Monday/30-Jul-18: Dinner was a half recipe of Creamy Prawn Curry (200Budget, p188). This was good, easy, and fast. Might have had too much shrimp, though. A half recipe calls for 300g cooked shrimp. I usually use half of this for the two of us, so we had a lot of shrimp. I made, more or less, the Spiced Coconut Rice that was a suggested accompaniment. I didn't have chopped creamed coconut; I just used the rest of the pack of coconut milk that I used for the curry, topped up with water. Then I made (sort of) Southeast Asia Broccoli from FoodNetwork. They won't show recipes from the .com site in Europe now, so I had to look at a cached version. This was good, but a bit salty from the fish sauce. It was good mixed with the curry and rice. For dessert, we finished the tapioca pudding.
Tuesday/31-Jul-18: I had the idea to sneak in some home-made pasta today. Cleaned off the counter and got out the recipe I intended to use, only to discover that I'd forgotten that it wanted a serious amount of parlsey and I didn't buy any last week. Easily discouraged, I used frozen tagliatelle to make a half recipe of Tagliatelle con Salsa di Noci—Tagliatelle with Walnuts and Marscapone (Top100Pasta, p12). Having no mascarpone in the fridge or freezer, I used cream cheese, which was the suggested alternative. This was quite good although it would have liked a little bit of the pasta water to loosen the sauce up a bit. Before the main, we each had an artichoke bottom with green tapenade and half a crottin de Chavignol, with the cheese melted under the grill. Following the pasta, there was a big salad of roquette/arugula. Then we each had a Rustic Cherry Tart (web), more or less. I had frozen cherries that needed to be used, as well as some squares of pâte feuilletée, which I used instead of making pastry myself. Pretty good this was. Ed has his with cream.
I didn't get the list made today, so it looks like we'll shop on Thursday instead of tomorrow. Start of new month means new cookbook-of-the-month, which takes some research that I hadn't done in preparation. Oh well.
Yogurt on overnight.
Wednesday/1-Aug-18: Finished the list today, whew.
Oops, didn't remember that the lentils for tonight's dinner needed to be soaked for 3-4 hours. So I precooked those a bit to make a quarter recipe of Palestinian Rice with Lentils and Browned Onions (WorldVeg, p404). Served with a half recipe of Pumpkin or Hubbard Squash Cooked with Bengali Seasonings (WorldVeg, p289). Used a good chunk of our first winter squash from the potager. (These were supposed to be acorn squash but clearly aren't. Picked two more this evening. Tomorrow we'll pick the first of the other sort of winter squash we have. Both these are burying the zucchini.) Unfortunately my mustard oil was a bit rancid so the dish had an unpleasant taste. Served with Sliced Tomatoes in a Tomato Sauce (WorldVeg, p303). This was good, but I overlooked the instruction about cutting the tomatoes into only three slices. It would have been better that way I expect. Little ice creams for dessert.
Thursday/2-Aug-18: Shopping today.
Our meal was Seared Salmon with Pesto Fettuccine for Two (web). This was possible because I found some refrigerated pesto, which turned out to be pretty good, at Grand Frais on my last visit. I'll freeze the rest of this up in small portions tomorrow. Couldn't find whole wheat fettuccine, so I used whole wheat spaghetti already in house. Ed barbecued the salmon, along with slices from the rest of yesterday's squash. This was pretty bland really, but worked ok. He thought thicker slices worked better than thin. For starters we had artichoke bottom with green tapenade and goat cheese, grilled. For dessert there was store-bought riz au lait with red currants.
Friday/3-Aug-18: Dinner was a halfish recipe of Le Filet de Poulet à la Crème Fraîche Chavroux. (This is from a new Chavroux product; I've not found an online source for the recipe.) First oddness, the recipe calls for filets de poulets, which are generally kip filets or skinless, boneless chicken breast halfs; but the photo shows what looks like a skin-on kip filet, with a bit of wing bone sticking out. Never seen a chicken breast like that for sale. I used kip filets. They are cooked in a 180C oven 10min on one side, 2min on the second; this worked fine, to my surprise. The sauce wanted 1.5 soupspoonsful of the crème fraîche. That wasn't nearly enough to deal with 150g of sliced mushrooms (mine were shiitakes). I topped it up as needed. Made some sautéed potatoes with the rest of the potatoes on hand. Reheated the peas and corn. Mini ice cream bars for dessert. We're full.
