This week in the kitchen

Monday/7-Feb-22: Dinner was Balsamic Chicken with Mushrooms (MC), all sauce with two kip filets. Served with trio rice and broccoli sprinkled with lemon juice. Nice, fast dinner.

Tuesday/8-Feb-22: Picked up an order from Intermarché Drive today, so it should have been a fish night. But I was chatting on the phone with a friend and it got too late, so tonight we had tomorrow's planned meal. That was Spicy Chicken Livers (QuickWok, p90). This was ok, nothing special. Served this with Tasty Noodles with Broccoli (QuickWok, p137), made with whole wheat spaghetti. (Found some egg noodles in the cabinet, a bit old; they had a decided don't-eat-me look about them, so I tossed them and used spaghetti instead.) A half recipe made a nice side for two; a whole recipe would be an okay main, especially with a bit of tofu included.

Wednesday/9-Feb-22: Dinner was Fish Kebabs (RezaRice, p60). Not bad, these, but they needed a bit of sauce and he didn't recommend anything except raita, which I didn't make. Served with French Bean and Cashew Nut Thoran (RezaRice, p122). This was so-so. Used reconstituted dried coconut rather than fresh. There was also Lemon and Ginger Rice (RezaRice, p148), using brown basmati rice. This was pretty good as rice dishes go. Altogether, nothing special meal-wise, and a bit of work, taking a lot of time. Not happy with some of Reza's vague instructions.

Thursday/10-Feb-22: Baked a loaf of Easy French bread (Electric, p60; GD). Which really wasn't needed since we went to the boulangerie this afternoon on the way to dentist and brico.

Dinner from the crockpot, Bean and Sausage Soup (BestSC, p26). The beans weren't quite done. I think I remember that, in my crockpot, beans need to cook on High to get properly done; these were done on Low. The instructions say to cut the turkey sausages in half lengthwise. If I did that I'd have some ground sausage meat with casings. Soup was ok. 

Friday/11-Feb-22: Using up the other half of the bakje of chicken livers, we had Foies de Volaille à a Sauge (Chicken Livers with Sage) (Franey, p75). This was better than Hom's spicy livers. The cognac evaporated before I could get a match to it, so it never got properly flambéed. The suggested go-with (for the 60-minute "gourmet" dinner) was Nouilles à l'Alsacienne (Noodles with Crumb and Egg Topping) (Franey, p75). This was good; I've never seen hard-boiled egg added to noodles like this. Lots of butter in these dishes. For some veggie matter, I cut up some carrots, boiled them a  bit, and added parsley and lemon juice. 

Saturday/12-Feb-22: Didn't feel much like cooking this evening, so we had leftover soup for dinner. Even though it's been cooking off and on for two days, the beans are still on the crunchy side. Tastes good, though, especially with a good squirt of jalapeño Tabasco.

Sunday/13-Feb-22: Dinner was Pasta-Kwarkschotel met Bauwe Kaas. Can't find this online. (I thought it might be from Allerhande, but I don't think so now—maybe another grocery store magazine or maybe a proper magazine.) I did a little (mostly English-language) searching for a kwark substitute and came up with Greek yogurt, so I ordered that from the Drive. At dinner I was thinking that fromage blanc might be just the thing, and it seems some French sites think that also. But the Greek yogurt was fine. The instructions have you make layers of the pasta/eggs/peas mixture and the kwark/garlic/pepper mixture. This struck me as useless, so I just mixed all together and topped that with crumbled bleu d'Auvergne (which was in the fridge needing to be used), rather than Danish blue. Forty minutes might to be too long in the oven. Served with broccoli; now I see the recipe suggests cauliflower. 

Another week, no picture. Having some trouble getting back to this.

Long ago Blogspot had some trouble with the dating of posts. At the time, it seemed the simplest thing for me was let the date be that of the first entry for the week, rather than the final entry. I think things have changed, and so I'm going to change to the more sensible dating. I'll correct all the posts from this year to the last entry and continue like that. 

Progress on goals
This week: #1 VEG/FISH: 2; #2 PHOTO: no;
This month: #3 GUESTS: n/a
This year: #5 BACKLOG2: no; #6 BACKLOG3: no; #7 RECYCLE: 0; #8 NEW: 2

This week in the kitchen

Monday/24-May-21: Dinner was Boeuf à la Deutsch (Franey, p252), served with the recommended Nouilles au Beurre de Poivre Vert (Franey, p253). These made for a tasty meal. Served with some steamed asparagus, topped with a squeeze of lemon juice and some chopped fermented black beans. A pair of chocolate-covered madeleines for after. (We had the Ricotta Limoncello Cake for lunch.)

