This week in the kitchen

Monday/28-Mar-22: Made a loaf of ABM French Bread (MC), a recipe I haven't tried before that I can see. Very promising at first bite.

Dinner was Easy Sheet Pan Sausage and Veggies (web; GD, GD). Shh, don't tell, I added about 1/2tsp red pepper flakes. Served over trio rice; polenta or grits would be better. Easy and tasty. One chocolate-covered madeleine each for after.

Tuesday/29-Mar-22: Two Drive orders today, with a stop at the boulanger and the Tuesday market there.

Dinner was Baked Salmon with Pesto Cream Sauce (web), which was pretty good. I made all the sauce, because that's how much pesto I had frozen. Served with roast asparagus that Ed got at the market,  and Garlicky Roast Potatoes with Oregano and Feta (web). These were good, but almost burnt to inedibleness at 45min, when I put the asparagus in to roast. Some store-bought chestnut mousse things for after.

Wednesday/30-Mar-22: In the morning I made a third-to-half dose of Grilled Aubergine, Red Pepper & Red Onion Salad (CountryLiving/jul00); can't find this on the web. Served this with a half recipe of Cajun Shrimp Pie with Creamy Corn Crust (PotPies, p150; cookbooker), in individual casserole dishes. Also a small, plain salad of lettuce. We finished the mothais for after.

Thursday/31-Mar-22: Dinner was Sheet Pan Chicken with Roasted Baby Potatoes (web; web; CL/mar16). This was easy and very good. Not really a full sheet pan dinner, since the chicken was partly cooked in a skillet. Served with the Chile and Lime Roasted Carrots (web) recommended in the same article. Used regular carrots, halved, rather than the baby carrots asked. This was also good. For a bit of salad, I made a third to half recipe of Creamy Dill Cucumber Salad (web; CI/jul-aug97). The interesting thing about this recipe (actually a group of four recipes in the magazine article) is that the cuke and onion slices are pressed to release water. Supposedly for an hour or more, but not that long tonight. All was good. 

Friday/1-Apr-22: Easy dinner, heating a can of tongue in a not-so-piquante sauce. Served over Spaetzle (MW@Home, p203). (Such a nice chew, has spaetzle.) As a side, Roasted Zucchini (web), more or less. This was good. Some store-bought chocolate mousses for after.

Saturday/2-Apr-22: Dinner was a half dose of Sheet Pan Sausage and Vegetables (web). This helped make a dent in the sack of frozen Brussels sprouts I've got. I used herbed chipolatas for the sausage. Served with grits. Good stuff all. 

This was the third sheet pan dinner this week!

Made another loaf of ABM French Bread (MC). It's good stuff. Tall, nice texture and taste.

Sunday/3-Apr-22: Didn't feel like making what was on the plan. Instead, intending to use most of the broccoli I bought this week, I made Warm Broccoli and Potato Salad (MDSalads, p15), an old standard. That new broccoli was yellow, gone to flower and seed already. Very odd. I had one bit left from the week before that still looked lovely, so I used that along with some of the cauliflower that's waiting for tomorrow's dinner. Good and satisfying stuff.

Progress on goals
This week: #1 VEG/FISH: 3; #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/10-Jan-22: Made a loaf of Easy French Bread (Electric, p62) (Basic/Rapid/M/d/-). 

Dinner from the freezer tonight, some vaguely SE Asian tuna patties. Served with Thai-Style Dipping Sauce (web) as suggested. This was a bit salty and a bit sweet even though I cut back the sugar. Then there was, more or less, Cilantro-Lime Sweet Corn (web) with canned corn. And some whole-grain basmati trio rice. 

Tuesday/11-Jan-22: An old favorite for dinner, Warm Broccoli and Potato Salad (MDSalads, p15). This is my go-to recipe where there are potatoes and broccoli hanging around needing to be eaten. Good stuff.

Wednesday/12-Jan-22: Made a loaf of English Muffin Bread, (BigGerman, p15) (Basic/Rapid/M/d/-) this morning. Picked up an order from Intermarché Drive.

Dinner was Roasted Tilapia with Orange-Parsley Salsa (CL/mar09; web), using cod instead of tilapia, which generally isn't sold here. This was fairly boring, if pretty. Served with the last of some frozen mixed veggies. (What we didn't eat, Buddy was happy to finish.)

Thursday/13-Jan-22: This morning I started a batch of Crockpot Texas Chili from an old printout of chili recipes. This is supposedly from the Texas Beef Council. I haven't been able to find the recipe online. Meanwhile, it had to cook so long, I decided to make something else for tonight's dinner.

So we had Scallops in a Creamy Dill Sauce (RezaRice, p62). This was tasty, with a good sauce, if not as quick as I expected. Served with Gram Flour Coated Zucchini (P&S, p101). This is a recipe I saved from a recycled book. It's pretty good and not too hard. And brown basmati rice. Pretty good dinner.

Friday/14-Jan-22: So, it was Crockpot Texas Chili for dinner. Ed liked it; I didn't. The recipe is very similar to my standard one, except for the dark beer added. I think that's the taste I didn't like. There's lots of leftovers to freeze, sigh. Served with tortillas and guacamole and some English cheddar, which was the wrong cheese.

Saturday/15-Jan-22: Made a loaf of French Bread (Tender) (BMB, p21) (Basic/Rapid/S/d/-). This is apparently the first time I've made this loaf.

Dinner was Chicken Cutlets with Roasted Red Pepper & Arugula Relish (web). This was quite good. The relish/salsa was a nice touch. (I didn't add the extra sugar to that.) Served with some minted carrot coins and whole wheat penne. Good meal.

Sunday/16-Jan-22: Yesterday's French Bread (Tender) was quite good. It's a shame that it's a small loaf, like all the ones from that cookbook.

Inventory fail today. Went to get falafels from the freezer for dinner and there were none to be found. Ed went for pizza, in not the best weather, icy and foggy. It was much colder in Montbron than here. Will have to replan the falafels after our next Driver orders.

Progress on goals
This week: #1 VEG/FISH: 4; #2 PHOTO: no
This month: #3 GUESTS: n/a
This year: #4 BACKLOG2: yes; #5 BACKLOG3: no; #6 RECYCLE: 0; #7 NEW: 2

This week in the kitchen

Monday/2-Nov-20: Picked up an order from Leclerc today.

Another week, another day when I didn't feel like making what was on the meal plan. Sigh. Instead we had Warm Broccoli and Potato Salad (MDSalads, p15), an old standby. Satisfying and good, as always. Store-bought riz au laits for after.

Yogurt on overnight.

Tuesday/3-Nov-20: Dinner a halfish dose of Pappardelle with Butternut and Blue Cheese (web). Used a potimarron instead of a butternut; half of the cubes went into the freezer. Roquefort for the cheese, because that's what there was. Pretty good stuff. The other pair of store-bought riz aus laits for after.

Wednesday/4-Nov-20: Made a loaf of Buckwheat Bread (BigGerman, p38) (WW/Rapid/M/-/-). Very tasty, nice texture

Dinner was a halfish recipe of Grenadins de Porc à la Crème (VPG; web), thick slices of varkenshaas with a sauce of crème fraîche and shrooms. Served with the last of some kind of pasta, I think it was kind of whole wheat fusilli, not very tasty. And some corn, peas, and red bell pepper (from the freezer, that). Some squares of chocolate after.

