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.

Paraphrasing someone or other:
“So much delicious food, so little time.”

Friday, June 19

We took a trip on the Vespa to the Charles Hotel farmer's market for strawberries (etc.) which turned into a trip to New Deal in East Cambridge (Courthouse Restaurant is doing take-out but the fish and chips need to be eaten immediately, so not good enough).

Lunch: Some tuna poke:

Tuna Poke: 70

Followed by hamachi sashimi with ikura:

Hamachi Sashimi

Dinner: New Deal had some nice local bluefish which we both enjoy broiled.

Bluefish:

With Boston lettuce with buttermilk dressing.

Boston Lettuce; Buttermilk Dressing

And, of course, those strawberries!

Strawberry Shortcake

Saturday, June 20

Lunch: We returned to the problem of Sesame Noodles and thought we were getting closer this time.

Sesame Noodles

Dinner: We punted with small servings of sesame noodles!

Sunday, June 21

Lunch: With a big meal planned for tonight, we punted again with shrimp dumplings (although they are worth punting for).

Shrimp Dumplings

Dinner: With Tomasz, we returned to the Leek and Potato Soup he almost finished last time and turned it into Vichyssoise.

Vichyssoise

Then, in the wake of Deb's double batch of duck ragu, on to pappardelle with duck ragu.

Pappardelle with Duck Ragu

Winding up with seasonal overload!

Strawberry Shortcake

Monday, June 22

Lunch:

Sesame Noodles
Cucumber Salad

Dinner:

Steak Tartare
Fries

Tuesday, June 23

We took our first trip to Wilson Farm of the season, returning with fresh figs and strawberries. (New Jersey blueberries too: Deb made the best blueberry coffeecake ever!)

Lunch: We had on hand the most flavorful and exactly-ripe cantalope we've ever eaten on this side of the Atlantic, so even with the figs we needed to add the melone. We're getting repetitive with the strawberry shortcake, but that's fine with me!

Prosciutto Melone and Figs
Strawberry Shortcake

Dinner: [not photographed and now disappeared in history!]

Wednesday, June 24

Lunch: Another part of our haul from Wilson's was crab meat and spring peas. We use the recipe from Faidley's in Baltimore for our crabcakes.

Crabcakes
Spring Peas

Dinner: Since we'd delayed lunch until 4pm. we really weren't in need of anything beyond our cocktail snacks. We're now addicted to Gin and Tonics with muddled mint (thanks to Star Lawrence's expertise).

Thursday, June 25

Lunch: Since we can get four reasonable crabcakes from a half-pound of crab meat, we were forced (!) to have more for lunch today.

Crabcakes

We felt that the spring peas trumped the asparagus yesterday, so we enjoyed it today.

Asparagus

Dinner: We'd been planning for many days to have the frozen lamb loin I'd butchered long ago. Tonight was finally the night! With flatbread, red peppers, sweet onion, tzatziki, and feta.

Lamb Kebabs Table
Lamb Kebabs
Flatbread