This week in the kitchen

Monday/22-Nov-21: Dinner was Smoked Trout Chowder* (web; GD; notes). I put this on the meal plan because I'd collected the recipe from the web. Then I discovered it was already on my DoMeAgain list. It's good stuff.

Made Cornbread (Joy, p578) for our Thanksgiving stuffing today.

Realized this weekend, I was confused about my two backlog goals. In fact, I'm quite far along with BACKLOG1, clearing out the upstairs stacks of recipes. I've been taking a handful of recipes every evening, tossing most and saving a few. I will have to keep pushing on this to get the bins all clear by the end of the year. I have worked a bit on the old binders downstairs, but nothing major has happened.

Tuesday/23-Nov-21: Shopping today. I asked at Leclerc for a turkey, but I should have ordered last week. Meanwhile our local butcher hasn't called to say he's gotten one for me. So I bought two thighs and two breast roasts (i.e., the breast filet barded and rolled up with twine. I'll figure out some way to cook those (after disassembling the "roasts"), to serve looking like a turkey. 

Dinner was Cabillaud en Crumble de Jambon Cru* (web; GD). The topping for this is quite nice; I used smoked paprika tonight. Served with Thai trio rice (being out of the normal stuff) and steamed snijbonen in 1" chunks. No dessert needed.

Wednesday/24-Nov-21: Some cooking for Thanksgiving cooking today. Didn't get as much done as I'd planned, so tomorrow will be busy. Seems like there was something else, but I can't think of it. 

• Made a double batch of Tart Dough (Tenth, p256), one for the freezer, one for tomorrow.
• Put my turkey breasts to marinate for Buttermilk-Brined Turkey Breast (web). My two breasts were about the weight of the one breast asked in the recipe.
• Made the chutney for Sweet Potatoes with Cranberry Chutney (web). Wasn't especially impressed with this, but maybe it will be better tomorrow.

Dinner was Roast Za'atar Chicken Thighs with Broccoli & Potatoes (web; EW/nov21). This, a one-dish meal, was good, although some of the broccoli stems and potatoes were not quite done.

Thursday/25-Nov-21: Didn't get enough done yesterday, so there was lots of cooking today. In the end a nice Thanksgiving meal, with lots of leftovers.  

Friday/26-Nov-21: A frustrating day today. We had a very late lunch of stuffing, then later we each had a slice of pie. That was it. So much for the meal plan.

Saturday/27-Nov-21: I picked the meat off the turkey legs and froze most for later use. Dinner was Thanksgiving redux. All still good.

Sunday/28-Nov-21: Dinner was Pesto Turkey Kebabs (200Budget, p183). This is fairly quick and easy to make, except that I put the mozzarella I bought last week into the freezer, rather than leaving it in the fridge, so it took a bit of time to defrost and chop it. Very tasty, if not as pretty as the picture. Served with Thai trio rice and Parmesan Carrots with Lemon-Parsley Dressing (web; CL/mar17). This was tasty, and just a bit more work than usual.

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: 5

This week in the kitchen

Monday/25-May-20: A moldy-oldy tonight. We had Zucchini and Feta Gratin (MC). I used frozen, cooked rice for the base. I spiralized the zucchini and skipped the steaming step, putting it directly into the rice-feta "crust". A good, easy veggie meal. Served with, sort of, a small version of Green Bean Salad with Basil, Balsamic, and Parmesan (web.). Pretty good. That's all.

 Mixed up a batch of Susan Dunaway's No-Knead Bread.

Tuesday/26-May-20: Baked the bread.

Spent most of the day chatting with Amazon trying to get my poor Kindle straightened out.

Ed picked up a grocery order from Intermarché, thus we had fish.

Dinner was Za'atar Salmon Baked in Tahini (web). The fish is baked over spinach, which I forgot to order, so I defrosted enough to use. Pretty good, although Ed wasn't too happy with the tahini sauce. Used my last bell peppers (red and yellow) to make a bit of Sweet Pepper Salad (Roden, 61); this should have had green bell peppers, but, hey-ho, you use what you have. And some Moroccan couscous, a store-bought mix. For after we had some strawberries with mascarpone and kirsch.

