This week in the kitchen

Monday/7-Mar-22: For dinner, working on the freezer backlog, I defrosted some chipolatas (nature or herbed, I think nature...unfortunately they don't label them when you order from the Drive) and grilled those. Served with smashed sweet potato and Stir-Fried Green Cabbage with Fennel Seeds (Q&E, p88) as a coleslaw stand-in. All was good.

Tuesday/8-Mar-22: Two Drive orders today, the second one quite late, so dinner was correspondingly late. We had Grilled Fish Steaks (Q&E, p66) with cod. Served with Simply Grilled Tomatoes (Q&E, p93) and Rice with Peas and Dill (Q&E, p103). We've had all of these before. They're good. I ordered some skyr for dessert, a kind of very think yogurt from Iceland, vanilla flavored. Nice stuff, not too sweet.

Wednesday/9-Mar-22: This afternoon, I looked at what I'd planned for tonight's meal and thought, eh. Instead I made Nasi Goreng Speciaal (MC), using up stuff in the freezer, more of my huge cabbage, and the rest of the varkenshaas from last weekend. It was good. We split an HD mini ice cream cup for after.

Thursday/10-Mar-22: Just didn't feel like cooking what was on the plan tonight, so we brought in  pizza.

Friday/11-Mar-22: Tonight's dinner was very loosely based on a recipe I collected from EAT-L, Cheese and Sausage Stuffed Zucchini (GD). I stuffed red bell peppers rather than zucchini. Unfortunately one of them was moldy on the bottom (it had been home only three days!), so I cut that off and wrapped the base in aluminum foil. The filling was Italian sausage, mozzarella, ricotta, chopped onions, Italian herbs, and some canned tomato pulp. These were supposed to be layered, but zucchini or bell pepper, I couldn't see the point of that. I put the stuffed peppers in a dish, added a bit of water to steam the bell peppers, covered with foil and baked. At the end, I removed the foil and added some slices of cheese before popping back in the oven to melt that. Pretty good stuff. Served nestled in a bit of arugula salad. Some HD mini ice cream cups for after.

Saturday/12-Mar-22: Tonight's dinner was again collected from EAT-L, from the same person! Our main was Pan-Seared Shrimp with Chipotle-Lime Glaze. Those were right tasty shrimpers, easy and fast to put together. Served with Spanish Garlic Zucchini (web; GD) and some plain grits.

Sunday/13-Mar-22: Dinner was Easy Lentil Supper Soup (Ainsley1, p45). The whole recipe will make three dinner servings, not four as advertised. Easy and very tasty. I didn't seed my chili, so it was nicely tingly.

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

This week in the kitchen

Monday/17-Aug-20: I picked up an order from Leclerc Drive after my French lesson today. Before I left, I put the chicken for dinner, still half frozen, on to marinate.

Dinner was Tequila and Lime Chicken (web) with four good-sized thighs. This was really easy to assemble. I marinated in the same casserole dish the chicken cooked in. The thighs came out with beautiful brown and crispy skin. Very tasty. Served with guacamole, not my best. And some faux Spanish rice, no veggies, just rice. And grilled zucchini strips, sprinkled with fajita seasoning. And corn tortillas. Later, a pair of chocolate-covered madeleines each for after.

Tuesday/18-Aug-20: Dinner was, sort of, Crisp-Crumbed Pan Pork Escalopes (Ainsley1, p81). I couldn't find the pork chops that should have been in the freezer, so I used turkey scallops instead. Later saw that Herriott suggests using turkey, chicken, or "frying steaks" as an alternative. Very tasty. Not sure why the meat is cut into strips, but the "fingers" were kind of nice. Next time I would salt the meat beforehand. I had over 300g of turkey scallops, so less than three quarters of the meat. Used panko instead of fresh bread crumbs. Needed to replenish the panko-parmesan mixture for the second batch. Turned out quite nice. Served with assorted roasted veggies, potatoes&carrots, broccoli&cauliflower, zucchini. These were nice. I'll make some kind of a salad from the leftovers.

