This week in the kitchen

Monday/4-May-15: Didn't feel like eating or making what I'd planned for tonight and had some asparagus (nearing the end of the season) to use up. Used these to make a half recipe of Asparagus with Aubergine Mayonnaise (web; cookbooker), which was pretty good. This was a go-with for Pork Medallions with Olive-Caper Sauce (MC; web, originally from CL). Instead of pork tenderloin, this time I used varkensfiletlapjes, whatever those might be in English (boneless pork chops?), pavés du porc in French. Pretty good. Mixed the extra sauce with the leftover mayo to salt it up a bit. This might appear on ham sandwiches in the next days. For afters we had store-bought tartelettes of chocolate and pistachio; not bad.

Tuesday/5-May-15: Kind of a made-up dinner. Used one of Jody's spice mixes, this one was mole dulce, to make a sort of stewy thing with four chicken thighs, some of the xmas limas from the freezer, a small can of corn, and the rest of the chicken stock I recently defrosted. Was okay, nothing special. Made a salad with avocado and tomato that was okay. Made some tortillas, but not enough to satisfy either of us.

Wednesday/6-May-15: We're having an ant invasion. For days there have been one or two or three most anywhere you look, upstairs, downstairs, anywhere. This morning there were a zillion on the counter and wall over the dishwasher. They seem to be just milling around and after an hour or so of my squashing and washing them down the drain, they disappeared. This evening they appeared on the Ivar shelves, a bit worrisome because there is Food there. They did find the lazy susan with honey and such, but that didn't really seem to be their focus. Again after a couple of hours, they're gone. A puzzle. What will tomorrow bring?

Shopping today.

Dinner was mostly unimpressive. The main was Onion-Crusted Sole with Anchovy Butter (MoreFast, p80), using lieu noir since there was no sole and that looked better than panga or some such. I was attracted to this recipe since it uses canned fried onions, which was something Fatima (my French French cooking teacher) liked to use. They were supposed to be crumbled in the food processor, but I used the staff mixer instead. They turned rather to butter rather than crumbs. Made just a bit of the anchovy butter; it was okay. My experience with battering fish and other such stuff is that it works better to dip in flour before the egg and then the crunchy topping, so I did this. Managed to burn the topping a bit, too bad. Definitely so-so. Used up some mushrooms making a kind of quinoa pilaf that was okay, but nothing special. Improved by a squirt of lemon. The best bit was Broccoli Salad with Yellow Peppers, Pine Nuts, and Cranberries (I got this from a Nava Atlas newsletter, but found it here). Definitely a keeper this one. The Sesame-Ginger Dressing is vaguely Oriental, but not assertively so. This would be a good pot-luck salad. Very pretty with the green broccoli. yellow bell pepper, and dried cranberries. Some squares of chocolate for after.

Thursday/7-May-15: Yogurt on overday.

Off to the Caucasus for dinner, half recipes of all. There was Skewered Pork with Pomegranate Syrup (TLRus, p63). This could have been barbecued, but Ed (who's coming done with a cold) didn't want the smoke. For sides there were Rice Pilaf with Dried Fruit and Nuts (TLRus, p68) and String Beans in Sour Cream and Tomato Sauce (TLRus, p40). The pilaf has no added salt, and (surprise!) it didn't need any extra at the table. It was recommended as a side for the pork, and was a good accompaniment. Might be nice with long-grain brown rice. The beans were good, although this is a more complicated veg side than I usually serve.

Many fewer ants today, although they turn up in odd places, one in a pile of ironing to be done, another just appeared on the kitchen table as we were eating lunch.

Friday/8-May-15: We both forgot to put up the yogurt last night. This morning it was separated again, the whole batch pretty worthless. Saved my last jar to try again tonight.

Tired of being sick and coughy. Really don't feel like cooking, or doing much else.

Dinner was a half recipe of Eggs Blindfolded over Garlic-Cheddar Grits (web). Really good and satisfying, comfort-food like. Interesting way to cook the eggs, start frying them, then throw in some ice cubes and cover to finish off by poaching, sort of. Then a big clean-out-the-fridge salad.

If we saw any ants today it was just one or two. I don't get it.

