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The lasagna was pretty amazing. Fennel is a pain - I have the worst time dealing with the core. It's one of the things I always use the mandoline for.

I miss parties too. I love parties. (My yard is small, so only so many people in covid times.) I cannot wait until I can have parties again. Give me an excuse... Apple Bars 1 cup flour 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon soda 1/2 cup brown sugar 1 cup rolled oats 1/2 cup butter 2 1/2 cups sliced tart apples 2 Tablespoons butter 1/3 cup white sugar sift flour with salt, soda, and brown sugar. mix in oats. cut in butter until crumbly. Press 1/2 mixture into 7x11 pan (? Really? never heard of such a size. I use a 6x9 or an 8x8. Don't remember what mom uses. Think 6x9?) Top with sliced apples. Sprinkle with white sugar. Top with remaining crumbs. Dot with butter. Bake at 350 for 40-45 minutes, until brown and crunchy. Serve hot or cold. Time varies depending on pan size and how much fruit you use. You can really put however much fruit of whatever kind you want. Just adjust time. My notes: I never use the white sugar. Any kind of fruit or jam works. It's a delicious dessert, snack, or breakfast. Ice cream is a nice addition. You can add nuts too. I like pecans. Mom likes walnuts.

I have had more luck turning those kinds of fruit into crumbles.

Well, as usual, Sunday was grill night. Porterhouse. Potatoes. Salad. Yellow Squash. Carrots. Leftover cupcakes. Leftover broccoli slaw. Leftover brioche rolls. Oh, I had leftover cupcakes, rolls, and slaw because Saturday was also grill night. A friend has a round number birthday coming soon. So, we celebrated in our back yard. A few weeks early, in case it starts getting too cold to eat outside. Firepit was lit all afternoon and evening. We went to German Gourmet, and got a variety of brats, and cheeses, and salads. And Oktoberfest beer. I have to say, next time I will make the carrot salad. I prefer my mom's recipe, which isn't really a recipe. It's just that they use parsley, and she doesn't, and I don't like parsley much. It was still pretty good though. And easy! We are out of practice at parties. And when did 5 people become a party? I used to be able to do dinner for 6-10 with little notice and no stress! This week I spent SO much time prepping! We also went to the pretzel bakery and got pretzels. We also got brioche rolls for the sausage. Should have gone for pretzel rolls. The brioche was a little too delicate and kept falling apart. So tasty, but the wrong application. And I made black forest cupcakes. Used this recipe, but instead of the frosting and whipped cream, made whipped ganache and drizzled with white chocolate ganache that just would not firm up. Candied cherry on top. (I do have one question about the recipe. I halved it, and it made 12 just fine. But WHO develops a cupcake recipe to make 25 cupcakes?) So, we ate a new lasagna recipe on Monday. My lord, that was good. Mushrooms from King Mushroom Farm. Goat cheese from Liberty View Creamery, bought from Critter Hill at our farm market in Columbia Heights. Tomatoes and shallots from 78 Acres, also at the farm market. Herbs from the backyard. We will make this again. Also salad, and more leftover brioche. Leftover chili and corn pudding from the freezer last night, along with (of course) salad. (I note, the salad is also from the farm market. Pleitez just got the first of the fall lettuce in this weekend!) Tonight is stir fry. About to go make it. Fried rice noodles. (the really little ones so they make a nice nest for the food.) Leftover porterhouse from grill night. The end of the bag of veggies for the broccoli slaw. Leftover diced onions from the sausages. Soy Vey garlic hoisin sauce. And, as always, salad. Oh, and last weekend we had Rocklands. (hence the leftover corn pudding above) So I had leftover cinnamon apples. So I used those to make my mom's recipe for apple bars, downsized. Dessert last night, and will be dessert tonight. Basically, you make crumbs. Press half into the pan. Apples. Then the other half as crumbs. Dot with butter. Bake. Eat. (Recipe on request. Can't find anything equivalent online and will only type it out if someone wants it.) Tonight's project - begin menu planning for next week. Any brilliant ideas?

Tonight was eat more from the freezer night. While the salad and the pecan raisin bread were not from the freezer, the gorgonzola and pear ravioli were. Those were tasty with their butter and sage and wine sauce and some pecans. (recipe said walnuts, but I was out.) Quite tasty.

Yesterday was grill day. Chicken thighs marinated with the last of the Cajun Power Garlic Sauce!, the last of our shishitos, carrots with olive oil and chili powder, acorn squash with olive oil and sunny spain spice for him. Also salad and 7 grain bread from Le Caprice. Miso strawberry ice cream and snickerdoodles for dessert. So, progress on eating down both the fridge and the freezer! (Freezer is WAY too full!) Tonight is a freezer night. Well, the salad isn't from the freezer. But the white bean and Kale soup is! Also grilled cheese sandwiches on raisin pecan bread from Raven Hook, with bacon, and tomato for him. Yeah, those aren't from the freezer either. OK, the bacon is.

Tonight is salad, and gingered carrot latkes with apple salsa (from Epicurious). Later, angel food jelly roll with vanilla ice cream. (Trying to use up jam. There is quite the backlog here. Ideas gratefully accepted.)

