Monday/17-Mar-14: Scratching an itch, tonight was Tamale Pie (OldLaurel, p299; NewLaurel, p307). Real comfort food. And some guacamole. Finished off by some double chocolate mini-magnums.
Tuesday/18-Mar-14: Shopping today. Picked the half chicken in the fridge and started some chicken stock after we got home.
Dinner was a half recipe of Baked Fish, Greek Style (Ackart, p24); have made this a couple of times, easy and good. This time I used oven-dried tomatoes from the freezer for the sauce. Worked fine. As a go-with there was Zucchini Parmesan Crisps (web), which is definitely a keeper. I bought a kilo of rattes today, which is a small potato and about the only potato available in small packages. Scrubbed up some of these, chunked in two or three, and boiled them up. Tossed with a bitter butter, some parsley, and lots of black pepper. Good stuff. For after, I had two more stuffed figs with a bit of port, while Ed had a pain torsade. (Two in the package; I had mine as an afternoon snack.) It's a twisted bread filled with chocolate chip-like bits, not too sweet.
Wednesday/19-Mar-14: Made some vegetable stock from MDSoups today, but left the lid ajar apparently when I went off to do something else and it ran dry. So ended up using vegetable stock for a cube for Quinoa Vegetable Soup (Vegpress, p50). Miscounted how many celery sticks I needed to buy, so there were all used in the burnt stock and none were available for the soup. Oh well. Used red quinoa, since that's what I have needing to be used. Pretty good soup, especially with a good dose of hot sauce at the table. For afters we finished off the stuffed figs and the old bottle of port and opened the new bottle of port. The old bottle is better we decided. (In NL the various kinds of port are labelled with the age. It's usually a good idea to buy the oldest you can afford. Here, there's no labelling like this, so it's a guess to find one you like.)
Half the soup into the freezer. We have lots of meals there needing to be eaten.
Thursday/20-Mar-14: Yogurt on overday. Used a new starter again since the last one didn't seem to be "taking." This could, of course, be a problem with the yogurt maker which has been behaving undependably, but we'll see.
Finished off the chicken stock and froze it up. It does make one a bit nervous pouring hot stuff into tupperware when they won't tell you what kind of plastic they use.
Observation: If I were ever to have a flat tummy, my jeans would falls off, since my bum is too flat to hold them up.
Dinner was two kip filets worth of Chicken Cafrael (web), more or less this recipe, but when I searched a bit, I found that most recipes used tamarind for the sour taste rather than white wine vinegar, so I did that. Nice tastes, and worth a bit more investigation to find a somewhat more authentic recipe perhaps. For a side there was a half recipe of Cauliflower, Peas. and Potatoes (TasteIndia, p114; cookbooker), using chou romanesco, rather than plain old cauliflower, since there was none of that at the shops. Weird stuff, but makes a pretty dish. More colorful than cauliflower would have been. (Cauliflower is apparently not very popular in this part of France; often when they have it, it's not especially nice. Lately they've been having the romanesco version more often.) Then there was Simple Buttery Rice (which was from MJ1, but I do it from my head usually). We split a magnum classic for after.
Friday/21-Mar-14: Dinner was loosely based on Creamy Garlicky Seafood Marinara (web), very loosely. For the veg, I used up the romanesco, added some broccoli and a julienned carrot. For the seafood there was the end of some small frozen shrimp, along some scallops. Cutting a recipe for cream of X soup way back, I made a sauce with (among other things) dried milk powder, cornstarch, chicken bouillon powder, onion granules, etc. Added water and some crème fraîche. Served all over pasta. Wasn't bad at all. We pigged out on some Lu Scholiertjes afterwards.
Saturday/22-Mar-14: Party tonight, given by our cat spa owners who have sold out and gave a final party this evening. I made a big bowl of guacamole. That was all that happened in the kitchen today.
