This week in the kitchen

Monday/15-Feb-21: Dinner was a half dose of Sheet-Pan Chicken Thighs with Potatoes, Fennel, and Mustard-Beer Sauce (web). Good stuff. Ed declared it a 5* recipe. I didn't cook in a sheet-pan but in a cast iron skillet where everything fit. The skin was crispy. The sauce delicious. We saved the rest of the sauce for our lunch sandwiches. 

Then a salad. Some store-bought vanilla riz au laits for after. Should have made bread this afternoon, or at least started an Overnight Boule. but didn't feel like it.

Tuesday/16-Feb-21: We took three boxes of books to a charity shop today. Small reduction in the household supply of books. I keep on working at this. 

Dinner was late, Winter's Warmest Pork Loin (Desperation, p254). Served with polenta and steamed broccoli. Not realizing how little time the cook had for other activities while cooking the pork, I started the broccoli too late, so the meat cooked at bit to long. This was an interesting idea, but neither of us were excited by it. Some mini ice cream cups for after. 

Started an Overnight Boule with Rye.

Wednesday/17-Feb-21: Baked the Overnight Boule with Rye. It's good.

For dinner, I made a fish pie, loosely following this recipe, but using small shrimp, small scallops, some squid rings, and some smoked trout for the fishy bits in the filling. Instead of puff pastry for the topping, I used wadded up disks of brik/brick/brique. It was pretty good, if a bit salty from the trout. A salad after. Then some bits of St. Nectaire.

Thursday/18-Feb-21: Picked up groceries from Intermarché, so it was fish-for-dinner.

We had Spicy Salmon and Couscous Bowls (web), that's with Israeli couscous and turnips. Pretty good stuff. Served with a simple Thai-ish salad, loosely based on Cucumber Salad—Yaam Taeng Kwa (Delightful, p51). This recipe calls for way too much sugar; I wonder if they wrote tablespoon when they meant teaspoon? It was pretty good as I made it. 

Friday/19-Feb-21: Dinner was Risotto with Sausages (ClassItal, p257). (This is for the rice theme on Cooking Marcella Hazan, a Facebook group that's trying to revive itself.) Rather than pork sausages, I used some andouillettes de canard from the freezer (impulse buy), and thus, used chicken stock rather than beef stock. 

Followed by a big salad. No dessert needed. 

Saturday/20-Feb-21: The bread machine made a loaf today after Ed first the gear in the pan again. There was Light Rye (Electric, p64) (Basic/Rapid/M/d/-). Skipped the caraway seeds, but added 1tbl of gluten; 2tbl+1tsp of sucre de canne. Good stuff.

Dinner was Bangkok Shrimp* (web). The recipe is really Bangkok Beef; I use shrimp instead, adding the (cooked, almost unfrozen) shrimp when the veggies were done. Some some store-bought vanilla riz au laits for later.

Sunday/21-Feb-21: Dinner was a halfish recipe of Marinated Lamb Chops (web; CL/apr11). This was easy and good. Served with Eggplant with Pomegranate Sauce (EastMed, p155), sort of. I cut my eggplant ovals into long half-ellipses. Sprayed with olive oil and broiled rather than baking. And some potatoes: I peeled and chunked them, then boiled almost done; drained well; shook in the sieve, then finished in butter and olive oil. Pretty good they were. Some Angel Kisses (cream and crème de cacao) for after.

Overnight Boule with Rye on overnight.

Progress on goals
This week: #1 VEG/FISH: 3; #2 PHOTO: yes; #3 *DMA: yes
This month: #4 GUESTS: n/a
This year: #5 BACKLOG1: yes; #6 BACKLOG2: yes; #7 RECYCLE: 9; #8 NEW: 2

This week in the kitchen

Monday/7-Oct-19: My French teacher gave me some figs this afternoon and I had a bit of goat cheese left in the fridge, so our entrée was figs stuffed with goat cheese, drizzled a bit of honey, sprinkled with walnuts, and run under the broiler.

Dinner was halfish dose of One Skillet Chicken with Garlicky Mushroom Sauce (web), done with skinless, boneless thighs. Good stuff. Served over mushroom-flavored pasta, with haricots verts on the side. Some chocolate-covered corn flake things for dessert.

Tuesday/8-Oct-19: Canned tamales and home-made guacamole for dinner. That was all. It was good.

