Heading to London and Paris for a few days each, if all goes well. A shortened version of a 2020 trip canceled for the obvious reasons, so I’m having a hard time believing it’ll actually happen.
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That sounds wonderful! Have a great time.
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Hi everyone
Back from a long weekend of graduation and festivities and preparing for a longer visit to mom.
Trying to mostly eat in after so much eating out. Also trying to include a salad or veg to start meals, at least while I’m in my own kitchen; balance will change when I’m with more family.
Actuals for the past few days:
– Ghee pepper roast chicken and cabbage-coconut salad from the Cooking-From cookbook thread for Gunpowder + chapatis + rice/quinoa blend – recommend both, not a dud yet flavor-wise from the book
– Leftover doctored Thai green veg curry + salmon + arugula & carrot salad with leftover Japanese dressing + a small starter of brown butter scallop chirashi-ish
– Dim sum style black bean pork ribs + garlic green beans + quinoa/rice blend + arugula & green bean salad with Japanese carrot-ginger dressing
– Khichdi + mustard-roasted salmon (mustard paste from Gunpowder, leftover) + snow pea & arugula salad
– Pan-roasted chicken thighs + salad, twice so far (fennel salad once, arugula salad another time) – going to get more chicken because this is so delicious for being so easy – + pan-seared frozen jumeokbap / rice cake from TJ’s that was really good reheated this way
Ideas for the next few days:
— Chicken Quesadillas with leftover roast chicken + salsa fresca + Greek yogurt instead of crema + tbd salad
— Viet Garlic Umami Noodles with maitake & king oyster mushrooms I need to use up + Viet cabbage slaw with nuoc cham dressing + tbd protein
— Chicken Satay Bowls (using doctored TJs satay sauce) + Viet cabbage slaw + quinoa/rice blend – have been mildly obsessed with the ease and flavor punch of the ready satay sauce added to cut-up chicken thighs and pan-sauteed (4th or 5th repeat in 2-3 weeks!)
— Maybe Masala Fish Cakes from Gunpowder + salad, or maybe I’ll wait & make them when I’m home
— Maybe Thai Larb (I have sautéed and frozen ground turkey) + Viet slaw + quinoa-rice blend --but not sure I’m feeling it
I did bake lemon muffins last week (after AGES, I was reminded 
) for the littler kiddo (who’s taller than me, go puberty) – decided to do it with him instead of in advance, and he was excited to DIY (also made me double the batch 
). We also made (pretty fantastic, I will shamelessly say) mac & cheese together, all the evening I was leaving bec it was so busy with graduation stuff the rest of the time…
Other kiddo (can I call him that now that he’s on his way to college?) wanted dhoklas (steamed rice cakes) and khichdi (comfort food, rice and lentils cooked together, risotto texture), so those were made, portioned, and frozen for him.
Now thinking if there are any specialty ingredients or foods I want to carry for mom & sis, but I don’t think they’ve eaten through what I took a couple of months ago, so I may be traveling lighter this time.
Wish you all a lovely and delicious week!
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I think they will always be our kiddos 
I recently ran into someone I worked with a few years ago. The last time I saw him, he and his wife just has their first baby and he brought the baby to the office at one point so we could meet him. My colleague told me that “the baby” is now 14. How does time fly by so fast?
“Other kiddo (can I call him that now that he’s on his way to college?) wanted dhoklas (steamed rice cakes) and khichdi (comfort food, rice and lentils cooked together, risotto texture), so those were made, portioned, and frozen for him.”
You are the best aunt ever!
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Greetings, People.
I guess “S” is for “summer”: salmon, steak, scallions, salad, snow peas, sage, and shrimp (but not all at once).
Cooking for two in the PNW:
FRI: Pork and sage pelmeni. Butternut smashed potatoes. Garden peas. I use my own version for the dumplings, but this one is quite similar.
SAT: Olive-oil roasted salmon with herbs (gift link here). Leafy green salad with Green Goddess dressing.
