Oh man, so many good things to eat. I like duck very much but it's expensive and difficult to find here right now. Maybe they'll put in a stock for Easter, then I'll pick one up. Oddly enough, it's usually Aldi that gets duck here, usually it's available at neither of my other local options.

Chloebud, I've been thinking I also need to make meatloaf, I haven't done that in a while. Leftovers make awesome sandwiches, though, for fast meals when it gets busy, I like sandwiches better than the original meatload, I think!

I forgot Fat Tuesday and didn't make any pancakes. Boo, hiss, I love pancakes and just traded 4 dozen eggs for a quart of good dark Grade B maple syrup. (sigh) Waffles would be OK too!

John, that cookbook is exactly in the correct price range to interest me too. I think I'd like asparagus and mashed potatoes, kind of like Colcannon with asparagus in place of cabbage. Lucky little ratties. I like pears much more than I do apples but I would have never thought of serving with fish, that's interesting to me, I've got to think about that!

PM, I just made some really good gluten free blueberry muffins, even the chef across the street at the B&B asked for the recipe. Only one tablespoon of olive oil for fat and I used skim milk, 1/3 of that good maple syrup for sweetening. Four of the dozen are already gone. The recipe came from here: The Best Healthy Blueberry Muffins (gluten free!) | Ambitious Kitchen.

I've still been working on my own personal pantry challenge, so I made a creamy bean skillet with eggs, very good, served with a side of steamed broccoli. The beans were canned from last year's garden and the eggs were, of course, from "the girls". I'm still getting a couple dozen eggs daily but I've been selling a lot of them.

I made the Eggroll in a Bowl, a favorite of both mine and Jasdip's, with ground pork from the freezer and a head of cabbage that has been languishing in the crisper drawer for a couple of weeks. It's not pretty, but it was good.

I brined one of our homegrown chickens and roasted it, and because Grandma always told me to "never bake an orphan", I tossed in a couple of baked potatoes from the back room storage:

Last night I had a meeting, I'm on the local Planning Commission and we're working on a job description for the Cemetery Sexton, an updated Cemetery policy and a community survey because we need to update the Master Plan. Supper was sandwiches from the leftover roast chicken and some baked beans that I had canned using some of those zillions of beans we grew last year. This year I'm not planting as many, geez, we're eating beans 4 or 5 times a week and I still feel like I have enough to feed the entire county! The beans were good, though, I'd can those again, they have Bush's beaten all ways:

Tonight? Darned if I know. It went from 50F and sunny to 30F, snowing and 15 MPH winds. We have to set another bale of hay for the cows and make sure there's enough bedding in the "crib" for the babies to stay warm. Supper might be walleye from Culver's, they only have it once a year during Lent and I love me some fish and chips.

Annie

Forgot to take pictures but Italian Son-in-Law made Polpettone which was served with ratatouille on hot plates. An Italo-franco-anglo dinner.

neely, I love the sound of lamb ragu! Annie, I just had lunch and your pix are making me hungry again.

I have about 1.25 lbs. of boneless lamb in the freezer. Not quite enough for this recipe from Jeff Smith/Frugal Gourmet, but easy to tweak. I’ve made this so many times. I added some of my own Notes following the recipe.

Lamb and Artichoke Stew

"I have just this minute realized that writing cookbooks is much harder for me than I would have ever imagined. It is hard not because I have to explain myself, but because I have to think about these recipes, and it is not even close to lunchtime. This lamb and artichoke stew from Greece cause me particular pain. You must make this! You must! -- Jeff Smith"

4 Tbsp. butter
2 pounds boneless lamb, cubed (leg or shoulder)
3 yellow onions, peeled and chopped
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1/2 cup parsley, chopped
Salt/Pepper, to taste
1 (6 oz.) can tomato paste
1 cup dry white wine
2 (14 oz.) cans artichokes in brine, drained
1/2 tsp. dried dill weed
3 Tbsp. lemon juice

Directions:

In a very large frying pan met the butter. Add the lamb and saute until lightly browned. Remove the meat. Saute the yellow onions along with the garlic and parsley. Place the meat, onions, garlic, and parsley in a heavy kettle, and add salt, pepper, and the tomato paste, and white wine. Simmer, covered, for about 1 1/2 hours or until the lamb is tender. Add artichokes, dill weed, and lemon juice. Simmer until all is tender about 1 1/2 hours.

