This week in the kitchen

Monday/9-May-22: For dinner there was a turkey breast roll left from Thanksgiving. I read that turkey reheats best in its gravy. Having none of that, I made a white gravy (chicken stock, cream, and a splash of white wine) which was pretty good after doctoring. Served with spaghettis courts (which isn't really spaghetti) and some fava beans. We were full, so no dessert.

Tuesday/10-May-22: We picked up orders from two Drives today. Intermarché was out of the fish I ordered, but Ed bought some at the little market near our favorite boulangerie. 

Dinner was Thai Fish Cakes with Sweet Chili-Lime Dipping Sauce (web). These were pretty good. Served with brown basmati, and my standard Asian-ish salad, Thai Cucumber Salad with Peanuts (web). For after we had store-bought yogurt with cream of chestnuts. Tasty dinner.

Wednesday/11-May-22: Barbecue tonight. We had Grilled Chicken with Lemon and Couscous (Diaries, p258), more or less. I used skinless, boneless chicken thighs sprinkled with Penzey's Quebec Beef Spice (also good on chicken). Ed grilled asparagus, eggplant (for the couscous), and the chicken. Tasty dinner. One chocolate-covered madeleine each for after.

Thursday/12-May-22: Didn't feel like making what was on the plan tonight, so there was an old and easy favorite, Curried Penne with Shrimp (365OneDish, p49), with whole wheat penne. And one chocolate-covered madeleine each for after.

Friday/13-May-22: Recombobulated the meal plan today when I realized that I'd forgotten to remember than I needed to start tonight's dinner yesterday. Oops.

Tonight we had Easy Mushroom and Black Bean Chilli (web). This was simple and very good. Served with short grain brown rice and a dollop of crème fraîche. We each had a mini Häagen-Dasz ice cream cup for after.

Then I started the sauce for tomorrow night's meal.

Saturday/14-May-22: Dinner was Mushroom, Olive, and Caper Sauce for Pasta (MedHot2, p23) served over casareccia. Then a salad. When we split a strange little sweet that we bought at a market today. The pasta sauce is interesting. It's served cold, or lukewarm by the time it's mixed with pasta, a bit sour from the vinegar, a bit spicy from the peppers, almost a bit too salty from the kalamatas. Still, the effect was nice. Might put some cauliflower in with it for the next round.

Sunday/15-May-22: Dinner was a pot of black beans cooked in two lots of "salty pork-cooking juice" from the freezer. Salty it was. I should have taken just one lot and added that amount of water again. Did discover that a bit of acid (cider vinegar, lime or lemon juice) helps cut the salt). I had a plain yogurt for after to soothe my tastebuds.

Progress on goals
This week: #1 VEG/FISH: 4; #2 PHOTO: no;
This month: #3 GUESTS: n/a
This year: #5 BACKLOG2: no; #6 BACKLOG3: no; #7 RECYCLE: 0; #8 NEW: 3

This week in the kitchen

Monday/17-Sep-17: In the last day or so, we've noticed that the clock on the stove wasn't working. Today I discovered that neither oven would light. This is because the clock isn't working it turns out. Ed dug into the stove and discovered an electrocuted mouse lying by the clock. Oops. He's ordered the part. The clock and timers and delayed start are nice occasionaly, but sometimes I wonder if all this modern electronic stuff is worth the trouble.

Belated meal of leftover pork and mango pot pie, in individual casseroles, warmed in the toaster oven. This was still good. Followed by a salad.

Tuesday/18-Sep-17: Lunch out today. Nothing happened in the kitchen.

Wednesday/19-Sep-17: Yogurt on overday.

Before we went shopping, I made Peach and Blueberry Soured Cream Cobbler (Diaries, p230; cookbooker).

Shopping today.

Dinner was supposed to be Pâtes au Thon, Basilic et Piment, a recipe from VPG. I had the recipe with me when I did a bit of reading, but when I went to cook, there was no recipe. Searched but couldn't find it, so a quick replan.

We had Balsamic-Glazed Tuna (MC), which has a nice sauce that was good on the pasta and spinach that accompanied the fish. With yummy cobbler and cream for dessert.

Thursday/20-Sep-17: This afternoon we had Sautéed Chayote with Beef (web). I made a shortish whole recipe for the two of us, served over rice. It was pretty good. For a starter we had the second package of crab and shrimp nem that I got on sale recently.  Served with nem sauce, the end of a jar we like and the start of a new jar that was in the exotic food special at Leclerc this week. We'll go back to the old brand. (Already knew that the sauce included in the package was tossable.) Never got around to eating our dessert, so it's probably cobbler for breakfast tomorrow.

Found yesterday's recipe when I moved our breakfast bread. I know I moved that yesterday. Probably the recipe managed to stick to the bottom of the bread wrapping then.

Friday/21-Sep-17: Early meal again today, a halfish recipe of Chicken Agrodolce with Creamy Polenta (web; CL dec15). Creamy polenta made with milk; can't say that it made it all any better. The agrodolce sauce was okay, but nothing special. Served with the recommended side of Sage-Roasted Carrots and Turnips (web; CL dec15). This was easy and pretty good. Turnips are kind of blah.

Yogurt on overnight.

Saturday/22-Sep-17: Had the urge to make some bread today, and picked out a recipe, without thinking that we don't have a working oven. The part came today, but it was the wrong part number, not matching the order. Sigh.

Our meal was Chaco Chili from the freezer, with some guacamole and homemade tortillas. Yum.

Defrosted one serving of a stew thing for Ed to take to Cantique tomorrow. Except that Cantique is next Sunday, not tomorrow. Duh.

Sunday/23-Sep-17: Our starter was Ed's stew thing served over leftover pancakes. It was good, and actually enough for dinner if I'd planned right. For a main there was a half recipe of Jack Denton Scott's Spaghettini Estivi. (It's a recipe someone sent me, Bill perhaps, but here it is on the web.) Good it was.

For dessert I used up the almond milk to make Three Ingredient Chocolate Almond Milk Ice Cream (web). Well, it was four ingredients after I added a small slog of vanilla. Used 1/4 cup of sucre de canne instead of xylitol. I was good enough, but felt like ice milk, rather than ice cream.

Most of the tomatoes we gathered last time were rotten. Need to start more tomato purée tomorrow.

Seems to be a bumper year for walnuts.

Progress on goals
This week: #1 BACKLOG: no; #2 VEG/FISH: 2
This month: #3 PASTA: no; #4 BREAD: no

This week in the kitchen

Monday/11-Sep-17: Froze up four 1-cups of tomato purée.

Dinner was Pork with Mango Ginger Sauce Topped with Curried Phyllo (PotPies, p104; cookbooker). Think this is the first thing I've made from the book. Quite good it was. Served with steamed broccoli with a squirt of lemon juice.

Tuesday/12-Sep-17: Earlyish meal today. Used up yesterday's phyllo with Spanikopita in Pastry Cups (Desperation, p206; cookbooker). This was good, although we had enough for three, so we're a bit stuffed. Then a bit of a salad.

Wednesday/13-Sep-17: Shopping today.

Dinner was a half recipe of Thai Salmon and Bean Curry (web), served over rice. Yummy, although it might be better to put the green beans in for a minute or so before the salmon chunks since they were still a bit crunchy. Store-bought riz au lait for dessert.

Thursday/14-Sep-17: Yogurt on overday because I was too lazy to make it last night.