Started Overnight Bread.

Wednesday/19-Aug-20: Baked off the bread today, although later than intended for several reasons. Still good bread.

Pizza for dinner. With grilled eggplant from the potager, zucchini, and broccoli. And mozzarella and goat cheese. And no-tomato pizza sauce. And black olives and garlic. Pretty good stuff.

Thursday/20-Aug-20: Dinner was Greek Salad with Marinated Radishes and Feta Cheese on Grilled Bread (Bishop, p124). Have made this before and it’s still tasty. And fairly quick. Häagen-Dazs mini ice cream cups for after.

Friday/21-Aug-20: Picked up an order from Intermarché Drive today, thus it's fish for dinner.

Meanwhile, I made a batch of Jacques Pepin's Fromage Fort (video, recipe). Froze two dishes of it. We had some on bread, toasted. Good stuff.

Dinner was Spicy Garlic Fish (web). This wasn't bad, although I think only 1/2-3/4tsp cayenne would suffice. Also 2 or even 3tbl lemon juice would be nice. Served over rice. A pair of chocolate-covered madeleines each for after.

Yogurt on overnight.

Saturday/22-Aug-20: Dinner was Shrimp, Lemon, Spinach Linguine (web). Pretty good stuff, although the recipe is slightly odd. Eight ounces of linguine for four people seems a bit skimpy; I used seven ounces for the two of us. Two hundred grams of frozen cooked shrimp. I used a whole lemon; probably half to three quarters would be better. A pair of chocolate-covered madeleines each for after.

Sunday/23-Aug-20: Meant to make some plum jam today, but the mango I got from Leclerc didn't seem ripe enough.

Dinner was Nigel Slater's Roast Lamb with Coriander Seed and Rosemary (web). The meat was quite yummy. I also made the Creamed Butter Beans and Spinach that he suggests as a side dish. Instead of lima beans, I used half cans of borlotti and cannellini beans from the freezer. I supplemented spinach left over from last night with some frozen. Very interesting this was. We didn't need any more food.

Progress on goals
This week: #1 VEG/FISH: 4; #2 BACKLOG: yes
This month: #3 GUESTS: n/a
This year: #4 SHORT: no; #5 LONG: no
On-going: #6 READ; #7 RECYCLE; #8 NEW

This week in the kitchen

Monday/20-Jul-20: Dinner was a half version of Melting Mushroom Swiss Burgers (Ainsley1, p27. Pretty good as burgers go. Served with the frites leftover from our take-out burgers last week. I put them, frozen, onto a baking sheet under the broiler. Worked quite well. Some mini Häagen-Dasz ice cream cups for after.

Tuesday/21-Jul-20: Dinner was Mediterranean Chicken Gyros (web), a thirdish version with two kip filets. Not especially authentic, but easy to make and tasty. Served with flour tortillas instead of pitas.

Yogurt on overnight. Yogurt and bread happened last week, but didn't seem to get recorded.

Wednesday/22-Jul-20: Made a loaf of Buckwheat Cornmeal Bread (BigGerman, p38) in the ABM. Pretty loaf. We'll see how it is tomorrow

Dinner was Thai Crumbled Beef in Lettuce Wraps (web). I made about a two-third recipe (with 250g instead of 350g of ground beef). Easy and very good. Leaves of butterhead lettuce, rather than iceberg. Thinking this wasn't enough for a proper dinner, I made a quarter recipe of Summer Shrimp Pad Thai (web), sort of. Didn't want to open a can of corn for just a little bit, so omitted that. Used tiny shrimp rather than largish ones. Pretty good, worth an appearance as a main course we thought.

Thursday/23-Jul-20: Went to make dinner and discovered I was missing some critical ingredients. Replan.

Instead we had a half dose of Fagioli Toscanelli con Tonno— White Bean and Tuna Salad (TLItal, p6). This was good, maybe could use a smidge more lemon juice. I used canned beans and frozen parsley, since I'm out of that. I've made similar dishes before. Makes a very nice salad dinner on a hot day.

