This week in the kitchen

Monday/28-Mar-22: Made a loaf of ABM French Bread (MC), a recipe I haven't tried before that I can see. Very promising at first bite.

Dinner was Easy Sheet Pan Sausage and Veggies (web; GD, GD). Shh, don't tell, I added about 1/2tsp red pepper flakes. Served over trio rice; polenta or grits would be better. Easy and tasty. One chocolate-covered madeleine each for after.

Tuesday/29-Mar-22: Two Drive orders today, with a stop at the boulanger and the Tuesday market there.

Dinner was Baked Salmon with Pesto Cream Sauce (web), which was pretty good. I made all the sauce, because that's how much pesto I had frozen. Served with roast asparagus that Ed got at the market,  and Garlicky Roast Potatoes with Oregano and Feta (web). These were good, but almost burnt to inedibleness at 45min, when I put the asparagus in to roast. Some store-bought chestnut mousse things for after.

Wednesday/30-Mar-22: In the morning I made a third-to-half dose of Grilled Aubergine, Red Pepper & Red Onion Salad (CountryLiving/jul00); can't find this on the web. Served this with a half recipe of Cajun Shrimp Pie with Creamy Corn Crust (PotPies, p150; cookbooker), in individual casserole dishes. Also a small, plain salad of lettuce. We finished the mothais for after.

Thursday/31-Mar-22: Dinner was Sheet Pan Chicken with Roasted Baby Potatoes (web; web; CL/mar16). This was easy and very good. Not really a full sheet pan dinner, since the chicken was partly cooked in a skillet. Served with the Chile and Lime Roasted Carrots (web) recommended in the same article. Used regular carrots, halved, rather than the baby carrots asked. This was also good. For a bit of salad, I made a third to half recipe of Creamy Dill Cucumber Salad (web; CI/jul-aug97). The interesting thing about this recipe (actually a group of four recipes in the magazine article) is that the cuke and onion slices are pressed to release water. Supposedly for an hour or more, but not that long tonight. All was good. 

Friday/1-Apr-22: Easy dinner, heating a can of tongue in a not-so-piquante sauce. Served over Spaetzle (MW@Home, p203). (Such a nice chew, has spaetzle.) As a side, Roasted Zucchini (web), more or less. This was good. Some store-bought chocolate mousses for after.

Saturday/2-Apr-22: Dinner was a half dose of Sheet Pan Sausage and Vegetables (web). This helped make a dent in the sack of frozen Brussels sprouts I've got. I used herbed chipolatas for the sausage. Served with grits. Good stuff all. 

This was the third sheet pan dinner this week!

Made another loaf of ABM French Bread (MC). It's good stuff. Tall, nice texture and taste.

Sunday/3-Apr-22: Didn't feel like making what was on the plan. Instead, intending to use most of the broccoli I bought this week, I made Warm Broccoli and Potato Salad (MDSalads, p15), an old standard. That new broccoli was yellow, gone to flower and seed already. Very odd. I had one bit left from the week before that still looked lovely, so I used that along with some of the cauliflower that's waiting for tomorrow's dinner. Good and satisfying stuff.

Progress on goals
This week: #1 VEG/FISH: 3; #2 PHOTO: no;
This month: #3 GUESTS: n/a
This year: #5 BACKLOG2: no; #6 BACKLOG3: no; #7 RECYCLE: 0; #8 NEW: 2

This week in the kitchen

Monday/17-Jan-22: Last night I started an Overnight Boule; this morning I baked it off. Good bread. I also started a batch of Oven-Dried Tomatoes (HandyBook). 

Dinner was an oldie, but goodie, Bulgur, Broccoli, and Feta Cheese Pilaf (MC; modified from VT/jun00). Still good stuff.

Tuesday/18-Jan-22: Dinner was turkey pot pie, really Ryan's Pie (PotPies, p46), or almost. I used turkey instead of chicken, and, since it was pretty bare of veggies, I added some peas with the turkey. Tasty stuff. That was dinner.

