This week in the kitchen

Monday/26-Sep-22: There was quite a bit of sauce left from Friday's dinner. It reappeared tonight in almost the same meal, sautéed kip filets, some pasta, and some steamed broccoli. Still good.

Tuesday/27-Sep-22: Indian-ish meal tonight, a bit scaled back from what was planned. I used three kip filets to make, sort of, Tandoori-Style Chicken (MJ1, p67). I wasn't organized to get the meat marinating last night, which was too bad. The meat was a bit dry, I'm sure the marinating would have helped that. The "tandoori-style" is create by baking the chickie bits in a hot oven. I was wondering if it might work better to put a cast iron Dutch oven in the hot oven and then put the chicken bits on skewer in the covered pot. Next time perhaps. (No surprise, I didn't use the food color.) Served with Rice with Peas (MJ1, p149), which was fine even without soaking the rice. And some Spicy Cucumber Wedges (MJ1, p172). No time for raita (p162) or cachumber (p172) or onion relish (p174), all of which would have been nice with the meal.

Wednesday/28-Sep-22: We'd planned to have a pizza while watching the Jan6 hearings this evening, but the hearing was cancelled. Ed went for pizzas later, only to find they're closed on Wed. (I didn't remember that.) And the hamburger place is also closed on Wed. So I rustled up a quick pasta dish, based on Fusilli with Olives and Cauliflower (Lorenza, p99) while Ed returned. Because Ed had mentioned he wanted some meat, I got some merguez de volaille from the freezer, broiled those, and added to the dish. Used whole wheat fusilli. It was pretty good overall.

Thursday/29-Sep-22: Feeling a bit better today, thank you naproxen. 

Dinner was Sheet-Pan Balsamic Parmesan Chicken (web). Last week I impulse-bought some grenailles, little new potatoes, so I added some of those to the veggies (broc, cauli, and shallots). Pretty easy to assemble and tasty.

Friday/30-Sep-22: Shopping today. No dinner thought. When it came time to cook, I really wasn't feeling like it.

Saturday/1-Oct-22: Dinner was Pavés de Truite en Croûte d'Amande et d'Herbes (web; VPG). (I got the recipe from a magazine, but the web site has the same photo.) Salmon trout, a bit bony, was what I got. We had something with a similar crust at a restaurant that was quite good, but this didn't match that. After baking, the topping was still a bit gooey, rather than crispy. Served with trio rice and steamed asparagus (impulse buy this week). A chocolate-covered madeleine each for after.

Sunday/2-Oct-22: How is it Sunday already? Just caught a mouse in a (live) trap in the open shelving. Looks like young one.Very active for a while, but has settled down now. I'm always puzzled why our cats haven't been very interested in trapped mice. 

Dinner was Tagine of Kofta and Eggs (Roden, p245). (Roden is one of. my rubber-band books; the spine has split, so the book is in several pieces.) I forgot to get my tagine down to make this; it would have been good. This is tasty little lamb meatballs (kofta) with poached eggs. Served over whole-wheat couscous. A chocolate-covered madeleine each for after.

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: 10; #8 NEW: 4

This week in the kitchen

Monday/25-May-20: A moldy-oldy tonight. We had Zucchini and Feta Gratin (MC). I used frozen, cooked rice for the base. I spiralized the zucchini and skipped the steaming step, putting it directly into the rice-feta "crust". A good, easy veggie meal. Served with, sort of, a small version of Green Bean Salad with Basil, Balsamic, and Parmesan (web.). Pretty good. That's all.

 Mixed up a batch of Susan Dunaway's No-Knead Bread.

Tuesday/26-May-20: Baked the bread.

Spent most of the day chatting with Amazon trying to get my poor Kindle straightened out.

Ed picked up a grocery order from Intermarché, thus we had fish.

Dinner was Za'atar Salmon Baked in Tahini (web). The fish is baked over spinach, which I forgot to order, so I defrosted enough to use. Pretty good, although Ed wasn't too happy with the tahini sauce. Used my last bell peppers (red and yellow) to make a bit of Sweet Pepper Salad (Roden, 61); this should have had green bell peppers, but, hey-ho, you use what you have. And some Moroccan couscous, a store-bought mix. For after we had some strawberries with mascarpone and kirsch.

