This week in the kitchen

Monday/15-Apr-19: We ate dinner while listening to the horrendous news as Notre Dame burned in Paris. Heart-breaking.

For dinner, Ed grilled Spatchcock Piri-Piri Chicken (web) with bricks. It was good, but the chili wasn't noticeable. For a side there was Caramelized Spicy Green Beans (web) and Clothilde Dusoulier's Perfect Roasted Potatoes. Both these were good. I skipped a beat and made some rice as a go-with, but I needed to make rice for tomorrow's meal, so it won't go to waste. Mini ice cream bars for after.

Yogurt on overnight.

Tuesday/16-Apr-19: For dinner, I sort of made a 2/3 recipe of Chipotle Meatballs (web) with 350g of ground meat, but all the sauce. We ate all the meatballs and I've got some of the sauce to freeze. Served over linguine, followed by a bit salad. And chocolate easter bunny for dessert.

Wednesday/17-Apr-19: Dinner was Cajun Salmon Burgers (web), pretty yummy these were, and easy. Served with guacamole and sautéed veg (onion, garlic, broccoli, zuke) from the fridge. We had a pair of madeleines as we walked down to the potager and some chocolate easter bunny later.

Thursday/18-Apr-19: Shopping day.

Dinner was Fish in Ajillo Sauce (web), with lieu noir. Served with polenta (rather than rice) and some steamed broccoli that Corinne gave me this morning with olive oil, butter, and lemon juice. Good it all was. Before dinner we both ate a cornuelle that I got at the boulangerie. Nothing more needed.

Yogurt on overnight

Friday/19-Apr-19: Dinner was boudin noir (Bearnaise, whatever that means in this case). Planned it to use up the last of the Banana-Ginger Chutney, only to find that the chutney was moldy. Before it's time. Scrounged some other chutneys from the fridge. With some smashed potatoes and leeks. Followed by salad. Then some strawberries and ice cream.

Saturday/20-Apr-19: Dinner was a half dose of Pappardelle with Roasted Butternut Squash (web; cookbooker). This was easy and quite tasty. I meant to serve it with a salad, but forgot to buy another sack. But, it turns out that there was plenty of arugula in the dish itself. Ha, turns out I've made this before, using sorrel instead of arugula. Nevermind, it's good. Strawberries and ice cream again for dessert.

Sunday/21-Apr-19: Dinner was a half dose of Lamb Shanks Adobo (Sunset, p426; cookbooker). This was extremely good. Served with Los Tios Mexican Rice (TexMex, p163; cookbooker). I was thinking of making some plain rice with a bit of ground cumin, but bumped into this recipe, which was quite good and not too hard at all. And there was Ensalada de Ejotes—Sperziebonensalade met Feta (from a Mexican cooking course I took in Amstelveen). This was easy and yummy.

I used some mangoes that have been hanging around for a while to make Postre de Mango (from the same Mexicen cooking course). This was crushed cookies to make the bottom, topped with mangos puréed with condensed milk and fromage blanc. Quite sweet from the condensed milk, but not bad.

Progress on goals
This week: #1 BACKLOG: no; #2 VEG/FISH: 3; #3 COOKBOOK: n/a
Cookbooks of the month: n/a
This month: #4 PASTA: no; #5 BREAD: no; #6 GUESTS: yes
This year: #7 PROJECT: no

This week in the kitchen

Monday/31-Aug-15: Dinner was Spaccatelle con Tonno e Melanzane—Tuna and Aubergine (p229, Geometry). The recipe asks canned or fresh tuna, but says swordfish is traditional. I stopped at Leclerc today, but didn't see any swordfish. Since we had fresh tuna just a few days ago, I used a can. Used cascareccia instead of spaccatelle (fat chance) since they look somewhat similar. Pretty good stuff. It asked only about 5oz of pasta as a main for two. Seemed like not much, but there was plenty. I made a nice big salad, but we didn't eat it. Lunch tomorrow perhaps. (Haven't defrosted chicken for tomorrow's dinner, so will have to think of something else. Something else quicker, since I don't feel much like cooking.)

Storm came through this evening, so hope we're at the end of this little hot spell

Tuesday/1-Sep-15: Oops, didn't make yogurt last night and got up too late today to start it. On overnight.

Made up two liters/quarts of tomato purée to freeze tomorrow. Ed started the work of seeding, and I found an awful lot of seeds popping to the surface. Removed as many as possible, but this will be a suspect batch. Get to do this over again several times in the next couple of days. Both Beefsteaks and Coeur de Boeufs in this batch.

Dinner was Kitchari with Cauliflower & Peas (web), which wasn't bad, but wasn't wondeful. Added a bunch of lime pickle for salt and zip. A good one-dish meal, if a bit bland. Used chana dal instead of moong dal, of which I had none. Yellow split peas might have been a better substitute.

Wednesday/2-Sep-15: Froze almost 8 cups of tomato purée this morning. Then worked on another batch. In the fridge now, to freeze up tomorrow.

Hoping to shop tomorrow, I worked on the meal plan and list today.

Starting in on our winter squash harvest, tonight's dinner was Ravioli with Winter Squash and Sage (p288, Sunset; cookbooker). Still looking for something approximating an acorn squash, I chose Hokkaido Vert to plant for a winter squash. I was expecting it to be orange inside, instead the flesh is more yellow, thus the dinner was fairly boring to look at. And fairly boring to taste, since the squash doesn't have much in the way of flavor. The recipe was fairly interesting, but there's something wrong with it (see Cookbooker review). Then a big salad, for which I deseeded one more tomato.

