This week in the kitchen

Monday/12-Aug-13: Last night I prepped the bread machine with Authentic French Bread on Rapid Bake; this morning I came down early and pressed Go. Result, a large lovely loaf, not as dense as it usually is.

Defrosted the fridge/freezer. Found enough bones and bits in the freezer to make chicken broth. The fridge now stands on the hearth tiles, facing the outside doors. Very confusing.

Dinner helped with the fridge-cleaning business. I lined two dishes with a tortilla each, added the leftover Spanish rice, then topped them up with a custard of one egg and some crème fraîche, spiced up with cayenne, chili powder, and a sprinkle of ground cumin. Pretty good those were. And some corn on the cob. And a half recipe of Green Bean and Napa Cabbage Salad (web). The green beans I had, store-bought plus some from the potager, weren't enough, so I added some snow peas to round it out. This is a really good salad; it would be nice at a potluck dinner or picnic.

Yogurt on overnight.

Tuesday/13-Aug-13: Work on disassembling the cabinets has started in earnest. One of the Ivars stands in the living room now; the second is unpacked; I'll pack up the third tomorrow to reassemble with the other. I wonder how many weeks they will stand there?

Dinner was Chipotle Lime Grilled Shrimp (web), broiled instead of grilled. Not bad. Served with polenta and a zucchini mish-mash, sautéed with garlic and shallots and some tomatoes. Some of the chocolate cake mini-magnums for afters.

Wednesday/14-Aug-13: Shopping today. And took delivery of 6m3 of wood for next winter; spend a lot of time putting that away.

Dinner was Grilled Swordfish, Chettinad Style (IndLight, p155). Ed prepped the bbq while I made Rice with Peas (MJ1, p149), Fried Aubergine Slices (MJ1, p99), and Onion Relish (MJ1, p174) as go-withs. All are repeats. The last time I did the eggplant, I think I broiled the bits, which I think I'll do again; fried eggplant is always oilier that I'd like. But it tastes good. For dessert with had some vanilla ice cream with chocolate liqueur (impulse buy at the store while looking for Kahlua).

Took down the third Ivar section today, but no time to reassemble.

Thursday/15-Aug-13: Dinner at Mazerolles' Fête Patronale this evening (followed by fireworks), so nothing food-wise happened in the kitchen. Three Ivars assembled and partially reloaded.

Friday/16-Aug-13: The peninsula cabinets are disassembled and moved into the center of the room, leaving a narrow aisle in front of the sink. The three narrow pantry cabinets are free of the wall. Ed thinks we won't have to move them into the living room, but just swing them aside. Which means I don't have to completely fill the Ivars since the boxes won't be needed. Hooray!

Dinner was a half-recipe of Casareccia with Zucchini and Fresh Basil (web, cookbooker), which made for pretty small servings, but maybe that's ok for those of us trying to lost a bit of weight. Followed by a big salad. Followed by my adaptation of Coffee Ricotta Mousse (MW@Home, p307) to use up the ricotta not used in the pasta sauce. Actually, my version of this is so far off, using cocoa with maybe only a dab of coffee (not tonight), that I should just write it up and call it my own. Added a dose of chocolate liqueur too. All was good.

Not thinking I'm going to get a post done for IHCC again this week. Too bad.

Saturday/17-Aug-13: Zucchini and winter squash in the garden, one plant each, are going crazy!

Dinner was a half dose of Risotto con Gamberi e Acetosa (WildCarluccio, p20), a risotto with shrimp and sorrel. Yum. Then some Apricot-Almond Clafouti (web) made in the afternoon. Also yum.

Sunday/18-Aug-13: Went out for pizza tonight. Nothing happened in the kitchen.

Progress on goals
This week: #1 IHCC/COOKBOOKS: no, #2 VEG/FISH: 5
This month: #3 PASTA: no, #4 BREAD: no

This week in the kitchen

Monday/2-Jan-12: Finished off the last bit of bread, rather stale, for breakfast. Popped some Authentic French Bread (Magic) into the bread maker. This might count for this week's bread, even though is a moldy-oldy one.

Dinner was a half-dose of Risotto con Gamberi e Acetosa—Wild Sorrel and Prawn Risotto (WildCarluccio, p20), with sorrel bought on impulse last week. I really do need to widen my sorrel vocabulary, since this is a bit oft-repeated now. It's awfully good though. Then a bit of the St. Maure I bought for new year's eve that we didn't touch.

Yogurt on overnight.

Tuesday/3-Jan-12: Leftovers tonight, the potato casserole with smoked sausage. And a salad. And the rest of the St. Maure for afters. Leftovers are nice.

Wednesday/4-Jan-12: Shopping this afternoon. (On the way, we were treated to the sight of a hunting male hen harrier/blauwe kuikendief/marsh hawk. :-)

Dinner was a half dose of Roasted Salmon with Cranberry-Mustard Sauce (epicurious), a very nice way to use up that leftover holiday cranberry sauce. Accompanied by some roasted brussels sprouts (hanging around in the crisper since xmas) and broccoli, and some trio rice. Nice dinner.

