This week in the kitchen

Monday/27-May-19: Left the cats and the dog in their respective kennels and drove to Souillac with Bill for a mini-vacation along with too much good eating.

Tuesday/28-May-19: Sightseeing, the automata museum, and a drive through the countryside.

Wednesday/29-May-19: Homewards, with a stop at Sarlat la Canéda. Pick up cats. Munchies for evening meal.

Yogurt on overnight.

Thursday/30-May-19: Start cooking for tomorrow's meal. Put the lamb leg for Whole Leg of Lamb in a Spicy Yoghurt Sauce—Raan masaledar (MJ1, p57) on to marinate. Made Onion Relish—Pyaz ka laccha (MJ1, p174). Made Fresh Green Chutney—Hari chutney (Q&E, p113). Made up the broth for Plain Vanilla Ice Cream from the Waring Ice Cream Parlor booklet. Chopped up the peaches Bill brought and put those to macerate with much of the sugar.

Yogurt on overnight.

Friday/31-May-19: Big Indian meal for Andy and Sue and Bill, using up a leg of lamb from the freezer. Spent the morning and afternoon preparing bits, so it wasn't too much work at the end. For starters there was:

• Baked Onion Bhajis (web), a new recipe from the web, highly rated. Think I let the onions get a bit too soft; I found them too sweet. And maybe they suffered from sharing the oven with the lamb roaster. Worth trying again.
• Spicy Cucumber Wedges (MJ1, p172), an old favorite.
• Fresh Green Chutney (Q&E, p113), also an old favorite.
• Fresh Red Chutney with Almonds (Q&E, p114), a newer favorite.

For the main course there was 

• Whole Leg of Lamb in Spicy Yogurt Sauce (MJ1, p57). Have done this before. Good stuff. Maybe a trifle overdone but still moist and tasty.
• Shrimp Biryani (MJ@Home, p214), an old favorite. I doubled the rice to serve as our general side dish, then made half the shrimp for Sue, a pesca-vegetarian. This was way too much rice, so we have lots leftover.
• Tangy Green Beans with Ajwain and Ginger (SpiceKitch, p38), old favorite.
• Cachumber (MJ1, p172), old favorite.
• Onion Relish (MJ1, p174), old favorite.
• Mixed pickle from the ginormous jar I bought recently.

For dessert there was vanilla ice cream with the peaches Bill brought from the Netherlands.

Not much new here, but all good.

Yay, no yogurt needed tonight!

Didn't get a Römertopf recipe made tonight. Think I'll continue with these books for another month, since I've still got lots of interesting things to make.

Saturday/1-Jun-19: Lunch out today, prior to the Cantique/Voci concert this evening. Afterwards, we munched on the lamb.

Sunday/1-Jun-19: Bill left this morning. For breakfast we had Scrambled Eggs with Goat Cheese and Chives (Twenty, p109). This were good. In the process, I managed to kill my glass double boiler.

For dinner I reheated some of the lamb in the yogurt sauce. Served this over some of the rice, along with the cachumber.

Progress on goals
This week: #1 BACKLOG: no; #2 VEG/FISH: 0; #3 COOKBOOK: no
Cookbooks of the month: Römertopf cookbooks for May and June
This month: #4 PASTA: no for May, no for June; #5 BREAD: yes for May, no for June; #6 GUESTS: yes for May, no for June
This year: #7 PROJECT: no

This week in the kitchen

Monday/19-Dec-16: Christmas this week, feeling distinctly unholidayish. The situation in the US is sad beyond comprehension.

Dinner was a halfish recipe of Curried Cauliflower Soup (web). Distinctly boring, helped by a liberal application of sriracha. Glad I didn't make a whole recipe. Now I have a half of a cauliflower to do something with.

Tuesday/20-Dec-16: Finally getting onto the Time-Life Cooking of Italy book tonight. For the main, I very vaguely followed Ruhlman's Perfect Roasted Chicken (Twenty, p249). Instead of roasting it whole, I spatchcocked the bird, browned it skin-side down, then lined the cast iron pan with thick slices of onion and lemon, plopped the chickie skin-side up on those, and weighted it with another cast iron pan. Tasty birdie. There were Italian rice and broccoli for sides, both good.

