Journal

Week 47 Cooking Results

Thanksgiving at my parents...mmm... And I got to bring home nearly two pounds of homemade lefse? How can it get better? When going out to buy cilantro for the chili, I stopped by La Mie to get some bread for turkey sandwiches (decided I didn't have enough meat to make something out of the turkey), I got feedback from Joe Logsdon on the Chocolate Chunk Tart Cherry Oatmeal cookies that I've been working on, "you should quit your day job and open a cookie shop." I responded that I only have about 4 recipes...but I could see myself doing that. So I may have to think long and hard about if I want to start collecting cookie recipes, or continue to post them.

Grandma's Enchiladas (p27 Cook's Country October/November 2009)

These were quite good, good spice, they took a while to make (which is why I saved them for a weekend). But the combination of all the spices the slow braised beef just let for quite a delicious experience.

Ginger-Shallot Chicken Breasts

I got this from the Splendid Table Weeknight Kitchen Newsletter. I found it to be quite good, I especially like the sauce...I suspect Shannon would've liked the sauce had I actually seeded the peppers like the recipe called for, but since I left the seeds in, it was a bit too spicy for her. I did also like the way that they cooked the chicken breast too.

Twice Baked Potatoes with Ham, Peas and Gruyere (p36 Entertaining Fall 2009)

I vaguely followed the recipe...it seemed like a lot of work to get a similar result, so I just kind of simplified it earlier. I ended up cooking the potatoes with the stuff in them in the omelette pan that I had been using, and in continuing with my recent history, to get the potato out, I had forgotten that the pan had been in the oven for a good 20 or 30 minutes, grabbed the handle with my left hand and got a nice burn on my palm, and most of my joints. Though I realized my mistake pretty quick, so it wasn't too serious. No blisters.

Slow-Cooker White Chicken Chili (p5 Cook's Country October/November 2009)

This turned out pretty well. Though how can you call it chili, if it didn't have chili powder in it...but perhaps that's just me. Anyways, I actually had to grind up some coriander, because I had run out, so I was happy, once again, that I bought a coffee grinder not too long ago. I also didn't really want to use the slow cooker (mine is bigger then I think what they are calling for), so I ended up using my beloved Chantal stock pot and the oven. I looked on the internet and found that the low setting was 200F and the high setting was 300F and ended up using a hybrid of the two and went around 250 for most of the cooking. When I pulled the chicken thighs out of the pan, I had trouble because they were falling off the bone tender...

Earlier in the cooking, while putting the onions, in the pot, there was a little chicken fat and oil splatter and I got quite the blisters on my right arm.

Lasagna Bolognese (p26 Entertaining Fall 2009)

This was quite a bit of work to make. Make two sauces, put everything together. But it turned out very well. We both enjoyed it...and we have a whole lot of leftovers too...

So to sum up, right now I have a burn on my right ring finger, that is almost healed, a splattering of burns on my right arm, still look pretty ugly, and some fairly minor burns on my left hand, which feel like dry skin for the most part now...

Week 47 Cooking

So Friday night we went to Le Jardine and had a wonderful dinner with Sean and Becki Sullivan of Juan O'Sullivan's Salsa. They joked quite a bit about the age difference. We talked about a range of topics and I think we both had a good time. They invited us out to their house for the next night (there was a party already planned), but we already had made plans to go to dinner and a movie with Chris and Holly. Dinner at Le Jardine was fantastic.

  • Grandma's Enchiladas (p27 Cook's Country October/November 2009)
  • Ginger-Shallot Chicken Breasts
  • Twice Baked Potatoes with Ham, Peas and Gruyere (p36 Entertaining Fall 2009)
  • Slow-Cooker White Chicken Chili (p5 Cook's Country October/November 2009)
  • Lasagna Bolognese (p26 Entertaining Fall 2009)

Week 46 Cooking Results

Cinnamon Swirl Brioche French Toast and Eden Farms Bacon

Mmm...bacon. The cinnamon Swirl Brioche was from Gateway Market. It turned out pretty good, I was happy. Especially since I re-toasted some in the toaster the next morning and had it for breakfast.

