Journal

2010 - Week 28 Cooking

Sean and Becki brought some of the first tomatillos and peppers of the season to market this past Saturday.  I got a few tomatillos and a pepper (don't know what kind, but I'll slice it and put it on a a sandwich I suppose).  This makes me a bit excited, because that means that the peppers are going to come in abundance soon.  Including the roasted peppers. 

In searching for recipes for the tomatillos it is surprising how many of them are for a sauce or salsa and how few are actually diced up and put in.  Kind of surprising, I think.  You would think that they could be used for more, but perhaps I'm looking in the wrong place.

On Monday, No Reservations is having their Heartland episode.  When Anthony Bourdain spoke at the Civic Center he did have nice things to say about Lois's Robiola.  I am excited to see the episode, so much so, I might even watch it live...with commercials.  Des Moines has come such a long way, in the time that I have lived here, on the path towards being a foodie paradise.  I have bought some Robiola and plan to have that as part of that dinner or perhaps a dessert afterwards (with jam).

2010 - Week 27 Cooking Results

Baked Beets (p194 Ad Hoc at Home) with Pork Chops (Eden Farms)

I don't think I have had beets for a long time.  I remember eating beets as a child especially pickled beets.  They have a nice soft buttery texture.  Add a little salt and pepper and it just became a delight to eat.  My wife, on the other hand, through no fault of her own, did not think so.  She says that it wasn't the texture, which is often something that she doesn't like, but the taste.  So as an offer for the future, I could make potatoes this same way and also, in a separate tin foil package and that way she has something that she should like, and I should have something that I should like.  Anyways, I liked them, and I think I will make more with them, though with Shannon's dislike, it may prevent me from making things like Borscht, which are beet laden.

The other side of this meal were some fairly thick cut pork chops from eden farms.  I seared these in my large 12" pan, about 4-5 minutes per side, and then stuck them in the oven (which was at 350°F).  I put them in with the beets (shelf above) and let them cook.  I probably should have put them in a little bit later, so they were they would've been a little bit cooler in their core, but they still turned out great.

Baked Beets (p194 Ad Hoc at Home) with Pork Chops (Eden Farms)

Prosciutto-Wrapped Figs with Gorgonzola and Walnuts

So I bought figs, I took some Prosciutto out of the freezer (I had bought it on sale).  By the time that I went to make this, the figs had a nice white fuzziness to them.  So being that I wasn't particularly set on feeding moldy produce to myself or my wife, they got tossed.  So what to do.  I thought about running down to the store to get them, but me, in a store, where I'm already hungry?  Not a good idea.  So I ended up making a nice simple Egg, Prosciutto and Arugula sandwich.  I cooked the Prosciutto in the pan a little (you don't have to, I was just going for a slightly crisp texture), then cooked the eggs and went from there.  It turned out pretty well, I think.  I put a little bit of Dijon mustard on it, and it was fantastic.

Egg, Prosciutto and Arugla sandwhich

Grilled Burgers with Meyer Lemon Butter (p68 June 2010 Bon Appétit)

 I made this the same night that I mowed the lawn, so I guess I didn't make these, really.  It just turned into burgers, some baked fries and some leftover baked beans.  It worked out pretty well I think, but I guess perhaps I should make this sometime, but after mowing the lawn, I really don't want to spend long at all cooking dinner.

Pork Burgers (Eden Farms) with Root Beer Baked Beans (p87 June 2010 Bon Appétit)

 Porky pork pork.  Even though I complained about these a bit, they still turned out pretty well.  I think they could've been better, and I think I'll be making some baked beans more often.  Maybe without the root beer and perhaps pinto beans...anyways...I'll have to try more baked beans recipes.  The pork, as always, turned out well.

Rigatoni with Sausage and Tomato Cream Sauce

 Quick, simple, fast, and delicious.  I made it, we ate it, we both had it for lunch the next day and it was gone.  Need I say more?

2010 - Week 27 Cooking

After reading about baked beets in Ad Hoc at Home, I decided I would give it a try.  So I bought some beets at the farmer's market.  When shopping for dinner on Friday, I saw that they had figs at GWM so I picked up a group there.  A while back, I had Prosciutto wrappred figs at Proof that were so good, I though I could make them.  So being that they were freshly new at GWM it came time for me to try to do it.  I'm curious how it all will turn out, so we'll see.  I am over 2/3rds the way through Ad Hoc at Home and looking forward to finishing and discussing the book as a whole and making some of these things, probably several times.

