This week in the kitchen

Monday/23-Nov-20: Made some Cranberry-Port Relish (MC; web) for Thanksgiving. Prepped the pork for tomorrow's meal.

Dinner was from a food truck—yay, no cooking!

Yogurt on overnight.

Tuesday/24-Nov-20: Dinner was Pork Vindaloo (Q&E, p33). Cooked this off in the crockpot, since we were away a good part of the day. Served with plain basmati rice, Pan-Grilled Zucchini (MJFamily, p173) (cooked in a cast iron skillet with no extra oil), and Yoghurt with Cucumber and Mint—Kheere ka Raita (MJ1, p162). All are old favorites.

Wednesday/25-Nov-20: Made a loaf of English Muffin Bread (BMB, p17) in the morning. Delicious bread, but tiny 2# loaf.

Made up the roulades for tomorrow's meal. Baked a pumpkin cake.

Dinner from the freezer, chicken adobo stew, served over brown rice, with a salad. A pair of chocolate-covered madeleines for after.

Thursday/26-Nov-20: Yes, it's Thanksgiving, with a doctor's appointment in the middle of the day, which limited what could be done.

For the table, I trimmed the little tulips we got from Intermarché last week. They have held up remarkably well. Dutch tulips in a Delftware vase.

We started with Smoked Salmon with Dill-Mustard Sauce, (VegHarv, p4). I've made this nice little starter before. The rolls of salmon look pretty lonely on the plate some I added some sliced cucumbers, which go nicely with the sauce.

For our main, we again had mini versions Shane's Turkey Roll using turkey scallops. I really do have to write up his recipe to save it properly. These were accompanied by: 

• Balsamic Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Cranberries & Pecans (web). Picked the sprouts up at a Drive this morning, so didn't have time for marinating as I often do. (We like marinated roasted sprouts as a starter.) This was a new recipe and definitely a keeper. I thought I'd ordered 500g of sprouts, but it was only 250g (and ended up being on sale, although the quality was fine, just a mix of sizes, big and small), which is barely enough for two.
• Started out to make Tornado Potatoes (web), but failed at the cutting, so I turned them into hasselback potatoes with the same coating. (I've got lots of the coating left. It might end up on something else in the next days.) And, of course, there was ...
• Cranberry-Port Relish (MC, web), which is my standard recipe, much liked here and very easy. Unfortunately took the picture before I added cranberry sauce to the plate, so it looks a bit colorless.

For dessert, there was Pumpkin Cake (MC), another favorite, although not so old. We'll be eating it for days, but it keeps well. 

Yogurt on overnight.

Friday/27-Nov-20: Dinner was, sort of, Salmon Leek Pie with Lemon Dill Crust (PotPies, p132). I had bits of salmon and of lieu noir in the freezer, so I used those together rather than all salmon. Instead of the lemon-dill crust, I used smashed potatoes with dill and lemon zest added. Pretty good it was. Followed by a salad. Then some pumpkin pie. 

Forgot to make bread during the day, so

Saturday/28-Nov-20: I used a new recipe to make blueberry pancakes for breakfast. Oops, recipe didn't work very well. I poured all the batter in the pan and made a kind of pancake cake. Edible, but not pretty.

Scallops were supposed to be on the menu tonight. But the two packages that were supposed to be freezer weren't to be found. I'm puzzled where they've gone since we haven't had scallops in a while. While rummaging through the freezer, I found a package of gyozas, pork-and-kimchi, that I found at Leclerc Drive. I steamed those, made some rice, a bit of dipping sauce (web), and a salad of shredded chineeskool, broccoli stems, carrot, and red onion, with a ginger-sesame dressing. All was pretty good. Have another package of plain pork gyozas for another night. Pumpkin cake for after.

Made up some batter for Overnight Bread.

Sunday/29-Nov-20: Baked the Overnight Bread this morning. Ed insists this is his all-time favorite. He also said I could do the pancake cake again. 

An easy dinner, Curried Fried Rice (MW@Home, p226), which is an old favorite. I didn't cook the rice ahead and chill it as one should; I just cooled it on a big plate. Used red Thai curry paste for the curry bit. It was good. Some mini ice cream cups for after.

