This week in the kitchen

Monday/20-Jun-22: The chicken that didn't get cooked when it was too hot showed up tonight as Sesame-Crusted Roast Chicken (O&C, p416). Again, I did this in the Römertopf clay cooker. The huge chickie (1.7+kg) barely fit. This is a really nice, moist chicken. For a starter we had Greens Salad with Hard-Cooked Eggs and Fried Garlic (O&C, p268), with spinach at the green. Very nice salad. There were some whole wheat mini macaronis as a side for the chicken, to help sop up the nice sauce.

Tuesday/21-Jun-22: Whew, after two stormy, lightning nights, finally getting caught up here.

Dinner was Gnocchi de Printemps, a recipe I apparently collected online, but haven't been able to find back. This was easy and quite tasty. To make it easy, I used store-bought gnocchi, which weren't bad. A chocolate-covered madeleine each for after.

Wednesday/22-Jun-22: Dinner was, sort of, Tequila Fajitas (MC), with shrimp, a recipe I collected from EAT-L. Couldn't find the tortillas in the freezer, so used pita breads instead. We opened those and plopped the shrimp and veggies on top, plus some guacamole. I didn't grill the shrimp and veggies as asked, but wokked them instead. Some HD mini ice cream cups for after.

Thursday/23-Jun-22: Two Drives and a Leclerc visit today. 

Dinner was Haddock Baked in a Yoghurt Sauce (MJ1, p94), with lieu noir. Good stuff. Served with Gujerati-Style Green Beans (MJ1, p102), very good, and Mushroom Pullao (MJ1, p152), also good. For after there were some store-bought riz au laits tarted up with ground cardamon to give an Indian taste.

Friday/24-Jun-22: Dinner was a halfish dose of Southwestern Steak Salad (web; GD). Easy and very tasty. Used two sucrines (baby romaine) for the lettuce. Used some English cheddar and comté for the cheese. 

Saturday/25-Jun-22: Picked the chicken from Monday. Used a good chunk of that to make Chipotle Chicken & Chickpea Skillet with Sweet Potatoes (web). Some good tastes, but not enough to make again.  A chocolate-covered madeleine each for after.

Sunday/26-Jun-22: Dinner was White Wine Cream Sauce for Ravioli (web), with artichoke girsoles. This is kind for like tarted up ravioli alla panna. Good, but the sauce was maybe a trifle too thick. Then a salad. Then some chocolate tapioca pudding.

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

This week in the kitchen

Monday/13-Jun-22: Dinner was a half recipe of Vietnamese Ginger Chicken (Dinner, p42). This was easy and yummy. Rather than leaving the skinless, boneless thighs whole, it might be interesting to cut them into big chunks and put these on skewers for broiling. Served with brown basmati rice and Smashed Sichuan Cucumber Salad (Dinner, p379). Some mini HD ice cream cups for after.

Finished reading Dinner last week. Have marked lots of full of promising recipes. There's a big section with tofu recipes. Too bad the the tofu here is not as good as that in NL. 

Tuesday/14-Jun-22: We got two Drive orders today.

Dinner was a third dose of Moroccan-Spiced Salmon and Zucchini. (I collected this in January from parents.com, but the recipe is no longer to be found.) Pretty good stuff. Zuke slices were tossed with oil, ras-el-hanout, and S&P, then skewered and grilled 5 minute a side. Easy and good. The couscous was made with chopped dates and green olives; the Moroccan couscous from the health food store are better. A chocolate-covered madeleine each for after.

Wednesday/15-Jun-22: We got home much later than expected from the hospital this evening and neither of us felt like eating a meal. So we had some carrot sticks and called that dinner. 

Thursday/16-Jun-22: Used the ends of two bottles of roasted red peppers to make up some pizza sauce to freeze. Now we're ready for a pizza.

For last night's dinner that didn't happen, I had defrosted some pavés de magret in the freezer. Tonight we had our après-operation meal. I made Magret au Poivre, sort of following the recipe for Pepper Steak—Steak au Poivre (BEFCC, p153). Only two minute per side needed to get lovely rosé meat. Served with orzo and steamed broccoli. A chocolate-covered madeleine each for after.

Friday/17-Jun-22: Have a chicken ready to roast, but the weather is so hot, I couldn't see doing that. Instead there was Tarte Poireau, Gorgonzola et Pignons de Pin, a recipe from a box of pâte brisée (here it is on the web). This was pretty good. I expect the pieces of leeks were supposed to be set on end in the crust, but they were too soggy for that after being cooked the recommended time. Worth doing again perhaps, with a home-made piecrust and leeks not cooked so long. Vooraf, we had an insalata caprese. 

Saturday/18-Jun-22: Dinner was Anchovy Lamb Chops (Dinner, p76; cookbooker). These were really tasty. Some problems with the recipe itself, though. For four people, the recipe asks for four lamb chops. Don't you usually have three or four per person? And my chops would have been happier cooked 2.5 minutes per side, rather than 3 and 5. It would be better to finely chop the anchovy fillets to help them dissolve into the sauce. Altogether very nice. The lemon juice was not something I would expect with lamb, but the sauce was good. As suggested, served with Pan-Fried Asparagus with Lemon Zest (Dinner, p376). Served with a bit of whole-wheat linguine to sop up the juices. Some mini HD ice cream cups for after.

Sunday/19-Jun-22: Didn't feel much like cooking tonight, so we had the rest of the Tarte Poireau for dinner, along with a big salad.  A chocolate-covered madeleine each for after.

