This week in the kitchen

Monday/11-Apr-16: Yogurt on overday. And in the dining room, since Ed had the electricity off in the kitchen today to install under cabinet lights.

Dinner was leftover meatloaf (still good) with Feuilleté aux Courgettes, Fromage Frais et Olives Noires (web), sort of. I forgot to buy fromage frais, so I used pyramid (goat) cheese instead. All was good.

Tuesday/12-Apr-16: Sophie brought in a bat today. It was still alive, so I put on a heavy pair of oven mitts and caught it gently between my hands. Took it outside and put it on the honeysuckle so it could rest safely. Instead it flew away, circling the cour.

More leftovers today. This time the broiled chicken from Ed's Saturday picnic (still very good) with a halfish recipe of Asparagus Ambush (TLNewEng, p76) as a side dish. This might actually be meant as a sandwich, although it was in the vegetable section. I split a demi-baguette, so one end of the "boat" is not really closed. The asparagus are topped with a lemony white sauce. This might make a nice starter in smaller breads. (Idea from Barbara D.)

Wednesday/13-Apr-16: Shopping today, back at Leclerc.

Dinner was Monkfish with Sage and Roasted Garlic (web). Monkfish (lotte) is on sale this week. It's a good fish, but I need to learn to ask them to clean and filet it for me. That was a pain. Otherwise, the recipe is easy and tasty. Served with brown rice and some steamed asparagus. Strawberries with marscapone-cream for dessert. Then I had a pair of chocolate easter eggs, while Ed worked on his bunny.

Thursday/14-Apr-16: Dinner was a half recipe of Greek Chicken Stew with Cauliflower and Olives (web) served over brown rice. The recipe said it would serve 4-6; the whole recipe might have served 6, since we were quite full with our half. Strawberries and ice cream for dessert.

Yogurt on overnight.

Friday/15-Apr-16: Made Apple-Plum Butter (HandyBook) during the day. Managed to burn it fairly badly, so the yield was low.

Used one of the eggplants needing using to make a two-thirds-ish dose of Eggplant and Yogurt Spread with Red Onion and Olives (O&C, p35). In the fridge, and we'll see how that is tomorrow.

Dinner was the last of the leftover meatloaf, with some buckwheat crozets tossed in a bit of garlic butter, plus some Baked Eggplant Slices (TooMany, p114), an old favorite, to use up the last eggplant. A pretty good dinner, if a bit old-fashioned.

Saturday/16-Apr-16: Had planned to make pasta today, but no oomph, and other things to do.

Our main meal was in the afternoon, since we went to a movie. It was Pepper and Anchovy Pasta Sauce (MarCuc, p149) with spaghetti, using up the bell peppers in the fridge. Then a very big salad. That was all.

Later we had some crackers spread with the Eggplant and Yogurt Spread. I liked a lot, Ed not. Oh well.

Sunday/17-Apr-16: Dinner was Acquacotta—Tomato and Bread Soup (TuscTable, p105). Made it using tomato "sauce" from the potager rather than peeling and deseeding tomatoes. In the end it was good, and indeed serves four, but I have no idea how close it was to real acquacotta (cooked water?). There was way too much celery for my taste, so I put some of that in the freezer for my next batch of chicken stock. And too much water to be added; my medium saucepan would be overflowing. The result was good even though I manage to break both egg yolks. Put the remaining bit in the freezer for another night. Also finished the last two Feuilletés aux Courgettes, Fromage Frais et Olives Noires; they held up quite well.

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

This week in the kitchen

Monday/5-Apr-16: Yes, that Beefsteak Pie has come in handy. We had the rest of it for our lunch today, along with a melange of sautéed veggies. And a mini magnum for after.

Tuesday/5-Apr-16: Dinner out in Limoges tonight, prior to a concert. Nothing happened in the kitchen.