Progress on goals
This week: #1 VEG/FISH: 2; #2 BACKLOG: yes
This month: #3 GUESTS: n/a
This year: #4 SHORT: no; #5 LONG: no
On-going: #6 READ; #7 RECYCLE; #8 NEW

This week in the kitchen

Monday/25-Nov-13: Dinner was Penne with Wild Mushrooms, Asparagus, and Pancetta (EAT-L), sort of. Used mushroom-flavored, chanterelle-shaped pasta. Used a sliced dried ham from the freezer instead of pancetta (not as fat). In the end it seemed dry, so I stirred in some pyramid goat cheese rather than add more oil. Good enough it was. Then a salad.

Tuesday/26-Nov-13: We were sitting around this afternoon quietly doing our things. Snap! Caught a little mouse behind the stove. Think it might be a juvenile, it was so small. Ed let it go down the broken brick road, quite a way from the house.

Dinner was Grilled Chicken Pasta with Chipotle Cream (web), sort of. Served over mashed potatoes instead of pasta, although, in retrospect, polenta would be better. Made more or less a whole recipe, which should serve 4-6, and we ate it all. Although Ed had trouble finishing his double portion. Used all the chipotles, unseeded, and it was nice and hot. Making a half recipe for two, over polenta would probably be fine. Roasted the last of the asparagus and some broccoli for a side. Split a Magnum classic for dessert.

Life without the internet is pretty weird, You don't realize how often you go to look up something up. And read mail. And check the weather and the news and ...

Wednesday/27-Nov-13: Yogurt on overday. Shopping today.

Ed asked for salmon, so that's what he got. I made a winter menu, "A Fresh Way with Salmon," from RushHour, p207, and posted it for Cook Your Books. If I don't feel like baking a pumpkin pie tomorrow, we'll have more of the clafoutis for our Thanksgiving dessert.

Thursday/28-Nov-13: Made two batches of Tart Dough (Tenth, p256). The first batch went for pumpkin pie, right from the Libby's label. The second went into the freezer.

Our Thanksgiving dinner was Indian-themed, since that the only turkey what was in the freezer. Pretty good it was.

Friday/29-Nov-13: For breakfast, we had some clafoutis, egg, milk, and fruit, can't be bad, right?

Pasta for dinner, yay! The sauce was a half dose of Pasta con Verdura (Top100Pasta, p64) made with tagliatelle cut from Whole Wheat Pasta (Fancy, p77). I made half of a dish that should serve four, but we will get three servings from it. Or, more likely, a side dish for two. Didn't follow Kennedy's instructions for making the pasta, but did it the way I usually do now, mixing by hand. Cut it at 5, which made a tasty, chewy pasta. Thought I'd make a salad, too, but there was more than enough food without it. And we finished off the very yummy pumpkin pie from yesterday.

Saturday/30-Nov-13: Went to a movie tonight. In the afternoon, we had leftover enchiladas and rice, followed by a salad.

Sunday/1-Dec-13: Yogurt on overday.

Meat night tonight, working on clearing out the freezer. Did, more or less, a menu from MJFamily: The Best Roast Pork, Ecuardor-Style (p127), Garlicky Cranberry Chutney (p127), Asparagus and Green Beans with Sesame Seeds (p128), and Rice and Potato Casserole (p128). The pork was yummy and really easy to do; definitely a keeper. For the chutney, I embroidered on the remains of last year's Thanksgiving cranberry sauce, yes, it's been hanging around the fridge all that long. Not bad, either. For the veg, I used frozen asparagus, which are pretty blah and needing to be used up, along with frozen yellow haricots verts (that makes no sense, does it?) from our neighbor's bounty. This dish was OK, but not wonderful. The rice and potato dish was OK. For afters we each had a mini Magnum.

Progress on goals
This week: #1 IHCC/COOKBOOKS: yes (once posted, plus others), #2 VEG/FISH: 2
This month: #3 PASTA: yes for November; no for December, #4 BREAD: no for November and December

This week in the kitchen

Monday/8-Apr-13: Yesterday at the bric-à-brac, someone was selling their old tupperware, including a colander complete with the lid (I use mine frequently to keep our cat friends out of defrosting shrimp and such) and the lettuce keeper (mine no longer has the inner spike). It was tempting to buy the colander since it was in better shape than mine, and a pretty yellow color instead of green.

