I’m still writing from Cork, Ireland, where we are finishing up our trip with Will’s grandmother. We have just one more day of vibrant green fields, glistening coastline, fast moving clouds and surprise rainstorms before our journey back to Massachusetts.

Chicken tikka masala. I had another dinner planned, but with a 3 hour cooking time and a late arrival home after a day of exploring I changed plans. I’ve made this many times and it is always pleasing. The recipe is written with an absurd amount of salt (I use about a teaspoon total), and I used a 15.5 oz can of diced tomatoes (because tomato puree in Ireland is tomato paste, and the only tomato sauce I found was flavored pasta sauce).

Baked falafel with roasted cauliflower, tzatziki, and salad. Vacation makes for a bit more indulgance than usual, which make me crave vegetables. The falafel was made with a potato masher, but the egg helped hold it together well for baking. The cauliflower I roasted with some olive oil, lemon zest, salt, and pepper at about 425F for 25 minutes. Tzatziki was made with some shredded cucumber that I squeezed dry, drained yogurt, lemon juice, and minced garlic. I made a dressing of just lemon juice and olive oil for the salad, and was very happy with such a dense dose of vegetables.

Vegetable chowder. The cabbage from the meal I didn’t made went into this soup. I started off sweating the leeks in butter, then added chopped carrots and potatoes, and about a quart of stock I made from the leek tops. That simmered for about half an hour, then I added half a chopped savoy cabbage. It was all finished with some pepper, cream, and a touch of vinegar for a vegetable packed soup.

Tomato, pepper, and cucumber salad with Irish sea asparagus. We went out for fish and chips and Will declared after that he was done with food for the day. That seemed to change after we went into Marks and Spencer and he spied with Scotch eggs and tiny pork pies. So they came home with us for an easy dinner, and I made a big salad of things that were already in the fridge plus the Irish sea asparagus (or sampire) that I couldn’t resist at the market. It has the water crunch of bean sprouts but with a little more chew and serious salty sea flavor. The woman at the market said it was very nice with cooked fish so I think that I will have to try it with some this week. But anyway, the salad was just a mix of chopped vegetables with salt, pepper, lemon juice, and olive oil.

Oatmeal with mashed banana, raisins, cream, and maple sugar. We needed a break from Irish breakfasts, so I cooked steel-cut oats with a 1:1 water:milk mixture very slowly over low heat while stirring regularly. At the end I added in a mashed banana, and then served with cream, maple syrup, and raisins.

Hello from Cork, Ireland! Will and I flew over in the middle of this week, so my cooking schedule is a bit off. We are staying with Will’s grandmother though, so there is a kitchen to make use of all the awesome ingredients to be bought at the English Market. The rest of the time will be spent sampling pints of stout, chips, and various fish.

Chicken and dumplings.  This is a great spring stew, that is still warming for brisk days but not heavy. I made this with a full chicken that I broke down (backbone removed, and frozen for stock later). The skin that was removed before the chicken braised I crisped up in a cast iron for everyone to snack on.

Joanne Chang’s hot and sour soup. Of course hot and sour, but also ridiculously quick to put together, hearty, and an amazing combination of textures with easy to find ingredients. I would have to be seriously convinced to try another hot and sour soup recipe.

Coconut chocolate chip cookies. I may eat a garden hose if it had coconut and chocolate on it. These cookies are made with coconut oil instead of butter as well as toasted, shredded coconut, so the flavor really comes through. I added in some cacao nibs, and I think next time I would use a bit less chocolate and more nibs. These were a snack while packing, and then dessert for the flight.

Wheat wraps with miso hummus, roasted sweet potatoes, roasted tofu, kimchi, sprouts, and lettuce. Vegan wraps are my ideal travel food because you don’t have to worry about refrigeration and I always want to pack in as many vegetables as possible before I’m tempted by so many less virtuous foods. Plus, making something saves you from spending money on something inevitably mediocre at the airport.

Irish breakfast. Speaking of less virtuous foods….toast, eggs, mushrooms, tomato, bacon, and black pudding (blood sausage). You could order one out, but if you have a kitchen for about 15 Euro you can buy all the ingredients for a full Irish for a full week.

Leeks with mustard bacon vinaigrette. This is a fancy, indulgent salad I would eat every day if I could. I made it with duck eggs for extra fanciness, and Irish bacon.

