This week in the kitchen

Monday/22-Nov-21: Dinner was Smoked Trout Chowder* (web; GD; notes). I put this on the meal plan because I'd collected the recipe from the web. Then I discovered it was already on my DoMeAgain list. It's good stuff.

Made Cornbread (Joy, p578) for our Thanksgiving stuffing today.

Realized this weekend, I was confused about my two backlog goals. In fact, I'm quite far along with BACKLOG1, clearing out the upstairs stacks of recipes. I've been taking a handful of recipes every evening, tossing most and saving a few. I will have to keep pushing on this to get the bins all clear by the end of the year. I have worked a bit on the old binders downstairs, but nothing major has happened.

Tuesday/23-Nov-21: Shopping today. I asked at Leclerc for a turkey, but I should have ordered last week. Meanwhile our local butcher hasn't called to say he's gotten one for me. So I bought two thighs and two breast roasts (i.e., the breast filet barded and rolled up with twine. I'll figure out some way to cook those (after disassembling the "roasts"), to serve looking like a turkey. 

Dinner was Cabillaud en Crumble de Jambon Cru* (web; GD). The topping for this is quite nice; I used smoked paprika tonight. Served with Thai trio rice (being out of the normal stuff) and steamed snijbonen in 1" chunks. No dessert needed.

Wednesday/24-Nov-21: Some cooking for Thanksgiving cooking today. Didn't get as much done as I'd planned, so tomorrow will be busy. Seems like there was something else, but I can't think of it. 

• Made a double batch of Tart Dough (Tenth, p256), one for the freezer, one for tomorrow.
• Put my turkey breasts to marinate for Buttermilk-Brined Turkey Breast (web). My two breasts were about the weight of the one breast asked in the recipe.
• Made the chutney for Sweet Potatoes with Cranberry Chutney (web). Wasn't especially impressed with this, but maybe it will be better tomorrow.

Dinner was Roast Za'atar Chicken Thighs with Broccoli & Potatoes (web; EW/nov21). This, a one-dish meal, was good, although some of the broccoli stems and potatoes were not quite done.

Thursday/25-Nov-21: Didn't get enough done yesterday, so there was lots of cooking today. In the end a nice Thanksgiving meal, with lots of leftovers.  

Friday/26-Nov-21: A frustrating day today. We had a very late lunch of stuffing, then later we each had a slice of pie. That was it. So much for the meal plan.

Saturday/27-Nov-21: I picked the meat off the turkey legs and froze most for later use. Dinner was Thanksgiving redux. All still good.

Sunday/28-Nov-21: Dinner was Pesto Turkey Kebabs (200Budget, p183). This is fairly quick and easy to make, except that I put the mozzarella I bought last week into the freezer, rather than leaving it in the fridge, so it took a bit of time to defrost and chop it. Very tasty, if not as pretty as the picture. Served with Thai trio rice and Parmesan Carrots with Lemon-Parsley Dressing (web; CL/mar17). This was tasty, and just a bit more work than usual.

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

This week in the kitchen

Monday/15-Nov-21: We had lunch out for Ed's birthday today. Not much happened in the kitchen.

Tuesday/16-Nov-21: Baked a loaf of Abm Whole Wheat Bread (MC) since we don't seem to be making a trip to the boulanger in the near future.

Dinner was Cabbage Diet Soup (web), which was fairly boring as soups go. There's lots left to freeze; thinking some sausages might sliced into it on the reprise. 

Wednesday/17-Nov-21: Dinner was Roasted Chicken Thighs with Pear-Mustard Sauce (web). The chicken was good, but the sauce only so-so. Interesting though. Served with trio rice and steamed broccoli. 

Thursday/18-Nov-21: Shopping today. It's much better on Thursday, than on Friday after a holiday. 

Dinner was Salmon with Green Mango (Mahi Aam) (RezaRice, p63). This was pretty good. Served with Lemon Rice (web), which was good. And Pan-Grilled Zucchini (MJ@   Home, p173), an old favorite. A nice meal altogether. 

Friday/19-Nov-21: Dinner was Turkey Dumplings with Spicy Broth  (Ainsley3, p98). This was good, if a trifle salty (less soy sauce next time). It's more like lunch rather than dinner, so I served some grilled cheese sandwiches with beaufort (a swiss-y cheese) and finely 

Saturday/20-Nov-21: Dinner was a half recipe of Spicy Pork Rolls with Minted Yogurt (200Budget, p130), with turkey scallops instead of pork, and with satay sauce. The scallop rolls are delicious; no sauce is needed. Discovered I hadn't bought trio rice last time, but Thai trio rice, not quite the same. Actually that was appropriate for this meal, quite good. Also made a half dose of Thai Cucumber Salad with Peanuts (web). Tasty meal. 

