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We had a couple of really nice surprises this Lazy Thursday. The first was that Shane joined us for dinner at Espresso 77, for the first time ever!

The other surprise was that our good friend Sean bought us a really generous gift certificate, which should cover our Lazy Thursday dinners for many weeks to come, even if Shane decides to join us again.

Thanks Sean!

The dinner forethought continues, for another week at least.

Tonight’s make-ahead meal was Spinach & Bufala Mozzarella Lasagna. This is one of our crazy schedule nights, so I made the lasagna yesterday while Shane and Rose were at Costco.

I did it in two pans, one for today, and one for some time in the future. The today lasagna I cooked, the future lasagna I wrapped and put in the freezer, uncooked.

Tonight’s lasagna sat out on the counter all day to come to room temperature. When Shane arrived home at 7:45, he put it in a 200 degree oven. By the time we were ready to eat, at 8:15, it was warm enough.

It was a great lasagna, which we promptly devoured. It would probably be even better straight from the oven (instead of reheated) but nobody complained, not even the kid.

• Spinach & Bufala Mozzarella Lasagna •
adapted from this recipe from Martha Stewart

 Notes: I thought that the original recipe was going to be a bit too green for my peeps. And, I wanted to use bufala mozzarella because I love it so much. My version reduces the spinach by half , swaps out and increases the quantity of cheese and eliminates the zucchini.

If you are going to do this as a make-ahead dish, assemble the whole thing but don’t cook it. Cover it with greased foil and store it in the fridge or freezer until the day you plan to serve it. Then, bring it to room temperature and put it in the preheated oven about an hour and twenty minutes to an hour and a half before serving.

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 small yellow onion, finely chopped
1 1/2 teaspoons Kosher salt
1 pounds fresh spinach, tough stems removed if not using baby spinach
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/4 cup all purpose flour
1 quart milk
1 packed cup grated Pecorino Romano
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
9 ounce package no-boil lasagna noodles, I like Barilla
1lb Bufala mozzarella, torn into bite-size chunks
1/3 packed cup grated Pecorino Romano

Preheat oven to 375 degrees with rack in middle position (unless you’re making it for another day – see notes above).

Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a large pot over medium heat. When oil shimmers, add onions and 1/2 teaspoon salt and cook, stirring occasionally, until translucent, 3 minutes. Add spinach, a few handfuls at a time, and cook, stirring frequently, until all spinach is wilted, but not brownish, 3-5 minutes. Transfer to a mesh strainer and press spinach against the side with a wooden spoon, to remove as much liquid as possible.

In a medium saucepan, make the bechamel. Melt butter over high heat. Add flour and cook, whisking constantly for about a minute. Add milk and continue whisking frequently, until milk begins to boil and thickens enough to coat the back of a spoon (ie: thick gravy or melted ice cream consistency). The thickening might take a while, up to 20-25 minutes.

Remove bechamel sauce from heat, and stir in 1 cup Pecorino, nutmeg, 1 teaspoon salt, and black pepper. Cover the pan with a lid and stir from time to time to keep a skin from forming while you get ready for the next step.

Spread 1 cup bechamel along the bottom of a 9- by 13-inch baking dish. Place one-third of noodles over bechamel in a single, overlapping layer. Top with 1 cup bechamel, half of spinach and half the mozzarella. Repeat with a second layer of noodles, bechamel, remaining spinach and remaining mozzarella. Top with a final layer of noodles, remaining bechamel and 1/3 cup Pecorino. Cover with greased foil and bake 45 minutes. Remove foil and continue baking until cheese is golden in places and lasagna is bubbling along the edges, about 15 minutes.

Remove lasagna from oven and let stand 20 minutes before slicing and serving.

If, like me, you have a surplus of CSA bok choy taking up valuable space in your fridge, and in your mind, look no further than this recipe from Mark Bittman.

I will never again lament the presence of this lovely green in my CSA box. In fact, I might go so far as to purchase bok choy in the off-season.