Tuesday/25-May-21: I snuck up on the chest freezer today and defrosted it. It's looking like today may be the last of our coolish weather, so it was time to do it. 

Dinner was Quick Garlic Lime Marinated Pork Chops (web), which was ok but nothing special. Served with the last of the marinated carrots, trio rice, and Nigel Slater's Green Beans, Mushrooms, and Dill (web). I see I forgot to add the dill to the mushrooms; this might have given the flavor boost that was needed. And ordinary meal altogether. Some ricotta-limoncello cake for after.

Wednesday/26-May-21: A really blah day. Neither of us felt like doing anything. Neither of us had much appetite. Instead of cooking, I defrosted a bit of spinach pesto and we had that over some whole wheat spaghetti. Strawberries and cream for after.

Thursday/27-May-21: Shopping today. Our first time in a boulangerie since last year when the lockdowns started (March or so); I've only been in the grocery store twice, maybe three times, and tht was last fall. Kind of scary for people who are quite hermit-like by nature. 

And tuna was on sale. So we had Charmoula-Marinated Grilled Tuna (MedHot, p48, MedHot2, p105). Grilled under the broiler. I made all the marinade, so there some in the freezer now. Bought way too much tuna, and neither of us had a big appetite, so one chunk is in the freezer too. As suggested, served with mixed steamed veggies (cauliflower, broccoli, green beans, carrots, zucchini) with a lemon vinaigrette. And some Moroccan couscous. A pair of chocolate-covered madeleines for after.

Friday/28-May-21: Dinner was Red Prawn and Mango Curry (web; GD). This wasn't really quick, but was easy. Slice the spring onion, peel and chop the mango, measure the stock, open the bo of coconut milk, and away you go, with a pause while the sweet potatoes cook. Served over brown rice. Some HD mini ice cream cups for after.

Saturday/29-May-21: Yogurt on overday.

Dinner was Crab Cakes with Cucumber Relish (web; GD); very yummy and has gone onto the DoMeAgain list. I made about a half recipe of the relish, with have a cuke, but it wanted all the rice vinegar. Served with a side of mafalda topped with Fresh Red Chutney with Almonds (Q&E, p114) from the freezer. (The only pesto type thing in the freezer was more of the spinach pesto we've just had.) This was remarkably good and we have a bit more of the chutney for something in the next days. 

For after there were the rest of the mango chunks from yesterday and cream.

Sunday/30-May-21: Dinner was Whole Chicken Baked with an Almond and Onion Sauce* (MJ@Home, p99). This is super delicious. The yogurt marinating sauce makes for tender, moist chicken bits. As suggested, served with Sweet-and-Sour Eggplant (MJ@Home, p153) and Yellow Basmati Rice with Sesame Seeds (MJ@Home, p208). Everything was delicious. Some plain vanilla tapioca pudding for after.

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/18-May-20: Dinner was a halfish dose of Coriander-&-Lemon-Crusted Salmon with Asparagus Salad & Poached Egg (web). Instead of salmon, though, I used scallops of duck breast. Worked quite well. Served over some roquette/arugula, since it seemed a bit skimpy with just the asparagus salad. The raw asparagus in this salad work fine. For after there was some Butterscotch Tapioca (HandyBook; web). Good stuff.

Tuesday/19-May-20: Made up some Old Fashioned Buttermilk White Bread (MC) this afternoon. No buttermilk, so I soured the milk with some white wine vinegar. Big beautiful loaf when it came out; wrinkled on top as it cooled.

Dinner was Thai Chicken & Mango Stir-Fry (web; cookbooker). This was good. Served over plain basmati rice. Finished the tapioca for afters.

Wednesday/20-May-20: Dinner was Puy Lentil, Red Onion and Feta Salad (Flavours, p198). Whole recipe serves three probably, not four. Served over some arugula. Then some Häagen-Dazs ice cream cups. We're full.

Thursday/21-May-20: Not a good day today. Hot and steamy.

