This week in the kitchen

Monday/24-Jan-22: Tonight we had more or lesss the dinner I'd planned for new year's day meal. For a starter there was Tzatziki au Coulis de Poivron et Jambon d'Aoste (VPG; web). This was quite nice. I put too much of the tzatziki in the verrine, so the layer of coulis was a bit thin. But, tasty it was and worth a repeat. The main was Slow-Roast Spiced Lamb Shoulder with Sumac Onions (web; web). This was delicious. Tomorrow I'll finish taking the meat off the bones. 

Tuesday/25-Jan-22: Picked up an order from Intermarché Drive this morning (and Ed made another trip to the brico). Then made an order for Leclerc Drive for tomorrow morning.

Dinner was Classic One-Pan Spanish Cod with Potatoes & Peas (web). This wasn't too hard, and was quite good. It's a one-dish meal, so that's all we had.

Wednesday/26-Jan-22: Dinner was Runner Bean & Prosciutto Pasta (web). This was easy and quite yummy. And a one-dish meal.

Made a loaf of Bill Hatcher's Italian Bread (MC) (Basic/Rapid/M/d/-).

Thursday/27-Jan-22: Brought in hamburgers this evening. Disappointing.

Friday/28-Jan-22: Dinner was a half dose of Spice Brit's Pork Chop Chow (Ainsley3, p144), grilled pork chops with a beet chutney with creamed new potatoes. Pretty good. A simple salad for after.

Saturday/29-Jan-22: Dinner was a halfish recipe of Black Bean Tostadas with Slivered Cabbage, Avocado, and Pickled Onion (VegSups, p167), served with avocado-less Salsa Cruda (VegSups, p118) as suggested.

Sunday/30-Jan-22: Dinner was more or less Mushroom Ravioli Divan (365Veg, p84), using whole wheat spinach and cheese ravioli. I've written a recipe for an easy Alfredo sauce in the margin, which is better than store-bought stuff. Pretty good stuff altogether. A salad after would have been nice, but my salad mojo is having a day off.

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

This week in the kitchen

Monday/17-Jan-22: Last night I started an Overnight Boule; this morning I baked it off. Good bread. I also started a batch of Oven-Dried Tomatoes (HandyBook). 

Dinner was an oldie, but goodie, Bulgur, Broccoli, and Feta Cheese Pilaf (MC; modified from VT/jun00). Still good stuff.

Tuesday/18-Jan-22: Dinner was turkey pot pie, really Ryan's Pie (PotPies, p46), or almost. I used turkey instead of chicken, and, since it was pretty bare of veggies, I added some peas with the turkey. Tasty stuff. That was dinner.

Wednesday/19-Jan-22: Made a loaf of English Toasting Bread (Electric, p21) (Basic/Rapid/M/d/-). This is supposed to be baked in the oven, so it can be coated with cornmeal, but I skipped that and just baked in the ABM.

Dinner was delicious, all tried and true stuff. The main was Spicy Shrimp Stir-Fry (MJ@Home, p63). This is easy and really good. Served with the suggested sides Sri Lankan Rice with Cilantro and Lemon Grass (MJ@Home, p210) and Mushroom and Pea Curry (MJ@Home, p161). The mushroom-pea thing was way too liquid; we'll have the rest as soup for lunch one day soon. 

Thursday/20-Jan-22: We managed trips to both Drives today; the second one had been planned for tomorrow, but there were slots in the late afternoon available, so we took advantage of that (and Ed made a trip to the brico).

When it came time cook, I didn't feel like it, so I heated up the two choucroute dinners that I'd bought from a Drive for a quick dinner on another night. These were pretty so-so; the choucroute was tasteless. Too bad. I like me some choucroute every now and again, but not this. 

Friday/21-Jan-22: Made a loaf of Authentic French Bread (Magic, p22) (Basic/Rapid/M/d/-).