Thursday/5-Nov-20: Picked up an order from Intermarché Drive today.

Dinner was a half recipe of Saumon à l'Unilateral Chardenoux (BistroWells, p145), skin-on salmon fillets cooked in butter without turning. Served with Smoked Potatoes (BistroWells, p146) as suggested. Then a salad of sucrines, beets, and onion with some of the dressing left from Monday's broccoli-potato salad. Some chocolate-covered madeleines for after.

Friday/6-Nov-20: Dinner was a halfish recipe of Chicken Fajitas with Spiralized Zucchini and Peppers (Spiral, p126). Pretty good, if not fantastic. The recipe isn't very well written, e.g., ingredients whose use is divided between steps are not indicated as divided. I used my new Oxo spiralizer (single blade). I gave the electric one to a charity shop, a big clunky thing (four blades) that I didn't use very much. The Oxo one is small and make better spirals for just a bit of effort. A pair of chocolate-covered madeleines each for after.

Yogurt on overnight.

Saturday/7-Nov-20: Made a loaf of Buttermilk Bread (BigGerman, p18) (Basic/Rapid/M/d/-). Pretty good stuff. Made with 2cups T65 (bread flour) and 1cup T110 (white whole wheat flour). 

Dinner was Egg Noodles with Goat Cheese Sauce (web). This was simple and good, but I forgot to notice that it was meant as a starter, not as a main. Followed by a big salad. Then Ed had some bread with more goat cheese. And some mini HD ice cream cups for after.

Sunday/8-Nov-20: Yesterday's Buttermilk Bread being almost gone, I made a loaf of Oatmeal Bread (BigGerman, p26) (Basic/Rapid/M/d/-).

After last night's dinner, I developed an itch for something Thai or otherwise SE Asian. We had a halfish recipe of Spicy Ground Chicen—Laab Gai (Delightful, p91). This was pretty darn good, in spite of the face that I was out of limes. (Used lemon juice instead.) Served with Thai Cucumber Salad with Peanuts (web), my go-to Thai salad recipe. For "dessert" we each had a slice of Oatmeal Bread.

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/20-Jul-20: Dinner was a half version of Melting Mushroom Swiss Burgers (Ainsley1, p27. Pretty good as burgers go. Served with the frites leftover from our take-out burgers last week. I put them, frozen, onto a baking sheet under the broiler. Worked quite well. Some mini Häagen-Dasz ice cream cups for after.

Tuesday/21-Jul-20: Dinner was Mediterranean Chicken Gyros (web), a thirdish version with two kip filets. Not especially authentic, but easy to make and tasty. Served with flour tortillas instead of pitas.

Yogurt on overnight. Yogurt and bread happened last week, but didn't seem to get recorded.

Wednesday/22-Jul-20: Made a loaf of Buckwheat Cornmeal Bread (BigGerman, p38) in the ABM. Pretty loaf. We'll see how it is tomorrow

Dinner was Thai Crumbled Beef in Lettuce Wraps (web). I made about a two-third recipe (with 250g instead of 350g of ground beef). Easy and very good. Leaves of butterhead lettuce, rather than iceberg. Thinking this wasn't enough for a proper dinner, I made a quarter recipe of Summer Shrimp Pad Thai (web), sort of. Didn't want to open a can of corn for just a little bit, so omitted that. Used tiny shrimp rather than largish ones. Pretty good, worth an appearance as a main course we thought.

Thursday/23-Jul-20: Went to make dinner and discovered I was missing some critical ingredients. Replan.

Instead we had a half dose of Fagioli Toscanelli con Tonno— White Bean and Tuna Salad (TLItal, p6). This was good, maybe could use a smidge more lemon juice. I used canned beans and frozen parsley, since I'm out of that. I've made similar dishes before. Makes a very nice salad dinner on a hot day.

Finished a bit of goat cheese for after. While the Buckwheat Cornmeal Bread is tasty, I can't say it's the best bread for cheese, being a bit crumbly.

Friday/24-Jul-20: Ed picked up an order at Intermarché for dinner. Salmon comes in 200g and 400g lumps. Usually I ask for 400g, then write in the comments that I'd like 300-350g. That seems to work. (If I don't write, we can get over 500g, which is a lot for two people.) This time I ordered 200g and wrote that I'd like 300-350g. And we got 200g on the button. So a bit of a replan for dinner.

We had Salmon and Broccoli Pasta (web), which was good if nothing wow-ful. For after, I made some Chocolate Tapioca Pudding following my formula.

Started Overnight Bread (web).

Saturday/25-Jul-20: Oops, ran out of gas while the oven was pre-heating for Overnight Bread. Changed the bottle and started again.

Dinner was Warm Broccoli and Potato Salad (MDSalads, p15). This is an old favorite. All the ingredients were available, so there it was. More tapioca pudding for after.

Yogurt on overnight.

Sunday/26-Jul-20: Oops, I counted out the hours on the yogurt maker, but didn't manage to press the Go button. Started about 9:30. Will order some new starter, since I expect this batch will have aged significantly overnight.

Dinner was chipolatas from the bbq. Served with Green Zucchini Salad (web), a loose quarter recipe. Also some Olive Rice Salad (MC). This is a favorite recipe collected a long while ago, reputedly from Nava Atlas. No red bell pepper, so I used some roasted from a jar. Finished the tapioca pudding. We're stuffed.

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/24-Jun-19: Trying day today. We visited the gendarmerie about our neighbor problem. Never expected to do such a thing. Very nice young man there. As soon as we mentioned our hameau, he knew who the problem was.

Dinner was from the freezer, Meat&Mushroom Ragu, over mafalda corta. Made a salad with the little romaines. Couldn't face the rhubard cobbler, so we had some chocolate-covered madeleines. We're stuffed.

Tuesday/25-Jun-19: Neither of us could face more meat in this heat, so I froze up the lamb that was on the plan for today. Instead there was Warm Broccoli and Potato Salad (MDSalads, p15). As usual, the two of us the whole recipe. Then the rest of the rhubarb cobbler. We're full.

Wednesday/26-Jun-19: Tiny bit of shopping at Intermarché this afternoon before treating ourselves to hamburgers at a local restaurant.

Yogurt on overnight.

Thursday/27-Jun-19: We were supposed to have pizza for lunch today as part of an outing, but the heat cancelled the lunch and afternoon part of the trip. Instead we and Cath walked into a restaurant and had the menu du jour. I'd planned a light salad for dinner, but neither of us felt like eating more. We did split a sack of corn chips though.

Friday/28-Jun-19: Shopping today, since we were busy yesterday. Had planned for a Römertopf recipe four our main tonight, but couldn't bear the thought of a hot oven for 30 minutes, so changed the plan at the last minute.

For a starter we had, more or less, Guy Savoy's Tomato Coulis with Asparagus and Mint (VegHarv, p56; cookbooker). This was delicious and easy to make. Our main was Baked Salmon with Cucumber Relish (web), which was also really nice. Served this with a side of plain couscous. For dessert we finished the raspberry ice cream I made last week.

