This week in the kitchen

Monday/28-Jan-19: After deciding that I'd continue with my cookbook-of-the-month project, I decided on C&B, from which I've cooked only one so-so recipe, as my February book. I chose some recipes and put them on the plan. Then decided I really didn't want to make any of these. Off the list with them, then on to my next choice, Stews. The time got late, so I ended up making tomorrow's planned dinner tonight. That was a half dose of Stir-Fried Spicy Lemon Grass Vegetables (HomTrav, p190). This easy to assemble and tasted pretty good. Then some mini ice cream bars.

Tuesday/29-Jan-19: Nice dinner tonight. This morning I made a half dose of Curry d'Échine de Porc Coco-Citronelle (C&V; web). (The web version is not the same source, but it's the same recipe.) I put everything in the crockpot and cooked it all day on Low. Knowing that French recipes are short on spicy things, I used the full recipe amount of curry powder and didn't seed my chile. At the end, I forgot the cilantro (which would have made it prettier) and the lime juice. Had a half lime sitting around, so we shared that, which made it really good. Served with rice and a half dose of Thai Cucumber Salad (Cost, p143). This is really good. Amazing how stinky those dried shrimp are before they're made into the dressing. Some Häagen-Dasz ice cream cups for dessert.

Yogurt on overnight.

Wednesday/30-Jan-19: The car wouldn't start this morning, so I didn't go to French. Boo.

Shopping today.

Dinner was a halfish recipe of Garlic Butter Baked Salmon in Foil (web). This was easy and very tasty. It was accompanied by some pasta (mafalda) with argula pesto (from the freezer) and some snijboned, boiled in the pasta water, before the pasta. All good. Followed by some store-bought riz au laits.

Thursday/31-Jan-19: Had an idea to make fresh pasta, but the day was just too busy. Instead we had fresh tagliatelle from the freezer with Tagliatelle coi Ceci (ClassPasta, p98). This was pretty good. I made a whole recipe and we ate it all. Then a big salad. Then a pair of chocolate-covered madeleines each.

Friday/1-Feb-19: Dinner at Cath's today. I took Fresh Ricotta Cheese and Limoncello Cake (web; recipe). Used only 1cup of sugar; made only about 2/3 of the glaze.

Yogurt on overnight.

Saturday/2-Feb-19: Finally put up the chicken stock that's been bubbling away on the stove.

Dinner was a half dose of Chili with Cornmeal Dumplings (Stews, p94; cookbooker). Ed had a mini ice cream bar for dessert, while I did without. Both of us munched on the limoncello cake during the day, and we're saving the rest for tomorrow.

Sunday/3-Feb-19: Ed and I both were full from our hot lunch (from the freezer), so I didn't make any dinner.

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

This week in the kitchen

Monday/9-Jan-17: I'd planned to make a Vietnamese Crab Omelette (Solomon1, p335; cookbooker), but there wasn't a can of crab in the pantry. (I just assumed one was there and didn't check before shopping—lazy me.) So that turned into a Tuna Omelette instead. But it was still good. Worth doing again properly. As a side there was a half recipe of Thai Cucumber Salad (Cost, p143 cookbooker), which was good and went quite well with the omelette. I finished off some ancient mango sorbet from the freezer for afters, sharing a bit with Ed.

Tuesday/10-Jan-17: Oops, realized I didn't have enough mushrooms for tonight's planned dinner, so made a quick change. We had Curried Penne with Shrimp (365OneDish, p49; MC). Added peas along with the shrimp to make it truly one-dish. Good stuff. At the boulanger this morning I bought another Three Kings' Cake, so we had quarters of that for dessert. Ed got the token so got to wear the crown.

Wednesday/11-Jan-17: Shopping today. Dinner was fish from the pressure cooker served with mashed potatoes. For dessert, we finished our Three Kings' Cake.

Thursday/12-Jan-17: When I ordered some polenta and other Italian stuff a few weeks ago, I noticed they were selling taleggio also and it wasn't too expensive. Tonight it became part of Mushrooms, Potatoes, and Melting Taleggio (web). Good it was. Unfortunately both of us are regretting we ate all of what was supposed to serve four. Along with some steamed broccoli. No dessert needed at all.

Friday/13-Jan-17: Chicken from the pressure cooker tonight, served with garlicky mashed potatoes made with pyramid goat cheese. That was all.

Saturday/14-Jan-17: Put shrimp on to marinate this morning (or maybe it was early afternoon). For dinner there was a half recipe of Orecchiette with Cauliflower, Shrimp, and Red Pepper Oil (365Pasta, p169). Had wanted to do this with romanesco broccoli, which has been at the store lately. But not this week. So plain old cauliflower. I absent-mindedly cut up the whole cauliflower, so I roasted half of that. Used some multi-color shells for the the paste. I think the romanesco and pink shrimp and white pasta would be pretty. Mini magnums for dessert.

Sunday/15-Jan-17: For the third time in just over a week, we've had chicken thighs substituting for a whole chicken for dinner. This afternoon we had a half recipe of Podvarka—Chicken and Sauerkraut (TLVienna, p23). I used grapeseed oil instead of lard. Since it was "fresh", I didn't rinse the of sauerkraut. I used a red jalapeño from the freezer for the chili. Served with some boiled potatoes. It was good.

For dessert there was peach pudding from the pressure cooker.

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