This week in the kitchen

Monday/3-Aug-20: Tthis afternoon Ed said how much he liked yesterday's dessert. Surprise. He especially liked the misbegotten dumpling-ish things on the top of the peaches.

Started some Abm Whole Wheat Bread (MC) (WW/Rapid/L/-/-). My goodness this smells good when it's baking!

Dinner was a halfish dose of Baked Greek Shrimp with Tomatoes and Feta (web; cookbooker). Used 300g of cooked shrimp (with covered tails) that I added more or less frozen. Served over orzo.

Peach cobbler with ice cream and cream for dessert.

Tuesday/4-Aug-20: Off to BookChatters today. Only four of us, but a long discussion.

Dinner was a half dose of Artichoke Purée with Olives, Capers, and Oregano (PeV, p33), served over linguine. Good stuff. We finished off the peach cobbler with plain ice cream for after.

Wednesday/5-Aug-20: This was vet day. Sophie had her shots and seems not to have kidney failure or diabetes as we'd feared. Oscar isn't doing well and probably won't be long with us. :-(

Dinner was Grilled Chicken with Peach and Onion Relish (MC; web), a third of the meat with half the relish. The relish was delicious; I used half the sugar I should have. Have lots of this left for something else. It was served with very plain kip filets, where it could have used a more flavorful meat, chicken thighs, pork something? Served with short spaghetti and some steam-sautéed mixed veggies (carrots, broccoli, zucchini, eggplant), cleaning out the fridge a bit. They were good, with lots of lemon juice at the end. We're full and satisfied.

Thursday/6-Aug-20: Dinner was a close version of Shakshouka with Potatoes (web). Easy and pretty tasty. Filling on a hot hot day.

Yogurt on overnight.

Friday/7-Aug-20: Buckwheat Bread (BMB, p49) this morning (WW/Rapid/S/-/-). A small loaf, as are all in this book, but quite delicious.

Dinner was Eggs on Curried Rice (Rodale2, p113; MC). Short grain brown rice. Old recipe. Good stuff. Then a bit of salad.

It's occurred to me that my cookbook reading has largely ground to a halt. I was reading as we travelled to and from the grocery store. But that's not happening any more, and likely won't for quite some time, so I need to find another way to work this into my schedule.

Saturday/8-Aug-20: Another hot hot day. I don't do hot well.

Ed picked up an order from Intermarché, so it's fish for dinner.

Which was Coconut Fish Curry (web). No coconut oil or coconut aminos. It was okay. We got a mango in the groceries, but I decided not to make that fish dish. Instead I made Cucumber Mango Salad (web), a recipe printout I found tucked in a book last night. This was pretty good. I stirred in some cilantro, which only made it better. I made up the broth for some ice cream and macerated some peaches and nectarines, but didn't feel like freezing it. Tomorrow.

Ed brought in a bucket full of purple plums, so tomorrow is probably jam-making day.

Sunday/9-Aug-20: Busy day in the kitchen. Started out making a loaf English Muffin Bread (BMB, p17). The dough must have been a bit too wet and the top sank. Tastes great, though, so I'll try again.

I used about half of the bucket of plums (quetsches) to make Plum Jam (FancyPant, p92). I was also looking at Classic Plum Jam (PutEmFruit, p211). I used the amount of sugar (sucre de confiture with pectin included) from PutEmFruit and omitted the lemon juice. Followed FancyPant's procedure of softening the plums with the pits in, then putting them through a food mill to remove them. That didn't work very well, and I ended up picking them out by hand. Have four jars of jam now, three in the freezer.

For dinner, we had hamburger patties, plain hamburger dressed up with tamari, garlic, and Tabasco. Served these with the Peach and Onion Relish from earlier in the week. Over-roasted the remains of some mandolined potatoes. Made up a broccoli salad. And for after we had some peaches and cream ice cream. We're full.