Thursday/5-Jan-12: Dreary rainy day today. More leftovers tonight, the leek-bread casserole. (The last bit may turn up as a side tomorrow.) And salad.

Friday/6-Jan-12: Using some of the shredded zucchini from the freezer, this morning I made Carl Goh's Zucchini Bread (BeardBread, p169) for Cookbook Sundays.

For dinner, I made Pie's Succulent Spicy Pork Chops (MC), spice-rubbed pork chops topped with garlic-parsley-lemon butter, an old favorite. Accompanied by the last of the leek-bread casserole and Clafoutis aux Carrotes (PRMTurmeric, p100), also for Cookbook Sundays. All were good, but none went together very well, kind of a mismatched dinner. The carrots would be good with chicken or fish we decided, or as a main course with a salad.

Yogurt on overnight.

Saturday/7-Jan-12: Munching on the zucchini bread throughout the day. Pretty good, this one.

Dinner was a half dose of Aubergine & Chickpea Curry with Tumeric (soon to be MC), a recipe that appeared recently in one of the expat magazines around here. Turns out it's from a cookbook published by a local person. On the strength of this recipe, I've ordered the book.

Sunday/8-Jan-12: Dinner was Lamb and Potato Curry (web), a kind of stewy curry. Edible but not especially good; not a keeper. A dose of lime pickle livened it up. Served with Spicy Cucumber Wedges (MJ1, p172), a nice quick side dish/salad.

Progress on goals
This week: #1 COOKBOOKS: yes, #2 BREAD: yes, #3 SOUP: yes, #4 MIDDAY: no, #5 VEG/FISH: 3
This month: #6 PASTA: no

This week in the kitchen

Monday/5-Sep-11: Off at a quiz tonight. Nothing much happening in the kitchen. Did make a start on washing the new dishes.

Tuesday/6-Sep-11: Yogurt on overday.

It was unplanned, but today turned into a kitchen day. Started quince jelly, using the quince I bought at a vide grenier on Sunday. Baked a Pear Bundt Cake (MC) using pears that Ed brought home from choir practice last week. Now I've got some oldish plums plus a big pile of raspberries that Barbara sent this afternoon that need to be dealt with.

Washed more of the new dishes and realized that Ed has a counting problem. There are 23 each of the salad and soup plates. Washing on a "space available" basis, it may take quite a while to get them all done.

Dinner was Amy's Grilled Chicken Breasts (MC), which was good. Accompanied by grilled potato slices, parboiled first, then coated with a half and half mixture of mayo and dijon mustard; quite good, although I cooked them a bit too long before the grilling. And for our daily zucchini, there was Courgette, Lemon, & Ricotta Salad (Jamie mag, soon to be MC). Very easy and quite good, this was. Followed by pear cake, of course.

Wednesday/7-Sep-11: Shopped today, after another trip to Emmaus. Got some sorrel, have to adjust the menu plan. Didn't finish the quince jelly or make apple-plum butter or deal with the raspberries today.

For a starter, we had Jamie's leftover salad. It held up remarkably well, making me think it might be happier marinating longer than the 10 minutes suggested. Then we had a half dose of Noodles with a Carrot Cream Sauce (KnowHow, p245, cookbooker), which was interesting. Then a plain-ish salad. Didn't feel like dessert and it was too late anyhow.

Thursday/8-Sep-11: Finished off the quince jelly this morning, two small pots. It should have had lots of pectin, but didn't seem to want to set. I added a bit of sugar with pectin to help. It took ages to get up to the right temp (maybe the first time I've used that thermometer), but it finally did. Hope it will be set when it cools.

Also made a double dose of apple-plum butter, using some of the cheap, but tasty, fall apples from the store and some plums that need using (they were tasty enough, but dry and unpleasant in the mouth). That turned into a single dose actually, what with the small apples and boiling it a bit too long.

Used Barbara's raspberries to make up the "broth" for raspberry sherbet. Surprise—there were some strawberries in the bottom of the box. I took care of those all by myself.

Dinner was Creamy Zucchini and Dolcelatte Soup (SoupBible, p53). It was good. Might be good with broccoli too.

Friday/9-Sep-11: Yogurt on overday. Didn't get the sherbet made. Tomorrow.

Dinner was a repeat from last year's sorrel season, Risotto con Gamberi e Acetosa (Wild Sorrel and Prawn Risotto (WildCarluccio, p20). Yum. And a salad with half a big tomato, deseeded, from the garden. Bonne Mamam baba au rhums for dessert. (On sale at the grocery.)

Saturday/10-Sep-11: Another walk with meal this evening. Pretty quiet in the kitchen all day.

Sunday/11-Sep-11: Froze up the Raspberry Sherbet (Scoop, p132) this morning. Filled a liter freezer bakje quite full.

Picked 1.5 kilos of assorted cherry tomatoes today. And more than 3 kilos of beefsteak tomatoes. The biggest beefsteak baby was 675 grams.

Dinner was Penne or Rigatoni con Zucchine (Top100Pasta, p44), using the zucchini I collected today. It was good, but the mozzarella didn't melt as it ought to have, so the sauce was a bit stringy. Tasty though.

