This week in the kitchen

Monday/1-Mar-21: Yogurt on overday.

Another dish for the Facebook Cooking Marcella Hazan group, dinner was a Risotto with Red Cabbage and Pancetta (MarCuc, p224). Not the prettiest risotto, but quite tasty. Served with a salad. A pair of chocolated-covered madeleines each for after.

Overnight Boule on overnight.

Tuesday/2-Mar-21: Ed baked off the Overnight Boule while I met with my BookChatters group this morning. 

Dinner was Syrian Lentil-Tomato Soup from the freezer. And Baguette Sandwiches with Asparagus* (web; GD). A pair of chocolate-covered madeleines each for after.

Wednesday/3-Mar-21: Picked up our shopping from both Drives today.

Dinner was a half recipe of Grilled Salmon (web) . I cooked this under the broiler. Pretty good it was for minimal effort. At the market last Thursday, I scored some snijbonen. I turned up three interesting recipes from Allerhande. The one we had tonight was Snijbonen en Cashewnoten uit de Wok (web). Chunks of snijbonen (I boiled them about 4min first), finished in the wok, then warmed in hoisin. With some cashews on top. Pretty tasty. And some plain rice. Some store-bought yogurt with blackberries and blueberries for after.

Thursday/4-Mar-21: Dinner was Chipotle Shrimp Coleslaw* (web; GD). Still good, but would be better in hot weather. Served with avocado slices and corn tortillas. Some store-bought yogurt with salted caramel for after.

Overnight Boule on overnight, bread flour and light whole wheat.

Friday/5-Mar-21: Baked off the overnight Boule this morning. Not knowing the difference, Ed said he preferred this one. I guess I'll use up my rye flour and continue with the light whole wheat. Might try that half and half with regular bread flour.

Dinner was Riso e Fagioi—Rice and Bean Soup (ClassicItal, p102; rice variation, p104). I made the Pasta and Bean Soup variation for Cooking Italy a while ago. I thought I got the same kind of meat, but it wasn't; hard to tell what you're going to get when you order at the Drive. 

Some store-bought yogurt with chestnut cream for after. 

Saturday/6-Mar-21: Dinner was Turkey Cutlets, Lemon-Soy Glaze (web). This was okay. I added a bit too much lemon juice to the marinade/sauce (couldn't let the rest of that half lemon go to waste), but we didn't think that was all. Served over trio rice. Then an old favorite, Cold Beetroot with Cream (Pomiane, p180). Store-bought yogurt with Madagascar vanilla for after.

Sunday/7-Mar-21: I sort of had the idea to make pasta today, but that didn't work. One of these days, maybe. Instead we had whole wheat spaghetti  with Greek Shrimp (PastaMach, p136). Then a big salad. Then some store-bought yogurts with blueberries and blackberries.

Progress on goals
This week: #1 VEG/FISH: 4; #2 PHOTO: yes; #3 *DMA: yes
This month: #4 GUESTS: n/a
This year: #5 BACKLOG1: yes; #6 BACKLOG2: no; #7 RECYCLE: 11; #8 NEW: 2

This week in the kitcchen

Monday/21-May-18: Stormy day today, with a swarm of bees, who disappeared just before the beekeeper arrived, just to make it interesting.

Our meal was Carrot-Lentil Soup with(out) Rosemary-Garlic Croutons (BoldVeg, p52). (Didn't have the oomph for the croutons, but it wasn't a big problem.) Pretty good soup. Served with Baguette Sandwiches with Asparagus (web; cookbooker). All good.

Tuesday/22-May-18: Our meal was a half recipe of Chipotle Shrimp Coleslaw (web), served over long-grain brown rice. We bought thought the coleslaw might be a bit weird, but very good. The brown rice gave a nice underlying chew to go with the crunch. I had just less than 150g of frozen cooked shrimp and was too lazy to open another package. More would have been better. Still, a tasty and enjoyable meal. Mini ice cream bars for dessert

Wednesday/23-May-18: Shopping today.

When we got home, I made some guacamole to eat with Doritos that Cath got us.

For our meal we had Fish in a Green Sauce (Foolproof, p50), made with tuna. This was yummy. The sauce was a bit runny because I added too much water. As sides there were Stir-Fried Cauliflower with Green Chilies (Foolproof, p90) and Potatoes with Cumin (Foolproof, p94). The cauliflower was good. My medium cauliflower, though, was about 1.7kg; I'm wondering where Jaffrey finds large ones weighing 450g? I used about 300g of florets, which was a bit much for the two of us. I had some nice newish potatoes, so didn't peel them. No matter. We ate generously and well.

Thursday/24-May-18: Pasta today. I made Southwestern Corn Pasta (PastaMach, p73; cookbooker). Served with Cilantro Pesto from the freezer. Pretty good stuff. Then a big salad. Then Ed made a little fruit salad (apples, strawberries, and banana) with mascarpone cream. We ate yummily.

