This Week’s Menu: Two at the Table Menu Week of April 23, 2017

We had a fantastic day trip to Boston this past Saturday, with lunch at Saltie Girl in Back Bay followed by a nice, long visit to the Museum and Fine Arts to see exhibits of works by artists Matisse and Botticelli; author and illustrator Robert McCloskey; and photographers Imogen Cunningham and Henryk Ross, the last a truly moving series of photos taken by Ross in the Lodz (Poland) Ghetto during World War II. We ended the day with a leisurely stroll down Newbury Street, a visit to the Dirty Water Dough Company for sandwiches to eat on the train, and a mad dash to the train station when we realized just how leisurely our stroll had been…

Before putting together our menu this week, we took a look through the fridge and freezer to take stock of leftover dinners from last week and ingredients we had around. As a result, we’ll have leftovers twice this week, but will also try several new recipes.

Sunday night will be the first night for leftovers, when we once again enjoy Food & Wine’s Baltimore Style Crab Cakes and Warm Potato Salad with Arugula. The crab cakes were truly spectacular, probably the best we’ve ever had, and there really isn’t much in them besides a lot of crab meat and a few crumbled saltines (plus mayo, mustard, hot sauce, and Worcestershire sauce). The potato salad was the perfect side: relatively light, as it has no mayo in it, with just enough vinegar to be a nice counterpoint to the natural sweetness of the crab meat. The dish was easy to make, so the only challenge we’ll have tonight is how to re-heat everything without drying anything out.

Tony will be on his own Monday night, as Kim will be at a meeting for the New York Junior League, but we’ll make a new dish on Tuesday, one inspired be food we had at Saltie Girl: Food & Wine’s Tuna Ceviche with Avocado and Cilantro. Kim had a fantastic halibut ceviche for lunch and it put us in the mood to make it ourselves. The general  recipe for ceviche is very simple — mix fresh seafood with an acid (like lime juice) and some veggies (usually including onion) and let it marinate for a longish while — and this recipe just adds some avocado and cilantro to make things more interesting. Ceviche is also a perfect summertime dish, as there is no need to turn on the oven, so it is one we will probably come back to a few more times when the weather heats up.

Our cats George and Henry have their annual check up at the vet on Wednesday night, so we won’t have much time to make dinner. Wednesday will therefore be our second night for leftovers and we’ll have Real Simple’s Chicken Thighs with Barley and Peas.

We had some ground beef in the freezer; two brioche rolls and plenty of goat cheese in the fridge; and a jar of beer bacon jam in the pantry, so we thought Thursday night would be a perfect night to make burgers. If Tony can find time to make them today (and past experience says he will), we’ll top the burgers not with just goat cheese and bacon jam, but also Food & Wine’s Pickled Shallots.

We’ll be having dinner out with friends on Saturday night, but Friday night will be pizza night, partly so we can use up some more things from the fridge, like yet more goat cheese, plus olives and anchovies. We’ll top the first pizza with caramelized onions, olives, and anchovies and the second “dessert” pizza with goat cheese with figs mixed in and arugula. Our real motivation, however, is less about keeping a clean fridge and more about trying a new recipe: Food 52’s No Knead Pizza Dough. Typically, when we make pizza, we use pre-made dough, simply in the interest of time. (Pizza dough isn’t hard to make, but it does take a little while, so it’s not the best things to tackle at the end of long day at work.) We thought it would be fun to make the dough from scratch and are excited to try a new recipe that promises to make that process as simple as possible. Speaking of simplification, we’re also turning to Food 52 for the real scoop on caramelizing onions. How long should it really take? Read the article and find out…