You and Caitlin are invited if this wedding ever happens. Hahaha
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A couple upscale Portuguese restaurants in Toronto keep skate on the menu. That’s where I would go, in Toronto.
If you and Lulu haven’t visited Portugal yet, I can’t recommend it enough. I was mostly pescatarian when I visited. I know you avoid pork, and while the Portuguese like their salt pork, ham, and sausages, I found it easy to avoid pork and other meat.
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I’ve been, and LLD has been often, but somehow Lulu hasn’t made it there yet. We really should get her there.
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Greetings, People.
While our tomatoes and peppers are loving it, two days of 100 degree temps put the final kibosh on our waning blueberry season. Fortunately we had the foresight to make one last big pick before things began to wilt on the branch. Moving on to blackberries - I went to my favorite neighborhood patch twice yesterday, once for the freezer and once to make a favorite summer tart (Violet Bakery Wild Blackberry Tart). Results on the baking thread later today. 
Cooking for two adults in the PNW:
FRI: Summer vegetable minestrone! The upside of a less-than-stellar corn season is there are always a few, pathetically unfilled cobs left at the end of it. I usually clean those off saving the kernals for soup. In a good year, there are none to be had, but in an off year such as this one - there’s a glorious minestrone! More s. Focaccia.
SAT: Pork-zucc-and-basil meatballs in a peach-jam glaze ('cuz jamalot). Roasted green beans. Rice.
SUN: Turkish or Mediterranean influenced chicken kebabs on the grill. Pita. Raita. Hummus. Chopped salad.
MON: Cabbage-and-carrot stir-fry (or maybe just leftovers - gotta alotta both).
TUE: Herb-and-butter roasted salmon. Irish champ potatoes. Slaw.
WED: Pizza. Chopped salad.
THUR: Steak with chimichurri rojo (inspired by @mariacarmen’s 2025 birthday feast). Rice. Roasted green beans.
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Hello everyone.
I continue on my Let’s Pretend I’m living somewhere in the Mediterranean meal plan. LOL
Wednesday, I made a T Bone alla Fiorentina with sage and rosemary.
Thursday/ tonight, I am going to make some pork and beef meatballs with a saffron and almond sauce
Hopefully patatas bravas with my supply of new potatoes.
I’m looking at some old tapas cookbooks for the rest of my dinner inspiration.
Friday will be salmon for dinner, style to be determined. Salmon Inspiration!
Saturday will be leftover meatballs.
Sunday will be take-out, still deciding what to order.
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Julia Turshen’s Kinda Sorta Patatas Bravas from Small Victories eschew the frying for roasting, and are both easy and good.
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I like these a lot.
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Cooking for 2 in HV. The annual student invasion is upon us, with many of them arriving this weekend, although our semester doesn’t start until the last week of August.
If our dining out budget weren’t restricted to one fancy meal a month, we’d take the opportunity to visit our favorite places downtown while we still have the chance, but then most of those aren’t really geared towards the undergrad crowd. Thank goodness.
Tonight: our one fancy meal a month 
. I reserved the chef’s table for 8 for each month through October, but for today we actually got the private dining room that can accommodate 12 peeps total. Once again, I’ll be able to introduce 4 people to Chef Quintin’s fantastic food, which makes me very happy, and I managed to have all of us carpooling, as the place is about a 30 min drive from here.
Tomorrow: possibly shrimp tacos or some other light meal after tonight’s 6-course dinner
Sunday: I’m organizing another potluck for my local Facebook cooking group & am already looking forward to peeps’ seasonal creations. As for me, I’ll be contributing the popular NYT gazpacho, doubling the recipe since more than 20 folks have signed up.
Monday: will have to be something spicy, since Spicy Sunday is obviously not happening. Turkey or chicken laab, maybe? I also picked up MOAR mung bean sproutz at the Asian market yesterday (and we know how quickly they turn goopy) & snow peas, so… at least the veg part is taken care of 
Tuesday: using up the extra vodka sauce we got with our pizza Wednesday, plus a 1/3 of a jar of Carbone’s marinara sitting in our fridge, so….maybe a tomato-y pasta, with added veg (zucchini and shrimp or some other protein). This NYT recipe sounds nice… even though it calls for fresh tomatoes & does NOT include pasta 
Wednesday: Greek. Chicken or pork souvlaki, horiatiki, gigantes, tzatziki & melitsanosalata, maybe my dood’s pilaf.
