This week in the kitchen

Monday/13-Apr-20: Monday already.

What I'd planned for dinner had tomatoes in it, and we're investigating if tomatoes, even seedless, are given Ed a new symptom. So I scrambled a bit to come up with a new meal.

For our main, we had a half recipe of Shrimp and Broccoli Alfredo (web). I used the end of a package of small shrimp, rather than bigger ones. Mafalda for the pasta. It was good. Then a Raw Asparagus Salad (web). I didn't make the dressing as laid out; I stopped are the ketchup and skipped the Worcestershire sauce too. Still this was a nice change for a salad. For dessert, we finished off the kheer cubes.

Mixed up a batch of Susan Dunaway's No-Knead Bread (GoogleDrive); not sure where I picked up this recipe. We'll see.

Tuesday/14-Apr-20: Baked up the No-Knead Bread, but following Lahey's instructions for baking. Good stuff it is.

Dinner was Uzbek Palov—Rice Pilaf with Lamb and Vegetables (TLRus, p67), a recipe from Central Asia. I didn't have lamb cubes, but did have a lamb steak in the freezer sufficient for about a third recipe. I thought this was good, in the way pilaf-y things are, if a bit bland. As suggested, I served with Non—Flat Onion Breads (TLRus, p70). I made about a third recipe of this, four flatbreads, but burnt the fourth one beyond use. Not bad.

For a salad, I loosely followed Asparagus, Tomato and Feta Salad with Balsamic Vinaigrette (web). I decidedly didn't add the honey, since balsamic, especially reduced, is plenty sweet enough. This was interesting. No dessert.

Wednesday/15-Apr-20: Ed picked up orders from Leclerc and from Intermarché today.

We had a quick dinner, our pig-out on a big can of tamales, with some guacamole and lettuce. Yummy. No dessert needed.

Yogurt on overnight. Susan Dunaway's No-Knead Bread on overnight. 

Thursday/16-Apr-20: Baked the break in the morning. This is so easy and makes a beautiful loaf.

Dinner was about a third recipe of Asparagus-Pesto Lasagna (web). This made a nice dinner for two with salad. It would have been better to steam or boil the asparagus bits, which were just short of nicely done, rather than sautéing them. Mine wasn't as hyper-low-fat as intended. I used butter and whole milk for the bechamel; I did forgot the Parmesan. Strawberries and vanilla-pecan ice cream for dessert; pecans weren't the best go-with for strawberries

Friday/17-Apr-20: Dinner was a half recipe of Chicken with Artichokes & Olives (web). This wasn't bad. Served with long-grain brown rice and some roasted cauliflower and broccoli. We started outside, but brought everything in when it started to rain. Not to mention the lightning which was threatening.

Saturday/18-Apr-20: Dinner was sort of a half recipe of Sautéed Scallops with Crushed Peppercorns (web). Good stuff. Served with trio rice and leftover cauliflower and broccoli from yesterday, topped up with some roasted carrot slices. Some cookies for after.

Yogurt on overnight.

Sunday/19-Apr-20: Made a loaf of Carole Walberg's White Wheat Bread (MC) in the bread machine; WW/Rapid/M/-/-. No idea who Carole Walberg is, and I made no note of where this recipe came from.

For dinner I used up the eggplants on hand and some of the ground beef in the freezer to make Pasta with Roasted Eggplant and Meat Sauce (web). Froze half the sauce for another day. This was pretty good and really easy to make. Served with a small salad of two sucrines. Some squares of chocolate for after.

Progress on goals
This week: #1 VEG/FISH: 3; #2 BACKLOG: no
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/4-May-15: Didn't feel like eating or making what I'd planned for tonight and had some asparagus (nearing the end of the season) to use up. Used these to make a half recipe of Asparagus with Aubergine Mayonnaise (web; cookbooker), which was pretty good. This was a go-with for Pork Medallions with Olive-Caper Sauce (MC; web, originally from CL). Instead of pork tenderloin, this time I used varkensfiletlapjes, whatever those might be in English (boneless pork chops?), pavés du porc in French. Pretty good. Mixed the extra sauce with the leftover mayo to salt it up a bit. This might appear on ham sandwiches in the next days. For afters we had store-bought tartelettes of chocolate and pistachio; not bad.

Tuesday/5-May-15: Kind of a made-up dinner. Used one of Jody's spice mixes, this one was mole dulce, to make a sort of stewy thing with four chicken thighs, some of the xmas limas from the freezer, a small can of corn, and the rest of the chicken stock I recently defrosted. Was okay, nothing special. Made a salad with avocado and tomato that was okay. Made some tortillas, but not enough to satisfy either of us.

