This week in the kitchen

Monday/26-Mar-18: No soup tonight. I defrosted some bird sausages and grilled them. Served with the leftover orzo risotto with cabbage, which reheated very well. Then a salad. Then the rest of the butterscotch pudding.

Yogurt on overnight

Tuesday/27-Mar-18: Greek tonight, after checkups at the dentist. There was Shrimp with Fennel, Green Olives, Red Onion, and White Wine (O&C, p346; cookbooker), about a third recipe. I used AH fish stock from the freezer and topped it up with wine. Easy and quick, this was very tasty. It's a little unclear to me how to serve it. There's a tasty bit of liquid with it, so you can't just plop it down on a plate. I served over bucatelli, but a shorter pasta or rice might have been better.

Served with Greens Salad with Hard-Cooked Eggs and Fried Garlic (O&C, p268; cookbooker). This was easy to prepare and very tasty. The Fried Garlic Topping (O&C, p481) was a nice touch.

We finished with a bit of a very nice St Maure cheese (on crackers, ssh!), followed by a fruit salad with kiwis, pears, and pomegranate seeds.

Wednesday/28-Mar-18: Shopping today. Bought the first gariguettes that I've seen this year.

For our meal, we had Pan-Fried Thai Fish (RealCook, p41) with lieu noir. Quite good it was. A bit odd Slater asks for shredded lemon grass. Hand-cut "shredded" was a bit too chewy. Usually lemongrass is minced, but I wonder if he means microplaned? Shakes of soy sauce and rice wine? I used 1/4 teaspoon and suspect that 1/2 teaspoon would be better. Served with Mom's Cabbage Salad (MaiPham, p96), this time with cuke slices. For afters, we finished the St Maure, leaving the strawberries for tomorrow.

Thursday/29-Mar-18: Our meal was a half recipe of Gnocchis au Gorgonzola et Pesto de Roquette (VPG; web), that's gnocchi (store-bought) with a pesto of arugula, walnuts, and gorgonzola over gnocchi, broccoli with a good slog of cream. Pretty good, although the pesto tasted of rancid walnuts to me, while Ed thought it was fine. Then a salad. Then gariguettes and cream.

Friday/30-Mar-18 — Sunday/1-Apr-18: Off at Bach à Pâques festival. Nothing happened in the kitchen, we hope.

Progress on goals
This week: #1 BACKLOG: no; #2 VEG/FISH: 3; #3 COOKBOOK: yes
Cookbook of the month: O&C
This month: #4 PASTA: yes for March; no for April; #5 BREAD: no for March; no for April; #6 GUESTS: no for March; no for April
SaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSave
SaveSaveSaveSave

This week in the kitchen

Monday/19-Mar-18: Soup for our main meal today. We had Lemon Chicken Orzo Soup (web); the two of us ate a half recipe which should serve three. Quite good and easy. For dessert there was Banana Mousse for Two (HandyBook); no idea where this recipe came from but it's good and fast.

Tuesday/20-Mar-18: Greek today. There were Beef and Rice Meatballs (O&C, p376), with Avgolomeno Sauce (O&C, p475). I made a 3/4-ish recipe with 350g of 5% beef, using brown rice. I've made avgolomeno sauce before. It's one of those custardy kinds of sauce. I found it easier this time than I remembered. It seemed not to set until I turned the heat up just a tad (left front, weakest burner). Served with The Single Vegetable Salad (O&C, p189) using asparagus and the Oil and Lemon version of Greek Salad Dressing (O&C, p190), which is just a lemon vinaigrette (with no mustard). Also some gramigne, a small pasta shape we've become fond of, toss with garlic oil and parsley.

Yogurt on overnight.

Wednesday/21-Mar-18: Shopping today. There was some nice-looking tuna (thick and same-thickness) on sale. Bought two huge steaks, tossed both my planned dishes, and found something else. I made Grilled Tuna Marinated in Chermoula (MedHot2, p105; chermoula, p70). I've made the same recipe before from Kremezi's earlier book MedHot (p48), which has 1tbl less olive oil in the chermoula. I did that again. Only used about half of the chermoula, so froze the rest for later use.