Wednesday/27-May-20: Had some potatoes, cooked and in the fridge, to use up. Used these to make Potato Salad II (Joy, p87), which includes French Dressing (Joy, p311). Since my potatoes were rather cold, I actually warmed the dressing as instructed. Ed barbecued some chipolatas as a go with, and I boiled some carrot bits, then added frozen peas and a small can of corn. All good. Mini ice cream cups for after.

Yogurt on overight.

Susan Dunaway's Bread on overnight, with 3cups T65 and 1cup T110. Except I may have put in only 2cups of T65. We'll see.

Chicken on to marinate for tomorrow.

Thursday/28-May-20: Baked the bread. It's good. Seems like I must have measured correctly.

For dinner there was Thai-Style Chicken Legs (web, web), with four thighs, which should have been about a quarter recipe. I made all the marinade and used half for my thighs. Froze the other bit for later use. Delicious this was. As suggested, served with Mango Slaw with Cashews and Mint (web). I didn't julienne the mango, but chunked it—no problem. This was scrumptious. And some basmati rice. We were full.

Friday/29-May-20: Dinner was Grilled Scallops with Avocado Sauce (web). Pretty good, if a trifle too much lime in the sauce; that might have been my fault. Served with some "short spaghetti" and Radish Asparagus Salad (web). This was ok; Ed thought it was too sour, not me. Raspberries from the garden for after, Ed's with cream, mine with leftover mascarpone and kirsch.

Saturday/30-May-20: Dinner was a halfish recipe of Egg Curry (MJ@Home, p77). As usual with Jaffrey recipes, I used all the spices for a half recipe. I had only three hard-cooked (steamed) eggs; since there are potatoes to be used, I added some boiled potatoes. (The eggs were all cooked at the same time. The first egg was beautiful. Of the remaining three, one was beautiful, the others had serious gray around the yolk. Very odd since they were all cooked and cooled together.) Served with basmati rice and South Indian-Style Green Beans (MJ@Home, p147.

Yogurt on overnight. Susan Dunaway's No-Knead Bread on overnight. Prepped the dry ingredients for breakfast flapjacks.

Sunday/31-May-20: Baked the bread. Forgot to set the timer when I put it in the oven, so we guessed how much time was left when I realized. This is the first of these breads that stuck to the pan; usually the loaf falls right out.

I finished off the batter for Buckwheat Flour Pancakes (web) and Ed cooked them up. Ate with some raspberries from the garden and maple syrup.

Dinner was Turkish Pilaf (GreenBook). This is a recipe I collected ages ago in Houston; looks like a magazine clipping. It was good, in spite of the fact that I misread the recipe and put in too much cinnamon. Served with, more or less, Creamy Turkish Cucumber Salad (web)

Progress on goals
This week: #1 VEG/FISH: 4; #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/21-Oct-19: Yogurt on overday.

Dinner was Spicy Peanut Noodles (web). This was easy and okay, but not the best of this kind of thing. Spicy it wasn't really. I used more of the chili paste with garlic than asked and it was still only mildly spicy. Serves six? As a dainty side maybe. The recipe as written is for two main servings. For a side we had the rest of Mom's Cabbage Salad, which was much tinglier than the noodles.

Tuesday/22-Oct-19: Dinner was a halfish version of Pollo a la Chilindrón—Sautéed Chicken with Peppers, Tomatoes and Olives (TLS&P, p58). Like many of the Spanish dishes, this wasn't highly spiced, but was still tasty. The tomatoes I bought this week were rotten, so I used some frozen, canned tomato pulp. And used all of the olives for my half recipe.

Served with trio rice and Green Bean Salad with Pickled Shallots (HeartArt, p131). I collected this recipe somewhere on the web and discovered that I have the book it came from last week. Having only a few green beans I cut the pickled shallots back to a third, but still have some left for a salad or a sandwich. Easy to make and very tasty. Some chocolate-covered madeleines for after.

Wednesday/23-Oct-19: Dinner at quiz tonight. Nothing much happened in the kitchen.

Thursday/24-Oct-19: Shopping today.

Dinner was a halfish recipe of Thai Fish and Corn Curry (Braises, p86). Seems like I made this just over a year ago, without a note in the book. It was okay if underspiced. For a starter we had store-bought nems, shrimp and crab; these were pretty good. Some store-bought riz au lait for after.

Friday/25-Oct-19: Leftovers for dinner tonight. We had the rest of the Mushroom and Leek Galette, followed by a really simple salad (lettuce and vinaigrette). Then we finished the Pet't Basque cheese. Then a pair of chocolate-covered madeleines eat.

Yogurt on overnight.

