Catching up on a lot of family meals because I’ve been as neglectful towards this blog as a drunk babysitter is towards her charges the week before prom.

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Tuesday: vegetarian chicharron (you know, fried pork skins, but from vegetables, not pigs), dried mangoes, plantain chips and Jesus’s current favorite family meal fad: mushroom heart, broccoli, smoked tofu and chickpea stir fry. Also there are noodles.

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Wednesday: the last day of the wild rice sampler we got from a purveyor, the stir fry again but this time with zucchini and haricot verts. Also, a salad that turned out just to be a big bowl of lettuce. No dressing, no other bits and pieces, just dressing. One of my interns made this and I really gave them a hard time about that salad.

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Thursday: Jesus made a mushroom stir fry with french fries on top, like poutine but with no cheese. I had made such a stink the day before about the big bowl of disappointing lettuce that the interns overcompensated by making a salad with lots and lots of bits and pieces: almonds, pears and other things, as well as a lot of dressing.

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Friday: the last day of my interns making family meal. This was their “graduation” family meal. Pomegranate, a bright red tempeh bolognese with gluten-free noodles and roasted broccoli.

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Saturday: Maria, my intern, was vegan and so none of our family meals for the past few weeks could have dairy or eggs in them. But yesterday was her last day and today we all celebrated by letting Danielle make her favorite meal ever: scrambled eggs (plus scrambled egg sandwiches), hash browns and salad.

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Tuesday: that darn haricot verts stir fry that Jesus likes so much and a sweet potato, regular potato and parmesan cake/flapjack/thing.

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Wednesday: scrambled eggs, rejected carrot bun filling and a very nice roasted vegetable salad

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Thursday: former intern, but now occasional employee, AJ came back from his trip to Memphis and he brought me a lot of BBQ sauces so they’ve become a vital part of family meal. This is a barbecued smoked tofu, dry BBQ spice rubbed zucchini, cellophane noodles and bread from the bakery he’s working at now

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Friday: for once I made family meal. Cold sesame noodles with sesame seeds and sesame oil, roasted beet and ricotta salata salad and a ginger, mushroom, cauliflower stir fry along with a very gloopy BBQ tofu dish (on the far left).

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No family meal on Saturday because we were all at the Food & Wine Festival and I was crying my eyes out like a big baby.

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Tuesday: broccoli, smoked tofu chickpeas, haricot vert, mushroom hearts. Once again, Jesus returns to an old favorite of his.

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Wednesday: noodle soup with accompaniments.

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Thursday: Jesus does a variation on his favorite stir fry, there’s a salad and Kristen brought in cookies.

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Friday: Danielle made lovely grit cakes, and then there’s a salad and a big tomato paste, mushroom heart sauce for the grits cakes.

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Saturday: noodels, with chili peppers on half of them, and a broccoli and mushroom heart stir fry.

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