This week in the kitchen

Monday/7-Feb-22: Dinner was Balsamic Chicken with Mushrooms (MC), all sauce with two kip filets. Served with trio rice and broccoli sprinkled with lemon juice. Nice, fast dinner.

Tuesday/8-Feb-22: Picked up an order from Intermarché Drive today, so it should have been a fish night. But I was chatting on the phone with a friend and it got too late, so tonight we had tomorrow's planned meal. That was Spicy Chicken Livers (QuickWok, p90). This was ok, nothing special. Served this with Tasty Noodles with Broccoli (QuickWok, p137), made with whole wheat spaghetti. (Found some egg noodles in the cabinet, a bit old; they had a decided don't-eat-me look about them, so I tossed them and used spaghetti instead.) A half recipe made a nice side for two; a whole recipe would be an okay main, especially with a bit of tofu included.

Wednesday/9-Feb-22: Dinner was Fish Kebabs (RezaRice, p60). Not bad, these, but they needed a bit of sauce and he didn't recommend anything except raita, which I didn't make. Served with French Bean and Cashew Nut Thoran (RezaRice, p122). This was so-so. Used reconstituted dried coconut rather than fresh. There was also Lemon and Ginger Rice (RezaRice, p148), using brown basmati rice. This was pretty good as rice dishes go. Altogether, nothing special meal-wise, and a bit of work, taking a lot of time. Not happy with some of Reza's vague instructions.

Thursday/10-Feb-22: Baked a loaf of Easy French bread (Electric, p60; GD). Which really wasn't needed since we went to the boulangerie this afternoon on the way to dentist and brico.

Dinner from the crockpot, Bean and Sausage Soup (BestSC, p26). The beans weren't quite done. I think I remember that, in my crockpot, beans need to cook on High to get properly done; these were done on Low. The instructions say to cut the turkey sausages in half lengthwise. If I did that I'd have some ground sausage meat with casings. Soup was ok. 

Friday/11-Feb-22: Using up the other half of the bakje of chicken livers, we had Foies de Volaille à a Sauge (Chicken Livers with Sage) (Franey, p75). This was better than Hom's spicy livers. The cognac evaporated before I could get a match to it, so it never got properly flambéed. The suggested go-with (for the 60-minute "gourmet" dinner) was Nouilles à l'Alsacienne (Noodles with Crumb and Egg Topping) (Franey, p75). This was good; I've never seen hard-boiled egg added to noodles like this. Lots of butter in these dishes. For some veggie matter, I cut up some carrots, boiled them a  bit, and added parsley and lemon juice. 

Saturday/12-Feb-22: Didn't feel much like cooking this evening, so we had leftover soup for dinner. Even though it's been cooking off and on for two days, the beans are still on the crunchy side. Tastes good, though, especially with a good squirt of jalapeño Tabasco.

Sunday/13-Feb-22: Dinner was Pasta-Kwarkschotel met Bauwe Kaas. Can't find this online. (I thought it might be from Allerhande, but I don't think so now—maybe another grocery store magazine or maybe a proper magazine.) I did a little (mostly English-language) searching for a kwark substitute and came up with Greek yogurt, so I ordered that from the Drive. At dinner I was thinking that fromage blanc might be just the thing, and it seems some French sites think that also. But the Greek yogurt was fine. The instructions have you make layers of the pasta/eggs/peas mixture and the kwark/garlic/pepper mixture. This struck me as useless, so I just mixed all together and topped that with crumbled bleu d'Auvergne (which was in the fridge needing to be used), rather than Danish blue. Forty minutes might to be too long in the oven. Served with broccoli; now I see the recipe suggests cauliflower. 

Another week, no picture. Having some trouble getting back to this.

Long ago Blogspot had some trouble with the dating of posts. At the time, it seemed the simplest thing for me was let the date be that of the first entry for the week, rather than the final entry. I think things have changed, and so I'm going to change to the more sensible dating. I'll correct all the posts from this year to the last entry and continue like that. 