Saturday/9-May-15: The ants are back, the occasional one in odd places, but a lot on the sweet shelf. I discovered a sack of powdered sugar whose ziplock wasn't completely closed. Sealed that and tossed it with ants inside. They're also interested in a jar of molasses sitting in a plastic dish. That kind of thing is always gooey on the outside, so dish and jar are being washed this evening. Those seem, knock wood, to be the only interesting things on the shelf.

Dinner was Tofu, Asparagus, and Red Pepper Stir-fry with Quinoa (web; cookbooker), tasty enough if not quite right. Then some Butterscotch Pudding (MC 2BTried), which wasn't bad.

Sunday/10-May-15: More ants today.

For breakfast, I made Ned and Crescent's Favorite Multigrain Pancakes (Gospels, p205). Really good stuff. I made a whole batch, so have another breakfast of pancakes in the freezer. Next time, maybe I should make up a double batch of the dry ingredients (using dried buttermilk), so I just have to add egg and water before cooking.

Crockpot dinner tonight, ready and waiting when we returned from Ed's choir performance. I made a half recipe of Easy Crock Pot Moroccan Chicken, Chickpea, and Apricot Tagine (web). Made it with thighs instead of kip filets. There was lots of food; it would have served 3 easily, and maybe even four as it should have. Served over whole wheat couscous, along with Roasted Carrots with Preserved Lemon, Cumin, and Cinnamon (web). Had a carrot deficit for some reason, only a quarter of the carrots with half the spices. Good, and worth trying again.

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

This week in the kitchen

Monday/9-Feb-15: Sicky me today. Was going to  make soup with dinner but didn't feel like finishing it off. So dinner was just Grilled Chicken Sandwich (CL92, p193). The chicken didn't get marinated as long as it should have, but it was still quite tasty.

Made some ABM bread using the (expired) pain aux levain mix that I'd forgotten in the fridge. Used the tare method for measuring. That really makes it easy and no extra measuring devices to clean up.

Tuesday/10-Feb-15: Off to order our new fridge today. It will arrive Friday.

When it came time to make dinner, I discovered that I'd neglected to defrost some egg whites. Oops, replan. Instead I finished off the soup I didn't make last night and served with the leftover brown rice crusted quichey thing. For dessert we had the last of the (frozen) chocolate-pear cake bits.

The soup was Spas (Yoghurt-and-Barley Soup with Herbs) (TLRus, p23) from the Caucasus. This was pretty darn good for a simple soup. Would be nice in small cups as a starter or just on a buffet perhaps.

Wednesday/11-Feb-15: Shopping today. Nothing much exciting there.

Dinner was Pork Burgers Dijon (CL92, p159). I made a full recipe, 6 patties, which should serve six. They were good. We ate 5 patties and have one left for lunch tomorrow. Served with Coriander Carrots (web), a quick little recipe from a Cooking Light magazine, easy and good. Also some corn on the cob, espied at Intermarché yesterday. Some squares of chocolate for after.

Thursday/12-Feb-15: Dinner was Steamed Scrod Packages in Pimiento Sauce (MoreFast, p79; cookbooker). This was fun, quick, and quite good. Followed by a salad. No sweet tonight.

Friday/13-Feb-15: New fridge arrived this afternoon, needing its doors to open the other way around. Ed took care of that. Then I filled it back up. There's a bit more fridge room and a bit less freezer room. I guess we'll cope. It's a bit taller, so one of the two cabinets above the fridge had to go. I'm thinking the crockpot and one or two other such things will end up sitting there instead. (Anticipating the loss of the cabinet, I'd already emptied it and have jammed the crockpot onto a shelf from which it's really hard to retrieve it. The top of the fridge will be better. If only it weren't so ugly and orange.)

Dinner was a half recipe of Zucchini Curry (web), easy and not at all bad, served with basmati rice. We split a magnum classic for dessert.

Yogurt on overnight.

Saturday/14-Feb-15: Yogurt on overnight, but the electricity was off for 10 minutes or so. Restarted with a guess a required time. We'll see.

Lunch out today; nothing much happened in the kitchen.