2010 - Week 26 Cooking Results

Roast Chicken Tacos

For this I took the leftover chicken that I had, added some chipotle powder, warmed it up in a pan and got a bunch of other things, like avocado, tomatoes, onions, etc.  It worked out pretty well.  And being that the chicken was already done and just need to be heated up, made it pretty quick work.

Sausage and Egg Casserole with Sun-Dried Tomatoes and Mozzarella

 Normally, when I make things, I tend to eat the leftovers, at work.  And I actually made this into a sandwich (which was actually pretty good) but by the time I got to eat this, and go for the next one, they were all gone.  I assume this means that Shannon liked this quite a bit.  It was pretty easy to make and I use Mozzarella that I had bought from Lucca at the farmer's market.  I enjoyed it and it made for a decent dinner, and could be made as a basis for a good sandwich.  I added ham some arugula to the sandwich and it was good that way as well.

Oven-Roasted Hash Brown Cakes with eggs

 Used the mandolin to slice the onions, and I supposed I could've used it for the potatoes too, but I used the food processor for the potatoes.  It was easy enough to make them, but I think my potatoes were still a bit to wet, when they went into the oven.  It was still pretty good, though.  and it makes me think that perhaps I should make them the normal method (ie in a pan) to get a better crust to them. 

Hawaiian Wahoo (Ono)

 This was some simple cooking.  I salted and peppered them, warmed up some olive oil in a pan and then 2 minutes per side and done.  I served them with peas.  Simple dinner, more fish in our diet (which is a good thing).  I think GWM needs to have another sale on fish.

Hamburgers

 Nothing says USA like cooking hamburgers.  Though mine were all fancified with sharp cheddar, arugula and etc, they were still a delightful reminder of what week it was. 

This kind of reminds me.  We buy most of our meat from the farmer's market and then Hy-Vee, we try to buy items that are traceable to the farm, organic (where reasonable), or I know the group of people that produce them.  Most (60%) of the pork I buy is from Eden Farms, the last few weeks of chicken have been exclusively from Foxhollow Poultry Farm, my eggs have been from there as well (though the week of the big storm, I had to buy from someone else.  I do not, however have a regular beef or lamb vendor.  It would be nice to know where my beef came from, because it has got to be better then the stuff that clearly comes en mass from who knows where.  So, Hy-vee, perhaps you could offer pork and beef options (I know this is already done with chicken) that are from traceable, local sources.

2010 - Week 26 Cooking

I'm finding it very hard to stay within my budget at the Farmer's Market.  So I thought about buying another whole chicken yesterday, but remembered that Eden Farms would be there so I knew I had to buy some pork.  I did, and after that almost half of my budget was gone.  I wanted to buy more pork (my freezer is looking bare) and visit other vendors, but really it's having an odd affect. Overall I was left with $1 after my restricted shopping.

One of the things I am curious about is how it makes sense financially to do a booth at the market.  One of the things I'm curious about is the free samples.  I see at many of the booths that I visit that they have them and in thinking about the tax side of things, the free samples could certainly be counted as a business expense.  But when chatting with some of the vendors, I see a lot of people that taste the samples and move on.  While I'm also guilty of this, it still remains at what would be the expected ratio would be for samples vs purchases.

2010 - Week 25 Cooking Results

Lamb Köfte with Yogurt Sauce w/o Muhammara

 This worked pretty well.  Though I did make them a bit spicier.  The recipie called for 2 pounds of lamb, but the lamb came in 12 oz packages, so I ended up using a pound and a half of lamb but kept the spice level as the recpie called for.  So we had an even spicer lamb with the suace.  I used flat bread from Proof to make a sort of sandwhich out of these.

BBQ Macaroni Salad with Eden Farms Pork Burgers and Brats

 This tasted good, however there was an issue, probably with the bbq sauce.  I tend to like my bbq sauce a bit spicier then Shannon and I tend, I suppose, to use it more often, so my bottles are always newer then hers.  While this jar wasn't past its date, it was about to turn I think...which affected the flavor.  But I certainly would make this again, though I would be more careful with my condiments.  I ended up throwing away quite a number of condiments that I wasn't certain as to their open date.  When I opened up some new BBQ sauce (after getting some take out BBQ) I made sure to label it with the open date.  That way I'll know for sure when it was open.  I think this is going to be a new habit.

Crushed Peas with Feta and Scallions

 We had this as a main course, and used some of the flat bread from Proof to eat it and made a meal out of it.  I would've preferred if I could've used all Reicherts Dariy feta, but it wasn't meant to be.  It tasted good, and would probably make a good dip for a party.