Wednesday/6-Apr-16: Dinner was a half recipe of Gnocchi met Citroenricotta (AH, web); seems to be from a 2007 issue! I had some store-bought gnocchi in the freezer and used them up for this. Pretty good and easy. I did forget the grated cheese at the end, but neither of us missed it. Then a big salad. For dessert, I mixed the rest of the ricotta (which was a bit grainy from being frozen) with a bit of crême de framboise and used that to top some frozen, defrosted raspberries. Not perfect, but quite edible.

Thursday/7-Apr-16: Couldn't manage to shop yesterday, and was looking forward to shopping at Intermarché today while Ed was in choir practice because there was tuna on sale. Not. That was at Leclerc where the tuna was on sale. Got salmon instead. Solo shopping takes a lot longer than the two of together. Intermarché has quite a few things that Leclerc (our regular grocery) doesn't: hoisin sauce, 10% white vinegar (known to us as schoonmaakazijn). Their veggies are pretty good quality, but the selection is limited. Except that they frequently have very nice looking corn on the cob; impulse-bought some of this today. A better selection of Magnums too. But other things are really limited in choice. Definitely worth going to occasionally, but not sure about making it our regular store.

I saw my second hoopoe of the season today, Ed's first, on the way home from shopping.

Seems like Vanessa is keeping two chickens now. They've found a hole in the fence and have come into our yard two evenings. Really cute. I do like chickens. I went over to a neighbor to ask if they were missing any hens. He said no, but Vanessa had two now. Hope they last longer than the kitties. Ed has closed the hole in the fence.

Dinner was a halfish recipe of Thai Salmon Cakes with Basil Lime Mayonnaise (web). Very good. Not hard, but time-consuming. The Basil Lime Mayo (aioli, they call it) with store-bought mayo was finger-lickin' good. Served with basmati rice tossed with a bit of rice vinegar, and some Cucumber Salad (Delightful, p51). For dessert, some store-bought framboisiers, which were definitely passable. (There were only two, so I figured they were ours.)

Put the chicken for Citrus-Marinated Game Hens (Picnic, p14) on to marinate overnight. There were no game hens, not even a coquelet (which I've used before for this recipe) at the store yesterday, so I got the smallest chickie I could find, at 1.1kg.

Yogurt on overnight.

Friday/8-Apr-16: Cooking day. Started Parmesan Meat Loaf (MikeRoy, p64) in the crockpot. Made this ages ago, and we found it a really yummy meat loaf. But the sauce has tomatoes and we've only recently discovered Ed can have deseeded ones.

Then made Ed's "picnic" meal for tomorrow's singing workshop and my daytime meal. Cooked the chickie halves by broiling them, three 10-minute stretches (last one a bit short), skin-side down, skin-side-up, skin-side down. About halfway through the middle stretch, I moved the broiling pan onto the bottom of the broiler rather than the rack.

Then roasted (i.e., broiled) some bell peppers, one for Couscous Salad with Roasted Peppers (Picnic, p16) and one for something else. Then made the couscous salad. Then made Marinated Green Beans with Toasted Almonds (Picnic, p18). Having no walnut oil in house, I used avocado oil for this; not sure it was a good idea. Meanwhile, I also made Chocolate Bread Pudding (TLNewEng, p132).

Dinner was meatloaf with some steamed broccoli and corn on the cob (GMO from Senegal, not seasonal or local, sorry, but delicious). For dessert there was, yes, Chocolate Bread Pudding, served with store-bought marsacpone-cream instead of heavy cream.

This was actually a bit of a strange recipe. First it called for fresh bread, which is exactly what bread puddings don't do. They're generally meant for using up odd bits of bread. The bread is shredded/crumbled very fine and makes a kind of bread mush with the milk. The result was tasty, but the texture wasn't especially nice, and a lot of liquid wept from the not-quite-custard.

Saturday/9-Apr-16: Oops, meant to buy eight plum tomatoes for oven-roasting, but seem to have only seven. They're in the oven roasting.

Ed ate only part of his chicken half today. I ate only the salads and was getting ready to start my chicken half when he got home. We'll save that for another day. I finished his while he gnawed bones, then we had some fruit, then we piggily finished the bread pudding. The chicken was extra yummy. Broiling worked very well. Not sure it would be a good idea with a bigger bird, but was fine with the small one I had.