Saturday/26-Oct-19: Dinner was a half dose of Sara's Persian Chicken (Braises, p71; cookbooker). Pretty good stuff. As suggested, accompanied by Apricot Couscous (Braises, p116); easy and a nice variation on plain couscous. Also some String Bean Salad (Roden, p69), which was good. Notice this book is so old that it has string beans instead of green beans. Some chocolate-covered madeleines for after.

Sunday/26-Oct-19: We went to a concert this afternoon, and I just didn't feel like cooking after. So it was pizza instead. Nothing further happened in the kitchen.

Progress on goals
This week: #1 BACKLOG: no; #2 VEG/FISH: 3; #3 COOKBOOK: n/a
Cookbooks of the month: none
This month: #4 PASTA: no; #5 BREAD: no; #6 GUESTS: no
This year: #7 PROJECT: no

This week in the kitchen

Monday/23-Jul-18: Our main course was Shish Kebab (Grilled Meat on Skewers), Marinade I (Roden, p204; cookbooker). Buzzed all the marinade ingredients (olive oil, lemon juice, onion, bay leaf, thyme) with the staff mixer. Easy and really tasty. Accompanied by Eggplant with Tomatoes (Roden, p286) and the store-bought Moroccan couscous mix. All delicious. Drank most of the Chateau St Louis Esprit with the meal. Very good. Very sorry we bought only one bottle.

Yogurt on overnight.

Tuesday/24-Jul-18: Reheated the zucchini-cheese casserole for dinner, with a big salad. Finished the Esprit. Not as good with the casserole as it was with the lamb.

Wednesday/25-Jul-18: Farewell lunch with Patrice and Wim today. Nothing happening in the kitchen tonight.

Shopped today. Bought a new yogurt starter since the last one has gone sour very quickly, after less than a month.

Thursday/26-Jul-18: Hot weather. In spite of that, dinner was Thai Fish and Corn Curry (Braises, p86). I made a fullish recipe with about half the fish, which was lieu noir. And canned corn. Good, but might have liked a bit more green curry paste, maybe even 1 tablespoon (instead of 1 teaspoon). Melon with red currants and pineau for dessert. (Wait, isn't that a starter?)

Friday/27-Jul-18: Had lunch with Cath in St Junien, followed by a visit to a small exhibit of ceramics. Nothing happened in the kitchen except ...

Yogurt on overnight, with the new starter.

Saturday/28-Jul-18: It was meant to be pasta-making day, but we decided to go to a movie, so a quick meal was called for. There was ravioli alla panna, with some mushroom ravioli, and a big salad, and some chocolate-covered madeleines for dessert.

Sunday/29-Jul-18: Earlyish meal before we went off for a concert this evening. We started with Pomiane's beet with cream plate, from memory, and made with the goat's milk crème fraîche that I got on sale this week. Yum. Our main was Crunchy Chicken Cutlets (web), with cornflakes. Instead of only two plates for dipping the cutlets (mustard/egg/garlic/cinnamon and crushed corn flakes), I added a third with plain flour. Dipped that first, then the mustard-egg mixture, then the corn flakes. Very good. Served with peas (shucked in the morning) and corn (not used for Thursday's curry), and some chickpea-and-corn pasta. Made some tapioca pudding using the French version of tapioca I bought recently plus the last bit of my US stash. With brown sugar instead of white. It was good.

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

This week in the kitchen

Monday/16-Jul-18: A bit of shopping today to get food for the next days and a replacement pergola. Really all we needed was the canopy, but this was a cheap one and it's an all-or-nothing proposition.

Our meal was a Barbecued East-West Pork Satay (HomTrav, p109). Put this on to marinate before we went out. Easy and yummy. Skipped the Sesame and Chili Oil at the end; thought I might actually make a bit of this, but lost my round tuit. As sides there was plain basmati rice and Stir-Fried Cucumbers and Courgettes (HomTrav, p181). This was good. I cooked the veggies a bit longer than Hom asks and they were nicely done, but a bit crunchy still. Ice cream bars for dessert.

Tuesday/17-Jul-18: Our meal was a halfish version of Sayyadiah—Fish with Rice (Roden, p170; cookbooker), made with lieu noir. Pretty tasty, but an odd recipe. Served with Tourneto—Israeli Cucumber and Bread Salad (Roden, p66), a soup-like soggy salad that I liked but Ed not so much. Fruit for dessert.

Yogurt on overnight.

