Broiled Pork Chops

with baked sweet potatoes and broccoli.

Sauteed Grouper

with brown rice and broccoli.

Chia Seed Banana Bread

I read somewhere that if you include chia seed in your baking you can cut down on the fat. I'm normally pro-fat and not interested in cutting down on it, but I decided to try it in this case; I made my usual whole wheat banana bread but used about 3/4 the normal amount of butter, and included half a cup of gelled chia seed. And it's delicious! Even better than usual! I know because I ate about a third of the loaf just to be sure.

Grilled Mahi

with coleslaw (cabbage, carrots, soy sauce, rice vinegar, sesame oil) and baked potatoes.

Scrambled Eggs

with wonderful Birmingham-bought sourdough bread and roasted cauliflower, shiitakes, and red peppers.

Doily-Based Tank Top

Excuse the photo quality—moisture on the lens. This linen tank top was fun to make, as one knits it a hexagon at a time, rather than back in forth in rows as usual. Looks like wool season is over!

Grilled Steak

with broccoli and roasted pink, purple, and yellow potatoes.

Grilled Mackerel

with quinoa (holla NYT!) and broccoli.

When the Bread Doesn't Rise

I don't understand bread. This dough had so much rising power in the bucket it almost burst the lid. And yet, in the oven, almost nothing. A modest puffiness at best. Why? I'm sure there are answers, but I don't know them. The good thing is that, impressive rise or no, this is one of the tastiest loaves I've made in a while (100 g white, 100g sprouted spelt, 400g whole wheat).

Italian Sausage

with baked potatoes and spinach. I always forget how good a plain old baked potato is.

Scrambled Goose Egg

with baked sweet potatoes and broccoli rapini. Also, another loaf of bread got made, 1/3 white, 1/3 whole wheat, 1/3 sprouted spelt.

Beet Cake

I would say I followed the recipe in the Tassajara Cookbook for carrot cake, except that I diverged from it so much that it's not really true. What I did was use the recipe, but: I substituted golden beets for the carrots, and I added 2t vanilla, 1t salt, 2t baking powder, and 1t baking soda. I also cut the sugar in half. I think the final result is good, but with cakes like this one never really knows until the second day. My spouse thinks it's delicious today.

Broiled Skirt Steak

with broccoli and quinoa.

Scrambled Goose Egg

with sauteed cabbage and mushrooms, and baked sweet potatoes. A gorgeously colorful meal.

Fried Chicken

with brown rice and sauteed red cabbage. The best thing about this meal is that I get to have it all over again today at lunch.

Ugly Quiche

Last night I decided to use the extra crust that has been hanging around in my freezer since I made a pumpkin pie at Christmas. What I forgot is that, totally uncharacteristically, I had included some sugar in the dough. The resultant quiche (with onions and red peppers) was a little off to my palate, though my spouse liked it. Good thing; ugly quiches need love!

Banana Oatmeal Cookies

These are a variation on Maida Heatter's"Banana Rocks." They are, needless to say, made with whole wheat flour and slightly less sugar than called for. Like all spicy things, they really came to life on the day after I made them. One thing I hate doing is getting most of the way through a recipe before realizing I am missing a crucial ingredient. I know how much I hate it because I do it ALL the time. Yesterday the missing piece was raisins, but the cookies are delicious all the same.

Goose Egg Omelette

with mushrooms and cheese; with roasted cauliflower on the side. Love those goose eggs! Two of them made a bigger omelette than the spouse and I could finish.

Broiled Flank Steak

with roasted red peppers and broccoli.

Bean Soup

Navy beans with tomatoes, an onion, some Italian sausage, and kale. Soo delicious. I'm finally mastering bean cookery. I think it all gets down to this: if you cook them low and slow, and don't add too much liquid, they thicken the soup beautifully.