This week in the kitchen

Monday/26-Sep-22: There was quite a bit of sauce left from Friday's dinner. It reappeared tonight in almost the same meal, sautéed kip filets, some pasta, and some steamed broccoli. Still good.

Tuesday/27-Sep-22: Indian-ish meal tonight, a bit scaled back from what was planned. I used three kip filets to make, sort of, Tandoori-Style Chicken (MJ1, p67). I wasn't organized to get the meat marinating last night, which was too bad. The meat was a bit dry, I'm sure the marinating would have helped that. The "tandoori-style" is create by baking the chickie bits in a hot oven. I was wondering if it might work better to put a cast iron Dutch oven in the hot oven and then put the chicken bits on skewer in the covered pot. Next time perhaps. (No surprise, I didn't use the food color.) Served with Rice with Peas (MJ1, p149), which was fine even without soaking the rice. And some Spicy Cucumber Wedges (MJ1, p172). No time for raita (p162) or cachumber (p172) or onion relish (p174), all of which would have been nice with the meal.

Wednesday/28-Sep-22: We'd planned to have a pizza while watching the Jan6 hearings this evening, but the hearing was cancelled. Ed went for pizzas later, only to find they're closed on Wed. (I didn't remember that.) And the hamburger place is also closed on Wed. So I rustled up a quick pasta dish, based on Fusilli with Olives and Cauliflower (Lorenza, p99) while Ed returned. Because Ed had mentioned he wanted some meat, I got some merguez de volaille from the freezer, broiled those, and added to the dish. Used whole wheat fusilli. It was pretty good overall.

Thursday/29-Sep-22: Feeling a bit better today, thank you naproxen. 

Dinner was Sheet-Pan Balsamic Parmesan Chicken (web). Last week I impulse-bought some grenailles, little new potatoes, so I added some of those to the veggies (broc, cauli, and shallots). Pretty easy to assemble and tasty.

Friday/30-Sep-22: Shopping today. No dinner thought. When it came time to cook, I really wasn't feeling like it.

Saturday/1-Oct-22: Dinner was Pavés de Truite en Croûte d'Amande et d'Herbes (web; VPG). (I got the recipe from a magazine, but the web site has the same photo.) Salmon trout, a bit bony, was what I got. We had something with a similar crust at a restaurant that was quite good, but this didn't match that. After baking, the topping was still a bit gooey, rather than crispy. Served with trio rice and steamed asparagus (impulse buy this week). A chocolate-covered madeleine each for after.

Sunday/2-Oct-22: How is it Sunday already? Just caught a mouse in a (live) trap in the open shelving. Looks like young one.Very active for a while, but has settled down now. I'm always puzzled why our cats haven't been very interested in trapped mice. 

Dinner was Tagine of Kofta and Eggs (Roden, p245). (Roden is one of. my rubber-band books; the spine has split, so the book is in several pieces.) I forgot to get my tagine down to make this; it would have been good. This is tasty little lamb meatballs (kofta) with poached eggs. Served over whole-wheat couscous. A chocolate-covered madeleine each for after.

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: 10; #8 NEW: 4

This week in the kitchen

Monday/10-Feb-20: Dinner was a halfish dose of Pork & Snap Pea Lo Mein (web). This was okay but nothing special. I added some red pepper flakes to the sauce to give it a bit of zing. Then we finished the bread pudding.

Tuesday/11-Feb-20: Desvaux came to repair the stove. And broke a part. Now we don't know how long we be without the big wok burner and the plate warmer.

Off to the doctor and pharmacy, so dinner was late. We had Stir-Fried Shrimp with Broccoli and Chili-Garlic Sauce (MC). Pretty good stuff for minimal work. Mini ice cream cups for after.

Wednesday/12-Feb-20: Shopping today. I was discouraged from buying a bio chicken this week (for cooking next week) because they were almost €9 per kilo. Then I found one in the anti-gaspi bin for 30% off; only one day till its use-by date, so I popped her in the freezer right away.

I have to drive for a while, while Ed's foot heals. No cookbook reading. I realized after I carried it out to the car. Oops

Dinner was a half version of Tandoori Chicken (or Salmon) (web), using salmon. This was yummy, so I'll put the recipe back into the "bird" pile. Served with plain basmati rice and a halfish recipe of South Indian-Style Green Beans (MJ@Home, p147). Used snijbonen cut in 1" bits, with all the spices. Good stuff. Some store-bought riz au lait, tarted up with chopped pistachios and cardamom as if they were kheers.

Thursday/13-Feb-20: Dinner was Fusilli with Olive and Cauliflower (Lorenza, p99; MC). Good stuff and easy. We had some chocolate-covered madeleines for after.

Friday/14-Feb-20: Busy day with appointments for Ed at audiologist at and lab for xray of his foot. No break, thank goodness.

