This week in the kitchen

Monday/26-Dec-16: Picked the leftover chicken, then froze the bones and the meat.

Didn't really feel like a fancy meal today, but we had one anyway. For a starter there was the terrine de pigenneau (squab) that we got at the marché de noël. Put a bit of arugula on the plate, topped with a vinaigrette, then some dried cranberries and walnut pieces. This was all very good. The main was veal marsala, broccoli alla romana, and the last of some nettle pasta I bought at a marché gourmand. Dessert was pears with gorgonzola. All tasted good.

Tuesday/27-Dec-16: Early dinner with a mix of leftovers. Shepherd's pie, the cauliflower curry, and a dab of orzo. The shepherd's pie held up quite well. And a slice of raspberry bûche to end it all.

Wednesday/28-Dec-16: Shopping today. Still disliking new Leclerc arrangement/design. Such a mess.

Dinner was unexpectedly good. I made a halfish recipes of Down by the Sea (Wraps, p61). The filling was lots of onions, softened in olive oil, then simmered with lemon juice, champagne vinegar (not—regular white wine vinegar did the job), and dried tarragon. This is mixed with chunks of grilled swordfish, chopped arugula, and chopped black olives. Wrapped in lavash tonight because there were some to use up. Very yummy.

Thursday/29-Dec-16: Dinner was a kind of polenta lasagna from Time-Life. Very delicious. Served with a salad. That was enough.

Friday/30-Dec-16: In the afternoon, I roasted some eggplants to use tomorrow.

Friends invited us for apèros this afternoon, so we had are rather small dinner. There was an Italian steak accompanied by some peas with shallots and some crozets mixed garlic butter-olive oil. That was all.

Saturday/31-Dec-16: Spend most of the day in the kitchen today.

• Started yogurt, thinking I might use much of what's in the fridge to make tzatziki (but didn't in the end).
• Used the roasted eggplants to make Baba Ghanoush (WofE, p334) for serving with veggies this evening.
• Started the rabbit dish for tomorrow's meal. Left it in nature's refrigerator overnight.
• For lunch, sautéed some onion, garlic, and leftover shiitakes, plopped this on slices of bread, topped with some blue cheese, and toasted to melt the cheese. Yum.
• Stuffed two mini peppers in the fridge with a little filling of cream cheese, chives, onion flakes, black pepper.

Dinner was a half recipe of Scallop Sauce with Olive Oil, Garlic, and Hot Pepper (ClassicItal, p185). I've made this before on new year's eve. It's good. Then a salad. 

For our late-night munchies with had the baba ghanoush with carrots, cukes, and radishes, along with the stuffed mini pepper. Looked like a lot, but we ate all of the veggies; didn't quite finish the dip.

Sunday/1-Jan-16: Dinner was delicious. Rabbit Ragu with Pappardelle (Essential, p352). Made a full recipe and froze about half. Served over some wide tagliatelle, home-made!, but not wide enough to call it pappardelle. Then a salad. That was all

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

This week in the kitchen

Monday/10-Oct-16: Dinner was a halfish recipe of Moroccan Missile (Wraps, p87; cookbooker). Used lavash, rather than flour tortillas for the first round. Don't think the coucous was really needed. After two round, we were full.

Tuesday/11-Oct-16: Chicken for dinner, plus garlic mashed potatoes and a big salad. That was all.

Wednesday/12-Oct-16: Shopping today. Fish and orzo for dinner, along with steamed broccoli. That was all.

Thursday/13-Oct-16: Chicken for dinner again. Served with Baked Eggplant Slices (TooMany, p114), which is a very old favorite, and the last bit of some multi-colored pasta shells, tossed with shallot, garlic, the rest of the mushrooms I bought for yesterday's orzo, and chopped parsley. For a salad, we had Cold Beetroot with Cream (Pomiane, p180), another old favorite. That's all there was.

Yogurt on overninght.

Friday/15-Oct-16: Dinner was Baked Beef Curry (MJ@Home, p139), which was pretty easy to put together, and tasty to eat. Served with rice, and then some Pan-Grilled Zucchini (MJ@Home, p173) again. This time I sprayed my zucchini slices with olive oil before cooking them under the broiler. This worked super well. That was all.

Saturday/15-Oct-16: Lunch out today for our anniversary. Nothing further happened in the kitchen, but I did get a lot of ironing done.

