This week in the kitchen

Monday/2-Apr-18: Back from Bach à Pâques today, following an enormous Easter lunch and a concert. No interest in food this evening.

Yogurt on overnight.

Tuesday/3-Apr-18: First dish from BirdHand tonight. We had a half-dose of Hot Italian Chicken with Peppers and Chilli (BirdHand, p28), and good it was. The skin was crispy. The technique is similar to one I saw in a Cooks' Illustrated article about ensuring crispy skin. As I remember it involved first browning the chicken, then baking skin-side-up in a shallow dish, which allows moisture to escape. Worked well here. The bell peppers went really well with the red wine vinegar/balsamic vinegar sauce. I made all the sauce because I was afraid too much would evaporate in the oven leaving the pan dry. Probably 3/4-ing it would be okay for a half recipe. (I puzzled why she listed 1 fluid ounce of red wine vinegar and 2 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar, which are the same to my American eyes. Then I realized my book is British, and an imperial fluid ounce is only 1.9 tablespoons. Not that I'm going to worry about a tenth tablespoon in a recipe like like this.

Served with another variation on Nigel Slater's Spiced Roast Potatoes (RealCook, p246). This is a really good technique that makes some nice roast potatoes fairly quickly. Finished off with some of Mom's Cabbage Slaw which followed the chicken surprising well.

Wednesday/4-Apr-18: Shopping today.

Dinner was Salmon Skewers with Tamarind Sauce (web), a recipe I collected ages ago. Good it was. Served with brown rice and the rest of Mom's Cabbage Slaw. Then some St Felicien for afters. Then I had the ears of my easter bunny; Ed had his ears earlier in the day.

Thursday/5-Apr-18: Our meal was a halfish recipe of Asiago Chicken Pasta with Sun-Dried Tomatoes and Spinach (web). Parmesan instead of Asiago. Oops, forgot to get spinach; used arugula/roquette instead. Malfada instead of penne. Good. Might be nice to add a sprinkle of red pepper flakes instead of penne. Whole wheat would be nice for the color. Used lots more roquette than required for a half recipe. More again would have been better. Tasty.

Put lamb on to marinate for tomorrow.

Yogurt on overnight.

Friday/6-Apr-18: Mmm, wij hebben lekker gegeten vanavond, maar geen photos. Nancy&Neil filled in for our planned guests, who were unable to come. For our apéros we had Spicy Cucumber Wedges—Kheere Ke Tukray (MJ1, p172), which is easy to make and always a nice munchie.

For our starter, there as Asparagus with Ginger (web), which would have been really nice if I'd managed to turn the fire off when it was done. Instead I just put the lid on and forgot to turn it off. The asparagus were overdone when I noticed. Too bad, because they would have been quite good. I toasted some almond slivers for garnish, rather than adding them to the cooking asparagus.

The main was Maharani's Favorite Slow-Roasted Lamb Shoulder (MadeIndia, p113; cookbooker). Despite some weak instructions, this was extra yummy. Served with Roasted Cauliflower with Cumin, Turmeric, and Lemon (MadeIndia, p191) as suggested, which we've enjoyed before. There was also Simple Buttery Rice with Onion (MJ1, p149) and Cachumber—Tomato, Onion and Green Coriander Relish (MJ1, p172). I bought some naan to serve, but we didn't really need it.

For dessert, I cheated. I bought some plain rice puddings (no vanilla flavoring), stirred in a bit (~1/16tsp) of ground cardamom into each, then topped with some chopped pistachios. It was good—Lazy Lady's Kheer.

Saturday/7-Apr-18: Dinner at Cath's tonight. Nothing happened in the kitchen.

Sunday/8-Apr-18: Ralph Gillard come to dinner tonight (Laura is in the UK); Cath came too. No real starter, only olives with prosecco.

For a main there was Ancho- and Chipotle-Rubbed Pork Loin (MC), a really yummy pork dish. There wasn't enough for three (Cath can't eat spicy stuff), so the two of us has some faux filets, marinated for a bit in my usual beef marinade. Then there was mashed sweet potatoes with chipotle and some plain ones for Cath. And some of Nigel Slater's Spiced Roast Potatoes (RealCook, p246); this needs to go in the HandyBook. And some hominy. Followed by a salad. Then Apple Frangipane Tart (MC), topped with crème fraîche. A nice evening.