I bought a small cabbage today, thinking of a stir-fry accompaniment for Asian-ish fish. In Kremezi, I found a cabbage variation of Orzo "Risotto" with Fresh Favas, Lemon, and Feta (MedHot2, p171). I later realized this is meant as a main course, so we have lots of leftovers there. It was good, though.

Some little store-bought custards for dessert. Chocolate Liegeois. Very good.

Thursday/22-Mar-18: Our meal was Grilled Chili-Lime Chicken (web), cooked under the broiler. Accompanied by Spiced Roasted Potatoes (RealCook, p256) and followed by a salad. I made the salad with Penzey's Sonoran Spice, rather than curry powder, since it seemed a better match for the chicken. This is a really nice, easy way to cook potatoes. We pigged out on chocolate chip cookies for dessert.

Friday/23-Mar-18: Leftover Broccoli Meatballs with Garlic-Tomato Sauce for our meal today. Still good, but it wanted quite a bit of salt; I'd forgotten.

Made some Chocolate Cream Cheese Brownies from an ancient newspaper clipping. Would have been better in a 8" square rather than a 13"x9" pan. Taste okay, even if thin.

Yogurt on overnight.

Saturday/24-Mar-18: Dinner out tonight. Nothing happened in the kitchen,

Sunday/25-Mar-18: Our meal was Shrimp Pasta with Spinach and Sundried Tomato Cream (web), which was good enough, but nothing special. For dessert I made Mr. Food's Butterscotch Pudding (web). We had tonight's part warm rather than cooled. Easy and tasty. (Who is Mr. Food?)

Munched the chorizo for tomorrow's meal while preparing tonight's dinner. Replan needed.

No looking good for having guests this month. Can't arrange the oomph to organize.

Progress on goals
This week: #1 BACKLOG: no; #2 VEG/FISH: 3; #3 COOKBOOK: yes
Cookbooks of the month: O&C
This month: #4 PASTA: yes; #5 BREAD: no; #6 GUESTS: no

This week in the kitchen

Monday/12-Mar-18: Our meal today was Yellow Split Pea Soup (O&C, p159; cookbooker). Now, yellow split peas are only marginally more interesting than green split peas. I'm not sure why I thought adding some olive oil, an onion, and some chopped garlic was going to do something special. No, just some (quite well-cooked) yellow split peas. I made two of the suggest toppings, Pickled Red Onions (O&C, p159; cookbooker) and not-too-Wilted Cilantro Topping (O&C, p148; cookbooker).

These were good enough, but the best topping was some healthy slogs of Chipotle Tabasco. Mini ice cream bars for dessert.

Tuesday/13-Mar-18: I had lunch out today. Ed fended for himself.

Wednesday/14-Mar-18: Shopping today.

Our meal was a half recipe of Stir-Fried Prawns and Scallops in Black Bean and Tomato Butter Sauce (HomTrav, p88). This was pretty good, although the scallops shrunk a lot; I'll try to avoid that brand in the future. Served over basmati rice, with Mom's Cabbage Salad (MaiPham, 96) made with the end of a chineeskool. Ed thought this was a five-star cabbage slaw, even though I forgot to add the cucumber and mint leaves. Oops. Mini ice cream bars for dessert.

Put a pair of skate wings on to marinate overnight.

Yogurt on overnight.

Thursday/15-Mar-18: Our meal was Pan-Fried Skate with Vinegar, Dill, Shallots, and Tomato (O&C, p341). This is only the second time I've cooked skate, more successful than the last time, but not sure I need to do it again. This is fairly easy, and the sauce was quite tasty with the fish.

For a side, I heated up some of the Yellow Split Pea Soup and topped with Pickled Red Onions, when went with the skate sauce quite well. And there was Fried Eggplant with Feta and Basil (O&C, p276), which was good, a nice addition to one's eggplant repertoire.

Friday/16-Mar-18: I ate lunch out with a friend, while Ed fended for himself. Nothing further happened in the kitchen.

Saturday/17-Mar-18: I made a full recipe of Broccoli Meatballs with Garlic-Tomato Sauce (web). I used half the amount of canned tomatoes and still had plenty of sauce. Formed as patties instead of balls. They were good. Served with brown rice. Ice cream bars at the film later.