Sunday/16-Oct-16: Salmon pasta for dinner, followed by a big salad. It was good and I was full. Ed had a mini magnum after, I had nothing extra.

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

This week in the kitchen

Monday/1-Oct-12: Company for dinner, so was all day in the kitchen. The original plan was a roast lamb shoulder, but it turned into an Indian night when I started looking for what I'd made to celebrate my start with I Heart Cooking Clubs and Madhur Jaffrey. Last night I made the broth for No-Cook Indian Ice Cream (Kulfi) (MC). Also, I made up some Tamarind Chutney (IndLight, p286).

For starters, there were Onion Fritters (Pyaz ki Bhajia) (Q&E, p20) served with Tamarind Chutney. For the main course, there was Lamb with Onions (Do piaza) (MJ1, p46), served with Rice and Peas with Garam Masala (Matar Aur Sooay Ka Pullao) (SpiceKitch, p65) and Yoghurt with Cucumber and Mint (Kheere ka Raita) (MJ1, p162). For dessert there was kulfi with mango chunks. Except for the lamb dish, these are all things I've made several times. All were good. (The IHCC post is here.)

Tuesday/2-Oct-12: Now to work on the 2.5kg of potatoes I bought to go with the roast-lamb-that-wasn't. Tonight there was Warm Broccoli and Potato Salad (MDSalads, p15), an old favorite.

Yogurt on overnight.

Wednesday/3-Oct-12: Shopping today, without much of a plan, but we have more veggies in-house now. Dinner was Broiled Spiced Fish Steaks (RealFast, p73). Well, it was cod fillets rather than steaks, but it still tasted good. Served with a kind of pilaf with shrooms and shallots, followed by a salad. Treated ourselves to some chocolate squares while we went out searching for Sophie, who was in the mood to stay out late, and was resistant to coming home after we met up.

Thursday/4-Oct-12: Made chicken stock, using the accumulation of bones from the freezer. Made Pear Butter, using up Barbara's pears which were needing to be used. While these were happening, I opened the fridge and a big, unopened jar of cornichons leapt off its shelf to the floor. What a mess!

Dinner out for a friend's birthday. Have had our heavy protein for several days now.

Friday/5-Oct-12: Dinner turned into a sort of meze plate.

• There were dolmades from a can, three each and pretty good. One day I'll try to  made these, just to say I have, but the canned ones are fine. 
• And there was a loosely adapted version of Tomatoes Stuffed with Tuna (MedLight, p63). Stuffed only two tomatoes and have extra for tuna sandwiches tomorrow. No fresh mint, so I used dried. A similar recipe in O&C called for beans to be included; I had some leftover couscous, so I used those instead. Pretty tasty. 
• And there was a half dose of Marinated Eggplant (MedLight, p61; cookbooker). This was very good, although the eggplant slices were a bit soggy since the steaming time seems to be a bit long. A bit leftover for something. 
• And there was a half dose of Leek, Potato, and Olive Pie (Prassopita) (O&C. p97; cookbooker).  I had some leeks desperately needing to be used and lots of potatoes that didn't getting used in Monday's dinner, so this seemed and ideal dish. Very good it was. Now I've got filo in the fridge to use up in the next weeks. 

Last but not least, we had some double chocolate mini Magnums for dessert.

Saturday/6-Oct-12: Today was Ed's turn with jars leaping from the fridge door. This time a lovely jar of green chili pickle (Indian) and the jar of (Dijon) mustard.

Oops, neglected to remember the long cooking time for tonight's planned dinner. Not wanting to eat at 9pm, I made instead VIndaloo Lounge (Wraps, p74), after remembering that I spied a jar vindaloo sauce in the back of the cabinet.

Sunday/7-Oct-12: So, started last night's dinner in plenty of time today, only to discover that the fresh mushrooms bought this week were already covered in mold. Grr... What do you make at the last minute? Pasta, of course. Tiny Drôme goat-cheese-filled raviolis with a sauce of lardons, shallots, the soaked dried mushrooms I'd started for the aborted dish, and a carton of pyramid goat cheese. Not bad. Followed by a salad, of course.

Boulangeries are closed Sunday afternoon and our closest is closed on Mondays. Thus, having bread on hand for Monday breakfast and lunch seems to be a chronic problem for us. If I but planned ahead a bit, I could start Sam's no-knead bread in the evening to finish off in the morning. Tonight there's English Muffin Bread (BigGerman, p15) in the ABM overnight. Also yogurt on overnight.

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