This week, Ben and I sought to use up our leftover turkey, so we chose smothered turkey burritos. We had an absolutely wonderful Thanksgiving with friends and family, but let’s be honest. The holidays are exhausting! We needed something easy. Ben’s role in our meal was limited to lettuce prep, draining and rinsing a can…
S.O.S. – Something Old-School
Ben’s request this week was for waffles. Where that came from, I don’t know, but Phil upped the ante with chipped beef. There was some breakfast-for-dinner escalation, and plans threatened to spiral out of control, so I locked in waffles with creamed chipped beef. Done. Phil’s mom makes delicious overnight yeast waffles, and I vaguely…
Three Moneys Back!
Every week we give Ben $20, and he decides how he is going to use it. Left to his own devices, he would eat out for every single lunch for the rest of his life, but we limit that to once a week. We are trying to encourage budgeting, and his caregivers have been excellent…
What??? I gotta eat!!!
Indeed, Ben. Indeed. Sometimes, when he is tucking into an outrageously generous helping of something, or going for fourths, I give Ben the raised eyebrows. He always shrugs his shoulders and answers, “What? I gotta eat!” This week’s porterhouse steak was the culmination of Ben’s dreams, and the result of my seeing this new cooking…
Bones or No Bones
All of you social media-savvy readers will know that Noodle the pug is a Tik Tok sensation. When his owner holds him up in a standing position and lets go, sometimes he just flops over, as if he has no bones. That’s a no bones day. Sometimes, he stays standing. That’s a bones day. A…
ABC Pasta
A is for artichoke, B is for bacon, C is for cannellini beans. Ben and I were inspired by something we saw on a cooking show, but honestly, they had us at bacon. We kind of stopped listening after that. What we can tell you is that this dish worked out. It fills your belly…
The Zen of Ben (and Uptown Funk Sauce!)
At our house, we’ve been going a mile a minute. It seems that events and obligations came roaring back to life after lying dormant for over a year, and I’m not keeping up. My pandemic school day is a STRUGGLE, like walking under water all the time. Everything is just so much harder than it…
“Recorded Live at an Italian Party: Chao Chao”
This week we returned to an old favorite – chicken parm. The new twist was that we broke out the record player to enjoy “Recorded Live at an Italian Party: Chao Chao,” while cooking up a storm. In all fairness, not everyone was equally thrilled with the music selection. For some reason, “Uptown Funk” was…
Grandma’s Chicken and Dumplings
If you found last week’s chicken and dumplings bait and switch disappointing, we hope that this week’s recipe makes up for it. With pointers from my mom that I added to the margins of my Betty Crocker Cookbook in 1987, Ben and I recreated one of my favorite comfort foods from childhood. Chicken and Dumplings…
(Not Your Mama’s) Chicken and Dumplings
Calm down, all you central Pennsylvania friends. We are not providing a recipe for the “Pennsylvania Dutch” floating pie crust square version of chicken and dumplings that is very popular in this region. We went a different direction and made Asian chicken fingers, fried rice, pear cucumber salad, and Chinese dumplings we pulled from the…