a week of actual dinner

Apr 03, 2025

One of my favorite videos of all time? The one where Aretha Franklin responds to the question about her biggest challenge: “Trying to figure out what to cook for dinner nightly.” The goal of my cookbooks, classes, and this very newsletter is helping my fellow home cooks make this part of the day just a little bit easier.

Instead of another recipe or essay about cooking intuitively, I thought it would be fun (and hopefully helpful!?) to share a week-in-my-life of what I actually had for dinner every single night.

So this past week, I snapped a photo each night so I could remember and I’ve put them all below with some notes.

Did you have anything you really loved for dinner this week? Anything particularly time-saving or a clever reinvention of some leftovers? Go out anywhere great? Tell us in the comments! I want to hear all about it!!!

FRIDAY 3/28

Not a great photo but we had a simple, delicious spaghetti dinner. No rocket science here, just spaghetti tossed with Rao’s, my favorite tomato sauce, butter and grated parm. On the side, some kale I sautéed in an oven-proof skillet with olive and garlic, then topped with grated mozzarella and a light-handed sprinkle of breadcrumbs. I drizzled the whole thing with more olive oil and a shake of garlic powder and put the pan under the broiler for maybe 2 minutes just to melt the cheese and toast the breadcrumbs. Delicious!!!!!!

SATURDAY 3/29

We went to Philly to visit our dear friends who live there and had such a fun, snacky dinner at the brand new wine bar Supérette. We ate nearly everything on the menu: a board with cheese, olives, salami, crispy chickpeas + white fish rillettes / lentil salad / fennel salad / crispy artichokes / escargot tart / merguez + octopus / a ham sandwich with potato chips! / the wonderful ravioli served in a big sheet with brown butter + vinegar / THE SOFT SERVE! / so much wine + delicious cocktails. I felt like I was 25! So fun!

Also, not dinner, but just a few other great bites from our food-packed quick trip:

Barbacoa tacos from the always-amazing South Philly Barbacoa / just a small portion of the many dishes we had at Mawn (so good!) / and just two of the four hoagies we got for lunch from Farina Di Vita before hitting the road to head home!

SUNDAY 3/30

We made our favorite pit stop on the way home: H Mart! When we got home at dinner time, I threw a piece of salmon tail I bought there in our air fryer (used a parchment liner so there was no clean up / drizzled with olive oil + seasoned with salt and pepper / cooked at 400ºF for maybe 10 minutes at the most).

While the salmon cooked, I filled a huge bowl with cold water in my sink and emptied a package of yu choy sum greens I got at H Mart into it and swished them around to get them clean. I sliced a few cloves of garlic and sizzled them in olive oil in a large nonstick pan. I picked up the greens and added them to the pan with the little bit of water still clinging to them. I stir-fried them until they were soft and seasoned them with salt, pepper and soy sauce.

I set the greens aside and wiped out the pan with a towel. I got it really hot again and added the pint container of leftover rice we brought back from Mawn (it was filled about 1/3 of the way with crab rice and the rest was just plain white rice leftover from lunch — we packed the container with some ice for the drive home). Once it was heated up nicely, I cracked in two eggs and a handful of peas from the freezer and stirred it all together until the egg was cooked. I seasoned the rice with salt, pepper and soy sauce.

All of the above took maybe 15 minutes total and sounds perhaps more complicated than it was — it was quick, easy cooking and a delicious dinner after a busy weekend! Only one nonstick pan to wash plus our bowls!

MONDAY 3/31

The below looks way better than it was…! Whenever I go to H Mart, I always buy a bunch of cut-up fruit and had a big container of pineapple in the fridge so thought I’d try a sweet-and-spicy pineapple chicken thing. I cut the pineapple into pieces along with a couple of chicken breasts and tossed them with seasonings and stuck it all in my air fryer hoping for a win and it was just…okay. Totally edible, but not exactly what I was hoping for. This kind-of thing happens! And it’s fine. It’s just dinner! I ate it anyway along with some steamed broccoli (with butter and salt) and some microwaved brown rice (one of these).

TUESDAY 4/1

Baked ziti-ish! I had some free time in the middle of the day so while I was puttering around the house, I boiled off a box of this penne, drained it, and then used the same pot to brown a pound of ground turkey. I added the final couple of tablespoons left in a container of pesto, plus the half a jar of Rao’s from Friday night that was still in the fridge. I rinsed the tomato sauce jar out with water and added that to the pot, too. I mixed in the pasta. Then I put about a third of the sauced pasta in a baking dish, topped with a few spoonfuls of cottage cheese (I would’ve preferred ricotta but use what you’ve got!), grated mozzarella + grated parm. I repeated the process until I had used up all the pasta. I let this cool, wrapped it up, put it in the fridge, went out and about and when I came home later, I unwrapped it and baked it in a 400ºF oven until it was hot and the cheese was melty and delicious. Ate it with some simply dressed chopped romaine with some chopped leftover broccoli from last night!

WEDNESDAY 4/2

I went out to dinner again — twice in one week! Very rare for me! I was in Brooklyn last night to talk to the wonderful Meera Sodha about her new book (you can watch the recording of our conversation here if you’d like) and then we went out to dinner with her publicist Kim (who is great and who also worked on WGWW!). We ate at La Vara. I took no photos! It was dark and late, but the food was great (we shared a ton of stuff - the tuna/tomato toast was my favorite).

I did, however, snap a photo at Strange Delight, where I shared a small seafood tower (gorgeous, delicious) and a glass of wine with my old pal Phoebe Lapine before the talk with Meera!

THURSDAY 4/3

We will find out!!!!! I’m driving home from the city today so will there be another H Mart stop?! Time will tell!

My next online cooking class is Sunday April 13th. We will be making a fabulous Passover Brunch (all vegetarian!) including:

Savory Matzo Brei with Onions + Mushrooms
Shakshuka with Feta + Herbs
Citrus Salad with Pomegranate + Honey

Vegan and gluten-free options will be offered. A portion of proceeds will go to THE PALESTINE CHILDREN’S RELIEF FUND. Sliding scale starting at $40. Want to come and $ is a barrier? Just drop me a line! FAQs live here.

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