This week in the kitchen

Monday/29-Apr-19: Today I listed all my kitchen projects that I could find and divided them into "quickies" that can be done in just a day or so, and "longies" that take some time to finish. One quickie, on the plan, is to make a galette des rois for next Kings' Day. That one starts with finding a nice fêve at a vide grenier this summer (rather than using one I already have). Have two longies in the mill for when the time is right, so maybe one of those will get done. Wondering if my goal should just be one of the longies?

Dinner was Four-Layer Polenta Casserole (Dreaded, p107), the layers being polenta; baked eggplant slices; a mixture of onions, garlic, oven-dried tomatoes, spinach, and herbs; and a final layer of polenta. Sprinkled some parmesan on top for the baking. Pretty good, especially with some tabasco.

For dessert, I used up some frozen cherries to make a kind of cherry crisp thing. It was pretty good, although my oatmeal is getting stale. Think I'll toss the rest of it.

Tuesday/30-Apr-19: Make some Spice-Rubbed Pork Loin, a recipe copied from a recycled cookbook. Delicious. Having a problem cooking it, though. After the appointed time, it wasn't done. But the meat thermometer said that it was more than done. A puzzle. I made half the rub, and used only about a third of it. Will freeze the rest. Good on pork, and probably on chicken or maybe even fish. Served with mushroom-flavored pasta tossed with garlic butter and chopped parsley. And steamed broccoli with shiitakes. No dessert needed.

Wednesday/1-May-19: Froze up gaboons of chicken stock this afternoon.

Dinner was a halfish dose of East-West Eggplant (BoldVeg, p136), except that I used all my eggplant on Monday, so I used zucchini instead. And good it was. Over brown rice. Mini ice creams for dessert.

Thursday/2-May-19: Shopping today.

Dinner was some lovely tuna steaks with charmoula marinade, barbecued, from the freezer. Served with polenta, Buttered Beet and Carrot Sauté (web), and Cucumber and Napa Cabbage Coleslaw (web). Both the salads were good. I didn't really measure anything for the coleslaw, just approximated. Ed thought it was too sour; I thought it was good. Some store-bought semoule au lait for dessert.

Friday/3-May-19: Off to Bordeaux today on a useless errand. (Ordered computer had been returned.) Our intended light lunch was more than expected so we didn't have the leftover quiche tonight. That moves to tomorrow. Tomorrow's planned meal moves to next week.

Yogurt on overnight.

Saturday/4-May-19: Made One Perfect Loaf (recipe; web), a Romertopf bread from a book that I don't yet have. (It's on order.) Used up some T80 flour (stone-ground? partly whole wheat) which was two months out of date. Smelled okay, but the bread doesn't taste as wonderful as you'd expect. Nice texture though.

For our meal we had the rest of the butternut squash quiche, followed by a big salad.

Sunday/5-May-19: Used three quail from the freezer to make a half recipe of Roast Quail with Raisins (Quaglie Arrosti) (ClayCook1, p30). This was ok. Only some of the potatoes were done after an hour in the oven Not bad, don't need to make again. Served with some steamed green beans. Mini ice cream bars for dessert.

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