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

Monday/26-Mar-18: No soup tonight. I defrosted some bird sausages and grilled them. Served with the leftover orzo risotto with cabbage, which reheated very well. Then a salad. Then the rest of the butterscotch pudding.

Yogurt on overnight

Tuesday/27-Mar-18: Greek tonight, after checkups at the dentist. There was Shrimp with Fennel, Green Olives, Red Onion, and White Wine (O&C, p346; cookbooker), about a third recipe. I used AH fish stock from the freezer and topped it up with wine. Easy and quick, this was very tasty. It's a little unclear to me how to serve it. There's a tasty bit of liquid with it, so you can't just plop it down on a plate. I served over bucatelli, but a shorter pasta or rice might have been better.

Served with Greens Salad with Hard-Cooked Eggs and Fried Garlic (O&C, p268; cookbooker). This was easy to prepare and very tasty. The Fried Garlic Topping (O&C, p481) was a nice touch.

We finished with a bit of a very nice St Maure cheese (on crackers, ssh!), followed by a fruit salad with kiwis, pears, and pomegranate seeds.

Wednesday/28-Mar-18: Shopping today. Bought the first gariguettes that I've seen this year.

For our meal, we had Pan-Fried Thai Fish (RealCook, p41) with lieu noir. Quite good it was. A bit odd Slater asks for shredded lemon grass. Hand-cut "shredded" was a bit too chewy. Usually lemongrass is minced, but I wonder if he means microplaned? Shakes of soy sauce and rice wine? I used 1/4 teaspoon and suspect that 1/2 teaspoon would be better. Served with Mom's Cabbage Salad (MaiPham, p96), this time with cuke slices. For afters, we finished the St Maure, leaving the strawberries for tomorrow.

Thursday/29-Mar-18: Our meal was a half recipe of Gnocchis au Gorgonzola et Pesto de Roquette (VPG; web), that's gnocchi (store-bought) with a pesto of arugula, walnuts, and gorgonzola over gnocchi, broccoli with a good slog of cream. Pretty good, although the pesto tasted of rancid walnuts to me, while Ed thought it was fine. Then a salad. Then gariguettes and cream.

Friday/30-Mar-18 — Sunday/1-Apr-18: Off at Bach à Pâques festival. Nothing happened in the kitchen, we hope.

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

Monday/19-Mar-18: Soup for our main meal today. We had Lemon Chicken Orzo Soup (web); the two of us ate a half recipe which should serve three. Quite good and easy. For dessert there was Banana Mousse for Two (HandyBook); no idea where this recipe came from but it's good and fast.

Tuesday/20-Mar-18: Greek today. There were Beef and Rice Meatballs (O&C, p376), with Avgolomeno Sauce (O&C, p475). I made a 3/4-ish recipe with 350g of 5% beef, using brown rice. I've made avgolomeno sauce before. It's one of those custardy kinds of sauce. I found it easier this time than I remembered. It seemed not to set until I turned the heat up just a tad (left front, weakest burner). Served with The Single Vegetable Salad (O&C, p189) using asparagus and the Oil and Lemon version of Greek Salad Dressing (O&C, p190), which is just a lemon vinaigrette (with no mustard). Also some gramigne, a small pasta shape we've become fond of, toss with garlic oil and parsley.

Yogurt on overnight.

Wednesday/21-Mar-18: Shopping today. There was some nice-looking tuna (thick and same-thickness) on sale. Bought two huge steaks, tossed both my planned dishes, and found something else. I made Grilled Tuna Marinated in Chermoula (MedHot2, p105; chermoula, p70). I've made the same recipe before from Kremezi's earlier book MedHot (p48), which has 1tbl less olive oil in the chermoula. I did that again. Only used about half of the chermoula, so froze the rest for later use.

