Journal

2021 - Week 52 Cooking Results

Mac and Cheese with Crispy Scallion Breadcrumbs

It was ok. This is the first one of the Momofuku set where I was like…I mean I guess it’s ok. There was something about the sauce consistency that were a bit less then desirable. I do have a bunch of ramen noodles to work through, so that’s nice.

Sheet-Pan Gochujang Chicken and Roasted Vegetables

I used the last of the squash I had, and some potatoes. I think I could’ve gotten away with making more sauce using more gochujang and going from there. It was a bit under flavored in my mind. Overall, not to bad, but I suppose I could make it more to my taste.

Pork Chops with Creamy Apple-Mustard Sauce

I was released from work early. Which is an extra odd concept now, that I literally work in a section of my basement. Anyways, I got the sous vide started to get the chops ready to just finish off in the pan. Shannon brought home a side and I put the together sauce. It was a pretty good dinner.

Frijoles Charros (sort of based on this)

I am curious how this came about. Hot Dogs? The rest makes sense to me, to some extent. I did salt and soak the beens then cook them separately. I combined the other ingratiates, more or less as they are called for, though the recipe ingredient list order was wrong. It was pretty good over all. I kind of want to know the origins, to perhaps understand the inclusion of the ingredients. It seems like it may be more of a family variant from time to time, so perhaps to bulk up on a cheap meat source, hot dogs. I used Hebrew National and went from there. I would perhaps make it again, but will probably need more recipe inputs.

Shredded Lamb Noodle Soup Recipe

Delayed. I got a bit confused when my brother was coming in. So I’ll do it early next week.

12 Beers and Christmas

For the first time since the the beginning of the pandemic we spent a significant amount of time outside of our house and inside someone else’s house. We, of course, thank the Matta’s for hosting us and taking the extra steps to make us feel safe (testing and all those things). We also met up with other friends and called our good friend in Japan. The topics varied widely, talking about the lives during the pandemic housing, and the difference between Japan, California, and Iowa. It was fun to catch up, actually see and hug people.

2021 - Week 51 Cooking Results

Leftover Turkey Pot Pie

In an effort to reduce the amount of stuff in my fridge, I used layers of pie dough, and perhaps a bit too much, to get through the last of the pot pie sauce.

Pasta

Hot Italian sausage, and well pasta sauce that I put tighter while the water came to a boil and the pasta cooked.

Mac and Cheese with Crispy Scallion Breadcrumbs

Delayed! We ended up going to the new Spider-Man movie.

Pork Tamale Pie

I’ve made this before, I’ll make it again. I swapped out the chili powder with jalapeño powder and used the entire package of pepper jack cheese. I was hoping this would use the last of the buttermilk, but it didn’t. It was good, the leftovers are nice. Topped with a bit of sour cream and maybe some salsa.

2021 - Week 50 Cooking Results

To see this on a random day in December, is a bit shocking:

Screen caputure of National Weather Service alert for the derecho on 12/15-16/2021

NWS Alert from 12/15/2021

As the last derecho caught pretty much everyone by surprise, we watched this one pass through. In Des Moines it wasn’t near as bad, since only a 8000 or so people lost power, as opposed to last time where 132,000 or so people lost power. Certainly it is an unpleasant experience to have the fears from last year combined with watching suspected/real tornadoes near areas you know, hearing the wind and hoping to keep power. Unlike last time where I was wearing headphones the entire time…well until I lost power.

Buttermilk Pancakes

Good Pancakes. I really like the pattern on one of the pancakes.

close up image of a pancake

pancake

Gammy Brown's Deviled Ham

Ready for watching a movie and tweeting, we had snacks, crackers and cheese ready to go, unfortunately, the second Derecho of my life (and in 2 years), happened and this became more of a button down the hatches and watch weather for hours and hope for the best. Most of the people I know made it out fine. That being said, it was pretty good. A nice thing to snack on while avoiding the worst of it.

Chicken and Sweet Potato Curry

Chicken from the freezer, sweet potato from the counter. It was a pretty nice meal.

Brats

Good as always.

Leftover Turkey Pot Pie

Delayed. It was still a bit frozen and I didn’t really want to over cook.