Dinner was Walnut-Rosemary Crusted Salmon (web). This was fairly easy (a bit of chop-chop) and very tasty. Served with a small salad and some cèpe-flavored pasta twists. Nice dinner.

Saturday/22-Jan-22: Crockpot dinner tonight was Beef Shanks with Red Wine and Tomatoes (SlowItal, p149). Surprisingly this was not very good. The meat never got falling apart tender. The sauce is okay; I might try to make soup of it. And roast beef sandwiches perhaps from the leftover meat. Served with polenta and snijbonen in 1" chunks. 

Sunday/23-Jan-22: Made a loaf of Easy French Bread (Electric, p62) (Basic/Rapid/M/d/-).

Dinner was Falafel-Stuffed Peppers with a Coconut-Dill Sauce (web; notes). After that was in the oven, I made the roasted bell pepper sauce for tomorrow's starter. Then I made the tahini sauce to go with the bell peps. 

Dry rubbed the lamb shoulder for tomorrow's meal. It's outside pretending to be in the fridge (but actually colder than that).

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

This week in the kitchen

Monday/10-Jan-22: Made a loaf of Easy French Bread (Electric, p62) (Basic/Rapid/M/d/-). 

Dinner from the freezer tonight, some vaguely SE Asian tuna patties. Served with Thai-Style Dipping Sauce (web) as suggested. This was a bit salty and a bit sweet even though I cut back the sugar. Then there was, more or less, Cilantro-Lime Sweet Corn (web) with canned corn. And some whole-grain basmati trio rice. 

Tuesday/11-Jan-22: An old favorite for dinner, Warm Broccoli and Potato Salad (MDSalads, p15). This is my go-to recipe where there are potatoes and broccoli hanging around needing to be eaten. Good stuff.

Wednesday/12-Jan-22: Made a loaf of English Muffin Bread, (BigGerman, p15) (Basic/Rapid/M/d/-) this morning. Picked up an order from Intermarché Drive.

Dinner was Roasted Tilapia with Orange-Parsley Salsa (CL/mar09; web), using cod instead of tilapia, which generally isn't sold here. This was fairly boring, if pretty. Served with the last of some frozen mixed veggies. (What we didn't eat, Buddy was happy to finish.)

Thursday/13-Jan-22: This morning I started a batch of Crockpot Texas Chili from an old printout of chili recipes. This is supposedly from the Texas Beef Council. I haven't been able to find the recipe online. Meanwhile, it had to cook so long, I decided to make something else for tonight's dinner.

So we had Scallops in a Creamy Dill Sauce (RezaRice, p62). This was tasty, with a good sauce, if not as quick as I expected. Served with Gram Flour Coated Zucchini (P&S, p101). This is a recipe I saved from a recycled book. It's pretty good and not too hard. And brown basmati rice. Pretty good dinner.

Friday/14-Jan-22: So, it was Crockpot Texas Chili for dinner. Ed liked it; I didn't. The recipe is very similar to my standard one, except for the dark beer added. I think that's the taste I didn't like. There's lots of leftovers to freeze, sigh. Served with tortillas and guacamole and some English cheddar, which was the wrong cheese.

Saturday/15-Jan-22: Made a loaf of French Bread (Tender) (BMB, p21) (Basic/Rapid/S/d/-). This is apparently the first time I've made this loaf.

Dinner was Chicken Cutlets with Roasted Red Pepper & Arugula Relish (web). This was quite good. The relish/salsa was a nice touch. (I didn't add the extra sugar to that.) Served with some minted carrot coins and whole wheat penne. Good meal.

Sunday/16-Jan-22: Yesterday's French Bread (Tender) was quite good. It's a shame that it's a small loaf, like all the ones from that cookbook.

Inventory fail today. Went to get falafels from the freezer for dinner and there were none to be found. Ed went for pizza, in not the best weather, icy and foggy. It was much colder in Montbron than here. Will have to replan the falafels after our next Driver orders.