Discovered that, with the new fridge in place, the door on the corner cabinet in the peninsula doesn't open as far as it used to. Oops. Maybe need to move the fridge over just a smidge. Still can't get used to the big grey/inox mass standing there.

Sunday/15-Feb-15: Yogurt was edible. Will get a new starter next week.

Dinner in the crockpot today, so it was waiting when we got back from a concert. It was a half recipe of the very well-reviewed recipe for Southern Slower Cooker Choucroute (web). Not so highly rated here. OK, but nothing special. Have some leftovers, maybe to make up a kind of poor-man's reuben for lunch one day soon.

Unused cookbooks? CL92 qualifies in the life of this blog, but I did use it before that, so it doesn't really. Need to focus on this a bit.

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

This week in the kitchen

Monday/1-Sep-14: We did our shopping today, a day early, hoping we would find some goat's milk for Harriet, but no luck. Went to the vet, then to stop at a nearby goat farm.

Dinner was Cilantro and Lime Salmon (web; cookbooker). (This the same same site whence the yummy Blueberry Zucchini Bread. Need to pay them some attention.) I made all the sauce for half the salmon and used the extra on steamed broccoli. Broiled the salmon. And some polenta. All good. Aimed for some vanilla yogurt at the shop, but came home with vanilla fromage frais. Nevermind, this is good too.

Tuesday/2-Sep-14: Seeded and chunked the two kilos of coeur de boeuf tomatoes I bought yesterday and simmered them most of afternoon. Buzzed after dinner. Tomorrow I'll heat them up again, then freeze them up in one- and two-cup lumps.

Did the sauce for a roast chicken, but then we ended up being out chasing down goat's milk and vermifuge for Harriet and it was too late to roast. Ended up with Zucchini, Walnut, and Feta Cakes with Cucumber-Yogurt Sauce (CL/may14, web, cookbooker), with a bit of mixed lettuces on the side to help with the sauce. Good stuff.

Wednesday/3-Sep-14: Finished off the tomato sauce (purée?) this morning. Boy, did it smell good! Two kilos of tomatoes made just over four cups of sauce. Into the freezer with that.

Dinner was Roasted Split Chicken with Mustard Crust (MoreFast, p99). I made this before and the chickie turned out to be tough and stringy. This one was delicious. Served with Haricots Verts in Walnut Oil (Lunch, p216) and Clothilde Dusoulier's Perfect Roasted Potatoes. For dessert we had another pair of vanilla fromage frais cups.

Thursday/4-Sep-14: Dinner was Pasta and Goat Cheese Casserole with Black Olives (web; cookbooker). It was good. Then we split a magnum classic.

Friday/5-Sep-14: Lunch at a restaurant with friends followed by a tour of Villebois-Lavalette. A nice outing, but nothing happened in our kitchen.

Saturday/6-Sep-14: Dinner was more or less a half recipe I collected from EAT-L: Fesenjan Persian Chicken Stew with Walnut and Pomegranate Sauce. I used bone-in chicken thighs instead of boneless. It was good stuff. Lots of sauce left. I'll make myself a little soup from it tomorrow perhaps. Made a Persian pilaf from the web and found a Persian cucumber salad on the web. Only vaguely followed those recipes. Vanilla fromage frais for dessert.

Sunday/7-Sep-14: Yogurt on overday.

Ed had lunch with his Rochechouart choir. I made myself some soup from the leftover sauce. It was better last night. In the evening we had popcorn and fruit and watched an episode of New Tricks.

Progress on goals
This week: #1 COOKBOOKS: no; #2 VEG/FISH: 3
This month: #3 PASTA: no; #4 FotW: no; #5 BREAD: 0

This week in the kitchen

Monday/30-Jul-12: Patrice and Wim for dinner tonight. Made Roasted Split Chicken with Mustard Crust (MoreFast, p99; video). Good idea for a chickie, it smelled wonderful, but it was another tough one. Wonder if the last tough one was a two-for with this one. Served with polenta and Zucchini and Feta Cheese Salad (WorldVeg, p640). Then some Double Boiler Bread Pudding (MC) for dessert.