Friday/25-May-18: Our meal today was Stir-Fried Thai Green Curry Chicken with Aubergines (HomTrav, p152), over rice. This was quite tasty. I used about half the meat (skinless, boneless thighs) with more or less all the sauce. Fast if you don't count roasting the eggplant, which you can do ahead. Ice cream for dessert.

Yogurt on overnight

Saturday/26-May-18: Stormy day today. Many electric outages. There was an outage of several second which turned the stove clock off. When stove clock isn’t set the ovens don't work. Oops.

I started a loaf of bread based on Ratio. I'd typed out the recipe, but managed to get the ingredients not in order of use, so ended up with too little salt, and almost too much yeast. (That's when I realized something was wrong.) The yeast seems to be working at least a bit in the loaf-to-be. The bread is in the fridge overnight to be baked tomorrow. Think my yeast is on its last legs. There is a bit of activity in the bread, but I couldn’t get much proofing action in. Will toss it.

Our dinner was Spicy Pork Rolls with Minted Yogurt (200Budget, p130; cookbooker). This was super yummy with turkey scallops, rather than pork, and no minted yogurt. We're a bit short on veg this week, but I found this easy and delicious recipe for Roasted Thai Curry Cauliflower (web). And then there was rice. We ate well. Even though we've had Thai two nights in a row.

Sunday/27-May-18: Finished off the Ratio bread. Pretty darn good stuff.

More storms this afternoon.

Our meal was Ten-Minute Asparagus and Brown Rice (web). Nothing 10-minute about it if you make your own brown rice. I liked this; Ed didn't. Oh well.

Progress on goals
This week: #1 BACKLOG: no; #2 VEG/FISH: 5; #3 COOKBOOK: yes
Cookbooks of the month: BoldVeg and 200Budget
This month: #4 PASTA: yes; #5 BREAD: yes; #6 GUESTS: yes

This week in the kitchen

Monday/30-Oct-17: Leftover pizza today. That was all.

Tuesday/31-Oct-17: First I made some White Russian Tiramisu (CL/jul99?; web). Easy and quite good. No fat-free cream cheese here. Used 30 ladyfingers, 175g (6oz), not split. The filling seemed a bit runnier than I remembered, but it tasted yummy.

There was supposed to be fresh pasta today, but I didn't really feel like it and the  more I read the recipe I'd chosen, the less I thought fresh pasta was an appropriate choice for the sauce. I made a halfish recipe of Ginger Cilantro Chicken (PastaMach, p143), using skinless, boneless thighs instead of kip filet and closer to all of the sauce than half. I steamed some broccoli bits and sautéed slices of a yellow bell pepper with the chicken. Altogether good, missing only some pepper flakes to make it really good. Tossed together a little salad with the remains of the storebought Asiatic coleslaw and some grated broccoli with a dressing of lemon juice, sesame oil, and chili-garlic sauce. Altogether a tasty meal.

Wednesday/1-Nov-17: Lunch out today. Nothing happened in the kitchen.

Thursday/2-Nov-17: Shopping today, late with other errands before and after.

Dinner was Fish Fillets with Spicy Green Undercoat (MJ@Home, p49) with lieu noir. This was okay, but doesn't need to be done again. As suggested, served with Potato Chaat (MJ@Home, p165) and Spinach with Garlic and Cumin (MJ@Home, p169), both of which I've made and liked before. For dessert, we finished the tiramisu. Piggy us.

Friday/3-Nov-17: Spent the day helping RoseAnne pack up. We're pooped.

Leftover chicken for dinner, which some steamed broccoli. Forgetting there were some potatoes in the chicken, I made up a skilletful of steam-sautéed potatoes, carrots, and shallots. Will have to do something with the rest of that. Mini ice cream bars for dessert, although we really didn't need them.

Yogurt on overnight.

Saturday/4-Nov-17: Our meal today was A Night in Tunisia Pasta (with Harissa, Broccoli, Cauliflower) (web). I used half the pasta, but more than half the cauliflower and broccoli, and then more or less all of the spices. My ricotta had gone bad, so I used what we call pyramid cheese, kind of a cream cheese of goat. Good stuff, including the goat cheese. Then a big salad.

Sunday/5-Nov-17: Easy meal tonight. Sprinkled some Penzey's Special Seasoned Sea Salt on some boneless pork chops and grilled them. Chopped up a tomato, a shallot, and some parsley, and mixed withsome Penzey's Salsa & Pico. Made some polenta. Steamed some gesneden snijbonen. Pretty good stuff. Then some chocolate, almost the last of what we brought from Chaudun. Too bad it's so expensive and so far.

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

This week in the kitchen

Monday/28-Aug-17: Early meal today, a half recipe of Za'atar Chicken Cutlets and Lemon-Parsley Salad (web; cookbooker). (Hmm, this recipe is now "locked" at Milk Street. I wonder how I managed to print it from their site in July?) Very easy and tasty chicken, looks nice on the plate. Might be a trifle too much pomegranate molasses. (Did I really say that?) Served with the leftover Moroccan couscous from yesterday, with the leftover chicken and shrimp chopped up a bit and supplemented by a bit more couscous. Also Zucchini Chunks with Citrus and Mint (web) which I made a couple of weeks ago; roast some chunks, toss with a dressing of orange and lemon juices, 2:1) with some chopped mint added in. Easy enough. I had some more of the salsa too, but Ed passed on this.