Sunday/23-Mar-14: After finishing off the guacamole we brought home for lunch, neither of us felt much like eating, so I made a big salad and that was dinner. Finished off by mini magnums.
Progress on goals
This week: #1 COOKBOOKS: yes; #2 VEG/FISH: 5
This month: #3 PASTA: yes; #4 FotW: no for March; #5 BREAD: 1
Showing posts with label ~Ackart. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ~Ackart. Show all posts
Monday, March 17, 2014
Monday, December 24, 2012
This week in the kitchen
Monday/24-Dec-12: Dinner was a half recipe of Sea Scallops with Sweet Red Peppers and Zucchini (Essential, p409), which was very tasty and seasonal in appearance, all red, green, and white. Served with orzo, although possibly some spaghetti or linguine would have been nice. Then a salad. Then a small bit of a petit camembert.
Tuesday/25-Dec-12: Gloomy weather, and neither or us feeling xmas-y. Only got the tree up yesterday and haven't been playing our usual cheery xmas music. Dinner was nice, though, although the dessert was a bit of a failure.
Wednesday/26-Dec-12: Tweede kerstdag. Planned a bigger meal but scaled it back since neither or us were particularly hungry. The main was Pork Steak with Port and Figs (web; N.B.: This is from nigella.com, but Safari is giving a "watch out" message today; perhaps they've been hacked). Nice, but the sauce was strangely bland. Also odd is the she calls for 8 dried figs at 150g. I used 12 (which was too many) and they were only 125g. Accompanied by some trio rice and some Carrot Timbales following the recipe for Broccoli Timbales (BEFCC, p58). Possibly I've made this more often with carrots than broccoli, but either way it's good. Then a salad using up yesterday's arugula. Then some leftover chocolate dessert.
Thursday/27-Dec-12: Did our shopping today. The holiday season brings lots of exotic and out-of-season fruits and vegetable. In past years there have been lots of mini versions of vegetables. This year I had a recipe to use mini squash, and of course there were none to be found. Oh well.
Dinner was an old favorite, Spicy Cajun Shrimp (MW@Home, p255), over rice. Then a big salad. Then some of the petit camembert.
Friday/28-Dec-12: Kitchen day today. Made a jarful of Apple Butter using the cheap sack of apples I got yesterday. Emptied the freezer to make a big pot of chicken stock. There was at least one chicken and two coquelets worth, plus, I think, some thigh bones, but I didn't count. Boned the last half coquelet to make a salad with leftover rice from last night, the cilantro sauce, some celery and radish bits. Pretty good lunch. Started paneer for tomorrow night's IHCC dinner.
Dinner started last of the foie gras-stuff magret and a bit of vinaigretted arugula. For a main there was Pumpkin Gnocchi with Crème Fraîche-Sage Sauce (web, cookbooker), which was good, although I still haven't mastered the technique for proper gnocchi. Then we had another bit of the chocolate non-cake. Nicely full now.
Saturday/29-Dec-12: A tasty dinner for IHCC tonight: Saag Paneer(WofE, p240), Red Split Lentils with Cumin Seed (MJ1, p122), served with rice and Spicy Cucumber Wedges (MJ1, p172). All but the Saag Paneer have been made before. Finished off the chocolate non-cake for dessert. Whew!
Sunday/30-Dec-12: Made some Pumpkin Cranberry Bread (MC) to use up the pumpkin I defrosted and some of the cranberries that have been lingering in the freezer for quite a while. It's good.
DInner was Tuna with Macaroni and Mushrooms (Ackart, p183). I made half of a recipe that should serve six, and it made a not overly generous dinner for two. But it was good. Then a salad. Then the last of the petit camembert.
Progress on goals
This week: #1 COOKBOOKS: no, #2 BREAD: no, #3 SOUP: no, #4 MIDDAY: no, #5 VEG/FISH: 5
This month: #6 PASTA: yes
Tuesday/25-Dec-12: Gloomy weather, and neither or us feeling xmas-y. Only got the tree up yesterday and haven't been playing our usual cheery xmas music. Dinner was nice, though, although the dessert was a bit of a failure.