Used up the frozen shredded zucchini to make Chocolate Zucchini Cake from a 1995 email printout. The recipe missed two important ingredients, so I searched the web and found more or less the same recipe to get those. Mixed it all in the cuisinart, which is a nice way to do this kind of thing. Pretty good it was.

Dinner was a half recipe of Seared Scallops with Bacon, Cabbage, and Apple (CL/jan-feb13, web). Seemed like a strange combination at first, but not when you think about it. Pork, apples, cabbage, all classic go-togethers. Adding the scallops on top? Why not? They have a sweetish taste that goes well. Very good. Served with roast potatoes as suggested. And cake for dessert, of course.

Last night's ABM bread having been eaten up in the course of the day and no one having gone out to find a boulanger, tonight we have Whole-Wheat Soda Bread (Magic, p66) in the machine overnight. Just made this two months ago, I see now, but no note in the book. Good thing I liked it!

Tuesday/9-Apr-13: Well, this day didn't turn out the way it was expected, what with a trip to the doctor for Ed to get three stitches in his thumb.

Dinner was Chili-Rubbed Chicken Thighs (MC). This is a nice old recipe that should be done on the bbq grill, but I don't think I've ever done it that way. You make a nice spicy rub. A bit of this, plus some sliced onions and a dab of butter, goes inside a potato per person, each wrapped in foil and baked. The rest of the rub gets rubbed into some skinless chicken thighs. Tonight they were not quite thawed, but they cooked fine about ten minutes per side under the broiler. As a go-with there was Chargrilled Broccoli with Chili and Garlic (Otto, p41), for this week's IHCC theme, wherein we pretend broccoli is a leaf vegetable. Then more Chocolate Zucchini Cake.

Wednesday/10-Apr-13: Shopping today.

Dinner was Swordfish with Smoked Paprika (web), a definite keeper. Luckily Ed is not being bothered by all the tomatoes I've been seeding lately. Served this over rice, although I think spaghetti might have been nice. Then a salad. Then more Chocolate Zucchini Cake.

Yogurt on overnight.

Thursday/11-Apr-13: Oops, there was no winter squash at the shop (as there was the previous week), but I did impulse buy some asparagus. (Can't figure out why start-of-season asparagus here are cheaper than height-of-season asparagus in the Netherlands.) Dinner was Asparagus and Ricotta Tart (web). Quite good it was. Used my regular pâte brisée recipe, and added some almond powder (rather than hazelnut as suggested), which gave it a nice nutty taste. Then a big salad. (Big, because the smallest packages here are 100g or 125g, whereas in NL, I used to ask at the greengrocers for 75g of mixed lettuces for the two of us.) Then we finally finished off the Chocolate Zucchini Cake. I'm full.

Friday/12-Apr-13: Dinner was Meyer Lemon Chicken (web), a recipe with weird proportions, asking two chicken breast halves halved and two thighs to serve 6 people. Pretty skimpy servings those. I used two whole legs. Was edible but not a favorite. Served with with haricots verts tossed with olive oil, garlic slices, and sea salt, then roasted. Those were good. Started in on one of our extra pairs of chocolate easter bunnies for after.

Saturday/13-Apr-13: At last, the weather is threatening to turn warm. Looks like tomorrow will be summer!

Dinner was a half recipe of Braised Leeks with Yellow Bell Peppers and Fresh Tomatoes (PeV, p191). First thing I've made from this book. Looks like it will be worth a thorough-lookthrough. Served over home-made linguine. Crèmes brulées from the freezer for dessert.

Sunday/14-Apr-13: Two days ago it was winter; today was summer. Where did spring go? Went bric-a-brac-ing today. Ed got a crowbar and I found two nice shot glasses (to top up our mismatched assortment) for a euro and a pretty little pitcher (I'm a sucker for pretty little pitchers) for 50 centimes.

We intended to bbq this evening, but that didn't happen. So I grilled a half recipe Glorious Kebab-Burgers (MJFamily, p105). Accompanied by Peas with Mushrooms and Onions (MJFamily, p105) and some potato salad loosely based on Joy of Cooking's recipe with a lemon vinaigrette and cuke, radishes, black olives, red onion, hard-boiled egg, etc. For dessert, we had toasted waffles topped with the last of the pineapple sherbert and blueberries from the freezer. All tasty and we're full.