Roast Chicken on a bed of Carrots and New Potatoes

 Saturday was hot, opressively so.  When It came down to it, I had no desire to spend a hot evening in a hot kitchen doing all that work, so I didn't.  I roasted the chicken, let it rest and cool and then took all the chicken off the bone I could and made a chicken salad with a little less than half of it.

2010 - Week 25 Cooking

Since we both had taken Friday off, Shannon because of the dance recital and me because I tend to take every other Friday off, we had lunch together at Proof. It has been a while since we have been out and it was nice to eat there again and be out with my wife.

We went to the Sushi House (wow, that's an ugly website) in Cedar Rapids for dinner before we went to the Dance recital for my niece (from Shannon's side).  They do a pretty good job there.  I have been thinking lately that sometimes things that I have been doing.  I think that some things have become more of a delivery device for condiments I love.  I almost made it through the entire meal without using any soy-sauce and wasabi combination.  With the last of the California roll I made up a bit of the mixture and had it with it.  But I actually think I enjoyed the sushi more without dousing it in soy sauce.  I do the same with sandwiches, brats and hot dogs where they have become more of a delivery device for the hoagie relish I like so much.  Honestly, it would be better for me if I didn't put it on there, I suppose, but I don't call it my crack for nothing...

I took my Dark Chocolate Tart Cherry Oatmeal cookies down to the market.  I gave a few cookies to Sean and Becki (Juan O'Sullivans), Carly (Proof), and Lois and Ben (Reichert's Dairy).  Reviews were overwhelmingly positive.  I had meant to take the rest of the batch down to Shannon's sister's family...but between the combination of them leaving early and me forgetting, it didn't happen.

I have to rethink the way I do things a bit.  In Ad Hoc at Home Keller writes how recipes should often be made over and over so you start to know how things are supposed to look, feel and smell when you cook them.  So with me making new things nearly every week, I don't often get that repeat things that I make...  But on the other hand, a lot of the items that I make are of similar ingredients, so I'm still left with similar cooking methods.  But I think there are things that I'm going to start making more often (in similar, but slightly different preparations).  So, for example, I'll be making roast chicken again this week (more practice using butchers twine, and slicing up the chicken after cooking).  I have a bit more to go (like 2/3rds), to get through the book, but you can certainly tell that there is a lot of love directed at the process and product that goes into making the dishes that are in the book.  Shannon has also given me permission to get me his other two cookbooks.

2010 - Week 24 Cooking Results

Chicken Salad (from the leftover roast chicken last week)

I just kind of threw this together, some Dijon mustard, some mayo, some hoagie relish...and it came out good.  Certainly a good use of the extra chicken that came off the the wonderful roast chicken.

Hawaiian Wahoo (Ono)

I read up a bit about cooking the fish and sort of based the idea of it on a recipe online that called to coat it in smoked paprika (of which I have already), sear it, then bake it to finish.  It turned out pretty well.  Flakey  and good tasting.  I have another two servings, that I'll probably even simplify it a bit more and maybe just go w/ lemon on lime and salt and pepper.

Eden Farms Berkshire Pork Chops with a cherry onion glaze

Some tart cherries, a small white onion, a bit of olive oil to cook it in to soften it up, and it went pretty well with the pork chops.  The pork was good on it's own, and with the cherry onion glaze it added a bit of a nice extra flavor to it.

Ragù alla Bolognese

You know, I should have learned my lesson by now and actually read the whole recipe, especially the part where it says "cook the sauce at a bare simmer for 2 hours".  So I suspect it didn't taste the same, because I cooked it at a simmer for probably another 30 minutes or so.  Anyways, it still tasted pretty good none the less.

Pimento Cheeseburgers (p21 June/July 2010 Cook's Country) with Amish Potato Salad (p11 June/July 2010 Cook's Country) (Movie Night)

I thought this would be harder to make then it actually turned out to be.  I made the potato salad the night before and did a bit of prep work on the pimento mixture that went inside the burgers.  The salad was simple, and as I tasted it I thought of all the things I would do to make it more like something that I would like more, but it was still good in this simple format.  I also liked the pimento burgers.  I think I could've sealed the burgers together more (one of them broke open and had the melted sauce leak out of the center, but even so this meal over all was pretty good.  I am generally happy with how the week turned out.