Wednesday/26-Dec-12: Tweede kerstdag. Planned a bigger meal but scaled it back since neither or us were particularly hungry. The main was Pork Steak with Port and Figs (web; N.B.: This is from nigella.com, but Safari is giving a "watch out" message today; perhaps they've been hacked). Nice, but the sauce was strangely bland. Also odd is the she calls for 8 dried figs at 150g. I used 12 (which was too many) and they were only 125g. Accompanied by some trio rice and some Carrot Timbales following the recipe for Broccoli Timbales (BEFCC, p58). Possibly I've made this more often with carrots than broccoli, but either way it's good. Then a salad using up yesterday's arugula. Then some leftover chocolate dessert.
Thursday/27-Dec-12: Did our shopping today. The holiday season brings lots of exotic and out-of-season fruits and vegetable. In past years there have been lots of mini versions of vegetables. This year I had a recipe to use mini squash, and of course there were none to be found. Oh well.
Dinner was an old favorite, Spicy Cajun Shrimp (MW@Home, p255), over rice. Then a big salad. Then some of the petit camembert.
Friday/28-Dec-12: Kitchen day today. Made a jarful of Apple Butter using the cheap sack of apples I got yesterday. Emptied the freezer to make a big pot of chicken stock. There was at least one chicken and two coquelets worth, plus, I think, some thigh bones, but I didn't count. Boned the last half coquelet to make a salad with leftover rice from last night, the cilantro sauce, some celery and radish bits. Pretty good lunch. Started paneer for tomorrow night's IHCC dinner.
Dinner started last of the foie gras-stuff magret and a bit of vinaigretted arugula. For a main there was Pumpkin Gnocchi with Crème Fraîche-Sage Sauce (web, cookbooker), which was good, although I still haven't mastered the technique for proper gnocchi. Then we had another bit of the chocolate non-cake. Nicely full now.
Saturday/29-Dec-12: A tasty dinner for IHCC tonight: Saag Paneer(WofE, p240), Red Split Lentils with Cumin Seed (MJ1, p122), served with rice and Spicy Cucumber Wedges (MJ1, p172). All but the Saag Paneer have been made before. Finished off the chocolate non-cake for dessert. Whew!
Sunday/30-Dec-12: Made some Pumpkin Cranberry Bread (MC) to use up the pumpkin I defrosted and some of the cranberries that have been lingering in the freezer for quite a while. It's good.
DInner was Tuna with Macaroni and Mushrooms (Ackart, p183). I made half of a recipe that should serve six, and it made a not overly generous dinner for two. But it was good. Then a salad. Then the last of the petit camembert.
Progress on goals
This week: #1 COOKBOOKS: no, #2 BREAD: no, #3 SOUP: no, #4 MIDDAY: no, #5 VEG/FISH: 5
This month: #6 PASTA: yes
Monday, December 10, 2012
This week in the kitchen
Monday/10-Dec-12: Lunched out today, and nothing further happened in the kitchen.
Tuesday/11-Dec-12: Authentic French Bread in the ABM this morning for lunch bread and Thanksgiving rolls from the freezer for breakfast.
Made Chile Purée (TexMex, p50) today, the San Antonio chile sauce that used for enchiladas and chili con carne. Used anchos and pasilla negras. Seemed less bitter than the last time I made this. Some cheese enchiladas will be on the menu before too long. Froze up some of the chile-soaking water in an ice cube tray to have bits to add to beans and whatever.
Gas ran out while I was preparing dinner, luckily at an easy spot. Dinner was Delmonico Hash (Essential, p507), a recipe from 1877, using most of the meat from Sunday's third lamb shank. A light dinner, high-fat, but tasty. Then a big salad. Then two chocolates for after.