Wednesday/9-Oct-19: Busy day with vet visit and haircut. Planned an easy dinner, Smoked Trout & Pea Pasta (web) with a salad. Fusilli wasn't really the best pasta choice, but it was okay. The sauce was pretty tasty. Some crumbs of chocolate-covered cornflakes for after.

Yogurt on overnight.

Thursday/10-Oct-19: Shopping today.

Dinner was was Lemon-Steamed Fillets (Desperation, p278) with eglefin/haddock. This was ok, but nothing special. Served with trio rice and steamed broccoli. Some store-bought riz au laits for dessert.

Friday/11-Oct-19: Dinner was a halfish dose of Cauliflower and Chickpea Curry (web), served over brown rice. Okay stuff, if not fantastic. Some ice cream for after.

Saturday/12-Oct-19: Our neighbors from Bordeaux were married in Mazerolles today. They had a little get-together in the afternoon.

We had Risotto with Tomato and Eggplant (WorldVeg, p408). This was surprisingly (to me) yummy. The two of us ate all of what should have served 3-4. I might serve 3 with a salad, which I skipped because it was already full of veg. We split an out-of-date chocolate bunny that I found recently. Later we had some bits of P'tit Basque, a sheep cheese we discovered on our Toulouse vacation. Yum.

Sunday/13-Oct-19: Lunch out today. Nothing much happened in the kitchen. In the evening we finished off the bottle of wine we brought home from lunch along with the P'tit Basque cheese. Nice.

Progress on goals
This week: #1 BACKLOG: no; #2 VEG/FISH: 4; #3 COOKBOOK: n/a
Cookbooks of the month: none
This month: #4 PASTA: no; #5 BREAD: no; #6 GUESTS: no
This year: #7 PROJECT: no

This week in the kitchen

Monday/26-Aug-19: Dinner was Steak au Poivre (How2Eat, p153). My steaks were too thin, but it was still quite good. Some long-grain brown rice for a side. And some steamed broccoli with a sauce of sautéed garlic and shiitakes. Some St Felicien for after. Then some chocolate squares.

Tuesday/27-Aug-19: Dinner out with Patrice&Wim tonight. Nothing happened in the kitchen.

Wednesday/28-Aug-19: Off for a haircut today. Simple dinner of little Drôme raviolis with cilantro pesto from the freezer, followed by a salad with lots of home-grown tomatoes, followed by the last of the St Felicien, followed by some chocolate-covered madeleines.

Yogurt on overnight.

Thursday/29-Aug-19: Shopping today.

Dinner was Fish in a Boat, Asian Style (Desperation, p304), which was okay but nothing special. And some basmati rice sprinkled with a Japanese flavor topping that James sent us; we both thought this was unpleasantly sweet. And some Garlicky Green Beans (Desperation, p18), which were pretty good. Some store-bought cheesecake for dessert. (Too bad, we're going to have to finish this tomorrow.)

Friday/30-Aug-19: Dinner was Boudin Noir aux Pommes (web). This was pretty good stuff. Served with Spaetlze (from MW@Home). Then a big salad with lots of tomatoes from the potager. Then the rest of the store-bought cheesecake.

Yogurt on overnight.

Saturday/31-Aug-19: Dinner out this evening. Nothing happened in the kitchen.

Sunday/1-Sep-19: Deseeded, cooked, and buzzed a bunch of tomatoes this afternoon. Froze up 3 1-cup jars.

Dinner was Revoltillo—Scrambled Eggs with Tomatoes and Peas (TLCarib, p71). This was okay, but maybe not the best of these scrambled egg dishes. Then a salad. Then some chaource. Then some chocolate-covered corn flakes. We're full.

Progress on goals
This week: #1 BACKLOG: no; #2 VEG/FISH: 3; #3 COOKBOOK: yes
Cookbooks of the month: How to Eat for August, none for September
This month: #4 PASTA: no for August, no for September; #5 BREAD: no for August, no for September; #6 GUESTS: yes for August, no for September
This year: #7 PROJECT: no

This week in the kitchen

Monday/11-Sep-17: Froze up four 1-cups of tomato purée.

Dinner was Pork with Mango Ginger Sauce Topped with Curried Phyllo (PotPies, p104; cookbooker). Think this is the first thing I've made from the book. Quite good it was. Served with steamed broccoli with a squirt of lemon juice.