Sunday/21-Nov-21: Dinner was the Smoky and Hot Bulgur Chili variation of Bulgur Chili (H2CEV, p557). The bulgur isn't a bad substitute for ground beef. This wasn't bad, but I'm not overly fond of chili with tomatoes. Made a whole recipe, so there's lots leftover for the freezer.

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

This week in the kitchen

Monday/22-Apr-19: Off to the Pranzac Foire aux Vins today with Cath, then home for a bbq. There was Best Grilled Chicken Thighs with Mustard and Tarragon (CI/jul18, web). Very good these were. And some Dilled Potato-Cucumber Salad (VT; MC; web), an old favorite. And some of Corinne's broccoli, steamed and topped with a bit of garlic-flavored oil and lemon juice. Some of the Postre de Mango for after.

Tuesday/23-Apr-19: Worked on the meal plan today. Somehow all next week was meat, meat, meat, and needed to be jiggled more than I would have liked.

Tonight's meal was Aubergine and Sweet Potato Thai Red Curry (web). Easy to do, edible but nothing special. Served over rice. A pair of chocolate-covered madeleines each for dessert.

Wednesday/24-Apr-19: We meant to go to Bordeaux today, but the weather forecast was bad enough to keep us home. Bordeaux had incredible storms yesterday, while we had almost nothing.

Started a pot of chicken stock.

Dinner was a halfish recipe of Smoked Paprika Stroganoff (web). This is a pressure cooker recipe, easy, relatively fast, and tasty. For a starter, I made some Carrot and Apple Salad (Art, p26), although twice as much as stated for two people. It suggest serving with ricotta or cottage cheese. I had some fromage blanc needing to be used, so I did. I used a ring to assemble the dish, salad on the bottom with a creamy, wite topping. Picture worthy, but no camera was handy. Mini ice cream bars for dessert.

Yogurt on overnight.

Thursday/25-Apr-19: Yogurt on overnight, ha! Power went off at 9pm, returning about 3am. Dragged myself out of bed to go downstairs and restart the yogurt. Power off again about 9am for another six hours. I restarted the yogurt yet again, but can't imagine what it will be like and no one will be around to put it in the fridge.

Meanwhile we did our shopping. Bought another starter for yogurt. Before we left the store, the wind came up, making an enormous noise inside. As we were loading the car, it started hailing. Yipes! Apparently the same thing happened here. I went to ask a neighbor about the electricity and she had closed her shutters agains the wind and hail.

For dinner there was Asian Catfish Wraps (MC, web). Problem was that I thoughtlessly bought whole sole rather than filets, so we picked bones out of our wraps. Very tasty though. Some organic Gariguette strawberries and the rest of the fromage blanc for after.

Friday/26-Apr-19: Dinner was Spicy Pork Rolls with Satay Sauce (200Budget, p130). I've made the version of this with minted yogurt sauce with turkey scallops. This time I used veal scallops. One day I'll find pork scallops and remember to do this. It was yummy, including the satay sauce, which remained too thick in spite of extra coconut cream, but was really delicious. As a side there was Tumis Buncis (SriOwen, p195). Well, I more or less followed this recipe, but added carrots as described in Tumis Bunchis (MJFarEast, p175). Jaffrey uses more "real" spices, chilies, ginger, galangal, curry leaves, rather than powdered ginger and cayenne. Still, what I made was good. With plain basmati rice. HD mini ice cream cups for after.

Saturday/27-Apr-19: Really nice meal at a nearby restaurant this evening. Nothing happened in the kitchen.

Sunday/28-Apr-19: Chicken stock is still going. Need to freeze it up tomorrow.

Dinner was Gingery Squash Quiche (BoldVeg, p200; cookbooker). This was the best butternut squash quiche-y sort of thing I've had. Then a salad. Then a pair of chocolate-covered madeleines each.

Progress on goals
This week: #1 BACKLOG: no; #2 VEG/FISH: 3; #3 COOKBOOK: n/a
Cookbooks of the month: n/a
This month: #4 PASTA: no; #5 BREAD: no; #6 GUESTS: yes
This year: #7 PROJECT: no

This week in the kitchen

Monday/19-Nov-18: Dinner was Black and Blue Cajun Chicken Sandwich (Ainsley2, p12; cookbooker) with a toefje salad on the side. Chocolate covered madeleines for dessert.

Tuesday/20-Nov-18: Caught another teeny mouse overnight. Wondering if we've got a small opening to the outside world in the kitchen somewhere.

Had one thing planned, then decided to use us some stuff in the fridge. Made a pasta (casareccia) with goat cheese, broccoli, shooms, kalamatas, onions, garlic, red pepper flakes, etc. Comfort food. Then a salad. Then a pair of chocolated covered madeleines, finishing off that package.