Wednesday/27-May-20: Had some potatoes, cooked and in the fridge, to use up. Used these to make Potato Salad II (Joy, p87), which includes French Dressing (Joy, p311). Since my potatoes were rather cold, I actually warmed the dressing as instructed. Ed barbecued some chipolatas as a go with, and I boiled some carrot bits, then added frozen peas and a small can of corn. All good. Mini ice cream cups for after.

Yogurt on overight.

Susan Dunaway's Bread on overnight, with 3cups T65 and 1cup T110. Except I may have put in only 2cups of T65. We'll see.

Chicken on to marinate for tomorrow.

Thursday/28-May-20: Baked the bread. It's good. Seems like I must have measured correctly.

For dinner there was Thai-Style Chicken Legs (web, web), with four thighs, which should have been about a quarter recipe. I made all the marinade and used half for my thighs. Froze the other bit for later use. Delicious this was. As suggested, served with Mango Slaw with Cashews and Mint (web). I didn't julienne the mango, but chunked it—no problem. This was scrumptious. And some basmati rice. We were full.

Friday/29-May-20: Dinner was Grilled Scallops with Avocado Sauce (web). Pretty good, if a trifle too much lime in the sauce; that might have been my fault. Served with some "short spaghetti" and Radish Asparagus Salad (web). This was ok; Ed thought it was too sour, not me. Raspberries from the garden for after, Ed's with cream, mine with leftover mascarpone and kirsch.

Saturday/30-May-20: Dinner was a halfish recipe of Egg Curry (MJ@Home, p77). As usual with Jaffrey recipes, I used all the spices for a half recipe. I had only three hard-cooked (steamed) eggs; since there are potatoes to be used, I added some boiled potatoes. (The eggs were all cooked at the same time. The first egg was beautiful. Of the remaining three, one was beautiful, the others had serious gray around the yolk. Very odd since they were all cooked and cooled together.) Served with basmati rice and South Indian-Style Green Beans (MJ@Home, p147.

Yogurt on overnight. Susan Dunaway's No-Knead Bread on overnight. Prepped the dry ingredients for breakfast flapjacks.

Sunday/31-May-20: Baked the bread. Forgot to set the timer when I put it in the oven, so we guessed how much time was left when I realized. This is the first of these breads that stuck to the pan; usually the loaf falls right out.

I finished off the batter for Buckwheat Flour Pancakes (web) and Ed cooked them up. Ate with some raspberries from the garden and maple syrup.

Dinner was Turkish Pilaf (GreenBook). This is a recipe I collected ages ago in Houston; looks like a magazine clipping. It was good, in spite of the fact that I misread the recipe and put in too much cinnamon. Served with, more or less, Creamy Turkish Cucumber Salad (web)

Progress on goals
This week: #1 VEG/FISH: 4; #2 BACKLOG: yes
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/15-May-17: Ed still not feeling well, so he had a soup of chicken stock with some whole wheat noodles. I made myself some Shredded Chicken Tacos (Tinga de Pollo) (web), using the last of the Thanksgiving turkey. Not bad it was, if a bit sweet, even though I cut way back on the sugar.

Tuesday/16-May-17: An easy-on-Ed's-innards meal this afternoon. I made a half recipe of Spaghetti with Zucchini and Lemon (MW@Home, p195). This is an old favorite recipe that I haven't made in a while. For me, there was a little salad of sliced tomato with basil. Then a mini magnum.

Wednesday/17-May-17: Shopping today.

Dinner was 15-Minute Thai Coconut Curry Salmon (web). Oops, had only one instead of two tablespoons of green curry sauce. Maybe it would have been better with two, but it was quite good with only one. Used fresh salmon rather than frozen. Can't say it took 15 minutes, but it was done in well under under 30 minutes, and it was good. Served over rice and that was dinner.

Yogurt on overnight.

