This week in the kitchen

Monday/27-Feb-12: Nothing much happened in the kitchen today. Went to a movie tonight and ate Chinese/Vietnamese afterewards.

Tuesday/28-Feb-12: Dinner was Nutty Eggplant and Potato Curry (VegSpice, p83) over plain rice, plus some Potato and Pea Samosas (web, and many other places) and Raita (MJ1, p162). The curry was OK, but pretty boring as these things go. The samosas, wrapped in filo and baked, were very good. I made ten, but should have filled them a little less full and made a dozen.

Yogurt on overnight.

Wednesday/29-Feb-12: Made a dose of tagliatelle tonight to go with a half recipe of Tagliatelle with Chicken Livers (PastaCarluccio, p16). Even I, a non-chicken-liver-lover, liked it. Served with a salad. (Accidentally got a 200g sack of mixed lettuces, so saved some for tomorrow night.) Followed by frozen raspberries (thawed) over toasted frozen waffles topped with a bit of cream.

Thursday/1-Mar-12: Discovered today that the Type 65 flour that I bought at the mills on Sunday is high-gluten flour, so should be good for breads. The Type 45 flour that I buy ordinarily is equivalent to cake flour, although it's been making some pretty good bread. Wonder if we'll notice the difference when I make bread with the Type 65?

After some hits from this book, Chicken Patties with Rosemary and Pancetta (Diaries, p39) was not so successful. Tasted OK, but the ground chicken from breasts was dry in spite of being fatted up with lardons/pancetta and baked in broth. For serving, I thickened the broth a bit with potato starch. Served with smashed potatoes. Finished with a bit of lettuce and the rest of last week's Carrot Salad with Cumin, Cinnamon, and Sweet Paprika.

Friday/2-Mar-12: Dinner was a half recipe of Thai Shrimp Curry (KnowHow, p389; cookbooker), from the Thai Curry chapter, served over rice. Accompanied by a half recipe of Cucumber Salad (Delightful, p51; cookbooker), which is one of my standard side dishes for a southeast Asian-ish meal. For dessert, I defrosted some mango slices.

Saturday/3-Mar-12: Belated shopping again today. We still didn't try the scanner gadget; next time perhaps. Saw first fêves of the year, from Egypt, but didn't get any. Did buy some beautiful haricots verts from Morocco, a bit closer. Lots of nice-looking summer veg from Peru and such.

Planted a hedge of bird-friendly shrubs today, as well as three blueberry plants in big pots. Both of us with sore backs now. Sigh.

Dinner was a halfish recipe of Broccoli and Cashew Pilaf (VegSpice, p113) plus the left-over samosas. Forgot to make more raita, which was a shame, since there's yogurt to use up and I bought some fresh mint today (the mint pot isn't showing signs of life yet). I used half the rice and broccoli for the pilaf, but the full amount of spices and it wasn't bad, much better than the nutty eggplant thing earlier in the week. Think I might put the adapted version into Mastercook. The samosas reheated very well.

Yogurt on overnight with a new starter.

Sunday/4-Mar-12: Big lunch at the Fruits de Mer in Lèsignac-Durance today. Nothing happening around in our kitchen.

Hmm...never made any bread this week. What happened?

Progress on goals
This week: #1 COOKBOOKS: yes, #2 BREAD: no, #3 SOUP: no, #4 MIDDAY: yes, #5 VEG/FISH: 3
This month: #6 PASTA: February, yes; March, no

This week in the kitchen

Monday/9-Jan-12: Because we went to a movie this evening, we had our main meal at midday (yay!). We had most of the leftover carrot clafoutis and a big salad. Ed chopped up our usually lunchtime fruit and added a handful of broken walnuts. I tossed in some dried cranberries for color and added a squirt of lime juice. Good stuff.

Stopped at the boulangerie in Massignac on the way to a movie in Limgoes; picked up a pain ordinaire and a small, plain Three Kings cake—still in the shops even though Three Kings' Day has past.

Tuesday/10-Jan-12: Dinner was Chipotle Meatballs (from the web; cookbooker), served over polenta. Have 6 meatballs left for another meal (into the freezer). Followed by a salad. Then a slice of the Three Kings cake I bought yesterday. Where does the luck go when you find the charm on cutting into it? The crown was too small for either of us.