Progress on goals
This week: #1 VEG/FISH: 2; #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/10-Jan-22: Made a loaf of Easy French Bread (Electric, p62) (Basic/Rapid/M/d/-). 

Dinner from the freezer tonight, some vaguely SE Asian tuna patties. Served with Thai-Style Dipping Sauce (web) as suggested. This was a bit salty and a bit sweet even though I cut back the sugar. Then there was, more or less, Cilantro-Lime Sweet Corn (web) with canned corn. And some whole-grain basmati trio rice. 

Tuesday/11-Jan-22: An old favorite for dinner, Warm Broccoli and Potato Salad (MDSalads, p15). This is my go-to recipe where there are potatoes and broccoli hanging around needing to be eaten. Good stuff.

Wednesday/12-Jan-22: Made a loaf of English Muffin Bread, (BigGerman, p15) (Basic/Rapid/M/d/-) this morning. Picked up an order from Intermarché Drive.

Dinner was Roasted Tilapia with Orange-Parsley Salsa (CL/mar09; web), using cod instead of tilapia, which generally isn't sold here. This was fairly boring, if pretty. Served with the last of some frozen mixed veggies. (What we didn't eat, Buddy was happy to finish.)

Thursday/13-Jan-22: This morning I started a batch of Crockpot Texas Chili from an old printout of chili recipes. This is supposedly from the Texas Beef Council. I haven't been able to find the recipe online. Meanwhile, it had to cook so long, I decided to make something else for tonight's dinner.

So we had Scallops in a Creamy Dill Sauce (RezaRice, p62). This was tasty, with a good sauce, if not as quick as I expected. Served with Gram Flour Coated Zucchini (P&S, p101). This is a recipe I saved from a recycled book. It's pretty good and not too hard. And brown basmati rice. Pretty good dinner.

Friday/14-Jan-22: So, it was Crockpot Texas Chili for dinner. Ed liked it; I didn't. The recipe is very similar to my standard one, except for the dark beer added. I think that's the taste I didn't like. There's lots of leftovers to freeze, sigh. Served with tortillas and guacamole and some English cheddar, which was the wrong cheese.

Saturday/15-Jan-22: Made a loaf of French Bread (Tender) (BMB, p21) (Basic/Rapid/S/d/-). This is apparently the first time I've made this loaf.

Dinner was Chicken Cutlets with Roasted Red Pepper & Arugula Relish (web). This was quite good. The relish/salsa was a nice touch. (I didn't add the extra sugar to that.) Served with some minted carrot coins and whole wheat penne. Good meal.

Sunday/16-Jan-22: Yesterday's French Bread (Tender) was quite good. It's a shame that it's a small loaf, like all the ones from that cookbook.

Inventory fail today. Went to get falafels from the freezer for dinner and there were none to be found. Ed went for pizza, in not the best weather, icy and foggy. It was much colder in Montbron than here. Will have to replan the falafels after our next Driver orders.

Progress on goals
This week: #1 VEG/FISH: 4; #2 PHOTO: no
This month: #3 GUESTS: n/a
This year: #4 BACKLOG2: yes; #5 BACKLOG3: no; #6 RECYCLE: 0; #7 NEW: 2

This week in the kitchen

Monday/15-Nov-21: We had lunch out for Ed's birthday today. Not much happened in the kitchen.

Tuesday/16-Nov-21: Baked a loaf of Abm Whole Wheat Bread (MC) since we don't seem to be making a trip to the boulanger in the near future.

Dinner was Cabbage Diet Soup (web), which was fairly boring as soups go. There's lots left to freeze; thinking some sausages might sliced into it on the reprise. 

Wednesday/17-Nov-21: Dinner was Roasted Chicken Thighs with Pear-Mustard Sauce (web). The chicken was good, but the sauce only so-so. Interesting though. Served with trio rice and steamed broccoli. 