Wednesday/6-May-15: We're having an ant invasion. For days there have been one or two or three most anywhere you look, upstairs, downstairs, anywhere. This morning there were a zillion on the counter and wall over the dishwasher. They seem to be just milling around and after an hour or so of my squashing and washing them down the drain, they disappeared. This evening they appeared on the Ivar shelves, a bit worrisome because there is Food there. They did find the lazy susan with honey and such, but that didn't really seem to be their focus. Again after a couple of hours, they're gone. A puzzle. What will tomorrow bring?

Shopping today.

Dinner was mostly unimpressive. The main was Onion-Crusted Sole with Anchovy Butter (MoreFast, p80), using lieu noir since there was no sole and that looked better than panga or some such. I was attracted to this recipe since it uses canned fried onions, which was something Fatima (my French French cooking teacher) liked to use. They were supposed to be crumbled in the food processor, but I used the staff mixer instead. They turned rather to butter rather than crumbs. Made just a bit of the anchovy butter; it was okay. My experience with battering fish and other such stuff is that it works better to dip in flour before the egg and then the crunchy topping, so I did this. Managed to burn the topping a bit, too bad. Definitely so-so. Used up some mushrooms making a kind of quinoa pilaf that was okay, but nothing special. Improved by a squirt of lemon. The best bit was Broccoli Salad with Yellow Peppers, Pine Nuts, and Cranberries (I got this from a Nava Atlas newsletter, but found it here). Definitely a keeper this one. The Sesame-Ginger Dressing is vaguely Oriental, but not assertively so. This would be a good pot-luck salad. Very pretty with the green broccoli. yellow bell pepper, and dried cranberries. Some squares of chocolate for after.

Thursday/7-May-15: Yogurt on overday.

Off to the Caucasus for dinner, half recipes of all. There was Skewered Pork with Pomegranate Syrup (TLRus, p63). This could have been barbecued, but Ed (who's coming done with a cold) didn't want the smoke. For sides there were Rice Pilaf with Dried Fruit and Nuts (TLRus, p68) and String Beans in Sour Cream and Tomato Sauce (TLRus, p40). The pilaf has no added salt, and (surprise!) it didn't need any extra at the table. It was recommended as a side for the pork, and was a good accompaniment. Might be nice with long-grain brown rice. The beans were good, although this is a more complicated veg side than I usually serve.

Many fewer ants today, although they turn up in odd places, one in a pile of ironing to be done, another just appeared on the kitchen table as we were eating lunch.

Friday/8-May-15: We both forgot to put up the yogurt last night. This morning it was separated again, the whole batch pretty worthless. Saved my last jar to try again tonight.

Tired of being sick and coughy. Really don't feel like cooking, or doing much else.

Dinner was a half recipe of Eggs Blindfolded over Garlic-Cheddar Grits (web). Really good and satisfying, comfort-food like. Interesting way to cook the eggs, start frying them, then throw in some ice cubes and cover to finish off by poaching, sort of. Then a big clean-out-the-fridge salad.

If we saw any ants today it was just one or two. I don't get it.

Saturday/9-May-15: The ants are back, the occasional one in odd places, but a lot on the sweet shelf. I discovered a sack of powdered sugar whose ziplock wasn't completely closed. Sealed that and tossed it with ants inside. They're also interested in a jar of molasses sitting in a plastic dish. That kind of thing is always gooey on the outside, so dish and jar are being washed this evening. Those seem, knock wood, to be the only interesting things on the shelf.

Dinner was Tofu, Asparagus, and Red Pepper Stir-fry with Quinoa (web; cookbooker), tasty enough if not quite right. Then some Butterscotch Pudding (MC 2BTried), which wasn't bad.

Sunday/10-May-15: More ants today.

For breakfast, I made Ned and Crescent's Favorite Multigrain Pancakes (Gospels, p205). Really good stuff. I made a whole batch, so have another breakfast of pancakes in the freezer. Next time, maybe I should make up a double batch of the dry ingredients (using dried buttermilk), so I just have to add egg and water before cooking.