Wednesday/18-Jul-18: Made Roden's Chocolate Cake (Roden, p414) to take to Cath's for dinner. Easy, nicely low-carb, but dry and not especially tasty. Too bad.

Thursday/19-Jul-18: Shopping today.

Dinner was a half-dose of Curried Potato And Red Lentil Salad (web; cookbooker). This was yummy and definitely a do-me-again recipe. Served with corn on the cob I impulse-bought on Monday. For dessert, we finished of the chocolate cake with lots of cream.

Friday/20-Jul-18: Patrice and Wim came for dinner again. We didn't coordinate, so they brought brochettes from Leclerc while we had Garlic Dijon Shrimp and Salmon Foil Packs (web), both cooked on the barbecue. The salmon was good, but the shrimp were overdone. One side was a part recipe of Herbed Greek Roasted Potatoes with Feta Cheese (web). This was quite good, only needed 20min for the second part of the baking (as opposed to 40min asked). And I made a side dish loosely based on Eggplant or Zucchini with Tomatoes (Roden, p286) using zucchini and some tomato sauce from the freezer. This is like something I'd make myself, really didn't need the recipe, and quite tasty. They brought some toetjes for dessert in honor of Max's 25th birthday.

Saturday/21-Jul-18: Went to prepare the marinade for tonight's chicken and discovered all my ginger was bad. :-( Finally settled on Key Lime Grilled Chicken (MC), with four thighs, as an alternative. As sides there were the last of yesterday's potatoes, rewarmed; yesterday's zucchini with tomatoes, room temp; and some steamed broccoli with garlic and red pepper flakes. For dessert, some ice cream that had been in the freezer for a long time, with a peach, and apricot, and some red currants. We ate well.

Sunday/22-Jul-18: Meant to make something with the blueberries I bought to take to Cath's, but they were all moldy. Pooh.

Dinner was Kousa Bi Gebna—Zucchini with Cheese (Roden, p292; cookbooker), using our first zucchini harvest of the year. This is meant as a side dish, but I served a whole recipe as a main vegetarian dish. (We'll have two meals.) Very tasty.  Followed by a salad. Then some mini ice cream bars. We're full.

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

This week in the kitchen

Monday/9-Jul-18: Easy meal today. We ate the rest of the Baked Rishta (Noodles) with Eggplant, which was still very good. Served with Michoteta—Cream Cheese and Cucumber Salad (Roden, p65). The "cream cheese" here is feta, and the salad is delicious. Some cherries for dessert.

Tuesday/10-Jul-18: Lunch out in Poitiers today. Nothing happened in the kitchen.

Wednesday/11-Jul-18: Lunch out in Villebois-Lavalette today. Then an ENT appointment following by shopping at Grand Frais and Biocoop. Nothing happened in the kitchen, except ...

Yogurt on overnight.

Thursday/12-Jul-18: Shopping today.

Dinner was Lemon Salmon Piccata (web). This is definitely a do-me-again. Served with the French "short spaghetti", which is short piece of hollow "spaghetti" shaped like a bass clef (without the dots). And there was corn on the cob from Grand Frais. And some Brillat Savarin, on sale at Grand Frais yesterday. And some green melon from Grand Frais. Then we finished the box of chocolate covered corn flakes. At least one of us is stuffed.

While that was going on, I made up the broth for some Fresh Apricot Ice Cream (Scoop, p76) for tomorrow's dinner.

Friday/13-Jul-18: Patrice and Wim came for dinner this evening. We had melon with pineau for a starter, a quarter melon each. Ed barbecued Grilled Chicken (Roden, p179; cookbooker). Little Ian from Cantique recommended Rice with Fava Beans (Roden, p344), so I made that, a half recipe, with about 800g of favas. (I parboiled and peeled these.) Had planned another salad, but ended up making my favorite salad, Michoteta—Cream Cheese and Cucumber Salad (Roden, p65), again. The Fresh Apricot Ice Cream was yummy.

Saturday/14-Jul-18: Out for dinner with Patrice and Wim tonight. Nothing happened in the kitchen except ...

Yogurt on overnight.

Sunday/15-Jul-18: Our meal was Stir-Fried Chicken & Broccoli with Mango Chutney (web; EW/mar-apr18). Used turkey scallops instead of kip filets. The two of us ate a whole recipe that should serve 4. With fruit for dessert.

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

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

This week in the kitchen

Monday/5-Jun-17: Change of plan today, since I forgot to defrost the lamb yesterday and will have that tomorrow. Ate from the freezer today instead, some yummy carrot soup. That was about it in the kitchen.

