“Roasted Chicken With Dijon Sauce” from Smitten Kitchen, adjusted to one and a half pounds of chicken — drumsticks only. Roasted potatoes.

Dinner tonight was another instance of Make Space In The Freezer¹. You can see the back now. Just a little bit. Had I had more patience, I would have thickened the sauce longer but I was nibbling away at the pan of potatoes and tempted to eat a drumstick off the plate — I was hungry. The sauce was good but it would definitely benefit from being thicker.

1: Dinner tonight was also Slightly Unbalanced. I thought there were green beans in the fridge. There were not.

Lemon-thyme rubbed pork chop with spinach-walnut pesto. Very adjusted version of “Mustard-Roasted Potatoes” from Smitten Kitchen. Brussels sprouts with pancetta.

Pork chop with herbed potatoes and green beans with shallots and mustard.

Filet mignon with mustard compound butter and roasted potatoes with lemon and dill.

Meat and potatoes. Nothing green except that handful of chopped dill. It’s a little shocking, I know. But also very good. Habits should not be made of food like this.

Potato and chicken salad, based on “Mostly Not Potato Salad” from Serious Eats. Eaten with mizuna.

I made several changes to the original recipe but it’s still very similar. The most significant omission was the green beans, because I simply didn’t have any. The other very prominent change I made was substituting chicken for tofu because, as much as I like to eat it, this didn’t seem like the best application. The chives are also missing and sorely so. Despite my strong dislike for celery, I didn’t completely leave it out, but I did cut it back to only two stalks and surprisingly, I didn’t hate it. I added a shallot, tweaked the volumes of seasonings and completely omitted the sweetener. I did just notice that I forgot to add a splash of olive oil but I have leftovers.

There’s always tomorrow.

“Potato Tumble (Jaga-imo Nikkorogashi)” from Shizuo Tsuji’s Japanese Cooking. “Vinegared Cucumber (Kyūri no Sumomi)” from Japanese Cooking. Miso soup with wakame and silken tofu. Rice!

Hello, autumn-winter standard! This is amazing.

“Potatoes and Sea Greens (Jagaimo to Wakame no Nitsuke)” from Soei Yoneda’s Heart of Zen Cuisine. Panko-breaded cod with rice. Spinach with “Creamy Sesame-Miso Sauce (Goma Miso)” from Elizabeth Andoh’s Washoku.

Leftover “Simmered Japanese Pumpkin (Kabocha no Nimono)” from Soei Yoneda’s The Heart of Zen Cuisine. Leftover shiso rice with teriyaki mackerel that comes prepared in vacuum sealed packages. Leftover “Potatoes Simmered in Miso (Jaga-imo Miso-ni)” from Japanese Cooking. “Whole Simmered Eggplants (Nasu no Maru-Ni)” from The Heart of Zen Cuisine.

Ginger pork over shiso rice. “Spinach with Sesame Dressing (Hōrensō no Goma-Ae)” from Shizuo Tsuji’s Japanese Cooking. “Potatoes Simmered in Miso (Jaga-imo Miso-ni)” from Japanese Cooking. “Simmered Japanese Pumpkin (Kabocha no Nimono)” from Soei Yoneda’s The Heart of Zen Cuisine. “Spinach Crowns and Ginger Stir-Fry (Hōrensō no Ne no Shōga Itame)” from The Heart of Zen Cuisine.