This week in the kitchen

Monday/23-Feb-15: Was cleaning a cookbook shelf today and discovered another batch of bread (unsorted) bread recipes. Sigh.

Tonight's dinner was Chickpea, Chorizo, & Spinach Soup (web). A whole recipe made our dinner, plus enough for lunch in the next days. More of a stew than a soup. Good. Used frozen spinach. We finished of the walnut cake from the mills for dessert.

Tuesday/24-Feb-15: This was supposed to be pasta night, but I just didn't have the oomph to do it. Instead, I used crozets de savoie (which were the inspiration for the dish) for a half recipe of Buckwheat and Brussels Sprouts Open Ravioli (Dusoulier2, p166). It wasn't bad, but not anything to do again. Roasting is still the best way to do Brussels sprouts. Made a salad but put it in the fridge for tomorrow's lunch. For dessert I made up a couple of Banana Mousses (green book; MC). I absentmindedly whizzed the yogurt with the banana, so they were a bit runny, but still tasty, flavored with vanilla and kirsch.

Getting really tired of feeling so bad. Sigh.

Wednesday/25-Feb-15: Added our lunch ham and feta to last night's salad to make our lunch.

Sorted through my newly discovered batch of unsorted bread recipes. Some really old stuff there, including a list of places selling Soezie products in NL. Also found a nice list of food-related books. Like I need more. Merged the recipes into my previously sorted stacks. Separated the biggest pile into no-knead bread (probably some duplicates here, but what a stack!), bread-bread, and flavored breads. Have trouble with pizza, flatbreads, foccacia, and ciabattas. One stack or four? It's the lumper/splitter debate. Next I have to merge these into my notebook, which needs a good tidying up anyhow, and add the most interesting to a page in my spreadsheet. Not that I really mind kneading dough, but some of the no-knead recipes are really inspiring to get going with, especially one that makes enough for three loaves, but you keep the dough in the fridge.

Dinner out tonight, at the Acoustic Club at Les Tilleuls.

Thursday/26-Feb-15: We planned to go shopping today, but in the end decided to go tomorrow since we'll be in La Roche anyhow for dental checkups. Replan.

Dinner was (sort of) a half recipe of Creamy Fettuccine with Brussels Sprouts & Mushrooms (web). Having not much appreciated the sliced and sautéed sprouts on Tuesday, this time I roasted them, then halved them to add to the sautéed mushrooms. Used whole wheat spaghetti in lieu of making it myself. This wasn't bad at all. For dessert I made up some chocolate pudding using my mother's recipe. Topped with a bit of cream. Good stuff.

Friday/27-Feb-15: We ate lunch in La Roche today after dentist, before shopping. New place. Not bad. Fruit and carrots in the evening.

Too bad beans aren't whole grains.

Yogurt on overnight with a new starter.

Saturday/28-Feb-15: We ate lunch at 16.00, so dinner was really late. A halfish version of Broccolischotel met Koolvis (web). The fish was lieu noir (saithe?), which we like. Used cream cheese for the zuivelspread. Really easy to do, quite tasty, and easy to change up. As suggested, served with some boiled potatoes as a side dish. For dessert we finished off the chocolate pudding.

Sunday/1-Mar-15:  Dinner was a half recipe of Shrimp and Chilies with Sherry Sauce (TLWest, p43). Wasn't bad, but can't say it was a success. No sherry in house, so tried shaoxing wine. Couldn't get that to ignite properly. Tried white wine. Ditto. Ended up pouring that into the pan and cooking briefly to make a little sauce. Suspect the alcohol content of both these was too low. They would both ignite at the edge, but wouldn't flame as they ought. Too bad, the burnt taste might have been nice.

Served with steamed hand-gensneden snijbonen. (These are called haricot coco in French; not sure of the English name.) We shared a magnum classic for dessert, then went to a move.

