This week in the kitchen

Monday/18-Nov-19: Used up odd bits of stuff from the freezer to make Poor-Cousin Paella (Secrets, p249). Make a whole dose and we've got half in the freezer for another time. Some squares of chocolate for after.

Tuesday/19-Nov-19: Off plan today. Found a recipe to use up odd bits in the fridge and we had a halfish recipe of Broccoli, Mushroom, Spinach and Cheese Pasta (web). Pretty good. We have a bit left, so the half recipe would probably have served three, rather than the four suggested by the recipe. I forgot to notice the breadcrumbs on top, but remember thinking as I put it in the oven that breadcrumbs might be nice. Oh well.

Wednesday/20-Nov-19: Tonight the two of us ate a half dose of Shrimp, Saffron and Preserved Lemon Mac and Cheese (web). (The half dose should have served 3.) I choose this because it sounded rather improbable. And it was. Okay to eat but don't need to do it again. Followed by a simple salad. Then a pair of chocolate-covered madeleines each.

Yogurt on overnight.

Thursday/21-Nov-19: Shopping today.

Dinner was a half recipe of Fish Steamed over Vegetables and Fresh Herbs (Essential, p434). This was okay, but nothing special. Served with Potato "Tostones" (Flattened Potatoes) (Essential, p301), as suggested. These were good (especially good because I used duck fat rendered from the magret we had recently), but tedious to make. For dessert, I bought some gateau de fromage. Delicious but filling.

Friday/22-Nov-19: In the morning, I made a half batch of Bold Teriyaki Sauce (web). Part will go into the crockpot that I'll start tonight for tomorrow' meal; the rest will go into some stir-fried Chinese-ish veggies soon.

Dinner was Tuscan beans from the freezer, topped up with canned tuna, lemon juice, and a bit of olive oil. Served that with some lettuce topped with the rest of yesterday's veggies dolled up with a bit of vinaigrette.

After dinner, I froze up gaboons of chicken stock, mostly in 1-liter jars since there weren't many smaller ones available.

And started a crockpotful (a half recipe since I have only a 3-quart crockpot) of Slow Cooker Thai Pulled Pork (web). My pork had no bones. This has to cook 10 hours, so should be ready. After that the meat has to be shredded and the sauce fiished with peanut butter (not "natural" it says — why? that's all we have in the house, so that's what it will be) and lime zest and juice. Smells good already.

Saturday/23-Nov-19: Served the Thai pulled pork with white rice and steamed broccoli as they showed on the site. Yummy stuff. Another meal in the freezer.

Sunday/24-Nov-19: Dinner was kip filets with a yummy basting sauce from the freezer. Cooked four kip filets; the other two will be used in the next couple of weeks. Served with a half dose of Parsley Salad with Bulgur, Mint, and Tomatoes (BigFlav, p216). This was good, made with lime juice instead of lemon, because there was some in the fridge leftover.

Yogurt on overnight.

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

This week in the kitchen

Monday/2-Jul-18: Dinner was a halfish recipe of Coriander-Thyme Lamb Chops with Yogurt Sauce (CL/may15; web). Pretty good this was. Cooked the chops under the broiler. The honey in the yogurt sauce really wasn't necessary. With one store-bought tub of (full-fat) yogurt (125ml), there was more than enough sauce.  Served with Moroccan couscous, from the health-food store, and some asparagus steamed over water with a big sprig of mint and some lemon peel and topped with a vinaigrette of olive oil, lemon juice, and minced mint (Thesaurus, p130).  We enjoyed half of a bottle of Brousse Terre des Sens (Gaillac) as an accompaniament.

Tuesday/3-Jul-18: Using up lots of odds and ends from the freezer, dinner was a half dose of Poor-Cousin Paella (Secrets, p249), more or less. The meats were chorizo, cooked chicken, serrano ham, scallops, and shrimp. For veggies there was a green bell pepper, artichoke bottom, and green peas. Then a salad. Finished the Brousse for wine. Some chocolate topped madelaines for dessert.

Wednesday/4-Jul-18: Shopping today, a big one, refilling the larder. A storm came through while we were in the store. On the way home we saw the biggest hail we've seen since moving to Europe. Got home to find our pergola cover shredded. No other major damage we'd found. We're lucky.

Dinner was Spicy Swordfish and Artichoke Kabobs (web), made with tuna since there was no swordfish. The recipe says the fish and artichokes should be marinated at least four hours. Mine were only about 30 minutes; one or two hours might be nice, but overnight would be too much. Served with orzo and the last four asparagus stalks I had. (None at Leclerc today.)

Thursday/5-Jul-18: Dinner was late, since I was a bit disorganized when it came to cooking today. We had Baked Rishta (Noodles) with Eggplant I (Roden, p272; cookbooker). No fresh noodles, maybe later in the month. Good stuff, this, although it could have used a bit more spaghetti. Served with Spinach Salad with Yogurt (Roden, p68). Some fruit for dessert.

Friday/6-Jul-18: Dinner was Roasted Lemon Garlic Herb Shrimp (web). (Can't find the site where I got my copy of this, but that's the same recipe.) Then a big salad. Then some chocolate covered corn flake cookies. We had a visitor—one of our neighbor's rough-haired dachshunds was in our yard. Normally he's quite a barky thing, protecting his home turf, but was quite sweet in our yard.

Saturday/7-Jul-18: Early meal today before going for to a concert. We had Melon Zucchini & Pancetta (PatSalads, p22; cookbooker). Turns out I'd made it before but didn't write anything in the book. This time with serrano ham instead of pancetta, and with frisée, which we don't ordinarily like but worked here.