Wednesday/19-Jan-22: Made a loaf of English Toasting Bread (Electric, p21) (Basic/Rapid/M/d/-). This is supposed to be baked in the oven, so it can be coated with cornmeal, but I skipped that and just baked in the ABM.

Dinner was delicious, all tried and true stuff. The main was Spicy Shrimp Stir-Fry (MJ@Home, p63). This is easy and really good. Served with the suggested sides Sri Lankan Rice with Cilantro and Lemon Grass (MJ@Home, p210) and Mushroom and Pea Curry (MJ@Home, p161). The mushroom-pea thing was way too liquid; we'll have the rest as soup for lunch one day soon. 

Thursday/20-Jan-22: We managed trips to both Drives today; the second one had been planned for tomorrow, but there were slots in the late afternoon available, so we took advantage of that (and Ed made a trip to the brico).

When it came time cook, I didn't feel like it, so I heated up the two choucroute dinners that I'd bought from a Drive for a quick dinner on another night. These were pretty so-so; the choucroute was tasteless. Too bad. I like me some choucroute every now and again, but not this. 

Friday/21-Jan-22: Made a loaf of Authentic French Bread (Magic, p22) (Basic/Rapid/M/d/-).

Dinner was Walnut-Rosemary Crusted Salmon (web). This was fairly easy (a bit of chop-chop) and very tasty. Served with a small salad and some cèpe-flavored pasta twists. Nice dinner.

Saturday/22-Jan-22: Crockpot dinner tonight was Beef Shanks with Red Wine and Tomatoes (SlowItal, p149). Surprisingly this was not very good. The meat never got falling apart tender. The sauce is okay; I might try to make soup of it. And roast beef sandwiches perhaps from the leftover meat. Served with polenta and snijbonen in 1" chunks. 

Sunday/23-Jan-22: Made a loaf of Easy French Bread (Electric, p62) (Basic/Rapid/M/d/-).

Dinner was Falafel-Stuffed Peppers with a Coconut-Dill Sauce (web; notes). After that was in the oven, I made the roasted bell pepper sauce for tomorrow's starter. Then I made the tahini sauce to go with the bell peps. 

Dry rubbed the lamb shoulder for tomorrow's meal. It's outside pretending to be in the fridge (but actually colder than that).

Progress on goals
This week: #1 VEG/FISH: 4; #2 PHOTO: no; #3
This month: #3 GUESTS: n/a
This year: #4 BACKLOG2: yes; #5 BACKLOG2: no; #6 RECYCLE: 0; #7 NEW: 2

This week in the kitchen

Monday/4-Oct-21: Dinner was Cabbage Stir Fry with Shrimp and Dried Chiles (web), served over basmati rice. Good stuff. I seem to be completely out of oyster sauce; I used hoisin instead, then omitted the sugar since hoisin is a bit sweet. Some Haagden-Dasz mini ice cream cups for after.

Tuesday/5-Oct-21: Dinner was a halfish dose of Chicken with Eggplant Gorgonzola Crust (PotPies, p37). It's maybe stretching a bit to call this a pot pie, but it was easy and very tasty. I had two big kip filets, an eggplant weighing about 350g, and a 200g chunk of gorgonzola. Deglazed with port, which instantly evaporated, leaving not much behind in the skillet. Surprisingly a nice sauce developed in the oven. Forgot to make rice or another starch thing, but it really wasn't necessary. Followed by a grated carrot salad. Then a pair of chocolate-covered madeleines each. 

Wednesday/6-Oct-21: Dine was a halfish dose of Whole Wheat Penne with Broccoli, Green Olives, and Pine Nuts (web; CL/aug04). This should have served six, but two of us managed half. Instead of whole wheat penne, I used something labelled ressorts, like little radiators, whole wheat. I had less than needed, but they were plenty. It seemed at bit dry, so we each added a good spoonful of pyramid cheese (kind of like cream cheese of goat's milk) at table, and a good grinding of red pepper flakes. A pair of chocolate-covered madeleines each for after.