Thursday/18-May-17: Leftover casserole of aiguilettes for our main meal today. It was pretty good reheated. I had a mini magnum for dessert. Have had the munchies all day too. Ate half an avocado from the fridge, a hard-boiled egg, and a packet of two cookies.

Put some black beans on to soak.

Friday/19-May-17: Cooked up the beans. Saved some for tomorrow's dinner; froze the rest.

Nice dinner, a halfish recipe of Roasted Pork Tenderloin with Chili Sauce (web; web). My varkenshaas was about 575g; a whole recipe asked about 1350g for four. We had more than enough for two. But it was delicious; not very hot at all. I didn't add the sugar and didn't miss it. Served with polenta and some steamed (hand-)gesneden snijbonen. Ed thought the plate was so pretty it deserved a photo, so here you are:

Saturday/20-May-17: Busy day today. We put out tomato plants and seeds for zucchini (there was only one seed in the packet!), eggplants, haricots verts, fêves, and kousebanden.

Got a second folder thing (a trieur, en français) for recipes. All the veggie recipes remain in the old one; fruits and nuts go in the second one. I collect all my, for example, mushroom recipes, clip them together and put them in the M-Q section. Seems to be a good way to work. Pulled out some of my fruit recipes for the semi-sorted stack of dessert recipes and ran again into the question: Should they be sorted by ingredient (chocolate, pear, banana, etc.) or by form (custard, pie, muffin, quick bread, cake, etc.) They're by form right now, but I'm leaning back to ingredient. Decisions, decisions.

Make some super banana bread following this recipe. I have no idea where this came from. I just found the unannotated copy in my stacks. If you recognize it, please let me know. It made an excellent loaf of banana bread.

Dinner was Harissa Sweet Potato Hash (web), served over brown rice. It was colorful and tasty.

Sunday/21-May-17: Ed didn't feel well enough to sing today, and I didn't feel well enough to go. Sigh.

Early meal of Walter McIlhenny's Chili (Tabasco, p89). This was quite tasty, but the meat was a bit on the tough side. Might use the pressure cooker another time. Served with Corn Bread (Joy, p578) and guacamole. All good stuff.

Yogurt on overnight.

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

This week in the kitchen

Monday/28-Nov-16: Cut some meat off the turkey for tonight's turkey hash, and for Thanksgiving Round 3 that we'll have on Wednesday. Cooked up the extra Sweet Potato-Carrot Puff to serve with the hash. That was all.

Tuesday/29-Nov-16: Shopping today.

Dinner was Papillote de Cabillaud au Curry et Citron (VPG, web). That's paper-wrapped cod with curry and lemon. So-so. The cod was laid on a bed of thin lemon slices, which were nasty to eat. Preserved lemon would have been better. The combination of curry powder, aniseseed, and coriander seed was nice, though. Served with trio rice and some steamed green bean. Some yummy store-bought chocolate custards for dessert.

Wednesday/30-Nov-16: Picked the turkey and started stock. Froze up three batches of turkey meat. Saved the juicey bits at the bottom of the pan to make more gravy for Thanksgiving Round 3 dinner tonight.

Thursday/1-Dec-16: Boiled up the stock again. Used some for dinner. Will boil again and freeze it up tomorrow.

Used the leftover bit of canned pumpkin purée to make Sharon Frye's Pumpkin Roll (MC). This always looks like you've done something special when it's actually quite easy. And tasty too.

A clean-out-the-freezer dinner using lots of odds and ends: beans, turkey, etc. Made a kind of chili thing. It was okay. Will try to do something to spice it up for the leftovers. Made Ed some Cornbread (Joy, p578) as a go-with.

Friday/2-Dec-16: We ate dinner out before a concert tonight, so not much happened in the kitchen. If I'd thought, we could have had our main meal earlier and not wasted eating out at a so-so, but convenient place.

Yogurt on overnight.

Saturday/3-Dec-16: Froze up 17cups of turkey stock this afternoon.

Dinner was, sort of, Cilantro-Lime Shrimp Pasta (web) using frozen cooked shrimp. Pretty good it was. And a salad.

