April 27th 2025
Menu
Back to dinner on a Sunday! We had a guest this week who’s got a real soft spot (pun intended) for butterscotch pudding, so that’s what we served for dessert. We also went to the farmers market together where we acquired most of the salad ingredients (including the bread for the croutons 🍞).
Spaghetti & Meat sauce
We doubled this recipe. It is the GOAT 🐐 Straightforward, uncomplicated technique - uses fewer dishes (!!) and yields a tender and perfectly chewy noodle.
Caesar Salad with Croutons
Farmer’s market red & bib lettuce
Whole Foods fennel, shaved very thin
Dino kale, cut into very thin strips (perpendicular to the stem - which you should also probably cut out).
Croutons made by cutting delicious crusty bread, tossing with oil, salt, and pepper and then cooking it in the oven that is still hot from the meat sauce until brown and crunchy (in other words, 425° for ~8 minutes?)
Dressing made by mixing the following ingredients👇🏻 and tossing them with the greens and croutons.
200g Mayonnaise
30g Parmesan cheese, grated
20g Olive oil
15g Worcestershire sauce
15g Anchovy paste
15g Lemon juice (juice of 1/2 lemon)
5g Dijon mustard
5g (1 clove) Garlic, pressed or minced
3g Salt
2g Black pepper
Black & White Cookies
Wanted to go with a NY classic for our NY guest for this week’s to-go option. Used my usual Melissa Clark Russ & Daughter’s version. Ended up making 5 batches because these cookies refused to hide my lazy impatience. So note to others: bring the butter to room temperature. It makes all the difference between a smooth perfect cookie / cake and what can best be described as cake gloop.
Butterscotch Pudding
Another Melissa Clark recipe served with toppings: slivered almonds (my favorite), chocolate chips (a classic), and candied ginger (too overpowering). The recipe talks mostly in times, I find it’s helpful to know / remember that corn starch needs to get to 203° in order to thicken so just a use a thermometer here to guarantee your pudding sets. I made two batches of these - one with scotch and one without. The scotch definitely brings a smoky sultry element, but didn’t ultimately feel necessary.