let’s eat: on the menu

Traveling over Spring Break was a lot of fun, but I’m always surprised at how quickly I’m ready to be back in my own kitchen after eating out for awhile. My parents gave me an early birthday present while we were there visiting – The Fat Radish Kitchen Diaries cookbook – and I was ready to dive in as soon as we got home. When I was in New York a few years ago with my mother- and sister-in law, we ate at The Fat Radish and it was delicious. The cookbook came out late last year, and it’s been on my wish list since then.

I basically opened the cookbook to the Spring section and got to work.

On Saturday I made the New Potato Salad and also the Charred Snap Peas with Mint Salt and Chili Oil. I am completely won over by the potato salad, and will likely bring it places from now on to make new friends. The recipe has a lot going on it – including pickling red onions – but it was completely worth it. I ate leftovers for lunch all week. The snap peas would be a great starter at a party.

While I was working on those recipes, I had some rhubarb stewing in the oven. I improvised my own recipe using the technique in Jeni’s cookbook, but added a few of the ingredients suggested in The Fat Radish – whole oranges and bay leaves and cinnamon sticks to name a few – and crossed my fingers. Divine.

Saturday afternoon was warm, sunny, and the house smelled heavenly. While things were pickling and stewing and baking I alternated between spring cleaning and reading. It was good, good, good to be home.

Sunday I continued to cook from my new book, making a lunch of Avocado Toasts with Eggs. It was so good we’re having it for dinner later this week – soft boiled eggs, avocado smashed onto toasted country bread (from Whole Foods), topped with olive oil and halved eggs, sprinkled generously with coarse salt, red pepper flakes and sriracha.

Since I was on a roll, for dinner I made Grilled Spring Cabbage & White Bean Soup. I’m sort of so-so on soups in general, it takes a lot to wow me. This one did.

Monday night is our biggest gym night, so we have a few go-to’s for those late dinners. We had Linguine with Pesto and served it with some more of the grilled country bread leftover for the weekend.

Tuesday night M was in Omaha, so the girls and I headed over to Quincy Street Bistro. Stellar food there, but particularly good burgers. E and I both swear they are the best we’ve ever had. We can’t eat there too often for that very reason.

It was nice to have Blue Apron this week, after last week’s travels. It made the grocery run a lot easier when we got back into town. Wednesday night I made the Mushroom & Vegetable Pot Pie with Cheddar Cheese Biscuits while everyone else was swimming at the Y. They came home from the gym and we all dug in. I wasn’t that excited for it – probably because it seems like a wintry dish and the weather this past week was so cold and gray and crappy that I just wanted to continue to eat foods filed under Spring. Then we ate it and apologized to it for being such a grump.

The winning recipe from Blue Apron this week was Warm Golden Beet & Freekah Salad with Apples and Goat Cheese. Thursday night I had a last minute meeting, so M fed the girls earlier in the evening, and we made dinner when I got home and watched it in front of the Kentucky-West Virginia game. The recipe included chopped walnuts which would have been delicious on top, but even though E wasn’t eating with us, we still skipped them.

While we were watching the game, I received a text from a family friend. He was in town for a conference and wondered if I could meet up with him on Friday. We decided to take him out to Pasteria for dinner, and after a pretty long wait for dinner (am I the last to hear about the No Wait app?), we had a great meal together. F polished off her dinner with Raspberry Black Peppercorn Gelato at ten p.m. She was conflicted on gelato choices – her other choice was Irish Potato Cake steeped in cloves. I swear she’ll eat anything in ice cream form. (Her standing favorite is Basil!)

Saturday night we made the last Blue Apron meal, Whole Wheat Spaghetti Carbonara with Smoked Tofu & Pea Tips. Everyone ate it and liked it, but I’m not a huge fan of smoked tofu. I would have liked it much better with just regular tofu, but everyone still had seconds to fuel them up for another exciting night of basketball.

I almost forgot lunch on Saturday – Grilled Asparagus with Gribiche or over Polenta. This was the meal I had planned for Tuesday night but opted to shift to the weekend when M’s travel plans changed. It was nice to have the sun out – even if it was still freezing outside – and to eat a little spring on the inside, crossing our fingers that maybe it’s really coming to stay.

Hope you found something good on your table this week. Please share if you’d like.