I bought a small cabbage today, thinking of a stir-fry accompaniment for Asian-ish fish. In Kremezi, I found a cabbage variation of Orzo "Risotto" with Fresh Favas, Lemon, and Feta (MedHot2, p171). I later realized this is meant as a main course, so we have lots of leftovers there. It was good, though.

Some little store-bought custards for dessert. Chocolate Liegeois. Very good.

Thursday/22-Mar-18: Our meal was Grilled Chili-Lime Chicken (web), cooked under the broiler. Accompanied by Spiced Roasted Potatoes (RealCook, p256) and followed by a salad. I made the salad with Penzey's Sonoran Spice, rather than curry powder, since it seemed a better match for the chicken. This is a really nice, easy way to cook potatoes. We pigged out on chocolate chip cookies for dessert.

Friday/23-Mar-18: Leftover Broccoli Meatballs with Garlic-Tomato Sauce for our meal today. Still good, but it wanted quite a bit of salt; I'd forgotten.

Made some Chocolate Cream Cheese Brownies from an ancient newspaper clipping. Would have been better in a 8" square rather than a 13"x9" pan. Taste okay, even if thin.

Yogurt on overnight.

Saturday/24-Mar-18: Dinner out tonight. Nothing happened in the kitchen,

Sunday/25-Mar-18: Our meal was Shrimp Pasta with Spinach and Sundried Tomato Cream (web), which was good enough, but nothing special. For dessert I made Mr. Food's Butterscotch Pudding (web). We had tonight's part warm rather than cooled. Easy and tasty. (Who is Mr. Food?)

Munched the chorizo for tomorrow's meal while preparing tonight's dinner. Replan needed.

No looking good for having guests this month. Can't arrange the oomph to organize.

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

This week in the kitchen

Monday/20-Oct-14: Yogurt on overday.

After cutting all the apples for an apple-cranberry clafoutis, I realized there were no eggs. Oops. Replan. Found Apple-Cranberry Crisp (web) and made that instead.

Dinner was, more or less, Eggplant Sauce with Tomato and Red Chili Pepper (ClassicItal, p161), not for the first time, with eggplant and cayennes from the potager. (Strangely the eggplant is producing again.) Then a small salad. The crisp was good.

Tuesday/21-Oct-14: Shopping today.

For a starter, there were some haricots verts in hazelnut oil with some garlicky sautéed oyster mushrooms. The main was Braised Ligurian Chicken (Essential, p491), a Jamie Oliver recipe, made with eight thighs instead of a whole chicken, so a halfish recipe by weight. A yummy sauce developed. Served with Italian Roast Potatoes (Essential, p300), which were a bit crispier than intended because I cut them too small. But good with the sauce from the chicken. Then we finished the apple-cranberry crisp, topped with some marscapone cream.

Wednesday/22-Oct-14: For lunch there was Hot Beer Soup (Heisse Biersuppe) (TLGer, p4). This is one of those glad-I-tried-it-don't-need-to-try-it-again recipes. Easy to make, a nice lightish soup. Cinnamon-sweet vs bitter. The sugar takes the edge off the beery bitterness, which made it more edible for me. Apparently this kind of thing was part of a medieval breakfast, but then I'd have expected it to have a heavier beer instead of a lager-type one. Oh well.

Thursday/23-Oct-14: Yogurt on overday. Lunch out today.

Dinner was Potato Soup with Cucumber (Feine Kartoffelsuppe mit Gurken) (TLGer, p5). This wasn't too bad at all.

Friday/24-Oct-14: Dinner was a repeat of Pancetta and Blue Cheese Risotto (RealCook, p169), with fourme d'Ambert as the cheese. Good stuff. Then a big salad. The three of us finished a package of Afrikas for dessert.

Saturday/25-Oct-14: Lunch out in Poitiers today before a wine tasting in the afternoon. Dinner was some fruit and toetjes that we bought at a boulangerie on the way home.

Sunday/26-Oct-14: Another lunch out today, in Angoulême before Bill's train. Just some fruit for dinner, then off to a movie. Whew, no more meals out for a while.

