Pat

Soup, salad, and sandwiches last night. We finished the last of the turkey meatball soup. The salad was chopped romaine, tomatoes, avocado, kalamata olives, and feta, topped with poached salmon and dill. Sandwiches were ham, turkey, and cheese on whole wheat, accompanied by Utz potato chips. There was salad left over. This was a lot of food .

Last night was excellent whole wheat bread from Radici, salad (red leaf and romaine with radishes, nicoise olives, cold roasted cauliflower, Campari tomatoes, avocado, and feta; mustard - white wine vinaigrette) and pasta. I made the pasta to utilize a bunch of ingredients that needed to be used. I sliced and sauteed 8 oz. of button mushrooms (which were in remarkably good condition after being in the refrigerator for a couple of weeks), and then added in some chopped fresh tomatoes -- a combination of Campari and hothouse vine-ripe -- dehydrated onions, Penzey's pasta sprinkle, kosher salt, black pepper, and crushed red pepper flakes. After the tomatoes had broken down and it was making a sauce, I poured in and cooked down some white wine and then added the last half of an open jar of Rao's Arrabbiata sauce, plus a little water to rinse out the jar. At this point, I added the chopped meat from 4 leftover baked chicken thighs and let the whole thing simmer while I boiled half a box of Pipe Rigate pasta. I mixed the drained, cooked pasta in with the sauce for a couple of minutes and then served with grated Parmesan. It all worked out well, and I even got the ratio of pasta to sauce about right!

I made nicoise salad again last night, this time with fresh tuna. I don't know why I'm on this kick, but the salad does make a nice centerpiece to a meal. We had it with soup. The soup recipe I got from a friend years ago. His MIL is from Saigon and owned a Vietnamese restaurant in Houston. "Sick Soup" was a popular request from patrons during cold and flu season. I remembered this when I had a cold last weekend and was prepared to make the soup but wasn't quite up to prepping all the ginger (a major component). It's not complicated at all beyond the ginger. I'm basically over the cold now (the first I've had in a very long time), so I made the soup last night. Still great for clearing out the sinuses. Palm-sized piece of ginger, peeled and cut into matchsticks, brought to a boil in 6 - 8 cups of chicken broth. Add bite-sized beef or turkey meatballs (from 1 lb. or so or raw meat) that have been seasoned with dehydrated onions, paprika, ground red pepper, black pepper, crushed red pepper, and chili powder (or some combination thereof). Boil until the meatballs rise to the top. Serve the soup over rice with sriracha.

Last night I made an improvised chicken cacciatore from convection-baked chicken thighs, leftover spaghetti, and Rao's Arriabbiata sauce, with some grated Parmesan. We had this with broccoli (boiled about 3 minutes) and a salad of romaine, radicchio, radishes, red onion, tomatoes, and croutons made from leftover garlic butter bread. Instead of steaming, I've moved towards throwing broccoli in boiling salted water for a couple minutes, until just after it turns bright green, and then I drain it and it cooks a little more from residual heat. TL;DR warning here... I thought about this when I was going through a really old cookbook that belonged to my mother and I referred to as a kid when I started out cooking. It's the source of my peanut butter cookie recipe! It's the 21st edition of Magic Chef Cooking from the American Stove Company (orig. 1949). This copy dates to the late 50s or very early 60s because the appliance company my parents got it from (based on a stamp on the title page) has its address listed with a 4-digit town code that pre-dates the era of the zip code (which started July 1, 1963). Given the name of the company and my vague memories, they were probably relatives, so maybe my parents didn't have to pay the $2 for the book. Anyhow, this cookbook recommends cooking broccoli in well-salted water for 20-25 minutes. Now I understand why we never ate broccoli when I was growing up. Yecchhh. When I picked the book up for the first time in a long while recently, I decided to made the Sausage and Spaghetti recipe. In large part I did this because I had bought a pound of hot Italian link sausages when I saw them at Safeway. And I had bought them because they were Lancaster Brand (which used to be the house meat brand of Acme, which is now part of Albertson's/Safeway/whatever grocery monolith). Since I bought them out of nostalgia, it seemed perfect to have seen this recipe right after I purchased them. (Thinking back, there was also an Acme across the street from where this appliance store would have been, though I don't know if they were open at the same time.) The recipe calls for browning sausages, boiling spaghetti, mixing the pasta with strained tomatoes, and putting the sausages on top of the spaghetti to finish cooking as a casserole. I had an extra half pound of cooked ground beef I added to the tomato mixture, for which I used canned tomato sauce and a few chopped fresh tomatoes. I added some grated Parmesan in there somewhere. It came out quite well. The Lancaster Brand sausages were really good. I'd bought them over the national brand that was on sale for a reduced price that cost the same. I used the last of this leftover spaghetti (no more sausages but there was still a little ground beef mixed in) to make last night's cacciatore. And that's a wrap.