Wednesday/12-Dec-12: Another day of waiting for DHL, who never showed up. Now the package status says it will be delivered at an agreed upon date. Agreed with whom, I wonder?
In the early afternoon, I went to make a spice paste for tonight's chicken, only to discover that the prunes I was counting on were moldy. And, Wednesday afternoon, the little grocery that's close-by is closed. Oops. Replan. Dinner was a half dose of Garlic Chicken (web), made with thighs instead of legs. Easy and pretty tasty. Made all the sauce and froze about half of it for later use.
Yogurt on overnight.
Thursday/13-Dec-12: While I waited for DHL (they actually came!), Ed went off to choir practice and did a bit a shopping afterwards. He brought back some sole, which we had for dinner. I spread the fillets with Cilantro Pesto from the freezer, rolled them up, and baked them with a little sauce very loosely based on Fish Baked, Greek Style (Ackart, p24), using up the lump of oven-dried tomatoes that I neglected freeze on a tray. Served with some steamed broccoli and some odd lots of pasta. Then a smallish salad. Then some pieces of 3 Kings' Cake, an impulse buy. (It's not just me!) Ed found the fêve on the first cut. Pogo wore the crown for a while. A pretty good dinner.
Friday/14-Dec-12: Dinner has a half dose of Lemon Pepper Shrimp Scampi (web, cookbooker), which was pretty good. Then a really big salad (Ed bought a 150g sack of mâche yesterday). Then we finished off the 3 Kings' Cake.
Saturday/15-Dec-12: List-making this morning, shopping this afternoon—Saturday afternoon is a terrible time to shop. The sky opened about the time we were leaving.
Dinner was a half dose of Potato and Mushroom Gratin (Ready, p208). This was good, but took way too long to make, since I overlooked a crucial bit of instruction. While we were waiting, I used up the end of a jar of artichoke bottoms, topping them with dabs of black olive tapenade and pyramid cheese, then popping them under the broiler for a bit. Then we had a nice salad. And finally we had the gratin.
Sunday/16-Dec-12: Yogurt on overday.
DInner for IHCC tonight, a third recipe of Lamb and Rice Casserole (MJ1, p154), accompanied by Yoghurt with Eggplant (MJ1, p164) and Tomato, Onion, and Green Coriander Relish (MJ1, p172). Finishing off with Light Rice Pudding (Climbing, p262). Yum. But I'm stuffed. Here's the post.
Progress on goals
This week: #1 COOKBOOKS: yes, #2 BREAD: yes, #3 SOUP: yes, #4 MIDDAY: yes, #5 VEG/FISH: 3
This month: #6 PASTA: no
Tuesday/11-Dec-12: Authentic French Bread in the ABM this morning for lunch bread and Thanksgiving rolls from the freezer for breakfast.
Made Chile Purée (TexMex, p50) today, the San Antonio chile sauce that used for enchiladas and chili con carne. Used anchos and pasilla negras. Seemed less bitter than the last time I made this. Some cheese enchiladas will be on the menu before too long. Froze up some of the chile-soaking water in an ice cube tray to have bits to add to beans and whatever.
Gas ran out while I was preparing dinner, luckily at an easy spot. Dinner was Delmonico Hash (Essential, p507), a recipe from 1877, using most of the meat from Sunday's third lamb shank. A light dinner, high-fat, but tasty. Then a big salad. Then two chocolates for after.
Wednesday/12-Dec-12: Another day of waiting for DHL, who never showed up. Now the package status says it will be delivered at an agreed upon date. Agreed with whom, I wonder?
In the early afternoon, I went to make a spice paste for tonight's chicken, only to discover that the prunes I was counting on were moldy. And, Wednesday afternoon, the little grocery that's close-by is closed. Oops. Replan. Dinner was a half dose of Garlic Chicken (web), made with thighs instead of legs. Easy and pretty tasty. Made all the sauce and froze about half of it for later use.
Yogurt on overnight.