Lovely Valentine's meal at a local restaurant.

Saturday/15-Feb-20: Early meal today so we can go to a movie. I made, more or less, a half version of Vegetable Tian (web). This was pretty good; would be really good in the summer with veggies from the potager. My printout didn't have a picture, and I didn't remember how the "layers" were made. I had three separate, flat layers of potatoes, zucchini, and tomatoes. Good stuff. Then a big salad. We'll save dessert for the cinema.

Yogurt on overnight.

Sunday/16-Feb-20: Another round of Korean Sweet Potato Noodles (Japchae), with more of  Jaffrey's Kimchee that's been ripening in the fridge. Beforehand we had some little weinie and bacon snacks that I got for new year's eve quite a while ago. Past their use-by date, but still a tasty snack. For afters I make a half recipe of a vary vague peach cobbler recipe I found while rummaging around. I'll do this again soon with pineapple, since we have some oldish cans to use up. We're full.

Progress on goals
This week: #1 VEG/FISH: 4; #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/23-Apr-18: Well, it was supposed to be a pasta-making day, but I just didn't feel like it. So we had tagliatelle from the freezer, to make a 3/4-ish version of Pici ai Fegatini di Pollo e Radicchio—Pici with Chicken Livers and Radicchio (Lorenza, p130; cookbooker). Served with a big salad.

Yogurt on overnight.

Tuesday/24-Apr-18: Our meal was about a third recipe of Lapin à la Moutarde (SaveurFR, p197), accompanied by steamed broccoli and buckwheat crozets. Nice tastes.

Wednesday/25-Apr-18: Oops, forgot my camera today. For our meal, we had a halfish recipe of Chicken Messina (BirdHand, p113), kind of a poor-man's (or lazy cook's) version of vitello tonnato. Very good it was, nicely poached chicken with a tasty sauce. Served with North African Zucchini or Squash Salad (MedHot2, p87), wherein I forgot to add the chopped mint, and Moroccan couscous. Tasty eating all around.

Thursday/26-Apr-18: Shopping today. I noticed some "vegetable" pasta shapes and bought a couple—some fusilli of chickpeas and corn and some fusilli of red lentils and carrots. We'll see how those are.

Our meal was Cod Steaks in Yogurt (MJInvite, p122), which was good enough, but not a favorite. Served with Rice and Peas with Garam Masala (SpiceKitch, p65) and Salaad (MJ@Home, p235). These both tasty. Some Häagen Dasz ice cream cups for dessert.

Yogurt on overnight.

Friday/27-Apr-18: Lunch at Cath's today. Nothing happened in the kitchen.

Saturday/28-Apr-18: Our meal was Chile-Crusted Scallops with Cucumber Salad (web), which was pretty good. The cuke salad was good on its own (more lemon juice, less olive oil than asked) and extra good with the scallops mixed in. Unfortunately the chiles started Ed off on a coughing jag. Served with some of the chickpea fusilli dressed with olive oil, butter, and black pepper. This was quite good.

Yesterday I found the recipe for Soupe Épicée au Chocolat (VPG; web) stuck in a book; made a half recipe for tonight's meal. I used 100g of 85% chocolate and 50g or 70% chocolate. Melted these in my double boiler. The cream is infused with cardamom pods, a star anise, cinnamon stick, a clove, and some freshly ground pepper. That's strained into the melted chocolate. Pretty tasty.

Sunday/29-Apr-18: Again, it was supposed to be fresh pasta today, but I didn't feel like it, or like I had the time. Used boxed pasta to make Linguine with Lemon, Garlic, and Thyme Mushrooms (at Food52: web; at Nigella's site: web). Good and easy. I've made this before, in June-2014, but collected it again. Worthy of a repeat. Served with roasted asparagus and a big salad. Some of the chocolate "soup," now solidified, with strawberries and cream, which didn't go at all.

Coquelet on to marinate for tomorrow's meal.

Yogurt on overnight.

Progress on goals
This week: #1 BACKLOG: no; #2 VEG/FISH: 3; #3 COOKBOOK: yes
Cookbooks of the month: BirdHand
This month: #4 PASTA: no; #5 BREAD: no; #6 GUESTS: yes

This week in the kitchen

Monday/16-Nov-15: For dinner I made a three-course menu from a VPG. I served the entrée/starter, Croustillants de Courgette à la Feta (Crispy Things with Courgette and Feta), with the main course, Agneau Mariné et Houmous au Cumin (Marinated Lamb with Cumin Hummus). There are lots of versions of the lamb recipe to be found on the web. Some of them even include the instruction to cube the lamb, which is clearly shown in the picture, but not instructed in the version I cooked from. I just grilled the lamb steaks quickly. We're still out of tahini, which I didn't remember, so I made the hummus with peanut butter with some sesame seeds thrown in. Ok, if a bit crunchy. The starter was a mixture of grated zucchini, mixed with feta and gruyère, wrapped in brick, which is like phyllo, but round, then fried a bit. Pretty good mixture. Dessert was Gratin de Pommes Vertes (Gratin of Green Apples), well, only one Granny, since I was making a half recipe. Apple peeled and chunked, then sautéed in a bitter butter with some sugar. Into gratin dishes*, topped with egg yolk mixed with honey and sugar, then under the broiler. Not bad.

