This week in the kitchen

Monday/16-Aug-21: Dinner was Creamy Blueberry Chicken Salad (web; CL/aug14). I used chicken from the last roast that I did (via the freezer). Blueberries from our own plants. (Which Ed told me about after I'd defrosted some. Have to make some kind of dish tomorrow to use them up.) That didn't look quite enough, so I made a salad of some roasted beets, a small can of corn, cilantro, and a lime vinaigrette. No dessert.

Tuesday/17-Aug-21: Used some of my roasted beets plus some leftover brick hanging around in the fridge to make, more or less, Beet and Feta Samosas (MadeIndia, p48). We had them as a starter while I was finishing the rest of dinner. Not as good as expected; the filling was better than the baked result. Dinner was West Indian Salmon Patties (web; GD). As before, I made four patties instead of six and two are now in the freezer for another night. Served with All-Purpose Rice and Beans (BigFlav, p262), a regular. Made a quarter recipe and still have some left to tart up for another meal. For after, I used yesterday's defrosted blueberries, plus the remains of some raspberries and strawberries I impulse-bought last week, to make Easy Berry Cobbler (MC; HandyBook). We're full.

Wednesday/18-Aug-21: Pizza out tonight before a concert. Nothing happened in the kitchen.

Thursday/19-Aug-21: Shopping today. Our favorite boulangerie is on holiday till September. 

Dinner was Spicy Grilled Fish (Q&E, p74) with salmon. Good stuff. It surprises me to find a new, good recipe in this book, since I've used it so much. There was a quarter recipe of Rice with Mushrooms and Mustard Seeds (Q&E, p102) for a side and Fresh Tomato Salad (Q&E, p107). Some store-bought riz au laits with caramel for after.

Friday/21-Aug-21: Dinner was a half dose of Pasta Pentimento* (EatingTog, p170) over whole-wheat spaghetti. Good stuff for so easy. For a salad, there was a halfish dose of Favorite Broccoli Salad* (web; GD; GD). This was good, if not something that went especially well with the pasta. Knowing that Ed doesn't like raw broccoli, I cooked it very briefly in the pasta water. (Was just surprised to find this salad on my DoMeAgain list! I wrote then what we said tonight at table, that this would be very good for a bbq.) For dessert there was some Jam Tea Cake (GD) with apricot jam. 

Saturday/21-Aug-21: In the morning I made the sauce for tonight's dinner, and salted the chicken for tomorrow. 

Dinner was a half dose of Pasta in Chilli Tomato Sauce (HomTrav, p222); this would have served three pretty eaisly. Served over linguine; have a bit left for a lunch. Tingly stuff. An Italian tomato sauce with ginger, chilies, and chili oil. Tasty. 

Some Jam Tea Cake for after.

Sunday/22-Aug-21: Dinner was Romertopf Clay-Baked Chicken, Stuffed with Serrano Ham and Olives (MedClay, p76). I cooked the stuffing separately. This was finished in a, to me, unusual way.  The chicken was taken out of the oven and out of the pot. The bottom was then emptied (to make a sauce with the juices), topped with a wire rack, the chicken put on that, and all back in the oven for another 10min. I've never seen this technique before, but it made for a nicely crisp skin, not usual for Romertopf.

Served with Lemon-Roasted Potatoes with Bay Leaves* (VegHarv, p231). This was good, of course, although I could have cut the potatoes into smaller chunks. I used the rest of my roasted beets to make a small version of Cold Beetroot with Cream (Pomiane, p180), an old favorite.

More Jam Tea Cake for after; it'sgetting a bit dry now.

Progress on goals
This week: #1 VEG/FISH: 4; #2 PHOTO: yes; #3 *DMA: yes
This month: #4 GUESTS: n/a
This year: #5 BACKLOG1: yes; #6 BACKLOG2: no; #7 RECYCLE: 11; #8 NEW: 4

This week in the kitchen

Monday/22-Feb-21: Leftover fish pie for dinner, with steamed broccoli and carrots. Some store-bought lait au semoule for after.

Tuesday/23-Feb-21: Yogurt on overday.

Dinner was Soupe de Poulet au Citron à la Grecque (VPG). (I couldn't find this recipe online, but I did find a similar one with the same picture. Odd. We liked this a lot, so I've translated it for later use.) As a go-with, I looked at a couple of Greek salad recipes and made one up. I marinated a small can of chickpeas in a Greek vinaigrette (Greek, because of the oregano, I suppose); I marinated some thinly sliced red onion in red wine vinegar and a bit of sugar (it would have been better without the sugar); thawed and sliced some oven-dried tomatoes; tossed all with some lettuce (arugula or spinach would have been nice, but you use what you have); then topped with crumbled feta. It was all a bit too much like the soup, but who cares? A pair of chocolate-covered madeleines each for after.

