This week in the kitchen

Monday/12-Jun-17: We had our main meal early, leftover chiles rellenos casserole. Still good it was. With a bit of mâche and some guacamole.

All day house cleaning, ironing, getting ready for Bill's arrival tomorrow.

Yogurt on overnight.

Tuesday/13-Jun-17: BookChatters, then finish up cleaning. I made dinner (midst a big thunderstorm and open skylight) while Ed picked up Bill. We had Ginger, Soy and Garlic Chicken (web) from the bbq. A bit salty (too much soy sauce?) and nothing special. Chicken did have a nice texture. Served with a made-up salad of soba noodles with roasted bell peppers. This was pretty tasty, but needed a bit of salt.

Wednesday/14-Jun-17: Off to the thumb doctor this a.m., then home. Finished off the shopping list while Ed took a nap. Then lunch at Chez Steph. Followed by shopping.

Put lamb on to marinate for tomorrow's meal. Made Apricot Chutney (web), to replace the apricot chutney from the book that we didn't like.

Thursday/15-Jun-17: Early meal today. Ed barbecued Sweet Milk-Marinated Grilled Lamb with Sweet and Hot Apricot Condiment (Thrill, p151). We didn't like the Sweet and Hot Apricot Condiment last time, so I served the Apricot Chutney I made yesterday. Yummy stuff. Served with the recommended Sweet Potato Salad (Thrill, p302; cookbooker). This needed a bit of tweaking but was quite good, a nice change from potato salad.

Yogurt on overnight. Put what's probably the last of our raspberries on to macerate and prepared "broth" for ice cream.

Friday/16-Jun-17: What a day! Bathroom flooded, with plumbing apparently blocked between there and the fosse. At the time we were discovering this, the delivery man cam with the new dishwasher. The door was inadvertently left open and Pogo went walkabout. We've scoured the neighborhood, but he hasn't returned. We're hoping that since he was out without his collar (just been brushed) that he was picked up as a stray and we'll find him at the pound tomorrow. Fingers crossed.

Back to Time-Life for dinner this afternoon. We had Geschmorter Schweinsbraten mit Kapern—Braised Pork Roast with Paprika, Capers and Caraway (TLVienna, p38). I cooked the meat a bit long, spending time looking for Pogo, so it was a bit too done, but the sauce was yummy. Served with potatoes boiled in their jackets and peas&shallots.

For dessert with has some raspberry ice cream, again made with the mascarpone cream. Yum.

Saturday/17-Jun-17: Pogo still hasn't returned. We visited the fourrière, hoping to find him there, but no luck. Have papered the area with flyers now.

Nice dinner. Made Harissa Chicken with Leeks, Potatoes, and Yogurt (web). Had slightly over a kilo of thighs, so upped everything that much. Really yummy and easy. Some lemon tarts from the boulangerie in La Rochefoucauld for dessert.

Sunday/18-Jun-17: Still no Pogo.

We're not overly happy with the new dishwasher. The usability part is ok, but the baskets feel unsturdy and they don't stay on their tracks very well. And the top drawer for silverware, which I loved in our old machine, is difficult to fill. I'm sure the machine holds fewer dishes that our old one. Kind of wishing we had spent the money to replace that one exactly.

We ate out for lunch today, so nothing much happened in the kitchen.

Yogurt on overnight.

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

This week in the kitchen

Monday/9-Jan-17: I'd planned to make a Vietnamese Crab Omelette (Solomon1, p335; cookbooker), but there wasn't a can of crab in the pantry. (I just assumed one was there and didn't check before shopping—lazy me.) So that turned into a Tuna Omelette instead. But it was still good. Worth doing again properly. As a side there was a half recipe of Thai Cucumber Salad (Cost, p143 cookbooker), which was good and went quite well with the omelette. I finished off some ancient mango sorbet from the freezer for afters, sharing a bit with Ed.

Tuesday/10-Jan-17: Oops, realized I didn't have enough mushrooms for tonight's planned dinner, so made a quick change. We had Curried Penne with Shrimp (365OneDish, p49; MC). Added peas along with the shrimp to make it truly one-dish. Good stuff. At the boulanger this morning I bought another Three Kings' Cake, so we had quarters of that for dessert. Ed got the token so got to wear the crown.

Wednesday/11-Jan-17: Shopping today. Dinner was fish from the pressure cooker served with mashed potatoes. For dessert, we finished our Three Kings' Cake.