Tuesday/31-Jul-12: We're going to be eating out this week more than we're eating in! Not very good when you're trying to use a zucchini bounty.

We had lunch in St Sornin today after a tour of the cave, a calèche visit to the vineyards, and a tasting. Neither of us were very hungry, so I made a little insalata caprese with the first of our planted tomatoes and a couple of fairly tasteless storebought ones. And I finished off the rice salad.

Yogurt on overnight.

Wednesday/1-Aug-12: Zucchinis are coming in from the garden faster than they're going out, and eating out is not helping this situation. It started out as a joke, but a little googling turned up a recipe, so today I made up the "broth" for Zucchini Ice Cream (web), using low-fat milk rather than whole. Tomorrow I'll freeze it up and we'll see how it is. Then I made Zucchini Whole Wheat Bread (BreadWin, p248), reducing the honey. It's quite good and on the borderline of not-quite-sweet-enough.

Just before we left for the evening, a neighbor brought us a sackful of haricots verts along with some yellow ones. Tomorrow ...

We bought our dinner at the marché de producteurs de pays in Massignac this evening. There were not as many stands as the one in La Rochefoucauld, but there were still some nice ones. There was a vendor who grows proper chilies (jalapeños, haberñeros, etc.) and was selling sauces to match. (We bought some haberñero sauce.) Unlike La Roche, though, here you had to cook your own meat on gas barbecues set up for the purpose; the wind kept blowing out the fire on some of them, so this was a bit challenging. A nice evening.


Thursday/2-Aug-12: Busy in the kitchen. Used a pound (about half) of the haricots verts to make some of Kaye's Pickled Green Beans (MC), my recipe, smerged from several others. Those are marinating in the fridge. Used the last bit of some jarred roasted red bell pepper strips to make a bit of pizza sauce, and into the freezer with that. Roasted some beets from the garden. Roasted some eggplants that have been lingering in the fridge. Was planning on making baba ghanoush and freezing that, but read on the web, that it's better to freeze just the smooshed up roasted eggplant and finish off the baba ghanoush later. With or without the lemon juice seems to be the question. I ended up with about a cup of eggplant, so decided splitting it wasn't worth the effort.

Dinner started with corn on the cob. Then there was Spaghetti with Zucchini and Lemon (MW@Home, p195), always good. Finally Zucchini Ice Cream. Now, that was interesting. A bit too much cinnamon we both thought. And I used the food processor to grate the zuke, which made rather coarse strands which weren't all that nice. Why not just blend it all together, we both wonder. Definitely a recipe to work on, giving an excellent way to use up the zucchini surplus. Meant to make up the "broth" for Zucchini-Lemon Sorbet today, but forgot. Tomorrow maybe.

Friday/3-Aug-12: Off to a late start with shopping today. Upon return, made a double dose of Herbal Potato Salad (now MC), a recipe from an old newspaper clipping, something to take to a party tomorrow. Took the bowl down to Barbara's to stash in one of her fridges, since we're quite full up. Too late then to make a proper dinner, so we had a salad with a beet and a tomato from the garden. Then some zucchini ice cream and raspberries from the store.

Saturday/4-Aug-12: Yogurt on overday. Made a double dose of Zucchini and Feta Salad (WorldVeg, p640), making a good dent in the zucchini backlog. This salad and the potato salad went off to a party. Only a bit of each came home. Otherwise, no action in the kitchen.

Sunday/5-Aug-12: We had some of the leftover Zucchini and Feta Salad for lunch, so neither of us were very hungry at dinner time. I defrosted the Chipotle Meatballs and served with a bit of pasta. And a double-chocolate mini-Magnum for dessert.

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

This week in the kitchen

Monday/23-Jul-12: Yogurt on overday.

Starting to address the zucchini garden surplus, I made up and froze some curried zucchini soup.

Since we went to a concert this evening at a time that made eating dinner awkward, we had our main meal at midday (well, it was more like 3pm, but that's not dinnertime). Made some Red Pepper Pasta (PastaMach, p71), which is just regular pasta with some red pepper flakes added. To top it, there was Cajun Shrimp (PastaMach, p138), more or less. Quite tasty. Then a big salad. Since I haven't been using this cookbook much lately (I forget that it's full of tasty sauces), this could have been a meal for Cookbook Sundays, but I didn't take a picture, so I guess I'l skip that. (Unfortunately, it looks like Cookbook Sundays may be closing up shop since the current host wants to stop. I thought about taking it on, but decided I didn't need one more thing to do at the computer.)

