Thai basil chicken and a coke float
A ground-chicken rice bowl with a fried egg, a pile of scallions, and a tall glass of coke float to wash the whole thing down.
The Table
Everything that has come to the table.
Meals we've served, in the order they arrived. Some are quiet weeknights for the two of us; some are Sundays with friends and their kids pulling chairs up to the counter. All of them were made at home.
2026
The first week of spring, at the table
Nine plates from the week of the equinox - teriyaki meatballs, salisbury steak, chicken parm, a prosciutto-wrapped asparagus salmon plate, a sheet-pan sausage dinner, and a green-chile enchilada.
2025
Christmas dinner (and a reindeer)
A filet with mushroom gravy over mashed potatoes, and a slice of white-chocolate cheesecake decorated to look like a reindeer.
The week before Christmas
Six home-cooked dinners in the stretch of gray December days right before the holiday - butter chicken, a chicken stroganoff, shrimp scampi, sesame beef, salmon alfredo, and a bowl of sesame spaghetti eaten on the couch.
BBQ lunch before Christmas
A tray of ribs, brisket, pulled pork, sausage, and two cups of mac and cheese - a Monday lunch three days before Christmas.
A cherry pie
A lattice-top cherry pie cooling on the stove, the crust golden-brown and the red filling bubbling through the gaps.
Leftovers, with ham
Day-three leftovers - slices of pit ham, cavatappi mac and cheese, a scoop of stuffing, mashed with gravy, and a roll - because there was still a fridge full of it.
The day-after plate
A leftover Thanksgiving plate - stuffing, mashed potatoes with a puddle of gravy, sweet-potato casserole, green bean casserole, and sliced turkey underneath.
A BBQ platter
A metal tray heaped with brisket, pulled pork, smoked sausage, ribs, and thick-cut ham, with mac and cheese on the side - a Saturday road-trip stop.
The last stretch of October
Ten plates from a long October week - a sausage soup, a lemon-shrimp orzo, a beef lo mein, stroganoff, a plum-and-granola breakfast bowl, a Sunday pot roast, and three salmon nights.
What was in the camera roll
Ten plates I'd photographed and not written up - a shrimp aglio olio, a migas bowl, a meatball curry, broccoli cheddar soup, tortellini soup, a quesadilla, and a few bowls of chicken and rice.
An anniversary at Stillwell's
A long dinner at a steakhouse - pull-apart bread, deviled eggs with piped yolk, a soft cocktail with a tuile, bisque under a charcoal crisp, a crab-topped filet, a bone-in ribeye, three sides, and the walk home.
Salisbury steak, again
A salisbury steak under a mushroom-gravy with chive, a pile of roasted potato cubes, and a tangle of broccoli and asparagus - a Monday that wanted an old-fashioned plate.
Eight dinners from a late-August week
The stretch of August where we were still hanging on to summer - pork chops with blue and gold potatoes, sausage penne, a tenderloin, a bulgogi bowl, cornflake-crusted chicken, a Korean-style minced pork rice bowl, and two salmon bowls.
A pasta kind of week
Six plates that drifted mostly into noodles - ravioli, a rice bowl that snuck in, a penne bolognese, pesto cavatappi, angel hair in mushroom cream, and a piece of salmon that closed the week.
The scallions growing back
A small jar on the windowsill holding the white ends of a scallion bunch, already sending up new green - the cheapest kitchen trick there is.
Four plates I keep making
A Friday I looked back through my camera roll and realized there were four dinners I'd repeated without noticing. A short love letter to the dishes that become staples.
Ramen at our spot
A bowl of spicy tantan-style ramen with a jammy egg half, bean sprouts, bok choy, and a black ceramic spoon - a Friday lunch at the place we keep going back to.
A melty sandwich
Two halves of a crusty-cheese-topped sub stuffed with ham, salami, lettuce, onions, and melting cheese, with a cold Diet Coke on the side.
A new bottle of Shaoxing
A tall bottle of Shaoxing cooking wine next to its red-and-white box, a restock of the one thing I run out of more than soy sauce.