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/6-Jun-22: Using the other half of last night's roast chicken, tonight's dinner was a half recipe Sicilian Chicken Salad (SFAH, p342), served on ciabattas with leaves of lettuce. Very good stuff. I tarted up the end of a jar of mayo to make the aïoli. The half recipe generously served us two for dinner. We're stuffed. 

Tuesday/7-Jun-22: Ed picked up two Drive orders today; don't know if we'll make shopping in-store on Thursday.

Dinner was Piquillos Rellenos (MC), an old favorite I haven't made in a long time. Small portions would be nice as a starter; bigger ones make a nice dinner, with a bit of salad on the side. Some chopped peaches and cream for after.

Wednesday/8-Jun-22: Soup for dinner, Solyanka (Monastery, p91). Sort of Solyanka, I guess. Most other recipes I've seen online have tomatoes; this was didn't. It was okay, we finished it, but nothing special. Served with some cheese and onion sandwiches. And a chocolate-covered madeleine each for after.
 
Thursday/9-Jun-22: Dinner was Slow-Roasted Crispy Pork Belly (web). I've cooked this bit of meat before (it's cheap and often on sale), but never with much success. Never could understand what the big deal about cracklings was. Made right, cracklings are great. This recipe is right. Takes a long time, cooking the meat slow, then zapping it on high to crisp up the skin. High fat, but delicious. Served with a halfish recipe of Garlic Parmesan Roasted Sweet Potatoes (web). The dish I cooked the sweet pots in was too big, but it still worked. These are very good. And then there was Zucchini and Feta Salad (WorldVeg, p640), which is an old favorite. And a chocolate-covered madeleine each for after.

Friday/10-Jun-22: Put up some stock made from some lamb and goat bones that have been hanging around the freezer for age. Now to find something to use it up.

Dinner was Barbara's Greek Onion-Leek Pie (MC).This is quite yummy. Playing with filo is fun. This bit was a bit fragile from its extended stay in the freezer, but it makes such a pretty finished product no matter what. Then a salad made from half the huge sack of lettuce we got from the Drive earlier in the week. And some strawberries and cream for after.

Saturday/11-Jun-22: We were out late in the afternoon and decided to stop for pizza on the way home. Not much happened in the kitchen.

Sunday/12-Jun-22: Dinner was Craig Claiborne's Ultimate Hamburger (Tabasco, p88), which is quite a good hamburger. Ed barbecued them, rather than cooking on the grill. Then we finished the ice cream I made a while ago with the last of the store-bought strawberries and some freshly picked blueberries. 

Progress on goals
This week: #1 VEG/FISH: 3; #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/30-May-22: Dinner was Omelette with Cheese, Leeks, and Cauliflower (MC). Okay, but a bit boring. The recipe makes way too much filling. We might have the rest with lardons in scrambled eggs. We ate late, so I didn't make a go-with salad, which would have been nice. A chocolate-covered madeleine each for after.

Tuesday/31-May-22: Dinner was Salmon with Lemon-Herb Orzo & Broccoli (EW/sep21; web). This was a one-dish meal, easy and tasty. In the afternoon I picked most of the ripe raspberries from our bushes. I made some plain vanilla ice cream to eat them with. 

Wednesday/1-Jun-22: Dinner was Rookworst met Prei (MC; Tip). This is an old favorite; haven't be able to find a copy online. Served over whole wheat linguine, although I'm sure it should have been potatoes. 

Thursday/2-Jun-22: We shopped in the store at Leclerc today, for the first time since before xmas. No mustard to be had, except for the grainy kind, which is good, but not always what you want.

Dinner was a half recipe of Tuna with Onion Confit and Roasted Peppers (GD). Don't remember where I got this recipe, and can't find it on the web. The whole thing was a good combination combination. Served with a bit of trio rice. Followed by store-bought riz au lait. 

Friday/3-Jun-22: Dinner was a half recipe of Balsamic Glazed Pork Chops with Red Pepper Grits (MC; web; CL/jan03). Pretty good stuff, especially the grits. Served with some steamed chunks of snijbonen. A chocolate-covered madeleine each for after.

Saturday/4-Jun-22: Dinner was a halfish recipe of Zucchini and Dill Pasta (web; GD; notes). I got this off the web in 2020, but haven't been able to find a copy that includes directions. It does seem also to be called Lemony Zucchini and Dill Pasta and Zucchini & Oriechetta [sic] Pasta Salad with Beans. It was good, fast, and easy. Even Ed, who thinks he doesn't like raw zucchini, liked it. I didn't simmer the green beans separately, but added them for the last minute of pasta cooking; it took more than a minute for the beans to be done. For dessert we had another third of the ice cream I made on Tuesday.

Sunday/5-Jun-22: I roasted a chicken tonight, following Melissa Clark's idea (web) for splaying it first. I also rubbed it with some spicy pork rub, certainly not necessary. My oven, or the thermometer, didn't want to get to 500F, so I just roasted at the highest temp it would get to, which was about 450F, maybe a smidge more. Still, it probably needed only 40min to cook, which is fairly fast. The skin was nice and crispy and the meat tasty. Intended to serve this with Skillet-Roasted Broccoli with Parmesan and Black Pepper Topping (web; CI/may-jun20). I think this would be quite good with broccoli, but when I cut mine apart, there was lots of yucky stuff in the head. I tried cutting that out, but it wasn't enough, so I tossed it all and used the rest of my cauliflower instead. Cauliflower doesn't cook as fast as broccoli, so this doesn't work as well. Edible, but not to do again, except with broccoli. A side of polenta. We were full. Had a small square of chocolate for after.

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