Crockpot dinner tonight, ready and waiting when we returned from Ed's choir performance. I made a half recipe of Easy Crock Pot Moroccan Chicken, Chickpea, and Apricot Tagine (web). Made it with thighs instead of kip filets. There was lots of food; it would have served 3 easily, and maybe even four as it should have. Served over whole wheat couscous, along with Roasted Carrots with Preserved Lemon, Cumin, and Cinnamon (web). Had a carrot deficit for some reason, only a quarter of the carrots with half the spices. Good, and worth trying again.

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

This week in the kitchen

Monday/16-Feb-15: Dinner was a halfish dose of Easy Coconut Shrimp Curry (web). Easy indeed and pretty uninteresting flavorwise, but good enough for a quick dinner. Served with a halfish dose of Hot & Sour Stir-Fried Vegetables (Delightful, p55). Used cuke instead of zuke, since that's all there was. Pretty good, although not as tasty as it has been. Wondering if my fish sauce is getting old since it's almost at the end of the bottle. And basmati rice. Some frozen crèmes brulées for dessert.

Tuesday/17-Feb-15: Dinner was a halfish recipe of Chickpeas with Harissa, Basil, and Ham (Diaries, p153; cookbooker). The veggies (tomatoes and eggplant) have to roast in the oven for an hour or so, but otherwise this is quick and easy to prepare. I used chickpeas from the freezer, rather than canned. Made a nice one-dish meal. For dessert I made Easy Berry Cobbler (MC, HandyBook) using up a sack of blueberries and starting in on some raspberries.

Got my bread recipe clippings sorted out; now need to stick them in the notebook and add them to a Bread sheet in my spreadsheet. Small progress.

Wednesday/18-Feb-15: Shopping today. Bought some more dried morels since I didn't have enough for dinner. Expensive little buggers—much more than any other dried mushroom. Have been looking for dry sherry. Leclerc never seems to have it. Stopped at a cave to ask for it, and he explained that sherry wasn't available anywhere as it's not "in the culture." Oh.

Dinner was a halfish dose of Salmon with Red Wine-Morel Sauce (web), which was pretty good, except the piece of salmon I got was huge and we were both stuffed at the end of dinner. Served with parsleyed barley and steamed broccoli, as suggested. (Some sites say pearled barley is a whole grain and others not. I think not. Too bad. I'll have to buy some non-pearled next time.)

Thursday/19-Feb-15: Yogurt on overday, using the new starter I got yesterday. A new brand. My favorite brand has had only flavored versions of late. The house brand is OK, but I thought I'd try the new one. Can't say the lick I had was wonderful, but we'll see how it turns out.

Yummy pancakes for breakfast, Ned and Crescent's Favorite Multigrain Pancakes (Gospels, p205). (This seems to be the only recipe I've made from this book!)

Podded the mess of fava beans I bought yesterday.

Dinner started with the leftover Christmas Eve Soup (beets) from the freezer, with mushroom ravioli. Then there was Aiguillets de Canard au Poivre Vert (VPG) with brown rice on the side. Just noticed this recipe is marked "Light" although I can't imagine why. Duck breasts bits with crème fraîche? Admittedly I usually have light crème fraîche, but still. It was good, nevertheless. Then a salad. (Leclerc  hasn't been stocking the 100g sacks of salad, so I bought one of 60g and topped up with some leaves from a head of lettuce.) Didn't feel like dessert again. That poor cobbler will have to wait another day.

Friday/20-Feb-15: Not crazy about the new yogurt. Will go back to my favorite or the house brand when it's time for a new starter.

Cooked up some chickpeas for the freezer and for a coming dinner. Cooked and peeled a zillion fava beans (ok, it was more like 2 cups, but it seemed like a lot).

We had our dinner early since we're out at a concert this evening. Made a halfish dose of Slider Patties with Pomegranate Molasses (web; CL/may14). Had to "grind" my lamb in the food processor, but I'm discovering that works pretty well. These were good. As a side, I cooked some orecchiette, added the favas, some sliced mint, some grated parmesan, pyramid goat cheese (a bit out of date, but the package was unopened, so I assume it's ok), salt, and pepper. A lot of it, but it was good. Finished off the berry cobbler with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Saturday/21-Feb-15: For a starter tonight we had a small salad with a fig stuffed with foie gras. Bought a package of six of these for xmas. Still have two more in the freezer. For the main, I made a Ukrainian dish, Egg Noodle-and-Spinach Casserole (TLRus, p37). I made a full recipe, which is advertised as serving 6-8. I put it together in two 1-quart baking dishes and froze one of those. (Only one layer of spinach between two layers or noodles.) We easily ate all of one casserole as a vegetarian main one-dish main course. Very tasty. I used fresh noodles from the shop and only (the equivalent of) 3 10-oz packages of frozen spinach rather than 4, since it seemed like a huge amount. I expect this is meant as a side dish, but it was good as a main.