Thursday/12-Jan-17: When I ordered some polenta and other Italian stuff a few weeks ago, I noticed they were selling taleggio also and it wasn't too expensive. Tonight it became part of Mushrooms, Potatoes, and Melting Taleggio (web). Good it was. Unfortunately both of us are regretting we ate all of what was supposed to serve four. Along with some steamed broccoli. No dessert needed at all.

Friday/13-Jan-17: Chicken from the pressure cooker tonight, served with garlicky mashed potatoes made with pyramid goat cheese. That was all.

Saturday/14-Jan-17: Put shrimp on to marinate this morning (or maybe it was early afternoon). For dinner there was a half recipe of Orecchiette with Cauliflower, Shrimp, and Red Pepper Oil (365Pasta, p169). Had wanted to do this with romanesco broccoli, which has been at the store lately. But not this week. So plain old cauliflower. I absent-mindedly cut up the whole cauliflower, so I roasted half of that. Used some multi-color shells for the the paste. I think the romanesco and pink shrimp and white pasta would be pretty. Mini magnums for dessert.

Sunday/15-Jan-17: For the third time in just over a week, we've had chicken thighs substituting for a whole chicken for dinner. This afternoon we had a half recipe of Podvarka—Chicken and Sauerkraut (TLVienna, p23). I used grapeseed oil instead of lard. Since it was "fresh", I didn't rinse the of sauerkraut. I used a red jalapeño from the freezer for the chili. Served with some boiled potatoes. It was good.

For dessert there was peach pudding from the pressure cooker.

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

Cookbook Countdown: Paprika Schnitzel and Zucchini with Dill Sauce

Again, most of tonight's dinner came from Time-Life Foods of the World: Cooking of Vienna's Empire. We had Paprika Schnitzel—Veal Cutlets with Paprika (p35), served with Zucchetti mit Dill—Zucchini with Dill Sauce (p64) and tagliatelle.

This time the veal was marinated in lemon juice for an hour before cooking. This lent a nice lemony taste to the meat, but it didn't seem to brown very well, even though I dried the pieces well before dredging with flour. After the meat is cooked, the pieces are removed to a warm place while the sauce is made. Onions are browed in butter, then lots of paprika is stirred in , then a bit of chicken stock is added to deglaze the pan, and finally sour cream (crème fraîche) mixed with flour is aded to finish it off. Quite edible.

The zucchini dish was good, but ... it calls for peeling, seeding, and julienning the zukes. I didn't peel mine, but I did scrape out seeds. In the end I thought this was useless. If it were to do this again, I'd make 1/8" slices of the washed zucchinis, then cut these into 1/8" strips. That would be just as nice, I think. The pile of bits is salted and left to sweat for a while. Mine were a bit short-changed in this area, but I don't think it made any difference. The strips are slowly cooked in butter, then the sour cream/flour mixture is stirred in. When the sauce is thick, add sugar, vinegar, and some chopped fresh dill. Nice flavors altogether. (Lacking guidance, I used cider vinegar, since that was pretty standard in the early 70s.)

Stop by Cookbook Countdown to see what other folks are making from their August cookbook. And if you've got books on your shelf wanting to be used, why don't you choose one and join in?

Cookbook Countdown: Wiener Schnitzel and Green Beans Paprika

Time-Life Foods of the World: Cooking of Vienna's Empire provided most of tonight's dinner. This time we had—couldn't not make this one—Wiener Schnitzel–Breaded Veal Cutlets (p36), served with Fazolové Lusky na Paprice–Green Beans Paprika (p58) and mashed potatoes.

Ed said this was pretty good as wiener schnitzel goes. It's your standard kind of breaded thing, dredged first in flour, then in beaten egg and water, then in bread crumbs. The coated cutlets sit in the fridge for 20 minutes, then get fried in lots of lard. Well, not here they didn't, instead it was a goodly bit of grapeseed oil. I considered serving with anchovy butter as suggested, but decided on lemon slices, which is how I've always had it.

The green beans were also a hit. Finely chopped onion is sautéed softly in a bit of butter. When they're very soft, a lot of paprika is stirred in, then a mixture sour cream (I used crème fraîche) and flour is added. After that has simmered for a bit, the green beans (haricots verts here), which have already been cooked, are added and heated through. Very nice. The green beans can be prepared ahead and the sauce prepared without much supervision at the last minute, so it makes a nice company kind of veg.