Yogurt on overnight.

Tuesday/29-Aug-17: This was supposed to be fresh pasta day, but it's just too hot. So we had Cilantro Pesto (PastaMach, p155) over casreccia, then a big salad. Then we finished of the Melon Sorbet.

Wednesday/30-Aug-17: Shopping today.

Dinner was Grilled Salmon with Avocado Salsa (web). I mixed a bit of the salmon rub with the salsa. Served with polenta. Then a salad. Then some store-bought riz au lait.

Yogurt on overnight, since there's a recipe coming using lots of yogurt.

Thursday/31-Aug-17: Early meal of Spicy Cajun Shrimp (MW@Home, p255) over rice followed by a big salad. While that was happening, the oven dried some bread for Croutons (Art, p173).

Friday/1-Sep-17: Lunch out with Cath today before visiting Doug. Made up some Watermelon, Feta, and Black Olive Salad (MC) for Ed to take to singing day tomorrow.

Saturday/2-Sep-17: Saved a bowl of watermelon salad for me to eat today. Ed was off singing all day. I made a third recipe of a clafoutis with Corinne's little plums. Yummy. Grated up a bunch of zucchini/courgette for the freezer.

Sunday/3-Sep-17: Cath served us lunch today. Nothing further happened in the kitchen

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

This week in the kitchen

Monday/26-Jun-17: Pasta day today. I made Greek Shrimp (PastaMach, p136), served over Lemon Chive Pasta (PastaMach, p67). I added the grated rind of a lemon to the pasta and used 3tsp of frozen chives. It had a strange translucency, almost like rice noodles. Not sure why. But chewed nice. Then a salad.

Tuesday/27-Jun-17: Lunch out today. Nothing happened in the kitchen.

Yogurt on overnight.

Wednesday/28-Jun-17: The stove got fixed this morning, at no small cost. But now I have two working ovens and the wok burner lights itself.

Shopping day.

Dinner was Chicken Posole Salad (web; cookbooker). This was very tasty. For two people I used two small kip filets (250g total) with all the spice mix; saved a bit of the mix for cooking the hominy. Need at least 1cup of hominy. Used a whole avocado between us; no sharing one between four. Halved the vinaigrette. A very tasty, easy salad. I had a mini magnum for afters.

Put fish on to marinate for tomorrow.

Thursday/29-Jun-17: Indian meal night. We had Monkfish Kebabs (30MinInd, p70), which were pretty good. As go-withs there were Jeera Potatoes (30MinInd, p85) and Peas with Whole Cumin and Mustard Seeds (SpiceKitch, p48); both of these we've enjoyed before. Everything was good.

Yogurt on overnight.

Friday/30-Jun-17: I missed an eating-out on Wednesday evening, so we had lunch out today.

To use up some of the store-bought rhubarb, I made a Rhubarb Upside Down Cake, from my 2BTried cookbook in Mastercook. Good it is. Went to use the newly fixed oven and found it makes a strange noise when it's turned on. Now I have to manage telling them that on the phone.

Saturday/1-Jul-17: Starting to use the tortillas I ordered. Tonight we had Soft Tacos or Tostadas with Chicken and Tomatillo Salsa (MexLight, p206). Used cooked chicken from the freezer. Didn't make salsa verde, but finished off a nice bottle of the stuff, topped off with a can of "salsa verde" that was only puréed tomatillos. Topped with crème fraîche instead of yogurt. Pretty good stuff for as easy as it was. Rhubarb Upside Down Cake for dessert.

Sunday/2-Jul-17: Early meal today. I made Zucchini and Fresh Goat Cheese Tart (VT,jul/aug16; web). This was pretty good. The curious thing is that the recipe I collected from the magazine is titled "goat cheese", while the one online is titled "taleggio". Same picture and other details are the same. Curious that. Some strangenessese in the recipe. They say one pound of zucchini, sliced, makes three cups; nope, it was four cups. And 10oz mushrooms, sliced, makes 2-1/2 cups; nope, that was more than 4cups. The volume measures are better. No madeira in house, so I used dry sherry. Tasty mushroom like shiitake would be even better.

Then a salad. Then the rest of the Rhubarb Upside Down Cake.

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

This week in the kitchen

Monday/20-Mar-17: Early meal today. We had a half recipe of Pan-Seared Pork Chops with Red Currant Sauce (web). Used brown rice instead of barley for the accompanying mushroom pilaf. And a salad. Then a Haagen-Dasz ice cream cup for me and a mini magnum for Ed.

Tuesday/21-Mar-17: Pogo sick overnight. Cancel today's events. Plan a dinner using odd bits from the fridge. We ended up having a quarter recipe, more or less, of Pasta with Tuna, Asparagus, Broccoli and Peas (web). Pretty good stuff altogether. I had a mini magnum for dessert.