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

This week in the kitchen

Monday/21-Jul-14: Yogurt on overday. We made an all-day outing to Family Village (yes, that's the French name), a sort of outlet mall, that included lunch at Alinéa, which is the French version of Ikea. There's also a Grand Frais, a grocery store carrying lots of unusual and exotic fruits and veggies. Just discovered there's on in Soyaux, too; that's a suburb of Angoulême, so it's a bit closer.

Because we had lunch out, we had only fruit for dinner.

Ed drove with two other choir members to yesterday's concert in Limoges; they had to be there quite a bit ahead of time. I travelled with the partners of the other two. We were both surprised that these people had barely visited Limoges before. One couple has been here four and a half years, the other longer than we have. But they'd barely been to Limgoes either for sightseeing or for shopping. Seemed very strange to us.

Tuesday/22-Jul-14: Used the gooseberries I bought yesterday to make a half recipe of Gooseberry-Apple Crisp (Uncommon, p218). A nice easy recipe that could be done with other fruits. Should put this in the HandyBook also. While that was cooking, I roasted lots of veggies, mostly leftovers bits from the fridge—eggplant, zucchini, red bell pepper, carrot, and some asparagus from the Grand Frais. Served those with polenta. Then the crisp with a bit of vanilla ice cream.

Wednesday/23-Jul-14: Shopping today.

Dinner was (more or less) Spiced Fried Fish (RealCook, p120), with two filet of lieu noir (saithe?) cut into thirds. As a go-with there was Fragrant Rice (RealCook, p213; cookbooker). There's a problem with this recipe, which is supposed to serve two as a side; I made less than half and we had enough to serve four as a side. Then there was more of the Grand Frais bounty, two ears of corn. Very good, better than the ones we get at Intermarché. I forgot to note whence they came. Then a scoop of vanilla ice cream with some bramen (blackberries) from Grand Frais.

We drank a whole bottle of wine with the dinner, then sat outside, till the mosquitos got too bad, watching bats and listening to Ed's bat detector.

Thursday/24-Jul-14: Yogurt on overday.

Dinner was a half recipe of Green Peppercorn and DIjon Chicken Cutlets (web). Good stuff and easy. Accompanied by butternut squash gnocchi from the freezer with a bit of sage butter, which really wasn't needed because there was  plenty of sauce from the chicken. And some Roast Asparagus with Long Pepper Gremolata (web). Long pepper is what was used by the Greeks and Romans for a peppery flavor before black pepper was available. Can't say I was struck by the flavor, but the whole effect of the long pepper, coriander seeds, lemon zest, and garlic was very pleasing. For dessert, I had the very end of a classic magnum while Ed ate the rest.

Friday/25-Jul-14: Oscar went to the vet a 8am for a biopsy.

Baked a cake this morning for a visitor this afternoon and for tomorrow night's picnic dinner, Chocolate Bundt Cake (web; cookbooker), a super cake. The visitor was Max, just turned 21, the son of long-time Dutch friends. We're not remembering when we saw him last, but now he's all grown up and it was a treat to see him.

The main course as dinner was Moroccan Spiced Lamb Shanks with Aubergine (RealCook, p127) for IHCC, but I don't feel like posting for it. Lamb shanks (souris) usually come in packages of three for some reason. I happened to find a package of four, so now have the extra two in the freezer. As an accompaniment there was whole-wheat couscous, made with the rest of a jar of chicken stock, plus Carrot and Cilantro Salad (WorldVeg, p618), a very nice little salad. I had a tiny slice of chocolate cake after. (Ed had two slices earlier.)

Saturday/26-Jul-14: This evening we went to a benefit picnic with music for the Children of Chenobyl, a charity that brings these kids to France (and elsewhere I think) to stay with local people so they can have a proper vacation in a healthy location. I made Greek-Style Lentil Salad (WorldVeg, p630) for our meal. This is a nice salad I've made before. Made some guacamole to go with corn chips. Managed to go off without the chocolate cake, that I'd hoped to share around.

Sunday/27-Jul-14: Fresh pasta tonight with Spinach and Tomato Pasta Sauce, Romagna-Style (MarCuc, p142). The sauce was good, but not spectacular. I used frozen spinach and a real tomato and some water instead of canned imported Italian plum ones with juice. And a salad. And some chocolate cake with a dab of cream.

