Journal

Week 22 Cooking Results

Dijon Cilantro Tuna Salad on Whole Grain Bread (p55 Bon Appétit April 2009)

I have to say, that this was probably the best tuna salad I've ever had. After having some lousy tuna salad the week before, it makes up for that and then some.

Tuscan Garlic Chicken Pasta (RC Cooks Illustrated April/May 2009)

This was very garlicky...Though it did give me an idea on how to make some flavored oil... I liked it, and so did Shannon.

Mashed Potato Casserole with Smoked Gouda and Bacon (p73 Bon Appétit March 2009)

This was quite good, as I already stated. Though not really a main course, even if I treated it as one...

This was really good...

We both really enjoyed this:

Mashed Potato Casserole with Smoked Gouda and Bacon with a spicy greens mix with red onions, tomatoes, chive flower feta and a Dijon mustard dressing

Mashed Potato Casserole with Smoked Gouda and Bacon with a spicy greens mix with red onions, tomatoes, chive flower feta and a Dijon mustard dressing.

The Gouda was from Frisian Farms. The Greens were grown locally and the Chive Flower Feta was from Reichert's Dairy Air (which was quite delicious). And I made the dressing (equal parts Dijon mustard, extra virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar).

Week 21 Cooking Results

This week we ate some brats from Lewright Meats and they were very good. There are more to go... I also went to the Iowa Cubs Club for two meals. One before a team building exercises and one while watching the Iowa Cubs from a sky box as a team activity later that same day. I had a tuna salad sandwich on a croissant and a bowl of fresh fruit. Most of the fruit was under ripe and tasteless. The tuna was bland, the salad around it was unimpressive and the croissant. Maybe I've been spoiled...but there are a number of other places in town that have decent croissants, and some excellent (la mie), but the sandwich was awful. For dinner, the brats they served were ok...nothing special...but nothing bad either.

Oven-Roasted Chicken Thighs with Carrots and Yukon Gold Potatoes (p53 Bon Appétit March 2009)

This took a while to make, other then peeling the carrots, most of the time was actually waiting for things to roast in the oven. First the chicken, then the vegetables, then together...It was good though...the Chicken was very tender and tasty and the veggies ended up to be the same as well.

Chicken and Cheese Quesadilla Pie (p13 Cooks Country April/May 2009)

This was very easy and quick to make...especially since you started with a roasted chicken. I bought a chipotle spiced rotisserie chicken from Gateway. Combined with the other ingredients it ended up being pretty good, although I think more spices could have gone into it...Though it did say to serve it with salsa and sour creme, which probably would've added the spice I needed.

Baked Penne with Farmhouse Cheddar and Leeks (p68 Bon Appétit March 2009)

Leeks...I could have done this with onions and saved myself a good chunk of change. But this was still very good. It may make me rethink the way I generally make mac and cheese. Since I normally use the roux and go from there, but this made more of a custard as the sauce...a nice difference in the texture.

Week 21 Cooking

This week, being short with the Memorial Day weekend and a evening event with my co-workers (going to my first baseball game since I was...well..before I was a teenager). So the list this week is pretty short. There were a few things in the March 2009 issue of Bon Appétit that made me wish I had known before I went to the farmers market yesterday, so I could have picked up some smoked Gouda up yesterday...but I think it'll make a good movie night meal...so I guess we'll have to go that route.

Week 20 Cooking Results

Drunken Beans (Splendid Table's Cheap Eats)

This was good, but I could see why people might not like it. Considering it had beer in it, I suspected that Shannon might not like it, but I use a fairly light pale ale and it just kind of blended it very well. Or it could have been that Shannon has had a cold, and hasn't been able to taste much at all. We had these on tortillas with some cheese and sour cream.

Siracusa Market Pasta (Splendid Table's Cheap Eats)

Simple, good, quick (and cheap too).

Quiche Lorraine (p13 Cooks Country April/May 2009)

My first attempt at a quiche. This was quite good...though I think I kinda messed up the crust, because I really didn't get it spread evenly. The texture was a not quite what I was used to. Not as dense, but certainly creamy and fluffy...but not as good as the quiche that I can easily get from La Mie...though it was still good...I'd make it again.

Southwest Enchilada Casserole (p19 Cooks Country April/May 2009)

Took a while to make (though it is for an army, and not really for two people), but I believe my quote was, "I can't wait to eat these leftovers". I did add some an extra Serrano pepper that I had leftover from the Drunken Beans I made earlier in the week. Anyways, this was really truly fantastic and worth the time investment it took.

Week 19 Cooking Results

Reichert's Dairy's new cheese called Robiola di mia Nonna is very good. Shannon and I actually bought more yesterday at the farmers market. I would call it something like cream cheese, except tarter...but it's good. I would pick Robiola over cream cheese any day.

Eden Farms Berkshire Pork hot dogs, were very very good. I'm a big big fan. Normally I avoid hot dogs like the plague, since most of them just taste like...well...that their taste testers don't actually care about their jobs or their product, but these were fantastic.