Wednesday/21-Nov-18: Caught another teeny mouse today.

Made Pumpkin Flan (MC) to take to Rosemary's tomorrow.

Shopping today.

Dinner was Fish Stew—Mr A.R. Sunil's Fish Moilly (MJFlavs, p25), made with lieu noir, on special today. Quite good it was. Easy and relatively fast to make. Served with plain basmati rice and Tangy Green Beans with Ajwain and Ginger (SpiceKitch, p38) made with snijbonen, haricots coco plats, whatever those might be in English. And some Cachumber (MJ1, p172). We were full, but still has some semoule au lait from the shop after.

Yogurt on overnight.

Thursday/22-Nov-18: Up early. Made Double-Corn Muffins (MC) to take to Rosemary's.

Off to Rosemary and Philippe's for Thanksgiving, picking up Cath on the way. Nothing further happened in the kitchen.

Friday/23-Nov-18: Made Pear Bundt Cake (MC) to use up pears in the fridge.

Dinner was Pesto Turkey Kebabs (200Budget, p183). Pretty tasty, if not quite as pretty as the picture. For sides there was trio rice and a mix of veggies—broccoli, mushrooms, corn, left-over turkey filling. Bundt cake for dessert was very more-ish.

Saturday/24-Nov-18: Tonight I made real use of the spiralizer. There was a half-dose of Malaysian-Style Zucchini Noodles with Greens and Shrimp (Spiral, p122). Ed didn't realize there was no pasta, only spiralized zukes. Pretty good as a whole. Then some Mothais Charentais, an especially nice goat cheese that comes on a chestnut leaf. Then more of the Pear Bundt Cake.

Sunday/25-Nov-18: Caught another small mouse this morning. Think I've neglected to record a few. This was the third or fourth for the week.

Dinner was Lemon Chicken (Fancy, p111). I've made this before, in 2012; it's still good. Served with Dusoulier's Perfect Roast Potatoes and a little salad of grated broccoli stems and carrot with a lemon vinaigrette. Then we finished the Mothais Charentais. Then I had my last slice of Pear Bundt Cake, while Ed saved his for breakfast.

Progress on goals
This week: #1 BACKLOG: no; #2 VEG/FISH: 3; #3 COOKBOOK: yes
Cookbooks of the month: Nothing Fancy
This month: #4 PASTA: no; #5 BREAD: yes; #6 GUESTS: yes

This week in the kitchen

Monday/6-Aug-18: Again the meal planner wasn't thinking very well last week. I made Roasted Apple, Butternut Squash and Caramelized Onion Pizza (web; cookbooker). An unusual pizza, but quite good. Butterscotch Tapioca Pudding for dessert.

Tuesday/7-Aug-18: Whew—cooler today.

Yogurt on during the day.

Finished off the list. We probably won't shop tomorrow, but Thursday.

Dinner was Grilled Lamb Skewers with Apricots (License, p116). Well, it was supposed to be lamb. I seem to have defrosted beef (faux filets/sirloin). Easy recipe, but with a bit of chop-chop. Tasty. A little odd to make so much "rub" that doesn't really rub in well. Also odd that you take the meat and fruit (including parboiled garlic cloves) off the skewers and mix with a vinaigrette. Ed had the fire too hot, so two of the skewers burnt pretty badly. Still all tasted good. Served with Moroccan couscous. Grilled some eggplant, one store-bought and one from the store, but that burnt pretty badly. Finished the Butterscotch Tapioca Pudding for dessert Stuffed we are.

Wednesday/8-Aug-18: Finished off the limoncello today. Here it is with the lemon peels soaking.

We ate at the Massignac Marché des Producteurs; nothing else happened in the kitchen.

Thursday/9-Aug-18: Shopped today. Got off late, so dinner was extra late. We started with an insalata caprese. Our main was Summer Prawn & Fish Filo Pie (200Budget, p186), which is kind of a fish pot pie with scrunched up filo on top. Very good, a one-dish meal. Then we had some chaource. Then some Clafoutis aux Abricots (VPG) to use up the apricots I bought last week for Tuesday's meal. (Couldn't find this on the web, but scanned it and pinned it.)

Yogurt on overnight.

Friday/10-Aug-18: Dinner was Grilled Duck Breast with Peach-Green Grape Chutney (License, p209). The duck breast was salt-and-peppered, then grilled. The chutney was super, easy to make and went perfectly with the duck. Served with some pasta and Chile-Coated Grilled Summer Squash and Zucchini with Honey-Lime Dressing (License, p239). Used two zukes, one from the potager, one from the grocery. Pretty good, although the "rub" didn't stick as well as it might have.