From the storm we've also found a broken tile on roof of the kitchen porch and a hole in the birdbath.

Sunday/8-Jul-18: Ed sang with Cantique today; pizza afterwards. Nothing happened in the kitchen, except ...

Yogurt on overnight.

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: no

This week in the kitchen

Monday/16-Apr-18: In the morning, I used some leftover (flat) prosecco, topped up with a bit of white wine from the box, and a store-bought pie curst to make a Wine Tart (Secrets, p89). Only mildly successful. The pastry, which was one of the top-rated brands, is like leather. There is a reason to make it yourself.

Our meal was Chorizo Chowder (web). This was tasty, but I thought it was too fat, even thought I used less butter than asked for the veggies. We added some pyramid goat cheese at table. Some kind of creamy stuff makes it nicer.

Tuesday/17-Apr-18: Our meal was a halfish dose of Tajine of Chicken, Caramelized Onions and Pears (BirdHand, p58). This was only so-so compared with the other dishes I've made from this book.

Served with Moroccan couscous, a mix from a health food store. As sides there were some steamed asparagus with lemon juice and Courgette and Fresh Coriander Salad (Meze, p85). I liked this salad, but Ed who doesn't like raw zucchini on principle didn't much care for it.

Wednesday/18-Apr-18: For our meal we had leftover chorizo chowder. I tossed in leftover brown rice to stretch it and give it more substance. Worked well. Accompanied by egg salad sandwiches made with arugula pesto (from the freezer), minced red onion, plus dab of mayo and yogurt. Not bad. Wine tart for dessert.

Yogurt on overnight.

Thursday/19-Apr-18: Shopping today. We're later than usual for the next couple of weeks while Ed has practices for an extra choir concert at the beginning of May.

Our meal was a half version of Garlic Butter Salmon (web). I packed these up in aluminum foil rather than parchment paper and Ed cooked them on the grill instead of in the oven. Yummy stuff. Served with orzo and steamed broccoli. Some delicious store-bought chocolate mousses for dessert.

Friday/20-Apr-18: A bit of replanning today, since Cath will come for dinner tomorrow before a concert.

Today we had Chicken Karhai with Mint (MJ@Home, p78), with Mushroom and Pea Curry (MJ@Home, p191) as suggested, and plain basmati rice. All was good.

Saturday/21-Apr-18: Cath came for a meal before we went to a concert. I made a 3/4 recipe of Creamy Garlic Pasta with Shrimp & Vegetables (web; cookbooker). Especially tasty, it was. I used casareccia as the pasta, since spaghetti wasn't right for this dish. My veggies were not done in 2 minutes, but the shrimp were. Fished them out (all but one, poor baby) to finish cooking the vegetables. For a 3/4 recipe, I used all 6oz of pasta. Probably the recipe makes way too much sauce. I was making a 3/4 recipe, but used less than half the yogurt (I admit it, I didn't measure) and adjusted the rest of the ingredients to match. Except for the freshly ground pepper, which I used a lot of. Made up a salad of sliced cucumber and tomato as suggested, with added mint. For dessert, I made up some vanilla ice cream and we ate it all topped slogs crème de cacao.

Sunday/22-Apr-18: We had Judy's Dal Soup (EAT-L) for lunch. No online source, since it was a recipe copied from a friend. Easy and tasty. Served with store-bought naan, Kheer ka raita—Yoghurt with cucumber and mint (MJ1, p162), and an assortment of chutneys and pickle.

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

This week in the kitchen

Monday/18-Apr-16: Cleaning today and didn't feel like cooking. Defrost a pasta sauce (winter squash and beans) and served it over mushroom pasta. And a big salad. We were well-fed. We ate outside, even though we needed a jacket. The sun was shining and there was no wind where we sat. We have the idea we've eaten out earlier in the year, but I didn't note it, so this will do.

Yogurt on overnight.

Tuesday/19-Apr-16: I recently finished reading Diane Henry's A Change of Appetite, which I found via the I Heart Cooking Clubs group. I wasn't much impressed as I read it, there seemed to be too many of difficult to find ingredients and a bit to righteous in tone. I was surprised, though, how many recipes I had marked to try. Guess I'll have to keep it around for a bit.

Dinner was Red Lentil and Cauliflower Tomato Pulao (web), which was remarkably good (even though the gas ran out while the rice and lentils were first cooking. I used up the frozen cauliflower I bought, hoping it would be a good substitute for the real thing (it's hard to two people to finish a whole cauliflower, especially since Ed isn't overly fond of it), but I won't buy any more. We split an espresso magnum for dessert.

Wednesday/20-Apr-16: Dinner out after picking Bill up at the station. Nothing happened in the kitchen today except cleaning.

Thursday/21-Apr-16: Ed went after choir practice to buy tuna on sale at Intermarché, but there was none. So we had Boudins Noirs aux Oignons (web). The onions tasted quite bitter even after cooking long and slow, so I grated in a couple of apples at the last minute. Wasn't bad (Ed liked it). Unfortunately Bill doesn't really care for boudins noir. For a starter, I used up our carrots to make Grated Carrots with Vinaigrette (Secrets, p67). For dessert we had store-bought toetjes, some raspberry tarts.

Yogurt on overnight

Friday/22-Apr-16: Shopping today, a bit belated. Impulse bought some smoked salmon on sale, leading to tonight's starter.