Vegetable Harvest is my cookbook of the month for July. I think I'll name it for this week, even though it's still June. Still have some Römertopf things to make, but the weather's just not right.

Saturday/29-Jun-19: Another hot hot hot day. The humidity is so high, the floors are sweating. Not to mention me.

Dinner was a halfish recipe of Asian Coleslaw (PatSalads, p16). No bean sprouts at the store; used some tiny haricots verts, blanched. Couldn't find any peanuts; used cashews. It was fine and very refreshing on the day. Some vanilla ice cream with a chopped peach for dessert.

Yogurt on overnight.

Sunday/30-Jun-19: Less warm today, but still very humid.

Dinner was about a third recipe of Sesame Chicken Cucumber Noodle Salad (web). Yummy stuff. Added lots of extra of my homemade haberno sauce. Add the sliced scallions and cilantro to the bowl with the lettuce, etc. Mini ice cream bars for dessert.

Progress on goals
This week: #1 BACKLOG: no; #2 VEG/FISH: 3; #3 COOKBOOK: yes
Cookbook of the month: Vegetable Harvest
This month: #4 PASTA: no; #5 BREAD: no; #6 GUESTS: yes
This year: #7 PROJECT: no

This week in the kitchen

Monday/14-Aug-17: Last night I put chicken thighs on to marinate with olive oil and Penzey's Southwest Seasoning. Barbecued those this evening along with some smoked duck sausages for dinner with Patrice and Wim. The chicken was especially tasty. We also had corn on the cob and Warm Broccoli and Potato Salad (MDSalad, p15), which is an old favorite.

For dessert there was Raspberry Bakewell Cake (web) and home-made vanilla ice cream (recipe from old ice cream maker). All was good.

Yogurt on overnight.

Tuesday/15-Aug-17: Dinner at Mazerolles' Fête Patronale today. Nothing happened in the kitchen.

Wednesday/16-Aug-17: Dinner at the Marché des Producteurs in Massignac tonight. Nothing happened in the kitchen.

Thursday/17-Aug-17: Early meal today. We had Riz Cantonais Revisité au Chorizo (web). I mis-remembered what was needed so I bought merguez last night instead of chorizo. The recipe is pretty much without spice or flavor beyond the merguez, so I added some soy sauce and rice vinegar and a goodly slog of garlic-chili sauce. The merguez actually worked quite well.

Friday/18-Aug-17: Yogurt on overday.

Lunch at Sally and Mike's today. Nothing further happened in the kitchen.

Saturday/19-Aug-17: Ate out at a medieval banquet animé this evening. Nothing further happened in the kitchen,

Sunday/20-Aug-17: Before we went out today, I put shrimp on to marinate for Lemon & Spice Grilled Shrimp (web), using white wine Worcestershire sauce (whatever it's called these days) instead of the regular stuff. Ed grilled these, perhaps a trifle too long, for dinner, while I grilled the leftover polenta (looked fine, but perhaps a bit past its use-by date), boiled some corn on the cob, and made a salad using our first real tomatoes of the year with some dressing from the brocolli and potato salad from earlier in the week.

A strange week this week. This is only the third time I've cooked, so one third of the meals have been fish or veg, but that's only one meal. Next week will be more normal I think.

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

This week in the kitchen

Monday/31-Oct-16: Homemade yogurt for breakfast today. Happy face!

Used leftovers from the other night to make Warm Broccoli and Potato Salad (MDSalads, p15) for lunch. There was enough of it we didn't feel like eating dinner. I planned to make a meal from the current Time-Life book, but didn't feel like doing anything further. Replan necessary.

Made some Herb Salt (Art, p172).

Tuesday/1-Nov-16: Lunch out today. Nothing happened in the kitchen.

Wednesday/2-Nov-16: Because we were out most of yesterday, I didn't get the meal plan and list made for shopping today. Instead, I made the Time-Life meal that I originally planned for Monday. Then we went off to a movie.

Thursday/3-Nov-16: Since Ed's choir practice would run long today and he had errands to run afterwards, we decided to postpone shopping till tomorrow. We had Time-Life crab cakes for dinner along with canned corn and trio rice. Squares of chocolate for dessert.

Friday/4-Nov-16: We finally got to shopping today, and even that was late. Friday afternoon is not the best of times.

Dinner was Panko-Crusted Baked Salmon (web), made in the oven this time as it should be. Quite good it was. Served with steamed broccoli topped with lemon juice, and a kind of pilaf with shallots and some sliced (impulse-bought) shiitakes. All was good. Chocolate squares and a Pogo walk for dessert.

Saturday/5-Nov-16: Today my bike, which has been sitting on flat tires in the far shed since we moved here, went off to one of the refugées who were moved from Calais to Montbron. A bit sad to see it go, but glad it will be used.

For dinner, I used a recipe from a recipe for Chicken Satay Marinade from an EAT-L friend to make, yes, Chicken Satay with two kip filets. I cut these into four strips each and marinated them a good long while, then skewered them and grilled under the broiler. Should have made some peanut sauce to go with it, but it was still good. Served with Coconut Rice (30MinInd, p100) and a Thai-ish cucumber salad vaguely following a recipe from the web. All was good.

Sunday/6-Nov-16: Yippee! Ed had fried chicken for dinner tonight! Served with some garlic mashed potatoes for the gravy and some peas and carrots. We were full, no dessert needed.

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

This week in the kitchen

Monday/20-Jul-15: We had our main meal early today before going to a concert in the evening. I made the "An Hour in Provence" menu from RushHour, including Pan Bagna (p85; cookbooker), Romaine Salad with Garlic Dressing (p86; cookbooker), and Peach Compote with Basil (p87; cookbooker) A very nice menu with a very helpful timetable for getting it all done. Good results.

Tuesday/21-Jul-15: We'd planned on going to a movie this morning, but got in so late last night we blew it off. Still, I cooked up the crockpot dish I'd planned so we'd have dinner when we returned. Crockpot Balsamic Pork (web, although I got it in an email). Almost no work and delicious. Used up some little potatoes as crushed potatoes similar to what I made a week or so ago. Because it's so hot, I just finished them under the broiler, which works if you pay attention. They go very black really fast. And some of the leftover taboulleh.

Wednesday/22-Jul-15: Using up broccoli and potatoes, there was Warm Broccoli and Potato Salad (p15, MDSalads) for dinner. An old favorite. Still good.

Thursday/23-Jul-15: Wrapped up three days of cleaning today. But Peg&Jim won't arrive till tomorrow. Clean+1. Oh well. A nice dinner we had for them tonight. Marinating overnight there was Fiery Grilled Turkey Breast (web), which was yummy, but didn't not take the advertised 40 minutes to cook. Piggies that we are, we ate it all. Served with brown rice, which burnt because I was out of the room when the dinger went off. And a half dose of Cabbage Salad—Salad Galam (p50, Delightful; cookbooker). Yummy salad this, and not too much trouble. Some mini magnums for dessert.

