This week in the kitchen

Monday/11-Mar-19: Soup and sandwich for dinner tonight. The soup was Hot Bloody Mary Soup (Ainsley2, p27; cookbooker). Pretty good this was. I roasted the tomatoes and chili in the morning so it was fairly quick to make. I used chicken stock instead of vegetable stock. Made a whole recipe and will freeze about half. The sandwich was Tuna with Capers, Olive and Lemon (web). pretty good. Made a half recipe with the large can of tuna we get here, and we ate almost all of it. On toast with a bit of mâche. (I see a slice of tomato in the pic on the site. That would have been a nice addition.)

Tuesday/12-Mar-19: Rusty to the vet again. He's improving, but needs will have his antibiotic for another week.

Dinner was Broccoli with Roasted Peppers, Olives, and Feta Cheese (Savory, p188; MC). Old favorite, good stuff. Over short-grain brown rice. Some mini ice cream bars for dessert.

Wednesday/13-Mar-19: Shopping today.

Dinner was a half recipe of Dijon Salmon with Green Bean Pilaf (web; cookbooker). This was very good. Made a salad from leftover mâche and leftover butterleaf lettuce; the dressing included the last bit of the sauce on the fish. The some chocolate-covered madeleines.

Thursday/14-Mar-19: Steam hard-boiled six eggs today to make Egg Pickle of India (Mustard, p152). Never heard of this (but have since found recipes for same on the web), so had to make it. Now have to wait seven days to try it.

Dinner was a half-recipe of Chicken Dijon (Mustard, p162). Very good it was. Served with mini ravioles, basilique from Provence, and Shredded Zucchini (MW@Home, p87) using some shredded zuke that had been in the freezer a bit too long. Chaource for afters. We're full.

Friday/15-Mar-19: Dinner was Buckwheat Spätzle (PastaBible, p123; cookbooker). The sauce (ham, spinach, cream) was good, but the spätzle were too heavy. Then a salad. Then the last of the chocolate-covered madeleines.

Saturday/16-Mar-19: Made up some Chocolate Tapioca Pudding (HandyBook) while prepping for dinner. We had a halfish recipe of Garlic and Herb Roasted Shrimp, a recipe I collected from EAT-L in 2015. Pretty yummy, this is supposedly from an Ina Garten book, Make It Ahead. With trio rice, steamed broccoli, and a demi-baguette for soppy. All good.

Sunday/17-Mar-19: Made up some Spicy Ham Spread (Mustard, p156; cookbooker) this morning. This was ok, but not great.

Disappointing dinner tonight. Made a half recipe of Braised Lamb with Maftoul and Chickpeas (web). A waste of four beautiful lamb chops. Edible, but not as flavorful as it should have been. I made some grated carrot salad as a side, to go with the carrot in the braise. Chocolate tapioca pudding for dessert.

Yogurt on overnight.

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

This week in the kitchen

Monday/17-Dec-18: Leftovers tonight. First guacamole and chips, then enchiladas and rice. Forgot to buzz up the instant refried beans for another side. Chocolate roses for dessert.

Chickpeas to soak overnight.

Tuesday/18-Dec-18: Cooked up the chickpeas. Froze three 2-cup ziplocs, and had one cup for tomorrow's meal.

Dinner was a halfish recipe of Stir-Fried Zucchini Noodles with Chicken and Peppers (Spiral, p125). Pretty good stuff—noodles without noodles. But so much wastage. I didn't spiralize the bell peppers, but cut them by hand. Chocolate roses for dessert.

Yogurt on overnight.

Wednesday/19-Dec-18: Got our two xmas meals planned and a gi-normous shopping list done today.

Our dinner was a halfish version of Couscous with Red Pepper, Chickpea, and Almond Sauce (VegPlanet, p254; cookbooker). Pretty good this was, if needing a goodly dose of tabasco. Finished the chocolate roses for dessert.

Made up the spice mix and the sauce for the pork that will go in the crockpot tomorrow morning.

Thursday/20-Dec-18: Oscar has his teeth cleaned today, and lost a good chunk of his remaining ear to be sent off for a biopsy. He looks a mess—he's been shaved all around his ear and painted with silver stuff. Not sure what the purpose of that is. He's a conehead, of course. Antibiotic and pain pills for the next week.

Started the crockpot before I went off the the vet this morning, with Carolina Pork Barbecue from the Crockpot (MC). Pretty good stuff. Made Mama's Garlic Coleslaw (MC, Handybook) as a go-with. Mini ice cream bars for after. Noticed tonight that the mini Magnum Classics have shrunk again. They're now the same size as the mini Häagen-Dasz bars.

