This week in the kitchen

Monday/22-Dec-14: Dinner was a halfish verison of Tuscan Broccoli Stovetop Macaroni and Cheese (web), a recipe from Green Giant, using one of their products that I don't think I would buy after looking at the ingredients. Anyhow, I just kind of winged it vaguely using what I had. It wasn't bad.

Made up the soup for the mango ice cream for Thursday's meal.

Tuesday/23-Dec-14: We thought we'd do our shopping a day early to avoid the rush. Ha. We've never seen the parking lot so full. The shop was full but all the aisles were open, so there was little waiting time.

In the afternoon I made apple butter and the macadamia nut cookies for the ice cream sandwiches for our xmas meal. Not the prettiest things ever, but they'll do.

Dinner was Gegrilde Sliptong met Avocado-Citroencrème (web), that's grilled Dover sole with avocado-lime cream. Don't know if it was Dover sole, but it was some kind of sole. Lots of little pieces. Had do grill two batches of them. The sauce was interesting and we used it over broccoli and rice too. Then we split a classic magnum.

After dinner, I churned the mango ice cream, made up the sandwiches (three of them, rather than only two), wrapped them individually, and popped them in the freezer. We had one cookie each leftover. (We had split one earlier.) Actually the cookies were pretty good and easy to make. If I do them again, I'll make them smaller.

Wednesday/24-Dec-14: Off to the butcher to pick up our lamb rack this morning. Isn't it pretty?

Emptied the freezer to make chicken stock, which is in the natural refrigerator outside overnight.

Made Christmas Eve Beet Soup (Barszcz Wigilijny) (TLQuint, p15; cookbooker) for dinner tonight. Didn't make the "dumplings" go-with but used cêpes-filled ravioli instead. Pretty good, easy to make but takes lots of clock time (could be done a day before). Then a salad. Then some store-bought vanilla rice pudding (really good stuff).

Made pasta for tomorrow's dinner.

The tree is up and decorated. It's missing balls I've hung every year since 1969 I think. And it's got the puny European lights instead of the cheerful American ones. Next year we probably won't bother at all. Made me sad.

Thursday/25-Dec-14: Yogurt on overday. I got it mixed but forgot for an hour and a half to start it, so it will be a late night tonight waiting till it's done to put it away.

Boiled up the chicken stock and froze it.

Worked on our xmas dinner most of the day. No big hurry, just getting everything done. By about 7.30p, which isn't too bad for us.

Had lots of ideas this year, but settled on a three-course menu from Dinners42 (cookbooker), a gift book I've never used before. We had a pre-starter with a foie gras-stuffed fig each that we got at the market on Sunday. Oh my, these are good. One is plenty. (I've got four more in the freezer now for another "event"—they come in a six-pack.)

This is the kitchen with most of the prep work almost done. (Pasta exposed for the photo; yogurt jars finishing drying after the dishwasher.) The bone booties are ancient; I've been toting that half-used box around for ages.

Ready to eat ...

All cleaned up and ready to put away, which will happen tomorrow morning.

Friday/26-Dec-14: A lightish dinner tonight, P.F. Chang's China Bistro Garlic Noodles (web; cookbooker). This is all over the web, all with the same poor instructions. Pretty good to eat though. For dessert we had some store-bought panna cottas with mango-passion fruit sauce that was a bit too sweet.

Saturday/27-Dec-14: We had our main meal in the afternoon so we could go to a movie in the early evening.

We had a half recipe of Tuna-Swiss Baked Patties (CL88, p125), which turned out pretty good. I've never been very good at patty things, but these held together pretty well. I put one egg yolk (hard to halve a yolk) in the patties and used the white to hold on the breadcrumbs (panko). Served with steamed asparagus and trio rice. For dessert, I used up some leftover evaporated milk to make Memaw's Pet Milk Pudding (web). Easy and not bad. Seemed a bit thick to me and not as creamy as my mother's recipe (which doesn't invove evaporated milk).

Sunday/28-Dec-14: Dinner was a half recipe of Saucy Chicken Gyros (web), tasty and quite easy to make. It would be fast if you put the chicken on to marinate in the morning or evening before. Didn't make the tapenade, but opened a jar. For dessert, we had more pudding, with mixed berries.

