This week in the kitchen

Monday/13-Dec-21: Dinner was a half dose of Chicken Tagine with Preserved Lemons and Olives (Seaver2, p122). This was quite nice. I cooked everything in the tagine/tajine, rather than using a separate pot for getting started with the onions and browning the thighs. There was lots of sauce left. I blended it up and have frozen it, maybe for a sauce with chicken or pork. Served with Moroccan Carrots (1Good, p59); I'm making this so often, I really need to put it in my kitchen Handy Book. And some Moroccan couscous, from a store-bought mix. 

Tuesday/14-Dec-21: Before dinner, I started a loaf of Easy French Bread (Electric, p62).

Dinner was Tortellini with Pumpkin Alfredo Sauce (web). (I got this recipe from foodnetwork.com, but these days Europeans are automatically redirected to foodnetwork.co.uk. Where the recipe is not available. :-( ) It was okay, nothing special. Then a salad. A single madeleine each for after. 

Wednesday/15-Dec-21: Using up lots of veggies, tonight's dinner was what I think of as a hippie dinner, lot of veggie sautéed and served over short-grain brown rice. 

Thursday/16-Dec-21: Shopping today.

Dinner was half of Salmon with Garlic Cream Sauce (web). This was good. Served with trio rice, and that was all. A single madeleine each for after.

Friday/17-Dec-21: Dinner was Tunisian Meatballs* (1Good, p141; web; web; GD). When I first made this, I didn't yet have the cookbook. This would be a good company dish because you could make the sauce and meatballs up ahead and warm them together at serving time. Served with the Israeli couscous recipe included. Followed by a very simple salad. A single madeleine each for after.

Saturday/18-Dec-21: Dinner was Wok-Fried Lamb with Cumin (1Good, p204; cookbooker), which was very good. Served with plain basmati rice and Broccoli and Mixed Mushrooms in Garlic Black Bean Sauce (web). I made a whole recipe, resulting in two adequate servings, not four as advertised. 

Sunday/19-Dec-21: Dinner was Chicken in a Cilantro, Spinach, and Mustard Sauce (Q&E, p50). This is probably my most used cookbook, so I'm always surprised to find something new to make here. This was new, and good. As suggested, served with Indian Mashed Potatoes (Q&E, p90),which is an old favorite, and Simply Grilled Tomatoes (Q&E, p93). A single madeleine each for after.

Progress on goals
This week: #1 VEG/FISH: 3; #2 PHOTO: no; #3 *DMA: yes
This month: #4 GUESTS: n/a
This year: #5 BACKLOG1: 100%; #6 BACKLOG2: no; #7 RECYCLE: 16; #8 NEW: 5

This week in the kitchen

Monday/6-Dec-21: Dinner was a half recipe of Risotto with Baby Artichokes (Verdura, p234). This was nice, in spite of the tedious preparation needed for the artichokes. Then a plain salad.

Tuesday/7-Dec-21: Tonight's dinner was pork chops that were marinated in charmoula from the freezer. Served Orzo Salad with Peppers and Feta (web). I made this a side for two by quartering the recipe (halved for two, halved again to make an ample side). Might be nice to roast the bell peppers rather than sautéing them. Good stuff.

Wednesday/8-Dec-21: Dinner was a recipe recommended by Jacky, Creamy Turkey and Wild Rice Soup (web; GD; notes). I made the stock in my usual way from leg bones of our Thanksgiving turkey legs. The soup is delicious, and used up my stash of wild rice. Guess I'll have to get more before long. Recipe onto DMA list.

Thursday/9-Dec-21: Shopping today.

Dinner was Fresh Tuna Burgers with Ginger & Cilantro (EAT-L; web; GD; notes). The Fine Cooking version (on the web) suggests serving with a Thai-Style Dipping Sauce (web), which would have been nice. I made four patties and have frozen two. Using "sushi-grade tuna" for the burgers strikes me as silly. Any tuna you would grill is fine. The recipe calls for 3/4tsp of salt for the four burgers; I used on 1/2tsp and we both found them a bit salty. Otherwise very good. (For the second night in row, recipe goes onto DMA list.) Served with Thai whole-grain trio rice, and some corn tarted up very loosely following this recipe. All was good.

Friday/10-Dec-21: Dinner was Aubergine au Four aux Pois Chiches Fumés (web). Turned out pretty good. The recipe asks for a big eggplant to serve two; I had a 500g package of two (bio), so we had one each. I used ground roasted cumin instead of plain ground cumin.The recipe asks for over a cup of water for the tahini sauce; I used maybe half of that, adding just enough to make a nicely runny, but not too runny, sauce.

Saturday/11-Dec-21: Dinner was Red Wine Braised Mushroom Sauce (EW/sep14; web). As suggested, I added some crème fraîche and served over noodles (flavored with cèpes). This was quite good, and easy to assemble. I used up all the shrooms in house, brown mushrooms (champignons de Paris) and shiitakes. Then a big salad.

Sunday/12-Dec-21: We haven't been to the boulanger lately, and I'm getting tired of frozen ciabattas, so I made a loaf of an old favorite, English Muffin Bread (BigGerman, p15), using 2cups T65 (bread) flour and 1cups T110 (light whole wheat) flour. We'll see how it turns out in the morning.

Dinner was an old recipe, Pecan Over-Fried Chicken (MC; FamilyCircle/sep97; web). The web version is more or less the same. Very tasty. Might cook on the rack under the broiler, or even a rack in the onion would keep the bottom from being gummy. Probably better to chop the pecans finely; I'm afraid they've gummed up my spice grinder. Very tasty, tender, and ujuicy kip filets. Served with some lightly buttered new potatoes and steamed chunks of snijbonen (haricots coco plat).

Progress on goals
This week: #1 VEG/FISH: 4; #2 PHOTO: yes; #3 *DMA: no
This month: #4 GUESTS: n/a
This year: #5 BACKLOG1: yes; #6 BACKLOG2: no; #7 RECYCLE: 11; #8 NEW: 5