Saturday/11-Aug-18: Leftovers tonight—the rest of the pizza. With a salad. Followed by the rest of the clafoutis. We're stuffed.

Sunday/12-Aug-18: Dinner was a half recipe of Grilled Pork Loin with Indonesian Chile-Coconut Sauce (Thrill, p156). Ancho chiles don't exactly taste of Indonesia to me, but the sauce was delicious over the boneless pork chops, which were flattened and quickly grilled. Served with Spicy Cucumber Relish (Thrill, p232). This wasn't as good as other versions of this salad that I've made; not sure why. Then there was, more or less, Sweet Potato Hash Brown with Bacon and Onions (Thrill, p300). Mini ice cream bars for dessert.

Progress on goals
This week: #1 BACKLOG: no; #2 VEG/FISH: 3; #3 COOKBOOK: yes
Cookbooks of the month: Big Flavors of the Hot Sun, Thrill of the Grill, License to Grill
This month: #4 PASTA: no; #5 BREAD: no; #6 GUESTS: no

This week in the kitchen

Monday/30-Jul-18: Dinner was a half recipe of Creamy Prawn Curry (200Budget, p188). This was good, easy, and fast. Might have had too much shrimp, though. A half recipe calls for 300g cooked shrimp. I usually use half of this for the two of us, so we had a lot of shrimp. I made, more or less, the Spiced Coconut Rice that was a suggested accompaniment. I didn't have chopped creamed coconut; I just used the rest of the pack of coconut milk that I used for the curry, topped up with water. Then I made (sort of) Southeast Asia Broccoli from FoodNetwork. They won't show recipes from the .com site in Europe now, so I had to look at a cached version. This was good, but a bit salty from the fish sauce. It was good mixed with the curry and rice. For dessert, we finished the tapioca pudding.

Tuesday/31-Jul-18: I had the idea to sneak in some home-made pasta today. Cleaned off the counter and got out the recipe I intended to use, only to discover that I'd forgotten that it wanted a serious amount of parlsey and I didn't buy any last week. Easily discouraged, I used frozen tagliatelle to make a half recipe of Tagliatelle con Salsa di Noci—Tagliatelle with Walnuts and Marscapone (Top100Pasta, p12). Having no mascarpone in the fridge or freezer, I used cream cheese, which was the suggested alternative. This was quite good although it would have liked a little bit of the pasta water to loosen the sauce up a bit. Before the main, we each had an artichoke bottom with green tapenade and half a crottin de Chavignol, with the cheese melted under the grill. Following the pasta, there was a big salad of roquette/arugula. Then we each had a Rustic Cherry Tart (web), more or less. I had frozen cherries that needed to be used, as well as some squares of pâte feuilletée, which I used instead of making pastry myself. Pretty good this was. Ed has his with cream.

I didn't get the list made today, so it looks like we'll shop on Thursday instead of tomorrow. Start of new month means new cookbook-of-the-month, which takes some research that I hadn't done in preparation. Oh well.

Yogurt on overnight.

Wednesday/1-Aug-18: Finished the list today, whew.

Oops, didn't remember that the lentils for tonight's dinner needed to be soaked for 3-4 hours. So I precooked those a bit to make a quarter recipe of Palestinian Rice with Lentils and Browned Onions (WorldVeg, p404). Served with a half recipe of Pumpkin or Hubbard Squash Cooked with Bengali Seasonings (WorldVeg, p289). Used a good chunk of our first winter squash from the potager. (These were supposed to be acorn squash but clearly aren't. Picked two more this evening. Tomorrow we'll pick the first of the other sort of winter squash we have. Both these are burying the zucchini.) Unfortunately my mustard oil was a bit rancid so the dish had an unpleasant taste. Served with Sliced Tomatoes in a Tomato Sauce (WorldVeg, p303). This was good, but I overlooked the instruction about cutting the tomatoes into only three slices. It would have been better that way I expect. Little ice creams for dessert.

Thursday/2-Aug-18: Shopping today.

Our meal was Seared Salmon with Pesto Fettuccine for Two (web). This was possible because I found some refrigerated pesto, which turned out to be pretty good, at Grand Frais on my last visit. I'll freeze the rest of this up in small portions tomorrow. Couldn't find whole wheat fettuccine, so I used whole wheat spaghetti already in house. Ed barbecued the salmon, along with slices from the rest of yesterday's squash. This was pretty bland really, but worked ok. He thought thicker slices worked better than thin. For starters we had artichoke bottom with green tapenade and goat cheese, grilled. For dessert there was store-bought riz au lait with red currants.