Progress on goals
This week: #1 COOKBOOKS: yes for IHCC, but not posted; #2 VEG/FISH: 3
This month: #3 PASTA: yes; #4 FotW: no; #5 BREAD: no

This week in the kitchen

Monday/7-Jul-14: It was clean-out-the-fridge pizza for dinner tonight. First spread the pizza with pyramid goat cheese; then my no-tomato pizza sauce; then some grilled eggplant, zucchini, and broccoli; then the last round of cabécou; then some chorizo slices (defrosted for something not made); then some mozzarella slices. It was good. For afters, a scoop of kulfi.

Tuesday/8-Jul-14: Shopping today.

Before dinner, I started some Double-Boiler Bread Pudding (MC; HandyBook) to try to attack the stale bread glut. The flame blew out, so it didn't get done. Finished it off and it's cooling now to put into the fridge. Cubed the rest of the bread and dried it for making croutons.

Dinner was Baked Couscous with Chicken and Spices (RealCook, p173), a really nice dish, easy to make. Followed by a salad. For afters we ended up with some Afrikas, since the pudding didn't want to get done.

Wednesday/9-Jul-14: Just realized that last night's dinner was supposed to be my IHCC contribution for the week, but I forgot to take a picture. Oops.

Made lots of croutons from the bread I dried yesterday.

An Indian-ish dinner tonight. The main was Tilapia Curry with Roasted Spices (web, this is the recipe, but not where I got it). The recipe is from Monica Bhide's Modern Spice, which is a book I don't have, but have thought about getting. I made a half recipe with swordfish. (Tilapia isn't sold here, since it's apparently not an "ethical" fish.) Fairly bland stuff, in spite of all the spice that went in. Ed thought this was because the swordfish was pretty bland. Maybe he's right. For sides there were two old favorites: Green Peas in a Creamy Sauce (Q&E, p87) and Spicy, Sour Potatoes with Cumin and Amchoor (SpiceKitch, p50). And we finally got some of the bread pudding for dessert.

Thursday/10-Jul-14: Yogurt on overday.

Dinner was Drunken Pasta (web), followed by a big salad (forgot to add any croutons), followed by the rest of the bread pudding with a dab of cream poured over. The pasta was interesting; it finished cooking in red wine that was flavored with garlic and red pepper flakes. Probably it's better as a starter than a main, since there wasn't much to it, but is did taste nice. Ed said it looked like earthworms, so it might be a good dish of Halloween.

Friday/11-Jul-14: Didn't feel much like cooking today, so for dinner we had the leftover pizza, which was quite good warmed up. Then we went to a very nice concert.

Saturday/12-Jul-14: Early dinner tonight before a concert from Ed's Montbron choir. The main was Creamy Lemon Tortellini Bake (web), which was quite good. The recipe says it serves six. Maybe as a side. We ate it all; maybe it would have served three, but six never. Then a salad. Forgot the croutons again. Sigh.

When we got back we had some kulfi with blueberries from the yard.

Sunday/13-Jul-14: Yogurt on overday. Made some Authentic French Bread in the bread maker; this is the only recipe I know out of my head.

Dinner was Squid or Scallops in Spinach-Tomato Curry Sauce (Q&E, p72). Last time with scallops, this time with squid. Half the amount of squid asked was way too much. Tasty, though. Then we ate the rest of the kulfi with more blueberries.

Progress on goals
This week: #1 COOKBOOKS: yes, but no post; #2 VEG/FISH: 3
This month: #3 PASTA: no; #4 FotW: yes for June/no for July; #5 BREAD: 0

IHCC: May Potluck!

What's this? It's time for a potluck and it's not Madhur Jaffrey? No, it's Nigel Slater this time around. I've really been cooking a lot from his books of late. A few days ago, I made (for the second time) Slow-Roast Lamb from The Kitchen Diaries. Since then we've been eating bits of lamb and there's at least one more meal in the freezer. Meanwhile we used a goodly portion of the leg for Shepherd's Pie with Spiced Parsnip Mash from Real Cooking (p119).