We had Boy Choy with Shiitakes and Oyster Sauce, with simple broiled shrimp—loosely based on this recipe—and plain old white rice. The bok choy dish is pretty salty and very flavorful. I used minimal seasoning on the shrimp, and could have used even less.

This would also work well with a simple chicken or pan-fried tofu, instead of shrimp.

• Boy Choy with Shiitakes and Oyster Sauce •
from Mark Bittman

Notes: I couldn’t find dried shiitakes today, so I doubled the quantity of fresh. I also didn’t know exactly what was meant by “commercial oyster sauce.” Does it mean store bought (not homemade)? Or does it mean an industrial brand like what I imagine is used in restaurants? I don’t know. I just used the kind they sell at my grocery store. Lastly, the oyster sauce is a bitch to get out of the bottle, I recommend decanting to a measuring cup before you start cooking.

1/4 cup dried shiitake mushrooms
1 1/2 pounds bok choy, trimmed
1/4 cup peanut oil
1 tablespoon minced garlic (optional)
1 cup fresh shiitake mushrooms, cleaned, trimmed and sliced (double, or more than double this if you aren’t using dried shiitake)
1/2 to 3/4 cup commercial oyster sauce (or whatever they have at your local store)*

1. Soak dried shiitakes in one cup of very hot water until tender, about 15 minutes. Drain, reserving liquid. Trim mushrooms and chop. Separate leaves and stems of bok choy; cut stems into 2-inch lengths and slice leaves into ribbons. You can also leave the leaves whole, particularly if using baby bok choy.

2. Heat 2 tablespoons oil in a wok or large skillet over high heat. When oil is hot, add bok choy stems, garlic if you are using it, reconstituted mushrooms, and about 1/4 cup reserved mushroom water. Cook, stirring frequently, until stems are crisp-tender, about 4 minutes.

3. Meanwhile, in a small skillet heat remaining 2 tablespoons oil; sauté fresh shiitake mushrooms over medium-high heat. Continue cooking until they begin to brown and crisp on edges.

4. Into the large skillet or wok, add bok choy leaves and oyster sauce and toss vegetables gently to combine; continue cooking until greens wilt, about 2 more minutes. Serve immediately, topped with crisp mushrooms.

*The oyster sauce is very salty, you may want to start with 1/3 cup and taste, adding more if necessary.

It was a long day. Shane wanted to order sushi. I was okay with sushi, but wanted a homemade salad. Rose didn’t want sushi at all.

The solution? Shane made Rose penne with olive oil, grated pecorino and bacon. I made an arugula and honeycrisp apple salad, and Spicy Shallot brought sushi.

It seemed like more work than necessary, but everyone was happy and fed.

Thursday really is the new Wednesday, Lazy Wednesday that is. It just makes more sense for us.

Tonight, Rose and I did our volunteer duty at Farm Spot, and then hopped over to Espresso 77 for our favorite “Ladies night out” dinner.

Rose grabbed half her grilled cheese and disappeared underneath the table when I got my camera out. Thus the dramatically underpopulated image above.

It was so fall-ish today! With a nip in the air, and a drawer full of CSA squash, how could I make anything but soup for dinner?

The soup was butternut and acorn with fennel (recipe below). I served it with crusty Ciabatta, Frommager D’Affinios, and a side of Weekday Chicken, cooked with butter in a sauté pan, instead of in the grilling pan.

A dinner like tonight’s breaks down nicely around here: Shane eats everything, except sometimes the cheese (and then has a few bowls of Cheerios an hour later). Rose eats the chicken and maybe a little bit of cheese, but no soup or bread. I eat the soup, the bread and the cheese. It’s kind of a beautiful thing, really.

• Butternut Squash Soup with Fennel •

3 – 4 lbs. butternut or acorn squash, or a combination of the two
olive oil
salt & pepper
5 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 large yellow onion, chopped
1 large fennel bulb, chopped
3 cups water plus 1 tablespoon Vegetable Better Than Bouillon (or 3 cups of vegetable or chicken broth)
scant 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon*
creme fraiche or heavy cream to garnish (optional)

Note: This recipe is prep-as-you-go, meaning, there’s no need to chop and measure anything in advance, unless you really want to.