Friday/3-Aug-18: Dinner was a halfish recipe of Le Filet de Poulet à la Crème Fraîche Chavroux. (This is from a new Chavroux product; I've not found an online source for the recipe.) First oddness, the recipe calls for filets de poulets, which are generally kip filets or skinless, boneless chicken breast halfs; but the photo shows what looks like a skin-on kip filet, with a bit of wing bone sticking out. Never seen a chicken breast like that for sale. I used kip filets. They are cooked in a 180C oven 10min on one side, 2min on the second; this worked fine, to my surprise. The sauce wanted 1.5 soupspoonsful of the crème fraîche. That wasn't nearly enough to deal with 150g of sliced mushrooms (mine were shiitakes). I topped it up as needed. Made some sautéed potatoes with the rest of the potatoes on hand. Reheated the peas and corn. Mini ice cream bars for dessert. We're full.

An interesting thing about the chicken dish is that the kip filets were cooked in the oven, 375F, 10min on the first side, 2min on the second. The kip filets were fairly flat, and fit into the largest dish that will fit in my little, old toaster oven. Interesting, rather low-fat, way to cook them.

Yogurt on overnight.

Saturday/4-Aug-18: Using up one zucchini and a roasted beet, our starter was (more or less), Zucchini Beet Salad (web). I made a halfish recipe, one beet and one zuke (cut on mandolin rather than spiralized). This was good, but the half recipe was really too much as a starter for the two of us, and not quite enough for a main. Odd portions, but yummy.

Our main was Grilled Pork Skewers with Green Mango (Thrill, p158). The recipe serves four supposedly. A half recipe would have served three, but we managed to eat it all. Very tasty. Served with All-Purpose Rice and Beans (BigFlav, p262). Even though I used borlotti beans (have no canned black beans in the stash), this was still yummy. Stuffed we were. We drank a bottle of Brin (a Fronton, 100% negrette), which I liked better than Ed. Just wanting the taste, I finished with two tiny slices of Chaource which was on sale last week.

Sunday/5-Aug-18: The menu planner  needs a good talking to. A stir-fried Chinese meal on a super-hot day probably wasn't the best choice. But it used up some of the pineapple juice malingering in the fridge. And it was super-delicious.

We had World's Greatest Lemon Chicken (Chinatown, p73; cookbooker). I been told this truly was the best lemon chicken, and I think that was right. Really tasty. Served with plain rice and Hot and Spicy Wrinkled Beans (Chinatown, p106). I've made the green beans a number of times. It was still good.

Made some Butterscotch Tapioca Pudding (MC) in the morning. This one was only the French tapioca. Worked fine. Yay!

Progress on goals
This week: #1 BACKLOG: no for Jul, no for Aug; #2 VEG/FISH: 4; #3 COOKBOOK: yes
Cookbooks of the month: Big Flavors of the Hot Sun, Thrill of the Grill, License to Grill
This month: #4 PASTA: yes for Jul, no for Aug; #5 BREAD: no for Jul, no for Aug; #6 GUESTS: yes for Jul, no for Aug

This week in the kitchen

Monday/28-May-18: Started another batch of Ratio bread.

Our dinner was a half-dose of Bobotie (200Budget, p136;  cookbooker), made up in individual casserole dishes. A bit odd, but very tasty. Followed by salad. Then some chocolate corn flake cookies.

Tuesday/29-May-18: Pizza tonight. It always takes longer than I expect, but I never remember to start earlier. And a problem with the pizza dough made it even longer. I made, more or less, Artichoke, Goat Cheese, and Olive Pizza (BoldVeg, p195; cookbooker). That's all we had.

Wednesday/30-May-18: Shopping today. Some impulse buys with sale stuff. The season for green asparagus seems to be over; still some fat white ones, but we prefer the green ones.

Dinner was Salmon with Yogurt-Curry Sauce (web); pretty good stuff. Served with polenta and peas with pearl onions.

Thursday/31-May-18: Jiggled the meal plan today and ended up with Mediterranean Shrimp Pie with Feta Crust (PotPies, p152). Not really a pot pie, but tasty. Because feta doesn't really make a satisfying crust, we sliced some bread for soppy. Then a big salad. For dessert, some locally made chocolate-dipped madeleines that were on sale this week.

Friday/1-Jun-18: Ed worked at Cath's doing some tiling today while I did stuff around the house. She fed up so he wasn't very hungry for dinner.

Which was Sriracha-Soy Sauce over Egg Noodles (VT; web; cookbooker). Used 300g of fresh tagliatelle with all the sauce. This was a good dinner for two, although Ed couldn't eat all of his, so I'll have it cold for lunch tomorrow.

Saturday/2-Jun-18: Ed did more tiling today and came home pooped. I defrosted the chest freezer, also pooped. (The leftover noodles from yesterday were good cold.)