Tuesday/12-Sep-17: Earlyish meal today. Used up yesterday's phyllo with Spanikopita in Pastry Cups (Desperation, p206; cookbooker). This was good, although we had enough for three, so we're a bit stuffed. Then a bit of a salad.

Wednesday/13-Sep-17: Shopping today.

Dinner was a half recipe of Thai Salmon and Bean Curry (web), served over rice. Yummy, although it might be better to put the green beans in for a minute or so before the salmon chunks since they were still a bit crunchy. Store-bought riz au lait for dessert.

Thursday/14-Sep-17: Yogurt on overday because I was too lazy to make it last night.

Picked the rest of the chicken. Used most of the meat for Mu Shu Chicken Lettuce Wraps (web; CL jan/feb14). Made the whole recipe for 4 and of us ate it all, although Ed did more than his share. Quite good, this was. The suggest go-with dessert was Poached Fruit over Vanilla Frozen Yogurt (web; CL jan/feb14). No frozen yogurt sold here that I've seen, and I didn't have enough yogurt to make this, so it was plain vanilla ice cream. Still good.

Friday/15-Sep-17: Lunch out today, nothing happened in the kitchen.

Yogurt on overnight.

Saturday/16-Sep-17: Finally had our felafel dinner today. Store-bought falafels and store-bought pitas/kebab breads, with lettuce and sliced tomatoes. Served with Tahini Dipping Sauce (WofE, p359), which was a bit odd; it was the bottom of the tahini jar and pretty stiff. Also Cacik/Cucumber and Yogurt Salad (Roden, p64); I made about a half recipe of this with a quarter of the yogurt and it was still a bit soupy. Discovered my stash of garlic was all bad, so had to use garlic powder for everything. Not really a satisfactory substitute. All in all it was a tasty meal in spite of problems. For dessert there was Whole Egg Almond Milk Custard (web), trying to use up the almond milk I bought for something else. I kind of liked this, Ed not.

Sunday/17-Sep-17: Early meal today of Mustard Chops (Diaries, p129). The chops didn't get to marinate the hour that he asked, but they were still quite good. Served with spinach, as suggested, and the little square French pasta of buckwheat, whose name I've forgotten right now.

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

This week in the kitchen

Monday/10-Apr-17: Back from Bordeaux this afternoon, collecting Pogo and the cats along the way. Dinner from the freezer, a beef stew we didn't much like the first time and it didn't improve in the freezer. Made a salad, but we didn't eat it. Tomorrow's lunch perhaps.

Yogurt on overnight.

Tuesday/11-Apr-17: Oops, the salad has to wait another day. Our lunch was Vaguely Vietnamese Slow Cooker Pork Tacos (web) from the freezer. Again, made the Vaguely Vietnamese Carrot-Cabbage Slaw as a go-with. Next time should do all the shredding with the cuisinart. All good stuff, though, and we're full.

Wednesday/12-Apr-17: Shopping today.

Dinner was Mahi Mahi with Curry-Yogurt Mayonnaise (Desperation, p283; cookbooker), with tuna instead of mahi mahi. Served with roasted asparagus, trio rice, and the salad we didn't eat on Monday. For dessert, some store-bought suisse pastries.

Thursday/13-Apr-17: Defrosted a varkenshaas (aka filet mignon du porc or pork tenderloin), marinated it in some defrosted charmoula sauce. Also used that to flavor some slices of eggplant. Grilled on on the bbq. Served with a half dose of Mambo Rice (web), which was pretty darn good, and a made-up salad of avocado, tomato, cilantro, and lime juice. All was good. We're full. (And I drank too much wine. I won't tell if you don't.)

Yogurt on overnight.

Friday/14-Apr-17: We went to Angoulême to do some errands today. Both had omelets for lunch. Then we didn't feel like dinner, so I'm off plan for the week now. Harvested the first rhubarb of the season and made Rhubarb Upside-Down Cake (MC), pretty good stuff.

Saturday/15-Apr-17: Plans changed today. I ended up not cooking and we had a pizza after a movie. Serious replanning needed for the next days.

Sunday/16-Apr-17: Early dinner was Gramigne con Verza e Salsiccia—Cabbage and Sausage (Geometry, p135; cookbooker). Never heard of gramigne before, but found the exact thing labeled "short spaghetti" at the grocery. The whole dish was yummy. Followed by a salad. and the last of the Rhubarb Upside-Down Cake.

