This week in the kitchen

Monday/20-Dec-21: Last week I recycled five books, but I've pulled one back (BigBites), because it felt sad to say good-bye to Linda Ellerbee. That leave me needing to recycle 15 more books by the end of the year. Need to get busy with that.

Dinner was Hazelnut, Mascarpone, and Gorgonzola Ravioli (FF&S, p172). Well, it was supposed to be gorgonzola; I seem to have bought bleu d'Auvergne instead. I think even a stronger blue would have worked. Used gyoza/wonton wrappers instead of proper pasta; they worked pretty well. I didn't think to defrost a bit of tomato sauce for the ravioli, so they were just drizzled with olive oil as suggested. Then a big salad.

Tuesday/21-Dec-21: We did our shopping today, expecting crowds as the holiday approaches. Still the parking lot was full when we arrived.

Dinner was Baja Fish Tacos (MC), with lieu noir (half the price of cod). (This recipe is from CL; I haven't been able to find it online.) Home-made taco seasoning. Used a mixed with sliced cabbage, carrots and radishes; added a dash of Brok da Mout and a squirt of lime juice to the crème fraîche. Served with corn tortillas. One chocolate-covered madeleine each for after.

Wednesday/22-Dec-21: Feeling not very well today. Had a throbbing headache most of the night. Also I was very cold. In the early afternoon, I snuggled under lots of covers to take a nap. Got up feeling a bit better and dressed in the warmest clothes I could manage. 

Started a pot of chicken stock.

Dinner was an easy one, Pan-Roasted Chicken with Lemon-Garlic Green Beans* (web; GD), with skinless, boneless thighs. I cooked the potatoes and green beans for about 25 minutes, then added the sb thighs. Easy and pretty good. 

Thursday/23-Dec-21: Still not feeling well. Dinner was Banh Mi Burgers from the freezer. With a salad from the rest of the carrot-cabbage salad that I bought for Tuesday.  And some Thai trio rice. That was all. After one bite of the burger, I threw it up. :-(

I'm thinking we'll have have to postpone our xmas dinners. Don't have the oomph or energy to make what's planned.

Friday/23-Dec-21 - Sunday/2-Jan-22: More than a week better and I'm starting to get a bit better. I've been pretty much flat in bed and not much has happened in the kitchen (except that Ed's cooked a time or two!). Starting to get up and about. Maybe tomorrow we'll start having some proper meals.

I'd planned on using these two weeks for recycling some cookbooks and for consider kitchen goals for next year. That clearly didn't happen. I'll give myself a couple of weeks to get caught up on this, so this is ready by 23-Jan, if all goes well.

Progress on goals
This week: #1 VEG/FISH: 2+; #2 PHOTO: n; #3 *DMA: yes
This month: #4 GUESTS: n/a
This year: #5 BACKLOG1: 100%; #6 BACKLOG2: no; #7 RECYCLE: 15; #8 NEW: 5

This week in the kitchen

Monday/16-Mar-15: Dinner was a halfish recipe of Angel Hair with Shrimp Sesame Sauce (web) that I got from EAT-L. Supposedly the recipe is from the National Pasta Association, but I can't find it there. Nevermind, it's good. And easy. And quick. I used spaghettini because I didn't have enough angel hair; used Major Grey chutney; used less sugar than asked; used shallots instead of scallion/green onions. Broccoli might be good instead of asparagus. More shrooms would be good. We both added a big squirt of sriracha at the table, which was nice. Some red pepper flakes at the beginning might be good. For after, we split a magnum classic 1/3 and 2/3.

Tuesday/17-Mar-15: Dinner was a half recipe of Spiced Lentils with Egg (web), which was pretty good. The lentil mixture could be made ahead, and this would make it quite fast to have on the table. I finished off my jar of toor dal instead of using yellow split peas, of which there are none in the house. I checked the eggs after 20 minutes and they looked pretty wobbly still, so I put them in for 2 more minutes, which was a mistake, since they were pretty solid. Probably the 18 minutes timing would be fine. Served with a big salad as suggested. Two squares of dark chocolate with nuts for dessert.

Wednesday/18-Mar-15: Shopping today. First our regular stuff at Leclerc, then a trip to Intermarché to partake of the foire de chevreaux. I got both a front quarter and a back quarter. Also got some lamb merguez made at the shop. The freezer is super full right now.

Dinner was Farfalle with Salmon, Lemon, and Peas (web), definitely a keeper. Easy and tasty. I think the recipe must be intended for two, although it says it serves four. I used mini-lasagnes rather than farfalle, which I don't like very much. The mini-lasagnes are properly called mafalda corta, and are a shape I like a lot. Served with a simple salad. No dessert, since we had some cornuelles with our afternoon tea.