Have done a preliminary sort through my stack of sweets recipes. Pondering a dilemma in how to sort. In the past, I've sort of vaguely had stacks for chocolate and for fruits and then the other stacks are cakes, pies&puddings, quick breads, muffins, etc. But where do you put a chocolate pudding? I think there are two things to sort by: flavor (chocolate, fruit, and "other" might be sufficient here) and form (cakes, pies&puddings, etc.). That means I need to have a second sorting within my big piles. I think I usually choose something because I'm wanting chocolate or fruit, so those might be the big piles. Back to the drawing board here.

Not doing all that well on goals, particularly unused cookbooks and grains.

Progress on goals
This week: #1 BACKLOG: yes; #2 UNUSED: no; #3 GRAINS: no; #4 VEG/FISH: 4
This month: #5 PASTA: no for February and March; #6 BREAD: no for February and March; #7 FotW: yes for February; no for March

This week in the kitchen

Monday/3-Nov-14: Yogurt on overday.

Dinner was Curried Leek Tart Tatin (Dusoulier2, p164; cookbooker), which was tasty and impressive. Unfortunatly I always forget how much wall clock time is needed for this kind of thing, so we ate fairly late. We started with a grated carrot salad, a classic French thing, which is (note to self) better when the carrots are grated on the box grater rather than the microplane). Then the tart. The tart was made with Yogurt Tart Dough (Dusoulier2, p199; cookbooker), which was quite tasty. Might be worth trying again for something else; there's also a buckwheat flour variation. Ed was so impressed with the tart, he thought it needed some photos. Here are the chunks of leek, browned on one end, topped with goat's cheese:

Tucking the pie crust around the leeks.

And turned out à la Tatin for serving.

Tuesday/4-Nov-14: An early main meal today since we're going out this evening. Using up some lamb shanks from the freezer, I made Roast Lamb Shanks and Lentils (TLAmer, p28; cookbooker). Served with Shredded Zucchini (MW@Home, p87), an old favorite.

Wednesday/5-Nov-14: Shopping today.

Dinner was a half recipe of Merluzzo Pasta Puttanesca (web). (I actually got this from EAT-L, but it was just a cut-and-paste job.) The pasta was good, an interesting variation on a puttanesca bianca sauce with the fish included. Too much red pepper flakes, this from folks who like it hot. Think regular anchovies would be better than anchovy paste. I used real olives, chopped, rather than tapenade. The rucola was a nice touch. Then a big salad. Then some store-bought tiramisús, following the Italianish theme.

Thursday/6-Nov-14: Yogurt on overday.

Comfort food for dinner, a nice Dutch stamppot met zuurkool en rookworst. Yum. Of course it's French sauerkraut and a French sausage, but the same effect. Then off to line dancing.

Friday/7-Nov-14: Dinner was a half recipe of Linguine with Shrimp and Porcini (30MinPasta, p99; cookbooker), a really nice pasta. Then a salad. That was all.

Saturday/8-Nov-14: Dinner was Tangy Stir-Fried Pork (MC), using up the rest of my kumquats. My varkenshaas (pork tenderloin) was huge, so there was lots of meat, but it was tasty. Served with rice and a broccoli-mushroom stirfry. Chocolate mini mags for dessert.

Sunday/9-Nov-14: Ed's choir gave a Remembrance Day concert this evening. We had pizza afterwards.

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

This week in the kitchen

Monday/21-Oct-13: Worked a bit on the menu plan today; there are just too many good things to cook and not enough time to make them all.

Made a Pear and Chestnut Cake (Dusoulier2, p143) during the day.

For dinner I grilled the ostrich sausges that we got at a marché des producteurs in the summer. Served with polenta and the leftover broccoli and kumquat salad. Then a big salad. Then some yummy pear cake.

Tuesday/22-Oct-13: Yogurt on overday.

Picked the meat of the remaining half roasted chicken and made (more or less) Vietnamese Chicken Sandwiches (CL jan/feb13; web); serve on some oval pitas. Pretty tasty. For dessert we split a Magnum classic.