Tuesday/24-Jul-12: Without thinking, I'd planned shrimp two nights in a row, so tonight's dinner was a last-minute change. I defrosted a pair of duck breast scallops. Pan-fried those and served topped with Marsala Wine Pan Sauce (HowTo, p160), which is about as simple a pan sauce as you can get. All you do is deglaze with a slog of marsala, reduce to almost nothing, and top up with a dab of butter. Pretty good for minimal effort. Served with some garlicky, steam-fried potatoes. Then some Shaved Zucchini Salad with Parmesan and Pine Nuts (web), which turns out to be a pretty nifty way to use up zucchini. Make a lemony vinaigrette with some red pepper flakes. Use the mandolin to shave long slices from a zuke. Toss with the vinaigrette, pine nuts, and Parmesan shavings. Should have been some chopped basil in there too, but I forgot—that would make it even better. Definitely a keeper, this one. For dessert we had some mini-Magnums.

Wednesday/25-Jul-12: Hot. Shopping today. This evening our Dutch friends Wim and Patrice, who are camping nearby, came for dinner and a visit. I bought some nice lamb steaks and we had Grilled Lamb Steaks with Rosemary, Garlic, and Red Wine (Thrill, p150), very easy and extremely really tasty. (Although I had about two weeks' worth of red meat protein in one sitting.) Made some Summer Rice Salad (Rodale, p129), a very old favorite, and Shaved Zucchini Salad with Parmesan and Pine Nuts, a very new favorite, the a second night in a row. Had planned to grill some eggplant also, but it seemed like too much. After walking the dogs, we had Strawberry Sorbet with some fresh raspberries.

Thursday/26-Jul-12: Hotter. ugh. Yogurt on overday.

Still full from yesterday evening's meal. No cooking today. Leftover dinner. Finished off the galette along with the zucchini salad (which held up remarkably well, unexpectedly to me) and the rice salad.

Friday/27-Jul-12: Another attack on the zucchini harvest: Chocolate Zucchini Cake (TooMany, p215. This used an amazingly big pile of grated zucchini. (Thank you, food processor.)

A recent Vie Pratique Gourmand explained how to cook ears of corns: peel them and boil for 25 minutes! Then, because they're too hot to hold, you stick a toothpick in each end. Right.

Yesterday after choir, Ed went to Intermarché, and came home with two two-packs of fresh corn. They have this for a few weeks each summer, and it's our only chance to have one of our favorite veggies. (Although, it's looking like we may get three ears from the garden this year.) So tonight we had, yes corn on the cob, along with Lemony Leeks with Chickpeas and Feta (web). This turned out to be a dish of nice tastes that went surprisingly well together. We both thought that the leeks should have been cut thinner. And I tossed everything in a bowl before serving, rather that arranging  it all tidily on the plates. But tasty it was, a nice, easy hot-weather main dish.

Saturday/28-Jul-12: Started with Beet, Stilton, Apple, and Nut Salad (MoreFast, p4), a recipe I found watching a video someone posted to EAT-L. Then I realized I had the book. No Stilton to be found, used bleu d'Auvergne instead. Not bad, interesting collection of tastes. Ed suggested that the apple, instead of being chunked, should have had the the quarters sliced crosswise fairly thinly.

The main was Pasta with Yogurt and Carmelized Onions, from Kassos (Essential, p341). This was one of those glad-I-tried-it-don't-need-to-do-it-again recipes. Why do you drain sheep's-milk yogurt, then mix it with pasta water?

Both of these could have been an entry for Cookbook Sunday; still no word on a new host.

Ed had a piece of Chocolate Zucchini Cake for dessert; I had some Strawberry Sorbet..

Sunday/29-Jul-12: Yogurt on overday. Wim and Patrice took us out to dinner this evening, so the planned zucchini dinner didn't happen.

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