Progress on goals
This week: #1 VEG/FISH: 4; #2 BACKLOG: no
This month: #3 GUESTS: n/a
This year: #4 SHORT: no; #5 LONG: no
On-going: #6 READ; #7 RECYCLE; #8 NEW

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

This week in the kitchen

Monday/29-Jun-15: Stopped at Spar this morning to get sugar and a box of pectin. Used my last 3.5# of apricots to start Apricot Preserves (FancyPant, p114), using some apricot kernels. I cut my apricots in eighths instead of quarters, and they're going to macerate overnight. We'll see how it goes tomorrow. The freezer is going to be full of apricot jam. Too bad Ed doesn't really like it

Dinner was a half recipe of Pollo de la Plancha—Grilled Chicken Breasts (web). Pretty good (even without the cilantro), easy, and fast. Served with the Apricot-Haberno Salsa, yummy. More black bean salad, which was especially good with the salsa. And the green bean-radish dish we didn't eat last Friday. Fruit juice popsicles for dessert.

Tuesday/30-Jun-15: Electricity problems starting in the night. Looks like our washing machine has a short. New one on order. Might take more than a week to arrive.

Dinner was Pasta with Tuna & Lemon Sauce (web), which was easy and fast. The sauce is uncooked, just tossed with the pasta, and uses stuff that's usually in-house, so it's a good one to save. Then a salad. That was all.

Finished off the apricot jam from FancyPant. Can't say I followed the instructions all that carefully, and they didn't really work either. (Straining the syrup from the fruit in a sieve. Nah. Even a colander didn't work well.) Added a cinnamon stick for the last bit of boiling. Finger licking good. Set up well without pectin, with which I'm now well-supplied. I just need fruit and more jars.

Wednesday/1-Jul-15: Nothing happened in the kitchen today, since we were out all day. The dishwasher didn't even get emptied.

Thursday/2-Jul-15: The heat wave continues, although it's a teeny bit cooler today. Didn't make it to the market.

Dinner was Broccoli with Spicy Tahini (web). This might be meant as a side dish, but I served the whole recipe over brown rice and called it dinner for two. Tossed the steamed broccoli with the sauce before serving. Remarkably satisfying for something so simple. For dessert with had some of the galette we bought yesterday topped with melon ice cream.

Friday/3-Jul-15: Off to have my haircut this morning. Then a quick lunch and off to shop. Don't recommend shopping late on Friday. The store was full, but so many checkout counters were open that there were no lines.

Dinner was a halfish recipe of Pasta Salad with Tapenade & Veggies (p44, PatSalads). A pretty good salad. Ed thought that eggplant fingers might be good instead of green beans. (Boiled eggplant fingers?) Quick and tasty, nice on a hot day. Bought a 4-pack of almost out-of-date caramel semolina puddings and we had a pair of those for dessert.

Another ant invasion. This time on the peninsula. Sigh.

Saturday/4-Jul-15: I hate hot, have I said that before. Thunderstorms this morning and early afternoon. Didn't help much. House has lost its cool. Good bless the bedroom a/c.

There have been some ants around, but not as bad as yesterday. Knock wood.

When I asked for a thick bit of swordfish steak yesterday, I got enough for a full recipe of Spicy Mustard Swordfish and Artichoke Kabobs (web), and indeed it would serve four as advertised. Put the bits on to marinate this morning.

We started with an insalata caprese with one coeur de boeuf tomato, almost seedless, and one regular tomato for me. Some nice mozzarella and some basil. Yum.

Then the kabobs, grilled outside thanks to Ed, served with a half recipe of Quinoa Pilaf (web), unremarkable. For dessert there were two Individual Peach upside-Down Cakes (web), a half recipe, easy and tasty, served with some vanilla ice cream.

We are counting underwear to see if we'll make it to the projected washing machine delivery time. If it's delayed, we'll have to make a stop at a laundromat. Ed took the old machine to the dump today.

Sunday/5-Jul-15: Still hot, maybe a bit less today, but back in force tomorrow.

For lunch I made Toast with Avocado, Fried Eggs, and Soy Sauce (web). Quite tasty and easy. Could be breakfast too, I suppose.

In the afternoon I made Hideg Kapros Tokleves—Cold Cream-of-Squash Soup (p24, TLMelting) and put it in the fridge to chill. We ate it after a concert. A very nice tasty, cold soup. Just enough potato to thicken it, but not enough to give an earthy taste that would be too much on a hot summer day.

Having a thought about stopping with this blog and keeping my recipe list elsewhere. Even started copying into Calendar. But there's no formatting there, and I miss things like the pages. Have to think further about this. Maybe just an RTF file would do with extra files for the pages. We'll see.

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