Which, more or less, was Smoked Salmon Salad with Dill (BEFCC, p35). I didn't have the fennel, but it was good without it. For the main there was Duck with Peppercorns—Magret de Canard aux Grains de Poivre (BEFCC, p142). Good stuff.Served with smashed potatoes and peas with shallots. Cheese for after. We had a little bûche of goat cheese, and today I bought a small chees collection with tomme de Savoie, brie de Meaux, and fourme d'Ambert. All good. Unfortunately.

Saturday/23-Apr-16: Out all day today at the Phoenix book sale. Dinner out. Nothing happened ing the kitchen.

Sunday/24-Apr-16: We had our main meal early so we could go to an early evening concert. We had Quiche à l'Agneau, aux Épinards et à la Feta (web, VPG), using most of the cooked lamb from the freezer.  Cook stuff. The lamb and spinach went together exceptionally well. Then a salad. Then we left for the concert. Later we had some fruit and cheese.

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

This week in the kitchen

Monday/13-Jul-15: Dinner was a half recipe of Shrimp Fried Rice (web). I used two eggs for the two of us and made a sort of flat omelet, rather than scrambling, and sliced into strips. Added some red pepper flakes with the ginger. Used skinny haricots verts rather than show peas. I used trio rice that I froze a while ago; this worked fine. Used frozen cooked shrimp and added them near the end with the egg bits. It was good. Then some juice popsicles.

Tuesday/14-Jul-15: Used up lots of odd bits from the freezer tonight for a halfish recipe of Poor-Cousin Paella (p249, Seaver), cooked chicken, the last bit of some defrosted chicken stock, cooked chicken, chorizo, one squid body. Added a (small) jar of artichoke bottoms and a tomato, for the first time ever. About a teaspoon of chipotle powder makes it all really yummy. A great recipe for using up odd bits.

Wednesday/15-Jul-15: For lunch I made Zucchini-Tuna Salad, a recipe I copied from a book I didn't keep. A pretty good variation on tuna salad. You start with equal piles (1 cup) of shredded zucchini and carrots. Stir in a can of tuna, drained and flaked. Then enough mayo to make make it a good consistency. Then add some chopped sweet pickle (I used cornichons), celery seed, and pickle juice. I added some lemon juice for the tartness and a bit of piment d'Esplette. Good stuff.

Dinner was Spaghetti Pangrattato with Cripsy Eggs (web), a very satisfying kind of meal. Then a salad. Then two squares of dark chocolate with almonds each. Then off to hear Gregorian chant.

Thursday/16-Jul-15: Shopping today. Relatively cheap, although there was lots of meat. (We are way ahead of past years in the amount we're spending on groceries. I'm not sure why, really. A bit worrying.)

Dinner was a half recipe of Fish in Red Chili Chutney (web). Pretty good, although not especially hot. Served with basmati rice and a half recipe of Pachadi—Indian Cucumber Salad (p147, GreeneGreens; cookbooker). Can't say this was especially Indian, but it was good. No radishes. Mini magnums for dessert.

Friday/17-Jul-15: Nothing happened in the kitchen today. Went for a balade gourmand this evening.  Almost seven kilometers up and down in the heat. Whew!

Saturday/18-Jul-15: Tosca and Mike for dinner this evening, so I was in the kitchen most of the day. Made up the broth for Buttermilk Ice Cream (MC) in the morning.

Made Sweet and Hot Peach Relish (p179, BigFlav), which was good, but hotter than I intended. This went with Spice-Rubbed Grilled Chicken Breasts with Sweet and Hot Peach Relish (p178, BigFlav). The spicy rub goes on the chicken after it's mostly cooked. I put it on the tray with chicken and Ed tripped leaving the kitchen, spilling most of it. So only once side got brushed with the sauce. Made the recommended to-withs, Parsley Salad with Bulgur, Mint, and Tomatoes (p216, BigFlav) and Roast Beet and Carrot Salad with Lemon-Mint Dressing (p204, BigFlav). The parsley salad is like a taboulleh with more veg in it. The beet and carrot salad is yummy; need to make that more often. For dessert there was ice cream and fresh raspberries. A nice evening all in all.

Sunday/19-Jul-15: Lovely lunch out with Tosca and Mike. No action in the kitchen.

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

This week in the kitchen

Monday/26-May-14: Still cleaning out the freezer. For a starter we had radishes with butter and salt. For a main, I grilled two kinds of merguez, one poultry, the other beef and lamb. Served with smashed sweet potatoes. Then a salad. Then some ice cream, using up the cream with marscapone and two other bits of cream in the fridge, served with a splash of crême de cacao.

Tuesday/27-May-14: Shopping today. And we visited a cave in La Roche. We asked for a wine that would go with spicy pork and he recommended one that was quite cheap, which we took. And, lo and behold it was very good with spicy meat.

Dinner was a double dose of Pork Vindaloo (Q&E, p33), served with rice and Carrot and Onion Salad (MJ1, p171). For afters we had some Haagen-Dasz vanilla ice cream, with a splash of crême de cacao again.

Wednesday/28-May-14: Yogurt on overday.

Out for lunch today. For dinner there was cheese, fruit, and cherry tomatoes with quiche, rillettes, and such from a charcuterie in Rochechouart. We're stuffed.

Thursday/29-May-14: We had intended to eat lunch out but couldn't find a place to do it that was handy, so we snacked again for lunch. While Ed had choir practice, Bill and I visited a pottery fair. Then we borrowed an electric knife and tackled the dried ham. With that and a hacksaw, Bill and Ed managed to get enough meat for our starter and dinner. One end of the joint with some meat in the freezer for beans or such, along with four 100g packets of slices. And more to come next time we have some time and energy for it.

