This week in the kitchen

Monday/9-May-22: For dinner there was a turkey breast roll left from Thanksgiving. I read that turkey reheats best in its gravy. Having none of that, I made a white gravy (chicken stock, cream, and a splash of white wine) which was pretty good after doctoring. Served with spaghettis courts (which isn't really spaghetti) and some fava beans. We were full, so no dessert.

Tuesday/10-May-22: We picked up orders from two Drives today. Intermarché was out of the fish I ordered, but Ed bought some at the little market near our favorite boulangerie. 

Dinner was Thai Fish Cakes with Sweet Chili-Lime Dipping Sauce (web). These were pretty good. Served with brown basmati, and my standard Asian-ish salad, Thai Cucumber Salad with Peanuts (web). For after we had store-bought yogurt with cream of chestnuts. Tasty dinner.

Wednesday/11-May-22: Barbecue tonight. We had Grilled Chicken with Lemon and Couscous (Diaries, p258), more or less. I used skinless, boneless chicken thighs sprinkled with Penzey's Quebec Beef Spice (also good on chicken). Ed grilled asparagus, eggplant (for the couscous), and the chicken. Tasty dinner. One chocolate-covered madeleine each for after.

Thursday/12-May-22: Didn't feel like making what was on the plan tonight, so there was an old and easy favorite, Curried Penne with Shrimp (365OneDish, p49), with whole wheat penne. And one chocolate-covered madeleine each for after.

Friday/13-May-22: Recombobulated the meal plan today when I realized that I'd forgotten to remember than I needed to start tonight's dinner yesterday. Oops.

Tonight we had Easy Mushroom and Black Bean Chilli (web). This was simple and very good. Served with short grain brown rice and a dollop of crème fraîche. We each had a mini Häagen-Dasz ice cream cup for after.

Then I started the sauce for tomorrow night's meal.

Saturday/14-May-22: Dinner was Mushroom, Olive, and Caper Sauce for Pasta (MedHot2, p23) served over casareccia. Then a salad. When we split a strange little sweet that we bought at a market today. The pasta sauce is interesting. It's served cold, or lukewarm by the time it's mixed with pasta, a bit sour from the vinegar, a bit spicy from the peppers, almost a bit too salty from the kalamatas. Still, the effect was nice. Might put some cauliflower in with it for the next round.

Sunday/15-May-22: Dinner was a pot of black beans cooked in two lots of "salty pork-cooking juice" from the freezer. Salty it was. I should have taken just one lot and added that amount of water again. Did discover that a bit of acid (cider vinegar, lime or lemon juice) helps cut the salt). I had a plain yogurt for after to soothe my tastebuds.

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/9-Dec-19: Still feeling poorly, so changed the planned meal for a "no-brainer" with everything in-house. We had Curried Penne with Shrimp (365OneDish, p49), with peas added to make it truly one-dish. When we moved from Oegstgeest to Amstelveen, I used this book a lot, but largely ignored it after that for some reason. Except for this recipe, which I seem to make semi-regularly. Ah well, it's easy and it's good. Chocolate-covered madeleines for after.

Tuesday/10-Dec-19: Dinner was Za'atar Lamb Chops (web), which was easy, fast, and delicious. Served with some snijbonen and some Moroccan couscous, which seemed to be out of date. We tossed the rest of the jar. Some chocolate squares for after.

Yogurt on overnight.

Wednesday/11-Dec-19: A clean-out-the-fridge replan today. Dinner was loosely based on Fettuccine with Gorgonzola and Broccoli (web). It was mafalda rather than fettuccine for the pasta and St Azur rather than Gorgonzola for the cheese. But good it was. Some ice cream with crème de cacao for after.

Thursday/12-Dec-19: Shopping today.

Dinner was, sort of, Swordfish Almost Puttanesca (web). I only vaguely followed this recipe. I'm not an anchovy fan, but one or two deepen the flavor of a sauce, so I minced one to add with the five cloves of sliced garlic and red pepper flakes. Used some tomato passata from the potager and then some pulp from a can, as well as some chicken stock to keep things liquid. I cubed my swordfish and cooked those in the sauce at the end. Served over exta-wide tagliatelle. Good stuff but we were stuffed. Finished off the P'tit Basque for after.

Friday/13-Dec-19: Bad earache developed last night. Ugh, ugh, ugh. Off to the doctor this evening. Dinner was Hot and Sour Chicken and Mushroom Soup (Ainsley1, p46). Super yummy, it was. I added the ginger as suggested since we're both feeling under the weather. Some vanilla ice cream with crème de cacao for after.