The neapolitan, assembled
Three layers stacked, vanilla buttercream over everything, rainbow sprinkles because it was a birthday. Also: a bowl of lo mein, because people have to eat before cake.
A quiet filet Tuesday
A small filet with garlic mashed potatoes and a little pile of prosciutto-wrapped asparagus - a Tuesday that felt like a holiday.
Another look at the rounds
A second photo of the three neapolitan cake rounds cooling on the rack - vanilla up top, strawberry and chocolate in front, all naked and waiting.
A practice cake
A small frosted vanilla cake covered in rainbow sprinkles - a practice run before I tackled a bigger birthday cake later in the week.
Three cake rounds on a granite counter
Chocolate, strawberry, vanilla. Before frosting, before assembly - just the three layers resting on a plate, waiting.
Four plates from the middle of the week
A sausage-and-broccoli orecchiette, a cookies-and-cream pie, butter chicken with naan, and a bowl of beef lo mein. The midweek run of dinners around the cake.
The first week summer felt like summer
A whole week of weeknight dinners as the season turned - chicken parm, blackened salmon on cilantro-lime rice, teriyaki, stuffed shells, orange chicken, mongolian beef, a dijon pork chop, and the fried chicken and mac that closed it out.
A long spring week of cooking
A run of spring plates that piled up over a busy week - deviled eggs, a Sunday rib plate, a bundt cake, pasta, and the chaotic pancake-and-bacon breakfast that made the whole week feel like a holiday.
A Monday brunch with the corgis
A long wood table set for late breakfast - waffles, bacon, sausage, eggs, roast potatoes, fruit, orange juice - with a corgi peering in from each side.
2024
The Thanksgiving plate
One loaded plate of turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, brussels, green bean casserole, a roll, and a deviled egg - the whole table on a single dish.
A week of dinners, ending in a turkey
Six plates from a November week - gnocchi, a pork chop and fingerlings, a snow-pea stir fry, salmon with a dill-cream sauce, shrimp pasta, and the Thanksgiving plate that closed it out.
Tortellini-sausage soup
A bowl of tomato-broth soup with cheese tortellini, slices of Italian sausage, white beans, and a lot of spinach wilted in at the end.
Teriyaki salmon, rice, broccolini
A teriyaki-glazed salmon fillet with a pile of jasmine rice, steamed broccolini, and sesame seeds across everything.
Salmon over tomato-feta orzo
A pan-seared salmon fillet on a bed of orzo with halved cherry tomatoes, feta, and parsley - a dinner that tastes like August in November.
A long dinner out, in seven pictures
A rose-petal cocktail, crab cakes, fried potatoes with a pile of parmesan, lobster pasta, steak and scallops, a warm bread-pudding situation, and an espresso martini to close.
Brunch at Coquette
Someone else's kitchen, a marble table, and the kind of late Saturday that stretches into afternoon.
Chicken marsala, garlic bread
Chicken in a mushroom-cream marsala sauce over spaghetti with two thick pieces of garlic bread tucked into the bowl.
Pork and fingerlings
A pork tenderloin medallion under caramelized red onions and thyme, with a pile of tri-color fingerling potatoes roasted just dark enough.
A Monday angel hair
A shallow bowl of angel hair with chicken, bacon, spinach, and parmesan - a Monday dinner that refused to be complicated.
Pizza pinwheels with marinara
A platter of baked pizza pinwheels - spiraled dough, cheese, and herbs - next to a ramekin of warm marinara for dipping.
A simple bundt
A plain brown bundt cake with a heavy dusting of powdered sugar across the ridges - Sunday baking for the week ahead.
Sunday dinner, pork tenderloin
Sliced pork tenderloin with a pepper-cream sauce, a mound of cracker-topped cheesy potatoes, and a pile of shaved brussels with bacon.
Orange-glazed pork chop
A pork chop with a sticky orange-bourbon glaze on a mound of jasmine rice, a fresh orange half tucked in for good measure.
Salmon, fingerlings, asparagus
A salmon fillet with lemon-pepper crust, a pile of golden roasted fingerling potatoes, and a row of asparagus spears.