Picked the rest of the chicken. Used most of the meat for Mu Shu Chicken Lettuce Wraps (web; CL jan/feb14). Made the whole recipe for 4 and of us ate it all, although Ed did more than his share. Quite good, this was. The suggest go-with dessert was Poached Fruit over Vanilla Frozen Yogurt (web; CL jan/feb14). No frozen yogurt sold here that I've seen, and I didn't have enough yogurt to make this, so it was plain vanilla ice cream. Still good.

Friday/15-Sep-17: Lunch out today, nothing happened in the kitchen.

Yogurt on overnight.

Saturday/16-Sep-17: Finally had our felafel dinner today. Store-bought falafels and store-bought pitas/kebab breads, with lettuce and sliced tomatoes. Served with Tahini Dipping Sauce (WofE, p359), which was a bit odd; it was the bottom of the tahini jar and pretty stiff. Also Cacik/Cucumber and Yogurt Salad (Roden, p64); I made about a half recipe of this with a quarter of the yogurt and it was still a bit soupy. Discovered my stash of garlic was all bad, so had to use garlic powder for everything. Not really a satisfactory substitute. All in all it was a tasty meal in spite of problems. For dessert there was Whole Egg Almond Milk Custard (web), trying to use up the almond milk I bought for something else. I kind of liked this, Ed not.

Sunday/17-Sep-17: Early meal today of Mustard Chops (Diaries, p129). The chops didn't get to marinate the hour that he asked, but they were still quite good. Served with spinach, as suggested, and the little square French pasta of buckwheat, whose name I've forgotten right now.

Progress on goals
This week: #1 BACKLOG: no; #2 VEG/FISH: 4
This month: #3 PASTA: no; #4 BREAD: no

This week in the kitchen

Monday/3-Apr-17: Earlyish meal today. We had Orecchiette with Ricotta, Broad Beans and Mint (Diaries, p194; cookbooker). Didn't use orecchiette, but my mini-lasagnas, malfada, I think they're called. This was good. First favas of the year. Then a salad. That was all.

Tuesday/4-Apr-17: A bit of a replan tonight since I had defrosted kip filets that I didn't really need. Dinner was Cashew Chicken Coconut Curry (web); I collected this recipe in 2014. My printed copy says to use broccoli or red bell pepper; having a red bell pepper needing to be used, that's what I did. Either broccoli or a combination of broccoli and red bell pepper would be fine. Turns out I didn't have enough cashews, but it could only have been better. Served the curry over leftover Cilantro-Lime Black Bean Rice from the weekend. Also had some asparagus and mushrooms that needed using. A quick search turned up Asian Asparagus and Mushrooms (web). This was easy and quite good. A nice meal altogether; we were full.

Yogurt on overnight.

Wednesday/5-Apr-17: Shopping today.

Dinner was Visburgertjes (web), about a 1/2 recipe with 300g lieu noir. Good, they were. Served with Broccoli in Oyster Sauce (Delightful, p58) and Cucumber Salad (Delightful, p51). Ed thought the salad made a nice abstract picture:

For dessert we had some store-bought torsades, a twisted pastry with some tiny chocolate chips.

Thursday/6-Apr-17: Early meal today. We had Goan Pork Vindaloo with Potatoes (web). This is a Madhur Jaffrey recipe; I haven't yet found it in any my books, but haven't done an exhaustive search yet. Anyhow, it was very good. Did it in the pressure cooker; it wanted a bit more water than she says. I added some extra, but it should have been a bit more still, at least one cup altogether. Ground peppercorns with the first batch of spices rather than grinding them separately. Used the full 1tsp of cayenne; it was hot but a long way from too hot. Altogether good. For a side there was Tangy Green Beans with Ajwain and Ginger (SpiceKitch, p38), an old favorite, still good.

Friday/7-Apr-17-Sunday/9-Apr-17: Spent these days in Bordeaux, a long weekend to see Yo-yo Ma perform with Kathryn Stott, with three good meals tossed in.

Progress on goals
This week: #1 BACKLOG: yes; #2 VEG/FISH: 2
This month: #3 PASTA: no; #4 BREAD: no

This week in the kitchen

Monday/14-Nov-16: Dinner was One-Pot Chicken with Orzo and Dill (web). (That isn't the recipe I followed, which was sized for two, but it's the same one sized for one; I can't find the one I used and no URL on the printout.) Instead of using skinless, boneless chicken thighs, I used a 200g packet of chicken "oysters" that I bought last week. It was good, and so easy. Then a salad. Some chocolate squares for after.

Tuesday/15-Nov-16: Lunch out for Ed's birthday today; nothing happened in the kitchen. After lunch we did a bunch of errands. Stopped by Audilab to have my malfunctioning hearing aid fixed. Went by the jeweler to pick up Ed's ring; the guy had fixed the break but reassembled the pieces incorrectly so it couldn't be put together. Did our grocery shopping. Stopped by the vet to pick up worming pills for the cats. Stopped by the butcher's to order our Thanksgiving turkey. Whew. Put all the groceries up.

Wednesday/16-Nov-16: Thought about thanksgiving meal today. Think it's mostly going to be a boring same-old. same-old menu.

Make Cranberry-Port Relish (MC) and Kaye's Pickled Green Beans (MC) for the day.

Dinner was Feta and Herb Crusted Salmon (web), which turned out to be really easy and tasty. Accompanied by some buckwheat crozets and Simple Oven-Rosated Corn on the Cob (web). Turned out to be a pretty good way to cook corn on the cob.

Thursday/17-Nov-16: Defrosted the big freezer today. Found a missing chicken, and found lots of things I'd neglected to mark off the freezer list. And then OpenOffice got in one of its "moods" and refused to save the file. Grr... This is a problem that's been on-going in multiple versions for more than five years and it's still not fixed. Major pain. Maybe it's time to invest in Microsoft Office???

Dinner was Greek Pasta (Desperation, p162; cookbooker). The recipe says it serves four, maybe as a side; two of us ate more-or-less the whole thing. Good stuff. That was all.

Friday/18-Nov-16: Dinner was, sort of, Beef Kofta (web). Didn't have any Penzey's Turkish Seasoning, so google and I made something up. Good, although the cooking time was a bit off. It said 15-20 minutes under the grill; after 15 minutes, the tops with closer to charcoal than we like. Served with some pita breads and a little sauce made of yogurt, minced garlic, and salt; also Herby Cucumber Salad (CL/jun12; web). Pretty good salad. No dessert needed.

Saturday/19-Nov-16: More cleaning today. And flu shot. Roasted the beet I bought on Tuesday.

Dinner was some pumpkin soup from the freezer.

Sunday/20-Nov-16: Ed went to a mens' only choir practice today, then I picked Bill up at the train station. Came home and started Nigel Slater's Slow-Roast Lamb (Diaries, p62); such a nice, easy recipe. Went off to pick Ed up and have a cup of tea at Cath and Doug's. As go-withs, we had Clothilde Dusoulier's Perfect Roasted Potatoes (web, although this is new and I've been using this recipe for years), which we really good, and used the beet I roasted yesterday to make Cold Beetroot with Cream (Pomiane, p180), always good. For dessert we had some chocolate-raspberry tarts from the boulanger; the filling was yummy, the pastry less so.

Progress on goals
This week: #1 BACKLOG: no; #2 VEG/FISH: 3
This month: #3 PASTA: no; #4 BREAD: no; #5 FotW: yes for October/November, no for November/December

This week in the kitchen

Monday/13-Apr-15: Just last week, didn't I say to Ed, Looks like we've missed the plague of flies this year. Spoke too soon. They're swarming in the bedroom today, enjoying the warm and sunny weather.

Starting work on last year's taxes, with the idea of doing them all in one go. We'll see.