Yogurt on overnight. We have just enough bread for breakfast, so will have to address that in the morning.

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

IHCC: One Pot Wonders

Almost every week, about the hardest thing these Jaffrey challenges has been choosing what to make. Her books are (still) full of dishes I want to make right away. For this week, I already had a short list of several ideas when I ran across this one, Indian-Style Scrambled Eggs with Potatoes and Cauliflower in Madhur Jaffrey's Cookbook: Food for Family & Friends (p160). With part of a cauliflower in the fridge and some potatoes in a cupboard both wanting to be used soon, this was just the thing. I was making dinner for two, thus a half recipe, but happened to have enough cauliflower and potato for a whole recipe, so I cooked the full amount of veggies.

You start by sizzling some cumin seeds in hot oil. I used ghee, rather than vegetable oil, and about half what was asked in the recipe. After a few seconds, you add about half an onion, finely chopped, and fry till that's softened. Then you add some chopped potato and cook till the bits begin to brown. Then you add cauliflower bits, a chopped chili, and some grated ginger. (Earlier in the day, I had boiled several potatoes to keep in the fridge until I could use them. With the pot of hot water sitting there, I went ahead and cooked the cauliflower most of the way. This shortened the time needed for cooking the veggies later.) If they had been raw, you would need to add a slog of water and cook, covered, till they are pretty well done.

If you were scrambling the eggs, you'd now push the veg to the side, scramble the eggs in the middle of the pan, and mix in the veggies when they're almost done. Rather than scrambling the eggs, I decided a little practice making omelets was in order, so I heated up the cast iron skillet I use for omelets and made a couple. Of course, this meant dinner turned into a two-pot, one-dish meal, but the head dishwasher didn't complain.

Having a double amount of filling, I overfilled the first omelet, causing it to split, and making not such a pretty picture. Never mind, it tasted wonderful. The cauliflower-potato-onion mixture was simple and delicious, and seemed to go really well with the eggs. This is definitely something to make again.

This post is shared with this week's I Heart Cooking Clubs.

IHCC: Sweet Endings

Indian cuisine is full of wonderful sweet things. Many of them are really too sweet for our tastes gulab jamun soaked in rose water syrup really sets both our teeth on edge. But there are some delicious creamy, milky, cheesy desserts waiting to be made. The hard part for this week's challenge was choosing. In the end, I took the easy way out and chose a fruit dessert that was simple-to-make and delicious—Pears Poached in a Saffron Syrup from Madhur Jaffrey's Cookbook: Food for Family & Friends (p185)

Peeled and cored pears are simmered for 25 minute is a simple syrup with cardamon pods, saffron threads, and lemon juice. After removing the cooked pears, the syrup is boiled down further. These are the plates waiting to be served. Before they got to the table, my DH added a scoop of vanilla ice cream to each plate. While this was very yummy, I'm not sure it wasn't a bit of gilding the lily.

Aside: France produces 20 kilograms of saffron each year. Last fall I visited a local safranerie where we got to pick the flowers and have a go at cutting the pistil from the flowers. The saffron I used tonight came from the shop there. The high price of saffron reflects the very tedious manual labor that's required to produce it.

This post is shared with this week's I Heart Cooking Clubs.

This week in the kitchen

Monday/21-Jan-13: Argh, the brushes for the washing machine didn't arrive today. Stacks of laundry are growing!

Leftovers of the wild rice tart for dinner. Still very good. Maybe should put this one into Mastercook. Then a salad. And some cookies for dessert.

Tuesday/22-Jan-13: We did our shopping today, since I have a "make-up" haircut appointment tomorrow afternoon, replacing one that was cancelled for bad weather last week.

Dinner was a very loose version of Mushroom Ravioli Divan (365Veg, p84). It wanted a container of prepared Alfredo sauce, which I probably wouldn't buy even if I could find it. Instead I just added cream and lots of Parmesan to the dish. And the Corsican cheese ravioli I bought turned out to have spinach in them (a feature of Corsican cooking?) that I hadn't noticed. In the end I decided baking wasn't going to add that much to the dish, so I just stirred together the broccoli, mushrooms, ravioli, and cream. It was quite passable. Then a big salad. And for dessert there were Pears Poached in a Saffron Syrup (MJFamily, p185), with a dab of ice cream, made for this week's IHCC challenge.