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

This week in the kitchen

Monday/2-Sep-13: Computer order largely restored by the end of the day. Breathed a sigh of relief, then made the tart I didn't get to post for last week on IHCC, Ottolenghi's Caramelised Garlic Tart (web). Definitely a keeper. Ed ate half instead of a quarter. I see it's supposed to serve 8; that must be as a first course. Takes longer than advertised also. But not hard, and worth it. Served with a salad. For the dressing, I chopped up a seeded tomato and added to the leftover tzatziki. Good it was.

Laying of the floor was finished today! Still to be done are the baseboards, the join between the hard tiles and the cork tiles, and some other miscellaneous things. The sink and its counter will be installed on the 10th. Yay!

Tuesday/3-Sep-13: Looks like the next IHCC chef will be Donna Hay, whom I know next to nothing about. Have none of her cookbooks, none of them catch my eye, and I really don't need yet another cookbook anyhow. (Although, I do hope Santa will bring me one from Tessa Kiros, one of the early IHCC chefs.)

For dinner, I grilled some barely defrosted kip filets with vaguely Greek spices. And some steamed broccoli with garlic and a but if red pepper flakes steeped in olive oil. And some Lemon-Dill Orzo Pasta Salad with Cucumbers, Olives, & Feta (web). This salad was a hit; would be great at a picnic sort of thing.

Wednesday/4-Sep-13: Yogurt on overday. Shopping today.

Dinner with a halfish recipe of Scamp with Lemon-Zucchini Sauce (CL88, p122). Ok, I used cod instead of scamp. This was dredged in cornmeal paprika-spiked cornmeal and baked; good, but a bit of chili powder might be nice instead of, or in addition to, the paprika. The sauce, I read now, was supposed to be cooked, but I made it as a relish. And very good it was. A bit like tartar sauce with a really good flavor. Then some trio rice and some Perfect Roasted Green Beans (web), which is indeed a very good way to do green beans. Especially nice because they came from our own garden. Mini magnums for dessert.

Thursday/5-Sep-13: A forgettable crockpot dinner tonight, Balsamic Glazed Pork Tenderloins with Cherry Tomato Salad (web). I cut the sugar in half and it was still too sweet. So, sweet but boring. The same sauce for the pork was used as the dressing for the salad (tomatoes, red onion, parsley, basil). Ho hum.

Friday/6-Sep-13: Made some Authentic French Bread in the ABM, out of my head, and using one third whole wheat flour.

Dinner was Elsie's Zucchini Pancakes with Sour Cream Sauce (CastIron, p124; cookbooker). Using one big zucchini (with one cup for the freezer), I made a whole recipe with half the sour cream sauce. What was supposed to serve 6 (as side servings, I suppose) served 2 as a main. Very good zuke pancakes. I didn't heat the sauce, just let it sit at room temp. Very good it all was. Ed said I could make the again in a week. For dessert, there was Peach, Almond, and Cardamom Clafoutis (Dusoulier2, p93; cookbooker), with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, which was quite tasty although it didn't seem to get done enough even with ten extra minutes. Nevertheless it was very good and Ed had seconds.

Saturday/7-Sep-13: Yogurt on overday.

Defrosted the fridge again, since I seem not to have done it thoroughly last time. (I.e., if not completely done, water seems to end up  under the crisper instead of draining away. Moved it back into position, so things are closer to  normal in the kitchen now.

For dinner I defrosted the end of a turkey roll, cut it in slices and browned those, then made a bit of pan sauce with green peppercorns to go over it. And some sautéed zucchini (suprise!) and a slim slice of the caramelized garlic tart. Made a salad, but we didn't feel like eating it.

Sunday/8-Sep-13: Dinner was a halfish version of Creamy Butternut, Blue Cheese, and Walnut Cavatappi (web), a dish with possibilities. I forgot to buy a blue cheese last week, so went to our small local grocery this morning to get some. They had only roquefort, which both of us find a bit strong, and a bleu de Bresse, which turned out to be seriously wimpy. The winter squash we've got growing were, I though, supposed to have orange flesh, but they're kind of pale green, so the dish was not as colorful as it could have been. And we're out of eggs (none to be found at local grocery) so the sauce wasn't as rich as it should have been. The recipe calls for 8 oz cavatappi for four, which seems a bit light, so I used 6 oz for the two of us. Which was a bit much for the sauce. The walnuts were a good touch. Might do again with a proper cheese and a prettier squash. Also had a salad. And some double chocolate mini magnums for a dog walk.