Sunday/22-Feb-15: Yogurt on overday. Meant to start a crockpot dish early this morning, but didn't get it going till after noon. Then the crock didn't turn on (sometimes the knob around Low is fiddly), so it was even later getting going. Sigh.

We were out during the day. When we got back I started Rye Bread (BigGerman, p251) in the bread machine. No vital gluten. Goofed by starting to add whole wheat flour when it should have been bread flour, so it was 2cups rye, 1cup whole wheat, and 1cup bread flours. Cooked on the fast white bread cycle. Pretty darn good, with a nice texture and crispier than usual crust.

The bread was to serve with Balkan Pork'n'Sauerkraut Dinner (TeenyCrock, p52), which was good, but made a ton. It said it serves 4-6 and it means it. I've put up two containers in the freezer for future meals.

We visited three mills on the Open Mill weekend today. Came home with a small walnut cake (mostly gone now after an afternoon snack and dessert), a loaf of walnut bread, and a loaf of plain bread. The plain bread has gone in the oven, we'll have some of the walnut bread for breakfast, then rye bread with our lunch sandwiches.

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

This week in the kitchen

Monday/9-Feb-15: Sicky me today. Was going to  make soup with dinner but didn't feel like finishing it off. So dinner was just Grilled Chicken Sandwich (CL92, p193). The chicken didn't get marinated as long as it should have, but it was still quite tasty.

Made some ABM bread using the (expired) pain aux levain mix that I'd forgotten in the fridge. Used the tare method for measuring. That really makes it easy and no extra measuring devices to clean up.

Tuesday/10-Feb-15: Off to order our new fridge today. It will arrive Friday.

When it came time to make dinner, I discovered that I'd neglected to defrost some egg whites. Oops, replan. Instead I finished off the soup I didn't make last night and served with the leftover brown rice crusted quichey thing. For dessert we had the last of the (frozen) chocolate-pear cake bits.

The soup was Spas (Yoghurt-and-Barley Soup with Herbs) (TLRus, p23) from the Caucasus. This was pretty darn good for a simple soup. Would be nice in small cups as a starter or just on a buffet perhaps.

Wednesday/11-Feb-15: Shopping today. Nothing much exciting there.

Dinner was Pork Burgers Dijon (CL92, p159). I made a full recipe, 6 patties, which should serve six. They were good. We ate 5 patties and have one left for lunch tomorrow. Served with Coriander Carrots (web), a quick little recipe from a Cooking Light magazine, easy and good. Also some corn on the cob, espied at Intermarché yesterday. Some squares of chocolate for after.

Thursday/12-Feb-15: Dinner was Steamed Scrod Packages in Pimiento Sauce (MoreFast, p79; cookbooker). This was fun, quick, and quite good. Followed by a salad. No sweet tonight.

Friday/13-Feb-15: New fridge arrived this afternoon, needing its doors to open the other way around. Ed took care of that. Then I filled it back up. There's a bit more fridge room and a bit less freezer room. I guess we'll cope. It's a bit taller, so one of the two cabinets above the fridge had to go. I'm thinking the crockpot and one or two other such things will end up sitting there instead. (Anticipating the loss of the cabinet, I'd already emptied it and have jammed the crockpot onto a shelf from which it's really hard to retrieve it. The top of the fridge will be better. If only it weren't so ugly and orange.)

Dinner was a half recipe of Zucchini Curry (web), easy and not at all bad, served with basmati rice. We split a magnum classic for dessert.

Yogurt on overnight.

Saturday/14-Feb-15: Yogurt on overnight, but the electricity was off for 10 minutes or so. Restarted with a guess a required time. We'll see.

Lunch out today; nothing much happened in the kitchen.

Discovered that, with the new fridge in place, the door on the corner cabinet in the peninsula doesn't open as far as it used to. Oops. Maybe need to move the fridge over just a smidge. Still can't get used to the big grey/inox mass standing there.

Sunday/15-Feb-15: Yogurt was edible. Will get a new starter next week.

Dinner in the crockpot today, so it was waiting when we got back from a concert. It was a half recipe of the very well-reviewed recipe for Southern Slower Cooker Choucroute (web). Not so highly rated here. OK, but nothing special. Have some leftovers, maybe to make up a kind of poor-man's reuben for lunch one day soon.