Tuesday/6-Jun-17: Dinner was Spicy Cumin Lamb Skewers (Yang Rou Chuan) (web). I didn't take the meat off the chops, but used the spice mix as a rub and cooked them under the broiler. Extra delicious. We probably ate three people's worth of meat between us. This rub would probably be good on other meats. I didn't use the oil and Shaoxing wine. Accompanied by plain rice and a half-dose of Hot and Spicy Wrinkled Beans (Chinatown, p106), which we've enjoyed before. No dessert necessary. Ed thought it would be nice to finish the bottle of wine we started. I'm a bit tipsy.

Yogurt on overnight.

Wednesday/7-Jun-17: Shopping today.

Dinner was Warm & Spicy Fish Salad (PatSalads, p95), which I've made before and is still good. I used rocket/arugula/roquette instead of spinach for the salad, and probably more than they intended. For dessert I made some raspberry ice cream. Raspberries from the yard. Vanilla ice cream made with with part mascarpone cream and one part cream cream. Yummy stuff.

Thursday/8-Jun-17: With my French teacher's help, I finally managed to get our new dishwasher ordered. It will be more than a week till it arrives, but at least that's in progress.

Dinner was Rhubarb Khoresh (Roden, p360), a kind of beef stew, with rhubarb from the garden (maybe the last for this year). The stew was one of those glad-I-made-it-don't-have-to-do-it-again things. It's strange that the garden rhubarb is almost gone, but I still haven't seen it in the store. Served with plain rice, Beet Salad (Roden, p68), and Michoteta—Cream Creese and Cucumber Salad (Roden, p65). I've made both of the salads before. Both are good, but the one with feta and cuke really scratches my itch. Then some of the raspberry ice cream.

Friday/9-Jun-17: Found traces of another kitchen mouse, another one that especially likes cantuccini. Sigh.

Dinner was Chiles Rellenos Casserole (CL90, p147). It's the first time I've made this in quite a while. Used a big can of poblanos. Quite yummy. Then a salad. Then we finished off the raspberry ice cream. Yum.

Yogurt on overnight.

Saturday/10-Jun-17: Early meal today, a half recipe of Bang Bang Shrimp (web). Pretty good stuff, and fast and easy. I substituted smoked paprika for regular, which was a mistake. Served with a big salad.

Sunday/11-Jun-17: Mouse was in the trap this morning. Ed dropped him off (possibly too close to the house) on his way to singing this afternoon, so we had a fast dinner from the freezer. Mongolian Beef, served over rice with a side of broccoli. Okay and filling.

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

This week in the kitchen

Monday/14-Jul-14: It was clear out the fridge and freezer night tonight. I started with a recipe from a store-bought package of pâte brisée, a tart with ricotta and chard. There was a package of pâte brisée in the fridge needing to be used. And a tub of ricotta. No chard, but the rest of a package of fresh spinach. And, look, the end of a wedge of bleu d'Auvergne. And that made a nice tart, although a homemade piecrust is much nicer. We bought thought crème fraîche would have been nicer than the ricotta. Next time. Made a salad of grated carrots with a lemon vinaigrette. For dessert, I made Chocolate Soufflé Cake for 2 (MC). If I ever get my Mastercook back in service (right now it's on a computer that I can't access and it doesn't run on the computer I'm using), I need to include this in my HandyBook, since it's an easy thing to put together if you got a few minutes while everything else cooks.

Tuesday/15-Jul-14: Shopping today. Looking around for things that might be of use for this month's Creole and Cajun cooking, found some rivierkreeftjes (yes, labelled in Dutch), which must be crawdads, frozen, but cooked. Bought a pair of fresh beets and roasted them when I got home. Too often, I buy fresh beets and they sit around waiting to be roasted until they go bad. Fresh beets are a bit unusual here. Four-packs of ones that are already cooked are almost always available, but two of us don't usually eat that many in a week, and they last only a few days.