Heat oven to 350 and line a baking tray with foil. Halve your squash lengthwise and scoop out the seeds and associated gunk. Lay each squash piece, cut side up on the baking tray. Put a little olive oil in the hole where the seeds used to be and then use your fingers to oil the whole cut surface of the squash. Season the squash generously with salt and pepper, flip and lay cut side down, on the baking tray. Bake until soft when pricked with a knife, about 30-40 minutes. Remove from oven and set aside to cool.**

In a large saucepan or dutch oven, melt the butter over medium-low heat. When the butter is melted add the chopped onion and stir to coat with butter, reduce heat to low. While the onion is cooking, trim the leafy parts off of your fennel bulb, quarter it, cut out the core and roughly chop it. Add fennel to the onion, stir to combine and let it cook. While that’s happening, scoop the flesh out from the skin of the roasted squash. (Be sure not to let the onion and fennel brown, check and stir occasionally while scooping.) I like to use a spoon and my hands to separate the flesh from skin. It will take a bit of work in certain areas but should be mostly easy to do. By the time you’ve removed all of the flesh, the onion should be nice and soft, and the fennel starting to soften.

Add the squash to the onion and fennel, and mash and stir a bit with a wooden spoon. Cook for about a minute. Add the water and Better Than Bouillon (or broth) and bring to a boil. Reduce heat so that the soup is simmering and cover, leaving the lid a little bit ajar. Cook for 30-45 minutes until the fennel pieces are soft and translucent.

Add the cinnamon, if using, then blend with an immersion blender or food processor (I recommend the immersion blender because you don’t need to remove and return the soup to the pot, and you can do it all at once), until nice and smooth. If you like your soup a bit thinner, add an additional cup of water plus one teaspoon of bouillon (or an additional cup of broth). Season with salt and pepper. Keep warm, covered, over a very low flame until ready to serve. Serve with a dollop of creme fraiche or a swirl of heavy cream, if desired.

*We have some really strong, good-quality cinnamon at the moment, I used just 1/8 of a teaspoon for the tiniest hint of spice. You may need to use slightly more depending on your cinnamon. You just want the slightest whiff, your soup shouldn’t taste like Christmas.

**When I’m working from home, I prepare the squash during the day. If I’m working on-site in an office, I do it the night before and just leave the squash out on the counter until I’m ready to make the soup.

Lazy Wednesday! Post-gymnastics dinner at Espresso 77 (delicious grilled cheese), followed by self-serve fro-yo at Rainbowberry.

Man do I love me some poppin boba over raspberry-pomegranate yogurt. Rose takes the kitchen sink approach.

Dinner with my girl at Espresso 77, where we had wraps for a change. Rose had the turkey and pepper jack, I had the mushroom, fig, pecan and goat cheese. Yum! Afterwards we went to the new neighborhood hot spot Rainbowberry for frozen yogurt.

The iceberg lettuce wedges we had the other night, at my sister’s birthday party, were so good that I just had to have them—or something similar—tonight.

Rose requested steak and Shane gladly complied. Because Shane loves tomatoes with steak, and I can’t get enough lemony acidy food, we also had tomatoes in tart dressing.

• Iceberg Wedges with Blue Cheese Dressing •
makes 4-6 wedges

For the dressing:
2/3 cup mayonnaise (I like Hellman’s)
1/3 cup sour cream
several grinds of black pepper (5-10)
1 tablespoon lemon juice
3/4 teaspoons Franks Red Hot sauce
2/3 cups crumbled blue cheese or gorgonzola

Combine all ingredients and stir well to combine. Let sit in fridge until ready to use

For the salad:
1 small to medium head of iceberg lettuce cut into four to six wedges
Italian (flat leaf) parsley, chopped, for garnish
small slivers of red onion,  soaked in ice water for at least 10 minutes, for garnish

Cut lettuce into wedges, top with dressing, then parsley. Drain onion and garnish wedges with little slivers. Serve cool/cold.