Fourteen tomato halves with concentrated flavor in the freezer now. They smell delicious.

Sunday/10-Apr-16: Another, less elaborate picnic lunch for Ed's at his singing workshop. We both had Roasted Eggplant and Pepper Sandwich (Picnic, p23). I roasted the bell pepper on Friday with the one for the couscous salad and grilled the eggplant slices yesterday. Assembled the sandwiches thsi morning and added some basil leaves. Good. Accompanied by Cantaloupe Soup (Picnic, p25). It's a bit early for melons but there were some small ones in the shop. One small one made a nice bit of cold soup for each of us.

There were some munchies at the end of the workshop day, after a little concert. Nothing else happened in the kitchen.

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

This week in the kitchen

Monday/28-Mar-16: Home from Bach this afternoon. Dinner was pork paprikash from the freezer, served over Spaëtzle (MW@Home, p203). Then a big salad. No dessert since we're both still working on our small chocolate bunnies that travelled with us.

Put chicken onto marinate for tomorrow night. Made a whole dose of the marinade and froze the extra for another time.

Yogurt on overnight.

Tuesday/29-Mar-16: I forgot to mention last week, that the kitchen tiling is progressing very well. All surfaces have been done and the bits and pieces are going back in place. All that really remains is refinishing the untiled part of the window surround. And then Ed opened the window over the sink and the trim tile on one side fell off. Oops. He's got in back in place today, to be regrouted before long.

Dinner was Barbecued Raspberry-Hoisin Chicken (web), which is a winner of a recipe. I made the whole recipe of marinade and froze half. It would be good with pork chops also, we both thought. I broiled rather than barbecued, but that's what the recipe suggested. Serve with brown rice that had been mixed with a bit of rice vinegar (as directed) and asparagus with light topping of lemon-butter-shallots. A mini magnum for after.

A half-cup measure has disappeared, a mystery. Makes the set, one I've had a long time, incomplete. Sigh.

Wednesday/30-Mar-16: Shopping today. Before that, we took Pogo's baby sitters to lunch today, so nothing much happened in the kitchen, except some popcorn and fruit for dinner. 

Grouting has been finished again. Kitchen looking very nice. The salt, pepper, and timer shelves are back in place. With the cabinet raised to a decent level, there's no longer room for the tall, green S&P set, so they have to sit to the side, by the stove. This will work, I think. (I've had these forever. Bought them in Foley's bargain basement for 50¢, or maybe less. Don't use the salt shaker that much, but the pepper grinder is actually a really good one. Both very ugly.)

The window tiling is finished, again, and we hope the trim stays in place this time. The rest of the window surround still has to be finished. The coffee and tea shelves are back in place beyond the dish drainer. We plan on having only plants on the window ledge now, herbs and whatnot, plus a ceramic jar with vegetable peelers. We both were tired of walking over to the Ivar pantry for these, so have put them in a handier place at the left of this shelf.

And, yay, at the end of the peninsula, the switch for the lights and the electric outlets are back in place, tucked up under the cabinet. Behind these is the transformer than runs our American appliances, blender, food processor, etc.

The window surround still has to be finished and lights put under the cabinets left and right of the sink.

Thursday/31-Mar-16: Yay, found the missing half-cup measure in a flour bin.

Made two doses of Tart Dough (Tenth, p256), one for tonight, one for the freezer. Did a minor defrost on the kitchen freezer, whose door was ajar for a bit and was mightily frosted up.

Dinner was Beefsteak Pie (TLNewEng, p52). Good it was. I think the size of casserole dish asked is too big; I used one step smaller and it was fine. We will indeed get 6 servings from the recipe. The pie takes some time to assemble, but is fairly easy to make, and a lot of the time is unattended. I found this recipe a bit unusual because the onions are piled on top of the beef stew part under the pastry. Next time, I would cut them thinner (than the 1/4" asked), and maybe halve them. And maybe just stir them in right into the stew bit at the end.