Porterhouse steaks Citrus-glazed turnips [NYT gift link] Buttered spinach I took the advice of one of the commenters on the turnips recipe and did them at 425 instead of 375, and I'd stick with that. I loved them, though my husband didn't as much. He's not fond of bitter vegetables, but I thought these glazed and caramelized nicely and had a sweetness from that. I had bought citrus to juice but just wanted to get dinner on the table, so I used what we had in the refrigerator. Similarly, I abandoned creamed spinach in favor of buttered.

Yesterday I made nicoise salad, which we had with a baguette (the Italian version) from Radici and artichoke jalapeno dip/spread from TJ. Because that's not fusion-y enough, we also had some sushi/rolls from Yes . The night before I made another green chile enchilada bake, which we had with a big romaine salad.

Last night was this salad plus chicken andouille sausages on whole wheat hot dog buns. Tonight is more of the salad, roasted sesame asparagus and tofu, and broiled lamb loin chops.

Friday night salad and sandwiches: Tortellini salad and grilled ham and Jarlsberg on sourdough for my husband, with grilled mortadella and Jarlsberg for me. The tortellini for the salad was spinach and cheese(s) from TJ. I didn't have much of a plan, but it worked. The base dressing was some bottled vinaigrette. I added the last of a jar of Calabrian chiles--bits and pieces and some oil--chopped roasted Anaheim pepper, slivered red onion, sliced black olives, chopped tomatoes, chunks of chicken andouille sausage, basil, shredded Parmesan and cubed Monterey Jack cheeses.

Last night was leftover chicken thighs, broccoli, cole slaw, and mini quesadillas (made on 6" flour tortillas from TJ).

i made some quick curry from the last of the lamb, with Anaheim peppers and onions. Served over couscous, along with braised kale and tomatoes. There was also leftover salad and sourdough rye bread.

Last night was a big salad, sourdough rye from Atwater, (convection) baked chicken thighs, and roasted asparagus. I topped the chicken with lemon juice, butter and a mix of Penzey's Northwoods and Northwoods Fire seasoning (the only difference is the amounts and types of chile powder). I seasoned the asparagus with sesame oil, soy sauce, and sesame seeds. I also made some croutons of a sort to have with the chicken. There was half a pita from Yellow in foil in the fridge that had been there too long. I tore it into small chunks and, once I had removed the chicken from the sheet pan, I tossed the bread pieces into the rendered fat and stuck the pan back in the oven until I had nice croutons. Everything came out especially well.

Update: My husband met me at the game last night and brought in 2 pizza slice boxes from Whole Foods and a bottle of water. He had no trouble at all.

Kind of a weird meal last night, but it was good. We had an appetizer and then pasta. I was going to wrap halibut cubes in bacon but had bought mortadella on impulse at Eastern Market, so I wrapped each first in a strip of mortadella, then in bacon. The bacon had previously been cooked but was still flexible. (I don't go all the way to crispy when I pre-cook bacon.) I had baked the fish cubes with some lemon, olive oil, and sprigs of thyme until they were just cooked, let them cool a bit, and then did the wrapping. I put them back into the oven for a few minutes, until the bacon was rendering its remaining fat. For the rest, I boiled some fusilli to round out what was left of a box of ziti and served that with a sauce made from leftover ground pork enchilada filling and the remainder of a jar of Rao's marinara. Anyway, weird but good.

