Journal

2011 - Week 3 Cooking Results

Pitas with chicken and a yogurt and yuzu sauce more experimenting

So with this I found about the right ration.  For 1 cup of yogurt I used 1 teaspoon of the yuzu sauce.  It made for a taste where you could taste the citrus and pepper flavors to stand through the yogurt, and everything else that goes into the pita.

Pork Burgers

Good as always...

French Toast

Who would've thought you take some bread that's getting hard, soak it in egg and milk and then fry it in a pan and it turns out excellent.  It is one of those dishes that you think someone is just trying to figure out what to do with bread that's starting to turn.  Anyways, I love French toast.

Chicken Parmesan Burgers (p48 Bon Appétit March 2010) (made last year)

Relatively quick made and eat.  I'm a big fan of modern interpretations of classic dishes, especially when they turn out like this.

Chicken and White Bean Chili

This was quite good, though I did modify the recipe a bit.  The onion that I intended to use, was, well, not so good looking, so it went in the garbage.  I used some leftover onion and some green onions I had, along with some leftover chipotle peppers more tomato paste then it asked for (had some leftover).  With all the extra additions it really turned into a really good chili.  Also, using a cheap cut like chicken thighs, makes it for a relatively inexpensive dish.  I'd make this again.

2011 - Week 3 Cooking

So as the week has gone on, my health has slowly degraded to the point where my fingers, hands, wrists and occasionally my elbow hurt, and on top of that I have a wicked cold.  Yay!  Anyways I'm going to try to have even quicker meals this week.  I'd like to spend more time with my wife and between the work and the cooking I get maybe an hour or two before bedtime...and that's not quite fair.  So hopefully for the next week.  There is also a game night coming, plus I still have to try to see if I can get some chocolate to work in the lego molds.  AE released their Greek yogurt.  I tried a sample at Dahls yesterday and bought some it's pretty good.

2011 - Week 2 Cooking Results

Tortellini with Italian Sausage, Fennel, and Mushrooms (p60 December 2010 Bon Appétit)

I made this as quickly as I could and in doing so accidently pour several of the filled tortellini into the sink, as opposed to where they were supposed to go.  Luckily, I suppose, the package of tortellini was more then I actually needed, so I guess it worked out, but I still dislike being wasteful.  Overall I enjoyed this, however I would've liked to do it in a  12" pan instead of a 10" (my largest non-stick) and I think the mushrooms should have been more of a dice, instead of a slice.  It makes them not so big (even though I'm not opposed to mushrooms, there is some of that lingering distaste that I remember).  The Itallian sausage that I used is quite nice.  And because of this it really added to this as a dish.

Chicken Cutlets with Romesco and Serrano (prosciutto) Cracklin's (p56 December 2010 Bon Appétit)

Some delicious prosciutto made right here in Iowa really took this up and let it be wonderful.  It was pretty easy to follow the directions and made a dish for myself and Shannon.  I halved the recipe, but not for the romesco.  I ended up using the extra Romesco as an additional sauce on the leftover pumpkin lasagna.  It made for a good meal and cooked up pretty quickly.

Chicken cutlets with romesco and serrano cracklins

Curried Lentil Soup (p56 December 2010 Bon Appétit)

I almost had enough lentils for what the recipe called for, but decided that it was silly to buy another bag of lentils for just another 1/6th of a cup.  So it was lessened.  Honestly, this was kind of bland.  At the end I added more salt and some Pickapeppa Sauce.  It transitioned into a bit more.  I guess the real test here is to see if I'll eat the leftovers...

Curried Lentil Soup

Poached Eggs and Parmesan Cheese over Toasted Brioche with Pistou

It was Saturday (yesterday) and after working almost 8 hours at work (it's got to push me into the 70 hour mark for the week) and I knew I didn't have an basil (I had tried the previous Sunday to get basil at 3 stores).  So I said screw it and instead made some bacon, egg and avocado sandwiches.

Bacon egg and avocado sandwich

Frittata with Cheese, Sun-Dried Tomatoes, and Basil

This recipe was messed up.  The eggs didn't solidify.  So I ended up cooking it a bit more on the stove top and then in the oven again (though this time not on broil).  Eventually it came together enough to actually eat it with out egg oozing out.

Frittata with Cheese, Sun-Dried Tomatoes and Basil

Tuna Bocadillos

A piquilio pepper?  Funny thing was after not hearing about it, I saw a couple of references over the next week.  I used jalapeno instead, though Shannon skipped them on her sandwich.