Wednesday/22-Mar-17: Shopping today.

Dinner was Dilled Salmon Steaks for Two (MC; web). Good, fast, easy. I didn't serve with teh zucchini and tomato stew as suggested, but with Oven-Roasted Asparagus (web) and some trio rice. Some store-bought custards with caramel for dessert.

Pogo still sickly. Getting better we think.

Thursday/23-Mar-17: Earlyish meal today. We had a halfish recipe of Garlicky Chicken with Feta and Oregano (Screamingly, p30; cookbooker). This was easy and pretty darn good. As suggested served with Orzo with Lemon and Herbs (Screamingly, p47; cookbooker) which was good, if too soupy as given. And the rest of the asparagus, roasted.

Friday/24-Mar-17: Dinner was a half recipe of Chilorio, Mexican Pulled Pork (web), more or less. Used cider vinegar instead of white vinegar. Used the pressure cooker, and it ran low on liquid, so the meat was sort of burnt to the bottom. We rescued what we could. What there was, was good. With my last good corn tortillas from the freezer, garnishes of onion, cilantro, and feta. Opened a bottle of what turned out to be pretty good salsa verde. (Have to remember the brand for when I order again.) Made a little avocado salad as a go-with. Good and we're full.

Saturday/25-Mar-17: Pasta day. There was Shrimp Dill Sauce (PastaMach, p135; cookbooker) over Dilly Pasta (PastaMach, p75; cookbooker), followed by a salad.

Sunday/26-Mar-17: Pogo betterish, if still not great.

Early meal today, our first eaten outside this year. We had The Most Delicious Meat Cubes (Q&E, p29), made with lamb. Have made this with pork before and without the pressure cooker. I think I managed to set the cooker for veggies rather than meat, but the meat was fine; maybe it would have been softer if I'd done it right, but this was not a problem. I added extra water and there was just barely enough to cook properly. If it had gone later, it might have been burnt as it was on Friday. Served with Indian Mashed Potatoes (Q&E, p90), which is yummy and I haven't made in a while. And there was Karhai Broccoli (MJ@Home, p148) to use up a bit of broccoli. All tasty.

Yogurt on overnight.

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

This week in the kitchen

Monday/6-Feb-17: Leftover cheese enchiladas and Spanish rice for dinner, with some new guacamole. We're full.

Tuesday/7-Feb-17: Earlyish main meal today. A half recipe of Mushroom Pot Pies (web). Pretty good they were, but needed a bit of something, maybe garlic, to give the sauce a bit more oomph. And a salad. That was all.

Wednesday/8-Feb-17: Fresh pasta for our main meal. I made Mustard Pasta (PastaMach, p82; cookbooker). Maybe my flour was old or dry. I used the optional teaspoon of olive oil and still needed to add a second egg to make a dough that could be kneaded. The recommended sauce was Scarborough Tomato Sauce (PastaMach, p146; cookbooker)—think parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme. The sauce was good, but the taste overwhelmed the subtler taste of the pasta. Then a salad. And some mini magnums for dessert.

Thursday/9-Feb-17: Shopping day today.

Dinner was a half a recipe of Fettuccine al Tonno e Panna allo Zafferano (ClassPasta, p92), fettuccine with tuna and a saffron cream sauce. It was so-so. Would have been better to cook the tuna separately and serve slices on the pasta. Then a salad. Made a double-boiler bread pudding with the end of a bread that went stale quickly. Stirred in some chocolate chips just to see. Not something to do again. Won't stop us from eating it, of course.

Friday/10-Feb-17: A confusing day today. I was supposed to start a crockpot dinner in the afternoon, but didn't get to it. Changed to something else, then discovered I'd neglected to buy a major ingredient. Back to the crockpot dinner, but without the crockpot. We had Slow Cooker Chicken & Mushroom Soup (web), made in the Dutch oven. (Thought briefly about the pressure cooker, but didn't dare.) Made about a 2/3 recipe with my 500g of mushrooms. Add crème fraîche rather than cream at the end. Quite tasty. We ate it all. Then more of the bread pudding.

Prepared the dry brine that I'll put on a chicken tomorrow to roast on Sunday.

Saturday/11-Feb-17: Started yogurt early, then went to the doctor's walk-in hours (prescription renewal, no big deal) early-ish today, getting there just after 9am. Usually it's not very crowded on Saturdays. Today it was jam-packed. We got out after noon. Sigh.

Dry brined a chicken for tomorrow's meal.

Dinner was a halish recipe of Lentilles Vertes, Chou Romanesco et Saucisse (VPG). (This version is the same except that they use broccoli instead of the romanesco.) The chipolatas (sausages) that I used came from a vendor at one of last summer's marché des producteurs. Excellent they were. I used four for the two of us instead of two. The dish was good enough, but rather boring. It needed some sauce, maybe a dab of chicken stock with some mustard would have been good. Then we finished off the bread pudding.