Chicken Paprikash (p23 Cook's Country October/November 2009)

I should've really called this an excuse to get rid of leftover chicken in my freezer. And now it's all gone! woo! This was good, I though I had nice mixture of the hot and sweet paprika (1/3, 2/3 of total).

Beef Stroganoff (p12 Entertaining Fall 2009)

I should've chopped the mushrooms smaller. Shannon wasn't a big fan of how many and how much the mushrooms were in there. So that was a draw back. I supposed if i diced them it could've been better. I still liked it though.

Quick Croque Monsieur (RC Cook's Country October/November 2009)

I had forgotten that we wer going out to eat with the makers of Juan O'Sullivan's, I had over planned for the week, so I thought this was going to be pushed until the next week, however movie night got cancelled (Chris and Holly not feeling so well), I ended up making this. It was quick and easy and tasty.

Grandma's Enchiladas (p27 Cook's Country October/November 2009)

Since we ended up going out to eat with Chris, Holly and etc I ended up not being able to make this, though I still have all the ingredients, so I'll be making this today.

Week 46 Cooking

Even though I made Chicken Paprikas on week six, being that it was 40 weeks ago, and a recipe from another company, I figure it is find to duplicate it a bit... With movie night being this week (I don't have to cook) and me going to see P.O.S., it'll be a shorter cooking list.

As a note to myself, I also want to make Turkey Tetrazzini Pasta (RC Cook's Country October/November 2009) and will do so when I have some leftover turkey from thanksgiving. I also plan on making Slow-Cooker White Chicken Chili (p5 Cook's Country October/November 2009), but need a Weekend day, or day off to prepare it. Since I'm trying to save up a bit of PTO for the holidays so I don't go much below my desired bank size (400 hours), I couldn't do it this week, since I want to do the french toast today, and the enchiladas (another long prepare time) on Saturday.

  • Cinnamon Swirl Brioche French Toast and Eden Farms Bacon
  • Quick Croque Monsieur (RC Cook's Country October/November 2009)
  • Chicken Paprikash (p23 Cook's Country October/November 2009)
  • Beef Stroganoff (p12 Entertaining Fall 2009)
  • Grandma's Enchiladas (p27 Cook's Country October/November 2009)

Week 45 Cooking Results

Aunt Nina's Breadballs (p24 Cook's Country October/November 2009)

This was kinda fun to make. Though I did make a bit of a mistake that made for quite the...spicy sauce. When adding the Red pepper flakes, I opened it, and being used to the holed lid on the normal one that I buy being there, I go to sprinkle maybe a bit more then the recipe calls for (I tend to like the extra spice), and there are no holes to struggle through and I proceeded to dump a large portion of the container of red pepper flakes into the mixture. I picked out as much as I could, but still what remained was a quite spicy sauce. It was still good though. The fried breadballs? Some of them I didn't pack together well enough so they kind of fell apart while I was cooking them. Though I used that as an excuse to eat fried bread... Good meal, took a while to make, but not absurdly so and relatively cheap over all.

Reduced Fat Sloppy Joes (p4 Cook's Country October/November 2009)

Putting in mushrooms to reduce the amount of meat and fat in the meat that you use, is a pretty good idea and this turned out well. Though after I put some of the Prairie Breeze cheese on them, I probably went over any reductions in calories or fat that was there. One thing that I thought this was missing was mustard. I love the taste of yellow mustard in a Sloppy Joe, so much so that I tend to add more after it's done. Perhaps, that's just me though.

Steak with Crispy Spiced Potatoes (RC Cook's Country October/November 2009)

This was pretty simple to make. I really liked the spice mixture (the recipe calls for: oregano, paprika, onion powder, garlic powder, cayenne pepper, though ended up not using the cayenne pepper because I used hot paprika (couldn't find cayenne pepper at the store)). on the potatoes. Gave them quite a bit of spice and taste. With the process of pre cooking the potatoes, in the microwave, and then sauteing them to give them a nice crust. That way they get cooked (while cooking the steak) and then get finished in the pan.