Thursday/13-Dec-12: While I waited for DHL (they actually came!), Ed went off to choir practice and did a bit a shopping afterwards. He brought back some sole, which we had for dinner. I spread the fillets with Cilantro Pesto from the freezer, rolled them up, and baked them with a little sauce very loosely based on Fish Baked, Greek Style (Ackart, p24), using up the lump of oven-dried tomatoes that I neglected freeze on a tray. Served with some steamed broccoli and some odd lots of pasta. Then a smallish salad. Then some pieces of 3 Kings' Cake, an impulse buy. (It's not just me!) Ed found the fêve on the first cut. Pogo wore the crown for a while. A pretty good dinner.
Friday/14-Dec-12: Dinner has a half dose of Lemon Pepper Shrimp Scampi (web, cookbooker), which was pretty good. Then a really big salad (Ed bought a 150g sack of mâche yesterday). Then we finished off the 3 Kings' Cake.
Saturday/15-Dec-12: List-making this morning, shopping this afternoon—Saturday afternoon is a terrible time to shop. The sky opened about the time we were leaving.
Dinner was a half dose of Potato and Mushroom Gratin (Ready, p208). This was good, but took way too long to make, since I overlooked a crucial bit of instruction. While we were waiting, I used up the end of a jar of artichoke bottoms, topping them with dabs of black olive tapenade and pyramid cheese, then popping them under the broiler for a bit. Then we had a nice salad. And finally we had the gratin.
Sunday/16-Dec-12: Yogurt on overday.
DInner for IHCC tonight, a third recipe of Lamb and Rice Casserole (MJ1, p154), accompanied by Yoghurt with Eggplant (MJ1, p164) and Tomato, Onion, and Green Coriander Relish (MJ1, p172). Finishing off with Light Rice Pudding (Climbing, p262). Yum. But I'm stuffed. Here's the post.
Progress on goals
This week: #1 COOKBOOKS: yes, #2 BREAD: yes, #3 SOUP: yes, #4 MIDDAY: yes, #5 VEG/FISH: 3
This month: #6 PASTA: no
Monday, October 10, 2011
This week in the kitchen
Monday/10-Oct-11: The topic for tonight's Club Liseron meeting was pumpkins (i.e., winter squashes), so I baked a Pumpkin Cake (adapted from web, soon to be MC) to take along as part of the refreshments. And very good it was, with many requests for the recipe! The meeting wasn't especially well-attended, so I actually got to bring some home.
Dinner was leftover Indian Samosa Casserole, also good as leftovers. Made another dose of my regular raita (MJ1, p162) to go with it.
Tuesday/11-Oct-11: We finished the pumpkin cake off for breakfast, along with two small slices of chocolate cake leftover from someone else's meeting offering.
Today's big project was defrosting the fridge. It hasn't been cooling well (milk has spoiled) and we're hoping the problem was that it wanted defrosting. It's been acting strange for several months and I'm wondering if the last time I defrosted, which wasn't all that long ago, I did it too fast and there was still ice up the back of the fridge part. If it's not acting better in the next days, we may get to buy another one soon.
Found some old semi-sweet chocolate wanting to be used up and made Simply Special Brownies from the Hershey site. Iced them with the last of the cream cheese icing that didn't get used up for the pumpkin cake. Edible, but nothing special.
Dinner was Roasted Broccoli with Toasted Pine Nuts, Feta, Basil, and Lemon from somewhere on the web. Should have been a side dish or served over a bed of greens, but I served it with some pasta dressed with the last of the ricotta pesto I defrosted a couple of days ago.
Yogurt on overnight. While I was putting this together, Sophie, the nervy thing, jumped on the counter right in front of me. The chain reaction of getting her down resulted in yet another broken yogurt dish. We've broken three in the last three weeks, I think. Time to get down the box of spares.
Wednesday/12-Oct-11: Shopping this afternoon.