Yogurt on overnight. Chicken on to marinate for tomorrow's early meal.

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

This week in the kitchen

Monday/14-Nov-16: Dinner was One-Pot Chicken with Orzo and Dill (web). (That isn't the recipe I followed, which was sized for two, but it's the same one sized for one; I can't find the one I used and no URL on the printout.) Instead of using skinless, boneless chicken thighs, I used a 200g packet of chicken "oysters" that I bought last week. It was good, and so easy. Then a salad. Some chocolate squares for after.

Tuesday/15-Nov-16: Lunch out for Ed's birthday today; nothing happened in the kitchen. After lunch we did a bunch of errands. Stopped by Audilab to have my malfunctioning hearing aid fixed. Went by the jeweler to pick up Ed's ring; the guy had fixed the break but reassembled the pieces incorrectly so it couldn't be put together. Did our grocery shopping. Stopped by the vet to pick up worming pills for the cats. Stopped by the butcher's to order our Thanksgiving turkey. Whew. Put all the groceries up.

Wednesday/16-Nov-16: Thought about thanksgiving meal today. Think it's mostly going to be a boring same-old. same-old menu.

Make Cranberry-Port Relish (MC) and Kaye's Pickled Green Beans (MC) for the day.

Dinner was Feta and Herb Crusted Salmon (web), which turned out to be really easy and tasty. Accompanied by some buckwheat crozets and Simple Oven-Rosated Corn on the Cob (web). Turned out to be a pretty good way to cook corn on the cob.

Thursday/17-Nov-16: Defrosted the big freezer today. Found a missing chicken, and found lots of things I'd neglected to mark off the freezer list. And then OpenOffice got in one of its "moods" and refused to save the file. Grr... This is a problem that's been on-going in multiple versions for more than five years and it's still not fixed. Major pain. Maybe it's time to invest in Microsoft Office???

Dinner was Greek Pasta (Desperation, p162; cookbooker). The recipe says it serves four, maybe as a side; two of us ate more-or-less the whole thing. Good stuff. That was all.

Friday/18-Nov-16: Dinner was, sort of, Beef Kofta (web). Didn't have any Penzey's Turkish Seasoning, so google and I made something up. Good, although the cooking time was a bit off. It said 15-20 minutes under the grill; after 15 minutes, the tops with closer to charcoal than we like. Served with some pita breads and a little sauce made of yogurt, minced garlic, and salt; also Herby Cucumber Salad (CL/jun12; web). Pretty good salad. No dessert needed.

Saturday/19-Nov-16: More cleaning today. And flu shot. Roasted the beet I bought on Tuesday.

Dinner was some pumpkin soup from the freezer.

Sunday/20-Nov-16: Ed went to a mens' only choir practice today, then I picked Bill up at the train station. Came home and started Nigel Slater's Slow-Roast Lamb (Diaries, p62); such a nice, easy recipe. Went off to pick Ed up and have a cup of tea at Cath and Doug's. As go-withs, we had Clothilde Dusoulier's Perfect Roasted Potatoes (web, although this is new and I've been using this recipe for years), which we really good, and used the beet I roasted yesterday to make Cold Beetroot with Cream (Pomiane, p180), always good. For dessert we had some chocolate-raspberry tarts from the boulanger; the filling was yummy, the pastry less so.

Progress on goals
This week: #1 BACKLOG: no; #2 VEG/FISH: 3
This month: #3 PASTA: no; #4 BREAD: no; #5 FotW: yes for October/November, no for November/December

Cookbook Countdown: Tuxedo Chicken

Tonight we had Tuxedo Chicken (p152), another one-dish main from Desperation Dinners. We had a little salad afterwards, but that wasn't really necessary.