Still haven't finished reading last month's Time-Life book (Japan), so adding a month to that book and moving the rest out a month. The next is the Caribbean one, and I'm really looking forward to it.

Dinner was Grilled Chicken with Lemons and Couscous (Diaries, p258), first bbq. Easy and pretty tasty. Whole wheat coucous again, not very good planning. We split a magnum classic for dessert.

Tuesday/14-Apr-15: Still sorting tax papers and scanning stuff I've never done over the last year. Ugh.

Tonight was use-up-the-asparagus night, with a half recipe of Linguine with Asparagus and Egg (PastaHarv, p46), very good, kind of a pasta carbonara with asparagus instead of lardons or bacon. I was looking for something in a seldom used book, but didn't succeed. Then a big salad. Then some Soupe Épicée au Chocolate (VPG). I used the wrong chocolate (90%, which needed a bit of powdered sugar added), and just realize that I used 30dl of cream instead of 30cl. No wonder I had to add more and it never got soupy. Oh well, it tasted fine.

Wednesday/15-Apr-15: Yogurt on overday. Shopping after my ENT appointment.

Dinner was supposed to be small and fast, but ended up more elaborate, as these things do. First I made some Prune and Almond Brownies (web), which turned out pretty good, but the recipe is weird. (The original is from Delia Smith, here.) The prunes should have been soaked in armangac; the almonds should have been toasted; both would have been nice. The recipe calls for 330g of sugar. I stopped at 200g, which was fine. Later I saw Delia asks for 225g, which would probably have been ok. Skipping the soaking and the nut toasting made it pretty easy.

Then I made some Crispy Lemon Roasted Baby Artichokes (web), which didn't really work that well. I've never seen anything called baby artichokes here, but there were some very small globe artichokes on sale. So I got two and followed instructions. Not quite as nice I thought they should have been and they could have used another 10 minutes or so in the oven. I made a little sauce with mayo from a jar and some finely minced preserved lemon. That was pretty good.

Then I made a half recipe of Crushed Spiced Carrot Salad (Morocco, p78), which I've made before and we like alot.

This was all to go with a half recipe of Salmon Fishcakes with Garam Masala, Chilli, and Ginger (web), using panko instead of the popped amaranth seeds. Good stuff this. I seem to have been making lots of tasty fishcakes of late. This one was a bit tedious because the recipe called for hand mincing the salmon. Probably the food processor would have worked fine.

Anyhow, all was good, if more work than I intended.

Thursday/16-Apr-15: What a day. Got a good start this morning, hoping to make a major dent in getting our French and US taxes done. Only to discover that one of our accounts had gone haywire in Moneydance. Latest good copy was dated the 12th. And of course I've done lots of work since then getting started on the taxes and just general life. Can't figure out if it was something I did wrong, but not going to waste any more time on it. Have reentered as much as possible and will pick up again tomorrow.

Dinner was fun. Half recipes of Chicken Lettuce Wraps (web) and Jamie Oliver's Broccoli with Asian Dressing (web). Both were really easy, fast, and tasty. Some of the prune brownies for dessert, topped with a good slog of cream. Yum.

Friday/17-Apr-15: Dinner at Café Lombok (Indonesian buffet) before No Direction played. Nothing much happened in our kitchen except for yogurt on overnight.

Saturday/18-Apr-15: Lunch with friends today. Popcorn for dinner. Nothing happened in the kitchen.

Sunday/19-Apr-15: Dinner was Frittata with Asparagus (ClassicItal, p283), using only four eggs. Good stuff. We ate about two thirds of it. Then a big salad. Then some mini magnums.

Progress on goals
This week: #1 BACKLOG: yes/no; #2 UNUSED: no; #3 GRAINS: yes; #4 VEG/FISH: 3
This month: #5 PASTA: no; #6 BREAD: no; #7 FotW: no for March/April

This week in the kitchen

Monday/6-Apr-15: Tonight's dinner called for a whole wheat pâte brisée, but I couldn't find a recommended recipe and in the end didn't feel like making even a regular pastry, so defrosted a store-bought one instead. Even though it was a recommended brand, it's still not as good as a homemade one, so that was a weak point in the Broccoli and Olive Tart (p66, Pickford; cookbooker) that I made. This was a pretty good tart, deserving a better crust. The bell peppers and olives really complemented each other and broccoli is always good in this kind of a thing. A stronger goat's cheese might be nice. Followed by a salad. We were full (since we ate 3/4 of the tart meant for four).

Tuesday/7-Apr-15: Yogurt on overday. Shopping today.

Dinner was Ancho-Honey Pork Tenderloin with Cheese Grits (web). The recipe is meant for four; we ate all of it. My varkenshaas  (filet mignon de porc) was a bit smaller than asked, but it was still a lot. Bought a huge sack of spinach, which sautéed down to a spoonful each; that was the suggested side. Afterwards, we finished off the kheer.

Wednesday/8-Apr-15: Dinner was a half recipe of Panko-Crusted Baked Salmon (web). Panko is so convenient for a crispy crust, but what's in the stuff? Think I might need to worry about it a bit.) I did it under the broiler rather than in the oven, and left it at the highest level. The fish was great, but the panko burnt black. Will try this again, either in the oven as directed or on a lower level under the broiler. Served with brown rice and asparagus. No dessert.

Thursday/9-Apr-15: Brette was due at the Angoulême train station at 19.24. I had dinner planned and mostly ready for our return: Pear Shrimp Salad (MC 2BTried; web) for a starter; Slow-Roast Lamb (Diaries, p62) with smashed potatoes and steamed broccoli for the main; cornuelles for dessert. Showed up at the train station, but no Brette. Home again, turn of the lamb (and eat some), discovered Brette's at the train station in Bordeaux (no more trains tonight), off to Bordeaux to get her, home again at 1.30. Start yogurt, put lamb in fridge, go to bed.

Friday/10-Apr-15: Made some more lamb stock from bones in the freezer.

We had lunch out. For "dinner", we had the Pear Shrimp Salad (I made a half recipe for the three of us); this was pretty good. Then some cheese and wine. Then the cornuelles. We're stuffed, all of us.

Tomorrow I'll defat the lamb stock, cut the rest of the lamb off the bone, and freeze together, except for some sandwich makings. And I'll make some broccoli-potato salad with the potatoes and broccoli. And that will be the end of that dinner.

Saturday/11-Apr-15: Made up some Warm Broccoli and Potato Salad (MDSalads, p15). Had that for lunch along with the Moroccan olives that Brette brought.

Cut the lamb off the bone. We munched a bit. I froze up a packet of slices and a packet of bits (pot pie?) for the future and left a plate in the fridge for munching in the next days. Ended up with over 2cups of stock that will make the gravy for open-face sandwiches perhaps and for pot pies.

Brette and I ate out at a Rock Bottom concert, while Ed was feeling poorly.

Sunday/12-Apr-15: Yogurt on overday.

Brette and I had Spicy Indian-Style Scrambled Eggs (web) for lunch before I took her to the train station to start her return to Morocco.

For dinner, I used one lot of the lamb roast to make Lamb in Spiced Gravy (30MinCook, p179), which is pretty good stuff for minimal effort. Served over whole-wheat couscous.