*Sounds impressive to have gratin dishes around? Actually they're the dishes from the frozen crème brulées I buy occasionally. Mostly they get used for feeding cats, but sometimes they're useful in the oven.

Tuesday/17-Nov-15: Back to Germany tonight for Hoppelpoppel—Eggs with Bacon, Onions, and Potatoes (TLGer, p67). Kind of comfort food, potatoes, eggs, and bacon.

Yogurt on overnight.

Wednesday/18-Nov-15: Orange (France Telecom) sent a technician this  morning to work on our internet connection. The phone support guy I've been dealing with insisted that the problem was in the house. The guy came and checked everything and said all is well. Before he got here, he did something outside ,somewhere in the village, that increased our download speed from about .9Mbps to over 2Mbps. Nice for us. Hope it stays up.

Somewhat belatedly thinking about our Thanksgiving meal today while doing the meal plan for the next week. Better late than never. Couldn't find a copy of our favorite dressing recipes so really have to turn on the Cube in the next days to get to Mastercook.

Dinner was a half recipe of Pici alla Salsccia e Funghi—Pici with Sausages and Wild Mushrooms (Lorenza, p140). The pici wasn't homemade, but storebought in Italy. The shrooms weren't wild ones, but shiitake. The plum tomatoes were really ones from our potager. Ah well, it was good anyhow. Then a salad. Then we split a magnum classic, a third for me, the rest for Ed.

Thursday/19-Nov-15: Busy with Stuff during the afternoon and it got late. Dinner was a favorite old stand-by, Artichoke Spaghetti (Art, p59), made with linguine and with a can of tuna stirred in at the end. Yummy stuff. Served with a salad of tomato and fennel, which was also pretty good. Finished off the egg custards for dessert.

Some of the Stuff I did included making pickled green beans and cranberry sauce for Thanksgiving.

The big news today was that Café Clemence, where my BookChatters group meets monthly, is closing. Today. So we are looking for a new place. And, it turns out, a new day. Such a mess.

And the Cube won't turn on. Seems like the power supply no longer does it's job. One on order from Amazon for not too much.

Friday/20-Nov-15: Shopping today. Our shopping bag was searched on the way into the grocery store. Not my shoulder bag, but the shopping bag. Not at one of the outside doors, but at the inside gate to the grocery. Very weird and fairly useless if this is an anti-terrorist move.

We'd planned to go out this evening, but Terry wasn't feeling well, and the weather is miserable, so we stayed home. Popped the leftover zucchini croustillants in the toaster oven to crisp them up, then some frozen multi-grain pancakes.

Saturday/21-Nov-15: Dinner was a half recipe of Ligurian Fish and Potatoes (web), appropriate since we've recently dabbled our toes in the Ligurian Sea. Wow, the fish was way too salty, even though I rinsed after salting. Served with a made-up sautéed zuke and tomato thing I've done (sort of) before. Which was lightly salted, so mixing all together worked well.

Yogurt on overnight.

Sunday/22-Nov-15: Started Ruhlman Easy Turkey Stock (web) today. It will sit in the oven overnight.

No lunch and had our dinner earlyish (is that linner?). A half recipe of Eggs on Curried Rice (Rodale2, p113), which I've made before. This time with wildfond instead of beef stock. Then a small salad. Then we each had the meat off one of the roasted turkey wings. And a mini mag for dessert.

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

This week in the kitchen

Monday/23-Mar-15: Dinner was Tagliatelle con Scaloppine alla Rucola aka Tagliatelle with Veal and Rocket (Arugula) (Lorenza, p145). I forgot to get rucola last week at the shop, so I defrosted a couple of cubes of leaf spinach to use instead. Used frozen store-fresh pasta, since I didn't have the oomph to make it. Pretty good, but what else could it be with all that butter and cream? Served with a salad. No dessert needed.

Tuesday/24-Mar-15: Dinner was Spicy Indian-Style Scrambled Eggs (web). Yummy stuff and not at all hard to make. Originally I thought I might make roti as a go-with (which I made in a class about a hundred years ago), but opted for something like pita bread instead. Started with that old favorite Spicy Cucumber Wedges (MJ1, p172). Some cookies for dessert.

Wednesday/25-Mar-15: Shopping today, kind of a small one since we're away for the next days.