2010 - Week 24 Cooking

Holy Rain, Batman!  So the Des Moines Farmers' Market was quite the challenge, so much so that they actually closed the market due to the weather.  I did make it down and did purchase a few things before the Market closed.  First, Fox Hollow Farm wasn't there.  So no eggs from my usual source (though I did get eggs from Blue Gate Farm) and no chicken.  I saw at least one vendor have the covering blown off their stand and people started packing up.  The curb of the street was mostly flooded.  I stopped buy to chat a bit with Sean and Becki Sullivan, and justifiably so, they were in the process of deciding to pack up.  By this time, I was getting pretty damp, even with the umbrella and my shoes were soaked, though it had nothing to do with going through a puddle.  Headed further down and got some arugula and carrots from Grinnell Heritage Farm.  Where I helped her put her sign back up, and hold her overhead cover while some strong winds up.  After I traded her some mostly dry money, for some slightly damp money I headed further down to see Lois at Reichert's Dairy.  This where the flooding was pretty heavy.  On the way here I saw the La Mie stand that was basically falling apart.  It looks as if they were about to completely loose it which was clearly evident as I saw their pastries float down the creek that was forming at the side of the street.  It seemed like the water was nearing ankle depth and any semblance of remaining dry was gone.  It seemed that the only thing my umbrella was doing then was to keep my glasses relatively clear.  I picked up a bit more and headed back to my car.  I saw several people packing up as a I walked back down toward the parking garage.  When I got to the garage I saw one more thing of note.  The floor drain on the second level had water coming up out of it.  While I don't think that this was pressure from the storm drains, but more likely to be so much pressure from water being collected from the various levels of the garage and the roof causing so much pressure coming down that it actually pushed water up on the various levels.  Now that I think about it, it would've been interesting to see if more of the levels of the garage had the same issue.  Be that as it may, I headed home, soaked through all my layers of skin (had to dry my wallet and etc) and changed out of everything.  It was an interesting adventure to begin the day.

  • Chicken Salad (from the leftover roast chicken last week)
  • Hawaiian Wahoo (Ono)
  • Eden Farms Berkshire Pork Chops with a cherry onion glaze
  • Ragù alla Bolognese
  • Pimento Cheeseburgers (p21 June/July 2010 Cook's Country) with Amish Potato Salad (p11 June/July 2010 Cook's Country) (movie Night)

2010 - Week 23 Cooking Results

Caramelized French Toast with Cinnamon and Berries (p44 June 2010 Bon Appétit)

This did not work out at all like I thought it would.  The idea seemed good, but something about cooking with a sugar butter mixture seemed to lead to burnt sugar.  I think perhaps the ratio of butter to brown sugar was a bit off.  Like maybe if it was 7:3 tablespoons each or 7:2 rather than what the recipe says 7:6.  But that's just me.  Though it was a good use of the strawberries that I had bought from the Farmer's Market.

Duck Egg Omelettes with Reichert's Dairy Chive Blossom Feta

The thing here that was interesting was because the duck eggs have such big yolks the omelettes became super fluffy. But the addition of a bit of pepper and the chive blossom feta really came together quite nicely.  A quick preparation, a bit of toast on the side and a quick dinner...

Dilled White Bean and Grape Tomato Salad (p86 June 2010 Bon Appétit) (on the side of bratwurst)

 I liked the way that this came together.  Though when shopping at Hy-Vee the regular grape tomatoes they had looked like they were well past their prime (I ended up buying the organic ones, which looked good).  It made for a good side.  It was fairly quick to make, and was more of a tasty side then the super-bland Dahl's sides or the semi-bland Hy-Vee sides.  Plus I know all the stuff that went in there.  I ended up using this a a side for the hot dogs and chicken as well.

Muffuletta Hot Dogs (p47 June 2010 Bon Appétit)

Apparently my head was not in the right place and I forgot the cheese.  But even so, I guess we turned these into hot dog sandwiches.  It worked out.  I used some kosher beef hot dogs and fried them up in a pan.

Roast Fox Hollow Farm Chicken (probably based on Thomas Keller's Recipie)

So simple.  Salt, pepper, a bit of butcher's twine to tie the chicken together some time in the oven...Just delicious.  So simple, not over powering but just a delicious chicken.  Is all fresh chicken light this?  After I cut off the breast meat for myself and Shannon, I ended up picking off the rest of the meat, which I'll use for a chicken salad.  The rest of the bones and some meat, I put in a freezer bag and put into a freezer.  When I get another whole chicken carcass, I'll be making some chicken stock of my own stock, like I did before.  I will definately be buying more chicken from Fox Hollow Farm.