The Amora Table

Birthday plans: playing it by ear. Literally. 🎂🎶

Last night a bag of chips almost fell on us and I yelled, “It’s raining chips from the sky!” Norrin immediately started singing, “It’s raining chips from the sky! Chip, chip, yum, yum!” 😂

So this morning I grabbed my uke, found a few chords and turned his masterpiece into a song.

Honestly, a pretty great way to start 38. ❤️

And no chips were harmed in the making of this Reel. There was a sheet pan waiting below. 😂

Pull up a chair The Amora Table - Candiace Amora Piccolo, MS, RD, LD, CDCES… chip, chip, yum, yum.

Apparently people have decided I’m the place where unwanted produce goes. 😂

This time Mom brought tomatoes from her garden and a lonely butternut squash, so into the oven they went with onion, garlic and spices. Blended it all up with some broth from a whole chicken I had simmering and… soup! 🍅🥣

Nothing particularly sexy about it. Just a few jars in the fridge that future me is going to be VERY grateful for during the work week. ❤️

Pull up a chair The Amora Table - Candiace Amora Piccolo, MS, RD, LD, CDCES… sometimes feeding yourself is just making tomorrow easier.

On this episode of “Garren brought home something for me to figure out…” 🌶️😂

This time: shish*to peppers. So naturally I sang them a song, gave myself a pepper mustache, then blistered them with a little salt, sesame oil and soy sauce.

Then came pepper roulette. Most were mild. Some were decidedly NOT. 🔥

Garren’s first pepper chose violence and he immediately retired. I ate my entire portion with my mouth on fire and zero regrets. 😂🌶️

Pull up a chair The Amora Table - Candiace Amora Piccolo, MS, RD, LD, CDCES… choose your pepper wisely.

*toPeppers

Apparently we grew dinosaur eggs this summer. 🦖🥚

Two lemon melons, the last of our sunflowers, three tomatoes, and one Ruby who was thoroughly unimpressed with the entire harvest. 😂

Norrin, however, was happy to take her share.

Holding onto these last little pieces of summer for as long as we can. 🌻💛

Pull up a chair The Amora Table - Candiace Amora Piccolo, MS, RD, LD, CDCES…

Months of watering, tending and waiting finally paid off…
THREE WHOLE TOMATOES. 😂🍅🍅🍅

Beautiful tomatoes, though. And apparently excellent for juggling practice and original songwriting.

Pull up a chair The Amora Table - Candiace Amora Piccolo, MS, RD, LD, CDCES… but don’t expect me to share our enormous harvest. 😂

Garren keeps coming home with random produce, and apparently I keep accepting the challenge. 😂

This episode: tomatillos + tomatoes… plus a mystery freezer bag of roasted tomatillos and jalapeño from one of his previous produce hauls. Naturally, that went in too.

Since the back-to-school plague is STILL hanging around and I had fresh broth, more soup it was. I air-fryer “roasted” everything, raided the pantry and ended up somewhere in the neighborhood of green pozole… if green pozole were red. 😂

The corn made the cut because I was absolutely NOT opening the no. 10 can of hominy tonight.

Norrin passed on the tangy broth but happily ate the veggies. And somehow this use-what-we-have dinner became 3 quarts + 2 pints.

Who says Tuesday has to be tacos? Tomatillo Tuesday. 💚

Pull up a chair The Amora Table - Candiace Amora Piccolo, MS, RD, LD, CDCES… there’s plenty. 🥣

Book club said dress like you’re going to the VMAs, so obviously this was finally the moment for the $10 wedding dress I got years ago from an online mystery-dress sale. 😂✨

I showed up in pearls… along with an apron, serving utensils, tongs, hand sanitizer, paper towels, and bags for the dirty utensils. Because apparently I cannot go anywhere without being prepared. 😂

Then they gave me “Most Likely to Add ‘MUST COOK’ to Her MMC Requirements.”

Norrin wanted a burrito when I got home, so naturally I made one in my fancy dress and Spider-Man apron. 🌯

They know me too well. 😂

Pull up a chair The Amora Table - Candiace Amora Piccolo, MS, RD, LD, CDCES ❤️ 📖

This soup started with Ruby. ❤️

She’s been home and could use a little spoiling, so I pulled a chicken from the freezer to make broth and save the meat for some extra-special chicken treats.

Then I heard our little neighbor had come home from school sick. And because the beginning-of-school plague comes for us all eventually, I had this little mom-intuition moment of, you know…we should probably make soup.

So the chicken project became a big pot of comforting Filipino-inspired chicken noodle soup - lots of garlic (boo, out of fresh so powder had to do) and ginger, patis, a little turmeric for that beautiful golden color, and brown rice noodles.

I made enough to share and enough to have some “locked and loaded” in our fridge.

And sure enough…by evening, Norrin was sneezing, coughing, congested and running a fever. 🫠

Sometimes food is just dinner. And sometimes it’s how we take care of each other. 🧸

Pull up a chair The Amora Table - Candiace Amora Piccolo, MS, RD, LD, CDCES… there’s soup. 🍲

Garren has a habit of bringing home random grocery-sale finds like they’re little cooking challenges for me. 😂

This time: OKRA! And I was ridiculously excited because fresh okra isn’t something I usually see at our regular grocery store.

Maybe I’m a little too ready for fall, because one look at nature’s little witch fingers and apparently a cackle was necessary. 🧙‍♀️

I was inspired by one of our favorite Malaysian lady finger belacan dishes… minus what the pantry didn’t have. So tomatoes, turmeric and a little improvising later, we still had something delicious. 💚

Pull up a chair The Amora Table - Candiace Amora Piccolo, MS, RD, LD, CDCES… apparently Garren is assigning me grocery-store mystery boxes now.

Mom is always sending us home with a little of this and a little of that. ❤️

This time she dropped off homemade chili and homemade caramel, which pretty much decided dinner for us.

We jazzed up Mom’s chili with cheese, avocado and yogurt, rescued the last butt ends of the bread, sliced some cucumbers…and obviously, if Mom gives you caramel, you slice some apples. 🍎

Nothing fancy. Just one of those meals pieced together from what we had + a little love delivered by Mom.

Pull up a chair The Amora Table - Candiace Amora Piccolo, MS, RD, LD, CDCES… dinner’s ready. ❤️