Reflecting on Nine Months of Pandemic Cooking - 2020

 Since I got married in 2010, I have kept track of every dinner I have every made.  This is the first time I have looked back on a year of cooking and reflected upon the results.  

Thus, my reflections.  

1) January and February 2020:  During these two months,  I was practicing ( and had been practicing for five previous months) the FasterWay diet, and trying to incorporate the program's meals (recipes) into my family's life, because I was paying for the program's recipes. As a result, I  lost 15 pounds and wanted to maintain that loss.  Yet, the FasterWay recipes were not good.  Nine years of near daily cooking had made me a better cook than those recipes.  The calendar also shows that I was cooking only about four evenings a week during these two months, and I can't even remember how we spent our time outside the house.  

2) March 2020:  First half of the month, I stopped paying for the FasterWay recipes, and tried to maintain a dairy and gluten-free diet on my own.  The challenge really begins halfway through the month, for obvious reasons.  

3) April/May 2020:  I run a pretty tight meal schedule, as I've described in my previous post. "Eating Out" is replaced with steak.  Going to the grocery store becomes my only way out of the house.  We eat a lot of Reid's Fine Foods.  The workers still don't recognize me after taking my temperature almost daily.  

4) May/June 2020:  Try and use beets and carrots from our garden. We eat our first asparagus harvest!  We eat outside every meal. The weather saves our lives. 

5) June/July/August 2020:  Large group cooking at the Vineyard for family.  Using up the tomatoes in the garden. Lots of panzenella salads with no cheese, since I am largely avoiding mozzarella (though still occasionally making the old tomato mozzarella standby).  

6) September/October/November/December 2020: Zoom school returns. Preschool returns and saves my life. We return to a pretty standard meal schedule that is largely dairy-free, but with a new emphasis on feeding the kids what they like (even more than before...).  Recipes focus on Chicken Pot Pie, Meatloaf, and other kid friendly fare. I finally made pie crust (my one pandemic goal).  I cooked no holiday meals for the first time in ten years.  

New cook books acquired this year:  Sam Sifton's See you on Sunday and Vivian Howard's This Will Make it Taste Good.

Cookbooks used the most: 

1) Skinnytaste's One and Done, as well as her first and original Everyday continue to be used almost every other week.  Her Turkey Meatloaf and Chicken Pot Pie are two of the kids' favorite meals.  

2) The Dinner Plan and Keepers:  I continue to cook through these gems.  All the recipes are on point and well tested.  I have repeated mostly salmon recipes, mainly the Southwest Salmon, and the Yogurt Marinated Salmon.  

3) Jenny Rosenstrach's Dinner a Love Story/Celebrations/Dinner: The Playbook.  Her marinated grilled chicken recipes are always summer hits, i.e.. her Picnic Chicken, and her Yogurt Marinated Lemon Grilled Chicken. Also, her prose and blog were a balm during quarantine. 

4) New York Times Food App.  No competition for its search functions, and the fact that it stays open as you cook the recipe.  

Recipe Review 2020 

 I couldn't think too hard about this, or I would never write this.

Best overall dish:  Vivian Howard's Chicken Toast from This Will Make it Taste Good.

Best comfort food that never gets old:  Burgers from Reid's Fine Foods. Add Chef Alyssa's Tomato Jam, and you are transported.  

Best Stew:  Southern Living's One Pot Beef Stew.  I tried many this past year and I always enjoy the dab of Dijon mustard added at the end of this one.  

Best New Potato Salad:  Sam Sifton's Potato Salad from See you on Sunday surpasses any potato salad I have ever made.  It will be hard to make a different one in the future.

Best and most versatile vegan meal:  Melissa Clark's Black Bean Tacos with Pickled Onions.  Kids eat them and can add cheese.  I get a dairy-free/gluten-free meal that is really, really good and easy.  

Best dairy free soup:  Mark Bittman's Carrot Soup.  Uses coconut milk.  With the use of an immersion blender, there are not many dishes to clean.  Win/win!  

Cooking Resolutions for 2121

1) Continue the search for good dairy free recipes.

2) Continue to try different recipes for meatloaf/meatballs and chicken pot pie.  

3)  My husband wants me to make gazpacho.  

4) Make this NY Times pizza dough.  First I have to buy the flour.   

