This week in the kitchen

Monday/21-Apr-14: Dinner was Sticky Soy-Hoisin Chicken Thighs (web; cookbooker) which was pretty good. Used five thighs and all the the sauce for the two of us; there was plenty of sauce, but not a superabundance. Served with coconut rice and some yellow green beans from the freezer, cooked in sesame oil and sprinkled with toasted sesame seeds and amchoor at the end. For dessert, I used up a tub of ricotta that I defrosted for something that didn't get done and made my version of Coffee Ricotta Mousse (MW@Home, p307).

Tuesday/22-Apr-14: Shopping today. Bought some organic lemons to make preserved lemons. Picked up a pair of coquelets then asked at the butcher's counter if they had pigeonneaux. Yes they did, so I bought two and froze the coquelets. Them-thar pigeons were expensive! Stay tuned.

Dinner was Spiced Fried Fish (30MinCook, p120) made with swordfish, which was on sale today. Fish strips tossed with lime, spices, and besan, then deep fried. Yum. Served with Carrots with Mustard Seeds (30MinCook, p47) and Pan-Fried Potatoes with Browned Onions and Garam Masala (RealCook, p244). For dessert we had fresh strawberries with Old-Fashioned Vanilla Ice Cream (TLAmer, p106). Forgot to take a picture till it was too late.

Wednesday/23-Apr-14: A lovely lunch out today, courtesy of Groupon. We didn't need to eat anything for the rest of the day.

Thursday/24-Apr-14: Yogurt on overday. Another IHCC dinner tonight, with Chicken and Rice Salad (Diaries, p187; cookbooker). We finished off the ice cream when I got back from line dancing.

Friday/25-Apr-14: The day got late, so what was on the plan (and defrosted) will move to tomorrow. Instead there were Zucchini Bread Pancakes (web). Good there were. I made a whole recipe, expecting leftovers to freeze, but we ate it all. A bit much, but oh so good.

Saturday/26-Apr-14: Made up some Preserved Lemons (Couscous, p31) which now need to get shaken daily for 30 days before using.

American food from TLAmer tonight. Served the squab and spoon bread with Grilled Asparagus (30MinCook, p31) and Cold Beetroot with Cream (Pomiane, p180). We were full. No dessert.

Sunday/27-Apr-14: Intended to make pasta today, but it looks like Ed finally managed to share his cold-crud with me, and I'm feeling like s***. So I made the sauce to go with the strangely named Whole Wheat Spaghetti (XSpecCP, p99). This isn't a crockpot dish (except to keep it warm) and all you do is cook some store-bought whole wheat spaghetti, but there's a nice sauce of sautéed leeks, goat cheese, sun-dried tomatoes, olive, lemon zest, and lemon juice. I made a little salad of rocket and a chopped up beet and the rest of the dressing from Pomiane's beet dish. Split a Magnum classic for afters. Hoping to feel better tomorrow.

Yogurt on overnight.

Progress on goals
This week: #1 COOKBOOKS: yes; #2 VEG/FISH: 3
This month: #3 PASTA: no; #4 FotW: yes; #5 BREAD: 0

This week in the kitchen

Monday/20-May-13: Made some Whole-Wheat Soda Bread (Magic, p66) in the ABM this morning to see us through lunch and tomorrow's breakfast. Used milk and yogurt instead of buttermilk. Nice texture this has.

Went to start dinner and discovered I was an hour late, having misread the timing this morning. Oops! So, dinner from the freezer, some pork with green pepper sauce. Served over mashed potatoes with some haricots verts (that I'd cooked on top of the boiling potatoes) on the side. There's enough sauce left to serve with pasta for another quick meal in the next days.

Yogurt on overnight.

Tuesday/21-May-13: I've had my eye on High-Temperature Roast Leg of Lamb (CC1, p209) for a long time, just never got around to doing it. Turns out the same recipe is in Essential (p526; cookbooker) as High-Temperature Roast Lamb. With the cookbooker challenge for Essential going on, I decided to give this a try. Yum. Served with asparagus roasted under the grill and Clothilde Dussolier's Perfect Roast Potatoes, which were especially good tonight, I think because I tossed the half-cooked and shaken potatoes with the bit of oil after they were in the baking pan, rather than in the shaking pan. For dessert, there was Chocolate Rum Mousse (Essential, p814; cookbooker).

Wednesday/22-May-13: Grocery shopping today. Bought some panga to use for a half recipe Moroccan Spiced Fish (SimpSups, p157). Made half of the Moroccan Spice Mix (SimpSups, p239) to make the rub. Really easy, really tasty. Accompanied by a pilaf sort of thing and a half recipe of Carrot Salad (Couscous, p75); looks like the first time I've tried this recipe, it's easy and tasty. Finished off the Chocolate Rum Mousses for after.