Wednesday/21-Dec-16: Shopping today. Wanted chicken livers for our tweede kerstdag meal. None to be found. Leclerc's philosophy seems to be that you can have any two of livers, hearts, or gizzards. Today, livers were on the out. But there were lots of turkeys, those making frequent appearances at French xmas dinners.

We had a solstice dinner with friends tonight. We took the cheese platter. Nothing happened in the kitchen.

Thursday/22-Dec-16: Ed asked for a salad for dinner, so I made the one I'd planned for the night before xmas. That was Avocat au Magret Fumé (VPG), sort of. Basically a regular sort of salad with slices of magret and avocado. Good. Then we ate much of the cheese we brought home.

Yogurt on overnight.

Friday/23-Dec-16: Used the smashed potatoes leftover from last Sunday to make some Shepherd's Pie loosely based on Alton Brown's recipe (web) and using ground beef rather than ground lamb. Pretty good it was. Some mini magnums for after.

Saturday/24-Dec-16: Busy today, but little accomplished. I didn't get as much done for tomorrow's dinner as I meant to. Oh well. Discovered I'd neglected to get fromage blanc for the bûche, so made a dash to Spar for that. Made up some little smoked salmon terrine thingies, lined with salmon, filled with cream cheese, avocado, dill, and chives. Just recall that I meant to put a dab of crème fraîche in there, but that didn't happen. Also made up some English Muffin Bread (BigGerman, p15) in the bread machine. The machine had a hard time getting going, but got the job done in the end. Of course, I realized later that I meant to make the Authentic French Bread from the same book. Might do some of that tomorrow.

Used up the cauliflower to make Cauliflower, Red Lentil, and Potato Curry (web). Served over rice. It was ok, but nothing special.

Sunday/25-Dec-16: Our Christmas meal got its own post.

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

This week in the kitchen

Monday/26-Sep-16: Tonight's dinner was Panfried Pork Chop with Lemon-Caper Sauce (Twenty, p315). This was quite good, although breading bone-in pork chops is a bit odd, since it's difficult to see what you're cutting into. This was actually a bit like wiener schnitzel, but with a pork chop. The sauce was good too. Served with trio rice, some haricots verts, and some shrooms sautéed with garlic and parsley. All good stuff. No dessert needed.

Tuesday/27-Sep-16: Lunch out today. Nothing much happened in the kitchen.

Wednesday/28-Sep-16: Shopping today. The enlarging store continues to be a noisy mess. Finding what you want is a real challenge. And, although there's more space, the selection seems to be reduced. The pasta section has gone smaller again.

Tonight's starter and dessert were from Time-Life. Our main was Fish Tacos with Avocado-Lime Crema (web). This was supposed to be made with fish sticks. Not here. I got lieu noir, and too much of it, so we'll have this again for lunch tomorrow. I cut the fish into bits, dipped it in flour and an unlabelled, homemade spice mixture that smelled good, and fried it in a bit of grapeseed oil. Pretty good stuff, although the avocado bit would have been better with sour cream/crème fraîche rather than mayo.

Yogurt on overnight.

Thursday/29-Sep-16: Dinner was some lemony pintade with potatoes from the freezer, thickened with a bit of potato starch, with some peas added for vegetable matter. Then there was a Turkish eggplant salad which didn't "match" flavor-wise, but was tasty on its own. That was all.

Friday/30-Sep-16: Meant to work on the tomatoes today, but didn't, except for the ones that went into tonight's dinner, the last official one from Time-Life.

Saturday/1-Oct-16: Put together a 3-bean chili sort of thing for tonight's dinner, xmas limas and chickpeas from the freezer and my last can of black beans. Used tomato purée; don't much like chili with tomatoes. Got out several dried chilies, soaked them, then buzzed them. Sautéed onions, garlic, oregano, ground roasted cumin, chile powder, and other stuff. Was pretty good altogether. Two servings in the freezer.