Wednesday/23-Oct-13: Shopping day. Dinner was Fish and Broccoli Pie (web; cookbooker). Quite good it was. With a salad.

BTW, it's looking like cookbooker may die. Possibly it will be taken over by a user cooperative. Or not. Sad. We'll see.

Thursday/24-Oct-13: Dinner was Grilled Chicken with Lemongrass and Turmeric (MC; web). Served with Asian Cucumber Condiment (MC; MWLowFat, p367), some garlicky spicy broccoli, and rice. The chicken was good, as was the cuke dish, which I haven't made it quite a while. We split a Magnum classic for dessert.

Friday/25-Oct-13: Chicken Fried Rice (web; cookbooker) for dinner. Pretty good it was too. I essentially made a whole recipe with half the meat. We had some chocolate and almond squares for dessert.

Saturday/26-Oct-13: Yogurt on overday.

Tonight was a half recipe of Salmon Cakes with Old Bay Aioli (web*). Pretty good but more like hash than cakes—I just don't have the patty knack. For go-withs, there was a grated broccoli stem salad (with carrots, a bit of onion, chopped walnuts, and raisins) and a bit of pasta.

Hooray, it's fall-back night tonight!

* The recipe is actually from Family Circle, but you have to sign up to the site to see the recipe. Sorry, no.

Sunday/27-Oct-13: Twas time for the annual Old Folks dinner in Mazerolles today, aperitif, five courses, including an entremet. We're stuffed, and both have a headache. Did we drink too much wine perhaps? Or maybe it was the mix of pineau, white wine, red wine, calvados in the entremet (kiwi sorbet), and champagne. Early to bed with us tonight.

Vie Pratique Gourmand, the only French cooking mag I subscribe to, has been having a feature in each issue where they give you 20 or so ideas for things to do with a certain foodstuff. This week was cookies. Some possibly good, quickie desserts, including cakes made from cookies. Some weird ideas.

Been a chicken-y week, hasn't it?

Progress on goals
This week: #1 IHCC/COOKBOOKS: yes (although this is probably the last time Dusolier2 will qualify as seldom used), #2 VEG/FISH: 2
This month: #3 PASTA: yes, #4 BREAD: no

This week in the kitchen

Monday/14-Oct-13: Leftover night. Sliced the remaining pork roast and warmed it with the rest of the broccoli parmentier. For a starter we had a simple salad of mâche and rucola topped with a bit on goat cheese on toast. That's all.

Tuesday/15-Oct-13: Anniversary lunch out today. For dinner there was popcorn, carrot sticks, plums, and cherry tomatoes in front of an old movie.

Wednesday/16-Oct-13: Yogurt on overday.

Shopping today. Found a package of "homemade" croissants, like biscuits. Will try in the next days. The brand is good, but there are a lot of questionable ingredients for something that should be essentially flour and butter.

For dinner I grilled swordfish and served with Thomas's Green Sauce for Poached or Grilled Fish (MrLatte, p178). I liked this OK, but Ed not at all. Have tons of the sauce left. Maybe will freeze it up to use by the drab in salad dressing or some such. Accompanied by some trio rice and some Perfect Pan-Roasted Green Beans (HandyBook) and a little salad made of grated broccoli stems, suggested by Dusolier in a box on the Broccoli Parmentier page—grated (peeled) stems with raisins, sunflower seeds, and a yogurt dressing. Used walnuts instead of sunflower seeds. Successful salad. Two squares of hazelnut-filled chocolate for dessert.

Thursday/17-Oct-13: Finally got some pasta made for dinner. Tagliatelle, to go with Porcini-Style Shiitake Mushroom Pasta Sauce (MarCuc, p152). Tonight's mushrooms were oesterzwamen (or pleurotes or oyster mushrooms) with cremini. Nicer with porcini and shiitakes, but those aren't to be found. Strange that it's the season for cêpes, but they are not to be found in our grocery. As a starter  we had Smoked Salmon Salad with Dill (BEFCC, p35), a nice little salad, quick to make. Neither of us are fennel fans, but fennel and cucumbers are a good combination.