Cooked some Slow Cooker Cardamom Rice Pudding with Fresh Peaches (web) during the day. It seems to have been designed for the newer, hotter cooking crockpots, since it wasn't done after the allotted time. Cooked in longer on High, rather than on Low, and it finally got ready. Put it in the fridge since P&J didn't arrive arrive today as expected.

Friday/24-Jul-15: Shopping this morning. Peg and Jim arrived in the afternoon. We missed boules, but went up to Chez Mamie's for a drink. Dinner was Espadon Grillé à la Sauge Frite (C&V, but not online afaics), grilled swordfish topped with fried sage leaves and fried lemon zest. Served with polenta and Baked Eggplant Slices (p114, TooMany), a really old favorite. For dessert we had the rice pudding from yesterday with slices of fresh nectarines.

Saturday/25-Jul-15: Picnic lunch today at Chris&Paula's charity "do" for Chernobyl kids. Dinner out with a band playing. Nothing much happened in the kitchen.

Sunday/26-Jul-15: Out again today. A quick dinner with a bit of soup from the freezer, then kind of sloppy Joes with the balsamic pork from Tuesday with some of Mama's Garlic Coleslaw (MC Handybook)

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

This week in the kitchen

Monday/6-Jul-15: Not much happened in the kitchen. Went out for a movie in the evening. Add some cheese on the way there. Then a box of popcorn. That was dinner.

Tuesday/7-Jul-15: Off to the ear doctor today. He gave me a prescription for new hearing aids. All but the bank account say Hooray! In NL these were almost 100% paid for. The French system pays only for the old-fashioned analog ones. Boo.

After a Groupon/Flunch lunch, we went to the tile store and ordered the tile for the kitchen walls. To be delivered in September. I was hoping for end-July or early-August, but we'll take what we can get.

This is turning into a year of big expenses, one after the other. Refrigerator, strimmer, pressure cleaner, washing machine, kitchen tiles, hearing aids, new glasses for both. What else is in the offing?

Easy dinner of leftover soup, then leftover swordfish with some trio rice, then we split the slice of chocolate-walnut tart I bought yesterday. (We both thought it tasted more like chocolate and pecan, but the sign said walnut/noix.)

The temperature has come down today, and tomorrow should be cooler still, i.e., tolerable. We might be able to sleep without the a/c tonight.

Wednesday/8-Jul-15: The Gitem man came this morning to fix the non-working burner on the stove.

Lunch out before the glove factory tour in St. Junien.

A big salad for dinner.

Thursday/9-Jul-15: Yay! the new washing machine arrived this afternoon. All bells and whistles. First load of clothes washed, next one queued for in the night.

Dinner was Barley Salad with Tuna & Mozzarella (p62, PatSalads). Needed lots of salt, but otherwise quite good. Barley has a nice chewiness. Real mozzarella chopped up would be better than the mini balls, which are fairly tasteless. Then a mini magnum each.

Friday/10-Jul-15: Managed to finish the list and get shopping done today. Dinner was Green Tea Salmon, a recipe from the inside lid of a box of Celestial Seasonings Tea. Poor instructions, but it turned out okay. Served with some Hot and Spicy Wrinkled Beans (p106, Chinatown) and brown rice that was a bit crispy because I forgot to turn off the fire. Then a salad with Asian Dressing (p61, MDSalads); made a half recipe and have another salad's worth left. Then a fruit juice popsicle.

Saturday/11-Jul-15: Main meal early today so Ed could go off to choir. Mostly from the freezer. Tarted up the "juice" from some chicken paprikash by adding some peas and cooked chicken. Served over spaetzle. Made a salad but didn't have time to eat it.

Sunday/12-Jul-15: Another meal from the freezer. An Indian red lentil thing. Served over basmati rice,  with Karhai Broccoli (p148, MJ@Home). Then some mini magnums for dessert. Ed had chocolate chocolate, I had white chocolate.

The new washer has a big don't-like feature. Because it's an all-electronic thing, the timer can't be used to turn it on. The automatic delay feature works by setting the number of hours after which you want it to be finished. And the minimum you can set is 3 hours. If it's 11:30 and you want to start it at noon, you just have to wait to noon to push Go. European washing machines heat their own water and we have low electricity rates from noon to two, so starting at noon is a Good Thing.

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

This week in the kitchen

Monday/6-Apr-15: Tonight's dinner called for a whole wheat pâte brisée, but I couldn't find a recommended recipe and in the end didn't feel like making even a regular pastry, so defrosted a store-bought one instead. Even though it was a recommended brand, it's still not as good as a homemade one, so that was a weak point in the Broccoli and Olive Tart (p66, Pickford; cookbooker) that I made. This was a pretty good tart, deserving a better crust. The bell peppers and olives really complemented each other and broccoli is always good in this kind of a thing. A stronger goat's cheese might be nice. Followed by a salad. We were full (since we ate 3/4 of the tart meant for four).

Tuesday/7-Apr-15: Yogurt on overday. Shopping today.

Dinner was Ancho-Honey Pork Tenderloin with Cheese Grits (web). The recipe is meant for four; we ate all of it. My varkenshaas  (filet mignon de porc) was a bit smaller than asked, but it was still a lot. Bought a huge sack of spinach, which sautéed down to a spoonful each; that was the suggested side. Afterwards, we finished off the kheer.

Wednesday/8-Apr-15: Dinner was a half recipe of Panko-Crusted Baked Salmon (web). Panko is so convenient for a crispy crust, but what's in the stuff? Think I might need to worry about it a bit.) I did it under the broiler rather than in the oven, and left it at the highest level. The fish was great, but the panko burnt black. Will try this again, either in the oven as directed or on a lower level under the broiler. Served with brown rice and asparagus. No dessert.

Thursday/9-Apr-15: Brette was due at the Angoulême train station at 19.24. I had dinner planned and mostly ready for our return: Pear Shrimp Salad (MC 2BTried; web) for a starter; Slow-Roast Lamb (Diaries, p62) with smashed potatoes and steamed broccoli for the main; cornuelles for dessert. Showed up at the train station, but no Brette. Home again, turn of the lamb (and eat some), discovered Brette's at the train station in Bordeaux (no more trains tonight), off to Bordeaux to get her, home again at 1.30. Start yogurt, put lamb in fridge, go to bed.

Friday/10-Apr-15: Made some more lamb stock from bones in the freezer.

We had lunch out. For "dinner", we had the Pear Shrimp Salad (I made a half recipe for the three of us); this was pretty good. Then some cheese and wine. Then the cornuelles. We're stuffed, all of us.

Tomorrow I'll defat the lamb stock, cut the rest of the lamb off the bone, and freeze together, except for some sandwich makings. And I'll make some broccoli-potato salad with the potatoes and broccoli. And that will be the end of that dinner.

Saturday/11-Apr-15: Made up some Warm Broccoli and Potato Salad (MDSalads, p15). Had that for lunch along with the Moroccan olives that Brette brought.

Cut the lamb off the bone. We munched a bit. I froze up a packet of slices and a packet of bits (pot pie?) for the future and left a plate in the fridge for munching in the next days. Ended up with over 2cups of stock that will make the gravy for open-face sandwiches perhaps and for pot pies.

Brette and I ate out at a Rock Bottom concert, while Ed was feeling poorly.