This is a satisfying pasta dish, very similar to what I might make for a "brainless dinner." Melt some butter in a skillet and add some chopped onion. When the onion bits are a bit soft, add some skinless, boneless chicken breast halves that have been cut into strips. Stir these until they're no longer pink. Meanwhile cook the broccoli. The authors suggest microwaving; I cooked it in the pasta water. Remove the chicken from the pan. Stir in some sour cream (low-fat, not) into the pan*, then add some grainy mustard, Worcestershire sauce, and garlic powder. (I used the Worcestershire sauce that was called White Wine Worcestershire when it first came out. Since the idea of wine seemed to offend many Americans, it's was relabelled as Chicken Worcestershire, or something like that. Same ingredients. It has a less assertive taste that the original sauce.) When the sauce begins to get a bit thick, stir in the chicken and broccoli. Meanwhile, boil up some pasta. (The authors suggest farfalle (bowties); I used malfalda corta, which I think looks like mini-lasagnas if your image of lasagna noodles includes curly edges.) Serve the pasta topped with the sauce. Enjoy.

*I now see that I was supposed to add some half-and-half too. We didn't miss this at all. There was plenty of sauce.

This wasn't a fantastic dish, but satisfying. If I were to do it again, I'd use some soft goat cheese instead of the sour cream. We've really come to like Chavroux (known to us as pyramid cheese because of the box it comes in) in dishes like this. Or on scrambled eggs. And other things.

Note: This recipe has a Time-Saver side-bar which suggests that when you're boiling a large quantity of water, you can put some in your big pot and the rest in another pot. When they're both at the boiling, carefully pour the contents of the smaller pot into the big one. Maybe saves a bit of time, but it seems like too much trouble.

Well, after using this book quite a bit, I'm beginning to think it may be going onto the recycle stack. I love the name, and enjoy the writing style and presentation, but the recipes are pretty ordinary as a whole. And, for me, there is too much reliance on prepared things like already sliced veggies that I don't have access to and probably wouldn't use if I did. There are a few good recipes here, e.g., Bob's Famous Fish (p279) (and this one, perhaps, with a bit of tweaking), but for the most part there's nothing that special here. If it stays on the shelf, it will be for affection rather than utility.

Stop by Cookbook Countdown to see what other folks are making from their October cookbook. If you've got books on your shelf wanting to be used, why don't you choose one and join in?

Cookbook Countdown: Harvest Pork Chops

We're back from our visit to the Netherlands and I'll finish out the month with more from Desperation Dinners. Tonight there was Harvest Pork Chops (p70), a one-dish skillet dinner.

This dish is fairly quick to make, but you are pretty busy the whole time. You start by making rice with diluted chicken stock as the liquid. I used regular white rice rather than "instant". (Not sure what you gain by using instant here.) While that's happening, you melt some butter in a skillet and add some thick half-moon slices of onion. When those are starting to soften, you add (boneless) pork chops and brown them on one side. (The boneless chops I found were really half-chops, so we had two bits each.) Meanwhile, you slice up a cored apple and mix more chicken stock with apple juice, white wine, or water (I used the wine), brown sugar, mustard, and cider vinegar. These are added to the skillet with some cabbage coleslaw mix. (That not being available, I sliced up an equivalent amount of Chinese cabbage.) This mixture cooks, covered, until the pork chops are more or less done. Then some cornstarch and water is added to thicken the sauce. It was all very tasty, but a bit of your basic beige dinner. A proper coleslaw mix might have had more eye appeal.

Stop by Cookbook Countdown to see what other folks are making from their October cookbook. If you've got books on your shelf wanting to be used, why don't you choose one and join in?

Cookbook Countdown: Pasta with Salmon Cream

Tonight there was Pasta with Salmon Cream (p163) from Desperation Dinners. Nothing too special, but kind of your basic creamy pasta dish. Quite tasty and easy to assemble.

I used fettuccine as instructed, but I expect penne or cascarelli would be just as good. You start by sautéing a finely chopped onion. When that's soft, add some frozen green peas (optional, but I prefer them), grated Parmesan, half-and-half, frozen lemon juice concentrate (I used juice straight from the lemon), minced garlic (mine was freshly chopped rather than from a jar), crushed red pepper, and dill leaves. Cook gently till the sauce thickens. With planning your fettuccine will be ready and you can stir in the smoked salmon and some yogurt or sour cream (I used crème fraîche). I didn't cook the salmon at all, but stirred the sauce, salmon, and crème fraîche into the just-drained pasta. Very tasty. A nice dinner with a salad.

Stop by Cookbook Countdown to see what other folks are making from their October cookbook. If you've got books on your shelf wanting to be used, why don't you choose one and join in?

Cookbook Countdown: Flake Baked Chicken

More crushed corn flakes from Desperation Dinners tonight with Flake Baked Chicken (p266).  And this is where the flattened chicken that I did a couple of nights ago came from. Oh well.