Went to make some Cayenne Cornbread (BigGerman, p182) as a go-with, but found my bread machine won't mix. Sigh. Mixed and kneaded a bit by hand, but not enough.  Put it in a bread pan, let it rise and then into the oven. Wasn't too bad.

Ed has to take a dish to a little do after his choir's AGM tomorrow. I made up a double dose of Greek-Style Lentil Salad (WorldVeg, p630). I've made this before and we liked it.

Still didn't work on the tomatoes and lots are going bad now. Tomorrow. There are still another bunch down in the potager.

Sunday/2-Oct-16: Ed had his meal with the choir today (where the lentil salad went over well). I had the leftover lamb with green beans from Friday. It wasn't as good reheated.

Seeded the last batch of tomatoes and started them simmering down. Lost of bunch of them. A few of the bottom ones were crushed; quite a few others had moldy bits. Will pick one last batch on Tuesday or Wednesday.

Trying to figure out what book to use for Cookbook Countdown in October, which doesn't have that many cooking days. I think I've relegated two of my possibilities to the recycle bin. We'll see.

In the evening we had popcorn to start a movie and then I ironed.

Yogurt on overnight.

Progress on goals
This week: #1 BACKLOG: no; #2 VEG/FISH: 2
This month: #3 PASTA: no for Sep, no for Oct; #4 BREAD: no for Sep, no for Oct; #5 FotW: yes for Aug/Sep; no for Oct/Nov

This week in the kitchen

Monday/19-Sep-16: We collected almost 3kg of tomatoes today. I need to get busy seeding and cooking them down. Just don't know when that's going to happen.

Worked on the meal plan today, including replanning today and tomorrow. Had another Middle Eastern dish on the plan for tonight, but didn't feel like going up to get the recipe book. Instead I picked the remains of the roast chicken and made Chopped Greek Salad with Chicken (web). This would have been nice if we were still having hot weather. Really, it's just a fancy salad like I might made ordinarily, with some cooked chicken thrown in. More mihallabiyya for dessert.

After dinner I put the lamb that should have been tonight's dinner on to marinate for tomorrow night's (non Middle Eastern) dinner.

Tuesday/20-Sep-16: What a day. While I had my bi-monthly ear appointment, Ed went to the Toyota dealer to order a part. But they were closed. When he returned, we missed each other (he came in an unusual entrance), so he sat 20 minutes in the doctor's waiting room, while I sat 20 minutes in the hospital lobby. Shopped at a health food store and at Grand Frais. Then to Toyota again to order the part. Then to the shop where the muffler was repaired, but it's had a mysterious rattle since then, which is worse when it's hot, and very annoying. Although we demonstrated it to one person, it was later unreproducable, so this is unresolved. Home at last.

Dinner was Lamb Kebabs with Mint (MJ@Home, p116). Ed grilled these on the bbq; they were yummy. Served with Green Peas in a Creamy Sauce (Q&E, p87) and Spicy, Sour Potatoes with Cumin and Amchoor (SpiceKitch, p50). Both of these are old favorites. We were stuffed, although we did manage to find space for some squares of dark chocolate, with hazelnuts for me and almonds for Ed.

Yogurt on overnight.

Wednesday/21-Sep-16: Shopping today. Shopped alone again, while Ed was off getting the contrôle technique for the car.

Dinner was, sort of, Pan-Roasted Cod with Chorizo Vinaigrette (Twenty, p254). I made the Chorizo Vinaigrette (Twenty, p213), but I didn't do the pan roasting, which involved lots of oil, but just sprayed on a bit of oil and broiled the cod bits. The dressing was quite good, though, and will probably come around as a pasta sauce in the next days, maybe for lunch. Served with polenta and a bit of Mama's Garlic Coleslaw (HandyBook). We finished off the mihallabiyya for dessert.

Thursday/22-Sep-16: Today's fun task was deseeding about 5kg of tomatoes from the potager. Whew. Have left them overnight. I'll buzz them up tomorrow and freeze them.