Sunday/12-Feb-17: Unhappy day. Discovered this morning that Ed washed my expensive (worth every penny) chicken shears in the dishwasher last night. How many times have I told him that those don't go in the dishwasher?

Today's chickie was dry-brined with a southeast Asia flavor. As I've done before, I spatchcocked the chicken, browned it skin-side down, turned it and put another heavy skillet on top, then roasted for 45 minutes at 400F. Tasty thing. Served with plain rice and Thai-Style Green Beans (web). The green beans were old, but the dish still tasted pretty good.

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

This week in the kitchen

Monday/14-Sep-15: Made a pair of Schlotsky's Rolls today, following a recipe that I got via EAT-L in September 1999! (Found the same recipe here.) Actually very much like Schlotsky's rolls. I really should get a pair of smaller pie plates to do these with. I used one pie plate and one cake tin about the same diameter, and they were both a bit too big. Really easy bread to make, no-knead and all that stuff.

Dinner was Broccoli Mac and Cheddar (web; cookbooker). This was pretty good. Then a salad. No dessert, since we'd had a bit of pomegranate molasses cake for lunch and didn't feel like more.

Tuesday/15-Sep-15: Lunch out today. Nothing much happened in the kitchen today.

Wednesday/16-Sep-15: Used the last my birthday tortillas to make cheese enchiladas, loosely based on Chile Queen Enchiladas (p58, TexMex). I used mimelotte and mozzarella as the cheese, which worked ok. And my variation on Mama's Spanish rice. No guacamole since the avocado was bad. That was all.

Thursday/17-Sep-15: We ate out at a quiz tonight. Nothing happened in the kitchen

Friday/18-Sep-15: Shopping today. A small one for unknown reasons. Looked for some small pie plates. Found some foil ones that looked like a possiblity. When I picked them up, I discovered they were for escargot, and had little dimples on the bottom to hold them.

Noticed that Blogspot no longer supports plus signs (+) in a tag name, but does support ampersand (&). A while back they didn't support ampersands, so I changed everything to pluses. Now it's the other way around. Wish they'd decide. And hope they don't change again.

Dinner was Oven Roasted Smoked Sausage and Potatoes (web; not sure at all where I got it from). Kind of comfort food. Easy to make, mostly unattended once it's in the oven. I might use hot paprika rather than sweet paprika next time. Served with a big salad. Some squares of chocolate for dessert.

Made up a half recipe of Clean Eating Thai Sweet Chili Sauce (web) and put the salmon onto marinate for tomorrow night's dinner.

Yogurt on overnight.

Saturday/19-Sep-15: Dinner was Clean Eating Baked Thai Salmon (web), which was pretty good and took no time to broil. Served with basmati rice, Broccoli in Oyster Sauce (p58, Delightful), and Cucumber Salad (p50, Delightful). All good. We split a classic magnum for dessert, then had a square or two of proper chocolate for the taste.

Sunday/20-Sep-15: Dinner was Greek Shrimp (p136, PastaMach) with Lemon Oregano Pasta (p65, PastaMach). The pasta was nice, but can't say it tasted of lemon or oregano. I used small shrimp (frozen) rather than the bigger ones, which wasn't the best choice. But it tasted fine. Then a salad. That was all.

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

This week in the kitchen

Monday/24-Aug-15: Lunch out today. Some fruit followed by popcorn and a movie for our evening meal.

Tuesday/25-Aug-15: Pasta night at last! We had Dilly Pasta (p75, PastaMach) with Shrimp Dill Sauce (p135, PastaMach). Kind of a so-so dish. Ed thought the whole thing was too dilly. I didn't find that. I did think the pasta might be good with a lemon-cream sauce. Then a big salad. That was nice. Afterwards we had Angel's Kisses, a nice little drink.

Wednesday/26-Aug-15: Tried to get the list done today. Have trouble concentrating and choosing. Too many good things to eat, too tired to think.

Dinner was the leftover yassa. With some whole-wheat couscous, and some broccoli-and-carrots.

Thursday/26-Aug-15: Out all day at a literary festival with Cath. In the evening we ate dinner out. Nothing happened in the kitchen.

Friday/28-Aug-15: Not feeling great today. Shopped.

Dinner was Thon Grillé Sauce Vierge—Grilled Tuna with Herbed Tomato, Garlic, Oil, and Lemon Sauce (p140, BistroWells). Coincidentally, last night we were wondering what sauce vierge was; I'd already planned it for tonight but didn't remember. Duh. Maybe a bit too much olive oil in this recipe, but it was tasty. I didn't slice the tuna on a platter, just on the plate. The sauce was good with everything. Served with little buckwheat pasta, whose name I can't remember right now, and Shredded Zucchini (p87, MW@Home), an old standby. Mini magnums for dessert.

Saturday/29-Aug-15: Hot and humid weather is here again. Ugh. Finished off Dutch and US taxes today. Now only need a trip to the post office.