Friday/21-Dec-18: Shopping today, and with luck we've gotten everything we need for the two holiday meals.

Dinner was Fish on a Bed of Potatoes, Onions and Tomatoes (MJFlavs, p111; cookbooker), a last-minute change when I discovered they had swordfish again. Made this with fewer potatoes that asked and served over too much rice. The sauce was nice, so somthing for soppy was needed; maybe store-bought naan would be ok. Also used up some snijbonen that had been hanging around in the fridge to make Tangy Green Beans with Ajwain and Ginger (SpiceKitch, p38), which made a nice accompaniament. For dessert, some Turkish Delight that Bill left us and then amaro with cantuccini things.

Yogurt on overnight.

Saturday/22-Dec-18: Made some Pickled Green Beans (MC).

Guess we're not going to get fresh pasta till the mouse problem is resolves, since the counter is full of stuff from the cabinets. Sigh.

Dinner was a half dose of Trenette with Pesto and Vegetables (PastaBible, p126). Remarkably good for something with such simple ingredients. Then a salad. Then some chocolate-covered madeleines, only 1-1/2 each since it seems Bill had one while we weren't looking.

Sunday/23-Dec-18: Useless day today.

Dinner was leftover non-barbecued pork. With polenta instead of bread. Added a bit to the coleslaw so there would be enough. Chocolate-covered madeleines for dessert.

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

This week in the kitchen

Monday/24-Apr-17: Spent the afternoon filing some chicken recipes and hoping to toss some of my stack. Didn't manage to toss many at all. There are just too many recipes needing to be made. I've got +/-180 recipes in the "bird" category, chicken, turkey, duck, pintade, etc. At two a week that's ninety weeks, a year and a half. Without collecting any more. Sigh.

Lunch didn't happen till about 4pm, so dinner was late. I wasn't very hungry and definitely didn't feel like making fresh pasta, which was on the plan. I got some frozen tagliatelle from the freezer to make Fettuccine al Salmone (PastaBible, p136). This was yummy, if a bit on the rich side with lots of cream and butter. Followed by a big salad. Nothing further needed.

(A nice thing about making pasta is that it forces me to clear off the peninsula counter. That's where all the Stuff accumulates until I have a reason to put it all away.)

Yogurt on overnight.

Tuesday/25-Apr-17: Oscar to the vet in the early afternoon. Then I made a not-so-early dinner, but since we didn't have breakfast till noon, it worked out all right.

I made Lamb with Onions (Q&E, p32), the last pressure cooker recipe in that book that I haven't tried. (One more to do that I've made before.) Very good and really easy, just dump everything in the pressure cooker, give it a stir, seal it up, and go. Served with plain basmati rice and Green Beans with Mushrooms (Q&E, p86) without the added tomato (ran out). All tasty. After a while we had some mini magnums for dessert.

Yogurt on overnight.

Wednesday/26-Apr-17: Shopping today. Dinner was Snapper with Fresh Tomatoes and Capers; the recipe came from The New American Heart Association Cookbook, 7th Edition; I copied it from GoogleBooks. Used lieu noir (saithe) rather than snapper. It was good. Served with orzo and some roasted asparagus, a few left from last week and a new, smaller package of organic ones. Some store-bought riz au lait for dessert, topped with a couple of strawberries, which didn't really go well with the texture of the pudding. But tasted fine.

Thursday/27-Apr-17: Early dinner was Yogurt-Curry Marinated Chicken Thighs (web), easy to assemble and quite tasty. Broiled the thighs. Accompanied by a quarter recipe of Rice with Peas (MJ1, p149) and some canned corn. For dessert, there was Crème Fraîche Ice Cream (MC), made with sucre de canne, so it was fairly beige, but still tasty.

Friday/28-Apr-17: Pogo is really sick today, a bit worrying. Throwing up, not eating, breathing funny, trembling, weaker than usual. Made a vet appointment for tomorrow morning.

Yes, finally got the peninsula counter cleared off and we had fresh pasta tonight. It was Fettuccine alle Verdure (ClassPasta, p92). I cut tagliatelle rather than fettuccine, and I cut them at 5 rather than 6. I may prefer fettuccine at 5, but we thought the tagliatelle were a bit too thick. Still quite edible though. The sauce was okay, nothing special. As we were eating, I thought it could have used some fresh parsley stirred in, or maybe some shredded basil. Then a big salad.

Ed was being very helpful clearing up, scraping all the excess flour into the recycle food bin. Then he bobbled the bin and turn in out onto the dutch oven, wok, and floor below. Big mess to clean up. Oh well.

Saturday/29-Apr-17: Pogo was better this morning, no longer trembling, breathing easier, but we went off to the vet anyhow. We're treating symptoms now, hoping it just goest away. If they recur, he'll get some serious testing. He did manage to walk up the stairs by himself tonight.