Sunday/4-Dec-16: Put lamb steaks on to marinate this morning, using the Best Steak Marinade in Existence (web). Grilled the steaks. They were exceptionally yummy. Served with Lemon Parmesan Crusted Brussels Sprouts (web). This was good, but used three bowls to make something not better than my usual way of roasting them. And then some mushroom-flavored pasta with garlic butter.

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

This week in the kitchen

Monday/27-Jul-15: Patrice and Wim came to dinner, so we had to stretch a bit to feed six people. Dinner was Spatchcocked Chicken Under a Brick (web), which turned out super. Actually not under a brick, but under two. Not sure why squashing the cooking chicken makes a difference, but it was delicious and quite attractive taking it off the grill. I used some of Jody's Moroccan spice for seasoning, although it wasn't very loud. Quickly defrosted twelve sausages and grilled those too. Made a bowlful of potato salad, loosely following Potato Salad II (p87, Joy), added hardboiled eggs, red onions, black olives, cornichons, cucumber, radishes. And some steamed broccoli. For dessert there was Crème Fraîche Ice Cream (MC), and we ate it all. Good dinner, not overflowing.

Tuesday/28-Jul-15: Lunch out today. Dinner was odds and ends that needed to be eaten. That's all. Authentic French Bread (out of head) in the bread maker overnight.

Wednesday/29-Jul-15: Ate at the marché des producteurs in Massignac. Not much happened in the kitchen.

Thursday/30-Jul-15: At out before a concert this evening. Not much happened in the kitchen.

Friday/31-Jul-15: Shopped this morning. Dinner was Grilled Masala Salmon (p46, MJ@Home; cookbooker). First "marinated" with dry spices, then topped with a mustard mixture. Very easy and yummy. Grilled only rather than grilled and baked. Served with suggested sides, South Indian-Style Green Beans (p145, MJ@Home; cookbooker) and Basmati Rice with Lentils (p212, MJ@Home; cookbooker). Yummy stuff all. Some chocolate-hazelnut pudding things from the shop for dessert.

Saturday/1-Aug-15: Lunch was Toast with Avocado, Fried Eggs, and Soy Sauce (web). Surprisingly tasty, this. And easy.

Terry and Shirley gave us a load of blackberries yesterday. I used them to make Classic Blackberry Crumble (web). Then I made some plain vanilla ice cream to accompany it. Peg and Jim made the rest of dinner. Some chicken bits in a creamy mushroom sauce and some potatoes and some cauliflower with a turmeric sauce. Wim and Patrice joined us for a gezellig dinner.

Sunday/2-Aug-15: Barbecue again tonight. Paprika Pork Chops (web) were tasty and easy. Any good rub would achieve the same effect, but this was a good one. Served with the recommended side dishes. Grilled zucchini tossed with grainy mustard and olive oil. Ed didn't want to grill the corn on the cob, so I boiled it, then charred it on a grill pan. Basted with lime-butter after. For dessert we had some treats Peg&Jim bought from the boulanger yesterday.

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

This week in the kitchen

Monday/26-Dec-11: In anticipation of company tomorrow afternoon, I made some eggnog, using the Eggnog II recipe from my old Joy of Cooking. It's ripening in the fridge now.

Then I made Eggnog Pear Pie (VegTimes, soon to be MC; cookbooker). I forgot to turn the oven temperature down when I put the filled pie in the oven, so the edges are a bit black, but the rest of the pie is yummy. Why they call it "eggnog", I haven't a clue.

Dinner started with lots of salad and the rest of the foie gras-stuffed magret. Good stuff. Then Lemon Herb Roasted Chicken (MC), quite good. Lots of sauce left, which will be good over pasta with some meat and a bit of veg, I expect. Also roasted up some more Brussels sprouts along with the end of the broccoli in the fridge. Followed by a slice of pie.

Tuesday/27-Dec-11: Real eggnog is real good. Yum.

For dinner I defrosted some zucchini-chickpea pancakes to make a little starter, topped with crème fraîche. Then there was some (defrosted) Zucchini Garlic Soup, the bounty of the summer garden. Then some pear pie. We're full.