Sunday/12-Apr-15: Yogurt on overday.

Brette and I had Spicy Indian-Style Scrambled Eggs (web) for lunch before I took her to the train station to start her return to Morocco.

For dinner, I used one lot of the lamb roast to make Lamb in Spiced Gravy (30MinCook, p179), which is pretty good stuff for minimal effort. Served over whole-wheat couscous.

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

This week in the kitchen

Monday/19-May-14: Potatoes to use up? Broccoli to use up? The go-to recipe is Warm Broccoli and Potato Salad (MDSalads, p15). Since there was lots to use up, two of us ate a whole recipe. That's all.

Tuesday/20-May-14: Tamale Pie from the freezer for dinner, along with a little salad of avocado, tomato, and cilantro. That was all.

Wednesday/21-May-14: Yogurt on overday.

BIll arrived this afternoon. For dinner we had chicken noodle soup from the freezer, "enhanced" with some potatoes. Then a salad. Then a chunk of nameless cheese (I've forgotten the name) that I got at the market in Angoulême on Saturday. Then some eclairs that Ed and Bill bought at a boulanger on the way back from the train station.

Thursday/22-May-14: Lunch out with Bill today before Ed went to choir practice and Bill and I went shopping. For our evening meal we had fruit, cheese, and rillettes, followed by cream puffs Ed bought at our local boulanger.

Friday/23-May-14: Dinner out before a concert this evening. Not much happened in the kitchen.

Saturday/24-May-14: Yogurt on overday.

For a starter tonight we had Artichokes Stuffed with Shrimp and Green Goddess Dressing (TLAmer, p70). Then there was Escalope of Pork with Asparagus and Cheese (30MinCook, p187) for next week's IHCC, accompanied by boiled potatoes, buttered and parslied. (We were all full afterwards.

Sunday/25-May-14: For dinner Ed barbecued chicken thighs that had been stewing for a day in a marinade from the freezer, then basted with pomegranate molasses just before serving. For sides there was polenta and Green Beans with Garlic and Preserved Lemon (WorldVeg, p205), me declaring my preserved lemons "done" a few days before the appointed time. None of us felt like anything afterwards.

Progress on goals
This week: #1 COOKBOOKS: yes; #2 VEG/FISH: 2
This month: #3 PASTA: no; #4 FotW: no; #5 BREAD: 1

This week in the kitchen

Monday/22-Jul-13: A busy day today. Tosca & Mike arrived in the area today, and came with Patrice & Wim to dinner.

Before they arrived, I made Nigella Lawson's Watermelon, Feta, and Black Olive Salad (MC, web). Started to make Jaffrey's zucchini salad with feta, but replanned when I realized that would be two feta salads. Duh. I did a bit of searching and made Shaved Zucchini Salad with Parmesan and Pine Nuts (web) instead. I knew it looked familiar and indeed I made it last summer. Finished off the sauce for Orange Sriracha Chicken (web). We moved the dining table outside to eat.

We had a bottle of champagne (a gift to Ed from his Montbron choir friends) to start, along with various sausages, olives, and cornichons.

Then we had the grilled chicken, along with some extra sausages, and the two salads. All were hits.

Then we had an opulent cheese platter, followed by the apricot tart and Fresh Apricot Ice Cream (Scoop, p76), which was also a keeper.

Tuesday/23-Jul-13: Yogurt on overday.

A Groupon dinner a La Ribaudière, so nothing happened in the kitchen.

Wednesday/24-Jul-13: Yogurt on overday.

Dinner out with Jody and Steve, Tosca and Mike, and Patrice and Wim. Not much else in the kitchen today.

Thursday/25-Jul-13: Lunch in La Roche after some shopping, then shopping while Jody and Steve packed, then dinner at a marché des producteurs.

Friday/26-Jul-13: Omelets with a mushroom, lardon, and chipotle flake filling this morning to see Jody and Steve on their way.

For dinner we had the rest of Jody's lamb stew augmented with some potatoes.

Saturday/27-Jul-13: Dinner was Warm Broccoli and Potato Salad (MDSalads, p15). While I was making this, we munched on the watermelon from Monday evening; that held up surprisingly well. Some double chocolate mini magnums for dessert.

Picked about a pint of blueberries and one zucchini this evening.

Sunday/28-Jul-13: Yogurt on overday.

This was cleaning out the fridge night, not that the fridge got cleaned out, but at least I made a dent. We had an odd lot of dishes including:

• Corn on the cob I bought on Thursday.
• Zucchini hummus (web) using the year's first zucchini. This is essentially hummus with zucchini replacing the chickpeas; pretty good. Serve with carrot and red bell pepper sticks for dipping.
• A made-up dish using the already boiled potatoes from the fridge, along with a couple of small, newly boiled ones from the sack, topped with some sautéed shallots, slices of the last of the bbq'd sausages, and some slices of chaource, then baked for a while. Pretty darn good for practically no work. Ed added some slices of blue cheese (fourme d'Ambert) at the table, while I ate my extra cheese on a slice of stale bread.
• The shaved zucchini salad from Monday. A surprise to me that it didn't keep very well. I think it was the mint that added a strange, sharp taste, especially to the zukes. 

No post for Ottolenghi this week or last, neither have I cooked from a seldom used cookbook. Maybe next week I'll get back in the groove. Only one vegetarian meal, no pasta or bread yet in July. Not doing very well here!

Went to bring in the laundry this evening (mostly mattress pads) and found them covered with little bugs like mini ladybugs. The pad under the hazelnut tree was especially covered.

Progress on goals
This week: #1 IHCC/COOKBOOKS: no, #2 VEG/FISH: 1
This month: #3 PASTA: no, #4 BREAD: no

This week in the kitchen

Monday/1-Oct-12: Company for dinner, so was all day in the kitchen. The original plan was a roast lamb shoulder, but it turned into an Indian night when I started looking for what I'd made to celebrate my start with I Heart Cooking Clubs and Madhur Jaffrey. Last night I made the broth for No-Cook Indian Ice Cream (Kulfi) (MC). Also, I made up some Tamarind Chutney (IndLight, p286).

For starters, there were Onion Fritters (Pyaz ki Bhajia) (Q&E, p20) served with Tamarind Chutney. For the main course, there was Lamb with Onions (Do piaza) (MJ1, p46), served with Rice and Peas with Garam Masala (Matar Aur Sooay Ka Pullao) (SpiceKitch, p65) and Yoghurt with Cucumber and Mint (Kheere ka Raita) (MJ1, p162). For dessert there was kulfi with mango chunks. Except for the lamb dish, these are all things I've made several times. All were good. (The IHCC post is here.)

Tuesday/2-Oct-12: Now to work on the 2.5kg of potatoes I bought to go with the roast-lamb-that-wasn't. Tonight there was Warm Broccoli and Potato Salad (MDSalads, p15), an old favorite.

Yogurt on overnight.

Wednesday/3-Oct-12: Shopping today, without much of a plan, but we have more veggies in-house now. Dinner was Broiled Spiced Fish Steaks (RealFast, p73). Well, it was cod fillets rather than steaks, but it still tasted good. Served with a kind of pilaf with shrooms and shallots, followed by a salad. Treated ourselves to some chocolate squares while we went out searching for Sophie, who was in the mood to stay out late, and was resistant to coming home after we met up.