Progress on goals
This week: #1 BACKLOG: no; #2 UNUSED: yes; #3 GRAINS: yes; #4 VEG/FISH: 2
This month: #5 PASTA: no; #6 BREAD: no; #7 FotW: no for March; no for April

This week in the kitchen

Monday/16-Feb-15: Dinner was a halfish dose of Easy Coconut Shrimp Curry (web). Easy indeed and pretty uninteresting flavorwise, but good enough for a quick dinner. Served with a halfish dose of Hot & Sour Stir-Fried Vegetables (Delightful, p55). Used cuke instead of zuke, since that's all there was. Pretty good, although not as tasty as it has been. Wondering if my fish sauce is getting old since it's almost at the end of the bottle. And basmati rice. Some frozen crèmes brulées for dessert.

Tuesday/17-Feb-15: Dinner was a halfish recipe of Chickpeas with Harissa, Basil, and Ham (Diaries, p153; cookbooker). The veggies (tomatoes and eggplant) have to roast in the oven for an hour or so, but otherwise this is quick and easy to prepare. I used chickpeas from the freezer, rather than canned. Made a nice one-dish meal. For dessert I made Easy Berry Cobbler (MC, HandyBook) using up a sack of blueberries and starting in on some raspberries.

Got my bread recipe clippings sorted out; now need to stick them in the notebook and add them to a Bread sheet in my spreadsheet. Small progress.

Wednesday/18-Feb-15: Shopping today. Bought some more dried morels since I didn't have enough for dinner. Expensive little buggers—much more than any other dried mushroom. Have been looking for dry sherry. Leclerc never seems to have it. Stopped at a cave to ask for it, and he explained that sherry wasn't available anywhere as it's not "in the culture." Oh.

Dinner was a halfish dose of Salmon with Red Wine-Morel Sauce (web), which was pretty good, except the piece of salmon I got was huge and we were both stuffed at the end of dinner. Served with parsleyed barley and steamed broccoli, as suggested. (Some sites say pearled barley is a whole grain and others not. I think not. Too bad. I'll have to buy some non-pearled next time.)

Thursday/19-Feb-15: Yogurt on overday, using the new starter I got yesterday. A new brand. My favorite brand has had only flavored versions of late. The house brand is OK, but I thought I'd try the new one. Can't say the lick I had was wonderful, but we'll see how it turns out.

Yummy pancakes for breakfast, Ned and Crescent's Favorite Multigrain Pancakes (Gospels, p205). (This seems to be the only recipe I've made from this book!)

Podded the mess of fava beans I bought yesterday.

Dinner started with the leftover Christmas Eve Soup (beets) from the freezer, with mushroom ravioli. Then there was Aiguillets de Canard au Poivre Vert (VPG) with brown rice on the side. Just noticed this recipe is marked "Light" although I can't imagine why. Duck breasts bits with crème fraîche? Admittedly I usually have light crème fraîche, but still. It was good, nevertheless. Then a salad. (Leclerc  hasn't been stocking the 100g sacks of salad, so I bought one of 60g and topped up with some leaves from a head of lettuce.) Didn't feel like dessert again. That poor cobbler will have to wait another day.

Friday/20-Feb-15: Not crazy about the new yogurt. Will go back to my favorite or the house brand when it's time for a new starter.

Cooked up some chickpeas for the freezer and for a coming dinner. Cooked and peeled a zillion fava beans (ok, it was more like 2 cups, but it seemed like a lot).

We had our dinner early since we're out at a concert this evening. Made a halfish dose of Slider Patties with Pomegranate Molasses (web; CL/may14). Had to "grind" my lamb in the food processor, but I'm discovering that works pretty well. These were good. As a side, I cooked some orecchiette, added the favas, some sliced mint, some grated parmesan, pyramid goat cheese (a bit out of date, but the package was unopened, so I assume it's ok), salt, and pepper. A lot of it, but it was good. Finished off the berry cobbler with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Saturday/21-Feb-15: For a starter tonight we had a small salad with a fig stuffed with foie gras. Bought a package of six of these for xmas. Still have two more in the freezer. For the main, I made a Ukrainian dish, Egg Noodle-and-Spinach Casserole (TLRus, p37). I made a full recipe, which is advertised as serving 6-8. I put it together in two 1-quart baking dishes and froze one of those. (Only one layer of spinach between two layers or noodles.) We easily ate all of one casserole as a vegetarian main one-dish main course. Very tasty. I used fresh noodles from the shop and only (the equivalent of) 3 10-oz packages of frozen spinach rather than 4, since it seemed like a huge amount. I expect this is meant as a side dish, but it was good as a main.

Sunday/22-Feb-15: Yogurt on overday. Meant to start a crockpot dish early this morning, but didn't get it going till after noon. Then the crock didn't turn on (sometimes the knob around Low is fiddly), so it was even later getting going. Sigh.

We were out during the day. When we got back I started Rye Bread (BigGerman, p251) in the bread machine. No vital gluten. Goofed by starting to add whole wheat flour when it should have been bread flour, so it was 2cups rye, 1cup whole wheat, and 1cup bread flours. Cooked on the fast white bread cycle. Pretty darn good, with a nice texture and crispier than usual crust.

The bread was to serve with Balkan Pork'n'Sauerkraut Dinner (TeenyCrock, p52), which was good, but made a ton. It said it serves 4-6 and it means it. I've put up two containers in the freezer for future meals.

We visited three mills on the Open Mill weekend today. Came home with a small walnut cake (mostly gone now after an afternoon snack and dessert), a loaf of walnut bread, and a loaf of plain bread. The plain bread has gone in the oven, we'll have some of the walnut bread for breakfast, then rye bread with our lunch sandwiches.

Progress on goals
This week: #1 BACKLOG: yes; #2 UNUSED: yes; #3 GRAINS: yes; #4 VEG/FISH: 3
This month: #5 PASTA: no; #6 BREAD: no; #7 FotW: no for February

This week in the kitchen

Monday/25-Aug-14: Before dinner, I made some Blueberry Zucchini Bread (web).

For this week's pickled theme at IHCC, I made the Pork Chops, Mustard Sauce (Diaries, p51) again, this time with the cornichons included. Unfortunately, I don't feel like posting about it, so I'll just put the picture here and say we liked the cornichons in the sauce.

Served with Harictos Verts in Walnut Oil (Lunch, p216; HandyBook) and some nice garlicky smashed potatoes. Had some of the Blueberry Zucchini Bread for dessert. Very more-ish. Definitely a keeper.

Yogurt on overnight,

Tuesday/26-Aug-14: Shopping today.

Dinner was a half recipe of Fish Tacos (web) but with six tortillas between the two of us, since that's what was in the fridge. (These are French corn tortillas, which are not as good as the ones I get from the Netherlands; still one more dozen to use up before I can order again from the right place.) Made a Fresh Tomato Salsa as a go-with, but don't know where the recipe came from. Had a big salad as a go-with. We split a classic Magnum for dessert.

Wednesday/27-Aug-14: Dinner was Chicken with Mushroom and Lemon Grass (Diaries, p107), using up all the lemon grass I got recently. This was easy and tasty. For a side there was (sort of) Hot & Sour Stir-Fried Vegetables (Delightful, p55). I didn't have any cabbage or even another brassica, so just left that out. Pretty good anyhow. And some basmati rice. For dessert, a vanilla yogurt each. And a dog walk.

Thursday/28-Aug-14: Made some bread maker bread from the pain au levain mix.

Made a double batch of pâte brisée aka Tart Dough (Tenth, p256), one for dinner, one for the freezer. Dinner was Lemony Ricotta Summer Squash Galette (web), which was really nice. I used only zucchini, since yellow squash are only very rarely available here; the combination would be especially pretty. Finished the Basil Tabbouleh, which held up well, but didn't really go with the galette.

Friday/29-Aug-14: Yogurt on overday.

