Welcome to the October 2025 edition of the thread where we share our weekly menus and more.
Some of us share a day by day plan, others report last week’s actual meals, and some put together a list of ideas to work from the week. You do you, and take comfort that the best laid plans do change for all of us!
If you have recipe links or sources, do share them, as we all love picking up new ideas from everyone else’s menus! For context and because we’re interested, please include your location and how many you plan and/or cook for.
October means pumpkins and winter squashes and all things pumpkin-spice but for now, there are still tomatoes and other late-summer veggies to enjoy while they last! Are you still eking out summer recipes or ready to move into braising and stews mode?
(The September thread remains available for reporting actuals and any follow-up discussions.)
Still cooking for two w̶i̶l̶d̶ ̶&̶ ̶c̶r̶a̶z̶y̶ mildly annoyed middle-aged folks in HV.
Wednesday I am getting a molar extracted I’d invested well over 1K in a couple of years ago (crown & root canal). Fun times!! Mayhaps a soup or chowder or some soft stuff.
Thursday may or may not be a ladies night, although I am likely not supposed to drink any alcohol for two weeks. Ha. Now that’s funny! It’s also one of our favorite bartender’s birthday, so … yeah. Similar situation to Tuesday. Here’s hoping the food they have this week is toothache friendly AND tasty
Friday TBD. One of the gang might be hosting a poker game. Could even be us
Saturday friends of ours are hosting their traditional fall bash. They always get reasonably decent Indian takeout.
Sunday I have an afternoon rehearsal for two shows in the following week. We might aim for something spicy. Surprise!
I think breakfast on Weds should be leftover birthday cake! I recently finished a book in which the main character’s family had a tradition of leftover birthday cake for breakfast the day after the birthday. I’m considering adopting that tradition…
Half a plan for three in the Boston burbs… this will be quick.
Weds: happy birthday to me! I want sushi but it depends on whether I can convince the guys they’ll find something to eat at the Japanese restaurant that doesn’t have hibachi. Further complicating things is that I have a meeting until 6 and it’s also Kol Nidre so I might want to watch services (on YouTube). DS said he’ll make me a cake, so dinner may just be… cake?
Thurs: the leftover disappointing lasagna from the weekend / repurposed ragu mess.
When I was growing up, any cake left over after the family birthday celebrations was considered the property of the birthday girl or boy, and often became breakfast the next day (just as pumpkin pie was the traditional day-after-Thanksgiving breakfast).
I’ll be back in my nyc kitchen imminently, and it feels so weird to be planning just for myself again after this thrice-extended trip. Bittersweet to leave just before the biggest of festivals (Diwali), and more importantly, my sib’s birthday, but as I reminded myself today, if I don’t leave now, I can hardly come back when the whole family gathers at the end of the year, and so that’s what I’m bolstering myself with.
Simple is the name of the game after a long trip when I’m jet lagged and slow at getting back into the flow, partly because my appetite is inconsistent in both quantity and timing, and partly because there will be more meals out than usual reconnecting with people.
Want to spend some time perusing both Cookbooks of the Quarter, especially Maangchi whose recipes I love (and as I’ve been without Korean food for this whole trip) but also the new Chrissy Teigen book that I haven’t taken a look at yet.
Ideas for the week:
— Roasted salmon with mustard + veg + quinoa/rice
— Kimchi fried rice/quinoa from COTM Maangchi + veg
— Curry noodle soup (inspired by WOL) with leftover chicken OR curried carrot and coconut soup with crispy shallots from COTM Teigen
— Pongal (rice and lentil “risotto” spiced with black pepper and ginger) + yogurt + papad
— Pan-roasted chicken + veg (will look for a simple chicken prep in the COTMs for inspiration)
The week will also be peppered by grilled cheese (repurposing the sandwiches that always accompany me back) and various homemade snacks I will carry because everyone is afraid I might starve on the long flight or before I get to a grocery store at home (never mind the full freezer and pantry) .
I’ve got some last minute food shopping to finish in anticipation of Diwali gatherings and also for the care packages of THREE college kids this time (my nephew plus a dear friend’s two daughters, the second freshly away from home).
Come join in on the fantastic choices for Cookbook of the Month for the rest of the year!
Our two threads are:
– MAANGCHI – who makes Korean food easy and accessible without losing any flavor, and
– CHRISSY TEIGEN – who seemed an unusual recipe source but her comfort food and flavor combinations were hits twice already on COTM, and she now has a third book and a website full of recipes.
I caved this week and subscribed to Epicurious for $3 a month, with annual renewal at about $3.50 a month. I’ve fought the urge to pay-subscribe to this one for years, but it has one of my favorite sources and the incognito-browser trick stopped working for me some time ago. Hoping to find lots of inspiration in those pages this winter, when I’ve some free time. My only grouse is they still haven’t learned to get a short recipe to print on a single page (they need to take a lesson from the folks at King Arthur Baking Co.).
Still gleaning the last bit of garden veg: tomatoes, zuccs, cukes, sweet peppers, and Asian pears. Further down the pike are winter squash, shelling beans, and serrano peppers. We’ve spuds, carrots, onions, shallots, apples, and pears in storage, along with a hefty supply of berries, leafy greens and stone fruit in the freezer. The end of another gardening season – I’m always amazed at how quickly they go by.
Cooking for two adults in the PNW:
FRI: Pan-roasted chicken. Chopped salad.
SAT: Halibut with casino butter. Air- fried potatoes. Green salad.
SUN: Homemade sweet-pork pot stickers – a new-to-me version from Little Fat Boy. This one’s been on my radar for … maybe a decade? Cucumber salad. Rice.
I practically taught myself to cook by cooking things that sounded good on Epicurious, but then it started getting more and more difficult to navigate (probably as they were trying to get people to pay for something that had been free). But I do miss it, and have almost caved a few times myself. To fix the printing issue, I just cut and paste the recipe into my own new file. Takes a little longer, but so much easier to deal with, and if I save the file I can always find the recipe again if it got lost the first time I printed it.
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