SUN: Scallion roast chicken and potatoes. I use the NYT version as a jumping off point, subbing scallions for green garlic (gift link here). Salad.
MON: Pepperoni pizza. Salad.
TUE: From Taste of Home, pasta with mushrooms and peas, and the leftover chicken.
WED: Steak and Caesar (redux!).
THUR: Shrimp and snow-pea stir-fry from Simply Recipes. Rice.
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I had a productive weekend in the kitchen last weekend whipping up dishes to finish up some pre-CSA veggies so now I will focus on the veggies I’m getting in my CSA. The only cooking on my plate this weekend is to whip up some more pesto sauce since I got some garlic scapes this week. I have one week to go until my staycation starts so this weekend I will have a little spare time to look into museum visits and other activities I can take in while I’m off.
As for menus, we had a staff lunch last Wednesday that I completely forgot about when I was planning my menus for last week. We went to a hotel restaurant for lunch, which is generally not my favourite dining option, and this specific restaurant reminded me of why I generally avoid hotel restaurants altogether. I ordered a smoked meat sandwich with a caesar salad on the side. The smoked meat was actually quite good but it came with an fluorescent orange sauce which may or may not have been processed cheese. It didn’t taste like anything so I’m not sure what it was. And I think they forgot to put garlic in the caesar salad dressing. So that was my meal out for this week. Dinners for the remainder of the week got bumped forward a day. So actuals from yesterday to planned through to next Thursday look like this:
Yesterday: ginger bok choy soup with noodles.
Tonight: gnocchi with a bolognese type sauce.
Saturday: Thai coconut fish curry.
Sunday: New go-to kale salad.
Monday: Asparagus and sundried tomato risotto.
Tuesday: Pork chop, squash, asparagus.
Wednesday: Marinated kale salad.
Thursday: The last serving if gnocchi with bolognese sauce.
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Hi everyone. I’m a day or two early on this because Lulu and I are heading to Iowa tomorrow for a big debate tournament- the last of her high school debating career. We’ll get back next Saturday, and leave two days later on our family summer vacation. My head is spinning with trying to get ready for both trips at once. Here is what we ate this week:
Mon: Moroccan chicken with vegetables and crispy chickpeas (Recipe Tin Eats - delicious and easy) over couscous.
Tues: angel hair pasta with raw tomatoes, capers, olives
Wed: corn and clam chowder, salad
Thurs: carry out, pizza and salad
Fri: sardine toasts (NYT). Not sure how this is going to go over (likely to be muffled complaints), but it sounds delicious to me, and I have been crazy busy for weeks at this point.
Hope you all have happy, relaxing, delicious weeks.
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Actuals for June 10 week, cooking for 2 in MN. Where the forecast for today is that we’ll swing to 100 degrees F and 90 percent humidity after a rainy cold week of 60 degree days, and lots of meetings. So of course, I’m baking. Just a bit - making homemade sandwich buns. The plan to start early and use the bread machine for the dough mix/rise was foiled by a “frozen” paddle. I emptied the machine and hand-mixed and kneaded then cleaned/handed off the bread pan to my husband for freeing up and oiling the paddle assembly. I’m so glad I’ve got various bread-making (traditional, no-knead) experiences to be able to not simply discard ingredients when equipment failures happen. A loaf of granola date bread is in the - working just fine -Bread machine now. And the sandwich buns came out of the oven a few minutes ago.
Mon: Reheat Sunday’s Caprese Chicken, rice, salad
Dessert: Lemon jello poke cake with strawberries
Tues: Commercial frozen Pizza, salad
Wed: Cooperative cooking effort; I got out ingredients, he chopped, measured and mixed – Chicken salad with h.b. egg on bakery cranberry walnut bread with cream cheese. Bag salad. Red grapes.