Saturday/14-v-19: Still feeling puny. Easy dinner. Some store-bought felafels, possibly from Intermarché. Very yummy. The pitas that we bought at Leclerc were awful; won't buy those again. Served with Tahini Cream Salad (Roden, p42) and a tomato-cucumber salad loosely based on this recipe. All good, except for the pitas. Too full for dessert.

Yogurt on overnight.

Sunday/15-Dec-19: Dinner was a half recipe of Roasted Broccoli with Shrimp (web) served with long-grain brown rice. Easy and really good. Some mini ice cream cups for after.

Progress on goals
This week: #1 BACKLOG: no; #2 VEG/FISH: 5; #3 COOKBOOK: n/a
Cookbooks of the month: none
This month: #4 PASTA: no; #5 BREAD: no; #6 GUESTS: no
This year: #7 PROJECT: no

This week in the kitchen

Monday/9-Jan-17: I'd planned to make a Vietnamese Crab Omelette (Solomon1, p335; cookbooker), but there wasn't a can of crab in the pantry. (I just assumed one was there and didn't check before shopping—lazy me.) So that turned into a Tuna Omelette instead. But it was still good. Worth doing again properly. As a side there was a half recipe of Thai Cucumber Salad (Cost, p143 cookbooker), which was good and went quite well with the omelette. I finished off some ancient mango sorbet from the freezer for afters, sharing a bit with Ed.

Tuesday/10-Jan-17: Oops, realized I didn't have enough mushrooms for tonight's planned dinner, so made a quick change. We had Curried Penne with Shrimp (365OneDish, p49; MC). Added peas along with the shrimp to make it truly one-dish. Good stuff. At the boulanger this morning I bought another Three Kings' Cake, so we had quarters of that for dessert. Ed got the token so got to wear the crown.

Wednesday/11-Jan-17: Shopping today. Dinner was fish from the pressure cooker served with mashed potatoes. For dessert, we finished our Three Kings' Cake.

Thursday/12-Jan-17: When I ordered some polenta and other Italian stuff a few weeks ago, I noticed they were selling taleggio also and it wasn't too expensive. Tonight it became part of Mushrooms, Potatoes, and Melting Taleggio (web). Good it was. Unfortunately both of us are regretting we ate all of what was supposed to serve four. Along with some steamed broccoli. No dessert needed at all.

Friday/13-Jan-17: Chicken from the pressure cooker tonight, served with garlicky mashed potatoes made with pyramid goat cheese. That was all.

Saturday/14-Jan-17: Put shrimp on to marinate this morning (or maybe it was early afternoon). For dinner there was a half recipe of Orecchiette with Cauliflower, Shrimp, and Red Pepper Oil (365Pasta, p169). Had wanted to do this with romanesco broccoli, which has been at the store lately. But not this week. So plain old cauliflower. I absent-mindedly cut up the whole cauliflower, so I roasted half of that. Used some multi-color shells for the the paste. I think the romanesco and pink shrimp and white pasta would be pretty. Mini magnums for dessert.

Sunday/15-Jan-17: For the third time in just over a week, we've had chicken thighs substituting for a whole chicken for dinner. This afternoon we had a half recipe of Podvarka—Chicken and Sauerkraut (TLVienna, p23). I used grapeseed oil instead of lard. Since it was "fresh", I didn't rinse the of sauerkraut. I used a red jalapeño from the freezer for the chili. Served with some boiled potatoes. It was good.

For dessert there was peach pudding from the pressure cooker.

Progress on goals
This week: #1 BACKLOG: no; #2 VEG/FISH: 5
This month: #3 PASTA: yes; #4 BREAD: no

This week in the kitchen

Monday/12-Jan-15: Today's excitement ... My first voice lesson. We'll see how that goes.

Meant to roast a chicken this evening, but didn't feel like it. Quick change to Curried Penne with Shrimp (MC; p49, 365OneDish), an old favorite. Added peas for some veggie matter. Then a salad. Think a bit of chocolate for a bite of sweet.

Tuesday/13-Jan-15: I made myself some cornmeal cereal (Savory, p292) for breakfast, using the fine cornmeal I bought when we were in NL, rather than the polenta-sort. Prefer the coarser one, I must say. The fine grind tastes OK, but no feel in the mouth.