Serve over pilaf.

Notes: I add less tomato paste, about 2 T. I also add more liquid, about 1 1/2 to 2 cups half white wine/half chicken stock. I found the cooking time can require more liquid.

That recipe sounds very good chloebud particularly as it has dill and lemon juice, which is different to what I usually add.

Lamb ragout sounds great to me too! my mother's was great, but she bought by the sheep, so had a lot of the right kind of meat. Hard to get from the butcher, nowadays.

Floral, your hyphenate dinner sounds really good too.

Today is vegetable soup day. Chard, collards, a little red dandelion greens, roasted cauliflower and romanesco, onion, carrots and fennel. Chicken stock and spicy spices. This picture is from before it melded. Not so pretty now, but better as soup. I.e., delicious.

chloebud, that recipe sounds like something Elery would like very much. I'm not a fan of lamb but he'll happily eat it one day and all of the leftovers over the next couple of days, including for breakfast.

I have a couple of Jeff Smith's cookbooks, I'm going to have to get them out again, I haven't used them in some time.

I do have quite a large chunk of meat in the freezer, bartered to me by a neighbor in return for two large (10+ foot) Christmas trees. The label says "leg of sheep" but he said it was lamb. I'm thinking I need to marinate it for kebabs or something, maybe invite the neighbors because I really don't know if it is lamb or mutton!

Annie

I want to make that recipe, chloe.

Coincidentally, I just watched a video that recommended browning tomato paste in the pot, actually caramelizing it, before adding other ingredients - this was when making soup. Maybe I’ll try it.

Jeff Smith’s cookbooks taught me a lot about cooking, when I was first crawling from the primordial slime of Top Ramen and Tuna Helper. Non-gimmicky, simple, good food. Hey maybe plllog should get one for the girl learning to cook?

Thanks, but she doesn't want books. She has courses and an internship, and plenty enough books to juggle just now. She was very amused by the pig's face, though, and liked the recipes.

It’s storming with power outages so I made GF crepes (gas stove), then made a filling with cottage cheese, sour cream, confectioner’s sugar, and baby chocolate chips. Fried in butter, then topped with homemade blackberry syrup. Really good. Pic was an afterthought. :)

“I have a couple of Jeff Smith's cookbooks…”

Annie, I only have this one which has the lamb stew recipe.

I have that cookbook! Never made a lamb dish from it — lamb is rarely available around here.

I will have to make pancakes for breakfast after seeing yours PM while Annie’s chicken roll and beans will do nicely for dinner.

Last night we had stir fry vegetables and rice with a crumbed pork fillet now being called a tonkatsu.

“…lamb is rarely available around here.”

We can get boneless leg or shoulder, ground lamb, chops and shanks. However, it’s rare to see a bone-in leg. I buy boneless leg and ground lamb most often.

Annie, my favorite blueberry muffin is made with rolled oats and orange juice. I like your recipe’s idea of using almond flour!

It’s definitely a soup day here. I rattled off some ideas and BF chose ham & pea with garlic bread.

Pea soup looks nicer starting out :)

party, your “after” looks just as good! We finished off the last of a batch...DH’s favorite.

How funny for us to be in sync, chloebud!

I had to move a 3’ snowdrift this morning, then went for groceries. wow, prices really jumped!!!

PM, I can't even imagine what that means, moving the snow. I'm gobsmacked.

It's weird enough here just seeing any kind of precipitation. Water falling out of the sky? How unusual and quaint!

My soup was brassica forward (I missed the pea memo) and unexpectedly delicious, considering how little thought I put in it. Yesterday's pre-sunset meal was the soup with chicken sausage, and late supper was a different set of brassica in a salad with blue cheese and broken pretzel sticks. I've learned a new trick: a pin's width drizzle of Mike's Hot Honey does much better to combat the kale & friends bitterness than salad dressing. I did bake a nice loaf, however. Roasty toasty acorn squash, orange juice and veggie brine, and lots of different kinds of peppers. The roasty flavor really comes through. Also baked in the KA bowl.

No dinner here tonight. Far too much consumed over the weekend.

party, nice to be in sync! Yikes, 3’ of snow? I’m gobsmacked, too!