Thursday/7-Oct-21: Shopping today.

I waited too late to make what I'd planned for tonight's dinner, so instead I made a half recipe of Garlic Butter Salmon* (web; GD). This was quite good (but that's why it's a DoMeAgain recipe, isn't it?). Served with trio rice. Some apricot tarts from the boulangerie for after.

Friday/8-Oct-21: Dinner was Crispy Chicken Thighs with Peppers, Capers and Olives (web). The chicken was so-so; its skin was not crispy. The stewed bell peppers were good. Served with Patatas Bravas (web). I meant to make this yesterday, but didn't when I change plan. But I'd defrosted the tomatoes so I made it tonight. Pretty good stuff. A pair of chocolate-covered madeleines each for after.

Saturday/9-Oct-21: I used most of the leftover tagliatelle from last Sunday to make Pasta Frittata (web). I used 75g of lardons for a bit of taste. Quite nice, a nice way to use up pasta. Served with a (half?) recipe of Cabbage Slaw with Tangy Mustard Seed Dressing (CL/jun12; web; cookbooker), using part of the flat cabbage I'm trying to use up. This was really nice. I used pickled jalapeños, rather than fresh. 

Some store-bought vanilla riz au laits for after.

Sunday/10-Oct-21: Dinner was a halfish dose of Spicy Cumin Lamb Skewers* (web; GD). This is easy and really tasty. Served with Moroccan couscous (from the bio store) and The Single Vegetable Salad (O&C, p189), with about a quarter of my flat cabbage, made with Oil and Lemon Dressing (O&C, p190). Apparently Greeks tend to make salad from a single veggie. It worked well in this case. A pair of chocolate-covered madeleines each for after.

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: 4

This week in thekitchen

Monday/26-Apr-21: Dinner was Asparagus Egg Salad Wrap (MWClass, p158). The two of us ate two wraps each for dinner, so a whole recipe. The egg salad was good, although the tarragon verged on being too strong. These might be nice to wrap up and take for a picnic. A pair of chocolate-covered madeleines for after.

Tuesday/27-Apr-21: Made ABM bread in the morning, Classic White (Electric, p26) (Basic/Rapid/Large/dark/-). Haven't made this one in a long time. I used 2 cups bread flour (T65) and 1 cup light whole wheat flour (T110). It was good.

Dinner was Shrimp Scampi Fra Diavolo* (web; GD); this is served over bucatini. It was good. Then a big salad. Then the rest of the strawberry ice cream I made last week.

Wednesday/28-Apr-21: Yogurt on overday. 

The not-quite-white Classic White, is pretty good. Crumbles a bit when cut for a sandwich.

Froze up 14cups of chicken stock today from the pot I started on the weekend or whenever.

Tonight we had a halfish version of Black Pepper and Beef and Cabbage Stir-Fry (web). I used the sirloin left from our bbq on Saturday. Used a chineeskool; could have used more of this. But altogether easy and pretty darn good. Over rice. We finished the St Felicien for after.

Thursday/29-Apr-21: Ed picked up our groceries from two Drives today.

Earlier in the week I saw a new recipe for salmon over asparagus and peas; quickly changed the meal plan for that. Then managed to not put asparagus in my basket. So, back to what I originally planned. That was Swiss Salmon Spinach Pie (PotPies, p136), which is pretty far from a pot pie, but was good anyhow. Some store-bought vanilla yogurt thingies for after.

Friday/30-Apr-21: Dinner was Peanut Noodles (web), easy and pretty good. Served with what is now a standard salad with SE Asian food, Thai Cucumber Salad with Peanuts (GD; web). Some mini HD ice cream cups for after. 

Started an Overnight Boule to bake off tomorrow morning. 