Made apple butter on and off this afternoon, using part of a sack of Canada Grise I got last week.

Dinner was Moroccan-Spiced Roast Chicken with Creamy Cilantro Sauce (web; cookbooker). I spatchcocked the chicken to speed up the cooking, and rubbed most of the spiced butter mixture under the skin (of breast and leg) rather than on top. Very good. Tasty sauce too. I've tossed the leftover sauce and potatoes together to make a little salad for the next days. Served with a halfish dose of Crushed Spiced Carrot Salad (Morocco, p78; cookbooker), which is definitely a keeper. No dessert needed. (Morocco seems to qualify as a seldom used cookbook, as this is only the second dish I've recorded here. Definitely needs to be used more.)

Before bed, I started up an ABM loaf of White Egg Bread collected from EAT-L. The interesting thing is that it's a tare-weighed bread. You just put the pan on the scale and start weighing things in. In theory you should check the dough about 5 minutes into kneading, but I wasn't getting up that early, so we had it as I did it. And pretty good it was. Now I need to find a simple water/flour/salt/yeast one, or modify my moldy-oldy recipe to fit.

Wednesday/14-Jan-15: Shopping today.

Dinner was Vegetable Quinoa Soup from the freezer (grain!), following by some little red-fruit charlottes. There was a small cup of soup left. I froze it, and have the idea to buzz it up to add the next time I make stock.

Thursday/15-Jan-15: Dinner was Fish Cakes with Herbs and Chiles (web; cookbooker), oh so good. Served with a small bit of Mama's Garlic Coleslaw (MC; HandyBook), which I didn't make quite enough dressing for; and some garlic-ginger basmati rice, sort of made-up recipe after a bit of wander on the web. For dessert a dab of ice cream with some mango chunks.

Yogurt on overnight.

Friday/16-Jan-15: Oatmeal for breakfast.

Last week my order for the paperback version of Diaries2 was cancelled, and I impulsively ordered the hardback. Which arrived today. Guess I'll play catch-up for January and read it through the year as I did with the first one.

Forgot to defrost for tonight's dinner, so changed tonight's plan. Dinner turned out to be a half recipe of Hoisin-Glazed Chicken with Cabbage Slaw (web; cookbooker). Served with rice. Fast and tasty. The cabbage slaw is worth keeping for itself. The same sauce tasted a bit strong on the chickie, but great (with a dab of extra rice vinegar) on the salad. Some defrosted mixed berries over ice cream for dessert.

Saturday/16-Jan-15: A couple of outings today, so made Lazy Day Slow Cooker Mushroom Soup (web; cookbooker). We liked it. In the end, I didn't have time to mess with the crock pot, so just simmered in a cast iron dutch oven. I see the recipe has been corrected since I printed it and now includes both cream and half-and-half, which seems like overkill to me. I ran out of sherry, so part of that was dry white. For dessert, we had half of another three kings' cake, but didn't find the fêve.

Sunday/18-Jan-15: Went to a concert in Limoges this afternoon. With our post-concert coffee&tea, we finished off the three kings' cake. Ed got the fêve, which turned out to be a dog (pointer). Hmm...

For dinner, Ed wanted some chew in the soup, so I added some cêpe-flavored noodles. Good enough, and easy.

Just thinking that our week has suddenly filled up with busy-nesses. Mondays I have voice lessons. Tuesday afternoons I'm going to a quilting working (take your own project). Wednesday Ed and I are doing a little local exercise group (one of Ed's choir friends has converted a barn to an exercise space); that afternoon is our traditional shopping day. Ed has choir practice on Thursdays. Nothing regular/weekly on the other three days (so far). We've suddenly got a busy schedule.

Progress on goals
This week: #1 BACKLOG: yes; #2 UNUSED: yes; #3 GRAINS: yes; #4 VEG/FISH: 5
This month: #5 PASTA: no; #6 BREAD: no; #7 FotW: yes for Dec; no for Jan

This week in the kitchen

Monday/14-Jun-10: Back from Nohant. Cooked some rice while we lunched and put it in the fridge to cool for some pineapple fried rice with scallops as James mentioned quite a while ago. Oops! No scallops in the freezer. Ended up making and easy old favorite, Curried Penne with Shrimp (MC, 365OneDish) only to discover that we were almost out of frozen, cooked shrimp too. Egads, inventory control is getting pretty poor around here. Made a salad with lettuce from the garden, the leftover asparagus, and boiled potatoes. For afters, we had about half of the chunk of Brie de Meaux that I got last week, along with the really good bread that we got at a boulanger in La Châtre as we were leaving there.

