't be easier to just make three cakes and split them? Or wait until a cooler day to bake so much cake, at least,
Jason also made a lovely loaf of flax seed bread, and I made some spinach dip that seemed to go over well.

Friday, 7/29/16

Carter requested french toast for dinner, and since I had no other ideas, that is what we did. I spent most of the evening concocting a cake for Jennie and David's, so Jason helped out with the french toasting and sausage-ing. I also made an Indian style rice pudding out of some leftover rice. It turned out pretty well, although I wouldn't choose brown rice.