For starters with had melon and, yes, sliced ham. For the main, there was Pour-Cousin Paella (Secrets, p249), which is an old favorite. For dessert, Ed and I split a Magnum Classic, while Bill had one to himself.

Friday/30-May-14: Saw Bill off at the train station today, then popped into the Victor Hugo market for a few things (tomatoes, cilantro, bread, and a head of lettuce). Then home to start getting things back to normal.

Dinner was Indian Scrambled Eggs (MJ@Home, p76), followed by a salad, then some strawberries with a dab of the marscapone-cream stuff.

Saturday/31-May-14: Yogurt on overday. Off to see the pottery with Ed this time.

Early dinner so we can go to a concert. It was an old favorite, Artichoke Spaghetti (Art, p59), followed by a salad. For dessert we chunked up our usual lunch fruit (currently apple, pear, and banana) and tossed with a bit of lemon juice and a tiny dab of honey; crumbled a ginger snap over each bowl to serve.

Sunday/1-Jun-14: Since we had pasta and salad for dinner last night, tonight we had the leftover paella mixed with a can of cannellini beans for dinner. (It will be pasta and salad again tomorrow.) For a go-with, I took the leftover polenta from a while ago, sliced it, sprayed it with olive oil, and toasted it under the broiler. Nice stuff. Then a big salad. We were full.

May's gone by, and I haven't finished reading the month's Time-Life book (Indian Cooking), let alone cooked anything from it. Have to get on that now.

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

This week in the kitchen

Monday/16-Sep-13: Used up the rest of the lamb roast with a Frenchified Curried Lamb (Secrets, p225). I mean, who ever heard of curried lamb with red wine? It's good though. Served with some rice and some vaguely Indian green beans.

Tuesday/17-Sep-13: Today in the potager we discovered a ginormous zucchini that was hiding just two days ago. We think we'll just weigh it and then recycle it.

Dinner was a vegetarian casserole (MC 2BTried) that can be used with most veggies, zukes, broc, cauliflower, bsprouts, etc. So zucchini it was. And pretty good it was. Then a big salad. Then some vanilla ice cream with a splash of chocolate liqueur.

Yogurt on overnight.

Wednesday/18-Sep-13: Shopping today. Then there was a fishy Indian meal, that turned into a potluck for IHCC. While I was cooking our neighbor brought another big sackful of green and yellow beans! I really do have to take care of all these.

Thursday/19-Sep-13: Still working on the zucchini bounty. Dinner was a moldy-oldy, Zucchini, Corn, and Potato Tacos (MC). No taco shells at the shops, so I made some proper corn tortillas, which are better anyhow.

Friday/20-Sep-13: Froze up a bunch of little sacks of yellow and green beans this afternoon.

Used more zucchini tonight with another oldie-but-goodie, Zucchini-Tuna Tagliatelle (MC). And a bit salad. And that was it.

Put chicken on to marinate for tomorrow night. Yogurt on overnight.

Saturday/21-Sep-13: An Ottolenghi dinner for next week's theme. Served with trio rice and some steamed broccoli with five green beans from the garden.

Sunday/22-Sep-13: Midday dinner today was Ottolenghi's Broccoli and Gorgonzola Pie (web), using Fourme Ambert instead of gorgonzola. Very good it was. Then a salad with the rest of last night's rucola. Then some double chocolate mini Magnums.

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

This week in the kitchen

Monday/9-Sep-13: Roasted a lamb shoulder (rather than a gigot, which was an option) today for Gigot d'Agneau Saint-George au Citron et au Yaourt (VPG). Started way too late for it to get done in time (also recipe wasn't very accurate about the time), so ended up throwing together a quick pasta dish with broccoli and the end of the blah blue cheese.

Yogurt on overnight.

Tuesday/10-Sep-13: The sink arrived hooray!

Dinner was the roast lamb, which was pretty good in spite of being reheated. Also Dusolier's Perfect Roast Potatoes, which were especially good because I followed the instructions about putting the roasting tray with oil and salt in the one when the potatoes start boiling. Also some roasted veggies, the end of the broc, a couple of carrots, and a little eggplant from the garden.

Wednesday/11-Sep-13: Shopping today. Got back to find a sack with 1.5kg of haricots verts and haricots jaunes hanging on the front-doorknob. Have to deal with those tomorrow. Might parboil and freeze a lot of them.

Had a bit of a Chinese itch. Tonight's dinner was Stir-Fried with Black Bean Sauce (HotWok, p74) with Stir-Fried Courgettes with Fresh Chilli (HotWok, p165) and rice. Both are old favorites, but it's been a while since I've made them. Makes me think I want to spend some time making some proper Chinese-ish food, as best I can considering difficulty getting a lot of ingredients. Restaurant Chinese food around here tends to be pretty low quality, served buffet-style.

Thursday/12-Sep-13: It was Elsie's Zucchini Pancakes with Sour Cream Sauce (CastIron, p124) again for dinner tonight. Good stuff too. Then a simple salad. That's all folks.

Friday/13-Sep-13: Time to start working on the leftover lamb. Tonight it was sort of a half recipe of Moussaka I (Secrets, p217) along with some Perfect Roasted Green Beans (now HandyBook) like I made last week. The leftovers section on Seaver's book is really useful. Then some ice cream and defrosted frozen raspberries.