2011 - Week 2 Cooking

So I did write one entry early...but...just one.  I guess I just have to think about it a bit more and try to keep it at the forefront of my mind.  Even so, I still think it's a good idea and I hope to generally head in that general direction.  This week is another week, just like last week.  Long hours, though I think I'm about ready to get to a reasonable catch up point, though.  But I've got 2 maybe 3 Wednesday nights left of late night work.  I'll be pretty satisfied once this hump is over.

2011 - Week 1 Cooking Results

Northern Italian Pumpkin Lasagna (Pumpkin, a Super Food for All 12 Months of the Year)

I made this on Saturday.  This was the 3rd dish of the week that had Graziano Sausage in it.  I thought it was missing Ricotta, and without the sausage, it would've been kind of bland.  However the sausage made this dish.  The two pounds of pumpkin that it used was good as well.  It reminded me of the meals from my mom where she snuck vegetables into pretty much everything that she could.  Make your own Béchamel sauce and then combined pumpkin, onion and sausage...it wasn't bad at all.  Anyways  We both enjoyed it, though it did fill up my pan just a little to much, because it overflowed the side just a little.  to make adjustments, I'd swap out a cup of mozzarella for a cup of Ricotta, but that's cause I love a good Ricotta.  I would make this again.  And I have quite a bit of pumpkin left too, so it may get made again.

Northern Italian Pumpkin Lasagna

Northern Italian Pumpkin Lasagna with some garlic toast

Chicken Breasts covered in the Yuzu sauce combined with soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, honey and sautéd in a pita

Again, the cooking of the sauce broke apart the heat that it has.  I suspected this would happen so I combined the yuzu with some yogurt.  I don't think I added enough (about a 1/2 teaspoon to about 3/4ths a cup of yogurt), but you could tell that it was there.  So maybe that is more of the way to go.  Created in a sauce?  Maybe it would go well in hummus or some other dipping sauce.

Spicy Orange Chicken Stir-Fry

This is how this went:  prep, prep, prep, execute eat.  Shannon asked for some fried rice, so I did my best to sort of duplicate it, and did a pretty good job at it, though I didn't have all the ingredients that I needed to make it like I wouldn't liked to.  But I did use some leftover onion and some fresh garlic and a couple of eggs to make it up right.  It's pretty easy to do.  The Orange stir fry turned out pretty well, but I don't think I got enough zest in there, but holy crap that's easy to make.  And quick too.

Spicy Orange Chicken Stir-Fry

Italian Sausage Meatball Heroes

For some reason, I had forgotten to eat on Sunday. Well not exactly. But I quick ate a ham sandwich before I went grocery shopping and that was pretty much it. Then after that we headed to go see Da Vinci, The Genius at the Science Center of Iowa. I was kind of distracted and didn't really follow the directions.

I forgot to add the parmesan cheese. I used Muir Glen pizza sauce and diluted it a bit, and followed the recipe for the most part. It made for a good, if messy thing to eat. I must say I did feel a lot better after eating.

Penne with Triple Tomato Sauce

This recipe was weird.  after quickly reading it, before I started making it, the thought in my head was, "really, raw garlic without any cooking".  And this turned out to be pretty much the big drawback of this dish as a whole.  We both commented about the strong garlic taste, and it really did stick with you for quite a while.  Which is not really a good thing.  However, it was better microwaved after the fact.  It made the garlic calm down and become a better dish over all.  So, my suggestion?  Less garlic or cook the garlic first.

Pasta with Sausage, Basil and Mustard

This was surprisingly good.  Though how could it be that bad?  Mustard, Graziano Sausage, makes for a delicious meal.  I used Grey Poupon Harvest Ground mustard to make it, and it turned out great.  A fun thing about this was that when I was eating some leftovers at work, one of my co-workers identified that it was a white wine used, and tried to guess at the type, but didn't do so well on that one...  I used a Riesling, cause that was pretty much the only white wine I had left in the house.

2011 - Week 1 Cooking

Sometimes I think of things to say here, but by the time I actually get to the writing of it, which can be almost a week later, I forget what I intended to say.  So I was thinking perhaps of taking time daily, after eating, just to either write it locally and post it at the end of the week, or posting it here.  But that seems like it'll take more effort, and a little more time planning, so we'll see how it goes. 

Another thing that I have been thinking about is at least getting in good rant now again.  Though this clearly won't be food related, all the time, but there are certain things lately that have been digging at me and I feel like I just can't not say anything, though in all likely hood, nobody will pay attention.

This week, along with the next 3 or so, will probably be relatively simple, because the silly amount of hours at work will continue.  Honestly I don't know how much more I can take, but I suppose you have to do what has to be done. 

Spending New Years eve at the Zamzow's we were reminded at how much we miss going to Bandit Burrito so we'll go sometime this week.  Probably on Friday.  I also have a whole lot of pumpkin again, so I'll try to being using that as well.