Saturday/1-May-21: Yogurt on overday. Baked off the Overnight Boule.

A while ago I finished reading Ready When You Are and have been dithering about what to do with it. I enjoyed the read, especially that she gives tips for early preparation and for things to do with leftovers. And it's Martha Rose Shulman. I use or have great sentimental attachment to many of her books. But this one just doesn't do it for me somehow. To solve the dithering, and keeping in mind my goal of reducing my cookbook collection, I'm going to recycle this one. I think I'll copy a few recipes to put on my list, but the book can find a new home.

Dinner was, loosely, Marvellous Chilli-Cheese Meatballs (Ainsley3, p151). Ainsley meals (from my books, anyhow) are always fast ones. But meatballs really need to sit in the fridge for a while to hold together. So, in the afternoon, I made the meatballs (using my home-made Italian sausage, since there was no ground pork to be had at the Drives) and put them in the cool. And I started the tomato sauce as a separate thing, rather than cooking at the last minute. Unfortunately I absent-mindedly forgot to turn the heat to low, so almost burnt the sauce. But I didn't; I did add another can of tomato pulp and cook it down to a thick sauce. Pretty good for pretty easy. 

Store-bought vanilla yogurts for after.

Sunday/2-May-21: We have  surplus of overripe bananas, so I made a loaf of Best Banana Bread (GD). This isn't really the very best banana bread, but it's not bad, and it's made in the cuisinart, so that's good.

Dinner was Mushroom and Spinach Crepes with Goat Cheese and Balsamic Drizzle (web). I haven't made crèpes in ages, and forgot how long they take to cook. They don't zip along like tortillas. The recipe for Whole Wheat Crèpes (web; GD) is pretty good; I mixed it up in the morning, as one does with these things, even though not instructed to here. This recipe says it serves eight, but uses 1/4 of the batter to make each crèpe. I made six crèpes from the one recipe. (I'll add it to my old standard recipe in Art.) The two of us ate all the mushroom-spinach crèpes; a trifle more spinach  might be nice. 

We had banana bread for after, of course.

Put the lamb leg on to marinate for tomorrow. Beans are soaking overnight. I saw, belatedly, that they should have soaked for 24 hours before cooking; to compensate, I brought them just to a boil then turned them off.

Progress on goals
This week: #1 VEG/FISH: 5; #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: 3

This week in the kitchen

Monday/23-Nov-20: Made some Cranberry-Port Relish (MC; web) for Thanksgiving. Prepped the pork for tomorrow's meal.

Dinner was from a food truck—yay, no cooking!

Yogurt on overnight.

Tuesday/24-Nov-20: Dinner was Pork Vindaloo (Q&E, p33). Cooked this off in the crockpot, since we were away a good part of the day. Served with plain basmati rice, Pan-Grilled Zucchini (MJFamily, p173) (cooked in a cast iron skillet with no extra oil), and Yoghurt with Cucumber and Mint—Kheere ka Raita (MJ1, p162). All are old favorites.

Wednesday/25-Nov-20: Made a loaf of English Muffin Bread (BMB, p17) in the morning. Delicious bread, but tiny 2# loaf.

Made up the roulades for tomorrow's meal. Baked a pumpkin cake.

Dinner from the freezer, chicken adobo stew, served over brown rice, with a salad. A pair of chocolate-covered madeleines for after.

Thursday/26-Nov-20: Yes, it's Thanksgiving, with a doctor's appointment in the middle of the day, which limited what could be done.

For the table, I trimmed the little tulips we got from Intermarché last week. They have held up remarkably well. Dutch tulips in a Delftware vase.

We started with Smoked Salmon with Dill-Mustard Sauce, (VegHarv, p4). I've made this nice little starter before. The rolls of salmon look pretty lonely on the plate some I added some sliced cucumbers, which go nicely with the sauce.