Stop by Cookbook Countdown to see what other folks are making from their August cookbook. And if you've got books on your shelf wanting to be used, why don't you choose one and join in?

Cookbook Countdown: Schinkenfleckerln

More from Time-Life Foods of the World: Cooking of Vienna's Empire. I neglected to add a photo of the books with the my first post, so I'm making up for that here. (For those not familiar with the Time-Life Foods of the World series, each "volume" consists of a hardback book that describes the cuisine of the appointed area plus a spiral-bound recipe book.)

Tonight's dinner was Schinkenfleckerln—Little Ham and Noodle Patches (p54). This is typically served for a light lunch or supper, preceded by soup and accompanied by a salad. We skipped the soup, but had a salad as a go-with.

The recipe says it serves four and we will have four servings from it. The dish is very plain, no spices or fancy fixings, making it real comfort food. Finely chopped onions are sautéed, then broad noodles, already cooked, are sautéed a bit. (A total of 8 tablespoons of butter was asked for this sautéing. I used half that.) The skilletful of pasta and onions is stirred into a mixture of sour cream (crème fraîche) and eggs with some chopped ham and S&P. This is turned into a casserole dish that has been lined with bread crumbs, then baked.

Lacking anything I could call "broad egg noodles" that I could cut into 1" pieces, I boiled some (flat) lasagna noodles and cut them into squarish bits. After rinsing, those dried on towels while I did some other things in the kitchen before getting round to dinner.

We have enough for another meal. Not sure how cold, eggy noodles will do cold, so this will probably get reheated.

Stop by Cookbook Countdown to see what other folks are making from their August cookbook. And if you've got books on your shelf wanting to be used, why don't you choose one and join in?

Cookbook Countdown: Melons Stuffed with Cherries and Whipped Cream

More from Time-Life Foods of the World: Cooking of Vienna's Empire. Dessert for tonight's dinner was Melons Stuffed with Cherries and Whipped Cream—Gefülte Melonen (p81). (Stuffed with melon balls, too, but the recipe title doesn't indicate that.

This was a nice, refreshing dessert, but not as elegant in appearance as it should have been. Each person is served a half melon shell filled with melon balls and cherries that has been folded into sweetened, vanilla-flavored whipped cream.

Once upon a time, I did have a melon baller, but it seems to have disappeared along the way. So I used a small spoon to make "balls."

Cherries are out of season now, so I used frozen ones. The upside of that is that I didn't have to pit the cherries.

Whipping cream, that's another question. Cream with a high-enough fat content to make stiff peaks, simply isn't available here. I still don't understand that. But it's something all the English-speaking cooks I know complain of. The carton I bought even said it was good for chantilly (French whipped cream), but soft peaks is all you're going to get. By the time the fruit is folded in, it's fairly soggy. But it tastes very good.

I used only half the required sugar, and we both thought it was perfect.

This is definitely something that might get made again, but I don't think I'd serve it in melon shell, if since the filling doesn't "stand up" in a way that makes it attractive.

Stop by Cookbook Countdown to see what other folks are making from their August cookbook. And if you've got books on your shelf wanting to be used, why don't you choose one and join in?

Cookbook Countdown: Lemon and Sour-Cream Salad Dressing

This month I'm back to my Time-Life Foods of the World project, cooking from Time-Life Foods of the World: Cooking of Vienna's Empire. This wasn't one of my favorite books, reading-wise, and a lot of the appealing recipes are for more wintery weather, which isn't what we're having right now. There are several sauerkraut recipes that look good, but there was no sauerkraut in the shop when I looked last week, so those will have to wait till later in the year.

I started with a really easy recipe. This was Lemon and Sour-Cream Salad Dressing—Saur Rahmsauce für Salat (p67). Stir together sour cream, lemon juice (1/4 of the sour cream), a bit of sugar (I think I skipped this when I got distracted by pets coming in), salt, and freshly ground back pepper. (Of course, I made this with crème fraîche instead of sour cream, but I bet that's what you'd have in Vienna also.) Serve with fresh cucumbers or salad greens, as you see here, topped with croutons.

Stop by Cookbook Countdown to see what other folks are making from their August cookbook. And if you've got books on your shelf wanting to be used, why don't you choose one and join in?