Dinner was Pork Chops with Hot Garlic Sauce (MC) which was pretty good. Served with Terry's chipotle salsa, which was good, but didn't go at all. For a side I made a halfish recipe of Grilled Zucchini with Tomatoes and Balsamic Vinegar (p308, PeV). Think this was meant to be a main, but worked nice as a side. (Ha, I see I've made this before without the pasta.) Finished off the Nectarine Sorbet, huge servings, good stuff.

Sunday/30-Aug-15: Made apple butter today for the first time in ever so long. Dinner was soup from the freezer, followed by a small scoop of vanilla ice cream with the last of a a bag of frozen raspberries.

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

This week in the kitchen

Monday/20-Apr-15: Without thinking very carefully, I planned an eggy dinner for tonight following last night's frittata. Maybe not, I thought last night. So a quick replan today. Grilled some merguez that I defrosted in the morning. There was an enormous sweet potato waiting to be used, so I made some smashed sweet pot (with oj and chipotle powder). Made Curried Carrot Salad (FastShulman, p284), without the capers since I seem to be completely without them, none in the fridge and none in the pantry (inventory failure). To use up a cuke and some green bell pepper, I smerged several recipes and ended up with a Cuke Pasta Salad: Boil up some tiny pasta (I used crozettes); peel, seed, and dice some cuke; shred some broccoli stems; finely chop some red onion; toss together with a dressing of crème fraîche, sherry vinegar, S&P. Not bad at all. No dessert needed.

Tuesday/21-Apr-15: Dinner was alfresco again. There was insata caprese, still early for real tomatoes, but it wasn't bad. Then some grilled bavettes that marinated most of the day. Served those with pasta tossed with Cilantro Pesto (PastaMach, p155). This pesto was a bit sharp, I guess from the garlic, but it was edible. That was all.

Wednesday/22-Apr-15: Yogurt on overday. I got up early to get it started, but forgot to push the Go button, so it will be done quite late. Oh well.

Shopping today. A big one. Lots of locally produced stuff on sale, including a fairly pricey bottle of cognac for Ed.

Really didn't feel like cooking tonight, so dinner ended up quite late. We had a half recipe of Merluza Merinera—Poached Hake Fillets with Tomato and Almond Sauce (TLS&P, p23).  (Hake is merlu in French, similar to the Spanish.) This was pretty good. Hake is a blandish fish, but has a  nice texture. Fairly easy to make, especially because ground almonds are readily available. Had planned to serve this with polenta, but found some new potatoes from the Île de Ré at the shop, so used those instead. Then a big salad. No dessert needed.

Thursday/23-Apr-15: In the afternoon, I made Yogurt and Fresh Pear Coffeecake (MC and GreenBook). This recipe is from an old newspaper clipping and makes and a really moreish cake.

Dinner was Tagliatelle with Provençal Red Pistou (web; cookbooker). The recipe says it serves 4-6; I made a half recipe, and it would have served three. Really yummy. Too bad I didn't make fresh pasta. Then a big salad, bigger than every because Leclerc had no 100g sacks of salad this week, so we ate all of 125g. We got a new box of cheeses-of-the-month today, so we started in on those after dinner. Then finished up with some coffeecake. We're full.

Friday/24-Apr-15: This afternoon I made Chicken and Pistachio Pâté (Ballotine de Volaille aux Pistaches) (BEFCC, p127; cookbooker). It's for a "do" tomorrow afternoon, so we'll see how it is then.

Dinner was an assortment from the freezer, beef and pork curry things, plus rice, plus some steamed broccoli. Then more from the cheese box.

Yogurt on overnight.

Saturday/25-Apr-15: Well, the ballotine was a hit. Very good it was. I'd planned to make a salad for dinner, but neither of us were hungry, so we had a carrot each instead.

Haven't had a big session on clearing the recipe backlog lately, but have been going through assorted piles and tossing many recipes. I work on the pile beside my bed (collected in the first few years after we moved here) once or twice and week and am starting to see it dwindling at last. 

Sunday/26-Apr-15: Finished off the pear coffeecake for breakfast.

We had our main meal in the afternoon today, Curried Split Pea Soup (VegPress, p46). Served with Coconut Rice, as suggested, but didn't make that in the pressure cooker. The soup was pretty good, but desperately needed salt, which wasn't included in the ingredients.

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

This week in the kitchen

Monday/11-Aug-14: An eventful day for our cats today. Oscar had most of his right ear, including a mastocytoma cancer, removed. Sophie, who's been really listless of late, has been diagnosed with, most likely, cystitis.

Since our local boulangerie is closed Mondays, when I got back from taking Oscar in for his surgery, I put a loaf of "sourdough" bread in the bread maker. This doesn't really taste very sourdough-ish, but it is pretty good and will see us through tomorrow morning.

Dinner was Chicken, Broccoli, and Bulgur Wheat Salad (web) with bulgur made from épautre/spelt. Another nice summery salad. Too bad we're not having nice summery weather. We split a classic magnum for dessert.