Dinner was Maple-Chipotle Salmon, a recipe I collected for EAT-L a while ago. (Can't find it on the web. This is no big loss; it's not a keeper.) The salmon was basted/glazed with a mixture of maple syrup, grainy mustard, chipotle powder, and black pepper. Too sweet for our taste. Was accompanied by a sauce of sour cream, mayo, dill, orange juice, and orange zest, was was good in itself (and went well with the sautéed zucchini), but didn't go with the sweet salmon at all. Then there was sautéed zucchini, and "Old Bay" Grilled Steak Fries (web). I took the lazy way and used real Old Bay seasoning, rather than mixing my own, and mixed it with chipotle powder. Actually this is a pretty good way to do potatoes. Whole potatoes are first boiled till they're about 2/3 of the way done. Then cut into fingers. Then mixed with a dab of olive oil and the spices and grilled. It might be good to shake up the fingers, as with Dusolier's Perfect Roast Potatoes, to help give them a good crust.

We were full, but before I made dinner I made some Cranberry Upside-Down Cake. The recipe is supposed to be from the November 1994 issue of Gourmet magazine, but I haven't been able to find the recipe. Too bad because it's good!

Wednesday/16-Jul-14: Yogurt on overday.

The cranberry upside-down cake was really good for breakfast!

We  had kind of a thrown together dinner. The main was Aubergines Farcies aux Falafels et Sauce au Sésame (web), which is essentially roasted eggplants stuffed with a felafel-like mixture with a tahini sauce. This was quite good. With the innards of the eggplants, I made a little salad with some oven-dried tomatoes from the freezer. This was also good. I used one of my roasted beets to make Beet Salad (Roden, p68; cookbooker); this was really yummy, although it wanted way too much yogurt. I used one jar, which is a long half cup, and though it was more than enough, while a whole cup was called for. Nevertheless, it is a yummy salad. And some whole-wheat couscous, nothing special, but good enough. For dessert we had a whole Magnum Classic each. Decadence!

Thursday/17-Jul-14: Dinner was Mara's Broccoli and Scallop Pasta Sauce (MarCuc, p180) over cascareccia, followed by a big salad. I'm full.

Friday/18-Jul-14: Another day of oppressive heat. Dinner was pork chops for IHCC, accompanied by mashed potatoes, and corn and broccoli. Some chocolate mini magnums for dessert.

Saturday/19-Jul-14: Stormy with lots of lightning. Had to shut down the computers before I could write on Saturday.

Dinner was a half dose of Spaghetti with Shrimp, Tomatoes, and Capers (30MinPasta, p98; cookbooker). Good stuff. Then a big salad. Then a mini magnum each.

Sunday/20-Jul-14: Ed's Rochechouart choir gave a concert at the Limoges cathedral this afternoon. I left a crockpot dish cooking, so we'd be able to have dinner when we got back. That was a have dose of Pakistani "Old Clothes" Beef Curry (IndianSC, p121; cookbooker). This was kind of so-so. For sides, there was plain basmati rice and Yoghurt with Eggplant (MJ1, p164), which was a nice accompaniment to the beef.

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

This week in the kitchen

Monday/2-Dec-13: It was Baked Orzo with Tomatoes, Roasted Pepper, and Zucchini (VeryBest, p217; cookbooker) tonight. Good it was. Thought to make a salad as a go-with, but decided there was plenty of veg in the dish. Recipe supposedly made 6 servings. Maybe as a side. Two of us ate it all as a main; might serve 3 with a salad.

Tuesday/3-Dec-13: First there was Green Soup from the freezer, an Indian-ish cream of pea soup. For the main I halved a recipe, Tartelette aux Crevettes, Curry, et Courgette (VPG, although I've found it on several different sites with the same picture). Instead of a proper tartelette, I used the last bit of the pumpkin pie crust to make "lids" for the filling. Easy and pretty good, it was.

Wednesday/4-Dec-13: Shopping today.

Dinner was a half dose of Risotto de Quinoa, Courgette, et Saumon (VPG), a risotto with quinoa (I used red because the regular stuff was out of date and smelled off) instead of rice. Not bad. Glad I tried it. Don't need to do it again. Then a salad. Then we split a classic magnum.

Thursday/5-Dec-13: Yogurt on overday.

Leftover roast pork and the pasta/veg thing for dinner. That was all.

Friday/6-Dec-13: The planned dinner involved soaking quinoa overnight, and I hadn't noticed. (Soaking quinoa?) So that's been postponed. Instead, I scratched my felafel itch. In the Netherlands I used to occasionally buy packaged felafels, that only needed to be heated, at the the health food store. But I haven't found these at the health food stores here. But I finally found a packaged mix at Carrefour. I mixed it up, added some extra spices (ground roasted cumin, ground coriander, and cayenne), then followed Bittman's instructions for baking—10-15min each side at 375F. Pretty good, and not greasy-fried. Served with Tahini Dipping Sauce (WofE, p359). As go-withs, there was Michotela (Cream Cheese and Cucumber Salad) (Roden, p65)——and Eggplant with Tomatoes (Roden, p286). The first is an old favorite; the "cream cheese" of the title is feta. The second was new to us, OK, but nothing special. My copy of Roden is falling to bits, but I guess it a bit wasteful to replace it and lost all the notes and smells of my old book. It's going to become a rubber-band book to hold it together.