So far the farmers market for me, has been meat, cheeses...and well more cheese. For the most part the fresh things at the market include asparagus (neither of us really like), rhubarb (Shannon doesn't like) and other things I don't generally use in my cooking. I have really enjoyed my mornings there...

After game night last night I discovered I had 12 kinds of cheese in my fridge (Dave had brought over some parmesan) and between all of them, including their packaging, it weighed 4.5 pounds. About half of the cheese, both by weight and number are Iowan made.

In picking up some things for game night, there were a few more items from Lewright Meats at the Dahls, plus some duroc pork sausage from Vande Rose Farms. More Iowa pork...num num num

This week I also made Chipotle and tomato paste Turkey burger with feta, red onions and wickles spicy relish, which was very good and also included some leftover beef from the Moroccan Meatballs.

Moroccan Meatballs in Tomato Sauce (Splendid Table's Cheap Eats)

A little spice, a nice sauce and some meat. Easy to make and quite good, what can be better?

Baked Ziti (Cook's Illustrated March/April 2009)

This was down right delicious...though I guess I have to call it Baked Penne, since well apparently nobody carries ziti noodles

Brown Rice with Black Beans and Cilantro (Cook's Illustrated March/April 2009)

When I made this I realized that a lot of the things this week were vegetarian. The Ziti and the Soffritto were also veggie... This was decent. It was more of a side dish, then a main, but well, I made it as a main and it was filling.

Soffritto of Tomatoes and Fresh Herbs with Penne (Splendid Table's Cheap Eats)

Veggies veggies and more veggies! But it was still quite tasty. Tomatoes do add quite a bit to taste.

Week 19 Cooking

Continuing with the magazine theme, using the recent Cook's Illustrated, and some other sources around the internet...I'll also be using ground turkey bought last week (Hy-Vee didn't have ground chicken, but Shannon got it later when she made a Target run), to make burgers and hot dogs...yes hot dogs. Though they are Eden Farms Berkshire Pork hot dogs...so...uh.. (Curiosity got me)

Week 18 Cooking Results

A good week for cooking...I took a little break in the middle of the week and we had some smoked brats from Lewright Meats. Very good. In other food notes, I'm glad the farmers market is back...there are vendors and favorites that I've missed over the long winter. I've also found a few new good things. The smoked Gouda from Frisian Farms was fantastic. It went over very well at my Dad's 60th birthday party last weekend. I also found out that my dad is a huge fan of Gouda from the days when he went on a mission to Norway, but now a days his thriftiness gets in the way of his desire to buy it. Not exactly the cheapest thing in the world, but it's very good.

Reichert's Dairy has made a new cheese called Robiola di mia Nonna. I'm looking forward to trying it.

Beef Picadillo (Fine Cooking Feb/Mar 2009)

While I couldn't find the kind of lettuce that it called for, it went in very well with what we had. Though it would've gone well in a tortilla or a taco shell too. I would've liked it to be a bit spicier...but that's just me. I had it with tortilla chips yesterday, and it was quite good that way as well. I did add some Juan O'Sullivans Salsa de Mesa. I wish it was a bit hotter though...but that's just me.

Chicken-And-Corn Fried Rice With Lemon Spinach (Chef Ming Tsai on NPR's How Low can you go)

This was good...and cheap as all get up to prepare. Though I did have to make rice the day before to do this, but even so, it wasn't that time consuming to prepare. I had the last of it for lunch today and it was still good.

Fresh Pasta with Sausage and Mushrooms (Fine Cooking Feb/Mar 2009)

Relatively simple, and in this context one of the ways where mushrooms seems to be ok in this house. Though I didn't use any sort of mushroom that was that flavorful, it still seems to be a way to introduce the flavors into the house, for both of us.

Chicken Sauté with Lemon, Cumin, and Parsley (Fine Cooking Feb/Mar 2009)

Hy-Vee (in Windsor Heights) finally started stocking decent chicken thighs (ie not sodium solution injected)...and in this case they were already de-boned and skinless. This turned out good. So simple. I have so noticed how often zest of both lemons and limes to just bring out the flavor for the lemons. I've never really been a big user of it in the past, but I'm seeing it more and more how it can be very useful in bringing out that flavor in a dish. I made a salad using some greens, bought at the farmers market, and a recipe (garlic mustard balsamic vinaigrette) also gotten at the farmers market.

Spicy Jerk Pork Chops (Fine Cooking Feb/Mar 2009)

This was good...broiled..I don't think I got the crust intended because I used the sauce meant for 4 pork chops, but I only used it on two...but even so quite good. Served with a small mix of greens and some peas, it was a good meal.

I'm going to try harder to bring more vegetables to our table. Neither of us a huge veggie fans, so it's kind of easy to please without even having to worry about it, but I should be...so...even simple sides will be better then nothing.