I didn't participate in the last Cook the Books, because I didn't feel like finishing the book. This time the book is John Thorne's Outlaw Cook, which I read a few years ago. I thought I might dash through it again, and picked it up again with that in mind, but couldn't get into it. (I was surprised to discover that I've actually made, more or less, a couple of recipes from it.) Plus it's a bit intimidating that Thorne is going to judge. Think I might skip this one too. The next one is Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I've actually never read this, or seen the movie, and Roald Dahl isn't going to judge it, so it might be just the thing to inspire a chocolate fantasy.

Wednesday/28-Dec-11: Improvised a soup for dinner. Meant to loosely follow a recipe for broccoli-chicken-cheddar soup, but didn't quite make it. Took some cheese out of the freezer and Ed thought he would hurry along the defrosting, but putting it in a pan of hot water. It now looks something like CheezWhiz, which is one of the most disgusting food products around. The broccoli seems to have gone off, so I cut up some zucchini lurking in the crisper. There was turkey broth defrosted for something that didn't get made. And a handful of noodles. And some meat picked from Monday's leftovers. And a small can of corn. And the rest of the evaporated milk that didn't get used in the eggnog. Not bad altogether. Then some more pear pie.

Thursday/29-Dec-11: Shopped today. Bought some aillets again; these seem to be like green onions, but garlic instead. And, my, does the refrigerator smell (good?) when you open the door now. No plans for using them.

Dinner was Sauced Potato Casserole (Tassajara, p214), with slices of a smoked sausage tucked in amongst the potatoes. Very nice on a cold night. Salad after. Then the last of the pear pie.

Yogurt on overnight.

Friday/30-Dec-11: Made goat broth today. Have frozen it for some future use.

Dinner was Leek Bread Pudding, a recipe collected from EAT-L and available all over the web. Good stuff. Could be a side at a big dinner too. And a salad.

Saturday/31-Dec-11: Lots of finger food for munching in front of the TV this evening (Damn Yankees). For round one, there were (clockwise from lower right) verrines with an avocado mixture on the bottom, whipped cream and fromage blanc on that, and strips of smoked salmon on top—this was good all mixed together; olives from the marché de noël; toasts spread with soft goat cheese mixed with lemon zest and topped with smoked salmon (had to use up that 2-slice package, didn't I?); about a third recipe of Smokey Eggplant Purée (MedLight, p93) to use as a dip for ...; carrot sticks; cherry tomatoes stuffed with what was essentially a bland tuna salad.

Round two was store-bought: tapas on sticks (lemon chicken and herbed pork), plus little pastry packets (scallops, provençale, tapenade, and goat cheese). We had only eight of a package of thirty, but that make a quick munchie when you need something.

Had a good long reading session today and finished off the second book in the Durant's history of the world. Only nine more to go!

Sunday/1-Jan-12: Lovely lunch at La Bellone today. Nothing happening in our kitchen, but theirs was quite busy.

Progress on goals
This week: #1 VEG/FISH: yes, #2 SOUP: yes, #3 MIDDAY: yes (if restaurants count)
This month: #4 PASTA: yes

This week in the kitchen

Monday/21-Nov-11: Yogurt on overday.

Dinner was Roasted Shrimp and Broccoli (CL, may11; cookbooker); served with basmati rice. Edible, especially with a big squiggle of sriracha, but not a recipe to keep.

Tuesday/22-Nov-11: Didn't get very far with turkey day prep today, only grocery shopping got done, and that was late in the day. Surprise—there were preserved lemons! I've never seen preserved lemons in a shop. A big jar with little lemons and some bigger lemons in smaller amounts.

Dinner was a half dose of Barbecued Raspberry-Hoisin Chicken (EW site & mag), done under the broiler. With polenta. Followed by a big salad. Some store-bought flan for dessert.