An easy dinner tonight. There was Curried Zucchini Soup from the freezer, needing only some salt, and grilled cheese sandwiches with bleu d'Aurillac and sliced tomatoes. Good stuff.

Beans on to soak overnight.

Saturday/30-Aug-14: Made some Cayenne Cornbread (BigGerman, p182) in the bread machine.

Beans were cooking most of the day and they still aren't done; wonder how old that package was? In the end I opened a can to make a soup for dinner to go with the cayenne cornbread. Both were good. Some double-chocolate mini-magnums for after. And then a walk looking for Sophie, out after dark again and all keyed up when we found her.

Sunday/31-Aug-14: The beans were improved by an overnight sit. Simmered them some more, then picked the meat off the ham bone and froze it all together for another day.

In the potager. we picked more cayenne (for the freezer), two spiny, fat cucumbers, and two eggplants. Time for some cucumber salad.

Dinner was pasta with Eggplant Sauce with Bell Pepper, Tomato, and Basil (MarCuc, p144; cookbooker). It was good. Two squares each of hazelnut chocolate for after.

I've not touched my Foods of the World cookbook for August, so I sort of arbitrarily declared August as a vacation month and shifted the rest out.

Sophie in late again.

Progress on goals
This week: #1 COOKBOOKS: yes; #2 VEG/FISH: 4,
This month: #3 PASTA: yes; #4 FotW: ; #5 BREAD: 0

This week in the kitchen

Monday/18-Aug-14: A clear-the-fridge kind of dinner tonight. For the main there were Grilled Zucchini Pizza Slices (web) using some thick zucchini slices, no-tomato pizza sauce from the freezer, mozzarella, bacon (which is rather like Canadian bacon), pyramid goat cheese, chopped black olives, and Parmesan. Very versatile, this recipe, since you can use most anything to build the layers; we thought eggplant slices would make a good base also. There were two salads as go-withs. First, Betterave Rouge aux Noisettes (VPG; web), which is a classic sort of thing. I couldn't find hazelnuts (until I put the walnuts back in the freezer), but that was OK, since I don't have any hazelnut oil right now. But I do have walnut oil, so used walnuts instead. Then a made up salad with a home-grown tomato, a bit of home-grown cucumber, some home-grown basil, and shallot with a little vinaigrette. All good stuff if a non-traditional sort of dinner. Saved all the bits of leftover this&thats to use as a pasta sauce for a lunch in the new future.

Tuesday/19-Aug-14: Went to Intermarché after my physio appointment and bought some lamb on sale, some for a dinner this week and more for the freezer. Also got fish for tonight's dinner. Walking through the veggie section on the way to check out, I saw they had some nice-looking sweet corn, so bought a pair of ears. Not sure why this store frequently has corn in the summer, while Leclerc rarely does and it's usually pretty icky looking when they do. Then our regular shopping.

Came home and made Rhubarb Cobbler (web; cookbooker). Our main was a half recipe of Clam Shack-Style Broiled Fish (web) which was quite good. Might use another flavoring instead of paprika next time. Served with, yes, corn on the cob and Parmesan Smashed Potatoes (web), a really yummy way to bake potatoes, right up there (and similar to) Dusolier's Perfect Roasted Potatoes. Cobbler for dessert. We're stuffed.

Yogurt on overnight.

Wednesday/20-Aug-14: Used the rest of the rhubarb and some frozen blueberries (as instructed, since they're not in season at the same time) to make some Bluebarb Jam (SmallBatch, p37). Not sure I had enough pectin, so we may have some bluebarb sauce to deal with later. Somehow I seem to have repeatedly bought sacks of sugar with pectin and boxes of just plain pectin. A friend is making jams for a charity this year, so I gave her all this stuff, leaving only a half sack of pectin (expired, but I wonder if pectin actually expires?). Guess I ought to buy a bit again.

Dinner started with Soft Asian Summer Rolls with Sweet and Savory Dipping Sauce (web; cookbooker). We had three each instead of one, but they were good. My packet of rice paper circles fell to the floor at some point, so about a quarter of each one was broken off, making them rather difficult to roll. The main was a half recipe of Hot and Spicy Chicken with Lemon Grass (MaiPham, p128) served over rice. Good stuff. Originally I thought this wasn't going to be enough, so I made some Cucumber Salad (Yaam Taeng Kwa) (Delightful, p51). In the end, we didn't eat this (beyond a munch), so we put the cukes and onion in a jar with their sauce and the remainder of the dipping sauce to have in the next days. Then some rhubarb cobbler.

Should have put chicken on to marinate for tomorrow's dinner but didn't feel like it. Will have to do it first thing tomorrow.

Thursday/21-Aug-14: Got the chicken on to marinate this morning. It turned into a half recipe of Baked Chicken Curry (MJ@Home, p88; cookbooker), which turned out to be quite good. Served with plain basmati rice and Pan-Grilled Zucchini (MJ@Home, p123). For dessert there was Yogurt Custard (MJ@Home, p276). This was tasty and about as easy as can be: equal amounts of yogurt and sweetened condensed milk, stirred together, then baked in a bain marie.

Argh, this was supposed to be my IHCC contribution for the week and I forgot to take a photo. Sigh.

Friday/22-Aug-14: Haircut day. We're in the process of growing it out. Really like it for the last month. Not so sure of today's result. I see we're going towards the way I had it just before leaving Houston. We'll see.

We were supposed to go out to see a friend's band this evening but Ed's not feeling well, plus he's extra tired from all the shutter painting, so we stayed in. Dinner was Shrimp Panzanella (web; cookbooker), a lovely summer salad. Too bad the weather isn't summery. We ate outside, but it was a bit cool.

Saturday/23-Aug-14: Defrosted the big freezer today. Whew. A handful of stuff MIA, things that I forgot to remove from the spreadsheet when I used them.

Dinner was Salmon and Dill Fishcakes (Diaries, p161; cookbooker) made with the rest of the frozen salmon. Nice texture, nice salmon taste, but otherwise missing a bit of something. Served with cascareccia with a sauce made of a beet I roasted a while ago, red onion and garlic, and pyramid goat's cheese. That was pretty good. Ed thought they were both good, but didn't go especially well together. Finished off the Yogurt Custard for dessert.

Sunday/24-Aug-14: Bbq night, although Ed forgot so it was a bit later than planned. Dinner was Grilled Lamb Steaks with Rosemary, Garlic, and Red Wine (Thrill, p150). Good stuff. Served with two fo the suggested go-withs: Grilled Eggplant with Olive Oil, Parsley, and Capers (Thrill, p298) and Basil Tabbouleh (Thrill, p313). Both good. We each had a double chocolate mini Magnum for the after-dinner Pogo walk, looking for Sophie who's still not in.

Progress on goals
This week: #1 COOKBOOKS: yes; #2 VEG/FISH: 3
This month: #3 PASTA: yes; #4 FotW: no; #5 BREAD: no

IHCC: Zest It up!

This week it's zingy citrus week at I Heart Cooking Clubs. And was also pasta time at home. Result: Lemon and Basil Linguine from The Kitchen Diaries (p130), another Slater recipe that's quick and about as simple as it can be.

For two, simply whisk together the juice of a big lemon, 75ml of olive oil, and 75g of grated Parmesan. When that's well-combined, thick and grainy looking, stir in some torn up basil leaves and lots of freshly ground black pepper. This is really quick to put together, but grating that much Parmesan does take a bit of time—even with my wonderful microplane. (And I used only about 50-60ml of olive oil, since that seemed like entirely too much.) When the pasta is done, drain it, toss with the sauce, and serve. That's all there is to it.

