Coronavirus Menu Blog

Motivation: We're all stuck indoors these days. For us, this means a chance to be more ambitious about what we eat which, in turn, means getting to cook out of those cookbooks which have been too-long ignored. We're particularly anxious to explore James Peterson's Glorious French Food, Joanne Chang's Meyers & Chang At Home, and Dorie Greenspan's Around My French Table. We're also rooting through old standbys like David Rosengarden's It's All American Food and Jean-George's The Asian Flavors of Jean-George.

Posts are now in chronological order!

Friday, April 24

Lunch: Starting off the week with a bang! Some more of Deb's wonderful Cream of Tomato Soup. More bang! The remainder of last night's hanger steak and the final bit of the leftover Mac and Cheese.

Tomato Soup
Hanger Steak

Dinner: We were impressed with an anchovy pasta recipe in the Times but it turned out to be mediocre; the only saving grace was the sausage I added.

Spaghetti and Sausage

Saturday, April 25

Lunch: When we don't have anything obvious on hand we resort to the freezer with its supply of our homemade Mama Chang's dumplings.

Mama Chang's Dumplings

Dinner: We were finally more than ready for that duck which wouldn't thaw quickly enough. We tried James Patterson's recipe for blueberry sauce (The Duck Cookbook) but with raspberries; it was a hit!

Magret with Raspberry Sauce

Sunday, April 26

Breakfast: We wanted a special treat this morning so had buttermilk waffles with pecans:

Waffles with Pecans

Lunch: The tomato soup Deb made was such a hit that she decided to try the same formula for a beet soup. Sure enough, it was terrific, especially with the crème fraîche.

Beet Soup

Dinner: Tomasz has been learning about pasta preparations so we put him to work making penne al'arabiatta.

Penne al'Arabiatta

Monday, April 27

Lunch: We somehow never tire of having corned beef hash on hand. This almost finished it off.

Corned Beef Hash

Dinner: That whole beef tenderloin we cut up a while ago is now history. The fries will be back soon!

Tenderloin Fries

Tuesday, April 28

Lunch: We were quite happy to see that beet soup back on the table accompanied by my new fav, the flatbread you saw earlier.

Beet Soup and Flatbread

Special! Deb was so impressed that her friend who doesn't cook had made no-knead bread successfully that she wanted to try it herself. In particular, she wanted to make rye bread so I clamored for the inclusion of caraway seeds.

Rye Bread Loaf
Rye Bread Crumb

Dinner: If there's a duck in the house, it won't be long before Deb makes the duck ragu from Lupa and I make pappardelle.

Pappardelle with Duck Ragu

Wednesday, April 29

Lunch: Back to the freezer for another package of our homemade Mama Chang's dumplings.

Mama Chang's Dumplings

Dinner: Sorry to say that I must have left the camera's SD card in the iMac so the photos I thought I was taking of the terrific rack of lamb we'd cooked sous vide (129 degrees) in the vacuum-sealed package straight from Trader Joe's do not exist.

Thursday, April 30

Lunch: Deb went shopping again and brought back more pastromi so we could repeat our favorite Reuben sandwich which we could now have on her rye bread. I was so excited that I didn't remember to take the picture until it was almost gone!

Reuben Sandwich

Dinner: Since this was shopping day, Deb brought back some lovely salmon which I decided to sear. The fried shallots on top are my latest fixation (close behind the flatbread, which we now have daily). Cook's Illustrated described a method of frying the shallots in the microwave; it works well but they keep cooking after being removed so get quite dark.

Seared Salmon