This week in the kitchen

Monday/16-Apr-18: In the morning, I used some leftover (flat) prosecco, topped up with a bit of white wine from the box, and a store-bought pie curst to make a Wine Tart (Secrets, p89). Only mildly successful. The pastry, which was one of the top-rated brands, is like leather. There is a reason to make it yourself.

Our meal was Chorizo Chowder (web). This was tasty, but I thought it was too fat, even thought I used less butter than asked for the veggies. We added some pyramid goat cheese at table. Some kind of creamy stuff makes it nicer.

Tuesday/17-Apr-18: Our meal was a halfish dose of Tajine of Chicken, Caramelized Onions and Pears (BirdHand, p58). This was only so-so compared with the other dishes I've made from this book.

Served with Moroccan couscous, a mix from a health food store. As sides there were some steamed asparagus with lemon juice and Courgette and Fresh Coriander Salad (Meze, p85). I liked this salad, but Ed who doesn't like raw zucchini on principle didn't much care for it.

Wednesday/18-Apr-18: For our meal we had leftover chorizo chowder. I tossed in leftover brown rice to stretch it and give it more substance. Worked well. Accompanied by egg salad sandwiches made with arugula pesto (from the freezer), minced red onion, plus dab of mayo and yogurt. Not bad. Wine tart for dessert.

Yogurt on overnight.

Thursday/19-Apr-18: Shopping today. We're later than usual for the next couple of weeks while Ed has practices for an extra choir concert at the beginning of May.

Our meal was a half version of Garlic Butter Salmon (web). I packed these up in aluminum foil rather than parchment paper and Ed cooked them on the grill instead of in the oven. Yummy stuff. Served with orzo and steamed broccoli. Some delicious store-bought chocolate mousses for dessert.

Friday/20-Apr-18: A bit of replanning today, since Cath will come for dinner tomorrow before a concert.

Today we had Chicken Karhai with Mint (MJ@Home, p78), with Mushroom and Pea Curry (MJ@Home, p191) as suggested, and plain basmati rice. All was good.

Saturday/21-Apr-18: Cath came for a meal before we went to a concert. I made a 3/4 recipe of Creamy Garlic Pasta with Shrimp & Vegetables (web; cookbooker). Especially tasty, it was. I used casareccia as the pasta, since spaghetti wasn't right for this dish. My veggies were not done in 2 minutes, but the shrimp were. Fished them out (all but one, poor baby) to finish cooking the vegetables. For a 3/4 recipe, I used all 6oz of pasta. Probably the recipe makes way too much sauce. I was making a 3/4 recipe, but used less than half the yogurt (I admit it, I didn't measure) and adjusted the rest of the ingredients to match. Except for the freshly ground pepper, which I used a lot of. Made up a salad of sliced cucumber and tomato as suggested, with added mint. For dessert, I made up some vanilla ice cream and we ate it all topped slogs crème de cacao.

Sunday/22-Apr-18: We had Judy's Dal Soup (EAT-L) for lunch. No online source, since it was a recipe copied from a friend. Easy and tasty. Served with store-bought naan, Kheer ka raita—Yoghurt with cucumber and mint (MJ1, p162), and an assortment of chutneys and pickle.

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

This week in the kitchen

Monday/5-Mar-18: Our meal was Nigel Slater's Carrot and Cardamom Soup with Herb Ricotta Dumplings (web). The soup was tasty but disappointing as a whole. I made a half recipe, which turned out to be skimpy for two, and the liquid wasn't deep enough to cook the dumplings properly. We each had a hard-boiled egg to supplement the meal.

Tuesday/6-Mar-18: Dinner was Garlicky Chicken with Lemon-Anchovy Sauce (web), an instant hit. This was exceedingly yummy. Ed thought it was a trifle salty; I didn't especially, but will be careful salting the chicken next time. Served with orzo, dressed up with lemon juice and parsley, and steamed asparagus. (Lately asparagus has been appearing in 400g packets rather than 500g. With 500g, you can get a side for two dinner; with 400g you either have one meal with abundance or two skimpy ones.)