Thursday/4-Oct-12: Made chicken stock, using the accumulation of bones from the freezer. Made Pear Butter, using up Barbara's pears which were needing to be used. While these were happening, I opened the fridge and a big, unopened jar of cornichons leapt off its shelf to the floor. What a mess!

Dinner out for a friend's birthday. Have had our heavy protein for several days now.

Friday/5-Oct-12: Dinner turned into a sort of meze plate.

• There were dolmades from a can, three each and pretty good. One day I'll try to  made these, just to say I have, but the canned ones are fine. 
• And there was a loosely adapted version of Tomatoes Stuffed with Tuna (MedLight, p63). Stuffed only two tomatoes and have extra for tuna sandwiches tomorrow. No fresh mint, so I used dried. A similar recipe in O&C called for beans to be included; I had some leftover couscous, so I used those instead. Pretty tasty. 
• And there was a half dose of Marinated Eggplant (MedLight, p61; cookbooker). This was very good, although the eggplant slices were a bit soggy since the steaming time seems to be a bit long. A bit leftover for something. 
• And there was a half dose of Leek, Potato, and Olive Pie (Prassopita) (O&C. p97; cookbooker).  I had some leeks desperately needing to be used and lots of potatoes that didn't getting used in Monday's dinner, so this seemed and ideal dish. Very good it was. Now I've got filo in the fridge to use up in the next weeks. 

Last but not least, we had some double chocolate mini Magnums for dessert.

Saturday/6-Oct-12: Today was Ed's turn with jars leaping from the fridge door. This time a lovely jar of green chili pickle (Indian) and the jar of (Dijon) mustard.

Oops, neglected to remember the long cooking time for tonight's planned dinner. Not wanting to eat at 9pm, I made instead VIndaloo Lounge (Wraps, p74), after remembering that I spied a jar vindaloo sauce in the back of the cabinet.

Sunday/7-Oct-12: So, started last night's dinner in plenty of time today, only to discover that the fresh mushrooms bought this week were already covered in mold. Grr... What do you make at the last minute? Pasta, of course. Tiny Drôme goat-cheese-filled raviolis with a sauce of lardons, shallots, the soaked dried mushrooms I'd started for the aborted dish, and a carton of pyramid goat cheese. Not bad. Followed by a salad, of course.

Boulangeries are closed Sunday afternoon and our closest is closed on Mondays. Thus, having bread on hand for Monday breakfast and lunch seems to be a chronic problem for us. If I but planned ahead a bit, I could start Sam's no-knead bread in the evening to finish off in the morning. Tonight there's English Muffin Bread (BigGerman, p15) in the ABM overnight. Also yogurt on overnight.

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

This week in the kitchen

Monday/20-Aug-12: The stone walls of the house have finally lost their cool. Even my cool reading corner is hot, i.e., inside temperature is 27C/80F. Thank goodness for the new a/c even if it's noisy.

Broke down and defrosted the big freezer this morning in preparation for the Toupargel delivery. Which was mostly shrimp and fruit and a stash of crèmes brulées. The freezer is stuffed, what with all the bakjes of zucchini soup variations.

Meals I've planned for the next days involve baking (what was wrong with me?), so we're off the plan for the next few days. Today we started with a munchie of smoked salmon on chive Boursin on "toasts", which are mini slices of bread, rather hard to find at the store in this non-holiday season. From the freezer there was the last part of the sauce for Fusilli with Cabbage and Tomato from February, this time with fusilli. I made more of the Zucchini and Feta Salad (WorldVeg, p640), although we didn't really need it in the end. Half went into the fridge. For dessert there was ice cream and mango slices.

Tuesday/21-Aug-12: Still hot. Had our main meal at lunch. We'd planned an early evening outing, but gave it up because it's just too hot to think about such a thing.

Lunch was Zucchini and Chickpea Tagine (web), a half recipe with all the spices. Served over couscous. Yum! Instead of dinner we had ice cream with (defrosted) mixed berries. Supposed to be cooler tomorrow, under 30C, but it will be a long time I fear before the house loses its heat.

Buckwheat Bread (BigGerman, p38) on overnight.

Wednesday/22-Aug-12: Visited Emmaüs today to take some giveaway household stuff and clothing. Still looking for a kitchen table; no luck this visit. There's an organic food stand at the entrance; I bought two giant tomatoes, totalling over 2 kilos! Tomorrow I'll see them and make some tomato sauce for the freezer, since it doesn't look like we're going to get enough to do that. Zucchini seemed to have slowed down a bit (we've stopped watering), but the fridge is still full of them.

Shopping today. Not much off-piste buying.

Dinner was Grilled Salmon and Zucchini with Red Pepper Sauce (web). I've made similar sauces, but this one included tomatoes (cherry toms really, but I used bigger ones from the garden) and toasted, sliced almonds. The zucchini is grilled also, then sliced and tossed with most of the sauce. Good stuff. Served with trio rice and a big salad. Some double chocolate mini Magnums for dessert.

Thursday/23-Aug-12: The giant tomatoes I bought yesterday made 3 cups of tomato sauce. This really isn't proper tomato sauce, but just tomatoes cooked down and puréed. Good though.

Dinner was Warm Broccoli and Potato Salad (MDSalads, p15), a old favorite. Usually we manage to eat it all, but not tonight. Still too hot.

Friday/24-Aug-12: Lunched today in La Rochefoucauld. Only fruit for dinner.

Saturday/25-Aug-12: Pizza for dinner, with grilled eggplant and zucchini (surprise!), roasted red bell pepper pizza sauce from the freezer, pyramid goat cheese, chopped mozzarella balls, black olives, etc. Not the best every, but not bad.

Sunday/26-Aug-12: This morning I realized that I was supposed to use the boughten pizza dough, rather than a home-made one. Oops. Looks like we'll be having pizza again shortly.

Made the "broth" for some Vanilla Ice Milk to freeze tomorrow, part of a quest to use up an abundance of milk. The other half of the effort was a half dose of Bittersweet Chocolate Pudding, a recipe collected long ago from EAT-L.

Dinner was Coriander Meat Balls with Yoghurt (web), which wasn't bad. I had about 25% extra cooked lamb, so adjusted accordingly. The meatballs could have used some zing, maybe some red pepper flakes or cayenne. Instead of frying tiny meatballs, I made them a bit bigger and baked them in my mini muffin pan. (And burnt the s*** out of my arm getting it into the oven. I'd forgotten that it's so big it has to ride the rails like a separate shelf.) Served with rice and a salad of home-grown tomatoes with basil and a bit of feta. And a dab of Bittersweet Chocolate Pudding for dessert, very chocolatey with cocoa and 85% chocolate.

Yogurt on overnight.

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

This week in the kitchen

Monday/5-Dec-11: Used up the first of Barbara's butternut squashes making Butternut Soup with Pear, Cider, and Vanilla Bean (Molly, p226), an interesting take on butternut squash soup. The flavors blend surprisingly well. Do get tired of peeling though; next one will be roasted. More of the Courgette and Chick Pea Filo Pie, cold, as a go-with. Filo could have used a perk-up in the oven, but it was otherwise good, especially with some lime pickle mixed in.