Dinner was a half recipe of Delicious Roasted White Fish Wrapped in Smoked Bacon with Lemon Mayonnaise (web). Good stuff. Should have been served with asparagus but I had broccoli to use up so went for that. Which was a good idea because there was no green asparagus to be had today. The lemon mayonnaise is just regular mayo with a good squirt of lemon juice added, plus some black pepper. Good with the broccoli too. The fish was nice. My filets were completely wrapped in the bacon, unlike Jamie's picture. And it didn't get really crispy. The broiler might have done better at that. But completely edible. Served with brown rice.

Thursday/26-Mar-15: Off to Paris today.

Friday/27-Mar-15: Nobody home.

Saturday/28-Mar-15: Nobody home.

Sunday/29-Mar-15: Home again, home again, jiggety-jig.

Dinner was an old favorite Artichoke Spaghetti (Art, p59) with a can of tuna stirred in at the end. And a salad. Cheese for dessert. We've subscribed to three months of a cheese-of-the-month sort of thing where we get a box of four cheese every month from small producers. We sampled a goat cheese, Doux Chêne, and a tomme de Savoie. Both good.

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

This week in the kitchen

Monday/5-Jan-15: Dinner was a half recipe of Linguine with Spicy Shrimp (web), using rucola instead of watercress. (I think of watercress as a very French thing, yet I rarely see in the stores. It was seasonably available in NL, and much more often than here.) For dessert a scoop of vanilla ice cream with some defrosted mango chunks.

Tuesday/6-Jan-15: Went to my ENT today and came home with a pile of meds from my ongoing sinus problem. Went to Grand Frais after and didn't really buy anything. Then went to health food store and bought some stuff on list.

Dinner was Fusilli alla Siciliana (Lorenza, p99; MC; cookbooker). Then some of the little hazelnut-chocolate things I got at Grand Frais for a treat.

Problem to solve: I cook 7 meals a week at most. I collect from the web and magazines well over 10 main dishes a week. This has been going on for twenty years or more. I've got a huge backlog. How can I clear this out?

Wednesday/7-Jan-15: Shopping early today then hurry back to take delivery of a lot of bales of hay for the potager.

Dinner was Little Shrimp Casserole (web), using cod instead of shrimp (at the suggestion of the person from whom I got the recipe. We thought it was OK, but a bit bland, although I just now see that I missed adding the wine at the end. Might try again with shrimp, or with a mix of shrimp and scallops when I've got two almost empty packages. Served with some trio rice and some green beans.

For dessert I used the pineapple that I never used at xmas, some macadamias, and some pâte feuillieutée from the freezer needing to be used and made a dessert by smerging several recipes. The filling (grilled pineapple slices with whole macadamias laid on a mixture of marscapone, chopped mint, lemon peel, and finely chopped macadamias) was pretty tasty, but might have been better in another setting.

Thursday/8-Jan-15: Yesterday I bought cod and salmon for the little casseroles, thinking the color of the salmon would be a nice addition. But there was more than enough cod for two. So tonight I made a half dose of Risotto de Quinoa Gourmand Courgette et Salmon (VPG; web). It was pretty good, if not really a risotto. We had two more slices of the pineapple tart for dessert.

Friday/9-Jan-15: Had a delivery from Toupargel today, more than half paid for with a Groupon coupon. Lots of frozen fruit. Lots of desserts for two. A package of bavettes. A package of smoked salmon. What kind of people live here?

For new year's dinner, I bought some red caviar for something that didn't get made. So tonight we had a half dose of Pasta with Salmon Caviar (web; cookbooker). Not salmon caviar but lumpfish caviar (dyed red apparently), which is more in our budget. Nevertheless it was pretty good. Then a salad. Then the rest of the pineapple tart.

Saturday/10-Jan-15: Dinner was a half recipe of Orecchiette with Cabbage and Sausage (web). Good it was. I actually had a bit too much sausage, since I package it up in 8oz bits, but it didn't seem too much. Some frozen nougat ice cream with chopped nuts for dessert.

Four nights of pasta dinner this week. Maybe not too balanced here.

Given that Ed seems to have no problems with tomatoes and tomato sauce that I've carefully deseeded, tonight I put all my old tomato-containing recipes back in my green binder. This was instigated because I had an urge for a pork chop recipe that my mother used to make; chops and tomato sauce for tomorrow's dinner are thawing in the freezer now. I was surprised how many of these recipes included eggplant. I don't remember cooking with it that much.

Sunday/11-Jan-15: Just did a quick pass through the print-outs of this year's posts, to start thinking about the cover photos when I print the 2014 posts. So many typos spotted just turning pages. How many are lurking unseen? Oh well.

Dragging out a really moldy-oldy, tonight's dinner was Dinner in a Skillet (greenbook), pork chops cooked with onions, bell pepper, and rice in tomato sauce. Simple, good. Crèmes Brulées for dessert.