Wednesday/23-Nov-11: Picked up the turkey this morning and left it in Barbara's refrigerator. Spent most of the day in the kitchen busy with Thanksgiving things. Since we've got vegetarian guests, I made a some Garlic Broth (MDSoups, p55) to use for gravy and the dressing. Made cornbread (Joy, p578) to use for the dressing. Put the Marinated Brussels Sprouts (MC) on to marinate. Decided not to make the sweet potato-carrot puff ahead, since there's no room in the fridge and it's too warm to store anything outside, so I'd have to take it to Barbara's. Instead I made the Pumpkin Cake (MC). Munched marinated green beans throughout the day.

Dinner was Cheddar Cheese Risotto (web, soon to be MC). Used some mature Welsh cheddar from the freezer. No baby leeks, used aillets instead. Tasty stuff. Followed by a salad.

Thursday/24-Nov-11: Yogurt on overday.

Prepare the rest of Thanksgiving dinner. Sat around talking till midnight. Stacked the dishes, froze the rest of the garlic broth, fell into bed.

Friday/25-Nov-11: Four rounds of dishwashing this morning to finish cleaning up from last night. Last one included breakfast dishes.

Made Apple-Plum Butter (MC).

For dinner the three of us finished off the brussels sprouts salad, then had turkey tartines, open-faced turkey sandwiches topped with onion relish from a market and comté, grilled till the cheese was toasty. Then we finished off the pumpkin cake.

Saturday/26-Nov-11: Picked the turkey and packaged it up for freezing. Didn't freeze the carcass, but expect I should do that since it might be hard to make stock while Bill's here.

Lazy day otherwise. Went to Chez Cisseen's for fish-n-chips. Yum!

Sunday/27-Nov-11: Lunch at the Trapateau's ferme-auberge. No one interested in food this evening.

Yogurt on overnight.

Progress on goals
This week: #1 VEG/FISH: yes, #2 SOUP:no, #3 MIDDAY: no
This month: #4 PASTA: yes

This week in the kitchen

Monday/1-Aug-11: Off to a quiz tonight. Bread on overnight.

Tuesday/2-Aug-11: Shopping today. Dinner was Tequila-Glazed Grilled Chicken Thighs (CL/jun11, soon to be MC); quite good, but the recipe recommended on thigh per person which seems quite skimpy. We had two each, and some grilled zucchini, and some trio rice. Meant to bbq, but thunderstorms at dinnertime meant the broiler was called into the breach. For dessert we finished off the lemon sherbert with some chopped pineapple (needed the juice for the chicken glaze).

Yogurt on overnight.

Wednesday/3-Aug-11: Dinner was a half dose of Shrimp and Arugula Salad (another CL/jun11, soon to be MC). Well, it wasn't arugula after all. My box was out of date and looked OK through the plastic, but when I opened it, I found it was smelly and slimy and not something I wanted to deal with. So a bit of mesclun it was instead. Supposed to be a 20-minute dinner, and might be if you didn't have to peel those shrimps. What a tedious job, and I've done it twice lately. Anyhow, the salad was good. Then a bit of chaource. Then a skillet upside-down cake with the pineapple left from yesterday's tequila marinade. I scaled the recipe down from Joy and it turned out quite well.

Thursday/4-Aug-11: Made 2 liters/quarts of curried zucchini soup as a first step in dealing with the zucchini surplus. Loosely followed a recipe from the web. The interesting thing about this particular recipe was that it included chopped apple for a touch of sweet in the curry.

Dinner was a pizza with, yes, grilled zucchini.First spread with pyramid goat cheese mixed with minced garlic, then some of Ed Giobbi's Sweet Red Pepper Sauce for Pasta (from the freezer), then the zucchini, chopped artichoke bottoms (also from the freezer), sliced mushrooms, chopped black olives, sliced mozzarella, and a sprinkling of oregano and lemon basil leaves. For dessert, a toasted waffle with blueberries and crème fraîche.

Friday/5-Aug-11: Made zucchini garlic soup today, this one with a bit of powdered ginger added for zip. Into the freezer.

Dinner was Zucchini and Feta Gratin (MC) followed by a salad. And the end of the pineapple upside down cake.

