What We Ate: a seasonal reminder of dinner at our house.

Sometimes, like on a rainy, cold, March night when the snow isn't yet gone but the day has been gray and gloomy and everything is wet and cold, comfort food is the only option. Enter mac and cheese. We ate this a lot when the kids were little and it's still a favorite but I make it once or twice a year now since we have dairy free human in the house. It's nearly never the same recipe but it looks something like this: equal tablespoons of butter and flour (3 is a good place to start) 1/2 c whole milk per tablespoon of butter (I mean, I just poured some in and let's be clear, the sell by date on that carton is nearly 30 days ago but it smelled fined). So I might have poured a cup and half but it also might have been 2 cups. cheese - whatever is around - tonight I used 1.5 to 2 cubic inches (roughly) of each of the following: cheddar, swiss, havarti but you could also use mozzarella, gouda, parmesean, whatever... Salt to taste (at least a teaspoon and half - mayb...

We eat a lot of tacos. A lot. But really, what's not to love. They can be customized to each individual's peculiar tastes and they make great left overs. We have several regular 'go to' taco recipes but I thought I'd try a new one . This one was attractive because of the "throw it all in the slow cooker and let it cook for five hours" nature of the directions. I followed the directions- mostly- but used chicken breast instead of thighs because that's what I had in the freezer. And I left the black beans on the side. Served with all the sides: cilantro, avocado, sour cream, salsa verde, chopped purple cabbage and pickled red onion. The general consensus was they were good but not awesome and at least 2/3 of the rest of the family thought they were too sweet. Our regular tacos have no sweet, only spice and, apparently, we've grown rather fond of them.

It's as good as it sounds. It's so good that I never got around to taking a picture of it (photo below from my stock kitchen photos). Ingredients: 4 or 5 slices of bacon 1 onion chopped (I used a sweet onion but I've also used a yellow onion) 2 cloves of garlic (in the picture below it's two heads but they are very, very small) 14 oz of some sort of processed tomato 8-12 oz of linguine 1/2 t dried basil 1/2 dried oregano a glug (1/4 c?) of the red wine that's turning to vinegar in the fridge (or actual red wine vinegar that you bought in the store) salt and pepper to taste fresh parsley to taste parmesean to taste Cook the bacon till crispy, take out of the pan and chop into tiny pieces Add the chopped onion and minced garlic to the bacon fat (remove some bacon fat if it's too much - I'll let you decide how much is too much). Cook until tender. Add the tomatoes and simmer for 15 to 20 minutes (or until you've finished the wo...

We're dying for spring around here. While the snow is melting, the ground is still overwhelmingly white. The longer sunny days though have has longing for crispy, fresh greens. I found this recipe earlier this year when I had extra snap peas left over from something or other. I made it pretty much followed the recipe (shocking. I know.) Served it with jasmine rice and boom - dinner in less than 45 minutes. I forgot to take a picture until half way through dinner.

If by chance you made too much of this lovely winter bruschetta  when you were eating with your vegetarian friends and threw a quart of it in the freezer, and now you are looking for a dinner for two that is savory on a still too cold (for March) winter night, then you might cook a couple of sweet Italian sausages in a heavy bottom pan and add the thawed bruschetta and a couple of cups of freshly chopped kale for a nearly perfect meal. The only thing that might make it more perfect is a baguette on the side with lots of butter. (I divide this into two smaller loaves instead of one big one.)