Saturday/14-Sep-13: Scratched the Indian itch tonight. Dinner was Mushroom and Pea Curry (MJ@Home, p161) served with rice. Good enough, but not the best Jaffrey meal I've made. For afters we had a bit of ice cream with a slog of chocolate liqueur over.

Sunday/15-Sep-13: Lunch out today for my birthday, so nothing happening in the kitchen. Internet down in the evening till well past bedtime.

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

This week in the kitchen

Monday/3-Dec-12: What a gray and gloomy day! Simple dinner, a half dose of Conchiglie Salmone e Piselli e Formaggi Caprini (web) and a salad. Used orecchetti because there isn't any conchiglie in the house. Oh well.

Tuesday/4-Dec-12: Warmed up the roast chicken; served with (yet again) Haricots Verts in Walnut Oil (Lunch, p216, MC, now HandyBook) and mushroom pasta. For dessert with did a taste-testing of four fair trade chocolate bars (one square each). Our favorite was the 70% one from Nicaragua.

Wednesday/5-Dec-12: Shopping today. Had an Asian itch, so dinner was Spicy Fish Cakes (MC), a vaguely Thai dish. Accompanied by Fragrant Jasmine Rice (MWLowFat, p189) and Zucchini with Cilantro Sauce (MWLowfat, p335). For dessert there was a bit of Pineapple Buttermilk Sherbert (MWLowFat, p394), that I made late last summer when I opened a can of what turned out to be crushed pineapple. All stuff we've had before, but good.

Thursday/6-Dec-12: Tonight's dinner was for IHCC's potluck theme. There was Chickpea Flour Stew with Dumplings (TasteIndia, p42) over plain basmati rice, served with Tangy Green Beans with Ajwain and Ginger (SpiceKitch, p38). Yum.

Friday/7-Dec-12: Today's lunch date fell through so we had an unplanned dinner, but one I'd already been thinking it was time for—our annual Dutch zuurkool stamppot. That's sauerkraut mashed with potatoes and topped with a smoked sausage. Comfort food. Another chocolate taste-testing for afters.

Saturday/8-Dec-12: Oops, neglected to notice that dinner wanted two and a half hours in the oven. Replan on order. So it was a half dose version of Poor-Cousin Paella (Secrets, p249). This recipe is good for using up odd bits of things. (That's why it's in the leftovers chapter, "The Squirrel Complex.") There were some small frozen cooked shrimp, the last frozen squid body, some store-bought chorizo (a good brand this time), with peas and artichoke bottoms, and jazzed up with some chipotle powder. Good stuff. Then a salad. Have enough paella left for lunch or a side dish perhaps.

Sunday/9-Dec-12: Dinner was Fall-Apart Lamb Braised with Mustard and Mint (web), with three of the four lamb shanks asked. The meat from the third one will show up in dinner in a couple of days. Good stuff it was. There was no mint in the store and certainly none in the garden, so I sprinkled on some dried spearmint, but can't say I noticed the flavor. Served with smashed potatoes and peas-and-carrots. Double-chocolate mini Magnums for afters, although it wasn't really needed.

Yogurt on overnight.

Progress on goals
This week: #1 COOKBOOKS: no, #2 BREAD: no, #3 SOUP: yes, #4 MIDDAY: no, #5 VEG/FISH: 3
This month: #6 PASTA: no

This week in the kitchen

Monday/17-Jan-11: Marinated chicken turned into Garlic Chicken (CL clipping, soon to be MC). Served with Fried Aubergine Slices (MJ1, p99), a recipe I've not yet tried from this book; it was good too. Made a little sauce similar to last night's with yogurt, with lemon juice, and black pepper, this time with some chopped cilantro added. Accompanied by a pilaf-y thing with almonds, cumin seeds, and raisins. A nice dinner.

Nobody went out for bread today. Honey Wheat Bread (Electric, p54) on overnight.

Tuesday/18-Jan-11: The Honey Wheat Bread is quite good, if a bit sweet (as you might expect from the name).

Dinner was Leek and Chickpea Pasta Soup (soon to be MC), a recipe from somewhere on the web. A bit of goat cheese for after.

Wednesday/19-Jan-11: I've added some new tabs to this blog. There's one for magazines, to go with the one for cookbooks; this still needs to be filled with magazine and links. Another for the "in the works" list I used to have at the bottom of the blog. Another for the complete Cooking Italy schedule; still need to tidy this up and link to my posts (and maybe to Angela's too), although that's a bit tedious. These last two largely repeat every week and add a lot of text when I want to print a year's worth of blog.

Dinner was Chile-Garlic Shrimp (MC), made with some broccoli stems and haricots verts and frozen shrimp, served over gemelli-like pasta. Tasty. Followed by a rucola salad. Then, from the freezer, some crémes brulées with red fruit, "burned" under the broiler.

Thursday/20-Jan-11: French toast for breakfast with the end of the Honey Wheat bread. Then shopping. While Ed was at choir practice, I worked on defrosting and cleaning the fridge. Since we got the big freezer, the fridge freezer is not so full, so not so apt to have its door ajar and get iced up. Thus its been about a year since defrosting. It wasn't in bad shape actually. Which is a good thing because this fridge is less fun than most to defrost. And took much longer than I expected.

So dinner was easy, well in theory it was. Avocado and Ricotta Soft Tacos (MC), a yummy recipe from Nava Atlas, that I barely follow. The problem was that flour tortillas in the pantry, fairly recently bought, turned out to be way out of date, and suspiciously crumbly. Out with them. Pitas? Not the right thing. So, I ended up making a stack of corn tortillas from scratch. Easy enough, but a lot of time on my feet. All tasty and worth it, though.