Ed insisted on cutting the bread so there were no pieces to make lunch sandwiches. I took the rest and made Double-Boiler Bread Pudding (MC, Handybook). I toasted the last bit with some cinnamon-sugar butter for lunch.

Dinner was, sort of, Shrimp and Broccoli in Chili Sauce (MC 2BTried). I used half the shrimp, but otherwise made a whole recipe (broccoli and sauce). Served over udon noodles. Pretty good for easy. Bread pudding for dessert, of course.

Friday/22-May-20: Having lots of red peppers to use up (I wonder what they were supposed to be used for?), I found this recipe of Sausage and Pepper Sheet-Pan Sandwiches (web). No sausage of any kind in-house, so I defrosted some turkey strips and made my own, smerging several recipes from the web. Instead of sandwiches, served over polenta. (Should have been grits I realized too late.) Making the polenta, I absent-mindedly put in twice the water. Added more polenta and will freeze that up in squares. Topped with some cheese, I think it was Beaufort, definitely not provolone. For dessert we had some bread pudding. Ed served it all up, although he should have served only half of what was left. I ate half of what I had. Ed ate move, but even he couldn't finish.

Saturday/23-May-20: Made up some Abm Whole Wheat Bread (MC) today. It smelled delicious cooking and looks quite handsome.

Dinner was Tarte Tatin au Magret de Canard (VPG; web). (Can't find this recipe online. Did find a similar one that wanted the fat removed from the magret. I didn't do this; we'll see. It also had some sautéed sliced onion; that might be nice.) It's a  recipe for two. The photo shows what looks like a single serving, but the recipe calls for a single dish. Rather than a round dish, I used my red 8-in square casserole. The amount of pâte feuilletée asked is half of your usual boughten dose, which is a circle. I cut this in half and then one piece into quarters. Overlapped these so that the points of the quarters were corners of a square; the radii were the edges. Rolled this a bit to make it bigger. Looked much bigger than the photo on the recipe, but it was indeed two servings. Might do the first layer of magret slices in a rose, rather than lines, so so it's prettier. Red apples would be prettier. This might make a nice entrée for four, actually. Served with a big salad. We finished the bread pudding for afters.

Yogurt on overnight.

Sunday/24-May-20: We really like yesterday's bread. Good taste and texture.

In my Green Book, I have two curried chicken and avocado recipes that I've had forever. Having some avocado and mushroom needing to be used, I chose one of those, and a similar sounding recipe from my newish Pierre Franey book. Turns out they're exactly the same recipe. So tonight we had Chicken and Avocado in Cream with Curried Rice (GreenBook) aka Poulet et Poire d'Avocat à la Crème avec Riz à l'Indienne (Franey, p30). Good stuff.

For dessert, I used the rest of the pâte feuilletée to make some raspberry tarts. Sprinkled ground almonds on the pastry, mixed some mascarpone with a bit of powdered sugar and a dash of almond extract, then laid out the raspberries (fresh from the yard). Baked for a while. Yum.

Progress on goals
This week: #1 VEG/FISH: 3; #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/3-Feb-20: Dinner was a halfish dose of Coquilles St. Jacques et Poireaux avec Pernod—Scallops and Leeks with Pernod (Franey, p134; cookbooker). These was really delicious, even though I neglected to stir in a bitter butter at the end. Served with the recommended Riz au Four—Baked Rice (Franey, p135; cookbooker), a third recipe was good for two, and Courgettes au Citron—Zucchini with Oil and Lemon (Franey, p59; cookbooker). No dessert.

Tuesday/4-Feb-20: Dinner was Spaghetti with Pecorino and Black Pepper (MW@Home, p194). Why haven't I made this before. Easy and delicious. Not elegant, but very satisfying. I used Parmesan instead of pecorino, because there was no pecorino at the store last week, and I don't usually have it on hand. Then a salad. The some St Felicien. We ate well.

Wednesday/5-Feb-20: Dinner was a halfish dose of Turmeric Roasted Chicken and Sweet Potatoes (web), with four quite-large-for-here chicken thighs. Pretty good it was, and easy.

Yogurt on overnight.

Thursday/6-Feb-20: Shopping today.

Dinner was a half recipe of Wan Kai Thai-Style Red Curry (Ainsley3, p75). Served with rice and with steamed snow peas. Some store-bought custard after.