Tuesday/12-Aug-14: Shopping today; managed to come away without an impulse buy. The salmon I wanted came only in big pieces, so I used salmon from the freezer for a half recipe of Grilled Salmon & Zucchini with Red Pepper Sauce (web). Can't say much for the frozen salmon. The sauce for this was good, and I'm glad that I made a whole recipe so I've got a chunk of it frozen. Then a big salad with cucumber and tomato from the potager. (The zucchini plant we bought is growing cukes, big fat spiny ones.) Then some store-bought vanilla rice puddings.

Sophie is much better on her meds, acting alert today, which is a nice change. Oscar's doing okay. His ear looks like a black hole, but that will improve when he can groom a bit and when hair grows back.

Wednesday/13-Aug-14: Slow-oven-roasted the tomatoes I bought yesterday and have them in the big freezer, still on the tray, to freeze separately overnight.

We ate pizza tonight before going on a torchlight tour of Montbron this evening.

Yogurt on overnight.

Thursday/14-Aug-14: Had a hankering for pancakes for breakfast, so I made a half recipe of Ned and Crescent's Favorite Multigrain Pancakes (Gospels, p205).

Dinner was a lemony pasta sauce from Nigel Slater for IHCC. I almost made some Lemon Chive Pasta (PastaMach, p57), but forgot the chives. Then a big salad. Then two squares of chocolate with hazelnuts each. And a Pogo walk looking for Sophie, who's taken to staying out late again now that she's feeling better.

Friday/15-Aug-14: Dinner out tonight at the Mazerolles fête patronale, half a melon to start, braised ham and the ubiquitous beans for the main, salad and cheese for after, then a bit of apple tart. So, not much happened in the kit

Saturday/16-Aug-14: Thinking tonight's concert started at 17.30, I planned a crockpot dinner so it would be ready when we returned. But it turns out the concert was a 20.30. So I got the crockpot going a bit earlier than planned. Using four largish chicken thighs, I made a halfish recipe of Chicken Paprika (BeanSC, p87), using less olive oil than the butter asked. Turned out to be surprisingly good. As a go-with I made a full recipe (for four) of Spätzle (MW@Home, p203; HandyBook). This was really too much, so I'll use the rest in some kind of made up salad for lunch perhaps. Then there was a veggie side of shallots, broccoli that I'd parboiled in the spätzle water, and tomatoes from the garden, spiced with paprika. Made up, and turned out pretty and pretty good.

Sunday/17-Aug-14: Had an itch for fried rice, so tonight I made a half version of Thai Fried Rice (Khao Pad) (ThaiCC, p24; cookbooker). Good stuff. Itch scratched. We split a classic magnum for dessert.

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

This week in the kitchen

Monday/29-Jul-13: Working on our blueberry surplus, I made some Blueberry Scones (MC) this afternoon. Pretty good, they are.

The hot weather may be gone for a while, but there are still cantaloupe to use up. Tonight's dinner was Melon, Zucchini, and Pancetta Salad (PatSalads, p22). Pretty good it was too. I had only mâche and arugula, too much probably; the bitterness of a bit of frisée would probably have been nice. No honeydew melon, just a charentaise melon, which is similar to cantaloupe. Quite a nice salad. For afters, we ate a bit of goat cheese.

Tuesday/30-Jul-13: Pasta night. Made Dilly Pasta (PastaMach, p72) with Shrimp Dill Sauce (PastaMach, p135). The pasta had dried dill in it, but not much added flavor. The sauce was so-so, not one to do again.

Wednesday/31-Jul-13: Shopping today. Not very big in volume, but lots of money involved.

Dinner was Salmon & Avocado Salad (PatSalads, p80). I liked it, but Ed thought there was too much balsamic in the sauce. Which was interesting because there was none. I was thinking the sauce (mirin and soy) went very well with the smoked salmon, while he thought it overpowered it. I thought it would be a nice starter, in smaller portions, for an Asian-ish meal.

Thursday/1-Aug-13: Ed's Montbron choir had a picnic today, so I was up (relatively) early to prepare our food. First there was Cantaloupe Soup (Picnic, p25), which was tasting good up to the point of adding the balsamic vinegar. That changed the color and didn't enhance the flavor. For the main, there was some old favorites, Spicy Grilled Peppered Lamb Skewers (BigFlav, p142) along with the recommended Green Grape-Parsley Relish (BigFlav, p77) and potato salad à la Joy of Cooking, requested by Ed. Yesterday while shopping, I noticed cheesecake in the fresh cheese section and bought us a chunk for dessert. Yum.

Friday/2-Aug-13: Yogurt on overday.

The blueberry harvest is in full swing, so lots to use up. Dinner was Chicken & Blueberry Pasta Salad (web), a surprising combination, chicken breasts, pasta, feta, and blueberries, but it worked well. A simple salad to follow, then cheese, trying to use up what we didn't eat with Jody and Steve. After dinner we picked another pint or so of blueberries. There will be another batch to pick, but may not as much.

Saturday/3-Aug-13: Made up some Vinegary Barbecue Sauce (Everlasting, p193) for tomorrow's dinner. Finger-licking good.