Dinner was Braised Chicken in Tomato and Cinnamon Sauce, served with tagliatelle. Some squares of chocolate for dessert.

Friday/23-Sep-16: Put up lots more tomato today.

Dinner was Penne with Red Pepper Pesto for Two (Pesto Calabrese) (web). Almost. No penne in house, so I used cascareccia; no big deal. But I neglected to set aside a third of the bell pepper strips, so all of them were sautéed, meaning there were no uncooked bits to purée into the sauce. The sauce was fine, but might have been even better if I'd done it right. Then a simple salad (feta and the last of the croutons in the freezer). Then some ice creams from the freezer. I'm stuffed.

Saturday/24-Sep-16: Ed brought in 14 pounds (more than 6kg) of tomatoes yesterday. Time to start working on the next batch soon.

Dinner was a half recipe of Butter-Poached Shrimp with Grits (Twenty, p141; web; cookbooker). Made the grits with chicken stock. They were tasty, but not very pretty to look at. Maybe I used a pan a bit too large for the butter-poaching business. I didn't find these any better than the regular sort of sautéing I might do. Then a big salad. Some squares of chocolate for after.

Yogurt on overnight.

Sunday/25-Sep-16: Movie this afternoon. We took Pogo on a walk down by the potager this afternoon. There's another big batch of tomatoes ready to pick. And some eggplants too.

Odds and ends from the fridge for dinner: the Indian peas and potatoes from Tuesday; the chorizo vinaigrette from Wednesday served over pasta; a newly made bit of the Israeli radish salad we liked so well.

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

This week in the kitchen

Monday/12-Sep-16: Busy in the kitchen today. Reheated yesterday's chicken stock, strained it all, and froze four 2-cup tupperwares.

Didn't weigh them, but I seeded probably 3kg of tomatoes from the potager. Ed brought in almost 2.5kg yesterday and there were already quite a few here. Simmered those for a good long while, puréed them, simmered a bit more, and finally put 4 2-cup ziplocs in the freezer.

For lunch I made two Oeufs Cocottes Tandoori (VPG, web). Simple and quite nice. Some (store-bought) tandoori paste is stirred into cream (about 1/4cup per person). This is divided between small dishes (cocotte), topped with eggs, and popped into a 400F oven in a bain marie for 10-12 minutes. Ed really liked this.

Didn't really feel like cooking after being on my feet for so long. We had a salad for dinner (no tomatoes!), followed by the last of the crème fraîche ice cream.

Tuesday/13-Sep-16: Lunch out today with Victor and John, followed by visit to the glove factory in St Junien. No evening meal needed. Big storm came through. Lightning threat meant we had to shut down internet. Big blow meant we had to undo the top of the pergola.

Wednesday/14-Sep-16: Big blow last evening, but just a bit of rain here. In Cognac they had two weeks' worth in an hour. Result: floods. Yes. that's what happens when a lot of rain falls and the ground is dry as a rock. We had very little rain and very little damage.

Shopping today. Leclerc continues on their expansion. It's loud and everything is hard to find.

Dinner was Seared Salmon in Dill Avodaise Sauce (web). Not sure why the fancy name; it's just avocado with lemon juice and fresh dill. I cooked the salmon under the broiler. Good stuff. Served with trio rice and some havicots verts. For dessert, some of the Faure cake we bought yesterday.

Yogurt on overnight. Not sure I bought the right starter. Can't remember the one we like best. We'll see.

Thursday/15-Sep-16: Ate out for my birthday, and visited a winery. Nothing happened in the kitchen.

Friday/16-Sep-16: We had an interesting lunch today, but I seem to have lost the recipe clipping on the way upstairs. A pizza sort of thing, with squares of lavash as the base. I saw these at the store Wednesday and picked them up as an impulse buy. More or less following the recipe, each piece is spread with soft goat cheese (yay for pyramid cheese!), sprinkled with za'atar, sprayed with olive oil, then topped with a mixture of slice, oven-dried tomatoes (from the freezer) and finely chopped red onions. All under the broiler for about five minutes. Yum.