Wednesday/11-Jan-12: Tonight was one of those dinners where you spend a bit of time on prep and then everything gets done in ten minutes at the end. For a main, there was Saumon mariné à l'indienne (from the web; cookbooker), a French interpretation of Indian food, which was better than expected. Accompanied by about a half recipe of Cabbage with Peas (MJ1, p105) and of Potatoes with Sesame Seeds (MJ1, p114). The cabbage should have served two, but I've got another serving in the fridge; maybe for an Indian-biased cabbage slaw? Finished off the Three Kings cake. Good thing that's a once-a-year treat.

Thursday/12-Jan-12: Lunch at Lèsignac today, so nothing much happened in the kitchen this evening. The meal was steak-frites, good, but not our usual sort of thing. One of the bowls in which the frites were served was from the same pattern as our "new" salad plates and soup plates from the charity shop!

Friday/13-Jan-12: Dinner was Chicken Tagine with Preserved Lemon and Walnuts (KnowHow, p383), the first of the tagines I've made from this book. (Only one preserved lemon left. Do I make more, I wonder?) Served it as a stew, rather than over rice. Very tasty. We already had birthday cake next door before hand, so it was kind of a backwards dinner.

Yogurt on overnight.

Saturday/14-Jan-12: Dinner was Curried Roasted Squash Soup (RoastedVeg, p83; cookbooker). Butternut squash isn't my favorite, but this wasn't bad. And a salad for after. Simple dinner.

Sunday/15-Jan-12: Sunday morning, nobody wanted to go to the boulanger yesterday afternoon or this morning. Buckwheat Bread (BigGerman, p38) in the ABM.

Continuing with the buckwheat theme, there was Buckwheat Noodles with Mushrooms and Sour Cream (web, cookbooker) for dinner. No soba noodles to be found in the shops, so I made buckwheat noodles instead, very loosely following From-Scratch Buckwheat Noodles (GreeneGrains, p74; cookbooker). Then a salad. Then some chevre.

Progress on goals
This week: #1 COOKBOOKS: yes, #2 BREAD: yes, #3 SOUP: yes, #4 MIDDAY: yes, #5 VEG/FISH: 4
This month: #6 PASTA: yes

This week in the kitchen

Monday/5-Sep-11: Off at a quiz tonight. Nothing much happening in the kitchen. Did make a start on washing the new dishes.

Tuesday/6-Sep-11: Yogurt on overday.

It was unplanned, but today turned into a kitchen day. Started quince jelly, using the quince I bought at a vide grenier on Sunday. Baked a Pear Bundt Cake (MC) using pears that Ed brought home from choir practice last week. Now I've got some oldish plums plus a big pile of raspberries that Barbara sent this afternoon that need to be dealt with.

Washed more of the new dishes and realized that Ed has a counting problem. There are 23 each of the salad and soup plates. Washing on a "space available" basis, it may take quite a while to get them all done.

Dinner was Amy's Grilled Chicken Breasts (MC), which was good. Accompanied by grilled potato slices, parboiled first, then coated with a half and half mixture of mayo and dijon mustard; quite good, although I cooked them a bit too long before the grilling. And for our daily zucchini, there was Courgette, Lemon, & Ricotta Salad (Jamie mag, soon to be MC). Very easy and quite good, this was. Followed by pear cake, of course.

Wednesday/7-Sep-11: Shopped today, after another trip to Emmaus. Got some sorrel, have to adjust the menu plan. Didn't finish the quince jelly or make apple-plum butter or deal with the raspberries today.

For a starter, we had Jamie's leftover salad. It held up remarkably well, making me think it might be happier marinating longer than the 10 minutes suggested. Then we had a half dose of Noodles with a Carrot Cream Sauce (KnowHow, p245, cookbooker), which was interesting. Then a plain-ish salad. Didn't feel like dessert and it was too late anyhow.

Thursday/8-Sep-11: Finished off the quince jelly this morning, two small pots. It should have had lots of pectin, but didn't seem to want to set. I added a bit of sugar with pectin to help. It took ages to get up to the right temp (maybe the first time I've used that thermometer), but it finally did. Hope it will be set when it cools.

Also made a double dose of apple-plum butter, using some of the cheap, but tasty, fall apples from the store and some plums that need using (they were tasty enough, but dry and unpleasant in the mouth). That turned into a single dose actually, what with the small apples and boiling it a bit too long.

Used Barbara's raspberries to make up the "broth" for raspberry sherbet. Surprise—there were some strawberries in the bottom of the box. I took care of those all by myself.