2021 - Week 49 Cooking Results

Grilled Cheese with Asiago and Dates

So I took the concept, and ran, but didn’t pay attention to the ratios, at all really. So it was ok, but not necessarily up to their standards, but that was on me I suppose. I did use some leftover dates, in combination with some bought cheese. Quick and ok, not a real verdict on the recipe itself.

Turkey and Dumplings

I should have taken the turkey stock out on Wednesday, as I originally thought. Taking it out on Friday morning was not near enough time to make it into liquid, let alone even slush. This took a bit of extra time, but over all it was easy to put together. I really only used the recipe for the ratios on the dumplings. I added turnips, red potatoes, leftover turkey, corn, peans, and the dumpling batter to finish off the soup. Good flavor, nice ratio. Good things. Will make for some good leftovers.

Cornmeal Buttermilk Pancakes

Nice cornmeal flavor with that buttermilk. We’ll probably have straight up buttermilk pancakes to use the last of it next week.

Creamy Celery Root Soup with Ham

As part of my thanksgiving package, I got a couple of celery roots. I hadn’t had this previously or added it to a thing, but it turned out pretty well. I used the same ham for the egg muffins. with that. While I didn’t have a ham bone, I did use, probably, more ham than requested to give it that hammy flavor. Celery root reminds me of celery, but being distinctly different. I used my hand my hand blender for the first time in a while. After mostly smoothing out the soup. We had it for dinner, and lunch the next day, and I had it for lunch the day after that. It was a nice soup.

Ham and Egg muffins

Of course this is a good thing. A common combination. I used a gift card from the company I work for to buy ham, thus making it a relatively inexpensive dinner.

2021 - Week 49 Cooking

I am uncertain as to how the conversation came about, but I came to a realization that has kind of messed me up, in that I am dwelling on it like I would do with things before I was on my anti-depressant. So I've been thinking about it so much, I’m tired. 16 days until my next therapy appointment.

2021 - Week 48 Cooking Results

Cheddar & Scallion Stuffing (a thought I had) patties w/ eggs

I could’ve added a bit more fat, I suppose, to make a patty that would fry up a bit better, put over all they didn’t stick together that well, but they did get the nice crispy edges. I did do this a few more times, for lunch, and it was a nice combination. Good thought, but would have to rethink the patty part. Perhaps if I had sliced directly from the pan, rather than the broken up stuff that got stuffed into the fridge. Anyways, a half way decent way to use up leftover stuffing.

Pork Burgers

Good as always.

Taco Salad

A nice change back to normal.

Butternut Mac & Cheese

It was a good use of the leftover butternut squash that we have from our Grade A thanksgiving pack. My big complaint about this recipe, is this line:

Pour half of the cheese sauce over and add puréed, roasted butternut squash. Fold together. If it seems too dry, add the rest of the cheese sauce.

The fudge is that? Look I get the butternut squash may be a bit of a variety in size. So you make a lot of cheese sauce than maybe only use half? What do you do with the other half? I get having extra makes sense…but damn.

In the end the noodles were a bit overdone, not taking into account that they would cook in the cheese sauce, but it was still all right. I added more herbs and spices, like mustard, cause damn.

Grilled Cheese with Asiago and Dates

Delayed. Shannon had a rough day, so we ordered Pizza. Saturday, the Cheese Bar.

2021 - Week 48 Cooking

As to create a bit of separation between thanksgiving and leftovers, I am going to put the leftover under-done turkey, stock, rendered fat and pot pie in the freezer for a bit. This should free up some space in the fridge and allow for a more normal(ish) week. I’m actively going to chase after some dishes to use the leftover vegetables and etc.

I got my COVID booster shot on Friday, and other thing some injection site pain (minor, still lingering but slowly becoming less), it went without comment. This will put me close to peak resistance for Yule.

This week I’ve tried to not pay to close attention to the news, and have, only once, picked up my work phone (Tuesday). So this has truly been a stress holiday of a sort. I suppose I replace that stress with cooking stress, but that was far more relaxing in general. I woke up the same time, that I would have for work, specifically to get in my morning routine, but after that my day was more or less my own to work around.