Flatten the chicken by putting in between waxed paper and beating it with a rolling pin. Put it on a baking sheet and coat the top with mayonnaise. Make a topping of crushed (corn or wheat) flakes, garlic powder, onion powder, salt, and pepper. Bake at 475F for 15 minutes until the crumbs are brown.

I decided to do this under the broiler, which was a bad decision. The crumbs were black within 10 minutes, so I scraped them off and let the chicken cook a bit longer.

In the oven, rather than in the broiler, this is another pretty good way to do chicken. The mayo adds a nice moisture without adding much taste. (We're not big mayo people here.) The corn flakes add some crunch. You could add your favorite spice to give the topping a bit more character. 

Stop by Cookbook Countdown to see what other folks are making from their October cookbook. If you've got books on your shelf wanting to be used, why don't you choose one and join in?

Cookbook Countdown: Golden Fried Fillets and Orzo with Mushrooms and Sun-Dired Tomatoes

Tonight's Desperation Dinner was Golden Fried Fillets (p275) served with Orzo with Mushrooms and Sun-Dried Tomatoes (p323).

Lieu noir (saithe or pollack) was on special today, so that was the fish-of-the-day. In this recipe, the fish is coated with crushed cereal flakes (I used corn flakes) mixed with flour and Old Bay seasoning, then sautéed in butter. (I used a mixture of butter and olive oil. We found it a bit bland, maybe because my Old Bay is ancient. This dish was okay, but would be better with a zingier flavoring, like the cajun mixture from my previous Desperation Dinner.

The orzo was quite good. My husband has a "thing" for orzo, so I'm always looking for a new way to serve it. This recipe asked for already-sliced mushrooms and sun-dried tomatoes to be microwaved in a bit of water before stirring into the drained orzo with some Parmesan. I sliced my own mushrooms (pleurotes, oesterzwammen, oyster mushrooms) and used oven-dried tomatoes from the freezer. No microwave, so I sautéed them briefly in a bit of olive oil. I put some extra Parmesan on top

Stop by Cookbook Countdown to see what other folks are making from their October cookbook. If you've got books on your shelf wanting to be used, why don't you choose one and join in?

Cookbook Countdown: Smokin' Cajun Chicken

Tonight's Desperation Dinner was Smokin' Cajun Chicken (p264). If you've already made up the Super Seasoning Mix, this is a meal that goes together lickety-split. Even if you haven't, it's still quick.

The spice mix is paprika (I used smoked paprika), garlic powder, onion powder, thyme, black pepper, cayenne, basil, and oregano. Once the mix is made, you put it into a ziploc bag and then add the skinless, boneless chicken breasts halves (much easier in Dutch, kip filets). Or, as I did, you put the mixture onto a shallow plate and press the kip filets into the mixture. Mis-remembering the recipe, I also flattened my kip filets by putting them between waxed paper and whapping them with a rolling pin before coating with the spice mixture. The chicken is then quickly cooked in butter, several minutes on each side, until done. I made a quick pan sauce by deglazing the pan with some chicken stock (sh! it was from a cube) and adding a dab more butter.

This is actually kind of a kind of a standard fast dinner here. Flatten some kip filets, spice them up as you want, and sauté quickly till done. The pan sauce is a nice finishing gesture.

Since I was cooking only half the number of kip filets, I made only half the spice mixture. Actually it would be worthwhile making double the amount shown, so you have this available for another quick and tasty meal.

Stop by Cookbook Countdown to see what other folks are making from their October cookbook. If you've got books on your shelf wanting to be used, why don't you choose one and join in?

Cookbook Countdown: Garlic-Roasted Salmon

This is kind of a pause month for my Time-Life Foods of the World project, so I needed to choose another book for October. Given that this month has little time and attention for serious cooking, I thought I might exercise one of my "quick dinner" books. I decided I really didn't need to keep around the first book I looked at—I copied one recipe and have put the book in the recycle box. A second book still leaves me a bit iffy; I'll have a closer look at this one before long, when I might copy more than one recipe before recycling it. I ended up choosing Desperation Dinners, by Beverly Mills and Alica Ross.

I've actually cooked just a bit from this book in the past and have a couple of favorites. But beyond those, I've hardly turned a page. It suits this month to concentrate on fast and easy dishes.