Wednesday/7-Mar-18: Shopping today.

Dinner was chili from the freezer, filled out with hominy also from the freezer, and some guacamole, accompanied by Cayenne Cornbread (BigGerman, p182). We were stuffed.

Yogurt on overnight.

Thursday/8-Mar-18: Off to Audilab today and finally got my hearing aids straightened out. Then a quick trip to Leclerc to pick up frozen spinach which I seemed to be out of unexpectedly.

Our meal was a half recipe of Gratin de Pomme de Terre, Saumon et Épinards à l'Aneth (VPG; web). This was quite good, and easy, but takes some wall clock time. Cut my potatoes on the mandoline to get them really thin; another 5 minutes cooking might be nice to be sure they're done. Served with a salad, then some store-bought rum-raisin riz au laits.

Friday/9-Mar-18: Roasted a chunk of potimarron (a winter squash, we'll pretend it's pumpkin) for tomorrow's meal.

Leftover pizza for our meal.

Meanwhile, I made Yogurt Cake with Ouzo-Lemon Syrup (O&C, p520).

Saturday/10-Mar-18: Pasta today, yay! I made a half recipe of Creamy Pumpkin Sage Fettuccine (web). This was pretty good. For the pasta, you essentially replace one of the eggs with 2tbl of pumpkin purée and a pinch of turmeric. Pretty color; easy to handle. The sauce is pumpkin and cream, stirred into sautéed minced sage leaves. Simple and good. Then a salad.

Sunday/11-Mar-18: It was supposed to be a quickish meal today, but I failed in that. We had Chicken Neo-Avgolemono (O&C, p409; cookbooker). This was edible but disappointing.

Served with a pilaf, Baklar Enginar—Artichoke Hearts with Broad Beans (Meze, p77), and Jazar Atariyah—Spiced Carrots (Meze, p76). The artichoke/fêve dish was disappointing. The carrots were good. Both of the meze dishes were supposed to serve 6; I made a third of each recipe. A single serving of the artichoke dish was once bottom and a dab of favas. A single serving of the carrot dish was two carrots.

Made up some Pickled Red Onions (O&C, p79) for tomorrow.

Yogurt on overnight.

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

This week in the kitchen

Monday/11-Dec-17: Went to make lamb chops today and discovered that I forgot to remind myself to put them on to marinate. Oops. Put them on to marinate for tomorrow, so they'll have almost 24 hours rather than only 8 hours.

Instead we had Copycat Panera Macaroni and Cheese (web). Wasn't bad at all. Actually the recipe is quite similar to the my usual mac-and-cheese recipe, without the minced onions. Both have too much liquid. Otherwise very tasty. Don't know Panera.

Yogurt on overnight.

Tuesday/12-Dec-17: The marinated lamb turned into Grecian Lamb with Herbed Yogurt Sauce (CL92, p158). The lamb marinated a bit longer than the recipe intended, but it was good. Served with the last of the Moroccan couscous I got from the health food store and Fassolakia Freska—Green Beans with Onion and Tomato (Meze, p79; cookbooker)

Wednesday/13-Dec-17: Dinner out this evening. Nothing happened in the kitchen.

Thursday/14-Dec-17: Doug's funeral today.

Dinner was Sarah's Slow Cooker Greek Chicken Gyros (web), made in the slow cooker. Served with flat breads (which I didn't bother to heat up, so they were a bit brittle), and chopped cuke, tomato, onion, and arugula.

Yogurt on overnight.

Friday/15-Dec-17: Soup for dinner, Pumpkin and Coconut Soup (SoupBible, p70). I made a full recipe. We ate all the solid bits and have quite a bit of flavorful broth in the freezer to use for something else. Not too hard to make, but took me a bit of time, especially for pounding the aromatics. Used raw frozen shrimp, not all that small. Used coconut milk and cream. Tasty and filling.

Saturday/16-Dec-17: Dinner out tonight. Nothing happened in the kitchen.

Sunday/17-Dec-17: Stamppot with zuurkool and smoked sausages for our meal today. Simple and delicious.

Yogurt on overnight.

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