An interesting thing about the chicken dish is that the kip filets were cooked in the oven, 375F, 10min on the first side, 2min on the second. The kip filets were fairly flat, and fit into the largest dish that will fit in my little, old toaster oven. Interesting, rather low-fat, way to cook them.
Yogurt on overnight.
Saturday/4-Aug-18: Using up one zucchini and a roasted beet, our starter was (more or less), Zucchini Beet Salad (web). I made a halfish recipe, one beet and one zuke (cut on mandolin rather than spiralized). This was good, but the half recipe was really too much as a starter for the two of us, and not quite enough for a main. Odd portions, but yummy.
Our main was Grilled Pork Skewers with Green Mango (Thrill, p158). The recipe serves four supposedly. A half recipe would have served three, but we managed to eat it all. Very tasty. Served with All-Purpose Rice and Beans (BigFlav, p262). Even though I used borlotti beans (have no canned black beans in the stash), this was still yummy. Stuffed we were. We drank a bottle of Brin (a Fronton, 100% negrette), which I liked better than Ed. Just wanting the taste, I finished with two tiny slices of Chaource which was on sale last week.
Sunday/5-Aug-18: The menu planner needs a good talking to. A stir-fried Chinese meal on a super-hot day probably wasn't the best choice. But it used up some of the pineapple juice malingering in the fridge. And it was super-delicious.
We had World's Greatest Lemon Chicken (Chinatown, p73; cookbooker). I been told this truly was the best lemon chicken, and I think that was right. Really tasty. Served with plain rice and Hot and Spicy Wrinkled Beans (Chinatown, p106). I've made the green beans a number of times. It was still good.
Made some Butterscotch Tapioca Pudding (MC) in the morning. This one was only the French tapioca. Worked fine. Yay!
Progress on goals
This week: #1 BACKLOG: no for Jul, no for Aug; #2 VEG/FISH: 4; #3 COOKBOOK: yes
Cookbooks of the month: Big Flavors of the Hot Sun, Thrill of the Grill, License to Grill
This month: #4 PASTA: yes for Jul, no for Aug; #5 BREAD: no for Jul, no for Aug; #6 GUESTS: yes for Jul, no for Aug
Showing posts with label ~Chinatown. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ~Chinatown. Show all posts
Monday, July 30, 2018
Monday, June 5, 2017
This week in the kitchen
Monday/5-Jun-17: Change of plan today, since I forgot to defrost the lamb yesterday and will have that tomorrow. Ate from the freezer today instead, some yummy carrot soup. That was about it in the kitchen.
Tuesday/6-Jun-17: Dinner was Spicy Cumin Lamb Skewers (Yang Rou Chuan) (web). I didn't take the meat off the chops, but used the spice mix as a rub and cooked them under the broiler. Extra delicious. We probably ate three people's worth of meat between us. This rub would probably be good on other meats. I didn't use the oil and Shaoxing wine. Accompanied by plain rice and a half-dose of Hot and Spicy Wrinkled Beans (Chinatown, p106), which we've enjoyed before. No dessert necessary. Ed thought it would be nice to finish the bottle of wine we started. I'm a bit tipsy.
Yogurt on overnight.
Wednesday/7-Jun-17: Shopping today.
Dinner was Warm & Spicy Fish Salad (PatSalads, p95), which I've made before and is still good. I used rocket/arugula/roquette instead of spinach for the salad, and probably more than they intended. For dessert I made some raspberry ice cream. Raspberries from the yard. Vanilla ice cream made with with part mascarpone cream and one part cream cream. Yummy stuff.
Thursday/8-Jun-17: With my French teacher's help, I finally managed to get our new dishwasher ordered. It will be more than a week till it arrives, but at least that's in progress.
Dinner was Rhubarb Khoresh (Roden, p360), a kind of beef stew, with rhubarb from the garden (maybe the last for this year). The stew was one of those glad-I-made-it-don't-have-to-do-it-again things. It's strange that the garden rhubarb is almost gone, but I still haven't seen it in the store. Served with plain rice, Beet Salad (Roden, p68), and Michoteta—Cream Creese and Cucumber Salad (Roden, p65). I've made both of the salads before. Both are good, but the one with feta and cuke really scratches my itch. Then some of the raspberry ice cream.