It was shopping day today, so we had fresh fish. Tonight it was Garlic-RoastedSalmon (p282). This is, as promised, really simple and really fast. Your bits of fish are topped with minced garlic and bottled minced ginger. Rather than mincing or using from a jar, I used my microplane to grate both garlic and ginger. I sprayed my fish with olive oil, then mixed the garlic and ginger together and spread the mixture on the fish. The recipe asks to cook the fish in a 500F oven, but my no-longer-so-new stove has a separate (gas) broiler and I used that instead. This dish could hardly be simpler and was very yummy.

Stop by Cookbook Countdown to see what other folks are making from their October cookbook. If you've got books on your shelf wanting to be used, why don't you choose one and join in?

This week in the kitchen

Monday/14-Mar-11: Ok, it's π day. So we had pie, not sweet, but lamb pot pies made with stuff from the freezer. Pâte brisée, some cooked lamb from the Indian leg of lamb, some Cajun-flavored lamb-cooking juice left from lamb shanks, peas, and carrots (not from the freezer). Not a traditional pot pie, but a pot pie none-the-less. And not served at 1:59 or 15:92, but you can't have everything.

I couldn't eat all mine; the leftovers will show up as a starter before long. A dab of bread pudding for dessert.

Tuesday/15-Mar-11: The intention was to have an early meal today, but things kept getting later, so we ended up eating when I need to be getting read to go to line dancing class. Well, it was good. Oven-Roasted Cumin Shrimp With Mango And Avocado Salsa (MC 2BTried, collected somewhere on web). The treatment of the shrimp in this recipe was very unusual (to me). After removing the head, you take off the feet, then peel back the shell, leaving it attached at the tail end. Salt and pepper the shrimp, rub with a marinade of olive oil, red pepper flakes, and ground cumin, then replace the shell and roast them very hot for 4 minutes a side (or less). Quite tasty. The recipe serves four. I made a half recipe of the shrimp and all of the salsa, served with rice; we ate it all. The first time I've used frozen mango slices—very nice they are. Something to keep in the freezer I think. When I got back from line dancing, we finished off the bread pudding.

Wednesday/16-Mar-11: Pizza tonight. Leeks and bacon (lardons) with goat cheese and some oven-roasted tomatoes. Good.

Thursday/17-Mar-11: Leftover night. Had the rest of the lamb pot pie, with the cauliflower potato stuff, and some rice, and some salmon from the freezer rubbed with Indian spices and baked.

Friday/18-Mar-11: Shopped today. Dinner was Cooking Italy's Veal Stew with Sage, White Wine, and Cream (ClassicItal, p377). Served with a big salad. For dessert we had "roses", a favorite treats that's occasionally available at the grocery. For the longest time I thought these were toasted oatmeal coated with dark chocolate, but recently discovered they were corn flakes! Yum.

Hmm, I didn't do much of a meal plan for this week, but I can't say that I've stuck to it much at all.

Yogurt on overnight.

Saturday/19-Mar-11: Didn't feel much like cooking tonight, but had a chunk of cod I bought yesterday than need to be used. It became Bob's Famous Fish (Desperation, p279), accompanied by polenta and some roasted asparagus. Followed by half a petit Camembert and then two roses.

Sunday/20-Mar-11: Tonight I made lemon-pepper linguine for Lemon Pepper Linguine with Artichoke Hearts (MC). It's a recipe I've made before, including the fresh pasta (the recipe calls for store-bought fresh pasta), and followed it not as closely. I used artichoke bottoms rather than hearts and added some strips of roasted red bell pepper (from a jar) for color; both worked fine. For the pasta, I used some Tipo 00 flour that had been languishing on the shelf since I brought it back from NL last fall. And I must stay it was about the best textured pasta I've ever made. I hope I can find this stuff around here. Or maybe the place where I mail-ordered the marsala will have it. Anyhow, worth seeking out. I grated in the zest of a lemon and ground in lots of black pepper for the flavoring. (When I first started making fresh pasta, I used semolina flour, but this turned out quite difficult to use. I've read several places now that it's what factories use, but at home you should use Tipo 00 or all-purpose flour. All-purpose works fine, but Tipo 00 works better!) The pasta dish followed by a salad, followed by the rest of the petit Camembert, and then two roses.

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