I haven't tried carrying food in recently, but when I checked the rules because I thought I might have extra restaurant food with me (I didn't), I'm not quite sure how you even hand carry much stuff in. What qualifies as "single-serving food items" per their policy? I haven't tried any of the food concessions yet, but my friend had a bad experience at Shake Shack, which is surprising, given how good their customer service typically is. Beer prices are nuts, but the self-serve cooler setup actually works quite well. And, I agree, cash will not be coming back.

I wasn't feeling up to much for Easter and surprised myself with how much I managed despite that. We had warmed pita from Yellow, along with their Beiruti hummus; a shaved asparagus salad that was very good; a deviled egg platter*; and, roasted boneless leg of lamb over roasted sliced potatoes. I riffed off this recipe for the lamb and potatoes. The lamb was 2 lb., from TJ, and was very good. I managed to hit a nice medium rare. I parboiled several Yukon Gold potatoes, sliced them about 1/4" thick, and made concentric circles in the bottom of a large cast iron skillet. Lamb went over the center. My husband thought there was a little too much anchovy carryover flavor on the potatoes-which there was--but I liked it. *I only filled 8 inserts in the egg platter, so I filled the other 4 with excess pistachios.

We had this enchilada bake for dinner last night. It came our really well and looked great. My husband asked if we could have this again while we were still eating the meal, and I suggested we'd have leftovers to eat first. (Of course, getting the leftovers out of the skillet and packing them up was a little tricky...) Since we've been eating a lot of rice, I just heated up a can of drained black beans for a side dish. I added as couple squeezes of lime and sprinkled some extra cilantro and scallions over the beans. (I had prepped more garnishes for the skillet meal than I needed.) I used ground pork from TJ's for this, 80/20, and expected I would have fat to drain before proceeding, so I didn't add the olive oil (at all) or the onions and chopped poblanos right at the beginning. Surprisingly, as the meat cooked, it rendered a fairly small amount of fat, so I added the vegetables in to cook in that fat as the meat finished browning. I also used TJ's salsa verde, their shredded Mexican cheese blend, and their home style flour tortillas. I don't think it needed all of the second jar of salsa.

I stopped by outside on Wednesday, too, but before the game. I was disappointed in the fries again. They were not exactly greasy but noticeably wet and only somewhat crispy. I had just wanted something to eat before the game and walked up to the park from that direction. Definitely not the fries I used to rave about. I think the price may also have gone up. My memory could be off, but I don't recall them being $9 before. Service was very good, however.

A few months ago, I saw tamarind sauce at Trader Joe's and bought a bottle to try it out. I always used to keep a bottle of Pickapeppa sauce on hand but hadn't been able to find it in a store in a long time, and that had tamarind and some other overlapping ingredients in common with the TJ's sauce. (I now see from googling that Pickapeppa is still available from the company directly, Amazon, etc., but it no longer has tamarind as an ingredient. So...) Well, so, yesterday I got the idea to use a couple of tablespoons of the TJ's tamarind sauce to marinate a pork tenderloin. I did it in a ziploc bag, and added a couple crushed garlic cloves and some black pepper as well. I pan seared the pork and then put in a 375F oven for about 30 minutes until it was cooked through. It came out really well. My recollection of Pickapeppa is that it's much more vinegar heavy than the TJ's sauce, but I only used small amounts of that in cooking and never used it as a marinade base. I don't know what else I'll use this sauce for, but it's excellent as a pork marinade. I also baked some sweet potatoes and macaroni* and cheese with bacon. It was a well-integrated menu. *actually a mix of ziti and cavatappi, no elbows

Last night was very simple. We had leftovers of the big salad, sourdough toast with butter, and cheese ravioli that I cooked most of the way and then layered in a small casserole with some Rao's marinara and topped with shredded mozzarella and grated Parmesan. Put it in a moderate oven for a little while, until the cheese was melted ans starting to get a little browned.