Thursday/23-May-13: Today's big accomplishment was filing our French tax return. Online. Then I rushed to get the chicken for tomorrow night's dinner on to marinate before we went quizzing. Only to find that it wanted to sit 15 minutes rubbed with salt and lemon, before it was topped with the marinade. So it spent the quiz time, salted and lemoned, in the fridge, and I added the marinade on our return.

Friday/24-May-13: An IHCC dinner tonight, potluck with Whole Chicken Baked with an Almond and Onion Sauce (MJ@Home, p99; cookbooker), Yellow Basmati Rice with Sesame Seeds (MJ@Home, p208; cookbooker) and Sweet-and-Sour Eggplant (MJ@Home, p153; cookbooker). For afters there was a new cheese, Timanoix, a cat-sitting gift from a Trappist monastery in Brittany. A softish cow cheese that has been washed or soaked in walnut liqueur for a brown rind and nutty taste. Oops, there went our resolve to limit ourselves to a quarter of the cheese at a time!

Yogurt on overnight.

Saturday/25-May-13: Off to a quiz tonight. Baked another Rhubarb Crumb Cake to take to Barbara's for dinner. Otherwise nothing much happened in the kitchen.

Sunday/26-May-13: Put some Authentic French Bread in the ABM in time for breakfast this a.m. I guess I should really learn another ABM bread by heart so I have more of a repetoire.

Dinner was leftover lamb leg, plus more of Clothilde Dusolier's Perfect Roasted Potatoes and some roasted asparagus and broccoli. For afters, more of the Timanoix and then a slice of cake.

Started a half-batch of a King Arthur Flour no-knead bread so we have bread for tomorrow's lunch.

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

This week in the kitchen

Monday/6-Jun-11: Out at a quiz tonight. (We were a close second.) Nothing happening in the kitchen.

Tuesday/7-Jun-11: Dinner was Penne all'Arrabbiata (ClassPasta, p56); it wasn't penne, but it sure was good. Then a salad. Then the rest of the cherries and cream ice cream.

Wednesday/8-Jun-11: Really didn't feel like cooking tonight and had an itch for pizza, so we went to Montbron. We ordered two different ones and asked to have half tomato sauce on only half of each. The other half was creme fraiche. And, they put a roll of pizza dough down the center to divide the halfs. Very nice.

Thursday/9-Jun-11: Yogurt on overday. Our midday meal today was Pat's Orzo with Goat Cheese, Tomato, and Fresh Basil (soon to be MC). Ed's happy, having had orzo twice recently. This was very yummy and easy to make. Followed by a salad.

Friday/10-Jun-11: Shopping the morning. Impulse buy: While looking for ziplocs, I found some plastic sacks for freezing sticks of "popsicle." You pour your juice or whatever in the spout and six rods form. Into the freezer and then cut off the ones you want. (Yet to decide if these are actually easier than popsicle forms. It is nice that you can use the entire liter of juice in one go.) One liter of juice (red berries) made three six-packs like this:

For our midday meal, I made some rice and a half dose of Spicy Cajun Shrimp (MW@Home, p255). While this was cooking, I halved and scooped out a pair of globe zucchini, adding the chopped up insides to the shrimp. Used this to stuff the zukes and steamed them for a bit, then served them with the rest of the rice, topped with the rest of the sauce. Pretty good combination. And a salad.

Picked the chicken and made chicken stock. Started the preserved lemons (Couscous, p31) again.

Saturday/11-Jun-11: Out at a petanque competition during the day, thus late dinner. Conchiglie con Broccoli e Zafferano (Conchiglie with Broccoli and Saffron) (Lorenza, p88), an interesting combination of sweet and savory with currants and anchovies (after the fishy smell dissipates, only the savory taste remains). Good, but strange portions as seems to happen in this book. I used half the pasta (still too much, should have used only 6oz) with all the sauce and it looked rather like the picture in the book. Then the rest of the kulfi for dessert, so the freezer is ice-cream-free right now; I'll have to remedy this.

Sunday/12-Jun-11: Oops, didn't get any ice cream brew made today, so we'll be another day without our cold treat.

Dinner was a quickie: Tuna and White Bean Salad (CL, apr11). A good hot weather salad, if a bit under sauced; too bad it's not hot. (I spend the day shivering in long-sleeved tee-shirt, sweater, and polartec vest.)

Progress on goals
This week: #1 VEG/FISH: yes, #2 SOUP:no, #3 MIDDAY: yes
This month: #4 PASTA:no