Thursday/19-Mar-15: Yogurt on overday. Worked on sorting/thinning dessert recipes this afternoon. We were supposed to go to a quiz/dinner this evening but one of our partners was ill, so we didn't go. Shifted tomorrow's dinner to tonight and will have to figure out the rest of the week.

Dinner was Squid Fried with Chillies (Solomon1, p181) and Quick-Fried Long Beans (Solomon1, p413) served with rice. The squid is an Indonesian dish. The beans (I used haricots verts instead of kousebanden) is Chinese. (Shh, don't tell.) The squid was pretty good, but not very hot. I took the seeds out of the chilies I used, maybe didn't need to. Followed by some ice cream with some almost defrosted raspberries.

(Solomon1 will count as a seldom-used book. Just realized I've made the beans before, but didn't leave a note in the book. Silly me.)

Friday/20-Mar-15: Went to the freezer for a make-up dinner tonight. Sicilian Lentil, Vegetable, and Pasta Soup. Plenty for dinner and for a lunch in the next days. Cookies for dessert, then off for a concert in nearby Montemboeuf.

Saturday/21-Mar-15: A days or so ago I defrost a package of pâte feuillitée (puff pastry). For breakfast this morning it used this to make Sinfully Easy Mini Croissants with Chocolate (web). Yum! Really simple to make and really tasty. Left one for la facteuse (the mail lady), but I didn't leave a note, so she didn't take it and I had to eat it later.

Dinner was Baked Zucchini with Pepper Sauce (FF&S, p222). I made about a three-quarters recipe for two. Hard to tell exactly, because the amount of zucchini is not given by weight and zucchinis differ greatly in size. Thought I'd be using up a jar of roasted red bell peppers, but it was already moldy so I had to open a new jar. Served with brown rice. Quite a nice dinner. We had some morbier cheese for afters.

Sunday/22-Mar-15: Got up late and have a lazy morning. Didn't feel like cooking what I'd planned, so made tomorrow's planned meal instead, a half recipe of Thai Chicken Curry Noodles (web). Pretty good and fast. Split a magnum classic 1/3 and 2/3 for dessert.

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

This week in the kitchen

Monday/9-Mar-15: Dinner was a half recipes of Stir-Fried Chicken with Lemongrass and Chiles (Ga Xao Xa Ot). This was a recipe from Mai Pham's Pleasure of the Vietnamese Table that I collected from the LA Times in 2001. Can't seem to find a copy of it online nowadays. I've got it in my Mastercook 2BTried cookbook, and guess I'll have to keep it until I get a copy of that book. It was good. Not too hard. A lot of of prep work, then it all gets done lickety-split. Served with plain basmati rice and a quick Cucumber Salad (p51, Delightful). The salad was pretty spicy, so we soothed our tingly tongues with a magnum classic for dessert.

Tuesday/10-Mar-15: Worked a bit on sorting dessert recipes today. Think I'm waffling on the intent to sort into three groups (chocolate, fruit, other). Scones, for example. When I want scones, I don't care if they're fruit or not. I just want a scone. I kind of sorted through chocolate recipes (again), tossing quite a few. I still have to redo the rest, fruit and otherwise to see if I can figure out the most useful way to arrange them even if it's not overall consistent.

For dinner I grilled the pigeon sausages we bought at last summer's marché des producteurs. For sides there were smashed sweet potatoes (really smashed sweet potato, since it was one huge one that could have served three) and some steamed broccoli. For dessert we had some Buttermilk Chocolate Bread (MC 2BTried) with hazelnuts. Mixed it all the in cuisinart. Pretty good. (No clue when or where I collected this recipe, so it must have been some time ago.)

The continuing drama with Ed's Montbron choir continues and has been today's major "theme."

Wednesday/11-Mar-15: We had lunch at a swanky place with the Gourmet Club of the CLE (Charente-Limousine Exchange) today. For dinner we split an apple. (Shame about the buttermilk chocolate bread.)

Thursday/12-Mar-15: No choir for Ed today; shopping in the afternoon.

Dinner was Chili-Rubbed Tilapia with Asparagus and Lemon (web). Well, it wasn't tilapia, but lieu noir. It was pretty good for really easy. Served with some boiled potatoes (rattes). For dessert, the first strawberries (gariguettes) of the season with a scoop of ice cream and a dash of kirsch.

Yogurt on overnight. (Must have been another batch earlier in the week that I forgot to  note.)

Friday/13-Mar-15: Dinner was Lemon Spaghetti (FF&S, p138), easy, fast, and tasty. Then a big salad. That was all. FF&S is turning out to be an interesting book. Need to try a non-pasta dish now.

