Journal

2010 - Week 18 Cooking

I had trouble falling asleep on Friday night because I was just so excited about the Farmer's Market. Such a celebration of food! I stopped by Eden Farms, Foxhollow Farms , Sean and Becki at Juan O'Sullivan's, and Lois and Ben at Reichert's Dairy, among others.

We had quite a haul including a extra-extra sharp cheddar from Maytag Dairy. The sample that I had was just delightful, with a very long finish. It was nice to be able to do that again on a Saturday morning. It feels nice to get out in the morning and go again. And I only went over the money I had allotted to spend by 8.7%...

2010 - Week 17 Cooking Results

Ground Lamb Burgers

Now this is something I just kind of wished that I had some of Lois' (form Reichert's Dairy) feta to put on top of the burgers...

I still ended up using some standard feta from the store on top of these and it still turned out pretty well. I put some smoked paprika in the burgers and it gave it a nice taste.

Buttermilk Waffles (p25 May and June 2010 Cook's Illustrated)

My dad and baby brother were on their way back from picking up my baby brother from college so I made these for them. They turned out very well. The problem that I had with the recipe list is that I had to buy seltzer water and dried buttermilk. I just wanted enough seltzer water to make this, which I couldn't there was only one non-sweetened/flavor seltzer water...

Anyways, I also bought a simple and relatively inexpensive waffle maker (not the one I wanted, but nobody had that). They turned out pretty well. I served them with blackberries, blueberries, strawberries, butter and syrup.

I think I had some happy people after dinner and leftovers too (which toasted up in the next morning very well)

Pan Seared Yellowfin Tuna

The pieces of tuna that I had were very thin, so this was made very quickly. It was very nice to eat. I still have two more tuna filets (frozen) that are a bit thicker to come out with a better overall. We had these with a simple salad.

Chinese-Hawaiian "Barbecued" Ribs

I bought some Eden Farms pork ribs with the intention of giving them to my brother Joseph to make them, however he is back at school my freezer's stock need to be rotated (and I can buy more) so I figured I should use them. Being that I don't have anything more then a BBQ tool set, I looked all over to find a recipe that I could do in the oven.

And this was one of the first ones I found. I think it turned out well. I didn't have enough soy sauce (used what was left in the fridge), I didn't feel like buying a bottle of sherry (used a mixture of water and apple cider vinegar). But they came out sticky and mostly tender. I suppose they could've cooked for a bit longer to add more tenderness. But it turned out pretty good. I still feel like I have a belly full of pork, which is not a bad thing.

We didn't eat until later, since there was a little emergency with George.

2010 - Week 17 Cooking

Yeah that's right, I get to buy a waffle iron. Woo!

The chives that are planted in my side yard are starting to blossom. One of my favorite things ever is chive blossoms. Last year Lois of Reichert's Dairy made a chive blossom feta, which was absolutely fantastic. So this year I'm keeping an eye on them to use them right up. Right now I've got a few that art starting to blossom and a ton more buds of chives. I'm thrilled.

This coming Saturday is the first farmer's market of the season. I'm thrilled, just thrilled to be able to go down tot he market. Have I mentioned that I've been dreaming of Reichert's Dairy's goat cheese? I'm craving it. Even though this early in the season, the pickings may be a bit small, I'm just happy to being going back down there again.

Time to clean out the freezer! The lamb, tuna, and ribs are all in the fridge now, from the freezer. I also pulled out some bacon that I saw, bought, and haven't tried yet. For the burgers, I suppose...

2010 - Week 16 Cooking Results

Sichuan Pork Noodles (Splendid Table Weeknight Kitchen Newsletter from The Best Simple Recipes)

Peanut butter sand...er noodles. What a odd addition to give it that sort of flavor. This was very simple to make and tasted very good.

Chipotle Chicken Tostadas (p58 Bon Appétit April 2010)

With the Chipotle Roast Chicken Tacos I made last week, we had leftover chicken, so it was a matter of just putting this together. I suppose I could've made my own refried beans, however that's not really what it called for, but luckily for my HBP self, we found Amy's Organic Refried Beans which were low in sodium. They were pretty good. Not as good as home made, but still a reasonable substitute.

So this was just putting things together. If I followed the recipe closely, it would've had less on it. But they kinda turned into a taco salad on top of there. Simple could've been good, but I added more vegetables and etc, so it was good.