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

This week in the kitchen

Monday/3-Jan-22: Dinner was Spaghetti with Zucchini and Lemon (MW@Home, p195), with whole-wheat spaghetti. This is an old favorite, made lots of times. Tasty comfort food.

Tuesday/4-Jan-22: Dinner was a third recipe of Risotto de Crozets aux Petits Pois (SG, haven't found online). This was another pasta-as-risotto recipe, although not fully carried out in the instructions. (The liquid was added all at once; that's not what I did.) Ok, but nothing special. 

Wednesday/5-Jan-22: Made a grocery order for delivery tomorrow, since we're theoretically self-isolating right now. 

Dinner was Isla Bonita Pork Tenderloin (MC); this was originally from Chile Pepper Magazine (feb02), which seems to be another print magazine now defunct and with no online presence. Too bad. Good stuff it was. Served with Garlic-Roasted Sweet Potatoes (web). The recipe calls for Pineapple Salsa as a go-with, but the recipe was pretty blah. I embellished with some red bell pepper, red onion, cilantro, mint, lime juice, and a minced red chile. Turned out pretty good.

Thursday/6-Jan-22: I was feeling poorly most of day, with no appetite, so nothing much happened in the kitchen. 

Friday/7-Jan-22: Dinner was Baked Fish with Kumquats and Ginger (Uncommon, p272). The recipe calls for shad, but I've always made it with salmon. Good stuff. Served with trio rice and steamed asparagus; I bought these before xmas so they were on their last legs.

Saturday/8-Jan-22: Dinner was a half-dose of One-Pot Creamy Mushroom and Spinach Orzo* (web; GD). Instead of regular orzo, I used langue d'oiseau, semi-complèt (half whole wheat), whatever that is exactly. Used frozen spinach, thawed, of course. Then a bit of plain salad. 

Sunday/9-Jan-22: Dinner was Buttery Garlic Herb Chicken with Zucchini* (web; GD). Near the end, I deglazed the pan with a slog of white wine, then stirred in a spoonful of crème fraîche. That was a good. Served with trio rice, which was very crunchy. I've no idea what went wrong. Did I add too little water? Was the lid not closed? Barely edible it was.

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

This week in the kitchen

Monday/20-Dec-21: Last week I recycled five books, but I've pulled one back (BigBites), because it felt sad to say good-bye to Linda Ellerbee. That leave me needing to recycle 15 more books by the end of the year. Need to get busy with that.

Dinner was Hazelnut, Mascarpone, and Gorgonzola Ravioli (FF&S, p172). Well, it was supposed to be gorgonzola; I seem to have bought bleu d'Auvergne instead. I think even a stronger blue would have worked. Used gyoza/wonton wrappers instead of proper pasta; they worked pretty well. I didn't think to defrost a bit of tomato sauce for the ravioli, so they were just drizzled with olive oil as suggested. Then a big salad.

Tuesday/21-Dec-21: We did our shopping today, expecting crowds as the holiday approaches. Still the parking lot was full when we arrived.

Dinner was Baja Fish Tacos (MC), with lieu noir (half the price of cod). (This recipe is from CL; I haven't been able to find it online.) Home-made taco seasoning. Used a mixed with sliced cabbage, carrots and radishes; added a dash of Brok da Mout and a squirt of lime juice to the crème fraîche. Served with corn tortillas. One chocolate-covered madeleine each for after.

Wednesday/22-Dec-21: Feeling not very well today. Had a throbbing headache most of the night. Also I was very cold. In the early afternoon, I snuggled under lots of covers to take a nap. Got up feeling a bit better and dressed in the warmest clothes I could manage. 

Started a pot of chicken stock.

Dinner was an easy one, Pan-Roasted Chicken with Lemon-Garlic Green Beans* (web; GD), with skinless, boneless thighs. I cooked the potatoes and green beans for about 25 minutes, then added the sb thighs. Easy and pretty good. 