Thursday/18-Nov-21: Shopping today. It's much better on Thursday, than on Friday after a holiday. 

Dinner was Salmon with Green Mango (Mahi Aam) (RezaRice, p63). This was pretty good. Served with Lemon Rice (web), which was good. And Pan-Grilled Zucchini (MJ@   Home, p173), an old favorite. A nice meal altogether. 

Friday/19-Nov-21: Dinner was Turkey Dumplings with Spicy Broth  (Ainsley3, p98). This was good, if a trifle salty (less soy sauce next time). It's more like lunch rather than dinner, so I served some grilled cheese sandwiches with beaufort (a swiss-y cheese) and finely 

Saturday/20-Nov-21: Dinner was a half recipe of Spicy Pork Rolls with Minted Yogurt (200Budget, p130), with turkey scallops instead of pork, and with satay sauce. The scallop rolls are delicious; no sauce is needed. Discovered I hadn't bought trio rice last time, but Thai trio rice, not quite the same. Actually that was appropriate for this meal, quite good. Also made a half dose of Thai Cucumber Salad with Peanuts (web). Tasty meal. 

Sunday/21-Nov-21: Dinner was the Smoky and Hot Bulgur Chili variation of Bulgur Chili (H2CEV, p557). The bulgur isn't a bad substitute for ground beef. This wasn't bad, but I'm not overly fond of chili with tomatoes. Made a whole recipe, so there's lots leftover for the freezer.

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

This week in the kitchen

Monday/8-Nov-21: I was busy ironing and binge-watching season 2 of Broadchurch till too late to cook, so we got pizza from a nearby food truck.

Tuesday/9-Nov-21: Third covid vaccine today. The doctor said I'd probably have the same reaction as last time. Replanned meals for the next two days with that in mind.

Dinner was a half dose of Salade de Riz au Magret de Canard Séché (web), using up some peppered, dried duck breast from the freezer. This was pretty good. A pair of chocolate-covered madeleines for after.

Wednesday/10-Nov-21: Both of us suffering a bit from the third covid vaccine, so very simple cooking. Dinner from the freezer, Mijoté de Veau et Chorizo. Served over polenta with some lemon-sprinkled steamed broccoli. That's all folks. 

Thursday/11-Nov-21: Dinner was a halfish recipe of Sri Lankan Runner Bean Curry (web). I use more than half of the snijbonen, and it was a shortish meal for two. Expect that three servings is more reasonable for a whole recipe. Still, it was good. 

Friday/12-Nov-21: Shopping today. It was a hard one, with about a thousand people shopping on the day after a holiday, and we had lots more to shop for since I couldn't order at the Drive (cell phone died), and Leclerc has rearranged everything, so I walked aisles over 10min till I found where they've put the toilet paper. Exhausting.

Dinner was late because everything took me a long time to do. I made a whole recipe of Fish Kebabs (web), made with salmon and cod. The patties wouldn't hold together at all, so I added an egg to the mixture; that helped a lot. Ed liked these a lot; I thought they were so-so. Served with Spiced Snake Beans (RezaRice, p117), made with haricots verts; these were not a hit. And brown basmati rice. And Tomato, Onion and Green Coriander Relish—Cachumber (MJ1, p172), which is always good. Some store-bought crème caramels for after.

Saturday/13-Nov-21: Dinner was Spicy Jerk Pork with Pepper Fried Rice* (web; GD). (The bell pepper bits look huge compared to the bits of meat, but it really wasn't that way.) Still tasty.

  

Followed by a simple salad. 

Sunday/14-Nov-21: I used the rest of yesterday's varkenhaas to make Pork Tenderloin Diane (MC), which is an old favorite. Served with grits, and steamed snijbonen tossed with lemon juice, and Raw Beet Salad (web; GD), a new favorite. A nice dinner. 

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