Saturday/7-Dec-13: Rubbed the Chipotle-Sage Rub (from last summer) from the freezer under the skin of a spatchcocked chicken, plopped it on top of some chunked potatoes, carrots, garlic, and shallots. Popped all in the oven for an hour or so. Pretty good. For dessert with had chocolate maquises from the boulager.

Sunday/8-Dec-13: In the afternoon, I took the leftover pitas from Friday and made Cumin Pita Chips (Spicy, p36). Haven't made those in a while. A nice munchy.

Not feeling too good tonight, not feeling like cooking, no appetite. Defrosted some chicken adobo and served with rice and a quick sauté of shrooms, asparagus, and zucchini. That's all folks!

Ed forgot to mention this morning that there was only one yogurt in the frdige, so I didn't make. And don't feel like it tonight, so it will wait till tomorrow.

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

This week in the kitchen

Monday/19-Dec-11: Dinner was falafel in pitas, served with Tahini Dipping Sauce (WofE, p359), some shredded lettuce, and a salad based on Cream Cheese and Cucumber Salad (Roden, p65), using feta and adding tomatoes.

Tuesday/20-Dec-11: At Lesley and Toby's do this afternoon (they run Sophie's cattery/spa), we munched so well for "lunch" that we weren't very hungry for dinner. So I made a big salad, one of those cleaning out the fridge jobs, and that was dinner. So much for menu plans.

Then we nibbled some of the chocolate coated walnuts we bought at the St. Sornin cave, where we'd gone to stock up on our favorite rosé, only to find that it was everybody else's favorite too and it's all gone. Maybe next year will be as good.

Wednesday/21-Dec-11: Shopped today; bought lots of goodies for xmas and new year.

Dinner was West Indian Salmon Patties (MC). Made 6; froze 3 for another time. Quite yummy. Served with leftover Jamaican rice and beans. Finished off the chocolate walnuts for dessert.

Thursday/22-Dec-11: Off-piste again. Had a curried egg thing planned, but decided against that recipe and opted for a half-dose of Curried Creamed Eggs (125Pasta, p230; cookbooker). I poached our eggs in the sauce, rather than stirring in hard-boiled ones, chopped. Think I prefer this.

Friday/23-Dec-11: Ed still sickie, so we didn't go caroling. For dinner I reheated the last of the Jamaican rice and beans (that was good, but the recipe made enough to feed a small army), adding some grilled sausages from the freezer. And a nice salad. Off to bed with us.

Saturday/24-Dec-11: This morning I made some Banana Coffee Cake Muffins (Cinagro, p3; cookbooker). Forgot to add the topping, but can say it was really missed. Neither of us really like that kind of sweet stuff. (Meanwhile, I've saved the stuff on the odd chance I might find a use for it in the next days.) Not bad muffins, but not especially a recipe I'll do again.

For a starter tonight, we each had a foie gras-stuffed fig, that we bought at the marché de noël last weekend. She had only six-packs of these, and when we said we wanted only two, she dug these out of the cooler and told us to put them in the coldest part of the fridge and we had to eat them no later than christmas day. Expect they were slight out of date, but we seem to have survived. The main course was a half recipe of Fusilli in Chick-pea-Walnut Cream, a xerox copy I got from somewhere, from a cookbook I don't have. The book has been on my want list for a long time, but this recipe didn't really up its position on the list. I've been running into lots of recipes using pomegranate molasses/syrup of late, and finally found a bottle, which was inaugurated for this. Can't really say it was noticeable. The recipe involved blending walnuts and chickpeas to make a creamy sauce, then cooking broccoli and tomato in that. Fairly so-so, probably healthy.

Sunday/25-Dec-11: Neither of us feeling very perky this year, we had a kind of low-key xmas. Kept the dinner small and easy, except for dessert, which was a bit of a struggle.

Yogurt on overnight. (Have made yogurt several times this week, it seems, but not recorded it. Oops.)