Before I started dinner, I put the dough in the machine for Bread Machine Bagels (web, though recommended by an EAT-L friend). While Ed was washing up, I finished off the bagels and started some yogurt a-brewing.

Wednesday/23-Jan-13: Last week's haircut appointment, cancelled because of bad driving conditions, was rescheduled late this afternoon. So it was a crockpot dinner, Slow Cooker Chicken Adobo (web). Not bad for minimal effort (beyond slicing all the onions). Served with rice and some roasted broccoli. Then some crèmes brulées from the freezer.

Thursday/24-Jan-13: Defrosted the chest freezer today. Wasn't that fun? An easy dinner, then, two individual packets of a choucroute dinner (each including one tiny potato, some white wine sauerkraut, two different sausages, some sliced pork, and a slice of fatty pork like bacon). Added some more potatoes (too many, I'm a bad judge of this) and mashed up the potatoes and sauerkraut to make a Dutch-style stamppot. Maybe not so healthy with all the fatty meat, but tasty.

Friday/25-Jan-13: Yogurt on overday.

Lunch out today, but not too big, so just a small dinner tonight. Boiled up the pumpkin gnocchi from the freezer and served with butter-sage sauce. Pretty good. Then some double chocolate mini magnums.

Washing machine parts still haven't arrived. Piles of laundry getting bigger. Did a load of undies at a neighbor's this afternoon.

Saturday/26-Jan-13: Dinner was a half dose of Lumache with Broccoli and Capers (VC4E, p450), something I've made before. It's really your standard sort of garlicky broccoli with pasta, with some capers thrown in. Why not? For dessert there was a half dose of Caramelized Cardamom Apples with Pistachio Cream (Q&E, p122). When we finished, Ed asked if there were more. I've made this before two (using a cast iron skillet, which made the apples unattractively grayish but didn't affect the flavor) and there have been a couple of posts on IHCC for this recipe recently. Having some apples to use up, I think it was time to make it again.

Sunday/27-Jan-13: Dinner was Linguine Peperonata with Toasted Rosemary Breadcrumbs (VT—for some reason they've decided not to provide proper copies of recipes, so a link isn't possible). Surprisingly good. The toasty bread crumbs were an especially nice addition. Strange thing is that the recipe, which is supposed to serve four, calls for only 6 oz of fresh linguine. Huh? I use that much dry pasta for two. I used 4 oz of tagliatelle tonight, which was probably a bit short. The tagliatelle seemed a better size match from the bell pepper strips. Then we had a salad. Then some chocolate bonbons.

English Muffin Bread (BigGerman, p15) in the ABM overnight.

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

IHCC: Bread Week!

There are so many Indian-style breads to make! Naan has been on my to-do list for a long time, hoping that something home-made will be 1) not too hard and 2) better than the grocery store stuff, which is hardly worth the money. But with last week's holiday leading immediately to a long weekend in Bordeaux, I haven't really had time to research what I'd like to make.

As I lay in bed last night (aah! back in my own bed!), I was pondering what I could manage to do bread-wise this week and how to fit it into the schedule. I reached for the only Jaffrey book that was close at hand, which turned out to be Madhur Jaffrey's Cookbook: Food for Family and Friends. There's no proper index in this book, only a list of recipes. Under the heading "Soups and Egg Dishes" I found Golden Sesame Corn Bread. That sounded like just the thing to go with soup or chili, which sounded like something that needed to be eaten in the next days.

This turned out to be a really nice cornbread. In one sense, it's a fairly standard recipe, using yogurt as a large part of the liquid. But it also has chopped chili, grated ginger, and chopped coriander/cilantro in the batter and a topping of fried yellow mustard and sesame seeds. The only criticism either of us could manage was that there were too many sesame seeds—the proportion of mustard to sesame seeds should be maybe 2:1 instead of 1:1. Otherwise, it has a nice texture and taste and made a nice accompaniment to curried zucchini soup from the freezer (part of last summer's garden bounty).

This post is shared with this week's I Heart Cooking Clubs.

This week in the kitchen

Monday/26-Nov-12: Back from Bordeaux, having successfully renewed our Dutch passports. Stirred together the leftover couscous with the marinated Brussels sprouts and called it a starter. Then a slice of turkey roulade. Then some yummy chocolate covered things that I bought at the boulangerie where we stopped on the way home.