Wednesday/24-Feb-21: Ed picked up groceries from both Drives today. We may try to stick to this schedule, semi-normal, which means a meal plan that sort of get follows instead of made up every day or so. Already had first change to meal plan. It's lovely bbq weather today and forecast for tomorrow, so we'll bbq tomorrow. 

Dinner was a half-recipe of Fish Molee* (web) with cod. This is yummy and easy to make. Served over long-grain brown rice, which wasn't strictly necessary but gives us some nice whole grain. No dessert.

Thursday/25-Feb-21: Made a loaf of Light Rye (Electric, p64) (Basic/Rapid/M/d/-). We both really like this for a bread machine bread, it's taste and it's texture.

Well, yesterday it was supposed to be nice weather today, warm and sunny, but it turned out gray and windy. Not terribly cold. Still Ed bbq'd chipolatas. For one go-with I made Red Cabbage and Carrot Slaw (web). I made a half recipe, but accidentally got a half tablespoon measure out for the vinaigrette, so made a quarter of the dressing; the half amount would have been better. And some potato salad (with hard-boiled egg, capers, cornichons, cuke, etc., and a French-ish lemon-based vinaigrette) from my old Joy of Cooking. No dessert needed.

Friday/26-Feb-21: Dinner was Escalopes de Veau à la Crème—Veal with Mushrooms in Cream (Franey, p216). That's a veal scallop topped a piece of prosciutto, then a layer of mushroom cream sauce, topped with slices of Beaufort (one of our favorite swiss-y cheeses), and run under the broiler to melt the cheese. Franey suggests serving with buttered noodles with caraway; I make spaetzle, with butter and caraway seeds. And some roasted asparagus. I didn't need dessert; Ed had a mini HD ice cream cup.

Saturday/27-Feb-21: Went, a bit late, to make tonight's dinner and discovered that the cabbage is supposed to cook for an hour! Oops. Postpone that one. Dinner was a made-up pasta dish, not my best, but not bad. Ravioli with cèpes, onion, prosciutto, shrooms, held together with pyramid goat cheese. A mini HD ice cup for after.

Sunday/28-Feb-21: Made a loaf of Dennis's Blarney-Stone Bread (Magic, p70) (Basic/Rapid/M/d-). Don't seem to have made this one before. It's a very good oatmeal bread.

Beautiful weather, but a blah day. Started dinner a bit late again, and it turned out to take longer than I thought. I made a third recipe of Shrimp-Stuffed Artichokes (EatingTog, p124), this recipe by Peter Feibleman. It was rather poorly written/edited. You chopped parsley but never used it. You saved two cups of the artichoke-cooking water, but never used it. Etc. I followed the cooking time for large artichokes, but they weren't quite done, so when we pulled a leaf, there was nothing attached. A good idea, poorly executed. A pair of chocolate-covered madeleines each for after.

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: no; #7 RECYCLE: 11; #8 NEW: 2

This week in the kitchen

Monday/29-May-17: Early meal today. We had a halfish recipe of Spicy Jerk Pork Chicken with Pepper Fried Rice (BHG/apr13; web) Well, it would have been pork if I'd defrosted that. Instead I defrosted a baggieful of boneless, skinless chicken thighs. Used a red bell pepper and one of the French vaguely spicy pepper/chiles for the banana pepper, and shaoxing wine for the white wine or dry sherry. Very good and easy.

Discovered I have lots of ground almonds in the fridge freezer. Need to use those up.

Tuesday/30-May-17: We were supposed to eat out today, but Ed forgot, so I made a clean-out-the-fridge meal. Searched for broccoli tomato sauce blue cheese and came up with this, which I did very loosely, using roasted broccoli instead of spinach. Had some leftover tomato sauce and filled that out with two tomatoes. Wasn't bad.

Wednesday/31-May-17: Shopping today. Our dishwasher is on the fritz. Ed's been working on it but without much success. First it was saying it was clogged up, as it does occasionally, then it's saying it's leaking. On-going issue.

Dinner was a halfish recipe of Grilled Salmon with White Bean and Arugula Salad (CL/jun16; web). Very nice dinner salad. I'm going to stick the recipe in Pat's salad book, since it fits right in with that.

We went to sit outside to eat and it immediately started drizzling. Because of the forecast high winds (which haven't happened so far), the pergola is furled. So we had a slightly damp dinner. But tasty.

Yogurt on overnight.