Friday/9-Jun-17: Found traces of another kitchen mouse, another one that especially likes cantuccini. Sigh.
Dinner was Chiles Rellenos Casserole (CL90, p147). It's the first time I've made this in quite a while. Used a big can of poblanos. Quite yummy. Then a salad. Then we finished off the raspberry ice cream. Yum.
Yogurt on overnight.
Saturday/10-Jun-17: Early meal today, a half recipe of Bang Bang Shrimp (web). Pretty good stuff, and fast and easy. I substituted smoked paprika for regular, which was a mistake. Served with a big salad.
Sunday/11-Jun-17: Mouse was in the trap this morning. Ed dropped him off (possibly too close to the house) on his way to singing this afternoon, so we had a fast dinner from the freezer. Mongolian Beef, served over rice with a side of broccoli. Okay and filling.
Progress on goals
This week: #1 BACKLOG: yes; #2 VEG/FISH: 4
This month: #3 PASTA: no; #4 BREAD: no
Tuesday/6-Jun-17: Dinner was Spicy Cumin Lamb Skewers (Yang Rou Chuan) (web). I didn't take the meat off the chops, but used the spice mix as a rub and cooked them under the broiler. Extra delicious. We probably ate three people's worth of meat between us. This rub would probably be good on other meats. I didn't use the oil and Shaoxing wine. Accompanied by plain rice and a half-dose of Hot and Spicy Wrinkled Beans (Chinatown, p106), which we've enjoyed before. No dessert necessary. Ed thought it would be nice to finish the bottle of wine we started. I'm a bit tipsy.
Yogurt on overnight.
Wednesday/7-Jun-17: Shopping today.
Dinner was Warm & Spicy Fish Salad (PatSalads, p95), which I've made before and is still good. I used rocket/arugula/roquette instead of spinach for the salad, and probably more than they intended. For dessert I made some raspberry ice cream. Raspberries from the yard. Vanilla ice cream made with with part mascarpone cream and one part cream cream. Yummy stuff.
Thursday/8-Jun-17: With my French teacher's help, I finally managed to get our new dishwasher ordered. It will be more than a week till it arrives, but at least that's in progress.
Dinner was Rhubarb Khoresh (Roden, p360), a kind of beef stew, with rhubarb from the garden (maybe the last for this year). The stew was one of those glad-I-made-it-don't-have-to-do-it-again things. It's strange that the garden rhubarb is almost gone, but I still haven't seen it in the store. Served with plain rice, Beet Salad (Roden, p68), and Michoteta—Cream Creese and Cucumber Salad (Roden, p65). I've made both of the salads before. Both are good, but the one with feta and cuke really scratches my itch. Then some of the raspberry ice cream.
Friday/9-Jun-17: Found traces of another kitchen mouse, another one that especially likes cantuccini. Sigh.
Dinner was Chiles Rellenos Casserole (CL90, p147). It's the first time I've made this in quite a while. Used a big can of poblanos. Quite yummy. Then a salad. Then we finished off the raspberry ice cream. Yum.
Yogurt on overnight.
Saturday/10-Jun-17: Early meal today, a half recipe of Bang Bang Shrimp (web). Pretty good stuff, and fast and easy. I substituted smoked paprika for regular, which was a mistake. Served with a big salad.
Sunday/11-Jun-17: Mouse was in the trap this morning. Ed dropped him off (possibly too close to the house) on his way to singing this afternoon, so we had a fast dinner from the freezer. Mongolian Beef, served over rice with a side of broccoli. Okay and filling.
Progress on goals
This week: #1 BACKLOG: yes; #2 VEG/FISH: 4
This month: #3 PASTA: no; #4 BREAD: no
Monday, July 6, 2015
This week in the kitchen
Monday/6-Jul-15: Not much happened in the kitchen. Went out for a movie in the evening. Add some cheese on the way there. Then a box of popcorn. That was dinner.
Tuesday/7-Jul-15: Off to the ear doctor today. He gave me a prescription for new hearing aids. All but the bank account say Hooray! In NL these were almost 100% paid for. The French system pays only for the old-fashioned analog ones. Boo.
After a Groupon/Flunch lunch, we went to the tile store and ordered the tile for the kitchen walls. To be delivered in September. I was hoping for end-July or early-August, but we'll take what we can get.