Thursday: TBD
Friday: I have a quartet gig at the brewery, so whichever food truck is set up.
Saturday: a friend of ours is retiring, and another friend is hosting a surprise retirement party for her. Indian delivery from one of the local joints to feed the horde.
Enjoy your weekend & happy cooking, everyone!
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Hello friends. After seemingly weeks of a heatwave it is finally cooling down outside. Now I just have to wait for my apartment to cool off and I’ll be a happy camper. I have air conditioning but I live in an older apartment building and the air circulation in here isn’t very good. Last weekend’s book fair was a flop. There were about half a dozen tents set up outdoors and only one of them was an author selling a science fiction book he wrote. Everyone else seemed to be selling stickers, book marks, etc. One stall was selling journals and the vendor makes the covers herself so I bought a book tracker. Onto my menu for this week:
Today: My take-out lunch is a kimbap from the Korean grocer. I have an Asian pear and almond cookie to have for dessert later. Tonight I will make a tabouli for dinner.
Saturday: I will be making pesto sauce to use up some basil before it perishes and I will bake and freeze the beets I got in my CSA yesterday. Dinner will be a salade nicoise.
Sunday: Off to the farmers market again. I love shopping at the market. In addition to fruits and veggies and meats, one woman sells herbal teas, a couple of vendors sell coffee and a few vendors sell beverages like kombucha, cider and juice. Everything I could want or need is right there at the market. I will have hot sesame noodles with scallions and ground beef for dinner. I found the recipe on Epicurious, which is now behind a paywall, but I found the identical recipe here.
Monday: Second-to-last sketching class of the session. I’m finally getting the hang of it! Dinner when I get home will be peanut soup and rice.
Tuesday: I will be going out for dinner with my dinner club for the first time this year. We will be going to a Korean restaurant and the tasting menu includes Korean fried chicken and pork bone soup - two of my favourite Korean dishes! So I will have to start saving my appetite 
Wednesday: I will have a pork chop and one of the corns-on-the-cob I got in my share this week. I will have another veggie tbd.
Thursday: Chicken cacciatore.
Have a nice, hopefully cool, week everyone!
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Hi, all! Cooking for 2-4 in Chattanooga, where we got 7 inches/ about 18 cm of rain this week but our side of town was not hit by the flooding you may have seen in the news.
My brother and his partner are coming for the weekend as part of a massive road trip they’re taking–why they chose August to travel in the South is something I’m going to want to know more about…
Friday, August 15 (today): Bourbon chicken from When Southern Women Cook, rice, green beans, peach gelato
Saturday: We’re doing a brunch food tour, so I’m thinking a veg-heavy dinner, with a Greek vegetable bake from Milk Street and a tomato-cucumber situation. Maybe a pistachio cake to go with the rest of the ice cream.
Breakfast: Swedish pancakes, potentially with sausage
Sunday: Brother traveling on, sniff. Grilled fish in foil packets with fennel and tomatoes, potentially corn fritters or maybe just rice
Monday: Scrounge. DH starts his semester this week, so there will be a certain amount of adjustment on my part to remember when he’s actually home to eat the food I cook!
Tuesday: The broccoli, lettuce, egg, avocado, and tomato salad from Family. I’ll have to make sure I actually did overbuy tomatoes again
Wednesday-Friday: TBD
Hope everyone stays cool and dry this week! Happy cooking!
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Woo hoo! Our recluse friend just invited us and another couple over for dinner on Thursday, which means one less meal to figure out 
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I read about the Chattanooga rain and I’m glad to know you aee ok! I too wonder about the August road trip in the South…please update!
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The trip timing was simply due to a lot of different family events taking place here in August…they’re doing their best to work around the heat.
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Just wanted to report that I made corn fritters using my regular Cook’s Illustrated recipe but cooked as one giant pancake as per this new King Arthur recipe. Turned out great without all the corn explosions and spattering that often comes with corn fritters
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Looks great! (I think I’ve eaten something similar at a Korean place, but sans all the cheese.)
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Hi everyone!
It was a triple holiday weekend around here, with the Parsi New Year, big birth celebration holiday for Lord Krishna (there’s a big human pyramid / yogurt pot-bursting community celebration in every neighborhood), and most important, the 79th Independence Day (always hits me hard that many of my elders are older than the country in its modern form and experienced its birth and the journey leading up to it).
