June 15th 2025

Jun 15

The main dish this week was lasagna. It’s been on my mind since before we left for vacation - I considered making one so Jake, Peach, and Amanda could still eat Sunday Dinner in our absence, but then I ran out of time 😭 So this was our redemption meal 💪🏻 For dessert, after last weeks’ smashing popsicle success, I wanted to keep stick-based desserts going, so I planned on making strawberry shortcake ice cream bars 🍓 and matching Rice Krispie treats (since both recipes require Rice Krispies and freeze dried strawberries!) but then ALL the local supermarkets were out of freeze dried strawberries 😭 I ended up buying dried blueberries thinking I could just use them instead of strawberries - but freeze dried is very different from dried. I still went with brown butter Rice Krispie treats but with freeze dried raspberries I had in our pantry and used the dried blueberries to make rocky road bars and a blueberry thyme syrup to put on top of a last minute panna cotta I made 🤷🏻‍♀️

Also featured this week: the queen herself, Miss Panda 👑 (both physically trying to enjoy the lasagna and featured on Peach’s shirt)

Lasagna

We bought a new pan for this with an internal volume of 6.5 qt! You could wash a human baby in this thing it was so big. Recipe from Brian Lagerstrom.

Caesar Salad

Jacob requested this and in our house, ask and ye shall receive 🙏🏻 Same recipe from this Sunday Dinner.

Panna Cotta with Blueberry Thyme Syrup

Very much in my syrup era. Love the idea of keeping recipes simple but adorning them with seasonal, delicious flavors. So for this one, i used the dried blueberries and added some thyme to the jar while the syrup cooled. Ultimately this was a flop due to blueberries having basically no flavor and probably not adding enough thyme, but I will persist 💪🏻 Panna Cotta recipe from NYTimes.

White Chocolate Blueberry Rocky Road Bars with Toasted Almonds

Kitchen sink sort of recipe except with all the sweet ingredients I had purchased for this week along with some almonds to help balance out all that sugar.

Brown Butter Raspberry Rice Treats

I bought Rice Krispies for the ice cream bars I didn’t end making, so with just a few extra marshmallows (and other freeze dried fruits I keep in our pantry) I had this week’s take away treat! Recipe inspired by Smitten Kitchen. Pro tip: use mini marshmallows but then mix in a few regular sized at the end for a classic gooey texture 😋

Bee’s Knee’s Cocktail

2 oz gin, 3/4 oz honey syrup (1:1 honey to water), and 3/4 oz fresh squeezed lemon juice. Used my all time favorite Ford’s gin which has an herbaceous quality to it 👌🏻 And of course, used my favorite, Marshall’s honey 🍯

Amanda Adams