Thurs: Veggie-stuffed Meatloaf (from freezer), mashed potatoes, spinach salad, cottage cheese, strawberries, canned pineapple chunks. BAKED – Whole wheat blueberry pecan muffin tops
Fri: Orange Chicken using grocery chicken tenders and this sweet/sour/orange sauce, rice, salad NOTE – online sauce recipe has typo in cornstarch amount for sauce s/b 1 T
Sat: Mahi mahi, homemade mac & cheese, sugar snap peas, sweet potato red grapes
Sun (today): BAKED whole wheat sandwich buns, Bread machine Granola Date Bread
Ground chicken/spinach/artichoke burgers (recommended by @MunchkinRedux ) on homemade buns with sliced tomatoes
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Hi, everyone. Cooking for two adults and a teen in the Boston burbs. Last week was a whirlwind of emotions and logistics as DS graduated from middle school (8th grade). I’d recently found a picture from his preschool graduation in 2015, and in mind he’s still that tiny blond boy. Last week’s photos tell a different story, as he’s now an inch or two taller than me. I don’t remember telling him he could grow up!
Anyway, we are transitioning into summer life with an impending heat wave, and limited oven use. Oh, and dealing with the crappy backup microwave for another 10 days - the built in one has been dead for 2+ weeks now, not worth repairing, and the new one (AND new oven since it’s a set) won’t be installed until the 26th, so I’m counting down the days…
Sun: out for Father’s Day - hibachi/sushi
Mon: chicken ranch fajitas (I’m making DS cook since he’s off this week)
Tues: turkey cutlets, orzo with corn and bacon (NYT)
Weds: hot honey chicken (NYT, but probably without the hot and honey so it’s really just crispy chicken cutlets - using Corn Chex instead of corn flakes to keep it gluten-free). Stovetop mac and cheese, steamed broccoli.
Thurs: I’m going out with a friend, guys are on their own
Fri: garlic lime steak salad with rice noodles (Smitten Kitchen). We like this with steak tips.
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As I made them, those ground chicken/artichoke/spinach burgers are better without my homemade buns . The flavors of the VERY tasty thin patties (8 made using a vintage burger press) were overwhelmed by my tall buns. It’s quite a list of ingredients/assembly but the final cooking was fast & easy. Leftovers will be served beside a starch, not on buns.
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Sorry it didn’t work out, but impressed that you attempted it.
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We like those chicken burgers, too. It looks like she removed the recipe from her website, but I have it saved:
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Yes, that’s the one. We’ll enjoy the chicken patties and buns separately – each are very good on their own, just not as a combo.
I made them in my food processor and it’s a real time saver!
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I haven’t been planning too much in advance.
Sunday: lemon oregano chicken, tomato pie sans crust (tomatoes topped with mayo-cheese mix and baked), baked squash, frijoles charros made with dried cannellini beans, green salad with lettuce from the garden. Cherry pie from a bakery.
Monday: leftover resto futomaki and California rolls from lunch, leftover lemon oregano chicken, baked sweet potatoes with maple and butter, fresh fava beans with olive oil, lemon and dill.
Tonight, Monday, I’m making maple ginger salmon with wild sockeye, and a macaroni and cheese ( maybe Trini Macaroni Pie), baked beans from scratch (maple , ground ginger, Worcestershire , loosely based on Ina’s recipe.), boiled broccoli with lemon , and boiled asparagus (some of the last local asparagus).
Wednesday: Beef meatballs, probably keftedes.
Thursday: no idea
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For anyone who is considering making the NYT orzo with corn and bacon: it’s not a pasta dish with corn, it’s more like a corn risotto. Super labor intensive and… we did not like it. DS was mad that I “wasted” good farmstand corn on this, and I can’t say I disagree.
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Bummer and thanks for warning us!!
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Where did you get good corn? (I’m in Somerville). Sorry it was such a bust!
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Cookbook of the Month (Quarter) nominations are underway if anyone wants to participate / cook together next quarter:
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Volante Farms in Needham (10min from us) - it was ‘imported’ from Georgia. I spent a little time last night googling whether any farms closer to home grow their own sweet corn, and found Parlee Farms in Tyngsboro - now I’m following them closely because that seems a worthwhile pilgrimage!
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