This is turning into a year of big expenses, one after the other. Refrigerator, strimmer, pressure cleaner, washing machine, kitchen tiles, hearing aids, new glasses for both. What else is in the offing?
Easy dinner of leftover soup, then leftover swordfish with some trio rice, then we split the slice of chocolate-walnut tart I bought yesterday. (We both thought it tasted more like chocolate and pecan, but the sign said walnut/noix.)
The temperature has come down today, and tomorrow should be cooler still, i.e., tolerable. We might be able to sleep without the a/c tonight.
Wednesday/8-Jul-15: The Gitem man came this morning to fix the non-working burner on the stove.
Lunch out before the glove factory tour in St. Junien.
A big salad for dinner.
Thursday/9-Jul-15: Yay! the new washing machine arrived this afternoon. All bells and whistles. First load of clothes washed, next one queued for in the night.
Dinner was Barley Salad with Tuna & Mozzarella (p62, PatSalads). Needed lots of salt, but otherwise quite good. Barley has a nice chewiness. Real mozzarella chopped up would be better than the mini balls, which are fairly tasteless. Then a mini magnum each.
Friday/10-Jul-15: Managed to finish the list and get shopping done today. Dinner was Green Tea Salmon, a recipe from the inside lid of a box of Celestial Seasonings Tea. Poor instructions, but it turned out okay. Served with some Hot and Spicy Wrinkled Beans (p106, Chinatown) and brown rice that was a bit crispy because I forgot to turn off the fire. Then a salad with Asian Dressing (p61, MDSalads); made a half recipe and have another salad's worth left. Then a fruit juice popsicle.
Saturday/11-Jul-15: Main meal early today so Ed could go off to choir. Mostly from the freezer. Tarted up the "juice" from some chicken paprikash by adding some peas and cooked chicken. Served over spaetzle. Made a salad but didn't have time to eat it.
Sunday/12-Jul-15: Another meal from the freezer. An Indian red lentil thing. Served over basmati rice, with Karhai Broccoli (p148, MJ@Home). Then some mini magnums for dessert. Ed had chocolate chocolate, I had white chocolate.
The new washer has a big don't-like feature. Because it's an all-electronic thing, the timer can't be used to turn it on. The automatic delay feature works by setting the number of hours after which you want it to be finished. And the minimum you can set is 3 hours. If it's 11:30 and you want to start it at noon, you just have to wait to noon to push Go. European washing machines heat their own water and we have low electricity rates from noon to two, so starting at noon is a Good Thing.
Progress on goals
This week: #1 BACKLOG: no; #2 UNUSED: no; #3 GRAINS: yes; #4 VEG/FISH: 4
This month: #5 PASTA: no; #6 BREAD: no; #7 FotW: yes for June; no for July
Tuesday/7-Jul-15: Off to the ear doctor today. He gave me a prescription for new hearing aids. All but the bank account say Hooray! In NL these were almost 100% paid for. The French system pays only for the old-fashioned analog ones. Boo.
After a Groupon/Flunch lunch, we went to the tile store and ordered the tile for the kitchen walls. To be delivered in September. I was hoping for end-July or early-August, but we'll take what we can get.
This is turning into a year of big expenses, one after the other. Refrigerator, strimmer, pressure cleaner, washing machine, kitchen tiles, hearing aids, new glasses for both. What else is in the offing?
Easy dinner of leftover soup, then leftover swordfish with some trio rice, then we split the slice of chocolate-walnut tart I bought yesterday. (We both thought it tasted more like chocolate and pecan, but the sign said walnut/noix.)
The temperature has come down today, and tomorrow should be cooler still, i.e., tolerable. We might be able to sleep without the a/c tonight.
Wednesday/8-Jul-15: The Gitem man came this morning to fix the non-working burner on the stove.
Lunch out before the glove factory tour in St. Junien.
A big salad for dinner.
Thursday/9-Jul-15: Yay! the new washing machine arrived this afternoon. All bells and whistles. First load of clothes washed, next one queued for in the night.
Dinner was Barley Salad with Tuna & Mozzarella (p62, PatSalads). Needed lots of salt, but otherwise quite good. Barley has a nice chewiness. Real mozzarella chopped up would be better than the mini balls, which are fairly tasteless. Then a mini magnum each.