Dinner was Creamy Zucchini and Dolcelatte Soup (SoupBible, p53). It was good. Might be good with broccoli too.

Friday/9-Sep-11: Yogurt on overday. Didn't get the sherbet made. Tomorrow.

Dinner was a repeat from last year's sorrel season, Risotto con Gamberi e Acetosa (Wild Sorrel and Prawn Risotto (WildCarluccio, p20). Yum. And a salad with half a big tomato, deseeded, from the garden. Bonne Mamam baba au rhums for dessert. (On sale at the grocery.)

Saturday/10-Sep-11: Another walk with meal this evening. Pretty quiet in the kitchen all day.

Sunday/11-Sep-11: Froze up the Raspberry Sherbet (Scoop, p132) this morning. Filled a liter freezer bakje quite full.

Picked 1.5 kilos of assorted cherry tomatoes today. And more than 3 kilos of beefsteak tomatoes. The biggest beefsteak baby was 675 grams.

Dinner was Penne or Rigatoni con Zucchine (Top100Pasta, p44), using the zucchini I collected today. It was good, but the mozzarella didn't melt as it ought to have, so the sauce was a bit stringy. Tasty though.

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/29-Aug-11: Dinner started with a made-up sort of zucchini curry soup. Then some grill-panned pork chops rubbed with Angela's Aromatic Spice Rub from the freezer. Served with grits and some runner beans from Sally. Those really didn't do well; don't know if they were too ripe when they were picked or if I did something wrong. The idea of doing them with shallot-butter was nice, but the beans were pretty inedible.

Earlier in the day I made an apple tart using a Toupargel pâte sablée. Yucky pastry, sorry Toupargel. Spread the bottom with rhubarb jam, then lots of sliced apples (thanks to our new peeler/corer/slicer). Sprinkled the layers with brown sugar and cinnamon. Pretty good except of the icky crust. Also, this is the second thing in a row I've baked that was charred black at the center back. Don't know if I pushed the dishes too far to the back or if something else is wrong with the oven.

Tuesday/30-Aug-11: Dinner was a half-dose of Orecchiette with Pancetta (web, soon to be MC) accompanied by polenta-stuffed tomatoes. The pasta was easy and good (yes, it included zucchini), definitely a do-again. The tomatoes were inspired by a recipe from VPQ, and made a nice side dish. Cook 25-30g of polenta for every 2 people. Cut the top off and empty one tomato per person. While the polenta cooked, I sautéed the last bit of some lardons from the freezer, added a chopped shallot and then a handful of grated zucchini. (You could used any bits of leftovers here.) Stirred that into the cooked polenta and spooned the mush into the tomatoes. Topped with some of the herbed pyramid (goat) cheese, and popped into a 200C/400F oven for 20 minutes to brown. All good, but I'm very full.

Yogurt on overnight.

Wednesday/31-Aug-11: Shopping today. In the "bio" section, I found some stuff that purports to be tofu, but it looks weird, is good for ages, and isn't refrigerated. We'll see.

Dinner was Jean B's Shell Pasta and Black Bean Salad (soon to be MC). It's supposed to be better the next day. We won't know, since we ate it all tonight. Followed by last bit of some reblochon and then some cookies.

Thursday/1-Sep-11: Added a chopped chili to Cooking Light's wimpy apricot chutney, then made a starter/munchie with leftover brick surrounding goat cheese and chutney. Pretty tasty, but not sure how you'd serve this to company, since it's pretty messy as finger food goes and doesn't seem right for a plate. Oh well.

Dinner was Old Bay Roasted Fish and Vegetables (SimpSups, p164) with panga. Used Old Bay Blackening seasoning, rather than the regular stuff. A bit salty to my taste, but not to Ed's. Pretty good altogether.

Friday/2-Sep-11: Seeded 4 of our Beefsteak tomatoes today, big ugly things that they are, and made 1 cup of thick (and plain) tomato sauce. Will have to take some pictures of these one of these days.

Dinner was Penne à la Vodka (KnowHow, p245) , a half recipe of the sauce with almost the full amount of pasta. Quite tasty, with seeded plum tomatoes. Then a salad of mâche. Then some crème brulée from the freezer.