Friday/7-Feb-20: Dinner was a two-thirds-ish dose of Portobello Shepherd's Pie (web). Not Portobello's, but I won't tell if you don't. It was pretty good, and we've got enough for another night. During the day used some threatening-to-go-stale bread to make some Double-Boiler Bread Pudding (MC, HandyBook); we had some of that for dessert.

Saturday/8-Feb-20: We had a nice Thai meal today, cooked for a charity by Reza Mahammad. No further food necessary.

Finished off  Bocaux & Verrines on the way to our meal. Some interesting recipes, all of them serving six. Some of the portions really look like main dishes rather than starters or finishers.

Yogurt on overnight.

Sunday/9-Feb-20: We meant to go to a concert this afternoon, but Ed's still a bit coughy, so we decided not to go.

Our meal was leftover shepherd's pie, with some steamed broccoli and a little beet salad. (The beet salad was really little; I accidentally served it all to myself.) Then some bread pudding; it's going to give six servings this time.) We're full.

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

This week in the kitchen

Monday/20-Jan-20: Dinner was Scallops with Thai Scented Pea Puree (web), that's scallops with mushy peas flavored with Thai green curry paste. Why not? It wasn't bad, but 500g of peas for two people is an awful lot. My 300g of scallops were nine, cut in half. Served with trio rice. We had cake for snacks during the day, so we had some chocolates for after.

Tuesday/21-Jan-20: Ed off to the doctor this evening. Returned from the pharmacy to find Korean Sweet Potato Noodles (Japchae) (web) for his dinner, along with Madhur Jaffrey's Cabbage Kimchee that I started last week. Pretty good stuff. The kimchee would have been better with chineeskool, but it wasn't bad. I only used half of the noodles James sent, so I'll make this again in a few week. More cake for dessert.

Yogurt on overnight.

Wednesday/22-Jan-20: We had dental checkups today in La Rochefoucauld, so we shopped after.

Dinner was Easy Comforting Fish Stew (web); a half recipe served two, but not generously. It was good. Used cod since that was on sale this week. Then we had some St Nectaire that I bought last week and was on its use-by date. Then some of the still-yummy cake for dessert.

Thursday/23-Jan-20: Oscar off to the vet for his shots this afternoon.

Dinner was a half dose of Cuisses de Volaille à la Diable—Deviled Chicken Legs (Franey, p36). I used two thighs per person rather than a whole leg. Delicious these were. The suggested side dish was Asperges Sautées aux Graines de Sésame—Sautéed Asparagus with Sesame Seeds (Franey, p37). It not being asparagus season and me having some snijbonen in the fridge needed to be used, I steamed those, then drained and turned back into the pan with a tiny bit of low-salt soya sauce and some sesame seeds. This is a good way to do any veg, I expect. We also had, sort of, Pommes de Terre au Paprika—Paprika Potatoes (Franey, p93), but with smoked paprika rather than plain. All was good. We finished the cake for dessert. Tastily stuffed we are.

Friday/24-Jan-20: Dinner was Tortellini in Creamy Courgette Sauce (MC); I used the pepper Boursin instead of tuinkruiden kaas. The tortellini were potimorron and onion; I thought these were too sweet. Anyhow, fairly good. Then a big salad. Then some gateaux basques from the boulanger.

Saturday/25-Jan-20: Dinner was a half dose of Angry Pork Tenderloin, a recipe I collected in 1994 from EAT-L; the recipe purports to be from the Feb/93 issue of Chile Pepper Magazine, but that magazine seems to be defunk. (I used to subscribe, and still use a mug that I got as a gift.) This was pretty good. I used only a third of the olive oil asked, since there seemed already to be more than enough sauce for the marinade. It was good, but a trifle sweet. For sides we had All-Purpose Rice and Beans (BigFlav, p262), with Mama's Garlic Coleslaw (MC, HandyBook), and hominy from the freezer. Ed suggested that hominy could be used in place of the rice for  the rice-and-bean recipe, and I've made a note. We finished off the sale chocolates for after.

Yogurt on overnight.

Sunday/26-Jan-20: Dinner was Tarte Épinard Pignons (VPG). I used Cyril Lignac's variation with burrata instead of mozzarella and cashews instead of pine nuts. This was pretty good, although the pastry (store-bought pâte feuilletée), was over-browned when the custard was nicely done. Then a grated carrot salad. Then a pair of chocolate-covered madeleines each.

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