OK, it took a bit longer for me because I made some lemon fettuccine from scratch rather use using store-bought.

The first taste (or smell) is heavy on the citrus, but the lemon, cheese, and basil complement each other so well, making a really creamy sauce without any cream.

Check this week's post at I Heart Cooking Clubs to see what zesty treats others have cooked up.

IHCC: Serving Up Salads!

This week it's salad time with Nigel Slater and it's definitely salad weather outside. Being a bundle of indecision, I ended up making two Slater salads this week.

The first one was Goat's Cheese and Fruit from The 30-Minute Cook (p92). This is a salad of fresh fruits, with a dressing of balsamic vinegar, lemon juice, olive oil, and walnut oil, topped by a crottin melted on a toasted baguette slice. Red currants and raspberries were the best looking fresh fruit at the shop this week, so I used that combination. This was good, but a bit odd. Should it be a salad starter or a combined cheese-dessert course? We both liked the bits individually, but thought the combination was odd. Maybe it would work better with autumny fruits like pears and figs, but there's still the question of what course it should be. Odd or not, we enjoyed it.

This evening we had A Refreshing Salad for a Hot Day, the July 19 entry from The Kitchen Diaries (p231). Well, sort of. Slater asks for a cantaloupe; I got a charentaise melon. (I live in the Charente, so this is local food here. Cantaloupes are rare.) Instead of Parma ham, I used slices from a dried French ham that a neighbor won in a lottery, but didn't want. There was no arugula/rocket in the shop so I used some leaves from a garden lettuce that is bolting. All served with a simple dressing of lemon juice and olive oil with salt and pepper. Only when I went back to the kitchen to see if the main course was ready to come out of the oven did I realize that I'd neglected to add the mozzarella slices to the salad. So we used those to wipe up the bit of dressing left on our plates. The mozzarella was good by itself, and probably better if I'd managed to actually include it in the salad.

Last week I didn't post my dish, but you can see what other folks made Off the Spice Rack at I Heart Cooking Clubs. And be sure to check out what folks are doing for Serving Up Salads this week. 

IHCC: July Potluck!!!

Recently I had a hankering for some pork chops, but none were in the freezer. The next time at the grocery, I found a big package of them on special and froze them up individually, waiting for a pork chop night to come along.

Pork chops have never been my forté. Strangely it's Ed, who barely cooks at all, who can fry up a mean chop. In the past I've let him do the honors whenever pork chop time rolls around. For this dinner, I was determined to have a go myself. Since it's potluck week, I looked through my cookbooks for all the I Heart Cooking Club authors and settled on ... yes, it's Nigel Slater again.

Slater's books are certainly spending a lot of time in our kitchen this season. Pork Chops, Mustard Sauce is the 13 February entry in The Kitchen Diaries (p51), a classic sort of way to embellish pork.

Start by putting a bit of butter and olive oil in a skillet and set it over a highish flame while you salt and pepper the chops and squash a couple of garlic cloves. When the fat starts to foam up, plop in the garlic and the chops. Brown the chops on the first side, then turn them over. Brown the second side, then turn the heat down to medium. Let the chops cook through (no pink should show when you peek with a knife), turning them once. Move the chops to plates or a serving dish and keep them warm. (I left my plates on the plate warmer and covered them loosely with a sheet of aluminum foil.)

Now comes the sauce that makes this dish especially nice. Pour off most of the fat, leaving the tasty bits in the pan. Turn the heat back up and deglaze the pan with a good slog of white wine, scraping up the browned bits to help it all dissolve. Add some cream and let it bubble a bit. Stir in big spoonfuls of Dijon mustard and a grainy mustard. Add some chopped cornichons. (I forgot this bit!) Taste for salt  and grind in some black pepper. You might add a dribble of the cornichon juice if you think it's needed to sharpen the taste. Serve the shops topped with the sauce and a pile of smashed potatoes so none of the sauce goes to waste. Pork chop success—maybe I'm starting to get the hand of this pork chop thing!

I forgot to add the chopped cornichons, so I'll definitely plan this in again to give that a try. A bit of acid is often a nice touch to cut the fatty feel of creamy foods.

Last week I forgot to take a picture of my "Around the Globe" dish, but you can see other well-travelled posts at I Heart Cooking Clubs. Check  out this week's I Heart Cooking Clubs to see what other folks have turned up for their potluck meals.

IHCC: Let's do Brunch!

Thumbing through my Nigel Slater books and wondering what I could find that would be considered a dish for brunch, I came upon the June 15th entry in The Kitchen Diaries (p195) titled "A shrimp omelette." The whole entry for the date reads:

You can make a very nice little omelette by folding in a carton of potted shrimps, minus the butter topping, as it cooks. It is surprisingly filling and somehow, with a glass of white wine, rather decadent.

Ah-ha, I thought, an omelet sounds brunchlike and I need a light and quick dinner one evening. Potted shrimp, however, are not something I can get at my local grocery. A little searching around turned up a recipe at the River Cottage site, also from their Edible Seashore handbook (which I don't have). Potted shrimp are tiny shrimp that have been cooked in lots of clarified butter (I used ghee) and some herbs (mace, cayenne, and bay leaf), then plopped in a jar or carton and topped with a layer of plain, clarified butter. I couldn't find the teeninsy brown shrimp asked, but got some teeny regular shrimp that had been cooked and frozen. Once you've got the potted shrimp on hand, it's just a matter of making and omelet and filling it with the shrimp. Served with a salad, this was a fine, light meal, well-suited to brunch-time eating.

Check this week's I Heart Cooking Clubs post to see what other folks have found to eat for brunch.

This week in the kitchen

Monday/2-Jun-14: Yogurt on overday.

Dinner was a half dose of Zucchini, Caper, and Herb Linguine (web). Pretty good stuff. Then a small salad. For afters, there was some banana bread that I put in the oven before I started dinner. It was Banana Tea Bread (Essential, p655). The recipe from 1947 made a really nice banana bread. I used my cuisinart for all mixing. Used butter instead of shortening. Used slightly more than 1/2cup sucre de canne. More-ish.

Tuesday/3-Jun-14: Shopping today. Back on schedule for a while.

Dinner was Mirin-Glazed Salmon (web), except that it turned out I'm out of mirin. Somehow forgot to add it to  my Dutch shopping list. Substituted sherry. Was pretty good, might be worth doing again when mirin reappears on the shelf. Served with Broccoli in a Fragrant Wine Sauce (HotWok, p156), a favorite not made in a while, and some rice.

Wednesday/4-Jun-14: Lunch at a friend's going to a patchwork exhibition. Only sandwiches and fruit at dinnertime.

Thursday/5-Jun-14: Yogurt on overday.

A Nigel Slater brunch dish for dinner tonight, followed by a nice salad. That was all.

Friday/6-Jun-14: Grilled Chicken with Garlic and Lemon Butter (Diaries, p262), a recipe calling for "chubby poussin". Love reading Slater's recipes. I didn't make the butter bit, just marinated and grilled the birdies. They were good cooked under the broiler at a low temp, with the rack set on the bottom, but the marinade wasn't especially thrilling. Served with Clothilde Dusolier's Perfect Roast Potatoes (MC, HandyBook) and A Radish, Mint, and Feta Salad (Diaries, p195). For dessert I made up another half dose of the shortcakes for Strawberry Shortcakes (TLAmer, p90). Cut the baking powder back to 1-1/4tsp as suggested by Barbara. Much better, i.e., quite good. I made six shortcakes, we both thought that one each was too much; better would be to split one for two desserts. Poured marscapone cream over the berries.