For our main, we again had mini versions Shane's Turkey Roll using turkey scallops. I really do have to write up his recipe to save it properly. These were accompanied by: 

• Balsamic Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Cranberries & Pecans (web). Picked the sprouts up at a Drive this morning, so didn't have time for marinating as I often do. (We like marinated roasted sprouts as a starter.) This was a new recipe and definitely a keeper. I thought I'd ordered 500g of sprouts, but it was only 250g (and ended up being on sale, although the quality was fine, just a mix of sizes, big and small), which is barely enough for two.
• Started out to make Tornado Potatoes (web), but failed at the cutting, so I turned them into hasselback potatoes with the same coating. (I've got lots of the coating left. It might end up on something else in the next days.) And, of course, there was ...
• Cranberry-Port Relish (MC, web), which is my standard recipe, much liked here and very easy. Unfortunately took the picture before I added cranberry sauce to the plate, so it looks a bit colorless.

For dessert, there was Pumpkin Cake (MC), another favorite, although not so old. We'll be eating it for days, but it keeps well. 

Yogurt on overnight.

Friday/27-Nov-20: Dinner was, sort of, Salmon Leek Pie with Lemon Dill Crust (PotPies, p132). I had bits of salmon and of lieu noir in the freezer, so I used those together rather than all salmon. Instead of the lemon-dill crust, I used smashed potatoes with dill and lemon zest added. Pretty good it was. Followed by a salad. Then some pumpkin pie. 

Forgot to make bread during the day, so

Saturday/28-Nov-20: I used a new recipe to make blueberry pancakes for breakfast. Oops, recipe didn't work very well. I poured all the batter in the pan and made a kind of pancake cake. Edible, but not pretty.

Scallops were supposed to be on the menu tonight. But the two packages that were supposed to be freezer weren't to be found. I'm puzzled where they've gone since we haven't had scallops in a while. While rummaging through the freezer, I found a package of gyozas, pork-and-kimchi, that I found at Leclerc Drive. I steamed those, made some rice, a bit of dipping sauce (web), and a salad of shredded chineeskool, broccoli stems, carrot, and red onion, with a ginger-sesame dressing. All was pretty good. Have another package of plain pork gyozas for another night. Pumpkin cake for after.

Made up some batter for Overnight Bread.

Sunday/29-Nov-20: Baked the Overnight Bread this morning. Ed insists this is his all-time favorite. He also said I could do the pancake cake again. 

An easy dinner, Curried Fried Rice (MW@Home, p226), which is an old favorite. I didn't cook the rice ahead and chill it as one should; I just cooled it on a big plate. Used red Thai curry paste for the curry bit. It was good. Some mini ice cream cups for after.

Progress on goals
This week: #1 VEG/FISH: 2; #2 BACKLOG: yes
This month: #3 GUESTS: n/a
This year: #4 SHORT: no; #5 LONG: no
On-going: #6 READ; #7 RECYCLE; #8 NEW

This week in the kitchen

Monday/28-May-18: Started another batch of Ratio bread.

Our dinner was a half-dose of Bobotie (200Budget, p136;  cookbooker), made up in individual casserole dishes. A bit odd, but very tasty. Followed by salad. Then some chocolate corn flake cookies.

Tuesday/29-May-18: Pizza tonight. It always takes longer than I expect, but I never remember to start earlier. And a problem with the pizza dough made it even longer. I made, more or less, Artichoke, Goat Cheese, and Olive Pizza (BoldVeg, p195; cookbooker). That's all we had.

Wednesday/30-May-18: Shopping today. Some impulse buys with sale stuff. The season for green asparagus seems to be over; still some fat white ones, but we prefer the green ones.

Dinner was Salmon with Yogurt-Curry Sauce (web); pretty good stuff. Served with polenta and peas with pearl onions.