Friday/10-Jul-15: Managed to finish the list and get shopping done today. Dinner was Green Tea Salmon, a recipe from the inside lid of a box of Celestial Seasonings Tea. Poor instructions, but it turned out okay. Served with some Hot and Spicy Wrinkled Beans (p106, Chinatown) and brown rice that was a bit crispy because I forgot to turn off the fire. Then a salad with Asian Dressing (p61, MDSalads); made a half recipe and have another salad's worth left. Then a fruit juice popsicle.
Saturday/11-Jul-15: Main meal early today so Ed could go off to choir. Mostly from the freezer. Tarted up the "juice" from some chicken paprikash by adding some peas and cooked chicken. Served over spaetzle. Made a salad but didn't have time to eat it.
Sunday/12-Jul-15: Another meal from the freezer. An Indian red lentil thing. Served over basmati rice, with Karhai Broccoli (p148, MJ@Home). Then some mini magnums for dessert. Ed had chocolate chocolate, I had white chocolate.
The new washer has a big don't-like feature. Because it's an all-electronic thing, the timer can't be used to turn it on. The automatic delay feature works by setting the number of hours after which you want it to be finished. And the minimum you can set is 3 hours. If it's 11:30 and you want to start it at noon, you just have to wait to noon to push Go. European washing machines heat their own water and we have low electricity rates from noon to two, so starting at noon is a Good Thing.
Progress on goals
This week: #1 BACKLOG: no; #2 UNUSED: no; #3 GRAINS: yes; #4 VEG/FISH: 4
This month: #5 PASTA: no; #6 BREAD: no; #7 FotW: yes for June; no for July
Monday, April 27, 2015
This week in the kitchen
Monday/27-Apr-15: Made some Croutons (Art, p172) with bread left from Saturday's apèro.
For dinner, there was pasta with a red pepper sauce from the freezer. Then a big salad. Then more of the cheese from the cheese box. That was all.
Tuesday/28-Apr-15: Yogurt on overday.
Cleaned the shelf with baking supplies today and found one unopened package of chocolate chips and three open ones! Time for some baking. With almonds, of which I also have a surplus.
Dinner was Hoisin Chicken with Walnuts and Mushrooms (30MinCook, p147), which was okay but nothing special. As sides there were basmati rice and Hot and Spicy Wrinkled Beans (Chinatown, p106), which I've made a couple of times now.
Wednesday/29-Apr-15: Shopping today.
Dinner was Chipotle Lime Salmon (web). Can hardly beat this, fast, easy, good. Served with brown rice and a made up avocado salad/salsa. For dessert some little crème caramels courtesy of Bonne Maman.
Thursday/30-Apr-15: Dinner was Mafalda Corta with Sausage in Saffron Cream Sauce (web), really good stuff, fast and easy. I recently learned that mafalda is the name for one of my favorite pasta shapes, the one I call mini-lasagnas. Then a smallish salad, topped with some of Monday's croutons from the freezer. Then the last two little crème caramels.
Friday/1-May-15: Holiday today and the weather has turned rainy. For a week or more. Sigh.
Dinner started with (sort of) Globe Artichoke Salad with Preserved Lemon Mayonnaise (web). Not globe artichokes, but the little violet ones. Didn't make my mayo from scratch, but added the minced preserved lemons to the end of a jar. No peas shoots (ha), but part of a sack of mixed lettuces. Wasn't bad though. For the main, there was a half recipe of Baked Orzo, Broccoli, and Cheese (VegClass; cookbooker). It was pretty good, a one-dish dinner kind of thing. For dessert, there were some apples baked in the Romertopf. I looked at several recipes, and then did my own thing. Good they were.
Yogurt on overnight.
Saturday/2-May-15: Hmm...the yogurt had separated, first time that's happened. Seems to be caused by "cooking" it too hot (in the machine?) or too long (the same time as I've been using). A puzzle. Supposedly it's edible, by draining or stirring, but I still saved enough of what I had left to make a new batch.
Had our main meal at midday today, a half recipe of Baked Chicken Scampi with Potatoes and Zucchini (web). Not sure what was "scampi" about it, but it was good. The instructions aren't very good, at least the version I got via email, but it's worth doing. As a go-with, there was Belarussian Carrot Salad (web), which was a nice carrot salad, although it didn't go all that well with the casserole. The carrots marinated for only about 30 minutes, not 3 hours or more. Oh well. It was still good.
