Second Dinner

Dinner tonight was a flop. We tried a new recipe- chicken and broccoli casserole from The Six O'Clock Scramble Cookbook. I think the word "casserole" should have warned me off, but I wanted to try it. The Six O'Clock Scramble Cookbook is somewhat hit-and-miss with us. The positives are that the recipes are easy, relatively inexpensive, healthy, and tasty-sounding. The negatives are that the recipes tend to not produce enough food to feed my husband (who eats A LOT, although you wouldn't know it from looking at him), and they tend to be somewhat bland. I think the blandness is in part so the recipes appeal to kids, since the hook of the cookbook is quick, family-friendly dinners. The recipes are somewhat adventurous, given these constraints, but I often find that I need to add a teaspoon of salt to any recipe from that cookbook, because the author almost never includes it in the recipe. We don't eat that much salt at our house; we eat far less than most people. There are some real winners in that cookbook, though. The chicken tikka is a favorite of ours, and there's a spinach noodle bake that is also very tasty. I sometimes bulk it up for my husband by serving a fried egg on top.

Knowing what I know about the overall blandness in these recipes, I decided to punch up the flavor. I sauteed onions to add in with the chicken and broccoli, and when I made the sauce to pour over the chicken, broccoli, and onions, I added lemon zest and salt. I also mixed in a tablespoon of butter into the breadcrumb/shredded cheese mixture that we put on the top before baking.

I didn't think it was that bad, but my husband hated it. He forced himself to eat a small portion. Then we went for a walk, with the idea that he might be able to pick up second dinner for himself. We walked to Harvard Square, and walked around a lot before finally settling on The Garage, which is this food court type building. I had ice cream at Ben and Jerry's (still better than Emack and Bolio's), and my husband had a burger at Flat Patties. Although I liked the fries, which were thinly cut and well cooked, the burger didn't go over so well. I am not sure what the problem was, only that he didn't like it, although he ate almost all of it. He said he might be in a picky mood. I said that he was only allowed to reject one dinner per night! He came home and had a bowl of Weetabix. My opinion of Weetabix is a whole other post.

Full tummies, high spirits

Today was a day of exploration. First stop was at Hi-Rise Bread Company on Brattle St. in Cambridge to pick up a loaf of bread. I decided on the potato bread, and decided to get a mini sandwich cookie and a lemonade. The lemonade was fantastic! Much better than the lemonade I had last weekend at a farmer's market in my husband's hometown, which tasted like chemicals, not real lemons. The Hi-Rise lemonade was lemony fresh, tart and had just enough sweetness. The sandwich cookie was also really good. The chocolate cookies had a tiny hint of coffee flavor. So good. I will definitely go back.

Then we decided to go walk around Boston Common and the Public Garden. I fed the ducks, which I wasn't supposed to do, but I didn't see the signs that said not to feed the duck until AFTER I had already finished feeding them. Oops. I quit when one goose started slowly advancing on me. Geese are scary!

We decided to try to have dinner on/around Newbury Street, but one of the problems with this plan is that you end up paying for the rent on Newbury Street rather than your food. We looked at a few different places; Parish Cafe (not on Newbury, but on Boylston), Stephanie's on Newbury, and Upper Crust. We rejected Parish because we weren't in the mood for sandwiches and weren't excited about the other food on the menu, Stephanie's for being too expensive and not really inspiring enough for us to forgo eating at Central Kitchen, which was our backup plan, and Upper Crust because I wasn't in the mood for pizza. We decided to head back to Cambridge to Central Kitchen, but not before we got some ice cream. We went to Emack & Bolio's, because we hit that before we got to J.P. Licks. I have to say.... not as good as Christina's in Inman Square. Not nearly. It was too sweet, the texture was a little gritty, and it didn't have the rich flavor that Christina's ice cream has. I also missed the unusual flavors that Christina's has- flavors like Burnt Sugar and Mexican Chocolate. I am going to stick to Christina's, I think. I will still give J.P. Licks a try if I come across another one.

We then took the #1 bus back down Mass Ave to Cambridge, and had dinner at Central Kitchen. Central Kitchen is remarkable for its casual upscale environment in a sea of dumpy-looking, gritty retail. We split a half-dozen oysters, and I got the mussels and my husband got the rib-eye steak. All of it was amazing. It's a little on the pricey side, but the food is really good and the portions are reasonably sized, so overall, a good deal.