Thursday/3-Sep-15: Started some chicken stock. Cleaned out the fridge freezer of bits, but think there's more in the big freezer. Oh well. Froze yesterday's batch of tomato purée. No deseeding today. Might wait till the weekend.

A couple of days ago Ed told me the eggplant plant in the potager had been cut down by something. A shame since it's almost ready to produce something. Tonight he said, No it was part of the winter squash plant. Not really hard to tell these part. Now I don't know if the squash was just broken, or if we've got squash vine borers. Maybe I'll have time to go down there tomorrow. The zucchini seeds that I planted last weekend are coming up. Don't know if we'll actually get any squash so late in the season, but it doesn't hurt to try. The first plants that came up disappeared. I think we have happy voles down there.

Worked on putting away and arranging bread recipes today. Have that pretty much in order now. Maybe I'll actually start baking some real bread one day.

Dinner was Oven-Dried Tomato Tart with Goat Cheese and Black Olives (web; cookbooker) followed by a plain salad.

While the crust was sitting in the fridge, I made up a recipes of Kathie's Zucchini Muffins (web; cookbooker). Cut the sugar back significantly (see Cookbooker) and didn't add topping. Very good. We've already eaten eight of the twelve.

The packet for the pâte feuillettée has a recipe for a tart with winter squash. Just what I need.

Friday/4-Sep-15: Shopping today.

Yipes, when I closed the lid on the tomato sauce I froze up yesterday, I'd managed to put the tray right under the light. Which forced open one of the ziplocs. What a mess!

Dinner was Salmon with Roasted Vegetables & Quinoa (web; cookbooker). This was quite good and easy. Served with a salad. Some chocolate puddings from the store for dessert.

Saturday/5-Sep-15: Defrosted the big freezer today. It was already needing it, but the tomato mess made it a requirement. Why do I dislike defrosting so much? It's really not that bad a job.

Dinner was a half recipe of Chicken with Whole-Grain Mustard & Zucchini in Packets (web; cookbooker). Served with brown rice. For dessert, there were some Cinnamon Cream Cheese Roll Ups (web); can't say I followed the directions very closely, just sort of winged it. I  had half a loaf of bread with eight slices. Used much less sugar than asked. Two each for dessert.

Sunday/6-Sep-15: Froze up 2 quarts of chicken stock today. Start in on tomatoes again tomorrow.

For dinner we had the rest of the oven-dried tomato tart plus a salad. And the rest of the cinnamon roll-up things for dessert, warmed in the toaster oven.

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

This week in the kitchen

Monday/6-Oct-14: We had lunch out today with friends. In the evening there was only popcorn.

Tuesday/7-Oct-14: Yogurt on overday.

VIsited a health food store and Grand Frais after my quarterly visit to the ENT today. Result: impulse buys, meaning replanning of next week's menus.

Dinner with Easy Marinated Griddled Chicken (web), which was good enough, if nothing spectacular. Served with some butternut squash gnocchi from the freezer with sage butter sauce and steamed broccoli. That was all.

Wednesday/8-Oct-14: Shopping today.

The first of my impulse buys appeared as dinner tonight as Pappardelle with Zucchini Blossom Sauce (web), interesting but nothing special. Then an old favorite Cold Beetroot with Cream (Pomiane , p180). For dessert, I had a small third of a magnum classic and Ed had the rest.

Thursday/9-Oct-14: The last time I made jam a couple of months ago, I re-used Albert Heijn jars. At least one of them sealed! It could have happened before, but we happened to be sitting in the room and heard it pop. Just remembered that this morning. Why?

So, IHCC being through with Nigel Slater, I've put my books back on the shelf. And they don't fit. I got one new book just before this challenge started and I guess that's the odd one out now. But I've got three more on order, waiting for the paperback editions due out later this year. Where are they going to go?

For a munchy while dinner was finishing up, I made Spicy Cucumber Wedges (MJ1, p172). The main was Fish FIllet in an Indian Way (30MinCook, p124), which was tasty, but a bit odd. The fish weren't really fried as described, but simmered in the sauce resulting from the yogurt and the cilantro sauce. As sides there were a half dose of Stir-Fried Green Cabbage with Fennel Seeds (Q&E, p88) and Turmeric Rice (Q&E, p100). We didn't think we wanted some for afters, but later decided that a bit of brie would be nice. Seems odd after an Indian-ish meal, but it worked.

In last week's shopping, I bought a cabbage. We've had three meals from it and there's still a chunk to use. I miss our Dutch greengrocer who would sell us a half cabbage or whatever.

Friday/10-Oct-14: Another impulse buy from Tuesday, a half recipe of Leek and Chanterelle Tart (Sunset, p298). The chanterelles we know in English are called girolles in French. I bought chanterelles jaunes, which have orange-yellow stems and brown caps. These were cheaper than the girolles, but still good. A nice tart, easy to assemble. Then a big salad. No dessert.

Saturday/11-Oct-14: Nothing in the kitchen today. We went to Poitiers for a concert and an overnight.

Sunday/12-Oct-14: We'd intended to go to another concert this afternoon and a pizza afterwards, but neither of us slept well last night, and we didn't feel like going out. So we ate from the freezer.

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