Adding more veggies wouldn't hurt, but I just plopped some steamed haricots verts on the side.

Friday/1-Apr-16: Dinner was a half dose of Orecchiette Pasta with Chicken Sausage and Broccoli (web), which served two as a main course (instead of four). Easy and not bad at all. The sausage I used wasn't really Italian; instead it was an herbed country sausage. I added some red pepper flakes just to zing it up. It was good. Then a salad.

Yogurt on overnight.

Saturday/2-Apr-16: Ed went to a movie this evening, so we had our main meal at lunch, leftover beefsteak pie, along with some broccoli stem salad and a regular big salad.

Neither of us are feeling very good. Colds coming? They're certainly going around. Hope I have the energy for tomorrow's planned meal.

Sunday/3-Apr-16: Yup, didn't feel like making the dinner planned, so we had Pasta with Zucchini, Smoked Salmon and Cream (web), which was good. Then a big salad. Then some ice cream and fresh strawberries.

We were puzzled why the fridge freezer continues to frost up even after I did a bit of defrosting. Ed finally noticed that the door was catching on the cabinet next to it. Seems like when he put it back into place after finishing the tiling, he got it too close to the cabinet. Oops. Might have to repeat my defrosting next week.

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

This week in the kitchen

Monday/21-Mar-16: Jiggled the plan. Dinner turned out to be Cornmeal and Spice-Crusted Scallops (CLmag; MC) which I seem to have last made in 2009. Substituted cumin for the coriander. Served with garlic mashed potatoes made with a bit of soft goat cheese instead of butter, and some steamed broccoli. Made a yummy sauce of crème fraîche with a chipotle in adobo, garlic clove, lime juice, and salt, which went well over everything.

Tuesday/22-Mar-16: Dinner was Slow Roasted Rosemary Leg of Goat (web) with a 1.4kg leg. The rub was yummy. The advice to put in potatoes for the last hour didn't work at all; potatoes take longer than an hour at such a low temperature. In fact, even the carrots weren't done-done after about four hours. (In the next days, I'll boil up and purée the sauce, carrots, and potatoes that we didn't eat, along with the remains of a jar of beef stock. All making a sort of potage like they serve here frequently as a first course. Into the freezer with it all.) The two of us ate all the meat, and we're quite full of that. Tasty though. Goat is a a nice meat.

Wednesday/23-Mar-16: Shopping today.

Dinner was, more or less, Restigouche Salmon (TLNewEng, p35). I didn't use salmon steaks, but one dos de saumon for the two of us. Didn't use the extra butter at the end for basting. The fish already seemed fat enough from the vegetable oil (grapeseed) in the marinade. And the cooking times were way off. I broiled 3-ish minutes on the first side and 2-ish on the second side, about half of what was asked. Served with steam-sautéed potatoes. Then a salad. Then some little puddings from the store.

Yogurt on overnight.

Thursday/24-Mar-16: Working on Ed's hemoglobin again, we had Boudin Noir and Sautéed Apples (web). This was thick slices of a large diameter boudin, cut at the shop. It seems not as strong tasting as others maybe (or maybe we're getting used to the taste) and maybe had a bit of spiciness, since we both felt a tingle and I didn't even pepper this. Quite good. Served with trio rice and broccoli with onions and oven-dried tomatoes. Ed thought the boudin tower needed a photo. (Yes, same plates as last night.)

Friday/25-Mar-16: Replan for tonight's dinner since I didn't have the time or oomph to do what I'd planned. Defrosted some duck scallops, floured and seasoned, then sautéed. Made some Port Wine Pan Sauce with Dried Cranberries (HowTo, p161) as a topper. Didn't have any seedless raspberry jam or red currant jelly to make this, so used a bit of confit de airelles, a kind of cranberry jam sort of thing. This turned out good. Served with trio rice and asparagus.

Saturday/26-Mar-16-Sunday/27-Mar-16: We were off at the Bach à Paques festival in St Maixent l'Ecole. Nothing happened in the kitchen.

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