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

This week in the kitchen

Monday/27-Oct-14: Yogurt on overday.

Company gone. Back to a normal eating regime. Whew.

Dinner was, sort of. Chile-Lime Veggie Noodles (web). More or less the whole recipe for a generous dinner for two. Used shao-xing wine instead of sherry, only 1 teaspoon of sugar, and three eggs for the omelet part. Pretty good. We split a magnum classic for dessert.

Tuesday/28-Oct-14: Dinner was a half recipe of Summer Corn & Scallop Pasta (web). Pretty interesting and good. Out of whole wheat spaghetti (yesterday's dinner), so used linguine instead. Used canned corn.  Then a big salad. That was all.

Wednesday/29-Oct-14: Shopped today, then had a mid-day lunch of Baked FIsh with Kumquats and Ginger (Uncommon, p273), which is one of my two kumquat recipes. Served with haricots verts and shrooms. And some crozets, a kind French pasta, tiny squares, a bit thick. (Mine were nature, but the buckwheat version is traditional, I see. I'll get some of these, since that kind of earthy taste is sometimes nice to have.) For dessert, I bought some apricot pastry things which were tasty.

Thursday/30-Oct-14: Yogurt on overday.

Dinner was Arroz al Ajillo con Camarones (Garlic Rice With Shrimp) (web), which was pretty good. I made a halfish recipe. Cooked all the bacon this morning, so used lardons instead. My shrimp were frozen (thawed), but worked okay. I cut them in half lengthwise as she did. Having no green onions, I used shallots. Some parsley would have been nice for the color. Finished off the strawberry ice cream for dessert.

Friday/31-Oct-14: Made a triple dose of apple butter this morning, made it in the Dutch oven so it wouldn't spatter too much. Ha. Ended up giving the backsplash, utensils, and stovetop a thorough cleaning. Used most of a cheap sack of apples. Tasted pretty good.

Boiled up so artichokes for a meal coming up.

Getting the fresh pasta in on the last possible day, dinner was a half recipe of Tagliatelle ai Funghi Porcini (Lorenza, p91; cookbooker). Used shiitakes, since there were no cêpes at the grocery this week. Then a salad. Two squares of chocolate with almonds for after.

Saturday/1-Nov-14: An anniversary today, but neither of us wanted yet another meal out after the last weeks and at least two more coming soon. So, we had our dinner in the early afternoon, a halfish dose of Poulet Sauté à la Bordelaise (Sautéed Chicken with Shallots and Artichoke Hearts) (TLProvFr, p43; cookbooker).

Ed brought home two points of flan for dessert. Then we took ourselves out to a movie.

Sunday/2-Nov-14: For dinner, there was a half dose of Fusilli with Sausage, Ricotta, and Fresh Tomatoes (30MinPasta, p165; cookbooker) using Hazan's homemade sausage. Good stuff. Then a big salad. For dessert, I used the rest of the ricotta from the pasta sauce to make my version of Coffee Ricotta Mousse (MW@Home, p307), including cocoa plus Kuhlua instead of coffee and brandy. Good stuff for next to no work.

Progress on goals
This week: #1 COOKBOOKS: yes; #2 VEG/FISH: 5
This month: #3 PASTA: yes for October/no for November; #4 FotW: yes for October/no for November; #5 BREAD: none

This week in the kitchen

Monday/24-Sep-12: Another Monday with no bread in the house. Authentic French Bread in the ABM early. Yogurt on overday.

Are meal plans really good for anything? Most every week I make a plan for what we'll eat in the next week and use that to make the grocery list. I usually manage to follow the plan for a day or two or three, and then it falls to bits. We're eating leftovers or clean-the-fridge-ing or something that especially appeals that day or something that's a snap to make or ... anything but what's on the plan. And so, tonight, there was ravioli alla panna, using ravioli from the freezer (talk about a simple dinner) and a salad.

Tuesday/25-Sep-12: Nope, still haven't been out for bread. Buckwheat Bread (BigGerman, p38) in the ABM. My buckwheat flour is slightly out of date, but it smelled okay. And the bread is yummy.

Cold and wet today. Sounds like soup weather. Made Cauliflower and Bean Soup (with Fennel Seed & Parsley) (web). Used some garlic stock and some chicken stock from the freezer and didn't bother with the parsley. Good stuff, especially with a big slug of habañero sauce or sriracha, accompanied by Buckwheat Bread. Followed by crèmes brulées from the freezer.

Wednesday/26-Sep-12: Shopping today, not too much off piste. Dinner was a half recipe of Seared Salmon with Green Peppercorn Sauce (web); quite yummy, although the pan sauce was a bit too fat (butter, lemon juice, green peppercorns). Served with Haricots Verts in Walnut Oil (Lunch, p216), which is kind of becoming a household standard, and polenta. Then a salad, very simple with just some walnuts. Then some small slices of the hazelnut cake that was on sale last week, with some vanilla ice milk on the side. Good.