All the rummaging in the freezer reminded me to get the lamb out to defrost for a lamb saag attempt. Started a batch of yogurt that will be ready in the morning.

Tuesday/15-Jun-10: Cooking really not on my mind today. Late lunch of Moroccan Chickpea Tagine with Harissa (MC), only inventory control seems to have failed again, so it was black beans in place of the missing chickpeas. We finished off one of those Napolitain cakes for dessert. Oink. Now we have to flip a coin to see who's going to the boulanger this afternoon for bread.

Wednesday/16-Jun-10: For lunch, I made the lamb version of Beef or Lamb with Spinach (Q&E, p36, reviewed at cookbooker). Yummy!

The limoncello is straining. Certainly smells like lemon.

Thursday/17-Jun-10: Lunch was the ground meat variation of Curried Rice Noodles with Vegetables (H2CE, p174, reviewed at cookbooker), using ground pork for the CookbooksEtc contest. Another winner and a very versatile recipe.

Friday/18-Jun-10: Shopped today and come home with many things that now need to be used up. A surprise was finding blueberries to use for the next CookbooksEtc dish — and I've picked the dish too! Also ran into a treasure trove of cilantro. One box for cilantro pesto, if I can find that recipe, and another for whatever I can find. Need to sit down tomorrow and plan all the use-me-ups, especially the blueberries and cilantro. Earlier in the day I dropped in on the market in Montbron with Yvonne. There was an organic stand there with some good-looking stuff, a regular veggie stand with a good selection, a stand with volaille, and cheese and fish stands. Might be worth returning to. Both the market and the grocery store had good-looking chard today, so it might be time to replan the Swiss Chard Torte for Cooking Italy.

Tonight I finally make the Thai fried rice with scallops, although it was a bit "bare" since I couldn't find the shrimp paste I thought I had in the back of the fridge. Will try this again whenever I can find shrimp paste. It was pretty tasty as it was, but the extra oomph might have good. It was a very uncolorful looking plate, though. Grilling the scallops and plopping them on top of the rice might help, but better might be to stir in a lot of chopped cilantro just before serving.

Saturday/19-Jun-10: Lunch today was Papillotes de Bar aux Asperges (C&Z, p98, cookbooker), using flétan (halibut) instead of sea bass, accompanied by some parsleyed pasta and followed by a salad. The fish was a nice idea. Dusoulier has you cut the bits of asparagus in half lengthwise so they'll cook in the same time as the fish, but it didn't work. They should have been steamed halfway before assembling the packets. Next time ...

Later I made he Tarte Amandine à la Myrtille (C&Z, p188, cookbooker) for the CookbooksEtc contest. Very good and easy. We'll probably finish this off for breakfast!

Sunday/20-Jun-10: Blueberry tart for breakfast and as dessert after dinner. All gone. Yum.

Taking advantage of the first sunny, if a bit cold, day in quite a while, Ed agreed to barbecue our dinner. I defrosted two coquelets, spatchlocked them, and used the rub from Grilled West Indies Spice Rubbed Chicken Breast with Grilled Banana (Thrill, p165). This was really tasty. I've frozen about half of the rub to use again. Cooked some sweet potatoes like Dusoulier's roast potatoes, using a goodly dash of homemade cajun spice for flavoring; these were good. Made some Green Bean and Corn Salsa Salad (MC) ; also good. Have bits of both of these left. After finishing off the tarte amandine, we had a dab of limoncello. Lemony, but awfully sweet, and I didn't even use an especially sweet recipe. Think I'll put the bottle in the freezer, rather than the fridge, since it's probably better icier.

Started yogurt to be ready in the morning.

CookbooksEtc Ingredient Contest 2010

1. 23-May/28-May: strawberries — Balsamic Strawberries with Arugula and Goat Cheese
2. 29-May/4-Jun: cheese — Spinach-Stuffed Anchos
3. 5-Jun/11-Jun: whole wheat flour — Ned and Crescent's Favorite Multigrain Pancakes
4. 12-Jun/18-Jun: ground pork or pork sausage — Curried Rice Noodles with Ground Meat
5. 19-Jun/25-Jun: blueberries — Tarte Amandine à la Myrtille
6. 26-Jun/2-Jul: salmon