Chicken Vesuvio (Splendid Table Weeknight Kitchen Newsletter from Cooking for Two: 2010)

So this turned out pretty well, thought the "sauce" that it was didn't really come together totally. It wasn't that it fell apart, it's just that there wasn't enough at the end to make it, though everything else in there soaked up the sauce. I actually suggested it for modification to Holly for the veggie breasts she had with her movie night dinner, which was surprisingly good (I cannot remember their name). But this meal was pretty good and was nice, though not the most simple, but still relatively easy.

Quick Chicken Paella with Sugar Snap Peas (p89 Bon Appétit April 2010)

I agree with the directions here. It seems to me that if you are cooking long grain rice, you need to do it fairly low and slow for a long time (like 50 minutes). This wanted to cook at 400 for 35 minutes? Seriously? I know the long grain rice I have like to cooke for around 50-60 minutes to be done to the good and done...so this didn't make a ton of sense to me. So some of the rice was done well, some was a bit under cooked. But over all this was good. The actual spanish chorizo that I used was very good, but sweated out a ton of the red deliciousness from them. Over all the chorizo was pretty good, though not like a revelation. The paella over all was really good and actually makes me curious about other ones. I may investigate that in the future, but we'll see, since they're often very seafood heavy and good seafood is often very difficult to get around here.

Poblano, Potato, and Corn Gratin (p58 Bon Appétit April 2010)

This turned out pretty well. Though I am glad I put a pan under it cause it kind of overflowed...so I saved myself a little smoke there. I wouldn't necessarily make this again, but I did get to use my Mandoline again, so that was nice.

2010 - Week 15 Cooking Results

Skillet Italian chicken with Orzo (RC Cook's Country April/May 2010)

I had about half a box of orzo left which worked out well for this recipe. This turned out pretty well and was simple to make. It wasn't outstanding but simple and good.

Quick Cheesesteak Subs (RC Cook's Country April/May 2010)

We had a little drop by from Joseph on his way back to school in Idaho. I modified this a bit and added some hoagie relish to the dish. It turned out very nice and was delicious.

Balsamic Steak Tips with Horseradish Mash (RC Cook's Country April/May 2010)

I don't know what I was doing here. I apparently stopped paying attention, so we ended up having balsamic horseradish mash, which was...well..ok...

Steak Mole with Cilantro (p53 Bon Appétit April 2010)

We had this over rice, it was pretty good. One of these days I want to make a proper mole sauce.

Chipotle Roast Chicken Tacos (p58 Bon Appétit April 2010)

While I got near the end of roasting the chicken I kept thinking to myself, I could've just run down Gateway and gotten a rotisserie chipotle chicken and saved myself a whole lot of time. Even so, it was a nice simple experience, I modified it a bit and put in some fresh chives from the side of the house.

This actually turned out really well. The chicken skin was quite spicy and good. Put together with the rest of the taco fixings turned out really well.

I have been watching out my chives. They are budding and I'm looking forward to the blossoms that come out. I'm also looking forward to the farmers market starting in less than two weeks.

2010 - Week 14 Cooking Results

Spicy Garbanzo Bean Burritos with Cucumber Yogurt Sauce (Splendid Table Weeknight Kitchen Newsletter from Anna Getty's Easy Green Organic)

I thought about making this for movie night, since a friend is trying to become a pescetarian. While I don't particularly find this as lifestyle that I could live, I do understand the reasoning behind it. It is oft disturbing how poorly we treat our animals. I try fairly hard to buy from local, small scale farmers, in the hopes that they do treat their animals better, which of the ones I've met, it seems like they do. I think perhaps, I will start to take this more seriously, but before doing so I'll need to get a freezer where I can store large amounts of meat to work my way through.

Anyways, this was a nice, simple delicious dish that cooked up quick and made for a nice hearty dinner.

Macaroni and Cheese with Tomatoes (p21 Cook's Country April/May 2010)

With a little change, you have a meal that's...well not good for you but probably good tasting. The thing that struck me the most about the mac and cheese is how well it bound together. Because of this I thought about making them into a fried mac and cheese, but I never got to that. So that'll probably have to happen sometime in the future. This was very good though. I like the flavor that the tomatoes added to the mac and cheese as a whole.

Penne Alla Papalina (Splendid Table Weeknight Kitchen Newsletter from Molto Gusto: Easy Italian Cooking)

Peas? La Quercia Prosciutto? Oh yes please! This was another simple dish that reminds me of why I love food so much. So simple, yet good. Hey look my library has the book...I may have to check that out.