Saturday/6-Aug-11: A bit of a lazy day today. Intended to do some baking, but never found my round tuit.

Dinner started with Curried Green Pea Soup (TooMany, p155), a very old favorite. This time I used the new (heavy) cream that's been at LeClerc, but it actually seemed a bit too creamy. Next time I might try some milk with a bit of crème fraîche for richness. Then there were Zucchini and Chickpea Pancakes (MC), which we liked before and Ed liked this time, but didn't suit me as well. Served with a sauce of buzzed together crème fraîche, mango chutney, and cayenne. Some mini charlottes with red fruits (defrosted) for dessert.

Yogurt on overnight.

Sunday/7-Aug-11: Spent the afternoon in the kitchen today. Finally made cantuccini, a longtime want-to-do project. Used a recipe that a friend got in an Italian cooking class. They're easy to make and pretty tasty, but a bit messy looking and not brown enough. Although I measured the flour carefully, there just wasn't enough to make a "soft dough". I added a bit more, but ended up scooping the dough onto the cookie sheet, rather than make worstjes. No problem, they'll get eaten.

Then I made some Chocolate Zucchini Bread (collected a while ago). Good stuff. And, hooray, no zucchinis needed to be picked today, but there are at least two tomorrow.

Dinner was No-Butter Chicken (soon to be MC), a recipe from the web. Low-fat Indian! Easy easy and it tasted good. Served with Zucchini in a Yogurt Dressing (SpiceKitch, p58) and plain basmati rice. No kulfi, so some ice cream with chocolate zucchini bread for dessert.

Progress on goals
This week: #1 VEG/FISH: yes, #2 SOUP: yes, #3 MIDDAY: no
This month: #4 PASTA: not yet

This week in the kitchen

Monday/10-May-10: Our midday meal was Stir-Fried Ginger Shrimp (pby a Cooking Light clipping, soon to be MC). Served with rice and a broccoli dish loosely based on Tofu Hoisin with Broccoli, Red Peppers, and Walnuts (MC), sans tofu. Finished up with a mini-Magnum each.

I'm changing the way I make these posts, so that this week's post will be dated 10-May, and include days through 16-May. A small bit of confusion, but easier to maintain. And it matches the way I've been filing the extra posts. In the end it should be easier and less error prone. I hope.

Tuesday/11-May-10: I lunched in Rochehouart with Sally, while Ed had chili from the freezer with Cayenne Cornbread (BigGerman, p182). In the evening, we had the rest of the chili over slices of cornbread.

Wednesday/12-May-10: Yvonne came to lunch. Twas Chicken Curry North Indian Style (MC/2BTried). A new recipe, this was quite good and fairly easy; the sauce that developed was yummy. Accompanied by Simple, Buttery Rice with Onions (MJ1, p149, although I haven't looked at this recipe in a long time) and Green Peas in a Creamy Sauce (Q&E, p87).

Thursday/13-May-10: Very nice lunch at a restaurant in Genouillac with Steve, his sister and mother, and Sally and Mike. Some fruit and a bit of bread for dinner.

Friday/14-May-10: Our main meal at midday was a new recipe Grilled Fish with Green Bean Salad (soon to be MC). Served with some trio rice. Mini-magnums for dessert. The green bean salad was quite nice. It could be served as a starter. For the main, including some krieltjes or chunks of boiled potatoes might be nice.

Saturday/15-May-10: A quickie midday meal today. Four-cheese raviolis a la panna with a big salad, followed by a bit of chaource.

Sunday/16-May-10: Yesterday we didn't really plan today well, and I ended up improvisng a lunch from what would thaw quickly or was in the fridge. Made a sort of broccoli Divan, very 50s, loosely based on Joy of Cooking's version (Joy, p236). Put some frozen turkey scallops in cold water for a couple of hours. Cooked them while some broccoli was steaming. Made a sort of Mornay sauce (Joy, p323) with half milk and half chicken stock. Assembled in individual dishes and popped in the oven while some tagliatelle was cooking. On the plates we ended up mixing all together. Tasty though.