Italian Sausage

(sweet) with broccoli rapini and roasted potatoes. Carrot cake for dessert.

Broccoli and Mushroom Fritatta

with roasted potatoes. For dessert, carrot cake.

Clamshell Bread

I think it looks like a clamshell or like a French macaron. Either way it's delicious; half white, half sprouted spelt flour. I'm thinking my ideal flour to water ratio is 2:1. I'm also learning that in addition to making bread palatable (to me) salt makes the crust color and crisp properly.

Fried Chicken

(wonderful Amish raised tasty chicken thighs) with broccoli rapini and fresh bread.

Broiled Skirt Steak

marinated in soy sauce, with broccoli and brown rice.

Sourdough

Here is the latest in my Anarchiste series of loaves. This is delicious, with a wonderful chewy crumb and a distinct sour tang. I attribute the latter to making the sponge with half white, half sprouted spelt flour; I find the more whole grain in the part of the dough that ferments overnight, the more sour flavor. In the end this loaf was composed of about 400g white flour (100 of which were the starter), 100g sprouted spelt flour, and 100g rye flour. I don't know how much water I used, but it was enough to make the dough impossible to work with, and beautifully textured once baked.

Scrambled Eggs

with fried potatoes (lots of them), and spinach.

Fried Chinese Dumplings

The gift that keeps giving!

Chinese Dumplings

for the second night in a row. This is how to throw a dinner party: invite a family to your house with nothing better to offer them than take-out pizza; have them show up with handmade dumplings, fresh herbs, and chinese vinegar; generously accept their offer to cook for you instead, and then feast off the leftovers for days afterward. Nice work if you can get it.

This and That

Bring-home sushi, a fried egg, a red pepper—not much cooking going on around here for dinner lately.

Fish Soup

I don't know what got into me, but I made a soup out of a big piece of cod, a potato, three leeks, some cream, and some jellied chicken juices. It was pretty good, but will probably be better tomorrow.

Scrambled Eggs

with sweet potatoes and broccoli.

Auction Bread

A number of months ago I offered to include some bread in an auction for a local literary magazine. I never heard that it was included, and forgot all about it, until a few weeks ago when a colleague of mine came to my office and (in the kindest, least demanding way possible) told me he had bid on and won it. So when I made this loaf (half white, half whole wheat) I gave it away without tasting a crumb, a first for me. Hope it tasted as good as it smelled.

Broiled Mackerel

with quinoa and sauteed cabbage. My spouse called the fish "a little fishy" and wasn't wild about it, but since fish can never be too fishy for me, I adored it.

Banana Bread

As always I used Nigella Lawson's recipe as a template, and also as always I tinkered: I used half spelt, half whole wheat flour, cut the sugar in half, and added a quarter cup of chia seeds. Do you know about chia seeds? You can Google and read about their being the next wonder food, but for cooking purposes they are fun because they absorb water like nobody's business, turning into a strong gel within minutes of adding water. I can't detect their presence in the banana bread, which is delicious (whether because of the chia or despite it I don't know).

Scrambled Eggs

with quinoa and roasted vegetables (cauliflower, red peppers, and shiitakes). Can't beat that meal.

Grilled Mahi

with quinoa and cold asparagus marinated in rice vinegar/soy sauce/olive oil.