I made a huge salad for dinner last night, not quite a chef's salad, but the bottom components were tossed and the top was composed. The dressing was a mustard and white wine vinaigrette. (My husband also had leftover stuffed eggplant.) Base: Radicchio Baby spinach Sliced button mushrooms Sliced cucumbers Thinly sliced red onions Torn bacon strips Top: Cooked asparagus (two bundles on either side of the center of the bowl) Sliced hard-boiled eggs (at both ends of the bowl) Cubed avocado (between asparagus bundles and edges of the bowl) Crumbled feta (over all but the center) Cooked cubed potatoes, soaked in dressing while hot (center of the bowl) Remainder of dressing (drizzled over the rest of the top) Chopped parsley (over top of everything)

Yesterday was really busy but did involve me getting to Georgetown for the first time in a while, so I bought bread, lots of good bread. I got a loaf of sourdough at Boulangerie Christophe and a pack of pita at Yellow (Their Navy Yard location closed but they opened a nice spot on Wisconsin just above P and not far north of Christophe.) I also bought some Beiruti hummus, which looked closest to the carrot hummus they used to have. (It turned out not to be the same but was all right. The hummus comes with house-made pita chips, and these I thought were better than the pita chips at the old location.) When I got home, I cranked the oven and got an aging eggplant in there to roast. Meanwhile, I boiled 2 cups of Texmati white rice in homemade chicken stock to which I'd added some saffron threads. When that was done, I added the last of some chopped cooked broccoli and mixed it through. Once the eggplant was done and I could handle it, I scooped out the insides and mixed with part of the rice and some torn baby spinach, raisins, and crumbled feta. I refilled the eggplant halves and put them back in the 400F oven until it was heated through and the feta was melty. We had the stuffed eggplant with pita, pita chips, and sourdough and two kinds of hummus. (The second was the caramelized onion hummus from Little Sesame, which we love.)

We finished the baked ziti last night. There was enough left for two moderate portions. To round out the meal I made a fennel gratin using what was left (actually a decent amount) of rustic bread that had been getting stale. I was contemplating a hybrid bread pudding kind of thing. Searching around for recipes, I drew on an Ina Garten potato - fennel gratin in which the raw potatoes are soaked in milk, which then go into the casserole with sauteed fennel and onion, cheese, etc. I also tossed the leftover cooked oyster and shiitake mushrooms from when I made mushroom tacos a while back into the bread mixture. I didn't have Gruyere for the cheese component so subbed Jarlsberg and some Parmesan. (I also looked at her fennel - Parmesan gratin and drew a little on that too.) Ina calls for lots of cream. I used whole milk and a little really good heavy cream (from the cheese monger at Eastern Market). I baked it for almost an hour at 375, until the top was nice and brown. I reassembled everything in the skillet I did the sauteed vegetables in instead of getting a casserole dish out. (That was a tip from The Kitchn in an article on making Ina's recipe.)

Judging from the help wanted signs throughout the months, they have had a hard time getting employees, so maybe people who are hired can get away with quite a bit. It sounds like they still don't have the text system working too well. First time I ordered from them, I went down at the time they said it would be ready, got my pizza, and then an hour later got a text saying my pizza was now ready for pick up. I'm happy they're there but they're not my first choice, unless the only criterion is proximity. I'm just as likely to walk a much longer distance home balancing an enormous pizza box from Slice Joint at The Roost

Made something last night I hadn't in a long time: a large casserole of baked ziti. The intention was to generate leftovers and that succeeded. I supplemented Rao's marinara with more onion and garlic, plus chopped button mushrooms, diced red bell pepper, and diced fennel. I added sliced black olives in as I layered the pasta and sauce. Mascarpone (layered in), mozzarella and Parmesan cheeses (on top). It was excellent. We had with rosemary focaccia from the outside bread vendor at Eastern Market that is not Ravenhook. I intended a salad but ran out of steam.

I made nachos last night, which was enough for me. In addition, my husband had the last of a rotisserie chicken (drumstick and some white meat), spinach, and carrots. I ran out of white/yellow tortilla chips so made some out some blue corn tortillas I had bought at Whole Foods that I didn't really like in tacos. They were okay and filled the need.