This week in the kitchen

Monday/14-May-18: For tonight's meal we had Sweet-and-Sour Cabbage with Peanut Sauce (BoldVeg, p135; cookbooker) with Red and Green Polenta (BoldVeg, p176; cookbooker) as suggested. The cabbage was an interesting dish, a little weird at first, but grew on you. Mini ice cream bars for dessert.

Tuesday/15-May-18: Worked on the meal plan (and list) today, trying to use up as many of the veggies in the fridge as possible.

For our meal, we had Pasta with Asparagus-Lemon Sauce (web). This was quite good. I made all the sauce with half the pasta. The pasta (malfada) was generously sauced, but not excessive. Following some of the comments, I used the zest of a whole lemon and added the juice to the sauce, and I roasted the tips with a minced shallot and garlic cloves. Very tasty. Served with a made-up salad of grated carrot, cuke that was quartered and finely sliced, radish, and a bit of onion, all with a lemon vinaigrette. Quite good it was. Some goat cheese for dessert.

Yogurt on overnight.

Wednesday/16-May-18: Shopping today.

When we got home, to use up some of the buttermilk, I made Buttermilk Coffeecake (TLSouth, p119).

Our dinner was Salmon with Lime Courgettes (200Budget, p178). The salmon was ok, but the zucchini was very good fun, cut in long thin strips, sautéed, and tossed with lime zest, juice, and chopped mint. Served with orzo. The coffeecake for dessert was a hit.

Thursday/17-May-18: Breakfast for dinner today. I made Ned and Crescent's Favorite Multigrain Pancakes (Gospels, p205)—a whole dose and then froze half for another meal. Served with some of the chamomile syrup from Saturday.

Friday/18-May-18: Busy afternoon cooking:

• Made some Favas and Pearl Onions with Olives and Herbs (VegA2Z, p66). Favas from the store this week; pearl onions left from last week. This recipe has in interesting way to treat the onions. You pour boiling water over them, then cut off the bottom and peel. (I only cut off the top if it was "ugly.") Peeling is much easier this way—hooray! The favas were cooked (steam-sautéed) without peeling the individual beans. I added extra olives because I thought the dshes needed them; Ed thought it was too much. This was an okay dish. Think I prefer my favas peeled and bright green. 
• Mama's Garlic Coleslaw (MC; HandyBook). 
• Baked Potatoes on the Grill (MC), but cooked in the toaster oven. Two smallish potatoes for the two of us. I found it way too much. 
• Craig Claiborne's Ultimate Hamburger (Tabasco, p88). Still a good way to do a hamburger.

For dessert, we finished off the Buttermilk Coffeecake. Yum.

Yogurt on overnight.

Saturday/19-May-18: We went to Gamm Vert today and bought some plants, geraniums, three hanging pots, etc. For our meal, I marinated two kip filets as in Chile-Soaked Grilled Chicken (BigFlav, p180), without the accompanying the Indonesian Catsup, that we didn't think was needed last time I made this. The chicken was good. Served with asparagus, simply grilled with salt and pepper, and penne of red lentils and carrots. Then a salad of romaine lettuce. Then some Buttermilk Ice Cream (MC), kind of tan colored because I used sucre de canne, rather than white sugar.

Sunday/20-May-18: We lunched at La Bellone today, before going to Chalais for a concert. Nothing happened in the kitchen.

Progress on goals
This week: #1 BACKLOG: no; #2 VEG/FISH: 4; #3 COOKBOOK: yes
Cookbooks of the month: BoldVeg and 200Budget
This month: #4 PASTA: no; #5 BREAD: no; #6 GUESTS: yes

This week in the kitchen

Monday/15-Apr-13: Authentic French Bread in the ABM early, in time to have bread for lunch.

Went to make planned dinner and discovered that my eggplant was moldy. Had to scare up a Plan B. Quickly defrosted some merguez de volaille (spicy poultry sausages) to grill. Parboiled some broccoli and make some grilled broccoli similar to the Ottolenghi one, but with pepper flakes in the oil. Mixed up last night's potato salad and peas. Grill the merguez after the broccoli. Not bad at all. With the ricotta I'd defrosted for Plan A, I made some Coffee Ricotta Mousse (MW@Home, p307), well, I actually make a Chocolate Coffee Ricotta Mousse, adapted from this recipe. Easy and tasty.

Tuesday/16-Apr-13: Ed had a doctor's appointment this afternoon, so we shopped afterwards and had an easy dinner. Warmed up the leftover asparagus tart and had a big salad after. And more of easter bunny #2. (They were still on half-price sale, so we bought set #4, including an extra for company coming soon.) Got the Strawberry Sour Cream/Fromage Blanc Ice Cream out of the freezer. Yum!

Wednesday/17-Apr-13: Dinner was a half dose of Baked Halibut with Tomato Caper Sauce (VeryBest, p300), with haddock (eglefin) instead of halibut (flétan). The sauce was good and used up the last of my frozen tomato sauce. Served with trio rice (not quite right) and some steamed broccoli. Double chocolate mini magnums for after.

Yogurt on overnight.

Thursday/18-Apr-13: Impulse-bought some fava beans the other day. Cleaned those up, parboiled them, peeled them, then made (more or less) Strozzapreti with Favas, Peas, and Prosciutto (web). Never heard of strozzapreti, but the photo looks rather like cascareccia or gemelli, so I used that instead. Good enough, but a bit bland. If I did this again, think I'd use lardons and add them with the shallot, so they crisp up a bit and give some texture. Usually a kilo of fêves gives enough for two people for dinner, but these were pretty full, so we'll have them again in a day or so. I love favas, but don't like that you get to know each bean intimately, first unshelling them, then peeling each one.

Friday/19-Apr-13: Using up the favas tonight, there was (sort of) a half dose of Risotto of Favas, Country Ham, and Savory (VegA2Z, p65). Sort of ... used lardons instead of prosciutto, dried thyme (the outdoor stuff having largely not made it through the winter) plus garden mint and sage. Was good, nevertheless. For dessert, this week's IHCC root vegetable turned up as Carrot and Walnut Cake (Otto, p200).

Saturday/20-Apr-13: Out for the evening. Nothing happening in the kitchen.

Sunday/21-Apr-13: Yogurt on overday.

Ed's stitches out today. Thumb looking pretty good all things considered.

Off to an early evening concert today. Dinner was Lamb Pitas with Cucumbers and Yogurt Sauce (web), using up same lamb from the freezer. Good stuff. I liked the sour or the cuke salad with the lamb and the yogurt. Then a bit of Strawberry Fromage Blanc Ice Cream.

Progress on goals
This week: #1 IHCC/COOKBOOKS: yes, #2 VEG/FISH: 3
This month: #3 PASTA: yes, #4 BREAD: no