This is a nice variation on a plain shepherd's pie. The topping is parsnips (there were some leftover potatoes, too) mashed with sautéed onions and warm spices—ground cumin, ground coriander, garam masala, butter, salt, and pepper.

For the filling, chopped leeks and carrots are slowly sautéed in drippings or butter. Sliced mushrooms are added, followed by chopped lamb. (You could, of course, use raw ground lamb, but a shepherd's pie is traditionally made with leftovers.) When the lamb is cooked and bits of brown appear, stir in some flour and a bit of tomato purée. Add stock (a bit of leftover sauce from the lamb roast was supplemented with chicken stock from the freezer), a bay leaf, and some sprigs of thyme if you've got it. Simmer for a good long while. ("The mixture should not really bubble, just occasionally 'bloop' at you'," writes Slater.) Somewhere along the way, season with salt and pepper, and a tablespoon or so of Worcestershire sauce.

Pour the meat mixture into a casserole, spoon the topping over it all, and bake the top is golden and browning on the peaks.

This recipe is supposed to serve four generously. Three of us ate it all. Very more-ish it was. Even though we had a starter, we still ate it all. The sweetish parsnips made a good topping, but sweet potatoes might work just as well.

Visit this week's I Heart Cooking Clubs to see what other folks are making for their potluck meal.

IHCC: A Little Cheese, PLEASE!

This week's I Heart Cooking Clubs has a cheesy theme and I found a promising idea in Real Cooking, Pancetta and Blue Cheese Risotto (p169). Lots of good things here, creamy risotto, pancetta, blue cheese.

For the pancetta, a cooking friend who is visiting and I cut meat off a jambon sec (dried ham) that was recently donated to my kitchen. It's not the Spanish kind, but a local French one. The gadget for supporting the ham is a bit pricey for something I'm not likely to use again, so we struggled to hold it firm, cut off the skin , and make some fine slices for our melon and ham starter and some thicker bits to serve as pancetta. Then we put the ham back in its cheesecloth sack and hung it from the ceiling to be further attacked another day.

Slater's recipe calls for about 2 tablespoons of butter to soften the onion and pancetta and another walnut-sized lump to finish the risotto. This seemed like altogether too much butter, not to mention unnecessary. I used less olive oil for the sautéing and omitted the the finishing walnut altogether.

The start of the risotto is much the same as all risottos. First you soften some flavorful bits in oil, then stir in the rice, then add liquid. Slater suggests adding one-third of the stock at a time; we just did it the standard way, ladleful by ladleful.  When the rice is done, stir in a pile of crumbled blue cheese; I used Fourme d'Ambert, which is our favorite blue cheese right now. Slater suggests about 225g (about 8oz), which seemed too much in the end. This from all the cheese-lovers at table.

The recipe says it's for two. Since we were three at table, I increased the recipe by half. These turned out to be three pretty substantial servings. I think the recipe as stated could serve three people.

The verdict was that this was a good idea for a tasty risotto, especially nice for cool weather. But too much butter in the recipe as written and too much cheese. This didn't, of course, stop us from finishing our plates.

Visit this week's I Heart Cooking Clubs to check out the cheesy wonders contributed by other folks.

This week in the kitchen

Monday/12-May-14: We lunched at La Bellone today. For dinner, we had small bits from the fridge and elsewhere. Finished off the soup, apple slices, sliced ham, the rest of the Mediterranean Lentil Salad, cheeses (Morbier, Fourme d'Ambert, Chabichou), membrillo, and probably some other things I've forgetten.

Yogurt on overday. Had an electric blip while we were out, so it was off when we returned. Restarted, guessing at how much time was left.

Tuesday/13-May-14: Yogurt was a bit on the runny side, but otherwise OK.

Another lovely lunch out, followed by a little bit of touristing, followed by grocery shopping (we know how to treat visitors here), then home for a rest. For dinner we had salad and cheese.

Wednesday/14-May-14: Yogurt on overday.