Thursday/23-Dec-21: Still not feeling well. Dinner was Banh Mi Burgers from the freezer. With a salad from the rest of the carrot-cabbage salad that I bought for Tuesday.  And some Thai trio rice. That was all. After one bite of the burger, I threw it up. :-(

I'm thinking we'll have have to postpone our xmas dinners. Don't have the oomph or energy to make what's planned.

Friday/23-Dec-21 - Sunday/2-Jan-22: More than a week better and I'm starting to get a bit better. I've been pretty much flat in bed and not much has happened in the kitchen (except that Ed's cooked a time or two!). Starting to get up and about. Maybe tomorrow we'll start having some proper meals.

I'd planned on using these two weeks for recycling some cookbooks and for consider kitchen goals for next year. That clearly didn't happen. I'll give myself a couple of weeks to get caught up on this, so this is ready by 23-Jan, if all goes well.

Progress on goals
This week: #1 VEG/FISH: 2+; #2 PHOTO: n; #3 *DMA: yes
This month: #4 GUESTS: n/a
This year: #5 BACKLOG1: 100%; #6 BACKLOG2: no; #7 RECYCLE: 15; #8 NEW: 5

Kitchen goals old and new

Kitchen goals for 2021 

 

Another unpleasant year for 2021, with Covid continuing strong. In spite of all precautions, we both managed to come down with omicron, with me essentially losing the last two weeks of the year, including the holidays. (These weeks are not counted in the totals below.)

1. Veg/fish — I averaged 3.7 vegetarian or fish/seafood meals per week. Not too bad. And lots of home cooking since restaurants are sort of off limits.
2. Photo — I managed at least one phone 80% of the weeks. Not too bad.
3. DME — I cooked at least one DoMeAgain meal 90% of the time. Some weeks had two or even more. So I think I did pretty well here.
4. Guests — Covid put a stop to having guests. We hope next year will get better.
5. Backlog1 — Yay, the recipe stacks in the office are empty. Now I have three more stacking bins to find a use for. (Of course there's also a folderful of recipes to be entered into Mastercook. That will never happen, so these should either be tossed or I should take a quick look through to see if there are any DoMeAgains hiding there. Maybe something for 2023.)
6. Backlog2 — I've made a bit of progress here. Sometimes after dinner I pick up one of these binders and toss recipes. Maybe 10% done, but not easy to tell.
7. Recycle — I've managed to recycle 30 cookbooks. My last pass through was delayed into January since I was ill at the end of December. I've added enough to the goal to make this year's goals; the rest will be listed as recycled for next year.
8. New — Five and only five. That was hard.

All things considered, it wasn't a very bad year goal-wise. It was a relief to finish BACKLOG1, and to be making progress on BACKLOG2. 

Kitchen goals for 2022

This will likely be another difficult year. Although my interest and energy for cooking has diminished, these goals do help me focus on things I'd like to do, so I'll continue with them. I'm keeping my lists of long and short projects, but no goals or them this year. Even seven seems like a lot of goals, but mostly they're an effort to clear clutter and reduce my cookbook holdings.

1. Veg/fish meals — I'll continue aiming to cook at least three vegetarian or fish meals each week.
2. Photo — I'll continue to aim for at least one photo a week, starting it February (January being in a bit of disarray. 
3. Guests — Whenever we feel safe having people in the house again, we'll resume aiming to have one or more people for a meal once a month.
4. Backlog2 — I'll try to clear out the notebooks of old collected recipes in the cookbooks cabinets. Think of the space I'll gain from putting away three fat binders!
5. Backlog3 —This is a stack of old recipes that's sits high in the cookbook Ivars. There are a lot of dessert recipes and probably other stuff hiding in there. It's probably too ambitious to clear it all out this year, but at least I can make a start.
6. Recycle — During the year, I'll recycle at least another 20 cookbooks. It's getting harder to find books that I don't feel a strong attachment to, so I'm cutting this back a bit. 
7. New — I'll add no more than five cookbooks to my collection this year. Each book exceeding this adds two to the Recycle goal.