Dinner was Thai Green Curry Pork Tenderloin (web). This was supposed to served three, but the two of us did a fine job on it. The meat and its sauce were delicious. Served with Chinese 4-Ingredient Fried Cabbage (web), which was pretty so-so. And rice. For dessert, a mixed fruit salad. We ate tastily.

Sunday/3-Jun-18: Dinner was Buttery Garlic Herb Chicken with Zucchini (web; cookbooker). Easy and very yummy. Served with Clotilde Dusoulier's Perfect Roasted Potatoes (web; HandyBook). Nice dinner, outside under the pergola, watching the rain.

Progress on goals
This week: #1 BACKLOG: no; #2 VEG/FISH:4; #3 COOKBOOK: yes
Cookbooks of the month: BoldVeg and 200Budget for May/bye for June
This month: #4 PASTA: yes for May/bye June; #5 BREAD: yes for May/bye for June; #6 GUESTS: yes for May/bye for June

This week in the kitcchen

Monday/21-May-18: Stormy day today, with a swarm of bees, who disappeared just before the beekeeper arrived, just to make it interesting.

Our meal was Carrot-Lentil Soup with(out) Rosemary-Garlic Croutons (BoldVeg, p52). (Didn't have the oomph for the croutons, but it wasn't a big problem.) Pretty good soup. Served with Baguette Sandwiches with Asparagus (web; cookbooker). All good.

Tuesday/22-May-18: Our meal was a half recipe of Chipotle Shrimp Coleslaw (web), served over long-grain brown rice. We bought thought the coleslaw might be a bit weird, but very good. The brown rice gave a nice underlying chew to go with the crunch. I had just less than 150g of frozen cooked shrimp and was too lazy to open another package. More would have been better. Still, a tasty and enjoyable meal. Mini ice cream bars for dessert

Wednesday/23-May-18: Shopping today.

When we got home, I made some guacamole to eat with Doritos that Cath got us.

For our meal we had Fish in a Green Sauce (Foolproof, p50), made with tuna. This was yummy. The sauce was a bit runny because I added too much water. As sides there were Stir-Fried Cauliflower with Green Chilies (Foolproof, p90) and Potatoes with Cumin (Foolproof, p94). The cauliflower was good. My medium cauliflower, though, was about 1.7kg; I'm wondering where Jaffrey finds large ones weighing 450g? I used about 300g of florets, which was a bit much for the two of us. I had some nice newish potatoes, so didn't peel them. No matter. We ate generously and well.

Thursday/24-May-18: Pasta today. I made Southwestern Corn Pasta (PastaMach, p73; cookbooker). Served with Cilantro Pesto from the freezer. Pretty good stuff. Then a big salad. Then Ed made a little fruit salad (apples, strawberries, and banana) with mascarpone cream. We ate yummily.

Friday/25-May-18: Our meal today was Stir-Fried Thai Green Curry Chicken with Aubergines (HomTrav, p152), over rice. This was quite tasty. I used about half the meat (skinless, boneless thighs) with more or less all the sauce. Fast if you don't count roasting the eggplant, which you can do ahead. Ice cream for dessert.

Yogurt on overnight

Saturday/26-May-18: Stormy day today. Many electric outages. There was an outage of several second which turned the stove clock off. When stove clock isn’t set the ovens don't work. Oops.

I started a loaf of bread based on Ratio. I'd typed out the recipe, but managed to get the ingredients not in order of use, so ended up with too little salt, and almost too much yeast. (That's when I realized something was wrong.) The yeast seems to be working at least a bit in the loaf-to-be. The bread is in the fridge overnight to be baked tomorrow. Think my yeast is on its last legs. There is a bit of activity in the bread, but I couldn’t get much proofing action in. Will toss it.

Our dinner was Spicy Pork Rolls with Minted Yogurt (200Budget, p130; cookbooker). This was super yummy with turkey scallops, rather than pork, and no minted yogurt. We're a bit short on veg this week, but I found this easy and delicious recipe for Roasted Thai Curry Cauliflower (web). And then there was rice. We ate well. Even though we've had Thai two nights in a row.

Sunday/27-May-18: Finished off the Ratio bread. Pretty darn good stuff.

More storms this afternoon.

Our meal was Ten-Minute Asparagus and Brown Rice (web). Nothing 10-minute about it if you make your own brown rice. I liked this; Ed didn't. Oh well.

Progress on goals
This week: #1 BACKLOG: no; #2 VEG/FISH: 5; #3 COOKBOOK: yes
Cookbooks of the month: BoldVeg and 200Budget
This month: #4 PASTA: yes; #5 BREAD: yes; #6 GUESTS: yes

This week in the kitchen

Monday/14-May-18: For tonight's meal we had Sweet-and-Sour Cabbage with Peanut Sauce (BoldVeg, p135; cookbooker) with Red and Green Polenta (BoldVeg, p176; cookbooker) as suggested. The cabbage was an interesting dish, a little weird at first, but grew on you. Mini ice cream bars for dessert.