Friday/21-Jan-11: For the last weeks the fish counters at both our usual grocery stores have had encornets on offer. This translates, as far as I've found, to squid; these are fat strips of what looks like squid meat, white, up to an inch square and several inches long. One giant squid. I search the web and found an Antillean recipe (which probably wanted squid-as-we-know-it) that was highly web-rated. The recipe was poorly written, so took a lot of imagination. It call for a marinade of lime juice, onion, garlic, and piment vegetarien, which seems like it might be something like an jalapeño, but doesn't look like that. I had some haberno-like chilies and used one of those. Cooked in a tomato sauce. It was all quite tasty, but quite hot, even for us two what like it hot. Served with rice, making lots to have some for nasi goreng at next cooking opportunity. Then a salad of mâche. Then some individually sized pavé affinois with crackers. Then a dab of chocolate what not made with leftover ricotta (from last night), cocoa, powdered sugar, and a dab of vanilla.

Saturday/22-Jan-11: Off early this a.m. for one of the wind-chilliest birding trips on record. Afterwards we had omelets and frites for lunch in Lézignac. Home, then a nap, and then some Nasi Goreng (collected EAT-L). With leftovers.

Yogurt on overnight.

Sunday/23-Jan-11: Our main meal was a late lunch or early dinner, a variation on Broccoli with Roasted Peppers, Olives, and Feta Cheese (Savory, p188). Oops, no jar of roasted peppers in the pantry; used some frozen oven-dried tomatoes instead. Served over brown rice. Tasty comfort food.

Candlemas is coming, the time for eating crêpes. The latest VPQ has lots of crêpe recipes. I'll have to try one of these soon. Crêpes are not one of skills, but practice makes perfect.

More blog changes:

• I've changed the page "tabs" into a list on the right. Since the tabs don't show up well in many of the blog designs, maybe this will make them handier.
• Added some 2011 kitchen goals to the "In the Works" page and will add a progress section at the bottom of each post.
• Added a Reading section to the right.

A Wine Tart (Secrets, p88) in the oven. I made a halfish recipe of this a long time ago, here, while we were visiting one time. This time with limoncello, almost using up my bottle. Thought Ed might like the tart better than the liqueur. The 8" pie tin was pretty full and made a major mess in the oven. Note to self: bigger dish next time!

Progress on goals
This week: VEG/FISH: yes, SOUP: yes, MIDDAY: yes
This month: PASTA: not yet

This week in the kitchen

Monday/15-Nov-10: Ed's birthday today, and we had a very nice lunch at the Roc du Boeuf. In the evening, not being hungry at all, we just had some fruit. Yesterday's Breton buckwheat cake is going to get pretty stale, but it will be a good coffee-dipping cake.

Tuesday/16-Nov-10: A strange thing this morning, we found the yogurt was set. After two days in the fridge. Very odd. So, breakfast was yogurt and a chunk of the Breton cake, which made a tasty treat. It has an interesting flavor, with vanilla, rum, and a dab of cinnamon. And I taste coconut, but that's probably something to do with the rum.

I wasn't very hungry this evening for some reason. Made a half recipe of Fava Bean Hummus (MC), which turned out to be a pretty good thing to do with the frozen favas that we thought were pretty tasteless all by themselves. The beans are cooked in boiling water with some milk, odd.

Wednesdsay/17-Nov-10: Ed shopped today while I waited for DHL, who indeed finally showed up. Dinner was Creamy Parmesan Salmon, a recipe that had been highly recommended on EAT-L. The salmon is baked with a topping of mayo, garlic powder, Parmesan, chives, and lemon juice (rather like a topping I have for baked eggplant slices, less the cracker crumbs and plus lemon juice). The recipe caled for the salmon to be baked for 25-30 minutes at 400F! I did 15 minutes and thought they were a trifle overdone. The usual timing is 10 minutes per inch at 350F, as I remember. We weren't overly fond of this, but it could be that I haven't found a good store-bought mayo yet. Accompanied by Dusolier's roast potatoes and a bit salad of mâche. For dessert there were some frozen crèmes brulées with red fruit. Not too bad.

The DHL package contained the first cookbook I won in one of the myriad of giveaways, the new Sunset House monster. Looks like it might have some good recipes, though.

Thursday/18-Nov-10: Started yogurt this morning with a new starter. Lunch was Avocado-Cream Sauce for Pasta (MC), an old recipe from Tip magazine. I used small cooked frozen shrimp instead of the ham, and no tuinkers. Can't remember what tuinkers are called in English and have never seen them here. Too bad. A fast and tasty pasta dish.

Neither of us feeling very perky this evening. A big salad, using the turkey scallop I'd already baked for another dish, and off to bed.

Friday/19-Nov-10: Out for a quiz dinner tonight. Not much going on in the kitchen.

Saturday/20-Nov-10: Baked another turkey scallop and made Seaver's Pour-Cousin Paella (MC; Secrets, p249), a mighty nice dish for using up odds and ends from the fridge and freezer.

Sunday/21-Nov-10: For lunch I made an old favorite soup, Pat O'Sullivan's Peanut Butter Soup (MC), that I haven't made in a long while. The recipe is supposed to serve four, I guess as part of soup-and-sandwiches, but the two of us usually eat all of it in big soup mugs. Nice on a cold gray day.