Dinner started with A Radish, Mint, and Feta Salad (Diaries, p194), which was a very nice salad, I thought. For a main we had Baked Fish, Greek Style (Ackart, p24), with halibut fillets. Instead of fresh (or canned) tomatoes, I used some oven-dried ones from the freezer; these worked fine. The fish was quite pretty served, topped with the red, white (onions), and green (parsley) sauce. With a side of trio rice. And brownies for dessert.
Thursday/13-Oct-11: Finished off the brownies mid-morning. Otherwise, stayed out of the kitchen today. Dinner was leftover rabbit, with some extra boiled potatoes added. (It reheated well.) Followed by a salad of mâche and arugula.
Friday/14-Oct-11: Dinner was Greek Zucchini Cakes (MC 2BTried). Tasty they were, but not very (pan)cake-y. I added extra flour and they still needed to be very thin to hold together at all. Not sure what to do with the recipe yet. Followed by a big salad.
Saturday/15-Oct-11: Off to Ile de Ré for our anniversary. Nothing on the kitchen.
Sunday/16-Oct-11: Gone fishin'.
Progress on goals
This week: #1 VEG/FISH: yes, #2 SOUP: no, #3 MIDDAY: no
This month: #4 PASTA: not yet
Dinner was leftover Indian Samosa Casserole, also good as leftovers. Made another dose of my regular raita (MJ1, p162) to go with it.
Tuesday/11-Oct-11: We finished the pumpkin cake off for breakfast, along with two small slices of chocolate cake leftover from someone else's meeting offering.
Today's big project was defrosting the fridge. It hasn't been cooling well (milk has spoiled) and we're hoping the problem was that it wanted defrosting. It's been acting strange for several months and I'm wondering if the last time I defrosted, which wasn't all that long ago, I did it too fast and there was still ice up the back of the fridge part. If it's not acting better in the next days, we may get to buy another one soon.
Found some old semi-sweet chocolate wanting to be used up and made Simply Special Brownies from the Hershey site. Iced them with the last of the cream cheese icing that didn't get used up for the pumpkin cake. Edible, but nothing special.
Dinner was Roasted Broccoli with Toasted Pine Nuts, Feta, Basil, and Lemon from somewhere on the web. Should have been a side dish or served over a bed of greens, but I served it with some pasta dressed with the last of the ricotta pesto I defrosted a couple of days ago.
Yogurt on overnight. While I was putting this together, Sophie, the nervy thing, jumped on the counter right in front of me. The chain reaction of getting her down resulted in yet another broken yogurt dish. We've broken three in the last three weeks, I think. Time to get down the box of spares.
Wednesday/12-Oct-11: Shopping this afternoon.
Dinner started with A Radish, Mint, and Feta Salad (Diaries, p194), which was a very nice salad, I thought. For a main we had Baked Fish, Greek Style (Ackart, p24), with halibut fillets. Instead of fresh (or canned) tomatoes, I used some oven-dried ones from the freezer; these worked fine. The fish was quite pretty served, topped with the red, white (onions), and green (parsley) sauce. With a side of trio rice. And brownies for dessert.
Thursday/13-Oct-11: Finished off the brownies mid-morning. Otherwise, stayed out of the kitchen today. Dinner was leftover rabbit, with some extra boiled potatoes added. (It reheated well.) Followed by a salad of mâche and arugula.
Friday/14-Oct-11: Dinner was Greek Zucchini Cakes (MC 2BTried). Tasty they were, but not very (pan)cake-y. I added extra flour and they still needed to be very thin to hold together at all. Not sure what to do with the recipe yet. Followed by a big salad.
Saturday/15-Oct-11: Off to Ile de Ré for our anniversary. Nothing on the kitchen.
Sunday/16-Oct-11: Gone fishin'.
Progress on goals
This week: #1 VEG/FISH: yes, #2 SOUP: no, #3 MIDDAY: no
This month: #4 PASTA: not yet
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)