Tuesday/15-May-18: Worked on the meal plan (and list) today, trying to use up as many of the veggies in the fridge as possible.

For our meal, we had Pasta with Asparagus-Lemon Sauce (web). This was quite good. I made all the sauce with half the pasta. The pasta (malfada) was generously sauced, but not excessive. Following some of the comments, I used the zest of a whole lemon and added the juice to the sauce, and I roasted the tips with a minced shallot and garlic cloves. Very tasty. Served with a made-up salad of grated carrot, cuke that was quartered and finely sliced, radish, and a bit of onion, all with a lemon vinaigrette. Quite good it was. Some goat cheese for dessert.

Yogurt on overnight.

Wednesday/16-May-18: Shopping today.

When we got home, to use up some of the buttermilk, I made Buttermilk Coffeecake (TLSouth, p119).

Our dinner was Salmon with Lime Courgettes (200Budget, p178). The salmon was ok, but the zucchini was very good fun, cut in long thin strips, sautéed, and tossed with lime zest, juice, and chopped mint. Served with orzo. The coffeecake for dessert was a hit.

Thursday/17-May-18: Breakfast for dinner today. I made Ned and Crescent's Favorite Multigrain Pancakes (Gospels, p205)—a whole dose and then froze half for another meal. Served with some of the chamomile syrup from Saturday.

Friday/18-May-18: Busy afternoon cooking:

• Made some Favas and Pearl Onions with Olives and Herbs (VegA2Z, p66). Favas from the store this week; pearl onions left from last week. This recipe has in interesting way to treat the onions. You pour boiling water over them, then cut off the bottom and peel. (I only cut off the top if it was "ugly.") Peeling is much easier this way—hooray! The favas were cooked (steam-sautéed) without peeling the individual beans. I added extra olives because I thought the dshes needed them; Ed thought it was too much. This was an okay dish. Think I prefer my favas peeled and bright green. 
• Mama's Garlic Coleslaw (MC; HandyBook). 
• Baked Potatoes on the Grill (MC), but cooked in the toaster oven. Two smallish potatoes for the two of us. I found it way too much. 
• Craig Claiborne's Ultimate Hamburger (Tabasco, p88). Still a good way to do a hamburger.

For dessert, we finished off the Buttermilk Coffeecake. Yum.

Yogurt on overnight.

Saturday/19-May-18: We went to Gamm Vert today and bought some plants, geraniums, three hanging pots, etc. For our meal, I marinated two kip filets as in Chile-Soaked Grilled Chicken (BigFlav, p180), without the accompanying the Indonesian Catsup, that we didn't think was needed last time I made this. The chicken was good. Served with asparagus, simply grilled with salt and pepper, and penne of red lentils and carrots. Then a salad of romaine lettuce. Then some Buttermilk Ice Cream (MC), kind of tan colored because I used sucre de canne, rather than white sugar.

Sunday/20-May-18: We lunched at La Bellone today, before going to Chalais for a concert. Nothing happened in the kitchen.

Progress on goals
This week: #1 BACKLOG: no; #2 VEG/FISH: 4; #3 COOKBOOK: yes
Cookbooks of the month: BoldVeg and 200Budget
This month: #4 PASTA: no; #5 BREAD: no; #6 GUESTS: yes

This week in the kitchen

Monday/7-May-18: Our meal today was Prawn & Crab Cakes with Chilli Jam (200Budget, p182; cookbooker). For a veggie side I made some Stir-Fried Mixed Vegetables (ThaiCC, p80). And some plain rice. Pretty good meal. For dessert we had more of the Chocolate-Glazed Banana Cake. Yum.

Tuesday/8-May-18: Our meal was Rosemary-Flavored Chickpea and Spinach Soup (WorldVeg, p598; cookbooker). Finished off the Chocolate-Glazed Banana Cake.

Wednesday/9-May-18: Shopping today.

Our meal was Fish Kebabs & Spring Onion Mash (200Budget, p174). The kebabs were good, and the smashed potatoes with crème fraîche, chopped cilantro and red chili, and spring onions were a treat. Some roasted asparagus on the side. For dessert, some store-bought rice puddings.

Cookcooks: I've done two recipes from 200Budget, but there will be none from BoldVeg. We're outing three times in the next days, with company on the remaining days.

Yogurt on overnight.

Thursday/10-May-18: We ate at a local Sanglier à Broche repas today. We're stuffed. Nothing happened in the kitchen.

Friday/11-May-18: Chopped up lots of vegetables for Marinated Vegetables à la Greque (VegFeasst, p76; cookbooker) and put them on to marinate.