Thursday/1-Jun-17: Dinner tonight was a halfish recipe of Pollo all'Arribiata—'Enraged' Chicken (TuscTable, p123). Good it was. Was surprised to find a bottle of chianti (Piccini) at Leclercc to use for the sauce. We finished the rest of it, so feel a bit happy tonight. Lots of sauce left, which we'll have over pasta for lunch one of these days. Served with tagliatelle (end of a multi-grain one plus some regular) with olive oil and chopped parsley as suggested.

Ed fixed the dishwasher today -- yay!

Friday/2-Jun-17:Lunch out today, so not much happened in the kitchen. Replanned our menus a bit, since we had steaks for lunch and there was more beef due up in a few days.

Oops, dishwasher not fixed. In moving it back in place, a connection came loose. Ed found this and plugged it back in. In the wrong place. Electric fizz. No more dishwasher. Back to hand washing for a bit.

Made a half recipe of Two-Tomato Jam (BoldVeg, p232), which is a go-with for tomorrow's meal.

Yogurt on overnight in anticipation of something needing yogurt in a few days.

Saturday/3-Jun-17: Interesting meal today. Our main was a half recipe of Grilled Eggplant and Toasted Pecan Salad (BoldVeg, p78). I see belatedly that this is supposed to be a salad or side dish; that explains why it seemed so skimpy. Served it over brown rice. It was good, but nothing extra special, but ... The recommended Two-Tomato Jam go-with (really a chutney) that I made last night was a star, definitely a keeper. To fill up the plate, I made Spiced Beets (30MinInd, p88), which I made several times already. Pretty and tasty. For dessert there was Carrot-Apple Halwa (BoldVeg, p240). This was pretty good and easy enough to do while other things a happening.

Sunday/4-Jun-17: Early meal today, a half recipe of Pasta Pentimento (EatingTog, p170; cookbooker). A really yummy pasta dish. Then a salad. Then the last of the halwa.

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

This week in the kitchen

Monday/13-Mar-17: Worked on clearing out unlikely-to-be-used recipes from the active stacks of clippings.

Off plan tonight. Used up the last of the cauliflower to make a half recipe of Roasted Cauliflower & Mushroom Carbonara. (Think this is from a Jamie magazine, at least it's from some British magazine,but I can't find it online unfortunately.) I didn't have enough cauliflower, so I used some broccoli too; and a box of shiitakes for the mushrooms; and a packet of lardons for the pancetta. Turned out pretty good actually. Was too lazy to make a salad as a go-with, so this is all we had.

Yogurt on overnight.

Tuesday/14-Mar-17: BookChatters in the morning; ENT, shopping at Grand Frais and Biocoop, and stop at pharmacy in the afternoon meant not much time for anything. Dinner was a half dose of Egg Curry (web), which turned out pretty good. Served with plain rice and Karhai Broccoli (MJ@Home, p148).

Wednesday/15-Mar-17: Change of plans today, since I wasn't ready with the meal plan and shopping list. Defrosted some duck sausages we got at a marché des producteurs last summer. Ed barbecued them while I made (more or less) Asparagus with Garlic and Balsamic Reduction (web). More or less, because I was short on balsamic vinegar—inventory failure. Also some buckwheat crozets. At Grand Frais yesterday, I not only scored some asparagus (from Spain), but also some blueberries from Morocco. Wasn't aware that blueberries were something brown in Morocco, in March, but they were delicious. I made a half recipe of Easy Blueberry Cobbler (MC 2BTried; web) in an 8" (or 9"?) square dish. Remarkably good for little effort. Ed wanted to eat it all.

Thursday/16-Mar-17: Shopping today. Dinner was Grilled Tuna Kebobs (web) under the broiler. Good, and could be done with swordfish or halibut. Served with trio rice and Harissa-and-Maple-Roasted Carrots (web). Made a halfish (maybe less, I didn't weigh) recipe of the carrots; started with a huge stack, but after roasting it looked like just one serving. They were good, though. That was all.

Friday/17-Mar-17: We were out early, early this morning for our 5-yearly bilan de santé. There before 8am; home about 11am. We both managed to keep going all day in spite of early start.

Dinner was definitely a hit. I made a third-ish recipe of Sautéed Veal with Sherry and Green Olives (EatingTog, p149; cookbooker), served with a some pasta. Made a salad, but we didn't feel like eating it. Instead we finished the blueberry cobbler, which was still yummy. This is really rather like a clafoutis, and is definitely a keeper recipe.