Saturday/7-Jun-14: Dinner was a half dose of Alfredo Pasta with Cajun Spiced Chicken (web). Good stuff, and easy. Used a packet of aiguillettes de poulet (~225g) and some Cajun run I made up for something or other. Used about 1 teaspoon of this for my half recipe, which is about four times more than asked. Also spray the chickie bits with a bit of olive oil spray. Then cooked on the grill pan. Cut them in half to toss with the pasta and sauce. Followed by a big salad. That was all.

Sunday/8-Jun-14: Yogurt on overday.

Lunch with friends today. For dinner, we shared a plate of fruit plus some strawberries over the last shortcake.

Progress on goals
This week: #1 COOKBOOKS: no; #2 VEG/FISH: 3
This month: #3 PASTA: no; #4 FotW: no; #5 BREAD: 0

This week in the kitchen

Monday/6-May-14: (Managed to loose what I wrote on Monday, so this bit is reimagined.) Working on the freezer inventory, we grilled some chicken sausages on the bbq. Served with Mediterranean Lentil Salad with Lemon-Thyme Vinaigrette (Essential, p288), a yummy side dish salad that could be a vegetarian main. For after there was Easy Berry Cobbler (HandyBook) fresh from the oven, served with ice cream.

Tuesday/7-May-14: Shopping today.

Dinner was fish from Nigel Slater for IHCC. Served with boiled new potatoes and some of the yellow beans from the freezer. Finished off the cobbler for dessert.

Wednesday/8-May-14: Yogurt on overday. Boiled up the the chicken&pigeon stock yet again and froze it.

Some 1970s American food for dinner. I made a half recipe of Deviled Crab (TLAmer, p71), served over some nouilles bouclées (curly noodles) along with some broccoli.

Thursday/9-May-14: Easy dinner tonight. Arroz con Pollo from the freezer, followed by a salad. The chicken was very good still. The rice was tasty enough, but pretty soggy. Not sure if that was from its time in the freezer, or being well covered in the oven for quite a while.

Friday/10-May-14: And a really easy dinner tonight. Some so-so broccoli sauce for pasta from the freezer, brightened up with a bit of lemon juice, over the rest of the nouilles bouclées, followed by a big salad.

Saturday/11-May-14: Picked up Barbara from the train today. There was a train broken down and all trains were delayed about 50 minutes. Hers was the first late one into the station. Stopped by Leclerc on the way home to do a bit of shopping.

For dinner we had Potaje de Vigilia from the freezer and a big salad. Then some cheese (morbier and camembert) with some of Barbara's homemade membrillo (which goes really nicely with cheese).

Sunday/12-May-14: Ed had a late afternoon choir concert today and restaurants aren't open Sunday evening. He went early for practice and Barbara and I went later, leaving a Slow-Roast Lamb (Diaries, p62) in the oven. When we got back, we smashed some potatoes and steamed some broccoli. The lamb was delicious. So were the cheeses (finished off yesterday's two). Then we had some little store-bought rice puddings.

Progress on goals
This week: #1 COOKBOOKS: yes; #2 VEG/FISH: 4
This month: #3 PASTA: no; #4 FotW: no; #5 BREAD: 1

IHCC: What's in Your Picnic Basket?

Last week we were eating dinners al fresco. This week we're inside with the heating on again. But we can have a pretend picnic.

A couple of years ago, Santa brought me The Kitchen Diaries and I read Slater's diary throughout the next year, more or less on the same dates. The book ended up with a lot of stickies, and I've been very happy with most of the dishes I've made here.

(Dear Santa, if the paperback edition of Kitchen Diaries II is out this year, I'd really like to find one under the tree. Please.)

An especially nice feature of Slater's books is that he includes lots of recipes for leftovers. One of my do-me-soon stickies in this book was Chicken and Rice Salad (p187). This salad uses the remains of a  roast chicken. (Mine came from the freezer. We often eat half the chicken after roasting, then I pick the meat and freeze that and the carcass—separately, of course.) Fish sauce and sprouts make this salad only vaguely southeast Asian; there's nothing here that would offend non-adventurous eaters.

My grocery here in France rarely carries any kind of sprouts (in contrast to the Netherlands where these were regularly available) and I've been out of the sprouting business for years (although I admit I to thinking sometimes that it might be a good idea to start this up again). There have been sprouts to be had for the last few weeks, so I thought I'd give this recipe a try. But there were no sprouts to be found this week. On the other hand, they did have mangetouts, snow peas, and I thought those would be a good substitute for crunch and flavor.

The base of the salad is rice, sprouts (or snow peas as I made it), and leftover roast chicken. (The 200g of uncooked rice asked could be considered a bit on the much side; a bit less would be fine. Orzo might be a good substitution.) For extra flavor there's some minced red chilies and chopped mint. The dressing is nam pla (fish sauce), lime juice, and olive oil. Toss everything together and serve. It's that easy.

And very easy to eat also. This salad would be great at a picnic or a potluck or on a buffet table, since there's nothing here that would go off.

Visit this week's I Heart Cooking Clubs to see what other folks have been cooking up for their picnics.

This week in the kitchen

Monday/21-Apr-14: Dinner was Sticky Soy-Hoisin Chicken Thighs (web; cookbooker) which was pretty good. Used five thighs and all the the sauce for the two of us; there was plenty of sauce, but not a superabundance. Served with coconut rice and some yellow green beans from the freezer, cooked in sesame oil and sprinkled with toasted sesame seeds and amchoor at the end. For dessert, I used up a tub of ricotta that I defrosted for something that didn't get done and made my version of Coffee Ricotta Mousse (MW@Home, p307).

Tuesday/22-Apr-14: Shopping today. Bought some organic lemons to make preserved lemons. Picked up a pair of coquelets then asked at the butcher's counter if they had pigeonneaux. Yes they did, so I bought two and froze the coquelets. Them-thar pigeons were expensive! Stay tuned.

Dinner was Spiced Fried Fish (30MinCook, p120) made with swordfish, which was on sale today. Fish strips tossed with lime, spices, and besan, then deep fried. Yum. Served with Carrots with Mustard Seeds (30MinCook, p47) and Pan-Fried Potatoes with Browned Onions and Garam Masala (RealCook, p244). For dessert we had fresh strawberries with Old-Fashioned Vanilla Ice Cream (TLAmer, p106). Forgot to take a picture till it was too late.

Wednesday/23-Apr-14: A lovely lunch out today, courtesy of Groupon. We didn't need to eat anything for the rest of the day.

Thursday/24-Apr-14: Yogurt on overday. Another IHCC dinner tonight, with Chicken and Rice Salad (Diaries, p187; cookbooker). We finished off the ice cream when I got back from line dancing.

Friday/25-Apr-14: The day got late, so what was on the plan (and defrosted) will move to tomorrow. Instead there were Zucchini Bread Pancakes (web). Good there were. I made a whole recipe, expecting leftovers to freeze, but we ate it all. A bit much, but oh so good.

Saturday/26-Apr-14: Made up some Preserved Lemons (Couscous, p31) which now need to get shaken daily for 30 days before using.

American food from TLAmer tonight. Served the squab and spoon bread with Grilled Asparagus (30MinCook, p31) and Cold Beetroot with Cream (Pomiane, p180). We were full. No dessert.