Thursday/31-May-18: Jiggled the meal plan today and ended up with Mediterranean Shrimp Pie with Feta Crust (PotPies, p152). Not really a pot pie, but tasty. Because feta doesn't really make a satisfying crust, we sliced some bread for soppy. Then a big salad. For dessert, some locally made chocolate-dipped madeleines that were on sale this week.

Friday/1-Jun-18: Ed worked at Cath's doing some tiling today while I did stuff around the house. She fed up so he wasn't very hungry for dinner.

Which was Sriracha-Soy Sauce over Egg Noodles (VT; web; cookbooker). Used 300g of fresh tagliatelle with all the sauce. This was a good dinner for two, although Ed couldn't eat all of his, so I'll have it cold for lunch tomorrow.

Saturday/2-Jun-18: Ed did more tiling today and came home pooped. I defrosted the chest freezer, also pooped. (The leftover noodles from yesterday were good cold.)

Dinner was Thai Green Curry Pork Tenderloin (web). This was supposed to served three, but the two of us did a fine job on it. The meat and its sauce were delicious. Served with Chinese 4-Ingredient Fried Cabbage (web), which was pretty so-so. And rice. For dessert, a mixed fruit salad. We ate tastily.

Sunday/3-Jun-18: Dinner was Buttery Garlic Herb Chicken with Zucchini (web; cookbooker). Easy and very yummy. Served with Clotilde Dusoulier's Perfect Roasted Potatoes (web; HandyBook). Nice dinner, outside under the pergola, watching the rain.

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

This week in the kitchen

Monday/11-Sep-17: Froze up four 1-cups of tomato purée.

Dinner was Pork with Mango Ginger Sauce Topped with Curried Phyllo (PotPies, p104; cookbooker). Think this is the first thing I've made from the book. Quite good it was. Served with steamed broccoli with a squirt of lemon juice.

Tuesday/12-Sep-17: Earlyish meal today. Used up yesterday's phyllo with Spanikopita in Pastry Cups (Desperation, p206; cookbooker). This was good, although we had enough for three, so we're a bit stuffed. Then a bit of a salad.

Wednesday/13-Sep-17: Shopping today.

Dinner was a half recipe of Thai Salmon and Bean Curry (web), served over rice. Yummy, although it might be better to put the green beans in for a minute or so before the salmon chunks since they were still a bit crunchy. Store-bought riz au lait for dessert.

Thursday/14-Sep-17: Yogurt on overday because I was too lazy to make it last night.

Picked the rest of the chicken. Used most of the meat for Mu Shu Chicken Lettuce Wraps (web; CL jan/feb14). Made the whole recipe for 4 and of us ate it all, although Ed did more than his share. Quite good, this was. The suggest go-with dessert was Poached Fruit over Vanilla Frozen Yogurt (web; CL jan/feb14). No frozen yogurt sold here that I've seen, and I didn't have enough yogurt to make this, so it was plain vanilla ice cream. Still good.

Friday/15-Sep-17: Lunch out today, nothing happened in the kitchen.

Yogurt on overnight.

Saturday/16-Sep-17: Finally had our felafel dinner today. Store-bought falafels and store-bought pitas/kebab breads, with lettuce and sliced tomatoes. Served with Tahini Dipping Sauce (WofE, p359), which was a bit odd; it was the bottom of the tahini jar and pretty stiff. Also Cacik/Cucumber and Yogurt Salad (Roden, p64); I made about a half recipe of this with a quarter of the yogurt and it was still a bit soupy. Discovered my stash of garlic was all bad, so had to use garlic powder for everything. Not really a satisfactory substitute. All in all it was a tasty meal in spite of problems. For dessert there was Whole Egg Almond Milk Custard (web), trying to use up the almond milk I bought for something else. I kind of liked this, Ed not.

Sunday/17-Sep-17: Early meal today of Mustard Chops (Diaries, p129). The chops didn't get to marinate the hour that he asked, but they were still quite good. Served with spinach, as suggested, and the little square French pasta of buckwheat, whose name I've forgotten right now.

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