What a couple of weeks it’s been! But also, why can’t it be fall all the time? Fall food = the best food.
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Early October 2022 menus
What we made lately, with notes:
Saturday, 10/1/22: Crispy eggplant spaghetti and kale salad. Confession: I stole a Japanese eggplant from our neighbor’s garden and used it in place of the zucchini in this Pinch of Yum Spaghetti with Crispy Zucchini recipe. This recipe taught me a valuable lesson: we should be coating more things in egg, panko, and parmesan. The eggplant became like a savory, cheesy eggplant brittle and was delish on top of chewy noodles.
Sunday, 10/2/22: Chicken Noodle Soup with Sherry and Cream. My most favorite recipe I’ve ever written. A couple of our friends make this recipe on the reg and another requests it when he visits, and that makes me smile.
Monday, 10/3/22: Fall veggie fried rice w/ dijon maple dressing. This is the third time I’ve made this for the folks at the inn I cook for, they love it, and I STILL have not posted the recipe here on the blog. Bright purple cabbage, roasted veggies, seared smoked sausage, rice — maybe the beauty can just speak for itself for now:
Tuesday, 10/4/22: Steak and slaw bao buns. I have no words. These were the Molly Yeh buns I made last week and had leftovers of in my freezer. Some form of supernatural intelligence entered my brain and said, “Microwave the buns, then SEAR THEM IN STEAK JUICES to crisp the bottoms.” That, combined with Molly Yeh’s recipe for Crispy Asian Slaw from her new book “Home Is Where the Eggs Are”, and my go-to quick-pickled cucumbers, was the best decision I’ve made in all of 2022.
Wednesday, 10/5/22: Chicken and butternut squash mafe curry. This is now on repeat in our house — a twist on a Food & Wine recipe for lamb and sweet potato curry that checks all the coconut milk and peanut butter boxes.
Thursday, 10/6/22: Pizza Thursday!
Friday, 10/7/22: Chicken, bacon, and slaw grilled cheese. On this day, I had to speak on a zoom meeting for work, in front of perhaps 150+ people? I was so nervous and therefore have almost no memory of these sandwiches — I was too busy being relieved the meeting went well.
On to week two of this post!
What we made last week, with notes:
Saturday, 10/8/22: Leftovers! I don’t want to admit it was leftover pizza, because then we ended up making pizza on Friday as well and I am now just a carbohydrate. In our defense, we had to get a new dishwasher this day and we started installing it around 6pm, so there was no time or space for dinner.
Sunday, 10/9/22: Saag paneer. Not only did the mounds and mounds of spinach in this recipe help make up for all the pizza, but it was shockingly delicious. I already like pretty much any saag paneer but this one topped them all and made me feel impressed with me! The recipe came from Melissa Clark’s new book, “Dinner In One”. Perfectly heavy on the cumin seeds, garam masala, and shallots, plus a little buttermilk and heavy cream and just yes. Yes, yes, yes. I used The Big Moo baked cheese instead of paneer. One time Joey and I made our own paneer… this was better.
Monday, 10/10/22: Peanut Chicken. This peanutty, veggie-loaded recipe is my ride or die. I will love her forever.
Tuesday, 10/11/22: Tamale pie and salad. I always love the idea of tamale pie then am only mildly interested once it’s on my plate. This was a very easy recipe, also from Melissa Clark’s book, “Dinner In One”, and is super filling and easy to add kale, more beans, or other stuff to, which we did. And, the cornbread topping has a blanket of crispy cheddar cheese on top — who’s not here for that? But, I feel like I need to be more physically active in order to truly appreciate tamale pie’s heartiness.
Wednesday, 10/12/22: No cooking! Joey was out, it was just me, and I ate a bagel.
Thursday, 10/13/22: Pasta Amatriciana. If you want to feel like a total boss in the kitchen, get some pork shoulder, tomatoes, pecorino, lemon juice, and this recipe from “Italian American: Red Sauce Classics and New Essentials: A Cookbook” by Angie Rito and Scott Tacinelli. I made this for the girls I play spades with and it was a real moment. The slow-cooked cubes of pork gave the sauce a depth of flavor I’m not sure I’ve accomplished in my kitchen before and I felt like an Italian-cooking queen.
Friday, 10/14/22: Pizza and salad. As many other posts on this blog will tell you, I’ve been hunting for a new pizza dough recipe. Sadly, I have nothing to report after this one b/c we used fresh store-bought dough. The search continues.
That’s all!