Dinner was Barbara's Greek Onion-Leek Pie (soon to be MC). I liked this lots, but Ed thought there was a bit too much dill. He almost always complains about the amount of dill, so we'll not worry about this. This would have been especially nice with a salad to accompany it, but I was too lazy to do it. And what do you do with leftover phyllo leaves? I mixed a glob of honey with some hazelnut butter that I found in the fridge, daubed that in the phyllo, rolled it up, and baked it while the pie was cooking. This turned out pretty good. The only thing I'd do is maybe add some finely chopped (hazel) nuts. A bit of a phyllo-y dinner, but it all tasted good.

Fear of pie crusts

Now, I grew up listening to my mother complain about her pie crusts, they were never good enough and just too hard to make. At some point she found the pre-made crusts that looked like sticks of butter that just had to be rolled out to make the crusts and that was the end of her attempts at perfecting a pie crust. So I was imbued early-on with a fear of pie crusts. My few attempts were never particularly successful, and led me, like my mother, to use store-bought substitutes, either roll-'em-out or already formed.

My French teacher, Fatima, in Amstelveen also gave cooking-in-French classes. From her I learned to overcome my fear. It was simple. Put all the ingredients in a big bowl and use one hand (with cold fingers) to mush it all together. When it's crumbly, not smooth, but crumbly, it's ready to moosh into a disk, cover with plastic, and pop in the fridge. When it's good and cold, roll it out and line your dish. Alternatively, pop it in the freezer. The crust dough freezes really well. When you expect to make something with a crust in the evening, put your dough in the fridge to defrost. When you're home from work, it's there waiting to be rolled, filled, and cooked.

I didn't like Fatima's recipe. It used vegetable shortening, which is so full of chemical crap that I refuse to have it in the house. Lard is supposed to be the best, but is very difficult find.

The first recipe I found that I used frequently was Jeannette Seaver's in Jeannette's Secrets of Everyday Good Cooking. (BTW, I love this book. She's French, married American, and strove to keep the French attitude towards food alive in her home. And, of course the French are masters of using pie crust to dress up dinner, either the main course or dessert or bits of leftovers presented in a new way.)

My Basic Pie Crust Jeannette's Secrets of Everyday Good Cooking, p38
My basic pie crust, which I use for countless dishes from quiche to tarte aux pommes, has the virtue of being extremely easy, quick, and realiable. For an 8-9-inch pie mold you will need:
– 4-ounce package cream cheese – 2 cups flour – 1-1/2 sticks butter (6 ounces)	In a bowl, mix all the ingredients with our fingers to form a smooth dough. It should take you not more than 3 to 5 minutes. Refrigerate for 30 minutes (or more) before rolling out and baking. If you are not going to use it immediately, you can of course freeze it for later use. If you want to double or triple this recipe and set some aside for later use, I suggest you divide the dough into balls each enough for one pie, and store in the freezer in plastic bags. Label accordingly. It can keep two or three months in the freezer. It will take little or no more time, and will assure you of a ready supply for any emergency or unplanned meal. If you freeze the dough, move to the refrigerator what you expect to use any given day in the morning before you leave the house, or leave out at room temperature on hour before using.
Kaye's notes: Have everything cold when you start to work. I often made multiples of this, since it's so handy to have available. Adapting for the package of cream cheese I can buy, I needed 150g package cream cheese, 250g butter (less a thin slice), 2-2/3 cup flour. This makes about 695g of dough. The unchanged recipes make more than enough for an 8" pan.

The big deal in crust making, I've read, is to keep everything cold and to not melt the fat. The idea is to have little flakes of fat (whether it's cream cheese or butter) that will melt as the crust bakes, making layers within the crust.

More lately, I've been using the recipes in Judith Jones' The Tenth Muse: My Life in Food. This is bit messier to clean up since the food processor is involved, but a snap to put together.

Tart Dough The Tenth Muse,p256
I've found the food processor such a blessing in making pie doughs, particularly those that are rich with butter, that I would never go back to using my fingers for the initial mixing although the final fraisage with the palms of the hands is still an essential step in making these doughs.
– 1 cup all-purpose flour – 1/4 teaspoon salt – 1 table spoon sugar (only for a sweet tart) – 8 tablespoons cold unsalted butter (4 ounces) – 3 tablespoons ice water	Enough for 8-inch tart pan Mix the flour, salt, and sugar, if using, in the bowl of a food processor. Cut the butter into small pieces, drop them through the tube of the processor, and pulse long enough to say "alligator" fifteen times. Pour in the ice water and process long enough to say "alligator" ten times. Transfer the dough to a work surface, preferably marble, and smear it out in small increments with the heel of your hand, then gather the dough together into a round. Sprinkle with flour, wrap with waxed paper, and refrigerate at least 20 minutes or until ready to use.
Kaye's notes: The alligator counting is a good way to use the pulse and not melt the butter. You'd be surprised how warm the flour gets if you just run the processor. One batch of this dough covers my 10" (or more) quiche dishes. Marble, schmarble. I use my tupperware sheet for rolling out crusts laid out on the counter. A cold surface is nice, but who can afford such a thing? I've never made the sweet version of this. I just use the plain dough for a sweet pie.

In neither of these recipes, by hand or by processor, does the dough come together like a bread dough. When it's ready, you have a bowlful of flakes, like miniature granola. These can be smooshed together to form a solid mass. I expect what is accomplished by Jones' fraisage, a term I've not noticed elsewhere, is the smooshing together (technical term, that). I generally start out heel-pressing and then just give up and press it all together with my fingers. Form into a thick disk, cover tightly with plastic cling wrap, and refrigerate or freeze. (To freeze, I put the disks in a freezer-quality ziplock.)