Unused cookbooks? CL92 qualifies in the life of this blog, but I did use it before that, so it doesn't really. Need to focus on this a bit.

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

This week in the kitchen

Monday/26-Jan-15: Dinner was Roast Chicken with Walnut Sauce (TLRus, p54), a chicken roasted at high temp on its sides, then a slightly less high temp on its back. Resulted in a nice chickie with crispy skin.

The sauce was good, although we're not really saucy people. Saved the rest to do something with in the next days. Served with brown rice and (sort of) String Beans in Walnut Sauce (TLRus, p38). There were no green beans to be found, so there were mange-touts/snow peas instead. This sauce was okay, but nothing special.

Yogurt on overnight.

Got to thinking about Zabar's chocolate salami recently, which made me think that the recipe might be in the Zabar's cookbook I bought. Well, not just Zabar's , but recipes from all (four) restaurants owned by the same people. But I can't find the cookbook anywhere. A puzzle.

Tuesday/27-Jan-15: Dinner took longer than I expected to make, but it was good. It was Red Pepper Pasta with Garlic Pistachio Sauce (KitchHerbs, p142; cookbooker). Served with a big salad. I was full, but Ed had a double chocolate mini magnum for dessert.

Wednesday/28-Jan-15: For lunch we had turkey stroganoff from the freezer. Then we had a light dinner at a concert in Limoges.

Thursday/29-Jan-15: Worked more on sorting out recipes. Discovered another pile that wasn't included in my first sort. I thought that pile had only some loosely sorted soup recipes. Wrong. This afternoon I thought it looked suspiciously big. And it was. Don't know what's happened to the soup recipes though. The bakje where they used to sit is empty. There are as many (or more) recipes for mains than I have in my regular stack. Some sorted, some not. And another big wad of  sweets. Sigh. Brought the sac jaune from the kitchen into the dining room to aid in recycling.

For dinner I used the leftover walnut sauce from Monday's chicken as a pasta sauce over whole wheat spaghetti. Added some broccoli (cooked first in the pasta water) and some leftover roasted red bell pepper that didn't make it into Tuesday's pasta. Turned out pretty good. Then a big salad. Then some (defrosted) chocolate-pear tart things from Toupargel.

Friday/30-Jan-15: Yogurt on overday. We went looking at refrigerators in the afternoon. Whew, what a job. We had kind of decided on one, but then discovered that no one has anything to say about the (rather expensive) brand. Back to square 1.

Dinner was Fish Cakes with Mustard Sauce (TLRus, p42) with Cucumber-and-Sour-Cream Salad (TLRus, p30), served with trio rice. We split a classic magnum for dessert.

The fish cakes were good, bland by themselves, but with a nice sauce. The ingredients were all mushed together in the food processor. It would be easy to use this technique with some more interesting flavors.

Think I've made assorted fish cakes three times in the last few weeks. Something I've never really made before. We've decided we like the idea though, so I might be doing more variations on the theme.

The cuke salad was especially good. The whites of hard-boiled eggs are included in the salad; the yolk is sieved for the dressing.

Saturday/31-Jan-15: We had dinner at the énoisage tonight. Nothing much happened in the kitchen.

Sunday/1-Feb-15: Chicken stock a-making today.

Having a think about the behind-the-sink (and elsewhere) tiling again. We have been thinking of plain tiles with a small line of some (rather expensive) little tiles we both like. But most of the line will be hidden behind shelving, paper towel holder, etc. Also the sizes means that the bottom (or top) tile is only 2cm, rather small. Yuck. I'm thinking maybe to put a double row of the trim tile only under the windows. Weird, yes? Plan B would be to choose another tile altogether.

Dinner was a half recipe of Spicy Tamarind and Channa Risotto Kitcheree (web; cookbooker). Pretty good it was. The half recipe served two fine, although not very generously. A whole recipe should served 4-6, but 6 would be only as a side dish, I think. This wasn't truly vegetarian (I won't tell if you don't), since I ran out of the stock prepared and dipped into the chicken stock also on the stove to top up the risotto.

Served with Spicy Cucumber Wedges (MJ1, p172), an old favorite. For dessert we had another pair of Toupargel's chocolate-pear cakes. Less defrosted this time, and still good.

For the tiling, Ed has suggested running the trim line around just under the window, going from cabinet on the left to cabinet on the right of the sink. Interesting idea. Now I need to check to see how odd that will make the tiles under the window.

Chicken stock chilling outside.

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