Made some Authentic French Bread (Magic, p22, but out of head) for the soup and for breakfast.

Tuesday/6-Dec-11: Very late dinner tonight, after Kaye worked with Michelle on the Club Liseron blog for quite a while. Luckily a quick, light dinner, little Drôme raviolis with pesto, both from the freezer. And a salad, with a formerly frozen cooked beet.

Wednesday/7-Dec-11: Shopped today.

Dinner was Salmon with Sorrel and Asparagus en Papillote (SeriousEats). Served with some boiled potatoes tossed with a bitter butter. Pretty good stuff.

Have been pondering my 2012 kitchen goals. One thing I've been considering is doing a recipe a week, or maybe twice a month, from a cookbook I haven't used much, or at least haven't used recently. This morning, I saw that Sue from Couscous & Consciousness, who was part of Cooking Italy, is taking over as host of something called Cookbook Sundays ... where you cook something from a book you haven't used. Serendipity or what? So it looks like this is going to have to be one of next year's goals.

Eating two vegetarian or fish meals a week has been an easy goal, practically no challenge at all. Considering whether I should extend that to three days, or just let it go for mow.

Probably will repeat the fresh pasta once-a-month goal. I've been doing this, but without the target, I think it would be difficult. (Which makes me think I'd better start thinking about December's pasta soon, since there are several holiday meals coming up. If I have pasta from the freezer, make fresh last month, does that count?)

Have been pretty much a failure at arranging to have our main meal at midday once a week. A bit better with soup, but not much. Not sure what I'll do with these next year.

Thursday/8-Dec-11: Finished off the Courgette and Chick Pea Filo Pie for dinner. Warming in the oven did the trick, crisping up the filo. Thought about a salad, but we both decided it would be too much.

Friday/9-Dec-11: Had planned to lunch out today, so didn't really have anything planned, and not much appetite anyhow. Made a whole dose of Pastina and Pea Soup (125Pasta, p56) and have leftovers for lunch or a starter one of these days. Pretty good for minimal time and effort. Not sure I've ever seen the word pastina used to name "any small pasta" before. A bit of Camembert for afters. (This is my first entry for Cookbook Sundays. Yes, it's Friday, but that will do too.)

Saturday/10-Dec-11: Dinner was Curried Oven Omelets, a recipes from somewhere on the web. An annoying recipe, asking for a can of coconut milk (what size?); telling you to season the sautéed onions "according to taste" with turmeric, chili powder, and salt before the remaining ingredients have been added; etc. The recipe called for 5 eggs to serve 4-6. Oh? I used 4 eggs, but only 3 would have done, since they were "beefed up" with milk and ricotta. Well, I'd forgotten to defrost ricotta (a shame, since the rest of the package is destined for another meal), so used cream cheese instead. An omelet under the broiler is really a frittata, I think. It was very pretty, all puffed up and browned. Then cut up and into the sauce with coconut milk, onions, and spices to taste. It wasn't bad, but nothing I need to do again. The omelet/frittata part was worth remembering. Then we had a big salad of rucola. And to fill us up we had a bit of the Christmas cake given to Ed by one of his choir members. Tasty, but heavy and too too sweet for our tastes.

Sunday/11-Dec-11: No one went to the boulanger yesterday, so this morning I made more Authentic French Bread (Magic, p22) for breakfast and lunch. Simple recipe, good bread.

For the post-carol conert choir party, I made a double dose of Spinach Salad with Pears, Pecans, and Feta (MDSalads, p28). OK, it was arugula and walnuts, but it was still good. Thought it would be a good idea to have something fresh, rather than cooked, but the Choir Mom already had a bowl of lettuce for the table. Oops.

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

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/25-Apr-11: Lunched at Chez Cisseen today with Bill, meaning to have a small one, but didn't quite make it. For dinner there was Grilled Caesar Salad (MC), an old favorite. Dessert was Belgian waffles with blueberries and vanilla ice cream.

Part of our nice gourmand lunch at our hotel on Saturday was cannoli of smoked salmon. The filling was ricotta (or something similar), livened with grated radishes and celeriac perhaps, or maybe only radishes. This is somewhat similar to a starter I've made with smoked salmon by lining small dishes and filling. The bit of crunch in the cannoli filling was quite nice. I should try that next time I try my recipe.

Another cutesy feature from the hotel restaurnt: desserts all had little caramel "flags" inserted. It looked like they poured small puddles of hot caramel and laid a kind of flat bamboo toothpick into each. Decorative and tasty.

Tuesday/26-Apr-11: Lunch today at the restaurant in St Sornin following a visit to the winery there. Took Bill to La Roche train, did errands, shopped. Dinner was fruit and a couple of chocolatey dessert things I bought.

Wednesday/27-Apr-11: Dinner was more or less Grilled Salmon Steaks with Carom (IndLight, p154), grilled under the broiler and very tasty. Accompanied by a half recipe of Tangy Green Beans with Ajwain and Ginger (SpiceKitch, p38) made with frozen green beans. Also Plain Basmati Rice (SpiceKitch, p68), very simple and plain, just pop some cardamom pods in with the cooking rice. For dessert there was the last of the little pastry cups, with some vanilla ice cream and some mango slices. All good.

Yogurt on overnight.

Thursday/28-Apr-11: Warmed up the leftover pizza for dinner, maybe a trifle old, but it looked, smelled, and tasted OK. Then a big salad.

Friday/29-Apr-11: Very nice dinner at La Bellone with Bill.

Saturday/30-Apr-11: Dinner at Camping d'Etang with Bill.

Sunday/1-May-11: Out all day for the ralleye touristique; brought along a picnic lunch. Warm Broccoli and Potato Salad (MDSalads, p15), accompanied by lots of goodies from the charcuterie in Montbron. Tasty, if late, dinner of omelettes with sorrel.

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

This week in the kitchen

Monday/21-Mar-11: Cleaning out the freezer week. Tonight was Potatoes with Chorizo and Onions (somewhere on the web). It was supposed to be a recipe for Spanish chorizo, but I'm not so sure about that. The recipe was OK, the technique interesting and adaptable. First you brown some thinly sliced chorizo or other tasty, hard salami-like thing in a skillet and remove them to paper towels. Then you add to the pan a mess of thinly sliced potatoes and onion (thank you, mandoline!). Toss these with some salt and pepper and a goodly dash of paprika. Put the sausage on top. Put a smaller skillet on top of the food and press down; weight it down with some heavy cans. Cook for 10 minutes, then remove the weights and cook a few minutes more. Served topped with chopped parsley. I expect this could be done with most any kind of meat or protein, as long as it has some flavor. Easily adaptable up or down in size. I served with a salad.

Tuesday/22-Mar-11: A midday meal today. For a starter, I used the last two artichoke bottoms from a jar, spread with black tapenade, topped with a slice of Petit Billy, then popped under the grill till the cheese was nicely done. For the main, I used up most of the open jar of roasted red bell peppers with Ravioli with Roasted Red Pepper Cream (Desperation, p178) with ricotta-spinach raviolis from the freezer. Really good for a dish that goes together in minutes.