Finished a bit of goat cheese for after. While the Buckwheat Cornmeal Bread is tasty, I can't say it's the best bread for cheese, being a bit crumbly.

Friday/24-Jul-20: Ed picked up an order at Intermarché for dinner. Salmon comes in 200g and 400g lumps. Usually I ask for 400g, then write in the comments that I'd like 300-350g. That seems to work. (If I don't write, we can get over 500g, which is a lot for two people.) This time I ordered 200g and wrote that I'd like 300-350g. And we got 200g on the button. So a bit of a replan for dinner.

We had Salmon and Broccoli Pasta (web), which was good if nothing wow-ful. For after, I made some Chocolate Tapioca Pudding following my formula.

Started Overnight Bread (web).

Saturday/25-Jul-20: Oops, ran out of gas while the oven was pre-heating for Overnight Bread. Changed the bottle and started again.

Dinner was Warm Broccoli and Potato Salad (MDSalads, p15). This is an old favorite. All the ingredients were available, so there it was. More tapioca pudding for after.

Yogurt on overnight.

Sunday/26-Jul-20: Oops, I counted out the hours on the yogurt maker, but didn't manage to press the Go button. Started about 9:30. Will order some new starter, since I expect this batch will have aged significantly overnight.

Dinner was chipolatas from the bbq. Served with Green Zucchini Salad (web), a loose quarter recipe. Also some Olive Rice Salad (MC). This is a favorite recipe collected a long while ago, reputedly from Nava Atlas. No red bell pepper, so I used some roasted from a jar. Finished the tapioca pudding. We're stuffed.

Progress on goals
This week: #1 VEG/FISH: 3; #2 BACKLOG: no
This month: #3 GUESTS: n/a
This year: #4 SHORT: no; #5 LONG: no
On-going: #6 READ; #7 RECYCLE; #8 NEW

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/15-Jul-19: Dinner was a half dose of Spaghetti with Green Olives, Garlic, and Fresh Mint (VegHarv, p139). Good stuff it was. Then a big salad. Then some mini ice cream bars.

Tuesday/16-Jul-19: Dinner was a halfish dose of Cheeky Chicken Tikka Masala (Ainsley1, p74). This was pretty good. As suggested, served with Tabletop Naan with Spicy Fried Onions (Ainsley1, p116). This was not so good. Too sweet, nothing approaching naan. We'll try the leftovers toasted with jam in the morning. As a side there was Pan-Grilled Zucchini (MJ@Home, p173), which was good as always. For dessert, I had a mini HD cup and Ed had a mini Magnum.

Wednesday/17-Jul-19: Shopping today, meaning we missed getting bread at our favorite boulangerie.

Tuna was on sale, so dinner tonight was Tuna Strips with Espelette Pepper (VegHarv, p99). This was easy and yummy. Served with some sautéed potatoes. Then a big salad. Then the last of the Langres cheese. Then two little desserts from the shop. We're full.

Yogurt on overnight.

Thursday/18-Jul-19: Had lunch out today. Our main was really nice: thin slices of (sautéed) eggplant used to line a small casserole dish, filled with a lamb stew of tender, shredded meat, the eggplant ends folded over; this was turned out onto a bed of couscous and surrounded by a coulis of tomatoes. Delicious! Nothing further happened in the kitchen.

Friday/19-Jul-19: For dinner we had Chipotle Burgers (web), about a third recipe for the two of us. I was liberal with the chipotles. Yum. Served with some potato salad. Had planned to make some cole slaw but ran out of steam. Didn't really need it. Then some strawberries and cream. We're full.

Saturday/20-Jul-19: Tonight we had Moroccan Spice Grilled Chicken Kebabs (web). I had about a third of the meat asked, but used half the spices. Yum. Served with Moroccan couscous from the health food store; and Beet Tzatziki (O&C, p467), which was yummy; and Spicy Grilled Eggplant (web), which was also yummy. Used Moroccan instead of Cajun spice since that was a better fit for the theme of the meal. Strawberries and cream again.