Saturday/3-Sep-11: I went with friends for an afternoon's outing to the Emmaüs charity shop in Angoulême. And came home with a set of pottery (15 salad plates, 15 soup plates, two serving bowls, and two platters all for €10) plus some tablecloths, a long-sleeved t-shirt, and an art book (that cost as much as the pottery). Now I need to find some solid blue dinner plates to go with the pottery; then we can ditch our old, very chipped Corning plates.

On the way home we stopped at a boulangerie to get bread. I also picked up two little quiches (one leeks, the other lardons) for a quick dinner since we were supposed to go out for a bat-watching trip this evening. The weather was not promising, so we skipped the bat outing that we'd planned to attend. We had a simple dinner of carrot sticks, some St Maure with the delicious bread I brought home, and some chocolate roses for dessert.

Sunday/4-Sep-11: Pizza tonight. A sauce of roasted red bell peppers from a jar. Grilled eggplant and zucchini. Mozzarella and goat cheese. Basil from the garden. Yum. Ed ate two quarters, leaving the leftovers in an awkward situation.

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

This week in the kitchen

Monday/15-Aug-11: Nothing happening in the kitchen today since we attended a méchoui and ate our fill of spit-roasted lamb.

Tuesday/16-Aug-11: A cute little female mouse was in the live-trap this morning. Ed released it at the bottom of the South Forty. We'll see if she makes it back.

In the morning, I went up to help with the clean-up of the Mazerolles fête and stayed for lunch of leftovers and omelettes. Can't even think of further food. Ed ate the leftover Zucchini and Eggplant with Pork over rice.

Yogurt on overnight. English Muffin Bread (BigGerman, p15) on overnight.

Wednesday/17-Aug-11: Dinner was a half dose of Ziti with Mushrooms in a Marsala Cream Sauce (KnowHow, p245). First thing I've made from this book, pretty good. I used some mushroom-flavored trumpet-shaped pasta instead of ziti. Served with sautéed zucchiniwith some lemon juice and shredded basil tossed in right at the end. And a simple salad of shredded carrot with a lemon vinaigrette. (All the lettuce in-house was well-past its use-by date and got tossed.)

Thursday/18-Aug-11: Shopping this afternoon.

Made some Zucchini Drop Cookies (TooMany, p212). My my good. We ate enough that I had to jettison dinner plans and we just ate a big salad of mâche and roquette with more zucchini and Asian Dressing (MDSalads, p61). Now I have to think about recombobbling the plan to use what I bought today.

Friday/19-Aug-11: Hot day today, hotter coming. Dinner was a very nice summery salad, collected from the web, Green Goddess Pasta Salad with Herbed Scallops (soon to be MC). For two, it asked for 6 sea scallops, 3/4-1#; I had 400g, which were 16 altogether, and they were the little ones. Sea scallops must be huge. Anyway it was good. Some reblochon for after.

Saturday/20-Aug-11: And hotter today; overnight will be 24C/75F outside if we're lucky. Inside is hotter. The reserve of cool in the stones seems to have been exhausted.

Sophie was out all night, meaning neither of us slept very well. I called from two doors about 4am to no avail. At 7am, she zoomed in the terrace door, eager for dinner/breakfast. She was out for a while today, but came in early and hasn't asked to go back out.

Only one zucchini harvested today. Plus some cherry tomatoes. There are lots of bigger tomatoes that will be ripening in a couple of days. Another bumper crop to harvest. One ear of corn doesn't feel very substantial. The haricots verts and favas that I planted between the tomatoes, following a suggestion in some magazine or another, are buried by tomato plants, which are quite lush.

Dinner was, surprise, stuffed zucchini, using some cooked shrimp from the freezer and some leftover brown rice. Ok, and helped by jalapeño tabasco or sriracha, depending on the plate. Some frozen fruit juice "popsicles" for dessert.

Yogurt on overnight.

Sunday/21-Aug-11: Hot overnight and hot, hot, hot overday. And I had a thawed chicken to cook.

For a starter there was Zucchini and Lemon Salad (GreeneGreens, p400). No red bell pepper in house, so I used roasted ones from a jar. Picked some big cherry tomatoes and used those. Thinly slicing a peeled lemon was challenging. Altogether a nice salad that would make a good starter for company since it can be done ahead.

Then Weeknight Roast Chicken (CI mag, sep/oct11). This was good enough, but maybe more trouble than it was worth. And certainly not in the range of what I call weeknight (i.e., meal on the table in 30 minutes), since the chicken takes about an hour and a half to be ready. Served with garlic smashed potatoes and steamed broccoli. No dessert needed.

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