Dinner was Pasta with Summer Vegetables in a Spicy Peanut Sauce (MC 2BTried). Not as spicy as advertised. Not bad altogether. Then some crêmes brulées from the freezer for dessert.

Sunday/4-Aug-13: Tonight we had sort of pulled pork sandwiches, some cooked pork from the freezer that soaked overnight in the Vinegary Barbecue Sauce, got reheated, and served in ciabattas. Now, that's a really good sauce, sweet and sour and spicy. Served with Mama's Garlic Coleslaw (MC, HandyBook) and some Oven Roasted Corn that was supposed to be amazing, but wasn't really.

Yogurt on overnight.            

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

This week in the kitchen

Monday/26-Sep-11: Easy dinner tonight. The leftover Tuscan veggies over pasta. Then the last pair of crèmes caramels.

Tuesday/27-Sep-11: De-seeded and cooked up another wad of tomatoes today. And slow-roasted some boughten ones, although they didn't seem to get very dry after a long time in the oven. Hmm...

Dinner was Linguine al Cavolfiore, a recipe I haven't made since we discovered Ed's problem with tomatoes. Tonight I used some of the new batch of tomato sauce, and penne instead of linguine. Good stuff. Then a salad. Then the last of a bit of St. Marcellin.

Wednesday/28-Sep-11: Picked another two liters of raspberries at Barbara's today. (No fruit, it's a terrible diet she's on. Too bad it seems to be working.) Made Blueberry-Raspberry Pound Cake (Molly, p20). A nice cake, but a strange color from the blueberries and raspberries. Made a double dose of the "juice" for Raspberry-Champagne Sorbet (Scoop, p132); used the rest of the clairette de Die topped up with a bit of sweet dessert wine. Having used all my sugar for the cake, I used sucre de canne.

Dinner was Grilled Squid with Fennel Sausage, a recipe collected somewhere on the web. For the fennel sausage, I used Guiliano Hazan's sausage (that I keep in the freezer) with fennel seed added. The outdoor grilling part didn't work well, so we had to finish them off under the stove's grill. But very nice they were, if a bit later than intended. Served with a quickie "salsa" made with corn, chopped tomato, shallot, jalapeño (one of two we manage to harvest this year!), olive oil, S&P. And trio rice. A nice dinner, outside, candlelit. No dessert since we'd sampled the cake already.

Thursday/29-Sep-11: Yogurt on overday.

Fresh pasta tonight. While looking for what I'd make tonight, I found my missing cilantro pesto recipe! For tonight, I made Lemon Pepper Pasta (PastaMach, p65). The dough was a bit dry, so I had to add a bit of oil. Also, it didn't like being rolled out to 6, so I ended up at 5, which made a thickish pasta, still good. Also, my fettuccine cutter, which has trouble separating strands rolled at 6, worked fine at 5. A bit of a puzzle, but something to remember. For a sauce I made Lemon Cream Sauce (PastaMach, p161) and added about 200g of frozen, cooked shrimp. Easy and good. Then a salad using the end of our head of lettuce.

Friday/30-Sep-11: Shopped this a.m. Made up some Cilantro Pesto (PastaMach, p155, soon to be MC) and froze it up in small portions. Used the rest of Barbara's raspberries to make a quarter recipe of Peerless Red Raspberry Preserves (FancyPant, p124). Into the fridge with that.

For dinner there was a sorrel omelet. Couldn't find the recipe I used last year, which I remember as adding the raw sorrel to the omelet as it was folded. This time I sautéed a bit of garlic, then added the sorrel for a brief turn. Then cooked the omelet and spooned on the sorrel along with some spoonfuls of pyramid goat cheese. Pretty tasty. Then a big salad. Then a dab of Morbiers. Then some slices of pound cake. Two small ones left to toast for breakfast.

Saturday/1-Oct-11: But we didn't have them for breakfast. Instead we had pains de chocolate from the grocery store. Sometimes they have them in packages of two, which are just right for us.

Dinner was Scallops and Mushrooms, a recipe I got from a food list and will probably save. The recipe said to serve over farro, which of course I didn't have; used brown rice instead. Probably barley (I thought) or lentils (Ed thought) would have been better, the earthy taste matching the 'shrooms. Might try this again.

As a side, I roasted the end of the cauliflower and some thick slices of zucchini, tossed with olive oil, salt, and a sprinkling of some Moroccan spice I made for something or other.

The end of the blueberry-raspberry cake for dessert. Then a dog walk under the crescent moon and milky way.

Sunday/2-Oct-11: Dinner was Lex's Roast Chicken (EAT-L, soon to be MC), a really nice roast chicken. First the pan is lined with thick slices of baguette; then a layer of sautéed onions, celery, and garlic, spiced with thyme, lots of freshly ground black pepper, and red pepper flakes; then the spatchcocked chickie; then in the oven for a good long while. Yummy, with crispy skin. All accompanied by some peas and a little salad of grated carrots with a lemon vinaigrette.

Froze up the raspberry sorbet. Yogurt on overnight.

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