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

This week in the kitchen

Monday/15-Feb-10: Sat outside in the afternoon sun to shuck the Moroccan fava beans I impulsively bought on Saturday. I parboiled and peeled them while Cooking Italy's Spinach Soup with Crostini (ClassicItal, p89-90) was cooking for this evening's dinner. Ed read more from Mayle's Bon Appetit while the cooking was going on, and was very skeptical that anyone could taste the difference in salts. I put my open jar of Il de Ré salt on the table and opened the jar of Camargue salt from the pantry. You can indeed taste the difference. Actually, the Camargue salt just tasted salty, while the Il de Ré had a more complex taste. Now I'll have to look for some others to taste.

Tuesday/15-Feb-10: Dinner at the pub quiz tonight. Further, not much action in the kitchen.

Wednesday/17-Feb-10: Made the West Indies Salmon Cakes (now MC) from 28cooks for dinner. Couldn't find canned salmon in the shops here, so I bought 2 cans when we were last in The Netherlands. These have gone back on the list. This was a winner of a recipe. I never like salmon croquettes or patties as a child, but these are really tasty. Froze three for another dinner. They went really well with Carrot and Ginger Quickie Pickle. Served withTurmeric Rice(Q&E, p100) and steamed broccoli. Meant to start some chickpeas soaking for falafel tomorrow night, but discovered I don't have any!

Was pleased to discover in Bittman's How to Cook Everything Vegetarian that he doesn't like canola oil. It was not available in The Netherlands, so I've only recently tried it. And don't like the taste. What's this stuff good for? I'd thought to use it as a neutral oil, finishing the first bottle and the backup on the shelf, but I won't buy it again. I'll stick with peanut and corn oils when I need neutral, thank you.

Thursday/18-Feb-10: Went to the market today and it was actually there. Got the usual sort of stuff plus some filets of rascasse/scorpionfish for tonight's dinner. Rascasse is apparently the most important fish in bouillabaise. At the butcher, I got a chuck steak (marcreuse) for the next Cooking Italy assignment.

For dinner we had Baked Fish with Shrimp (MC 2BTried) with the rascasse, which turned out to be quite boney. I used some medium shrimp, cut in half, and some small scallops for the topping. Probably less topping and the smaller shrimp would be better. Also, a dab of white wine in the white sauce topping might be nice. Served with the rest of the haricots verts and some pasta.

Friday/19-Feb-10: Today we had our late Valentine's Da y lunch at Le Roc du Boeuf near Chabanais, a very nice meal and restaurant. After lunch we shopped in St. Junien so we could get some of our favorite trio rice, which seems no longer to be available in the Charente. Also bought some eau de vie to make limoncello and some wine for the Coooking Italy pot roast. Strange that there is no Italian wine available here. There is a bit of German wine (Alsace and Riesling), but nothing Italian.

Neither of us feeling especially hungry near dinnertime, we made a plate with apples, carrots, radishes, tomatoes (for me), tuna rillettes on toasts topped with the carrot-ginger pickle. Good munchies.

Saturday/20-Feb-10: Felt like having falafels recently, so I made them today. Followed Bittman's recipe (H2CEV, p625). They were tasty, but most of them fell apart, so we've got several cups of falafel crumbs to use for something. Not sure what went wrong. Maybe I didn't grind it all finely enough? Disappointing. Accompanied by tahini sauce (Goldbeck, p200) and Fava Bean Hummus (MC) and Cream Cheese and Cucumber Salad (Michoteta) (Roden, p65). This salad is an old favorite which I've neglected for a long time.

Sunday/21-Feb-10: Mad the Beaujolais Buttermilk Coffee Cake again, prior to making the Cooking Italy pot roast. Since my replacement Pyrex dish won't arrive till next month, I made this in a bundt pan, putting the topping on the bottom. But the cake didn't want to turn out of the pan, so we're just cutting our slices directly from the pan. A very tasty cake.

Twas a Cooking Italy dinner tonight. We had Pot Roast of Beef Braised in Amarone (ClassicItal, p393), Mashed Potatoes with Milk and Parmesan, Bolognese Style (ClassicItal, p518), and some steamed broccoli. The mashed pots were a lot of foofaraw for nothing particularly special. Would be better to follow my normal smash potato procedure and add a bit of grated Parmesan while mashing away. And no nutmeg. What a chunk of beef that was! We had dinner. I froze up the same amount (slices and a bit of sauce) for a repeat. Plus more meat and sauce for beef pot pie. Plus almost 8 ounces of beef bits for who knows what.