Foolproof Chicken Cordon Bleu (p15 Cooks Country April/May 2010) with Springtime Spinach Salad (p13 Cooks Country April/May 2010)

I admit I made mistakes here. Some of the chick I cut through (doh!). The Chicken wasn't of consistant size. So they didn't often have ham, cheese and etc though the center, but over all the flavor was still nice.

The salad turned out very nice. Often times when I make dinners myself, I try to carry a theme set of ingredients through as many parts of the meal as I can. For this, the salad dressing was made, and then used to coat the croutons, cook the onions and to dress the salad. So you get this recurrent flavor of the dressing through out. It made for a good meal between the two.

Pasta with Peas, Cream, Parsley, and Mint (Bon Appétit Newsletter)

This. Was. Fast. Before I could get the water to boil, I was done with the sauce. And it was good too I like the mint and peans in the cream it made it more hearty.

Thought hat night we went to my parents where my younger brother was throwing a farewell BBQ, not grilling, but BBQ. We had pulled pork, 3 types of sauce, potato salad, coleslaw and Minty chocolate chip cookies that were all made by Joseph. Some rolls made by Jed and some brownies made by me. It was quite the spread for all the guests.

After that we spent the rest of the weekend with the Matta's. At least 3/4ths of them. We did miss Jenny, but we did enjoy the time we had with Nathan and the girls.

On the way home we debated on some dinnerware, and then decided on a nice, simple white dishes that are smaller, thinner then our previous dishes. Now it's not that I don't like the blue stoneware dishes that I've used for a good long time, however, when it comes to it I'm thinking about the look of the plating, smaller dishes in size (in a hope to get us to eat less) and maybe just a change. We bought 18 place settings (coffee cup, large and small plates, large and small bowls and 6 place settings will just go to sit in the basement as replacements), Several types and sizes and numbers of serving dishes and platters and a butter dish. After the 2nd run today, (3rd starting in a bit) most everything is cleaned and put away. The old dishes, which I don't know if I was clued in by what they had in their home or it just left an impression) will end up at the Matta's.

It was nice to get away for the weekend, if only just to break the routine a bit.

2010 - Week 14 Cooking

2010 - Week 13 Cooking Results

Chicken Soup with Lime and Hominy (p23 Fine Cooking April/May 2010)

This reminds me of the Yucatan-Style Chicken, Lime, and Orzo Soup from Week 2 of 2010, though not as good. Don't get me wrong it was still a tasty dish on a chilly day, by comparison to the fluctuations that we've been having recently, but I liked the spicing of the other soup...perhaps because it was spicier...

Skirt Steak Tacos with Spicy Sour Cream (p22 Fine Cooking April/May 2010)

Grilled apparently, but since I have no grill, I cooked in high heat and ended up making a bit of smoke in the upstairs because of it. This still turned out pretty will. I the spice rub on the skirt steak was quite good and added a lot. I used the leftover steak to make a wonderfully delicious sandwich for work the next day.

Spaghetti with Creamy Braised Garlic and Leeks (p21 Fine Cooking April/May 2010)

Ten cloves of garlic? Really? Initially this frightened me a bit but when it braised for a while, it mellowed out the garlic and leek taste quite a bit. Made for a good meal and lunch the next day (for both of us).

Classic Eggs Benedict (p84 Fine Cooking April/May 2010)

There's something magical about eggs benedict for me. When I go out for breakfast or brunch or near any chance I get, I have trouble not ordering it (Gateway Market makes a really good one). But because the Hollandaise sauce seems like some sort of magical thing, I have avoided making it. With my recent experience with poaching eggs, the four I made here turned out quite a bit better. I think the vinegar helped quite a bit to hold the egg together.

The sauce seemed initially to work pretty well and came together easily, but when I went to look over at the eggs to check on them and look back, my sauce had broken. Went from smoothness to granular looking in a few moments. But with a quick google search, I added another egg yolk, whisked pretty hard and came back to a nice smooth sauce.

I was pretty proud of my self as I made the sauce, bacon (Iowa raised round bacon) and eggs pretty much at the same time. The only drawback I had was that the eggs were done a bit more then I would've liked. Still a bit liquid, but not like it should be. The sauce it self had a shocking amount of butter in it, and ended up tasting a bit lemony (the other recipes that I saw used less lemon juice). I should've added more cayenne pepper as well, perhaps the lemon juice was kind of overwhelming the cayenne pepper.