Bardo - Restaurant Review

Charlotte needs a restaurant like Bardo.  While "foodie" cities like New York, San Francisco, Toronto each had  Modern* style restaurants, Charlotte had NONE. For many deprived years, if your palate craved an eclectic fix, you had to get on a plane. Now, you only have to take a short trip from Uptown.  If you want to be extra hip and young, take a scooter!

The Nowaiters have a long restaurant history and seasoned palates, and many dicey Charlotte restaurant experiences.  Voted Best Restaurant by Charlotte Magazine in 2019 and Best New Restaurant by the Charlotte Agenda, Bardo had high expectations to fulfill, and within one hour, they met ours.

Located in the hip South End, Bardo is in a converted garage-like space with little signage to alert the passer-bys. The dining room is sparse of decoration and the open kitchen is Scandinavian-like in its cleanliness and movement. Electronica music beats lightly in the background, and waitstaff seem to move to the beat.  With  few tables seated at 6 PM, we gathered the attention of most service staff during out meal.

The center stage kitchen creates carefully arranged, locally foraged dishes from a variety of food cultures.   Menu items such as Aged Ribeye contain local beef, Carolina gold rice, yet is also served with kimchi, most likely made from local cabbage.  Scallops are served with pad thai and bamboo rice, and the asparagus was served as a tempura, but using the rare spring ingredient ramps.  We also reordered Bardo's signature dish, the "egg and grain", which is exactly how what it states, only delicately presented and more savory than your standard morning fare. The three dessert choices are all sweet and savory, such as carrot cake with cardamom, and ricotta with herbs and oxtails; each bite had a nip of acidity, yet kept you returning for more until your plated was wiped. While all dishes are meant to be shareable, they can also (and probably should be) eaten individually.

 Meanwhile, signature cocktails and an uncommon wine list made for hard decisions. Bardo strays from its local roots to introduce small wineries from far and wide.  Grapes available by the glass included standard chardonnay and pinot noir, to a chancier Malvasia Bianca (canned wine!) and Cabernet Franc. The cocktails stick with Bardo's sweet and savory theme by combining flavors such as banana cinnamon and rum in a drink called "Cruel Summer", or Gin, lemongrass, and mint in the fittingly named "South Mint."

While the Nowaiters could have tried every drink, and probably needed a few more dishes, we had places to go, a symphony to see, and babies to return home to. But we will be returning again and again, and then maybe get a burger afterwards.

Food: 43
Beverage: 15
Service: 20
Ambience: 17 (bathroom is awkwardly in the front of house)

Total: 95

* In this review, a "Modern" restaurant is one that experiments with local ingredients in the essence of the original ElBulli, for former iconic Modern restaurant which was in Spain.  

It's My Turn!

I finally get to cook Thanksgiving Dinner for my family this year!! (Now I am going to try and write this post without any exclamation marks.)

Reflecting on my previous post - Dream Thanksgiving and Christmas Meals - I find that my menu has not changed.  I am sticking to the Pioneer Woman's Beautiful Brussels Sprouts, and my Mother's Party Mashed Potatoes.  I am still going to have only two pies. My Mother is going to make her Apple Pie, and I am going to order Chocolate Pecan Pie from Great Harvest, along with rolls.
Questions to contemplate:
1) Should I order my turkey from Midwood Smokehouse? It comes smoked and is probably phenomenal.
2) What wine should I buy?  Definitely on the list - two bottles of Biltmore Champagne, North Carolina at its finest.  Should I take advantage of the Harris Teeter 15% of a half dozen bottles this weekend? Most definitely.
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Elisabeth has awoken from her mini nap.  Maybe I will just write mini posts now instead of waiting until I have a larger chunk of time. My appetite is back, and I have a lot to say.

(Also, I will throw away that Miso Paste in the refrigerator. I can't believe it has been over a year since it was purchased.)

Salmon Salad with Herbed Yogurt

Salmon Salad with Herbed Yogurt



I wish I had a photo of our meal. It looked just like this.....  My parents visited from Cohasset, MA this week and helped out immensely with the children and the house. (Thank you!)  I was able to prepare this easy Salmon Salad with cucumbers, canned beans, lemons, prewashed spring mix lettuce, and grilled salmon. Went perfectly with the perfect 80 degree weather.  Low in carbs, and definitely a keeper!  

Hopes I Have for my Daughters

I started this blog last summer, when I had my two daughters in camp every day.  I see that I have not posted since February. This is because we are expecting daughter number three(!), and daughters one and two were only going to school three days a week.  Now they are back in camp!  I have my iced coffee, and I could not resist the computer.