Granny's Tamale Pie (p25 Cook's Country October/November 2009)

Holy crap this took a long time. I started cooking around 5:15, 5:30 or so, and we at around 9:15. I also got a 2nd degree burn on my ring finger on my right hand (blistered skin)... Even so I would make this again, on a sunday...staring at 3. Though in my mind this recipe was a bit lacking. Me, I'd add a diced jalapeno pepper or two to the mixture. The recipe seems a bit lacking too. It seems to me that somewhere between step 3 and 5 there is a missing step or two. Even so, It turned out well.

Savory Baked Mac & Cheese (using some combination of: Huntsman, quality swiss, Prairie Breeze, cotswold, smoked gouda)

I was a bit lazy, didn't take the time to actually form a sauce, so it was really turned out to be noodles and cheese. I used the last of the huntsman, all of the smoked gouda, and all (except for a few tasters) of the swiss. So it ended up, to me, tasting like it had ham in it and I think this was because of the smokey taste from the gouda. Even being lazy, it's kinda hard to mess up cheese + noodles.

Baked Manicotti with Meat Sauce (p18 Cook's Country October/November 2009)

There is a mixture of ground beef, onions and pepperoni. The recipe told me to to set aside a cup the filling for the noodles, but I missed it (twice, cause I went back to look saying where is that cup supposed to go)...so I ended up putting it on top with the cheese (used more cheese then the recipe called for since, well, it was there). It still turned out great. Though I was very hungry by the time and most of my way through a bottle of red from Southeast Australia, so that may have tempered my judgment. Shannon seemed to enjoy it as well, though.

Week 45 Cooking

  • Baked Manicotti with Meat Sauce (p18 Cook's Country October/November 2009)
  • Reduced Fat Sloppy Joes (p4 Cook's Country October/November 2009)
  • Granny's Tamale Pie (p25 Cook's Country October/November 2009)
  • Steak with Crispy Spiced Potatoes (RC Cook's Country October/November 2009)
  • Aunt Nina's Breadballs (p24 Cook's Country October/November 2009)
  • Savory Baked Mac & Cheese (using some combination of: Huntsman, quality swiss, Prarie Breeze, cotswold, smoked ghouda)

Week 44 Cooking Results

So for game night last night I bought quite a number of cheese, including Huntsman. Now we had Huntsman at our wedding and I remember it being very good. This was truly fantastic of a cheese. Such a nice combination of flavors between the two cheeses in it and the Roasted Garlic crackers...fantastic.

Also we went through the vast majority of a round of Elk Sausage called "Ring of Fire". While it was spicy, it wasn't smoking hot. I bought it from the "elk guy" (Deo Gloria Elk Products, I think) at the downtown farmers market. I bought some other ones, we didn't end up opening them though.

I made some Chocolate Chunk and Tart Cherry Oatmeal cookies that I was finally satisfied with the way they look. I think have have to adjust the chocolate level down a bit, or take a bit more time and cut them into smaller chunks. But I think I have the right ratios, finally, I'll make 'em again for thanksgiving.

Shannon and I went to see Anthony Bourdain at the Civic Center. He started off by telling several stories and then went into a Q&A section. I think we both really enjoyed it. He seemed to have good things to say about Bistro Montage and about Reichert's Dairy's Robiola. When I emailed Lois, she stated back "I brought some special, aged a bit longer, robiola in specifically for him". So that's pretty cool to have a sort of connection, even if it's a few times removed.

Last night, We had a light attendance at game night (me, Shannon, Will, Jen and Jen's friend from Kentucky, who's name escapes me), but it was still fun. We played Sorry (I won), Simpson's Clue (Shannon won), Killer Bunnies (that was a strange and confusing game, Jen won), and then Scene It (original, Will and I won, even though by the end, I was falling in and out of sleep).

Panko-Crusted Chicken with Mustard-Maple Pan Sauce (p54 Bon Appétit October 2009)

So because the chicken in here was bought in a 3 pack, and I only needed two, I used one of the others, pounded it out, breaded it with whole wheat flour mixed with the Emeril's Spice mixture from the Black Bean cakes. I ended up putting them and making sandwiches. This was pretty good.