Three drinks, one Friday night
A citrusy old-fashioned, a shaker of hibiscus cooler, and something red and stubborn in a rocks glass. An afternoon we didn't plan.
An amber cocktail
A short rocks glass of something stirred and amber, one big ice cube, an orange half-moon on top - a Friday drink for no reason.
A pork chop, mashed potatoes, cauliflower
A pork chop with a peppery crust, a tall mound of mashed potatoes with a pool of cream on top, and a pile of roasted cauliflower.
A cake cooling
A round golden cake in a white baking dish, edges just starting to pull from the side - the base of a dessert that wasn't done yet.
Pumpkin-dream dessert
A slice of layered pumpkin-cream dessert with whipped cream and crushed nuts on top, cut from the cake I'd been cooling earlier.
Two drinks before dinner
Two stemless glasses of a sunset-colored cocktail with orange slices, sitting on a marble tray in front of the kitchen greenery.
A pan of something creamy
A glass baking dish full of an icebox-style dessert with whipped cream on top and cocoa and cinnamon scattered like dust.
Chicken parm on spaghetti
A bowl of spaghetti with red sauce, a breaded chicken breast with melted cheese, and a big handful of torn basil on top.
Ribs, the kind that leave lacquer on the pan
A long Sunday with a rack of ribs and a tray of roast potatoes. The good kind of patience.
Chicken and orzo
A small bowl of orzo with diced chicken, peas, carrot, and parmesan - a Saturday dinner that wanted to be a soup and stopped.
A plate of brownies
A mound of crackle-topped fudgy brownies piled on a plate, cut uneven on purpose so the corner pieces got more edge.
Pork chop on mashed potatoes, cream gravy on everything
A weeknight plate that tastes like the kitchen of someone I loved a long time ago.
Brown-sugar cookies, cooling
A wire rack on the counter with a dozen brown-sugar cookies cooling after the oven, the kitchen full of that warm caramel smell.
A spicy beef-and-bean bowl
A rice bowl with ground beef, long beans, tomato, chile, and cilantro - a Saturday-night dinner hotter than I meant it to be.
A chocolate cake for no reason
Two layers, a lot of fudge frosting, and a Thursday that deserved a cake.
Carbonara for one
A shallow bowl of linguine carbonara with crisped pancetta, parmesan, and too much pepper - a solo dinner made with intention.
A small chicken curry
A bowl of basmati rice with a quick chicken-and-tomato curry, a scatter of parsley, eaten at the counter on a Sunday afternoon.
Chocolate-chip banana bread
A dark-topped loaf of chocolate-chip banana bread with one slice cut and tilted on the plate, made for no reason at all.
A chicken cutlet plate
A breaded chicken cutlet with herbed potato cubes and a pile of broccoli, a Thursday plate that didn't try to be more than that.
Steak bites, mashed, asparagus
A weeknight plate of herby steak bites, a mound of mashed potatoes with a flake of parsley, and four fat asparagus spears.
Tortellini in a cream sauce
A plate of cheese tortellini in a pancetta-cream sauce with parmesan and parsley - a Sunday dinner that took fifteen minutes on purpose.
Cinnamon-sugar coffee cake
A plate of coffee-cake squares with a thick crumbly cinnamon top, cut small so you can eat three and call it one.
Fried rice, Saturday
A small bowl of fried rice with bits of sausage, peas, carrots, egg, and a lot of scallions - lunch cleared out of a weeknight's leftovers.
Caramel-glazed brownies
A tray of fudgy brownies under a sheet of dulce-de-leche glaze that slid off the edges and made a mess in the best way.
Two-chip cookies
A plate of cookies with both chocolate chips and peanut butter chips, made on a Friday evening while I waited for nothing in particular.
French toast and bananas
A thick slice of french toast piled with banana coins, powdered sugar, and syrup - a Thursday breakfast that felt like a Saturday.
Steak, mushrooms, a piece of bread
A pan-seared steak under a mushroom cream sauce, a heap of crispy roasted potatoes, and a torn piece of baguette to swipe through all of it.
Two quiet dinners
A chicken curry and a pork tenderloin with buttered noodles. The first week I started writing any of this down.