Thursday/27-Sep-12: Lunch out today with a friend from John Brown days, who was passing through on a whirlwind vacation through France and Spain. Only apples for dinner.

Friday/28-Sep-12: Dinner was Pork Tenderloin Diane (MC), an old favorite, during which the stove ran out of gas. So much for cooking over a hot flame; but the pork turned out quite well anyhow. Served with polenta and a carrot version of Broccoli Timbales (BEFCC, p58), which was very good. Double chocolate mini Magnums for after.

Saturday/29-Sep-12: Meant to make pasta (yet again) today, but was too tuckered after we unloaded the bits for the new woodshed. Luckily I'd figured this would be likely earlier in the day and defrosted some thighs for Chicken with Dates, Olives, and Cinnamon (CL/oct11, web). Made a third recipe with about half the spices. Served over couscous. Then a big salad. Not bad at-all.

Sunday/30-Sep-12: Yogurt on overday.

This was supposed to be the repeatedly postponed pasta night, but it didn't happen yet again. I made a half dose of Tagliatelle al Finocchio e Salmone (Tagliatelle with Fennel and Smoked Salmon) (Lorenza, p119), but served it over dried tagliatelle rather than fresh, which, no doubt, would have been better. Then a salad.

Meanwhile, I started on tomorrow night's company dinner, which started out to be one thing, but turned into an Indian dinner instead. Next week I'll be joining I Heart Cooking Clubs for six months of cooking with Madhur Jaffrey and this will be my first contribution. I have a bunch of Jaffrey's cookbooks, some of which are very well used.

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

This week in the kitchen

Monday/19-Sep-11: Didn't get to that stack of tomatoes today, although we had big ones at lunch and dinner.

Dinner was Tuscan Vegetable Sauté (web, via PatM, soon to be MC). Made a half recipe and served over polenta, which of course is from Lombardy rather than Tuscany, but I won't tell if you don't. The half recipe should serve 3, and I expect it does since we had a lot leftover. Good stuff.

Tuesday/20-Sep-11: Deseeded another load of tomatoes and boiled them up for sauce. Buzzed and in the fridge overnight to freeze tomorrow.

Barbara gave us about two liters of freshly picked raspberries!

Having nothing on the plan for this evening's meal, I defrosted some duck scallops, floured and S&P'd, then sautéed. Deglazed the pan with a good slog of marsala and added a bitter butter when that was reduced. Voila! a sauce. With orzo, pine nuts and basil added. Then a salad of mâche.

Wednesday/21-Sep-11: Made the juice for some raspberry sorbet. Shopped. Pizza for dinner.

Thursday/22-Sep-11: Yogurt on overday. Froze up more tomato sauce. Made tomorrow's dessert.

Dinner was a half dose of Fettuccine con Merluzzo e Piselli (Fettuccine with Cod and Peas) (Lorenza, p111, cookbooker), which was quite good and very easy. Intended to make fresh pasta, but didn't have the time. That's two misses this month.

When I got home from line dancing, we froze up Raspberry-Champagne Sorbet (Scoop, p132, cookbooker), which I made with Clairette de Die rather than champagne. It made only 2 cups and we ate it all. Might make a double dose of this up tomorrow.

Friday/23-Sep-11: Made my meal for Cook the Books, just under the wire again. Started with Moroccan Zucchini Salad, which has been around several times this summer and is still a favorite. Then there was Papa's Posole. Then there was Crème Caramel (TLProvFr, p102).

Saturday/24-Sep-11: For dinner, I dredged a couple of turkey scallops in flour mixed with the last of the rub for the carnitas and sautéed then. Then deglazed the pan with chicken broth (from a jar), white wine vinegar, and dijon mustard. Meanwhile, I warmed up the unused fettuccine noodles from Thursday in a bit of oil and mixed with some cilantro pesto from the freezer. This worked quite well, but it might be better to mix the oil with the pasta just after it's cooked. Then a bit salad with Turmeric Dressing (PRMTurmeric, p55). The dressing was good, and healthy, of course. ;-) Dessert was another pair of crème caramels.

Sunday/25-Sep-11: Ate lunch at a lovely ferme-auberge this afternoon. No need for further food.

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

This week in the kitchen

Monday/27-Jun-11: Midday meal today, an old favorite. Warm Broccoli and Potato Salad (MDSalads, p15). This must be one of my most repeated recipes. The two of us eat all of the recipe made for 4. Yum.

The Whole Wheat Bread with Bran from yesterday is quite yummy.