Another Middle Eastern dinner tonight a frittata sort of thing plus a yummy spinach side dish. Ed opened a bottle of Juliénas for dinner, saying we didn't have to finish it, but of course we did. So I'm feeling a bit tipsy. The wine was very good.

Saturday/17-Sep-16: This was a day for roasting a chicken. I made Perfect Roasted Chicken (Twenty, p249). This is the same as Thomas Kellerman's recipe that goes around sometimes. A very good chicken. The trick is to dry it very well, liberally sprinkle with coarse salt, then cook at a high temperature. I put this one on a bed of potato chunks, that turned out to be quite delicious. Served with stuffed tomatoes.

Yogurt on overnight. Back in the saddle. The starter is fine.

Sunday/18-Sep-16: Ed finished bits of painting in the kitchen, around the window and other bits that needed touching up. The window surround remains white for the light in winter. Now the question is whether to paint the wood (inside of window, now blue on the outside, and door) and what color?

Dinner was Simple Sicilian-Style Grilled Steak (web), made with bavettes. Quite tasty it was. Served with a pasta that I think was labelled Israeli couscous when bought (anyhow, quite large balls of pasta), with a Middle Eastern cabbage salad, followed by a custard for dessert.

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

This week in the kitchen

Monday/8-Aug-16: In the morning, put chicken to marinate, using Basic White Wine Marinade for Chicken and Fish (Twenty, p294). Made Dilled Potato-Cucumber Salad (MC; web). Had planned to grill zucchini slices, but noticed box of shrooms in the fridge, so put Grilled Marinated Mushrooms (web) on to marinate.

Patrice and Wim for dinner. Ed grilled Butterflied Chicken with Lemon-Tarragon Butter Baste (Twenty, p295). And the mushrooms. All was good.

Froze up Chocolate Sorbet (Scoop, p120; C&Z's version here). That was good. So rich, you wouldn't believe it was a sorbet (no milk or cream). Yum.

Tuesday/9-Aug-16: Worked on the menu plan a bit today. Figured out that I can put off shopping till Friday, which is a bit relief since the next days (and weekend) are so busy.

Dinner was two A Two-Egg Masala Omelette (MJ@Home, p75), accompanied by Cucumber Salad, North Indian Salad (MJ@Home, p236), which is similar to the Spicy Cucumber Sticks that I make frequently, but with mint and without cumin. Yes, working on that cucumber backlog. No dessert.

Wednesday/10-Aug-16: Out in the evening, so we had an early meal, the leftover Schinkenfleckern and a salad. That's all folks.

Thursday/11-Aug-16: Both of us off for the doctor's open hours this evening. Pizza afterwards.

Yogurt on overnight.

Friday/12-Aug-16: Ate out tonight for Wim's birthday. Nothing further in the kitchen.

Saturday/13-Aug-16: Planned to go for a wine tasting today and pick up a wine packet I bought at a charity auction. But no, the car's muffler had come disconnected (broken pipe on the engine side). Ed took it to a local shop and got a patch. Still have to have it fixed.

So, I defrosted some duck breast bits. Cooked those and made Balsamic Vinegar Pan Sauce (HowTo, p165), which is good and really easy. Served with Dusolier's Roasted Potatoes and a vegetable melange of fava beans from the garden, half a red bell pepper, some haricots verts, and a tomato. All good. Mini magnums after.

Zucchinis from the potager are starting to accumulate. Need to start working on those.

Sunday/14-Aug-16: Late start today. Didn't make any of the markets, but went to a recital given by one of Ed's choirmates.

For munchies before dinner, I tossed the rest of the Lemon and Sour-Cream Dressing with some leftover haricot vert from yesterday. That was good, especially topped with some black pepper.

Dinner was Classic Sesame Noodles with Chicken (web; cookbooker). I used leftover chicken from Monday's meal. Mini magnums for dessert, since I forgot to set the Chocolate Sorbet out.

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