For dinner, we had hamburgers at the bar where No Direction was playing their last gig with Albie. Nothing further happened in the kitchen,

Saturday/12-May-18: Cath and Hannah for dinner. We started with the Marinated Greek Vegetables. These were good. Served with some sliced baguette to soppy up the marinade. For our main, there was Asparagus-Ricotta Phyllo Tart (VT/may08; web; cookbooker). Put a bit of lightly dressed mâche with some cherry tomatoes on the plate. Dessert was Pears in Chamomile Syrup (O&C, p553; cookbooker). Everything was yummy.

Took the extra baguette and the last bit of tart to Vanessa.

Yogurt on overnight.

Sunday/13-May-18: I had some of the marinated vegetables over a bit of mâche for lunch. Pizza after Ed's concert. Nothing further happened in the kitchen.

Progress on goals
This week: #1 BACKLOG: no; #2 VEG/FISH: 3; #3 COOKBOOK: yes
Cookbooks of the month: BoldVeg and 200Budget
This month: #4 PASTA: no; #5 BREAD: no; #6 GUESTS: yes

This week in the kitchen

Monday/30-Apr-18: Our meal today was Barbecued Poussins with Za'atar and Roast Pumpkin Houmous (BirdHand, p160). Well, sort of. I used one coquelet for a half recipe, rather than two poussins, and grilled under the broiler. There was no pumpkin or other winter squash in the shop last week, so I smerged a couple of on-line recipes for plain chickpea hummus, which turned out pretty good. And roast asparagus. We ate well.

Made the meal plan (and list!) for next week this afternoon. Planned on using BoldVeg for May's cookbook, but noticed I also had a number of recipes for 200Budget planned. Decided I'll try to use both throughout the month. We'll see.

Tuesday/1-May-18: Looks like BookChatters is moving to the first Tuesday. This month and next month moved just because, but it turns out to be easier for our meeting locale if we stay on the first Tuesday. Meeting today caught me a bit off-stride, since it was the first day of the month.

Our meal was Slow-Cooked Lamb and Spinach Curry (MadeIndia, p107), which was quite yummy. Easy to make, but does take quite some time, most of it unattended. Served with Caramelized Onions and Jeera Rice (MadeIndia, p155). Ice cream bars for after.

Wednesday/2-May-18: Out meal was Chickpea Dumplings in Sweet Potato Gravy (web), served over brown rice. Fairly so-so. Didn't use vegetable suet (sounds horrible) for the dumplings, but yogurt, water, and a small slog of oil.

Thursday/3-May-18: Shopping today.

Soup and sandwiches for dinner. The soup was Salmon Soup with Tomato, Dill, and Garlic (CL/may16; web). Ed liked this, I didn't especially. There was no reason to "brown" the salmon in a skillet before cooking in the soup. Interesting that the recipe used water and fish sauce for the broth rather than fish stock. It was edible, but no a do-me-agai. The sandwiches were, sort of, Creamy Avocado/Guacamole Egg Salad Sandwiches (web), These were okay. Some millefeuilles from the boulangerie for dessert.

Yogurt on overnight.

Friday/4-May-18: Our meal today was Rice Noodles with Lemon Chicken (200Budget, p144; cookbooker). This was easy and quite tasty. Some store-bought, packaged brownies for dessert.

Saturday/5-May-18: Today I made Italian Herb Baked Meatballs (web). I used 500g of ground beef (a big pound), made 20 meatballs, and froze half for a later meal. I used tomato paste instead of marinara and frozen chopped basil. For a sauce, there was Tomato and Red Wine Sauce from the freezer, topped up with the last of my accidental tomato paste (which probably wasn't needed). As a side there was Thyme-Garlic Roasted Asparagus (CL/jun07; web). Mini ice cream bars for after.

Sunday/6-May-18: Our meal was Thai Tortellini (BoldVeg, p189). Thai/Italian, an odd combination, but it worked. The recipe asked 1/2-3/4 Thai yellow curry paste. This is way to little; that amount was almost tasteless. When I added the coconut milk, I added another long tablespoon of curry paste to bring up the flavor. Kirchner suggests serving with steamed carrots, so I did, but I think a salad sort of thing would have been better. For dessert, there was Chocolate-Glazed Banana Cake (BoldVeg, p242; cookbooker), as suggested. Definitely edible, this.

Yogurt on overnight.

Progress on goals
This week: #1 BACKLOG: yes; #2 VEG/FISH: 3; #3 COOKBOOK: yes for April, yes for May
Cookbooks of the month: BirdHand for April, BoldVeg and 200Budget for May
This month: #4 PASTA: no for April, no for May; #5 BREAD: no for April, no for May; #6 GUESTS: yes for April, no for May