I haven't spent lots of time working on my recipe backlog, but I have been pretty vicious clearing out various stacks around the house. One folder, I ended up tossing all that I'd collected. I'm working on my bedside stack, six years' accumulation, picking up random handful every few days and saving or tossing. Tiny progress.
Sunday/3-May-15: Yogurt on overday, using the bit I saved from the previous batch. The separated batch is pretty sour.
Dinner was a half recipe of Cajun Shrimp Fettuccine Alfredo (web; cookbooker). Really yummy this. And a salad. Then we split a magnum classic. We'll probably stop getting these; the chocolate is not very good and the ice cream just so-so. A shame since they used to be worth a walk across Amstelveen to get some of an evening.
Progress on goals
This week: #1 BACKLOG: no; #2 UNUSED: yes; #3 GRAINS: yes; #4 VEG/FISH: 4
This month: #5 PASTA: no for April; no for May; #6 BREAD: no for April; no for May #7 FotW: no for March/April; no for May
For dinner, there was pasta with a red pepper sauce from the freezer. Then a big salad. Then more of the cheese from the cheese box. That was all.
Tuesday/28-Apr-15: Yogurt on overday.
Cleaned the shelf with baking supplies today and found one unopened package of chocolate chips and three open ones! Time for some baking. With almonds, of which I also have a surplus.
Dinner was Hoisin Chicken with Walnuts and Mushrooms (30MinCook, p147), which was okay but nothing special. As sides there were basmati rice and Hot and Spicy Wrinkled Beans (Chinatown, p106), which I've made a couple of times now.
Wednesday/29-Apr-15: Shopping today.
Dinner was Chipotle Lime Salmon (web). Can hardly beat this, fast, easy, good. Served with brown rice and a made up avocado salad/salsa. For dessert some little crème caramels courtesy of Bonne Maman.
Thursday/30-Apr-15: Dinner was Mafalda Corta with Sausage in Saffron Cream Sauce (web), really good stuff, fast and easy. I recently learned that mafalda is the name for one of my favorite pasta shapes, the one I call mini-lasagnas. Then a smallish salad, topped with some of Monday's croutons from the freezer. Then the last two little crème caramels.
Friday/1-May-15: Holiday today and the weather has turned rainy. For a week or more. Sigh.
Dinner started with (sort of) Globe Artichoke Salad with Preserved Lemon Mayonnaise (web). Not globe artichokes, but the little violet ones. Didn't make my mayo from scratch, but added the minced preserved lemons to the end of a jar. No peas shoots (ha), but part of a sack of mixed lettuces. Wasn't bad though. For the main, there was a half recipe of Baked Orzo, Broccoli, and Cheese (VegClass; cookbooker). It was pretty good, a one-dish dinner kind of thing. For dessert, there were some apples baked in the Romertopf. I looked at several recipes, and then did my own thing. Good they were.
Yogurt on overnight.
Saturday/2-May-15: Hmm...the yogurt had separated, first time that's happened. Seems to be caused by "cooking" it too hot (in the machine?) or too long (the same time as I've been using). A puzzle. Supposedly it's edible, by draining or stirring, but I still saved enough of what I had left to make a new batch.
Had our main meal at midday today, a half recipe of Baked Chicken Scampi with Potatoes and Zucchini (web). Not sure what was "scampi" about it, but it was good. The instructions aren't very good, at least the version I got via email, but it's worth doing. As a go-with, there was Belarussian Carrot Salad (web), which was a nice carrot salad, although it didn't go all that well with the casserole. The carrots marinated for only about 30 minutes, not 3 hours or more. Oh well. It was still good.
I haven't spent lots of time working on my recipe backlog, but I have been pretty vicious clearing out various stacks around the house. One folder, I ended up tossing all that I'd collected. I'm working on my bedside stack, six years' accumulation, picking up random handful every few days and saving or tossing. Tiny progress.
Sunday/3-May-15: Yogurt on overday, using the bit I saved from the previous batch. The separated batch is pretty sour.
Dinner was a half recipe of Cajun Shrimp Fettuccine Alfredo (web; cookbooker). Really yummy this. And a salad. Then we split a magnum classic. We'll probably stop getting these; the chocolate is not very good and the ice cream just so-so. A shame since they used to be worth a walk across Amstelveen to get some of an evening.