Saturday/18-Mar-17: Early meal today. We had Chicken Thigh, Sausage and Red Lentil One-Pot Roast (web). I goofed and defrosted some skinless boneless thighs, rather than bone-in ones, so we had a real mixture. The skin on the bone-in thighs was remarkably crispy. I'm not a skin person, but this was good. I used Toulouse sausages, which were pretty plain. Something a bit more zippy would be nice; not smoked, I think. De Puy lentils, rather than the red ones might be nice. Takes a bit of unattended wall clock time, but very easy to assemble and cook. Followed by yesterday's uneaten salad. Then I had a mini magnum.

Sunday/19-Mar-17: The bread machine made (with a bit of help) Cayenne Cornbread (BigGerman, p182). The poor machine isn't very happy; sometimes the paddle needs a bit of help to get around.

We had our main meal early today. Cayenne Cornbread along with Potato and Green Chile Stew (web), which was even easier because I used three chiles from a little can. Very tasty for little effort.

Yogurt on overnight.

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

This week in the kitchen

Monday/25-Jul-16: Finished off the Dried Apricot & Amaretto Conserve (FancyPant, p127). I goofed and added the orange juice with the peel, so it got boiled more than it ought to have been. (Used only two cups of sucre de canne, rather than 2-1/2.) In the end the whole thing didn't gel, so I added a whole packet of pectin. Poured into three AH jars, then realized I forgot to stir in the amaretto. Since there were three tablespoons needed, I stirred one into each jar before closing them up. Seems like a lot of almond slivers. We'll see. Froze two jars, since we've got several active jars of jam right now, and left one in the fridge to give away.

Made paneer, which was a part of our Mutter Paneer dinner. Some mini magnums for dessert.

Tuesday/26-Jul-16: So Ed could get one with painting windows and doors, I did the shopping after my audiologist appointment.

Got home to find we've been invited from champagne apertifs with our new next-door neighbors, Emmanuelle and Pierre, who live in Bordeaux.

Dinner was Tomato Fish Curry on rice, with some Mango-Mint Sherbet to follow.

Wednesday/27-Jul-16: Lunch out with friends today. Nothing happened in the kitchen. It's hot too.

Thursday/28-Jul-16: More Indian tonight. This time Onion Bhajiyas followed by Bombay Chicken Masala, served with plain basmati rice and leftover Spiced Beets and Mutter Paneer. Actually, I should have saved one of the veggies for tomorrow night, since we were quite full.

Friday/29-Jul-16: A busy day in the kitchen today.

I accidentally defrosted some pecans and walnuts. Until I started making Peppered Pecans (Tabasco, p14), I thought they were all pecans. Have to find something else for the walnuts.

Shopping Tuesday, I bought a flat of peaches for Peach Cobbler (EatingTog, p59), intending to make it Monday. But the peaches are getting pretty ripe, so I made the cobbler today.

Dinner was Lamb Kebabs, served with Kachumber (30MinInd, p37) and Jeera Rice (30MinInd, p99). Had the Tamarind&Date Chutney and the Lemon Pickle on the table. I had meant to serve some of the Mango-Mint Sherbet for dessert, but with fresh peach cobbler available, who could resist that? With a bit of cream. Yum.

Saturday/30-Jul-16: Another day with lots of kitchen work.

• Used up the bit of rhubarb I had to make Rhubarb Chutney (Thesaurus, p255) again. This was extra good with boudin noir.
• Roasted two eggplants for tomorrow.
• Made two pâte brisées (Tenth, p256), one for tonight, the other for the freezer. Once you're making one, the second is easy and uses up the other half of the block of butter.

Dinner was, more or less, Broccoli and Gorgonzola Quiche (web) with a big, plain salad (only croutons, no extra veggies). No picture necessary, a relief.

Thinking about next month's book for Cookbook Countdown. It should be the Time-Life Viennese Empire book, but I'm not finding that many recipes I want to cook right now. There are lots of interesting recipes with sauerkraut, but it's not in the shops right now. TBD.

Ed's eaten all the pecans.

Yogurt on overnight.

Sunday/31-Jul-16: We had our main meal early today so that we can go to a movie this evening. We had a half dose of Shawarma-Spiced Grilled Chicken with Garlic Yogurt (web). Had thought to bbq, but just grilled them instead. No matter, very good. I made sure to have lots of yogurt for the Garlic Yogurt sauce, but didn't make it in the end. Served with pita breas, the leftover green chutney, and Baba Ghanoush (WofE, p334), which probably wanted more lemon juice but I'm out of lemons. (I took two packages of four lemons to the check-out earlier this week. When I got there, I saw there was I moldy lemon in one of the packages. It was too busy to walk back and get another package, so I did without. But I'm now completely out of lemons.)

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