Yogurt on overnight.

Wednesday/23-Mar-11: There's a defrosted leg of lamb in the fridge, but it's turn didn't come today. So, dinner was an old favorite, Warm Broccoli and Potato Salad (MDSalads, p15). We both really like this yummy salad.

Made the "broth" for some vanilla ice milk. Now chilling, to be frozen tomorrow. I've never made ice milk before, so I'm curious how it turns out.

Oops, nobody went to the boulanger. Bran Bread (BMB, p44) on overnight.

Thursday/24-Mar-11: Toupargel delivered today and the freezer is full-full-full. And lots of meat from the winter sales to be eaten up.

Just when I'm thinking I could easily live as a pescivegetarian, along comes some meat that changes my mind. Dinner was a Slow-Roast Lamb (Diaries, p62), the 21-February entry. Wow, this was a success, thank you Nigel Slater! A lovely rub (lots of mortar and pestel work), then cooked long and slow. The house smelled wonderful while it was cooking and the results were really good, tasty, tender meat. To go with, I made lots of Dusolier's Perfect Roast Potatoes, always good. Then a salad. Then ice milk on toasted Belgian waffles, topped with (thawed) mixed berries. The vanilla ice milk wasn't bad, but ice cream is better. :-)

Friday/25-Mar-11: Yogurt on overday. Shopping; bought some tuna steaks for dinner. Cooked them under the broiler, trying to save a pan. Mistake. Much better on a grill pan. Served with Carrot Pilaf (MC) and Italian Grilled Zucchini and Red Onion (MC), both moldy-oldies. The salad seemed especially tasty tonight. Ice milk with (French) strawberries for dessert.

Saturday/26-Mar-11: Served dinner just in time for Earth Hour—dinner by candlelight tonight. It was Taglitelle with Peas (30MinPasta, p53), very tasty and very simple, and, yes, done in 30 minutes. Followed by a salad. Followed by ice milk and strawberries again.

Ice milk, it seems to me, is best when you think of it as a milk sherbert/sorbet, rather than as a poor man's or diet version of ice cream. Ice cream is luxuriously creamy; ice milk doesn't even try for that, so it's best to change your expectations.

Sunday/27-Mar-11: Yes, yes, I've joined a new on-line cooking group. Today's meal was a Caribbean one you can read about here.

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

This week in the kitchen

Monday/30-Aug-10: This morning I started the roasted tomatoes (Polenta, p66) from a recipe that I didn't make for the CookBooksEtc contest. They cook a long long time at a low temp. Very tasty after. Ed thought I must have added something to them, but there was just salt and pepper. I've frozen these for later use.

Then I made two jars of plum jam, using several recipes from the web. One in the freezer, one in the fridge. The lickings were quite promising.

Mostly leftovers for dinner tonight, leftover beans-and-rice, leftover rice-and-peas, leftover zucchini-with-yogurt. I flattened a pair kip filets and rubbed them with some (homemade) Cajun spice mix, then sautéed them in olive oil and butter. Made a tasty little sauce by deglazing the pan with a slog of white wine, stirring in a bit of instant fond, then adding a small slog of cream. All was good, although not necessarily together.

The Plum Ice Cream (Scoop, p77) was very good. The two of us ate all of the half recipe that I made. Still have lots and lots of plums to use and to pick.

Tuesday/31-Aug-10: Put on yogurt in the a.m. Shopped. Avoided getting big boxes of cilantro and sorrel that I'd need to use in the next days. Bought more tomatoes for roasting. Started Strawberry Gelato (ClassicItal, p610) to make tomorrow.

Dinner was (loosely) Grilled Swordfish, Chettind Style (IndLight, p155), but with salmon and only marinate 30 minutes, accompanied by the MJ1's Buttery Rice with Onions, with shallots, since I was making a small amount, and without the book. For afters there was some pavé affinois, which was on sale.

Wednesday/1-Sep-10: For a late dinner following Bill's arrival, I vaguely followed a recipe of Holiday Posole found on the web. Didn't start it the night before as asked, didn't have the powdered chile pepper that they wanted, so I embroidered quite a bit. It was good though. A half recipe filled my Le Creuset Dutch oven. Three of us ate half and I froze the rest. Made Cayenne Cornbread (BigGerman, p182), an old favorite, as a go-with. For dessert, some fresh strawberries over vanilla ice cream. The strawberry gelato has to wait another day.

Thursday/2-Sep-10: A very filling 5-course lunch at La Fermette de Beaumont today. They've gotten even more expensive, although it is 5 courses, and we might not go there for lunch again. In the evening we were still quite full and just had a salad, followed by the Strawberry Gelato that didn't get made last night.

Friday/3-Sep-10: Made yogurt during the day. Plans changed and we ended up with a small bbq at home this evening. Ed grilled some chipolatas and merquez. I made a big dose of Warm Broccoli and Potato Salad (MDSalad, p15). We started with some rillettes d'oie from the charchuterie in Montbron and finished with some cheese and some store-bought custards that were pretty good.

Saturday/4-Sep-10: Used the rest of the homemade sausage from the freezer to make Fusilli with Sausage and Zucchini (30mimPasta, p150). This was very good, but definitely not a 30-minute dinner. I suppose seeding the tomatoes took a lot of time. Used orechetti instead of fusilli. Followed by a big salad. Then we finished off the rest of the strawberry gelato with some cake that Bill bought at the foire today.

Sunday/5-Sep-10: Yogurt going all day. At a bric-à-brac in Vitrac, I bought some chiles and a handful of tiny, white egg-shaped eggplants.

Whew, lunch today was a repas de la chasse today at St. Adjutory. No food for us this evening. Still no word on the outcome of the CookbooksEtc Ingredient contest.

CookbooksEtc Ingredient Contest 2010

1. 23-May/28-May: strawberries — Balsamic Strawberries with Arugula and Goat Cheese
   
2. 29-May/4-Jun: cheese — Spinach-Stuffed Anchos
   
3. 5-Jun/11-Jun: whole wheat flour — Ned and Crescent's Favorite Multigrain Pancakes
4. 12-Jun/18-Jun: ground pork or pork sausage — Curried Rice Noodles with Ground Meat
5. 19-Jun/25-Jun: blueberries — Tarte Amandine à la Myrtille
6. 26-Jun/2-Jul: salmon — Almond-Crusted Grilled Salmon with Garlic Sauce
7. 3-Jul/9-Jul: potatoes — Potatoes and Peas in a Yoghurt Sauce
8. 10-Jul/16-Jul: elbow macaroni — Macaroni Salad
9. 17-Jul/23-Jul: tomatoes — Eggs Baked in Tomatoes
10. 24-Jul/30-Jul: dates — Date and Onion Salad
11. 31-Jul/6-Aug: butterscotch chips — Chocolate Chip Cookies and the oven disaster
12. 7-Aug/13-Aug: pecans — Peppered Pecans
13. 14-Aug/20-Aug: mango or peaches — Grilled Shrimp with Green Mangoes and Red Lime Sauce
    
14. 21- Aug/27-Aug: cornmeal or Italian sausage — Cornmeal and Italian Sausage