Saturday/14-Mar-15: Dinner was Seared Scallops with Brandied Leeks & Mushrooms (web). Didn't make the recommended barley side (which would have been this week's whole grain). Instead, served with noodles of cêpes, a kind of short tagliatelle. The dish was ok, but not quite right somehow. Ed thought the leeks were wrong, while I thought the sweet of the leeks went with the scallops, but the shrooms were wrong. Oh well. Good enough. The scallops themselves were quite good. For dessert, I broiled the last of the crèmes brulées from the freezer.

Sunday/15-Mar-15: Yogurt on overday.

Lunch today at a fête du cochon had, yes, lots of pork. Soup of boudin noir, a plate of charcuterie, and chunks of spit-roasted pig. Nothing happened in our kitchen.

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

This week in the kitchen

Monday/2-Mar-15: Cooked Jody's xmas lima beans today, intending to use some of them for dinner, but they weren't quite done when we were ready to eat, so I froze them up in small batches. Uncooked they were pretty, white with red markings. Cooking they look a lot like big flat red beans. Taste better than regular limas.

An easy dinner tonight. Soup from a tasty, if bitter, Ancho Bisque from the freezer, with a big can of corn added (a regular size, rather than the tiny ones that serve two), some merguez sausages in chunks, and a can of black beans, lacking limas. It wasn't bad. The corn helped with the bitterness.

Yogurt on overnight.

Tuesday/3-Mar-15: Dinner was a half recipe of Lemon Chicken (TLWest, p57). (I wonder how many recipes from how many different cuisines have this title?) Any recipe that uses Angostura bitters has to be worth a try, right? I used four thighs rather than cutting up a chicken. Didn't much like the sugar in the sauce and this meant I couldn't dump the extra bit into the freezer bag with bird bits for the next batch of stock. Served with more steamed gesneden snijbonen and brown rice. For dessert, we had some Angel's Dreams.

Wednesday/4-Mar-15: Shopping this afternoon, a bit late since Oscar had an emergency trip to the vet after a cat fight.

Dinner was more or less a half recipe of Polenta with Creamy Mushroom Sauce (web). Was pretty good, although we thought the tarragon was a bit strong. No polenta-in-a-tube here (that I know of, and I probably wouldn't buy it anyhow), so I made polenta ahead of time and let in cool in a dish in the fridge before baking it. This kind of thing would work with any tasty sauce, since polenta is good for that kind for thing. Then a salad. Then some store-bought vanilla yogurts, which were good. Actually I thought I was buying little rice puddings, but these were still good.

Thursday/5-Mar-15: Cleaning cookbook shelves again. Found enough cheese recipes and info clippings that it seems like a small notebook might be in order. Found two books to give away. A mere drop in the ocean. But found a group that I haven't used much that I might try in the next months, as candidates for giving away if I don't find them useful.

Dinner was Creamy Salmon with Lemon and Fresh Dill (web). Easy and pretty good, although the cooking time must be wrong. At a temp like 425F, fish will be done in about 10min per inch of thickness. In 35-40min it must be crisp all the way through! Served with brown rice and a little carrot salad. With a bit salad of rocket and mâche after. Then some squares of chocolate with hazelnuts.

Yogurt on overnight.

Friday/6-Mar-15: Dinner was Lime-Curry Orzo (FF&S, p136), a whole recipe to serve two instead of four. I misread the instructions and put the spices in together with the ginger, S&P, and lime juice, but it was still quite edible. A bit odd, the curry spices with black olives and feta, but it worked okay. Served with a salad as suggested. Some squares of chocolate with hazelnuts later.

Saturday/7-Mar-15: We misunderstood about going to a movie today, so instead of going to an early  movie and having dinner on our return, we went to a later movie and had our main meal early.

For our meal there were Balsamic Lamb Steaks loosely based on (30MinCook, p180), about as easy it as can get. As go-withs, I sautéed some boiled potatoes and made Creamy Broccoli and Carrot Slaw (web), which was pretty darn good. For dessert, we had some cookies in the car on the way to the movie.

Sunday/8-Mar-15: Dinner was a half dose of an Ottolenghi recipe, Gigli with Chickpeas and Za'atar (web; cookbooker). Pretty good, if a bit dry as chickpea-y things can be. For a side, there was a half recipe of Tomatoes, Preserved Lemons, and Sweet Red Peppers (Morocco, p86; cookbooker), which was remarkably good in spite of wimpy tomatoes and roast red peppers from a jar. Must try this again in the summer. (This book has a number of really good salad recipes.)

Didn't work on my recipe backlog this week, unless you count gathering binder clips and writing paper clips on the shopping list.

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