Tuesday/28-Jun-11: Whew, hot weather over for now and today has had reasonable temps. So we had a barbecue. Spicy Pork Tenderloin (MC), with the tenderloin cut in five bits (tail and two sections sliced horizontally). Accompanied by a Nigella Lawson recipe, Watermelon, Feta, and Black Olive Salad (MC); such a odd combination, but it really works. And some corn on the cob Ed got at the shops. I puréed the rest of the watermelon to make sorbet in the next days.

Wednesday/29-Jun-11: Got back from Bordeaux today feeling kind of iffy in the stomach. Nothing in the grocery appealed for dinner (I'd planned to get something fishy). Instead we had rewarmed chicken tagine. I took the leftover couscous, added the curry sauce that came with the corn on the cob (yes, curry sauce with corn on the cob), some chopped cuke, shallot, red bell pepper, and chili pepper, along with a goodly squeeze of lemon juice. Not bad at all. Followed by a salad. A bit of store-bought ice cream with chocolate cookies for dessert.

A while ago, I read that French people don't cut their salad lettuce as served. They just use their knife and fork to fold it all up into a tidy bundle for sticking in their mouths. When we lunched at the bread fair, I happened to notice that this is indeed what happens. So we Americans were sitting there cutting our lettuce leaves into bite-sized chunks while our neighbors folded theirs.

Yogurt on overnight.

Thursday/30-Jun-11: Needed an early lunch today before our respective afternoon and evening outings and didn't plan for this, so fell back to an old, easy favorite, Broccoli with Roasted Peppers, Olives, and Feta Cheese (Savory, p188), served over trio rice. After I got back in the evening we had a plate of fruit and some goat cheese.

Friday/31-Jun-11 (aka 1-Jul-11): Today counts as last month for the pasta-this-month-goal. I've been planning this for a while, but things keep happening to stop me making it, so here it is for last month. I made fresh taglitelle and served it with Fettuccine con Carciofi e Mozzarella (Lorenza, p91, cookbooker). Fettuccine would have been better, probably, but I just felt like the wider noodle. Not my favorite sauce, but not bad. Then a big salad of roquette. Then a half dose of Watermelon Sorbetto (Scoop, p112, cookbooker).

Saturday/2-Jul-11: Dinner was Shredded Zucchini Frittata with Parmesan (Bishop, p169) made with our first zucchini, of which I neglected to take a photo. Accompanied Mildred Schulz's String Beans and Potatoes (GreeneGreens, p346), with very fresh young haricots verts from the veggie lady who shows up at local bric-à-bracs; this was good, but not quite the right taste for the Italian-ish frittata. Then we ate up the rest of the Watermelon Sorbetto.

Made some apple-rhubarb butter for Barbara and David; it's their rhubarb, after all. Got ready for some peaches and cream ice cream tomorrow night (their peaches too). Might try some peach butter with some of the remaining, and maybe freeze up the rest.

Sunday/3-Jul-11: Yogurt on overday. Started some peach butter this afternoon to use up the rest of Barbara's peaches. It's in the crockpot overnight, so we'll see how that goes.

More of Barbara's bounty ended up in a half-dose of Mile High Blueberry Muffins (MC). Isn't it nice to have friends with a surplus?

I couldn't find the clipping with the recipe that I intended to make tonight, so I ended up doing something inspired by Merguez and Sweet Potato Hash at food52. I started the onions cooking while my sweet potatoes boiled till partly cooked. After they cooled a bit, I cut the sweet pots lengthwise into planks. I used the two-burner grill pan to grill the planks and 6 links (300g) of turkey merguez while the onion caramelized. When the pots were done, I cut the planks in half at the "waist". Then I cut the merguez links into three chunks each, 1.5-2" long, about the same as the half-planks of sweet potatoes (which were on the small side to start with). Tossed all these together with the onion and rosemary. It wasn't hash, I guess, since the bits were too big, but it was quite tasty anyhow. Followed this by a salad of mâche and beets and other stuff. Then peaches and cream ice cream (made with half cream and half milk and it was fine).

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

This week in the kitchen

Monday/6-Jun-11: Out at a quiz tonight. (We were a close second.) Nothing happening in the kitchen.

Tuesday/7-Jun-11: Dinner was Penne all'Arrabbiata (ClassPasta, p56); it wasn't penne, but it sure was good. Then a salad. Then the rest of the cherries and cream ice cream.

Wednesday/8-Jun-11: Really didn't feel like cooking tonight and had an itch for pizza, so we went to Montbron. We ordered two different ones and asked to have half tomato sauce on only half of each. The other half was creme fraiche. And, they put a roll of pizza dough down the center to divide the halfs. Very nice.

Thursday/9-Jun-11: Yogurt on overday. Our midday meal today was Pat's Orzo with Goat Cheese, Tomato, and Fresh Basil (soon to be MC). Ed's happy, having had orzo twice recently. This was very yummy and easy to make. Followed by a salad.