The dish itself actually turned out fantastic, even though I had to improvise a bit with the pan sauce (I ran out of Dijon mustard). Quite easy too. Though, because the recipie told me so, I did buy Panko bread crumbs, which broke my new rule about...well not buying bread crumbs because it's such a waste of money.

Cannellini Beans with Garlic and Sage (p101 Bon Appétit October 2009)

Wow...just wow. The combination of the all this stuff, cooked...the beans, the water, and etc just made for a fantastic flavor profile. It was really a shame that we couldn't wait for this to get done (it took a really long time).

Sausages with White Beans in Tomato Sauce(p101 Bon Appétit October 2009)

So the combination of the beans before, made this meal easy (by easy, I guess that excludes the 3 or so hours it took to make the beans from before), but I really liked this, such a built of flavor profile.

Ultra-Juicy, Skillet Grassfed Goat-burgers

The spice mixture used for this, onion, rosemary, thyme, cilantro, cumin, Dijon mustard, and Worcestershire sauce, I think over powered the goat flavor, but was still quite good. I think it would be good with something mild like ground turkey.

Week 44 Cooking

Oh and one more thing, when I was putting away the meat from the Farmer's market, I had to reorganize my freezer and I noticed that more then half of what I had in there was pork...probably something like 60%. And I have (excluding pork, in order from most to least by weight): Beef, Duck, Chicken, Elk and Goat. Just thought that was a bit odd...

Week 43 Cooking Results

Last downtown farmer's market this weekend. I added $20 to what I normally budget for being down there, and still ended up going over by $25 or so. I didn't get eggs like I intended (Foxhollow Farms was out), but I did end up getting a whole duck from them. I also got ground goat meat, a Ham from Eden Farms, and some of my normal fare. It was the ham that pushed me over my budget...but hey, I love ham, so how could it be bad.

On my way home from farmer's market, I stopped at Mars Cafe, like I normally do, I chatted a bit with someone who was headed down to the market. She said that she didn't want to eat anything that could be smarter then her (I was talking about the duck and goat that I had bought), and I almost, but held myself back, from stating that either she had a low opinion of herself, or a high opinion of animals. It's like the lady at Josh and Lindsay's rehearsal dinner, who didn't eat veal, because she likes to think that the meat that she was eating had died of old age, even though that wouldn't be cost effective, or probably taste that good. Anyways, good week.

I also saw Matisyahu this week. and that was fun, wich reduced the amount of "real" cooking I did. I don't know if I like the venue though, it just got too hot in there...(must. resist. bad. pop. culture. reference.)

Broiled Chicken Thighs with Chipotle Sauce (p88 Fine Cooking October/November 2009)

Though I had to have the people at the meat counter at Hy-Vee de-bone the chicken theighs (they really vary at their skill at doing it), this actually turned out really well. It was simple to make, the sauce was great, spicy but not over powering, and it was super quick.

Emeril's Black Bean Cakes (Splendid Table Weeknight Kitchen Newsletter)

Fail...total and utter fail. The cakes would not stay together at all. Luckily I had tortillas left over and it became a black bean burritos...to some extent, which were pretty good.

Danish Meatloaf

Pumpernickel bread in meat loaf? What a good idea. It certainly gave it a distinctive flavor. Though I think the bread that I had was much softer then the bread they were talking about because they were just too soft to actually soak in water. But it turned out pretty well. I had a nice meatloaf sandwich for lunch a day or two after, and it was good that way too.

Lynne's Nearly New Mexican Chili

This took quite a while to make...The Meat was good, but it just seemed like it didn't have enough stuff in it...maybe that's just the way they do chili down there. But really 4 pounds of chuck vs 2 onions some garlic and some tomatoes? The broth was just kinda week. I admit that it had a nice smokey back taste, but it was just too watery for me. Though combined with a bit of cheddar and some sour cream, it was pretty nice over all. I'm kinda looking forward to how it melds better over the next day or so.