Progress on goals
This week: #1 VEG/FISH: yes, #2 SOUP: yes, #3 MIDDAY: no
This month: #4 PASTA: not yet

This week in the kitchen

Monday/26-Jul-10: I've ordered butterscotch chips for next week's CBEtc contest, along with a couple of other things from My American Market.

For lunch, I used up the chicken and some broccoli with Gemelli Salad with Chicken, Broccoli and Roasted Pepper, a recipe from the Barilla site. It was OK, nothing special. More of our Jura cheese for afters.

Tuesday/27-Jul-10: Shopping today. Dinner was Moroccan Salmon (Cooking Light mag, soon to be MC) served over couscous. This was good. A bit too much on the bell peppers, Ed thought, but that's because I made all of it, rather than half. Followed by a big salad.

Wednesday/28-Jul-10: Tonight was Kolokithokeftedes (Zuccchini Burgers), a 2BTried recipes from MC, using the 3 cups of shredded zucchini that I froze a while ago. This worked great, so I think I'll have to freeze up some more. I just noticed that I omitted the feta from the "burgers" and that's exactly what was missing. This is one to try again. As suggested, I serviced with tsatziki, the Cucumber and Yogurt Salad recipe from Madison, p156. This accompanied by a big salad of rucola, with the end of the beet, an avocado, and some shallot. For afters, we had cheese, finishing off the Morbier but still have a bit of the Bleu de Gex left.

Put the lamb shanks for tomorrows dinner on to marinate.

Thursday/29-Jul-10: It was Souris d'agneau aux épices cajun (web, soon to be MC) for tonight's dinner. It was, I realized later, a crockpot recipe, but it suggests cooking in the oven at 120C as an alternative. And that worked great. How nice to have an oven that keeps a temperature this low. The lamb shanks were really tasty and tender, the sauce quite spicy Served with rice and Date and Onion Salad (TLAfrica, p92). This salad was more like a relish or uncooked chutney; it went really well with the spicy sauce. Finished off the Dulce de Leche ice cream. Nice dinner.

Friday/30-Jul-10: Forgot to defrost chicken for tonight's dinner. Rummaged around looking for a pasta dinner, but found Risotto con Gamberi e Acetosa—Wild Sorrel and Prawn Risotto (WildCarluccio, p20; soon to be MC) instead. A half recipe used up my sorrel impulse-buy. It was good too. Followed by a salad and some weird cookies.

Looked for a recipe for butterscotch morsels to no avail. Didn't even find any interesting recipes on the web. Sigh. Waste of money, I fear.

Started some yogurt and some bread for overnight. The kitchen is full of glowing red lights when the lights are out.

Saturday/31-Jul-10: In the afternoon I made a double dose of Chocolate Banana Snacking Cake (EAT-L, soon to be MC); pretty good. Took some over to our neighbor who likes chocolate; perhaps it will encourage him to eat a bit.

For dinner, there was Tarte aux légumes et fromage de brebis (VPQ) using a boughten pie crust. Will be glad when these are used up, since they're not nearly as good as home made. This tarte was a bunch of veggies (broccoli, peas, zucchini, and some haricots verts since I was short on broccoli (and forgot to buy more at the store this morning). Ordinary so far. The "custard" was 250g ricotta, cream, and 2 eggs. This was quite tasty. Served we a salad of arugula and mâche. The last bit of bleu de Gex after, plus some chocolate-caramel desserts from the freezer.

Sunday/1-Aug-10:Nice dinner, this eve, if late again. Next week I have to get back on the mid-day meal train again. I made Chicken Canzanese from a recent Cook's Illustrated (soon to be MC). This was supposed to be popular in the 70s, but I've never heard of hear. It was very good. Chicken thighs are browned, then baked slow in a skillet. The liquid should not be simmering. Result was very good, crispy skin and tasty. Served with polenta and Guatelli in Umido (TuscanYear, p138), but with oyster mushrooms instead of chanterelles. Altogether a nice meal.

CookbooksEtc Ingredient Contest 2010

1. 23-May/28-May: strawberries — Balsamic Strawberries with Arugula and Goat Cheese
2. 29-May/4-Jun: cheese — Spinach-Stuffed Anchos
3. 5-Jun/11-Jun: whole wheat flour — Ned and Crescent's Favorite Multigrain Pancakes
4. 12-Jun/18-Jun: ground pork or pork sausage — Curried Rice Noodles with Ground Meat
5. 19-Jun/25-Jun: blueberries — Tarte Amandine à la Myrtille
6. 26-Jun/2-Jul: salmon — Almond-Crusted Grilled Salmon with Garlic Sauce
7. 3-Jul/9-Jul: potatoes — Potatoes and Peas in a Yoghurt Sauce
8. 10-Jul/16-Jul: elbow macaroni — Macaroni Salad
9. 17-Jul/23-Jul: tomatoes — Eggs Baked in Tomatoes
10. 24-Jul/30-Jul: dates — Date and Onion Salad
11. 31-Jul/6-Aug: butterscotch chips
12. 7-Aug/13-Aug: pecans