This makes a wonderful, flaky pie crust. My mother would be surprised that I could do anything like this. I'm still surprised. My crusts aren't pretty, since I haven't yet mastered the art of making clever edges, but they so taste good.

This week in the kitchen

Monday/12-Apr-10: For dinner, I made Cream of Broccoli Soup (CC1, p124) to use up broccoli stems and a bit of broccoli. Ate up the rest of the cayenne cornbread. Made German Crumb Cake from an EAT-L recipe. Tasty, although recipe was odd in saying it would fill two 14x9 pans, when the half recipe barely filled my 8" square.

Tuesday/13-Apr-10: Ed made pancakes from scratch this morning, with a recipe out of his head. And good they were! Still a man of surprises!

Made some Buckwheat Bread (Big German, p38) with only a bit of the whole wheat flour asked. Used regular white flour instead. It was taller than usual, and good.

Midday lunch today with Chicken and Olives (MC) and Yellow Rice with Sofrito (now MC). Followed by a big salad and ended with another bit of German Crumb Cake.

Wednesday/14-Apr-10: Quiz supper tonight meant no cooking.

Thursday/15-Apr-10: Sandwiches and fruit at midday, plus the end of the German Crumb Cake.

Dinner started with some unsuccessful stuffed artichokes. I'd seen some chokes that had been cut vertically, then cleaned and stuffed, so I tried this. Baked them in the oven. I much prefer the hollowed out ones that have been steamed on the stovetop. The stuffing was good though. Used the rest of the Buckwheat Bread and the last bit of the dried ham.

For our main course, there was Cold Roast Chicken with Leeks Vinaigrette (Secrets, p246), with the other half of the Devil's Chicken. This was such a pretty dinner that we thought it needed a picture. This salad would be nice as part of a buffet dinner perhaps.

Started a pot of stock with the chicken bones.

Friday/16-Apr-10: For lunch we had the leftover pizza, somewhat warmed up.

For our evening dinner there were filets of flétan noir, some sort of flatfish, à la meunière, with a simple pan sauce. These were accompanied by some steamed haricots verts and trio rice, combining the end of one box and the start of another. Made extra rice to add to the bit I've already saved for some fried rice soon.

Saturday/17-Apr-10: Midday dinner today, with two Cooking Light recipes, both keepers. A bit of a light meal, but that's not too bad since tomorrow's a repas de chasse.The main was Baked Eggs en Cocotte with Onions, quite nice it was. For a side, there was Haricots Verts with Warm Bacon Vinaigrette, using the rest of the beans that I steamed last evening. This was quite nice and would be good on a buffet, since it can be made ahead.

Sunday/18-Apr-10: Attended a repas de chasse today. No further food necessary.

This week in the kitchen

Monday/15-Mar-10: The buckwheat bread was again a hit. Such a good brown bread. Breakfast and lunch.

This week we're in clearing-out-the-fridge- mode, prior to our NL trip. For dinner there was Gratin d'Aubergines (MedSeed, p55). I made about a third recipe. My aubergine was quite small, so I added a courgette. Made a nice mixture. Then there was a big salad, followed by the last of the Petit Livarot. We ate all of this cheese in three sittings, maybe a bit much.

Tuesday/16-Mar-10: Finished off the buckwheat bread for breakfast. Picked the chicken and made stock. Froze some of the meat and save a bit out for dinner. Had in mind to made a chicken something for dinner with shrooms and broccoli needing to be used up, but found a Stirfry in Curry Sauce on 28cooks (soon to be MC) and made that instead. For dessert there was Bill's Slow Food Filled Apples (MC), tasty, although the apples weren't quite as done as they might have been. Baked apples seem like real home-style food. I can't quite imagine them in a restaurant. Ed's thinks they're not southern at all.

Wednesday/17-Mar-10: Worked a lot in the garden today. Started out thinking I'd make to make a chicken chowder sort of thing for dinner, but then Pour-Cousin Paella (Secrets, p249) came to mind, so I made that up instead. Used up the rest of a sack of small frozen shrimp, plus some of the dried ham that's still hanging around. Added a good squirt of harissa while it was cooking, which barely added any heat. Ended up adding chipotle tabasco at the table, which made it really good. For a starter, I tossed Cooking Italy's leeks and artichokes with a bit of vinaigrette and served with a half Little Gem each. This was better than the first night, we both thought. For dessert, I mixed up the last bit of ricotta with some cocoa and powdered sugar and a dash of vanilla extract. Good and rich.

Thursday/18-Mar-10: We had lunch at La Bellone today, so had our usual fruit and sandwich and crossword for dinner. I got the chicken stock ready for the freezer and whizzed up some faux pizza sauce. Pizza when we return. Tomorrow we're off to the Netherlands for a week of R&R.

Saturday/27-Mar-10: Dinner by candlelight for Earth Hour tonight. Spaghetti with Carbonara Sauce for Cooking Italy tonight, followed by a big salad. St Felicien for afters.

Sunday/28-Mar-10: Started the day thinking I'd roast a chicken by didn't feel like it in the end. Instead I made (more or less) a quarter recipe of Cooking Light's Spinach Pie with Goat Cheese, Raisins, and Pine Nuts, using up an open package of phyllo and the rest of the frozen spinach. It was pretty good, but nothing very special. Served with a big salad. Some scholiertjes for dessert.