Friday/18-Oct-13: For dinner tonight, there was Tom's Brick Chicken (CastIron, p63). I've done this before; a nice way to cook a bird. I actually started out to make a half recipe of Twin Roasted Chickens with Garlicky Bulgur Dressing (GreeneGrains, p90), but decided I didn't want to stuff a bird. Instead I just made the stuffing on the side. Good it was. And, using up the kumquats I bought last week, there was Broccoli and Kumquat Salad with Olives (Uncommon, p271). We finished off by sharing a classic Magnum. The chocolate on these just isn't as good as it used to me. Too bad.

Saturday/19-Oct-13: Yogurt on overday.

An unexpected dinner tonight, since we originally planned on going to the Fête du Vin at St Sornin tonight, but decided against it. So, we had a more or less half recipe of Shocking Pink Pasta (Dusoulier2, p115). Shocking pink, it was, too, beets and cream. I took the lazy way and used the staff mixer, but probably should have used the blender, since it was the sauce was a bit grainy. This is one of those things I'm glad I tried, but maybe don't need to make again. Although, it might make a nice starter or side dish if you needed a bit of color or a talking point at dinner.

Followed by a salad, topped with some blue goat cheese. For afters, a bit of Morbier. Both bought today at the Marché du Goût at La Rochefoucauld.

I have used quite a few seldom used cookbooks this week, but I haven't done separate posts for them. Sorry, just seems like too much trouble.

Sunday/20-Oct-13: Lunch at 4pm meant we didn't get to dinner till really late. I didn't really plan anything for today, since I thought we'd be eating out. Wrong. So it was a last minute, what-can-I-do-to-use-up-stuff-in-the-fridge sort of meal. I more or less made Spicy Eggplant Stew with Potatoes, Mushroom, and Chickpeas (WorldVeg, p196). A really tasty recipe. We split a Magnum classic for dessert.

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

This week in the kitchen

Monday/7-Oct-13: Yogurt on overday. Boiled up and froze the chicken stock I started the other day.

Using up leftovers and odd bits, tonight we had Roasted Cauliflower, Chickpeas, and Olives (MC). Not enough cauliflower, so added some broccoli. I think this was meant to be a side dish, but I stir the stuff into pasta. Good tastes.

Tuesday/8-Oct-13: Reaching a cookbook crisis point here. Looking for a missing book (which I later found on a completely wrong shelf), I gathered most of the cookbooks scattered throughout the house and started putting them away. In at least two places I don't have room for the books I have. May have to break down and, yipes, give away some books. Sigh.

Dinner was Spicy Sesame Noodles (MC) with shrimp, an easy oldy, but goody. Then a salad.

Wednesday/9-Oct-13: Shopping today. More raw beets on sale, so I bought some again; usually there are only ready-cooked ones.

Dinner was Maple-Miso Dijon Salmon (web), which was pretty darn good. Served with trio rice and a side of broccoli-mushroom-shallot-garlic. Leclerc has a small section of food just short of its sell-by date, heavily discounted, so I bought a pair of charlottes with red fruit for €1. The picture on the package showed the charlottes heavily covered with fresh fruit. What there was was a small spoonful of jam-like stuff. Edible. Barely.

Yogurt on overnight.

Thursday/10-Oct-13: Dinner was Thai Chicken & Mango Stir-Fry (web). I had half the meat, but made all the sauce. This was fine, but a lot for two, although Ed doesn't mind eating more-or-less two servings, especially since the doctor said he was underweight. For dessert we had Easy Berry Cobbler (HandyBook), with blueberries and raspberries, and a dab of vanilla ice crea

Friday/11-Oct-13: Dinner was a halfish recipe of Ligurian-Style Pasta Sauce with Raw Tomatoes, Olives, Capers, and Anchovies (MarCuc, p134). Followed by a salad. And then the rest of the cobbler with ice cream. Oink.