Today's pre-sunset was the same yummy soup with high quality boughten spinach tortelloni. The tortelloni absorbed the broth nicely.

Inspired by Lars’ fritatta thread, I made quiche Lorraine from the recipe linked by Islay.

I was surprised by what a minimalist recipe it was. https://thegreedyfrog.wordpress.com/2012/08/23/the-real-quiche-lorraine-warning-no-cheese-or-onions-allowed/

Subbed sour cream for creme fraiche which is not always available here, and couldn’t help garnishing with shiitake mushrooms and using one extra egg.

The texture was almost exactly like flan - creamy, smooth, just firm enough to hold together. I think a metal dish would have been better, for the crust. I made the crust in the Robocoupe, and instead of water, added small ice cubes for the Robocoupe to chop into cold bits. I don’t that affectation accomplished anything but it was fun.

SWMBO said it was worth waiting 35+ years for me to finally make her a quiche :-)

In fact she sent me this text

“That really was the best quiche ever. You need to make it more often.”

Yes I AM proud.

Congratulations!

Flan is custard. ;)

I think she is glad she chose me, after all . . .

" I was surprised by what a minimalist recipe it was." Classics often are. Good ingredients in a tried and tested combination.

John, good job!

plllog, I’ve tried three times to post a photo of snow and drifting but houzz keeps dropping it on the floor. This is just to see if it’s letting me post at all….

eta — apparently houzz doesn’t allow photos of snow. lol!

No one can post photos on the 'funnies' thread on KT either.

Nicely done, John! Yes, you should be proud!👍🏻

Thanks for letting us know, Olychick. I wasn’t aware there were posting problems.

I have to make it again as DD was overcome with some mysterious explusion-from-both-ends illness yesterday and couldn’t eat anything but broth, then accused me of trying to poison her by daring to add spices and heat to the broth. She complained loudly until SWMBO came home from her pottery studio with ginger ale and Campbells soup. Apparently I am a bad nursemaid :-(

Ugh that sounds like the norovirus that rampaged through here in December and January. My sister and mother ended up hospitalized. Keep her hydrated and give your DD some tylenol. It really helps!!!

Last night we made chicken and 40 cloves of garlic. Haven’t made it in ages and it was wonderful!!

plllog, now I can explain a snowdrift: this was my eye view on 2/19 of BF’s driveway after about 22” of snow, with strong wind. The lump on the right is my car and the lump on the left is the snowdrift into the driveway off the lawn. I have to move those snowdrifts to clear out the driveway.

Thanks, PM! It's still unfathomable, and definitely looks like a ton of work. But Nature is trying to convince us of precipitation: It's supposed to rain until the weekend, as if it actually does rain here.

WOW!!!😳

That day it took me more than 7 hours to clear out the driveway. with a good snowblower and a shovel. It was so deep in the drifts that I could only move the snowblower about 6" at a time and the end of the driveway had about 5' of very heavy stuff that the road plows had dumped. ugh. That was a rough day.

But you're missing out on the chicken and 40 cloves of garlic!!! :) It's SOOOOO good!

Sweet potato and spinach dhal again.

We've not had any snow this year and when we do it's very little and is gone quickly. Spring is well under way. I'd have trouble surviving the hard winters some of you get.

I am very impressed with anyone who has energy for home cooking after dealing with all that snow!

John, the really difficult snow-moving days were the ones where I made whatever food I was craving and they were generally quick / easy meals! But I am an energizer bunny. :)

PM, your 7 hours to clear the driveway boggles the mind. I suppose it would be the same here to clear mudfloe debris, but I choose to live where the chance of that is tiny. It seems like while there might be places there with less created by snowplows, the consquence would be more snow in the road? So there's really no getting away from it? I've seen glaciers, and old snow on the ground. I even saw a dozen snowflakes in the air when I was 10. I still can't imagine shifting what sounds like a glacier's depth of snow in its solid (if not compacted) form. All admiration for energizer you!

