This week in the kitchen

Monday/18-Feb-13: Yogurt on overday.

This week's IHCC dinner was Persian Egg and Potato Cake (WorldVeg, p538). Followed by a big salad. That's all.

Tuesday/19-Feb-13: Spent a long time today working on the next week's menu plan and grocery list for tomorrow, all of which will be thrown to the wind if normal practice is followed.

For dinner I defrosted a chunk of the Thanksgiving turkey roulade and sliced it. Sautéed some shallots and mushrooms, deglazed with a slug of white wine, added some AH paddestoelen fond and some cream, set the turkey slices and steamed broccoli florets on top till all was good and hot. Served over trio rice. For afters we pigged out on some cheese. I'll probably be sorry.

Wednesday/20-Feb-13: Shopping today. Saw some ready-made polenta disks and bought on impulse. Now what will I do with them?

Dinner was a half of Shrimp in Spicy Lime Sauce (web). A bit sweeter than we like, but good enough; easy and fast, certainly. Served over rice. Then a bit salad.

Thursday/21-Feb-13: Made some Garlic Broth (MDSoups, p55) for the freezer.

Dinner was (sort of) Grilled Chicken with Harissa and Mint (Diaries, p203; cookbooker). Ran out of gas in the middle of grilling. I guess it's not possible to run out at a convenient time, is it? Served with an new favorite, Zucchini and Feta Cheese Salad (WorldVeg, p640) and trio rice. Yum.

Friday/22-Feb-13: Yogurt on overday. Another yogurt jar broke in a kitchen demolition accident. Getting low now.

Dinner was Baked Broccoli Egg Supper Bake (Art, p80), broccoli in a cream sauce (with shrooms) and an egg plopped in the middle. Used two individual casserole dishes rather than scooping it out to serve. Then a salad. That was enough.

Saturday/23-Feb-13: Off to visit tiles today. Found some expensive ones (€110/m2) we really liked. Tomorrow we'll see if we have enough of the Amstelveen kitchen tiles left to use here. We're afraid they might be just not enough. Fingers crossed.

Put a pork belly on to marinate for tomorrow.

Dinner was Goat's Cheese and Fennel Risotto with Pea and Pernod (web). Pretty good. Not sure how many it was supposed to serve, but I've got a good serving left. Maybe it will show up as part of dinner soon.

Sunday/24-Feb-13: Oops, got started cooking the pork belly too late, so it will get another chance to marinate in the sub-0C temps outside.

Didn't check out the old tiles today. Tomorrow perhaps.

Dinner was Cavatelli with Slow Roasted Broccoli and Harissa (web). I added some water, rather than oil, during the "roasting" process for the broccoli. Have almost used up the exotic jar of harissa I bought last year. Exotic, rather than the normal toothpaste tube of harissa that's in most groceries. Easy and a pretty good variation on the broccoli-pasta theme. They some double-chocolate mini-Magnums for dessert.

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

This week in the kitchen

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Made Apple-Plum Butter (MC).

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

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

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

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

Yogurt on overnight.

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