Saturday/12-Oct-13: Continuing the Marcella Hazan theme, tonight's dinner was Roast Pork with Vinegar and Bay Leaves (ClassicItal, p419), using up a chunk of pork from the freezer. Served this with Baked Eggplant Slices (TooMany, p114), an easy favorite, and some especially nice fried potatoes. For the pots, I parboiled the potato chunks and drained them. Then finished off by frying them while I was finishing the rest of the meal. Stole the parboil idea from Dusoulier's Perfect Roasted Potatoes and the finishing by frying from Hazan's Pan-Roasted Diced Potatoes. Whatever works. We split a classic Magnum for dessert.

Sunday/13-Oct-13: Dinner was Broccoli Parmentier (Dusoulier2, p134; cookbooker), a tasty dish with brown rice and lentils on the bottom and puréed broccoli on the top. The two of us ate more than half.

For dessert we had two little pear tartelettes I got at the boulangerie this afternoon.

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

Peach, Almond, and Cardamom Clafoutis

The French Market Cookbook: Vegetarian Recipes from My Parisian Kitchen
Clotilde Dusoulier
Clarkson Potter (2013)
ISBN 9780307984821

Shortly after a friend remarked how surprising it is that there are many vegetarian French people considering how well they cook veggies, I got a notice of this book about to be published and knew I needed a copy. I've enjoyed Dusoulier's blog, Chocolate and Zucchini, as well as her first cookbook, for many years now.

This new book is arranged by season, making it easier to use what's in the market right now. When I came across this recipe for a claufoutis with peaches, I knew it was something I needed to make with the end of the summer bounty.

I first made this early in the month. It was very tasty but the recipe has a number of problems. My 8" square dish was very full of peaches. A clafoutis is typically not so dense with fruit. this mean that the dish was full almost to overflowing with the batter was added. In addition, my clafoutis baked for 50min (40min, the max time specified, plus an extra 10min) and was still runny in the center. It needs maybe 60-70min. I used the weights rather than the cup measures for the flours and sugar. 85g of almond flour (I used ground almonds, very common in the shops in France) was more like 1cup, rather than 2/3cup. (I didn't find it grainy at all.)

Like most clafoutis, this is fairly easy to assemble, especially if you have help to slice the fruit, and dirties only one bowl beyond the baking dish, so the clean-up staff is happy. I put the bowl on the scale and measured in the almond flour, all-purpose flour, sugar (less that asked), cornstarch, and cardamom (from a jar). Off the scale, I stirred in the eggs, then the almond milk. Then poured the batter over the fruit and put the pan in the oven. Feeling posh, we served it with a bit of vanilla ice cream.

Tonight, having some plums that were slightly under-ripe, I gave it another try. This time I used half the fruit, only about 500g (or 1#) rather than 1kg. Bingo, the claufoutis was not so dense with fruit and the dish was not overflowing. (Probably even less fruit could be used, so that the slices are only one layer deep.) I used only 80g of the sugar and added cow's milk rather than almond milk. I cooked it for 65min and it was perfectly done.

This is a nice recipe to have around when you have fruit needing to be used. Dusoulier says it's good for those peaches you get that never seem to want to ripen.

This post is shared with September's Cook Your Books.

This week in the kitchen

Monday/30-Sep-13: Yogurt on overday.

For dinner there was a half recipe of Indian-Spiced Eggplant & Cauliflower Stew (web) which #1 took ages to get done, much more than advertised time, and #2 was fairly boring taste-wise. Served with rice. For dessert, I used plums to make Dusoulier's Peach, Almond, and Cardamom Clafoutis (Dusoulier2, p93). I used only half the fruit asked, which was much nicer than before, everything fit in the pan, and cooked it much longer. Very tasty.