Grilling night! Sadly, there is no more corn at the farm market. It is apparently done for the year. And I think that tonight's shishito peppers from the plants in the back yard may also be the last ones of the year. But we had some! So, pork chops and peaches grilled (NYT recipe), shishito peppers charred on the grill, salad, cornbread, yellow summer squash for him (probably the last of the year). Later, vanilla ice cream and jam thumbprint cookies. Oh, he also charred up some lovely anaheim peppers for me, and I turned them into chilis rellenos for the freezer with cheese, salsa brava, and leftover chicken.

That's a really good recipe. I like to serve it with buttermilk ice cream. (I use the BI-Rite Creamery recipe.)

Amen

It's been a busy cooking week! (And everything else too.) Salad every day. Monday: Baked potatoes with pulled pork from the freezer. Tuesday: Pasta with corn and basil (NYT recipe) Wednesday: Sheet pan chicken with plums and onions. Very good. (NYT Recipe) Tonight: Taquitos (chicken leftover from Sunday grilling, tortillas always in stock. Had to make a run to Mt Pleasant for avacados) Dessert of the week remains chocolate angel food cake with absinthe ice cream.

Sunday means grilling for the boy. Beer can chicken is one of his favorite things to do. Tonight it had an herb rub (lemon garlic caribbean mix from a lovely assorted box of spice mixes that a friend got us for Christmas). Corn on the cob. Also carrots, and he has a squash, one of those orange ones. Asiago cheese bread. Later, chocolate angel food cake and absinthe ice cream. I appreciate the existence of chocolate angel food cake. I don't like regular angel food cake, and I do like chocolate. And since I like to make ice cream, I appreciate recipes that use up all those egg whites that I have in the freezer.

Vace for dinner tonight - got a large pizza, so we could have lunch leftovers. Extra cheese and mushrooms on the whole thing. The husband added garlic and sausage to his half. I don't like their sausage. The garlic is good, but there is enough of it that it is hard on my stomach, so I don't get it on my half.

Tonight was another night of "try something new and seasonal." Meatballs with peaches and basil and lime (from the NYT) over rice noodles. And of course, salad. It was good and we will make it again.

Every summer we go to Rochester (NY) and make at least one trip to Abbott's Frozen Custard. (Original location only - the others are OK, but Charlotte is the best) I miss other ice cream places, but Abbott's is the best.

I like the dessert. Ice cream buffet is a delicious idea.

One of the ways we try to change up the menu is to look at what is in season at the farm market, and then at the seasonal recipes from the Post and the NYT. Tonight, that worked. We had calzones from the NYT tonight. (sorry, paywall) Very tasty, and leaves lunches for the husband this week. And, of course, salad. (several years ago, I decided that we didn't always get enough veg. So we started having salad with every meal. We still try to add extra veg, but this way we get at least SOME green with every meal. Salad is easy and I like it and I don't have to think to make it. Sadly, I am picky about a lot of veg and so that makes my goal of eating more of them difficult.) Anyhow, the calzones had roasted tomatoes, pesto, and mozzarella. I changed it a little. The recipe calls for basil pesto, but I had garlic scape pesto in the freezer. So, rather than roasting the tomatoes with garlic, I just roasted them on their own and used the scape pesto. I added mushrooms as we had leftover mushrooms. I added chiffonaded basil to make up for the lack of basil pesto. There's a lot of basil in the back yard. Anyhow, those strike me as minor changes. I was going to add some artichokes too, but forgot until we were almost done eating. Ooops. Later, more of the chocolate cream cheese cupcakes.

Leftover steak from last night is becoming tacos tonight. Also, peach salsa, guacamole, salad. And using down the bar by making watermelon daiquiris.

You sound like my mother. And sorry, I STILL hate zucchini. The texture is gross, and the flavor is so...green.

Yeah, that happens here too. Every week, doing the meal plan and the shopping list gets harder. Friday was takeout from Mezcalero. I am working on bringing the contents of all cupboards under control, along with the freezer. This includes the bar. So I made frozen margaritas to go with the tacos and quesadilla. Yesterday we had people over! PEOPLE! OK, 2 friends in the backyard. But PEOPLE! So we did the traditional Labor Day thing. Burgers on the grill with buns from Ravenhook Bakery, corn on the cob on the grill, potato salad, broccoli salad, watermelon, and chocolate cream cheese cupcakes. Also worked on drinking down the odds and ends of summer style beers. Today, we are going to grill again. The husband is very excited to get to grill two days in a row. Steak (He's been on a steak streak. I think next week I will make him do chicken for me.), corn on the cob, shishitos. Leftover potato salad and broccoli salad. Lettuce salad. Leftover cupcakes. It will be tasty.

Bread crumbs are one of the things I have too many of in the freezer.

I want to eat this pasta.

Pool Boy's video post below brought this to my attention. I saw the tour for that album at the new convention center, which wasn't quite finished yet, in 1984? 1985? Grace Slick should never open for anyone, but there they were, opening for Night Ranger. We didn't last more than a few songs into the headliner. (They were only Starship at that point.) Now the "new" convention center is gone. Grace is retired. And wow, I feel old.

Last night was dinner from the freezer - eggplant parm, and of course, salad. And garlic bread. And more blackberry dessert. Tonight will be another use up freezer stuff dinner. Frozen beef from previous grilling, sliced up to make stroganoff, mushrooms from this week's farm market, with noodles. And of course, salad. And the final pieces of blackberry dessert. I shall miss the blackberry dessert. It is SO good.

Easy dinner night. Bread (Italian, from Ravenhook), leftover cheese, leftover prosciutto, grapes, salad. Later, MORE BLACKBERRY dessert.