For dinner we started with ham and melon, the ham from neighbor Barbara's loto winning, laboriously cut by me and the visiting Barbara. As a main, there was a cheesy risotto (RealCook, p169); cookbooker) for this week's IHCC theme. Then a salad. Then a bit of ice cream with frais de bois (wild strawberries) from the potager.

Thursday/15-May-14: Lots of cooking today. While I was a physio, Barbara took the meat from the leg of lamb and made Shepherd's Pie with Spiced Parsnip Mash (RealCook, p119), which was my potluck dish for next week's IHCC. Later I made, Carrot and Onion Salad (MJ1, p171) for a starter and Strawberry Shortcake (TLAmer, p90) for an ender.

Friday/16-May-14: Lunch out today, in preparation for concert in evening. Not much action in the kitchen.

Saturday/17-May-14: Saw Barbara off in Angoulême after a look around and lunch. Ed had a hamburger and I had a salad. For our evening meal, Ed had a salad and I had a lamb sandwich.

Sunday/18-May-14: We had our main meal at lunch today since we went to an concert in the early evening. I made Scallops with Spicy Curry Sauce and Couscous (web), which was okay, but nothing special. Added fêves to the couscous. For a side, there was Gujerati Carrot Salad (MJ1, p170). We had our usual lunch for dinner when we got home.

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

This week in the kitchen

Monday/21-Apr-14: Dinner was Sticky Soy-Hoisin Chicken Thighs (web; cookbooker) which was pretty good. Used five thighs and all the the sauce for the two of us; there was plenty of sauce, but not a superabundance. Served with coconut rice and some yellow green beans from the freezer, cooked in sesame oil and sprinkled with toasted sesame seeds and amchoor at the end. For dessert, I used up a tub of ricotta that I defrosted for something that didn't get done and made my version of Coffee Ricotta Mousse (MW@Home, p307).

Tuesday/22-Apr-14: Shopping today. Bought some organic lemons to make preserved lemons. Picked up a pair of coquelets then asked at the butcher's counter if they had pigeonneaux. Yes they did, so I bought two and froze the coquelets. Them-thar pigeons were expensive! Stay tuned.

Dinner was Spiced Fried Fish (30MinCook, p120) made with swordfish, which was on sale today. Fish strips tossed with lime, spices, and besan, then deep fried. Yum. Served with Carrots with Mustard Seeds (30MinCook, p47) and Pan-Fried Potatoes with Browned Onions and Garam Masala (RealCook, p244). For dessert we had fresh strawberries with Old-Fashioned Vanilla Ice Cream (TLAmer, p106). Forgot to take a picture till it was too late.

Wednesday/23-Apr-14: A lovely lunch out today, courtesy of Groupon. We didn't need to eat anything for the rest of the day.

Thursday/24-Apr-14: Yogurt on overday. Another IHCC dinner tonight, with Chicken and Rice Salad (Diaries, p187; cookbooker). We finished off the ice cream when I got back from line dancing.

Friday/25-Apr-14: The day got late, so what was on the plan (and defrosted) will move to tomorrow. Instead there were Zucchini Bread Pancakes (web). Good there were. I made a whole recipe, expecting leftovers to freeze, but we ate it all. A bit much, but oh so good.

Saturday/26-Apr-14: Made up some Preserved Lemons (Couscous, p31) which now need to get shaken daily for 30 days before using.

American food from TLAmer tonight. Served the squab and spoon bread with Grilled Asparagus (30MinCook, p31) and Cold Beetroot with Cream (Pomiane, p180). We were full. No dessert.

Sunday/27-Apr-14: Intended to make pasta today, but it looks like Ed finally managed to share his cold-crud with me, and I'm feeling like s***. So I made the sauce to go with the strangely named Whole Wheat Spaghetti (XSpecCP, p99). This isn't a crockpot dish (except to keep it warm) and all you do is cook some store-bought whole wheat spaghetti, but there's a nice sauce of sautéed leeks, goat cheese, sun-dried tomatoes, olive, lemon zest, and lemon juice. I made a little salad of rocket and a chopped up beet and the rest of the dressing from Pomiane's beet dish. Split a Magnum classic for afters. Hoping to feel better tomorrow.

Yogurt on overnight.

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