IHCC is moving on to Donna Hay for the next period. I don't really know her, but have heard good things. Nevertheless, I'm not going to participate. Instead I'll concentrate on posting for Cook Your Books, using some of my seldom-used cookbooks.

Have done really poorly on goals in the last couple of months. Hope I can get back on track in October.

Tuesday/1-Oct-13: We had our main meal at midday today in anticipation of going to a movie in the evening. It was a half recipe of Filet Mignon, Purée de Chou-fleur et Épinards (VPQ), that's a pork tenderloin (I think it is in English, varkenshaas in Dutch) with a purée of cauliflower and potato, with a dab on spinach on the side. Pretty good. The smashed cauliflower was pretty good, and served as a bed for the meat. The meat was glazed with a honey-soy sauce mixture that could have been a bit zingier. Then a salad with the first of our San Marzano tomatoes. And a bit of plum clafoutis.

After the movie (Blue Jasmine) we finished off the clafoutis.

Wednesday/2-Oct-13: Shopping today. Dinner was a half recipe of Grilled Swordfish with Artichokes, Tomatoes, and Olives (License, p170; cookbooker). There was no swordfish today, so it was shark instead. The fish is simply cooked, rubbed with olive oil, S&P'd, and grilled. The salady bit on the side is what makes this special. The artichoke is boiled, then grilled, and finally tossed with tomato (San Marzano from the garden), black olives, parsley, garlic, red pepper flakes, olive oil, and lemon juice. Served with orzo cooked in the artichoke boiling water. (Hmm...guess I should have taken a photo of this and done a post for my seldom used books. It was quite pretty on the plate, too.) For dessert we had half a classic Magnum. Since they don't want to carry the mini Magnum classics, we'll just cut it in half ourselves. (Mini classics were on sale recently at one grocery, but they had none in stock.)

Thursday/3-Oct-13: Yogurt on overday.

Roasted the beets that I bought yesterday. They don't usually have fresh beets, so I took advantage.

Dinner was Zucchini and Feta Gratin (MC). Yes, still working on zucchini backlog; thank goodness production seems to have shut down. I keep forgetting how good this is. Since I expect it would be good with any veg, I'm going to try this again before too long with broccoli. For a starter there was Cold Beetroot with Cream (Pomiane, p180).

Friday/4-Oct-13: Busy day today, my drawing group in the morning, and a haircut in the afternoon. The haircut doesn't sound like that much, but they've now moved 1.5hr from here; drive back was miserable in driving rain with Tomtom insisting that I needed to go cross-country rather than travelling on the highway. Grr... Between my two outings we had lunch out. For dinner there was popcorn, a plate of fruit, and the first episode of New Tricks season 9.

Saturday/5-Oct-13: Picked the chicken carcass today and made Creamy Chicken Noodle Soup (web) in the crockpot. Pretty good it was, too. Also made chicken stock, which I'll finish off tomorrow. Also made apple butter. Also made up ground roasted cumin for my Indian dishes.

Sunday/6-Oct-13: We had the rest of the Zucchini and Feta Gratin for dinner, preceded by one of our favorites, Lamb's Lettuce and Beetroot salad (BEFCC, p32). And some Afrikas for dessert.

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

This week in the kitchen

Monday/2-Sep-13: Computer order largely restored by the end of the day. Breathed a sigh of relief, then made the tart I didn't get to post for last week on IHCC, Ottolenghi's Caramelised Garlic Tart (web). Definitely a keeper. Ed ate half instead of a quarter. I see it's supposed to serve 8; that must be as a first course. Takes longer than advertised also. But not hard, and worth it. Served with a salad. For the dressing, I chopped up a seeded tomato and added to the leftover tzatziki. Good it was.

Laying of the floor was finished today! Still to be done are the baseboards, the join between the hard tiles and the cork tiles, and some other miscellaneous things. The sink and its counter will be installed on the 10th. Yay!