Yogurt on overnight.

Tuesday/27-Nov-12: My tummy not feeling all that good today, on top of being tired out. Dinner was curried zucchini soup from the freezer (starting in on the summer bounty now) and Golden Sesame Corn Bread (MJFamily, p156) , which was my entry for this week's IHCC.

Wednesday/28-Nov-12: Shopping today, kind of a small one since nothing much seems to be on the plan.

Dinner was some halibut filets, cut in small bits, and breaded flour, egg/oil/milk (à la Child), then cornmeal. And some of Clothilde Dusoulier's Perfect Roasted Potatoes. And some steamed broccoli with lemon juice. Then a dab of cheese.

Thursday/29-Nov-12: Yogurt on overday. Off for a quiz in the evening, so no further action in the kitchen (but a lot of ironing on the mezzanine instead).

Friday/30-Nov-12: So much for the menu plan. This morning a interesting recipe appeared in my inbox, looking like something that needed to be made soon. So dinner was Scallops with Linguine and Lemony Pangrattato (web) with a big salad. Good stuff it was too. Wonder what we'll eat tomorrow?

Saturday/1-Dec-12: Surprise, passports arrived in today's mail!

Saw an interesting food picture and, having some of the ingredients needing to be used up, I improvised something sort of similar. Some kip filets à la meunière with a sauce of mushroom (augmented by some dried mushrooms, soaked) and quartered artichoke hearts, pan deglazed with white wine, mushroom soaking water added along with a slog of cream. Served with tagliatelle. Not bad, not good. Double chocolate mini Magnums for after.

Sunday/2-Dec-12: Roast a chicken today, very loosely following the cast iron skillet method. Bird is spatchcocked, salt and peppered and herbed as you want. Then sautéed skin side down for 15 minutes and in a hot oven for another 30 minutes, all with a weight (another cast iron skillet or a brick). I topped the bird with some lemon juice and odd bits of lemon before I added the weight. It was good, although it might have used a few more minutes in the oven. With some polenta and a bit of broccoli. (Most of the broc I managed to drop in the sink on top of the not-yet-cleaned raw-chicken cutting board . Sigh.) Some little bits of cheese for afters.

Yogurt on overnight.

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

This week in the kitchen

Monday/12-Nov-12: Out of head, Authentic French Bread in the ABN in time for lunch.

What did we eat (lots of) yesterday? Duck. What was on the plan for today? Duck. Major menu plan overhaul required. So tonight we skipped ahead to this week's IHCC challenge, with a half dose of Mushroom Curry (Q&E, p79), which was pretty good. Served with the lime pickle I made last week; much better than the green chili one. Served the curry over rice, with some Gujerati Carrot Salad (MJ1, p170) on the side. Double chocolate mini Magnums for after. Not very Indian, but what the heck.

Tuesday/13-Nov-12: Yogurt on overday.

Dinner was a half recipe of Mrs. Reardy's Shrimp and Artichoke Casserole (Essential, p395; cookbooker), made in individual casseroles. (Mrs. Reardy was Adlai Stevenson's cook. Supposedly this dish was served for lunch to President Kennedy and UN Secretary General U Thant.) Very late 50s/early 60s-ish. But good. Then a salad. Then some hazelnut cake and vanilla ice cream.

Wednesday/14-Nov-12: Forgot to defrost for dinner, so improvised. Quickly defrosted and grilled some lamb-pork sausages, a new brand, which turned out to be very salty. Lightly steamed the last bit of a broccoli and some carrot chunks. Meawhile, sautéed garlic and red onion, then our last zucchini (discovered on the weekend) and added the broc and carrot. And some trio rice. Was best when the sausage was sliced up small and all was mixed together.

Thursday/15-Nov-12: Waited all afternoon for DHL, who never showed up, but then sent an email saying the customer wasn't home. Grrr...

Ate dinner out tonight for Ed's birthday. Further, no action in the kitchen.

Friday/16-Nov-12: Finally got our shopping done today. Went to our local butcher to order turkey for Thanksgiving.