Progress on goals
This week: #1 IHCC/COOKBOOKS: yes, #2 VEG/FISH: 4
This month: #3 PASTA: no, #4 BREAD: no

This week in the kitchen

Monday/14-Feb-11: Hmm ... next thing up on the freezer list (oldest, to be used soon) is two small containers of spicy apricot chutney, a recipe from CLmag. Now, what I remember is that we didn't especially like this and spicy, it wasn't. Dilemma: should I try to salvage these or just toss them?

Valentine's day lunch at Montemboeuf's Cafe de la Mairie today. No need for further food today!

Tuesday/15-Feb-11: Yogurt on overday. No one wanted to go to the boulanger, so I made Bran Bread (BMB, p44), a nice dense bread. Early in the day, I did the chop-chop for Squash and Corn Chowder (Soups4Seas, p34) and we had that for dinner. Not bad.

Wednesday/16-Feb-11: Finished the travelogue part of Auberge last night. On to the recipes now. Today's post at Gherkins and Tomatoes was about this book. How about that for a bit of serendipity?

Dinner was Chiles Rellenos Casserole (CL90, p147), a TNT recipe I haven't made in a long time. Recently some recipes billed as chiles rellenos casseroles were shared on EAT-L, but they included chopped chiles rather than whole stuffed ones. That made me think of this oldie. Not bad. I make it with two of those little cans of whole chilies, which usually contain three chilies. This time one of the cans had only two chilies, and I can't say either was especially big. We ate half of the casserole with a big salad. Neither of us especially hungry, so no dessert.

Thursday/17-Feb-11: Shopping today. Avoided most impulse purchases.

Before dinner, I baked some of the finger-food "packets" that I got for new year's eve, but we didn't eat. They were surprisingly good, and all the flavors were tasty. Dinner was Spaghetti all'Amatriciana with Eggplant (MedHot, p77). This was rather similar to Cooking Italy's recent-ish Eggplant Sauce with Tomato and Red Chili Pepper. We might have liked tonight's better, since it was less oily. The eggplant was cut in cubes, salted, drained, then tossed with flour before frying, which gave it a nice crisper outer surface. Followed by a salad, then by some rice gelato.

Friday/18-Feb-11: A day in the kitchen.

• Yogurt on overday.
• Made some apple-kiwi butter. How will that be, I wonder?
• For our midday meal, we had Lamb Shanks with Mustard and Mash (Diaries, p44). (It's a year project to read through Diaries following through the year.) I cooked the shanks in the oven longer and slower than asked, like the Cajun-spiced shanks I did last July. For a starter there was Zucchini and Feta Cheese Salad (WorldVeg, p648), which we've enjoyed before.
• Made 13 meringue cups (pavlovas, I think they can be called), following recipe in CL88. We had a couple as a belated dessert with some raspberries. The cups didn't work as well as the last time I did them; they're remarkably similar to marshmallows. Hoping the freezer will perk them up.
• Made a double dose of pâte brisée (Tenth, p256) for the freezer.
• Used the rest of a jar of roasted red peppers to make some faux pizza sauce for the freezer.
• Chopped a red chili really fine and macerated this is a bit of rice vinegar. Then I stirred it into one of the containers of not-so-Spicy Apricot Chutney. If it perks up, we'll use it; if not, they both get tossed.

Saturday/19-Feb-11: Leftover chile relleno casserole for dinner, followed by a big salad. Forgot to take the rice gelato out of the freezer beforehand, so we had some cookies for dessert, kind of hazelnut sandies. Tiny cookies, and we ended up eating the whole box. Oink, oink.

Sunday/20-Feb-11: Finished off the jar of fig jam at breakfast, so tomorrow we'll see how the apple-kiwi butter worked.

Dinner was Zucchini Pancakes (Q&EVeg, p220), an old favorite. When I was considering exactly what to do for this, I realized that many zucchini pancake recipes are really pancakes with some zucchini thrown in, while this recipe is zucchini. Since I'm trying to use up some, that's what I chose. This time the bread crumbs I got from the freezer still had some biggish bits in them; those turned out really nice and chewy. For dessert we finished off the rice gelato.

Progress on goals
This week: #1 VEG/FISH: yes, #2 SOUP: yes, #3 MIDDAY: yes
This month: #4 PASTA: not yet