Early meal today. Broccoli Soup with Lemon-Chive Cream (web), with was pretty good, with tuna salad sandwiches. For dessert, some nice almond paste pastries from the boulangerie.

Sunday/30-Apr-17: Dinner was way late tonight. My fault for not calculating properly how long it would take. When we finally got there, we had Jamie Oliver's Chicken in Milk (all over the web, web, web), a very popular recipe. And justifiably. We ate half. I'll use the rest for a mreal in a couple of days (or else it goes in the freezer). Lots of sauce left; thinking it will turn into a soup in the next days. Served with Clothilde Dusoulier's Perfect Roast Potatoes (web), which I had to cook under the broiler since there wasn't an oven at the proper temperature. These turned out great. And Haricots Verts in Walnut Oil (HandyBook; Bard, p216). We're stuffed.

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

This week in the kitchen

Monday/25-Mar-13: The English Muffin Batter Bread is good. We've already finished off the first loaf.

Twas an IHCC dinner tonight. Nothing much else happened in the kitchen.

Tuesday/26-Mar-13: Read a recent-ish Vie Pratique Gourmand today, a bi-weekly cooking mag, At the beginning of the year they stopped having their bi-weekly menu plans, with breakfast and two cooked meals, accompanied by some recipes. (Some of the dishes were supposed to be standard things from your repertoire, I suppose.) This was actually one of my favorite features. Not that I ever made these meals, but trying to figure out how to arrange a standard sort of 3-course (starter, main, dessert) French meal is an interesting exercise. Now the feature has returned, sort of. There are recipes for two weeks of one 3-course meal per day. One of this week's feature stories was sweet and savory tarts. Most of them look quite good, although those with boughten pâtes brisées don't look as appetizing, Most of the store-bought pastries are pretty bought bunnies. The tarts look good, but my cholesterol level goes up just looking. Interestingly there's also a feature on no-knead bread, giving the Lahey recipe! I might try again using their weights, since it's French flour they're using.

Dinner tonight was, more or less, Tagliatelle with Broccoli (PastaBible, p116). This recipe recommends their "fresh pasta dough no. 4" which has one egg and seven yolks for about double what I made with two eggs. That must be a rich pasta. The broccoli sauce is a kind of standard thing, lots of minced garlic and anchoives. I used red pepper flakes instead of chopping up some chilies. Good stuff it was. Made a salad, but put it in the fridge for tomorrow, since we were both full.

Wednesday/27-Mar-13: Shopping today.

Dinner was Lemon Sole with Chipotle & Ancho Chilli [sic] Recado (JamieMag, not on web that I can find), a half recipe with panga. Pretty good stuff. Served with trio rice and a little salad made with an avocado, a tomato, some red onion, cilantro, and lime juice. Didn't feel like having yesterday's salad too, so that will be tomorrow's lunch. For dessert with had some cornuelles chantilly (made from puff pastry and filled with whipped cream) from the shop.

Thursday/28-Mar-13: Yogurt on overday, in spite of two electricity cutoffs. The last one wasn't noticed, but the yog seems set enough. We'll see tomorrow.

Had the salad from Tueday evening for lunch, augmented with haricots verts and some blue cheese.

Ed worked in the kitchen till 7pm, so we went up to Chez Cisseen for dinner.

Friday/29-Mar-13: Dinner was, quite late, Artichoke Tart with Polenta Crust and Fresh Rosemary (web). A bit time-consuming to produce but tasty. Double-chocolate mini-magnums for afters.

Saturday/30-Mar-13: Dinner was (sort of) Slow Roasted Garlic and Lemon Chicken (web), except that after setting the indicator on the oven thermostat, I forgot to set the dial for the oven temp. So instead of cooking two hours in a slow oven, the chickie did about an hour and a half in a fast oven. Oops. Good enough, but a trifle over-done perhaps. Will try this again, though, since there were good tastes. Served with some little potatoes, buttered and parsleyed. Then a bit salad.

Sunday/31-Mar-13: Off to the Bach à Pâques festival for four concerts and an overnight. Nothing in the kitchen today.

Progress on goals
This week: #1 IHCC/COOKBOOKS: yes, #2 VEG/FISH: 4
This month: #3 PASTA: yes, #4 BREAD: yes

This week in the kitchen

Monday/24-Oct-11: Last week at Leclerc they had one-portion Alsacian choucroûte dinners to be reaheated in your microwave or in a bain marie. Each included zuurkool, a long skinny worst, a short fat worst, some slices of what looked like gekookt worst, and a slice of what looked like casselerrib, plus a small boiled potato. I bought some extra potatoes and made a Dutch stamppot this evening. Rather nice on what turned into a cold, rainy evening. Maybe I've noticed this before, but I think I prefer the Dutch sauerkraut; can't really say what the difference is, but somehow tastier. Have leftover potatoes and zuurkool, maybe for tomorrow.