Pasta with arugula and lemon cream sauce.  This pasta made the leek salad into more of a meal. I used arugula instead of the Brussels, that I jut tossed in to wilt with the pasta and sauce.

Late nights of meetings and work made this week feel disjointed. I got to make a few items that had been on my list for quite a while though, and a few old favorites.

Shakshuka. I didn’t have any feta, but I added some white beans to bulk it up a bit. Every time I make this I think “why don’t I cook tomatoes and eggs more often?”. Eaten with pita bread.

Miso sweet potato and broccoli bowls. I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve made these bowls. They are dead simple, wholesome, and the sauce is dynamite.

Red lentil soup with lemon. This soup almost didn’t happen since I forgot to buy the lentils, but Will saved the day. We made it at the same time as the sweet potato bowls to have for dinner the next night. Besides chopping the onions, garlic, and carrot it was almost no work. The rest of the ingredients just get tossed in, and the lemon to finish takes a humble bowl of soup to a much more interesting level.

Cauliflower Parmesan. This dish is billed as a winter substitute for eggplant parm, but it is probably no surprise that this doesn’t even begin to fill the eggplant parm shaped hole in my heart. It is also no surprise that cauliflower florets are much more awkward to bread and fry than round sliced of eggplant. It was good, as anything fried and then baked with tomato sauce and cheese would be, but further proved eggplant is the ideal vegetable for parmesan-ing.

Honey and harissa farro salad (from The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook). A couple winters ago I became slightly obsessed with this salad and made it on repeat. For some reason I forgot about it last year, but I’m so happy to have it back in my kitchen. I wasn’t able to easily get my hands on farro, so I used barley and barely noticed the difference. The sweet roasted vegetables with a spicy, tart dressing and a big handful of parsley (no mint for me) make for the greatest meal in a salad. If you need to make it even better for you, it is also excellent over kale (make a bit extra dressing).

Breakfasts this week were a little more thrown together, but included the classic avocado and egg on toast (with my sister’s kimchi as the newest addition), and some whole wheat yogurt pancakes with grated apple instead of the raspberries. I recently added a Chemex to our collection of coffee making appliances, and I love the floral (grit-less) coffee it makes. I won’t abandon the French press, but it will be forever in the rotation.

Coconut polenta with Sriracha glazed carrots, coconut creamed collards, and Thai herb sausage. I entirely stole the idea for this meal from Jeff at Short Creek. He makes the most incredible sausage, and suggested this meal to go along with the Thai herb variety. If you don’t live in MA or NH, I think the best substitute would be making your own with ground pork. I haven’t had sausage anywhere else like this, and Jeff told me it was inspired by a recipe in Pok Pok. The carrots I just sauteed, doused with Sriracha, added water to cover, and cooked until tender (lid on for 5 min, off for the rest). I used coconut milk in the polenta instead of regular, and didn’t add anything else in.

Olive oil braised chickpeas with feta. This probably should not have counted as dinner. It was too easy and too good. The only change I made was to cook my onion in a cast iron skillet, and then dump the rest of the ingredients in alongside for baking. It was hearty, simple, and covered in feta.

Tortilla soup (from The Thug Kitchen Cookbook). I’ve made other tortilla soups but I always come back to this one. And full disclosure, I had to work late so Will made this for dinner and it was ready when I arrived home (!!!), but I wanted to mention it because it is so easy and delightful. We used black beans in place of the chickpeas which I like way better.

Ma po tofu (from Every Grain of Rice). Quick to put together, but I think I added a bit more chili bean paste than I should have. I also stir fried some chard and a red pepper to go alongside, and ended up mixing it in with the tofu and rice (there was enough sauce on the tofu for everything).

Kale salad with lemon olive oil vinaigrette, hard boiled egg, white beans, and avocado. I always pick the least appropriate après-ski meals, but a giant salad hit the spot.

Wagon wheels. My mom probably made this once a month when I was growing up. Though the original recipe called for wheel pasta (rotelle), I’ve made it with other short shapes like penne with much success. You cook spicy Italian sausage, remove it from the pan, and then saute onions, peppers, garlic, and some red pepper flakes. Cook the pasta, toss it in the pan and add the sausage back in. A much more appropriate après-ski meal.