This week in the kitchen

Monday/17-Jun-19: Ed grilled some merguez from the freezer, very salty ones; served with a bit of polenta. We also had Grilled Artichokes and Lemons with Spicy Garlic Mayonnaise—Artichauts à l'Aïoli (VegHarv, p158; cookbooker) with one of the huge artichokes that we got at a vide grenier yesterday. I doctored some plain mayo to make the sauce. Yum. And some snijbonen sort of done like this. For dessert we shared one of the two small charentaise melons we got at the vide grenier. We're stuffed.

Yogurt on overnight.

Tuesday/18-Jun-19: Ed brought in a bowlful of raspberries and red currants. We had a few, then decided they'd be good in ice cream. I told him to macerate them with 1/4cup of sugar. When I went to get them later, I discovered he'd 1) not measured the sugar and 2) added a cup of more of water. Not sure of his reasoning. Anyhow the maceration was defeated. I dumped the water, full of flavor.

For a starter we had the other artichoke and more of the doctored mayo. Good stuff. The main was Frittata Fêve & Menthe (C&Z, p67; cookbooker). For dessert there was raspberry-currant ice cream. We ate well.

Wednesday/19-Jun-19: Had our dinner, with Cath, at the marché des producteurs in La Rochefoucauld this evening. Nothing happened in the kitchen.

Thursday/20-Jun-19: Shopping today. Tuna was on sale, so we had, sort of, Char-Grilled Tuna with Toasted Corn Vinaigrette and Avocado Salad (Essential, p410; cookbooker). This was yummy.

While putting away the groceries, I found an older bakje of ice cream and we had that for dessert. Mango I think it was. How did that get left behind, I wonder?

Yogurt on overnight.

Friday/21-Jun-19: Dinner was a half dose of Pepper and Anchovy Pasta Sauce (MarCuc, p149) over tagliatelle. I've made this sauce at least once before, and it's still good; a bit tedious peeling the bell peppers, but worth the effort. For dessert we each had half of one of the little melons we bought on the weekend.

Saturday/22-Jun-19: Dinner was a halfish recipe of Superfast Crispy Chicken Thighs (web; CL/may15; cookbooker). Served with Shredded Zucchini (MW@Home, p87) and trio rice. For dessert there was Rhubarb Crumble (ClayCook2, p157). Yum.

Sunday/23-Jun-19: Took Cath for lunch today to celebrate the sale of her house. Nothing happened in the kitchen.

Yogurt on overnight.

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

This week in the kitchen

Monday/28-Jun-10: Made some raspberry preserves in the morning, the same small batch recipe I used last year. It didn't seem to set up very well, but it smelled good while it was simmering. Otherwise, this was leftover day, with lunch from picnic and from yesterday at Sally and Mike's. At dinner time there was a salad.

Tuesday/29-Jun-10: Bought some juice at the grocery and put some popsicles in the freezer. For lunch we had the last of the leftovers. Dinner was Almond-Crusted Grilled Salmon with Garlic Sauce (License, p165), which turned out to be one of those recipes I'm glad I tried, but don't need to do again. Served with Courgettes aux Olives (C&Z, p139; soon to be MC), a nice addition to the zucchini repetoire, and lemon-parsley orzo. Dessert was some rice pudding from the grocery.

Wednesday/30-Jun-10: It's hot today. For lunch we had a big salad from a sack of mâche with beet shreds. Used last night's sauce (there's still more left) and the almond-cumin crunchies, along with the last bit of mozzarella from the fridge. It was good. For dessert we each had a fruit popsicle.

In the evening, we had our usual sandwiches and an unusually big plate of fruit (one plate for the two of us), that Ed thought needed a picture:

Thursday/1-Jul-10: For lunch, I browned one of the tins of mole that Jody gave us for xmas and added the leftover pork roast, a can of corn, and a can of chopped chilis. It was good and I've frozen one serving for another time.

Friday/2-Jul-10: Didn't make it to the Montbron market this morning, so again no chard tart. Lunch today at Le Roc du Boeuf. Only some munchies for dinner. Hot.

Saturday/3-Jul-10: We had sandwiches at the bric-à-brac in Montemboeuf at lunchtime. In the afternoon I made the plum-limoncello tart, which was pretty good in spite of all the things I managed to do wrong. For dinner we had a sorrel omelette. This turned out really good. The sour of the sorrel goes well with the creamy eggs. Followed by a salad and the tart. And a walk with the dog.

We've been eating the fruit popsicles every day. That's a nice, small treat on hot afternoons.

Hmm...I've just discovered that I've had my dates screwed up for the last few weeks. Corrected now.

Sunday/4-Jul-10: Last night we decided we make a grocery run this morning and get the makings for a bbq with hamburgers and potato salad and whatever other food consistent with the festivities we could think of. But one of us slept till almost 11.00 and the shops close at 12.30, so those plans got cancelled.

At Ed's suggestion, I made up some popsicles with half milk and half fruit juice. Tomorrow we'll see how these are. We split a piece of the plum limoncello tart after our lunch.

For dinner, I defrosted some of the Toupargel merquez for the bbq and made some Mediterranean Couscous Salad with Roasted Vegetables (MC 2BTried). I forgot that I used our zucch earlier in the week, so there was only eggplant for the salad and roasted red bell pepper strips from a jar. It was good anyhow. The merguez was much better than the horrible ones we had last year when Rob&Cindy&Ray were visiting. For dessert, we ate more of the plum-limoncello tart. We have one more piece left to split now.

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 — Almond-Crusted Grilled Salmon with Garlic Sauce
7. 3-Jul/9-Jul: potatoes
8. 10-Jul/16-Jul: elbow macaroni
9. 17-Jul-23-Jul: tomatoes

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