Sunday/27-Apr-14: Intended to make pasta today, but it looks like Ed finally managed to share his cold-crud with me, and I'm feeling like s***. So I made the sauce to go with the strangely named Whole Wheat Spaghetti (XSpecCP, p99). This isn't a crockpot dish (except to keep it warm) and all you do is cook some store-bought whole wheat spaghetti, but there's a nice sauce of sautéed leeks, goat cheese, sun-dried tomatoes, olive, lemon zest, and lemon juice. I made a little salad of rocket and a chopped up beet and the rest of the dressing from Pomiane's beet dish. Split a Magnum classic for afters. Hoping to feel better tomorrow.

Yogurt on overnight.

Progress on goals
This week: #1 COOKBOOKS: yes; #2 VEG/FISH: 3
This month: #3 PASTA: no; #4 FotW: yes; #5 BREAD: 0

This week in the kitchen

Monday/7-Apr-14: Forgot that I had a doctor's appointment today (quarterly checkup on ears, nothing serious), so the list for tomorrow isn't finished. Maybe I can get it done in the morning.

Nigel Slater again tonight, intended for IHCC but didn't make it. Made A Chicken Roasted with New Garlic and a Fresh Pea Pilau (Diaries, p184), served with haricots verts. Regular garlic instead of new. Was a good chicken, but didn't much like the sauce with way too much vermouth. Here's Ed trying to convince Sophie to get out of his chair and away from the chicken.

Yogurt on overnight.

Tuesday/8-Apr-14: Hmm...it seems the yogurt problem hasn't been resolved. It wasn't cooked this morning, but was finally done after several two- and three-hour extensions. Happened to glance in the manual for the old yogurt maker and discovered the lids are supposed to be off for the cooking with that one too. I've always had them on. Wonder why they should be off? Current theory for the crummy yogurt is that something is not getting sufficiently clean. Since the jars and lids go through the dishwasher, I'm guessing that the tupperware 2-liter measure that I use might have gotten contaminated somehow and handwashing is not getting it sufficiently clean. Only a guess, but I've ordered a stainless steel bowl with a pouring lip to give that a try (thank you, Amazon France) after not finding anything while shopping today.

Shopping today. Broke down and bought some fêves from Spain.

Dinner was Fish Fillets in a 'Curry' Sauce (100Curries, p39), a not-quite-Indian dish with a curried bechamel for the fish. The fish was soaked in milk and spices, then dipped in bread crumbs (chapelure or paneermeel), then baked at a high temp. Meanwhile the sauce is made from the soaking milk. That's finished off with chopped coriander and lemon juice, which was a nice touch. For a side there was Diced Potatoes with Spinach (WofE, p53; 100Curries, p140), which was nice. No dessert needed.

Wednesday/9-Apr-14: Ate out tonight before going to a concert in Cognac.

Thursday/10-Apr-14: Picked the chicken and made (more or less) Curried Chicken Salad (MC; Rosie, p34). No cabbage on hand, so I shredded some broccoli stems. This is my "standard" curried chicken recipe, not that I follow it exactly, but it's an outline for possibilities. Ate our dinner outside for the first time this year.

Friday/11-Apr-14: The stainless steel yogurt-mixing bowl arrived today, so I gave it a good hot wash and started  yogurt. We'll see how it is in the morning.

Sat outside and shelled the fêves this afternoon.

Dinner was Stir-Fried Crabmeat with Bean Curd (TLChina, p61). Relatively tasteless, but helped by liberal application of sambal. Recipe has the ingredients not in the order used, annoying. Since we have no scallions/green onions here, I used a shallot instead; the green of the tops would have been a nice addition of color. Somewhat less tofu would be fine too.

As a go-with, I made Cucumber Salad with Spicy Dressing (TLChina, p40). Spicy with one of our favorite Chinese ingredient, Tabasco. This was a hit. Would be good with any vaguely oriental dinner. Sorry picture is fuzzy, I only took one.

Saturday/12-Apr-14: May have licked the yogurt problem. I hope. At least this batch is good.

Dinner out tonight, so nothing much happened in our kitchen,

Sunday/13-Apr-14: Parboiled and peeled the favas. I do love these, but it is somewhat annoying that you've met each of those babies personally, once in the shelling, once in the peeling.

We had our main meal in the afternoon today, since we went to a  movie in the early evening. We had a half recipe of Fava Beans with Shallots, Fresh Herbs, and Goat Cheese (PeV, p132). Unfortunately there was no basil in the shop this week, fresh or frozen, so I had to use the dried kind. Still, it was quite a nice dish. Then a salad. Then some mini magnums.

Monday's meal was supposed to be for IHCC, but I haven't had time to write a post, so I'll have to skip it this week.

Progress on goals
This week: #1 COOKBOOKS: yes; #2 VEG/FISH: 3
This month: #3 PASTA: no; #4 FotW: yes; #5 BREAD: 0

This week in the kitchen

Monday/18-Feb-13: Yogurt on overday.

This week's IHCC dinner was Persian Egg and Potato Cake (WorldVeg, p538). Followed by a big salad. That's all.

Tuesday/19-Feb-13: Spent a long time today working on the next week's menu plan and grocery list for tomorrow, all of which will be thrown to the wind if normal practice is followed.

For dinner I defrosted a chunk of the Thanksgiving turkey roulade and sliced it. Sautéed some shallots and mushrooms, deglazed with a slug of white wine, added some AH paddestoelen fond and some cream, set the turkey slices and steamed broccoli florets on top till all was good and hot. Served over trio rice. For afters we pigged out on some cheese. I'll probably be sorry.

Wednesday/20-Feb-13: Shopping today. Saw some ready-made polenta disks and bought on impulse. Now what will I do with them?

Dinner was a half of Shrimp in Spicy Lime Sauce (web). A bit sweeter than we like, but good enough; easy and fast, certainly. Served over rice. Then a bit salad.

Thursday/21-Feb-13: Made some Garlic Broth (MDSoups, p55) for the freezer.

Dinner was (sort of) Grilled Chicken with Harissa and Mint (Diaries, p203; cookbooker). Ran out of gas in the middle of grilling. I guess it's not possible to run out at a convenient time, is it? Served with an new favorite, Zucchini and Feta Cheese Salad (WorldVeg, p640) and trio rice. Yum.

Friday/22-Feb-13: Yogurt on overday. Another yogurt jar broke in a kitchen demolition accident. Getting low now.

Dinner was Baked Broccoli Egg Supper Bake (Art, p80), broccoli in a cream sauce (with shrooms) and an egg plopped in the middle. Used two individual casserole dishes rather than scooping it out to serve. Then a salad. That was enough.

Saturday/23-Feb-13: Off to visit tiles today. Found some expensive ones (€110/m2) we really liked. Tomorrow we'll see if we have enough of the Amstelveen kitchen tiles left to use here. We're afraid they might be just not enough. Fingers crossed.

Put a pork belly on to marinate for tomorrow.

Dinner was Goat's Cheese and Fennel Risotto with Pea and Pernod (web). Pretty good. Not sure how many it was supposed to serve, but I've got a good serving left. Maybe it will show up as part of dinner soon.

Sunday/24-Feb-13: Oops, got started cooking the pork belly too late, so it will get another chance to marinate in the sub-0C temps outside.

Didn't check out the old tiles today. Tomorrow perhaps.

Dinner was Cavatelli with Slow Roasted Broccoli and Harissa (web). I added some water, rather than oil, during the "roasting" process for the broccoli. Have almost used up the exotic jar of harissa I bought last year. Exotic, rather than the normal toothpaste tube of harissa that's in most groceries. Easy and a pretty good variation on the broccoli-pasta theme. They some double-chocolate mini-Magnums for dessert.

Progress on goals
This week: #1 IHCC/COOKBOOKS: yes, #2 VEG/FISH: 5
This month: #3 PASTA: no, #4 BREAD: no