Hungry Times Two

It's a solid week for home cooked meals at the Adams family wee apartment: Sunday, I baked this Lemon Loaf Cake , subbing in Greek yogurt for sour cream. I also whipped up some tuna salad in advance for quick lunches this week and made this white bean dip from Giada De Laurentiis (I don't watch her show, but her recipes are featured in the 2007 Food and Wine compilation cookbook I love.) The tip is a nice change from hummus - creamier and not as "earthy" tasting, if that makes sense. For Sunday dinner, I made these Moroccan Meatballs with Eggs , as a good friend recently gifted me with her leftover Rachel Ray magazines. Man, those babies are packed with recipes...it's almost too much for the eyes! The lamb meatballs were fantastically flavorful, but the eggs didn't set for me as they suggested, so I warmed the bowls in the oven to get them to soft-cook. It didn't really work but we ate them anyway, runny yolks and eggs whites and all, and we're b...

I'm renewing our segment "We've Got It Made," in which we highlight our joint ventures in the kitchen. HTT is in the house, baby. After sitting on the recipes from the awesome Mrs. Wheelbarrow class on Easter Desserts for nearly a month, I up and went to the grocery store this a.m. to ensure I had all the ingredients to make a pretty pretty pavlova . Since I won't be here for Easter, I thought it would be nice to make it anyway.

Here I sit, typing on this wee blog, with my back to my grandmother's china cabinet (which was originally a pantry for my great-grandmother's pump house , where all the men would go to have a drink 'cause my great-grand didn't allow liquor in her home, thank you very much). Peering into the glass door of the cabinet, I see nine jars of Christmas Morning Marmalade, which I rechristened "Pucker Up Marmalade" after Scott and I spent nearly two hours peeling, slicing, and seeding an ungodly amount of citrus fruit right before Christmas.

In marriage, you can be honest, yes? Scott's always loved minestrone soup, but in past experience the recipe he followed turned out have more of a thick, stew- ish consistency that I don't really care for. He never has a problem telling me when something I make just isn't quite right. I usually know when 1) there's remnants of food on his plate, and 2) no " Mmmms " ever escape his lips. If it's not " Mmmm " worthy, just stop right there, rip up that recipe, and file a mental note never to make that again. Therefore, we set out on Thursday eve to make a Minestrone with the Mmmm factor. I'm happy to report that we succeeded - we cooked up a brothy , vegetable-laden soup that included beans (of which I used to be a naysayer. Now I love most of them!), and it's perfect for these fall days. Hello fall, we thought you'd never make it. Welcome! We took our lead from David Rosengarten's It's All American Food , the hardcover editio...

I introduce to you our new segment, "We've Got It Made." I know, right - cheesy yet oh-so-catchy. You may now roll your eyes, and continue reading, thanks. It's..wow...almost October, and while the last of the warm weather temps are fleeting and fading, we noticed our basil plants in our communal neighborhood garden are doing the same. Scott and I wanted to take advantage of the lovely herbs while they're still present and accounted for, so on Saturday night after a full afternoon of kayaking up and down the Potomac River, we set out to make pesto. Scott inspected the plants. And picked and picked and picked - two cups worth! I checked out the huge-ass pumpkins growing in the garden. And mourned the sad decline of beautiful sunflowers. Once inside, we combined forces to blend the basil, garlic, grated Parmesan cheese, pine nuts and olive oil, using the ever-handy The Joy Of Cooking's recipe . Indeed a joy. Yum. I boiled some fettuccine regate noodles (th...