My escape of the monsoon has ended, with a good week of daily deluge. I am reminded by anyone I say this to that it was bound to happen as certain holidays are always accompanied by downpours, and I should prepare myself for the continuation next week at the outset of the Ganesh festival, when it never doesn’t come down in sheets for the beloved elephant-headed god’s annual homecoming. I am armed with umbrellas!
We had a really fun Nowroze-cum-birthday dinner out with family friends, and I’m excited about a home caterer they recommended.
My plan for sushi bowls was upgraded by a revelation of sushi-grade tuna (yeah, yeah, I know that’s not a real thing, but this was a gorgeous piece of tuna, perfectly trimmed), so we had a lovely meal of seared soy-ginger tuna with sesame carrots, miso butter zucchini, rice, and avocado instead of the dump bowls I sometimes assemble 
We’ll be out a couple of times next week – another cousin catch-up, and a couple with friends.
Ideas for the week:
– Feast of “fasting” food for the Lord Krishna festival – moryo / samo (spiced millet porridge with peanuts), sauteed potatoes, yogurt, saubdana (tapioca) khichdi with potatoes and peanuts. I love all this stuff and have dibs on leftovers.
– Bengali Prawn Malaikari made with sweet river prawns from Bengal (another treat) + rice + salad.
– Mom’s Biryani – she made the mutton korma and froze it before I arrived, so we just need to assemble the components.
– Cheese Fondue (freezer stock) + bread, cauliflower, broccoli, potatoes, and apples for the adventurous.
– Parsi favorites from the home caterer – Chicken Farcha (spiced & fried chicken famous for its flavor and frilly egg “lace”), Salli Boti (sweet & sour mutton curry with crunchy potato strips), and either Patra ni macchi (pomfret coated in chutney and steamed in banana leaf) or Prawn Patio (spicy / tangy / sweet prawns, a childhood favorite of mine thanks to our neighbor grandma every Sunday!)
– Momo night redux
– Sandwich night – soft white bakery bread + butter + smoked salmon, ham, cheddar, and probably tomato (all separate). Crusts off for one picky eater (not me for a change 
).
I have been lazy about baking bread (everyone loves a homemade boule even though the fresh bread here is lovely) and banana bread, so I will remedy at least one of those this week. Probably a boule and maybe focaccia, as we are working through three kinds of cakes from the Parsi New Year and other things 
Wish you all a peaceful and positive week ahead.
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You had a busy week! Lots of celebrations!
Sounds like lots of good ideas for this week!
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I just purchased my meat and poultry for the week at my favourite butcher shop in Kensington Market in Toronto.
I’m sitting down with my iced cardamom latte as I figure out the plan for this week.
Tonight (Sunday) will be roast chicken thighs. Maybe I will go in the sumac and onion direction suggested by @Saregama a while back.
Maroulosalata with basil instead of dill.
Baked beans, corn on the cob.
Kannelbullar for one DC.
Tomorrow (Monday) will be leg of lamb steaks with a mint tzatziki from the northeastern Aegean. Can you tell my dill plants are not producing?
Depending on my tomatoes ripening, I may add a tomato side.
Tuesday is Tuna Tuesday for us lately. Tuna style to be determined.
Wednesday, ground meat somehow. I made Spanish beef and pork meatballs last Thursday, which we liked. I made a macaroni with Tuscan meat sauce the week before. Maybe I’ll make Piccadillo or Indian Kheema for a change.
Thursday, probably leftovers and some kind of pork.
Friday will be Fish Friday as usual, to be determined.
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Hi all, cooking for three in the Boston burbs, where temps are high but motivation is low again. Lots of work and non-work appointments this week, so I’m trying to keep the weeknights simple.
Sun: homemade pizza using this dough recipe (with potato!), pepper strips on the side
Mon: meatballs and red sauce, basically the Serious Eats recipe but 2 cans of tomatoes, pork and chicken instead of sausage and beef, and 5 min in the IP (per my previous notes) because I’m not a slow cooker person. Pasta too.
Tues: pad thai (from a cookbook I bought ages ago called From Bangkok to Bali). Unauthentic broccoli or green beans on the side.
Weds: either fried rice or the chipotle-honey chicken tacos from NYT. We’ll see how I feel.
Thurs: chicken enchilada skillet - originally an Epicurious recipe but I’ve changed it a lot
Fri: meatballs, encore presentation.
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