Progress on goals
This week: #1 BACKLOG: no; #2 UNUSED: yes; #3 GRAINS: yes; #4 VEG/FISH: 4
This month: #5 PASTA: no for April; no for May; #6 BREAD: no for April; no for May #7 FotW: no for March/April; no for May
Monday, August 2, 2010
This week in the kitchen
Monday/2-Aug-10: Dinner at a quiz tonight.
Wednesday/4-Aug-10: Made up some Herb Salt (Art, p172), since I'm almost out. Dinner was home-made fettucine with Ligurian-Style Pasta Sauce with Zucchini and Carrots (MarCuc, p159). This was good, but I don't like her description of how the zucch and carrots should be prepared. I think, from her description of the dish, that these should be in thin ribbons, like some recipe from 365Pasta, not shredded on the madonline, which makes shreds either too fine or too fat for what she's asking. This is the first time I've made pasta for dinner and felt like there was too much! Don't know what the difference was.
Chocolate Banana Snacking Cake with ice cream for dessert.
Yogurt on overnight, since I got going too late to it this morning.
Thursday/5-Aug-10: A busy day in the kitchen.
Tuesday/3-Aug-10: Made some plain old vanilla ice cream today. Too much. I think I need to make half recipes, 2 cups worth.
Dinner was the leftover tart, with at salad. Chocolate Banana Snacking Cake with ice cream for dessert.
Dinner was the leftover tart, with at salad. Chocolate Banana Snacking Cake with ice cream for dessert.
Wednesday/4-Aug-10: Made up some Herb Salt (Art, p172), since I'm almost out. Dinner was home-made fettucine with Ligurian-Style Pasta Sauce with Zucchini and Carrots (MarCuc, p159). This was good, but I don't like her description of how the zucch and carrots should be prepared. I think, from her description of the dish, that these should be in thin ribbons, like some recipe from 365Pasta, not shredded on the madonline, which makes shreds either too fine or too fat for what she's asking. This is the first time I've made pasta for dinner and felt like there was too much! Don't know what the difference was.
Chocolate Banana Snacking Cake with ice cream for dessert.
Yogurt on overnight, since I got going too late to it this morning.
Thursday/5-Aug-10: A busy day in the kitchen.
- Made Apple-Plum butter; with small apples, so it didn't really make much.
- I've got the Boulesteix's ripe green figs macerating prior to make jam tomorrow; using a recipe from the web. I used canning sugar, with pectin included, since I had some on hand (bought in error recently). Things I make often don't seem to gel properly so even though many recipes don't call for pectin with figs, I thought it might be a good idea.
- Found a chocolate chip cookie recipe and made it up with the butterscotch morsels for the CookbookEtc contest. It's an interesting recipe because it's meant to be made in bulk and used in part. I made a quarter recipe, which should be 2-1/2 dozen cookies. Half of that is frozen; the other half ready to bake tomorrow after added an egg and some vanilla. We'll see.
Friday/6-Aug-10: Shopped and did errands this morning. On return I griddled some cod fillets, loosely following a recipe for blackened tilapia I found somewhere on the web. This recipe wanted the fish dipped in a gallon of melted butter before frying. Instead, I mixed up a bit of yogurt and milk (improvised buttermilk) and dipped the fishies there before adding the blackening seasoning and plopping on the griddle. Served with soft polenta and some griddled eggplant slices. For dessert there was yet more chocolate cake with ice cream. The banana flavor in the bread is really starting to come through now; there are only two chunks left. Whew!
While we ate, I turned on the oven to heat, prior to finishing off the cookies for CookbooksEtc. Argh! The right oven is on the fritz also. No working ovens at all. Made a distressed call to Gitem, who admitted they needed to follow up why the part for the first oven hasn't arrived. Now both ovens are gone, and there will be no reply from the UK till next week.
Made a jam from the Boulesteix's figs. Simmering away, they smelled of lemon and vanilla. It didn't seem to be setting, the jelly ran down the plate with the same alacrity early and late, but I finally gave up and jarred it. Two gevoglte fond jars into the freezer and a half jar into the fridge. And off to the marché de nuit in Montbron.