Dinner was a scaled-back version of Grilled (Broiled) Salmon Steaks with Minty Yogurt Sauce (MJFamily, p21). Pretty good, although there was way too much sauce and I had cut it back more than needed already. Will make a good salad dressing perhaps. I didn't have much usable mint in the fridge and there was none in the shop today. At the table I was thinking the sauce didn't have a very strong mint taste at all. When I started clearing the table, I discovered I hadn't added the mint. Oops. It's in the leftover bit. Served with Roasted Brussels Sprouts (MC) and trio rice.

Yogurt on overnight.

Saturday/17-Nov-12: Forgot that I needed to put beans on to soak last night (I really need to find some way of indicating in my menu plan spreadsheet when I need to do a night-before activity), so did a quick-soak thing today. Recipe called for chickpeas or white beans. While rummaging around some chickpeas, I came across the little white beans that Jody sent me a while ago.

Those beans were cooking away and not getting soft very fast. Meanwhile, I made some jalapeño-cream cheese rollups. After we'd eaten those we decided that was enough for dinner—protein, veg matter, and starch, what more could you want? Ok, a double chocolate mini-Magnum. That was dinner. So the beans will wait till tomorrow. And tomorrow's dinner?

Sunday/18-Nov-12: Well, those bean simmered away all day and finally got done enough to eat, although I was starting to worry. So, dinner was Couscous with Beans and Cauliflower (Essential, p287). Made a whole recipe and froze half (or more). Tasty stuff, kind of a soupy, stewy thing, served over couscous. Nicely hot with harissa.

In the morning, I made about a two-thirds recipe of Ricotta Pound Cake (MC, web), two-thirds because that's the size of a bakje of ricotta. Oh my, more-ish, this cake.

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

This week in the kitchen

Monday/15-Oct-12: Lunch out today. Started Pickled Green Chiles (WofE, p367) to replace the smashed jar of pickle and for the upcoming Jaffrey theme on pickles and chutneys. Set the jar in the sun ... what sun?

For dinner, I defrosted some Gingery Cauliflower Soup. We had that, with some store-bought naan, then a bit of goat cheese, then the rest of the kulfi. A no-effort dinner, not too bad.

Tuesday/16-Oct-12: Shopping today.

Dinner started with Cold Beetroot with Cream (Pomiane, p180), always a favorite. Then there was Oven-Steamed Salmon with Lentils and Sun-Dried Tomatoes (VeryBest, p309). This was definitely so-so. The lentils were pretty blah and the salmon was nowhere as good as last week's, which was cooked by the same method. Maybe it was slightly overcooked, maybe the fish itself wasn't as good (it was on special today), don't know. Then some roquefort smashed with unsalted butter. Then some chocolate tarts from the shop.

Yogurt on overnight.

Wednesday/17-Oct-12: Off to Poitiers for an overnight, prior to a day at Futuroscope. Left Bill with some soup from the freezer.

Thursday/18-Oct-12: Spent the day at Futuroscope, then back home and off to La Bellone for dinner.

Friday/19-Oct-12: We'd intended to eat at a food fair in Limoges today, but it's been raining raining raining, so we decided to stay home. I defrosted some chicken thighs and made Chicken Drumsticks, Ethiopian Style (web), which was quite good. Put some Potatoes Baked with Garlic (MJFamily, p106) in the oven, but too late to eat with the chicken, so made some rice. And a salad. And some mixed berries over a waffle with the last of the vanilla ice milk for after.

Saturday/20-Oct-12: Made Apple-Plum Butter (MC) this morning, and with plums this time. Put the chicken on to marinate for Buttermilk Roast Chicken (Essential, p493). Rain rain rain cancelled the Fête du Vin at St Sornin, but it did start to clear a bit in the afternoon, so we went to La Roche for the Marché du Goût and bought a sackful of goodies. Then we took ourselves out for fish and chips.

Sunday/21-Oct-12: Yogurt on overday. Brought the green chili pickle in. Quick taste shows it to be seriously hot, but not much else in the way of flavor. It will wait to be tried with some food.

For lunch, before going off to an early concert, I roasted the chicken, warmed the potatoes, and steamed some broccoli. A pretty good meal, topped off with some of the cake Bill bought at the Marché du Goût yesterday. That was good, but it turned out to be chocolate with a orange flavors added, which surprised us all.

When we got back from the concert we had some cheese and some cookies from the Marché du Goût.

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