Tuesday/25-Oct-11: Shopping today between various appointments in La Rochefoucauld. This weeks's choucroûte dinners n offer were not as nice as what I got last week, so we felt good about that impulse buy. During lots of waiting time, sitting in the car, I read through Made in Texas: H-E-B's 100th Anniversary Cookbook, a fun read. Tagged some recipes to try. I wish there had been more pictures of some of the old stores. I have found memories of the "pointed" HEB on McCullough near my grandparents house in San Antonio. Long gone.

Dinner was Pork Chops in Mustard Sauce (MC), accompanied by the leftover potato-zuurkool mush, and followed by Roasted Broccoli with Toasted Pine Nuts, Feta, Basil, and Lemon (MC), made recently as a main. The sauce was actually a honey-mustard sauce. I used the Charente honey of flowers than I bought at a market recently. Flowers indeed. Even after the carton was closed, I keep looking for the source of the flowery perfume odor. Lovely.

Wednesday/26-Oct-11: Yogurt on overday. Oven-roasted tomatoes on overday.

Went to make dinner and discovered that the contents of my lovely box of mushrooms was covered by a dense white fur. Oops, no mushroom stroganoff for dinner tonight. Since I was already munching a bit of a sausage/salami I'd bought on sale, dinner became, more or less, Spaghetti with Salami and Peas (365Pasta, p55), a recipe we've had a number of times. Pretty good for last minute what not. Then a salad. Not as early as I'd like, but not too bad.

Thursday/27-Oct-11: Made pasta today, vaguely following the recipe for Mushroom Pasta Dough (PastaBible, p47). Second time I've made this, not really following the recipe closely. I soaked the dried 'shrooms rather than grinding them dry; used shiitakes instead of porcini/cêpes; omitted the extra egg yolk and 1tbl of olive oil; used 1 cup tipo 00 flour and 1 cup all-purpose (instead of two of all-purpose). No extra water required. Froze half for another dinner.

Made a little sauce of olive oil, garlic, and pepper flakes. The gas canister for the stove ran out while the pasta was good. Very annoying, since I was leaving shortly and didn't have time to fool with it. But it got done eventually in the not quite boiling water. Tasty.

Followed by a salad using one of the beets I froze up. Worked fine. The beet was still a bit chilly, but should be better if I remember to get one out of the freezer an hour ahead of time.

Friday/28-Oct-11: Dinner was a half recipe of Penne with Green Vegetables and Goat Cheese (SeriousEats, soon to be MC). Very nice. The kind of thing I'd make up myself, although I'd not likely have combined broccoli, zucchini, and (frozen) peas.

What really happens to all the missing measuring spoons in the world? Do borrowers come to take them away? I used to have a glut of 1/2 tablespoon measures (a favorite, 1-1/2 teaspoons, an amount I seem to measure frequently); now I have only one. Where have the others gone? Not many 1 teaspoons either. May be time to break out another set before long.

Saturday/29-Oct-11: A mixed dinner tonight, Mediterranean Chicken Burgers (from the web) and a made-up side dish, vaguely Mediterranean, using the leftover shell pasta and ricotta. The burgers were tasty, more Indian than Mediterranean, but a bit dry. It called for 2 tablespoons of olive oil, I added only 1 tablespoon (with 3/4 of the meat asked), but I wonder if that really made a difference. Needed salt too.

The stuffed shells were good. I had 10 shells left from last week's dinner. Defrosted some ricotta pesto and spread that on the bottom of a dish that held all the shells. Sautéed some shallots, then garlic. First thought to steam some broccoli and chop it it, but decided to finish off last night's zucchini. In 1/4" cubes, sauteed too. Mixed with the leftover ricotta, a squeeze of lemon juice, some pine nuts, and S&P. Filled the shells. Grated on some Parmesan. Popped in the oven till for a bit till they were starting to brown a bit. Good side dish. Thought about starting with some lardons, but decided against that; would have been a bit to heavy perhaps. Thought about adding a bit of chopped tomato, maybe an oven-dried one or two, but was a bit lazy. That might have been OK. Pretty good stuff.

Finished my read through Heart of the Artichoke and Other Kitchen Journeys this evening. Very enjoyable. Recipes from this get lots of good reviews, so I'm looking forward to trying some of them.

Yogurt on overnight.

Sunday/30-Oct-11: Lunch out today. Nothing much happening in the kitchen.

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