Yesterday was a running around day, capped by an evening zoom meeting, Plenty of nutritious food had been consumed, with no plans for supper. I left the meeting peckish, however, and tried to think of something to eat. A whole salad would be too much, and too much work, and cold. I'd already checked off the basics that day: protein, complex carbs, fats, fiber, simple carbs, and a whiny voice in my head said I didn't want vegetable soup. But there wasn't really anything else that didn't require cooking. I zapped half a bowl of the vegetable soup, and it was delicious and exactly what was needed. I didn't take a picture,

Sadly I am on the BRAT diet. Bananas, rice, applesauce, toast. This is because I got DD’s presumed norovirus except without the explosive you-know-whats, just the body aches, chills, severe tiredness, and some warning tummy discomfort. Therefore she and I are both BRATing. Breakfast this morning was rice and applesauce, and I guess dinner will be a banana on toast. I will not take photos.

Feel better!! Both of you.

John, You have my sympathy. I just got over five days of that bug. No explosions here, just painful stomach ache, extreme tiredness, headache and chills with no fever. I just could not get warm without layers of blankets. I didn't care much about food, but DH made my requested Lipton boxed chicken noodle soup which I think is mostly salty broth with a few spaghetti like noodles and applesauce. Hope you are feeling better soon!

Thank you. I’m feeling quite a lot better, and plan to go to work tomorrow ( it’s just me in the office, so no worries about exposing others ).

DD is pretty much fully recovered and made a big pot of butternut squash and sausage soup, which SWMBO brought to some friends.

It is a weird time. One of our friends will die from cancer soon; another has finally been diagnosed with fast-progressing ALS; a third is fighting brain cancer and so far winning. SWMBO has been running around taking care of all these people. So my little illness received rather more scoffing and eyerolls than you’d otherwise expect.

John, I’m glad you’re feeling better — it is a fast-moving kind of bug. And I’m so sorry to learn about your friends.

It's lovely that Ms. JL is so good at errands of mercy!

Today we got a jump on the Pesach cleaning. Pre-Sunset (destined more for breakfasts but it was just sitting there all proud of itself, and a couple slices out did no harm) was egg bake (or crustless quiche, if you prefer, but not fancy), served with mixed vegetables. The pie was broccolini with a couple of scallions, but the milk wasn't right (I usually split the measure between rich milk and cream), so I figured this was a good way to use up some onion-dip flavored leban. It made a very nice custard, but none of its flavor was apparent. I didn't add other seasoning because straight it's very salty and oniony. The custard isn't bland. It's just not onion-dippy, which is a good thing. The broccolini was very fresh and tender, but came with some flowers. I saved them for the top, but we had too much to do to fuss with putting them on at the right time, so I just let them sink into the cheese (very smoked, mozz or jack (I forget but am leaning toward mozz on texture)). Anyway, it was good. The custard doesn't show up well in the picture, but I promise it's a nice eggy fluffy custard.

I’m way behind in comments. Glad to hear you’re on the mend JL. & daughter.

DH has been cooking again. This time a sort of chicken ’ragu’ to have with pappadelle. I love this pasta, so silky. Alas I do not like the way DH cuts and cooks this chicken fillet. Being fillet it doesn’t take long to cook yet it is dry but then the onions are not meltingly tender. Maybe I’m getting fussy in my old age but I could hardly eat this and did the old push around the plate.

plllog, your pie looks nice and browned. Anytime food is well browned, that’s a good sign! neely, coach DH to put the chicken in when the onions are pretty much done, but give him a pat on the head anyway.

yes, anytime SWMBO gets her death doula training books out for a refresh reread, it’s a bad sign. I saw the book out last night.

LOL! It is good. The smoked cheese gets very brown, and it does taste good, but there's no art to it. You stick it in the oven and it gets brown. It does look a lot darker in the picture. The filling is nice and fluffy, and the veg is tender. But, then, I use this basic formula regularly. It' s homey food, not a showpiece (i.e., with compromises to be more salubrious), but very tasty.

Take care of yourself, John.

A night off cooking.

Plus chocolate raspberry pudding cake made this afternoon.

Chocolate raspberry pudding cake sounds and looks delightful floral. By the way I just finished watching last year’s Great British Bake Off. I love that show and I thought the bakers were of a high standard this last year. I was pleased the Welsh woman won and also that the young fellow Dylan, had found a place at a Michelin starred restaurant.

This dinner was an improvement on the previous. Crumbed chicken with a salad that included fresh basil and peas Simple but tasty for us both.