Friday/10-Jun-11: Shopping the morning. Impulse buy: While looking for ziplocs, I found some plastic sacks for freezing sticks of "popsicle." You pour your juice or whatever in the spout and six rods form. Into the freezer and then cut off the ones you want. (Yet to decide if these are actually easier than popsicle forms. It is nice that you can use the entire liter of juice in one go.) One liter of juice (red berries) made three six-packs like this:

For our midday meal, I made some rice and a half dose of Spicy Cajun Shrimp (MW@Home, p255). While this was cooking, I halved and scooped out a pair of globe zucchini, adding the chopped up insides to the shrimp. Used this to stuff the zukes and steamed them for a bit, then served them with the rest of the rice, topped with the rest of the sauce. Pretty good combination. And a salad.

Picked the chicken and made chicken stock. Started the preserved lemons (Couscous, p31) again.

Saturday/11-Jun-11: Out at a petanque competition during the day, thus late dinner. Conchiglie con Broccoli e Zafferano (Conchiglie with Broccoli and Saffron) (Lorenza, p88), an interesting combination of sweet and savory with currants and anchovies (after the fishy smell dissipates, only the savory taste remains). Good, but strange portions as seems to happen in this book. I used half the pasta (still too much, should have used only 6oz) with all the sauce and it looked rather like the picture in the book. Then the rest of the kulfi for dessert, so the freezer is ice-cream-free right now; I'll have to remedy this.

Sunday/12-Jun-11: Oops, didn't get any ice cream brew made today, so we'll be another day without our cold treat.

Dinner was a quickie: Tuna and White Bean Salad (CL, apr11). A good hot weather salad, if a bit under sauced; too bad it's not hot. (I spend the day shivering in long-sleeved tee-shirt, sweater, and polartec vest.)

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

This week in the kitchen

Monday/24-Jan-11: Leftover day today. Along with our plate of fruit, we finished the chickpea-leek soup for lunch, nice on a chilly day.

Dinner started with artichoke hearts, topped with green tapenade and a cabecou, a small goat cheese), a dab of olive oil and some chopped basil. All under the broiler for about 5 minutes. This was something I'd intended to make for new year's eve, but didn't. Pretty good they were and almost no effort.. Unfortunately the artichoke hearts weren't completely thawed. I thought they'd finish off under the broiler, but they didn't. Next time.

For the main course, I warmed the rice and spicy tomato sauce and heated some peas and broiled some turkey scallops. The peas went especially good with the tomato sauce. We finished off with slices of the limoncello wine tart. A pretty simple dinner, but good.

Tuesday/25-Jan-11: Late breakfast and off to a movie today, with popcorn for lunch. Dinner was leftover nasi goreng in a sort of omelette. Followed by a salad. Followed by the last of the wine tart.

Wednesday/26-Jan-11: A nice Indian dinner this evening. Black Pepper Lamb (MC), much better this time without the addition of bell peppers. I had originally thought to add green beans instead, but decided on just the meat and yummy sauce with gbs on the side. Good idea. Accompanied by Gujerati-Style Green Beans (MJ1, p102) and Aromatic Yellow Rice (MJ1, p153), both TNT recipes. The gbs are easy for a company dinner; everything can be gotten ready, and then takes less than 10 minutes to finish, with minimal attention. A couple of coconut cookies was a nice finisher-offer.

Yogurt on overnight.

Thursday/27-Jan-11: Out for Jamaican tonight. Not much happening in the kitchen today.

Friday/28-Jan-11: There are two kumquat recipes in my repetoire; tonight was Tangy Stir-Fried Pork (MC). Good, but maybe not as good as previous appearances. The kumquats seemed a bit dry. Served with rice and steamed broccoli.

Saturday/29-Jan-11: Yogurt on during the day. There was Hot Avocado and Shrimp Soup (MC) for lunch today. In the evening we picked walnuts with our commune and had dinner after.

Sunday/30-Jan-11: Midday meal today. Started with grilled artichoke hearts, topped with green tapenade and a cabecou, omitting the dab of olive oil and the chopped basil. Made taglierini, which seem to be my cutters labelled trenette; these seem to cut pairs of strands that need to be separated while hanging. A bit tedious, but this is a good size. The main was Taglierini agli Scampi (Lorenza, p120). I used some canned tomato paste and hope that Ed tolerates that OK. The sauce was pretty good, cream and tomato paste, maybe missing a bit of something, with shrimp that had been cooked in butter, then brandy. Followed by a big, simple salad, the end of some mesclun plus mâche.

Progress on goals
This week: #1 VEG/FISH: yes, sort of, #2 SOUP: yes, #3 MIDDAY: yes
This month: #4 PASTA: yes