This week in the kitchen

Monday/22-Apr-19: Off to the Pranzac Foire aux Vins today with Cath, then home for a bbq. There was Best Grilled Chicken Thighs with Mustard and Tarragon (CI/jul18, web). Very good these were. And some Dilled Potato-Cucumber Salad (VT; MC; web), an old favorite. And some of Corinne's broccoli, steamed and topped with a bit of garlic-flavored oil and lemon juice. Some of the Postre de Mango for after.

Tuesday/23-Apr-19: Worked on the meal plan today. Somehow all next week was meat, meat, meat, and needed to be jiggled more than I would have liked.

Tonight's meal was Aubergine and Sweet Potato Thai Red Curry (web). Easy to do, edible but nothing special. Served over rice. A pair of chocolate-covered madeleines each for dessert.

Wednesday/24-Apr-19: We meant to go to Bordeaux today, but the weather forecast was bad enough to keep us home. Bordeaux had incredible storms yesterday, while we had almost nothing.

Started a pot of chicken stock.

Dinner was a halfish recipe of Smoked Paprika Stroganoff (web). This is a pressure cooker recipe, easy, relatively fast, and tasty. For a starter, I made some Carrot and Apple Salad (Art, p26), although twice as much as stated for two people. It suggest serving with ricotta or cottage cheese. I had some fromage blanc needing to be used, so I did. I used a ring to assemble the dish, salad on the bottom with a creamy, wite topping. Picture worthy, but no camera was handy. Mini ice cream bars for dessert.

Yogurt on overnight.

Thursday/25-Apr-19: Yogurt on overnight, ha! Power went off at 9pm, returning about 3am. Dragged myself out of bed to go downstairs and restart the yogurt. Power off again about 9am for another six hours. I restarted the yogurt yet again, but can't imagine what it will be like and no one will be around to put it in the fridge.

Meanwhile we did our shopping. Bought another starter for yogurt. Before we left the store, the wind came up, making an enormous noise inside. As we were loading the car, it started hailing. Yipes! Apparently the same thing happened here. I went to ask a neighbor about the electricity and she had closed her shutters agains the wind and hail.

For dinner there was Asian Catfish Wraps (MC, web). Problem was that I thoughtlessly bought whole sole rather than filets, so we picked bones out of our wraps. Very tasty though. Some organic Gariguette strawberries and the rest of the fromage blanc for after.

Friday/26-Apr-19: Dinner was Spicy Pork Rolls with Satay Sauce (200Budget, p130). I've made the version of this with minted yogurt sauce with turkey scallops. This time I used veal scallops. One day I'll find pork scallops and remember to do this. It was yummy, including the satay sauce, which remained too thick in spite of extra coconut cream, but was really delicious. As a side there was Tumis Buncis (SriOwen, p195). Well, I more or less followed this recipe, but added carrots as described in Tumis Bunchis (MJFarEast, p175). Jaffrey uses more "real" spices, chilies, ginger, galangal, curry leaves, rather than powdered ginger and cayenne. Still, what I made was good. With plain basmati rice. HD mini ice cream cups for after.

Saturday/27-Apr-19: Really nice meal at a nearby restaurant this evening. Nothing happened in the kitchen.

Sunday/28-Apr-19: Chicken stock is still going. Need to freeze it up tomorrow.

Dinner was Gingery Squash Quiche (BoldVeg, p200; cookbooker). This was the best butternut squash quiche-y sort of thing I've had. Then a salad. Then a pair of chocolate-covered madeleines each.

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

This week in the kitchen

Monday/5-Sep-16: Dinner was Salsa di Salsiccie—Sausage Sauce (TuscTable, p87; cookbooker) served over most of our remaining pici. I used the last of Hazan's sausage from the freezer to make about a 2/3 recipe. We ate it all, but it probably would have served three easily, and should have served four. Very simple to make and very tasty. Improvised a little salad of sliced cucumber (from the potager) and red onion with S&P, dill, sour cream, and a slog of white wine vinegar. We had some chocolate squares when we took Pogo for a walk.

Tuesday/6-Sep-16: This was clearing out the fridge day. We had Moroccan Eggplant Salad with Preserved Lemons and Olives (web), which was quite good. Used eggplants from the potager. And there was Broccoli with Preserved Lemon Yogurt (web), also good. Served over brown rice. (After I started this I realized it should have been couscous. Oh well.) Mini ice cream bars for dessert.

Wednesday/7-Sep-16: Shopping today.

Starting to cook from Time-Life's Middle Eastern Cooking tonight. We had fish and a radish salad, along with some plain couscous. And Crème Fraîche Ice Cream (MC) for after. All yummy.

Yogurt on overnight.

Thursday/8-Sep-16: Made up a batch of Guillano Hazan's Homemade Sausage (30MinPasta, p162; HandyBook) and froze it.

Dinner was leftover cheese-and-onion enchiladas and Spanish rice, with a new batch of guacamole. I had a bunch of avocados, but most were bad. So annoying.

Friday/9-Sep-16: In the morning I made a Peach and Raspberry Galette (web). The recipe is actually for peaches and blueberries, but I'd been told raspberries were good, and I had some in the freezer, so ... It was extra yummy. Any nice fruit combination could be used. I used my new Kenwood to mix the dough, but it might be easier in the Cuisinart, using Jones' alligator technique.

For lunch, I was going to made a salad with avocado and slices of dried magret. But, I found last night that my avocados were mostly bad and had none left for today. Instead, using the snow peas that I had in the fridge waiting to be used, I made, more or less, Salade Pois Gourmand et Magret de Canard Fumé (web); I had only a half fan on alternating peas and slices. Served with a bit of salad and a dressing of 1 part honey, 2 parts balsamic vinegar, and 3 parts olive oil. I was too lazy to go get the camera, since this was deserving of a picture and quite tasty.

We went to a picnic/play in the evening. Brought some bread, cheeses, wine, and the galette. A very enjoyable evening.

Saturday/10-Sep-16: The chicken didn't get marinate as long is it could have, but Spicy Stir-Fried Chicken with Lemon Grass (MJFarEast, p111; cookbooker) was still very good. I made a halfish recipe with three skinned chicken thighs, not cut into small bits. Very yummy. Served with some plain basmati rice and a half recipe of Spicy Thai Cucumber Salad (MaiPham, p40; cookbooker). For afters, we finished off the bits of cheese left from last night. Nice dinner.

Sunday/11-Sep-16: We had some of the galette for breakfast today. Something went awry with the last batch of yogurt. It has an odd texture and taste. After the first day, neither of us want to eat it, so I'll get a new starter when we shop next week.

Made a pot of chicken stock today, using only half the bones in the freezer. Will finish it off tomorrow.

Dinner was another meal from Time-Life's Middle Eastern Cooking, lamb and eggplant and the yummy radish salad again. Very nice dinner. We finished the galette for dessert.

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