Monday, 7/29/19

Dinner in Whately: the Blue Apron was a pizza with tomato sauce, fresh mozz & fontina cheeses, and caramelized onions. Jason made some more pizza dough (and a loaf of bread) and we scrounged up some more toppings. Pretty good. The fresh mozzarella is so drippy, but I love the flavor and texture.

Sunday, 7/28/19

Dinner at Jen and John's: Jason made a couple of pizza (including an EXCELLENT goat cheese and onion that I don't know why we never have at home), Jen made a a salad, and I made cupcakes with chocolate frosting. I had a frosting recipe from Serious Eats that I wanted to try, so I focused on that, and just made the cupcakes from a mix (since blind testing has shown that Jen prefers the mix anyway). It was an American buttercream with cocoa powder mixed with a dark chocolate ganache. I was a little concerned since my ganache broke, but it whipped up beautifully. Very silky and smooth, not too sweet. Still don't love chocolate desserts....

This may have been the moment when I got 5 mosquito bites

Saturday, 7/27/19

Quintessential summer meal: tomato-mozzarella salad and corn, pus Jason made a couple of experimental fougasses. We took the extra time to go to Smiarowski's for corn, and it was worth it. The breads were nice, good flavor, but still a work in progress.

Friday, 7/26/19

Aldi had giant spare ribs on sale last week; I had never cooked them before but figured it coulnd't be much different from baby back ribs, right? So, we tried them in the Instant Pot (of course), with a recipe from Leite's Culinaria. Just stack them vertically in the pot with a little beef broth (I also added Liquid Smoke) and cook for 25 minutes, then finish in the broiler. No easier than the oven, but quicker (and cooler). They turned out really well, although poor Carter had a piece with a lot of cartilage. Served with Serious Eats roasted potatoes (that I once again tossed with olive oil, rosemary and garlic after roasting, rather than before. I also forgot to put baking soda in the cooking water and it didn't make a noticeable difference) and a quick salad with ersatz Caesar dressing.
And for dessert, I finally tried an Instant Pot cheesecake, using a recipe from a Melissa Clark cookbook. I did have to buy a new small springform pan, but luckily TJ Maxx came through for me. Just mix up the ingredients and 20 minutes in the pot! The hard part was waiting for it to cool. Carter was thrilled! Who knew he was such a cheesecake fan? So far I think the cheesecake and the fettucine have been the biggest Instant Pot winners.

Thursday, 7/25/19

Jason made our dinner tonight (although I did most of the prep in the morning) and it was an Instant Pot success! Fettucine alfedo with broccoli; all the ingredients are just dumped in, including uncooked pasta! I was dubious, but it was actually delicious. The only things we would change are maybe using more noodles, and a bit more chicken stock, as it was quite rich (duh). This recipe was an IP win, for sure.

Wednesday, 7/24/19

On Tuesday evening, Jason and I made two giant batches of tomato sauce in the Instant Pot (both from Serious Eats, with only minor tweaks. I didn't have fresh basil, and left out the fish sauce), with the only difference that one batch used whole canned tomatoes that I quickly threw in the blender, while the other used a can of diced and a can of crushed. Jason has this weird thing where he didn't want to dirty up the blender, so wants me to use already chopped tomatoes? I don't know why that would be important, but...anyway, they actually came out very different. Batch 1, with the crushed tomatoes, burnt a little, and came out very dark---it tasted to me a bit like the kind of sauce you get in a not-great Italian restaurant. Batch 2 came out a lot more like my regular sauce. I can't imagine why they were so different, and honestly, I didn't love either of them. In the end, we combined them and no real conclusions were drawn.
Which brings me to tonight's dinner: ravioli with tomato sauce. It was fine (except I had to eat in a hurry and mine was a little rubbery from re-heating cause it was Ultimate). I think I would stick with my regular method since it took nearly an hour in the IP. Or try a different recipe.

Tuesday, 7/23/19

Moong dal with spinach, from Madhur Jaffrey's Indian Instant Pot cookbook. Very easy and quick, if not super exciting. I would have to say we all thought it was fine. Served with the rest of the leftover naan.