Since we are expecting our third daughter, I thought I would write a list of expectations and hopes for them.
I hope you:
never get tattoos.  There should be no explanation needed.
enjoy reading.
love learning.
are respectful of your elders.
are kind to workers in the service industry.
write thank you notes.
appreciate nature.
go to church.

I realize this is only a short list. Don't want to make expectations too high!

Super Bowl Family Get Together

Normally, my brother in-law and sister in-law take on the burden of family entertaining during this great American pastime. But, they have a five month old, and it was "our turn" in the family cycle of entertaining, and I was up for the challenge.

The goal, an "easy" prepare-ahead meal that could be enjoyed by kids and adults alike.

Result: meh.....

Menu:
Chips and guacamole:  Bought.

Baked Potato Bar:  Made real bacon bits ahead of time - great. Bought shredded cheese (usually a big no-no for me, but with nine people eating, a necessity) and sour cream, and shredded some broccoli. Potatoes came out lovely. Well received and very-doable.

Chicken Wings:  Had to make this classic super bowl meal. I didn't eat them (can't look at chicken while pregnant....). Adults liked them. Kids liked them.  My daughter ate THREE.  Made the sauce in the morning.  Should have used aluminum foil on the pans. My husband is still soaking them two weeks later.  

Caesar Salad: My Mom's classic.  Made the dressing in the morning.  Have to write a separate post about this someday. Not my best....Mom can make it better.  

Homemade Chocolate Ice Cream for dessert.  She who makes it gets to pick the flavor. Made ahead of time.  Fabulous and finished by all!

"Meh" explanation:

Positive:  The food was happily eaten by all (except my daughters won't eat potatoes that are not in the form of a fry).  The preparation was not difficult, with salad dressing, ice cream, chicken wing sauce, and potato ingredients all prepared ahead of time - only took about an hour in the morning. Meal presentation looked good. I am blessed with appropriate serving dishes and utensils, and coincidentally "Panther" colored plates.

Negative:  The dishes.....  what are we going to do with these.They took forever, an it was not because of plates, bowls, and glasses.  I HATE PAPER PLATES, BOWLS, AND CUPS. Not only do you feel guilty using them, they are not the items that take masses of time putting in the dishwasher. Five minutes tops for all those dishes.  It is cleaning and drying the cooking and serving dishes, and figuring out how to store the leftovers (I HATE leftovers, mostly for this reason) that took took over an hour and left me in shambles.  I could not move. There needs to be a solution to this problem.  I am not entertaining until summer.

Finally, A Dinner Party!

The husband and I used to host many dinner parties when we lived in NYC.  First, I loved to cook. Second, it was cheaper than eating out. Third, people were readily available and always willing to come over. And finally, you didn't need to hail a cab home.  Even after we had our first child, we invited people over for dinner so they could share stories from humanity with us and maybe bounce our baby while we sipped a drink.  Dinner parties were a win win.

Then, we moved to Charlotte. While we have made many friends, we have also had another child, and said children have grown into wild animals who have taken over our house.  Our friends also have young children, and inviting parents and children for a sit down dinner party/booze fest around dinner time, well......you can imagine.

Then, a few months ago, some friends of ours invited us over for dinner. The kids ate (a bit) and ran around like wild animals in princess dresses, and we drank wine and ate chili.  When our hosts managed to kick us out, we went home to our clean kitchen, and, lo and behold, the kids crashed.  I started thinking that a dinner party might be future possibility.

So, we invited our previous hosts to our house, and they were willing to come!  While the kids ran around in princess dresses destroying the upstairs, we were able to sit uninterrupted for ten minutes while we sipped drinks and ate with real napkins.  It was practically civil!

The following was served (to the adults):

Steak Teriyaki  - A family go-to that originated with my Mother. Always a hit! The link is to a similar recipe.

Tomato and Mozzarella Salad - I know that it is Winter, but I could not resist. I paid way too much for tomatoes, and they still were not great.

Caesar Salad - I used the pre-made salad mixes and added extra croutons.

Warm French bread - People of my generation really don't eat bread anymore. Was useful for the kids, but we had a lot leftover.  

Almond Cake - Made this for the first time. Giada DeLaurentis' recipe. Lots of holding the hand held electric mixer (when I get more counter space, you can bet on the first item I will be acquiring!).  I also used white cornmeal instead of yellow. Tasted amazing.