Yogurt on overnight.

Sunday/18-Mar-18: Discovered this morning that I'd defrosted the wrong bits of chicken for what I'd planned to cook. Oops. Quick replan.

Because there was an eggplant in the fridge wanting to be used, I made Clay Pot Chicken (O&C, p417), made with four thighs in a cast iron Dutch oven. This was quite tasty, although the veggies kind of disappeared. (I forgot to take a picture.) Served with orzo. Followed by a big salad.

Progress on goals
This week: #1 BACKLOG: no; #2 VEG/FISH: 4; #3 COOKBOOK: yes
Cookbooks of the month: O&C
This month: #4 PASTA: yes; #5 BREAD: no; #6 GUESTS: no

This week in the kitchen

Monday/5-Mar-18: Our meal was Nigel Slater's Carrot and Cardamom Soup with Herb Ricotta Dumplings (web). The soup was tasty but disappointing as a whole. I made a half recipe, which turned out to be skimpy for two, and the liquid wasn't deep enough to cook the dumplings properly. We each had a hard-boiled egg to supplement the meal.

Tuesday/6-Mar-18: Dinner was Garlicky Chicken with Lemon-Anchovy Sauce (web), an instant hit. This was exceedingly yummy. Ed thought it was a trifle salty; I didn't especially, but will be careful salting the chicken next time. Served with orzo, dressed up with lemon juice and parsley, and steamed asparagus. (Lately asparagus has been appearing in 400g packets rather than 500g. With 500g, you can get a side for two dinner; with 400g you either have one meal with abundance or two skimpy ones.)

Wednesday/7-Mar-18: Shopping today.

Dinner was chili from the freezer, filled out with hominy also from the freezer, and some guacamole, accompanied by Cayenne Cornbread (BigGerman, p182). We were stuffed.

Yogurt on overnight.

Thursday/8-Mar-18: Off to Audilab today and finally got my hearing aids straightened out. Then a quick trip to Leclerc to pick up frozen spinach which I seemed to be out of unexpectedly.

Our meal was a half recipe of Gratin de Pomme de Terre, Saumon et Épinards à l'Aneth (VPG; web). This was quite good, and easy, but takes some wall clock time. Cut my potatoes on the mandoline to get them really thin; another 5 minutes cooking might be nice to be sure they're done. Served with a salad, then some store-bought rum-raisin riz au laits.

Friday/9-Mar-18: Roasted a chunk of potimarron (a winter squash, we'll pretend it's pumpkin) for tomorrow's meal.

Leftover pizza for our meal.

Meanwhile, I made Yogurt Cake with Ouzo-Lemon Syrup (O&C, p520).

Saturday/10-Mar-18: Pasta today, yay! I made a half recipe of Creamy Pumpkin Sage Fettuccine (web). This was pretty good. For the pasta, you essentially replace one of the eggs with 2tbl of pumpkin purée and a pinch of turmeric. Pretty color; easy to handle. The sauce is pumpkin and cream, stirred into sautéed minced sage leaves. Simple and good. Then a salad.

Sunday/11-Mar-18: It was supposed to be a quickish meal today, but I failed in that. We had Chicken Neo-Avgolemono (O&C, p409; cookbooker). This was edible but disappointing.

Served with a pilaf, Baklar Enginar—Artichoke Hearts with Broad Beans (Meze, p77), and Jazar Atariyah—Spiced Carrots (Meze, p76). The artichoke/fêve dish was disappointing. The carrots were good. Both of the meze dishes were supposed to serve 6; I made a third of each recipe. A single serving of the artichoke dish was once bottom and a dab of favas. A single serving of the carrot dish was two carrots.

Made up some Pickled Red Onions (O&C, p79) for tomorrow.

Yogurt on overnight.

Progress on goals
This week: #1 BACKLOG: no; #2 VEG/FISH: 4; #3 COOKBOOK: yes
Cookbooks of the month: O&C
This month: #4 PASTA: yes; #5 BREAD: no; #6 GUESTS: no