Tuesday/3-Sep-13: Looks like the next IHCC chef will be Donna Hay, whom I know next to nothing about. Have none of her cookbooks, none of them catch my eye, and I really don't need yet another cookbook anyhow. (Although, I do hope Santa will bring me one from Tessa Kiros, one of the early IHCC chefs.)

For dinner, I grilled some barely defrosted kip filets with vaguely Greek spices. And some steamed broccoli with garlic and a but if red pepper flakes steeped in olive oil. And some Lemon-Dill Orzo Pasta Salad with Cucumbers, Olives, & Feta (web). This salad was a hit; would be great at a picnic sort of thing.

Wednesday/4-Sep-13: Yogurt on overday. Shopping today.

Dinner with a halfish recipe of Scamp with Lemon-Zucchini Sauce (CL88, p122). Ok, I used cod instead of scamp. This was dredged in cornmeal paprika-spiked cornmeal and baked; good, but a bit of chili powder might be nice instead of, or in addition to, the paprika. The sauce, I read now, was supposed to be cooked, but I made it as a relish. And very good it was. A bit like tartar sauce with a really good flavor. Then some trio rice and some Perfect Roasted Green Beans (web), which is indeed a very good way to do green beans. Especially nice because they came from our own garden. Mini magnums for dessert.

Thursday/5-Sep-13: A forgettable crockpot dinner tonight, Balsamic Glazed Pork Tenderloins with Cherry Tomato Salad (web). I cut the sugar in half and it was still too sweet. So, sweet but boring. The same sauce for the pork was used as the dressing for the salad (tomatoes, red onion, parsley, basil). Ho hum.

Friday/6-Sep-13: Made some Authentic French Bread in the ABM, out of my head, and using one third whole wheat flour.

Dinner was Elsie's Zucchini Pancakes with Sour Cream Sauce (CastIron, p124; cookbooker). Using one big zucchini (with one cup for the freezer), I made a whole recipe with half the sour cream sauce. What was supposed to serve 6 (as side servings, I suppose) served 2 as a main. Very good zuke pancakes. I didn't heat the sauce, just let it sit at room temp. Very good it all was. Ed said I could make the again in a week. For dessert, there was Peach, Almond, and Cardamom Clafoutis (Dusoulier2, p93; cookbooker), with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, which was quite tasty although it didn't seem to get done enough even with ten extra minutes. Nevertheless it was very good and Ed had seconds.

Saturday/7-Sep-13: Yogurt on overday.

Defrosted the fridge again, since I seem not to have done it thoroughly last time. (I.e., if not completely done, water seems to end up  under the crisper instead of draining away. Moved it back into position, so things are closer to  normal in the kitchen now.

For dinner I defrosted the end of a turkey roll, cut it in slices and browned those, then made a bit of pan sauce with green peppercorns to go over it. And some sautéed zucchini (suprise!) and a slim slice of the caramelized garlic tart. Made a salad, but we didn't feel like eating it.

Sunday/8-Sep-13: Dinner was a halfish version of Creamy Butternut, Blue Cheese, and Walnut Cavatappi (web), a dish with possibilities. I forgot to buy a blue cheese last week, so went to our small local grocery this morning to get some. They had only roquefort, which both of us find a bit strong, and a bleu de Bresse, which turned out to be seriously wimpy. The winter squash we've got growing were, I though, supposed to have orange flesh, but they're kind of pale green, so the dish was not as colorful as it could have been. And we're out of eggs (none to be found at local grocery) so the sauce wasn't as rich as it should have been. The recipe calls for 8 oz cavatappi for four, which seems a bit light, so I used 6 oz for the two of us. Which was a bit much for the sauce. The walnuts were a good touch. Might do again with a proper cheese and a prettier squash. Also had a salad. And some double chocolate mini magnums for a dog walk.

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