While we ate, I turned on the oven to heat, prior to finishing off the cookies for CookbooksEtc. Argh! The right oven is on the fritz also. No working ovens at all. Made a distressed call to Gitem, who admitted they needed to follow up why the part for the first oven hasn't arrived. Now both ovens are gone, and there will be no reply from the UK till next week.
Made a jam from the Boulesteix's figs. Simmering away, they smelled of lemon and vanilla. It didn't seem to be setting, the jelly ran down the plate with the same alacrity early and late, but I finally gave up and jarred it. Two gevoglte fond jars into the freezer and a half jar into the fridge. And off to the marché de nuit in Montbron.
Saturday/7-Aug-10: The fig jam is definitely set. And quite tasty. This is probably the best fig jam we've had, save perhaps the one that Frances and John brought us from Crete (or was it Corsica?) that started off the quest for a replacement.
For lunch I made a half version of Stacked Chicken Enchiladas with Salsa Verde and Cheese, a recipe I got from EAT-L. I cooked it in the broiler, which was a bit weird, but sort of worked. This was the first of the CasaMex tortillas I used; I froze up three packets of six and one of two. Twenty-six of them, what an odd number. I'll have to check into this. Their salsa verde on sale was short of what was needed, so I added the small can of tomatillo sauce, which was just mushed up tomatillos, and came up with the right amount. Used mimelotte for the cheese. What I made should have served 3, but we've probably got two servings left, which I'll reheat on top of the stove. Tasty, maybe a bit salty Ed thought, probably from the mimelotte and/or salsa, since I didn't add any salt at all. Then there was Avocado and Corn Salad (MW@Home, p119), which is always good.
Think I've dilly-dallied too long to shred and freeze the zucchini in the fridge. I'll have to do something (top-of-stove) with them in the next days.
For lunch I made a half version of Stacked Chicken Enchiladas with Salsa Verde and Cheese, a recipe I got from EAT-L. I cooked it in the broiler, which was a bit weird, but sort of worked. This was the first of the CasaMex tortillas I used; I froze up three packets of six and one of two. Twenty-six of them, what an odd number. I'll have to check into this. Their salsa verde on sale was short of what was needed, so I added the small can of tomatillo sauce, which was just mushed up tomatillos, and came up with the right amount. Used mimelotte for the cheese. What I made should have served 3, but we've probably got two servings left, which I'll reheat on top of the stove. Tasty, maybe a bit salty Ed thought, probably from the mimelotte and/or salsa, since I didn't add any salt at all. Then there was Avocado and Corn Salad (MW@Home, p119), which is always good.
Think I've dilly-dallied too long to shred and freeze the zucchini in the fridge. I'll have to do something (top-of-stove) with them in the next days.
Yogurt going overnight.
Sunday/8-Aug-10: For dinner there was Chicken Skewers with Fava Bean and Mint Salad mag clipping, probably Cooking Light), accompanied by couscous and Shredded Carrot Salad from Cooking Italy. The chicken skewers were nothing but ... skewered and barbecued chicken, very plain. The fava bean and mint salad was promising. Used frozen favas for the first time. Can't say I was too impressed with them really, but have a lot to use up. I was looking for an easy way to have favas, which are a lot of work and available only for a short time, but delicious. The two salads mixed on top of the couscous were quite tasty.
CookbooksEtc Ingredient Contest 2010
- 23-May/28-May: strawberries — Balsamic Strawberries with Arugula and Goat Cheese
- 29-May/4-Jun: cheese — Spinach-Stuffed Anchos
- 5-Jun/11-Jun: whole wheat flour — Ned and Crescent's Favorite Multigrain Pancakes
- 12-Jun/18-Jun: ground pork or pork sausage — Curried Rice Noodles with Ground Meat
- 19-Jun/25-Jun: blueberries — Tarte Amandine à la Myrtille
- 26-Jun/2-Jul: salmon — Almond-Crusted Grilled Salmon with Garlic Sauce
- 3-Jul/9-Jul: potatoes — Potatoes and Peas in a Yoghurt Sauce
- 10-Jul/16-Jul: elbow macaroni — Macaroni Salad
- 17-Jul/23-Jul: tomatoes — Eggs Baked in Tomatoes
- 24-Jul/30-Jul: dates — Date and Onion Salad
- 31-Jul/6-Aug: butterscotch chips -> Chocolate Chip Cookies and the oven disaster
- 7-Aug/13-Aug: pecans
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