Yogurt on overnight.

Sunday/21-Jul-19: For munchies before dinner, I filled some mini bell peppers with a faux Bousin thing made of pyramid cheese, feta, chives, garlic, and parsley. Pretty good. Then some Hot Bloody Mary Soup from the freezer. This was hotter than I remember it being, pretty challenging. We didn't eat it all, so think I might calm it down with some cream. Then, sort of, Hot Crispy Cajun Chicken Sandwich (Ainsley1, p10). Ok, no sandwich, no skin on my chickie bits. No Cajun seasoning left, so I used up a bit of Moroccan spice mix and added a bit of cayenne. I made it into a kind of salad. Pretty good. Then I used the bio apricots I bought impulsively to make Clafoutis aux Abricots (HandyBook). We ate well.

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

This week in the kitchen

Monday/14-Jan-19: Soup&sandwich for dinner. We had Butternut Squash Spiced Soup (Ainsley1, p44). I had only about 600g  of butternut squash, and cut the recipe back by that much. Used green curry paste, since that's what was needing to be used. Good stuff. The sandwich was Cajun Chicken Sandwich (Ainsley1, p10). Very good. (This is very much like Black and Blue Cajun Chicken Sandwich, cookbooker, from Ainsley2.) I was too full to eat more. Ed had an ice cream bar.

Tuesday/15-Jan-19: I had lunch out with my BookChatters group. Nothing further happened in the kitchen.

Wednesday/16-Jan-19: Shopping today.

Our main was Smoked Paprika Roasted Salmon with Wilted Spinach (web). I didn't cut the spice rub back quite enough, so that was a bit overgenerous. But it was good. Served with trio rice. Then some Irish Banoffee Pie (MC), which was easy and yummy. The first step on trying to use up my oversupply of condensed milk.

Yogurt on overnight. The last batch I made was liquid, so I used a new starter. Not sure what happened. Possibly I forgot to start it and one of us just put it away in the morning without looking, but I don't think so. A puzzle.

Thursday/17-Jan-19: Dinner was Italian Oven Fried Chicken (MC). I chose this recipe thinking to use up some of the buttermilk I have in the fridge. Instead I used one of the liquid yogurts for marinating the chicken. The kip filets were "breaded" with stale corn flakes, also needing to be used up. Served with tagliatelle tossed with a bitter butter and parsley, and some Broccoli Salad with Garlic and Sesame (web). The salad was good, if a bit crunchy for both our tastes. Then we finished the banoffee pie.

Friday/18-Jan-19: Dinner was Mushroom Stroganoff Pie (web). Pretty good stuff. The recipe says "mushrooms, diced", but the photo clearly shows "mushrooms, sliced". Diced, so I used the cuisinart and had much smaller pieces. Nevermind. It was good. But it only used about half the pâte feuilletée, so will have to do something with that. Then a big salad. Then half a prize-winning Langres cheese that's been around at least a week.

Saturday/19-Jan-19: Busy day. Doctor (to renew rx) in the a.m., then the voeux du maire (we were late and left early), then a Facetime chat with friends. Dinner was leftover lasagna (even better the second time), a big salad, then the last of the Langres. Later, we each had a pair of chocolate-covered madeleines.

Yogurt on overnight.

Sunday/20-Jan-19: Made a Cinnamon Fluff Cake (MC) to help use up the buttermilk. Not the prettiest cake in the world, but quite tasty. Something about cinnamon is very more-ish. Hard to stop eating "just more more."

Shuffled the plan a bit today. Dinner was Veal-and-Pepper Hero Sandwich (TLMelting, p23; cookbooker). Tasty stuff, but too much bread.

Guess I really ought to decide something about this year's kitchen goals, if I'm going to have them, before too long.

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